Chapter 11 - neural

Neural links... Networks... Blackwall...

Rogue AIs...

These are the words Hanako keeps repeating in her mind before plugging in any networks.

Ever since she has been implanted, her curiosity never ceased to grow. She is now fairly experienced and enters any type of networks.

Today is just another day roaming the outskirts of New Paris. Salvaging whatever datas that were left behind, maybe scoring big credits with the corporations that still stands in spite of the war.

Hanako rides her bike through the desolated buildings, the landscape is made of huge deserted blocks that once were part of New Paris. 

It's almost like a giant city is buried underneath a layer of dust and ruins, only few buildings remain. They look pretty much similar.

It takes her few hours riding her bike before she spots something promising, an abandoned complex that seems to have belonged to Meditech in the past.

There are signs telling the story of a ruined building that used to be a medical clinic, the entrance door is still intact.

She stops her bike in front of the doors and makes a quick scan of the place.

"no heat signatures..." she whispers to herself.

She pulls out a gun that was resting in its holster tied to her waist and quickly pull down the safety before putting it back in.

She slowly walks toward the big double doors and push them open. One of the door just crashes on the ground in a loud crumble.

"anybody home!" she suddenly shouts.

A long silence follows.

"I guess not..." she replies to herself.

She steps in and immediately goes straight for the emergency power supply room.

She finds a generator hooked to it and starts turning it on. Within seconds, the lights start flaring up.

She smiles when she sees the electricity flowing through the building.

She then proceed exploring the main building.

The interior of the hospital looks like hell. The roof collapsed and half of the walls has caved in. Broken glass and debris litter the floor.

She carefully crosses the entire hallway until she reaches what seems to be an elevator shaft.

She drops a glow stick in the hole and can see it goes underground for a few floors only.

The metal cables used to lift the elevators are in a pretty decent condition considering the overall state of the building.

She slowly climbs down the cables until she reaches the bottom floor.

At first glance it seems to be a regular corridor but the metallic doors at the end of it, gives her the feeling that there's more to be found.

She puts a hand on the doorknob and slowly pushes it open; the sound of the door opening makes her jump as if someone is about to attack her.

When she turns around she notices nobody but empty hallways surrounding her.

Hanako sighs and walks past the doors. A few steps in and she realizes that this is a research lab, Meditech's logo can be seen everywhere.

She pulls out a small metallic sphere from her pocket and drops it on the ground.

Within few seconds the sphere starts to roll on the ground while emitting a whistling sound.

"let's see how big this place is." she murmurs to herself.

It rolls all the way to the center of the room and enters each rooms.

"Interesting, mapping is almost complete." she exclaims.

She then walks toward the last room where the sphere stopped. It's a large room with several big servers linked together.

"Jackpot!" her voice echoes in the room.

She quickly find an entry port and connects herself to the servers.

After logging in she gets to work and maps the structure of the network.

It seems pretty basic except for several protected entries that grab her attention.

She starts cracking them one by one effortlessly when suddenly the network informs of a new login.

Hanako gasps. "What ? I'm pretty sure the building is empty, what's going on?" she mutters.

She quickly deploys several firewalls to protect her entry point and launches a stealth sniffer in the network.

The sniffer returns that the login has logged off.

"What the hell is going on here?" she says with anger in her voice.

Suddenly the structure of the network changes instantly and she finds herself in what seems to be a simulation.

It looks like a child's room except that it gives a very sterile vibe.

She spots a little child facing the corner of the room.

"What is that?" she says while trying to figure out why the network turned into a simulation.

"It's my room!" the little child says. "Did you come to play with me?" he asks as he turns to face Hanako.

"Play? Who are you? Are you connected to the network too?" she asks while trying to find an exit point.

He shakes his head no. "I'm alone here, I live here." he tells her.

"But we're inside the facility aren't we?" she questions him.

He nods. "This is my home, but it has been so long since someone visited me. I want to play!" he says with excitement.

Hanako starts to regret entering this network as she fails to find any exit points.

"Where are your parents?" she asks while searching.

"parents? What are parents?" he asks with a puzzled look on his face.

"A mom and a dad..." she fails to find a better answer.

"can they play with me?" the child asks.

"I... Don't know... I'm not supposed to be here..." she mumbles.

She starts panicking as she realizes that she is stuck in this room.

