Final Dawn: Season 1 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series)

by Mike Kraus

  The assistant nods. “I saw her going out with her bag. I guess she’s going to be away for a while. I’m not really sure, sorry.” The assistant pulls away from David, smiling as she hurries to get back to work. David stands still in the hallway for a moment, putting the pieces together as he mulls over this revelation.

  Turning back, he walks down the hall toward his workstation. He picks up a phone and calls another of his and Rachel’s colleagues. “Susan, it’s David. Did you hear about Rachel? What? Three weeks? Right. Okay, sure. Yeah, give me five minutes. Okay, bye.”

  David sits back in his chair and shakes his head. With barely any time left before the planned upgrade, he is shocked to discover that Mr. Doe had sent Rachel home for three weeks, removing her from the project and informing virtually no one of the fact. David gets up and runs down the hall, heading to Susan’s office to speak with her before the testing begins.

  Gathering her things up to take to the test chamber, Susan’s face is sad when she sees David. They look around, checking for any observers before holding a brief, whispered conversation.

  “What the hell was he thinking?”

  “I don’t know. He didn’t tell anyone, though. I only found out about it from an assistant of Rachel’s. Doe ordered that no one except her immediate staff be informed. He had to have known we’d find out eventually, but I guess he didn’t want us talking to her before she left.”

  “Dammit!” Rage explodes from David’s face as he clenches his fist, trying to keep from striking out. “He just pulled the most knowledgeable person on staff from the project and all because she didn’t agree with the AI upgrades?”

  Susan shakes her head and pats David on the shoulder. “We’ll make it through this, somehow. We have all her notes, still, and she gave us access to all of her files. Let’s just get through the upgrades and testing, then hopefully she’ll be back.”

  David nods and pats Susan on the shoulder as well, forcing a smile through his gritted teeth. “Come on, let’s go. We’re already late.” The two scientists walk down the hall, both contemplating the abrupt changes that have taken place.

  The mood in the test chamber is tense. Not a word is spoken as the individuals all stare up at the central monitor, watching streams of numbers fly by. A gentle hum from the center of the room, inside a large chamber, is the only sound. Minutes pass by as the hum continues, then a small red light on the cylindrical chamber turns to amber. The hum shuts off, and the lab workers look around at each other, nervous grins spreading on their faces.

  David is the first to speak. “Alright, folks, time to test these little suckers. Remember, we’re nearly at critical mass, so keep on your toes. All the safety measures should still be in place, but with an update this big, there’s no telling what could have happened.”

  A soft voice from behind David startles him, causing him to flinch and whirl around to see who it is. “I think you’ll find that everything is working properly, Mr. Landry.”

  “Mr. Doe! I’m sorry, I didn’t know we were expecting you.”

  Mr. Doe ignores the comment along with David’s extended hand and walks around him, eyeing the test chamber as he slowly circles it. “Please, continue.”

  David nods, then continues addressing the scientists and technicians. “Of course. Uh, Susan, go ahead and start the physical diagnostics while I get the software pulled up into memory.” The technicians assigned to David and Susan begin to carry out their tasks, whispering to each other as they work. All monitors in the room begin to light up with graphs, tables of numbers, debugging results and imagery taken of the interior of the chamber.

  “Physical results look good. They’re replicating, but we’re keeping it in check at around nine thousand. There seem to be some abnormalities in the new generations, but it’s nothing too unusual. An extra grasper and additional levitators so far, but nothing major.”

  “Good. Let’s keep an eye on those and see if they become a problem. It’s probably from the software, though. I’m showing a sixty-eight percent increase in fuel efficiency, and a two hundred and seventy percent increase in airspeed movement efficiency.” David looks over at Mr. Doe. “These are some impressive increases.”

  Mr. Doe nods in acknowledgement of David’s statement, then continues to circle the chamber. David continues to speak. “Processing increases aren’t as good, only twenty percent there, but their memory storage is through the roof. Seven hundred percent. On the adaptive side, we’ve got – wait, hold on. This is odd.”

  David’s brow furrows as he examines a table of data. “Looks like there’s a fluctuation in their power consumption. They’ve almost completely chewed through the fuel supply in the chamber. Their processing rates are through the roof and they’re filling up their memory faster than we can analyze it.” David addresses a technician standing close by. “Let’s increase the kill rate; drop them down to six thousand to control this growth. And cut off the fuel supply, make them generate their own if they want to replicate.”

  The technician moves to obey, but stops after an opposing order is heard. “No. Let them continue. I want to see what they do.” Mr. Doe stands close to David now, watching the screen along with him. “The point of this test is to examine the effects of the upgrade, yes? Let’s examine all the effects, and not just a few.”

  David shakes his head, but doesn’t move to go against Mr. Doe’s wishes. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea, sir. You’re the boss, though.” Moving to Susan’s side, David whispers in her ear while he watches Mr. Doe.

