Inferno (The Glitch Book 2), page 14
Mike was almost at the step which would be salvation. “Hold hands! Form a chain!” he shouted just as the rushing waters slammed into him and the others. Everyone held their ground as best they could. Mike fought his way forward, then heaved himself up and onto the three foot wide ledge. The weight of the three others he was still holding onto in the rampaging river, was almost too much but he grabbed Daryl using both hands and pulled him free, then went to grab Brad with Daryl’s help, but their grasp on him slipped and the big man momentarily slid backwards, his trailing hand still gripping Elias’s. Brad sunk his fingers into a crevice in the wall, and pulled himself forward with the man behind him, both fighting the rising water. With their backs against the wall of the tunnel giving them some leverage, Brad and Elias crept along but as the flow grew stronger, Elias struggled not to be swept away.
Despite his instincts not too, Mike jumped back into the surging current, grabbing a corner of one of the bricks and thrust his hand out to Brad who grabbed it. They both pulled, straining muscles neither knew they had, as the water now up to their necks did its best to swallow them whole. Mike jumped back up and Brad grabbed the ledge, then looked back to Elias. “Come on!” he shouted to the older man, who was almost to the point where he could do the same, when suddenly the water lit up with streaks of electricity snaking through it. Brad leaped onto the ledge instinctively, while still trying to hold on to him, but the old man’s hand snapped back and Elias stood frozen, his eyes wide at the light show all around him. Arcs of lightning split the air, jumping from the turbulent surface, slamming into the walls, turning the gloom of the tunnel into day.
“We have to help him!” shouted Brad.
Mike grabbed Daryl’s bag, pulling the cables from it, each one seemingly not long enough to be of any use, when sparks of blue sprang from Elias’s eyes
“It’s got him!” shouted Daryl, but Mike refused to believe the ranger and his son were gone and set about tying the cables together.
Elias’s eyes shone like illuminated sapphires, then suddenly the light switched off, as it did amongst the electrified water. Without hesitation Mike now with his extended piece of cable flung it in Elias’s direction. “Grab hold!”
Elias as if waking from a dream, the water splashing over his height, snatched it out of the air, and the three men on the ledge pulled the other onwards until he was able to scramble out onto the solid surface.
Mike went to kneel next to him, when Daryl grabbed his arm. “He could be infected!”
“We all could be!” he shouted, pulling away and kneeling. “Elias! Are you okay?”
The older man looked at him, his clothes sodden, his face glistening. “I… yeah. I think so…”
“What happened?”
“Your son... they tried to take him, but he fought them Mike… fought for me.”
Mike held Elias by the shoulders. “Is Travis still in your mind?”
“I… don’t know.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A drop of rain fell from the edge of the ceiling in Alexis’s room and hit the wooden surface of a cupboard, with a plop. A small puddle would have formed for it not for the towels that she had placed there.
Not much conversation had passed between her or Dawn since the latter had knocked at the motel room’s door shortly after Becky left. Neither wanted to consider the ramifications of the downpour above their heads, and what it must be doing to the rest of the city.
Thunder cracked and Brillo burrowed his nose between his paws.
Dawn pattered the bed next to her. “Jump up here boy.” He promptly did.
“Dog’s never been my thing,” said Alexis.
“Crazy cat lady, eh?”
The FBI profiler smiled. “No animals of any kind. Too unpredictable.”
Dawn rummaged Brillo’s fur on the top of his head. “Oh I don’t know about that. People aren’t any better.”
“Agreed. Over the years in the Bureau I’ve tried to change that.”
“And now people aren’t… people anymore.”
“For something that isn’t born as we are, the AI sure does act like a human… and that’s its weakness.”
Dawn nodded and only the sound of rain on the roof could be heard for a few moments.
“What about Mike?”
“What about him?”
“I’ve seen how you look at him—”
“Is that a problem?”
“What? Oh, you mean do I like him? Lord no. Well not in that way. I’ve been like his big sister from when we first met in the Academy.”
