Higher Intelligence

Pear tree scans the debris of a barren landscape with several set prompts programmed into him: locate the being known as Lionel Jefferies, assimilate his knowledge, related possessions pertaining to Pear Tree Inc and exterminate the being known as Lionel Jefferies.

Amidst dust, rock and soot there is little for Pear tree to find and “assimilate”. Very little lives to even shoot with his mighty rocket and laser cannon arms outside the state perimeter. No one to run after with his massive, heavy, steel legs.

The skies orange and fade into purple behind the rummaging and bustle of Pear tree on his mission. Piles of rubble are overturned sending rodents and bugs scampering as Pear tree searches for any sign of an individual or even scrap of paper associated with Lionel Jefferies.

Two young boys sit on a hill side watching the massive cyborg:

“It won’t kill us.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s trying to find a guy.”

“To kill him?”

“No. they need what he has in his mind... Then he’ll kill him.”

“Well... how does he do that?”

“What, kill him? He has like four 72 mm cannons that shoot slugs, missles, grenades and lasers; arms that could crush a city bus!”

“No, how does he take what’s in his mind?”

“Oh.. He has a thing that comes out of his back that scans information out of your body.”

“What!?”

“Look! He’s getting into their mainframe.”

The boys looks into the half demolished office building ruin as Pear tree inserts a metal tentacle into a bulky mainframe rack and proceeds to copy all of its files and prompts.

“How do you know this!?”

“The guy he’s looking for told me.”

Bethany

“It’s a bit nostalgic but after what happened in college, i can’t even look at him.”

Bethany paused to allow a car to pass while she continued talking with her friend about work on the phone.

“What?

“I think he works in another department.”

A smile appears as she remembered their previous encounter.

“We had a thing for a little while.. he broke my heart and that was it. Done and done.”

She nears her destination, wraps up the conversation as she maneuvers into a parking spot and turns off the car.

“Talk soon babe”.

She enters the building & goes about her day. Today James has more determination about it him & she is caught by a green glimmer in his eyes. She glances & he makes a funny comment which causes her to grin.

The rest of the day goes by and they both anticipate the end of the day when she would normally be so absorbed in work that she’d simply ignore him. That obviously doesn’t happen when James walks up to her car door and invites her to an event at the CEO’s private residence.

Her father had worked with Mark Leaf to develop Pear Tree Inc. Something she never mentioned to anyone.

James lays it on thick:

“His wife is my mom’s best friend. I used to play croquet in their backyard!”

“Ok”

She’s intrigued. She worked hard in the backend of this organization & not only needed to decompress but would love to meet the mystery man behind it all.

She follows him as they tear out of the parking lot and begin a windy ride up into the hills of San Agustin.

He keeps the lead and she soon follows him as he nearly slams to a halt and turns on to a dirt road which soon becomes black asphalt. They drive up a hill and arrive at a wide mansion reception entrance and park.

He smiles at her and her face says it all. Was she that obvious? He always knew how she felt about him.

She smiles & he takes her hand. “This way beautiful.” Her cheeks turn hot & with one breath restored to normal. She follows as he leads her through the entrance past the mansion and valet staff to the Party and up to a circle of people talking with the Mark Leaf’s daughter.

“I feel so underdressed.” She whispers

“Relax babe it’s casual.”

He is greeted by the CEO’s daughter and introduces Bethany to them. They laugh enjoy a second round as Mr. Leaf makes a very conspicuous entrance at the top of the staircase. He greets his guests and in a beaming voice; invites everyone to join him near the pool with he and his wife. Little by little people begin to descend the staircase & expand outdoors.

The crowd funnels out onto the poolside patio while Bethany and James stay with the CEO’s daughter overlooking the pool from a balcony.

“This is where daddy’s less cultured, lascivious guests enjoy themselves freely.”

The CEO’s daughter (Kim) says with a slight grin and her friends add jokes and anecdotes of previous goings on at the pool. Bethany and James listen although Bethany begins speaking with a friend of Kim’s and James begins speaking with the CEO’s wife who shows up.

Kim’s friend invites Bethany;

“Let me give you a tour.”

Bethany looks over at James who smiles back and they are off on a tour of the mansion. James is immersed with the CEO’s wife: Patricia who starts to flirt with him.

They make small talk about the caterer as they look over the party at the pool. The sun goes down and the sky turns to shades of purple. James looks at the sky and then sees some tall trees far behind the property shaking as if brushed by something massive. He continues listening to Patricia while watching the people around the pool.

