COMMITTED by A.R. Kirby Episode 25 What happens at the rest area, stays at the rest area V ernon leaned against the driver’s door, looked skyward, and blew another puff of cigar smoke into the clean Saturday morning air of northern Georgia. “Wonder what’s taking the kid so long?” “He’s been traveling since Thursday night, right?” Ralph dug some dirt out from under his thumbnail with a toothpick he’d found in the glove compartment. “I’m not surprised things are taking a while. He’s probably all clogged up. That much travel can be hell on your system.” Vernon raised his arm and glanced at the battered Timex on his wrist. It was almost 11 o’clock. He frowned. “Whether he’s clogged up or not, we need to get going,” he said. “We’re still a good three hours from Nashville.” “Oh, lighten up, Vern,” Ralph said as he examined the tip of the toothpick. “It’s really not that big of...” Ralph paused in mid-sentence, a quizzical frown on his face. Vernon’s forehead creased, waiting for his friend to finish what he had started. “It’s not that big of a what?” he asked impatiently. Committed by A.R. Kirby “Shh,” Ralph replied and cupped a hand to his right ear. “Do you hear that?” “Hear what?” Vernon asked. “I don’t hear anything.” “Exactly.” Vernon studied the look of intense concentration on his friend’s face. The two men had a long history together, and over the years Vernon had become somewhat accustomed to some of the more peculiar aspects of Ralph’s behavior -- but only somewhat. It wasn’t always easy to discern when Ralph was being serious about something and when Ralph was just being Ralph. Vernon took a deep breath, stubbed out his cigar on the sole of his boot and tossed the butt into a nearby trashcan before opening the driver’s side door of the Taurus. “You know, sometimes I just don’t get you, man,” he said as he settled into the driver’s seat. “I can’t hear a thing. Did you eat some peyote this morning? Trying to make this road trip a little more of a trip?” “No, no, that’s not it at all,” Ralph said, leaning into the car, his voice earnest. “And you’re right -- there isn’t anything to hear. That’s the problem. You know I’ve got pretty keen senses...” “Yeah, yeah, that’s for sure,” Vernon interrupted. “You could hear a mosquito fart in a tornado.” This statement was almost factual. Vernon knew firsthand of Ralph’s extraordinary sensory abilities. “So what?” “So there is something missing here. It’s like...” Ralph searched for a moment, trying to find a way to describe what he sensed. “It’s almost like there’s a hole in sound around here. All the little background noise of everyday life, all the stuff you never pay attention to -- water running through pipes, the buzz of a fluorescent light, the hum of a vending machine -- I can pretty 2 Episode 25 much always hear it, and I have to tune it out because it will make me nuts if I don’t. But somewhere around the bathrooms, it just stopped. All of it. Something is definitely wrong here.” With that, Ralph turned from the car and ran up the walk toward the restrooms. Vernon shook his head, grabbed Brandon’s pack from the back seat, and followed his friend. A moment later, he stopped outside the restroom door where Ralph was standing. “What’s the matter now?” Vernon said. “I thought you said something was wrong.” “Well, sure, something is wrong,” Ralph said, gazing at the sidewalk. “But I think you ought to be the one to go check on Brandon.” Vernon looked perplexed. “Why is that?” he demanded. “Well, I barely know the guy,” Ralph answered. “I don’t want to go busting in there, you know, if he’s still in mid-dump.” Vernon rolled his eyes. “So? Why should I should be the one to go check and make sure his plumbing is working okay?” “I just met him yesterday morning,” Ralph said. “Well, that makes two of us,” Vernon argued. “Yeah, but at least you two belong to the same organization,” Ralph explained. “I don’t have any kind of relationship with him.” “You gotta be kidding me,” Vernon said with barely-concealed aggravation. The look on Ralph’s face quickly convinced him that Vernon would, without a doubt, be the man to enter the restroom first. “Oh, all right,” he said with a huff. “The things I do for the 3 Committed by A.R. Kirby Collective. Here, hold this.” Vernon handed Ralph the pack and opened it from the top. A moment later, he pulled out a large silver pistol-like