High Pressure System: First Season Underground

by K. D. Kinney

  “Brandon, be nice. You have a visitor.” Becky motioned for me to go over.

  I slowly hooked the face-mask over my ear as I walked across the room.

  “How sick are you?” I asked. His eyes were still swollen and puffy. His flushed cheeks competed with his blood shot eyes. “I can tell you’re worse than yesterday. Stop giving these people grief.”

  “None of them know what’s going on out there. So they tell me nothing.” He slumped down in his bed. Brandon must have exerted himself with his little tantrum. “How’s Jim?”

  “He’s fine. We had a false alarm. Or maybe it was something. Nobody but me needs to worry much now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Some clouds rolled in while the Harpers, Marjie, and I were sealing up the door with expanding foam insulation. After that, all the spiders came into the stairway where we were. The only person they were interested in was me.”

  “Was it because you were fixing the door?” Brandon’s sleepy eyes widened.

  “I thought that at first. Once everyone else left the control room, the bots didn’t do a thing. However, when I left the control room, they followed me, crawling out of the vents and swarming in the stairway until I got to this floor. Thank goodness they have the vents protected here or they would still be after me.”

  “Why would they be after you?”

  “I wondered the same thing. Jim thinks maybe the spy, or something, hacked your computer.” All of a sudden I wasn’t comfortable telling him the rest. Especially when I saw the change in his face go from feverish red to ghostly white with rosy cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

  “Well, I will just leave you with that?” I backed up a couple steps.

  “Wait, Rachel.” He scooted up higher in the bed. “It’s not what it seems.”

  “We’ve all been having those kind of conversations lately.”

  “Huh?” He shook his head.

  “Nothing, don’t explain.” I stuffed my hands in my pants pockets. I rubbed my burning ear on my shoulder. “I’ve been causing some issues, you wrote about it. You’ve been concerned about me, you wrote about me some more. Maybe you like me or something, perhaps you wrote about that too.”

  That cured the ghostly hue on his face.

  “Yeah, okay, you do like me. I know that. It’s all over your computer, Mr. Oldschool. That other computer admits sending me here for you. It is probably happy you like me as much as you do. To get to you, it is going to get me. NALA wants to play with her food so to speak like you said. Or maybe she’s the jealous ex-girlfriend because that computer has feelings. Here I am, the one person that might mean more to you than anyone else and it’s going to make sure you know she can hurt you by hurting me.” I took a bow. It was better than standing there looking embarrassed. I looked royally embarrassed instead.

  Brandon shook his head. “No, it can’t do that. It can’t know anything. I’ve taken all the precautions.”

  “A spy bot got in the ducts. Who knows what it learned during that time.”

  “It can’t. I have been so careful.” Brandon started to look even worse. I didn’t think it was possible.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you all that the way I did.”

  “I just can’t believe it.”

  “What you can and can’t believe is not the problem. Now it’s already done. Me being able to get where I need to go without a swarm catching up to me is a problem. How to kill all the bots that want to hurt me is another problem, okay?”

  “Yes. You’re right.” He finally really looked at me and held out his hand.

  I grabbed a vinyl glove from the counter and pulled it on real quick before resting my hand in his.

  “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

  “I know that and NALA knows it too.” I sat down in the chair next to the bed.

  “You’ve had to take my place.” He rubbed his eyes.

  “No, Jim and I are doing it together and I had help today. However, there is no one that can do the job as well as you. If I can figure out how to get around without being spider mobbed, the two of us can do this until you get better.” I squeezed his hand.

  “I suspect another round of spiders are coming. It has been far more effective than anything else she’s thrown at us.”

  I sighed. “I hope it waits until some of you are better. I’d hate to battle them alone. I’m having a hard time with the ones that are left.”

  “I’m sure it will be sooner than any of us want it to be.”

  Brandon’s grip on my hand lessened. He couldn’t keep his eyes open.

