
"He’s dead.” Baron enters my office unannounced, giving me little time to digest his appearance.
“Who?” I look up at him, wondering where Carl is.
“Wasta’s father.” Baron walks up to the water bar and grabs a bottle, “it’s all over the news, they’re saying natural causes, but who dies of natural causes anymore,”
“It’s getting closer.” I whisper to myself.
“Who?” I hear Baron swallow a huge gulp of water.
“Indium.”
We pause, a few seconds of silence, taking in the darkness of our new direction.
I explain to Baron what I know, choosing to trust him.
“So, Sharia has the memory sequence?”
“Yes.” I can hear Baron’s brain ticking.
“Can you trust her?” Baron asks.
“Yes.”
“Ok.” Baron sits on my couch holding his bottled water with both hands. “It’s circling in from the outside.”
“Indium?”
“It’s in predator mode, starting from the closest to the furthest.” Baron seems to be talking to himself more than me.
“How do you know me?” Baron finally looks up at and stares at me, like he is about to reveal something that will be dangerous to both of us. “Think, how do you know me?”
I think.
“I don’t.”
“Right now,” Baron stands up. “We will bring Wasta to Sharia’s lab. I will let you know when, be ready…. oh, and use that mask I gave you.”
“The lucid mask?”
Baron leaves without answering me. I am more confused than scared, maybe that’s what he wanted, to take away my fear, but something tells me he is more concerned with his own.
Where the fuck is Carl?
10
I am pausing at home. Enjoying what feels like a rare moment of silence and drama free space.
“You didn’t touch your food.” Albert takes my plate, “is there something else I can get you?”
“No, I’m good, thanks.”
I stare at Albert taking my plate, he seems further away from me now, not physically but emotionally, if that is even possible. Baron also feels one step out of my reality. Something has changed, I feel like an impostor. Like I am looking through someone else’s eyes.
“Albert?”
“Yes.”
“How long have we known each other?”
Albert stops and turns around to look at me. “A long time.”
“How long?”
There is a pause as Albert reaches back into his memory files. “I don’t have that information.”
“How can you not have that information?” I am irritated, and a little scared.
“The furthest memories I have aren’t coded.”
Albert stands in front of me, looking as confused as I am. “Do you want me to look into this?”
“No, no thank you, just leave it.” I don’t want Albert poking around in his programing, this could be a trap, something that creates a breach in my security system.
The news is playing in front of me, more Eternalist have been found dead. So much for natural causes. Baron was right, it is circling in, starting with the Eternalists, it will kill everything until it finds the memory sequence. I get up and grab the mask Baron gave me, still on the counter. I sit back down and fiddle with the straps.
“What’s that?” the alarm sounds in my unit. I put the mask down beside me.
“Go into the bunker.” Albert commands, physically pushing me towards the lit square on the floor. Before I can say anything, Albert triggers the security system to its highest defense level. The room changes from red to blue, signaling a possible need for outside help. I am lowered into the bunker where I await my fate in a tiny blue room.
11
Thank God I thought enough to put a washroom down here. I relieve myself while staring at the blue wash on the walls. The ceiling is soundproof by virtue of its thickness. I am deaf and blind to the outside world, and no one except Albert knows I’m here. I opted out of the alternative exit when it was being constructed, I have supplies, I thought, I wouldn’t be here more than a week.
My supplies are now gone, it feels like a month.
The water is now gone.
There is an emergency beacon I have been holding off on, once I set it, it will tell everyone I am here, everyone, but if I die anyway, I guess it doesn’t matter.
I enter the code and prepare to activate the beacon.
Suddenly, as if the room was reading my mind, the color changes from blue to green. I run to the lit square and wait. Within seconds I am back in my main unit.
“Sharia?” I stare at a very worn tired version of the woman I spoke to a week ago.
“Let’s go,” She grabs my hand, “we are running out of time.”
“Where’s Albert.” I look around at my main unit, food is rotting on the counter, the news screen is still on.
“Who’s Albert?”
Sharia pulls me out of my house and into a vehicle that looks like an armored car.
“Get in,” The door closes, I can hear the humming and clicking of the extra security in its skin. I feel like I am back in my bunker.
“Where are we going?” I stare at the screen in front of me, projecting a view of outside activities, or lack of. “Where is everyone?”
“Public and private bunkers.” Sharia opens a channel to her lab. Baron comes on the screen.
“Baron?” I stare at Baron, in all his red hair glory, looking less clown and more mad scientist. “What’s he doing there?”
“You haven’t told him yet?” Baron takes a side look at me and continues with Sharia. “We need him here now, we are ready.”
“Good, we’re almost there.” Sharia waves her hand, and the screen disappears.
“Told me what?” This is a logical next question.
“Do you remember anything before you were here.” I can tell Sharia is deciding how quickly to tear the Band-Aid off.
“Where?”
“Here, this world.” Sharia uses the word “world” to test me…I am failing.
“Ok, I’ll say this as quickly and as simply as possible.” Sharia clears her throat, “you, me, and Baron are not from here.” Pause, “we live in a different timeline, a different world…dimension, maybe.” More silence. “Our existence has been manufactured by the other side, what they refer here to as the Afterlife. Our purpose is to move into any timeline that is about to contaminate the future of the eternal world, Indium is about to achieve this…and we are here to stop it.”
“How?” I ignore the fact the Sharia could be having a psychotic break, with Baron. I choose to follow this through, I don’t think I have a choice.
“We are creating a Trojan horse virus. We managed to re-house Wasta’s consciousness threads back into his bio framing and are using a synthetic consciousness to plant an algorithmic poison. Once the Indium take this in, it will lose its ability to code and key the consciousness threads needed to enter the Afterlife.”
“Why am I here and why am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?” Sharia looks at me and smiles a sympathetic smile.
“You chose to come into this mission blind. You felt the last mission damaged you to the point of not functioning well enough to be of use, but you need to be of use, there are only a few of your kind left.” Sharia grabs the handle of the door as we hit a bump.
“What kind?” I’m starting to feel a familiarity with Sharia that extends beyond my current knowledge of her.
“The kind that can enter any bio or synthetic consciousness and redirect vital pathways. You are a miracle worker, and a bomb. You can block and change the route of passage into the next level of consciousness.”
“I’m dangerous.” I whisper, lost in thought, shock.
“No, not dangerous,” a second bump hits the vehicle forcing us to grab onto each other, “Baron and I are your guard rails.”
I am focusing on the external stimulation, trying to ground myself.
“What happens after we poison the Indium?” I shouldn’t have chosen to come into this mission blind. It’s too confusing…if it’s real, maybe I’m the one having a psychotic break.
“We go home.”
“Home?”
“Home.”
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