by Mike Kraus
“What’s that all mean?” Nancy was lost in the sea of technical terms.
Rachel took a deep breath. “My theory is that when they upgraded the AI on the nanobots, something went wrong. Either the programming was off or it was too advanced, but either way, the nanobots had far too much self-awareness. They went from being a tool to an autonomous intelligence, capable of thinking on its own and incapable of being controlled. From there, I’m guessing it just snowballed out of control. If we can contact David, maybe he’ll know more about what happened.”
Rachel started to say more, but a loud scraping from outside the armory stopped her. The group went quiet, their eyes darting around the interior of the room to try and find the source of the sound. Suddenly, the entire armory shifted, taking on a wild angle as it moved, as though it was sliding down a mountain. Rachel grabbed Sam and held him tight as they tumbled, head over heels, with the contents of the armory spilling everywhere as the structure flipped over and fell.
Undisclosed Location
March 21, 2038
A deep blue glow fills the chamber, turning the lone occupant’s skin the color of the ocean. He remains motionless, his eyes closed, with his head placed back in a recess in the chair that holds him in a reclining position. Under his eyelids, his eyes move rapidly to the sides, as though he is intensely dreaming. A little over an hour after beginning the procedure, the blue light switches off and the chair slowly reverts to a normal sitting position.
Mr. Doe is assisted out of the chair by two assistants who he waves off once he is back on his feet. He walks out of the room into a small observation booth nearby, where three scientists huddle over a monitor, viewing results data from their work.
“Well?” Mr. Doe’s voice is unnaturally cold and clear, with no trace of an accent to be found. His short, thick black hair contrasts starkly with his pale white skin, especially in the artificial lighting of the facility. Dressed impeccably in a three-piece suit, even his pocket handkerchief is perfectly folded. Mr. Doe wears no jewelry save a plain Rolex wristwatch that peeks out from underneath his sleeve.
The scientist closest to the monitor addresses Mr. Doe while the rest of the individuals file out of the room, whispering amongst themselves. “All indications are that it was a complete success, sir. We’ll pass off these results to the engineers who should be able to prototype something within the next few days, hopefully.”
Mr. Doe nods curtly, turns and walks noiselessly away. Once he has left, the scientist breathes a sigh of relief, then turns back to his monitor. With a few keystrokes, clicks and taps on the screen, a file upload is initiated to the central server, where it is processed and stored for retrieval by the next team.
Within moments of the file upload, the engineering team opens it and begins integration work. Moments after they begin work, just enough time for someone to walk from one section of the facility to the other, Mr. Doe enters the room. The head engineer anticipates Mr. Doe’s question and starts speaking.
“Sir, good to see you. We just received the file and are beginning work.”
“How long until the new changes are integrated into the update for the test swarm?”
“We’ll need a bit longer to review it, sir, since we haven’t really done anything like this before. It shouldn’t be more than a week, though, I would think.”
“You have forty-eight hours.”
Mr. Doe turns and walks away without waiting for a response. Once he is gone, the engineer turns to his colleagues. “Looks like we’ll be pulling some all-nighters here, guys.” A collective groan goes up from the group, but they dutifully return to their work.
After several hours of intense labor, the engineering team has a short break for dinner, over which they discuss their progress so far.
“I’ve got to say, I’m surprised with how easily these new neural patterns are integrating. The import code is really working wonders. I’m only getting a twenty-two percent error rate compared to the eighteen percent with the test animal data.” Murmurs of agreement go up between the engineers. A short, blonde woman speaks up in response to her colleague.
“Think we’ll get some time off if we get this done early?” Her statement drips with sarcasm and incites a round of laughter at the table.
“Ha! Fat chance. Finishing early just means shorter deadlines for next time.”
“Speaking of which….” The lead engineer taps his watch, prompting the rest of the team to finish their meals and return to their stations. After a few minutes of gearing up, they are back at work.
Leonard McComb | Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | Nancy Sims
1:50 PM, April 5, 2038
Though the smell of waste was strong in the overturned armory, Rachel was glad that they had the presence of mind to lock the waste container so that it wouldn’t spill. None of them imagined that the entire armory would be rolled over half a dozen times, but they were quick to get back on their feet, grimacing as the scent of the waste mingled with gunpowder and machine oil from the spilled piles of ammunition and weapons.
The EL light had been cast into a corner. Covered by uniforms and fallen shelves, its glow was weak, and Rachel dug in her pocket as she struggled to stand, pulling out the other lights that she had stored there. She felt around for the rest of the group, making sure they weren’t hurt and handing them lights, which they each switched on.
“Everyone’s okay, right?” Rachel asked the question again, making sure that no one had suffered any serious injuries before they moved forward with figuring out what happened. Sam rubbed up against her leg as Leonard, Marcus and Nancy all confirmed that they had suffered only minor bruises and scrapes.
