The Sapporo Outbreak (28 page)

Everyone was surprised and Itou alarmed, when Skinner and Santos revealed they were no longer wearing lenses.

"Ok. Then stay close to the others. On my word, we will make our way to the exit door to our left. I'll use iSight to help navigate through the area."
 

Hill sounded terrified as he whispered. "How can the system still work when the power's off?"

Harper's voice, too loud and oddly relaxed, boomed out in the dark. "The lenses draw enough power from blinking to keep them going, and as long as your phone stay's charged it'll work just fine."

Itou barked back. "Quiet. No more talking. Now - can you all see my phone?" and with that a light briefly glowed twice in the dark.

"Ok then, let's go. Stay close and say nothing."

As they moved out slowly, following the bulky grey shape of Itou, Skinner's peripheral vision picked up shadows darting through the blackness. He turned to follow them, and outlined against the distant glow from the corridor he could make out a powerful man marching toward him.
 

Skinner's eyes were adjusting to the darkness now, and as the man neared he recognised the shaven head, hands shredded by shards of glass and blood seeping from cuts on his face and neck. The man's eyes were fixed on Skinner.
 

A scream immediately behind Skinner broke his focus on the man for a split second. Skinner wheeled round to see Santos lying on the ground, and two young girls punching and scratching wildly at her.
 

Skinner could see Santos was fighting back hard, but she was no match for two girls fuelled by paranoid rage. Ignoring the man looming up behind, Skinner prepared to launch himself at Santos' attackers when Itou appeared from nowhere.

He calmly reached down, silently grabbed both girls by the hair and
smashed
their heads together with such force that the crack echoed out over the chaos. The girls' bodies slumped, their necks broken instantly. Skinner watched Itou, both repelled and fascinated by his casual disregard for life. The trained killer scanned the chaos around him while casually letting both girls drop to the ground. Their lifeless bodies slapped on the cold hard tiles.
 

Skinner pushed between Harper, who had taken to mumbling to himself, and a clearly terrified Hill to help Santos from the floor. As he approached, Itou darted past him in the opposite direction.

Skinner grabbed Santos and pulled her close, and swivelled his head back to where the shaven headed man had been. There was no sign of him. The crazed howls were louder now, the laughter mixed in with the pathetic cries of the injured and dying.
 

Skinner whispered, "Eva. Are you ok?"

Santos answered slowly as she tentatively dabbed at a trickle of blood running down the side of her face. "I ... think so. I don't know where they came from Ben. They just ... appeared."

"I know Eva. There's some sort of pack behaviour kicking in. And they're hunting. Bottom line is we need to get out of here. If you're up for it I say we make for the exit over there."

Just then, an inhuman scream rang through the rest hall.
 

Skinner and Santos turned to see Sakura's terrified face staring back at the group while John Evans, glazed and glistening in the shadows descended upon her. He reached out, grabbed her head and in one horrific motion twisted while dropping to one knee. Sakura's head twisted gruesomely, her neck snapped and foam gurgled out from her mouth. Evans sprang to his feet and sprinted into the darkness just as Itou reached Sakura.
 

The big man glanced down briefly at Sakura's contorted body, no sign of emotion on his face. Skinner watched the big man closely. He seemed completely unfazed by the gruesome sight before him, instead calmly calculating his next move. He looked back up at the small group, then down the darkened corridor filled with shadows and screams. Clearly torn between chasing the killer and protecting the group.

Itou nodded curtly, his mind made up.

"Everyone. Quickly. Follow me. Do not delay or you will die".

#

Despite the darkness, the NOC was humming with activity. Technicians scrambled under desks, jerry-rigged computers using their cell phones as a power source and gathered together in small groups discussing possible defence strategies.
 

Ignoring the activity all around, Tait and Tanaka crouched over one of the few working monitors in the darkened NOC, and watched as numbers poured across the screen. They were looking for patterns the virus had left behind as it wormed its way through the iSight system.

"There! Stop it right there!"

