Authors: Dena Nicotra
“And?” I prodded, when his silence continued.
“I should have gone with my gut and just gotten us out of there, but I didn’t. Giz thought I could link up from the Premrail station, but it didn’t work. Those few seconds cost Jake his life.”
“How?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“They came on us so quick, and they flipped that van like it was a tin can.”
“Of course they did,” I spat. “So how did Jake die, Mic?”
“He’d climbed up front to sit in the passenger seat next to me. After they flipped the van, one of them broke the windshield while we were all scrambling to the back. I don’t know, Lee, it all happened so fast. One of them reached in and grabbed him and she, twisted his neck like he was nothing more than a rag doll. The simp that did it looked like your average teenage girl. It was the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” I said sarcastically. He continued, oblivious to my annoyance.
“At any rate, she threw him back through the front windshield when she was done. Barbara screamed until her voice gave out.”
“So how’d you get away?”
“I got my app to engage, and I set them all on a default pause mode. I know you don’t know what that means, but –“
“Actually, I think I do. I came up on a group of them that were all standing around like a bunch of mannequins. It was freaky as hell.”
“I know it’s very unnatural looking, but it was something I initially designed as a power saver mechanism. It’s motion sensitive.” He shrugged.
“Yeah, lot of good that does when you’re trying to escape,” I said.
“There’s a five minute window, Lee. It’s enough to get away, and it worked.”
“Not for Jake,” I said.
“No, you’re right,” he said sadly. The misery in his expression did little to melt my anger. Let him feel guilty for little Jake. Let him swim in it and get a good dose of karma, because as far as I was concerned, he’d earned that and then some. Clearly, time had not softened my feelings. As we stood there staring each other down, Giz appeared in the doorway. I shifted my gaze to him and gave him a half-hearted smile.
“Holy shit! I thought you were dead!” He made his way around Mic and gave me a brief but warm embrace.
“I feel like I am. Please tell me you have some food in there.”
“We do. Wow! I just can’t believe it’s actually you!” I laughed at the familiar squeal in his voice.
“I missed you too, Giz.”
“You’re a smart-ass, Lee.”
“Well, at least I’m consistent.”
“Fair enough. Let’s get the rest of our stuff and then get back inside. Alice made a nice soup with some canned chicken, and I know we had some bread still…” He spied the open paper sack on the counter, and what was left of the bread.
“Sorry,” I said with a laugh.
“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll divide what’s left and have a celebration. It will do Barbara good to see you.” As Giz talked, we gathered up the items that were useful, including some cans of stew and an ice chest that was filled with what they had brought from the house. Mic refused to meet my eyes as we worked, and that was fine with me. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing left to discuss. A little boy was dead because of his confidence in his fucking programming skills, which said only one thing to me: the man just refused to learn from his mistakes.
I followed the two men through the lobby and up the stairs, as they managed the ice chest between them. The place was old, and the humidity level, combined with the rain, magnified the musty smell inside. It reminded me of wet hay and horse piss. The carpet was a nasty shade of olive-green that was worn to bare wood in places, and probably had years of caked-in desert dirt. The heavy draperies were probably designed to keep the heat of the day out at one point, but now they were brittle with age and torn in places from the weight of the dust that clung to them. Still, it was better than sleeping in that truck, and the thought of food made me extremely happy. As much as I preferred to be on my own, I had to admit to myself that it felt kind of good to see them.
“We’re in two-o-nine,” Mic said, as we made our way down the hallway. The lights were flickering, which indicated that the power was on a faulty grid.
“Alice and I are in two-ten,” Giz added shyly.
“Oh yeah?” I said.
“Uh-huh.” Giz wasn’t one to get personal, and I respected that.
“Cool,” I said. Mic pulled a key card from his pocket and swiped it in front of the reader by the door. The little green light indicated that the lock had opened and then he turned the knob. “You guys won’t believe who we found!” He said as he entered with Giz in tow. I followed him in and as soon as Alice saw me, she jumped off the bed with a squeal and came to give me a tight hug. I embraced her back and tried to keep my expression peppy. Mic’s Aunt Maude was next. I noticed that she seemed to be having some trouble walking, so I made the attempt and met her halfway. She planted a quick kiss on my cheek and then stepped back. “It’s good to see you, Lee. You had us all convinced you’d been snatched up by a simp.” Her smile was warm, but something in her eyes revealed a deeper concern. Barbara sat on the double bed with her back to us and, when she didn’t move, I glanced at the others. Each gave me an expression that said she was far from okay. I moved around the others to sit on the bed beside her. “Hey there, Barbara,” I said softly, reaching out to pat her arm. Her vacant eyes met mine.
