Episode 4.1

EPISODE 4: "SURVIVING"
STARRING: MARLA MANSLAUGHTER
SALT LAKE CITY, UT

I wish I could say that things got better after aliens arrived and blew up Fort Douglas.  But they didn’t.  I was glad to have found Minh, but she wasn’t much of a conversationalist. 

Because I’m clever. 

            

 Those were the last words I heard her speak.  After we left the ruins of Fort Douglas, she would only communicate by nodding for “yes” and shaking her head for “no.”

             

“Was that your car you were sleeping in?”

            

 Nod.

            

 “Do you know what year it is?”

            

 Nod.

            

 “Are your parents somewhere nearby”

            

 Head shake.

            

 “Are your parents still alive?”

            

 Head shake.

            

 “Do you want to come with me?”

            

 Nod.

            

I didn’t even learn her name until that afternoon when we ducked into an abandoned Jeep to hide from a flock of head-poppers.  After we reclined the seats and listened to the little snot walkers slither through the street, she reached over and grabbed my hand.  I felt a cold chain dig into my wrist and looked down to see what it was.  She was wearing one of those bracelets that look like pretty versions of hospital I.D. bands.  On the small card of metal that connected both ends of the chain, I read the name Minh Ha.  I lifted it from her wrist with my thumb and saw characters that I assumed to be her name in what looked like Japanese to my untrained American eyes.

            

 After the head-poppers had vacated the premises, I pointed to her bracelet.

             

“Is that your name?”

            

 Nod.

            

 “Minh Ha? Did I say it right?”

            

 Nod.

            

 “I’m Marla.” I shook her hand, and she smiled.

            

 She looked like she was about twelve or thirteen—that streak of orange in her shiny black hair could have only been the result of a misguided attempt at preteen rebellion.  I felt bad for the girl, but I secretly wished that my first companion in this new apocalyptic world would at least talk to me. 

            

 We wandered down Foothill Drive towards the Dan’s where I used to buy my weekly college rations of Easy Mac, Diet Coke, and chocolate-covered pretzels.  I was clinging to the idiot’s hope of running into someone who knew what the hell to do in a situation like this, which reminded me of the conversation I had with the mysterious and awesomely named Max Bodycount.  My memory of meeting him was now fuzzy and dreamlike and even though I was lugging an automatic shotgun that he gave me, I began to question whether or not the meeting ever really took place.

            

 Marla Manslaughter. 

            

 That’s what he “dubbed” me.  At the time, I guess it felt like I had some kind of destiny…like I was supposed to know what the hell to do in a situation like this.  But right now, as I wander down the automobile graveyard that was once Foothill Drive, as I sidestep broken glass and errant brain matter with a mute preteen in tow, I feel pretty damn helpless.

Meanwhile: A Conversation From Beyond

The death metal band Moloch had been making quite a name for itself. Sold out shows. Accolades from all the notable music media. Even a Grammy nomination. One thing that was different about Moloch’s rise to the top was that it was not motivated by money or status or even art. It was motivated for the express purpose to plunge the planet into a nightmare of chaos and pain.

As Boston was turning itself inside out with fire and panic, Balthazar Treason (lead vocals) sat comfortably with the other three members of Moloch within the luxurious confines of the Fifteen Beacon hotel drinking wine that was bottled before any of them were born. Balthazar reflected on that fateful meeting that the band had with Mr. Dionysius two years previous. All of the band members agreed to the terms. None of them were quite prepared to witness what they had unleashed on the world.

Their trance-like state was interrupted with a knock on their hotel room door. Marcus de Spazz (bass), a portly young man with a shaved head, stood up slowly and opened the door. The lights in the room dimmed slightly as Mr. Dionysius, slithered into the room. He was impeccably dressed, and his face was plastered with a reptilian grin. He was carrying a jet-black cell phone on a silver plate.

“Good evening, boys. Great show, great show. So great, in fact, that our Employer wishes to speak with you.” Dionysius snaked over to Balthazar and extended the plate with an exaggerated gesture of politeness. Balthazar hesitantly reached for the cell phone. He had never spoken with the Employer before, and he was slightly nervous.

