“The A.I. located us, brought us to his mainframe, and tried to trick us into going back online,” Old-timer further elaborated. “We escaped. It wasn’t easy. Our companion is in your hospital—in bad shape. He might…” Old-timer paused and looked at Thel before letting his sentence trail off.
“Die,” Thel said, finishing it for him.
General Wong sat back into the cool leather chair and stared past the end of the table at the far, dark wall. He was trying to picture a being so purely evil that it would wipe another race out of existence, but he could not see it. He came back to the present moment, and his eyes darted to Alejandra. He didn’t ask her verbally if they were telling him the truth, but she didn’t need to be an empath to read the question in his eyes.
“There is no deception from any of them.”
A man walked into the room carrying four plates of food, which he set down on the table in front of the four outsiders. The plate was filled with mashed potatoes, gravy, and a chicken leg.
“Oh my God!” Rich knocked the plate away from himself. “That’s disgusting!”
The general and the rest of the Purists were momentarily astounded as mashed potato and gravy streaked across the oak table.
“Calm down, Rich,” Old-timer said in a low, calm voice.
“Calm down? No! Did you see that? There was a whole leg of an animal on my plate! I’m not eating that!”
“Rich, it’s their custom—”
“They can shove their custom up…” Rich’s eyes raised and met those of the Purists. “Look—look, it might be your custom to eat…walking things with legs, but that’s not food to me. I’ve had a really, really bad day, and all I want is something to eat that didn’t use to have a face, okay? Is that too much to ask?”
“No,” said the general quickly. He stood up. “No, it’s not. Get these people some food, no meat, and a place to sleep.” He walked out of the room, followed by his advisors.
Rich remained rigidly standing, breathing heavily as his body shook. Old-timer looked up at him scornfully. “What?” Rich asked.
“You’d think a seventy-year-old man would have finally learned how not to act like a spoiled little boy,” Old-timer replied.
Outside, the general mused, “If what they are saying is true, then there is no military solution. We’re no match for the A.I.—it owns the surface.”
“But we can’t just stay underground forever, General,” replied an advisor.
“What other option do we have? We’ll have to dig in—burrow further under the surface, and start over as a community underground. We have no choice. This isn’t our world anymore. This is the beginning of the post-human era. Tell that Lieutenant—what was his name—Patrick? Put him in charge of watching over the outsiders. Once they’ve rested, I want to know everything they know.”
8
Thel had no idea what time it was. She and her companions had been alone together in a cramped concrete room for what seemed like an eternity. She lay perfectly still on a small cot and stared up into the nearly perfect darkness. The only light that penetrated the black came from the small cracks of the heavy iron door. An almost imperceptible pale blue glow came from the low-lit hallway outside. A young guard stood watch outside the room. For her entire life, Thel had been able to open her mind’s eye and check the time readout whenever she needed to. She had been able to set herself to sleep whenever it was appropriate. This was her first experience with insomnia, and to say it was unsettling would have been a gross understatement. Her disorientation, coupled with her extreme anxiety over James, was causing her real physical pain. Her head hurt from stress, and no matter how exhausted she felt, she could not sleep.
After what seemed like several hours, she got off her cot and stood in the darkness. The others were all asleep. They had been through hell that day and had all lost the people closest to them in life, but Thel had more to lose. That was why she couldn’t sleep. As horrible as the day had been, it had brought her James, the man she had wanted for years, who it had seemed would always be outside of her grasp, but it had also cruelly threatened to take him away. After losing her sister, her entire family, and all of her friends, with the exception of her co-workers, she felt she could not stand to lose James. Not James.
She walked to the door and opened it slowly. The guard was wide awake and nodded to her respectfully as she peeked her head out the door. “What time is it?” she asked him.
“It’s 3:30, ma’am,” he responded, eyeing her with fascination as he got his first look at one of the outsiders.
“My God. This day won’t end,” Thel sighed.
“Are you having trouble sleeping, ma’am? I could bring you a sedative.”
“A sedative? Something to help me sleep?”
“Yes, ma’am. A pill to help you sleep.”
The idea didn’t appeal to her. She didn’t trust Purist technology. Everything in the complex seemed archaic.“No thank you. I’d like to go to the hospital, though. I want to see our companion.”
“I can’t do that, ma’am. I’m under orders to watch over y’all while you sleep. The general wants you rested so you and your companions can be questioned in the morning. I can ask for word about your friend though, if you like.” The guard held up a black walkie-talkie for Thel to see.
She looked at the sheer size of the communication device and suddenly knew she needed to be with James. To her, the Purist technology was pathetic. It was obvious that James was in danger.
“Can you use that contraption to ask if it is okay for me to go to the hospital to see my friend?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I already know what they’re going to say. The general himself ordered that y’all be further questioned tomorrow. No one awake right now has the authority to overturn that.”
“What about Lieutenant Patrick?”
“He’s asleep, ma’am. Please just try to sleep for a few hours. It won’t make a difference one way or another. Let me order you a sedative.”
As the young man held his walkie-talkie up to his mouth to place an order for medication, Thel flashed magnetic energy from her hand and instantly rendered him unconscious. As he began to collapse to the ground, she cradled him, taking particular care to make sure he didn’t hit his head. “There we go,” she whispered as she lowered his limp body to the ground. “Just have a little nap, junior.” She picked up his walkie-talkie and sent more magnetic energy through it until it began to lightly smoke. “That should keep your friends away for a little while.” She dropped the instrument on the guard’s ample stomach and began to jog through the hallways towards the hospital.
She had paid close attention to the labyrinth inside the complex from the moment she was escorted away from James. Her thoughts had been focused on getting back to him ever since. She had no trouble finding the hospital and was there in moments. A few military personnel were still awake, but they paid no attention to her as she made her way. She was wearing a nondescript gray shirt and pants that she’d been given after she and her companions had washed up earlier in the evening, so she didn’t stand out amongst all the other refugees that the soldiers had dealt with all day. For the most part, citizens were free to come and go as they pleased in the complex.
When she reached the hospital, she walked towards the doors James had been wheeled through. A nurse’s voice stopped her before she could enter. “Can I help you?” the nurse asked.