Extermination Day (17 page)

Noon
EST, January 16, 2038

Greenbrier Resort

Melinda Rider lay as still as she could, barely even breathing as the sounds of the swarm’s metallic wings and the screams of her friends and colleagues died down. The chewing and gnawing of the creatures’ tiny mandibles was still ringing in her ears. She was terrified that any second one of the things would break through into her hiding place and start crawling on her skin and biting her.
Just as she'd managed to slip away, she'd seen them cover Theobald who was cowering in the sleeping quarters.

She was inside a large freezer in the kitchen of the Greenbrier bunker. She didn’t have much time to run when Paulson pushed her away and slammed the door. She thought that the freezer was as good a place as any to give her a shot at making it out alive. She was only guessing, but it was a possibility that the swarm tracked its prey through infrared heat signatures. If that were that case, then it would be less able to find her inside the freezer.

Of course she also risked freezing to death. She wore a thick winter sweater and jeans under her bio-suit, plus another winter jacket over that. However, she could still feel the cold through everything. She exhaled, her breath coming out as thick vapor and ghosting over a slab of beef hanging in front of her.

Should I go out now?  Are they still out there?

Melinda shivered and stood up, moving in the darkness as quietly as she could toward the door. She placed her ear against it to see if she could hear anything on the other side. There was only silence. She reached for the door latch to open it and hesitated, thinking about the horrible screams she heard earlier. She pulled her hand away, put her back against the door, and slid down into a seated position again.

Not yet, not yet
.

She sat thinking about all the people who had died, her friends and family, all of the group from the plane, Buddy Paulson. Why, why did they have to kill them?  What did this enemy want? Was anything so important that they had to exterminate everyone like this?

She was completely alone now. A tear dripped down her face inside of her bio-suit helmet. She couldn’t wipe it away, so it just trailed down her chin. She began to weep softly, the weight of the horror and desperation of the last day weighing heavily on her soul.

As she waited, feeling hopeless, she thought she heard something outside.

What is that? Is that someone talking? Is someone else still alive?

A glimmer of hope ignited in Melinda’s heart, but she had to keep her wits about her if she was going to stay alive. She was protected from viral exposure with her suit on, but there was the possibility that the traitor was still out there. Melinda had overheard Paulson and Secretary Farrow talking about him after Air Force One crashed.

She needed to be ready for him or her. She still had her weapon that Demetrius had given her. Melinda had never fired a gun in her life and the quick lesson she got earlier did nothing to assuage her general fear of firearms. She would take it along with her, though. If she needed to fight for her life, she wouldn’t hesitate to fire. She zipped up her jacket to conceal the weapon as best she could.

The talking continued, so Melinda stood up again and, with a lump in her throat, she slowly opened the freezer door. The light from the kitchen poured in and blinded her. When her eyes adjusted, she looked around and saw cooking pots and utensils scattered across the floor. Near
one of the ovens were tattered bits of clothing, maybe a white lab coat and parts of a bright yellow bio-suit. She leaned closer and saw pieces of hair and small white chunks that looked like bone.

Dr. Peebles!
Poor woman. What a horrible way to die.

Melinda continued through the kitchen. The voice was still speaking, but she didn’t want to call out just yet; something sounded strange about
it. The cadence or the rhythm or something was off. Or maybe she was just petrified.

She peeked around the corner and saw the hallway leading to the sleeping quarters where she had run from the pursuing swarm earlier. The voice was coming from the sleeping area.

Melinda crept down the hallway, careful not to make a sound, then she ducked down and looked around the corner into the sleeping room. Someone was sitting on a bunk, his back to the door. It was a man wearing a cleanly pressed blue business suit. He was holding a portable and talking. But he wasn’t speaking English.

He stood and turned to the side. Melinda ducked back into the hallway, but not before she got a glimpse of the man’s face.

Secretary of State Cameron Farrow! He’d survived the attack too, thank God!

