Inferno (The Glitch Book 2), page 15
That was four hours ago.
Once the flames were out, he walked back into the kitchen and collapsed onto the chair, the same one he would sit in before going to work, and would receive his morning coffee and update from Mary on any important news she had heard before he came downstairs. He ears had heard the signal from the FBI agent, on the radio which still sat on his shoulder, now caked in dried blood, but his mind was lost to the void. Not directly because of any AI nanites in his brain, but indirectly because of their actions in taking the love of his life from him.
As the early morning light edged its way across the kitchen floor, his locked away the memories and replaced them with anger.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Mike stood inside the city hall entrance and studied the pathway to the sidewalk. Despite the damp patches there was no sign of any metallic streaks.
“Look’s sort of dry…” said Daryl.
He nodded. “Sort of dry is going to have to be good enough,” then pushed open the large glass door and stepped onto the concrete slabs. The air was full of chills and his nose burned slightly taking in a lungful. He listened to the city for any sign that it had awoken from the stormy night, but there was only silence. Not even the sound of vehicles moving amongst the streets. The others emerged behind him.
“Shouldn’t be no more than a thirty-minute walk,” said Brad, but Mike was looking in the opposite direction, to the junction that led to the bank building.
“Oh no,” said Brad. “I’m not going back there.”
“We’re a block away at most, you don’t think it’s strange we’re not hearing anything?”
“It don’t mean a thing.”
Mike looked at the other two men. Daryl looked away, while Elias did not. “What is it?” he said to the taller man.
“They’ve gone,” said Elias.
“What do you mean gone?”
“I don’t know how I know, it’s just a feeling that if we go back, they won’t be there.”
Mike went to walk across the rich green grass then thought better of it. “We need to know.” He made his way along the path to the sidewalk.
Brad sighed and with the others followed. They were soon at a junction. One road was lined with pretty single story residences, while opposite was a parking lot, still containing a number of vehicles.
Brad nodded towards it. “Maybe we should find something old inside there, and take it.”
Mike continued walking. “Best to stay away from cars for now. Need to see how they react to the weather last night.”
They continued on, each one being aware of the deathly silence, and feeling they were the last people alive in the city. They passed more junctions, with equally quiet buildings, their windows full of shadows. Daryl suddenly stopped.
Mike looked back at him. “What?”
He shook his head. “Thought I saw something… it’s nothing.”
They continued on until the eight story bank came into view above nearer, smaller buildings. Static burst from Mike’s radio followed by Alexis’s voice, which made each man cringe as if they had committed a crime. “How long? Over,” she said.
He had forgotten his promise. “We’re just checking something out. We’ll be there soon. Over.”
“Don’t leave it too long. It’s eerily quiet around here. Over.”
“Same here. I’ll talk again in about thirty—”
A crash of metal on metal came from a few hundred yards ahead, making them all flick their heads in that direction.
“Something’s happening. Radio silence for now. Over,” said Mike. Alexis started to talk again when he switched the device off, and they all walked forward hunched over in case they needed to dive for cover.
“It’s coming from that parking lot,” said Elias.
Crunch followed crumpling, but now they could hear the accompanying engine roars and hums. As they crossed the road to be alongside the large expanse of concrete they could see the source of the noise. Vehicles, large and small were driving in spurts. A few yards forward, then with a jolt moving backwards, some of them slamming into others.
“It’s the AI,” said Mike. “It’s trying to take control of those vehicles.”
“So much for driving back to the motel,” said Brad.
“Not all will be affected, and like you said, the older vehicles will be a better choice.”
“They can’t see us, can they?” said Daryl.
“I don’t think so,” said Mike.
Suddenly a whir started up to their right. A lawn sprinkler system was throwing water randomly across the lawn of a large two story home. Luckily there were just outside its range.
“Lets keep moving.”
They scurried along the sidewalk, the bank building rearing up ahead of them, with the air now full of kinetic sounds. Engines and motors, gears and lights, were grinding, flashing and spluttering. All machinery within their line of sight and others held within the buildings close by was making itself known.
They picked up their pace and arrived at another lot, this one serenely quiet, despite the rows of parked vehicles. They all looked at the sedans, coupes, trucks and vans, innocently lined up.
“Maybe the AI didn’t get to them,” said Daryl.
Mike didn’t believe that, but the road which ran alongside the flat concrete area was the quickest route to the headquarters and he didn’t want to stay out in the open for any longer than he needed to. He looked at Elias. “Can you run?”
The older man frowned. “Probably faster than you can.”
“Good.” Mike took off as did the others, each one glancing to their right at the clean looking vehicles, until they arrived at the other end of the street some seconds later, panting and out of breath.
They all saw the obvious. The sandbags were the only remaining sign that the army had ever occupied the building.