“Hi, Lee,” she managed. I didn’t have any words for the pain I saw in her eyes. She was obviously mourning the loss of Jake, and I understood that. Why would I expect her to be all bubbly just because I’d shown up? “I’m so sorry,” I said, as softly as I could. A tear slid down her pale cheek. “He was a good kid, and I know you loved him.”
She nodded, but didn’t respond. Desperate for a change in focus, I turned to Giz, who was as lacking in social graces as I was. “So Giz, tell me where you guys are with the digital battle. Have you written the perfect code yet?”
“Not yet, but we’re getting closer. As a matter of fact, Mic and I have been talking about finding a simp that we can test it on and—”
“Are you out of your key-clacking mind?” I snapped.
“I’m not out of my mind, Lee. It is the only way to take it to the next level, and we’ve all agreed to this by vote.” I turned to look at the others.
“Are you all seriously going to allow these two to capture a simp, to do their little testing shit? What if it doesn’t work? It’s a risk to all of you, and after what happened with Jake, I don’t see how you could agree to such a scheme.”
“It’s the only way,” Barbara muttered.
“We can neutralize a simp with the pause function. We’ve already tested that it works,” Giz shot back.
“Yeah, for what? Five minutes? Are you fucking kidding me? Five minutes won’t buy you enough time to do anything!”
“Yes it will, Lee,” Mic said.
“Mic, you are a narcissistic asshole.”
“Would you just hear me out, Lee?” I ran my hand through my hair and sat down.
“What could you possibly say that would make me think any differently, Mic?”
“I could say that I’ve already tried it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why do you think we left the house?” Maude said.
“Okay, could somebody please fill me in here?”
“We captured a simp and Micah and Giz worked to reprogram her. Or to pull out the bad virus that that idiot Sam Yen started,” Maude said. She was a sweet lady, and I didn’t want to shatter her delusions, but her nephew was the real villain here. Yes, Yen was the one who infected the simps, but if there were no simps we wouldn’t be in this mess.
“And?” I said, trying to hide my impatience.
“Well, we shut her down, wiped her memory banks, and re-installed her core program structures from a clean slate.”
“And?”
“And it worked.”
“No. It obviously didn’t if you had to leave the house so what went wrong? What are you not saying, Mic?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Giz croaked.
“Exactly my point!” I shot back.
“Wait a minute, before you go off on a tirade, Lee, we did make significant progress,” Mic said.
“I’ll say! She was cleaning my house like a banshee, and it was wonderful! I haven’t had that kind of help since the good old days!” Maude’s exuberance was almost more than I could stand.
The good old days?
There were no ‘good old days.’ There were the times before they started killing us. And let’s get honest here: during that time, they were stealing jobs from the working class. For anyone who wasn’t college-minded, well, they were just flat screwed.
“Well that’s just great! Your nephew turned a cyborg killer into a domestic housekeeper. Now we’ll all be saved!”
“Stop it, Lee,” Giz said, holding his hand up.
“No, Giz, let’s not be all protective of your hero, here.” I waved my hand at Mic. “His master-mind invention has fucking catapulted us into the Dark Ages. He’s not the Messiah, he’s the fucking anti-Christ! He’s the corporate sell-out that has brought about the Apocalypse!” I shouted.
That’s enough, Lee,” Maude said.
“I’m out of here,” I said.
“Where are you going to go? It’s pouring out there, and it’s dark now. Just stop it! Lee, just give them a chance,” Barbara’s face radiated exhaustion and pain. I felt a twinge of remorse for exploding in front of her.
“Barbara, I’m so sorry about Jake. I know that you are hurting and there’s nothing I can say or do to make that pain go away, but if you let them bring a simp in here, you could be jeopardizing your own life. Is it worth that to you?”
“If it means finding a way to make this nightmare end, Lee, I am absolutely fine with it, and I trust that Micah and Giz know what they are doing. We are blessed to be with these two. Why can’t you see that?” I shook my head.
“I’m sorry Barbara, I wish that I could be as gullible as you are, but I don’t trust simps. It’s as simple as that.”
“I’m not gullible, Lee. I’m desperate, and I’m tired.” She turned away and buried her face in her hands.
“If you want to go, go, but you’re not stopping us,” Giz glared at me defiantly.
