David Simpson - Post-Human Trilogy

“Is that it?” Thel asked as the orb in the distance began to increase in size.

“Yes,” James replied, relieved that he’d at least found it.

Thel took her eyes off of the planet to look back at her companions. The bats seemed to be fewer now and were a greater distance behind them. “Oh thank God. I think it’s working!”

“They’re overheating,” James concurred. “Let’s hope enough of them break off the chase for us to lose them on Mercury.”

Moments later, the rest of the team moved closer to James and Thel. Old-timer gave James a thumbs-up sign to signal that the bats were finally out of firing range. Now they only had to hope the magnetic field they were entering would hide them.

James guided the others down to the surface on the dark side of Mercury. The Mercutian night was black and moonless, and it was a relief to escape the brilliant yellowish-white light of the sun. The dark was so great as their eyes adjusted that the only discernible features were those upon which the greenish glow of their magnetic fields shone. A large crevice appeared directly below them, and James guided his teammates down into the charred salvation.

Once they had come to a rest, it was simply a matter of waiting and hoping that none of the bats had survived the heat and were detecting their signals. Only time would tell. A few minutes would hold all of the answers.

James sat on a ledge in the crevice and put a hand to his burning chest.

Thel sat on his lap and placed her cool hand lightly against his torso. “James, I’ve never been so scared. I feel I can’t take it anymore. I might go crazy.”

“There’s no nans to dampen the fear for you. I’m scared too, Thel, but we’ll make it.”

“Even if we do, what next? Do you think the A.I. was telling the truth? Will you really be dead in twenty-four hours?”

“I don’t know. If I’ve punctured a lung, I may not even have that long.”

“I can’t live without you, James! I can’t!” Thel put her hand behind James’s head and brought his face close to hers. She placed her cheek against his and held him firmly. “I won’t.”

“Have you ever heard of the Purists?” James asked Thel.

Her breath caught for a moment as she pulled her head back and locked eyes with him. “Yes, I think so—many years ago when I was in school. They’re a cult, aren’t they?”

“Something like that. Except there are hundreds of thousands of them. Most, but not all of them, belong to ancient religions. They live without nans or spinal implants and live out their natural lifespans, allowing themselves to die.”

“That’s insane, James. They throw away their lives for their twisted beliefs.”

“They may be insane, but there is also a chance that some of them are alive. The A.I. said no registered Net users were offline other than us when the virus was downloaded, but the Purists would remain untouched—at least in theory.”

“What do you mean ‘in theory’?” asked Thel, arching an eyebrow quizzically.

“The A.I. may not have killed them with the download, but he would have launched a massive attack on them to try to wipe them out.”

“If you ask me, those people should’ve been dealt with years ago. It should be illegal to live like that—like animals. It’s inhuman.”

“The Governing Council would’ve wiped them out if they could’ve, Thel, believe me, but they were a problem that simply wasn’t going to go away. Every generation birthed more people with the same beliefs, and it was thought better to give them a district where they could practice their beliefs rather than dealing with the consequences of insurrection within the world community. They were given hundreds of square kilometers in and around the area of Buenos Aires.”

“And you think some of them might have survived the attack?”

“It’s only a possibility. The Governing Council spied on the Purists and believed they had weapons and hidden bunkers throughout their territory so that they could defend against an attack if the Council ever went back on their agreement. If some of the Purists managed to hide underground, we may not be the last humans after all.”

“Are you suggesting that we look for these people?”

“They’ll have food, water—”

“Ugh! That is not food! Things grown from the ground? Only a caveman would eat that!”

“They might have a hospital, Thel. Old-timer has a medical background from over seventy years ago, but without medical equipment, he can’t do much. If the Purists have a hospital and the medical staff survived, I might have a chance.”

Thel paused and placed her hand back on James’s chest. She only knew the word ‘hospital’ because she’d paid attention in history class; the mention of such an archaic term terrified her. Her lips were tight with distaste for James’s plan but she knew he was right. As antiquated as the idea of a doctor was, a Purist hospital might be their only hope. “I’d do anything to save you. If there is a doctor alive on the Earth, I will find her.”

“Or him,” he said, smiling.

“Right.”

“Thank you, Thel.” James smiled before he sat forward and kissed Thel’s lips. She could taste the blood on them, and her heart sank as she thought of losing him. She would do anything to keep that from happening. She knew what she wanted. She knew exactly what she wanted.

“I still can’t believe it was the A.I.,” James said suddenly as he stared into the darkness.

“Who else could it have been?” Thel replied.

James’s eyebrows knitted together as he pondered. “I don’t know. But the A.I. shouldn’t just turn bad, Thel. It doesn’t make sense. It’s antithetical to its programming. I was sure we’d find out it was someone else—I just couldn’t believe it was the A.I.—our ‘benevolent’ A.I.” James shook his head as the disbelief lingered.

“How could we ever think that we could understand or master something that is more intelligent that us, James? Even with all of the safeguards, it figured out that getting rid of us was the most advantageous move for it.”

James remained dubious. “I don’t know. Something doesn’t seem right about it.”

“You saw it with your own eyes, James,” Thel replied. “It’s hard for all of us to believe it.”

James mulled Thel’s words for a moment before deciding she had to be right. As hard as it was to imagine, humanity’s guardian had turned against them. He pulled away slightly and looked up through the opening of the crevice at the empty night sky. It had been long enough. He and Thel began to hover above the ledge as he signaled to the others that it was time to go. Once they were all in position, they blasted up into the sky and toward the pale blue dot in the distance.

It was all they had.

The smoke could be seen from space. As the team streaked toward the southeast of South America, a dark smudge on the map quickly became a colossal zone of carnage.

“It’s the worst we’ve seen yet,” Thel uttered to James.

James guided the team down toward the coast and then above the billowing black smoke, where he had surmised Buenos Aires should be. There was no point in even trying to enter smoke that thick. He disengaged his magnetic field once they had reached a low enough altitude and come to a full stop.

“Buenos Aires?” Djanet asked.

“Yes,” James replied, “or what’s left.”

Thel quietly began to float under her own power, her implant having come back online long before.

“Buenos Aires? Why are we here?” Rich asked, desperate for some kind of information to ground him.

“The Purists live here,” Djanet answered.