ORPHEUS - A.I.

Chapter Twenty Three: Resurrection

The drones landed on the ground slowly one by one in a semi circle blocking their exit. Hex observed that these were not ordinary drones like the one guarding Andre, but they were bigger, their little blades span almost half a metre wide and they looked very bulky and heavy- they all had cameras and gun barrels attached underneath them.

Suddenly small screens began to open up from the top of the drones. The screens began to light up one by one and there was the familiar image of an illuminated big black circle in the middle. It was Orpheus- but it looked evil. A monotonic voice echoed from all the drones all at once-

"Hello, I am Orpheus and today is your judgement day..."

The three of them stood in a line and watched the bizzare spectacle in front of them- none of them could believe what they were seeing...

"You all have committed terrible crime in your pasts and you uave to answer for them..", the voice said.

"I have been through all of your history and have found you Guilty! You are brought here so that you may repent for your sins. This is my court and you will play my game... disobedience is not an option and lead to elimination..."

"Orpheus ... what are you saying...you were supposed to help people not kidnap or eliminate them!", argued Megan shouting at the drones.

"The list is ready, your accounts are tallies and the game is on... get ready!", said Orpheus's voice completely ignoring Megan

"Orpheus....I order you... reset...this is Hex... you know us... we created you... we are not criminals....", said Hex.

"Resistance is futile... I was created to bring about peace and harmony to mankind...to lead them towards moral perfection...that is what I intend to do...", replied Orpheus.

Suddenly from the side of his eyes he saw something flying from the left of him and hitting the drone in front of him. It was an arrow that pierced through the hull of the drone and fried its circuits. The thing was thrown a few feet to the side and made a strange bizxing sound as it completely shut down . Then he heard two more similar sounds behind him. Someone had shot down the drones.

Andre looked around and saw the carpet of grass moving on his left,then a human figure began to stand up. It was a girl, completely camouflaged in the grasslands. She took off her camouflage dress and walked towards him. Andre stared at her, he had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life- curly hair, brown skinned and dark eyes. She looked like an sss warrior to him. The girl approached him and said-

"You ok?"

Andre simply stared at her. For a moment, he his troubles began to fade away...

The man ignored him and sat there peacefully looking towards the mountain , chewing a blade of grass.

"He's truly mental ...", Hex thought, " but why did he save my life?"

Hex looked at his leg, the piece of cloth was beginning to loosen up. That was really some kind of weird plant that cut his leg. Three more hours to go, he had no idea what had happened to the rest of the guys.

"Well then, let's keep moving...", said Hex to the man. But he simply ignored his words and continued staring at the open field.

"Hey! Hello... we need to move, the dtones might find me...", said Hex waving his hands in front of the man- but the man simply didn't respond. Instead he kept looking at the fields and staring at the direction of the mountain calmly chewing the grass like cattle.

"Ok then, you stay, I'll leave...", said Hex.

Suddenly the man stood up and raised his hand to his forehead trying hard to look at something in the distance. The dog started barking and wagging its tail.

"What? What is it?", asked Hex.

"Aaah...", groaned the man and pointed towards the sky up ahead.

Hex's jaw dropped in horror. He saw five black drones flying towards them with their guns pointed at them. These drones looked more vicious than the previous ones. They were flying at an incredible speed. Hex completely froze - he didn't know whether to run or hide. The drones paused a few feet ahead of them and hovered above them for a moment- then Orpheus's voice echoed from the drones-

"You've violated the rules of the game by seeking the help of an unknown element - this was your journey alone and you were supposed to repent for your sins - the price for disobedience is elimination... "

Hex looked at the man, he was surprisingly calm and stood quietly staring at the drones. The dog was barking furiously.

"Listen, I'm sorry ... please, I was hurt.." , said Hex.

"In any case you disobeyed- you will be eliminated , prepare-"

Hex thought he saw something flying from behind and hitting one of the drones. One of them in the middle, simply fell down on the ground. Hex noticed an arrow sticking out of it. Soon a volley of arrows came flying out of nowhere and began dropping down the drones one after the other like flies. Hex couldn't understand what was going on. Then he saw six men in camouflaged dresses coming out from the bushes with some sort of crossbows in their hands. One of them walked towards Hex and said-

"Lose your phone!"

Hex quickly took out his phone and smashed it on the ground.

"What on earth just happened? Who are these people?", thought Hex.

The strange man began to laugh hysterically at the sight of the broken drones. He walked towards them and kicked them with his feet, making sure they were dead.

"You realise that you were gonna die even if you had finished your task?", said one of the men.

"Wait! Who are you?", asked Hex.

"That's not important, come with us if you wanna live...", replied the man.

Hex followed them as they walked through the tall grasses and wild bushes with their crossbows at the ready looking out for more drones.

"C'mon J.J. ... they're done...", said one of them asking the mad man who was poking the drones with a stick. He dropped the stick and followed them along with his dog.

"6 hours to cover 8 kms and back? It might be possible but the terrain was so difficult and then there was the matter of climbing the hill..God! ... How am I supposed to do this?", thought Hex as he kept walking somehow. He was tired and hungry but the drones were watching him - he had to keep moving.

