GENESIX: THE TRILOGY Page 33

  Jeff nodded. “We take out Skynet.”

  Quentin snickered at the joke. “I don’t think we should destroy it. Maybe we should reprogram it to work for us. It controls the robot drones, and there are probably thousands of them planetside. It would give us essentially an army to fight back with.”

  Mother said, “Do any of us have the computer programming skills to do something like that?”

  “I’ll bet Chloe could do it,” Jeff said.

  “I can’t believe it,” Sara said, with a look of wonder on her face. And a little fear. “We’re actually making battle plans.”

  EIGHT

  Sara and Jeff decided to take Quentin up on his idea to go find a room, after all. On the other side of the airport, in the former supply closet that now served as their bedroom, they had pulled each other’s clothes off and tangled on the floor.

  When they were finished, they stretched out on their blankets, side-by-side.

  Sara said, “We don’t get enough of that.”

  Jeff said, “It’s kind of fun trying though, isn’t it?”

  “Do you ever think about Before?”

  He nodded. “A lot. Like, a few times a day. It’s hard not to.”

  “Sometimes it doesn’t even seem real. It was all so long ago. I mean, we’re thirty-four. We’ve lived half our lives like this. On the run from the Machine and it’s damned army of robot drones.”

  “Do you remember where we first met?”

  She smiled. “How could I ever forget? Chloe’s party. We were both seventeen. I was still in high school. A senior. I thought you were in high school.”

  “Well, I couldn’t really tell you I was living in a secret facility buried in a mountaintop, being home-schooled by the smartest being who ever lived. You’d have thought I was nuts.”

  “I didn’t know you were a meta-human. I had only met a couple others like me. I probably would have thought you were nuts.”

  “But then I walked you back to the dorm where you were staying with your sister. And you gave me the hug. The hug of a lifetime.”

  She was quiet a moment. Then she said, “Do you think we’d have stayed together if the invasion hadn’t happened?”

  He rolled over to look at her. A candle burned atop an old, empty supply cabinet. In the meager light, he could see her face.

  He said, “Why would you even wonder that?”

  “I mean, think about it. The invasion began only two weeks after we met. Our entire life together has been shaped around that event.”

  “So, you’re thinking, like, any port in a storm?”

  She nodded.

  “I would hope you know me better than that. You have been the one shining light in all of this. I don’t know if I could have gotten through it without you.”

  “But if it didn’t happen. If there really weren’t any aliens out there. If none of this had happened. If we had just gone back to our lives and finished high school and gone to college. We might have even wound up at different colleges.”

  “Do you realize after I walked you home, you were all I could think about? When I returned to the mountain facility, you were all I could think about. I called Chloe and talked to her about you. Then, when it happened...when the invasion started, when my father and the others at the facility were killed, the first thing I did was find you. Made sure you were safe.”

  She nodded.

  He said, “What’s with you, tonight? This isn’t like you. You’re usually the most optimistic person I know. Next to Mother, that is.”

  She shrugged her naked shoulders. “I guess I’m just thinking about the discussion we had tonight with the others. The plans we’re making. The thought that we have to go on the offensive, which just might see us get killed. I just don’t want to lose you.”

  He let one hand find the side of her face. He began running his fingers through her strawberry blonde hair. “I think, in answer to your question, we would still be together. I was so gone on you, I couldn’t think of anything but you. I think today we would probably be living in the facility in Colorado. We’d be exploring the universe, with Dad and Scott.”

  “You think so?”

  “When I first met you, I was thinking I wanted to get away from all of that. Chloe had done it, given up the crazy life being a meta-human brings on and had settled into being just a college kid. That’s what I wanted. But, destiny has a way of catching up with you. I’m my father’s son, and those people were my family. Sooner or later, I think I would have wound up back there. And I hope you would have been with me.”

  “I suppose I would have been.” She looked at him and a smile drew across her face. “I think I would have always been with you. No matter what happened.”

  He smiled. “That’s what I like to hear.”

  “Maybe I just needed to hear you say it.”

  He nodded. “I totally get that.”

  One hand worked its way along the side of her neck, and to her collar bone. He then began tracing the contours of her shoulder.

  Her eyes were closed. “I love it when you touch me.”

  “I love touching you.” He lowered his face down to hers and gave her a gentle kiss.