Alexis smiled and looked down. “The world ending doesn’t really seem like the best of time’s to be starting a new relationship…”
“When is a good time to be doing anything life changing? But you never let me finish. I’ve seen how he looks at you as well. You’re good for him… After Clara died… I just didn’t think he would be able to move on, and with you he has, and that’s a good thing.”
“I’m not sure he has moved on… Maybe, not let the past dictate his future anymore.”
Dawn smiled and looked at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand. “They should be done by—”
Brillo’s head flicked towards the door, just as a knock came from it. Both the women looked at each other, their hands moving to their holsters, then the door. The rain was still hammering down outside.
“Who is it?” said Dawn.
“It’s me!” shouted Becky. Dawn stood from the bed. “Hurry, I’m soaked through!”
“Wait!” said Alexis to the woman beside her. They were both looking at the door. “How you feeling?” said Alexis.
“Wet and cold! Open the damn door!”
“We have to let her in,” said Dawn. Alexis nodded and Dawn quickly slid the latch across and pulled the door open. Becky ran inside almost knocking the door from Dawn’s grip, and then shook her hair sending a spray over everything nearby. Brillo immediately started growling at her.
“Sshh…” said Becky to the small dog. “I ain’t no threat to you.”
“Where you been?” said Alexis.
“I told ya before. You’re not my mother.”
“No I’m not, but I am a federal agent, and when one of those asks you a question, it’s usually a good idea to give an answer.”
Becky looked away from Alexis’s gaze. “I had things to do.”
“Things worth risking your life for?”
Becky smirked. “You mean the rain with a mind of it’s—”
A knock came at the door, Brillo’s growling intensified.
“You came with a friend?” said Dawn to the young woman.
Becky shook her head. “No, he’s gone.”
“Who is it!” shouted Alexis.
Another knock was the reply, this time louder, more determined. Both agents pulled their gun’s and pointed them towards the door, just as the unplugged TV sprung to life making them all jump, and the two agents shift their guns in its direction. Becky, who was still near the door, scrambled over the bed and stood next to Alexis. Half formed images mixed with interference, and scratching noises came from the device on the wall while the booms against the wood of the entrance repeated, over and over, each one making the door look an insufficient barrier to whoever or whatever was outside.
“We’re armed!” shouted Alexis.
The impacts on the door stopped as the TV’s screen went black. The rain hitting the roof and the dog’s fading growls being the only remaining sounds.
*****
The staff room of the city hall building had two vending machines, both of which were well stocked. One with candy and chips, the other soda. The four men that had escaped from the headquarters, through the sewer were now sat on chairs or laid on the ground, waiting for the storm to subside.
Mike had been studying Elias since the incident in the tunnel, and resisting asking him repeatedly if his son had returned to his consciousness. The idea of Travis being locked in another person’s brain seemed impossible, but now that he might have been banished, dissolved or whatever happens to a digital person, Mike felt a deep ache, which he knew the meaning of even if he couldn’t explain it. It was grief.
“What do you think they’re going to do once they discover what we have done?” said Daryl to whoever would answer.
“For now they are just sitting things out,” said Mike. “Waiting for the weather to pass. After that, I don’t know. We just… Travis just helped them, and everyone else. Maybe they will see it the same way.”
“And if they don’t?”
Mike remained silent.
“Then we’re fucked,” said Brad smiling.
The three men laughed, but Elias remained stony faced, seated in the shadows. He felt the same as Mike but for different reasons. He had gotten used to seeing the nerdy looking kid, and now that he couldn’t, he felt… incomplete. He didn’t understand it and that was worse. “It will just delay things,” he said. “Won’t stop what’s going to happen.”
“Is Travis back?” Mike tried and failed to hide his joy at his son possibly returning.
“He said that before… before he was gone.”
Mike had only known the ranger for a day, but any hope the men in the large room had started to feel from their successful mission was torn away by the old man’s melancholic tone.
