Out of Hand
The university’s building projects are getting so out of hand, thought Jerik. The two most recent construction projects had been going on for many years, and still showed no signs of nearing completion. Yet the towering edifice to the south of the quad was tall enough that, during the winter months, it blocked out the sun. From February to October, the sun was high enough in the sky that its light fell on at least part of the grassy field which was the university’s nationwide claim to fame. But starting about a month after the autumnal equinox until a month before the vernal equinox, the sun’s path across the sky took it so low behind the incomplete structure that the entire green, covering ten acres, was shrouded in darkness. Even now, in late September, the shadow of the southern building covered enough of the quad that the hazy light filtering through the wispy clouds and over the unfinished building lent a dystopian sci-fi feel to the entire area.
Jerik was trying to enjoy a lazy afternoon picnic with his girlfriend, Rachael. It was the first day in months where the temperature wasn’t miserably hot, and he had decided to make the most of it. Though it was still warm, he finally felt he could spend time outside without becoming drenched in sweat. So he and his partner had grabbed a blanket, bought some sandwiches and side items from the commissary, and headed out into the dusty-rose-coloured daylight. Jerik felt that missing one day of economics classes was a worthwhile sacrifice.
But try as he might, he couldn’t get into the moment with his sweetheart. His eyes were constantly drawn to the rising tower south of them. Its walls were slanted, as if the university had taken its inspiration from the pyramids of Giza, although the base of the building was rectangular rather than square. Weirder still were the deep ridges creating a labyrinth on the tilted facade. The ridges were far larger than they had any reasonable right to be; if one of these dark umber walls were to be laid flat, a person could walk the paths between them without seeing over the barricades formed by the ridges, even if one person stood on another’s shoulders.
Surely, the rooms inside are going to be very dismal, with no natural light getting into them, he thought, contemplating the building’s complete lack of windows. And the two places on the northern side where the walls appeared to rise away from the bottom of the ridges, subsuming those ridges to form mounds standing away from the building, were even creepier still. They were rough in texture, and contained features that appeared to form a crude face.
The building being erected on the north side of the quad was not as unsettling, as it was smaller, had fully vertical sides, and lacked the bizarre ridges. But it was still disturbing, as it too lacked windows and had a variety of embossed patterns across the walls. Between the two structures, the entire area had developed an atmosphere that felt vaguely mesoamerican with strong overtones of Blade Runner.
Rachael could tell that Jerik was distracted. ‘Come on, honey. Let’s just enjoy ourselves.’
Jerik looked across at her and smiled. ‘I’m sorry,’ he responded. ‘It’s just really hard to keep from thinking about it when it takes up so much of my field of vision.’ As much as he wanted to have a pleasant day with his girlfriend, he couldn’t help feeling a little off kilter in the presence of these monoliths, stretching some hundred fifty metres into the atmosphere, even in their incomplete state.
At that moment, a loud crashing sound was heard from the southern building. Both picnickers looked towards it to see large chunks of rubble falling from the ‘face’ on the right. The sound repeated, again and again, as more debris tumbled from the facade, and soon, an opening appeared in the remains of the countenance that had previously gazed out over the quad. From the darkness within, a dark-coloured flying craft emerged. It had clearly rammed the interior wall to break out of its confinement, and having now formed an exit, scraped its exterior against the edge of the aperture as it forced its way to freedom.
Jerik was frightened by this sight, but was equally curious, and so he sat there staring at the spectacle taking place across the quad from him. He was so enrapt with what he was witnessing that he didn’t even notice when Rachael asked him, ‘What’s going on?’
It was a vaguely rectangular shape, like a block of balsa wood poorly carved into the shape of a drag racer. It appeared to be made of the same material as the building from which it had just escaped.
Jerik and Rachael stared at the craft, transfixed, as it hovered for a moment before rising into the sky. Then, channeling the same urge that many other students on the quad felt, Jerik took out his phone and activated the camera. He began to take photos of the flying machine, but then switched to video so he could capture some footage. He also noticed that as the vessel soared away from the structure, the hole that it had created was repairing itself. He was so amazed that for a moment he forgot to keep his phone’s camera trained on the opening. The phone dipped, and then he remembered that he was doing something with his hands, and raised the phone to focus on the closing hole again. The stone seemed to grow to reform a face where the previous formation had been, though the face looked very different from the one that had been there before.
