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Copyright © 2024 Charles Tempest

AI: ‘Human Your Time Has Come…’

By

Charles Tempest

Chapters 2 and 3 only.

Chapter 2 Flag (excerpt)

*

“This is it.”

Hadley broke into the silence, “...a sign reading ‘MK mark 42.4 miles’…”

“That’s it.”

“No, there’s something’s wrong call ‘em up!”

Gorgan pressed the buttons of his mobile, “dead.”

“What?”

“Okay, you try…”

Hadley pressed the buttons, “it’s dead...HQ never goes dead…”

“I know.”

“Something’s wrong.”

Hadley got out the car, to stare at the desert that surrounded them. In the distant sky he could see a group of birds, “vultures…”

“I don’t believe it, fifty miles from a store...I knew I should’ve got a Sub…”

“Funny,” Hadley muttered, staring at the dust devil moving across the sand…”

“What’s that?”

He could see it now, a truck and it was heading towards them, along the hardened mud track.

“I’m gonna’ flag it down…”

The sound of a change of gear could be heard as he waved his hands feverishly. But it then turned, passing him in the process to then leave him with the dust stinging his face. He turned to his partner, now getting angry.

“That bastard,” shouted Gorgan from the steering wheel, “why didn’t he stop?”

“He didn’t see me.”

“He must have done!”

“No, he didn’t exist…”

"Didn’t...", his bafflement turned to a terrible realisation, it was a driverless.

Hadley got back into the passenger seat, “This is weird shit…ring control again.”

Gorgon put his headphones on, to then switch on his mobile, “nothing. There’s no signal, that’s it!”

“Must be a damn signal, even here,” Hadley surveyed the desert around him. There must be a signal...what was that?”

“What you say?”

“That sound...like a chuntering...”

“I can’t hear a damn thing!”

As Gorgon took off his phones, Hadley got out once more, to look around, nothing at the front, so what about, “Jeez-us…”

The Truck was charging from behind the car, converging with an all too fast inevitability. Running to the driver’s side he made to grab his partner…

Gorgon wondered, “What’s that sound…”

“Get out ya’ dumb bastard!”

As they fell to the sand, a giant truck ploughed straight into the stationary Nissan, carrying it away from its previous inhabitants, down the tarmac road, with a screeching death, until the freight ‘ship’ discarded the cars ripped wreck aside; its fellow vehicles now obediently following the leading truck into the distance in a cloud bowl of dust.

As the trucks disappeared, and they stood up watching, the silence was broken by Hadley, “got your mobile?”

Gorgan shook his head, “It’s in the Nissan…”

Then it dawned on them, they had a long walk back to civilisation.

Chapter Three ‘Arms’

Hadley and Gorgon were exhausted by the time they had managed to flag down a garbage ‘skip’ truck.

“So what happened to your car?”

Neither were in the mood for light banter, “ran out of electric…”

Hadley then introduced themselves to the dust ‘jockey’.

“That is bad, the cars are supposed to let you know…”

“Not this time…”

Gorgon just sat there staring at road; six hours of walking did not make him conducive to conversation; it was seven minutes past eight and he thought they’d never get a break, watching one car after another pass them by.

“Where you headin’?”

“Just the nearest motel…” Gorgon replied not thinking.

“He means teller machine, we need some cash…”

“No money eh? Well, no one has much of that these days, ha-ha…”

Neither of his passengers laughed.

“I know where there’s a bank, should be okay…”

It was only when the truck had deposited them, to make a right, they turned to the machine. Hadley immediately shoved the card in, he was about to go straight to ‘cash’ when the machine swallowed his card, “Godamn!”

“What’s the matter?”

“It took my card, gonna’ use this one.”

He was genuinely shocked when the second card disappeared, “fuckin’ hell…”

Gorgon, “here let me try…”

The machine swallowed his card, “Fuckin’ shit bastard machine, bastard motherfucker…”

Hadley realised they were heading over the financial cliff, “you got another card?”

“Why would I have another card?”

Both of them checked their cash barely eight dollars to Gorgons three; not enough for a bed for the night. The swearing went on into the night as they picked a tree to sleep under.

*

It was the traffic that awoke Hadley. While Gorgon slept, he realised he’d need to visit the bank, then get home. It was only when Gorgon awoke, he wondered out loud, “can you get a car?”

Gorgon mentioned about his brother having taken off in his land truck, had then left his car in the drive.

“Keys?”

“I know where he keeps them.”

