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THE RENDEZVOUS POINT
Gina pulled up to the rendezvous point with Evrim in the passenger seat and Lukas sat behind her. Sheryl's quick plan to get them to safety had worked. They had arrived at the east side of the city and the truck was there with the new car in the back. It had been a breeze, and she was thankful that something had gone right for a change. They all got out, checking their surroundings. There was nothing special about this meeting point, nothing at all to give it away as being a place for anyone to gather. It was just a flat scrub land with a couple of trees and bushes, the forest and mountains opening out beyond into a vast area of wilderness. Somewhere out there Sheryl had her base, and they would soon be there. For now, their instructions were clear, just sit tight and wait for the others. When they had all arrived, they would be picked up for the last leg of their journey and be swept off to relative safety.
“Man, I'm hungry” Evrim said to Lukas.
Gina had no idea how he could think of food at the moment. They had just been through life and death situations and that gave him hunger pangs? Soldiers must have been wired up differently to the rest of us, she thought. They weren't there long before they heard another vehicle approach. Evrim and Lukas took their defensive positions, they couldn't be sure if anyone else had been following them or not. As they got closer, they recognised their colleagues and lowered their weapons. It was Antony and Gabriel, with James sat behind them. They pulled up and all got out, all the guards smiling at each other and giving each other manly handshakes. James appeared behind them smiling towards Gina.
“Why are you wearing a dress?” She asked. It was such an unusual sight that it was the first thing that came out her mouth; this was quickly followed by the more socially acceptable hello.
“Nano-bots” He said shrugging his shoulders, “I'm so pleased you're here”.
They gave each other a quick hug and James stood back. He realised he had to tell her about Tom.
“The reason I'm in a dress is I was tracked. That jumper that Tom gave me, we think it had Nano-bots deliberately planted in it, so they could trace all my movements” He said waiting for her to slap him across the face, unable to believe that Tom would be involved in anything.
She hesitated, thinking hard, not wanting to shout at James, she couldn't quite accept that Tom could be the culprit.
“It couldn't have been Tom, he, no, he would have been manipulated into giving you that without his knowledge, you know Tom” She replied, “No...no, he just wouldn't do anything like that”.
James shrugged his shoulders again.
“It's the only explanation I have, but you're probably right, he wouldn't know he was doing it. I wrestled with that myself, I didn't think he could do a thing like that. But the Elite are clever you know, if there's a way to do something, I'm sure they'll find it” he said.
They were both silent for a minute, both of them deciding to leave things at that. They couldn't say for certain what had happened and whether Tom knew or not, or even whether Tom was actually involved. Gina had been compromised herself, so it pointed to something, but she wasn't going to jump to any conclusions yet.
“Well the dress suits you” She said grinning playfully.
“You think? It's a bit big” James replied chuckling back, “I don't think it's showing my figure off to its true potential”.
They gave each other another quick hug and sat down, as the waiting game continued. The guards all laughed together, not nervous laughter like Gina and James had, but proper boisterous laughter. They were so used to these situations that they were able to just wash the emotions off of themselves and have a good old laugh about it all. It was another ten minutes before a van pulled up. The guards instantly recognised it as one of their own, but still took the precaution of taking a defensive position. It was always a good idea to be careful and make absolute sure. The van slowly pulled up to them and the guards could clearly make out Christian and Joaquin in the front, which came as a huge relief. They jumped out the van with a series of exuberant victory chants, giving their colleagues a mightythumbs up. Danny and the others appeared from the back, all looking a little tired and drained. They looked like they had been awake for thirty-six hours.
“Are you guys okay?” James shouted to them as they approached.
They all saw James' dress, and asked the obvious question.
“Nano-bots” He replied, which caused more confusion, but none of them had the energy to follow that up.
They gave each other hugs and handshakes, happy to be reunited again. This was a strange reunion of friends, not really the best of circumstances, but seeing each other raised their spirits a little.
“Well we had zombie-people and some other disgusting stuff” Mariam said matter-of-factly.