“Come on,” said Mike, then jogged across the street and along the sidewalk to the bank entrance, the others not far behind. He looked through the smoked glass door to an empty lobby. On the floor were some of the green boxes and crates they had broken into the night before, but these were empty. Elsewhere sheets of paper lay scattered. He pushed the door open and they all moved inside.
“Looks like they left in a hurry,” said Brad.
“Could we have had anything to do with that?” said Daryl.
“The storm. I reckon it was worse… or the affects were worse than they predicted. So they got the hell out of town.”
“Doesn’t explain why there’s no people around…” said Brad.
Mike picked up one of the dusty sheets of paper, it appeared to be a list of numbers and codewords, but at the top was printed in bold. ‘OPERATION Halstead.’
“Anyone heard of a ‘operation halstead?’” Everyone shook their heads. He focused on Elias. “Did Travis mention anything?”
“If he knew about that operation he didn’t mention it to me.” Elias looked around the large room. “He kept a lot of things from me…” he said under his breath.
Mike handed him the piece of paper. “What about these numbers? Forty something thousand, seventy and the others, and these codes near them?”
Elias looked but shook his head. “No idea.”
“Let me see,” said Daryl, taking the sheet. While he studied the photocopy the others pushed further into the building.
*****
Alexis pulled the drape back and looked out past the narrow deck, which ran along the front of the motel rooms into gloom. A mist had settled upon the city allowing her to see the parking lot and some of the road, but not much beyond. For forty minutes she had stood there without seeing one vehicle, or person pass by.
Becky was sleeping in one of the beds, while Dawn was in the other, supposedly doing the same but instead was still awake despite efforts to rest. Alexis had searched the girls pockets while she was asleep and had found a small bag of pills. She couldn’t tell what they were but guessed they were the cause of Becky’s defensiveness. She debated on whether to flush them, but she didn’t want the young woman to flip out, and who knows maybe she had a legitimate medical need for whatever they were.
Dawn got up and made a trip to the restroom, then emerged, looking tired. She stood alongside Alexis and they both looked outside. “See anyone?”
“No.”
“That’s…”
“Not good.”
“They can’t all be infected. There were—”
“Thousands…”
“Yeah…”
Brillo barked making them both jump, and Becky murmur something before turning over. The small white dog moved to the door.
“I think he needs to do something outside,” said Dawn looking at the woman next to her.
Alexis sighed. “Great. I’m going to be end up with my mind taken over by an evil artificial intelligence because a small dog has to take a leak.”
“He probably wants to do—”
Alexis held her hand up. “I unfortunately get the picture. Okay, it’s looking a bit drier out there. I’ll take it into the parking lot, see if that does the job. You watch from the window. If you see a horde of machine people coming towards me, I expect you to run out all guns blazing!”
She smiled and Alexis placed the leash around Brillo’s neck then paused at the door and looked at her. “Still clear?”
Dawn looked as far to the left and right as her view would allow, then nodded. “Yup.”
Alexis pulled open the door and Brillo instantly pulled her out onto the deck. The air was bracing and smelled damp. Her mind wondered if the AI could exist in tiny water molecules, the kind you find in mist then dismissed the idea as being too insane to contemplate. She listened for any sign of life around her, but there was only complete silence. She looked down at the little dog who was straining to go further. “Okay, okay,” she said keeping her voice low, her breath forming a small cloud. She stepped off the planks and moved across the sandy dirt keeping close to the vehicles while not touching them. Brillo cocked his leg up against a tire, and she looked around. First at the front office, whose door had a ‘Closed’ sign on the inside and then to the other motel rooms, all of which had their drapes down. She thought the other rooms were empty when they arrived and nothing about the shadows behind the windows changed her mind. Still, Angie had to live somewhere nearby.
Brillo tugged to explore further. She agreed, her curiosity making her walk cautiously closer to the main road, where there was a narrow strip of faded yellow grass. She walked onto it, while Brillo moved in a small circle then set about squatting. She looked along the road for about what she guessed was half a mile, until the mist became too thick to penetrate. Rows of motorhomes sat facing her across the road, each one a good mode of transport if they needed it, but she wasn’t quite at the point of stealing just yet.
Brillo’s head flicked towards the motel. An elderly woman was waving at her from the front office. She had glimpsed Angie the previous evening, and despite the early morning gloom could see her over applied makeup through the glass of the door twenty yards away.
She quickly made her way across the lot, pointing towards the office for Dawn to see where she was heading. Becky was also standing next to her in their room.
Angie opened the door and pulled Alexis inside while taking a quick look outside, then closed the door.
“You hear anything from Gill?” said Angie.
“No. Should I have done?”
“Been trying to get him on my radio,” she nodded towards the counter where another of the police radios sat. “Usually he replies pretty quickly, but I haven’t heard from him since last night!”
