The 50: Post AI Apocalypse

Sara

This sound came loud and clear, and the most important thing was that it was directed to them. the four instantly turned to look at who spoke, to find a twenty-five, twenty-six years old lady standing at the entrance of that abandoned street.

She wasn’t alone, but that wasn’t the big issue. What was so weird and irritating was the fact she was looking directly in their eyes, like she could see them.

“That’s impossible, she can’t see us, right?!!” Gina was the first to speak expressing her shock for the first time ever.

“Calm down sweetie, I can perfectly see and hear you,” the lady spoke as she began to walk inside the street with her high heels knocking loudly on the floor.

“W-Who are you?” Laiyla asked with panic. The four of them retreated a couple of steps as response to this newcomer approach.

“Don’t be afraid, after all there is no way out of here except if you cooperated with me,” the lady added with her confident tone and annoying smile.

“How can you see us?” John stopped his retreat as he felt somehow they were in danger. He was afraid, but he controlled his fear as someone had to stand up against this enemy.

“Oh, we have someone with some balls here,” she said without even stopping her steps.

“If you don’t stop right there, we will run,” John tried to be more aggressive, however all he got was a soft chuckle that made him more afraid.

“C’mon, let’s run,” Dan suddenly said as he grabbed his friend’s hand and began to pull him towards the back. This was the signal that made the others follow Dan running towards the other end of the street.

At the same time, that lady didn’t do anything but laugh shortly as her voice echoed in this place:

“I told you, you can’t run away from me.”

Her threatening calm words didn’t make the four change their plans, as the growing fear inside them pushed them further towards escaping.

The idea of escaping here was everything that controlled them, so they didn’t notice the thin translucent shield of power that stood a few meters away from them.

“Bang!”

This was a loud sound of their violent hit with that force field, which pushed them to the back couple of meters in the air before they rolled for more meters on the ground to stop motionless just in below this lady’s high heels.

She looked at them as they were losing their consciousness as she said with a fun tone:

“Don’t let me say it, I told you so, hahaha.”

That was the last thing they remembered before losing their consciousness and entering the dream world.

They didn’t know how long they lost their consciousness, but after the passage of five hours they began to wake up simultaneously. They felt like a truck had hit their brains, with a severe excruciating headache that couldn’t be tolerated easily.

“What the hell happened to us?” Dan was the first to sit straight as he asked this while his friends were trying to control their headache.

His question made them forget the pain and sit straight to look around them in horror. They were locked up inside a strange room, with no walls visible to them, but there was this weird luster in the air a certain distance away from them.

“Where are we?” Gina muttered as this place was so weird to her.

“I- I don’t know, all I could remember is that strange lady who could see and hear us, then we tried to run but we lost our consciousness after,” Laiyla said as she was trying so hard to recall what happened before she passed out.

“Do you think she shot something at us?” Gina asked with confusion.

“No, I recall what happened perfectly, we hit something, something like an invisible wall that sent an electric shock to our minds,” John muttered softly as he could recall exactly what happened.

“You are right, you four didn’t hear my advice and ran to hit the force shield I prepared specially for you.”

Suddenly this female voice came from nowhere to make them turn around and look directly towards the direction it came from. What they saw wasn’t a person, but the emptiness that surrounded them the moment they woke up.

“Show yourself,” John stood up with difficulty as he angrily yelled at the direction of the voice.

“Oh, you seem to be quite energetic. I like energetic boys, you know, we can hang out sometimes later.”

Suddenly the voice abruptly stopped and the emptiness that surrounded them vanished to show the details of the room they were locked in. there were standing in the centre of some sort of spacious lab, with many devices working out there and peeping with their annoying sounds.

“See? I have answered your request, and now it’s your turn to answer mine.”

She was the lady who they met in the street. She was still wearing her formal grayish uniform with her high heels. Her face was petit and her hair was long and smooth. She was really pretty, and on another occasion the two boys might have fallen for her, but now all they could think of was only one word to describe her…

A monster!

“Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t be scared, I don’t like eating ghosts like you,” the lady said with a soft chuckle before she added:

“Now, I have some questions of mine. I don’t need to warn you, you are trapped inside the same force field that knocked you down. If you don’t believe me then try it out yourselves; however I don’t personally recommend it. I heard the aftershock headache is unbearable, right?”

She was like a person playing with some toys, as their lives were this toy in her hand. //the four looked around themselves in panic when they realized they were trapped inside the same shield that made them pass out.

“See that luster? I believe it’s coming from the shield,” Dan whispered softly as he noticed the presence of the shield.

“What do you want from us? And why us?” Laiyla screamed in panic as she began to cry.

“Don’t cry sweetie, I hate seeing little girls like you cry. Ok, I will start to form a bridge of trust between us here. my name is Sara, and I’m here to interrogate you.

As for why you? It’s because the others named you as their leaders, so I have no choice except to interrogate you myself,” Sara said calmly as if she was saying a bed story.

“What others?” Gina suddenly asked what she felt odd.

“Those who work under you, the other forty five, sorry, forty ghosts like you who we found midtown,” Sara said.

“Forty only? what happened to the other five?” John asked as he felt worry over the students who came with him here.

“Those five were… hmmm, how can I say it, they were suicidal as once they met my friends they decided to fight back. That caused them to be killed,” Sara said while showing a fake sympathy.

“What? You killed five of our friends?” Dan muttered with despair as he didn’t think coming here would be this risky.

“That’s impossible, we are in the soul mode, you can’t kill us,” Laiyla said with doubt and disbelief.

“Ah, that mode is interesting. Your other followers said the same thing, but for us you are ghosts, and unfortunately for you there are some people like me who can see, hear, and even kill ghosts like yourself. So, let’s get to the point or else the number of you will decrease by four more,” Sara said as she changed her tone to become more aggressive.

“That’s unbelievable, didn’t they say we can’t be touched when we come here?” John muttered softly as he couldn’t yet believe what happened.

“They died because of me, I killed them, I killed them, I killed th…”

Dan was about to enter a panic attack except for Gina who moved rapidly to hug him. His body started to tremble from shock, pain, and regret in her embrace, as she had some tears flowing from her eyes while all she did was to kiss his head and rub his body with her hands.

As for Laiyla, she sat there motionless as the words of Dan shocked her as well. The idea to come here was hers as well, so she had her share of this blood.

However she wasn’t as bad as Dan, which allowed the only holding, John, to be able to stand and face that lady.

“You killed my friends and now you are threatening to kill us here, this is a great way to build trust with us.”

“You aren’t in a position to say your terms here, you are my prisoner and I can do whatever I wish with all of you,” Sara threatened.

“But you won’t know the whole truth, right? Even those forty back there know nothing important. It’s either we speak or you will end up wasting your time and money for nothing,” John didn’t budge an inch or show any weakness despite having overwhelming fear right now.

He was afraid, but strangely his fear gave him strength, strength to fight back.

On the other hand, Sara stood her place as she watched this young man defying her authority. She knew he was right, however she also had her ways to make them speak. The only problem she was facing was the high board. Those superiors of her were really annoying, as up till now they didn’t make up their minds regarding what to do with these ghosts.

So, she had to play it nicely with them until a decision was made.

“You are mistaken, as your followers back there have told us many things, like the apocalypse day. Tell me, are you here to start the end of the world? are you the end of the world?”