weapon, with a variety of knobs and switches on the handle. “Whoa,” Ralph said, looking at Vernon’s new treasure. “You really think that will be necessary?” “In this line of work you never know,” Vernon said. Putting his weapon at the ready in his right hand, he pushed on the restroom door with his left. It wouldn’t budge. “What the hell?” Vernon said, then looked closely at the door. “Shit. Somebody deadbolted this thing. Let me get my lockpick.” “I don’t think there’s time,” Ralph said, moving Vernon away from the door. “I guess I’ll be the one to go first.” At the same time, on the other side of the door, sensors located in Model PB-001’s Seamantium body tried frantically to alert the robot to the presence of the carbon-based life forms outside. The robot ignored them, preferring instead to observe Brandon’s imminent demise. Model PB-001 had been programmed to kill, should the need arise, but this was the first and only time the droid had utilized its defensive systems on a human being. The artificial intelligence found the entire process fascinating -- so much so that what happened next came as a complete and total surprise. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Ralph gave the restroom door a mighty shove. The door, and its frame with it, went crashing to the floor just inside the restroom in a cloud of dust. Vernon jumped into the space created by Ralph’s effort, and through the haze he could see Brandon crouched in a ball on the floor against the far wall. The young Associate’s face was contorted with pain, and he appeared to be screaming, but Vernon couldn’t hear anything coming from his comrade. Next to Brandon 4 Episode 25 was what looked to be a silver traffic cone sitting atop a volleyball. “What the...?!?” Model PB-001 screeched as it wheeled around so its single black eye faced Vernon and Ralph. More nosy humans to deal with. The droid instantly determined that the new intruders would need to be dispatched quickly. “You have interrupted a private matter, sir,” Model PB-001 said flatly to Vernon as it started rolling towards the door. A number of dangerous-looking appendages suddenly extended from its conical body. “Prepare to die.” “Is that the best you can come up with?” Vernon asked sarcastically as he raised his weapon and aimed it toward the oncoming robot. He turned his head away, closed his eyes tightly, and pulled the trigger. A brilliant flash of crimson light, like the nova of a dying star, flooded the room. Then there was silence. Ralph rubbed his eyes and blinked several times. When he was finally able to see again, he was amazed at what he saw from his vantage point behind Vernon. It appeared that everything in the room had suddenly ceased any and all activity, as if the bathroom had been frozen in place. Dust particles from the door frame hung motionless in the air. At one of the sinks, a drop of water -suspended between faucet and drain -- waited for gravity to resume its business. Model PB-001 tilted dangerously toward the door, and Brandon huddled in place in the corner, his face contorted in a silent scream. “Dude, what did you do?” Ralph asked. “Oh, not much,” Vernon said, as he turned to his friend and patted the weapon in his hand. “Just stopped time for a bit, using this Frequency Oscillating Relativity Diverting Localized Time Displacer.” “Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” Ralph said, looking at Vernon. 5 Committed by A.R. Kirby “That thing is a ‘Ford LTD’?” “Yeah,” Vernon said, shoving the displacer into the waistband of his pants behind his back. “Some of the tech guys with the Collective are big into cars. You ought to see what the ‘AMC Gremlin’ can do.” Ralph shook his head. “I thought you didn’t like all that fancy Collective technology anyway.” “I don’t,” Vernon said, stepping into the room. “Doesn’t mean I don’t know when and how to use it. One pull of the trigger and time stops in a specified area, which gives me the chance to figure out what’s going on. And from the looks of it, I don’t think it had anything to do with Brandon’s digestion. “For now,” Vernon continued as he focused his attention on the robot, “just keep anybody from coming in here. I’m going to do some investigating.” “Will do, boss,” Ralph said, and the large Anasazi went outside to stand guard. Vernon slowly walked up to Model PB-001, being careful not to disturb