High Pressure System: First Season Underground (19 page)

“Okay,” I said as tension knotted up my back some more.

“Remember what that NALA computer said before Brandon cut it off? When it was talking to you?”

“Said something about me being
the one
. I don’t know what that means. That’s stupid though.”

“Brandon made it stop because it was going to say you were selected for him specifically.”

“Brandon told me something like that already.” I couldn’t look at Jim while my cheeks burned. “That’s ridiculous.”

“No, there have been some data breaches while the spy was here.” He paused and snickered. “That’s interesting. It must have been a spy-der. Ha! Anyway, I’ve tried to avoid Brandon’s personal files. However, after one of the sessions of screen scrambling, at the time that’s what I thought it was, I figured out it was actually information gathering. His personal diary was left on the screen. Back when he was all worried about you, when everyone was talking about you. I could tell Brandon has some feelings for you from his posts. What I mean by that is he worries a lot about you.

“Now I wonder if that big computer is using that information. Sending the bots after you because it will hurt Brandon the most. It’s a wild guess. Be mindful that I’m saying this after the bots followed you once. It could have been because you were blocking the way in for more of their buddies. Oh, now I’ve meddled, said weird things to make you feel awkward around him.”

I had to sit down and think. “No… That can’t be it. I mean, you told me he has information on everyone. That really doesn’t make sense that it would just be me.”

“Let me explain this clearer. Yes, he has information on everyone. Knows lots about all of our lives before we came here. But you, it is far more than that. Just believe me, it’s more.”

“Like creeper more? Like he has a camera in my room more?” I got a shiver just thinking about a camera in my room.

“No, not like that. There is enough information about you, or his thoughts about you, littered all over his hard drive to where a super smart computer if it found access would easily link that he has a huge soft spot for Rachel Gardener. He’s not that soft and squishy so that’s saying a lot.”

I rubbed my eyebrows. If I rubbed them off would Brandon still like me? “This is just more awkward and ridiculous.” I scooted my chair over to the computer and grabbed the keyboard. “Prove it.” I scrolled to search through his documents.

“Give that back.” Jim took the keyboard from me, rolled me across the room, and laughed. “Now you’re curious, huh? You should probably find out if the bots chasing you was a fluke or something you need to worry about.”

“That’s easy for you to say as you stay in the most secure room in the building. You have nothing to worry about.”

“I do too. If the tornado storms come back, they can still suck the air off this floor. I have had a few scares and I’m all by my lonesome when it happens.”

“Fair enough.” I cinched my hood around my face and pulled on my gloves. I squinted at Jim. “All right. Here I go.”

“Where are you going first? If they do go after you, you should have a plan.”

“Hmm… Right to the source of all our problems. To the medical floor to check on Brandon. They’ve made sure the bots can’t get in and it’s halfway where I really want to go.”

“Where’s that? You’re apartment is closer.”

I started to speak and clenched my jaw. “Yeah, well. It’s not safe there.” Tread careful. I almost spilled the beans about Micah’s secret garden. “The school is though and maybe I need to visit the printer guy, Steve and see if he can make me protective suit out of this stuff.” I tugged on the cuff of my glove before I gripped the door handle. Hanging onto the handle wasn’t going to get me out of the room. I took a deep breath before exiting. Wasting no time, I jogged down the hall.

It wasn’t long before bots woke where they were lined up along the walls. I thought they were dead ones. The room was alive, as if it was waiting for me. I had no time to check my handiwork on the lobby doors, I was heading down. Running the stairs was too slow. I rested my butt on the railing and slid down nearly crashing into the wall when I reached the landing. Progress was faster even though I nearly sacrificed myself for it.

I slid down the second railing, trying to slow my momentum with my hands, forgetting the rubber would probably slow me down more than I intended. I adjusted my grip and stopped just short of launching off the end of the rail on the next landing. Bots were scrambling up towards me as much as they were following me down.

“Don’t look, don’t look.” I slid down the next rail, easily cleaning the bots off as I went. When I moved faster, they weren’t having an easy time tracking me and they were moving in disorganized chaos. Perfect.