  “Make sure we can shut them down if this goes south.” Susan nods in response and enters several commands on her computer. “I’m ready here.”

  David walks back to his computer next to Mr. Doe. The numbers still fluctuate, but begin to slow down and stabilize. David breathes a sigh of relief. “Okay, looks like it’s normalizing. The AI processing is back down and replication rates are normal. Memory is pretty full, though. They filled up all the free memory from the upgrade with whatever they were doing.”

  Mr. Doe walks forward, touching the chamber. “Open the shield, Mr. Landry. Let’s have a look inside.”

  David and Susan exchange a worried look, then David presses a large green button on the control panel near his computer. A soft alarm sounds from the ceiling as the metal shield surrounding the test chamber rises, revealing the reinforced transparent interior that forms the inner shell of the chamber itself. Inside the chamber, in a small space barely large enough to fit a mouse, a miniature cloud of silver particles whirl together. A faint buzzing is audible with the external shield raised, and the cloud seems to sense that it is being watched. It collapses in on itself, nearly vanishing into thin air as it grows still.

  “Mr. Landry, what’s your final conclusion from the test upgrade?” Mr. Doe turns from the chamber to address David, speaking loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear him. David scans over the tables on his screen again before speaking.

  “Overall, I’d say it was a success, but I’m still concerned about that sudden surge. I really think we need to go into the source and run some simulations before we deploy the upgrade. Even if it was still just a glitch, it could lead to some negative emergent behavior down the road.”

  Mr. Doe dismisses David’s opinion with a curt wave of his hand. He walks toward the exit, speaking as he goes. “I agree that it was a success. Begin immediate full scale manufacturing with the upgrade, and ensure all test swarms are upgraded as well.”

  Leonard McComb | Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | Nancy Sims

  12:18 PM, April 5, 2038

  “I saw one of the swarms change a person into one of those things, so I guess the nanites did it?” Leonard looked at Rachel for a confirmation.

  She nodded slowly, thinking about her experience with the creature in the train. “We never included instructions for integrating with a living organism, let alone one as complex as a human being. The fact that they’re doing it, and doing it successfully, shows re
markable growth. That is, of course, when they choose to change someone.” Rachel thought back to the two soldiers and the scientists who had been shredded before her eyes, along with the remains of soldiers at the military outpost near the police station. “Sometimes the swarms just kill people outright, without bothering to change them.”

  “Remarkable my ass. Those things are killing people out there. I saw one man die, and they nearly got us! They’re savages. Why would they be doing that, anyway? Why would these robot things want to kill some people and turn others into those killing machines?” Marcus grew angry again at the thought of the man at the overpass.

  Leonard chimed in after Marcus. “More to the point, I think, is why the swarms haven’t attacked or changed us. They’ve had plenty of opportunities, but they’ve ignored us completely. Why?”

  “That one’s actually easier to answer. I’m guessing you’ve heard about remote DNA scanning?”

  Leonard snapped his fingers, trying to recall the familiar-sounding piece of technology. “That’s… wait, that’s what the airports and security companies are all moving toward for identification, right? Your DNA is put into the system, then these machines can scan it remotely.”

  Rachel nodded. “Yep, exactly. DNA authentication was the most basic security principle that was integrated into the AI for the swarms. Instead of matching specific DNA sequences, though, it matches on very small chunks of sequences. It works a lot faster that way, but it also leaves open a vulnerability.”

  “Don’t tell me. The patterns are small enough that they occur in more people than you planned for. So, us, for example.”

  “That’s right.” Rachel looked into the eyes of each of the other three people sitting in a circle with her. “The only reason that you three are alive is because you have a small pattern in your DNA that matches with one of the thousands that are whitelisted in the swarm’s code.”

  “Wait a second.” Marcus put a finger up. “If you’re suggesting that these things altered their programming enough to kill most of the people on the planet and start turning any survivors into those creatures, why wouldn’t they have just removed that DNA whitelist?”

  Rachel shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s the thing about dealing with artificial intelligence and emergent behavior at this level. That’s what makes it so amazing and potentially so deadly. You’re dealing with millions of constantly changing variables, most of which you can’t predict. For some reason, they haven’t touched that code. It might be because it’s so well integrated into them that they haven’t found a way to disable it, or it might be that it’s just not a high priority for them. Maybe they haven’t even noticed the whitelisting and we’re invisible to them.”

  Rachel’s voice grew darker as she finished. “Mark my words, though: they will change it. For all we know, they already have, and they’re just waiting on us to come out to kill us or transform us into one of those creatures. Or it might take them another hour or another year. It’s impossible to know. They will change it, though, and when that happens, we and every other survivor out there will be doomed.”

