Kenn Crawford - Dead Hunt

“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.

“Step back, sir, or we will shoot,” the sergeant ordered.

Michael tried to force his way through, and the other man in the Haz-Mat suit said, “We can’t let you pass. We will shoot. Do you really want your girlfriend to watch you get shot?”

Michael stopped fighting as he watched them usher Lucy across the Causeway.

“Lucy!” Michael yelled as the guards pulled her away.

She tried to tell them that he wasn’t infected, that he was the cure, but they would not listen. Soldiers with guns were trained to ignore pleas from panicked and crying people. Soldiers followed orders.

“Lucy!” Michael yelled again, and she looked at him.

He wrapped his arms around himself, imitating being cold, pointed to little Robin, then yelled, “I will be cold!”

Lucy struggled free of the guards long enough to wrap her arms around herself in the same fashion and nodded that she understood.

Michael turned, ran to the Jeep and sped away.

Lucy turned to see little Robin looking up at the “Welcome to Cape Breton ” sign above the Canso Causeway and heard Robin singing, “Farewell to Nova Scotia, the sea bound coast.”

“No, honey,” Lucy explained, “we’re still in Nova Scotia.”

Robin smiled, handed a water bottle back to a soldier and danced away singing the same song. It all seemed so surreal. Lucy wiped the tears from her cheek as she looked back at the deserted island. Deserted, except for Michael who was racing against time. Lucy turned to say something to little Robin, but she was gone. Panicked, she looked around and watched little Robin tug on another soldier’s arm and say something she couldn’t hear. The soldier gave Robin a drink of water from his canteen.

“Robin, what are you doing?” Lucy asked, confused.

Robin ignored her and skipped along, stopping at another solider. Again, Little Robin said something to the soldier, and he passed her his canteen. Lucy froze.

“Oh, my God!” Lucy yelled.

She was about to yell “Stop her!” but she knew it was already too late. She remembered what the Robin 1 Computer had told them:

“If one infected person gets off the island, the entire continent will be lost because there will be nothing to stop the spread.“

Lucy ran to the nearest soldier. “When do they drop the bomb?”

“Excuse me?” the soldier said, wrenching his arm free from Lucy’s grasp.

“The bomb! When do they drop the bomb?”

“In about two hours. Why?”

“I need some paper and a pen!” she screamed.

“Now hold on, little lady.”

“Get me some goddamn paper now, or this entire fucking continent will be infected!”

For a soldier who could have easily subdued her without breaking a sweat, her sharp words startled him. He ran to a table and returned seconds later. Lucy wrote down what she knew as fast as she could and handed it back to the solider.

“I know this sounds crazy, but I was there. I saw it happen,” she pointed to the paper. “This is the only way to stop it!”

The soldier looked at the paper in disbelief as Lucy jumped into a nearby Jeep and raced back across the causeway. She didn’t see any warning signs about getting shot trying to get back on the island, and she wasn’t exactly sure if stealing an army Jeep warranted getting shot, but she had to get back to Michael. The confused soldier finished reading the note, shook his head, and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Anybody see that little girl?” he yelled as he placed his canteen to his lips and took a long drink.

Lucy raced the Jeep as fast as she could go without crashing. When she saw the tail lights of Michael’s Jeep she started wailing on the horn. Michael stopped, and Lucy nearly collided with him… She ran to his jeep and jumped in.

“Lucy, what are you doing here? Go back!”

“It’s too late.”

“No, it’s not. You still have time.”

“It’s too late, Michael!” Lucy yelled. “The virus has crossed!”

“What? How?”

“Robin,” she said trying to catch her breath. Michael looked at her, puzzled.

“Robin is the host!” she explained.

“What? Why would the computer do that?” he asked.

“To complete her father’s work.”

“I-I don’t get it.”.

“She’s Heslin’s perfect child. She will never grow old, she will never get sick, and she will never die! The virus will keep her alive!”

“Oh, God!” was all Michael could mutter.

“Will that cryo-canister thingy hold two people?” Lucy asked.

“Yes,” he answered, “But there’s just one small problem.”

“What’s that?”

“You were supposed to come thaw me out when the smoke clears. Kinda hard to do that if you’re frozen next to me.”

“Oh,” Lucy said. “I never thought of that.”

Lucy and Michael raced into the lodge and down the cellar stairs. His fingers danced across the computer keys as Lucy stared at the opened canister.

“Is this going to work?” Lucy asked as a small tear trickled down her face.

“It should,” Michael said absentmindedly, his fingers not slowing.

“Should?” she asked incredulously.

“Sorry, wrong word. It will work, Lucy. I just have to make a few adjustments. I don’t know how long it’ll take for that nuclear shit to clear so I can’t program this thing to automatically let us out. We could wake up in the middle of the radiation.”

“So how do we get back out?” Lucy asked him.

Michael stopped typing and turned to face her. “We don’t.”

“We don’t?!” her eyes widened in disbelief.