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  Jacob handed me the blade and the three of us ran. “Stairwell!” I huffed. There was no time to wait for the elevator, and I pushed Jacob in front of me.

  “Go kid, run!” I didn’t have to tell him twice. The boy was holding the railing and his little legs were pumping as fast as they would go.

  “Get to the third floor, we have to warn Giz and Barbara!” Mic said. Voices began to echo below us from the lobby as we climbed, and I knew the simps were in. There was no way to get to the basement now. When we reached the third floor, I saw that Barbara was in the hallway. She fell to her knees when she saw Jacob. He ran to her arms with the two of us shouting for them to get moving. Giz walked out from the cafeteria very casually and when he saw the frantic looks on our faces his temperament changed.

  “Barbara, get your golf club and bring it to me. We need it to wedge it in the door handle, I directed.” She nodded and grabbed Jacob’s hand. “You stay with me kiddo!”

  “Mic, help me get all the equipment!” Giz squeaked.

  “There’s no time for that, Giz! They’re coming!” I said.

  “There has to be time, we have to!” He ran back in the cafeteria and Mic chased after him. “Here!” Barbara said, tossing me the golf club. I wedged it through the handle just as an Asian male face filled the glass in the window within the door, “Here’s Johnny!” He exclaimed, and although his voice was slightly muffled by the door, it scared the crap out of me. He/it was pulling the door, and I feared it wouldn’t hold. I backed up and then turned to run to the cafeteria.

  “Let’s go, they’re already at the stairwell door!” Just then the ‘ding’ of the elevator caught my attention. Oh my god, I’d secured the door but had forgotten about the elevator. As the doors opened, I saw a mass of faces. They had packed in as tight as they could to get to us. Barbara and I nearly collided as we scurried down the hall back to the cafeteria. Jacob was in the doorway, urging us to hurry. I didn’t dare look back, knowing there was a ton of them behind us. There was a lock on the cafeteria door, and I latched it. Jacob and Barbara were hiding under a table in the far corner, and Mic and Giz were stuffing their equipment in their bags. My eyes darted for an exit, but I knew there wasn’t one. We were now trapped with the simps banging on the door. It was a matter of minutes before they got in.

  “What are we going to do?” Jacob wailed.

  Mic finished zipping his bag and very calmly looked up at the ceiling. I followed his eyes and knew what he was thinking.

  “Giz, help me,” I said as I started sliding a table. We’ll have to stack two in order to reach.” Mic said.

  “Barbara, get a chair and smash it into the vending machines and load what you can in this.” He threw her a plastic grocery bag that Giz had used to store some extra cables in. Giz collected the cables and slung them around his neck. The pounding on the door grew more intense as we worked to position the tables, and then Mic climbed up first and pushed the ceiling tile back. He then reached for Jacob’s hand.

  “You first, little man. You’re the lightest, and we’ll need you to get that vent grate off from the inside.”

  “I’m on it,” said Jacob. His little face filled with determination. It seemed like forever for him to get up there and pull that grate back. Barbara went next, handing the sack up to Jacob and then Mic lifted her up so that she could pull herself in. Giz followed, after Barbara pulled up the equipment bags he held up for her to grab. “Your turn,” said Mic.

  I handed up my backpack to Giz and then worked to pull myself up. The space inside the vent was cramped and dark, and I directed the others to move back to make room for Mic. Just as he climbed in, I heard the door give way.

  “Go, go, go!” He ordered. He didn’t have to tell us twice, we all knew they were inside and that they would be coming right up after us. They were strong enough to go much faster than we could, and knowing this created an unspoken urgency. We were all crawling as fast as we could. The reverberation of our knees slamming the slick metal resounded like thunder. The shaft made a sharp turn and Jacob announced that he could see a light up ahead. “I think it leads to an outdoor patio. Remember Barbara? It’s that one we go to sometimes to look out at the street.”

