Then he looked around the programmer so he and Frank could lock eyes.
“I hope some sicko is making your little sister his meat puppet right now,” he taunted. “Doing whatever he likes with her body.”
He struck a nerve. Frank couldn’t keep his composure any longer. With a tightening of his lips, he marched forward, pushing past Dr. Miller like he was a turnstile. Once he was close enough, he charged at Seth.
The gun went off.
Beth’s ears rang with the sound of the explosion. Everyone had their hands up around their ears aside from Seth and Dr. Miller.
The programmer looked down at his chest and watched a spout of blood leak out of him and soak the front of his shirt. His face was stone cold with shock as he looked back up. Beta shrieked while everyone watched in astonishment.
“Seth,” Dr. Miller said, looking at the man who had shot him. Then he fell to the floor.
“You fucking killed him, man!” Bash yelled. “You killed him!”
Seth’s face drained of blood. His own eyes were wide with surprise. He looked around at the disgusted and horrified expressions surrounding him.
His voice was weak. “I didn’t mean — ” he started. “I wasn’t trying to shoot — I didn’t mean to do that.”
“You son of a bitch!” Frank bellowed. He used Seth’s shock against him and lunged at the shooter. “You’ll pay for that! I’ll kill you!”
The pair of them fell to the ground with a few grunts. Seth was too stunned to stop Frank from prying the gun out of his hand. He was too shocked to stop Frank from bashing him in the face with the butt of the gun. His face burst open with blood and his nose broke. Frank struck him over and over and over.
“Frank, stop!” Bash cried out. “Stop it!”
Frank ignored him.
“Frank!” Beta shouted, raising her volume above all the others. She pulled her own gun. “Give it up!”
Beth had seen enough. She realized she was holding her breath and stepped out of the room to regain her composure.
I can’t take this anymore, she thought. They’re too paranoid — too angry. It’s not safe here. If anyone found out I have an I.I. in my head…
“We have to leave,” Simon said. “Now. You can do this. While everyone’s distracted, we can slip out and start making our way to Fort Leddy. We can leave this nightmare behind.”
But the whole world is a nightmare, she replied.
“It’s all subjective,” Simon said. “Now, move!”
Somehow, she was able to push her legs into a steady pace to the pediatrics room. She took no pause before packing up her extra set of clothes, a bit of water and food, some bedding, and extra ammunition. The clinic’s medkit was in the room where Dr. Miller was killed, so she couldn’t go for any of that. She had to take what she could grab and go now before anyone noticed.
Her footsteps seemed louder than ever as she walked through the wooden corridor leading to the lobby. Shouts and cries could be heard reverberating through the walls, chasing her like a specter. She could still hear them fighting and yelling when she pulled back the plywood that made up the first barrier to the outside world.
“Where do you think you’re going?” a voice came from behind.
Beth spun around and saw Lia pointing a gun at her. The detective raised her hands and felt her heart go numb.
“Trying to escape?” Lia asked. “Gonna go tell your I.I. buddies where we are?”
“What are you talking about, Lia?” Beth said.
“You’re a meat puppet, aren’t you?” the armed woman interrogated. “I knew something was off about you this whole time. You probably staged the whole incident with ‘Gary’, didn’t you? Your name’s not even Beth — is it?”
“I’m not a meat puppet!” Beth cried. She realized how far her voice carried and lowered it. “I just want to get as far away as I can from this place. The paranoia is only going to kill more of us — if you guys haven’t killed Seth already. I’d rather chance it with the Liberators than stay another second here. Please, Lia, just let me go.”
There was a twitch in Lia’s jaw as she considered Beth’s words. Something in her eyes said she wanted to believe Beth, but something else caused a struggle inside her.
“You know I can’t do that, Beth,” Lia replied. “We can’t take the risk. I’m sorry.”
Before Beth could reply, Lia’s eyes rolled back in their sockets and her mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound came out. Her posture became distorted like someone under the spell of a demonic possession. A generous flow of blood poured from her nose and splattered on the stone lobby floor. Then — like a candle snuffed by the wind — all internal motion stopped and Lia fell to the ground, dead.
Beth stared at the woman’s corpse for a moment, her mouth locked open in horror. She felt a presence she didn’t notice missing return to her brain.
“We have to go,” Simon commanded. “Now!”
Refuge
The hum of the autovan they stole from the clinic grated at Beth as she drove on. Every time she returned to reality and remembered where she was and how she had got there, she hated the world they lived in now. She despised the corruption that made people like the Liberators follow the insane ideology of the Tarov A.I. She hated the seemingly basic human desire to — above all else — have your name highest on the scoreboard. As if the life we all share is a game. Something to be won.
To her, it seemed like a defect in the species. Ethnocentrism, racism, sexism — they were flaws that kept getting passed down, like a Huntington’s disease of hate. Which made people sometimes act on that hate. If no such flaw existed, they would not be in the situation they were in at that moment. There would have