“Ben didn't make it” Danny interjected, “We were followed and they got him”.
Danny was past sadness and mourning for his friend, it was now anger, pure hatred towards the Elite and everything they had done. He was determined to make them pay, however he could. Gina and James felt the sadness of Ben's passing, it was that shock at the suddenness of knowing, that huge twist in their stomachs, as if someone had reached in with their hand and squeezed it as hard as they could. This is how all the others had felt, and now it was their turn.
“Sofia didn't make it either” Mateo said, holding back a tear, “I helped Monique and Olivia get out though, they should hopefully be here soon”.
Gina and James' twisted stomachs twisted another rotation, more grief to contend with. They both had to sit down and take deep breaths. They all knew that the whole plan was risky, but it had to be done. There was never any guarantee that they would all make it, but that didn't make it any easier.
“So, Monique and Olivia are on their way” Mateo repeated, “Jarrah and Emma are already at the compound”
“The compound? Is that what it's called?” Gina asked. She knew they were going somewhere but hadn't really thought about what it was called.
“We're also waiting for Niel, Mike and David” Mateo said, ignoring her as if it was just a rhetorical question, “I'm not sure if you've seen the smoke back over the city or not, but some rebel factions have been bombing the downtown area”
“Yes, and why is that Mateo?” Brandon said sarcastically.
“Okay, yes, that's sort of my fault, it was so we could all get out of the city while the Elite were distracted” He replied.
“Hey don't go stealing all the glory for my plan” Joaquin shouted over, half-jokingly, but also half menacingly.
They all sat down, continuing the waiting game. The guards passed round some bottles of water, thirst now starting to take hold of them all. The adrenalin was subsiding, allowing them all to think about other basic things, of which water was the most prominent. The guards all complained about being hungry though and a box of chocolate bars was pulled out of the van.
“How can they eat at a time like this?” Samir said.
“Beats me” Mariam replied, sipping water so messily that it rolled down her chin.
They relayed more of the journey to get to where they were, each one of them joining in with the almost unbelievable tales. Their story-telling was interrupted by the sounds of another approaching vehicle. Mateo sprung to his feet to see who it was, the guards all jumping up too, their weapons appearing from nowhere.
“It’s okay guys” Mateo said, “It's two of ours”.
The guards all stood down and Mateo approached the car as it slowed to a stop. Monique and Olivia stepped out, both of them looking ten years older. They weren't prepared for what they had just seen, Monique's blouse dyed with blood and Olivia's with speckles of vomit. Despite the blood, vomit and tears, Mateo ran over to them and gave them both a big hug.
“I'm so glad you guys are okay” He said, more tears welling in his eyes. It was one tearful day for him today.
Olivia pulled him closer to them, hugging him harder, thanking him over and over again for helping save them. He told her it was nothing, but to Olivia it was everything and she owed him so much that she knew she could never fully repay.
“I never want to touch a gun again” She said to him.
Monique never said anything; she just continued the hug, feeling numb. Eventually they walked over to the others and they all greeted each other closely, happy again to have more friends join them safely. Mateo noticed a flash emanate from his laptop and he picked it up to investigate. There seemed to be some tracking device around them somewhere, which gave him a sudden chill down his spine. It only appeared when Monique and Olivia arrived. He zoomed in closer to try and find where the signal was. He found it strange as it hadn't appeared on their journey, as if it was deliberately turned off.
The chills down his spine were getting colder as he suddenly realised that the Elite had turned whatever was tracking them off, so that Mateo never knew it was there, and now it was back on again. He typed away on the laptop crazily, hacking into the signal, trying to locate its exact position, trying to get a feed from it. The screen flickered to life and he could see it was tiny Nano-bot, sitting somewhere on Olivia. His heart sank, his pulse quickened, this was a worst-case scenario for him. He intercepted the signal, hacked into the tiny machine and caused a momentary power surge to blow its circuits and destroy the signal. Olivia let out a quick scream as something in her hair sparked, singeing some strands.
