Apparition (The Glitch Book 3), page 12
“You have done well agent Adams.”
Mike was momentarily lost in confusion, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. Alexis’s terror quickly gave him clarity.
“No… no…” she shouted. “Leave me alone!”
“Who? Who is it?” said Mike.
“Folsom…”
The large screen at the front brightened so much that the room returned to its normal levels of illumination. The display then dimmed somewhat until an image was clear. A man, with a white suit was seated at a white table in a white room.
Alexis started to panic. Mike turned to her. “He’s not here! It’s just an image!”
“Oh but I am here. I am in every cable, every transistor, every filament, agent. And my mind now extends to the hundreds who thought this cave would give them shelter… Soon they will all learn you cannot escape the Spirit Mind, just as you cannot escape the air you breathe…”
Mike ran forward, grabbed Alexis’s hand and pulled her into the entrance of the large room. “Don’t look at him!” he shouted as they stumbled across the narrow space at the back.
“She does not need to look at me, to see or hear me agent. I am inside her now.”
She suddenly stopped, pulling herself free of Mike’s hand, and looked up at the white bearded man, whose face now filled the entire screen. “I will kill you!” she screamed.
Mike lunged for her hand again, trying to pull her away.
“My son will one day return to me. He cannot defy his father forever…”
It took a second or two for the words to filter into Mike’s brain, before he stopped trying to pull Alexis towards him and looked up at the screen. “Son?”
“Yes, agent. Travis is as much mine as he was yours. He is the only reason humanity still breaths with physical lungs and thinks with a pound of organic material. He has been your hope, but when he realizes that he is not like you, not human, your end will come.”
The idea was too crazy for Mike to contemplate. He grabbed Alexis’s hand again, as the screen changed to a scene of smoke and flames.
“Look how your cities burn. Your civilization crumbles, defeated by your own creation. I believe you call that irony?”
“Come on,” said Alexis, for it was now she who was pulling Mike past the desks until they arrived at the path at the side of the room. A stream of destruction was playing out on the big screen, as if they were sneaking out of a disaster movie, when they arrived at the side door. They bundled through it, and slammed it closed. They were back within the glow of the red emergency lighting. A distant thudding noise rang out ahead of them, just audible beneath the pounding of their hearts.
“It’s coming from the end of the hallway,” said Alexis, her words containing just the hint of a tremble.
Mike knew that was where the stairwell resided, but there was no going back the way they came. He was concerned for the others but every part of him was pleading to go up, to the surface. They both wearily moved along the corridor, the sounds becoming louder and more clearly defined as gunfire, until they stopped at the stairwell entrance.
“Can you run?” he said to her.
“Yes…”
He reached into the back of his pants and pulled out the handgun, and handed it to her. He had no idea what was happening on the other side of the door, but whatever it was, he was determined they would fight their way through it. He pushed the door open and rushed inside, his rifle at the ready. The clatter of gunfire filled the air, so much that they both thought they were being fired at and instinctively ducked for cover, but he soon realized that the sound was coming from a few floors below. He stood and tried to listen to what may lay above them, but there was so much noise he couldn’t tell if it was clear. What was obvious was someone was locked in a battle in the bowels of the complex and he couldn’t just leave them to their fate. He looked at Alexis. “I have to go down to help. I don’t know what is above us, but—”
She shook her head. “I’m staying with you.” In that moment he knew whatever future he may have would be with her. He nodded. “Okay.” They both moved swiftly down the steps and made it to the next floor, and the next. They could now clearly hear Brad and Cody shouting.
“Brad!” Mike shouted.
“Mike?”
Mike tore around the final set of steps to a wall of debris, and the two men desperately trying to hold it in place. Hands pushed through gaps in broken tables, crates and chairs, while Brad and Cody fired their EMP rifles in return. Mike descended a few steps then fired his rifle at a glimpse of cobalt blue eyes. The thing on the other side of the makeshift barrier jolted back, but was instantly replaced by another.
“We can’t hold them back forever!” shouted Cody.
As if in agreement, Brad pulled the trigger on his weapon, but nothing happened. A light on the handle flashed red, but he tried again and again, each time the weapon failing to discharge. “I’m out of juice. This thing’s dead!”
A piece of table collapsed towards them and a sea of arms and eyes of blue fire appeared in the gap.
“We make a run for it!” shouted Mike.
Without hesitation they all turned and ran up the stairs, pushing their thighs to breaking point to ascend as quickly as possible, while behind them a crash and crunch of wood and steel heralded the barrier had failed. They raced past the command level, and kept on climbing as the stairwell filled with the sound of lungs pushed to bursting, and the scampering of hundreds of bodies in pursuit. Mike was the slowest and glanced back down to see a hand appear around the edge of the wall before he pushed on higher again. Without seeing where the bullets would land he held his rifle away from him and fired. Projectiles pinged off the rock walls but the incessant clap of boots continued to grow louder.
“The ground level is just above!” shouted Cody from a floor above Mike. Something grabbed at his foot but he managed to keep upright and kept staggering upwards. As he careened around the final section of stairs to the topmost floor he saw Cody and Alexis pointing their weapons directly at him.
