Clio and Cy: The Apocalypse (14 page)

“It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are
simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream
sandwiches.”

― Lemony Snicket

“I’m not sure how much longer we can stay here, Cy.”

“I will keep us safe, Dr. Marcus.”

“I know you will, Cy, but...”

“The Ker, Dr. Marcus? Is that what you fear?””

“I just have this bad feeling we’re going to get found out
here eventually… Dr. Pavlov will find us sooner or later…”

“Where would we go, Dr. Marcus? What about your work?” Cy
said, pointing at himself.

“It would have to be a place that I could continue it...
You’re right about that, Cy.”

“My files tell me that Charlotte would be the best place
within a reasonable distance.”

“Reasonable, Cy?” Dr. Pressfield responded. Walking down the
street wasn’t reasonable, but he knew what his young cyborg meant.

Dr. Pressfield’s excitement built and he suddenly realized
why Cy suggested Charlotte.

“Cy, you’re brilliant... just brilliant.”

“The DARPA facility, Dr. Marcus?” Cy asked.

Dr. Pressfield knew that the satellite DARPA facility had
the latest and greatest equipment. “Yes… brilliant, Cy.”

“It’s also near one of the Resistance Bases Dr. Marcus. One
of only two, I might add.”

“You’re right… if it’s still there…” Dr. Pressfield
wondered. He knew of RMB Jackson outside of Charlotte because he and Colonel
Reagner had spoken of it through correspondence a few times.

Cy flipped the hologram switch on Dr. Pressfield’s computer
and a map appeared - suspended in the air. “We could commandeer a vehicle once
we got past this area,” the cyborg confirmed, pointing at the image.

“It wouldn’t be easy, Cy. Other than you, we don’t have any
weapons.”

Dr. Pressfield knew they’d have to walk through a large part
of northern VA before driving a car. The Destroyers would detect a moving
vehicle. Easy fodder for their scanners…

But once outside the
reaches of their scanners… maybe… it’s possible
, Dr. Pressfield thought.
The roads though
…

“We’d need to find a vehicle that could go off road, Dr.
Marcus.”

Dr. Pressfield smiled and looked at his cyborg. “Reading my
mind again? You got that right, Cy. The roads are probably screwed up… littered
with vehicles… you name it… but if we make it…”

“Charlotte… DARPA… Good idea, yes Dr. Marcus?” Cy asked in
an arrogant playful smile.

Cy’s face went expressionless again because Dr. Pressfield
was too enveloped in thought to notice his cyborg’s attempt at being funny.

“It could really change things... My work… Cy… just the
equipment alone at DARPA!”

“You mean I risked my neck for nothing, Dr. Marcus?” Cy said
staring at the power generator that was hooked up in the middle of the living
room, charging several other machines.

“Sorry, buddy… that’s if the stuff at DARPA is still
working. For all we know it’s a pile of rubble too.”

“Not likely, Dr. Marcus. Other than big military bases, the
south wasn’t hit that hard.”

Dr. Pressfield walked inside the kitchen and grabbed one of the
few remaining water bottles from the fridge as if to celebrate. “And that place
is built like a bunker too,” he said before taking a swig. “Built that sucker
to survive a hurricane… and then some…”

Cy stared at his master with a strange inquisitive expression
and spoke. “Dr. Marcus.”

“What, Cy?” Dr. Pressfield asked spilling water down his
neck…

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so excited before.”

“Oh…” he said wiping off his chin before bringing the bottle
back to his lips and finishing it with a few audible chugs.

“I rather enjoy seeing you this way. I shall come up with
brilliant ideas more often… If I can,” Cy said as if he were scanning for
another one.

Dr. Pressfield threw the bottle in the trash under the sink
and leaned in to stuff the overflowing pile down. “Cy, anytime you want to …
well then, you go ahead, buddy,” he said muffled from the lower cabinet.