“What the hell was that?” she cried rubbing her hair confused.
Mateo ran over, riffled through her long auburn hair and retrieved the tiny robot.
“We got a huge problem guys” He shouted in a panic.
––––––––
THE COMPOUND
Rashid knocked at the door and Sheryl told him to enter.
“You don't need to knock”
“Sorry, just a habit I guess” Rashid replied, “I've been checking the feeds and there's been issues back in the city with some factions, they've started an indiscriminate bombing campaign”.
Sheryl sighed; she expected this to happen, but not quite as soon as this. She poured herself a small glass of gin, pulled out another glass and poured some into that too, handing it over to Rashid.
“I had a quick message from Mateo, most of them have arrived, we are waiting for three more to turn up” She said taking a long slow sip, letting the flavour linger on her tongue, “Two of my team didn't make it”.
“Sorry to hear that Ma'am” Rashid said bowing his head a little in respect, before taking a sip himself.
“Sheryl, please” she replied, “As soon as the last three have arrived I'll give you the signal and we'll get the helicopter over to them”.
The two guards who escorted Jarrah and Emma to the compound were the pilots, and the state-of-the-art helicopter Sheryl had commissioned was going to be handed to them on completion of the mission, as an extra thank you. They had been waiting patiently in case they were needed to help at the metro station, but Danny's guards had managed to get everything under control, so they had just been sat there at a secure location waiting for any orders. Rashid and the two guards were the only other people who knew of the compound's location, once all her team had been assembled and they were safely in with Sheryl, Rashid and the two pilots were to be paid a healthy sum of money for safe passage out of the way of the Elite. She had told them that they would soon return to their loved ones, as soon as their plan had been put into action, so they were to stay hidden until then. She didn't know whether the plan would work or not, but she had to give them some incentive, something to keep them quiet. Sometimes money alone isn't enough, you had to make it emotional for them. She wasn't deceiving them, she was hopeful the plan would work, one of her plans at least.
The guards waiting at the rendezvous point were given a similar scenario, and just as big sum of money, except none of them knew the whereabouts of the compound. The fewer people who knew about it the better. She trusted Rashid with her life, she had known him all of his life and he vouched for the two pilots, they were as trustworthy as he was. Sheryl clicked a few icons on the screen in front of her and pointed to the chair next to her.
“You might as well sit down” She said, to which he obliged.
She sifted through messages and feeds, stopping for the odd sip from her glass. She was trying to find out any information about the bigger picture that she could. It seemed that similar events were unfolding across the planet, over eager rebels detonating explosions, the Elite burying them all under mountains of rubble. It was a naïve move on the rebels' part; it was too soon, it was sporadic, very loosely coordinated. One faction had obviously heard what others were doing in another part of the country or continent and didn't want to be outdone. They wanted their name remembered in history as part of the resistance that gave humanity back its freedom, and it just snowballed from there. It was playing their cards too soon, and none of them would be remembered for anything other than being foolhardy. It was a shame; they could have been useful in the right situation.
She continued to check any intel she could find. The other teams she was affiliated to appeared to be as dismayed at the short sightedness of some of the rogue factions as her; it could jeopardize the whole mission. Thankfully it hadn't done as yet, so they were all ploughing on as quickly and efficiently as they could. Sheryl's phone suddenly bounced into life on the desk and she answered it promptly. There was only Mateo she expected to hear from again, so assumed it was him, without even looking at the number.
“Hi Mateo” She said eagerly waiting to hear good news.
“We've got a huge problem Sheryl” He shouted down the line, “We've been tracked to the rendezvous point, we need to get out of here asap”
Sheryl threw her glass down and lurched forward in her chair.
“Is everyone there?”
“We're still waiting for Niel and the others” He replied, “But we can't hang around long”.
Sheryl could hear a rumbling sound in the background that was coming from the rendezvous point.
“What's that?” She asked.
“Shit, I don't know, something's coming” Mateo hurriedly replied.