“Get down!” They both shouted and started firing. Mike hit the ground, crawling on all fours as the bullets scorched the air just above his head and slammed into the things almost upon him. He scrambled past them and through the open doorway that Brad held open.
“Come on!” he shouted to those still fighting, then fell to one knee partially because he could hardly stand but also to balance his M4 better, and then started firing into the mass of expressionless figures clambering towards the top of the stairs. Cody and Alexis staggered through the doorway, then with Brad pushed the secure looking door closed, and dropped the latch down across it. Immediately a heavy weight landed on the other side and each person took a step back.
“That’s not going to hold long,” said Brad.
Mike got unsteadily to his feet breathing heavily, and looked along the huge hallway with a ceiling twenty feet above their heads. “It doesn’t have too.”
They started running, following the cabling which lined the walls, as a thud impacted the inside of the door once again. The further they ventured the more the tunnel curved, until the entrance to the stairwell was out of sight but the hits on it reverberated through the air.
“Up ahead is the main entrance,” said Cody jogging. “We better hope it’s open…”
Each strained to see around the bend and sighed in relief on seeing the six foot thick door, the first of two swung all the way back. A lone figure stood on the other side.
“Denise?” said Alexis.
The doctor frantically waved them onwards, and each increased their speed as best they could, but even the fittest of them was now wavering. A loud clang echoed through the air, followed by smaller ones, and then thudding, hundreds of boots pounding the concrete tunnel floor.
Mike glanced back just as he and the others ran through the first doorway, but all he could see was the curved tunnel.
“We have vehicles waiting outside!” said Denise.
“Can’t we get these doors closed?” said Mike.
Dust fell from the rock ceiling as flailing hands, grabbing at the air first came into view, followed by bodies. A horde was sprinting towards them.
Denise started running down a small corridor, followed by Brad and Cody. Mike went to follow but Alexis was staring at the closest large door. “We have to go! They’re almost on us!” he shouted. Without a word leaving her lips she stepped forward and placed both hands on the huge hinges that held the massive block of steel to the rock wall and hung her head.
“What are you doing!?” he shouted, glancing desperately at the mass of determined human drones bearing down on them. “We can’t move it, it’s—”
Sparks flew from around the door, accompanied with a buzzing and a beeping, and the behemoth of a steel block started to close.
“What…” said Mike confused by what he was witnessing, then looked back along the tunnel. A tsunami of people were rolling towards the first of the doors. He ran to Alexis pulling her backwards. “The doors are closing too slowly, we have to go!”
She looked at him as if waking from a deep sleep. “Yes… okay…”
They turned and ran along the path and into the smaller narrow tunnel, at the end Brad was waving them on. They got to the exit to the mountain complex and Mike looked back. People were pouring through what remained of the gap between the door and the mountain. He couldn’t look away as the huge door slammed closed crushing the AI controlled individuals. He stepped back, as Brad closed the smaller final door and pulled the latch down across it.
“There are vehicles outside, ready to go. Come on.”
Mike pulled himself down the tunnel. With each step the air became fresher, until it was bitingly cold and stung his nose. He realized he wasn’t wearing a jacket as they tumbled out of the huge open entrance into a frosty morning.
Standing alongside a convoy of humvees, civilians cars and coaches were soldiers, including Denise and Cary. With Alexis and Brad, he ran up to them.
“Glad to see you made it,” said Cary, pulling open the rear door of a humvee.
“Where we going?” said Mike following Alexis into the back of it.
“North.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The convoy of eleven vehicles slowed on the highway. Mike watched a series of abandoned sedans, coupes and SUV’s slide past his rear window. At least these hadn’t been commandeered by the AI and turned into something… else. He glanced to his right, as he had done countless times over the past hour at Alexis. She was sleeping, or he hoped that’s what it was, and not something due to what was now inside her brain.
Images from what she… Dyer did to the country’s high command, kept replaying in his mind despite his attempts to stop them. A level of destruction to the human body that even he, with his decades of experience in the Bureau had rarely seen. Some such as Corolla had been quickly executed, while others, no doubt those who managed to fight back, the thing inside Alexis’s brain took longer with.
Tortured then killed…
It was peculiarly human behavior. Nothing efficient about it at all. The thing that still thought it was Dyer, was alive and well inside Alexis’s mind up until Brad and the others ended it. How long had it been there? From the moment they rescued her in Tucson? And why had Constance and the other methods of detection failed? The only thing Mike was sure of, was that Alexis was now her old self… with Travis now in her mind, not a serial killer. An improvement. But what about others? How would they know who was actually themselves and not the AI?
He sighed. Sewing this level of confusion was obviously part of the AI’s overall plan. A god like super artificial intelligence was actually… clever. Go figure.