Melinda was about to whisper to him, alert him to her presence, when she noticed something strange. Again peeking around the corner, she saw the Secretary stand and point toward the door, still talking in that unfamiliar language. As he did so, something emerged from behind him. It was a small, bluish silver ball, just like the one that attacked them, hovering just in front of his face! 

When the Secretary pointed at the door, the ball started floating away from him and toward where Melinda was crouched. She pulled back quickly, not believing her eyes.

The Secretary of State was talking to the swarm!  Farrow was the traitor! 

Date and Time Unknown

Lechuguilla
Cave

Jeff landed in complete darkness and deafening silence. The air was heavy and humid as he straightened up, still hanging tightly to Holly. Then suddenly he was flooded with a wave of dizziness and intense nausea. He dropped Holly and fell to his knees, heaving violently and vomiting inside his bio-suit helmet. As chunks of his breakfast covered the visor and started to fill up the helmet, Jeff unlatched it and jerked it off.

The vomiting and dizziness continued, and the only thing he could manage was to curl up in a ball on the hard rocky floor of the cavern. Holly lay beside him, retching as well, and the splatter of vomit hitting the ground echoed through the empty cavern, breaking the silence. Jeff’s body ached like a son of a bitch, and shooting, stabbing pains shot through his joints. Then his hamstrings, calves, and stomach all started to cramp, forcing him to scream out in agony. And still the room was spinning.

“Oh God, I’m dying,” Holly said between heaving lurches.

After several minutes, just when Jeff thought he couldn’t bear any more and was going to pass out from the pain, the spinning subsided and the nausea started to fade. The aching remained, however, deep down in his body, and when he moved, sharp pains still stabbed through his joints. He flicked on the flashlight that came with his combat
MedKit.

He and Holly were deep inside
Lechuguilla cavern, but there was no construction crew and no tunnel to been seen.

“Do we know when we landed?” Jeff asked. “Why isn’t the base being built?”

“I don’t know. Without my suit, I probably threw off the mass calculation for the jump. With less mass, we landed farther back in the past. How much farther, I can’t guess off the top of my head. Let me do a rough calculation on my portable.” Holly lifted her hand, then pulled it close to her face.

“
Nanobots. There are nanobots under my skin.” She began frantically scratching at the fingers of her right hand and shaking it. “Get them out, get them out!” she screamed.

Jeff moved closer and held the light so they could get a better look. Little greenish-blue flea-like creatures were buried under her skin, but they weren’t moving. They’d apparently gotten on her when she reached for the infected data drive.

“It looks like they may not be working,” Jeff said. “Are they inert?”

Holly was still screaming and scratching her hands. “Please, please, get them out!” she yelled.

“Holly, calm down!” Jeff held her shoulders. “It looks like the time jump killed them.”

“But I can feel them twitching! Oh God, get them out, cut them out, please!”

Jeff held the flashlight closer in time to see the nanobots start twitching under Holly’s skin, as if they were coming back to life.

“Let me see what I can find in the suit’s
MedKit.”

Jeff opened the case on the front of his bio-suit and started pulling out medical equipment. The kit included standard first aid
gear, most of which was familiar, but a few items he didn’t recognize.

The AI clicked on. “State the nature of the health problem.” It spoke in a soothing female voice.

“Emergency surgery,” Jeff said.

“Further detail is needed.”

“Uh . . . Parasite extraction.”

Holly was still shaking her hand. “They’re moving, please hurry; get them out, they’re eating my hand!”

“Location,” asked the AI.

“Fuck, this is taking too long!” Jeff yelled. “Hands!”

“Please stay calm. Parasite extraction is delicate. If the subject is in immediate life-threatening danger, you need to keep him stable.” The AI’s voice remained gentle and soothing. “Most parasites will increase activity as the subject’s blood pressure and body warmth rise. Please place the scanner over the affected area so I can determine the exact location of the parasite infection and the best method of extraction.”

Jeff pulled out the scanner, and Holly started screaming. He grabbed her shoulders. “Holly, you have to relax. I know it hurts, but you need to sit down, and I can get them out.”