Sheryl's thoughts whizzed round her brain. She knew she had to get them out of there now, but she also needed to contact the last three.
“Ok, we'll get you out of there straight away, stay safe” She said sounding more panicked than she wanted to. She could see the whole thing falling apart, but had to keep trying. She turned to Rashid, who knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Get them out there now” She ordered, to which Rashid picked up his own encrypted phone to contact the pilots, “What about the other three?”
“Leave that with me”.
Sheryl dialled another secret number and Joaquin answered. Her instructions were clear, the helicopter was on its way to pick up her team, three of them weren't there yet and he was to wait behind to greet them and pass on the coordinates to the compound. He would not give out the coordinates to anyone other than the three team members. She knew she was potentially compromising everything, but things appeared to have gone completely sideways as it was, this was the only way she could think of to get the remaining three team members to her. She had to trust Joaquin, pray he was as honest and loyal as he had appeared to be so far. She put the phone down and then began typing the coordinates to him. With another sigh, one of apprehension, she pressed send. She poured herself another gin, this one much larger than the last two.
“Damn it” She said under her breath.
––––––––
THE RENDEZVOUS POINT
The roar of some kind of engine caused them all to look to the south where it appeared to be echoing from. The guards picked up their weapons and adopted the same defence stance they had done previously. Joaquin's encrypted phone rang. Great timing, he thought. He answered it quickly, knowing the only person who would phone him was his current boss. He listened carefully to the instructions, told her he understood and the call abruptly ended. The other guards looked at him, waiting for some news.
“The chopper is coming to pick them up, we just need to hold back whatever is making that noise and then I have to wait here for the last three team members” He informed them.
“And then what?” asked Christian.
“You guys leave like you were supposed to do” He replied.
They agreed, no need to hang around longer than necessary they figured, they would still be walking away with their hard-earned money. Mateo shouted to the rest of the group, telling them that help was on its way, before turning his attention to the laptop again. He was able to trace the sound that was approaching; it appeared to be another vehicle, a quick hack into its system showed it had three soldiers inside, all heavily armed.
“There are three of them” He shouted over to the guards.
They braced themselves for the sight of a car hurtling towards them but saw nothing. All of a sudden, the air rippled and exploded into a shower of Nano-bots that sprinkled into view. Where the air had rippled was now the sight of the soldier's vehicle, too close to the guards for them to stop it. With a crunching thud it ploughed straight into them, flinging them all into the air like rag-dolls. Christian was the first to hit the floor, his back snapping in two. He screamed in agony as he tried to lift his arm to reach his gun that had fallen a foot away from him, when a swarm of Nano-bots wrapped around his arm, tearing at it with delicate saws protruding from underneath them. The next to fall to the floor was Lukas, who landed almost on his feet, dazed, but with enough awareness to fire towards the vehicle as it swung round and screeched to a halt.
Evrim landed head first, his forehead pouring with blood, but was also just about aware enough to hold his gun toward the vehicle, taking a couple of shots. The Nano-bots swooped up into the air, pulling Christian with them, before dropping him from a great height. He crashed to the ground, shattering every bone in his body, leaving him whimpering and barely conscious; his life ebbing away. Joaquin had been knocked five metres away, but landed with a roll, making it look like he had practised the same manoeuvre many times before. His roll spun him back to his feet athletically and he aimed his weapon at the vehicle. Before he had chance to fire, the Nano-bots flung themselves at him, sweeping him off his feet and flinging him back another ten metres and slamming him in to the side of his van. They then pinned him to the exterior as a series of tiny incisions punctured his body, his screams loud enough to hear for miles. Evrim's shots at the vehicle made no impact, they just bounced off. The soldiers leapt out of the vehicle, each one bearing a frightening looking weapon, instantly turning towards the group, who had scattered in the chaos. One of the soldiers let out a shot just as Lukas finally got around to firing too, but he missed completely, instead his bullet flying off towards a nearby tree.
