บท 170: Chapter 49.2
"Quickly, children, quickly now," Ms. Grace helped the children onto the bus before using the wireless key chip to activate the driving system. The dashboard lit up and a voice overhead as Emily came running up to the bus.
"Welcome. Running diagnostics. All systems are operational," the voice said. "Warning, you do not have the appropriate access to activate this vehicle. Please contact the -"
"Just drive!" Emily interrupted when she noticed some figures appearing in the distance from the direction of the orphanage but the voice continued.
"I'm sorry. You do not have the appropriate access -"
"DRIVE!" Alice and Maple yelled together and the dashboard which was blinking red turned blue.
"Phantom clearance designated Alpha dash zero zero dash zero two and Sigma dash zero two dash zero one activated. Unable to confirm biometrics, please wait . . . voice and facial recognition confirmed," the bus's engines activated as the voice spoke again. "Welcome, Alpha Ancillary - 02 and Sigma Ancillary - 01. Where would you like to go?" [1]
"Anywhere, just DRIVE!" Emily screamed as she noticed the approaching figures were completely armed. The closest raised his assault rifle and fired a few rounds at the bus, causing panic as everyone screamed.
"Down, everybody, get down!" Emily shouted. Fortunately, the windows managed to withstand the brushfire.
"Warning, rear hull integrity compromised," the bus's AI reported as it drove the bus away. "Sending a distress call to the nearest AEM facility. Please wait until -"
"No waiting, just drive to them!" Alice screamed from the ground.
"Affirmative. Driving to the nearest AEM facility."
"Can't this go any faster?" Emily asked out loud in a frustrated voice.
"Unable to comply," the AI replied. "Failsafe system dictates that I cannot drive over a speed of -"
"Override the failsafe and drive faster!" Alice interrupted. She had already realized that the AI would comply with her and Maple's orders, most likely due to Jason and Melanie, and decided to use her admin status to command the bus's AI.
"Warning. Overriding speed limit failsafe. Please wait . . . override successful. Increasing speed."
Another armed shooter raised his rifle and aimed at the bus through his holographic sight. Realizing that the bus was too far away, he flipped the STS magnifier in place before steadying his breath.
A split second later he fired his rifle. The bullet shattered the already cracking glass before tearing into Grace.
"Ms. Grace!" Emily screamed when she noticed the former collapsing.
As the bullet exited her shoulder, it continued onward and finally lodged itself into the dashboard where the AI main processing unit was stored. A pulse erupted from the bullet and the bus stopped abruptly as self-driving AI was fired.
Quickly, Emily rushed to Grace and began applying pressure to the wound on her shoulder while using her healing abilities to heal her.
"Warning, systems - bzzt - compromised. Engine offline. Zzt - restart . . . ing . . . sys . . . tem," the AI fritzed from the EM pulse, the voice slowing down as it died out.
"Oh, no!" Maple said as she looked back. She could see the armed men getting closer and her heart leapt. She had a conversation with Melanie before, and she deduced that the men were after her for knowing too much. Her eyes moved to everyone else as she came to a shocking conclusion: she was the reason why everyone might die.
"Maple . . . Maple . . . Maple!"
She could vaguely hear someone calling her out but it was only when her shoulder was grabbed did she look back with a start. Alice was shaking her by the shoulder while calling out again.
"Alice?" Maple groggily asked before Alice slapped her.
"Wake up! I need your help!" Alice cried out. Looking into her eyes, Maple noticed that, despite shaking from fear, Alice's eyes were glowing with determination.
"What do you need?" Maple calmed herself down from gazing at Alice and asked the latter firmly.
"Emily is keeping Ms. Grace alive which means we have to drive!"
"What? How?" Maple asked incredulously.
"The AI may have rebooted the propulsion system but the self-driving functions are fried," Alice replied as she and Maple made their way to the front seat. "Meaning we have to manually drive the car."
"That's crazy! How can we drive a bus?!" Maple refuted. "We're more likely to crash! Besides, how do you know all of this?!"
"Better than sitting around doing nothing!" Alice replied. "And Daddy let me take the wheel before. Course, he only let me steer."
Ungh, your Daddy is terrible, Maple thought as Alice stood atop the driver's seat.
"I need you to bend down and accelorite," Alice said, fumbling on the word 'accelerate'. "Just keep pressing it and I'll steer the bus. Once we get to the main road we'll be safe."
"Um, alright," Maple crouched down and used her hands to press the accelerator. The bus began moving at a very fast rate as Alice tried her best to maintain it steady.
"Wha -? Alice!" Emily, who had been preoccupied with healing Grace only realized that the bus was moving again. Turning to face the front, she screamed with horror when she saw Alice driving the bus.
"It's okay! I got this!" Alice called out, which would've been adorable had the situation been different, and Emily's doubt only increased as the bus shook and grazed a few nearby parked cars. "Oops. Sorry."
The shooter behind them had almost caught up when the bus lurched forward. Seeing that it was moving again, he raised his rifle again and aimed at Alice. Emily who could see him through the shattered window realized what he was up to and quickly pulled out the gun John left her. She tried firing but the trigger was locked, reminding her of how John mentioned the safety was on. Recalling what he said, Emily followed his advice and slid the safety lock off before raising the gun again. Without aiming properly, she fired several shots all of which missed the shooter terribly. However, the latter instinctively ducked and took cover, allowing the bus to leave.
The shooter stood up and watched the bus leave once he was certain it was safe. At the same time, he activated his communicator. "Target is moving your way, Phantom."
[1] Phantoms have the ability to override any system or computer that is connected to Sanctuary's network. They also have the ability to create a sub-user that can access the systems under their administration, something that both Jason and Melanie did for Alice and Maple. Alice's sub-clearance ID number is 02 because Jason created an account for Alina as well.
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