  The kiss led to a longer one. And then, they tangled again.

  Jeff and Sara eventually went to sleep in their blankets. They hadn’t slept on a mattress in years. Amazing what the body can adapt to, Jeff thought. Of course, he could simply power-up a little, not so the sensors would detect a spike in zeta energy, but just enough so the hardness of the concrete floor wouldn’t be uncomfortable. But that wouldn’t be fair to Sara. If she experienced discomfort, he wanted to also. He wanted to share the burden. They didn’t even have pillows. He slept with his jacket rolled up beneath his head. She did the same.

  Except, Jeff found he couldn’t sleep. After a second round of love making, Sara had drifted off, but sleep seemed to be evading him. He finally decided to take a walk about the airport and assure himself their little compound was safe.

  He made sure Sara was snuggled warmly under the blanket. He then pulled on his jeans and shouldered into his jacket and stepped out of the room. He had his flashlight with him.

  He left the door to their little supply closet ajar so the closing of the door wouldn’t wake her up, and then stepped out into the hallway. Beneath his feet was a tiled concrete floor, and the tiles were a little cool on his bare feet. Regardless, he wasn’t going to go back into the room to get his boots. Sara needed her sleep.

  Something about this place at night reminded him of the first few days of the invasion.

  He hadn’t been at the mountain facility when it began. And really it had begun there. At the place he and his dad and Akila called home. So did Scott, April and Sammy. They all lived there. It was at their complex that all hell broke loose. When it was done, when Jeff returned to the place, he found it in about the same condition as the city of Boston. A war torn ruin. His dad was dead, killed before he could power-up. Scott was dead too. All of them were. The corridors were like this place mostly was. Dark and empty.

  He had beamed himself to Boston and found the metas there in the fight of their life.

  He had found Snake under a chunk of concrete. A bridge had been hit by an ion blast from an alien fighter ship and collapsed on him. He was still alive, but barely.

  “Chloe,” he had said, in his hissing, snake-like way. “Chloe..,”

  Chloe was like a daughter to him. Jeff had known this. He said to Snake, “I’ll find her. I’ll keep her safe.”

  Snake nodded, and shut his eyes for the last time.

  Jeff was only seventeen and not trained for this. He wasn’t a soldier. Hell, he was just a kid. He had wanted college. He had been thinking of leaving all of this meta stuff behind, and all of the craziness that went with it. But then the attack began. Everyone at the Colorado facility was dead. And it looked like the metas in Boston were soon going to follow suit.

  It wasn’t just the metas, he realized. The ships in the a
ir, which looked like little more than large, metallic ovals, were firing energy blasts at the normal humans, too. Crowds were running and screaming, only to be cut down to ash by the ion blasts.

  Mother, he thought. Quentin. The others. How could he even begin to find them in all of this chaos?

  Then it occurred to him. They were metas. He knew what their abilities were. He knew what Quentin’s was.

  QUENTIN, he thoughtcast. ARE YOU THERE? CAN YOU HEAR ME?

  It was a moment before Jeff heard the reply. JEFF. I’M AT THE PARKING GARAGE ON CHESTNUT STREET. I HAVE MOTHER AND SOME OF THE OTHERS. WE’RE COMMANDEERING SOME CARS AND ARE GOING TO TRY TO ESCAPE.

  Jeff said in his mind, SNAKE’S DEAD.

  There was silence. Then came, WHERE ARE YOU?

  Jeff gave the location. NEAR WHAT’S LEFT OF THE CHELSEA BRIDGE.

  CAN YOU MOUNT A DEFENSIVE STRIKE?

  Jeff thought about that. He could power-up and maybe take out a couple of these attacking vessels. Whatever they were. He didn’t at this time fully comprehend they were extraterrestrial. He thought of them simply as some sort of attacking force. Iranian, maybe. Or North Korean.

  I CAN TRY, he thoughtcast to Quentin. BUT I DON’T HAVE MY BATTLESUIT. THE COLORADO COMPLEX IS IN RUINS. MY SUIT IS SOMEWHERE THERE.

  Quentin thoughtcast, ALL RIGHT. YOU SHOULD JOIN WITH US.

