Nano Z (17 page)

Down the hall, Mack saw two red eyes. It was Ted. The Viking didn’t wait. He fired his hunting rifle. Without skipping a beat he reloaded, using the firearm’s bolt action. Mack fired again.

Each gunshot lit up the dark hallway. In that very brief moment of light, Mack saw Ted get closer. The CEO of Galatea Systems had twisted features. It was as if his bones were constantly breaking and reforming under his skin.

Mack’s hunting rifle had to be reloaded. He didn’t have any extra bullets on his person. With no other choice, he took out his knife and prepared to fight to his death.

Suddenly the door behind Mack opened. It looked as if luck was on his side. That was until he turned around and was met with the butt of Eugene’s gun. Just like that, his fight was over and the world went black.

***

“Who wants to go first?” asked Mrs. Parrish. She was talking to the only other two guardians at the Golden Pony daycare. Lucy and Amber looked at each other to see if either of them would jump at the chance. Neither was particularly hungry, despite all the kids under their care munching away on their lunches.

“Fine, I’ll go first. Lucy, you’re in charge until I get back.” Mrs. Parrish elected herself to take the first lunch break.

For the next twenty minutes Lucy and Amber did their best to corral the kids. It wasn’t easy. Lucy was better at it, probably due to her giving birth and raising a son of her own before the outbreak claimed him. With that said, Amber wasn’t bad at it.

There was a peace in her job that Amber thoroughly enjoyed. It’d been weeks since she had to fire her crossbow. Her life wasn’t in peril. And she genuinely liked spending time with the children.

Mrs. Parrish returned to the theater allowing Lucy to go and have her lunch. Watching the oldest worker at the daycare handle the kids was awe inspiring to Amber. While the teen had trouble keeping the children together in a cohesive group, Mrs. Parrish herded them with the same skill and confidence as a cowboy with cattle.

Another twenty minutes passed before Lucy returned to the makeshift daycare center. That meant it was Amber’s turn to eat. By that time she was practically ravenous.

The most exercise that Amber got since arriving at the Golden Pony with Mack consisted of ascending the stairs from the theater stage to the exit. It was considerably less strenuous than the endless miles she had to walk since the outbreak. She hoped that things stayed that way.

I don’t care how gross it is, I’m hungry and I need some lunch.
Unfortunately the end of the world didn’t curb Amber’s teenage appetite.  As she passed through the lobby she fantasized about the SPAM sandwich she was on her way to eat. She couldn’t help but notice that there was something wrong in the cavernous entrance of the Golden Pony.

There was a sense of panic and confusion amongst the men and women assigned to the sand bags in the lobby. Some were checking their weapons. It seemed like they were preparing for a fight.

Naturally curious, Amber wanted to know what was happening. She deviated from her path to the communal dining area and approached one of the armed guards.

“What’s going on?”

“We don’t know yet,” answered the guard. He didn’t take his eyes off the front doors of the casino. “Word is that they broke through one of the fences.”

Amber heard gunshots from outside. At first it was just a couple. Then the rate of fire increased.

“Go girl, get away from here. It isn’t safe,” ordered the guard before he flipped the safety off on his assault rifle.

I gotta see what’s going on.
Amber speed walked right past the communal dining area and to the elevators that led to the residential areas. Her hunger was gone. Instead curiosity took a hold of her. It wouldn’t let go until she got a glimpse of what was occurring outside.

“Weapons please.” Amber didn’t even hear the attendant at the armory station. She kept walking. “Weapons!” The attendant was not amused. She thought the youth had ignored her.

That’s right. My crossbow.
Amber ran back to the armory station. She gave the attendant a nervous smile.

“My bad,” apologized Amber as she checked her crossbow into the armory. Once she got her poker chip, she ran to her and Mack’s room.

The view from the window in their room allowed Amber to see the goings on in front of the Golden Pony. Her face was pressed against the cool glass as she tried to get a glimpse of what all the commotion was about. She wasn’t disappointed.

Guard towers made of aluminum scaffolding were stationed every fifty feet or so, just behind the last layer of chain link fence. Stationed at them were guards who were expending considerable amounts of ammunition. That expenditure was in the hope that they could keep the advancing meat puppets at bay.

