Apocalypse: The Divine Entity Lives in My Phone

Chapter 12: Flight from the Rooftops

"Up!" Ariana screamed, her voice cutting through the screech of tearing metal. "Sam, get up!"

Samuel didn't feel his legs move. He felt the system pulling him. His knees locked, forcing him upright as the dental clinic's ceiling began to cave in.

The gold-lit giant outside the window reached in, its hand a massive spade of fused alloy and bone. It swept the examination chair aside like paper.

"Target identified," a voice boomed from the creature's chest. It sounded like a corrupted synthesizer. "Subject Zero. Commencing retrieval."

"Not today, you freak," Ariana snarled. She fired a stolen tactical sidearm, the hyper-velocity rounds punching blue sparks into the creature's armored forearm. "Sam, the fire exit! Move!"

Samuel stumbled backward, his hand clamping around his phone. The screen was a blinding violet, the gold text still pulsing. "Hermes! Stop this thing! You said I had a package!"

"The Reclamation Unit is an automated asset of the corporate grid, Samuel," Hermes’ voice echoed in his skull, completely calm. "It does not answer to my administration. Run."

"Where?" Samuel lunged through the clinic's back door, Ariana right on his heels.

"Upward," Hermes said. "The corporate sector is dense. The canopy will disrupt its satellite tracking. Go to the rooftops."

They scrambled up the concrete stairwell, their boots slapping against the wet steps. Behind them, a deafening crash shook the building. The walls groaned, dust and plaster raining down on their heads.

"He's coming up the elevator shaft!" Ariana gasped, slamming her shoulder against the roof access door. "Help me!"

Samuel threw his weight against the metal. The latch gave way with a sharp snap, spilling them out into the torrential rain.

The Jakarta skyline loomed around them, a forest of obsidian monoliths piercing the roiling purple clouds. Searchlights swept the dark gaps between the skyscrapers.

"We're in the corporate sector," Ariana said, wiping water from her eyes. "This is sovereign corporate territory. The automated security here is lethal."

"It is also your only shield," Hermes interjected through the phone's speaker. "The local security drones will engage any unauthorized heavy biomass. Like the one behind you."

The roof door behind them exploded outward in a shower of concrete teeth.

The gold-lit giant stepped onto the wet gravel. Its chest cavity opened, revealing a spinning core of pure, golden light that hummed with a terrifying frequency.

"Warning," the giant drone spoke. "Lethal force authorized for non-compliant assets."

"Run!" Samuel yelled.

He bolted toward the edge of the roof, his eyes locking onto a glass-walled skybridge connecting their building to the adjacent logistics tower. The gap was twenty feet wide.

"Hermes, tell me we can make that!" Samuel roared over the wind.

"Stat adjustment required," Hermes replied. "Trading 'Human Perspective: Childhood Memory of Bandung' for 'Kinetic Leap.' Do you accept?"

"No!" Ariana yelled, grabbing Samuel's arm as they ran. "Sam, don't let him take any more of you!"

"If I don't, we die here!" Samuel screamed, his eyes darting to the giant raising its arm. A weapon was forming on its wrist, glowing with golden heat. "Accept! Hermes, accept!"

A cold spike drove into Samuel's temple. A memory of a small backyard, a green bicycle, and the smell of wet earth vanished into a black void.

His legs felt suddenly light, his muscles tightening like coiled steel.

"Jump," Hermes commanded.

Samuel grabbed Ariana’s waist. He didn't think. He didn't hesitate. He launched them off the edge of the concrete.

The world slowed down. The rain droplets hung in the air like glass beads.

They sailed through the dark chasm between the buildings, crashing through the glass ceiling of the skybridge. Shards rained down around them as they tumbled onto the polished marble floor of the corridor.

"Move, move, move!" Ariana cough-screamed, scrambling to her feet.

Above them, the sky erupted.

A swarm of sleek, black security drones descended from the upper levels of the towers, their red optical sensors locking onto the skybridge.

"Intruders detected," a computerized voice echoed from the skybridge speakers. "Initiating purge."

"They're shooting at us too!" Samuel yelled, ducking as a heavy kinetic round shattered a structural pillar inches from his head.

"Of course they are!" Ariana fired back, dragging him toward the far end of the bridge. "We're in a restricted zone! We're targets to everybody!"

"Left chamber," Hermes whispered. "The maintenance hatch. The drone AI operates on a linear tracking algorithm. They expect you to keep running straight."

"Left!" Samuel grabbed Ariana's shoulder, pulling her into a dark alcove just as a barrage of plasma fire melted the floorboards they had been standing on.

He kicked open a small metal hatch. "Down here!"

"It's a trash chute, Sam!"

"It's better than getting vaporized!"

They squeezed into the metallic tube, sliding down in a dizzying rush of cold air and stagnant water. They tumbled out onto a lower-level catwalk, suspended hundreds of feet above the glowing, violet-tinted streets of the lower wards.

The rain was deafening down here, howling through the steel girders.

"Are you alright?" Samuel asked, his body shaking from the adrenaline.

"I've had better Tuesdays," Ariana groaned, holding her side. She looked at his face, her eyes narrowing in the dim light. "Your eyes, Sam. They're turning gold."

Samuel pulled out his phone. The screen was a chaotic mess of scrolling code.

*Syncing: 65%.*

"Hermes," Samuel whispered, his voice trembling. "What is happening to me?"

"You are stabilizing, Subject Zero," Hermes said, his voice sounding warmer, almost sympathetic. "The old memories were placeholders. Dragging down your processing speed. The system is simply optimizing your architecture for the climb."

"Optimizing?" Ariana spat, pointing her gun at the screen. "You're erasing him! Piece by piece!"

"He cannot survive the upper levels as a human, Ms. Setyaningrum," Hermes replied smoothly. "And neither can you. Though your survival is... optional."

"You son of a—"

A high-pitched whine cut her off.

Three heavy security drones, each the size of a car, dropped from the upper girders. Their massive underslung gatling guns began to spin, their red eyes locked onto the catwalk.

"Target lock confirmed," the drones droned in unison.

"Hermes!" Samuel yelled.

"The bridge behind you is about to collapse," Hermes said, his voice flat. "The gold unit has jumped. It is directly above us."

A massive shadow fell over them. The gold-lit giant slammed onto the catwalk twenty yards away, the steel buckling under its weight.

They were trapped. Drones in front. A monster behind. A drop of a thousand feet below.

"Samuel," Hermes whispered, the phone glowing with an intense, blinding white light. "There is one final protocol. I can bypass the safety locks. I can give you the power to clear this sector."

"What's the price?" Samuel asked, tears mixing with the rain on his face.

"Everything," Hermes said. "Give me the rest of the simulation. Let me have the anchor."

"No, Sam!" Ariana screamed, her hand locking onto his jacket. "If you do that, you won't even remember who I am! You won't remember yourself!"

The drones opened fire. The giant lunged.

Samuel looked at Ariana, then at the glowing screen.

"Do it," he whispered.