Just a PSA: this whole chapter takes place before the bombs to wrap up the flashbacks :) It's pretty long, but this explains everything and will answer all your questions. The last part is kind of rushed because I felt like I was kind of dragging it out, and I wanted to get to the good stuff. I hope you enjoy!
Washington D.C.
7 days before the bombs
SWEAT COVERED LANE FROM head to toe as her exhausted mind fought off ALIE's advances for the eighth day in a row. It was a constant battle of wills, but Lane was determined to keep ALIE out. She had been put through her worst fears, her worst memories, and anything else ALIE could think of, but Lane kept the most important one away from her; the access code that would allow ALIE to get into every system in the world to carry out her extinction plan. Lane could feel ALIE tugging and tugging at that memory with a relentless force that made her brain feel like it was turning to mush; like there was a giant wave being held back by glass that was on the verge of busting.
"Get out of my head!" Lane screamed as her voice began to get hoarse. "Get out!"
"Your resistance is what makes this painful, Elaine," she heard ALIE's voice in her brain. "Let me in, and this will all be over."
"No, you'll have to turn to my brain to nothing before I give you the fucking code!" Lane yelled. "Just kill me already, you bitch!"
ALIE appeared before Lane's watery eyes. She felt some of the pressure in her head subside. ALIE turned to Doctor King, who had been taking notes and researching ways to get the code without Lane willingly giving it to them.
"This one is strong," ALIE leaned over her. "Maybe even too strong for me."
"If you were real, I'd rip your fucking lungs out," Lane said through her teeth.
She was in so much pain. Her skin was as hot as lava, and she had been strapped to that stupid lab chair for eight straight days. Her throat felt like sandpaper from all of the screaming, and she was forced to relive every horrible moment of the past few weeks over and over and over; finding her dad dead, watching her mom die, stabbing those men to death, being betrayed by Willow, letting Colton get shot in the head, all for two little Latin words.
"There's no need to be rude, Elaine."
Lane breathed heavily as she watched ALIE interact with her favorite puppet, "Any solutions, Doctor?"
"Well, if we inject her with another liquified chip, it might be enough to keep her neural activity high enough for a few minutes after death for you to get to the code, but it's a very limited window."
Lane was so exhausted. Death sounded... nice. She wouldn't have to keep carrying the burden of this code; the fate of the world was literally on her shoulders. She felt a tear escape her eyes. She tried her best. She resisted for as long as she could, but ALIE wasn't going to stop. She was never going to stop no matter what Lane did to keep her out. Lane knew this would eventually end with her losing her life, but at least she would see her parents and best friend again. At least this nightmare would finally be over.
Her brain was so jumbled. She could barely put the last few days in order. Her thoughts were a never-ending cycle of all the pain in her life. She was past emotionally drained. There wasn't a word to describe how numb and dead she felt inside.
ALIE's most recent horror was putting Lane's brain through a hallucination where she had to watch her mom burn to death over and over and over while she was trapped in a glass box, only able to scream and pound against the tough glass. Then, when that didn't work, Lane was the one burning to death again and again and again. It was the most horrible thing she had ever been through.
ALIE turned her head to Lane, "I never wanted to kill you, but you've given me no choice."
Doctor King walked to the lab chair with two syringes in his hand. One held the second liquified chip and the other held a greenish liquid, "This will stop her heart in less than a minute. You'll have to get into her mind during that minute while it's still strong enough."
Lane closed her eyes, 'I'm sorry Mom', she prayed her mom would forgive her for letting ALIE get the code.
She felt a needle penetrate the skin on her arm. Her mind automatically felt weaker with the second chip in her system. ALIE began digging into her brain again as Lane watched Doctor King bring the second needle closer to her arm. ALIE grew closer and closer towards the memory of the access code. She felt the locks being broken; the will to fight being ripped away.
"The words are Latin," ALIE began to uncover the truth. "What are they, Elaine? I'm not seeing clearly enough yet."
Lane could feel herself giving in, and right before Doctor King could administer the liquid that would give ALIE the code, the door to the lab busted open. Lane was on the brink of passing out. Her vision was blurred, but she felt Doctor King's blood being splattered on her chest as he was shot in the head. Men in bulletproof vests surrounded Lane seconds later. They were asking all kinds of questions and undoing the restraints on her wrists and ankles. It was all a blur to Lane. Her head dropped to the side as the voices became distant. The last image in her brain was the five letters on one man's vest:
ATLAS.