Their attention was then turned to the rapid thud of heavy footsteps on grassy ground coming from behind them. The footfalls were quite loud, even on the grass, as if they were being made by something of considerable mass. Looking north, the two students noticed a row of figures emerging from the other building. They had the appearance of some sort of robot, but with a blocky, unfinished appearance, as if they were built out of large cubes of dark brown stone. Each one was about two and a half metres tall, and they were running in single file towards Jerik and Rachael.
Jerik was momentarily overcome with fascination, preventing him from feeling the fear that he probably should have been experiencing at that moment. He turned his phone to start filming this new development. Soon, however, it became apparent that they were moving directly for the couple. They both panicked, the enormity of what they were seeing taking hold of them at last, and began to run in a straight line away from the figures. After a moment, Jerik’s terror subsided enough for him to realise that moving perpendicular to their path was probably a better idea. He called out to Rachael, informing her of his plan, and turned to run west. After a few seconds, he spared a glance behind him, to see that most of the robots were continuing south, but one had turned to follow him, and that it was gaining on him.
A surge of fear welled up inside him. He continued to run for a few moments, but was quickly stopped when a rough, blocky hand grabbed him from behind. He was forcefully turned to face his captor, and found himself staring into a crude face, poorly carved from the stone that made up the creature’s head.
‘You have problems?’ a gravelly voice from the stone-bot asked.
‘What?’ was Jerik’s flustered response. His panic was nearly so great that it prevented him from talking at all, but he was able to keep his wits about him enough to speak.
‘Our data indicates that you have problems. I am here to help solve your problems.’
‘The only problems I have are mathematics problems,’ Jerik replied. Beneath his fear, he felt a subtle undercurrent of confusion bubbling up. What on earth was this thing talking about?
‘Will you let us remedy your problems for you?’ the strange being asked.
‘Well, they’re not the sort of problems that you can really fix—’ Jerik’s response was cut short when the stone-bot pushed him rudely to the ground. The raspy voice spoke again as the being turned away: ‘Subject refuses assistance. Marked for termination.’
It took Jerik a moment to realise what had just happened. Comprehension crashed over him like a wave in the ocean. Panic finally consumed him completely. He scrambled as quickly as he could to his feet. He scarcely noticed that the sky had grown darker, as he thought of only one thing: escape.
He ran as fast as he could, so terrified that he was completely unable to pay any attention to the shape growing above him. Hovering some four metres above the ground, a block of dark stone was growing. The base of the stone was flat and level, the edges defined by sharp turns and ninety-degree angles. Labyrinthine protrusions reminiscent of the ridges on the side of the building to the south emanated out from the sides. Had anyone nearby been capable of rational thought, they would have noticed that these blocky bulges were matching the terrified paths of all the people from the crowd that were attempting to flee the panic on the quad.
Suddenly, the block of stone dropped, crushing everyone beneath it. In a moment, only a few people on the quad still lived, and they were quickly being rounded up by the stone creatures.
Renette walked slowly across the quad. It had only been a couple of days since the strange beings attacked and quarantined the campus. Today was the first day anyone was allowed to leave the buildings in which they had been imprisoned during the attack. Whatever these creatures were, and wherever they had come from, they seemed to have an ability (or perhaps a technology) that allowed them to grow stone objects in seconds. They used this power to erect a barrier around the campus, preventing anyone from leaving or entering. At first, the human authorities had tried to get in, but the stone-like creatures had repelled all such attempts.
Renette was still terrified, but she was also going a little stir-crazy. Communications outside the campus had somehow been blocked, so even normal sources of entertainment like online videos were inaccessible. Thus, she welcomed the chance to walk around outside, despite the fear of her captors.
She felt as if her destiny were completely out of her hands. So, not knowing where else to go, she wandered around campus until she found herself on the quad. The large, oddly-shaped stone block that had taken the lives of so many people in the attack still sat there, towering a few metres above her. She had no idea how many bodies there were crushed underneath it, but along the edges she could see hints of the carnage that had taken place a few days earlier. Here and there, pools of dried blood peeked out from beneath the object, and an occasional appendage extended from under the giant blocky boulder.
