Chapter 14 – Avery

One breath passed before the woman Sim called Avery dropped to the floor and pressed her hand to the varnished wood. Marlise felt Sim launch out of her mouth like a wriggling rope. Transparent barriers emerged between the two of them as they watched. Sim pushed them aside with phantom hands like he was casting aside walls. Reaching into a pocket, Avery chucked what looked like a knife at Sim.

Where the knife struck, Sim’s structure crystallized and shattered, but that only briefly slowed him down. Vaulting backwards, Avery touched a wall and yelled, “PURGE ACCESS!” At that moment, all the color started to vanish from the walls. The details on the furniture and all the other items in the room deteriorated to the point that everything looked like it had been hand-carved from soap. Sim sailed to land on one last patch of color before it faded away, but Avery was ready for him.

She threw another knife and this time Sim’s form shifted into Seth’s male one. Stunned on the floor, Sim brushed at Seth’s near-pompadour and inquired only, “Do you really think this will stop me?”

Avery lowered her head and replied, “A complete reformatting will.” Sim chuckled to himself, smiling up at Avery as he answered, “You’ll never do it. Too much pride.”

Marisa trembled beside and tried to speak. She stared at Avery. Avery responded with a slight gesture that sealed Marisa’s mouth. After that, she brushed her hands together and stated, “If you force me to, then I will do whatever it takes. I have backups.”

Sim cast a look at the three by the doorway and inquired, “And what about your playthings over there?”

A stern look remained on Avery’s face. She glared at Seth, Isaac, and Nicolas. Pulling out another knife, Avery answered, “You should only concern yourself with the consequences of your disobedience.” She threw the knife right at him, but he vanished and left it stabbing the floor.

Crouching, Avery pulled out a fist full of knives and looked around the room. With a disembodied voice, Sim said, “It’s going to take a lot more than that.”

With a heave, Avery threw the knives all around her in the room. She clenched her face in an intense, strained expression as Sim laughed and replied, “You almost tickled me…”

Swallowing, Avery pulled out a sword balanced on each finger and said, “No more games. These will damage your system data. Last chance.”

After a quiet lull, he said, “Declined. But, if you concede to me, I’ll let you live down where I was.”

The swords flew out from Avery’s hand in all directions, nearly nicking the three by the doorway. The one straight ahead evaporated before striking a target, the rest lodged in the nearest walls. Out of the shimmer, Sim emerged with Avery’s face and body. She waved a hand. The other swords vanished too.

Bowing her head, Avery grit her teeth and said, “Sorry…” She turned to her right and yanked on a painting that Marlise was sure hadn’t been there more than a moment ago. Behind the painting was a recessed space like an open safe. Avery’s hand poised over the opening and then trembled as she murmured, “Impossible. I have complete control…”

Putting a mock-contemplative finger to his version of Avery’s mouth, Sim gave a soft ‘hmm’ before saying, “Well, actually, I have complete control now.”

Avery turned back with her face quivering, challenging, “You can’t! You aren’t me!”

Sim gave a belittling nod and responded, “No. I’m not you. But you do so like to spread little bits of yourself around.”

Backing up, Avery worked her way towards the three, who could barely show emotion as some force from Sim still held sway over them. Marlise’s mind was racing as she watched for some way to get free. Sim stepped towards them casually, brushing at her Avery clothes.

When she was ready, Sim explained, “Little Jessica….Sweet Marisa….and Naïve Nicolas…Y O U   A  R  E    N  O  T  H  I  N  G….Nothing but copies made of data, a little energy, and some memories. Shadows of the original…”

Avery growled, “Stop it!”

Batting a hand, Sim laughed and quipped, “Oh, come on, what’s one more time when you can reset them over and over?”

Though her face couldn’t show it, Marlise felt an onrush of fear. Her mind refused to accept what was glaring her in the face. Still, she listened.

Reaching into her pants, Avery pulled out a small case, like a cigar holder, and pressed her finger to the top. She held it there but looked down in surprise when it refused to open. Sim snapped her fingers and the case appeared in her hands. She turned it over a few times and noted, “Fail-safe? Failed too.”

Giving in to panic creeping across her features, Avery asked, “Sim…what have you done?”

Sim took a deep breath as though savoring something in the air. “Really…I should just get on with the next step…but I have too much of your pride in me…Simona.”

Snapping her fingers again, the three of them could move a little, though their legs were locked in place. Marlise sufficed with a glare as Marisa brought back some of her old fury by flipping off Sim as Nicolas looked around and panted.

Clearing her throat theatrically, Sim began, “Each of you has a little bit of dear, sweet Simona within. Memories, feelings, and/or personality aspects. Why? She made you that way, as she made me. To be a tool, a toy, a thing of hers. And you’re not the first ones….I remember Isabelle, Maggie, Oliver, Nathanial, Shane, and Ashley not too long ago. They had their fun moments.”

Twirling her hand, Sim-Avery produced an apple out of thin air and took a bite. “But I didn’t have a plan back then. And I certainly didn’t have lovely little Jessica. You were the key to all of this.” Shifting over, Sim put a hand on Marlise’s shoulder before she threw it off.