Mateo was hidden behind Monique and Olivia's getaway car, back in his frenzied typing mode, trying in his own way to fight back.
Samir, normally the most reserved in combat situations had managed to jump in to the getaway car and drag the weapon they had retrieved back out with him.
Brandon was running, like a runaway locomotive, at a ridiculously fast speed straight towards the side of the soldiers.
Mariam had found a rock and thrown it with all her might at the swarm of Nano-bots that were dissecting Joaquin.
Olivia had started running, but the terror she felt had caused the purge to return, so was on her hands and knees.
Monique, still silent and terrified, had run as fast she could to find some shelter, her legs pounding her away from the violent epicentre.
James was directly behind her, but tripping over in his haste to escape, and tumbling towards Monique and a tree in front of them.
Gina, small and dainty but remarkably quick to react, was stood behind the tree, completely hidden, the same tree Lukas had taken aim at.
Danny didn't have time to scramble anywhere; he was sitting down when all hell broke loose. He had been sipping water, looked away for one moment and then whole of his world had tumbled into a chaotic scuffle of bangs and shrieks.
In the distance the sound of Sheryl's helicopter soaring towards the rendezvous point broke up the screams as Niel's car thrust itself forward along the road to them, ready to enter the scene of pandemonium.
––––––––
PANDEMONIUM
Sometimes, when you think things aren't going your way, everything clicks back into place. Out of complete chaos, order restores itself. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it makes you just sit back and appreciate the complexity of the universe and all the choices made that allow it to continue on with its divine play.
To cause less confusion, let's name the three Elite soldiers. We'll call them Simon, Peter and Paul. Nice and simple. At least that part is. What followed was a series of moments that separately are all very random, but together join in to display fate in all its twisted, and rather peculiar glory. For parts of this, you can remove the 'L' from that last word.
Mariam's rock, thrown with an Olympic effort and perfectly aimed, smashed into the Nano-bots. They let go of Joaquin, who fell to the floor, looking like he was a piece of meat in a butcher's shop. Mariam froze for a split second as the Nano-bots spun in her direction, she was now their new target. It was at this moment she had to ask herself why she had just done that.
Elite Simon held his ferocious weapon still, its aim on Evrim and Lukas. In less than a split second the trigger was pulled and a puff of sonic air raced away from the cannon, a sonic blast of body-thumping intensity. He pulled the trigger again almost instantly as Lukas let out his own shot, a complete waste of time as it soared off in another direction towards a nearby tree. Simon's sonic blast smashed into both Evrim and Lukas, the impact almost liquefying their insides as the vibrations caused their organs to pop. They both dropped to the ground in a soggy mass of blended bones and tissue, as the Nano-bots swarmed back towards Mariam. The second blast of sonic-death smacked into the swarm of bots, dispersing them in two directions.
The first swarm was flung towards Danny, who had just enough reaction time to start running, at which point he slipped on Olivia's vomit, skidding uncontrollably before sliding to the floor, his bottle of water shooting off towards James. The Nano-bots continued in the same direction, now headed for James and Monique. James tumbled forward, somehow managing to fall over himself, tripping Monique over in the process. Lukas's bullet flew above their heads as they fell; missing by mere centimetres before puncturing the water bottle Danny had accidentally thrown. The water bottle exploded, the contents spraying out into the air around it. The swarm of Nano-bots collided with the shower of water and they sparked into tiny flames that dropped to the floor inches from where Gina was hidden behind a tree.
At the same time, the second swarm were slung towards Samir, who had the huge weapon in his arms. He had aimed it right at Elite Peter and without even giving it a second thought had pulled the trigger. The projectile launched itself, pushing Samir back, and smashing straight through the approaching Nano-bots, each one evaporating into flashes and sparks. The projectile continued on its journey eventually saying hello to Elite Peter, who was given a short sharp lesson in how to be disassembled.