“Y-yes? This is Balthazar.” He cringed ever so slightly when he heard the Employer’s voice. It reminded him of their music video for their single “Expunge” where the band had to fill their mouths with thick black Karo syrup.

“Balthazar…so good to finally speak with you. Well done in Boston. I understand we’re positively killing,” The Employer followed his statement up with a metallic, hacking laugh that made Balthazar cringe once more, “Listen. I need you and your boys to head up north, to Rhode Island. There’s a small problem that could turn into a big one if something is not done. Dionysius will have some new material ready for you. He insisted that we keep this on the down low, but since you boys are officially on the payroll, I thought I’d let you in on the plan. You’ll be summoning the Omniphage,” Balthazar thought about asking about the Omniphage, but the Employer anticipated him, “The Omniphage is a dear friend of mine. He’ll take care of this little speed bump on our world tour.”

“Yes, sir.” Was all Balthazar replied.

“Great. Take care boys. And keep up the good work.” The conversation ended, and Balthazar handed the phone back to Dionysius.

“Hey, D? What’s a…an omelet face?” A series of high pitched giggles wormed their way out of Dionysius’s mouth.

“You mean Omni-phage. Oh, that’s too funny. You’ll see soon enough. Just play the show that I book you.”

“Okay. Cool.” Balthazar took a few steps to the window and stared blankly down at the streets. Flames were consuming cars, food stands, buildings, and people. He hadn’t expected his music career to be built on the blood of innocents. Better theirs than his, he thought absently. Better theirs than his.

Episode 3.7: "Vegas, Baby"

The three of us decided that the best course of action was to get as far away from Omni-Com as possible. The plan was to head for Las Vegas, where Omni-Com’s west coast servers were located. She reasoned that if we could somehow shut down those servers, we might have a chance to keep this “virus” from spreading. I had my misgivings, but it was kind of a badass strategy.

We entered the interstate at a little after six PM. Veronica was plowing through her contact list. With every person that she reached, the conversation eventually turned to something called Protocol Epsilon. When she had finished her phone conversations, I asked her about it.

“Ira…” she sounded frustrated and exhausted, “I’ve already told you that there are things about the company that you and I can’t talk about. I’d lose my job if…”

“Excuse me, miss,” Valya interrupted, “From the look of things back there, I’d say you’ve lost your job already.” My grandma’s cool blue eyes were magnified by the huge beer bottle glasses that never left their perch on her nose. Surprisingly, Veronica laughed.

“Yes…I suppose you’re right.”

“Baba, this is Veronica. I didn’t get the chance to introduce her, because, you know, we were running from a robot that was wearing Chet.” They shook hands, and I felt the mood lighten slightly.

“Protocol Epsilon,” Veronica began, “Is an emergency procedure. I guess it’s no secret that Omni-Com has been dabbling in the field of artificial intelligence. Well, in the event that an AI becomes compromised, the company is to enact Protocol Epsilon, which raises emergency firewalls around all company networks.”

“That sounds like a good thing.” I muttered.

“Yes, it is a good thing. The problem is…” Veronica paused for what seemed like an eternity, “Nobody believes me. The company networks are…vulnerable.”

“Shit.”

“Irochka, do not use such language in front of a lady.”

“Sorry, Baba.”

“And to the lady.”

“Sorry, Veronica. Just how many subsidiary companies does Omni-Com have?” There was a brief pause as her synapses fired.

“Omni-Com has seventy-five subsidiaries in thirty-three different states.”

“Oh. That’s…that’s quite a bit. Will shutting down the servers even work?” Sweat had glued my back to the car seat and I gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“If we get there in time, yes. OMNOS isn’t exactly on its feet yet, so there’s a good bet it will need some time to upload itself. If we shut down those servers, it will be cut off. Can we stop for some food, Ira?” I was so preoccupied with thinking about Veronica’s plan that she had to repeat her last request.

“Oh, sure.” I pulled off at the next exit. We found a Popeye’s Chicken and sat down for a slightly demure meal of chicken wings and coleslaw. The cashier gave Veronica a slightly terrified look.

“Oh. The blood…” She said in a detached voice. Before we sat down, she headed to the ladies’ room to wash her hair.

“She seems nice,” Valya whispered, “how long have you known her?”

“I just met her today, baba. I don’t think she likes me much, though.”