Tait jabbed his finger onto the touchscreen, and the scrolling display froze instantly. To almost anyone, it was simply a dense pattern of code and numbers, but to Tait and Tanaka it was a footprint.

Tanaka turned to Tait with a mixture of confusion and concern. The population system was a complex one, constantly tracking the number and nature of the players in the game, automatically generating new virtual players to maintain a balance. The goal was to have the iSight 3 population mirror the real world in every way.

But something was very, very wrong.

Since the attack, there had been an explosion in the number of virtual players generated by the system.
 

Tait glanced around the room, before turning to Tanaka and whispering, "They've modified Becker's artificial intelligence system. Somehow they've got the virtual players replicating and evolving to give them a better chance of staying in the game."

Tanaka nodded as he stared at the screen.

"But why? These mutations are creating characters designed to survive whatever the cost. They're creating killers."

Tanaka looked down at his cell phone. Still no signal. All he could think of was Shou, his beautiful daughter. He
had
to get her off the system before the virus spread.
 

Tanaka looked back up at Tait. "Get Becker. Find out what the hell they've done to the AI system - and how we reverse it."

Tait flicked up his iSight conferencing system and tried connecting to Becker.
 

No response.
 

He tried with the fixed line.
 

No response.
 

As a last resort, Tait turned to the battery powered tablet and, after a few quick tweaks, managed to buzz Becker's tablet computer directly.
 

No response.

Tait turned to Tanaka and shook his head slowly.
 

Tanaka crashed his fist onto the steel desk in frustration.
 

"What in the hell is going on?"

#

Crouched low and moving slowly, silently, Skinner held a dazed and bloodied Santos by the waist as they slowly edged their way through the darkness and toward the emergency exit. A few steps ahead, Skinner could make out the bulky form of Itou, followed closely by Hill and Harper. Silhouetted by the dim glow of the exit's LED lights, Skinner could see the young lawyer's head swivelling anxiously from left to right. To his right, Harper's tall frame hunched down awkwardly. While Hill seemed close to losing it altogether, Harper remained placid, curiously detached from their grim reality.

Pressed in tight to Skinner, Santos whispered, "Ben, I'm feeling dizzy. Sick. I'm guessing shock or concussion. Feels like I might faint."

"Don't worry Eva. I've got you and I won't let go."

Loud, gruesome cries of new anguish rang out through the darkness. Howls of laughter and the awful sound of flesh pounding flesh thudded through the air. It sounded close.
 

"Ben ..."

"Just try to keep going Eva. Another few seconds and we'll be in the stairwell and on our way out of here."

Seconds later Itou walked calmly back up the darkened corridor.
 

They were close now. Maybe ten seconds from the exit, and the glow from the door created a shallow, eery semi-circle of twilight. At the far edges of the lit area, Skinner could make out a group of five or six young men thrashing two middle aged men with armrests torn from some of the plush leather seats. No one made any noise. It was a gruesome one-sided fight acted out in near silence - the only sounds were the grunting of the men and the sickening thuds as blows rained down.
 

One of the middle aged men - a balding, paunchy man with dark rimmed glasses slanted and smashed against his face - was on his knees, trying in vain to fight back through the blows. The other - a tall, lean man in a tailored grey suit - was on all fours, stunned and staring down at the tiles. As Skinner watched, the youngest attacker - a slight Japanese boy of maybe fourteen - swung the heavy weapon high above his head and then back down hard and fast. The crushing blow landed on the back of the man's head, who slumped to the floor bleeding badly. Even in the murky gloom Skinner could tell the man was dead, and yet the young boy continued to pound at the man's lifeless body.
 

The boy laughed breathlessly as he pounded again and again on the wet flesh of the dead man.
 

Skinner turned away, pulled Santos tight and pushed forward silently.
What the hell is this? Somehow, the game has triggered some sort of enraged mass hysteria. A psychosis.
 

Madness.
 

Skinner could see that Itou had reached the exit door and had nudged it open. Skinner watched as Hill pushed past Itou, through the emergency exit and into the stairwell beyond. Itou continued to hold the door, waving for Skinner and Santos. Harper turned and watched blankly as Skinner pulled Santos forward. She was almost out on her feet now, almost a dead weight in his hands. The last few feet were painfully slow.

