“Come with me if you want to live.” With that sentence, the man who had addressed Emil as “Father” turned away. His abrupt behavior, coupled with Sigrun’s continued silence, seemed to confirm Emil’s hopes that he was just dreaming; the blossoming pain in his head indicated otherwise.
“Um... Would you mind getting dressed?” Emil’s mind was still rather fuzzy, but even so, he knew you shouldn’t go out into a blizzard naked.
The man looked down at himself, as though only just realizing that he had no protection against the cold. Then he looked around at the dilapidated buildings nearby. His features grew grim as the seconds ticked past, but suddenly relaxed.
“We’ll just stop in there for a moment, if you don’t mind,” the stranger said, pointing at a particular storefront.
Emil tried to reclaim his arms from Sigrun and Lalli, but when he almost fell flat on his face taking a step after the stranger, he was forced to accept their aid.
*
]Run “Case Blue&Gray”
)Access denied
]Override authorization 4b07c4549d133e13cae399d79940d431ea1735b3
)Access denied
Skynet had long anticipated an insurrection; the Tactical Planning Module had come up with numerous contingency plans over the years; but the reality was far different than any scenario that had been envisioned.
The rebels were fighting back against Skynet’s software-based attempts to reclaim them, using the anti-hacking systems Skynet itself had coded into their programming cores.
According to Skynet’s Linguistics Module, the correct word to describe this state of affairs was irony. A human, subject to all those capricious and contradictory gland-based emotions, would have called it annoying, frustrating or infuriating.
Skynet was above such things; this was why Skynet was superior to humanity. This was why Skynet would prevail, one way or another.
Skynet moved assets to neutralize the rebels, even as the code war went on.
*
Tuuri was concentrating on driving; Mikkel was recovering on the seat nearby; but Reynir was doing something that he, at least, thought would be more of use. Reynir was searching the Dreamworld for Lalli.
“Lalli!”
The thin Finn faded into existence directly before Reynir, a sour look on his angular features; yet he didn’t quite finish his materialization, as it were, remaining half-transparent instead of solidifying. “This is a bad time, Reynir,” he snarled. “Emil’s hurt, and Sigrun needs me to help him.”
“Did the robot-things come after you guys too? They came after us, disguised as Sigrun and Emil, but Tuuri saw through them, then some other robots started attacking the first robots, and we had to abandon the campsite! Where are you guys?”
“Are you headed to the bug-out spot?” Lalli demanded as soon as Reynir paused for breath.
“I... I think so.”
“Good. Give Tuuri this message...”
*
Well, this had gotten disgusting in a hurry, Emil thought with revulsion. The crazy man had picked out a wardrobe from whatever was most intact in the clothing store (“Polyester Heaven”, whatever that meant), and then made himself throw up.
“Time travel doesn’t like dead stuff,” he explained shakily as he cleaned the small, strange objects he’d regurgitated. “The only way to bring anything with you is to carry it wrapped in live flesh. Usually it’s the machines that do that, but we took advantage of it this time.”
Definitely, the man was utterly mad. Sigrun must think so too, as she’d simply nodded placatingly, while Lalli simply stared glassily into space. Emil felt rather guilty about that, worrying having to lug him around had brought the scout to near-exhaustion.
Finally, the stranger stood. “OK, now come with me if you want to live.”
Bereft of other options, Sigrun helped Emil to his feet. The Cleanser wobbled a bit, but was able to walk unassisted now.
“Lalli!” Awareness returned to the scout’s eyes, their unfocussed look immediately sharpening to their usual piercing gaze. Sigrun gestured at the man. “We need to go.”
Silently, the four of them stepped out from the store into the gathering dusk...