  “Yes Jacob, I remember sweetie. Can you see a grate?” Her voice sounded tiny and it echoed through the small space. We were all stopped in the metal cavity and I was gritting my teeth to fight back the waves of claustrophobia.

  “Wait a second,” he said. We could all hear his little knees pounding along as he crawled quickly. “Yes! Whohoo!” He exclaimed. The sounds of rapid knees approaching someplace back behind us made my heart start pounding.

  “Come on you guys, it’s open. You can jump down here!” The little boy’s voice was distant, but I knew that it meant he was safely out of the vent shaft and on the ground. We took our turns climbing down to the narrow patio and then surveyed the options. There was a locked sliding glass door, which led to the maternity ward, according to Barbara. We were still three floors up and the ground below wasn’t exactly close. The simps were in the shaft and coming our way, so there was precious little time to consider the options. There had to be at least twenty of them that I had seen in the parking lot, so that meant that the likelihood of them spreading through the hospital in search of humans was pretty high.

  “I think we can jump to that trash bin,” said Giz. He was leaning over the railing and looking below.

  “There’s no telling what’s inside those plastic bags,” said Barbara.

  “I don’t think we have much of a choice. It’s either we jump, or we throw one of those chairs against the glass until it breaks, and we take our chances going through the hospital again,” said Mic.

  “I’m for jumping.” I didn’t give anyone a chance to respond, because I’d already climbed the railing and pushed off right after announcing my plan. I hit the black plastic bags softly, and despite the situation and the smell of the garbage, I felt a massive sense of relief. The rest of them began to jump, leaving Giz last. He was going to throw the equipment bags down and then follow. I could hardly believe that this guy was so obsessed, even in the moments of imminent peril, that he would put himself at a greater risk just to save his computers. Giz jumped just as a simp leg pushed through the opening where the grate had been behind him.

  We were safe, but only for the moment, and we’d need to get to some place safer as quickly as we could. I spotted a minivan a short distance down the alley and ran to it. The door was unlocked and the keys were still in the ignition. There were about a dozen white plastic buckets in the back, with an assortment of dead flower arrangements. I realized it was a delivery van for a florist, which explained why the keys were inside. The driver must have made a run for it. I hopped in the driver’s seat and started the engine, then popped it in reverse. The thought of leaving them on their own crossed my mind, but I just couldn’t do it. That would be a death sentence under the circumstances, and as much as I resisted human relationships these days, I was connected to these people.

  Chapter 4

  Mic slid the side door open and assisted Barbara and Jacob, and then Giz followed, sliding the door closed behind him. My little group looked like they’d been through hell. I mashed my foot on the gas just as the first simp jumped down from the balcony above. In the rear-view mirror, I could see the hordes of them leaping down in groups. Some were already running after our van. I knew that they were capable of inhuman speeds, and didn’t hesitate to floor it. My passengers jostled as I navigated through the alley and out onto the surface street. It wasn’t safe to be on the road in the daytime because abandoned vehicles littered the road. Impassible accidents were a risk, and I knew I didn’t dare slow down. Mic negotiated his way over the buckets and climbed into the passenger seat.

  “Where to?” I asked.

  “Hell if I know, just keep driving for now. We’ve got to get away from the city.”

  “Not too far, we need connection access, Mic. We’re so close!” said Giz
.

  “Yeah buddy, I hear you – but right now we need to get to safety. They’re swarming the city and that just isn’t worth the risk.”

  I glanced up at the rear view mirror and saw Giz hang his head. His passion was admirable, but Mic was right. The simps were crawling all over the city right now. I hadn’t seen this many in a while. I turned down a street that led to a dead-end and had to back over two that attempted to storm the van. “They were simps, right?” I asked, as I swung the van around and changed directions. No one answered me and I felt a surge of panic. “Tell me they were simps guys!”

  Jacob turned from one of the back windows and held a thumb up. “Yup Hailey, they were wire bags and you got them.”

  I took a sharp left causing my passengers to tumble in the back.

