CHAPTER EIGHT
SEATTLE Washington Interstate 5 — 2 Minutes Before the Storm
Hannah was not thrilled at the prospect of being carted around by her sister. She was 17 and didn’t need a babysitter. Besides, this trip was supposed to be fun. It might have been work for Tanya, but it was supposed to be a vacation for Hannah. This was her winter break. And instead of spending it with her friends in sunny California, there she was, stuck on some stupid freeway outside Seattle.
“I can’t believe you want to live up here. All it’s done since I’ve been here is rain.”
Tanya finally got her phone into the hands-free mode in the rental car. “Yes, yes, I’m still here. Please don’t hang up. I’m trying to get through to Professor Henry Giles… No, Giles.”
“You promised me dinosaurs and the Space Needle!”
“Please, Hannah! I’m trying to get downtown, but I need this phone call, okay?”
“At this rate, they’re going to be closed before we get there,” Hannah pleaded.
“Hannah, I have no control over traffic; stop acting like a child… Hello? Hello, Professor?”
All at once, the car died, along with every other car on the freeway around them. The car behind them slammed into the back of the rental, a jarring shock that both girls could feel in their teeth, and Hannah screamed. The center console sparked and buzzed as acrid wisps of white smoke seeped through the seams.
“Hannah, sit back and don’t touch anything,” Tanya snapped as she took her hands off the steering wheel.
She could see the whispering arcs crawling across the surface of the car and the cars around her. The static jumped from the cars and into the ground.
Both girls watched the sky through the windshield as strange purple and green flashes appeared above the dark clouds.
“Hannah, call Mom!”
“I can’t. Something’s wrong with my phone!”
Hannah dropped her phone as the casing all at once became too hot to touch, and the screen had gone black.
Hours had gone by. Both girls were trapped in the car, now pinned from all sides by the other cars around them. Tanya had debated breaking a window and trying to climb out, but the strange static she had seen earlier on the surface of the cars had changed her mind.
“Tanya, what are we going to do? We can’t just sit here in the car,” Hannah said, through almost a whisper.
Through the side view mirror, Hannah saw men working their way through the stalled vehicles. They were dressed in military uniforms and seemed to be checking every car.
“What the hell? Why aren’t they helping anybody?”
“What are you talking about?” Tanya said, reaching up to grab the rearview mirror and adjusting it to see what Hannah was looking at.
All at once, both girls jumped and screamed as a gloved fist pounded on Tanya’s window.
“Sir, we found her!” the man hollered back over his shoulder.
“Tanya Ramirez?”
Both girls froze, scared, but Tanya managed a small nod.
“Ma’am, we are going to have to break your windows to get you out. I need you both to lean toward the center of the car, put your hands and arms over your heads, and protect your faces.”
Both girls did as they were told, but Tanya protested, screaming back, “This is a rental. You can’t just break—”
The glass shattered into tiny little cubes and squares, showering the inside of the car.
“What the hell, man?” Tanya looked up and glared at the Marine.
“Hey, jackboot! Don’t fucking touch me!” Tanya looked over to see that they had already cut Hannah’s seatbelt and were dragging her out of the window.
Not waiting for the Marine at the side of her door to even reach in, Tanya unbuckled and pulled herself out of the car. She cut her hands on the broken glass but managed to avoid the grasp of two Marines. She made it over the hood of the car and to her sister, grabbing her arm.
“Don’t you fucking touch her. Let her go!”
One of the soldiers grabbed her from behind, only to find himself on his back looking up at her, just in time to see her fist coming down onto his face.
It took five U.S. Marines to put both girls into two different cars after dragging them down to the bottom of the overpass.
Hannah hadn’t seen her sister since then. Six months ago, before Tanya left, her mom had had a chance to talk to her. Hannah had been so angry about Tanya leaving that she had refused to say goodbye, and that decision had eaten at her every day since. Tanya had agreed to leave, to go somewhere that Hannah couldn’t go. She resented her sister for it. The two were close, and it was one thing for Tanya to take an internship in Seattle. But to go somewhere where Hannah might never see her sister again was more than she was able to bear.
