The Rescue (6 page)

Mumbling under his breath, Marcus said “No wonder men hated shopping so much.  This is taking forever…”

Rom’s clothing didn’t take long, but the girls… well… he kind of felt… it had been several years since he had been shopping with anyone but himself, but he still felt awkward digging through women’s clothing.  

“Pervert on aisle three; pervert on aisle three. Code blue security,” he chuckled in his best intercom voice.  Finally satisfied with his selections, he loaded them up into the MAV.  From there he went to the shoe department and picked out several pairs of shoes for everyone and then he went to the toy section and picked up several toys for Twig. 

It took him a few minutes to think of a gift for Rom.  He already had almost everything electronic back home and Rom had already rummaged through most of it.  Marcus went through the electronics anyway and he spotted something that he hadn’t seen before.  It was called a ‘SF VR Drone Flyer’.  He had heard of them but that was a long time ago. Reading the exterior of the box, it told him that you set up the system, strap on the headset, and virtually fly the drone.  The drone itself has a range of over 10 miles.  It was solar powered so it could virtually run endlessly with the SF batteries.  Rom would love this. 

“One for Rom, one for me,” he laughed.  He was wondering if Jocelyn could extend its range with her signal.  This could be a useful tool.

The back seat of the MAV was completely filled by the time he was finished.  After he finished loading, he was about to lock up when he thought of something else that was needed that they didn’t have at home.  In his mind he said, “No way.” 

Shaking his head and apparently arguing with himself, Marcus said, “Forget it, I’ll bring her back here at another time.”  He shut the door and went to close the bay door.  Still quietly arguing with himself, Marcus finally relented and decided that the best and safest thing would be to get it now.  Letting out a loud sigh, he lowered his head and headed for the feminine product aisle.  He rounded up what Wynd might need or at least to the best of his knowledge what he thought she could use.  He took the “stuff” back to the MAV and had it almost loaded when he saw the Korak cannon on top of the MAV rise and swing around in a blur and began firing.  At the same time he felt two sharp pricks in his chest and an extreme shot of voltage.  He began convulsing, dropped to his knees, and passed out.

Chapter 17

“…oooohhhh….” Marcus moaned.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked around.  He was laying next to the MAV, flat on the ground in the middle of spilled feminine hygiene products.  He pushed himself up into a sitting position and put his head in his hands.  His head was clearing and then he could hear Jocelyn in his ear piece almost shouting. 

“Marcus, Marcus... Marcus, Marcus!” Unbelievably Jocelyn was showing genuine emotion.  She must be getting good at emulating human emotions.  He shook his head to try and clear it again.  He could hear Jocelyn practically crying over the ear piece.

Finally he said, “Jocelyn, calm down.  I’m okay, you can stop yelling now.  My head is pounding enough.”

Calmly Jocelyn spoke, “Marcus, I’m not the one that is yelling.  That is Wynd.  You are about 5 hours overdue and she is almost hysterical. I tried to explain to her that your vitals are normal so it was obvious that you were only unconscious but she wouldn’t listen. Should I inform her that you are okay?”

“Hold on a minute.  What hit me?”

“Apparently the security drones for the store are still operational. They must have taken some time to boot up and my sensors didn’t detect them until the split second when they attacked you.  They have been terminated.”

“I wonder why I haven’t seen them on any of my previous trips” Marcus wondered.

“While you were gathering supplies, I networked with the in-store computer and received several errors. I ran a diagnostic on their computers and issued a command reboot.  Apparently it rebooted everything and the drones became operational again,” said Jocelyn.

“Why would you do that? You haven’t ever done that before” Marcus snapped.

“Wynd made a request of me to work extra hard to bring you home safe,” came the reply from Jocelyn.

“Since when is she…. Never mind.  Okay, let me clean this up and lock the bay door and then I’ll talk to her.”

“Luckily the bay door is close enough that I could extend the canopy of the MAV to protect it but don’t go any further than that.  The Utahraptors have been testing the shield for about forty-five minutes now,” she said dryly.

The sky was beginning to darken but Marcus finally was able to focus and saw that there were approximately five or six of the overgrown raptors about twenty-five yards out pacing nervously.  They weighed about a thousand pounds and had razor-like curved claws.  They were frightening looking creatures.  Marcus guessed that they thought they had an easy meal when they spotted him lying on the pavement. 

