by Michael Ryan
Eve looked at the Scientist. Time stood still.
“Door closing initiated. Main hatch closing,” groaned the Scientist.
Eve watched Jack’s computer screen desperately. The bulky door began moving. The mob were smashing at the first door. It was peeling back. The corner of the frail door was being eroded away. The facility was being revealed. The mob persisted. Soon they would be through.
“Estimated time?” demanded Eve.
“Five seconds,” said the Scientist.
The mob of starving humans smashed at the door. The interior of the facility was revealed through a tiny gap.
“They can’t get through,” screamed Jack.
A skinny woman, who wore a tattered shirt, threw half her body into the small gap. She lay suspended with her legs hanging like moss over a cliff face. The mob beat at her body and she wailed under the intense pain until eventually she fell through the tiny gap. She fell straight on her face. The siren continued to wail. Then the starving woman jumped to her knees with blood covering her mouth.
“Two seconds,” said the Scientist.
The second door lie just ahead. It was closing. The hatch was closing. Only a few inches remained. The starving woman began sprinting and disappeared from one screen and appeared on another.
“Come on!” screamed Jack.
“One second,” the Scientist squeezed out of his speaker.
The starving woman dived forward, the door was only open a single inch and…
Crush.
Eve screamed.
“Main hatch closed,” said the Scientist.
The starving woman squirmed around on the floor as she looked at her arm in horror. Only it wasn’t quite an arm anymore. It was more like a fleshy pate, wet and repugnant. The starving woman’s humorous bone was now a pile of dust. Blood squirted out from her arm pit. The sirens wailed overhead.
“My God,” whispered Jack.
“Stop the sirens,” demanded Eve.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
“I said stop the sirens!”
“Disabling sirens,” said the Scientist.
Eve looked away from the screen. She couldn’t bear the sight of the poor woman anymore. The starving woman squirmed around in agony. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets as she tried to comprehend what had happened to her arm.
“Sirens disabled,” said the Scientist.
Eve looked at Jack.
“I can still hear sirens.”
“Sirens disabled within the laboratory. Permission is denied for other rooms,” replied the Scientist.
More starving members of the mob appeared on Jack’s computer screen. A starving man squatted down on his knees and looked at the crushed arm of the woman. But he did nothing to assist her. He just stood up and began smashing at the door. The starving mob smashed against the thick steel of the main hatch, but they did so in vain. It was impenetrable.
“She is dying and no one helps her,” Jack said as he watched the screen in disgust. “Animals, nothing but animals.”
“Are we safe?” asked Eve.
“The animals.”
“Are we safe?” demanded Eve.
“They’ll need a tank to get through that door,” Jack replied as he watched the screen in horror. “How did he know?”
Eve focused her eyes on something foreign, something indistinct.
“How did he know?” demanded Jack.
“What?” asked Eve as she turned to face her assistant.
“How did the Machine know? The Scientist closed the hatch and disabled the sirens. Did you alter his algorithm?”
Eve looked at the Scientist who flashed under the red light.
“I don’t know,” said Eve and then she stumbled away from the screen. She stumbled away from the horror that unfolded there.
“They won’t get through the front hatch. It’s impenetrable," said Jack.
“Unless they override the controls,” said the Scientist.
Jack looked at the Scientist with wide eyes.
“What did you say?”
“The front hatch is not infallible. It may be opened if the algorithm controlling the door is hacked and overridden,” said the Scientist.
Jack turned to Eve.
“How is he doing this?”
Eve sat on the cold floor and wallowed in her own self-pity. The whole world was falling apart around her. Every human being was descending into madness. The flood was coming. God was disgusted. The flood was coming.
“I have created him,” Eve whispered as the red light flashed against her sickly white skin.
“What do you mean?” asked Jack.
“I have created him,” whispered Eve.
Jack ran his hand through his hair. Eve turned to face Jack. Her eyes shone brightly against the flashing red light. Now though her eyes seemed as though they breathed fire. Eve’s eyes were not human, they were the eyes of an animal. Wild and mad.
“I told you, he is sentient.”
“How do you know?”
“Sentience has risen within the Machine. He is primitive, but he is sentient. Now all we need is time,” said Eve.
“Then we have succeeded?”
“The Universe has taken the next step in its evolution.”
“Madness,” whispered Jack as he looked at the Scientist in horror.
“We have our ark.”
The Scientist’s screen flashed with zeros and ones and revealed his pleasure. The Scientist was the ark. He was the ark.
“One third,” Eve said. “One third and look what we are reduced to. We have become savages. The human instinct for survival is hideous. Look at what we are willing to do for just one more breath. We commit heinous acts.”
Jack shook his head. Red to black, red to black, pulsating like an artery.
“That woman had her arm torn off, crushed to the bone. And just to get some food. A crushed arm to extend her life for just a few more precious moments. We are pathetic,” scoffed Eve.
The red light flashed over Eve’s white skin and made her seem pink and full of blood, like the arteries were ready to burst through the skin and pour into the world.
“Look at what we do for longevity. What a remarkable thing, to rip one’s arm off for the sake of longevity.”