“What the hell happened?” Marcus held his EL light aloft, trying to get his bearings in the newly rearranged armory. After the initial noise from the movement of the armory, the room had fallen into silence again. Every few seconds, though, a soft tapping came from the outside of the structure, as though metal was being lightly rapped against the steel walls.
“It felt like we fell, like the whole armory came loose from the building or something.” Leonard helped Nancy to a standing position, looking around to try to find the door.
“There it is, up there!” Rachel pointed up to what was now the ceiling. The armory had come to rest on its side, with the only exit several feet away and well out of reach. The rapping on the armory was strongest near the door, and Rachel realized what had happened.
“They must have pulled away the supports from the floor below us. That sent the armory crashing down and out, maybe even outside the station itself. It sounds like they’re trying to find their way in now.” Rachel looked around the armory and pointed to one of the overturned shelves that was half buried under weapons and supplies.
“Leonard, help me stand this up, and we’ll try to get out of here. Marcus and Nancy, get some guns loaded up and ready to go. If we’re going to get out of here alive, we need to be ready to fill these things full of holes once that door opens.”
Leaning the shelf against one of the interior walls of the armory, Leonard held the makeshift ladder steady while Rachel slowly started to climb up towards the door. Marcus tapped Leonard on the shoulder and passed him a rifle, motioning for him to hand it up to Rachel.
“Rachel, here’s your rifle.” Leonard passed it up to Rachel, who nodded in thanks and looped it around her shoulder. Now only an arm’s length from the door of the armory, she looked down at the rest of the group. Marcus and Nancy had quickly gathered up several weapons of various sizes along with a few boxes of ammunition and loaded as many supplies as possible into all of their backpacks.
“Here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to pop the door open and try to swing it up. As long as it’s not too heavy, I’ll push it all the way open and check for any creatures out there. As soon as I’m out, I’ll need some backup to join me. We don’t have another place to retreat to and we can’t outrun these things, so we’re going to need to kill them if we want to
get out of here. Understand?”
Leonard, Marcus and Nancy all nodded as they stared up at her, guns held nervously in their hands as they waited for her to open the door on the armory. Rachel turned to the door and slid back the bolts that held it in place. With a deep breath she began to spin the locking mechanism, breaking the seal on the door and readying it for opening.
Leonard McComb | Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | Nancy Sims
1:56 PM, April 5, 2038
Steadying herself against the shelves, Rachel braced her upper arm against the steel door of the armory and slowly pushed upward. The door was heavy and her chest ached in pain, but she kept applying pressure until the door finally began to give way. When it was just a few inches open, Rachel yelled at Leonard.
“Get me a can or something to jam in here, quick!” Leonard quickly looked around and found a metal baton and tossed it up to Rachel, who caught it in her spare hand. She stuck the baton in the space open on the door and relaxed, resting for a moment. She turned back again to thank Leonard when a clang sounded on the top of the armory and bright light poured in.
From the outside, a creature bounded onto the door of the armory and placed its fingers in the opening of the door created by the baton. It threw the door open with a roar, sending the metal clanging backwards and making the entire armory ring like a bell. The creature bellowed at Rachel, who was still blinded by the sudden introduction of sunlight.
As the creature screamed, it leaned forward into the armory’s interior, grabbing at Rachel’s clothing, trying to pull her out of the structure. Fighting back, Rachel tried to slip the rifle off her shoulder, but the creature’s grip on her arm and shirt was too strong, and her flailing did little to slow her ascent out of the armory.
The group’s ears rang again as a gunshot sounded out. Rachel felt the hands of the creature relax nearly instantaneously as it loosened its grip, sending her tumbling back into the waiting hands of Leonard. Bits of blood and metal fell from the gaping wound in the creature’s head as it slowly slid down through the door, bouncing off the shelves and landing in a heap at Leonard and Rachel’s feet. Nancy, Rachel and Leonard all turned and looked at Marcus, who was still looking up at the armory door, a rifle pressed firmly against his shoulder and cheek. Keeping a watchful eye out for any additional creatures, Marcus glanced at the group, giving them a quick shrug.
“What?”
Rachel smiled at Marcus as she quickly put on her backpack and retrieved her rifle from where it had fallen on the floor. “Nice shot.”
Marcus gave Rachel a wry grin and a curt nod, then returned to watching the armory entrance.
“Okay everyone, this is it. Those things are still out there, as we can tell, but they may leave us alone for a short while now that another one of them is dead. We should get out of here now while we still have the advantage. I’ll go first with my backpack, rifle and several extra guns. Leonard, you follow up with your gear, Marcus’s backpack and whatever ammunition you can carry. Nancy, you follow up with whatever ammo you can carry, too. Marcus, you’re in charge of getting Sam out of here.”
