Present Day
“¡Ayuda, tienen humanos en jaulas!”
Karina’s eyes opened to the blaring sound of her brother’s recording and the bitter taste of a dream comprised of a dreadful memory coating her mind.
“You ok?” Alex asked, standing at the entrance of Karina’s tent. An overcast above him draped him in shadows as rain poured down. “Everyone in camp heard you yelling in your sleep. You were saying a name. Javi, over and over again. Was that your brother?”
Karina, still groggy from an unrestful night, found it hard to pick which question to answer or which statement to be embarrassed over. Her, talking in her sleep about something she hardly confronted about to herself while conscious. Or answering ‘You ok?’ with ‘No, the brother I recently found after being Transfigured died a month ago because of the world dominating Artificial Intelligence known as the E.I.E.’
She responded to neither. “Did we get anymore prisoners overnight?” She asked, rubbing her temples before rising out of her sleeping bag.
“No. That’s two days now without any prisoners being released. Besides that last group after mine, it’s gone dry. I can only imagine what could be going on in there now.” Alex answered, shaking his head, trying to deform any image taking shape in his head like an etch-a-sketch.
Karina thought about what Javier said about their mom still being trapped in the prison. And she considered Javier’s sacrifice. One that bought her and the group enough time to escape the E.I.E.’s attempt to capture them. It also delayed the monster from learning what it couldn’t find out before they made their move, that it has a weakness. Two days of no new prisoners sent to scout the noise violation would make it easy to assume the E.I.E. has adapted in some way. And to wait another day would end up being their demise and a waste of a sacrifice.
“Gather everyone and tell them to get ready. We move out in an hour.” Karina said, shooing Alex away with a wave.
Alex parted ways with Karina into the camp without finding issue with her ignoring his questions. If he had learned anything about her over these past two days, it’s that she only has time to speak about one thing. Destroying the E.I.E..
The resistance consisting of a hundred men and women of all ages gathered around. Reverted, Transfigured and Incompatibles stood side by side waiting to hear the next instructions from the one who gathered them.
Alex scanned over the splintered categories of humans formed on Inferno Day. He considered the hills humanity stood on that were left burnt to ashes once the E.I.E. awakened and played its hand. Whether it was race, religion, sex, or soccer team, none of them mattered when you got past the flesh of it all. Down into the Spirit. That was something the E.I.E. probably recognized early in its inception as V.T.E. integrated their technology into everyday life. It found out the significance of the human spirit through each individual user, but found the singular constant guiding them all. The desire to be loved. The desire to be seen. The desire to be heard. The E.I.E. learned that about its users and decided it was best to repurpose their purpose according to its will. Well, it was time to teach that machine a lesson on the originators of adaptation and resiliency — organic life.
Karina’s tent whisked open as she spearheaded towards the center of the resistance. The murmurs between the comrades in oppression silenced as she passed. They all could feel it in the moment based off the urgency in her steps. Humanity was on the line. Whether it had been stolen for a time as a Converted, restored once reverted. Transfigured after completely separating from the E.I.E., to the Incompatibles who’ve seen it all with spirits untamed by the digital master of this age. Humanity’s last stand was about to begin.
Karina stabbed a knife into a map, hanging it on a tree for most to see. “We are going to hit the E.I.E., here, here, and here.” She said, pointing to three spots locations.
Choke points with high-density traffic, Alex thought. Karina’s fingers hit targets near 703 Rd., Rt. 101, and Highway 95.
“We’ll draw as much of its forces away from the headquarters in Heathland, which is where the fourth team will strike.” Karina continued. “While inside, we will set and detonate the Axiom mineral within the server room housing the E.I.E.. This, in itself, is a suicide mission.” She paused, letting the levity of the situation marinate over her listeners like a world class orator. “It all is, honestly, but I only need a select few to go inside with me. Any reinforcements we should have to worry about should only come from the prison if the other teams do their jobs.”
“How do we know this plan will stop the E.I.E. around the world?” A single voice in the crowd cried out. But it translated a projected thought from the masses.
