Getting Home

Part 36

The quiet hum of the BMW engine rose rapidly in pitch, clicking smoothly through the gears as the black SUV blasted down the street.

"Oh my god, Sean, was that—" Sophia started. Fury anxiously circled in the back cargo area.

"That was it," Sean said, frantically twisted around in the seat to look behind them, heart pounding in his chest, mind racing. He had finally seen it with his own eyes—and Ava had been right. The whole time, Ava had been right.

And now she was dead because Sean hadn't listened.

Ava, I'm so sorry.

Agent Leigh turned from the front seat. "Officer Mather, what—"

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Sean said. He was trying to calm himself down, trying to fight the images that were fighting to rise in his mind and dominate his thoughts. Focus. "How did you—"

"You and your sister are involved in a unique situation," Agent Leigh said, turning around in her seat. "Did you really think the FBI wouldn't be following you?"

Sean didn't respond.

Leigh continued. "Officer, please—we're not here to accuse or implicate you. We're on your side. We're here to help you..." Her voice paused as it lowered. "... and your sister."

Sean gave her a quick look, face scowling, eyes angry. "I know what you're trying to do. Don't."

Fury whined.

Agent Leigh's eyes widened for a moment. She looked down and bit her lip. "You're right, Officer... I'm sorry. You know we're only concerned with stopping this thing—and we need you. Can you tell us what—"

"You saw pretty much everything we did," Sean said curtly. What more did they want from him? He didn't know anything—in fact, they probably knew more. He tried to think of what he could say, but all that kept coming to his mind were images. Faces.

Ava's face. Malloy's face... the grotesque mask of what used to be Malloy's face, laid on that black, gelatinous blob.

The faces of the dead.

Of the people most important to him.

And it's YOUR fault.

YOU could have saved them from all of this if you had just listened. Listened to Ava, listened to Malloy...

But most of all listened to YOURSELF.

"FUCK!" Sean suddenly screamed, slamming his fist down on the door panel. He began hammering on it as hard as he could, his mind gone, lost in a void of helplessness and exploding rage.

"Sean! No, wait—" Sophia yelled, reaching for him but not daring to touch him. At the same time, Agent Leigh shouted, "Officer Mather, please! Calm down, you have to—"

Agent Johnson didn't react.

Sean hit the door a couple more times, before collapsing against it and putting his head down, hiding his face against his arm as his back hitched quietly.

All done?

"Sorry," Sean said after a moment. He raised his head up, looking out the window, making sure they couldn't see his face. His hand was numb. "There were... body parts. Ava's cell phone."

A Malloy monster.

"Cell phone?" Agent Leigh said.

"Yes," Sophia said quietly. She pulled Ava's phone from her pocket, using her thumb to wipe away the muddy sludge on the screen, which reflected the bright, white light on her face.

"That's weird," she said, peering at the screen. "It's already unlocked. In fact, it's..."

She trailed off.

"Yes?" Leigh prompted.

"This is incredible," Sophia said breathlessly, her eyes wide behind her glasses as she stared at the screen. "The firmware has been re-written—modified. I've never seen a programming language like this. In fact, I don't even think it's a language... at least, in the way we would think of it."

Sean frowned in confusion. Progamming language? Ava barely knew how to use her laptop to type out a school essay, much less have any idea about programming a computer. That's all a phone was, right?

A computer?

"There's no way," Sean said, shaking his head. "Ava would never be able to—"

"What does that mean?" Agent Leigh asked.

"It means I don't know what did this," Sophia said in marvel, the light of the screen reflecting on her glasses and hiding her eyes as she scrolled faster and faster through the phone. "It's like a hybrid of whatever the OS originally was, mixed with whatever—whatever this, is. I can still access a few things, but not much... browser history shows..."

She trailed off.

"Shows what?" Sean said.

"It can't be," Sophia said, not taking her eyes off the phone. "It shows this phone has accessed over one-hundred and thirty-three million websites—all within a period of a minute and a half."

"Is that even possible?" Agent Leigh asked.

"Not with an iPhone."

Leigh looked stymied for a moment. "If I asked you to speculate, what would—"

"It's learning," Sophia whispered, slowly looking up at Sean. "It's been accessing the internet—and learning. The last few hundred thousand browser pages point towards more anatomical content; human biology, animal dissection... psychology."

Leigh was quiet for a few moments in thought, the street lights playing across her face, reflecting and flashing across the matching hazel of her skin and eyes—then she said, "What was the last page accessed?"

"Information about..." Sophia squinted. "Morgantown Mall."

Agent Johnson immediately began tapping back on the paddle shifter behind the wheel, making the pitch of BMW engine climb as the SUV geared down. He turned the wheel left at the next street, cutting the apex of the curb corner perfectly, smoothly and quickly re-accelerating in a new direction.

Morgantown Mall? Sean thought. What the hell?

"We'll be there shortly," Agent Leigh said. Her phone was already out, her thumbs a flurry as she typed. "There's an event scheduled for tomorrow—correction—this morning. Tryouts for a television show—America's Voice. They're expecting a massive crowd."

The name made Sean's blood freeze. I completely forgot about that. There had been overtime signups at the station to work the event off-duty as security, but that wasn't the reason Sean knew America's Voice—

Ava, his heart whispered.

"Morgantown doesn't open until 9 am," Sean said quietly.

"People have been lining up outside the mall since last night," Leigh said. "Property management decided to open it up and let everyone wait inside due to the storm last night."

"Why are you worried about Morgantown?" Sean said, suddenly growing impatient. "That thing is back in that alley—shouldn't we be mobilizing everyone there?"

"Network's down—phone's dead," Leigh said to Agent Johnson, her voice business-like as she put her phone back in her pocket. She said to Sean, "That thing in the alley was only part a small piece of it, Officer. The rest of it is bigger—much bigger. And we don't know where that part is."

Only part of it?

Sean's mind tried to make sense. "Well whatever was in that alley, it was at the police station. It was wearing my training officer's—"

Ava's phone began to vibrate.