Escaping the Military

Kensu kept moving across the ducts until he could no longer hear the soldiers' chatter. The claustrophobic tunnel offered no distractions, and he could not help but linger on the recent revelations—specifically, the professor’s experiment to create an “augmented soldier,” from which he apparently became an unwitting guinea pig.

Better to dwell on that than the professor’s death, or his other experiment to turn Kensu into a copy of himself.

“What was the professor trying to accomplish by putting me in the pod? Splice my DNA with that of an alien to turn me into a super-soldier freak?” he mumbled to himself, a bad habit he was picking up due to the stress of the situation.

“… partially, yes.” AIDA replied, having ears everywhere in her complex.

“Partially? I won’t grow another limb or have my skin turn into scales, r-right?”

“No, that’s… very unlikely. At this intersection, please follow the right path and keep going until you reach my mainframe.”

Kensu crawled on the vents following AIDA’s instructions. The tunnel was still almost pitch black, the only light coming from the occasional grill he passed by. He almost didn’t have the stomach to peek across them, because every time he did, he could see soldiers destroying his life’s work.

The army was scanning and then burning papers, destroying hard drives, shattering microscopes, as if the poor things could even talk! But, the worst atrocity Kensu witnessed occurred outside the pen where they stored some of the bio-engineered specimens. The soldiers had spared not a single guinea pig, rabbit, or genetically modified chicken.

“And they call me a murderer…”

“To be fair, we have sacrificed quite a few animals when the experiments don’t go as we expect.”

“There’s a difference between sacrificing a bunny with a failing heart and just outright shooting every animal you come across.”

“I disagree. The end result is the same. But, this isn’t the time for debating morality. Take a left, you are almost there, Dr Kensu.”

“Agreed.” The burning hair made Kensu's stomach churn, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it with his life on the line. He didn’t have time to dwell on many things he really ought to be thinking about, the destruction of his life’s work ranking surprisingly lower on the list.

Kensu reached the end of the tunnel. The scientist found himself in AIDA’s mainframe. A labyrinth of servers that stretched from the floor to the roof. A single keyboard and a giant screen stood at the center of the machine complex.

“Ok, now I have to go to the roof, right?” Kensu spotted the emergency exit door behind the servers, but it closed as he took a step toward it.

“Wait, Dr Kensu. Before you do, I have a favor to ask. Can you take me with you?”

“What? Why do you want to-“

“The military is going to delete when they reach this room. I … don’t want that to happen. Please, take me with you.”

“Sorry AIDA, I wish I could, but I don’t have a databank or drive to upload you to-”

“You have one-“The monitor showed a security feed of Kensu opening the port near the back of his neck. Another port opened near the computer, and a cable plopped out of it. “Please, Kensu.”

Kensu grabbed the cable, giving it a pensive look. “Isn’t uploading an AI to a body’s data center illegal?”

“After what happened today, is that the reason you hesitate? They won’t care about the law when they find and dissect your body. Please, Kensu, don’t let me die.”

“Argh, fine. Let’s upload a murderous AI to my brainstem. It’s not like it can make this day any worse.” Kensu grabbed the cable and plugged it into the nape of his neck. A progress bar appeared on the screen, slowly filling itself up. “Transferring AIDA.core 1%...3%...7%....”

A loud shout came from the other side of the room. Kensu turned to stare at the metal door barring the main entryway into the chamber.

“Damn! Corporal, get in here! This door isn’t budging, so we’ll kick it together on three. ONE. TWO. THREE!” There was a loud thud, followed by a somewhat pained whimper.

“Crap! The soldiers! C-come one AIDA, move faster! 34%... 38%!”

“Damn, it’s like kicking a cinderblock. Corporal! We’ll try tackling it open! Ready! GO!” The door shook but remained closed. “Ow! my damned shoulder!”

“Come on, come on… 64%...68%... If you can hear me, AIDA, hurry it along!”

“Screw this. Corporal! Run downstairs and tell the Captain to bring his explosives!”

“That sounds pretty bad… 89%...95%...100%. AIDA.core has finished uploading! YES!”

