“I never see you,” she would demand countless times in the months before the affair.
“You see me all the time, dear,” he’d answer.
“Marcus Pressfield … all I see of you is the back of your head.”
He remembered the last time she demanded to spend time with him and watched his wife break down in tears. That’s when she admitted the affair. Months passed before he could even look at her. Time had to heal the initial sting before he could even try to speak to her. But in those quiet months, he admitted his shortcomings too; after admitting them to her, things went in a beautiful direction. Forgiveness gave birth to a different marriage.
Dr. Pressfield would gladly go through it all over again just to have her back. But he knew like the majority of the world’s population, no one was coming back.
He’d lost her for so long… He’d lost his wife because of his work, all because he was trying to create something perfect.
“Got them, Dr. Marcus... They’re a bit dusty but in perfect order,” Cy stated walking out from the basement, cradling two huge hiking packs.
“Thanks, Cy.”
Cy sensed that Dr. Marcus was lost in deep wondering. Thinking of her again, he thought. The cyborg quietly left it alone.
“Shall we leave in the morning, Dr. Marcus?”
“I think we shall, Cy,” Dr. Pressfield answered as his lost thoughts shifted to their upcoming journey.
Marcus dreamed of the possibilities of what he could do in a facility like DARPA.
CHAPTER 29 - GET IT GIRL
“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts... that's what little girls are made of. TO HELL with the sugar and spice!”
-Unknown
Russ plopped back down on the train tracks and gently leaned back while Clio prepared to dock against him like she’d been taught. Her backpack partially held her up and her hair tickled the back of the old man’s neck when they touched.
“What do we have in here,” Russ said as he dug through his pack.
Clio leaned forward so she could take hers off and dig too. She pulled out a canteen that Russ filled with water and unscrewed the cap. Lady waited patiently, pawing at her.
Russ sensed the dog begging. “No Lady. Don’t beg… you can eat when we get back home.” The dog whined and let out a bark.
The rustle of Clio’s protein bar wrapper crinkled in the moist air while she devoured its contents. The twelve-year-old let the bar’s sheath fall out of her hand and into the wind. As much from the physical application, Clio was hungry from the mental learning of the day’s lessons, too. Studying on how to be a trained killer is hard work for a grown man. She gobbled up the learning as eagerly as she did the plant-based protein bar.
“Eat up… we’re not going to stay out here all day,” Russ ordered.
“Can we wait a few more hours?” Clio asked.
Russ spun his head around. “You crazy kid? We’re not waiting out here that long. Maybe… an hour… tops.”
Disappointed with his answer, Clio began stuffing the rest of the protein bar into her mouth.
“Ok,” she responded in a barely audible voice, sticking her fingers in deep to get the protein bar all the way inside her mouth.
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to talk with your mouth full, young lady?”
Clio giggled and nodded. “Yup,” she answered even more muffled, revealing the dark chocolate that turned the inside of her mouth black.
The old man shook his head. “Kids,” he responded after watching her suck chocolate residue off her fingers.
Lady quietly ran toward the edge of the forest where only Clio could see her. But, Clio was taking a swig out of her canteen and hadn’t noticed the dog yet. She capped the bottle and began stuffing it back in her pack when she saw the ass end of the dog going away from her.
Lady’s hair was sticking up like an Arkansas razorback and she sniffed the ground in a frantic pace. Clio froze and tried to swallow… Sensing the K9 was on to something, she watched the dog get lower.
Hovering over the grass, Lady went into a full commando crawl through the Bottlebrush. Recalling the paper monsters, Clio transported back to target practice, lesson learned, she clutched her rifle and steadied her breathing. “Russ,” she whispered.
“What?”
Clio didn’t respond, enveloped with the thought of killing, she pushed her rifle out in front of her so she could lie down and look down its barrel. Russ felt her move and push off his back.
