Dead Hunt (19 page)

In theory it made sense; in reality, Heslin
was a twisted fuck. The death of his daughter had warped his
brilliant mind. Years of talking to a computer as if it was his
daughter hadn’t helped Heslin much in the reality department. Dump
data onto a chip in a living brain, actually, a dead brain that he
planned to reanimate with a formula that was turning people into
cannibalistic zombies? Not exactly Daddy of the Year Material, but
it did raise a lot of questions as to how far a parent would go for
their child. And how far was too far?

While they prepared everything, Lucy learned
that most of the information Robin gave them was from Lucy’s own
blood. Lucy realized that Robin didn’t actually know if she was
infected until after she got the blood and tested it. When Michael
questioned Robin about infecting someone with a kiss, Robin simply
scanned her databanks, learned what a kiss was, why people kissed,
associated that kiss with love and, because of her limited
understanding of her father’s love for her, Robin put the necessary
pieces into place and promptly lied to Michael for her own
benefit.

“Remember the cellar,” Michael warned her in
the video.

In the cellar Robin had lied. It wasn’t until
after Robin got Lucy’s blood that Michael realized she lied to him.
He didn’t know if Lucy was infected. He didn’t know if the formula
she instructed him to make would slow down the turning process, as
she said ,or if Robin infected him with the same strain of virus to
turn him into a host too. Lucy knew Robin may have been originally
created with artificial intelligence, but the depth of her
sneakiness knew no boundaries. Lucy also knew the lengths Michael
would go to, and the risks he would take for her knew no boundaries
either.

The both knew they had no choice but to trust
a computer that could not be trusted.

“It’s ok, Luce, we’re going to be ok,”
Michael reassured her, snapping her back to reality.

She looked into his eyes. “I don’t have your
strength Michael. I’m…I’m scared.”

Without saying a word, Michael leaned down
and gently pressed his lips to hers. She bathed in the beauty of
that sweet and gentle kiss. When their lips parted, he smiled a
gentle, loving smile.

“I am sorry I had to bring you back to this
place,” he said with softened words. “But I didn’t know what else
to do.”

“It’s ok, Michael,” she reassured him. “I
would rather die here in the arms of someone who loves me, than…”
Lucy didn’t finish her sentence. Michael did that finger to the
lips thing again.

“You are not going to die,” he promised her.
“I won’t let it happen.”

She believed him.

Lucy enjoyed the reassuring strength of his
arms for a while longer, then motioned that it was time to get back
to work. Heslin may have put all the pieces in place, but they had
to manually load the terabytes of father-daughter data streams from
backup drives and load it into the cryo-computer. Robin helped in
that process, but the physical moving of storage drives was
something she could not to. As sophisticated as she was, she still
needed humans to do physical tasks.

Lucy learned that, to Robin, she was little
more than bait. Michael possessed the knowledge of computers and
science to help Robin, but Robin had to make sure Michael would
help her. Lucy was Robin’s insurance policy that he would help.

Lucy watched Michael working tirelessly in
the cramped basement, crawling under service panels in the lab,
then back down to the basement and every other task Robin set him
to do. Lucy couldn’t help but admire his determination. He never
complained; he never faltered. Robin told him what to do, and he
did it. And he did it all for Lucy. Lucy felt a funny sensation
twirling in her stomach that she never felt before, and, as she
watched Michael crawl under yet another service panel, it didn’t
take her long to figure out what that sensation was. Lucy walked
over to Michael and pulled him out from under the service
panel.

“What’s wrong, Luce?” he asked.

“I forgot.”

“You forgot what’s wrong?”

“No, silly,” she answered with a smile. “I
forgot to do this.”

She leaned down and pressed her lips to his.
It wasn’t the sweet and gentle kiss like before; it was hard and
passionate. Their tongues danced together as she gripped the back
of his head and pulled him even closer to her as if that was even
possible. When she finally broke free from the embrace, they were
both breathing heavily.

She leaned down once again, kissed him gently
on the lips and whispered, “I love you too.”

Michael’s eyes widened. A smile broke across
his lips.

