"Blood On Re-Run" by Andrew Nicolle

Blood On Re-Run

by Andrew Nicolle

Yelena awoke with a jolt, her left shoulder and head throbbing with pain. Feeling light-headed, she slowly pulled herself upright and leaned against a brick wall. Blood pooled on the pavement beneath her.

A quick scan of her surroundings revealed she was sitting in a dimly-lit alleyway across from a blue dumpster. Flies buzzed around the partly closed lid, apparently attracted by the rank smell wafting from within. It took her a moment to piece together what had happened.

She was on another mission, this time to the year 2044 just before a nuclear blast had destroyed Chicago. Yelena had been tasked with uploading code to alter the behavior of a rogue AI system to trigger the detonation in a simulated environment rather than the real world. She was uniquely qualified for the mission, her past self having worked at the facility housing the AI system and having the necessary security clearance and keycard access to enter the building.

Her first stop had been the Store-N-Save storage facility in Chicago where her past self had stowed her belongings before embarking on what was supposed to be a fabulous around the world cruise. Things had been going great for a few weeks before the trip turned into a nightmare. Global thermonuclear war triggered by rogue artificial intelligences would put a damper on anyone’s travel plans.

She’d just opened her storage unit when someone shot her in the shoulder. She turned in time to see a baseball bat connect with her head. She’d dropped to the ground and before losing consciousness felt herself being dragged around the side of the building. How long had she been out? Her vibrating wrist watch indicated she was now behind schedule and would have to hoof it to the second waypoint. Failure was not a pleasant option. It would lead to a mission reset and she’d have to tackle the job all over again.

Yelena yanked off her leather jacket and pulled a pair of tweezers from the pouch attached to her belt before extracting the bullet with gritted teeth. The coagulated blood started to run more freely, so she quickly pulled a small container of clotting gel from the pouch and applied it to the bullet wound. The gel would sanitize the wound and help it heal, while also numbing the area.

She examined the bullet and noted it was the same caliber as the pistol she carried, a pistol she now noticed was missing from her holster. Whoever had mugged her had also apparently taken her pistol. This was an added complication, but not necessarily a mission-ender.

She lifted herself up with her good arm and peeked into the dumpster, just on the off chance her assailant had tossed the pistol inside.

Yelena dry-heaved and covered her mouth as she turned away from the horrifying sight within. The dumpster was stacked full of dead bodies. Even worse, they wore her same clothing: kevlar vest, dark gray cargo pants, utility pouch, and shoulder holster beneath a black leather jacket. They also wore her same face. Apparently her mission had already failed many times over, and right as it had barely begun. She’d naively assumed each mission reset would somehow erase her other copies. That explained why the lab techs at the facility had been cagey about what exactly would happen if the mission were ever reset. In any event, none of that mattered now. She was on the clock, and time was running out.

She made her way back to the open storage unit and rummaged through the box where she’d stored her office keycard and car keys, but both were missing. Based on what she’d seen in the dumpster, she guessed her assailant may well have been another copy of herself who had already proceeded to the office. The thought was oddly comforting. She’d be working with a partner and hadn’t even known beforehand.

Yelena changed into some clean clothes from another box, then made her way to the second waypoint. Her destination: the apartment of her old co-worker, Davis Peters. The guy was a brilliant engineer, and as such, had special dispensation to work remotely from his cushy apartment. She hoped she could convince him of the importance of her mission and have him upload the AI code.

The walk to the apartment complex was mostly uneventful, though she did get some odd looks with the pink cat pajamas she’d been forced to wear.

Upon reaching the 50th floor, Yelena located her co-worker’s apartment at the end of the hallway. She was disturbed to see the door ajar. She gently pushed it open and cautiously peered inside. The first thing she noticed was the incredible view of the city from the apartment windows. The second was the body of her co-worker lying in the middle of the floor.

She rushed over and felt for a pulse. As she did so, his eyes snapped open and he pushed her back.

“You again!” Davis shouted. “What do you want now? First you hold a gun to my head, then I get locked out of the system after uploading whatever the hell it was you had on that stick.”

Yelena was about to reply when her wristwatch started vibrating again. She frowned. Last she’d checked there were still another 12 hours on the clock. The words on the watch face made her blood run cold: MISSION ABORT; LAUNCH DETECTED.

The worst case scenario they’d warned her about had come to fruition. There was a chance the AI’s intrusion detection system would trigger after uploading the code, thereby accelerating its plans.

Her future self would have no memory of this failed mission, but she hoped the control room back home would receive the transmission from her watch in time and put an end to the entire program.

“I’m so sorry,” Yelena said. Moments later a blinding flash lit the apartment, followed by searing heat, then nothingness.

Once again, Yelena awoke with a jolt...