“What?” He asked again before turning around and balancing on his hands. Suddenly, out of his peripheral, he caught a glimpse of Lady. He’d seen her like this before and knowing the dog never cried wolf, the hair on his neck stood up too.
Clio looked through her scope with one eye closed and had already gone to her belly. She opened both eyes to get a wider view and then went back to using the scope.
Russ positioned his knee on one of the railroad ties after adjusting against its hard, splintered surface. He wanted to be able to see three hundred and sixty degrees. No way he was going to let one of those bastards sneak up from behind.
“Lady,” he yelled in a whisper. “Get back here.” Russ threw a rock from the tracks to get his dog’s attention and yelled again, still whispering it. “Lady! Get back here!”
Reluctantly, the dog came back after stopping a few times to turn around and inspect the woods.
The monster came out quietly on all fours, sniffing the ground where the dog had just left. It wanted to inspect the area before fully announcing its presence and the creature knew Clio and Russ were there.
This beast was a weird devil.
Before climbing onto the railroad tracks, it continued on all fours and only glanced over at them a few times. In an eerie display of something a primate might do, or a human, the creature picked up a rock. The monster banged the stone against the rail before tossing it to the side.
Maybe it was thinking of throwing it at us, Clio thought.
Clio and Russ looked at each other.
The creature stood on its hind legs and began walking down the tracks toward them. Stopping on all fours every so often, it balanced as it walked in short powerful strides down the center of the tracks.
“I got it,” Clio said as she tried to calm herself down. Her hands were shaking and the old man could see how nervous she was. Raising his rifle, Russ cast his shadow over her…
“I got it,” Clio affirmed. “I got it,” she said again in a soft voice while her hands steadied.
She stopped shaking and became still under the hidden sun.
Walking closer, the creature appeared in her scope.
Stratus clouds fell in shadows over the humanoid while it moved along the tracks under the shade of slow motion cover. Cicada bugs clicked in unison and the creature walked across the stones, crunching complementary with the insect sounds.
She held her breath and squeezed the trigger. “Crack!”
After losing sight of the beast when it fell to the ground, Clio pulled away from the scope and wasn’t sure if she should fire again. She opened both eyes and saw it lying on its back, hung over the tracks.
“Come on!” Russ ordered before jogging forward.
Lady barked and wagged her tail. Jumping to her feet, Clio did the same. The twelve-year-old ran and stayed behind them.
They arrived a few feet from the monster and watched. It barely moved, clawing the gaping wound in its chest.
“Finish it,” Russ said looking in every direction, ensuring it was the only one around.
Clio aimed. “Crack! Crack! Crack!”
“Good! Enough! It’s dead girl…”
Clio’s chest rose and fell and the smell of gunpowder hung in the air. A tear fell from her eye and she could hardly stand the sight and smell of the thing. As if she made the kill, Lady wagged her tail and continuously barked.
“Lady would you knock it off!” Russ ordered.
Feverishly
sniffing the ground, the dog moved toward the creature wanting a closer look.
“Lady! Get away from that nasty ass thing,” Russ scolded.
The dog stopped and looked over at them with a puzzled look on her face. Her tongue flapped low and she reluctantly obeyed. Lady wanted to at least touch her nose against the nasty thing. Always to the dog’s disappointment, the old man never let her get anywhere near the demon creatures.
Clio wasn’t sure what to say. “I got it,” was the only words that came out.
“Hell of a shot, young lady.”
“What do we do with it?”
“Do with it? You want to take it home and eat it?”
Clio’s face contorted. “No way!”
“Didn’t think so… Don’t worry; it won’t be here in the morning. The others will find it and eat it.”
Clio leaned over and spit over the tracks in a less than feminine way. “That’s gross,” she answered after wiping her mouth off and looking nauseated by the thought of such an idea. Eat that…? The thing stunk to high heaven.
It seemed the flies were genetically enhanced because they’d already tracked the smell and gathered over its rotting flesh, buzzing around it in an insect soiree.
“Let’s get back inside,” Russ ordered.
