Nemesis (Project Nemesis #1)(60)

Most of our class had gathered on the sidewalk before Town Hall. Ethan and Derrick were trying to force the door while the Nolan twins paced the roof, searching for a way inside. Everyone else watched with their hands over their ears.

Peering around the corner of a nearby building, I didn't see any of the group who'd fled after Tack's murder. Carl and Sam must've eluded the search parties. Good for them.

"What do we do?" Min whispered.

I rubbed a hand over my mouth. We had the keycard, but there was no way past the mob. "Maybe wait for them to leave, then come back?"

"Screw that." Tack straightened. "Just follow my lead."

He strode into the street, heading directly for Town Hall.

"Tack!" Min whisper-shouted, but he didn't break stride. She covered her eyes for a beat, then fired after him. Without a better option, I followed.

Tack reached the group before anyone noticed him. Then heads whipped his way. Shouts erupted-another classmate, back from the dead. Everyone gave him a wide berth as he strolled up the steps like he was about to mail a letter.

Ethan turned, shock registering at finding my friend right behind him. Tack grinned.

Ethan was gripping a crowbar in one hand. "Thumbtack! You're an idiot for coming here. Thanks for making things easier."

"Close to opening that?" Tack shouted over the siren. "Doesn't seem like you've made any progress."

Ethan took a step, but Derrick held up a hand, eyeing Tack nervously. "So you're back, too, huh? What's going on, Tack? You're not dumb enough to show up here without a reason."

"I missed you guys. I thought we could get a group marriage license."

Ethan's jaw worked, but he made no move.

I was standing with Min at the bottom of the steps. She looked ready to pounce if necessary. One of my hands unconsciously adjusted my belt. I'll help if it comes to it. I will.

Derrick wiped sweat from his brow. "Last chance, man. Don't give Ethan another reason to pound your ass. Unless you like getting smacked around."

Tack spat on the flagstones. "Better than getting stabbed in the heart."



       
         
       
        

Derrick winced. "Let's not do this right now, okay? Both you guys. I'm tired. I don't understand how you're standing there. I just want that damn alarm to stop wailing before I go nuts!"

"Maybe this will help." Tack held up the keycard.

"Where'd you get that?" Ethan demanded sharply.

"I bought it on eBay."

"You think I won't-"

"Y'all chill!" Derrick shouted, stepping between them. "Tack, if you think that'll work, be my guest. Just turn off that freaking horn!"

Tack stepped around the larger boys, approached the port, and applied the card. For a moment, nothing, and my spirits sank. Then the sensor blinked green twice. The alarm ceased.

"Oh thank God." Derrick placed both palms over his eye sockets. "I was about to lose it." Ethan said nothing, but a pink wave was creeping up his neck.

The door to Town Hall swung open. A second, louder siren sounded. Everyone recoiled, holding their ears as they retreated down the steps. After ten seconds, it stopped. I found myself shoulder to shoulder with Ethan, who was staring back up at the door.

A figure emerged.

Gliding from the shadows, it halted at the top of the steps.

The blood drained from my face.

Black Suit.

He paused, observing us from behind his sliver sunglasses.

"Bastard!" Min charged the steps, but Tack snaked forward and grabbed her around the waist. "You son of a bitch!" She fought to break free, but he held on doggedly. "Don't, Min! He's a killer. Use your head!"

Min was beyond caring, rage twisting her delicate features. "You did this! All of this. I'll kill you, I swear it."

Black Suit regarded her dispassionately. "You'll kill me?"

Min stopped struggling. Stared daggers at our lifelong tormentor.

"I will. Or die trying."

"How, Melinda?" the black-suited man said softly. "You're already dead."





50


MIN



I stopped fighting.

My muscles froze as my brain spiraled.

Instinctively, I did a systems check. Pulse. Breath. Sweat. I was hungry. My left heel was blistered. Not the traits of a spirit in the afterlife. 

Liar. Remember, that's what he does.

Tack released me, his face sickly pale as he stared up at the black-suited man. Noah was a few feet away, beside Ethan. His whole body was trembling. The rest of our class was gathered behind us in shocked silence. I felt like an actor in a Greek tragedy.