Roslyn Research Facility Sub Level 9 — 2 days 3 hours remaining
Hannah had sat through the orientations over the coming months and had finally settled into her new life in that strange place. She did her best to take care of her mom and tried to be useful. They had told her that the world was never going to be the same. The reality of living underground for the rest of her life was almost unbearable. But the thought of never seeing her sister again was crushing.
Six months later, after everything they had been through, she met her sister’s eyes. Six fucking months. For six months, she had punished herself emotionally for not having the courage to say goodbye. She had accepted that she would never see Tanya again. And yet, there she was, holding a damn spear, wearing a cloak like she was Joan of fucking Arc or something.
Hannah walked up to her sister. Tanya just stared back, trembling as tears rolled down her cheeks. Hannah slammed her fist into Tanya’s chest.
“You promised that you wouldn’t leave me!”
With Hannah still pounding on her, Tanya leaned forward and pulled her into an embrace. “I’m sorry.”
She pushed her back for a moment, hands on both of her shoulders, looking Hannah over.
Hannah was covered in the iridescent, glowing goop. Her face had a deep cut that ran down from the side of her temple across her cheek, and her knuckles and hands were bloodied.
“Hannah, are you okay? What happened?”
“This morning, one of those six-legged freaks made it into the cafeteria and was tearing the professor apart. I got it off him…”
Colonel Dimitri walked over and put his hand on Hannah’s shoulder. “She killed one of those things with a fucking hammer. Bludgeoned the damn thing to death.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have had to use a hammer if you had given me a gun!”
“Civilians don’t get guns, Hannah.” The Colonel looked up at Tanya, slowly shaking his head. “How your sweet mother survived raising the two of you…”
“Hannah, where’s Mom?”
“I can take you to her.” Hannah’s eyes fell to the floor. “It’s gotten much worse. They’ve done everything that they can for her, but the doctors said that they’re pretty sure the cancer has spread.”
Hannah looked back up to see her sister smiling.
“Just take me to Mom.”
The girls walked through the doors of one of the side rooms. It looked like it had once been some kind of pantry for the kitchen, but it had since been converted into some kind of triage area for the sick and wounded. Tanya knelt down next to a stretcher and gently kissed her mother on the forehead. The elderly woman opened her eyes and gasped at the sight of Tanya kneeling beside her. Tanya pulled off her re-breather and pulled it over her mother’s face. “Mamá, breathe. Please, breathe.”
“Hannah, take Mom’s other hand please. I’m going to need you to help hold her down.”
Tanya slowly moved her free hand across her mother’s body when Rosalind’s projection flickered to life beside her. “I’m afraid the professor is going to need your help next.” Rosalind waved her hand and pulled up the projection of a system window.
[SYSTEM WINDOW] BIOLOGICAL SCAN:
Target: Elena Ramirez Age: 64 Status: Critical
Primary Diagnosis: Large Cell Carcinoma, Stage IV
Cellular Restoration 2 Total Energy Cost: 140 out of 175 Recommended 3 sessions of 3 minutes each Energy Cost: 47 per session.
Proceed with Cellular Restoration?
[YES] [NO]
“Tanya?” Hannah’s voice was quiet and trembling.
Tanya glanced back up at her sister with a slow smile. She took a deep breath as she felt the energy start to tug from her reserves. “Momma, you’re probably not going to like the way that this feels, but I’m going to fix you, okay?”
Elena Ramirez’s eyes grew huge as the sensation of a million pinpricks rolled across her body under Tanya’s hand. Millions of nerve endings fired randomly as her daughter used her ability to repair the damaged cells throughout her body. Tears poured freely down Tanya’s face. She watched her mother wince in pain.
“I’m sorry, Mamá. I can’t stop. Hannah, hold her down, please!”
Minutes later, Elena’s eyes were closed and she rested, breathing freely.
“Hannah, I have to go help the professor now.”
“I’ll stay with her.”
“Wait. Rosalind stopped her before she could go. Both of you hold out your hands.”
