Yesterday's Gone: Season One

place on an integrated circuit doubles every two years or so, each time at a reduced cost. And so far this has held true, for more than 50 years. This means the power of everything is exponentially climbing: processing speed, memory capacity, the number of pixels in your Canon.”
    Interest colored Mary’s face. Desmond’s story gathered speed. “So the big question has always been, what happens after Moore’s Law hits a wall. Best guess experts place that possibility around 2020, or soon after when suddenly we hit a technological singularity.”
    Mary’s face must’ve given away how crazy she thought Desmond was being. He laughed, sending a stream of Pinot into the air. “I’m sorry,” he said, still laughing. “I realize I’m being ridiculous and confusing. The whole idea of this conversation is just... ludicrous... I mean, I think about this stuff in my head all the time, but never out loud to my neighbors and never because it might have value outside my own brain. Not to mention I’m probably not making a whole lot of sense.”
    Mary took her second sip of wine. “I’m completely following,” she said with a smile, “and loving every word. Go on.”
    “Okay. Thanks.” A final laugh, then, “You’ve seen the Terminators, Matrix, iRobot, Battlestar Galactica ; all the end-of-the-world, robots-win-and-we-all-lose type movies, right?”
    “Of course.”
    “That’s the technological singularity in action. Technology gets smarter and faster until it’s smarter and faster than us. The created become the creators. Fascinating concept. So what if that’s in play here? Maybe we created something without realizing it, or maybe nature created something to fight back against something we did? I don’t know the who or why, and really, I couldn’t even guess, but something about this seems almost... organized. ”
    Mary shuddered at the thought of the bodies at the river. She leaned forward in her chair, but before she could open her mouth a horrible clang came from outside, too loud to be an accident.  
    Desmond sprung from the couch, gun in hand by his third step. John and Jimmy were on guard duty, each stationed on the far end of the lobby. They had moved to the middle and were standing side-by-side in front of the doors. Jimmy pointed, “It’s that one.”
    He meant the bleaker in front, but three more were directly behind, four of them moving like an arrow flying toward them in slow motion.  
    “Alright guys, we have time. Aim before you fire. And go for the forehead. Don’t aim anywhere else and don’t pull the trigger until you think you can make it. I’ve got the leader.”
    Desmond stepped outside, Jimmy and John followed. All three found their targets then held their aim. John shot first — over the head of his target and into a tree trunk. Desmond’s was next with a bullet that whizzed by the leader’s cheek. Jimmy shot last. No telling where his bullet went, but it wasn’t anywhere close.  
    Mary stood behind the three men, still inside the lobby.
    John and Jimmy’s second shots rang in unison, then disappeared together.  
    Desmond’s second bullet sailed straight through the leader’s face, which crumbled to the ground even as its body raced forward before falling after three headless steps.
    The remaining creatures regrouped, suddenly single file, but still moving slowly. Desmond got another shot off and the front creature dropped. Almost as if on cue, the two creatures behind, split up, charging the front of the hotel at full speed, forcing the men to split their attention, and increasing the odds that one of them wouldn’t hit their target and the creature would break through.
    “Take the one on the left,” Desmond shouted. Three guns emptied themselves in the creature and it joined its brothers on the pavement.  
    The final bleaker was on them in seconds. Jimmy kept clicking his empty gun toward it, panicked. John put his arms around Jimmy’s waist and pulled him back inside the hotel. Desmond charged toward the bleaker with a swift kick to its midsection, then circled behind it, pulled a second gun from a shoulder strap, and shot the creature dead.  
    Desmond glared at the parking lot where the rest of the creatures shrank back behind a pair of vans. He then went back into the hotel, out of breath.
    “That was close.” he said.
    “We have to go!” John said, panicked almost to the point of shrieking. “They’re moving in packs now! We can’t sit this out