Members of the security squads started sliding huge slabs of sheet metal behind the last layer of chain link fence. The large sheet metal panels were on trolleys with wheels designed to be easily removed. Once the panels were in place, forming a long interconnected wall, workers set up triangle shaped supports to hold them up.

With everything in place, brave men and women knocked off the wheels. The bottoms of the sheet metal panels fell onto the asphalt producing loud bangs. Each one made Amber’s heart race.

The guards stayed in their towers and kept firing, until they ran out of ammo. They used ropes to climb down, over the sheet metal panels and into the safety of The Strip. Amber couldn’t help but wonder how scary that must’ve been.

Shit, what time is it?
Amber didn’t know how long she had stood at the window and watched the scene below her. But she was sure that it was longer than her allotted twenty minute lunch break. So she left the room and hurried back down to the theater.

Mack woke up groggy, with a pounding headache. He felt cold metal underneath him. Where was he?

Through his blurry vision, Mack could make out a cluster of bright lights above him. They were intense. He could feel the heat emanating from their white bulbs.

“You awake big guy?” Mack heard Ted’s voice.

Get up Mack. This Gorman guy is bad news. You have to get up and get out of here. Amber is all alone.

Mack tried to get up. But his arms and legs weren’t cooperating. They were bound with thick leather straps. The same restraints were used in hospitals to subdue patients.

Slowly Mack’s vision started to sharpen. As it did, the memories of what led to him being tied down to a table started to crawl back.
I heard a scream. I went into the lab to see what it was. There were people in hospital beds and more prisoners. I saw that Ted guy and he…Oh shit.

“Coming back to you buddy?” asked Ted. He walked over into Mack’s vision. His neck wasn’t elongated. The skin on his neck was intact and flawless. Neither of his eyes were red. And he was smiling, as if nothing happened.

“You fucking…!” yelled Mack as he tried to reach out and strangle the CEO of Galatea Systems. Of course his restraints stifled his efforts.

“Calm down. You don’t want to hurt yourself do you?”

A woman came into view. She was wearing a lab coat with the Galatea logo on it. Within minutes she started an IV on Mack’s arm.

“You’re probably wondering what’s happening, right? I would be. Well, it’s pretty simple Mack. I’m going to inject you with a concentrated dose of weaponized nanites. Those are little microscopic machines that will multiply in your bloodstream and quickly turn you into something more than human. They will make you stronger, faster, smarter, better, like me.” Ted talked as he filled a syringe with gray liquid.

“Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. You don’t want to end up like those mindless things out there, beyond the walls. You won’t. I promise. I’m giving you the same dose I got. It took longer than I thought it would, but we’ve perfected the nanotechnology.”

“If you’re wrong?” asked Mack as he continued a futile struggle against his restraints.

“Then you’ll become one of those mindless things. Either way, your old life ends tonight, bud. There’s nothing you can do about it. I suggest embracing it.” Ted inserted the syringe full of gray liquid into Mack’s IV.

This isn’t happening. I have to be able to stop this. Try and talk him down.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Don’t do this. You really don’t have to do this. Just put the syringe down and we can work something else out. I’ll keep my mouth shut. You can assign me to the survey team. Chances are the meat puppets will kill me. But at least I’ll have a chance. I’ve earned that much. We all have.”

Ted smiled. His eyes looked soulless, like a doll. “Don’t you get it yet? We broke the world. This virus is our doing. So we did the responsible thing. We cured it.” The CEO of Galatea Systems pointed at the syringe. “This is the cure. This is how we fix the world that we broke. This will give you a chance. Really, you should be thanking me.”

The world you broke? This is your doing? You mother fucker. Give me the damn cure so that I’ll have the strength to get out of here and strangle you to death with my own two hands.

Ted’s thumb slowly pushed down on the syringe’s plunger. Mack watched as the gray liquid drained into the IV stuck in his arm. He could feel nanites enter his bloodstream. They felt like millions of tiny insects, crawling under his skin. Then came an intense pain that again rendered him unconscious.

