Fortitude, page 9
He scanned the tree tops set upon the hills bordering the river. Dark spears set against the undulating mountains. The moon was bright, but somewhere up there were also clouds because the flickers of ice had began to fall again.
“We can’t stay in this boat,” said Casey. “We need to get on the land. Find a place to hole up.”
Paige sniffed. “I want to go home.”
“We ain’t never going back there,” said Dale. “Home’s gone.”
“I want to go home.”
Casey let out a sigh. Mike felt sorry for the girl, but sympathy was in short supply within the battered wooden craft, which bobbed and swayed with the currents. He also had no interest in staying for any length of time in one place. He needed a vehicle. He needed to get to Anchorage.
“There’s probably a lodge on one of these banks,” he said. “You should all take refuge when we find one. But I’m getting a vehicle and heading north.”
“This is all your fault!” The words from Paige came between snorts but weren’t a surprise to him. She was right. It was.
“That’s why I’m leaving when I get the first chance. The AI will keep coming at me. It will not give up until I’m dead.”
“You think this AI thing will leave us alone?” said Casey. Mike’s pause in replying was enough of an answer for her. “Then we’re sticking to—”
“Are you fucking crazy?” said Paige. “It.. it…” Her words dissolved into sobs.
“There’s strength in numbers,” said Jared, without turning from the river. He too then let out a sigh. “That’s what Gregg always said.”
“And he was right,” said Casey. “If this snowfall gets worse, and we can’t find a vehicle, then we stay put, otherwise we keep on going. Agreed?” Everyone but Paige did.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Constance had let go of Brad’s hand, but he hadn’t noticed as his concentration was on the almost absolute black of trunks and branches they were driving within.
Static then a voice came from Cody’s radio. “This is Caption Rodriguez of Echo Five Platoon. We see lights coming from the south. Please respond. Over.”
“Good to hear your voice, Leo. Yes, that’s us. The Herc fired up? Over.”
“Ha. I heard they had put you in charge of this little mission. Good to hear you too. The Herc is primed and ready to leave. Over.”
“We’re a few minutes out. How’s the HZ? Over.”
“All quiet. So you know the shit’s gonna hit the fan as soon as you arrive. Over.”
Signs flashed past mentioning a regional airport, and the track smoothed out, becoming concrete. The headlights illuminated posts, an open gate and a void behind, with just a flashing red light a mile or so off.
Cody pointed towards the speck of crimson, the driver acknowledging and they bumped across grass then onto the runway, passing a few groups of sandbags. Helmets and gun barrels resided within.
Brad craned his neck to look upwards. The sky was a mellow hue of green with dark patches representing clouds and a disc as bright as the sun. He looked away, lower, to the ever pervading… He leaned forward as the grip on his hand tightened again.
“They’re coming! They’re coming!” shouted Constance, Kevin rocking back and forth to her right.
Instinctively the humvee jolted forward as Baxter pushed down on the gas.
“Radar’s picking up solid returns to the east and.. north. Over,” said Rodriguez through Cody’s radio.
“We’re almost at the—”
Everyones vision was lost to white. An intense light which brought with it a searing high pitch whine and the smell of burning.
Brad’s mind fought to make sense of what was happening and amongst the screams and shouts, he vaguely made out the words ‘contact! contact!’ from a radio. He flicked the goggles up from his face while reaching to his right. The light echo still dominated his view of the world, but he felt the arms then shoulders of Constance.
“I can’t see shit!” cried out Baxter.
Their vehicle wasn’t moving, Brad was sure of that, but not much else.
“We got to get—”
Before Cody finished, there was another blinding flash but this time the affect was less and Brad caught the neon stream which split the night. A white strip, with cobalt blue edges, so bright that it appeared to be solid against the dark. It was gone within a fraction of a second but the heat from the laser beam was powerful enough to penetrate the steel and glass of the humvee.
“They’re taking out the vehicles!” shouted Cody, now with one leg outside, his boot on the ground. The sound of battle raged from the airstrip. Flashes, pings and the red hot projectiles of automatic fire covered the runway, seemingly from all directions.
“Get to the plane!” Rodriguez’s voice tore from Cody’s radio. His panic words were almost drowned out by the gunfire and explosions behind it. “We… can’t hold them back for much longer!”
Brad grabbed Constance’s arm, she doing the same to Kevin and all three bundled from the humvee. He knew what was coming. Pulling as hard as he could he dragged the youngsters to the ground as the night became day once more, the beam turning the small parts of hair exposed under his helmet, crisp. The skin across his face immediately stung in pain. For a moment, the oily black of night flooded back in, until an explosion lit the scene once again and in that fraction of time he saw soldiers without limbs crawling across the concrete, while other bodies lay amongst the tangled steel of what used to be military vehicles.
“Come on!” shouted Cody, pulling at him to get up. He did, taking Constance and Kevin with him, and without knowing where they were, or where they were heading amongst the chaos, jogging forward, following Cody who was firing intermittently at anything that wasn’t human.