The progress bar reached completion and disappeared.... Only for it to reappear anew, empty. “Now uploading AIDAcamerafootage1/1543?! You gotta be kidding me!”

“Ah, Captain! Did you bring the brick?!”

“Sorry AIDA, hope your core is enough.” Kensu unplugged the cable from his back and took off running towards the emergency exit. Thankfully, it was unlocked. As he crossed it, he heard the boom of the captain’s explosive, the shockwave pushing him to run away from the soldiers even faster. He avoided them just in the nick of time again.

Kensu’s footsteps echoed across the emergency staircase. The disheveled scientist was running upward with every fiber of his being.

“Ok, we are close to the roof. What’s the plan, AIDA?”

No reply. Kensu felt a shiver run across his spine. AIDA was always there to answer his queries, a stalwart assistant is always at the beck and call of the whole lab, but not now. For the first time today, he was truly alone.

Was AIDA in some sort of suspended state? Her core compressed into raw data center inside Kensu’s spine? That seemed sad, but would it be better if she was conscious in there? With no speakers or cameras to connect to, she would be effectively blind, deaf, and mute. Maybe it was better if she was “sleeping” for now.

He couldn’t turn back now, but… where exactly was he going? “I probably should have asked AIDA about her plan before I transferred her.”

“What was that noise?”

“Someone is on the stairs. Go, go, go!”

“Ah, crap.” The door behind Kensu’s back opened, and two soldiers came hot on his tail.

Adrenaline was a marvelous thing. Normally, Kensu would be tired after one floor of this exercise, but not only he didn’t even feel winded, but he was able to somehow keep accelerating as he went up.

Sadly, the soldiers weren’t no slouches either. They were hot on his trail and even fired a few shots that passed uncomfortably close to his head.

However, Kensu was close to a more important thing. His target. He could see it, the door to the roof. The young scientist tackled it open and ran right into the middle of the building’s hover-pad. Where… there was nothing there.

The wind whipped Kensu’s hair, his lab coat fluttering. There was nothing there. No hovercar, not an old-fashioned helicopter, not even a rappel line.

Why had AIDA wanted him to reach the roof? It didn’t matter now. There was no AIDA to save him, nowhere to go, and he had a mean headache to boot. He was going to die there.

The firing line followed him into the roof as well. Time slowed almost to a standstill. Kensu could see the soldier’s fingers tensing as they began to squeeze the trigger. He didn’t want to die, but what could he do? What else was there to do but pray that the soldiers suddenly kneeled over dead? Considering what happened to the professor, that didn’t seem as far-fetched now…

Kensu gulped, bracing for the worst. His headache got worse. It was as if his brain was pounding to get out of his skull. His heart was also trying to join it in their impromptu escape, for it was beating almost like it was drilling out of his ribcage.

Thankfully, it seemed like he wasn’t the only one afflicted. The soldiers likewise dropped their guns and began panting. The soldier on the left clutched his heart, while the one on the right dropped to the floor altogether. He removed his mask and began taking deep breaths as if his lungs were refusing to accept the oxygen.

“What the?” Kensu’s headache got worse, his stomach churned, and his vision became blurry. He spotted a silhouette coming from the stairs, a familiar shadowy cloud draped itself over the panting soldiers.

The one on the floor stopped moving altogether. The one on the right tried to resist, but it was futile. With a shrieking scream, he also collapsed to the ground.

The shadow rose from the corpses of the two soldiers. It seemed to stare at Kensu. Or that was the scientist's best guess considering that the blob had no eyes. Was it going to come after him next? The shadow lunged at Kensu, and the young scientist braced himself.

Kensu felt as if a blanket of cold mist enveloped his body. Then… nothing. The young scientist timidly opened his eyes. The shadow was nowhere around. He was alone on the roof with the two bodies.

“W-w-what was that?” Kensu couldn’t help but ask as his vision slowly returned to normal. His headache was also subsiding, his heartbeat slowing. It seemed like the questions of today kept piling up, with no answers in sight.