“Don’t worry, Irochka. If this computer destroys the world, she may not have much of a choice.” My grandma. She sure had a unique way of putting things.

When Veronica arrived, we ate our food quickly. The sun was setting as we entered the interstate once more. The absurd reality of the situation sunk in as we crossed the Nevada border. A beautiful blond scientist, my grandma, and I were going to Las Vegas to shut down a rogue AI. If I wasn’t scared shitless, I’d think this was pretty damn cool.

Episode 3.6 "The Chet-Thing"

Our brief reprieve was interrupted by the chime of the Omni-Com paging system.

“Ira Holtz and Veronica Estrella, security has been dispatched to kill you slowly and painfully. Have a nice day.” We both shot up, hearts pumping.

“What…what does that mean?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

“I…I don’t know, Ira. The building’s automated security is fairly limited and…” There was a sharp, metal on metal grinding sound coming from the elevator terminals. Veronica drew closer to me as the sound came closer. I was woefully unprepared for what entered the atrium.

At first, I thought it was Chet the head security guard. As it got closer, however, I realized that it wasn’t Chet at all. It was something that was wearing Chet. A swatch of congealed blood streaked from Chet’s mouth all the way down his security uniform. His arms and legs looked like socks stuffed with bricks and thick black cables coiled around his neck and plunged into various head wounds. He trudged towards us with slow, jerking steps and the grinding metal sound grew unbearably loud.

Veronica started screaming, and I may have wet my pants. The Chet-thing saw us, and it emitted a gurgling sound that pushed more clotted blood out of its gaping mouth. I was about to be killed by an honest to shit cyborg. At least it’s kind of a cool death.

The screech of tires coming from outside broke me from my near-death musings. I turned quickly to see my grandma’s boat of a station wagon fishtailing through the parking lot.

“Veronica! Look! It’s my grandma!” I squinted to see my grandma waving her hand frantically, motioning for me to get out of the way. She…she was going to drive her car right through the doors.

The Chet-thing had almost reached us when I grabbed Veronica and pulled her out of the way. We hit the deck, and I covered our heads. The shriek of shattering glass and the revving of an ancient engine filled the air. I heard the station wagon crumple as it crashed into the Chet-thing. For an instant, I was terrified that my grandma was injured in the crash, but as we stood up I saw her exiting her totaled vehicle.

“Irochka! Are you hurt? What was that thing? What’s going on, Irochka!” I helped Veronica to her feet and grabbed my grandma’s arm.

“I’ll explain later, baba. We have to get out of here right now, though.” We sidestepped the broken glass doors and mangled security grating and ran to my car. As Veronica and my grandma got in, I took one last look at Omni-Com. Whatever was growing inside of that building was a world-ender. And Veronica knows something about it. Was it safe to trust her?

Episode 3.5 "Baba Valya"

“Give me the phone, Veronica. I have an idea.” She handed back my phone without looking at me fingers still massaging her eyeballs. I figured that the one person least likely to be affected by a technologic uprising would be Grandma Valya. Not only did she mistrust any piece of technology that wasn’t available in Communist Russia, she lived fifteen minutes away. She’s going to give me her special blend of Slavic-Jew grief for only calling when I need something, but given the choice between a scathing guilt trip or death at the place of my employment, it was a no-brainer. I dialed my grandma and prepared myself.

“‘Allo?” her husky Russian accent was disarmingly comforting at this particular moment in time.

“Baba Valya? It’s Irochka! How are you?” I shot an embarrassed look at Veronica as I revealed Grandma Valya’s pet name for me, but she was too busy jamming her fingers in her eyes to notice.

“Ah! Irochka! So long since your last call. It’s good to hear your voice.”

“It’s good to hear from you too, babushka. Um…listen, I’m kind of in trouble right now and…”

“Irochka,” She cut me off abruptly, “Have you seen the news? The scientists in…New…New Mexico think they have gotten a message from the…how do you say it? Kosmos? Very interesting, Irochka.” My grandma. Whenever something nerdy happens, she automatically thinks that I’ll find it absurdly interesting.

“Wow! That’s great, grandma!” I did my best to feign politeness given the dire circumstances within which I have found myself, “Hey listen, could you do me a favor?” I winced as I asked this question. For a brief millisecond, I seriously reconsidered taking my chances with the self-aware supercomputer.