  “I need to go so you can rest.” Of course, he didn’t respond.

  As I walked out the door, the nurse stopped me.

  “He’s already settled down. Thank you.”

  “That’s good.” I gave her my best effort of a smile.

  I stepped outside of the lobby and rested my back against the wall. Rubbing my head and face didn’t help me feel better. Exhaustion swept over me. I pulled on my gloves and cinched my hood tight. The bots were clamoring in the vent. They already knew where I was. How was that? I tightened my fist and released it. The rubber of the glove was flexible enough. When Aaron and the 3D printer guy were healthy again, I needed them to make me a protective suit. In the meantime, I needed to haul my butt to Micah’s apartment. The only other place I’d be safe and hopefully undetected. I swung open the door and slid down the rails until I was on Micah’s floor.

  The hallway crawled, almost keeping pace with me as I ran to Micah’s apartment. I got to the door and banged on it. “Micah, Micah, Micah, hurry please!”

  It was hard to hear him on the other side with all the clicking from the robot legs as they scurried and climbed up my boots. The ones on the ceiling dropped on my head.

  I banged again. The dogs started barking. Good, at least they heard me. “Micah!” I stomped-danced in place and knocked them off my head. I banged again.

  “I’m here,” he yelled and the lock unlatched.

  When the door swung open, the dogs tried to run out when I was trying to get in. They yelped when a swarm of bots flooded in the room with me. Fortunately, they hauled it back to the cave room and I was able to slam the door. A couple of bots stung my neck.

  “Oww.” I smashed them. Micah only had slippers on his feet as he tried to stomp on the spiders. He was weak, I could tell. I grabbed a broom and handed it to him.

  “Sweep them to my feet.” I was actually giving him something safer to do so he didn’t fall over.

  Once I had smashed all the moving bits, and Micah looked me over, killing about five more, I wanted to quit everything. I couldn’t help it, I started to cry.

  “What’s wrong?” Micah held my shoulders.

  I covered my face as the sobs fell out and leaned against his chest. He hugged me, the dogs stretched up on my leg looking for pets. All I could do was ugly cry.

  I’m not sure how long it was when I realized Micah was running his hand through my hair. By then I was shuddering pretty hard, and still couldn’t talk.

  “Can you tell me what has you so upset?”

  I dried my face on my sleeve. I nodded. “All those spiders, they are after me. Only me.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. Just me.”

  “Is it because you’re the only one out there?” Micah struggled to keep himself upright.

  “No.” I helped him walk back to the cave and explained everything I went through that afternoon.

  “Why?”

  I chewed on my lip and fidgeted with the fingers on my gloves. “Because Brandon has a lot of entries on his computer about me. Somehow that NALA computer got that information.”

  “All his old school talk, there he is still using technology.” Micah chucked a plastic cup across the room.

  “Well, being mad isn’t going to help keep me safe when I leave your apartment.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  I waved my glove at him. “I need
something to wear that’s like this glove.” I sneezed, then sneezed again. I had to clear my throat. “Oh, man.”

  “Oh, man is right. Go take some of my stuff over there.”

  I was thirsty, really thirsty. Probably from running all over and crying my eyes out.

  Once I was hydrated and settled on the sofa with a dog under each arm, I closed my eyes.

  26

  More Bots and Chips? No Thank You

  Micah felt much better the next morning and he said his hand was finally usable even though it still looked sore. I was sinking, felt like crap, but not enough to commit to a day in bed. At the same time, leaving the safety of the cave garden didn’t appeal to me either. We left with vacuums on our backs and went to find Aaron and Marjie. Just like the day before, the spiders scurried out of the vents and surrounded me.

  “This is unbelievable.” Micah jogged down the hall.

  “I know.” I had to hold a tissue to my nose as I jogged beside him. Crunching bots was so satisfying. I just wished the numbers didn’t seem to be multiplying. “It seems they’re capable of breeding.” I sure wished we were going down. It was much harder to stay ahead of them going up the stairs.