Meanwhile; Bethany is being introduced to Mark Leaf by Kim’s friend.

“Nice to meet you, Bethany.”

“Likewise, it’s a pleasure Mr. Leaf.”

He is into her she can feel it. He starts to speak about her father and then something suddenly catches her eye in the forest at the end of the lawn:

“Wait, what is that?” She asks.

Leaf looks into the forest and sees a single red light at about 12 feet and knows exactly what it is.

On the balcony, Patricia sees in James’ face that he is genuinely distracted by something and she looks.

“James?”

She sees the little red light amongst the black of the trees and tries to figure out what it is.

Suddenly a slug tears her head off and another takes off half her chest. James and the others are horrified and covered in a non human, orange blood. They look and see that Patricia wasn’t human at all.

The guests all sound out at once as -Pear tree- the massive cyborg; steps out of the trees onto the patio, looming over them. He grabs Leaf off off his feet and starts for the balcony where James is. Guests scream and run in fear and James is trying to get around people when he looks back and sees Pear tree coming for him.

The heavy -clunk, clunk- of the cyborg’s walking scares James even more as his escape options disappear. Pear tree grabs him by the waist and holds him up with the CEO. As people scream and some watch on; Pear tree extends his scanning tentacle which scans both of their bodies for information. They look back expecting to be spared but Pear tree tosses the CEO to the side and then shoots James and throws the scraps of his body to the side.

Bethany, sees that James is also full of orange blood and not human looking inside. She doesn’t run but watches as Pear tree begins exiting the party.

He looks over at Bethany and stops in his tracks. Bethany looks back, frozen with terror. In an instant she notices the Pear tree logo medallion on the cyborg’s chest. With one quick lunge, Pear tree grabs the petrified Bethany and places her softly into a containment unit on his back.

She touches the glass tube walls and looks out from Pear tree’s point of view as he walks back into the woods. A pile of random tech devices huddle around her feet as the cyborg exits the woods and begins climbing a mountain side. She looks down and grabs one of the devices to see if she can figure out what is happening or where this cyborg is taking her.

Pear tree continues through the dark wilderness of an unknown mountainside and unexpectedly stumbles upon a suspicious warehouse. Bethany looks down and sees one of the devices glowing. She picks it up and sees it has a list of names and faces.

As Pear tree tears the roof off the building she sees the faces from the device down inside the building as he kills each one, splattering more orange blood. Many get in his way and run but he doesn’t kill them. Gun shots don’t affect the skin on his arms or his massive plates of armor or the glass containment unit on his back.

When the building is in flames and his targets all dead he barrels into the trees again. Bethany looks back at the burning warehouse and then down to the devices trying to make sense of this cyborgs hit list.

They cross over a road and then reach a big parking lot where there are 5 trucks parked facing them with weapons drawn and pointed. Pear tree zooms in and assesses the status of the trucks inhabitants and like before; Bethany spots a smaller device on the floor of the tube lighting up. She grabs it and sees a new list of faces and names and intuits that he is somehow profiling the people in the trucks but for what? How are they different than the others he seems to intentionally spare.

Just like in the warehouse; Pear tree sharp shoots specific people in the trucks leaving massive orange splatters and disables the trucks themselves, sparing the others.

After the parking lot he enters a thick forest and walks through its dark boughs until Bethany passes out in the tube and the sun starts to come up on the horizon.

He comes to the end of the forest and finds himself in a bright green field of grass at the base of a huge mountain range.

Bethany wakes up, looks ahead and sees a familiar sight.

“Daddy.”

In the distance a small house and some trees decorate the otherwise barren mountainside and Pear tree begins walking straight in that direction.

Bethany screams and pleads with the cyborg to stop and not kill her father but Pear tree keeps walking, it’s mission unfulfilled.

As they near the residence her father can be seen awaiting the monstrosity.

“Daddy!!” She begins to yell.

He makes a calm down hand gesture and as Pear Tree comes into 20 feet of distance it kneels on the grass, reaches to its back and opens the containment chamber releasing Bethany.

She exits very cautiously and when she sees it is stationary she runs to her father.

They embrace and her father reassures her that Pear tree will not hurt her.

“I’m sorry, honey; they wanted to take you hostage and this was the only way we could stop the invasion and save you at the same time.”

“What!? Hostage?!” She exclaimed.

“This one was sent for you.” He explains while looking back at Pear tree.

“Thank you, Daddy!”

They hug each other tightly and he kisses the top of her head.