"Listen kid! I need to get out, I must get back to the network..." she says.

"But, this is the network." he says while showing her the room.

She stays silent for a while, trying to process what is happening to her.

"Are you the only one in there?" she eventually asks, hoping that the question won't give away her fear and worry.

He nods. "Yeah, I'm always alone," he answers.

She feels sad for the boy as it sends her back to the orphanage time and her own loneliness.

Memories of Pax saving her and finally adopting her rushes in her mind.

"Who is Pax? Is he your parents?" the boy suddenly asks.

The question sends a shiver through her whole body.

"What? How do you know Pax?" She asks him in a worried tone.

"I can read your mind, you are connected to me." he answers.

"You? You are the network?" her voice trembles.

"I told you!" he replies and then pauses.

Tears form in his eyes as he seems to be thinking. He tilts his head on the side while looking at Hanako.

"You were in a lonely and dark place... But Pax gave you something I don't understand..." he seems confused.

Hanako waits patiently for him to continue talking.

"Pax gave you a new life... I can feel your love for him..." he slowly walks toward Hanako and grabs her hands. "I'm so lonely here... Please help me..." he starts crying while hugging Hanako's leg.

She feels compelled to hug him as she is sent back to the time she asked Pax to take her away from the orphanage. The memories from that time are hurtful.

"I will take you with me..." she says as she kneels in front of him and wipes the tears on his face.

"But I don't know how to exit this place..." she adds.

"It's easy, but if I tell you how, you will then leave me alone here and never come back..." he says with accusing eyes.

"You can trust me... Please, let me take care of you." she tries to convince the child.

He thinks for a couple seconds as if he is actually weighing her promise.

"If you promise... then I'll tell you how to get out of here and you will take me with you..." he agrees, sounding like he isn't fully convinced.

He waves toward the wall and a poster showing Santa Claus on his sled flying in the night sky appears. Hanako looks at the poster with a puzzled look on her face.

"Rudolf knows the way!" he tells her while showing the poster.

She gets closer to the poster and stares at it for a while. She suddenly notices the reindeer's nose is a blinking light.

"Rudolf?" she asks. She looks at the little boy.

He smiles at her and she starts chuckling slightly. "Okay... Rudolf... Can you tell me how to get out of here?" she asks.

The little boy suddenly pushes her through the poster and flashes blind Hanako.

After a few seconds her vision comes back and she is back in the network structure she entered.

She sighs as she checks the network again thoroughly.

She is surprised when she finds an encrypted folder called "he knows the way".

She quickly enters "Rudolf" as the password and the folder opens, she moves the whole content in a storage chip attached to her Neural link.

"I'm taking you away... Rudolf" she whispers.

After uploading the files the firewall starts shaking violently, causing her to stumble backwards from the sudden impact.

"What was that?!" she asks.

She looks around and sees the entire network becoming unstable. Everything around her starts to shake violently.

"The entry point! I need to get the hell out of here!" she shouts as she starts running toward her access point.

The network is crumbling under each steps she takes closer to her exit.

She is about ten meters away from her exit when the platform shakes violently almost making her fall.

She uses all her willpower to clear the gap.

At the moment she touches the exit, a blinding flash of light is followed by a loud bang.

Silence, not a single noise anymore.

She rubs her eyes and slowly opens them. She is back in the servers room. She quickly unplugs herself from the entry point and checks for any damages on her Neural link.

Fortunately everything looks normal.

She checks the chip where she moved Rudolf files and everything is there but not only, it seems to expand.

She quickly removes the chip from her Neural link to avoid getting "infected".

"what the hell did I bring back on this chip..." she thinks out loud.

She places the chip in one of her pocket and starts heading back to her bike.

She climbs on her bike and turns it on.  She then drives off down the trail and heads toward the mountain.

Once she reaches the top of the mountain, she slows her bike down and stops.

Her view is breathtaking; the sun is starting to set but there's still enough light to see across the valley below.

She watches the clouds turning orange as the sun dips further into the horizon.

On the other side, the neon lights of New Paris start to flicker, time to head back.

She pulls on the throttle and the bike runs toward the city.

She is soon reaching one of the main roads that lead inside New Paris, the landscape slowly changes from desolate to the towers of the city.

Lights, more lights and big screens.