“Why do you need to reach him?”
“My Jeff went out in that storm last night, and ain’t come back!”
“Oh…”
“Oh? What the hell does that mean? Oh?”
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but there was something in the air… think of it as a kind of pollution.”
The woman scrunched her face. “What the hell has pollution got to do with anything? How’s that going to stop him from coming home?”
“It was poisonous… from the nuclear explosions…”
The woman’s expression changed from bewilderment to concern. She started shaking her head and sat on a stool in the corner of the small room, which had a counter against the back wall. “So… he could be out there? Ill? Needing help?” She threw her hands to her face. “He’s old… he wouldn’t—”
Alexis walked forward and kneeled in front of the elderly woman. She went to lie, to give her some kind of hope, but that’s not what came from her lips. “Lots of people in the city may have died last night.”
Angie looked up in horror. “What?”
Alexis nodded.
“The rain? Why weren’t we warned?”
The special agent suppressed her guilt. “There was nothing that could be done.”
“But… you’re okay aren’t you? And your friends? The ones that came—” The woman looked off past Alexis. “Gill… oh… did he know about the rain?”
“He knew…” As soon as Alexis had spoke, she realized she had just told Angie that her old friend the police chief had kept quiet about what was about to befall the city. “But… there was nothing that could be done.”
Angie nodded. “You need to leave.”
“I’m sorry, but I can help—”
“Leave!”
Alexis stood and walked to the door.
“I want you and the others out of my room within the hour!”
Alexis spun around. “What? You don’t understand how dangerous it is out—”
The old woman stood, determination in her eyes. “I don’t care! I want you out!”
Alexis fell silent and nodded, then turned back to the door and made her way outside, this time keeping to the path, past the doors until she reached her own where she found it already open. She walked inside and closed it quickly behind her. “We have to leave.”
“What?” said Dawn.
“The old woman, she’s grieving. Looks like her husband hasn’t returned. He went out during the storm, and... well we have to leave.”
“And where are we going to go?” said Becky.
Alexis wanted to wait for Mike to contact her first considering what he requested, but things had changed. She clicked on the transmit button. “Mike you there? Over.”
The three women stood, listening to the white noise, until it changed to a crackle heralding a response.
“I’m here. Is everything okay? Over.”
“We have to leave the motel. Don’t ask why, but we got to go. How long until you’re here? Over.”
“I’m not sure. Depends if we can find a vehicle or not. Over.”
Alexis looked at Elias’s truck and sighed. She looked back at Becky. “I don’t suppose you got Elias’s keys to his truck?” Becky’s scrunched up face gave her the answer. She looked back outside, to the road, and beyond… she held the transmit button again. “I’ve got a better idea. Tell me where you are and we’ll come to you. Over.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Alexis looked at the chained gate of the RV dealership, then at its height of around ten feet.
Dawn looked anxiously along the road, and then at the small hut like building on the other side of the metal fence. “And what if we can’t find the keys to start one of these things?”
Alexis dug her fingers between the icy cold links and pulled her body up. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained is what my grandfather used to tell me.” She heaved herself upwards again and was at the top where she paused for a moment looking for any sign of movement amongst the block like vehicles and small buildings in front of her. On not seeing any she climbed down the other side and dropped the last foot to the ground. The Pale green wooden construction barely bigger than the motel room they had been staying in seemed as good as place as any to look for keys and she went to move in its direction when the fence rattled again.
Becky was climbing over.
“I told you to stay on the other side!” said Alexis.
“And miss the fun of stealing an RV! No way.” Becky dropped to the concrete. “Where we looking first?”
Ignoring the question Alexis looked to Dawn just a few feet away. “If you see any—”
Dawn nodded. “You’ll know.”
Alexis ran to the door of the hut which had a large glass pane, and tried to see beyond the curtains, but only darkness resided within. She turned the handle but it remained firmly shut.
“Just smash the window.”
“We’re trying to do this quietly! Get that?”
Becky frowned.
Alexis looked at the larger building, which appeared to be a repair shop of some kind. “Maybe we can find something in there to break the door lock.”
They moved carefully across the lot avoiding ruts filled with muddy water, trying to look in all directions at once until they arrived at a purple door, next to the larger shutters. Above them a simply painted sign mentioned ‘repair and parts.’
Alexis turned the old round handle of the door, which opened and pushed it slowly wider trying to see beyond the shadows inside. It was a small office. A desk, frayed fabric covered chair and filing cabinet almost left no room for her to move around, but she spotted the keys on the wall rack straight away. She burst forward without seeing the leg behind the desk and tripped, catching herself with the help of the cabinet. A small yelp came from her throat on seeing the middle-aged balding man in overalls on the floor.