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5 days before the bombs
"How much brain damage will she have?"
"We won't know for sure until she wakes up."
"God, I should've brought her to space with me like she wanted. None of this would've happened."
Lane's grey eyes fluttered open, and she was met with a blur of white. She blinked several times, trying her best to make sense of where she was. She was in a room by herself on a very comfortable bed, but the wooden door was halfway open. She could see a man standing in the next room over. Whoever he was talking to was projected onto a screen on the back wall. Lane sat up steadily, glancing down at her wrists that had scars from the restraints. Where was she? Who took her from the lab? Were they working with ALIE? No, they couldn't be. They killed Doctor King, who was her number one inside source to the lab.
She put her feet onto the smooth, wooden floor. Listening to the conversation as she pushed the door open quietly, "How much does ALIE know?"
"She doesn't have the code yet if that's what you're wondering."
Lane's eyes widened when she saw who was on the screen. She stepped farther into the room, speaking with absolute disbelief, "Becca?"
The man turned around, but Lane barely looked at him as she walked closer to the screen, "Lane," Becca's face was full of relief. "I am so sorry about all of this. I know about your parents, and I-I wish I could have been there to help."
Lane kept her mind on the current problems, "Any progress with ALIE 2?"
"We're still in the trial phase, but I'm hopeful in the next few days I can perfect it," Becca turned her eyes to the man, who Lane finally acknowledged. He had short brain hair and bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept for days. "This is Chris. He'll fill you in on everything. He was monitoring ALIE, trying to find out who her sources were."
"I heard you say that ALIE doesn't have the code yet. Does that mean she's going to find it?"
"She knows the code is Latin words. She's running every variation possible, which will take at least two more days to do, but yes, eventually she'll figure it out."
Lane shook her head, "What about her kill code?"
"She has enough access to the mainframe right now to block us out, but I've been trying day and night to get around her," Chris rubbed his hands over his face. "If we can't access her kill code in two days, who knows what she'll do."
Lane looked at Becca, "We'll figure something out. I know we will."
"I have faith in both of you," Becca smiled.
Chris ended the call with Becca a few minutes later, but Lane's mind was still buzzing with questions, "Who rescued me from the lab?"
"Over the past few years, we've put together a task force in case something like this did happen. ALIE had the whole Atlas center on lockdown. It took us days to hack the system so we could get to you."
Lane remembered the two chips that were liquified in her system, "What about the chips? Isn't ALIE still linked to me?"
"I was able to extract most of that from your system, but there are remnants. They aren't strong enough for her to use though. Not without a stable mind for her to link herself to now that everyone she chipped is dead."
Lane nodded, realizing that the more time they spent catching up, the less time they had to stop ALIE, "Well, I think we need to get to work, Chris. The whole world is depending on us."
Over the next eight hours, Lane and Chris buried themselves in research as they did everything they could think of to hack into ALIE's core. She fought off every single one of their attempts. They watched as she continued trying every variation of Latin words for the code. She was moving faster than Lane could think. It was hard to keep up with her. It was like trying to figure out a puzzle that was constantly changing and evolving. The pieces kept moving around; changing and morphing into something else entirely.
Once hour ten approached, Lane leaned back into her chair. Her eyes were hurting from staring at a screen for so long. She let out a long sigh as she stretched her aching muscles. Chris looked like he was about to fall asleep in his chair, so Lane kicked the legs lightly. He perked up, turning towards the brunette.
"We should be warning people."
Chris shook his head, "No. That would cause mass panic, and we don't even know what ALIE's plan truly is yet."
"I do. She wants to kill everyone and harvest their minds in some weird, fairytale city."
"Which would take time. All we know is that her current task is to escape the Atlas mainframe so she can access everything."
Lane glanced at the computer screen, "Do we have a plan B?"
"Atlas developed a hypersleep program fifteen years ago that they'll use in the event of a world-ending crisis. If ALIE does end the world, there are seventy-five pods available in a bunker in the middle of D.C."
"What about the other billions of people in the world?" Lane asked with disdain. Chris didn't seem very worried considering the circumstances.
"The government has already been notified about ALIE. A bunch of people are already on the thirteen space stations," Chris stood up. "Our only job right now is shut down ALIE. You can't worry about anything else."