“We don’t know. We can at least try. And at most, turn Cardinal-Wood and the surrounding area into an E.I.E. free zone. Those who live — carry on the mission and spread the news from state to state. That’s what we can hope for if that’s what it takes to survive.” Karina scanned the area silently, searching everyone’s pupils for any remaining doubt. “Strike teams, gather your equipment and load up. We leave in ten minutes. Catch the E.I.E., while it instructs the U-Net and Converted citizens through the morning routine protocols.”
Morning dew on a fresh patch of grass caught Alex’s attention. For the past two days, he’d been on watch, making sure there’s no movement from the prison or stuffing Axiom minerals into small pouches. Creating hacky sack like grenades for the resistance. He hadn’t had time to process all that was taking place. The steps of change, the conditions of restoration, were already in place. The resistance was just moving along with the current. Even if they failed, trying to stop the E.I.E. was in the right direction. The Earth wanted the monster defeated, too. So much so that it produced an anti A.I. mineral for its natural inhabitant’s defense.
Once upon a time, in a world long gone, a common phrase circulated within competitive sporting groups, ‘The best defense is a good offense.’ Throughout years of watching, training, and learning from the collective human experience, E.I.E., found this to be true.
Twenty minutes later, after the separate strike teams deployed, a rumbling five miles away shook off the final drop of morning dew from the blade of grass Alex observed earlier.
“Strike team one! Come in, strike team one!” Alex called out over the radio. He looked over to Karina, who clung to the frame of the driver’s side of the truck, eager to enter. Her, Alex, and two others delayed leaving the resistance camp in order to give the other strike teams time to create the distraction they needed to infiltrate V.T.E’s headquarters just beyond the prison.
A blackened mushroom cloud appeared with golden lightning. The force of the explosion toppled buildings lined down 703 Rd.
“Come in, strike team one!” Alex called out one more time, in a declaration of hope. “They weren’t supposed to detonate yet! We haven’t heard from team 2,” Alex relayed to Karina.
“Strike team 3 — This is team 2 — it’s Ralph.”
“Oh God, Ralph, are you all in position yet?”
“The streets — the streets are filled with — Insp —”
Another explosion vibrated winds in the east, cutting off Ralph’s last words. An overpass going across Rt. 101 caved in as a twin black cloud sprouted like a weed from hell. Gold lightning pulsated within it like veins.
“The E.I.E. is on to us,” Karina said. “We have to go now.” She finished, hopping into the driver’s seat. The engine roared as Alex entered from the passenger’s side and the other two members of strike team 3 piled into the back. Tires from the truck kicked up dirt and mud, destroying a patch of grass on the way towards their final destination.
“It sounded like Ralph was trying to say the streets were filled with Inspectors.” Larry, one volunteer on the team, said from the backseat.
“I think that’s what he was saying too.” Susan, his wife, second the implication. The two were a pair of Converted humans Karina’s brother Javier Transfigured simultaneously. That thread of love that connected them before dragging them through a Converted hell, tethered them together tightly at the end.
“We don’t have enough manpower to handle ten Inspectors. Let alone a hundred.” Alex chimed in, as the truck bounced between dips in the barren terrain flanking the prison. “You think the E.I.E. found out how to detect the Axiom mineral’s frequency? Can it see past the jamming signal now?”
Karina thought of the explosion her brother let off and the wave of ignorance thrown into the E.I.E.’s face because of it. How it must’ve felt for a self-proclaimed all knowing being to be met with an unknown substance.
The truck cut onto highway 95 from a natural hill, leaving the wasteland.
“There’s no one on the road.” Karina whispered over the hum of the engine.
Alex and the others studied the bare highway ahead.
“Where are the citizens? The delivery drones and V.T.E. taxis? There’s never been a day without movement within the U-Net as I remembered it.” Larry murmured as his throat tightened around his vocal cords.
A swarm of V.T.E. butterfly drones flanked from the over the bare trees of the east and from above the city skyline in the west. A hundred or so of them flew around the truck as if they were forming a caravan.
“The E.I.E., is bringing us to it.” Susan spoke, confirming everyone’s assumption. “But how can it see us?”
“By acknowledging the spaces in its system that it can’t see,” Karina answered, as they followed the procession, leading them to stand before an A.I. god.
To Be Concluded!
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