Project Terra

by S. J Woods

  He forced himself to turn away from the sight of them, two small blonde heads, two dark-haired women. Anyone looking in on the family would think they looked happy and carefree, Dane thought to himself as he moved towards the apartment, the image still on his mind.

  The living room was empty, and Dane moved towards Rose’s room, hoping that Sadie was busying herself at the storeroom. He could see in the reflection of the tinted glass walls of the corridor that the door to the store room was open, but when he passed it, the room was empty. He moved on, the stillness of the usually-noisy home felt unnatural and disturbing. Rose’s room was on the left, and he tapped the door, tensing at the tell-tale whir as it slid open.

  The medical kit was exactly where she’d said it would be and he scooped it up, feeling a flood of relief now that it was safely in his hands. He stepped back out into the corridor, retracing his steps through the transparent-walled corridor, quickly and with determination. His mind was already starting to race ahead with an ever-changing to-do list: get rid of microchips and devices, hire an air-capsule down-town, head as close to Port Layton as he could. Pray that Teonie turns up, he added. He had no idea what he was looking for if he managed to get as far as Port Layton. He shook his head, correcting himself with gritty resolve. When they got to Port Layton, he told himself.

  He stepped past the storeroom, his head full of his own thoughts and his eyes caught the flicker of a movement. His mind was slow to process his vision, weighed down by the burden of his responsibilities, and he didn’t have time to react until the threat was already upon him.

  He felt the blow, hard and fast, and his knees buckled under the force. His arm shot out instinctively, bracing himself against the glass wall, and reflected in the shiny surface, Sadie’s unhuman face looked back at him as she drew back her arm to deliver a follow-up blow to the back of his skull.

  Even as his training kicked in and Dane was ducking and rolling away from the threat, he was aware of the revulsion he felt at the unnatural sight of the robotic Attendant advancing upon him. The burst of pain was still reverberating inside his head, ricocheting messages for help from the tiny nerve endings to his brain. The pain screamed so loud that it took all his will power to ignore it, pack it away and fight to survive.

  He scrambled forward, at a disadvantage on his hands and feet, but his squat position kept him out of Sadie’s arm’s reach as she advanced upon him. He bounced back to his feet, angled to face her head on and, picturing Cami in his mind’s eye, he launched himself forward, elbows tucked, throwing punches in quick succession.

  It happened so quickly that it was only as Dane rained down blows against the family helper that he saw the heavy, metal bar in her hands. He registered something, warm and tacky, blood, pooling around the collar of his jacket and he fought the urge to touch his wound. He pushed on with the blows. The dangerous tool in her hands enough motivation for Dane to give one-hundred-percent. The force knocked her backwards and he kept pushing forward, desperate to knock her to the ground and gain space to think ahead to his next move.

  The first few punches had the advantage of adrenaline and fresh muscle, but he felt his power lessening as he kept up the defensive attack.

  Think.

  He paused, and in that split second, Sadie was back on top. Unphased by the assault, she drew the bar in a semi-circle through the air and Dane darted backwards, the weapon whistling ineffectively in front of him. She kept moving and he retreated, facing her, breathing heavy. His hand fumbled for Rose’s gun and he managed to free it, sliding backwards, now into the main living area. He pulled a chair as he passed it, forming a barricade between himself and the maniac Attendant.

  Dane held the stun-gun high against his chest, quickly lining it up against the Artificial and flicking the switch to “stun”. He felt the kick of the discharge in his hand and the air between them buzzed with the tell-tale sign of the current. Dane’s target sizzled, but she kept moving forward undeterred, the metal bar brandished, high and ready.

  Dane felt a wave of nausea as pure terror began to outweigh the adrenaline. The seat was between them still, and Dane grabbed at the back of it, flipping it up and outwards, like an olde-worlde lion-tamer, pushing towards the beast. The bar sliced through the air, cracking and splintering the reinforced-Perspex seat as if it were firewood. Sweat was flowing freely like the blood from his head now, and Dane backed up, with just the useless remnants of the chair between him and his attacker.