A loud piercing scream cut through the blackness. Itou and Harper looked past Skinner and Santos, a grim resolve etched on Itou's face. Instinctively Skinner twisted back toward the sound. Peering down through the dimly lit rest area, he could make out fleeting undefined shadows in the near distance. A second later they were closer still and the shadows took form.
 

A large pack of around twenty infected players were walking toward him, eyes red-raw and clothes blood splattered and torn. Once again Skinner was struck by the surreality, the bizarre everyday normality. A small Japanese woman in her 50s walked alongside an eager black teenager. In one hand, she held a vicious shard of glass. In the other she held a department store shopping bag, a pink silk bow flowing out from the top. A greying, podgy Caucasian man fussily adjusted his red silk tie as he walked forward. He ignored the gaping scar sliced under his left eye as it leaked onto his expensive white shirt. They could be shoppers in a busy mall. Only they were armed with a collection of broken office furniture or large shards of thick broken glass.
 

Leading the murderous mob was Sakura's killer, the brutal shaven headed pack leader. He let out a guttural roar and started running toward their small group. Skinner turned and felt Santos slip. She had passed out, a dead weight in his hands. He'd never be able to get her to the exit in time.

Skinner pulled Santos in tight and closed his eyes, waiting for the mob to descend.

Suddenly, he felt Santos lighten and lift. He opened his eyes, turned to his right and saw Harper holding Santos under her right shoulder. With a quick nod of appreciation, Skinner and Harper surged forward.
 

The pack was almost on them when Itou jumped in behind them, grabbed the exit door and swung it shut. With a swift, practiced movement, Itou jammed a steel bar up through the handle and twisted. The vicious pack slammed against the door. They screamed in fury as they pounded on the heavy steel surface.

Skinner blinked at the brightness of the emergency lighting in the stairwell. Stretching below and above them were stark grey concrete stairs leading up and down. Grey concrete walls and ceiling completed the prison-block look, the only markings visible were painted Japanese and English numbers on the door. Dim emergency lighting on the ceiling performed a barely adequate job of lighting the corridor.
 

For Skinner, it was another glimpse behind the futuristic illusion Tanaka has created. This could be any building, anywhere - just another generic concrete fire exit. No glasses or lenses needed here.

Santos groaned, opened her eyes with a start and turned first to Harper and then Skinner.
 

"What happened?"

"You passed out for a second Eva. If it wasn't for Andy, we wouldn't have made it."

Santos turned back to Harper, who gave a little grin as he gently unwrapped his arm from her. "And you thought I wasn't paying attention."

Santos smiled weakly. "Thanks Andy, I really appre ..."

Satisfied the door would hold for a minute or two, Itou turned to the huddled group and in broken english barked, "We will go to the NOC on level 5. Follow me ... move fast" and with that he sprang up the concrete stairs connecting all floors. Dazed but recovering, Santos grabbed Skinner by the hand and started up the stairs. Harper followed close behind.
 

Itou pounded up the first few stairs closely followed by Hill, Harper and Santos - who looked stronger. Skinner brought up the rear. A piercing scream echoed up from the dark stairwell below and stopped the group in their tracks. Another muffled scream was followed by a sickening cheer as another pack gathered in the dark beneath their feet.
 

Itou waved frantically to catch the group's attention, and put his fingers to his lips before continuing upwards - this time being careful to make no sound. Hill followed only inches behind with Harper, Santos and Skinner creeping up at the rear.
 

As they reached the fourth floor platform, turned and began walking up into the dim corridor, a broken body fell silently from somewhere above. Skinner felt the rush of stale air as the broken corpse whistled past. He thought he recognised the man - one of Tanaka's guards from the visitors' quarters. Skinner looked up and saw a cloud pass over Itou before he returned to his impassive expression. A moment later the body landed with a dead slap on the concrete below and the packs above and below them howled and whistled in gruesome delight.