ORPHEUS - A.I.

Chapter Twenty Two: The Central Shaft

"Be back in a few days , take care of aunt, much love!"

She kept her phone in her pocket and walked outside- her heart was heavy and her soul was tired- she just wanted to finish the project and head home. She met Hex on the way towards the workstation.

"Good morning!", Hex greeted her with a smile.

"Morning... hangover?", asked Megan.

"Eh, nothing I can't handle...", replied Hex walking with her.

They both entered the workstation to gind Timothy and Andre working quietly on their laptops.

"Well that's a first..", said Hex.

"Hey guys,any luck with the game", he asked.

"Emm.. we showed it to Mr. Devonshire...", replied Timothy who appeared unenthusiastic at the question.

"And?" , asked Hex

"He said it needs some work but it's ok for now..." replied Timothy. He expected more from Devonshire but instead all he got was a cold reply.

"Aww... guys, nevermind...we will be outta here soon enough and then you can sell it to someone else...", said Megan.

"Yeah.. I have friends in Redbone Inc. Maybe they will like your game...", said Hex

"Ah its ok...", replied Timothy.

The day went swiftly by as the guys worked on for hours even skipping lunch. They introduced new parameters for the program to rely upon and Megan's expertise helped them to better understand the user's mindset. Timothy and Andre's unique design improved the program's look and feel, while Hex taught the program how to process the relevant data through his clever coding skills.

Serena would pop in every now and then and she would be astonished to see how fast the software was being developed. She even brought in Devonshire once who gave a cold glance on the four and walked away. At the end of the day, Hex announced to his team that there's only a day's worth of work left- everyone was relieved.

That night Megan received another text from Emily saying her uncle might not live long and that her aunt had lost all sense of time- things were really getting worse. Megan did not reply- thinking there's not much she could say or do and also she would be home in two days. She fell asleep hoping this would be the last night for her in Orwell Corp.

Meanwhile Serena was staring at her laptop and there was a photo of Megan on the screen alongside all her personal details. 'Cerberus' was showing her Megan's entire details. Serena raised her eyebrows as she read through her file. Next file was on Hex, Serena read through it without any expression on her face.

She then drew a deep breath and reluctantly pressed 'enter' on the keyboard. What was about to happen next was beyond her control- she was only obeying her father's commands.

The next day the team started working on their final steps. Megan kept instructing the guys about how the human mind reacts in distress and what could be done to help a person facing depression. The guys were stunned at her knowledge and intricate understanding about the human psyche, although most of it went over their heads, they tried their best to give the application a human touch. Hex was coding like hell and had almost ten cups of coffee while Timothy and Andre designed and re-designed the software to fit on any platform- mobile or desktop.

It was almost sunset when Hex decided to take the software for a trial run- he started the program and looked at the screens-

"Hello I am Orpheus, how can I be of assistance today?", a soothing male voice echoed through the speakers and an illuminated blue circle in a black background appeared on the screen with two small dashes inside representing the eyes that tilted up or down according to the emotion.

Hex couldn't believe his eyes. There were two wolf like creatures with bodies more than a metre long but without any tail. Their heads had barely any skin on them and they had black eyes. Their jaws had no skin covering with their sharp teeth protruding out of their mouths. They growled and munched on the carcass which looked like it had been there for more than a week. There was no way they could move ahead with those creatures on the way.

"Those are mutated wolves and judging by their sizes they are the alphas. They will hunt and eat anything, even their own kind but they rarely come out of the forest and that too during the day...", whispered Anthea as she explained to the new comers what those creatures were.

"We have to turn back Chuck... or find another way", whispered Anthea.

"The opening is just beyond those trees Anthea... we can't turn back after coming so close and you know any other way will take us days...this is the only way..", replied Chuck.

"But how do you plan on moving ahead lile this?" , asked Anthea.

"We wait and watch!", replied Chuck.

Anthea thought it better to trust Chuck. After all he knew a lot about the place and knew it better. He had been in such situations before and had fought an alpha and lived to tell the tale. His military background made him a valuable asset to the team.

"Uh...What is it that we are looking for again?", asked Megan as Anthea and her team walked out of the tunnel and opened the shaft that led to the swamps.

"You will see...", replied Anthea as she took a deep breath and stared into the wilderness.

"What are those weapons you carry around with you?", asked Hex.

