Zyon
I tremble as grease and sticky black goo from the creature drip from my fingertips.
My body reacted on its own as soon as I saw Arlene in danger, the urge to protect her overwhelmed me and I ripped the creature apart like it was made of paper.
I have no memory of how I even got to this place, save for flickers of a fight and an explosion. I'm definitely going to find the girl that pushed me off that plane and have a serious word with her.
"Are you okay?" Arlene's voice pulls me back to the present,
"Uh…" I try to voice out my thoughts and feelings, nothing comes out. She looks so familiar, but every time I feel like I'm close to remembering, it slips from my grasp in a very frustrating way.
Arlene just nods like this is normal, "Good. I have a plan, and you're going to need to hold them off,"
Hold who of? I almost ask, then I look up and spot five more of the creatures barreling straight for us from across the field with their razor sharp metal teeth barred in fury and bloodlust. I'd totally forgotten about them.
Arlene's words register in my brain,
"Wait did you just say I have to hold them off?"
"I'll be right back," she's already jogging away and calling over her shoulder, "Just make sure you don't let any get past you,"
"Are you crazy!?" I yell,
But she's already a few feet away from me. I stare at her retreating back in dismay. She's just going to leave me out here with those things after I just saved her life? She should be thanking me and gushing over how brave I am. Instead I'm getting ditched.
A bead of sweat rolls down my back. I contemplate whether to go after her or stay where I am. She said she has a plan, I should trust her right? She wouldn't use me as a decoy so she can hop on her bike and escape right?
I can almost hear her laughter in the background,
The creatures get closer. Stats, figures and lines of code fade in and out of my sight, blending into my field of vision like a mirage or a trick of sunlight. I have to concentrate a bit to see them clearly.
It increases to 25% then 35% all in the space of a heartbeat. Blinking red in the lower corner of my vision are two warnings,
I shake my head. I might be disoriented, but I'm pretty sure it isn't normal to see numbers and energy readings in my field of sight. The body of the creature I just killed twitches on the floor and I stagger back. Bile rises up in my throat. The surge of strength I felt just a moment ago was fleeting. I stare at my hands again.
I know this body has abilities, but how do I access them again? Is there a command prompt? The animatrons are close enough for me to see their red mechanical glowing eyes.
I start to babble, "Okay body system do something!" I cry in desperation, waving my hands and wiggling my fingers.
"Uh, system upgrade?"
"Laser beams?"
"Super strength activate?"
Nothing happens. Crap I'm going to die.
The animatrons stop a few paces from me, haunches raised and limbs tensed. For some reason they don't attack, instead they stare me down, my heart beats fast and blood roars in my ears.
I sense something else watching me from behind their robotic glowing eyes, a distinct and menacing presence that sends my intuition spiking.
As if a switch has been flipped, the scenery before me switches like a projector slide. One second I'm standing in a field of brown grass seconds away from my death, and the next I'm in a strange domain, the air's made of nothingness, like a cyber-realm and everything as far as my eyes can see is a vaporous sky blue like the inside of a simulation,
Voices drift toward me. They're all talking at once so I only pick up bits and pieces,
"What is he?"
"I've never seen something like this before,"
"He's obviously human,"
"No look again,"
I groan as my left eye starts to twitch and a sharp pain pierces my skull. This body is doing things to me that I'm yet to understand.
There are six entities standing before me. I can just make out their general shapes. They appear like unrevealed characters in a game, all blurry lines and blank features.
"This reeks of Archimedes' interference!" One voice snaps, it's hard to know who is speaking they all sound alike.
"Spartan! He's here with us," Another cries urgently,
I sense their collective disbelief, as they all turn to look at me.
It's like being struck in the face by an entire brick wall, if I was here in physical form I'd crumble. Whatever they are, they exude so much power its mind numbing.
"Impossible. No one can access cyber space," One says,
One of them moves toward me, my inner alarm system blares in response,
I want to move, to run, or escape but I'm stuck, my throat constricts as I fight for air, and I feel them probing into my mind, trying to hack my consciousness. Their attacks are like bashes against my skull, at a point I realize that I'm screaming, strange symbols dance before my eyelids.
"Something's blocking his programming," One of them says,
"Nothing computed can be blocked from us, we're computation made manifest"
"How is this possible?"
The leader of the bunch, I can tell by the way others fall silent immediately he starts to talk, approaches me.
"Interesting, what has Archimedes done to you?" His voice alone injects abject terror into my veins turning my blood to ice, he's shrouded in symbols, lines of codes computing at a billion computations per nanosecond, too fast for my own programming to keep up with.
He chuckles low and dark, "You have no idea what you've walked into. But no matter, you and the Sika girl, Arlene, will be crushed, your fight is fruitless."