“So hurry up and do whatever it is you have
to do so we can get the hell out of here…together.” She smiled back
at him.

Michael’s smile formed into a grin, too
stunned to reply.

“It is time,” Robin announced a few minutes
later, “to initiate the final transfer.”

“What’s the final transfer?” Lucy asked.

Michael just shrugged as he crawled out from
under the access panel.

“When you start the awakening process,” Robin
told them, “the program will automatically start to download the
data to the chip in my human brain. For this final transfer the
Robin 1 Mainframe must be shut down.” Robin paused for a moment, “I
must be shut down. There is an override that turns me off for a
period of one hour. During this hour my system is vulnerable. I can
not protect it.” She paused again before adding, “I cannot protect
myself.”

Robin looked hard at Michael, then continued,
“If something goes wrong and my system does not reboot, you will
not get the cure.”

“What if the awakening doesn’t work?” Lucy
asked.

“Then you do not get your cure,” Robin
answered.

“Wait!” Michael argued. “That’s not fair.
This whole thing was set up by you and Heslin. He couldn’t even get
the original formula right, and you are only going by procedures he
set up. I did everything you asked.”

“Yes,” Robin agreed, “you did.” Robin looked
at Lucy. “A testament of his love for you.”

“What do you know about love?” Lucy
scoffed.

“Not very much.” Robin’s face took a more
surreal look. “It saddens me that on the eve of my awakening, my
father will not be here. I will be awakened an orphan.” Robin
turned to Lucy. “If you promise that you will look after little
Robin, like a sister, I promise that as soon as I am rebooted, I
will present you both with the cure you need.”

Lucy did not answer.

“Please do not blame little Robin for the
mistakes of her father,” she paused, then added, “or mine.”

“I cannot promise to take care of a child
when I’m just a teenager myself,” Lucy said. “We have laws. But, I
promise to do the best I can to make sure Robin is taken care of by
a loving family.”

“That is acceptable.” Robin announced, “Start
the sequence.”

Michael flicked the switch on the console to
start the smaller computer and Robin flashed written text on the
screen. Michael read it out loud.

“Go to sleep now, Robin.”

Robin’s face disappeared and all was silent.
Silent, except for the sound of escaping gas as the
cryo-preservation canister slowly released the liquid nitrogen.

Time seemed to stand still as the small
computer inside the Cryo-chamber kicked in and started to download
information. Both Michael and Lucy doubted it would work. How could
the same virus that turned people into walking zombies that ate
people bring this little girl back to life? All Robin would offer
for an explanation was that the formula was meant to be injected
into non-living tissue, not spread in drinking water. It sounded
reasonable enough, but they really didn’t care, as long as they
lived through this. They didn’t give a rat’s ass about super
computer or frozen orphan Annie. They just wanted to get the cure
and get the hell out of Dodge before the whole island was lit up
like a Chernobyl Christmas tree.

Forty-five long minutes later the canister
opened and in it lay a sleeping angel. Her tiny body was blue from
the cold, and instinctively Lucy covered the child with a blanket.
Michael slowly started removing the diodes and wires from the child
as previously instructed by Robin. They carried the child upstairs
to the lab and laid her on a table. She still did not move. At the
turn of the hour, the Robin 1 Mainframe came back online and gave
Michael the final instructions. Following Robin’s directions he
created two formulas: Heslin's original formula, slightly modified,
and a second completely different formula. Robin told him the
second formula was for them.

“Michael,” Lucy touched his arm and
whispered, “remember the cellar.”

“I know, Luce, but what choice do we
have?”

“How much time do we have,” Lucy asked Robin,
“before the bombs?”

“Six hours, forty-five minutes, twenty-three
seconds.”

Michael injected the first syringe into
little Robin, then led Lucy into the lounge area and sat her on the
large, leather sofa.

“I’ll go first,” he said and without warning
jammed the needle into his arm.

“Michael!” she screamed.

“Had to do it quick. I hate needles,” he
explained.

Michael administered the required amount and
handed the syringe to Lucy.

“I…I can’t,” she told him. “I’m scared.”