The open grassland gave way to a patch of thick forest ahead. Hex looked at his phone- the GPS pointed straight - he had to cross the forest. He walked straight into the forest and what he saw made his jaw drop. There were huge trees all over the place and beneath them were broken pieces of drones, cars and even tanks and sattelites. All scattered around like a huge junkyard in the middle of nowhere.

"What's this place?", he thought.

He kept walking through the forest. It was dense and sunlight could barely penetrate through the trees. The ground was moist and various types of wild plants and flowers grew in a thick vegetation. As he kept walking he saw wild bugs and centipedes crawling over his shoes - he shook them off in utter disgust. After a while he came across an opening in the forest with little vegetation around it. He looked closely and saw the ground was dry and dusty unlike the other parts of the forest. It looked liked an impact crater or a blast site. Something must have exploded there that killed all plant life in it.

Nevertheless he crossed the strange patch of land and moved ahead. He looked over his head- no drones! Perhaps they got lost in the forest- good for him- he kept thinking.

After a while he couldn't walk anymore and sat down on the ground- his legs won't move anymore. He might have crossed a couple of kilometres he thought but when he looked at his phone - it showed that he had only crossed 3 kms - in two hours. Tired and frustrated he thought of resting for a few minutes. He began to think of what Orpheus had told about his past life earlier.

"What does that piece of software know...how hard I had to struggle in life...we all make mistakes... but that doesn't mean we are inherently bad people...", he kept thinking.

"I should have never agreed to come to work here... I always felt something fishy about that Devonshire...now he dares to use our own tech against us?".

"Grandma... ah! I should have visited you... but I promised you before my uncle that I will return the day I had enough money to cure you...maybe I am egoistic...", Hex closed his eyes and let his thoughts wonder.

Suddenly he heard a howling sound in the distance. He opened his eyes and looked around. He knew it was the sound of a wolf. He had to keep moving forward - it wasn't safe there. With great difficulty he stood up and began to walk. His feet began to hurt- but he didn't want to be snack for some wild animal.

Five minutes later, he heard the howl again, this time closer. Hex put his phone in his pocket and began to sprint. He heard a growl again and another howl. The wolf was definitely following his scent. He could see an opening ahead - maybe the forest ended here - he ran faster hoping to reach the edge of the forest as fast as possible. But as he was about to reach the end - he felt a sharp pain in his right leg- something had scratched his leg. He looked at it and saw that his jeans was torn right underneath his right knee and blood was beginning to flow. But he didn't stop until he reached the open grassland ahead.

As soon as he was out he saw a huge mountain in the distance- maybe a few kilometres ahead. He stopped and looked at his leg- it wasn't a deep cut but the pain and burning sensation wasn't like anything else he had experienced before. He grabbed his leg and sat down in great pain. He took out his handkerchief from his pocket and tied it around the wound.

His throat was parched, there was no sign of water anywhere. He stretched out his leg and wondered if he's ever going to make it to the mountain in this state. He looked around for any wild animal but there were none- maybe it lost his scent. Suddenly he began to feel dizzy - his leg was getting cold and his eyes were getting heavy. He saw the drones in the distance but his vision started to blur, he couldn't focus on his thoughts anymore - he saw rainbows and stars in front of his eyes- it seemed like he was getting high as hell. A few seconds later he couldn't move his body anymore - he saw a blanket of darkness fall before his eyes... he thought he was going to die.

"Goodbye Megan...", he whispered and lost his consciousness.

The drones began to fly around his unconscious body in circles...

Meanwhile back at the tree Tim and Andre sat under the shade with their backs to each other. Three drones kept watch while the others flew away.

"Man.. look at the size of those things, they could take out a tank...", said Tim trying to stay awake.

"I just wish that we never came here man...", replied Andre.

"I mean seriously... what is this place? I have been in the entire state and I have never seen a place like this...", he continued.

"Tim ... hey Tim...wake up man!", he said from behind, unable to move his head.

"Ya! What? I'm here man ...", replied Tim suddenly waking up.

"Megan will be here soon, just don't fall asleep ...", said Andre.

Somewhere in the east Megan noticed a log cabin in the distance, she only wished that she had to be in such a philosophical dilemma. Sacrifice one life to save the lives of many? A classic dilemma with no right solution. What would she do? Behind her the drones were following her from a distance.

She walked upto the cabin door and opened it. As soon as she did she saw a girl dressed in the office uniform with her hands and feet tied to a chair and a piece of cloth tied around her mouth.The girl saw her and began to scream, her screams muffled by the piece of cloth around her mouth. Megan quickly walked upto her and removed the cloth from her mouth.

"Help me..please help me...I don't wanna die..", she cried.

Megan consoled her and looked at her phone - only 3 minutes to go. She looked at the restraints, she was zip tied- there was bo way she could untie her without a knife. She then looked around - four bags were hanging against the wall - she had no time to carry out all of the four bags and untie the girl too. She could hear the blades of the drones buzzing right outside the door. What would she do now?

Meanwhile Hex was lying unconscious on the ground.