She had a wild look in her eye as she continued scratching and clawing violently at her hand. Tears of pain, reflected in the beam from the flashlight, streamed down her face. She looked at Jeff’s chest where the MedKit was located and reached inside, pulling out a small surgical knife. Before Jeff could react, she started cutting at her hand, screaming in agony.

“
Ahhh! Oh God, it hurts. I can’t get them, they’re in too deep!”

Jeff tried to grab the knife from her, but she twisted away and hacked violently at her hand. Blood poured out, warm and dark. Jeff could smell it mixed in with the vomit in the damp, dark cave. And Holly was screaming. Blood-curdling screams.

Jeff looked into the MedKit to see if there was anything else to help her. The AI said, “You must sedate the patient.” It extended a hypo needle, which he grabbed. He lunged at Holly, trying to stab her with the needle, but she was too wild. She knocked his hand, and the needle went flying into the darkness of the cave. Holly fell to her knees, her screams and sobs bouncing off the rock walls. She was holding her bleeding hand up; one finger had already been eaten down to the bone.

“Subject appears to be going into shock,” said the AI. “Nature of infection unknown. Extreme measures required to prevent the spread of the parasite. Use a tourniquet, then you must amputate the infected appendage.”

Jeff pulled out the combat application tourniquet and quickly wrapped it around Holly’s upper arm, tightening it to stop the flow of blood to the lower arm. A small bone saw was extended from the MedKit. Jeff pulled it out.
Jesus
. He needed to find the sedative; he couldn’t just cut Holly’s hand off with her awake.

She sat on her knees, staring up at him, sobbing in desperate heaves. The surgical knife she’d been using fell out of her hand and to the cave floor, and the
nanobots under her skin continued eating her flesh away. They were also multiplying. What had started as just a few were now hundreds. Holly’s finger bone disappeared as the nanobots swarmed over it, crawling and eating. Her body shook violently as a gnawing, munching sound, along with the metallic buzzing of the creatures’ wings, rang out into the cave.

Jeff had to act fast. He shoved Holly to her back and straddled her. He held her right shoulder down with his right hand, careful not to touch where the
nanobots were spreading. Then he used his left hand to start the gruesome process of cutting just below her elbow. Holly let out another maniacal scream that boomed through the empty cavern. She tried to shove Jeff off, but he dropped his full weight onto her chest.

The saw screeched and shook as it ground through muscle and bone. Jeff had no medical experience whatsoever, and the sight of blood made him sick. The vomit started to build again, inching up his throat, as Holly’s warm blood splattered on his face. But he held firm, swallowed back the vomit, and cut deeper. Holly screamed once more and then fell silent, passing out from the trauma.

Finally Jeff was through the bone and Holly’s hand and forearm were free. He dragged her away from the nanobot-infested hand as quickly as he could, and the swarm continued devouring what was left of her hand. He pulled her farther and farther away, struggling to move her, his muscles and joints still throbbing from the time jump. He didn’t want to be anywhere near the nanobots when they were done eating the hand and started looking for more food. He didn’t know what their effective range was.

“You need to cauterize the wound,” the AI announced. “Bleeding is severe.”

As Jeff dragged Holly, he left behind a bloody trail, and blood was still oozing from her stump. The MedKit produced a cauterizing laser. “Hold the laser several inches away from the wound and press the
on
button. Back and forth motions work best. When the wound is temporarily sealed, apply the dress bandage and remove the tourniquet.”

Jeff followed the directions and was able to seal the wound and stop the bleeding. He applied the dress bandage, a techno-organic substance used in combat situations. It would bond with her wound and greatly accelerate the healing process. He’d heard about it on the news, how it had saved the lives of wounded soldiers. Holly remained unconscious, but she appeared to be out of immediate danger.

“Fabricating blood substitute and fluids for the patient. You must administer these as soon as possible,” the AI said.

Thank God for someone who could keep her head; Jeff had no idea how to treat the wounded.