  Jeff thought about that. What should he do amidst all the chaos? He suddenly became aware of a buzzing sound nearby, coming from above. He looked upward and saw one of the large, metallic ovals hovering above him. He was standing in the open and it was zeroing in on him.

  He began powering-up. Fast. Cranking up the zeta energy as fast as he possibly could. For some reason, he seemed to be faster at it than his father was. It took his dad more than thirty seconds to get to the point that he no longer needed oxygen. Jeff could get there in only four.

  It was a good thing, because the ship hovering above him cut loose with an ionic blast. Meant to turn him into a neat little pile of ash. Didn’t work. The blast hit him, and he had to admit he felt the heat from it. But when the flash of the blast died away, he was still standing. The body of Snake had been reduced to cinders and Jeff’s shirt was gone. Thanks to the gods of modesty, his jeans were still intact. It would be hard to try to look tough while facing the enemy if you were buck naked.

  THEY SHOT AT ME, he thoughtcast to Quentin. SOME SORT OF RAY BLAST. BUT I’M POWERED-UP. WHO ARE THEY, ANYWAY?

  UNKNOWN, AT THE CURRENT TIME. WE’LL TRY TO RENDEZ-VOUS WITH YOU.

  Before Jeff could give it much thought, the ship overhead fired again. But because he was still powering-up, this time he was able to anticipate the blast and dart off to one side. At this level of power, he could come close to matching Rick’s speed. The ion blast missed entirely and tore up the pavement where he had been standing.

  Enough of this. HOLD ON, he said to Quentin. SOMETHING I GOTTA TAKE CARE OF.

  He leapt into the air. Straight at the frigging ship. He held one fist outward for a strike and he drove right through it like a human missile. The ship exploded like something out of a night sky on the Fourth of July. Jeff landed on his feet. His jeans were still intact but he had torn a hole in one knee. He thought briefly what a commercial this would make for the manufacturer. Amazing what strange things can go through the mind in times of stress.

  He then noticed there were more ships in sight. Ships like the one he had just pulverized. At least eight. And they were zeroing in on him.

  He decided this would just turn into a losing battle. He wasn’t going to stick around.

  He thoughtcast to Quentin, I JUST TOOK OUT ONE OF THEIR SHIPS, BUT THERE ARE MORE COMING AFTER ME. I DON’T HAVE MY BATTLESUIT, SO I CAN’T FLY. I CAN’T OUT MANEUVER THEM. GOTTA RUN.

  Quentin said, UNDERSTOOD.

  Jeff, still powering-up, took off in a burst of speed. He now was practically at a level with Rick. He zipped along a Boston street, dust rising in a small cloud in his wake. He changed direction and was down an alley, and through it and across the street. He came to a skidding stop in another alley.

  QUENTIN?

  Quentin said, I’M HERE. WE’RE IN AN SUV. MOTHER, SONDRA AND ME.

  Jeff said, ANY SIGN OF THE DARKNESS?

  NO, AND I DON’T EXPECT THERE TO BE ONE. HE DOESN’T COME OUT BY DAY. SONDRA SAYS HE CAN’T.

  Jeff was thinking. He knew what he had to do, but he couldn’t do it powered-up.

  He thoughtcast to Quentin, GET MOTHER AND SONDRA OUT OF THERE. FIND A PLACE TO HIDE. I’LL FIND YOU. BUT FIRST I GOTTA TAKE CARE OF SOMETHING. SNAKE ASKED ME TO FIND CHLOE. WITH HIS DYING BREATH. I GOTTA DO THAT FOR HIM.

  UNDERSTOOD.

  I GOTTA GET OUT TO L.A., AND I DON’T HAVE TIME TO CATCH A BUS. I HAVE TO DO IT MY WAY, AND TO DO THAT I NEED A COUPLE MINUTES TO POWER-DOWN.

  Quentin said, JEFF, BE CAREFUL.

  HEY, CAREFUL’S MY MIDDLE NAME.

  Actually, Jeff thought, his middle name was Adam. But what the hell.

  I HEARD THAT, Quentin said.

  Jeff focused on powering-down. Not the easiest thing to do. Times of stress made him want to power-up. It was sort of an instinctive thing. If he was watching a ballgame and the Yankees were beating the Red Sox, he had to fight the urge to power-up. Or if the Giants were beating the Patriots.