  Sadie sliced the bar through the air, oblivious to the jagged shards jutting between them, and Dane pushed the chair forward at her chest with all his might, aiming to penetrate through the layer of fabric and prosthetics to the hardware beneath.

  He felt only resistance as the shards snapped uselessly against her chest. The weapon whizzed past his face as he twisted and turned on the spot, desperate to escape another blow. His reserves were rapidly depleting, and he knew he could only match her strength for so long.

  Even as he moved, effortlessly repeating Neha’s fancy footwork to dodge and duck the blows, he pictured his family on the pavement below. If Sadie didn’t finish them off, the chances of the explosion killing them was high. Failure was not an option.

  Dane felt a fresh surge of adrenaline, fuelled by the rage and the terror of not being able to protect his family. It came from somewhere primal and deep within him and as he flew forward, he was conscious of a guttural roar from his own chest as he grabbed hold of the bar, wrenching it from the hands of the killing machine in front of him.

  He was running on pure instinct now, but somewhere at the back of his mind, he was relying on the training, heavily embedded from his time in the wilderness. He anticipated the resistance as his hands snatched up the bar, mid-swing, and he loosened his grip, feeling the Attendant stumble as he did. Without missing a beat, he swept his legs out, catching her mid-step and simultaneously shattering the remnants of the chair, which splintered across the room.

  Sadie lost balance but did not fall. He hadn’t expected her too, but he was ready. He had a firm hold of the bar and he used her loss of traction to rip it fully from her grip. In his hands, it was heavy, and he didn’t lose a minute before he had brought it forward, holding it shorter than Sadie had, and beating down upon her. The blows were hard, and he knew he needed to knock her to the ground.

  Without the bar, she was grabbing at him, but he was moving quickly. He remembered how effortlessly Cami had pulled Seraphine into submission and he kept up the assault, knowing that his life depended on it.

  He could feel himself tiring as they danced around each other. Him, knocking her backwards with his blows, her, advancing after every blow, never tiring.

  He needed her to kick out, he realised, as he lengthened his grip on the bar, needing to distance himself from her reach. He couldn’t knock her down with force, he would need to tip her off balance.

  He aimed a kick to her knees, hoping to trigger some kind of reaction from her, and he felt her hand skim his ankle as she grabbed for it instinctively. He pulled back and delivered a sharp blow with his boot to her abdomen, but she barely flinched, and suddenly it was him that was arcing backwards through the air.

  He stumbled, barely managing to keep his balance, but found himself several feet away now, almost level with the door to the hallway. Instead of following up on her attack, Sadie had paused where she was standing and was reaching for something.

  Dane saw her hand close around the black object on the ground and he felt his heart stop dead in his chest. He had dropped the stun-gun, he realised with ice-cold horror.

  He looked around him hopelessly for an escape route, despite knowing that there was none. The elevator light blinked. He didn’t think his fear could escalate any further than seeing his own death, but the arrival of a sibling, innocently looking to see what was taking him so long, sent the terror screaming through every nerve.

  Sadie drew the gun level with her chest and smiled her disarming, default smile as she clicked the sw
itch. Dane was already moving. The moment he had seen that light, he had thrown himself, not away from the Artificial and her weapon, but at her.

  Even as he launched himself at her, Dane wondered at the technology that could render someone so human yet so unnatural at the same time. He felt a flicker of a shock as the beam connected, but it was mild. Not what he had braced himself for. It was over as his body crashed into the Artificial and they both fell to the ground. His burly weight too much for even the robust machine. The bar, the stun-gun, they both clattered to the ground, but Dane had no time to grapple for them as Sadie recovered instantly and made a grab for his throat.

  Dane was aware of the whirr of the door and a shout from behind, but the lifelike hands were at his throat now and he felt them tightening. He struggled under the vice-like grip, but even his brute strength was no match for the machine.