The combat MedKit had the latest technology. As the machine fabricated blood for Holly’s recovery, he flashed his light back across the cavern. In the distance, what looked like small gnats were flying in the shadows. Then they started to come closer, unhurriedly, but surely following the trail of Holly’s blood. It was the nanobots, flying now—a swarm—still hunting them.

Jeff rushed several yards closer to where they were swarming and stood between Holly and the creatures. The cave floor was smooth and slick with her blood.

He had to distract them, lead them away from her.

He started jumping up and down, yelling, “Over here. Come get me, you motherfuckers!”

He angled to the side, trying to move the horrible creatures away from their prey. The nanobots didn’t react but continued their slow and steady track along Holly’s blood trail.

“Hey, you bastards, over here! Can’t you hear me, you stupid fucks!” Jeff yelled, furious. He wasn’t going to let Holly die.

He took several steps closer to the swarm until he was within about ten feet or so, and then it reacted. It paused, hovering, as if calculating, and then instead of the whole thing coming after him, it split in two. Half the swarm continued the slow flight to Holly, and the other half veered off to pursue him.

He stepped back quickly, moving several paces to the side, and the swarm that broke off after him continued toward the spot where he’d been standing and then wavered. These
nanobots were much slower and not nearly as smart as those they’d left behind in the future.

Jeff checked on the bots flying toward Holly. They were almost on her; he had to do something. He found a few rocks on the cave floor and threw them at the swarm. The rocks did nothing to slow or deter its progress. Then Jeff watched as the swarm that had broken off to pursue him split again, this time into four groups going in different directions, as if following compass headings. One flew toward him and when it got within ten feet, it started to speed up.

He could see the sensory range of the nanobots now, but what could he do? He looked on with agony at Holly lying motionless in the dirt. One of the swarms blocked his return path to her. Jeff quickly flashed his light around the cavern to see if there was anything else he could use to stop them, but there was nothing other than rocks and crystals.

The swarm chasing Jeff kept coming but as he stepped farther from it, he was also moving farther from Holly. The swarm would be on him in seconds. He started to panic, feeling
the fear building deep down in his core ready to explode. He had to get away.

Just behind him was another tunnel, to another cave perhaps. He could run through and hope to get out of range of the attacking swarm. But he’d have to leave Holly behind. To be devoured. He wasn’t a coward, but he didn’t want to die either.

Shit! The swarm was almost on him, stalking him, ready to start burrowing into his flesh.

“I’m sorry, Holly!” he yelled when the swarm was inches away. The guilt and sadness he felt was horrible, yet an intense fear for his own life clawed at him. The swarm was coming relentlessly. He turned from Holly and started running toward the other tunnel.

The second he turned, a blinding flash lit the darkness and an ear-piercing explosion rattled the cave. He couldn’t see anything after the flash, could only hear what sounded like a pulse weapon firing.

He rubbed at his eyes until he could make out a shadowy figure, bobbing lights attached to it or pulsing from it, standing in the cavern right in the middle of the
nanobot swarm near Holly. The person was firing the weapon again and again at the nanobots.

The pulse hit the swarm that was closest to Jeff, and flying
nanobots fell to the ground, tinkling as they hit the cave floor, like tiny metal nails. He moved toward the shadowy figure, stepping on and gleefully crunching the dead machines under his feet as though they were nasty cockroaches.

The shadowy figure was still firing. Most of the flying bots had been destroyed, kept from reaching Holly. But the heroism wasn’t without a price; the remaining bots were swarming Jeff and Holly’s savior, and he was desperately trying to shake them off.

“What can I do to help?” Jeff yelled.

The figure pivoted, and Jeff saw his face. Saw his own face.

“Oh my God! It’s me!” he said, choking on the words.

It was a much older Jeff, face wrinkled, hair nearly completely white. He wore combat fatigues and defensive gear, including a clear helmet.

“Take Holly and go,” the older Jeff said. “My suit will hold the bots off for a while, but not forever. When they get through, I won’t have much time. I didn’t plan on landing right in the middle of the goddamn swarm!”