Finally, I found my voice. "I'm not dead. I don't believe you."

Black Suit pivoted slowly, surveying the assembled teens. Then he addressed the whole group. "A quorum is present, and the preconditions have been met. Phase One is complete."

"Phase One?" Tack's voice shook. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

"I am the Guardian. I will clarify your circumstances, if you have the patience to listen."

I bit my tongue, swallowing a thousand insults I wanted to hurl. When no one interrupted, Black Suit continued. "Project Nemesis is now complete. Beta testing concluded on Day Minus-Nine. System components were installed on Day Minus-Four. The master program commenced full operation precisely one hour ago, marking this as Day Zero."

A lifetime of frustration exploded. "What is Nemesis?! What have you done to us?"

"The planet has been destroyed. You are all dead."

Gasps, but no one spoke. I swayed on my feet. I wanted to scream-curse him as a liar-but suddenly, I wasn't sure.

"Earth has suffered a cataclysm," he explained, inflectionless, a robot describing the weather. "Gravitational pressure from space has generated a storm of comet impacts while also triggering a sequence of deadly seismic events. Earthquakes. Eruptions. Tsunamis. The result has been an extinction-level event."

Town Hall's second-level bay window shimmered, became a giant screen. A picture of hell appeared. Smoke-choked skies roiled over a dead landscape. Lava flowed through valleys of steaming rock. Explosions detonated without warning, shooting flaming gas into the atmosphere. There was nothing alive in sight, not a single green leaf, for endless miles.

"The planet's surface has been virtually sterilized. Every human being is dead. You are dead. At least, your bodies are."

Soft moans behind me. Quiet sobs. "Why?" someone shouted in a shaky voice.

The image winked out. "Our sun is paired to another star known as Nemesis. Every twenty-six million years, when its orbit swings closest, the dark star's gravity ravages the solar system." Black Suit's face was impassive. "There is no defense. No place to hide. Humanity has always been doomed-we simply didn't know it. Which brings us to you."

The screen sprang to life again, displaying an underground chamber with a red zone illuminated at the bottom. My eyes shot to Tack, who swallowed and nodded.

We'd been there less than an hour ago. Clicked a red button.

"Project Nemesis was designed to preserve a sliver of humanity in defiance of extinction. Since you were young, this class of Fire Lake students has been studied and tested with a single goal in mind: to perfect the process of recording, digitizing, and uploading a human being into a supercomputer buried below Earth's surface."

My mind reeled. Pieces slotted into place.

"The project completed its mission. Though your bodies died, the program successfully preserved sixty-four electrochemical blueprints. These were uploaded into the mainframe on Day Minus-Four after final measurements were taken. You now exist as autonomous lines of code within the MegaCom master program."



       
         
       
        

I blinked, anesthetized.

I wanted to deny it all, but suddenly everything made sense.

The repairs to the town and valley. The lack of communications. The isolation.

The disappearance of everyone we knew.

What we'd considered impossible wasn't, because the world we now inhabited was a fiction. A computer-generated reality, designed to house our ghosts.

I'm dead. Mom's dead. Everything is dead.

There was nothing left at all.

Black Suit droned on, every word a hammer blow. "Your digital sequences have been inserted into a virtual re-creation of your hometown, to make you as comfortable as possible."

Tack cleared his throat. "The gas killed us, didn't it?"

"Your brains were required to complete formatting. We brought you online as close to the moment of death as possible, to reduce disorientation."

"This is nuts!" Derrick staggered backward, shaking his head. Then he punched a marble pillar and held up his bloody first. "I'm not dead! This building isn't fake! Stop messing with my head!"

Black Suit lifted a hand. Around us, the block shimmered, then faded to a network of glowing yellow lines on a pure black field. Stunned, I looked down. My body had disappeared, replaced by a running sequence of numbers and letters.

I tried to scream, but had no mouth. No face. No tangible core. I didn't exist.

Then everything snapped back to how it was.

Derrick had fallen to his knees, was staring at his hand. The cuts were gone, all traces of blood removed. Behind me, classmates shouted in fear. A few collapsed. Most stared fearfully at the black-suited man as he lowered his arm.