Brandon meanwhile crashed into Elite Simon, the impact causing the trigger on the sonic-death machine to be pulled once more, the weapon then breaking free from Elite Simon's grip and crashing to the floor. With a move only Bruce Lee could normally do, Elite Simon kicked Brandon aside, knocking him back a few metres. It was not enough to deter Brandon, who decided to cause another bodily collision with him. What did deter him though was the sudden and inexplicable change of facial expression on Elite Simon, which went from an anger Brandon had never seen before to an exploding pulp of hideousness. Behind the getaway vehicle Mateo had been thunderously typing commands and he had finally found a break through. He had managed for the first time to hack into the Neuro-Net that was inside Elite Paul and with a few simple keystrokes had managed to get Elite Paul to train his weapon on Elite Simon next to him and pull the trigger. The result was another reason why today wasn't a very pleasant day.
The last shot from Elite Simon's sonic death device shot past Mateo and punctured straight through the approaching car that Mateo had only just noticed was squealing up the track. The shot crumpled through the engine and straight through Niel, sending the car on a direct trajectory with Elite Paul. Inside, Mike and David clung to the back-seat helplessly as it was careering towards its target. In the front seat, a barely recognisable Niel, his body a jelly like mass, wobbled with the contortions of the car. It smashed into Elite Paul, the final soldier left, throwing him underneath the vehicle. The weight of the car pummelled Elite Paul into the ground, before it finally came to a standstill when it skidded into an impenetrable bush. David and Mike kicked their way out of the car, both feeling lucky to be alive. They felt even luckier when they surveyed their surroundings. It was a scene of complete and utter carnage. Piles of what look like used to be humans dotted around, their friends all standing or lying on the floor wide eyed.
Gina popped her head out from behind the tree; just to see what was happening and if it was safe to come out yet. It looked like it was, so she skipped over to everyone.
“I thought I might have been in trouble then” She said as she approached the others, the rest of them dumbfounded as to what had actually just happened.
The rest of them had started walking back towards where it had all started around twenty seconds before that, completely flummoxed. They walked towards the dead soldiers when suddenly Elite Paul began to twitch and rise to his feet. Everyone shrieked in terror at the sight of the dead coming back to life, Brandon inching forward to roundhouse kick him.
“Oh sorry” Mateo said as he typed the word 'delete' into his laptop, to which Elite Paul dropped to the floor and folded himself into an almost triangular shape, “I forgot to exit the system”.
“You learnt how to control them?” Danny asked, to which Mateo nodded.
They all looked around, still in confusion, as the sound of the approaching helicopter began to get louder and louder. They all looked at the car ahead, tangled in the bushes.
“Niel” Mariam said running towards it.
“No, don't” Mike shouted running after her and pulling her back gently, “You don't want to see him like that”.
They were all pumped up with adrenalin again, so bad it was giving them all the shakes, trying to comprehend how everything got so bad. It was the third friend they had lost today; it was an almost unbearable feeling.
“Did he have his research with him?” Mateo asked.
Mike and David shrugged; he had never mentioned it so weren't sure. Mateo walked towards the back of the car and opened the trunk. Inside were notebooks and diagrams, everything that Niel had been working on. He knew Sheryl needed this information; she had mentioned the odd thing here and there to him, so knew that this was somehow important. He said a little prayer for Niel, apologising for having to leave him there and tucked the notes into his inside coat pocket.
The helicopter landed less than twenty metres away and the side door was flung open for them to get inside. They had never seen a helicopter quite like this, it was cigar shaped with eight different rotors around the top and sides. They weren't quite sure of the significance of so many, but assumed they had some purpose. Gina rushed back to her vehicle and pulled the containers out the back. Danny rushed over to help her as he could see her tiny frame was never going to be able to drag them all with her. They all jumped into the helicopter and finally felt some kind of relief. The day's events had turned grislier the longer they went on, and it was an odd thing to feel joy at this moment, but it was an emotion they had no control of. The helicopter lifted up smoothly and with a few more quick turns of the controls they were on their way, soaring off to what would be their home for the foreseeable future, a safe haven where they would be free from the repression thrust upon mankind.