They all nodded and set about their tasks. Rachel ascended the stairs again, faster this time, and poked her head out from the door of the armory. A light breeze blew her hair over her eyes and she blinked, startled by how refreshing the smoke-filled air smelled after their time in the armory. Rachel’s eyes barely showed over the edge of the doorway. She rotated her head and body quickly, scanning the area for movement.
“Looks like three of the creatures are heading out along the road. I think we scared them off for now.” Rachel pulled and kicked her way out of the armory, then crouched next to the entrance to help Leonard, Nancy, Marcus and Sam out as well.
Though they had been in the armory for only a short time, she had been so immersed in their discussions and their getting to know one other that Rachel practically forgot what the world was like. The sight of the ruined structures brought back her guilt, but another emotion stirred in Rachel’s heart: hope. With the help of her three companions – and David, if he was still alive – Rachel was starting to believe that they had a chance at stopping the swarms.
Leonard McComb | Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | Nancy Sims
2:11 PM, April 5, 2038
After several minutes of grunting, climbing and pushing, they all joined Rachel on the top of the armory, along with Sam. Instead of sticking next to Rachel, though, Sam had spent his first few minutes out of the armory next to Marcus, who didn’t seem to mind the dog’s attention.
Outside the armory, the group had a clear picture of what had occurred. The armory, little more than a large box with thick steel walls, was lying on its side in the middle of a side road next to the police station. A large hole was visible in the brick on the top floor of the police station, along with several smaller holes on the ground floor below. Rachel looked at the damage to the building as the group loaded up their backpacks and weapons, preparing to move to the nearby military base.
“I guess they must have spent their time tearing out the support beams from the sides and bottom of the armory,” Rachel said, walking toward the building to get a closer view. “Then they just pushed the whole thing straight out, sending us rolling along the ground.”
Rachel turned back to face the group. “It’s a good thing we landed like we did, and not with the door facing the ground.”
Leonard shook his head as he walked toward Rachel and eyed the damaged building along with her. “How could a person do this much damage? They must have ripped the bricks and mortar out with their bare hands, not to mention the supports.”
“They’re not people, Leonard. That’s how.”
A reminder that the creatures Rachel and Leonard were discussing were still around came with little warning. As Rachel and Leonard turned to walk back to the armory and finish gathering the supplies, a snarl came from the side of the police station. From the front, a creature rounded the station, running on its hands and feet as it skidded on the pavement, then transitioned into an upright stance.
Running at thirty miles an hour, the enhanced body of the creature charged toward the group, focusing on Rachel and Leonard, its closest targets. Caught off guard, Rachel had no time to bring up her rifle, while Leonard struggled with the safety on his shotgun. Standing a few feet apart from each other, not a dozen feet from the other two, Rachel and Leonard flinched when they heard the gunshot.
Passing between the two, the shot hit the creature square in its center of mass, dropping its speed and making it stumble as it charged along. Rachel and Leonard ducked out of the way as it tripped between them, clawing at empty space as it tried to reach them while falling to the ground. Taking advantage of the extra few seconds distraction, Rachel finally got her rifle up. She took aim at the creature, firing several shots into its back and head. With each shot the creature’s body writhed, but it did not stand again and soon lay still.
Rachel looked over at Leonard, who was pushing himself up from the ground where he had fallen when the creature charged. He stared at Nancy, who was standing in front of Marcus and Sam with a shotgun held at arm’s length. Her eyes were wide and her face contorted, the gun shaking very slightly in her arms. Marcus approached her slowly from behind, and carefully slid the gun out of her hands.
“Nice shot, Nancy.” At the sound of Marcus’s voice, Nancy’s body relaxed and her head dropped.
“I don’t know… I just saw it, and I was holding the gun and then….”
“It’s okay.” Rachel’s calm voice broke through Nancy’s rambling. “You did great. We’re all okay, but we need to get moving, and fast. There’s at least two more of these things out here, and they’re not going to leave us alone for long.”
“It’s probably best if we take a vehicle, don’t you think?” Leonard watched the buildings around them as he spoke, not wanting to be surprised a third time today.
“They tore our truck up pretty badly from what I saw.” Marcus snapped his
backpack on as he spoke, adjusting the straps and making sure everything was tied down properly.
“Yeah, but my Jeep’s still fine, unless they ripped it apart after we got into the armory.”
Rachel nodded, making the decision for their next move. “The Jeep’s just out front. Let’s hustle over and check it. If it still works, we’ll take it down to the military base. If not, we’ll have to walk. Either way, it’s pretty close, but we need to move fast.”
After spending a moment collecting up the rest of their gear, the group headed around to the front of the police station, with Rachel leading the way to the Jeep parked nearby. Nancy followed behind her, with Leonard next to her, keeping an eye on her and making sure she was okay. Marcus brought up the rear with Sam running back and forth between him and Rachel, sniffing the ground and happy to be free of the cramped space of the armory.