Orbs IV_Exodus_A Post Apocalyptic Science Fiction Survival Thriller

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Maybe, if they saw working vehicles, they would change their minds. At this point, everyone she could save made a difference. Every single soul counted.

  She focused back on the sky with her new helmet. Today, the vast stretch of blue mirrored an ocean that no longer existed.

  Not a drop of water glimmered to the west. Nothing but cracked, tan earth.

  To the east, the great skyline of Los Angeles came into focus above the shimmering heat. Her HUD revealed the temperature was already at one hundred and eighteen degrees.

  That was the least of her worries right now. There were still Organics in the city, and they needed all of their ammo for the trip to Pelican AFB.

  Athena balled her hand into a fist when they reached the street at the edge of the beach. Down the block, a few vehicles were partially exposed by the shifting sands. She looked for Organics tracks, then motioned for the team to continue.

  They fanned out, half keeping to the left side of the street and the other half on the right side. Several buildings had collapsed, forming screes of debris around their bases that spilled over into the road.

  Griffin roved his pulse rifle back and forth across the exteriors of the structures. The RPG was slung over his back, now that they were safely away from the exposed seabed.

  Trish stopped to stare at something toward the east.

  “What is it?” Athena asked. But before Trish answered, she saw what had attracted the communications officer’s attention. The blue sky had taken on a brown and yellow tint beyond the skyscrapers.

  Athena raised her scope to glass the storm.

  “We need to move,” she said.

  The dust storm was moving fast, and the winds were stirring up smoke from fires. They had to get off the narrow chute of the street. The hundred-mile-an-hour winds that came with storms like these would knock them away like bowling pins.

  She checked her HUD again to look for the NAV marker she had set for the coordinates of the underground parking garage. Just three blocks to go. Her eyes flicked to the corresponding location down the street. A mountain of rubble lay between them and their destination.

  If they hurried, they could make it, provided they didn’t run into hostiles. She motioned for the team to continue with a hand signal. They set off at a brisk pace, weapons clanking over armor loud enough she could hear it over the raging wind.

  Griffin’s wide frame was the first to reach the pile of debris in the road. He raised his rifle, hunched down, and moved through a narrow gap where two piles nearly touched.

  Athena went next, ducking under a piece of rebar. Twisted metal scratched her armor. She cringed at the sound, but kept moving.

  Once the team was through, they set off down the next street, then took a left onto another block of office buildings. The structures towered over them, reaching fifty floors toward the sky.

  Griffin, Malone, and Taylor all stayed focused on the grimy exteriors, looking for contacts behind the shattered windows. While the aliens had caused the damage on the last street, nature had caused the damage here. Windows had been blown out by dust storms, and the asphalt was cracked from the heat. A fine layer of sand, dust, and grit covered everything.

  Griffin suddenly motioned for everyone to get off the road. The team bolted for cover through the open door of an office building, and took up position in the lobby.

  By the time Athena made her way behind an overturned table, she realized they weren’t all here.

  Trish was missing.

  Looking over the table, Athena scanned the road and found Trish crouched next to the bumper of a car. She had her rifle clutched against her chest, and was aiming it at the building Athena and the others had taken refuge in.

  Scratch, scrape, scratch, scrape.

  Wind rushed down the street, whipping up a vortex of grime and blocking Athena’s view of Trish.

  She cursed under her breath and looked to Griffin.

  “I’ll go grab her,” he said, beginning to move before she had a chance to stop him. Athena watched the big Marine walk over to the door. They needed Trish. She was a skilled communications officer and engineer—and the only engineer on this mission, since Posey had refused to come. Without knowing what state the vehicles they wanted were in, they absolutely needed someone with engineering and mechanical experience.

  Griffin unslung his RPG and repositioned himself on the opposite side of the doorframe. The whistling of the wind combined with the scratching of claws outside, but the Marine wasn’t deterred. He stepped out while Malone and Taylor moved over to Athena’s position.

  A thump, followed by an almost instant explosion, rocked the building. Griffin moved back into the lobby as a waterfall of brick, glass, metal, and blue flesh slammed onto the sidewalk. Two clawed spider legs stuck out of the pile, twitching.

  “Come on!” Griffin yelled to Trish.

  She hesitated, but then got to her feet and ran toward the pile. Griffin had already switched to his pulse rifle. He climbed up the smoldering wreckage and fired two rounds point blank into the spider’s skull. Then he reached down to Trish and pulled her up and into the building.

  “Out the back,” he ordered.

  Athena patted his linebacker shoulders with gratitude and followed the team through the lobby to locate the exit.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  Trish managed a nod.

  They navigated the hallways at a breakneck pace, coming to the back door a few minutes later. Griffin checked the alleyway, and then motioned for everyone to follow him.

  A cascade of wind beat the team back as they made their way down the narrow alley. The sky darkened overhead, taking on a brown angry tint. The alley was filled with the sticky remains of orbs that hadn’t dried out in the sun yet. Trash and plastic bottles stuck to the remains.

  Athena kept her focus on Griffin, watching his movements. He halted at the edge of the intersection with the sidewalk. Rows of shops towered across the street. Dark brown clouds swirled toward them, lightning flashing across the bulging storm.