  “Hang on back there you guys!”

  I veered around a small black pickup that was flipped upside down. The city streets in this area were unfamiliar, and I regretted my decision to jump in the driver’s seat. There was no way to do anything about that now, and I pushed back on the panic rising in my mind.

  “Which way?” I demanded.

  “Left at the next light, you’ll go up two streets and then take a right. The freeway onramp will be about half a block down. You’ll want to get in the far lane,” said Mic.

  Following his directions, it took us approximately ten minutes to hit the freeway. Cars were clogging the main lanes, but the shoulder was wide open for as far as I could see. I focused on that as a good sign, and buried my foot on the gas pedal. Common sense told me to slow down, but I knew the way simps could move, and even on foot they could catch up with us if I didn’t get some distance between us. I kept my pace until my heart stopped hammering in my chest, and then I set the cruise control at fifty miles per hour and wiped my forehead with the back of my hand.

  I glanced sideways at Mic. He was busy pushing his finger around on his tablet. “What kind of device is that?”

  “It’s a prototype.”

  “Uh-huh, and is it traceable?”

  “No, of course not! You couldn’t possibly think I’d be that stupid.”

  “I don’t know Mic, all I know is that a fucking swarm of simps have come out of the wood work ever since you showed up.”

  “It’s not because of this,” he said pointing at his tablet.

  “Then why?”

  “Hell if I know, Hailey, but it’s not because of any of our devices. Giz and I are the most knowledgeable guys left from IDE and the lengths we have gone to in order to safeguard against detection are more extreme than you could possibly fathom, so please, with all due respect, just leave the technical aspects of this adventure to us, all right?”

  “I’d like to tell you where you could stick your devices, Mic.”

  “Our devices won’t do you any good up our asses, Hailey,” said Giz, which started peals of laughter from all of us. When it died down, I said, “Lee.”

  “What’s that?” Mic looked at me with an expression of confusion.

  “Call me Lee,” I said quietly. It’s what my family called me.

  “Lee it is,” said Giz from the back.

  “Hey Lee?”

  “Yes Jacob?”

  “Do you think you could call me Jake from now on? It’s what my family called me.”

  “You got it.”

  “I go by Barb. Barbie to some,” Barbara said softly. I could tell from her tone that ‘Barbie’ was reserved for someone she’d loved and lost. In an effort to keep the mood from going too far downhill, I decided to direct my attention to our geek squad. “So, Fish and Guts – “

  “It’s Giz, not Guts!” Giz said.

  “Whatever. So, what prompted your uniquely terrific nicknames?” I asked.

  “Well, if you must know, I was dubbed Fish after a speech I gave at a symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. I said something about ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and’…yada, yada. It stuck after that with the internal people at IDE.”

  “You’re leaving out the main aspect of that story, Fish,” said Giz.

  “He opened several free programs to inner-city children to teach them programming, and every year he takes the highest scoring student that’s eighteen or older from each state as an intern at IDE...or he used to, anyway.

  “I think that’s beautiful, Fish,” said Barbara from the back.

  “Okay, and you, Giz?” I wasn’t feeling up to commenting on MicFish’s benevolent humanitarianism.

  “It kind of rhymes with Leonard, I guess,” his voice squeaked. I tried to keep a straight face, but I just couldn’t do it. I began to laugh so hard my eyes watered, and that got everyone else laughing again.

  “Someone started it at work and it just stuck,” he added in his defense. In spite of our dire circumstances, it felt incredibly good to laugh. I couldn’t really remember the last time I’d done so. We drove on for another two hours before the landscape began to change. Maneuvering had been challenging, and I was exhausted. The road turned into a two-lane highway and the amount of abandoned vehicles lessened, making it a little easier, but my stomach was beginning to growl, and I was getting edgier by the minute. I shifted in my seat to try to get some feeling back in my butt.

  “Want me to drive a while?” Mic asked.

  “That would be great, what took you so long to ask?”