  He felt his lungs start to constrict and he knew that she was winning.

  Please let them get away. He prayed as he felt the life start to ebb from his body. He knew he was just seconds from passing out from the lack of oxygen. Let my death be their head start, he chanted to himself in his final seconds.

  He felt himself growing weaker, lights dancing before his eyes and just as he felt his body unable to struggle against the iron grip any longer, he felt the grasp loosen. Instinctively, his body forced him to gasp for air. Filling up the lungs that had been left choked and empty.

  The Attendant fell away from him, but he barely noticed, scrambling to his knees gasping for the sweet oxygen, his heart beating hard in his chest.

  “Dane!”

  He turned towards the voice, and through the haze, he saw Teonie. Her face clouded with fear and concern as she dropped to her knees next to him.

  In her hand, she held the tech-blocker that she had created and stolen. Dane felt his body flood with relief and gratitude at the sight of his angelic-faced friend.

  Seeing that he was ok, she sprang into action. He watched, uselessly, as she ripped off the left boot of the still Artificial, frantically pulling away the drive from inside her.

  “Are you ok?” She asked as he pulled himself back to his feet.

  He nodded gratefully.

  “Thanks to you.”

  She allowed him a half-smile. “You’re welcome.”

  “We need to get out of here.” He said, gathering up the dropped items.

  “Come on,” She took the medical box from him and slipped her free hand into his. “Let’s go!”

  TWENTY-ONE

  Teonie had “acquired” a small self-piloting air-capsule. How, she refused to disclose and the group of seven squashed into the vehicle that had only been built for four.

  Teonie’s brother, Rico, was fifteen, but was already skimming six-foot, towering above his older sister. They shared the same sharp blue eyes, contrasting sharply against their tan skin and as Dane watched him, chatting away in a carefree manner, he wondered how much Teonie had told him about the danger they were in.

  There were two benches running parallel along the walls of the air-capsule and, no sooner were they squeezed into the craft, Teonie had made the command and they were soaring into the skies above Ridge Falls.

  “Where are we going?” Norah asked excitedly, peering through the glass bottom of the vehicle.

  Teonie, knees pressed against Dane’s as they sat opposite each other and to the front of the capsule, looked sharply at Dane, unsure of how much or how little they already knew.

  Dane grimaced in response, non-verbally communicating to his friend that he had said nothing to the children. Teonie’s eyes travelled over the passengers, from Rose to Tommy and Norah before finally settling on Alyssa, who was staring ahead vacantly. Dane followed her gaze, feeling embarrassed at her lack of social etiquette, despite Teonie’s insistence that this was the medication.

  “Are your parents going to be ok?” Dane asked Teonie quietly when the children had started up an excited stream of chatter as the capsule swooped past the fake mountain trails.

  Teonie shrugged, but he could see the worry in her eyes.

  “Turns out they’re more involved in this than I realised,” She admitted quietly. “They’re the ones pressing me to run now.”

  She tilted her head to one side, lifting her hair away from her neck, flashing Dane a glimpse of the bandage covering the site where a microchip should be buried beneath the skin.

  Dane glanced over at Rico, noticing for the first time a tell-tale white sliver visible over the collar of his jacket.

  “We need to do the same.” Dane remembered.

  Teonie nodded her head. “We will. I’ve set the coordinates to land quickly and dump the chips and your devices in a container. I thought we could put it in the river, maybe buy us some time sending anyone in the wrong direction.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Dane felt the dread return as Norah chirped into their conversation. She wriggled past Alyssa, forcing her to slide down the bench to make room for her to sit next to Dane.

  Teonie and Dane looked to each other nervously.

  “We’re just talking about how we need to get rid of these chips,” Dane took a deep breath and decided to keep as close to the truth as possible. “See like my friend Teonie has?”