Lane couldn't shake away all the secret operations going on in Atlas that she never knew about. Did her father know about any of it? He was high up in the ranks of the institution. What bothered her more though was that the plan for survival didn't include the majority of the population. How could Lane live with that? Mass panic was appropriate when an A.I. wanted to end the world.
Lane got up from her chair. She needed to go to Atlas. They would have more information about ALIE. It was where she was developed. Although, she knew she wouldn't be able to get in easily.
As Lane began to leave, she noticed Chris's journal at the edge of the table. Lane eyed it, wanting to check it out because she had a feeling Chris wasn't being completely truthful with her. Lane glanced behind her, noticing he was still in the kitchen getting something to drink. She quickly grabbed the journal, looking over several pages until she found something she knew he wouldn't want her to see:
ALIE POSION PILL:
The only code ALIE isn't able to control. Access on core server.
Before Lane could read any further, she heard Chris's voice from behind her, "You have to understand. I worked my whole life on the ALIE code. I'm going to do everything I can to avoid killing her."
Lane turned around with disgust on her face, "You can end this now. You can end this before anyone else has to die. Why can't you see that she is literally going to end the world if she gets the access code!"
"We don't know that for sure. It's only a theory."
Lane laughed, "I had ALIE in my head for eight straight days. I think I know exactly what she wants to do."
Chris walked towards her slowly, "You don't understand Lane. This isn't your entire life's work at stake."
Lane began to back away, "We need to talk to Becca about this."
"What can Becca do? She's in space."
Lane gripped Chris's journal, "Let me guess. You're the only one who can send out the poison pill to kill ALIE?"
Chris nodded, "I won't send out that pill until I have to."
"I'll find out a way to do it myself."
Lane quickly bolted out of the room, catching Chris off guard as she went through the kitchen, grabbing his car keys from the counter. The front door was right across from the kitchen, and with Chris chasing after her, Lane sprinted out the door. She unlocked his black car, jumping in and starting it as quickly as she could.
Lane jumped when she heard a bullet ricochet off the car. She sped away from the house, her heart racing as it was proved yet again that there wasn't a person on the face of the Earth worth trusting anymore.
Chris's house was right outside D.C. Lane drove through the heavy traffic, going over her plan in her mind again. She knew from talking with Chris that Atlas was already in the interview stage for the pods. They said they had seventy-five available but fifty were already assigned to important personnel and government officials involved with Atlas. That meant there were only twenty-five left for the normal workers of Atlas. If Lane could get into the program, she would be part of their trusted personnel, and she would be able to stay in the Science Center while they finished the interviews.
Lane stopped at the tall gate that blocked the entrance to the lab parking lot. Guards were stationed at the edge of the lot outside the three tall buildings that comprised Atlas Science Institution. She needed into Building Two, which was the hardest building to get into, but luckily, she still had her I.D. badge. Ever since Becca left, the people in high positions seemed to be more distant and secretive with Lane and her father. They had files with restricted access and all kinds of fishy things. Honestly, Becca and her father were the last two people she trusted in the corrupt corporation.
The guard working the gate looked at Lane as she rolled down her window, "Reason for visit, ma'am?"
Lane held up her badge, "Just cleaning out my father's office."
"We're not allowing visitors right now. You know ALIE is still in the mainframe."
Lane sighed, "Do I need to call Becca in space and interrupt her very important task just to get access to a lab I have been working in for years?"
The guard had a tired and annoyed look on his face, "Okay, just make it quick."
The gate opened seconds later. Lane drove through, parking Chris's car while getting looks from the guards watching the parking lot. Lane discretely swiped her I.D. badge when she got to the doors of Building Two, not surprised when there were guards waiting on the other side of the door. They watched her as she went to the elevator. She pressed Floor Zero; the basement where the interviews were being held.
Lane took a deep breath as the elevator beeped. The doors slid open again, revealing the underground floor of the building. It buzzed with life as people in lab coats walked around with clipboards in their lands. It didn't take long for them to get back to business once ALIE's followers were taken care of. Although, Lane knew some of them had probably slipped through the cracks.
Lane walked down a long hallway and was met with a hospital-like waiting area. There were ten people in line ahead of her; all of them were biologists or chemists or doctors. Lane knew that if she said the right things, she would be accepted. Not everyone knew as much about ALIE as she did. Her best friend helped create ALIE.