As he finished up loading up everything he had spilled he asked, “Why didn’t you just shoot them?”

“You told me before to conserve ammunition and I didn’t think that they were a threat to the MAV’s shield.  If the threat had escalated I would have used deadly force but they aren’t big enough to seriously damage or threaten the shield.”

Groggily Marcus said, “You’re right.  There’s no sense in uselessly killing them.  However if they were on the mountain I would expect you to eliminate them.  Capiche?”

“Si” said Jocelyn in perfect Italian.

Marcus laughed and finished locking up.  Hopping into the MAV, he left the shield operational until he had used it to push the Utahraptors out of the way.  They followed him for little while but quickly gave up the chase and disappeared into the undergrowth that had slowly taken over the edge of the city.

“Jocelyn, take us home and put Wynd on.”

Immediately, Wynd appeared on the interior of the windshield in front of him.  She was sitting on the edge of the couch with her head in her hands looking at the floor.

In a soft voice, he said “Wynd, it’s me Marcus.”

Her head immediately lifted. A smile came across her face as she looked at him on the large screen.  Then it changed to a look of concern.

“Are you okay?” she said in a hushed tone.

“I’m fine.  I just came across an unexpected problem.  I’m a little groggy but other than that everything is okay.”

“I was worried sick.  All Jocelyn would tell me was that you were unconscious but that all your vitals were good.  She also told me that you were protected and weren’t in any immediate danger.”

“I’m sorry for worrying you.  Jocelyn is not always forthcoming with details so sometimes you can prompt her for more information.  The MAV’s cameras could have shown you where I was but I am glad Jocelyn didn’t do that.  It would have only frightened you more and probably embarrassed me…” he said finishing with a soft laugh.

“What?” she asked.

“Never mind.  I’ll tell you later.  How are Rom and Twig?”

“Twig is playing with her dolls and I think Rom is busy killing zombie mutant aliens” she said with an eye roll.

“Well don’t tell them but I have a surprise for them.  I hope they like it.”

“What about me?” she said with a shy smile.

“Well… we will see when we get there.  It will be between another forty-five minutes to an hour before I’m home.”

“I can’t wait” she said clasping her hands together.

“Bye”

“Bye. See you in a few”

Chapter 18

With that, the windshield was showing the road he was traveling again.  Just looking over the sensors arrays and cameras, Marcus noted that there was an increased presence of some large biological animals.  There must be a large migration going on.  Once during the trip home, Jocelyn had to stop the MAV and wait for a Spinosaurus to make its way through.  Jocelyn had told him that the Spinosaurus was the largest land carnivore that had ever lived.  Its head reminded you of an alligator.  He had seen it walk on two legs and also drop onto all fours.  It also had what Marcus would call a sail running the length of its spine.  He was in awe of the massive creature as it came through the darkness.  As it finally sauntered off, the MAV came back to life and they finished the trip uneventfully.

As the MAV pulled up to the house, Marcus noted with a smile that Wynd, Rom, and Twig were all waiting anxiously on the front porch.  As soon as he stopped, Twig was down the steps and jumped into his arms.  She hugged him tight and then asked for her present. 

“Hold on” he said as he set her down and went to the back door of the MAV.  Opening the door, the first box he gave her was a ‘Tru-Baby’.  These dolls could emulate a natural baby’s cry, including face and body movements, and were very realistic.  Twig snatched the box and before Marcus could give her another present, she shot into the house and was gone.

Marcus glanced at Wynd and laughed, “I guess I will give her the other gifts later.”

Rom was just standing there for a minute waiting anxiously.  Marcus grinned and said, “Well, come on over here.  I didn’t leave you out.”

Rom was there in an instant.  Marcus handed the ‘SF VR Drone Flyer’ to Rom and watched his eyes light up.  Then Rom disappeared. Wynd was still standing there anxiously on the front porch.

“Don’t just stand there.  Come on” he said grinning from ear to ear.

She slowly walked down the steps and over to where he was. With a raised eyebrow she said, “Just checking on cameras and sensors, huh?”

