Charlie Michaels
“Who upgraded my battery?” Zion asked as he rose up from the bed. His blue eyes turned into fascinating red. He looked at me briefly, as if scanning me, but he turned to Vasanti and walked to her. When he stopped in front of her, he said, “Who are you to touch my system?”
“Gosh. I was expecting a thank you,” Vasanti rolled her eyes in disappointment.
“You're not my bearer,” he said and I believed he was completely ignoring me NOW.
“Your battery is outdated, Zion. It should be discarded and replaced with a new one. You would thank me for that later on, if not now.” Vasanti replied. I walked to them. Now I got it. The reason why Zion was often shutted down was because of his outdated battery. Did Zion know that or not?
“The earl is missing, Zion. I suppose that's something you must concern yourself,” I told him. He quickly turned his head towards me, his eyes were still red. “...and it's something that I'm terribly at fault. I failed to protect him while you're gone.”
“Humans are capable of making errors. It's not you who failed, I did.” He corrected although I didn't get why he was saying that. “Where are we heading?”
“Back to the Headquarters.” I answered. Zion then stood by my side, then he whispered lowly as if not wanting Vasanti to hear, “We can't trust them.” That's something that my young lord told me too after our conversation with the President. I wouldn't be surprise if Zion thought the same.
“I know. What do we do?”
“They will arrest me as soon as I step out, unless I'll do some killing spree.”
“I beg to disagree, Zion.”
“I have a strong hearing skills, you know,” Vasanti interrupted.
“You take care of the women then,” Zion said to me, then he walked past by me.
“Well, what's your plan?” I asked.
“Destroy the Shield before it's too late.”
“You will what? You can't do that! That's the last resort to protect Panes—all of us from the cyborgs!” Vasanti shockingly said.
“Why would you do that?” I asked him. He halted from his pace. And he was facing the wall.
“There's a possibility that the earl's not in Panes anymore. Once the Shield is activated, he is forever lost. I shall not allow that.”
“We're all going to die! We're all going to be consumed by those freaking machines once you do that!” Vasanti curled herself as she fell on the ground. Then she stopped mumbling, and said as if there was hope, “Oh, you can't destroy the Shield. No one can. It's a Technology which you don't even know.”
“Unless I corrupt the Code System,” Zion said and he looked back to me. He pulled something out from his battlesuit, then he threw it at me. I caught it up while he said, “Do your thing, Mr. Butler. Contact me as soon as you find news about Chris.” Then we saw him firing an explosive to the wall, the impact made us to close our eyes. As I opened them again, Zion was nowhere to be found, leaving only the big hole on the bus. The alarms were ringing loud and the bus stopped.
I blinked as I opened my palm. The thing Zion threw at me was a tracker—the one which he implanted to me before. I decided to put it on my left ear. Then I heard Zion talking on the other line, “I lied. There's a person whom we can trust in the Headquarters.”
“Name it.”
“General Smith.”
***
Nathan Jones
“Where's Zion?” General Smith asked as soon as we entered the Headquarters.
How should I tell him that he had escaped? Surely, Zion was best at escaping. I hated his almost perfect programming. Even his bearer was good at hiding. Well, Positive Crime wouldn't be crowned as the best detective in Panes if he wasn't that brilliant.
“He escaped.” I answered.
I saw the general sighing in return. He palmed his face but he still managed to say, “Can't be helped. Bring the survivors in. The butler?”
“Looking for me, General?” Charlie interrupted. He was still wearing the Panesh soldier suit which he managed to stole from who-knows-who. Wearing that doesn't make him a Panesh person though.
“Follow me, we need to talk.” He walked away and the butler followed him. But they were stopped from their pace when a soldier came with a desperate face, delivering the most terrifying news.
“Sire!”
I ran to them. What came next rocked the whole Headquarters.
“The Shield failed to deploy!” Informed the soldier, his name was Jamie Anderson.
“What?” General exclaimed as well as I.
“The Codes were released as the President has ordered, but the system was hacked—everything was corrupted and the Shield could no longer deploy!”
“Oh shit! Darn it!” General Smith shouted angrily as he ran to the Main Room.
If that was true, then the end of the world must be TODAY.
***
General Michael Smith
I opened the door hard as I shouted, “What the heck is wrong with our IT people? How come the system was hacked? We're in war and almost everything has been breached, is there any worst than this?!”
“The engineers are currently solving the matter, General,” replied George, the Lieutenant General of Panes. He's a rank after me. And he was the person responsible for Zion's transfer to Station 6 before.
Everyone in the Main Room was busy and loud, people were to and fro. Computers were on and the engineers who were assigned to the Shield Project were terrified as they traced the unknown hacker. This was a top secret project and I couldn't imagine that someone break in! Who could it be?
“This is insane!” I yelled. I might go crazy after this event. “How many minutes will it be fixed?” I asked the Senior Programmer of the Shield Project.
“I'm afraid it might take us three hours, Sire. A day, much worst, but pray hope it will not.”
“Three hours?! Cyborgs have breached the North borders in a matter of minutes, and they're coming to kill more people, more soldiers! And you're telling me it will take you 3 hours to fix the system?”
“There's an interference Sire, the Codes are blocked.”
“Then unblocked it, quickly!” I yelled. He gulped in fear and went to his own computer after he nodded. Then I looked up to the hologram screens. The faces of those officers who held the Code popped out, each of them making a problematic face.
“If they attack from the South borders too, the Panes will be taken over by them. We need the Shield to stop the cyborgs from coming in,” said Detective Collin Carter, one of the Code holders. He was the replacement of Positive Crime when Crime decided to cut off his ties from the Headquarters 10 years ago. His face was not intentionally shown to the screen, that was to protect his identity because he's a detective. He does the underground investigation and spying.
“We won't let that happen.” I firmly said.
“General Smith, there's an incoming call from Endless,” Nathan informed. I didn't even realize that he was also inside the Main Room. Charlie was also standing there, watching the chaos.
I nodded to Nathan, signaling to accept the call from Endless. I was pretty sure he was with the President right now, in the Safe Room. When it's war, President Gana was always put first into safety. Although he doesn't touch the war plan, all plans that I make are informed to him because he's the final decision.
“I suppose you're having a problem with the Shield, General,” Endless started when he was connected to the line. His mechanical face appeared hugely on the hologram screen.
“Someone hacked it. But, how's it going with President Gana?” I asked him.
“I'm afraid I'm not with the President right now,” he replied and we all widened our eyes. Suddenly, I felt like there was something wrong.
“Then, where are you?”
“I'm past the North borders. I'm not alone though.” Endless said and the screen went to another scene, we saw a man in plain black shirt lying on the ground, when the camera zoomed in, we all gasped in shock—it was the Earl of England! Christendom Query.
“My lord!” I heard Charlie's shout as he ran to the hologram screen. His hands were twitching by his sides. “What did you do to him?”
“What are you doing outside the borders, Endless? Where's the President?!” I exclaimed.
“The Safe Room!” I heard Nathan's shout as he ran to exit the Main Room. Lieutenant General George followed him to check the condition of President Gana—I pray hope he was fine!
“He's safe. Really.”
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?” Charlie asked.
“Oh, simple.” Endless gasped.
“Endless!” I exclaimed. “Why?”
“Because I want you to find me, General. Come here. Outside the borders...”
“....come and terminate me, General Smith.”
_____
*Seriously, what does Endless want? Why is it becoming so complicated every now and then? Oh I wrote it, but why did I write it this way? Why did I even write this complicated plot! Pfft. Haha. Kkk, enough ranting.