He shut the door and realized the trash needed to be taken
out.
Later…
Dr. Pressfield ignored
the chore and moved toward his cyborg.

“I shall do my best, Dr. Marcus.”

“Thanks Cy,” Dr. Pressfield said sarcastically walking by
and pretending to hit his cyborg on the chin, stopping just short of touching
the dimple in its center.

“Shall I prep for the journey, Dr. Marcus?”

“Yes… prep, Cy,” Dr. Pressfield said heading to his
generator. He pondered the items he could take. Sadly, it wasn’t much.

“I already have all of your files downloaded,” Cy stated,
pointing to his head.

“Generator has to go,” Dr. Pressfield said squatting over
it, analyzing other items.

“You need plenty of food and water, Dr. Marcus. That’s the
most important thing… I’ll grab the hiking packs in the basement,” Cy announced
before opening the door and walking down.

Just the mention of the word
hiking
made Dr. Pressfield think about his wife.

Hiking…

He hadn’t been in a long time. Reminiscing, he longed to
bask in the mountains fresh air while trying to impress her by naming all of
the wildlife they saw. He missed her so damn much. The feeling was a bottomless
pit that hadn’t dissipated an ounce since her death. Well, after Cy was
born
, the pain lessened a bit.

Hiking was something they loved to do together. She’d gotten
him into
nature
. Actually, she
dragged him kicking and screaming into the woods. Dr. Pressfield was reluctant to
spend any free time away from work. But he was never reluctant to spend time
with her, well, not after… not after she’d cheated.

After the affair was over, Marcus battled the demons of
cheating like any man would. The visions of her with another man would never
leave his thoughts no matter how much they tried to repair their relationship.
Now, even after her death, he still fought them.

There was no excuse for her disloyalty. But he knew that in
a way, albeit a much lesser way, he’d cheated on her too. Not with a woman, but
by way of his work. The science of genes and the variation of organisms was his
lover. He was trying to create something that had only been dreamed of. It
wasn’t a secret love either.

“Inventors don't have time for married life.”

― Nikola Tesla

“Are you ever going to spend time with me?” God he wished he
could hear her ask that question again.

Curiously, somehow the post-cheating days made the
relationship better than it had ever been. There was something masculine about
always trying to win her back. She let him do it too.

Each time he made her happy, without fail, he felt like a
real man.

His groundbreaking work mixed with the success he was having
with his wife – both fanned the flames of his manhood.

Marcus sensed that she never forgave herself for it though.
It was a strange feeling to want to curse her name while also feeling sorry for
her at the same time. He wasn’t the type of man that felt sorry for himself,
but for her – yes, somehow, he did. God he loved her.

Dr. Pressfield, the geneticist and scientist had relegated
her to years of loneliness. She was a fantastic salesperson who didn’t pretend
to grasp his work but she never hid her desire for human contact with her
husband either. She desperately craved Marcus’s touch.

She’d finally had enough of the longing to be needed; the
desire for intimacy was ended with an exhilarating first encounter.

Thoughts of suicide crossed her mind after she’d consummated
the first intimate act with her secret lover. The affair was beyond confusing…
She felt like a woman again, her secret lover’s touch was wonderful and
nauseating at the same time. The second go around was easier, the third, and so
on… But as the fucking got easier, the guilt mounted with the weight of
Kilimanjaro on her soul.

“I never see you,” she would demand countless times in the
months before the affair.

“You see me all the time, dear,” he’d answer.

“Marcus Pressfield … all I see of you is the back of your
head.”

He remembered the last time she demanded to spend time with
him and watched his wife break down in tears. That’s when she admitted the
affair. Months passed before he could even look at her. Time had to heal the
initial sting before he could even try to speak to her. But in those quiet
months, he admitted his shortcomings too; after admitting them to her, things
went in a beautiful direction. Forgiveness gave birth to a different marriage.

Dr. Pressfield would gladly go through it all over again
just to have her back. But he knew like the majority of the world’s population,
no one was coming back.