“Irochka, Irochka…” Out come the wolves. I can almost see the white-blond bun of her hair bobbing back and forth as she shakes her head in disappointment. “Five years we’ve lived in the same state, and you only come to see your lonely babushka on the holidays? You only call when you need a favor? So much did your dedushka and I sacrifice to bring your mother to this country, only to have a grandson who won’t even come by for dinner? Oi, bozhe moi…” My grandma’s scolding was interrupted by an unexpectedly loud click-clack. Veronica and I looked up to see additional metal grilles descend from the ceiling and lock themselves into the floor. Veronica’s eyes widened. We were completely caged in.

I slowly brought my phone back up to my ear, “…and when I call you, it’s always work, work, work. It’s not good for a young boy like you to work so much. When do you have time to meet a girl, Irochka? When do…” It killed me to do it, but I rudely interrupted my grandmother.

“Baba, listen,” I gasped, “I’m really, really sorry to interrupt you, but I’m in a very dangerous place right now, and I need you to drive to Omni-Com where I work and pick me and my friend up!”

“Irochka, you are in danger?”

“Yes! Yes babushka! Can you please help me?”

“Oh bozhe! I’m coming, Irochka.” I put my phone back in my pocket and wiped the sweat from my hands.

“Okay. My grandma is on her way.”

“Your…your grandma? Did you just say you called your grandma?”

“Yeah…?”

“Dammit, Ira! Did you actually think about this plan? All you’ve done is thrown one more person into a dangerous situation. How in the hell is involving your grandmother going to help us in any way, shape, or form?” I paused to consider this question.

“There was this one time when I was a kid. I had begged my dad to drive one of these new ATV’s that our family had bought. There’s no way I was old enough, but my dad gave in. He figured that our back yard was safe enough, you know? Anyway, I was doing fine until took a sharp turn on a slope and the ATV flipped over on me. I thought it was over, but it seemed like as soon as the ATV crashed, it was being lifted off of me. It…it was my grandma. She’s like, ninety pounds, but she was lifting this big ol’ ATV off of me. This…kind of feels like a similar situation.” Veronica stared at me with that searching, analytical gaze that I’d seen several times now.

“Well, if we’re waiting, let’s move closer to the door so she can see us.” The Omni-Com atrium was a wide, circular expanse. It had a hospital feel to it, and the silence was unnerving. Veronica and I sat down on the floor and I made a few feeble attempts at small talk. She was preoccupied, to say the least. I could almost hear her synapses firing.

Episode 3.4 "Cut Off"

It had taken a good half hour of walking to confirm what we both knew deep down: the entire lobby had been fenced off from the inside. I stared helplessly at the passing clouds and Omni-Com’s well-landscaped courtyard. We were in a cage, and as far as I could tell, there was no way out. That’s when an idea hit me thirty minutes too late.

“Hey,” I began, clearing my throat, “Why don’t we just call the cops? I’ve got my cell phone with me and…”

“I already tried that, Ira,” Veronica sounded defeated, “My phone wigged out as soon as I dialed out. It’s completely dead now. The land lines are fried too.” Curiously, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and switched it on. Full bars, no problem.

“Hey, my phone’s fine. Look.” Veronica snatched it from my hands and quickly scanned its screen.

“You’re right…the Nebula Drive must not have…wait, did you sync your phone with Nebula?” Nebula was Omni-Com’s own online storage space. We had this whole long staff training on how to sync all of our personal electronics with Nebula, so no important information would get lost or compromised. Little secret: I never synced my stuff with Nebula. I don’t know why, but the whole process made me a bit nervous.

“Um…no?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Telling you?”

“Dammit, Ira! Did you sync your phone with Nebula? Yes or no?”

“Oh. No.” Another smile crept across Veronica’s face.

“I swear, Ira,” She began, “If Omni-Com still existed, I’d fire you. But, since it doesn’t…thanks for being such a slacker.”

“You’re welcome, I guess,” I blushed slightly, “So, will my phone work?”

