2018-08-08 - spike - The New Shop 72

Author: spike
Title: The New Shop 72
Date: 08 August 2018

Chapter 72
I passed out a few times that night and I know it wasn’t from lack of sleep.

It was bad. How bad I didn’t know, but I knew I was weakening. Running out of time. I had to get back and on a train that might take a day, but it was the only way.

I did snap awake a few times as trains went past in both directions but none stopped until just before dawn. The first one that did was no use to me. A passenger train but the second… Just as the sun was rising, there was a screech of metal wheel on track as a freight train juddered to a halt. I looked down it and half crawled, have scrambled towards a box car half way along.

A box car with a broken door. A box car I could get in. Well I had to try to get into it anyway.

I braced myself against it, forced myself up onto my good leg and using my good arm with my back against it, hopped and pushed. My butt landed on the ledge. I swung, rolled, another silent scream of agony from my arm, leg and everything else but I was on. I lay there, panting.

Exhausted, I fell asleep again.

The journey was one of snapshots. Brief awakenings and long periods of unconsciousness but as it got colder, as I knew I was getting closer, I forced myself to stay awake. I’d got on the train at dawn. When I woke up the third time, it was night again.

I saw Washington sweep past. I saw… I’m not sure where that was but it was snow covered.

I began to shiver. I tried to huddle into as small a ball as possible to keep warm. Another silent prayer, this time to the god of the railroads that this thing didn’t bypass New York and go to Canada instead.

Then I saw it. A sight in the distance I recognised. A section of skyline I’d seen dozens of times before I was taken. I was nearly there and this anticipation gave me a boost and god did I need that boost.

I had to be careful though. In my current state a leap off the train while it was moving was impossible, even a roll off would likely break my other arm or worse. I had to wait, wait for another signal. As it got closer to the city, that seemed likely. More, I needed a way off the tracks, I couldn’t climb another fence.

Whether it was pure serendipity, karma or that god of the railroads smiling down on me, I don’t know, but the train did stop. The railings nearby had been bent and even better, I knew. I knew there was a subway station nearby. One that could take me straight to Queens.

It’d been a slow trip. Much longer than I expected. Over thirty hours and it was already starting to get dark again which suited me fine. Fuck though, I was thirsty again and I had no more drinks. One had survived the hit and run. One bottle to last me my journey and I’d drunk that near the beginning of it. Another reason I needed to get home. I needed food too.

I scrambled to the edge, forced my bad leg over it, followed by the good one, wriggled and slid off the ledge. My foot slipped on some gravel and I fell and rolled, hitting the railings. Another fuck me that hurt moment but I was down. I was by the hole and once on the subway, I was ten minutes from the store. I checked the phone. Its screen was cracked now. I don’t know when that happened. It said 19:56. I had time. I had to get there before the door locked for the night.
* * *
It was a struggle, getting to that subway station, but along the way, I saw something. A plank of wood about five feet long. That helped, using it as a crutch, but even so… I knew I was running out of time and in these temperatures, I didn’t think I’d survive the night if I had to wait until ten in the morning. I checked the phone again when I got to the station and sighed with relief.

Still time and I hadn’t even checked what day it was before now. It was a Thursday. God, if it’d been a Sunday I would’ve been screwed. I bought a ticket from a machine, shambled to the elevator and took it down to the train level.

I few people on the platform looked at me, some even pointed and laughed.

One yelled “Perv!”

I just ignored him.

Onto an empty car, I sat in the corner, well away from anyone else who might get on before my stop. Thankfully, no-one did. On a night like this, most sensible people would be home by now. It was bitterly cold out there. The clothes I wore were totally unsuited to winter New York temperatures but I was close. Another hop onto the elevator, up to street level and a shamble for three blocks.

There it was. I was home but this wasn’t the end. Not this time.

I braced myself against the wall, forced open the door and stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind me and I didn’t get knocked off my feet by escape protocol. My tubes didn’t seal. My butt wasn’t on fire. I’d obviously been removed from the system after my exile.

Another bracing, I opened the inner one, peeked in and shambled over to the back wall. Now this part, I knew was going to hurt. The panel by the mirror.

Tap. “Access denied.”
Tap. “Access denied.”
Tap. “Access denied.”