I made to the medical floor, burst through the door, ran down the hall as bots clicked against the vent. Thank goodness they blocked the one in the hall too. Checking behind me, there were only a few hundred that past though the door with me. I should have forced the door shut. It was nothing like the number of them I left in the stairs, crawling all over the window in the door, scraping on the vent screen in the hall. I stopped to let the ones that followed me gather around me feet and stomped-danced all over them while laughing rather maniacally, not thinking much about whether the medical staff could hear me on the other side of the door. It was all too satisfying to murder the little beasts that were out to get me.

When I stomped on the last twitching leg, I entered the waiting room. Everyone was staring at the door as I walked in and burst out laughing. I wanted to burst out in tears. I swallowed hard and smiled. “I think I got them all.”

One of the nurses was looking at the top of my head.

“Okay.” I grabbed the bot with my glove and smashed it between my fingers. “I need a look over.”

A couple of nurses made me turn around and they found three more.

“I thought the bots were in hiding,” Nurse Becky said. That’s what was on her name tag. I should probably get familiar with the medical team.

“Not when I’m around.” I pulled off my gloves and tucked each one in a back pocket of my jeans.

She gave me a puzzled look.

“I’m the life of the party I guess. Suddenly popular with the eight-legged-crowd.” I shrugged. “How is Brandon today?” Might as well go make my glorious presence known to the one who started it all.

“He’s the same as yesterday. Which unfortunately not only frustrates him, but us too as he complains relentlessly. As if we have the cure for the most common health issues.”

“Can I see him?” I cast my eyes to the floor. She knew Micah and I were something. I hoped she didn’t think I was something with Brandon too.

When I glanced up, she gave me a smirk.

“What is that for?” I asked and my cheeks were on fire.

“He talks about you. A lot.”

“I didn’t ask him to.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.”

I reluctantly followed Becky.

She turned to face me before opening the door. “Don’t worry. I don’t start rumors. It’s my job to keep quiet.”

“There’s no rumor to spread.” My eyes watered.

“I see that.”

“Do you? Or are you unseeing what you think you saw? Because what you think you see now is not the truth.”

“What? That he is obsessed with you and you like someone else? I can see the difference in your eyes when you’re here to see him and when you were here with the other guy.”

I exhaled the biggest sigh of relief. “You can see the difference, huh?”

“Yes, but I would never tell him that. No sense making him hopeless when he needs hope to get better.” She winked.

I nodded, bewildered as she let me in the room.

Brandon was complaining to the walls as I walked in.

“Why won’t they let me leave?” he yelled.

I ducked as if he hurled the words at me.

“Brandon, be nice. You have a visitor.” Becky motioned for me to go over.

I slowly hooked the face-mask over my ear as I walked across the room.

“How sick are you?” I asked. His eyes were still swollen and puffy. His flushed cheeks competed with his blood shot eyes. “I can tell you’re worse than yesterday. Stop giving these people grief.”

“None of them know what’s going on out there. So they tell me nothing.” He slumped down in his bed. Brandon must have exerted himself with his little tantrum. “How’s Jim?”

“He’s fine. We had a false alarm. Or maybe it was something. Nobody but me needs to worry much now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some clouds rolled in while the Harpers, Marjie, and I were sealing up the door with expanding foam insulation. After that, all the spiders came into the stairway where we were. The only person they were interested in was me.”

“Was it because you were fixing the door?” Brandon’s sleepy eyes widened.

“I thought that at first. Once everyone else left the control room, the bots didn’t do a thing. However, when I left the control room, they followed me, crawling out of the vents and swarming in the stairway until I got to this floor. Thank goodness they have the vents protected here or they would still be after me.”

“Why would they be after you?”

“I wondered the same thing. Jim thinks maybe the spy, or something, hacked your computer.” All of a sudden I wasn’t comfortable telling him the rest. Especially when I saw the change in his face go from feverish red to ghostly white with rosy cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

“Well, I will just leave you with that?” I backed up a couple steps.