He’d lost her for so long… He’d lost his wife because of his
work, all because he was trying to create something perfect.

“Got them, Dr. Marcus... They’re a bit dusty but in perfect
order,” Cy stated walking out from the basement, cradling two huge hiking
packs.

“Thanks, Cy.”

Cy sensed that Dr. Marcus was lost in deep wondering.
Thinking of her again
, he thought. The
cyborg quietly left it alone.

“Shall we leave in the morning, Dr. Marcus?”

“I think we shall, Cy,” Dr. Pressfield answered as his lost
thoughts shifted to their upcoming journey.

Marcus dreamed of the possibilities of what he could do in a
facility like DARPA.

“Courage,
sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts... that's
what little girls are made of. TO HELL with the sugar and spice!”

-Unknown

Russ plopped back down on the train tracks and gently leaned
back while Clio prepared to dock against him like she’d been taught. Her
backpack partially held her up and her hair tickled the back of the old man’s
neck when they touched.

“What do we have in here,” Russ said as he dug through his
pack.

Clio leaned forward so she could take hers off and dig too.
She pulled out a canteen that Russ filled with water and unscrewed the cap.
Lady waited patiently, pawing at her.

Russ sensed the dog begging. “No Lady. Don’t beg… you can
eat when we get back home.” The dog whined and let out a bark.

The rustle of Clio’s protein bar wrapper crinkled in the
moist air while she devoured its contents. The twelve-year-old let the bar’s
sheath fall out of her hand and into the wind. As much from the physical
application, Clio was hungry from the mental learning of the day’s lessons,
too. Studying on how to be a trained killer is hard work for a grown man. She
gobbled up the learning as eagerly as she did the plant-based protein bar.

“Eat up… we’re not going to stay out here all day,” Russ
ordered.

“Can we wait a few more hours?” Clio asked.

Russ spun his head around. “You crazy kid? We’re not waiting
out here that long. Maybe… an hour… tops.”

Disappointed with his answer, Clio began stuffing the rest
of the protein bar into her mouth.

“Ok,” she responded in a barely audible voice, sticking her fingers
in deep to get the protein bar all the way inside her mouth.

“Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to talk with your mouth
full, young lady?”

Clio giggled and nodded. “Yup,” she answered even more
muffled, revealing the dark chocolate that turned the inside of her mouth
black.

The old man shook his head. “Kids,” he responded after
watching her suck chocolate residue off her fingers.

Lady quietly ran toward the edge of the forest where only
Clio could see her. But, Clio was taking a swig out of her canteen and hadn’t
noticed the dog yet. She capped the bottle and began stuffing it back in her
pack when she saw the ass end of the dog going away from her.

Lady’s hair was sticking up like an Arkansas razorback and
she sniffed the ground in a frantic pace. Clio froze and tried to swallow…
Sensing the K9 was on to something, she watched the dog get lower.

Hovering over the grass, Lady went into a full commando
crawl through the Bottlebrush. Recalling the paper monsters, Clio transported
back to target practice, lesson learned, she clutched her rifle and steadied
her breathing. “Russ,” she whispered.

“What?”

Clio didn’t respond, enveloped with the thought of killing,
she pushed her rifle out in front of her so she could lie down and look down
its barrel. Russ felt her move and push off his back.

“What?” He asked again before turning around and balancing
on his hands. Suddenly, out of his peripheral, he caught a glimpse of Lady.
He’d seen her like this before and knowing the dog never cried wolf, the hair
on his neck stood up too.

Clio looked through her scope with one eye closed and had
already gone to her belly. She opened both eyes to get a wider view and then
went back to using the scope.

Russ positioned his knee on one of the railroad ties after
adjusting against its hard, splintered surface. He wanted to be able to see
three hundred and sixty degrees. No way he was going to let one of those
bastards sneak up from behind.

