“Satellites,” he said, looking up at me with a grin on his face. “There are hundreds of them still up there floating above the Earth. We send the signal up to those satellites, your kill-all signal, they bounce off each other, get amplified stronger than they were transmitted, and reflect the signal back to Earth.”
“Wiping out the Bane,” I breathed as I grasped his plan.
“Worldwide.”
There should have been unbearable relief or excitement that built up inside of me at his words. He was claiming we could kill off the Bane, on all continents. But too much had gone wrong in my life, the world seemed too far gone.
I was simply filled with doubt.
“And how do we send the signal from me to those satellites?” I asked.
He grabbed the notebook again, pulling the pages open. He drummed his fingers on one of the drawings. “The design is almost complete,” he said. “I ran out of time before I could finish drawing it up, but the rest is up here,” he tapped the side of his head. “We just have to build the transmitter. And if Erik Beeson is still alive, it won’t take long.”
“There’s also a man named Royce,” I said, looking back in the direction of New Eden. “He was in weapons development for the government before we ended the world. He’ll be able to help you. He and Dr. Beeson were the ones that designed the Pulse.”
Dr. Evans’ eyes grew darker. “Not that I have any trust for any former employees of the government, but we have to work with what we’ve got these days. We need to get back home so we can get to work.”
I looked out over the Bane. “I don’t see how that is going to happen any time soon.”
“You just told me how you commanded hundreds of thousands of them to jump off a bridge into the ocean,” he said, placing his hands on my shoulders. “You really cannot think of a way to take care of them?”
I furrowed my brow at him before glancing out at the masses again. Water was their greatest weakness, the only one I had ever exploited. There was certainly none of that out here.
I thought of ways I’d killed them off before, aside from bullets and the Pulse.
You mustn’t be afraid to think a little bigger.
“You will leave this place,” I called over the masses. Very few of them would actually be able to hear me, if they even processed sound, but I knew they would understand my nonverbal commands. “You may head any direction but west. Seek out others like yourselves. And then kill them.”
Every one of the Bane around me stood a bit straighter and I heard feet shuffle as their legs snapped together. A deadly army who would heed my every command.
“You will never touch another human again,” I said, pushing my thoughts out to them. I imagined the signal that poured from my body, feeding into every one of them. “You may not even look at one. But if they share your technology, you will destroy them.”
I stared out over the masses. I noticed individuals as I observed them. A boy my age with shaggy blond hair. A naked older woman with wrinkly skin. There were hundreds of children that were no longer children. There were endless mechanical components mixed in with them, but still, the evidence that they’d once been human was there. At one point, that older woman had been someone like Gabriel’s wife, Leah. They’d been someone like Avian, or Tuck, or Lin.
Something pulled at the back of my heart. I could end the existence of over a million former human’s right this very moment. Had they been normal, flesh and blood, it would be genocide.
I hadn’t realized how long I’d stood there frozen until I felt a firm hand on my shoulder. I looked up to Dr. Evans brown eyes.
How do you live with yourself?
“I don’t plan to much longer.”
I hadn’t realized I’d verbalized the question until he responded.
I wanted to hate this man for ending billions of lives. But I couldn’t ignore the fact that if it wasn’t for him, I would have died nearly nineteen years ago.
“Go,” I breathed.
My army did not need any more command than that.
They broke into perfect formations. Rows of tens of thousands formed. Some marched north. Many marched south. Most headed east.
Their footsteps thundered with deafening volume as they walked in perfectly matched steps. Massive clouds of dust rose into the air.
It took me a few minutes to realize Dr. Evans was no longer standing at my side.
“Dr. Evans!” I shouted, searching the masses around me. It would take at least an hour for every one of the million Bane surrounding me to be able to move out, but they had all shifted, standing in formation.
Finally, I spotted his form ten yards from me. He stood on the edge of a squad, eyes forward, awaiting his turn to march forward.
“Dr. Evans, you cannot go with them,” I said, my tone impatient as I forced my way toward him. He started blinking as if to clear his head as I grabbed his mechanical arm and started dragging him back to my cleared circle in the middle of the army.
“I…” his voice broke off. “I…am not…immune.” His voice cut out and he attempted to step toward the army once again. I pulled him back. “Immune to your commands…it seems.”
“I suppose that is a good thing,” I said. I kept a strong hand on his shoulder as I looked back out over the masses. Another wave of Bane marched east. They didn’t get far before their forms disappeared into the clouds of dust. “But what if my command doesn’t last? Who’s to say they won’t forget what I told them to do when they get more than a mile away?”
“The Bane…” his voice cut out again and he took a stumbling step forward as he fought my command. “Think like a…computer. You give it a command and it doesn’t stop running it until you tell it to start running another.”
“You think they can be reprogrammed that easily?” I asked. “Then why haven’t we been doing this all along? Telling them to rip each other to pieces and leave us alone?”
“Yes,” he said, taking deep breaths even though he didn’t need to breathe anymore. He rested what would be his palms against what would be his knees to keep himself from walking away. “The Bane’s accidental program was to spread the infection. But that couldn’t be changed by anything other than something compatible with TorBane. Something that can transmit.”
“Like me,” I said, hints of a sigh in my voice. I watched as another wave of Bane moved out.
“Exactly. You are the only being capable of bringing about any sort of change,” Dr. Evans said as he stood finally. “You, Eve, are the last hope this planet has. You will be the savior of this world.”
I actually rolled my eyes.
Dr. Evans must have seen it, because he brought the conversation back to where it had started. “My point is that your command should last. They won’t be able to forget it. Until you tell them something different.”
Dr. Evans suddenly took two jerky steps forward again. I placed a firm hand around his upper arm and pulled him back once again. “Stay put.”
He instantly locked still.
“I could make you do anything, couldn’t I?” I said, giving him a sidelong glance.
“That’s a damn powerful influence you have,” he said. His eyes were set hard on me, but I saw the twitch of a smile in the corner of his lips.
“You’re essentially one of them,” I said as we went back to watching the army disband. “If your plan really works, if we can send my signal worldwide, what’s to save you?”
“Nothing,” Dr. Evans answered with a gritty voice. He was quiet for a moment as he observed the masses. Over half of them had marched out by now. His shoulders were set hard. For a moment, he almost looked human. Except for the lack of flesh. “I nearly ended the world; I will go with them when the time comes.”