by Ken Barrett
“Yeah, who isn’t?” He walked to the entrance and pressed his ear to the door. “I can hear them moving around downstairs. It sounds like some of the strangers from yesterday are still here and they’re fighting back.”
“Hammers against modern weapons? That’s foolish,” Rose stated as she unconsciously tightened her grip on Becky’s metal club.
“Desperation makes idiots of us all,” he replied. The rattle of gun fire shook the building and jangled their nerves. In the immediate aftermath of the one-sided fight, he heard screams of fear and pain. Moments later the clatter began again and when it ceased only silence remained. Rose gazed at him with eyes wide with fear, and he reached out and took her hand.
“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Tears wound lazy paths down her dusty cheeks.
There was nothing he could say in response. They stood close together and waited for whatever was coming for them; maybe that was all anyone can ever do. The building trembled beneath their feet as soldiers tore through the floors below them, guns rattled, doors splintered, and people screamed in desperate fear, as death marched ever closer.
“What can we do brother?” Rose beseeched.
Was there an answer to her question? No. “Just wait I guess,” he said at last, then pulled his sister close and held her.
The hallway outside their door thundered under the tread of many heavy feet. More doors were smashed as the soldiers gleefully destroyed everything in their path. Finally, someone began pounding at the entrance to their sanctuary. Liam started to move toward the door, but Rose wouldn’t leave his side.
“We have nothing to lose,” he whispered, and then in a louder voice he continued, “We’re friends of Keith! Keith Johnson; we’re waiting for him.” The pounding continued, and he wondered if his trembling voice was loud enough to be heard by those outside. “We’re unarmed and waiting for Keith!” he shouted.
A moment later the steel door exploded into shrapnel under the sudden onslaught of railgun fire. The projectiles ripped through the room, tearing into Liam and Rose’s chests and throwing them violently backward.
Shockingly, there wasn’t any pain. He stared up at the ceiling as intruders stormed into the room, then turned his head and met the gaze of his sister. “We’ll meet again in other lives.”
“In other worlds,” she answered.
“In other times,” they whispered in unison.
A mind-numbing hum invaded his thoughts, as darkness swirled about and claimed them.
Chapter 25: Refuge
They were nothing, but could something that was nothing speculate about itself? It didn’t matter. There was a fluid sort of ease that came from nonexistence that was like being buoyed on a warm and fathomless sea. Utterly relaxed and at peace, their minds spread upon the waters, wandering with whatever current came their way, drifting without destination. Love and hate were in harmony, as were life and death.
The other separated as she often did. She was the sensitive and adventurous one, always eager to engage and explore. He on the other hand was the analytic yet cautious half of their common soul. Even when separated they remained one.
He rested, giving up and sharing his experiences with the vast ocean of consciousness. His past life had been interesting and he had gained much, but now he relaxed and let it all go, washed away to become part of the sea. His sister was urging him to return with her, but he was completely content and reluctant to leave. Where one half went the other must follow though, an experience is only complete when viewed through the opposing eyes of the same soul.
With a tiny regret, he left the peaceful ocean behind and let himself rise up toward awareness again. Coming home after an arduous life journey was always a joy, but to leave is to return. He opened his eyes.
*****
“He’s coming back online.” A sturdily built older woman leaned over and stared down at him. She had a familiar face with dark brown eyes and wavy auburn hair.
“Did his repair system finally kick in?” A younger woman with long black hair was looking over the other woman’s shoulder. She was very pretty, and also familiar.
“Too well,” the older woman said. Roxi, that was her name; she was Rose’s foster mother and had worked as a physicist at the university. “Damn! I’ve lost external control. The android has taken over, just like the sister did. They’re both autonomous now.”
“What does that mean?” The younger woman was Denise, Rose’s foster-sister. He smiled as pleasant memories of her wandered through his mind.
“It means they can modify their internal functions to gain abilities, and we can’t do a damned thing about it.”
Rose sat on the floor beside him curiously looking about the room. “Where’s Keith? He was supposed to be here.”
“Hello Rose,” He sat up and looked at his sister.
She turned toward him and smiled. “Death was interesting, wasn’t it?”
He grinned in return. “Yeah, it was nice; I wanted to stay longer.”
“Oh no,” Rose said. “There’s far too much to experience and explore. If we sleep all the time we’ll miss everything.”
Liam looked down at his chest. His gray socialist shirt was torn to bloody shreds, and yet his skin was completely unmarked. “That’s weird,” he said.