“Whatever. I’ll go my own way in the morning.” I slung my pack over my shoulder and walked to the door. No one said a single word as I left.
I went down to the lobby and helped myself to a keycard. Then I took a room on the third floor so that I didn’t have to run in to any of them. Clicking on the light I pulled my .38 from my waistband and swept the room. Finding it empty, I tried the window to let in some fresh air but it wouldn’t budge. Frustrated, I took a seat at the small round table and put my feet up on the chair on the opposite side. It was a depressing room, with brown walls dappled with some sort of white cherry blossom pattern, and a garish bronze bed covering that had a thick layer of dust on it. The wall opposite the bed was taken up entirely by a monitor. I grabbed the remote from the table and clicked it on. The words “select theme” appeared and I scrolled through the menu of choices. The view changed from a cityscape to the beach, and a selection of other scenic views including the desert. I settled on the cityscape and then went to the shower.
The water didn’t get hot, but the coolness felt refreshing. There was a small wafer of soap wrapped in paper with the hotel name on it, and I found a washcloth beneath the sink. The towels folded on the rack were dusty, so I decided to drip dry. I pulled on a pair of pale green scrubs I’d stuffed in my pack back at the hospital, and a fresh white tank and then set about pulling the covers from the bed. The closet revealed a stack of sheets and blankets, so I stripped the bed and remade it with those. They smelled musty but they were cleaner than what was on the bed before. Just as I got myself settled, I heard a knock at the door.
I pulled my pistol from the nightstand and moved to the door, taking care to move quietly. The knock came again, this time a little louder. I glanced around the room for an alternate escape route, and cursed myself for not picking a different room when I found that the window wouldn’t open. “Lee, I know you’re in there. I want to talk. Can you open the door, please?”
I lowered my gun and placed it back in my waistband. When I opened the door, Mic stretched his hands out to me. He held a bowl of chicken soup. “Take it. I’m sure you haven’t eaten. Can I come in?” I took the bowl from him and stood back so that he could enter the room.
“How’d you know what room I was in?”
“I’ve got an app for that.”
“I should have known.” He sat at the table with me and watched as I spooned the soup into my mouth. His eyes took on a drowsy look and then he cleared his throat. “Look, I know you don’t like me, Lee, and I’m not asking you to change your mind on that. What I came here to talk to you about is an alternative plan.”
“Talk,” I said, as I slurped another spoonful. The soup was actually not bad. She’d used some canned vegetables, and the combination of little bits of carrot and peas made it great comfort food.
“So that you know, the simp that we reprogrammed was searching for humans. She’d entered the side yard, and my aunt spotted her through the kitchen window. I used my app, and —”
“You say that like your application is a magic wand,” I interrupted, unable to hide my contempt.
He rolled his eyes and sighed impatiently. “Listen, in some ways it sort of is like a magic wand, if you think about it.”
“How’s that?”
“I was able to initiate the motion pause. It took me less than three minutes to shut her down, and absolutely no harm came to anyone in the process.”
“But—”
He cut me off before I could continue.
“Please, Lee, let me finish.”
“Fine. Go on, but it won’t change anything.”
“The code that Giz and I have been working on was successful, but it didn’t last. Annie reverted to her corrupted coding, and I had to put her down.”
“Well that’s just giving me all the confidence I need to back up your plans.”
“Hear me out.”
“I’m listening, but no promises.” I took another spoonful of soup.
“Because she became infected again, we know now that the virus is airborne.” I frowned at him, “What does that mean?”
“It means that even if Giz and I are successful with our code — which we are by the way — it doesn’t last, and that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I understand that you aren’t comfortable with us trying to get another simp to test…but what if I created a new one?”
“What are you talking about? How?”
“It would mean going back to the Bay area…to IDE headquarters. I have the means there.”
“So, let me get this straight. You’re telling me that you won’t hijack a simp to reprogram because I think it’s a bad idea, but you want to go back to the Bay area and make yourself some new ones to play with. I think that’s absolutely brilliant, Mic. I don’t understand why you didn’t think of that before.”
“You’re being sarcastic.”
“You think?”
“I want you to come with us.”
“Wow! You’re fucking nuts, you know that?” I stood up. Sensing he was about to be thrown out of my room, he began to speak quickly.
“We found a functioning segment of the Premrail. It’s a few hours or so away, and then it’s forty-five minutes back to the Bay.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to come with us.”
“Not happening.”
“I need you to come with us, Lee.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to use the 3-D printer to make a copy…of you.”