  “I called Jim this morning to see how he was. He said there was a new round of bots dropped off overnight.”

  “Why didn’t we know?”

  “There was a lockdown last night.”

  “Wait. I never heard it.”

  “There’s no noise in the cave, remember. There was one. It woke me. Good thing it didn’t wake you or you’d probably feel even worse today.”

  We stopped talking until we caught our breath on the floor where the Cooper’s lived.

  The hallway crawled with bots. I trembled as they piled up at my feet and I struggled to walk.

  “You should have told me there were more. Make it stop.” There was no stopping them and they made it to my legs and rained down on my head. I could feel them poking me and I was unable to stop it or shake them off. I usually wasn’t a screamer but I let a few out.

  Micah turned the vacuum on them. He sucked them off my shoulders and worked his way down.

  Everything was blurry. I didn’t have time to get weepy about it.

  Aaron and Marjie joined Micah in the hall vacuuming me and created a clear path to the apartment. Just barely. They were quickly climbing up the back of my boots.

  They ushered me in the apartment and I was plucked free of all the little hitchhikers I brought in with me.

  I clenched my jaw so tight, I was afraid I’d split my molars.

  “You look better,” Micah said to Aaron.

  “I get tired fast. It is nice to be out of bed. I was going stir crazy.”

  “Our parents aren’t feeling so well, though.” Marjie looked exhausted. Or maybe it was just her hair was flat and she wasn’t wearing make-up. “I was about to ask a doctor to come check on them. I didn’t know we were so inundated with spiders. They hadn’t bothered me since we sealed the lobby. Then I thought it was because we were sealing the door.”

  “It’s actually me that’s bringing them out. You can try going out there now. I’m sure they won’t follow you like they do me. I can’t figure out how they are able to identify me the minute I’m in the hall.” I had to search for a tissue to catch the sneezefest that interrupted me. “How did the spiders get in if we sealed the lobby door?”

  “You only sealed one of several weakened areas. The door to the lobby was the most damaged.” Micah motioned for me to sit.

  Aaron stopped me and looked over my arms. “Have you been wearing the same clothes since the bots have been chasing you?”

  I looked away and my face was on fire. Not from fever either.

  “You know she always wears that sweatshirt,” Micah said, meeting my eyes for a brief second.

  “Let me see it.” Aaron tugged on my sleeve. I let him pull it off my arm.

  He manhandled it while I shivered. Maybe I was feverish. It concerned me that he enjoyed mauling my sweatshirt a little too much until he stopped and pinched a spot along the waistband.

  “Marjie, get me a needle and some tweezers. I might need scissors.”

  “Don’t cut it.” I was about to yank it from his hand when Micah blocked me.

  “There’s something here.” He fiddled with it until he had the tweezers.

  Aaron and Marjie worked together to get whatever it was out. Once they had it in the tweezers, he held it up to the light. “I thought so. It’s a tracking chip.”

  We all stood in a circle examining what looked like a fancy grain of rice.

  “I bet one of the bots stuck that in your sweatshirt,” Aaron said, turning it in the light.

  “You think it’s the only one?” I felt around my jeans. I wouldn’t know what something so small like that would feel like in denim.

  “I doubt it. We should all probably check our clothes now that we know what to look for,” Micah said.

  “How would it know it was me?”

  “Maybe there’s a mic and they can listen to us. Or maybe it tracks where we check in and it determines who we are by where we live.” Aaron handed me my sweatshirt.

  Marjie ran to her room. “I don’t want anything tracking me.”

  “There’s no point finding them all until we get rid of the massive bot population. They’ll just do it again,” Micah said so loud that Aaron shushed him.

  “My parents are still sick, remember. They’ll make us do all sorts of disinfecting if they wake up.” Aaron kept glancing at a bedroom door.

  “Sorry.” Micah stuffed his hands in his pockets. “We need to get a team together to figure out how to get rid of them on a larger scale.”