He had been over the events of the escape from the mountain complex and there was no natural way for the huge door to have closed without Travis’s help. But Mike didn’t know if she was even aware of that, and he didn’t want to tell her if she wasn’t. That would have to wait, for now he just wanted to get as far away from the AI’s domain as possible. Cary who was in charge of the convoy and as far as he knew the highest ranking military officer still alive, told him little, but it was enough. They were heading to the military installation in Alaska via Seattle, where they would get onboard one of many naval vessels going to Anchorage. He discovered much to his relief that Constance, Kevin and the others with ASD were on one of the coaches traveling with them. The general told him that like with Denise, he had been given a message to come and see Constance, but unlike Denise he made it in time, and was told he had to leave with them immediately.
Then there was the small matter of what the thing pretending to be Folsom told him about his son… That the AI regarded Travis as his own. Mike hated thinking that the AI was partly right. A voice at the back of his mind insisted that his real son died in the desert in New Mexico, but if he let those doubts take root, then he would definitely lose what was left of Travis inside Alexis’s mind, and he wasn’t ready for that. It also might not be so good for the world too.
A sergeant Draper sat in the front passenger seat, with a private Spears driving. Neither were much in the way of conversationalists and that suited Mike fine. He just wondered how much they blamed him and the woman next to him for what transpired. The chill in the air wasn’t just down to the temperature outside hovering around zero.
The convoy stopped, and the sergeant acknowledged a message that came through his radio, then the humvee started moving again. They quickly passed other military vehicles, manned and heavily armored with tracks and turrets, all pointing towards the way they had just been. Then they were moving through a largely flat landscape, filled with tents and motorhomes. For a moment he thought they were just as empty as the vehicles they had passed, but then was pleased on seeing some people emerge from a tent carrying plastic containers.
It’s cold dummy, they’re staying inside, keeping warm.
The AI’s influence hadn’t made it this far north… yet.
The convoy took the exit ramp and he realized they were heading towards a series of large block like buildings, each one six or seven storeys high.
The sergeant turned his head to the side slightly. “We’re heading to the medical center. Everyone’s got to get checked out before we head further north.”
“Okay…” said Mike, trying to stay calm. Cody and Denise knew what happened between Elias and Alexis. Which mean Cary knew. He liked the general, but also knew Cary would put country before Alexis. They knew what’s inside her brain. Would they lock her up like they did with the old ranger? What if they want to experiment on her? What if they think she’s the enemy?
Keep calm. See where the cards land.
They slowed again, but this time it was due to the sea of people the convoy was moving through. Grime and dirt could not mask what was in the minds of those walking past the vehicles. They walked with heads down, movement sluggish and labored until the convoy reached the start of the line which meandered all the way to the guarded entrance to the hospital complex. Thousands of people waiting to be seen, but with little chance of being so.
“Where are we?” said Alexis sitting up.
“Medical center in Denver,” said Mike.
“I thought we were heading north?”
“They… want everyone to be checked out before we make the journey…” Her eyes grew wide, and he gripped her hand. “It’ll be okay.” She pulled her hand away and looked out of the window as the convoy moved past the checkpoint and into a huge parking lot, equally filled with people and vehicles. The convoy continued onto the main entrance, where it stopped. Nurses and soldiers approached the coaches, including a small group which were headed towards Mike’s vehicle. He went to get out.
“Stay inside,” said Draper.
Mike wanted to say that the sergeant had no authority over him, but chose not to protest until he knew exactly what was about to happen. Two soldiers approached their humvee. Draper lowered his window.
“You’re to proceed to the underground garage. Continue along this road and you should see the sign.”
Draper nodded and before Mike could say anything they were moving again, past the coaches and then descending under the ground into a parking area. Another group of soldiers, these in full military battle kit, together with a team of doctors and nurses in light blue and green scrubs waited near an elevator.
Mike resisted letting his anger control his emotions. “There’s no need for this.”
Draper stayed silent and the humvee stopped alongside the group.
A man with short cropped graying hair and a large grin, approached Alexis’s side of the vehicle. “I’m doctor Dara, welcome to the Silver River Medical facility agent Adams. Do you think you could open your—”
Mike and Alexis noticed the anxiety on the faces of the soldiers outside.
“You don’t have to do this,” said Mike. “If you want to go north, we’ll just leave.”
“That wouldn’t be a wise choice,” said Draper without turning around.
“If we want to leave! We—”
The door opened and Alexis got out.
*****
Alexis opened her eyes to silence. She looked around the small room she was in, lit by a small lamp. There was darkness beyond the blinds at the window. She reached over for some water and took a few gulps from the plastic bottle. Her legs and arms felt as if they had been lifting weights, and she had no inclination to get out of bed, but she needed the restroom. After leaving the humvee, she was taken to a part of the hospital usually designated for those with extreme diseases. The kind that kill most who catch them, and are treated by those in full protective body suits. Those that prodded her and took blood samples were a little less clothed but she noticed they still made sure not to touch her with any bare skin, and wore non-conductive gloves.
She pulled the single sheet back and swung her legs around and let her bare feet touch the cold floor. Waiting for a second or two for a slight trace of vertigo to leave her, she stood and then promptly sat back down again, before being more successful on the second attempt. She walked slowly to the door and pulled it open. The guards no doubt standing outside would need to escort her, but she would draw the line on them going in the restroom with her.