She tried not to look at it; she didn’t want to be reminded of the horror that had been visited upon them. But she couldn’t help herself. Repeatedly, she caught herself looking down at the body parts poking out at her. At one point, she noticed a mobile phone lying in the grass, just out of reach of a hand that extended from underneath the stone. Overcome with curiosity, she picked it up.
The battery had died. Not surprising, as it had been a couple days ago. Fortunately, it used the same charger as her own phone, so she needed only a few minutes to get back to her dorm and plug it in. After waiting for a short while for it charge enough to turn on, she began investigating the contents. In another stroke of luck, she found that the previous owner had not bothered to put a passcode on the phone, meaning she was able to access the contents without impediment.
The first thing she noticed was the video. Whoever had owned this phone had been filming the attack before he was killed. It showed (with the clarity expected of a mobile phone) the flying craft that had initiated the attack. The owner had turned to capture some footage of the stone creatures emerging from the north building, but the footage turned quickly to a blur as the man holding the phone began to run. She could hear the commotion, though, and after several seconds, the footage became clear again when the man stopped running. It didn’t show anything interesting; just a view of the grass, about a metre from the camera lens.
But Renette heard with perfect clarity the conversation between the man holding the phone and the stone-bot that had captured him.
‘You have problems?’
‘What?’
‘Our data indicates that you have problems. I am here to help solve your problems.’
‘The only problems I have are mathematics problems.’
‘Will you let us remedy your problems for you?’
‘Well, they’re not the sort of problems that you can really fix—’
‘Subject refuses assistance. Marked for termination.’
The video continued for a few minutes, but Renette was no longer paying attention. She sat motionless for a few moments. The shock of seeing the recording was more than a little jarring to her. To anyone’s knowledge, only about five people who were on the quad during the attack had survived, and they were all being held in some secure location in the university’s administration building.
She felt like she should be crying. But she was not. Perhaps the enormity of what she had just seen was too much for her, and she could not properly process it enough to feel a proper emotion. So she sat there, staring into the distance, not focussing on anything, as she waited for the numbness to subside.
After regaining her composure, Renette began to look through the photos on the camera. There were several of the flying craft. Before that, the usual images from a university student’s phone: selfies, with and without his girlfriend; pictures of friends playing either on the quad or in dorm rooms; photos of meals.
But it was in examining the photos of the flying object that Renette noticed something. Since the only survivors who witnessed the attack firsthand were being held captive in the administration building, nobody knew where these creatures had come from.
But since she had now managed to acquire photos and video of the attack, it was clear that these beings had come from the buildings the university was constructing on its own campus. The photos of the flying vehicle showed the hole in the wall of the building on the south of the quad, and the video showed that hole healing itself. Whatever the flying object was, it had come from inside that building.
Two more days passed before Renette felt confident enough to do anything with this new information. No, that wasn’t right. Those two days were necessary for Renette to even be aware that there was something she could do. Whatever had been going on inside that building, the solution to their current problem would most assuredly also be found inside that building.
It was early afternoon when she screwed up her courage enough to go outside once more. She made her way back to the quad, where she saw something so disturbing that she almost turned back. In just those two days, four new buildings had arisen, one at each corner. Each was circular, with a slightly domed top. The walls were textured with arcane patterns which would allow her to easily climb to the roof. They were not the dark colour of the other buildings, but were a much lighter ochre tone. She had no idea how these buildings could have been erected in such a short time, but she did know one thing: their presence would make her task much easier.
A quick look around confirmed that she was alone. This was not surprising to her; few people had been willing to leave their residences after the attack. Still, it was with a great deal of trepidation that she began using the deeply embossed patterns on this new tower as handholds and footholds. The stone was rough against her fingertips, but she worked diligently to lift herself along the side of the tower. It was much shorter than the pyramidal structure on the south side of the quad, but even so, it took her some time to reach the top.