***

Amber spent the night after her shift at the daycare staring out the window of her room. She watched as the new sheet metal walls that surrounded the Golden Pony and The Strip started to fail. It was only a matter of time before they fell. Once they did, the meat puppets will overrun the place, no matter how many weapons they had.

The puppets beyond the walls weren’t the only reason that Amber stayed awake. Mack didn’t come back to the room. That wasn’t like him. He always came back. Nothing could keep him from being there to protect her.

That’s it. I’m going to go look for him. He’d do the same for me.
Amber got ready to leave the comfort and safety of their room. As she tied her shoes she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d never be back again. And that was fine. Just as long as she found her guardian, she didn’t care where she was.

A loud blaring siren filled every room and hallway of the Golden Pony. Amber didn’t know it, but it was an alarm. It signified that there was a breach. Meat puppets were past the perimeter defenses of The Strip.

Amber hurried out into the hallway. There she found residents panicked, confused and still half asleep. But she was calm.

After wading through the sea of confused residents in the hallway, Amber made her way to the armory station. The attendants must’ve abandoned their post because no one was behind the table. She opened up the metal cabinet and retrieved her crossbow, along with someone’s pistol.

There’s no fucking way I’m getting on that elevator.
As per usual there was a line for the elevator. Even with the panic and the sirens, people still waited. Amber wasn’t a sheep. She’d find her own way
.

The stairs!
Amber knew there had to be a stairwell. In case of a fire, no building with elevators didn’t have stairs for backup. She didn’t know where they were, but she was sure as hell going to find them.

Amber wasn’t big. She had a hard time pushing her way through the throngs of residents in the hallways. It took a while, but she managed to reach a locked door. There was a sign that read “Stairs”.

Time wasn’t a luxury that Amber had. Every second could push Mack even farther away from her. Or worse, he could die. The rules of the Golden Pony held little meaning to her at that point.

Amber aimed her gun at the door lock. She squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.
The safety, idiot, switch off the safety.
With her now ready pistol, Amber fired at the door lock. It took a couple of shots but she broke through.

A wall of rotting human body aroma overtook her when the door to the stairwell opened. She’d smelt the dead before. This was different. They smelled worse, older. Nothing would deter her. She lifted the collar of her shirt and put it over her nose and entered the stairwell. It was dark, and only red emergency lights provided illumination.

Be careful. Don’t run. You’re no good to Mack if you fall and break something.
Amber hurried down the steps but she was careful not to go too fast. She could hardly see her feet let alone where she was going.

The further down the stairwell that Amber got, the worse it smelled. When she was just a floor away from the ground level, the number of flies in the enclosed space increased. They were there for a reason.

Just through this door.
Amber stood outside the door marked “G”, for Ground Level. All she had to do was open it and continue her search for Mack.

Where’s that smell coming from? If there are meat puppets already in the casino, people need to know.
I can’t ignore this.

Amber backed away from the door and continued down the stairs. There were still a couple levels below the ground floor. She didn’t have to go far before discovering the source of the horrid smell.

Meat puppets weren’t the source. Amber didn’t have to go far to discover what was. Like a sight in a haunted house attraction, she saw piles of dead human bodies at the bottom of the stairwell. Lit by the red emergency lights, it looked surreal.

A strong stomach didn’t help Amber when she discovered the bodies. She threw up all over the stairs. It wasn’t just what she saw or smelt. It was the idea that the little oasis in the middle of the desert had a dark side. From the corpses, who had gunshot wounds to their heads, it was clear that something ugly was going on in the Golden Pony.

Amber steeled herself and went back up the stairs. She found that the door to the ground floor was locked. Just like the entrance to the stairwell, she was able to destroy the lock with a well-placed shot. There was no being ready for the chaos of the Golden Pony lobby that the door opened up to.

Sandbags and the weapons in their hands were all that separated the men and women in the casino lobby from the advancing meat puppets. The sheet metal walls were falling, one by one.

A week before the outbreak, Amber went to a concert with some of her friends. Not only was it fun but it was the loudest experience she ever had. Her ears rang for the rest of the weekend. She didn’t care. To her it was like a badge of honor. The necessary price for a life experience.