“It should.” There was an uncomfortable silence as I waited for Veronica to reach the police. She was pretty, despite the fact that she was soaked in sweat and blood. There was something about her cold blue eyes that made me not want to trust her…but that made her all the more alluring. My ogling was interrupted by Veronica’s diamond-hard voice.

“Yes, I’m stuck inside the Omni-Com building. There was a security malfunction and…” She was cut off by the operator.

“You what? No, ma’am, this isn’t a prank…what? No, you don’t understand, I’m stuck…no! Wait! Dammit!” She pressed her fingers into her eyes. Her teeth were clenched tightly, and I could see the delicate skin covering her neck crease with tense veins.

“What happened, Veronica? Are they coming?” I asked softly.

“No, dammit. They’re not. Apparently, the police department received notice this morning that Omni-Com’s phones would be malfunctioning, and that calls received from the company or about the company should be disregarded. Basically, they think we’re a phone line malfunction…how in the hell did this happen?”

“But you called from my personal phone,” I began, “How can they ignore that?”

“Anything about Omni-Com isn’t getting attention. The company has hundreds of different phone lines…there was no way for the police to distinguish yours from theirs. Dammit!” At this point, the facts were right in front of me. Whatever Veronica is keeping secret has done the following terrible things today: First, it called the police and diverted their attention away from Omni-Com. Second, it called all of the company’s employees in and killed them. Third, it locked us in and won’t let us out. I may be a nerd for fearing the possibility of an AI attack, but really, what else could this be?

Episode 3.3 "Veronica"

“I’m Veronica, by the way.”

“Ira,” I replied dryly.

“C’mon,” She said quickly, “It’s safer up here, but probably not for much longer. We need to find a way out of the building.” As we wandered the perimeter of Omni-Com’s stainless steel and glass atrium, a billion questions bubbled up in my mind.

“So…could you tell me what exactly happened today?” I asked. Veronica paused as she assessed this question.

“I can’t tell you exactly what happened, no. It’s all classified. What I can tell you is that around 9:30 this morning, we experienced a security malfunction, which caused several other systems to consequently malfunction.” Her response sounded vaguely rehearsed. I waited for a few minutes to see if there was any more to Veronica’s succinct explanation. There wasn’t.

“A security malfunction?” I stammered, “A…a security malfunction is when an alarm goes off when no one is around or…or…when you get locked out of your computer…but this? I mean, most of the staff is dead and you’re covered in blood! I don’t think ‘malfunction’ quite covers it.”

“Look, Ira,” a tone of genuine concern tinged her voice, “I’ve told you all that I can. The system is malfunctioning, and we have to get out of the building. What else do you really need to know?” I pursed my lips, accepting the fact that she wasn’t going to budge on this topic.

“So, are all the floors going haywire?” I asked in an effort to change the subject.

“I…I think so. I heard screaming all the way down the stairwell. Thank God for stairs. The elevators…well, they’ve been affected by the malfunction. They’re more like coffins now.” I thought about what Veronica was saying, and suddenly I remembered an incident from last week that seemed meaningless at the time, but for some reason it resonated with today’s events. I was walking past Paul, the bleach-blond wiseass that was my floor manager, while he was having a conversation with one of the big time suits from way upstairs. The suit said something about a program called OMNOS, and Paul said something about its installation on the fifteenth floor’s computers. I decided to ask Veronica about this.

“Maybe this has something to do with OMNOS,” I said, trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about. Veronica stopped walking and looked at me. Her eyes appeared to be struggling to bore into my head in order to extract more information without having to converse with me.

“Who told you about OMNOS?” She sounded suspicious.

“Huh? Oh, nobody…I just…I overheard my floor manager talking about it last week. I heh…I thought it sounded scary. Like if an AI were to wake up and try to kill us, it’d probably be called OMNOS.” Again, Veronica’s calculating eyes were scanning my face, trying to extract some valuable piece of information out of me. It caused me to stammer, “I mean…I don’t really think that’s the case…I’m just…”

“A huge nerd?” Veronica finished my sentence for me.

“Yeah. That.” I felt my face turn red as I realized how stupid I must have sounded.

“OMNOS is just the new security program. It’s supposed to automatically adapt to and destroy any malware or virus that comes its way.” Despite the authority that had surfaced in her voice, Veronica didn’t sound quite convinced that OMNOS was entirely harmless.