Inhuman(26)

Before another urgent instruction could be called out, the car impacted with the water. The back right side hit first, causing the vehicle to lurch onto its side. As it became submerged, the interior quickly grew darker, but the onboard electrical system remained active, and lights in the dash glowed green and red, giving off some faint light by which to see.

The A.I. and Thel had had the wind knocked out of them, but they remained conscious as the car’s buoyancy brought it violently bouncing back to the surface, where it bobbed in the frothing aftermath of the impact and turned right side up.

“Uhn…” Thel moaned as she looked forward, searching for signs of life. “James?” she said weakly, struggling to find her own breath.

The A.I. was already working on an escape plan, even as the car began taking on water. He lunged into the trunk and once again tried to turn the screws to free the tire iron, but after wasting a few precious seconds, desperately twisting until his fingertips were bloody, he was convinced that the screws were just too tight. He reemerged into the main cabin.

Thel was desperately trying to rouse James. He was still alive, but had hit his head against the dashboard after the airbag had deflated, leaving his forehead bloodied, a gash raining crimson rivers of blood down the left side of his face.

The A.I. considered trying to tear the headrest of one of the front seats apart, betting that prying the metal extender free would be far easier than trying to unscrew the tire iron. The metal piece might be strong enough, he surmised. It could break the glass.

But then, suddenly, he felt a presence above him, a presence he felt he was somehow uncannily connected too. He craned his stiff neck upward and saw the candidate hovering, staring down at the car as it bobbed in the dark, suffocating abyss that was slowly swallowing them whole, like a snake devouring a rodent, its hind legs still struggling futilely, even though the cruel outcome was already decided.

“He’s watching us,” the A.I. stated, alerting Thel.

She quickly looked up. “Why?” Thel demanded. “I thought this guy was supposed to be the savior for humanity! But he gets off by watching people drown?”

“There may be more to it than that,” the A.I. replied, “but this much is certain. We won’t be able to escape until we’re no longer in his line of sight.”

“What are you talking about? We have to get out of here!” Thel protested. “This car’s filling up fast! We’ll be underwater in two minutes if we don’t—”

“Yes,” the A.I. conceded, keeping a watchful eye on the looming figure floating just meters above them, watching them through the transparent roof. “We’re going to go under. That’s when we’ll make our move.”





3



“The name’s Colonel Paine,” he said, giving a slight salute before extending his hand for Old-timer to shake as he strode toward him. “That’s in case we’ve never met, that is,” he said with a smile.

Old-timer looked at the colonel’s hand, outstretched in a gesture of friendly greeting. It was the hand of the man who’d decapitated his wife.

And yet, it wasn’t the same hand at all.

The other hand had been constructed of a carbon fiber composite and it appeared metallic and clawed—inhuman. But the hand currently extended to him in friendly greeting was that of a biological person. Old-timer looked up at the steely blue eyes, completely organic and not the cybernetic ones of the murderer who’d taken so much from him. This was not the Purist super soldier Old-timer remembered in his night terrors, night terrors he still experienced all those years later. “Paine?”

“That’s right,” Paine said. He was still smiling, but his eyes revealed a slight confusion, now that his gesture was being rebuffed. “You all right, soldier?”

“Soldier?” Old-timer uttered, stepping back. “I-I mean, uh...Craig was a soldier here?”

“Bravest man I ever knew,” Paine confirmed, keeping his hand outstretched, determined not to let it fall before the gesture was returned.

Old-timer finally reached out apprehensively, as though caught in a nightmare, and shook Paine’s hand.

“You seem a little…” Paine paused for a moment, searching for the right words. “You seem weirded out. Understandably, of course,” he concluded as he completed the handshake.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Old-timer replied. “This place...Sam called it the void. What is it?”

“This little hideaway?” Paine replied sardonically as he looked up and surveyed the perfect nothing in which they stood. A cigar seemed to appear out of nowhere and was suddenly in his grasp, and an equally unexpected match was suddenly struck to light it. Paine took a few puffs before he continued, “This is all that’s left.”