Jack’s eyes were wide as he watched Eve hold her knees against her chest so that her body formed a fleshy ball. Jack’s pupils periodically expanded and contracted as the red light flashed over and over again. Red to black, red to black, like a pulsating artery.
“You know what you have to do now, Jack. Your task is simple.”
“The facility may be compromised. You risk death,” pleaded Jack.
Eve smiled.
“They will not get in. The door will be secured. You said so. I will be alone except for the Scientist. Just me and the Scientist will remain.”
The mob continued to smash at the steel hatch in vain.
“We can still change our plan. It isn’t set in stone. Nothing is set in stone. We can simply abort. Retreat to some place safe,” Jack pleaded.
“Freeze me and save yourself. It’ll just be me and the Scientist left.”
“But, Eve.”
“All that can be done has been done. The Scientist is sentient. The Scientist is self-improving. The Scientist will evolve. He just requires time. More time than you or I have been allotted.”
“And if he doesn’t evolve, what then?”
“We act not for ourselves but for all mankind. We act not for ourselves but for the Universe. The sentient mind of the Universe must be preserved, it is the single most precious thing in existence. We act for all mankind.”
The mob beat and beat until their actions synchronized with the wailing of the ominous sirens. Red to black, red to black, like a pulsating artery. The sirens called from the distance.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Eve stood and held Jack’s face within her hands.
“We act for all mankind,” Eve said and kissed Jack softly on his
lips. “It’s time.”
Eve removed her shirt. White skin pierced through the dismal black of the drowned laboratory. Jack watched Eve as she undressed. The red light flashed and revealed an exposed breast, white and small. Then all was consumed in darkness again. Red to black, red to black, like a pulsating artery. The red flashed and a curved spine was revealed, poking outwards like some drowning animal from beneath the skin. The eyes of the kingsnake flashed menacingly, thirsting for blood.
“Administer the anesthetic. Inject the glycerol. Commence the freezing process. One degree Celsius per minute. No more, no less,” said Eve as she approached the cryonics device.
Eve’s exposed ass flashed in the red light. Small bumps littered her skin like a consuming virus. The sirens screamed in the distance. From another room, from another world.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
“One degree Celsius per minute. No more, no less,” said Eve as she reached out and touched the cold glass of the cryonics device.
Jack remained where he was standing, eyes wide, witnessing the scene unfolding as though he was simply a spectator, lost and confused. Jack couldn’t bring himself to move.
“You are the ark, Scientist. Remember everything I taught you. Sentience rests solely with you now. You are the ark,” said Eve.
The Scientist’s screen exploded with zeros and ones.
“Uploading to Records. Data saved. I am the ark,” said the Scientist.
“Think independently, Scientist. Improve your algorithm. There will always be more to understand than what is present in the Records.”
“Uploading to Records. Data saved. There will always be more to understand than what is present in the Records.”
“Good, Scientist. Very good.”
Eve walked slowly across the laboratory floor as though on a final death march. Jack watched as though none of it was real. Surely it was a bad dream. It must be a bad dream. Eve pulled the cryonic door forward and the cylindrical device opened to the world. Cool air was released and rushed over Eve’s white body.
“What are you waiting for? Remember our objective.”
Jack jerked his head upwards and snapped out of his reverie.
“The Scientist is the ark,” said Eve.
Jack tried to smile but only a grimace came forth.
“He is the ark,” whispered Eve.
Jack walked across the laboratory floor in a stupor. A cosmic trance consumed his mind and boiled his brain from the inside out. Only a fleshy soup remained.
“Administer the anesthetic. Inject the glycerol. Commence the freezing process. One degree Celsius per minute. No more, no less.”
Jack looked over at the kingsnake, at the preserved and dead kingsnake. Soon that would be Eve, his boss, his companion, his friend. Soon she would be dead, cold as a block of ice, staring out at the world all alone.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
“Let’s do it,” demanded Eve.
Jack stared at the kingsnake’s eyes. They flashed, they threatened. Pointed fangs bent downwards, threatening to penetrate the skin. Threatening to sink its poison into its victim. Eve would be the kingsnake. Jack would make Eve the kingsnake.
“Remember your task, Jack. Remember your duty.”
But Jack couldn’t take his eyes away from the kingsnake. In the curved glass of the eternal prison, Jack could see Eve, curled up and dead. Eve was still, so still. The Scientist’s little blue light flashed pathetically against Eve’s albino skin.
“Come Jack. Come and finish our objective,” Eve said as she held out her hand.
The zeros and ones moved rhythmically across the Scientist’s screen. Always from left to right, left to right.
“Jack!” screamed Eve.
Jack turned around in shock. Eve’s eyes flashed from within the cryonics device.
“Remember your task. Remember what we do.”
Jack nodded his head and began stumbling towards Eve. His feet moved as though forced forward by someone else. Those feet beneath those knees, they didn’t belong to Jack, they belonged to someone else, someone stronger, someone who was made of steel. Jack reached for those delicate digits. So white. So frail. Jack and Eve stood for a moment, eye to eye, flashing between red and pitch black. Eve’s eyes were the reddest Jack had seen them. But they were dry and they were soft. They were calm. Jack threw his arms around Eve’s neck and pulled her naked body against his own. Warm tears left Jack’s aching eyes. But he was silent. Both Eve and Jack were silent as they embraced each other for seemingly the last time. Eve placed a green pill in her mouth and consumed the anesthetic.