The concert was replaced by the scene in the lobby of the Golden Pony. A dozen guns fired at the same time. Each shot echoed throughout the cavernous space. Those combined with the security team’s yelling and the screeches of the meat puppets made for an extremely loud environment.

Empty shell casings covered the carpeted floor. The smell of burnt gunpowder stung Amber’s nose. A couple members of the security team guarding the front entrance were overrun and mauled by meat puppets before their comrades downed the creatures.

Amber managed to pry her attention from the fighting in the lobby. Mack wasn’t there, and she needed to find out where he went. He would never leave her. So she wasn’t about to leave him. The only problem was that she had no idea where he was.

Mack never told Amber exactly what he did at the Golden Pony. Nor did he tell her where he worked. All she knew was that he was a guard. Since she didn’t see him in the lobby, she had to move on.

As Amber reached the far end of the embattled lobby, the meat puppet screeches got louder than the gunshots. Before heading into one of the many casino floors, she took one last look at the fighting. The creatures were overtaking the security forces. She didn’t stick around to watch the slaughter.

***

Becoming more than human was a painful process. The nanites injected into Mack’s body didn’t just stay in his blood. They spread out through his body and started changing his bones and organs.

Almost every bone in Mack’s body broke and reformed itself in a stronger metallic form. Nanites embedded themselves in his organs, taking away any need for food or water. He felt every excruciating change.

This can’t be happening. I spent the better part of a year killing meat puppets. Now I am one? What will I tell Amber? Is it even safe to go anywhere near her?

“Feeling better?” asked Ted. He sat in the corner of the Galatea Systems laboratory and watched Mack suffer. By the time he finished his apple, the transformation was almost complete.

You made a mistake Ted. You should have killed me. I’ll let you live long enough to see if there’s any curing this. But once I do, you’re dead.

“What, not going to talk to me? Going to give me the silent treatment? You should be thanking me, big guy. I just gave you all you need to survive this new America.” Ted got up. He threw the core of his eaten apple aside and approached the table that Mack was strapped to.

“You don’t believe me?” asked Ted. He picked up a scalpel. “I’ll show you.” Ted sliced through the skin and muscle in one of Mack’s forearms. It was painful but Mack refused to show it. He then felt like there were bugs crawling around the cut. Nanites in his body closed the wound, repaired and replaced the skin.

What…the...fuck?
Mack watched as his new body healed itself. He’d seen some strange things since the outbreak but that put all the others to shame. It was like something out of a movie or comic book.

“You see? Pretty cool huh?” Ted started undoing Mack’s straps. “There’s no need for these. Besides I need your help. There’s work to do.”

That’s it you fucking nut job. Let me loose so I can kill you.
Mack tried to stay calm as his captor slowly freed him. He prepared himself for what he was about to do to the unhinged CEO of Galatea Systems. Then it hit him.
The guy’s crazy but he’s not dumb. He must have some kind of secret, an ace in the hole to keep himself safe.

“What’s to stop me from killing you as soon as I’m free?” asked Mack. There was no reason to be clever about it. He decided to just ask.

Ted stopped unstrapping Mack and reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. Out of the pocket he retrieved a small box. It looked like something you’d find inside a computer tower.

“Do you know what an electromagnetic pulse is Mack? This here is a device of my own design. It is capable of emitting an EMP up to a six foot radius. You so much as touch me, I’ll set this off. The blast would kill the nanites in our blood. Our biology’s have been altered to such a degree that if those wonderful little machines are disabled, we die.”

That won’t stop me. Let down your guard just once, and you’re dead.

Ted finished unstrapping Mack. He then turned his attention to a mirror where he made sure his hair was undisturbed. Once he was satisfied he turned back to Mack and smiled.

“What is this? What did you do to me?” asked Mack as he got off the surgery table he was previously strapped to.

Mack’s question brought Ted joy. “I thought you’d never ask. My company, Galatea was hired by the military to develop a way to use nanotechnology to heal injured soldiers on the battlefield. Those microscopic machines swimming around in your blood are the result of that work.