“Lady,” he yelled in a whisper. “Get back here.” Russ threw
a rock from the tracks to get his dog’s attention and yelled again, still
whispering it. “Lady! Get back here!”

Reluctantly, the dog came back after stopping a few times to
turn around and inspect the woods.

The monster came out quietly on all fours, sniffing the
ground where the dog had just left. It wanted to inspect the area before fully
announcing its presence and the creature knew Clio and Russ were there.

This beast was a weird devil.

Before climbing onto the railroad tracks, it continued on
all fours and only glanced over at them a few times. In an eerie display of
something a primate might do, or a human, the creature picked up a rock. The
monster banged the stone against the rail before tossing it to the side.

Maybe it was thinking
of throwing it at us
, Clio thought.

Clio and Russ looked at each other.

The creature stood on its hind legs and began walking down
the tracks toward them. Stopping on all fours every so often, it balanced as it
walked in short powerful strides down the center of the tracks.

“I got it,” Clio said as she tried to calm herself down. Her
hands were shaking and the old man could see how nervous she was. Raising his
rifle, Russ cast his shadow over her…

“I got it,” Clio affirmed. “I got it,” she said again in a
soft voice while her hands steadied.

She stopped shaking and became still under the hidden sun.

Walking closer, the creature appeared in her scope.

Stratus clouds fell in shadows over the humanoid while it
moved along the tracks under the shade of slow motion cover. Cicada bugs
clicked in unison and the creature walked across the stones, crunching
complementary with the insect sounds.

She held her breath and squeezed the trigger. “Crack!”

After losing sight of the beast when it fell to the ground,
Clio pulled away from the scope and wasn’t sure if she should fire again. She
opened both eyes and saw it lying on its back, hung over the tracks.

“Come on!” Russ ordered before jogging forward.

Lady barked and wagged her tail. Jumping to her feet, Clio did
the same. The twelve-year-old ran and stayed behind them.

They arrived a few feet from the monster and watched. It
barely moved, clawing the gaping wound in its chest.

“Finish it,” Russ said looking in every direction, ensuring
it was the only one around.

Clio aimed. “Crack! Crack! Crack!”

“Good! Enough! It’s dead girl…”

Clio’s chest rose and fell and the smell of gunpowder hung
in the air. A tear fell from her eye and she could hardly stand the sight and
smell of the thing. As if she made the kill, Lady wagged her tail and
continuously barked.

“Lady would you knock it off!” Russ ordered.

Feverishly sniffing the ground, the dog moved toward the
creature wanting a closer look.

“Lady! Get away from that nasty ass thing,” Russ scolded.

The dog stopped and looked over at them with a puzzled look
on her face. Her tongue flapped low and she reluctantly obeyed. Lady wanted to
at least touch her nose against the nasty thing. Always to the dog’s
disappointment, the old man never let her get anywhere near the demon
creatures.

Clio wasn’t sure what to say. “I got it,” was the only words
that came out.

“Hell of a shot, young lady.”

“What do we do with it?”

“Do with it? You want to take it home and eat it?”

Clio’s face contorted. “No way!”

“Didn’t think so… Don’t worry; it won’t be here in the
morning. The others will find it and eat it.”

Clio leaned over and spit over the tracks in a less than
feminine way. “That’s gross,” she answered after wiping her mouth off and
looking nauseated by the thought of such an idea.
Eat that…?
The thing stunk to high heaven.

It seemed the flies were genetically enhanced because they’d
already tracked the smell and gathered over its rotting flesh, buzzing around
it in an insect soiree.

“Let’s get back inside,” Russ ordered.

“Fine with me,” Clio answered with Lady jogging alongside
her and looking up as if to say,
I helped
too
. Clio bent down and ran her hand down Lady’s back before ruffling her
furry ears between her fingers.

The old man looked down the railroad tracks and thought…
Old Ft. Jackson…
He kept the idea tucked
in his brain.
Follow the tracks
; he
knew that was the best way to get to the RMB.