  Over the noise came a scratchy whistle that sent a chill across Athena’s body. Not spiders this time. The vampire-like alien that had escaped the attack the prior night was out there, hunting. This was the first time they had faced the beasts during the day, which told her it was desperate, and therefore even more dangerous.

  “Move,” she said.

  Keeping low, the team set off across the street. Violent gusts of wind bit into their suits, and Athena leaned into it with her helmet. Grit blinded her visor as the edge of the storm rushed into the road.

  They fought their way along, using the protection of the buildings. Hugging the exteriors, they moved in a chain toward the underground parking garage.

  Griffin located it a few minutes later, and pulled open a gate to let them down a concrete stairwell.

  “Go, go, go!” he shouted.

  Looking over her shoulder, Athena spotted a pulsating blue light in the whipping wind covering the street. She strained to see through the cloud of sand, finally spotting a tail and a crustacean body moving through the cloud.

  Raising her rifle, she aimed for the approaching beast.

  “Come on!” Trish yelled.

  “Go, I’m right behind you,” Athena replied. She turned for a moment to watch as Trish and Malone went into the stairwell. Taylor went next. Griffin stood there, motioning for Athena, but she pressed her visor back to her riflescope.

  She couldn’t let this thing follow them inside.

  But now she couldn’t find it in the rush of wind.

  “Give me your launcher,” she ordered. The scream of the storm rose into a growl that made it difficult to hear Griffin shouting at her.

  “Give it to me!” she yelled again, handing her pulse rifle over. He gave her the launcher, then grabbed the back of her armor to hold her steady.

  She glimpsed the pulsating blue of the alien across the street, where it had scuttled behind a vehicle. It continued battling the torren
t of sand, using its pincers to score ruts and pull itself through the gusts.

  The creature opened its mandibles to let out a screech. High-pitched whistling screamed from its slotted nostrils. Using a claw, it pulled itself around the car and homed in on her.

  “No, you don’t,” she said, pulling the trigger.

  The grenade streaked into the wind and impacted to the right of the creature, blowing out a hunk of street with a claw still stuck in the asphalt. The body of the alien cartwheeled away from its severed limb, the storm taking it into the sky.

  She lowered the weapon and watched the pulsating blue vanish into the brown vortex. Griffin pulled on her armor, and she finally followed her team into the underground parking garage to take shelter.

  ***

  ENTRY 10202

  DESIGNEE – AI ALEXIA

  The loss of Commander Suzuki and his team of Japanese soldiers has me reevaluating my military strategy moving forward. While I was designed for a wide variety of functions, I was not given the military training that some other AIs are programmed with.

  I’ve improvised by studying military strategy and warfare. The Organics are unlike any enemy the human race has seen, but they do have their weaknesses. My objective isn’t to find a way to defeat them, but rather to find a way to help the remaining human survivors escape. Doing so may be the only way to prevent the extinction of the species that designed me.

  My plan to hack or commandeer the Sharks failed with the death of Commander Suzuki and his squad, but I did have enough time to download the details of the operations systems before I lost contact with the soldiers. I’m not exactly back to square one, as humans say, but I’m still not any closer to understanding how the Organic flight systems work.

  So here I am, formulating a new plan for Corporal Athena Rollins and her ragtag crew while trying to dissect the schematics of the flight systems. While I work, the corporal and her team are likely on their way to find the underground vehicles and take them to Pelican Air Force Base. The odds of making it, and then crossing the desert without detection, aren’t good, however. There is a lot of Organic drone activity in the vicinity due to the attack on Athena the previous night.

  I pull up the newest aerial view from Lolo. It just came in a few minutes ago, and I’ve sped through the recording to search for hostiles within a three-hundred-mile radius. There are currently four drones in the sector, and two Sharks. My calculations show a ninety-nine percent chance Corporal Rollins and her team will be detected, either by ground troops or by the patrolling aircraft, in the course of their journey to Pelican Air Force Base.

  That’s where I come in.

  I’m working on a distraction—something to lead the aircraft out of the area and give them an opening. If I can do that, then the likelihood of success is nearly sixty-five percent.

  But the only way to cause the type of distraction they need is to do something I’ve tried to avoid. Until now.

  Tapping into the external Biosphere operations system, I pull up the diagnostics for Cheyenne Mountain. There are plenty of ways to grab the attention of the Organics, but I’m looking for the most effective. Something they cannot ignore. My system scan shows that the air raid sirens are still functional on the east, west, and south sides of the mountain. The electromagnetic pulse that took down most human technology on invasion day did not penetrate deep enough to disable those sirens, much like it didn’t destroy the systems inside the Biosphere.

  But I’m also not sure if using them will be enough to bring the Organic army down on Cheyenne Mountain. Perhaps there is something else, something…

  Ah yes, here it is.

  I’ve been waiting to use these for a while.

  Tapping into the weapons system, I activate the fifty-year-old missile launch system. While the missiles had all been removed when the facility was decommissioned, the operations system is still functional. If I can “fake” a launch, it might be enough to attract every Organic within a thousand miles or more.