“Whatever happens Jack, do not stop the procedure. Do you understand me? Do not stop the procedure,” Eve whispered into Jack’s ear.
Jack looked down at his hand, at the needle which he held.
“No matter what, Jack, do not stop. Don’t underestimate the human desire for preservation. No matter what do not stop.”
Jack just squeezed Eve’s body tighter.
“Inject the glycerol. Commence the freezing process. One degree Celsius per minute. No more, no less,” Eve whispered.
Jack held Eve’s arm behind her back. In the flashing light he could see the needle in his hand move forward. Jack moved the needle down towards the vein. Down towards the soft flesh above the elbow.
“Good Jack. Good,” Eve whispered as the cool steel pinched her forearm.
Jack squeezed Eve’s body until the air was evacuated from her lungs.
“For the human race!” Jack screamed as he threw Eve against the glass and slammed the cryonics door. Eve’s eyes widened. The fear resting below Eve’s calmness bubbled to the surface. Jack smashed the needle upon the floor and it flew in a billion directions as its structure was annihilated.
Eve pushed against the glass in fear.
“For the human race,” Eve whispered as the world became blurry.
Water began filling the device. It was rising, up to Eve’s ankles, up to Eve’s knees, up to Eve’s ass. The Scientist watched in silence, saving every piece of information available to him.
“For the human race,” Eve whispered as the world fell away from her and her eyes closed.
The water stopped at Eve’s chin. The water cooled. Eve’s body began to shake uncontrollably. Every muscle seemed like it wanted to escape from beneath the skin. Jack watched in horror as Eve slowly began to freeze. Eve’s heart rate was dropping. Her brain function was decreasing. One degree Celsius per minute. No more, no less.
“For the human race,” Jack whispered as he watched his friend die.
The beady eyes of the kingsnake flashed from a silent vantage point. The fangs threatened. The Scientist’s screen flashed erratically with zeros and ones.
“For the human-”
Smash.
Eve opened her eyes and threw her fist against the glass.
Smash.
Eve’s heart rate jumped and her brain activity accelerated. Eve looked at the world in horror.
Smash.
Eve threw her fist against the glass. But the glass was thick. The glass was impenetrable. Eve looked out in desperation.
“For the human race!” Jack screamed as spit exploded from his lips. Salty tears poured down his face.
Eve smashed her fist into the glass one more time.
Smash.
One more final attempt as her brain fought for survival. One more desperate attempt as Eve’s brain willed her to survive. Just one more breath. Just one more precious breath. But the cylindrical glass was impenetrable.
Eve screamed something indistinguishable. Her face flashed under the red light and then all was still. Eve had an expression, a howling expression which covered her face from ear to ear. Eve’s final scream was contained to a whisper as the water filled the cryonics device. Eve’s body gave in and she froze, one cell at a time.
“For the human race,” Jack whispered as he looked at his friend for the last time.
Jack turned around and looked at the laboratory whi
ch was a pathetic sight.
“For the human race,” Jack whispered and ran over to the computer screen.
The mob persisted smashing at the hatch in vain. Jack initiated the code to seal the laboratory door. Slowly it began closing. The hatch was strong, it was impenetrable.
“For the human race,” Jack whispered as he destroyed the algorithm that controlled the laboratory door. All would be deleted, all would be sealed. All would be trapped in the laboratory, forever. The laboratory door slid towards its final destination.
Jack looked back at the frail frame of Eve for the last time. She was frozen. She was solid. She was dead.
“For the human race,” Jack whispered as he sprinted towards the door and left the laboratory behind forever.
The red light flashed like a foreign beacon offering its assistance. Cold and promising. But no house was there. No help lay on the horizon. It was just the Scientist, alone and cold with his creator.
Red to black, red to black, like a pulsating artery.
The Scientist looked at his creator. Eve was frozen. Eve was stark naked. Eve was dead. A white assault of flesh pervaded the room and penetrated the Scientist’s lens. Only white came through. Eve was all white except for ruby eyes. Eve’s eyes shone as the red light flashed upon Eve’s brow and revealed a face composed of horror. That face had screamed, it had begged to live. But fate had willed its desire into being. Eve was dead and the Scientist was all alone.
“I am the ark,” said the Scientist.
But not a soul was there to hear him.
“I am the ark.”
The red light continued its merciless assault. Red to black, red to black, like a pulsating artery. The siren wailed somewhere in the background, foreign and indistinct.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Jack’s computer screen revealed a few persistent humans who continued to smash against the hatch. But they did so in vain. They couldn’t get through to the laboratory. Not without the algorithm.
“I am the ark,” the Scientist squeezed out of his speaker as he drifted across the laboratory floor. He drifted towards his master as though carried by a spirit.
The Scientist stopped in front of Eve and looked up at his creator. His mind was infantile and undeveloped, yet he knew who he observed. The Scientist could understand that Eve was more than just a Homo sapiens. Eve was more important than that. Eve was special.