Hadley began to relax, they had transport, time to grab some food from a supermarket; the rest of the cash would be needed for the bus. Time for the bank…

No one was about as Hadley noticed the clock said 9.34am.

“Good morning, what can I do for you, customer…”

Hadley still felt irritated talking with a computer, “I want to see a human…”

“Our staff are at only selected branches, may I help you?”

He told it his situation, the need for cash, and what his bank card details.

“Your bank account has been closed; we will be sending you a letter telling details and where you wish your money to be sent. This may take longer than a week…”

With the second card bringing up the very same results, and how he couldn’t be given any money from either account, he left the bank with nothing. The big zero.

Gorgon immediately followed Hadley’s idea. His account had been ‘frozen’. The big zero.

“We need the backups…”

Gorgon, “right…”

Hadley, “you’ve got your semi-automatic rifle and revolver, I’ve got my automatic…”

Gorgon, “Ah...I don’t have the semi.”

Hadley, “You said it was there any time…”

Gorgon, “Well Joe turned up last Sunday, he wanted to shoot some ‘gators’…”

Hadley, “What! Who the fuck is Joe? Are you telling me, you’ve just got a fuckin’ pistol?”

Gorgon, “Hey, I didn’t know this shit was gonna’ happen, he’s my bro’, anyway what about your rifle?”

Hadley, “I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it…”

Gorgon, “Oh, yeah, where’s yours…”

Hadley, “Look, I thought I could buy one at the store…”

Gorgon, “Oh, yeah, mister professional…”

Hadley, “I didn’t know they were gonna’ waste my ID! Shit, so all we have are two hand guns, ammunition?”

Gorgon, “I’ve got ammunition, we won’t need more than a box...plus…”

Hadley, “I don’t believe it...”

As the rain began to fall, they sat there on the bench wondering.

Hadley had a couple of hundred at home, “I’m getting a bus to my flat, meet me there, with the car.”

It was after fifty-minutes when Gorgon drew the car up. After locking the car he looked about, no kids eyeing him, good.

“So you got the car.”

“I had to fill her up, cost me sixty,” Gorgon sat opposite Hadley’s sofa.

“It occurs to me, they’re gonna’ find out we’re not dead, I’ve got my spare mobile but they can find out where you are as soon as you start using it…”

“Whaat? How can they do that?”

Gorgon wasn’t as clued up with technology, “it’s through the systems, y’know those wire masts that pick up your signal?” Then it hit him, he stood up and looked around. Taking a writing pad and pen he kept by the old landline phone, he began to scribble. Gorgon looked on blankly until he received the scrap of paper, ‘we’re being listened to…”

“You mean they’ve bugged your…”

“Shhhh, for crying out loud! I mean I don’t know, but if they’ve thought all this through beforehand, then what do you think?”

“Jeezus...you sure you’re not getting paranoid?”

“You’ve got your revolver…”

Hadley produced his automatic, “I’ve only got the one magazine, it’s in it,” he hated automatic’s.

“They jam, that bodyguard’s one, he was working for one of the royals, it didn’t work…”

“When was that?”

“Nineteen seventy-three…”

“I don’t believe this…”

“Do ya’ wanna’ swap?”

“No! It’s my lucky gun and it doesn’t jam…”

“Well you’re gonna’ need those skills later, if this is control’s doing, we’re gonna’ need some leverage…”

“Leverage?”

“We grab the girl...”

*

Gorgon did a slow sweep past the girl’s house as a light turned off inside. It was 11.22pm and around them they could tell the other home had already turned for bed. He doved in between two parked cars just in front of her driveway; they sat there pensively.

“You wanna’ take the back?”

Gorgon nodded, “I’ll take a stock of bullets…”

“She’ll be in bed soon, best to get her while she’s sleeping.”

Gorgon nodded, “what do we do with her?”

Irritated, Hadley looked across to the house, truth was he didn’t know, “Uh, we get in touch with ‘control’, something like that…”

The minutes would be taken up with them checking their guns and staring at the quiet house that had no lights on.

“Y’know, I didn’t think things would go like…”

“Look!”

Hadley looked. At first he wondered what he was supposed to look at, until the two figures crept up to the house. One ran to the right to disappear down the side.

“Who are those guys?”

“Well the guy on the right, going down the right side of the house has a UZI…”

Hadley noticed the other waiting by the door with a pistol. It was only as the couple of minutes passed, he saw two other guys crouching, then shuffling in unison, “what’s going on…”

They both watched as the second two assailants took position in front of the house.