Michael gently lifted her arm and kissed the
inside crease of her elbow. With the greatest of ease he let the
tip of the needle gently puncture her perfectly soft and smooth
skin. He heard the tiniest of sounds as Lucy said, “Ow.” He
withdrew the needle, tossed it aside, and kissed the wound. She
curled into his reassuring arms and they waited in silence. The
injection would either cure them or kill them. Michael promised her
that Robin still needed them to get little Robin off the island, so
Robin would not try to harm them. She couldn’t. She still needed
them.

As they sat on the couch in each other’s
arms, they heard Robin say, “It’s time to go now.”

They both looked up at the monitor but saw
that it was blank. Their eyes dropped to a tiny, smiling figure
standing in the doorway, wrapped in a blanket.

CHAPTER 21 – The Causeway

Lucy watched as Michael gassed up Heslin’s
Jeep, another tidbit of information the Robin 1 decided not to
share when it mattered the most, when their friends were still
alive and might have been able to escape. Robin did however tell
Michael about the jeep so he could go fetch Lucy and bring her back
to the lab. So far neither of them felt any ill effects from the
strange injection.

Lucy asked The Robin 1 computer to explain
how Michael’s blood was the antivirus. She told them his was the
first new mutation of the mutated strain, so all variants of that
strain could be cured by his blood. Lucy thought Heslin would have
been the first, but video footage Robin showed her was of Heslin
cutting himself on the formula and then putting the cut to his
mouth, so the virus entered his system twice; a pure strain entered
directly into his blood stream from the cut where it would have
mutated from the attack of Heslin’s white blood cells, and that new
strain being ingested when he sucked the cut, creating another
variant. The Robin 1 explained that Michael was bit by a human that
drank infected water, making Michael the first, and probably the
only person to survive a bite. It all just made Lucy’s head spin,
and, either way, she knew Robin could not be trusted. So who cared
what she said. Lucy just knew time was ticking, and they had to get
off the island.

The jeep hadn’t gone more than a few feet
when Michael stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked.

“I’ll be right back,” he said as he ran back
into the lodge. He returned a few minutes later, stuffing something
into his jacket pocket.

“What’s that?” Lucy asked.

He looked at little Robin, then back to Lucy.
“Insurance policy,” he said as he floored the jeep and sped down
the mountain.

“What insurance policy?” Lucy asked.

He whispered, “I shut her down again and
pulled the drive out of her main frame. She can’t reboot and cause
any more harm. If they nuke this area and she gets destroyed, we
have nothing. But, if I give this drive to the authorities, maybe
they can figure out what in the hell happened and how to fix
it.”

“How did you know what hard drive it
was?”

“I’ve been swapping drives for transfers for
a couple hours. There was only one drive that she didn’t let me
touch.”

“Her brain,” Lucy acknowledged.

“Exactly,” Michael smiled.

Time and trees both flew by fast as Michael
sped down the rocky, mountain road. In less than two hours they
were at the heavily guarded Canso Causeway. Huge signs warned that
anyone trying to cross without authorization would be shot on
sight. The three of them, Michael, Lucy and little Robin, made
their way to the checkpoint, where a big guard in a Haz-Mat suit
carefully checked each person trying to get off the island.

Robin went first and quickly passed through
the checkpoint without a problem. Lucy’s scratched arms and legs
were scrutinized carefully before the guard allowed her to pass and
catch up to Robin. As Michael stepped up to the guard he was
ordered to unwrap the gauze from his arm. Hesitantly, Michael
complied. The guard shoved his rifle into Michael’s chest, pushing
him backwards. The guard’s voice sounded mechanical through the
suit as he ordered, “Please step back, sir.”

“What’s going on?” Michael asked as another
man, also in a Haz-Mat suit, approached.

“What’s the problem, Sergeant?”

“He has a bite mark, sir.”

Michael tried to explain that he wasn’t
infected. Lucy screamed for Michael.

“Back across the line!” the second man
ordered.

Lucy tried to run to Michael, but the guards
restrained her. Little Robin nonchalantly walked on as if nothing
was the matter.