  He could hear screams from out in the street and the roar of ionic blasts. He could hear the hum of those damned ships. But he had to power-down so he could teleport. He had to get to Chloe, and he could do it in the blink of an eye if he could just power-down enough. Zeta energy disrupted tachyon energy. In a way, he was his own worst enemy.

  He closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply. Relaxing. Powering-down.

  He heard a voice. Sounded sort of like a guy talking on the radio when the radio station is just slightly out of range. “Human. Don’t move. You are under arrest.”

  He looked up to see them walking toward him. Ten of them. At first he thought they were guys in some sort of SWAT team regalia, but he then quickly realized they were not. They were what he would later come to know as robot drones. They looked like men, at least from the neck down. Arms, legs, and a torso. Each seemed to be dressed in some sort of dark blue jumpsuit with black gloves and boots. The head was roughly shaped like a human’s, but there were simply two small camera units where the eyes should be and a speaker where the mouth normally was. No nose. No ears. Just two cameras and a speaker. Like something out of a nightmare you might have after reading too much Philip K. Dick.

  They each held some sort of weapon. Roughly the size of an M-16, but with a barrel that looked more like a long, thick antennae.

  “Sorry guys,” he said, “whatever the hell you are, I’m not sticking around.”

  And he parted the threads of time and stepped through them.

  He emerged at the college, on Chloe’s floor. Just outside her dorm room. He found her in the basement. One of the robot drones was lying motionless on the floor. A concrete wall had crumbled and Chloe was hanging onto one arm. The sleeve was torn and bloody.

  “He fired that gun of his at me,” she said. “Some sort of ray gun or something. It missed, but hit that wall and broke it apart. A piece of concrete hit me in the arm.”

  Jeff said, “What happened to him? He looks dead.”

  “They’re just tech. I could feel it. So I just shut him off.”

  Jeff went into a men’s room in one corner of the basement and found a first-aid kit. He cleaned Chloe’s wound the best he could with paper towels and water, and then took a gauze patch from the kit and began taping it over the wound. While he worked, they could hear large ion blasts from outside. There was screaming and occasionally the ground shook.

  “So,” Jeff said. “These enemy soldiers—they’re androids?”

  “Like Sammy. But not like Sammy. They don’t seem to think independently. They seem to be all part of a large, hive mind. And, Jeff, there are hundreds of them marching on the campus
.”

  “What are they doing?”

  “Rounding up students. Shooting any who try to run.”

  What kind of government would have the technological prowess, let alone the resources, to create this sort of attack force? But his questions would have to wait. Right now, there was one other order of business. He had to find Sara. She had occupied his thoughts obsessively since he had met her two weeks earlier. He knew she lived in San Jose. Attended high school there.

  “Chloe,” he said, “I’ve gotta find Sara. Then we’ll reunite with the metas in Boston. Quentin and Mother and the others, and try to figure out what to do then.”

  “What about Colorado? Wouldn’t that be the best place to be? Scott and your dad? They’ll know what to do.”

  “They’re gone,” he said. He was surprised at how calmly he could say it. Maybe he was just feeling numb from the shock of it all. “I think the complex was the first place hit.”

  Her mouth was hanging open. “My god.”

  “Quentin and Mother are in Boston. We have to get to Sara, then we’ll rendezvous with them and try to figure out what the hell’s going on.”

  “Jeff..,” she didn’t know quite how to say it. “San Jose was hit hard. It’s gone.”

  “What do you mean, gone?”

  “Obliterated. I heard it on the news. When the attack began a half hour ago, San Jose was destroyed. There’s nothing left.”

  “A half hour ago.” He nodded to himself. “That’s doable. Hang on.”

  She closed her eyes and held her breath. She always found riding with Jeff to be unsettling.

  He wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her through the strands of time.

  They emerged in San Jose a half hour earlier. At the high school. He was able to zero in on Sara, and he and Chloe stepped out into normal space almost directly beside her.

  Kids were at the windows, looking out with wonder and fear at the approaching oval-shaped ships. Jeff could hear the humming noise they made.

  Sara looked at him with mute surprise. He grabbed her by an arm, and then he, Chloe and Sara were gone in a flash of light. And the ships outside began a barrage of fire and San Jose went up in a massive fireball.