Lane waited patiently, tapping her finger against her arm until it was her turn to walk into the room at the other end of the waiting room. A friendly-looking woman with glasses held open the door for her, and as soon as Lane sat down, the woman pulled out a voice recorder and set it in the middle of the table.
"Please state your full name and age for the record."
"My name is Elaine Rae Sawyer, and I'm twenty-one years old."
↠ ↠ ↠
Day of the bombs
Lane's fingers moved quicker than her mind as she filtered through every single one of Chris's files having no luck finding the poison pill. She spent the last two days in his office after getting approved for the hypersleep program by Doctor Faye, who ironically only knew about half as much about ALIE as Lane did. The guards kept a close watch on her, but her level of clearance gave her access to pretty much everything. She found out that the pods were alive and ready to go on any day. She found out that there had been secret funding for new nuclear missiles that had been developed in Building Two. The secrets of the Institution were only growing the longer Lane dug in their mine of gold.
Her computer screen suddenly went blank. Lane's mind went into panic mode. Oh no. Had ALIE found the access code to get out of Atlas's mainframe? Lane quickly started to call Becca, and she answered immediately.
"Becca, what's going on?"
"ALIE escaped," alarms began going off in the building. Lane looked around as people began to run through the halls, yelling and crying. "She accessed every country's nuclear launch codes. Missiles from China are on their way to the United States."
Lane didn't have time to process this information. She only had time to react, "Is there anything we can do?"
"I've done the calculations, and ALIE is going to survive this. She'll hide away until she can reboot again, and whoever survives this, she'll harvest them into the City of Light. That's her big plan."
Lane's heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest, "How long will it take for her to reboot?"
"With limited resources from the radiation... Ninety-seven years," Lane couldn't believe this; any of it. The world was about to end. Billions of people were about to die. "That's not all. She hacked into the system of the pods in Atlas. I was only able to get into Atlas's system in time to save one pod; pod seven."
Lane shot her eyes to the screen, "What?"
"I redirected its oxygen capacity for ninety-seven years."
"What are you saying, Becca?"
"The pod is for you, Lane. Whoever ends up dealing with ALIE ninety-seven years from now... They're going to need someone who has experience with an A.I."
Lane shook her head as the chaos outside Chris's office erupted as the missiles came closer and closer, "I can't do this, Becca. What if no one survives?"
Becca smiled slightly, "We'll always find a way to survive. Together." This was insane. "I believe in you Lane. That's why I convinced your dad to recruit you when you were fifteen, and that's why you're the one who has to go to that pod. It will open to your fingerprint only. You have to do this."
The screen went blank moments later. Lane stared in disbelief for a second but then was snapped into reality by the harsh screams coming from the hallway. She jumped up from her chair, running out of the office and pushing her way through the panicked people. many of them were heading towards the basement.
Lane descended down the packed staircase. Stepping over people that had been trampled to death, weaving through limbs and panic. When she got to the bottom floor, it was packed. Doctors were searching everywhere for the hatch door that led to the pod room, but only people that had been accepted knew where to find it and what the code was to open the hatch.
Lane ran through the hallways. Several people following her. She knew they wouldn't survive. No one would survive except her. The bombs wouldn't kill them but the radiation would. She felt the clock ticking as she found the sealed door. People shoved and pushed her as she typed the code in: 7621. She did her best to get in swiftly, but at least ten people got in with her. There were scratches on her arm that were bleeding from where people tried to grab her.
In the pod room, everyone was already sealed in their individual pods. Lane noticed the last one still unoccupied: pod seven. She raced over to it, doing her best not to think. She couldn't afford to think right now. If she did, she wouldn't be able to do what needed to be done. Lane arrived at her pod, breathing heavily. The ground shook violently, a signal that the bombs had hit.
Without hesitation, and without any thought at all, lane pressed her fingertip on the keypad. Her pod opened, the only pod that could withstand the radiation. She wished she could've saved everyone in that bunker; she wished she could have stopped ALIE before she got out of Atlas's mainframe.
But, in ninety-seven years, she would have another chance.
Once Lane was in her pod, and before anyone could try to pull her out to take her place, the pod sealed shut. People banged on the glass, crying out and screaming, but Lane began to feel sleepy. Her vision started to fade as the screams became distant. The entire building shook, but Lane barely felt the vibrations.
And then, her body went cold.
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Okayyy well all the flashbacks are done. What does everyone think? Did you guess right about how Lane ended up in the bunker? What will happen next? What will Lane do now that she remembers?