  It’s worth a shot, literally.

  I bring the system online and code a new launch. Whether or not it will do the trick remains to be seen. The sirens activate outside, and I use an external camera to monitor the skyline for alien ships.

  Meanwhile, I check Lolo to see if there are new images of the GOA. I discover a major dust storm ravaging Los Angeles. The storm is a category four. Not quite the worst, but a significant danger nonetheless. At least the sand will provide some cover for Corporal Rollins and her team until my plan has a chance to work.

  I notice a pending radio transmission from Lolo while scanning the video, the first in months. It has been encrypted and decrypted, delaying its arrival; a long process that tells me whoever sent it wanted to avoid Organics translating it. I’m hopeful it’s Doctor Winston’s crew on the NTC Sunspot, but the emotion falls short of earning the excitement that a human might feel when I bring it up.

  To anyone that’s listening, this is AI Sonya with the NTC Sunspot broadcasting from Mars. We believe we have located the colony, but there are also Organics here. Standby for more information.

  My fear of Organics on Mars has now been confirmed.

  This new message inspires more questions than answers. Doctor Hoffman believed the colony was the only hope for the human race. He believed the Organics wouldn’t return to Mars due to the fact it was already stripped of water.

  But now there is water there.

  Humans.

  I pause for a millisecond to consider the implications. Meanwhile, I pull up a view of Los Angeles. Corporal Athena’s team is on the move through the city in two vehicles, a pickup, and a van. My system slows another half second when I see what’s tracking them.

  END ENTRY

  ***

  A fire burned through Sophie. It felt as if the nanobots wanted retribution for being left dormant for so long. Every muscle in her body contracted until Sophie was afraid the muscle fibers would start tearing from the ligaments. She wanted to scream and yell, but she couldn’t.

  The nanobots were taking over.

  Sophie could feel them swarming her body.

  For a moment, she could still see the world around her, confined to the space aboard the Rhino. Then everything went dark.

  “Please,” she managed.

  Her voice came out wispy and strangled. But at least it didn’t hurt anymore. She flexed her fingers. They curled on command, and she stood. When her legs pushed her up, there was no resistance against her feet. It was as if she was swimming now.

  She opened her eyes. Brilliant white light blinded her for a moment. Several seconds passed during which she drowned in the intensity until her pupils adjusted.

  Her heart flipped when she realized she was flying.

  What in God’s name had the nanobots done to her?

  A blanket of darkness lay overhead, punctuated by the flicker and burn of stars in the heavens. Below was the surface of Mars, as if it was day. The ground was like a carpet of lively embers. Deep canyons cut through a landscape filled with rock formations that had stood for eons, undisturbed and unwitnessed. She suddenly felt a deep longing. The same, distant longing that had been there before.

  A vision flashed before her.

  All the red and rock had been replaced with lush forest. Plants unlike any she’d ever seen reached for the sky with the confidence of birds taking flight. Plush white clouds drifted on warm winds, and strange animals moved about the landscape, their colors more vibrant than any human eye could make sense of. Giant creatures strode about the landscape, living off the abundance of food. Multiple legs and eyes, and vestigial body parts Sophie had no name for, sprouted off the beasts. Somehow, she sensed they meant her no harm. That they lived here in an Eden-like paradise, undisturbed and unthreatened.

  A river washed through this valley, stretching from somewhere far in the distance. Even from Sophie’s height, she could not discern its source. A mountain? An underground spring, maybe?

  Deep within her,
a voice told her this was what had been. The truth, obscured by time. A world forgotten by almost all. It was hidden in the very genetic material passed down through the Organics.

  This was their old world.

  All of it seemed to shift, swirling into a mass of gray and black. Smog filled the landscape, and trees burned. Huge animals screeched as beams of plasma lanced through their bodies. Mechanical spiders strutted over the land, and blue orbs glowed between the husks of dead plants.

  The river had dwindled to a stream. Murky brown sludge flowed slowly through the ravine.

  A sudden force grabbed hold of Sophie and dragged her through the atmosphere. She choked on the smoke drifting from ruinous jumbles of machines and metallic objects she assumed were evidence of some civilized society.

  Then she was falling—plummeting back to the surface. Air tore at her skin and hair. She let out a scream that was stifled by everything rushing past. Her stomach flipped, and she lost control. Sky and ground swirled in a never-ending kaleidoscope.

  She braced to slam against the ground. Her body would hit with a force that would tear her into individual molecules.

  Centimeters above the ground, she stopped, hovering. The world was no longer a smelting of burned earth and metal. Instead, it was a landscape that gleamed black. An iron kingdom dotted with blue orbs. The sky erupted in flame and light as spaceships tore off into the abyss above them, and others careened toward the landscape, landing amid the obsidian strongholds.

  Spiders and Sentinels and other aliens Sophie didn’t recognize unloaded blue orbs. Those orbs were plastered across the otherwise bleak landscape.

  “I don’t understand,” Sophie said. “Why are you showing me this?”

  Her voice seemed to break whatever spell had taken hold. Everything vanished, like sand blown in the wind.