“And now you can get the fuck out of my room.”
“Please Lee, I have a very good reason why I want to print you. Just listen.”
I slammed the bowl down on the table and glared at him.
“You are the most stubborn person I know, and if I pull that trait in, conditioned with my code, I believe I could create a simp that could resist the viral upload.”
“You mean because I’m a bitch, you could duplicate me and then program my cyber double to resist Yen’s code?”
“That’s blunt, but yes. It is exactly what I mean.”
“Find yourself another bitch.”
He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit two, handing me one. I took it from him, took a long hit, and then blew smoke directly in his face.
“Why would you think for a second that I’d agree to do this, Mic?”
“Because if you don’t, we’re all going to die.”
“Of course we are. It’s just a waiting game. We’re all dead already, Mic. We just don’t know it.”
“No, time is running out, Lee. They’ve learned how to replicate themselves and they are using my equipment, and my inventions, to do it!” He slammed his fist down on the table for emphasis.
“I don’t understand. What can I possibly do to help with that?”
“I know you don’t understand, but you need to trust me when I say this: you are our only hope.” His eyes searched my face. “How long have you known this?” I asked.
“Two days ago they broke in to the cortex at IDE. It is where we house the master printers. They’ve been offline since the war. They went back online early yesterday morning. Every simp has a serial number, and that catalog is something I closely monitor. It’s remained unchanged since the collapse. That changed last night.”
“What are you saying?” I noticed my hand was shaking as I leaned over the table to ash my cigarette in the soup bowl.
“They’ve printed eighteen million new simps at my last check two hours ago. That’s two thirds the population of San Francisco.”
“How could printing a simp of me do anything against that?”
“It’s a long shot, I know, but Giz and I believe that we can model your defiant behavior and then we can mirror that in our code.”
Without a second thought, or even the slightest hesitation, my hand came up and I slapped him hard across his chiseled face. He squinted at me as if he was trying to digest what I’d just done, and then his mouth curved into that cunning smile that I’d seen splashed across magazine covers.
I raised my hand to wipe that smirk off his face, but this time he caught my wrist and pulled me close. His other hand found my lower back and the warmth that shot through my body caught me off-guard.
“Let go of me, Mic. I’m warning you,” I said through gritted teeth.
His gray eyes locked on me. We stayed like that, silently challenging each other for what seemed like an eternity. I felt as if he was debating saying something, but he remained silent, gently inhaling, as if he were trying to breathe me in. I glanced away, unable to meet his eyes. There was definitely something shifting between us. He raised one eyebrow, and I knew he felt my walls slipping down. His lips met mine with so much force, we both slammed in to the wall behind me. His mouth was as hungry as mine was accepting. Before I could digest what had just happened, my leg wrapped around his thigh and my hands curled in his hair. His hot tongue traveled down my neck. Electric currents sang through my veins, and as much as I wanted to resist this, my body vehemently demanded the opposite. He lifted me up, and I eagerly locked my legs around his hips as he carried me to the bed.
“Do you want me to stop?” he whispered, hovering over me. Breathing raggedly, I pulled him down, directing him with an arch of my hips.
“Don’t you dare,” I replied. This was all the encouragement he needed, and he smiled broadly before pulling back and gently tugging my scrubs down. While he did this, I yanked my tank top over my head, and threw it to the floor. There was certain desperation in our actions, as if at any moment something might break this magical spell. Mic made short work of removing his own clothes and when he did, I smiled in appreciation of the view. He was far from the perfectly chiseled paperback romance stereotype. His skin was pale, but everything about him was beautifully proportioned and toned. Eventually the intensity of our lovemaking slowed to a gentle tempo that only the lonely can appreciate. I traced my fingers up and down his back and whispered his name while he melted the walls I’d painstakingly built around me. The digital cityscape twinkled in the background as Mic Keenan became mine.
When we finished, he pulled me over to rest my head on his shoulder. I couldn’t speak, because I was afraid I might say something to break the spell. I was rough around the edges, and I knew that. I’d prided myself on my ability to be less than feminine, or even charming. Those traits had never been my nature…there was a time when I wasn’t quite as coarse. I traced tiny circles in the small patch of hair on his chest and lingered in the moment. A part of me was already regretting what I’d just done. Still another part of me wanted to stay in this man’s arms forever. The Mic Keenan I’d hated was not this man. This was a man who knew how to make love to a woman, and knew how to make me feel like I was alive again.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he said softly.