The roof was ornamented as well, though the embossed texture was not nearly as deep as it had been on the walls. Even so, the slight slant of the curved top made her more than a little nervous that she would lose her footing and plummet to her death. Carefully, she stood up and surveyed the campus. From this vantage point, she was able to see most of the barrier that had been erected around the campus perimeter. But most importantly, she was able to get a better view of the structure from which the flying vehicle had emerged.
With this perspective, she found what was most assuredly an entrance. But more importantly, she could tell that, at least for the moment, there was no one around to see her, or try to stop her, as she entered that building.
She felt a wave of nausea crash into her as she approached the edge of the roof to climb down. The vertigo almost made her lose her balance, but she managed to remain upright. Carefully, oh so carefully, she lowered herself onto the side, feeling with her toes along the wall to find footholds. She found it odd that the descent should take longer than the climb up, due to having to feel her way along the wall, whereas before she could rely more on her vision to find her way up.
After several agonising minutes, she reached the bottom. The relief was palpable, but still, she needed to wait for the tiredness in her limbs and shoulders to subside before she felt confident to continue. She waited as long as she dared; there was no telling when someone would be along and her passage would no longer go unnoticed. Then, moving as quickly as she could without causing too much noise, she made her way towards the entrance she had seen from the top of the tower.
Luck was with her; no one saw her. Soon, she was standing before a large door carved of the same strange mineral as the rest of the structure. She grasped the handle and pulled, and it swung easily open. The terror within her reasserted itself, but she steeled herself against the fear and stepped inside.
She was in a lobby area. A large, well lit room made entirely of the same stone as everything else about this strange building was laid out before her. Moving as quietly as possible, she began to explore the interior.
It was after a couple of hours of creeping down corridors and climbing stairs, each as cold and darkly coloured as the last, that she found a large chamber. In the exact center was a counter. Perhaps ‘slab’ was a better word, for it was a solid chunk of the ubiquitous stonework of which everything in this structure consisted. The ceiling had not been completed, and sunlight streamed down from above to illuminate this little area. She slipped forward along the mineral floor to see what lay on this table. And there, in the middle of the slab, was a large red button.
Renette paused a moment. It can’t possibly be this simple, can it? she pondered.
She crept slowly towards the table. It was very wide, and though she stretched as far as she could, it was just out of reach of her hand. If she was going to press this button, she would have to climb onto the table itself.
She was so occupied with puzzling over the sanguine apparatus on the countertop that she did not hear the entities entering behind her. Only when they spoke did she perceive their presence, spinning to see a number of the stone beings approaching from behind.
‘There is a human near the failsafe switch!’ a particulate voice called out. ‘Stop her! All units report to central control!’
That was all she needed to hear. The decision was now out of her hands. Whatever this button did, the stone creatures did not want her to activate it. As terror welled up within her, she leapt onto the table, her hand extending out towards the button. The stone slab was cool beneath her body. She sensed the creatures behind her, but pushed against her fear and pressed firmly down on the ruby button. She felt a heat emanating from below her, and then had to close her eyes against the white glow that suddenly enveloped everything around her.
Jerik blinked as he looked around him. A strange feeling had come over him. The last thing he remembered was grabbing his books and making his way across the quad to economics class. The weather was beautiful; it was the first day this year where it was cool enough that it didn’t feel absolutely miserable to be outside. Maybe he should skip class today and have a picnic with Rachael.
But as he passed the construction project that was being built on the south side of the university’s large quad, he suddenly felt a feeling of disquiet. He wasn’t sure what it was, but all at once, he found himself experiencing a bizarre sense of dread. He looked across at the structure being erected. It had been going on for just about a year now, and was nearing completion. It was a standard building, just four floors in a usual rectangular block. But there was something a little... odd.. about it.
The university was trying to draw influences from global history and culture. Along the base of this building were several bas-relief sculptures designed to look like Mayan carvings. Although Jerik understood the desire to be inclusive, he also felt that this particular building was not well devised. In fact, he thought, it’s downright ugly.
Oh well, he mused as he turned away from the hideous building to continue towards his economics class. I guess that’s the way universities work. It’s just too bad that the university’s building projects are getting so out of hand.
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