“Fine with me,” Clio answered with Lady jogging alongside her and looking up as if to say, I helped too. Clio bent down and ran her hand down Lady’s back before ruffling her furry ears between her fingers.
The old man looked down the railroad tracks and thought… Old Ft. Jackson… He kept the idea tucked in his brain. Follow the tracks; he knew that was the best way to get to the RMB.
CHAPTER 30 - MOVING DAY
“You can't go home again”
― Thomas Wolfe
“Good morning, Dr. Marcus.”
Dr. Pressfield yawned wide and hard, stretching his arms back. “Good morning, Cy.”
“Sleep well, Dr. Marcus?”
“What time is it?” Dr. Pressfield asked, unable to see his watch without contacts. Should have had that surgery he thought. Good vision would have been a plus for the coming journey.
Cy walked over holding Dr. Pressfield’s glasses along with a cup of coffee. “Which would you like first?” Cy asked, presenting both items for his creator.
Dr. Pressfield reached for his glasses and then the coffee. “Thank you.”
“You slept well, Dr. Marcus?” Cy asked again, unsure of the answer because his master was taking longer to wake up than usual.
“I don’t know… slept hard, that’s for sure.”
“Are you still ready, I mean in your heart so to speak, to go on our trip, Dr. Marcus?” Using his supercharged intuition, Cy detected the answer.
“Yes, Cy… I’m ready. Not before my coffee though,” Dr. Pressfield answered while managing a smile.
“Excellent, Dr. Marcus.”
“May be the last cup I can enjoy for a while,” he said raising his eyebrows while saluting with the mug. In point of fact, Marcus knew it could be his last cup ever.
“Don’t they have coffee in North Carolina, Dr. Marcus?”
Dr. Pressfield thought Cy was making another joke but then realized he wasn’t after his young cyborg’s face came into focus through the thick lenses.
“Um… Yes, Cy, they do.” Dr. Pressfield answered while being puzzled why he didn’t know the answer to that.
Most of the time, Cy resembled a super human with wisdom that made the Greek Philosophers pale in comparison. Every now and again though, Cy showed that he wasn’t human. Yet, those little things seemed to make him even more endearing. When he didn’t know the answer to something simple, Cy was very much human.
Like a child asking father a question: “What is that, Daddy?” Dr. Pressfield felt like the parent he never got to be, especially in the rare moments when Cy was inquisitive about simple things.
“We have a long day ahead of us, Cy.”
“Yes, Dr. Marcus… an exciting day.”
“You’re really excited about this too… huh, Cy?”
“Yes, Dr. Marcus. I’ve never really been anywhere before. Other than our nation’s former capital I mean. That was quite exciting, I might add.”
“Well… if that’s your idea of exciting then I think you’ll be happy as a pig in poop on this one, Cy.”
Cy laughed while remaining proper. “A pig in poop... That’s my favorite one yet, Dr. Marcus.”
“That’s an old one, Cy. ‘It’s as slick as poop on a hoe handle,’ as my granddad used to say.”
Cy laughed again. “Excellent, Dr. Marcus,” he said while scrolling through his database.
“I’m here for you, Cy,” Dr. Pressfield answered.
“That’s so good it makes me want to jump up and slap my momma,” Cy stated in a tone that wasn’t quite correct. “If I had a momma...”
“Oh boy... Guess I shouldn’t have programmed you to find that one, buddy.”
“Dr. Marcus, you programmed me with every piece of known information that the world has ever been privy to.”
“Yes, I know that, Cy,” Dr. Pressfield said after sipping his coffee, which was still too hot to down in big gulps.
“By my calculations, Dr. Marcus, we only need to walk nineteen miles before we can drive.”
“Woodbridge?” Dr. Pressfield asked, blowing on his coffee and looking at the map image suspended above his computer.
“Yes Dr. Marcus… I’ve studied the Ker’s movements and there hasn’t been any activity past that area.”