Hannah hesitated, but Tanya held her hand out without reservation. “It’s okay, Hannah. Do as she asks.”
Two brand new re-breathers suddenly appeared in their hands. Rosalind looked up at Tanya with a huge impish grin. “Gavin just threw a control node down and guess who has access to the manufacturing facilities?”
Tanya helped her sister fit the rebreather. Hannah took a deep breath. The sensation of breathing the sweet filtered air was amazing. “I don’t understand. How did you do that? How did she do that?”
“I promise I’ll explain everything. In the meantime, stay with Mama and make sure she keeps her re-breather on too, okay?”
Hannah took her mother’s hand and watched her sister leave the small room.
A few minutes later, Ari winced as the professor squeezed her hand while Tanya healed the deep gash in his side.
“This is remarkable. Will you be able to heal the others as well?”
“I’m going to try my best, Professor. But I’m afraid we’re probably going to have to prioritize the people who need it the most,” Tanya said as she finished and pulled her hand away.
“How much time do you have before you have to re-enter the cradle?”
“I’m afraid we only have about a day and a half now, Professor. It took the better part of yesterday to finish tunneling through from Sub-level 10.”
“There were so many of them, ARi. And we’ve lost so many.”
ARi sat with her back against the wall next to the professor and leaned her head on his shoulder. “I found them in the laboratory, Henry.”
Henry looked down and started to cry. “We were in a meeting with some of the security staff on another level. The original AI told us what was happening right before it went offline.”
“ARi, that was the first sign that we were even under attack. They were already in the building. They were everywhere.”
Ari gave his hand a light squeeze. “I know, Professor.”
“Professor, this is why I created Roslyn. I didn’t have a choice. I’m not going to be able to stay here, and I can’t leave you and the others here defenseless again.”
“She’s a little stubborn and can come across a bit rash sometimes. But Henry, she’s amazing! She’s exactly what this world needs. And I need you to help her make more. I’m afraid I’m not going to have very much time to go over everything before we have to leave. But Rosalyn has all of my memories and can go over everything that happened while we were gone in great detail.”
“ARi, I don’t know how we’re going to be able to even fight our way out of here.”
Rosalind’s projection appeared again, now dressed in the familiar tattered black cloak. She pulled back the black hood and smiled softly down at them both.
Boxes of ammunition suddenly appeared on pallets on the side of the room to the gasps of everybody watching. “Guess who has access to sub-level eleven now?” she said with a huge grin. She reached her hand out and phased every breath into the professor’s lap.
“ARi, they’re going to throw everything at the cradle chamber to try and keep you from going back.”
“I know, Ross. And I’m sorry, professor; I wish we had more time to catch up.”
“I still don’t understand,” the professor said. “We don’t have very many people left down here. Those things are probably swarming all over the city right now. How do we fight something like that?” “That’s easy, professor,” Rosalind said as she waved her hand, and a small six-legged automaton suddenly appeared next to Rosalind.
“It looks like Bishop,” ARi said with a huge smile.”
“The design is pretty much the same. It’s just scaled down. These little guys don’t require the complexity of those crystal tablets.”
“What’s the control point ratio?” ARi asked.
“Three to one. I can control three of these guys directly for every control point. But I plan to build tens of thousands of them and program them to hunt down alien technology. They’re not going to be anywhere near as smart as Bishop, but I think they’ll get the job done.”
“Gavin and I agreed not to span Bishop while on Earth unless we absolutely had to. If something happened to his tablet, we would have no way to respawn him once we’re back on Adaeya.”
“I agree. That was the right call to make,” Roslyn said. Bishop gives you a huge advantage over some of the other guides. I will confess, though, I know it wasn’t actually me who was there, but I miss him.”
“You won’t be able to build enough of them to clear the cradle chamber in time, though, will you?” ARi asked.
“No. And the longer we wait, the worse that fight is gonna be.”
“Then I don’t think we should wait until the last day,” I said, joining the conversation. Mom, Dad, this is ARi.
ARi looked up to me, her eyes huge, as I introduced her to my parents, only to be swallowed in a hug from my mother.