“Having more time is good though right?” said Daryl. “Gives us a chance to figure out how to stop it.”
Elias leaned forward so his face emerged from the gloom, and was lit by one of the solitary far off street lights outside. He looked at Mike. “I didn’t know your son that well, or the thing that said it was him… but when it was happening… He was doing his thing, and hacking into the militaries systems, he put me back in my little house in Missouri. At first I thought I was actually back there. Even Brillo was there. It was so real… but then I was back, standing in that cold office, with you all looking at me. From what I’ve seen of what he was up against. What we’re all up against, he was our best chance of humanity living beyond the end of the year. And now… I can’t tell you if he’s gone for good, or sleeping, or injured or what.”
Mike nodded, but inside he wasn’t accepting of another loss. It wasn’t a question of not wanting too, he just couldn’t go through it again. He stood and walked to the third of the large windows, which over looked the small grass area, then sidewalk and road. Reflections from solitary points of light bounced off the standing water, while the shadows were rich with intent. The city was becoming infected. Millions, maybe trillions of tiny parts of the bigger whole creeping through the sewers and drains, through the holes that humans never noticed, until they inevitably touched a scalp or a toe. He looked at Daryl. “You got the radio?” I think the rains stopping.
Daryl handed it to him, and he clicked the transmit button three times, as agreed with the chief but there was no response.
“Maybe the military have them,” said Daryl.
“Yeah, I’ll try again in a bit.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Mike awoke with pain in his neck instantly reminding him why it’s never a good idea to sleep on a hard floor. He blinked trying to focus on the room around him which was bathed in a cold dawn light. Elias was standing at the window, while Brad and Daryl were seemingly asleep, equally awkwardly positioned on the staff room rough carpet. He felt disappointment. He had hoped that Travis would reach out to him, mind to mind as he had done before in his dreams, but there was nothing there from the moment he closed his eyes to now.
“How’s it looking out there?” croaked Mike, his throat dry.
Elias’s gaze remained fixed on the world outside. “Everything’s still wetter than a duck’s back… I’ve seen a few folks. They looked lost.”
“AI controlled?”
“Hard to say.”
“Any word from Gill?”
“Nope.”
“Hell, I could do with a drink,” said Daryl sitting up. Mike smiled, he knew his old partner never touched the stuff.
“If I have to spend another hour in this room I’m going to go stir crazy,” said Brad lifting his head, then placed it back down.
Mike slowly stood, his joints letting themselves be known to him, and walked to the window where Elias passed him the radio, the older man shaking his head. Without a word passing between them Mike sighed then clicked the transmission button three times. Only static noise came from the speaker, so he tried again, but got the same result.
“Might be out of range,” said Daryl, now sitting on the edge of a small round table.
Brad looked closely at the contents of the vending machine. “Anyone got any money for this thing?”
Elias turned and walked quickly to one of the small tables, lifted it and with Brad standing back at the last moment hurled it at the front of the machine, shattering the glass. He looked around at the shocked men. “You still don’t get it. Ain’t no one coming back here. So you might as well take what you can.”
Brad leaned forward his boots crunching the fragments and pulled some chocolate bars free from their holders and threw them to the others.
Mike tried the clicking code on the handset once more but still to no avail. “Something’s wrong. He would have responded by now.” He looked at his watch. “The plan was for him to pick us up three hours ago.” He looked back out to the city. Being on the third floor he had a good view over office buildings and warehouses, and then to the suburbs a few miles further out. Beyond was only early morning gray mist. He switched channels to the one he and Alexis had designated. “Alexis you there? Over.”
After a few seconds of static noise, her voice came from the speaker, and everyone in the dimly lit room secretly sighed in relief. “Mike! Good to hear you!” she said. “Is everyone okay? Over.”
“Everyone’s fine.” He did not feel it was the right time to tell her about what happened to his son, for he didn’t really know himself. “How’s everything there? Over.”