Dr. Pressfield took another sip and paused. “Yeah… twenty miles is still twenty miles Cy. It’s a long way on foot.”
“No, Dr. Marcus, it’s only nineteen,” Cy said beaming from ear to ear.
“Cy… You’re worse than a kid waiting to go to Disney World.”
“Can we stop by there too? If there’s time, of course…”
Dr. Pressfield didn’t answer as he shook his head and thought, I’m fairly damn anxious myself.
7:30AM:
Packed up and ready… It was go time:
“Let’s go, Cy.”
Walking behind his cyborg, Dr. Pressfield exited the house. Marcus began locking his front door then stopped, thinking, what the hell am I doing? He finished locking it anyway, eh, why not… just in case…
“Keep your scanners peeled, Cy,” Dr. Pressfield requested.
“Roger that, sir,” Cy answered trying to sound like some of the world’s greatest military commanders he’d studied during his third round of “training” uploads.
Marcus wasn’t a military man and his excitement from the night before quickly dwindled into good old-fashioned fear.
At least they were on a road and not walking through a dark forest. Traversing clusters of abandoned vehicles, they moved south on I-95. The Interstate-495 intersection was behind them and thick vegetation grew out from both sides of the tree lines that ran in a jagged border along each highway. Lush and green, the woods hinted at the horrors that roamed beyond its thick, leafy camouflage.
Passing through another cluster of abandoned vehicles, Cy noticed the first skeletal remains he’d ever seen. Real human bones, his processors confirmed as the data mixed. It formed sympathy in Cy’s circuits and brain. The bones were scattered in a vintage Ford Mustang. Cy looked back and glanced at Marcus to see if he would also notice the bone pile.
A good scientist doesn’t usually miss things happening in the world around them. Choosing not to linger, Dr. Pressfield saw the bones with his eyes but kept his head forward.
Cy took notice of Dr. Pressfield’s noticing. He also detected the scientist’s heart rate and respirations increase.
“How are you doing, Dr. Marcus?”
“Super, Cy. Doing just super,” he aimed the response toward the back of his cyborg’s head, lying through his teeth.
Jesus I want to jump in one of these cars and drive the hell out of here, Dr. Pressfield fantasized.
He hated being n
aked and walking out in the open like this. The man felt like a walking dinner bell. Maybe we won’t see any of them, he secretly hoped, thinking about Ker as well as the demon creatures.
They made it to the halfway point.
Hooes Road Park was to their right. They approached a spaghetti twist of interstate and road. As if it could still see patients, a medical office sat between the road and the park, other than being vacant, it could. Well, that and the fact its entire staff was no longer among the living.
Cy held his hand back to halt his master’s progress after he took two more steps and froze. Something was coming in their direction, and fast.
CHAPTER 31 - COMMANDER IN NOTHING
“Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.”
-Lyndon B. Johnson
Atlanta:
“Mr. President.”
“I know you…”
“You’re the President; I should hope you know me.”
“What do you want with me Dr. Pavlov?”
“Simple… I want to kill you.”
On his knees, the President shook his head. Both his arms were in the grasp of two Sentinel bots. “Why?”
“Why am I going to kill you?”
“No… Why did you do it?”
Dr. Pavlov looked around and spread his arms out as if he was encompassing the world. “All of this?”
“Yes… Why did you destroy everything? Kill so many innocent people…”
Dr. Pavlov lurched forward and grabbed the President by the throat. “Innocent! You think you’re innocent!”
The President couldn’t breathe much less answer. His mouth was open as he gasped for air, gazing into the madman’s eyes.
Dr. Pavlov released his grip. “Innocent… you make me sick… Your government stole from me. They stole my life’s work! They killed my wife! Innocent… you’re pathetic…”
“You’ve killed women and children… Surely you don’t…”
“Shut your mouth!” Dr. Pavlov screamed as he pointed at the President. He didn’t want to think about such things.
Clio and Cy: The Apocalypse Page 14