Slightly embarrassed, he said “I did check one camera and sensor.”

Wynd was overjoyed with all the clothes he had gotten and then Marcus presented her with the diamond necklace. Wynd brought her hands to her mouth and exclaimed “It’s beautiful”. 

She turned around, pulled up her hair, and waited for him to put it on her. As he finished he said, “I know it’s not very useful in these days and times, but I just thought you might like it.”

“Like it? I love it.  Not just because it’s pretty, but because you thought of me.” With that she turned and wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight.  He hesitated at first but then he returned the hug burying his face in her clean hair letting the smell totally engulf him.  It puzzled Marcus to some extent about where she was able to find some feminine soap in all the supplies that he had at the compound.  On one of his earlier supply runs he must have accidentally picked up the wrong bottle.

They held the embrace for a couple of minutes and then she stepped back. 

Shyly he spoke up again, “Uh, well, er… I have a lot of other stuff I picked up. Help me take it into the house.”

He could sense her excitement as they unloaded all the items from the MAV.  He could also see the slight grin on her face as she picked up the box with the feminine products.  She glanced over at him and…

“Don’t ask.  I did my best,” he said as he lowered his eyes to the ground.

She walked over and kissed him on the cheek, “I know.  Thank you.”

It took about twenty minutes to unload everything and spread it around the living room.  Marcus was proud of himself after Wynd changed and her clothes fit perfectly.  A few minutes later Wynd called to Rom and Twig.  Twig came running playing with her new doll.  Marcus glanced up and saw the drone he had gotten Rom hovering silently as it slowly surveyed the room.  Marcus held up a new pair of Nibokas running shoes in front of the drone.  The drone dropped onto the couch and Rom came charging down the steps with the Drone headgear still strapped on. 

“Wow, are those mine?!” he exclaimed.

He then saw the rest of his clothes.  In a flash he had grabbed some jeans, a t-shirt, and the shoes and was gone.  Wynd worked with Twig and soon had her dressed in a new outfit.  Hers were a little big but she would grow into them. 

Marcus looked around the room and said with a touch of sadness in his voice, “This reminds me of Christmas with my family.”

Wynd responded, “Me too.  Although I can barely remember it, it does remind me of home.”

They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Marcus finally started to say something but was interrupted by Jocelyn.

Chapter 19

“Marcus, I’m receiving a distress call from a location approximately two hundred miles away to the northeast.”

“Jocelyn, we have had heard several distress calls before and almost every one of these have been set up as a trap.  I thought I told you to ignore these.”

“You said to ignore distress calls unless they were unique. This one is unique.”

“What’s different about this one? What are they saying?”

“They’re not saying anything.”

“I don’t understand. How do you know it’s a distress call?”

“It’s a coded message. It’s coming through in Morse code and besides the S.O.S. call sign at the beginning; it contains a statement that doesn’t make sense.”

“What is the statement?”

“Lock it in and rip the knob off.”

The hair on the back of his neck stood up. 

“Please repeat the entire message.”

“S.O.S. Lock it in and rip the knob off. Secure.”

Marcus was shaking his head and staring blankly ahead in shock and unbelief.

Wynd spoke up, “What is it Marcus?”

Still shaking his head, Marcus said, “Surely it can’t be. It’s impossible. Jocelyn, I need a secure channel.”

“Yes, Marcus.  What frequency would you like?” said Jocelyn.

“One zero six point five” he said.

“One zero six point five is active.  There is a request from the other server to join.  How should I proceed?” she said.

Marcus was still shaking his head.  He could remember a favorite radio station that his parents always listened to.  The station always played nothing but the oldest “oldies” you could find.  For at least a century they used the same tag line.  Even though most didn’t understand it, the tag line was ‘Lock it in and rip the knob off.’ That station’s frequency was one zero six point five.

Perking his ears up, Marcus said, “Grant them access”

The screen on the living room wall went blue, and then showed some fuzz, and then a person appeared on the screen.  Marcus’ jaw dropped.  The woman’s entire face filled the screen because she was so close to the camera. She looked unkempt and very dirty. Although she was in a poorly lit room, Marcus knew her in an instant.  The woman he was looking at was his sister…