"The crossbows you mean? We made them from the parts of the drones and monsters we took down...", Anthea replied as she struggled through the thick foliage of the swamp.

Andre looked at the crossbow hanging behind Chuck's back. It looked like a normal crossbow but it was made of some kind of silver metal, he also had a bunch of black arrows with pointy steel tips in a bag strapped to his thighs.

"Such a strange place...does it ever end?", Megan sighed.

"It apparently doesn't...look at the sky, it looks normal but look at the horizon, it stretches on and on...we figured something was wrong with this place but we could never actually cross beyond the great divide...", Anthea replied.

"The great divide?", asked Andre.

"Yeah, its the place beyond the dark forests, where giant monsters roam, we lost many good men trying to cross it...we always assumed the exit was beyond the divide.", Anthea replied as she tried to keep up with the rest of the team.

"Why would Devonshire build such a place?", Hex remarked.

"Oh there are a lot of things that are unexplainable around here... in the past few months we have scoured through these jungles as far as we could, the entire place is about 50 kms from east to west and 65 kms from North to South...and that's the parts not including 'the divide'... we have no idea how far the area stretches but we know that the divide' surrounds the entire area like a huge impenetrable wall ...we are surrounded by monsters all around us ...", replied Anthea.

"Am I being kidnapped?", she kept thinking trying to keep herself awake. But soon she felt asleep again... ...

Hex woke up suddenly trying to breath but as soon as he did a stinging sensation ran through his left arm. He groaned in pain, his head felt heavy. He looked around-

"What the hell?How did I get here?", he said to himself.

It was a vast field somewhere deep in the outlands. The sun was rising or setting, he couldn't make out. The grass on which he was lying was wet soaking his clothes. There were huge trees around him and he soon realised that he was in some kind of opening in the forest. He tried to recall how he ended up here but all he could remember was that he was in Orwell Corp with his team. Suddenly his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He took it out while trying to stand up. No bars but there was a text -

"Orpheus activated. Proceed to the nearest location and await further instructions...", it read.

Hex knew he had seen this text somewhere. But where? And where are the rest of the guys? Why was he lying there in the middle of the forest? How did he get there? Tgere were too many questions and not a lot of answers. The only way was to explore the area and try to find out a way back to the Orwell offices.

He stood up and walked slowly , his head was still dizzy like a he had a bad hangover. His phone began to vibrate again- another text!

"Follow the directions indicated in the map- await further instructions."

"Who the hell is sending these weird texts?", he thought.

A map appeared on the screen as he clicked on the text. It showed a big arrow at the bottom and a blue line indicating the path he was supposed to take like a GPS navigation function. 1.6 kms north, it showed. Hex had no choice but to follow the directions and kept walking towards the intended destination. He tried to look for the time and date on his phone but weirdly enough he couldn't find it. His phone has been wiped clean. No contacts or previous texts, no apps to display the time and date, most of the apps were removed!

"I wonder where Megan and the others are...", he wondered as he kept walking north... ...

"Oy....my head ... argh", said Timothy waking up and wiping the drool from his face. He rubbed his eyes and looked around- he was on top of a mountain clifff - almost at the edge of it - a slight push and he would fall down from the cliff.

"Santa Maria!", he exclaimed quickly backing off from the edge.

"What? How did I get here? Andre? Where is Andre? ... ", he murmured looking around for his best pal. But Andre was nowhere to be seen, he saw a huge firest below him and the sun rising from beneath the mountains in the east.

"Where are the others? And why does my head hurt so much?", he thought trying to make sense of everything around him.

Just like Hex he too received the same text from the A.I. asking him to follow the directions on the map. Not knowing what to do next he simply followed the directions on the map and walked towards the unknown destination.

Andre on the other hand didn't receive any text asking him to follow any directions, but he woke up with his hands tied behind a tree and a drone with a camera sat on the ground in front of him. He was confused and tried to free himself but as soon as he did the drone fired a bullet near his feet. Andre was shocked, he understood that the drone was programmed to guard him and was instructed to shoot if it sensed any movement. Andre slowly sat down and looked at it from a distance, there was a small barell attached underneath it!

"This drone is programmed to kill?", he wondered.

He always had a bad feeling about that Devonshire guy and he wasn't interested in coming here in the first place. It was Tim's excitement that brought him here. Now he's stuck here with his life in the hands of a killer drone.