The wide door shows signs of unsuccessful forced entry. It looks thicker than the others. Thankfully, I have something for that. I drop my bag and pull out one of the explosives. I traded an entire cache of gay porn for these. They better work.
I place it on the door and climb back up the stairs with the remote. Once I’m at a safe distance away—or at least, I hope so—I activate the timer. Thirty seconds later, the explosion shakes the entire structure. All the nomads and survivors in a two-mile radius must have heard it. I hope a healthy fear of old gods and raiders will stop them from coming to investigate.
“Is that you, Perri?”Vex asks over the line.“I heard a great noise.”
“Yes, it’s me,” I say, climbing over the rumble.
“You’re close.”
I tie the solar lamp to my belt and pull out a brighter flashlight from my bag. The inside of the building is darker than night.
“I take back what I said earlier. I’m scared of the dark. Are there any ghosts down here, Vex?”
She laughs.“I don’t think so. But I guess I wouldn’t be able to feel them with my artificial body.”
“Very reassuring. Thank you, Vex.”
I slowly make my way through the abandoned underground lab, rethinking my life choices. What if Stellan was right and this is a trap? What if Vex is actually a human pretending to be an AI to lure gullible explorers like me and steal everything we own after killing us? I mean, this could very well be theunderground base of a fucked up leader or mutant. Oliver did it with Bunkertown. I could be kidnapped and sold into slavery.
But I see no traces of life as I slowly make my way through the quiet lab. Everything is covered by a layer of dust. There are many computers and tech items that could be useful for the Market. As soon as we’re out of here, I’ll need to give the coordinates on the radio. It’s a gold mine.
“Vex. Where are you?” I ask over the line.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been allowed out of the room where I came to be sentient.”
“Okay. Hit on something to make some noise. It’ll help me pinpoint your location.”
“Very well.”
Seconds later, there is a banging noise echoing deeper in the lab.
“Oh, shit. I hear you,” I say.
My heart races, and adrenaline courses through my body. Finally, we’ll meet in person. Or, more accurately, person and AI. She’s real. Or, at least, I hope so. I can’t help but think about Stellan’s warning and the idea that she’s someone else entirely.
I reach the end of a corridor. She’s banging on the other side.
“Get back,” I tell her. “I’ll blow the door open. Hide behind something if you can.”
“Understood.”
It takes me five minutes to place the second explosive on the door and find cover. I take a deep breath and push the button. The explosion is louder in the confined space, and my ears ring. I have to cover my nose and mouth with my t-shirt to avoid breathing dust.
I crawl out of my hiding spot and aim the flashlight through the gaping hole where the door used to be. A lone figure, tall, thin, and ghostly white, steps over the rubble.
4
The sinkhole.
“The first sample our labs analyzed was actually from the Kraken. He was the first to rise and the first to face a military strike. They managed to rip off one of his giant tentacles. Back then, we knew nothing. Most of us still nurtured the crazy idea that he’d come from space. That we were being attacked by an extraterrestrial species. But then the first results came in. His blood was saturated with hemocyanin, a protein that transports oxygen and contains copper instead of iron. It was the strangest color blue. It might seem alien to you, but we actually have a few species on Earth that share the same particularity. And one of them had a lot in common with the Kraken: the octopus. The Kraken had come from the abyss of our planet, not from space. His genes are the product of life on Earth, as insane as it might sound.”
Audio transcription of an interview with Dr. NolanMax, a scientist who worked for the Revival Project, 2047.
STELLAN
“Let’s switch. You need to sleep,” says Alastair.
It’s the middle of the night, and the mountains are dark and quiet. There used to be so much life in these forests; I’ve seen the documentaries. Now most of the trees have burned, and the animals are gone. The wastelands are gaining more ground every year, devouring every corner of what used to be the United States of America. We could blame the old gods, but this is more our own doing than theirs. Humans are the origin of climate change.