  “I figured you for the control-freak type and I didn’t want to piss you off.”

  “Smart ass,” I said, as I pulled to a stop. We switched places and I put my feet up on the dash to stretch my aching knees. The sun was just starting to go down, and the sky was a wash of gray and pale pinks. I looked in the back and saw that the rest of our little group was fast asleep. Barbara was leaning against the wall, and Jacob’s head was in her lap. His little legs were curled up tight. Giz was lying on his back, his head resting on his computer bag. His mouth was wide open and he was snoring softly. I guess without a connection he could finally allow himself to rest. I spied the plastic grocery bag and remembered that it was filled with snacks from the vending machines. Ever so carefully, I moved back in the van and pulled a couple of bags of Fritos out. Mic and I munched on our snack and swapped stories about the good old days before technology kicked our asses.

  I learned that he was thirty-eight and that he’d never been married. Giz was his lead developer and they’d worked very closely. Over time, they had become close friends. Mic explained that Giz escaped a massacre at IDE the day things went bad because he’d left to join his wife for lunch at the hospital. They’d just learned she was expecting their first child. Darla O’Malley was a trauma nurse, which meant she was in the emergency room when the nightmare started. Mic didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t ask him to. It would be awful if Giz woke up and overheard our conversation about his wife. I know I wouldn’t want to hear anyone discussing how I’d lost my loved ones. I tipped the bag and shook the last of the Frito crumbs in to my mouth, then crumpled the bag and set it in the center console. Mic eyed me sideways. “So, are…or were you married?” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and repositioned my feet on the dashboard. “Nope.”

  “Were you in a relationship?” His eyes were fixed on the road.

  “No. Not anymore.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. It was over before this started,” I said, not wanting to elaborate.

  “I can appreciate that. With my work, I seldom had time for relationships, and when I did – well, they usually turned out bad.”

  “Your relationships are public knowledge, MicFish.” His shoulders shook as he laughed quietly.

  “Yeah, I guess I tend to forget about that.”

  “I’m not surprised that your relationships failed. You seemed to pick the kind of women who either only cared about your money, or cared more about themselves.”

  “Yep. That pretty much sums it up for my love life. What about you? Did you pick bad men?”

  “I guess I did, actually. I was
dating a guy named Rick for about a year. He screwed around, I found out…yadda, yadda.” I trailed off in the same way had earlier, leaving him to assume the details. I didn’t really care to rehash those thoughts. Rick was a dick. He was also the son of my father’s best friend, which made it even more difficult because I was a daddy’s girl and my father wanted to bust his kneecaps with a baseball bat for what he’d done to me. But that would have started World War Three in our neighborhood. It definitely put a strain on my dad’s friendship with Rick’s father.

  In the end, it didn’t matter. Rick cheated on her, too. In fact, he was such a horn dog he was frequenting a skanky simp whorehouse on the north side of town. The only reason I knew about it was because I regularly picked up bread for our deli at a bakery two streets over. The first time I noticed his car out in front of ‘Simple Delights’ I didn’t put two and two together. I mean, there were other businesses around, and a movie theatre. He could be in the area for a number of reasons. The second time I saw his car there was nothing to question. I saw him as he walked right out of the front doors zipping up his fly, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Rick loved that after-sex smoke. I rolled my window down and flipped him off. That was the last time I saw him. I remember thinking how I hoped a simp bitch would bite his dick off. It was quite possible that one actually did. I’d heard horror stories that were similar.

  “We’re gonna need gas,” Mic said, breaking me from my thoughts.

  “Great. There’s nothing around here. I haven’t seen a car in the last God-knows how many miles.” The stretch of road we were on wasn’t familiar to me, and it was pitch black outside now.

  “There’s a turn-off about five miles up with a gas station and some fast food places. We’ll make it.”

  “You know this area?” I asked with some relief evident in my voice.

  “Yeah. I’ve got an aunt that lives out this way.”

  “Could we go to her place?”

  “That’s my hope.”