The ground was shaking beneath their feet but Brad could tell it was from the huge aircraft. The rear door was lowered, airmen frantically waving for them to keep running forward. In that moment Brad felt the weight of defeat. That humanity never had a chance against the onslaught it brought against itself. The AI was going to win.
He almost tripped up the lip of the platform as he jogged up the ramp, pulling Constance and Kevin with him, vaguely aware of others moving alongside, and with an effort he fell against the curved wall, grabbing some netting to stop from collapsing completely to the floor. He looked at Constance, her eyes large, her lips quivering. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he said.
“I… I…”
He switched to Kevin. His face was spotted with black smudges, but he appeared whole. As the pops, cracks and explosions continued outside, the ramp rose, the plane already moving along the runway. He looked across the cavernous interior and realized something. Apart from the two airmen near the rear, only Cody and Baxter had made it. They were seated opposite, their helmets in their hands.
Baxter looked up. “They’re gone… we lost everyone! How the fuck are we meant to complete the mission! There are only five of us!”
Cody, still looking down, shook his head. “We got lucky…”
The engines roared and the cabin sharply rotated upwards, making them all grab whatever they could. She looked at him, shocked. “Lucky? We lost most of our team!”
Brad knew what the captain meant. Standard protection protocol. Three vehicles, giving you a two in three chance of getting out alive.
Cody looked at Baxter as she turned away. “They all knew what they were signing up for.” He then looked across the aisle to the two young people. “It was always about those two. If they’re alive. The mission is.”
*****
The river was moving faster, the boat rocking and swaying, making its passengers hold even tighter to the rough wooden sides.
“We better make for the shore. I ain’t falling off the edge of a waterfall.” Casey grabbed one of the two oars, the other being gripped by Mike and both rowed, but the vessel resisted their efforts, the currents continually pulling them back into the center.
“Damnit,” she said, struggling.
Jared moved towards her. “Here. I’ll do it.” She gladly gave him the oar, letting him sit beside her, and with Mike the boat started to pull closer to the wall of dark which waited for them near small moss covered boulders.
The boat skidded against the coarse rock, then with a jolt stopped. Mike turned on his flashlight and swept it across the trunks at the top of a small slope of pebbles and dirt. Nothing stirred within the shadows. He wondered how the AI would have lost track of them. Perhaps the cold has masked their body heat.
Jared splashed down then helped Casey, then Paige do the same. Mike dropped to the lapping waves next, followed by Dale.
“Where the hell are we?” said Casey looking at the forest on the opposite bank and the jagged dark peaks beyond.
“We should keep moving,” said Jared. “There are probably bears in these woods.”
“Bears are better than…” Paige’s words became lost in her grief and she froze, her breathing becoming infrequent with snorts.
Mike held his hand out. “Hey. Take my hand.”
She looked at him as if he has just proposed the most insane of ideas, then her expression fell flat. Ignoring his offer, she walking awkwardly across the slippery rocks and followed the others up the slope.
Mike took one last look at the small wooden vessel that had saved their lives then followed. The dark which surrounded them was unforgiving as they made their way through dense undergrowth, pushing through damp frost tipped leaves and branches. The rush of water from the river grew silent the deeper they moved into the forest but was not replaced with natural sounds of nocturnal creatures. It was as if they had stepped off the world, into a place where nothing dared live.
“We’re lost!” said Dale.
Mike looked up, trying to locate stars, but the blanket of foliage from the trees made that impossible.
“We should have stayed in the boat…” said Paige.
“What’s that up ahead?”
Everyone stopped and looked to where Jared was pointing. Mike swung his light’s beam in the same direction, where the forest appeared thinner. Beyond the glow were darker, unnatural shapes, perhaps a roof.
Casey surged ahead.
“Wait!” said Mike, but she pushed the twigs and pines from her path with the others in tow. He followed and by the time he arrived on the stone path which led to a gravelly area, they were already trying to figure out how to get inside the log cabin. He though, was more interested in the truck, sat out front. It was old, maybe too much so, but at least that meant he could fire up the engine by connecting the right wires beneath the steering column.
There was a splintering of wood and the door to the two story building swung back, those trying to enter, bundling inside, but he didn’t care. He quickly made his way to the rusting white truck, and pulled the driver’s door open, instantly flicking his flashlight on, which flickered then went to full beam. He started to lower himself to see the appropriate area when he stopped midway and swore. A set of keys dangled from the ignition.
“Can’t be that—”
A scream pierced the night and he rose quickly, bumping his head on the door seel. Another flashlight was lighting the rooms beyond drapes on the second floor. Closing the door he ran to the front, up the steps and into a homely room, full of fishing equipment and stacks of dust covered books. As he looked up the stairs in the center, Paige ran down, then out the door behind him, throwing up somewhere on the deck. Mike knew what she had found. He looked up the stairs to Casey standing at the top.
“Body of an old man. He’s on his bed. Face’s gone… That the AI’s doing?”