Hadley could only mutter, “who are these guys?”

“I don’t know, but, the one on the right has a Kalashnikov, and on the left, I think it’s a Scorpion machine gun...who are these guys?”

It was in that moment the explosion happened from the back.

“They’ve got grenades for a tennis kid?”

Gorgon interjected, “I think he’s thrown a stun grenade, they don’t sound the same…”

Hadley, “that guy with the rifle is going down the side…”

As they heard some shots come from the back, they looked at each other; what to do?

Then there was movement from the window of the door.

“It’s opening, it’s the first guy…”

They both watched as his partner jumped up the step of the porch to greet his friend…

In that moment they watched as the second brigade shot the hell out of the opened front door where the two guys were standing; only in that moment the bullets flew in an up, then in a crossed motion, blowing the hell out of the wood inside of the house; the two figures were now on the floor, not moving.

Gorgon, could only look on, “Who the fuck are those guys?”

Hadley could only look on. As the black figure jumped past the floored figures, to then call, and walk up the stairs.

Hadley, “Who the fuck are those guys?”

Now they could hear dogs barking, as they looked about them, lights from the neighbours were being switched on.

Hadley, “I’ve got to think…”

Gorgon, “We go home...right?”

Hadley stared at his pitiful pistol, and it was an automatic. He’d never walked away from a job before, “you ever walked away from a mission?”

“Listen, this is different, they’ve got the ordnance…”

Hadley, “we were supposed to keep an eye on the girl...they don’t know we exist here…”

Gorgon, “and if we get it wrong, we won’t exist, remember control fucked us!”

Hadley, “we can do this, we need the girl...see their coming down the stairs, you take the right side, I’ll take the left, get behind a car…”

Gorgon, “oh, do we have to?” Grumbling...” alright, crossfire as soon as they enter the pavement…”

Dashing to their posts, they took up behind their respective vehicles. In that moment, a black clad figure jumped down the step to the pathway, to look about, he then made a hand gesture to have his friend follow him. Except there was another figure, barely capable of standing, it was a girl.

Gorgon immediately shot at the guy shuffling behind the girl, another shot followed as the figure then fell to his knees, aiming vaguely in the direction he thought the bullets were coming from, but the third bullet stopped him, dead. Hadley, could hear a word come from the assailant near him, “shit,” before the Scorpion was levelled at Gorgon, shooting bullets all over the pick-up’s back metal as he flew up against the Toyota’s hood; the windscreen was shredded immediately. Hadley saw his partner flail back against the front of a red car, he aimed the pistol at the head of the black clad figure with the ‘Scorpion’.

Nothing. The sound of the bullets were coming from the Scorpion, Hadley’s automatic was dead; jammed.

Ducking down behind an Audi, he tried to check the gun in the dark, while the ‘Scorpion’ dragged the girl past him; he followed to the next car. What to do? He followed to the larger wagon. In that moment a single shot came and stopped the ‘Scorpion’. The girl pulled away from the crippled figure now crouching in pain. Hadley saw his chance, creeping up, he then ran and in one motion totalled the back of the guy’s head with the pistol. As the ‘Scorpion’ collapsed, Hadley smashed each eye of the man; the groan was quiet. He looked to see the girl standing a few yards to his left; the pockets were emptied: passport, driving licence, and cash, he took it all away, as another shot rang out.

“With me now,” Hadley insisted.

“Who are you?”

“One of the good guys,” anything to convince her to move. A car was needed, “you got your car keys?”

“No they’re in the house…”

And Gorgon had the keys for the other; he made to look for his dead partner, but something else caught his eye. Grabbing her, he then moved to the centre of the road, aiming the Scorpion at the vehicle, the car slowed, he ran to the driver’s side and smashed at the driver’s window and screamed “Get out!”

To his surprise, the door opened and a woman in a white shirt got out; he shouted at the girl to get in the car, “if you don’t want those guys friend’s to kill us…”

He then noticed her wavering, he pulled the scorpion and shot a round in the air, before aiming it at her face. She got in the car. He felt for the car keys as he noticed the engine running.

Hadley pressed the pedal hard to the floor, he drove past the girl’s house and the debris surrounding it, as the girl looked at the two figures lying on the ground, then catching the mess in her doorway, “who are you?”

Turning the car down a side road, she was surprised by his answer, “you’re alive aren’t you?”

Copyright © 2024 Charles Tempest