“Inside!” James shouted as he shoved his shocked and reluctant companions into the elevator, seeing the first of the NPCs sprint around the corner into the hallway as he hit the elevator’s button. The door hesitated for what seemed an eternity before finally beginning to close.
“Good news,” Aldous announced as guns that the A.I. instantly recognized suddenly appeared in all of their hands.
It wasn’t a moment too soon, as the first NPC’s arm reached into the elevator in time to stop the door and was only prevented from doing so by Thel’s quick reflexes as she aimed and pulled her trigger quickly enough to de-patternize the figure, the appendage breaking apart into a golden dust of coding that seemed to blow away in the cold breeze.
The door closed and it quickly became apparent that, had Thel not moved fast enough, they would’ve been overwhelmed by the herd of mindless patterns outside the door, the thud of their collective bodies crashing against the doors, sending a vibration throughout the inside of the elevator. James hit the STOP button and the elevator remained frozen in place in the shaft, the NPCs clawing against the outer door as the occupants, terrified, considered their next move.
Thel looked up. “They’re gonna rip through that door,” she pointed out. “We’ve gotta go up.”
“Agreed,” James replied.
Suddenly, a black armor began to form over his skin, shocking Thel and the others before they realized that it was forming over their own bodies as well.
The A.I. recognized the material, which fit over his frame like a glove. “Thank you, Aldous,” he said.
“It’s the least I could do,” Aldous replied. “I’m sorry I couldn’t have been of more use, but I’m afraid we have only seconds of contact left. I wasn’t able to reach Craig,” he relayed, “but, rest assured, I shall endeavor to find him. In the meantime, know that the sim itself is safe. It’s up to each of you now to survive the purge with the weapons you have in your possession. I have full confidence you can do it.”
“We’ll do our best,” the A.I. replied. “Good luck to you, Aldous,” the A.I. spoke as he aimed his de-patternizing gun at the roof of the elevator before stopping to speak to his companions. “Allow me. I have some experience with this sort of thing.”
He fired his weapon and the elevator’s roof disappeared in an explosion of golden dust.
33
Rich could barely move; only his left index finger twitched as he realized he’d been pushed beyond any of the extreme stress levels he’d experienced before. He’d faced death so many times, battled these androids before, but he’d never seen anything like what his eyes now beheld.
The wave of android bodies had swarmed the mainframe’s protective magnetic force-field once again, only to find themselves shredded by a dense, living fog of nanobots that ate each of them alive, relentlessly devouring the millions of android bodies just meters above Rich’s head. He watched as desperate android after android hit the surface of the field, only to have their flesh eaten within seconds, the metal skeletons underneath suddenly exposed as the flesh was consumed before the skeletons too were shredded. It was like watching them fall into a high-powered blender, their powerful bodies succumbing again and again…but they just kept coming.
“This makes no sense. This is absurd,” Rich whispered to himself, his lips trembling. “If this isn’t Hell, I don’t know what is.”
“Worse than Dante,” Aldous suddenly observed through their mind’s eye connection. “Worse than Blake.”
“I’ll take your word on that, Chief,” Rich replied, his mouth dry as he closed his eyes, blocking out the utter carnage and horror, trying to protect his mind from the trauma of the implacable chaos.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Aldous said. Rich noted that Aldous seemed to grunt, as though he were carrying some sort of burden.
“Good news first, please,” Rich replied.
“We’re going to survive this,” Aldous said, still huffing as he sounded to Rich to be hurrying as he carried whatever it was that caused him so much difficulty.
“That’s not fair. You’re double-dipping your good news,” Rich said, his eyebrows raised. “You already told me that good news earlier. You’re just dressing up the bad news that’s coming, aren’t you?”
“Well…” Aldous began, his voice no longer in Rich’s mind’s eye but coming from behind him as he hurried to reach him, Thel’s unconscious body over his shoulder. “I’m afraid we will have to endure the impact. As you can see, I’m no longer in control of the mainframe.”