“I’d kill for a cigarette and a cold beer,” I said with a laugh. He tousled my hair and I could tell he was laughing by the way his chest heaved up and down.
“Is that all you have to say, Lee?”
“No. That was amazing…but I would love a cigarette and a cold beer.”
“Smokes are in the pocket of my t-shirt. As for the beer, I think we’re out of luck.”
“One out of two isn’t bad,” I said, climbing out of the bed to collect two cigarettes from his pocket. I lit them both and came back to the bed, handing him one.
“You are breathtakingly beautiful.”
“You only say that because I’m naked.”
“That’s not true. I’ve thought that since I first laid eyes on you.”
“What? You mean you didn’t think I was a raving bitch? Now you’re hurting my feelings, Mic.”
“Okay, you are a raving bitch…but I like a challenge.”
I blew smoke at the ceiling and glared at him. “Is that all I am to you? A challenge?”
“Now you are insulting me. No. I’ve wanted you to be much more than that for a while now.” His voice became serious. “When you left, I blamed myself. I was sure that you were dead.”
“Did you cry for me, Mic?”
“Would you think me less of a man for saying ‘yes’?”
It felt good to be cared for. I tried not to think about how easily I could lose him and pushed back my rational thoughts. I bent over and kissed the top of his nose.
“No. Quite the opposite, actually.”
His smile was genuine, and I felt relaxed for the first time in longer than I could remember. If this was the worst I had done, I could live with it. We doused our cigarettes in my soup bowl and snuggled back in the bed. His skin felt deliciously warm and reassuring. When his breathing evened out and I knew he’d fallen asleep, I took comfort in knowing his arms were around me and that I was, for the moment, content.
I was awakened by the morning light streaming through the yellowed curtains, and I instinctively reached across the bed for Mic. When I realized he wasn’t there, I sat up abruptly.
“Did you sleep well?” His voice was velvety smooth, and seeing him at the table in his boxers made me smile.
“Better than I have in years,” I said.
“Me too.”
“So now what?” I asked, reaching my arms over my head in a deep stretch.
“We go to the Bay.”
I nodded and pulled the sheets back. The room was already warm and it felt good to be free of the sheets.
“Or…we pause to linger in the moment,” he said with a grin.
“You’re incorrigible.”
“No, I’m actually very rigid — in more ways than one.” He laughed. “You just bring out the worst in me.”
“I’ve got to pee,” I said with a laugh, and climbed out of the bed.
“Hurry, I’ll be waiting right here.” He’d already stripped his boxers and crossed the room to the bed.
“Do me a favor, find us some coffee first?” I shut the bathroom door behind me, but not before I caught his impish grin.
“I can do that. I’ll be back,” he said to the closed door. I washed my face and took a few moments to get myself together. Despite my best efforts, Mic Keenan had wormed his way into my heart. I didn’t know how I felt about that, but I did know that I had feelings for him. I wanted to hate him as the inventor of mass destruction, but there was something undeniably gentle and genuine about him. As much as I wanted to distrust him, I couldn’t. I crawled back in the bed and closed my eyes. Mic returned a short while later with two steaming cups of hot coffee. I sat up in the bed anxiously and took my cup from his outstretched hand.
“I didn’t really expect a hot cup of coffee, how did you manage this?”
“We had some instant, and Alice had it heated up. I can’t take full credit for it, but I do like making you smile.” I took a deep sip and then set the cup on the nightstand. Sensing my intentions, he did the same. I laced my hands behind my head and crossed my ankles. I could tell his eyes were drinking me in appreciatively. I was wearing only my underwear and a tank top. He brushed his hand down my thigh and then traveled back up slowly to the edge of my underwear. I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, allowing the feeling of his warm hands on my skin to give me a sense of peace. It’s unbelievable how incredible it feels to be touched when you’ve gone so long without the feeling of another person’s hands on your body. It isn’t just about sex. It is incredibly soothing just to know someone in the universe cares about you.
I reached down to his hand and gently directed it to my mouth. I kissed the tips of his fingers, softly and then he bent his head to find my lips. In that moment, I didn’t care that the world had fallen around me. It didn’t matter that I was in the middle of the desert in a dingy hotel that was getting hotter by the minute. It mattered only that his body was melding with my own, and that his flesh was warm and strong beneath my fingers. We took our time exploring each other in the shadowy light of the early morning. Each position was a new opportunity for me to feel alive again. We were only interrupted by the soft tapping on the door.