the scene, examining the robot without touching it. He’d heard about these restroom-attending droids, but it was instantly clear to Vernon that there was more to this particular robot that an ability to clean toilets and dispense hair product. Vernon saw a small buzzsaw at the end of one protruding appendage, and a pair of menacing-looking pincers at the end of another. Extending in a cluster from the center of the droid’s body were the barrel of a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a tube that Vernon recognized as the business end of a flamethrower, and something that looked like a grenade launcher. “Boy, they really set you up for some serious bathroom duty, didn’t they?” Vernon said to no one in particular as he circled 6 Episode 25 around the robot. “You must be hell on tough stains. The boys in the tech division are going to have a field day with you.” Turning away from Model PB-001, Vernon moved slowly to where Brandon lay curled in the corner. The first thing Vernon noticed was the expression on the time-displaced man’s face; it was a mixture of horror, extreme pain, and disbelief. Brandon had one hand clutched tightly to his shoulder. It was only then that Vernon saw that the other hand, along with a significant portion of the arm it was once attached to, was missing. Vernon scratched his head and wondered at the sight. Brandon’s injury was clean, precise, and clinical. There was no blood or any sign of violence. A trail of grayish dust -- frozen in midair -- led from the stump of young Associate’s arm to a small pile on the floor. “What the hell did they do to you, kid?” Vernon asked aloud. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.” Pulling the time displacer from the back of his pants, Vernon adjusted a couple of knobs on the handle and pointed it at Brandon. He pulled the trigger, and bright red light enveloped the young associate. “Oh my god oh my god make it stop MAKE IT STOP!” With the robot’s counter-frequency out of commission, Brandon’s screams were quite audible as soon as time resumed, and Vernon watched in horror as Brandon’s arm continued dissolving into the pile of dust on the floor. “Brandon! Brandon! Mays!” Vernon yelled at Brandon. “Get ahold of yourself, Associate! Tell me what’s going on!” Brandon looked in amazement at Vernon. “Where did you come from? How can you hear me? Help me! Ahhhh! It hurts so bad!” 7 Committed by A.R. Kirby “Focus, kid, focus,” Vernon said, trying to stay calm. He could see tears of pain welling in Brandon’s eyes, and he was certain that Brandon was in shock. “Tell me what happened,” he said, “and I’ll do whatever I can.” “That robot is killing me,” Brandon explained, trying in vain to block out the pain. “It infected me. Some kind of nanovirus that’s eating me alive.” “Nano whoozis?” Vernon asked, a puzzled look on his face. “NANOVIRUS!” Brandon shouted. “It’s eating me alive! Oh, god, it hurts!!! Make it stop!!!” “Okay, kid,” Vernon said as he pulled the time displacer from behind his back. “I’ll make it stop. You won’t feel a thing.” “Oh god!” Brandon looked in astonishment at the weapon in Vernon’s hand. “I don’t want to go out this way! You don’t have to kill me, do you?” “Things aren’t always what they seem,” Vernon said. “Just trust me.” Before Brandon could protest, Vernon pulled the trigger and Brandon froze in place once again. Vernon shook his head as he looked around the room at Brandon and the robot. This was turning out to be a far bigger assignment than he could have ever imagined. He stuffed the time displacer back into his pants and reached into a pocket on his vest to pull out what looked like a cell phone. He flipped open the communicator and began speaking. “This is Senior Associate Vernon Hasselblad,” he said. “Code Blue. I repeat, Code Blue. Associate down. I need a medical team, tech services, and a cleanup crew -- on the double. Better send 8 Episode 25 along a isolation team as well. We may have a bio threat. I’m sending you my coordinates now.” Vernon punched a couple of keys on the handset, and a moment later, a voice responded from the communicator. “Coordinates received, Senior Associate Hasselblad,” the voice said. “Med, tech, cleanup and iso teams are scrambled and en route. ETA from Atlanta is thirteen minutes. Stand by.” “Thanks,” Vernon said, and sat down on the floor to wait. To be continued... 9