He flicks a dismissive hand, "Now die,"
My vision ends. I'm back in the field, no time has passed at all, a cold shiver runs up my spine as the animatrons snarl. An engine roars from behind. I risk turning my head. Arlene's gripping the handlebars of a motorcycle and hurtling towards me at full speed,
At first I'm glad to see her because it means she didn't abandon me after all, then I realize I'm in her direct path,
"Zyon! Get out of the way!" She yells,
I dive to the side immediately, Arlene zooms past and at the last moment she jumps off and lands on me. The bike crashes into the animatrons, they jump on it like pack of hungry wolves on prey,
The engine rumbles for a while and then an invisible harsh pulse explosion booms. Within a few seconds they all lay lifeless on the floor.
Arlene and I lie on a heap on the floor with her on top of me and my arms around her waist, her breath tickles my neck and I'm very aware of how soft and feminine her body is. She smells amazing like blooming daisies and a gust of fresh air just before rain.
She groans and lifts herself up, a sly grin on her lips,
"I didn't think that was actually going to work but boy am I glad it did, come on we have to go," She offers her hand which I accept.
"Spartan," I mumble. You and the Sika girl will crumble. I remember the words of the scary entity in my vision,
"What?"
I look at Arlene, her green eyes are intense and there's a smudge of dirt on her chin. She's beautiful and crazy, I'm kind of terrified of her. I decide not to try to explain to her what just happened. My instinct tells me to keep it to myself,
"Nothing," I say.
"We should get going, they could still be alive," She says,
I trudge beside her, heading for the edge of the field with no idea of where we're supposed to be going.
"Can you please explain to me what the hell is going on here?" I say.
She glances at me from the side of her eyes, her lips pressed into a thin line, "You really don't know where you are or how you got here?" She asks suspiciously,
"I feel like I've said this a thousand times already, no I don't."
She chews on her lower lip for a second, and suddenly she stamps her foot on the ground and explodes in a fit of rage,
"I can't believe this, then what's the whole point of you? Some glorified clumsy AI slave?"
I flinch at her sudden harshness, her words rub off on me the wrong way and I scowl.
"What did you just call me? An AI slave? What the hell does that even mean?"
"Like you don't know," She snipes,
We stop and glare at each other, I hate the way she looks at me,
"I didn't ask for any of this you know! I just found myself here,"
"Exactly my point" Arlene interjects, "I risked my life to come out here today hoping I'd finally get some answers or a clue on what next to do and all I got is you!"
She shoves my chest, she's stronger than she looks, I stagger back.
"The world is failing," She growls, "Humans are now nothing but worms that the Technocolus feed off, they've taken over everything, those of us that are determined to fight back are so few and many have been lost,"
She steps closer and jabs her finger in my face, "I thought you were some kind of weapon or tool that's why I helped you, but obviously you're just some anomaly my father sent to me because he's a crazy old bastard who never knows when to stop creating monsters,"
Her eyes flash with derision. "So stop with this innocent clueless act, because I'm not buying it. I know what you are and I refuse to trust you!"
Her eyes are red and her cheeks bear angry splotches of color, I realize her anger and antagonism are what she's using to mask her fear and confusion.
My own rage deflates slowly, she just saved my life, and from what I've seen she's ridiculously brave and innovative. I think about those entities I saw in my vision just moments ago. If those are the people she's battling against I can understand why she's so scared and angry.
I'd be upset too if I went looking for answers and all I got was some scrawny clumsy doofus.
I keep my voice calm, "Look I know we just met, but I promise you I'm not pretending," I say, "I really don't know what's going on here, but you're the only one I've met so far that hasn't tried to hurt me in one way or the other."
Arlene rolls her eyes at me, "Don't be so sure about that. I'm going home, I need to take a long nap and then try to figure out my next move. I'm running out of time,"
I jog to meet up with her quick strides,
"If we can just talk, we can figure out what exactly it is I'm supposed to be doing here with you, I don't think our meeting is a coincidence."
I think about what Spartan said, The Sika girl Arlene, He knows her by name which means she's just as much their enemy as they're hers. I have a strange conviction in my being that I'm supposed to protect her or stay close to her.
Arlene heaves her back pack up, she's still surly and keeps marching ahead and for a moment I think she's determined to leave me behind until she says in a sullen resigned tone, "We have a long walk ahead of us, I'll try to explain to you what you've dropped into. But first tell me everything your remember,"
I smile and jog up to catch up to her. We step out of the field and reach a road that leads downhill and I momentarily forget everything as my mouth drops open.
The scenery spread below us is all wrong. Ruined skyscrapers dot the horizon, overly wild vegetation has crept into what was formerly an ultra-modern urban landscape. There are abandoned buildings and monuments everywhere, great bridges have collapsed and rusted. And the roads are jam packed with discarded vehicles. It's like the backdrop for a zombie post-apocalyptic music video, except there are no zombies.
"What the hell happened here?" I ask in astonishment, unable to raise my voice above a whisper.
Arlene's face catches the glow of the setting sun and a slight breeze blows her hair across her face. Hands tight on the straps of her backpack and with a grim voice she responds. "Technocolus happened, AI machines rose and civilization fell."