“Wait, Rachel.” He scooted up higher in the bed. “It’s not what it seems.”

“We’ve all been having those kind of conversations lately.”

“Huh?” He shook his head.

“Nothing, don’t explain.” I stuffed my hands in my pants pockets. I rubbed my burning ear on my shoulder. “I’ve been causing some issues, you wrote about it. You’ve been concerned about me, you wrote about me some more. Maybe you like me or something, perhaps you wrote about that too.”

That cured the ghostly hue on his face.

“Yeah, okay, you do like me. I know that. It’s all over your computer, Mr. Oldschool. That
other
computer admits sending me here for you. It is probably happy you like me as much as you do. To get to you, it is going to get me. NALA wants to play with her food so to speak like you said. Or
maybe
she’s the jealous ex-girlfriend because
that
computer has feelings. Here I am, the one person that might mean more to you than anyone else and it’s going to make sure you know she can hurt you by hurting me.” I took a bow. It was better than standing there looking embarrassed. I looked royally embarrassed instead.

Brandon shook his head. “No, it can’t do that. It can’t know anything. I’ve taken all the precautions.”

“A spy bot got in the ducts. Who knows what it learned during that time.”

“It can’t. I have been so careful.” Brandon started to look even worse. I didn’t think it was possible.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you all that the way I did.”

“I just can’t believe it.”

“What you can and can’t believe is not the problem. Now it’s already done. Me being able to get where I need to go without a swarm catching up to me is a problem. How to kill all the bots that want to hurt me is another problem, okay?”

“Yes. You’re right.” He finally really looked at me and held out his hand.

I grabbed a vinyl glove from the counter and pulled it on real quick before resting my hand in his.

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“I know that and NALA knows it too.” I sat down in the chair next to the bed.

“You’ve had to take my place.” He rubbed his eyes.

“No, Jim and I are doing it together and I had help today. However, there is no one that can do the job as well as you. If I can figure out how to get around without being spider mobbed, the two of us can do this until you get better.” I squeezed his hand.

“I suspect another round of spiders are coming. It has been far more effective than anything else she’s thrown at us.”

I sighed. “I hope it waits until some of you are better. I’d hate to battle them alone. I’m having a hard time with the ones that are left.”

“I’m sure it will be sooner than any of us want it to be.”

Brandon’s grip on my hand lessened. He couldn’t keep his eyes open.

“I need to go so you can rest.” Of course, he didn’t respond.

As I walked out the door, the nurse stopped me.

“He’s already settled down. Thank you.”

“That’s good.” I gave her my best effort of a smile.

I stepped outside of the lobby and rested my back against the wall. Rubbing my head and face didn’t help me feel better. Exhaustion swept over me. I pulled on my gloves and cinched my hood tight. The bots were clamoring in the vent. They already knew where I was. How was that? I tightened my fist and released it. The rubber of the glove was flexible enough. When Aaron and the 3D printer guy were healthy again, I needed them to make me a protective suit. In the meantime, I needed to haul my butt to Micah’s apartment. The only other place I’d be safe and hopefully undetected. I swung open the door and slid down the rails until I was on Micah’s floor.

The hallway crawled, almost keeping pace with me as I ran to Micah’s apartment. I got to the door and banged on it. “Micah, Micah, Micah, hurry please!”

It was hard to hear him on the other side with all the clicking from the robot legs as they scurried and climbed up my boots. The ones on the ceiling dropped on my head.

I banged again. The dogs started barking. Good, at least they heard me. “Micah!” I stomped-danced in place and knocked them off my head. I banged again.

“I’m here,” he yelled and the lock unlatched.

When the door swung open, the dogs tried to run out when I was trying to get in. They yelped when a swarm of bots flooded in the room with me. Fortunately, they hauled it back to the cave room and I was able to slam the door. A couple of bots stung my neck.

“Oww.” I smashed them. Micah only had slippers on his feet as he tried to stomp on the spiders. He was weak, I could tell. I grabbed a broom and handed it to him.

“Sweep them to my feet.” I was actually giving him something safer to do so he didn’t fall over.