  “Is anyone else well yet?” Aaron asked.

  “We don’t know. We came here to see if we could have a suit of this rubber made to protect me and the rest of you from the bots.”

  “That would take more material than we can get our hands on.” Aaron rubbed his chin lost in thought. “The boots and gloves are already a challenge.”

  “Oh, stop it. You barely got some blond peach fuzz down there. Stop petting yourself.” Marjie batted his hand away from his chin.

  “Hey, I don’t tell you what to do.”

  “That’s because I don’t act ridiculous like you.” Marjie plopped down on the sofa and picked the nail polish off one of her fingernails.

  “I think we start by making one for Rachel right away. Maybe one for Brandon. If you have enough material, maybe one or two more?” Micah asked.

  “I don’t know that we have enough for that.” Aaron put the chip in a small bowl and set it on a shelf.

  “Well one for Rachel at least until they stop going after her or maybe we kill them all.”

  “I can do that. Let’s go see if we have any healthy people to form a team.” Aaron looked for his shoes under the table.

  “When we leave we can see if that one chip was all that Rachel was wearing.”

  Aaron and Micah emptied the vacuums before we ventured out. The anticipation of stepping into the hall and being overcome with bots again had me breathing fast and my heart racing before they even opened the door.

  “Are you guys ready?” I didn’t think I could handle another spider mob.

  They plugged in the vacuums in the hall. “Come on, we got it,” Micah said.

  I walked out the door slowly. They were waiting to start the vacuums until they had a reason to. The hallway was silent and we listened for bots in the vents. Some clicking, but not a swarm like before.

  Marjie hooked her arm in mine. “Hey, you sound like you’re having a panic attack with the way you’re breathing.

  “I probably am. It looks like they’re not all after me now.”

  “Good.”

  We were able to go from floor to floor and chase what spiders there were with vacuums.

  Some of the people we needed were well enough to meet us later in the day and would meet in Brandon’s hospital room.

  We checke
d in with Jim about the invasion the night before and he showed us the video.

  “Where did they get in? Wasn’t my insulation job supposed to keep them out?” I asked.

  “That was the easiest way in. Jim, show us the window in the storage room.” Micah tapped one of the monitors.

  There was an obvious gap along the bottom where the concrete was missing and the screws held the window away from the wall. A few robot spiders were crawling in and out of the gap.

  “Now show us the industrial elevator shaft.”

  He changed the view to a large shaft with massive metal doors at the top. We didn’t see any damage.

  “Where is that?” Marjie asked.

  “That leads to another mound beside ours. It is where the bus parked so it is like a massive garage and it’s where we brought in all the deliveries. It’s sealed pretty tight. In fact the storm activity has been so focused on us right here, that area is not as messed up as our lobby. Most of the building is sealed off from the shaft now. It does look like there is a bit of concrete washed away in that corner right there.” Micah pointed to the center of the doors where water must have seeped through and at the corners. “Not bad though. I don’t see any bots in there, do you?”

  We surrounded the screen. I squinted when I saw something on the ledge near the ladder.

  “That’s not bots but a mouse or something rodent-like, I think,” Jim said.

  “At least we have some good news,” Aaron said

  “Unless there just aren’t any people there and the bots know it,” I said.

  “I believe that area is quite secure. The ductwork does lead into the shaft to go to the climate control units but they are sealed off in there with no vents. That is good news that the bots haven’t found their way in the shaft. It would be another easy place for them to hide and would be very difficult and dangerous to remove them from there,” Micah said.

  “We have to go meet with everyone in a few minutes.” Aaron rested his hand on the door handle.

  “Anything we need to tell Brandon, Jim?” Micah asked.

  “Tell him I think we don’t have to worry about killer storms while the bots are here. The stuff I’ve seen roll in is rather normal looking. With the drones carrying bots out there and their fragile little systems, I bet we are left alone while they do their thing.”