  Undisclosed Location

  March 19, 2038

  The underground laboratory is quiet and most of its residents are sleeping. The lighting has been reduced to a dim glow, just enough to allow late-night denizens of the building to see where they walk. In a darkened lab, a soft glow emanates from one corner, behind a partition, along with the furious tapping of a keyboard.

  David Landry rolls his chair back for what feels like the hundredth time, glancing around the laboratory to ensure he’s still alone. Gliding the chair back to the desk, he rubs his eyes and continues typing. From one screen to another he transfers rows of data, represented pictorially by black bars streaming by. With each new piece of data transferred from the left screen to the right, another name is checked off the list of employees. Pauline. Roger. Mary. Robert. Some names are ones he recognizes, while others are strangers, though no less important than the ones he knows.

  A noise from the front of the lab startles him and he quickly closes down the programs, bringing up a spreadsheet instead. Sweat pours down his face as he hears footsteps rapidly approaching him, and he tries not to act nervous. He looks up at the figure rounding the partition and breathes a sigh of relief, smiling as he sees her face.

  “Susan! Don’t do that; you terrified me.” Susan smiles nervously in response, looking behind her to see if she was followed.

  “I got the new list of records you wanted.” She hands David a small chip that he takes and connects to the left monitor. A new window pops up with new rows of data, thousands upon thousands of them. David shakes his head at the sight, his shoulders slumping in anticipation of the new work. “This is going to take hours.”

  Susan smiles again and places her hand on his shoulder. “I can help, if you want me to.”

  “No… well, I do want some help, but you need to go. Keep playing lookout for me and find as many more DNA records as you can.”

  “You must really think things are going to get bad, huh?”

  David nods slowly. “I do. Not just because of me, though. Rachel knew about something, but they shipped her out before she could tell me. If she thought things were bad enough that she was openly defying Doe, I have no doubt that things are going to get ugly around here before we know it.”

  David and Susan are silent for a moment, then Susan turns to leave. “Good luck. I’ll buzz you if I catch wind of anyone snooping around.”

  David turns back to the computer as he speaks. “Thanks, I owe you big time.”

  As Susan walks away, David opens his programs back up, preparing to begin the new data entry task set before him. As the programs open, though, he blinks several times in surprise, shocked by the blank pages in front of him.

  “Susan!” David hisses at her loudly and she comes running back, a concerned look on her face. He points to the screen and her jaw drops open in shock. “What happe—” Susan’s words are cut off as the screen of the computer goes dark at the same time as the dim lights in the hallway outside the lab. Emergency strobes kick in a few seconds later, bathing the halls and the laboratories in a sickly red hue.

  David stands next to Susan and they both remain still, waiting for the announcement they know is sure to come. After just a few moments, the emergency lights flicker off and the main power returns, reset back to the daytime settings. The room is brightly lit now, and the two scientists grimace and shield their eyes from the overwhelming glow.

  “Attention. The facility has suffered a temporary system fault, causing a minor power and server core shutdown. All systems have been restored. Should any data corruption have occurred, please report it to your department superior upon the start of your shift. The cause of the fault is currently under analysis, but there is no risk to any staff at this time.”

  Susan and David look at each other. “Shit,” David whispers. “I saved it a few minutes ago, but the disk has been wiped clean.”

  “Can you check again to make sure?”

  David sits back down at the computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he tries to pull any remnants of data from the disk. “There are bits and pieces here, but nothing that could be salvaged.” He pushes back from the desk, cradling his face in his hands. “It’s worse than that, though.”

  Susan takes the spare seat next to him, waiting for him to continue.

  “Here, see? It saved to the next update, but I can’t add anything else to it. Something’s locked the software from any future updates, at least from my security level.” David peers at Susan with a sad look in his eyes. “I got as many in as I could. I guess all we can do now is hope that we got enough and pray that it doesn’t matter.”

  Leonard McComb | Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | Nancy Sims

  1:02 PM, April 5, 2038

  Rachel was surprised when Nancy had a question of her own. “Aren’t we doomed already?” The others in the group looked at her.

  “Wha
t do you mean?” Rachel asked with a puzzled expression.

  “Well, if those things detonated nukes all over the place, why aren’t we all dead from radiation exposure?” Though Nancy wasn’t familiar with much of what they were talking about, she still remembered one of the oldest fears that came from nuclear experimentation: radiation poisoning. Demonstrated on a frightening scale during the Chernobyl disaster of the 1980’s, it was one of the deadliest side effects of a nuclear explosion, and one that even most laymen knew about.

  “I’m sure a lot of people did die from radiation exposure, but I was underground, shielded from the radiation. Where were you all at when the bombs fell?” Leonard, Marcus and Nancy each gave Rachel a brief description of where they were on March 26.

  “So all of you were far enough away that the initial blasts wouldn’t have had much effect on you.”

  Nancy spoke again. “But what about when we passed through cities, like here, right where the bombs were at?”

  “And what about fallout carried by the wind?” Marcus followed up on Nancy’s comment.