“We’re okay. Still in the room. Haven’t wanted to go outside as the ground looks sodden. But it’s drying a little. When you coming back? Over.”
He looked back out to the street. Everything was quiet. He had no idea what day it was, whether it was weekend or not, but his instincts were telling him something was off about the scene out the window. “I’m not sure. Have you heard from Gill?” He forgot to say ‘Over.’
“I thought he was picking you up? Over.”
“He was meant too, but we haven’t seen or heard from him since last night. Over.”
There was a pause from Alexis. “We haven’t seen any vehicles pass us on the road here. Over.”
Mike briefly looked at the others in the room, their faces expressing their depressed thoughts. “Stay where you are. We’ll find a way to get there.” Each of the men nodded in agreement. “We should be there within the hour. Over.”
*****
Gill sat in his kitchen, on a chair. Smoke hung in the air and blood dripped down his arm from the wound that had reopened, and also down the left side of his face due to the laceration across his cheek. That and other knife wounds were causing his body to feel as if he been set on fire, but instead he felt nothing. They had been inflicted by Mary, his wife of twenty-seven years, now deceased due to the bullet hole in her forehead and lying in the hallway.
Once he had dropped off the four strange men, and done as asked by kicking up a party of noise and light around the armies headquarters, he and the other officers of Roswell were eventually detained for a few hours while the governmental forces figured out what was going on. He had heard discussion that his people should remain in custody for at least a few days, while the ‘wall’ is constructed, but it was decided because of the rain they were going to need all the manpower they could get to stop the ‘tinnies’ from causing too much trouble. So he and the others were set free, each going back to their homes to get a semblance of rest before starting again at 6 am. There was to be no sleep for him though, as he planned after checking on Mary, he would head back out to city hall and retrieve the agents. He never made it though.
She attacked him as soon as he pushed the front door open and crossed the threshold, the same entrance he had carried her over almost three decades before. In the seconds it took for the kitchen blade to slice across his face, he knew she had been infected and his training kicked in, fighting with her for the knife. The candles she had carefully arranged along the shelves in the hallway, flickered then fell as they both careened into them. He tried to plead with her to calm down, but he had done the same to his detective without any success, and this was no different. He managed to knock the knife from her hand, but she kicked him between his legs, sending him to the ground in agony. Another blow from her shoe across his temple almost rendered him unconscious, and he was almost too late to stop her from reaching for his sidearm. Instead, as flames begun to catch hold of the rugs covering the hardwood floor, he pointed the Glock at her and she backed off and smiled. As he recounted the life they had lived together, the happy times they had spent in this home, she slowly reached down for the knife, then with the speed of someone half her age, turned and leaped at him, the blade dropping on the center of his chest.
Just as the steel point tore his jacket, a boom echoed around the house and she flew backwards. He was aiming for her arm, or shoulder, somewhere that wouldn’t mean instant death, but as he scrambled to his knees, then scampered forward. He knew he had missed, and he had murdered his wife.
He cradled her while flames filled the hallway with smoke, his breathing becoming labored as the oxygen burned away. He was ready to leave with her, but being burned alive was no way to go, so instead he thrust the barrel of his gun into the side of his head, and was about to pull the trigger when he saw it.
A silvery liquid ran from her ears onto the wooden planks, and as if magnetized moved together forming a mercury-like pool a few inches across. It was such an odd event that he almost forgot what he was about to do, but turning his eyes back to Mary, he took a final deep strained breath, when the liquid streamed towards him making him fall back on his rear. Now his gun was pointing at the strange reflective substance. He went to fire at it, but instead his body convulsed into a coughing fit and he staggered backwards up against the small table where they put their keys. Instinctively and not caring for the burns he would no doubt receive he grabbed rug which was now completely aflame and threw it on top of the shimmering pool. He couldn’t see what the burning material was doing to the thing that had ended his life, but he hopped over it ran into the kitchen and grabbed the fire extinguisher.
