ORPHEUS - A.I.

Chapter Twelve: Hunters

"Hey ? I'm talking to you!", asked the girl in a Spanish accent.

"Huh? Yeah..yeah I'm ok...but my friend here...he needs help." , replied Andre.

"Yo!", shouted the girl and whistled at the bushes behind her.

Three girls dressed in similar camouflages came out from the bushes. One of them was a kid. They walked towards the girl , who by now had taken out a syringe from her pouch.

"Untie him, quick!", ordered the girl as she pushed the needle into Timothy's arm.

One of the girls took out pliers and quickly cut off Andre's chains.

"What have you given him?", asked Andre as he stood up.

" Don't worry, it's a little something that will keep him alive...", replied the girl.

Tim suddenly began to regain consciousness.

"Get him up and follow us, we can't stay here, they'll be back...", said the girl to Andre.

"They? The drones you mean...", asked Andre trying to make Tim stand, he was half awake and clumsy.

"Yes , the drones...Idiota!! Now follow us...", replied the girl as she began to walk away.

Andre half dragged Tim supporting him on his shoulders. He had no idea who the girls were, but he had no reason to doubt them after they saved his life...

It was almost evening by now and Megan was calm now. She was sitting on a rock with her hands on her head- nothing made sense until now and she had no idea what she would do next. The girl was quiet until now but she walked up to Megan and said-

"I'm Mary, Mary Evans...", she said.

Megan looked at her and wiped her face.

"I'm Megan...", she replied.

"How did you get here?", asked Mary.

"Ah! long story short...me and my team created this A.I. and now it's turned on us... What about you? How did you end up in that cabin?" replied Megan

"I don't know... I used to work for Mr. Devonshire as his P.A. until yesterday and today I woke up in the cabin tied to a chair... thought I was gonna die..." Mary replied.

"Huh.. Devonshire set us up too... he's the reason we are here...I simply do not understand why is he doing all this..."said Megan.

"Hmh... I have been here before", said Mary.

"What do you mean?", asked Megan.

"No time to explain... right now we need to find the others ..." replied Mary.

"My friends you mean?", asked Megan.

"No... the ones who escaped... c'mon we need to get out of this jungle before it gets dark", Mary replied.

Megan was confused but she didn't say anything. She followed Mary through the thick jungle hoping to get answers later...

"I'm Chuck by the way...", said the man who was leading Hex through the bushes, " and this is my team, atleast what's left of it..",

"I'm Hex... Where are we going?", asked Hex.

"Somewhere safe...where they can't trace us ...", Chuck replied.

"I don't understand what's going on ... where are we?", asked Hex.

"Let's get you somewhere safe first...", replied Chuck as he walked through the bushes swinging his machete clearing the path as he went.

"Are we near Orwell Corp's headquarters?", Hex asked again. Chuck didn't reply but the other guys laughed a little- apparently they thought it was a silly question.

"All will be clear when you meet Anthea... don't worry..", replied one of them with a beard walking behind Hex.

They walked for ten minutes and reached a rocky terrain which led upwards. Hex could here the sound of water crashing on the rocks up ahead- he presumed there was a waterfall on the other side.

Suddenly Chuck stopped and signalled his team to lay low. Hex followed suit and kneeled on the ground. He stretched his neck and saw a cliff and Chuck kneeling behind a rock with his crossbow ready to fire.

"More drones...", he whispered to his team.

"Quick! lie down!", said Chuck.

Everyone lied flat on the ground. Around twenty mean looking drones flew right past them in sync and disappeared into the jungle that Hex and the guys had just came out of.

"Never saw drones this big... they never fly into thick forests... they must have upgraded them...", Chuck said cleaning himself up.

Hex and the rest of the team followed Chuck as he stood right at the edge of the cliff. Hex looked below it was more than 100 metres to the bottom. On the other side there was a small waterfall and huge trees on the cliff. The gap between the cliff was almost twenty metres.

Chuck stared at the other side for a moment and waved his hand. Immediately a small white drone came flying from the other side of the cliff- it had a rope attached to it which stretched from the other side of the cliff. The drone approached Chuck and landed in front of him- Chuck took the rope and stepped back a little.

"C'mon boys... haven't got all day", he said.

The other team members held on the rope and began to pull. Hex was surprised to see a rope bridge being pulled up from the other side. This bridge was hanging on ropes on the other side behind the waterfall and was virtually invisible to the naked eye. Chuck and his team pulled up the bridge and tied both ends on the rocks. Hex noticed that it was only two feet wide with wooden planks arranged in a straight line which were held together by two ropes on the other side.

"C'mon let's move...", ordered Chuck. Hex followed Chuck and his team as they walked over the bridge- which looked like it would fall apart anytime. One by one they crossed over and reached the other end. When everyone was on the other side, Hex pulled open the ropes on hus side and let the bridge crash down on the other side.

"Ingenious plan to avoid detection...", Hex thought...

Mary walked through the forest with ease as if she was there before.

"How do you know which way to go?", asked Megan.

"Shhh... Keep your voice down... they're everywhere...", replied Mary.

"Who?", thought Megan.

She had lots of questions in her mind and meeting Mary has just confused her more.

With the skill of an explorer, Mary moved through the bushes, Megan was finding it hard to keep up.

"Will you tell me where we are going?", whispered Megan.

"To the tunnels- to meet the survivors...", replied Mary as she kept walking.

"Survivors? Does she mean that there were others like her before?", Megan kept thinking.

After almost half an hour of walking through the jungle Megan heard the sound of a waterfall nearby. She walked towards the sound alongwith Mary leading the way. The thick leaves and bushes gave way to an opening up ahead. Megan paused and looked at the giant waterfall in front of her.In the middle was a shallow stream of water, which flowed from east to west.

"What now?", asked Megan.

"This way ...", replied Mary and walked towards the stream. She jumped upon a small rock protruding from the stream and then jumped on another and the next until she reached the other side. Megan followed her accordingly-she almost slipped into the water but managed to cross the stream. Mary then climbed up towards the top of the cliff with great agility.

"Wow! she's quite good at this...", Megan said to herself. By the time Megan began to climb, Mary already reached the top. Megan reached the summit with great difficulty, her hands and feet were sore and dirty. But Mary didn't stop, she kept walking into the forest ahead.

"Stop!", Megan cried out from behind.

Mary froze.

"What is it?", Mary asked turning around.

"Look..", replied Megan pointing at a trip wire stretching right above her knee .

Mary looked down- her knees were less than an inch away from the wire.

"Oh! almost walked into it...", said Mary backing away from the wire.

Suddenly they heard something growling. They turned around and saw two massive wolves approaching from behind. Megan backed off and so did Mary, they stood there together trembling with fear and excitement. Someone whistled and the wolves stopped growling. A middle aged woman appeared out of the woods and walked upto them. Another older man walked behind her- he had a crossbow in his hand.

"Mary?" , said the woman in shock.

"Anthea?", replied Mary.

"Traitor... what you doing here?", said the old man and pointed his crossbow at her.

"Calm down Cedric, not here... let's get her to the tunnels... it's not safe here...", replied the woman.

Megan looked at the woman, she was pretty but her dress looked old and used. She wore a jacket and jeans and had a knife on her belt. She looked like a hunter.

"Are these the survivors? How many more are there?", Megan thought.