  Teonie flicked her hair up to show Norah her bandage.

  Norah peered at the back of Teonie’s neck for a moment.

  “Did it hurt?”

  Teonie shook her head quickly. “No, of course not. Rico’s had his done too.”

  Norah and Tommy both looked towards their new friend Rico who gave them both a glimpse of his own bandage alongside a reassuring thumbs-up.

  “What for?” Norah continued her line of investigation.

  “Because we don’t need them anymore.” Teonie replied confidently.

  “Why?” Norah tilted her head to one side, absently winding a blonde curl around her finger.

  “We just don’t.” Rose cut her off with a warning tone and Dane shot her a look of gratitude, before patting Norah’s knee reassuringly.

  The air-capsule announced their upcoming descent and the craft made a turn towards the border of a town south of Ridge Falls. The children pressed their faces against the window as they glided silently to the ground.

  Teonie took the lead, hopping out of the craft and getting straight to work with the medical kit.

  “Good call on bringing this,” She said to Dane. “Our chips and wrist-devices are currently heading North on my parents’ instructions.”

  “So, they’re involved?” Dane referred back to her earlier comment now that they were out in the open and could move away from the group.

  Teonie nodded her head. “They had suspicions after everything that happened with Gia’s brother all those years ago. It’s not just us. They’ve met up with some people who are related to “the list”. It’s looking pretty serious.”

  “How serious?”

  Teonie had been digging through the box of medical supplies and she found what she needed, turning back to face Dane.

  “There are pockets of protesters all across the country,” She said seriously. “It’s only a matter of time before this gets out.”

  “If other people know,” Dane considered what she was saying for a moment. “Then do we really need to leave? If it’s public knowledge, we’re not threats anymore, surely?”

  Teonie sighed. “If only. All the more reason to wipe out anyone who knows.”

  Dane fell silent and watched as she snapped a pair of medical gloves onto her hands.

  “We need to be quick,” She warned him. “We’ve got no guarantee of what time the tech-out will go ahead. I’ve thought about what you said, and the best I can do is send out a public warning. We can only hope that will scare the powers-that-be off from going ahead with it.”

  “Norah,” Dane called his youngest sibling over. “Let Teonie take your chip out.”

  Teonie hid the scalpel as Norah approached, looking a little pale
and uncertain.

  “Can someone else go first?” She asked nervously.

  “I will.” Rose stepped up bravely, flipping her hair over one shoulder and turning her back to Teonie.

  Teonie angled her body, obscuring Norah’s view. She swiped a numbing wipe across the site, made a quick incision, wriggled a chip free and covered the wound with a bandage.

  “Rico, bag the chip.” She called, holding out one hand to her brother.

  Rico fumbled for a small envelope and she dropped the rod into it easily.

  “See,” Rose smiled broadly at Tommy and Norah. “That was easy, wasn’t it?”

  “Dane next.” Norah said suspiciously.

  Dane turned his back to Teonie, and she finished sterilising the scalpel and got to work. Dane fought the urge to grimace at the sensation of the metal piercing his flesh. He met Rose’s gaze, surprised at how she had endured the operation with no physical reaction. She flashed him a smug grin, as if she could read his mind and he couldn’t help but smile back at her.

  “See,” Tommy nudged his wide-eyed sister. “It’s fine. They’re smiling.”

  Tommy went next, and Dane felt a surge of fraternal pride as the boy tolerated the removal without complaint, smiling reassuringly at Norah.

  As Norah took up her position trustingly, they all watched on anxiously. Norah squirmed at the point of incision, narrowing her eyes at Tommy as if it were his fault.

  “Stay still,” Teonie called out brightly as Norah jerked away slightly. “That’s the worst bit. Nearly done!”

  Norah did as she was told, and Dane watched on helplessly as her eyes filled with brave tears. He stepped forward, taking her hands in his for the remainder of the procedure. When it was over, they rewarded Norah with cheers and praise.