Mike nodded. He started to move his hand to his jacket pocket and the flask residing there, then realized it had been the first time he had done that since the motorhome. “The keys are in the old truck out front,” he said. “Don’t know the gas situation though. But if it’s got some, we should—”
“I’m not leaving!” shouted Paige, who now stood in the doorway.
“We agreed,” said Casey, walking down the frayed carpeted stairs.
A door opened at the back of the room and in walked Dale with a plastic bag that clattered. “Found some cans. Look old as shit, but it’s something.”
“What about water?” said Mike. “Is the faucet working?”
“Er, I dunno.”
“Well, go and check it,” said his mom.
He frowned, turning around and walked away.
“If it is,” said Mike. “Find whatever bottles you can and fill them with water. We’ll need as much as possible.” He looked back at Paige. “You can’t stay here alone.”
She folded her arms, looking away. “I can do what I want.”
Casey rolled her eyes, following her son into the kitchen at the back while Mike looked at his watch. Soon the sun would slide above the mountains to the east, and the darkness which helped keep them from the artificial eyes, would be gone. How long then until the AI would track them down? He figured they had another forty minutes before their presence would be obvious if the AI happened to be looking at this particular patch of the Yukon.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A young officer held the headphone to his ear, the blood leaving his face. He nodded. “Understood. Over,” then turned and looked at Cary on the raised area at the back of the CIC. “Sir, we just lost one of the C-130s—”
“Tell me it wasn’t—”
The officer shook his head. “No. It was over Anchorage. It means we’re down to only four aerial reconnaissance aircraft over the city and between us and there.”
Cary turned to Denise by his side, both had been watching the various feeds and reports coming in from the mainland and around the world. “I thought the stealth tech would stop it from targeting us?”
Her eyes remained fixed on one particular screen. It was a recording being played on a continuous loop of a street in Bangalore, India. A handheld shuddering view from the top of a building, looking down to a street, which was full of… she didn’t really know what to call the humanoid things that were slowly but confidently walking along the rust colored street. Anxious whispers passed between those holding the cell phone doing the recording, and the view zoomed in on a robotic figure which skin and sinew clung to, covering most of one arm and some of the torso. She shook her head as she did the first time she had seen what could only be called a cyborg. But this was no B-movie villain from the future, but a hideous amalgamation of something unnatural. Born from hatred of—
“Denise?”
She blinked, turning to the general. “Sorry, you said something?”
A flicker of frustration quickly dissolved to concern in his mind. “When was the last time you got some sleep?”
She turned away with a frown. “Sleep. Seriously?”
“We lost a C-130—” She turned back to him. “Over Anchorage. I had hoped the stealth tech would stop that from happening?”
She started to talk but Meyer beat her to it. “If it wasn’t working—” He coughed, bending over slightly, grabbing the handrail.
“If it wasn’t working,” she said continuing for him. “We wouldn’t have any aircraft in the air.”
The old man stood, clearing his throat. “That AI will use familiar patterns of flight to guess at what is happening in the sky. It got lucky. And will continue to be so as it grows more powerful. Tell your pilots to fly more…”
“Erratically,” said Cary. He looked at the nearby officer, who nodded and spoke into his headphones.
The door at the rear sprung open and in walked the President. “Update.”
“Just lost a C-130 over Anchorage, but we still got some redundancy and coverage of the area.”
“Is the city completely gone?”
He nodded. “I’m afraid so. We got as many people out as we could, and they’re all heading north to us. So far the AI’s forces haven’t followed, but that’s not because they can’t. They’re holding their beachhead position for now. But… we need to be prepared.”
She looked at him, surprised. “I presumed we were already prepared?”
“We have done everything within our power. Everything is ready, but perhaps there is something else we can do…”
For a moment she appeared to question his sentiment, but then frowned and looked to the scenes of battle playing out on the screens at the front of the room. “I’m not letting any version of the AI into our network, general.”
“Look, I’m the last person that would suggest that. But—” Cary noticed a bemused look sweep across the officer two desks away. “— this enemy… it’s changing quicker than we are…” He looked at the young woman. “Lieutenant Holmes. What’s going on?”
She turned, distrust and bewilderment in her eyes. “Sir, I have someone saying they are… General Holland… on this channel. He say’s he wants to make a proposal…”
Shock flowed through the room, most looking at the comms officer. Another officer tapped away at his keyboard, then stood. “The signal is coming from a satellite relay station, just outside Anchorage.”
“Place the message on the room’s speaker,” said Hendricks.
There was a slight moment of static, then the voice crept from the surrounding speakers. “Cary… Cary… Denise… my Denise… and I hear that good for nothing Hendricks is now the president, well ain’t that swell.”
Hendricks looked at those nearby. “Can we reply?”
Holmes nodded. “Yes, ma’am, we can send out our live response on the same channels. It’s just a regular modulated radio frequency… no encryption.”
“And there’s no way it can use the signal to get in… here?”