Oh fuck! In a less weakened state those might have only been warnings but right now, it nearly did knock me off my feet.

I leaned more heavily on my plank and gave it three longer presses. Why the fuck did I have to make the sequence so long. At the time I’d thought SOS was a good idea, but now?

Finally, three more short presses but on the third, I didn’t get a shock. I didn’t get an access denied.

“Unknown slave ID identified as number Eleven. Access granted all areas. Slave transit control program terminating. Executing standard elevator protocol. Slave transit program terminated.”

I sighed with relief, opened the mirror and the door beyond and crawled up the stairs. I could feel my willpower beginning to ebb now. I’d forced myself to endure so much to get here and now I was here… I steeled myself, reached up, slapped the panel and crawled into room one.

Oh god… Water cooler… I’d forgotten about the water cooler. I forced myself back to my feet again and filled three cups of water, put them on the desk, collapsed onto the chair, popped my mouth cap and tipped my head back. God; that helped. Now the real fun could begin.

I opened the database, order by rank, select everyone silver and above and cut. Then I opened the sandbox and the database attached to that and pasted.

They do that to me, I’m going to make the fuckers suffer, but my finger paused on the mouse as it got to Alpha. I couldn’t do it to him. Not after all the suffering this program had already caused him! I couldn’t!

I sighed, clicked active on each of the others, selected a maximum of one minute at each destination, random destination and commit. It wasn’t over yet though. I needed to stop them from undoing it quickly. I password locked the file and I didn’t even bother to remember what that password was.

Still a little more to do… I forced myself out of the chair, forced myself back out the door and down the corridor to the end, another panel, another slap and with my last ounce of strength, I slammed the total lockdown button.

I’d done it. I… I just hoped I had the strength to speak to Q before M was freed from his torment.

I collapsed onto that chair and passed out completely.
* * *
Voices and one of them was M’s. Ahh shit, so I’d failed.

I opened my eyes to see the back room. The laptop before me and an active Skype session. Maybe there was still hope.

“It was hell, sir. How did it do it?”

“I thought I ordered it podded and shipped, M!”

“It was sir! A week ago! Look at it! It didn’t receive those injuries here!”

“It looks like we’re about to find out, it seems to be coming ‘round.”

Q ordered it? Oh for fuck’s sake. So all the effort to get back, to speak to him, to find out what M had said… To find out why? My hand shook as I raised it to the desk. As I rested my wrist on it for fear of not being able to get it there again.

M immediately reached over and shoved the laptop out of reach.

“Let it speak, M. It doesn’t look like it’s got much left in it.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“I understand your anger, but we need to find out how and the only way to do that is to ask it!”

Why was he still calling me an it!?

The moment the laptop keyboard was within my reach, I blinked hard. I was losing focus. My vision was becoming blurred. I could feel the last of my strength draining away and I didn’t think I’d wake up again if I did lose it now.

I tapped. It was slow. One finger was all I was capable of. “why”

“What do you mean, why? You fucking well know why!”

“why sir”

“After what you’ve done you dare to ask that question!? How did you know where the store was?”

I stared at the screen dumbfounded. “always”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“known”

“Always known? Where you are?”

Of course I’d always known! For fuck’s sake what the hell?

“How did you get into room one? How did you know how to torture my slaves!? More… Why did you do it?”

“mad”

“What?”

“m mad world mad keep busy speak q”

“Is that why you did what you did? Because you think the world’s gone mad?”

Again, I stared at the screen, confused. What had I done that deserved anything like what I’d been through? Ever?

“How did you know how to do that?”

“mine”

“We are not yours!”

“no mine.” oh this was getting nowhere. “where beta”

“Beta? What about Beta!?”

“him dumpster too?” Getting the question mark, thank god those keys were close together...

“Why in god’s name would I dump Beta into a dumpster?”

I could feel it. The last of my strength. I managed to get “joel blanked too” out before my hand slipped off the keyboard. My head sagged. I was slipping away.

“Beta? Joel? How do you know of… Joel’s blanked TOO? Eleven?”

I was fading fast. Of course I was fucking eleven you moron. As I blacked out completely, one final anguished cry came from the laptop. “ELEVEN!”