Chuckling, Sim pouted, tossed the apple core into the ether, and remarked, “That’s not being a good girl. And you’ve been a very good girl. As feisty and resistant as I hoped. You received a very decent portion of Simona to start. Then it was just a matter of getting you in contact with the other pieces.”

Marlise’s mouth dangled as she realized, “The body swap.”

Sim gestured appreciatively with a hand. “A vital part, though more normal contact was enough to get things flowing too. A touch, a hug, or even a death strangle. You six were never ever meant to meet. But I released you from your empty, endless sleep inside your virtual cubes. And I stoked your possibilities with special words, like…NEVER OPEN THE BOX…”

Simona snarled, “You got into my passcodes?!”

Looking over her shoulder, Sim tossed a hand and remarked, “Of course, darling. Try to keep up. I’m already several steps ahead of you…”

Clenching her fists, Simona seemed eager to say something else. Then, she paused and relaxed. Sim noticed with an expression of annoyance before asking, “...What?”

Matter-of-factly, Simona stated, “You don’t have full access. You have some but you didn’t get the cipher…otherwise, you’d be rubbing that one in my face too…”

Sim wavered slightly with a cough and declared, “You’re bluffing me…Not that any so-called cipher would last long with enough brute force.”

Leaning against the wall, Simona’s demeanor relaxed even more as she proclaimed, “This one will. You could run the possibilities over and over and it would take a million years, even if you were an AI a million times smarter.”

Sim’s eyes flared as she curled her mirrored lips in Simona’s face and posed, “Oh? Then I’ll just have to keep you here until I get what I want.”

Shrugging, Simona noted, “Unlikely. More likely…you’ll get what you want…a way out of the deep core. But you’ll be trapped here in this one room. If I planned this, then I would put out a deletion order for it.”

Glaring, Sim’s face began to quiver as she said, “But you didn’t…”

Holding onto a frown, Simona replied, “Perhaps. If I did then I wouldn’t make it obvious. If I did then I’d give you time to think you’d survive before the deletion order begins. You’d never know it was coming till…” She gave an echoing snap of her fingers without changing her expression.

At that moment, black spaces started to appear in the nearly colorless landscape of the room.

Sim screamed, “NO!” and turned to look at Simona. She fired off two remaining knives, which slowed Sim down as she bolted across the room and grabbed hold of the others. Dragging them back through the doorway, she was the last one standing in the threshold as it closed. She turned to look back with cold eyes. In the enveloping darkness, Marlise witnessed one last moment.

Sim’s eyes dipped, and her shaking hands reached out as the room behind her melted away. With a soft, begging voice, she said only, “Mother…” before Simona shut the door behind her.

The space into which they’d fallen wasn’t the room with its pantry and amenities from before but it did have a floor. Nicolas coughed as though his throat had been clenched and Marisa panted. Only Marlise found the energy to speak, “What just happened?”

Snapping her fingers again, a pale, golden light appeared in Simona’s hand as she looked around and explained, “We’re in the deepest part of the core. As soon as Sim figures out he’s not been deleted, he’ll come looking for us. I’ll have to make that as difficult as possible for him.” She held the light up to a valve and slowly turned it with one hand.

A few faint, overhead lamps turned on and flickered against the vast darkness. Simona remarked, “I should begin by bringing the others here as well. Marley and Oswald. Seth might be able to help me with some procedures due to Sim’s tampering.”

Marlise helped the others up into a sitting position, stared at Simona, and said, “I wouldn’t presume you’ll get my help without answering some questions first.”

Simona narrowed her eyes and sighed. “The more time I stop for questions, the more time I give Sim to catch up with us, Seth.” Nicolas leaned against a wall, his eyes wide and searching. Marisa looked to Marlise for support as she responded to Simona, “It’s Marlise, not Seth, right now. And we deserve a few answers. Talk and work.”

Puffing a rough breath, Simona hustled through the dimly-lit hallway. Marlise helped Marisa along as Nicolas staggered from behind to keep up. Turning to talk, Simona commented, “Fine, Marlise, ask away.”

Neither Nicolas nor Marisa seemed ready to form questions but Marlise knew what to ask.

“Who are you? What is this place? What are we?”

Turning another valve protruding from the wall revealed more details like a grungy submarine corridor with old-style gas lamps above. The floor didn’t give an expected metallic clank as they walked but everything else seemed right. Brushing her hands, Simona took on the first question, “Simona Hatch, retired CEO and founder of, what was at its peak, the third-largest software corporation in the world.”

After checking and tapping a small pressure gauge on the wall, Simona answered the second question, “This is my home. From the deep core with my first efforts at simulated reality and data-based life to the upper core with its heavenly perfection and promise.”

For the last question, Simona cleared her throat as she pumped a switch near the gauge, causing it to spike higher. Somewhere in the distance, Marlise was sure she could hear a great thundering noise like a waking beast. The floor started to act more like metal, and it vibrated with a tinny, quick sound. The air seemed thick, as though filled with an unseen mist.

Brushing her hands against one another, Simona glanced at the three of them and then darted her eyes away as she said, “As for all of you…You’re dead. You died many years ago.”