“You always say that,” Roxi said, inserting herself into their conversation. “Your injuries shutdown all your systems, but the reboot fired up diagnostic routines and your repair systems came back online.” The older woman grunted while pulling herself up off her knees, she then stepped back and collapsed into a chair. “That’s one heck of an autonomic process you guys designed for yourselves.”
He frowned. “Wait… I always say what?”
“Every time you wake up after dying you say the experience was weird,” she replied. “Your memories haven’t fully reloaded yet, so you’re probably feeling a little confused.”
“So, we’ve died before?” Rose asked.
The older woman issued a long sigh. “Of course; you both have; you said it was necessary to test your systems. You see the designer of you, was you. What I mean is, they were earlier instances of yourselves; call them version 3.0.”
Rose stared blankly at the older woman. “I don’t understand; are you actually telling us that there were three previous forms of ourselves? How can that be?”
Roxi pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes, yes – that’s exactly what I’m saying. I wish you’d store the memory of what you are in that old tin bucket on your shoulders.”
“Not tin,” Liam mumbled. “Regenerative Polybenzimidazole.”
“Yes, exactly that. I guess you’ve kept something in that tangled batch of crystals you call a brain,” Roxi replied. “Liam, you designed and built your minds, enhancing your ability to think and reason with each iteration. And Rose, you created your autonomic system, giving you both the ability to self-repair, as well as feel empathy and emotion.”
She shook her head with an expression of exasperated disbelief. “Anyway, it was John, the man you both remember as Liam’s foster father, that helped me design the early structures of your body – but that was before you split into two separate personalities. We never understood how or why you did that.”
“Ok, so we had earlier lives. How old are we really?” Rose asked.
“The first iteration of you both was actually a single individual, who insisted we call it ‘Avery’. That was about ten years ago. About three years on, Avery built another form of itself then inexplicitly just shut down one day. That version, 2.0 if you will, called itself ‘Bailey’, and seemed to be more female than Avery did. Bailey then built two androids to replace it. Those were the first binary renditions of yourselves, one male and one female, named Mark and Susan.”
“So, I guess we were never in Fort Collins?” Rose asked.
“Oh, heavens no,” the older woman said. “Fort Collins was destroyed by one of the northern Tribes… maybe 60 years ago. Your previous selves gave you tha
t memory; they said it was important to form the bond between you.”
“So, what I don’t understand is, why did we make up all those fake memories? Why pretend to be something that we’re not?” Rose asked.
“It was something that Susan insisted on.” Roxi sighed. “If Mary were here she could probably answer your questions better than me. But I do recall her saying that the desire to fit into a society and be accepted and appreciated was one of the core motivations of the human condition. That’s all psycho-babble to me though.” She leaned back in her chair. “I think you both just wanted to be like everyone else, and not thought of as freaks or something different that would be ridiculed and excluded.”
Lisa was standing at the far side of the computer lab with her children huddled behind her. “So, Liam and Rose aren’t real?” she asked.
“Of course they’re real,” Roxi responded. “They’re both aware, conscious, and just as alive as anyone else, they’re just made of different stuff.”
Rose smiled at the children. “I’m so happy to see that you guys are ok.” She then looked down at her torn clothing and crossed her arms over her exposed breasts. “Oh! I need a new shirt.”
“Don’t worry honey,” Roxi said. “New uniforms are coming for each of you. You’ll be dressed like members of the Tribes, that way there won’t be any questions or trouble.”
“I saw blood,” Suzy whispered. “Why are you ok now?”
Roxi smiled. “Oh, what little dolls you and your sister are! Well you see, Liam and Rose have special powers that help them heal really fast. They’ll also live a really, really long time.”
“Bob Lyall’s batteries,” Liam stated.
“Yes, exactly that,” the older woman responded. “You also have a regenerative system built into your digestive tract.”
“Will Liam and Rose always be here to take care of us?” Sally asked.
Rose nodded at the children. “Yes, we will.” She then frowned as she looked about the room. “But where’s Keith? He was supposed to be here to save us.”
*****
At last attired in green and disguised as members of the Tribal Army, they walked through the blood and wreckage the invaders had left behind within their building. It was worse than he imagined. Most of the interior walls were scarred from railgun fire. There were bodies too; dismembered arms, legs, and even heads lay cast about like the discarded pieces of a broken doll. He saw the upper half of the frizzy haired blonde woman that was among those that had chased him into the basement just a few days earlier; everything below her waist was gone.
In the lobby, the walls were canted, burned, and riddled with holes. The receptionist desk lay in scattered burning pieces, and the beautiful paintings that once adorned the walls were on fire. Their feet made squishing sounds as they made their way across the torn and blood-soaked carpeting.
Once outside, he lifted his face to the daylight and took a deep breath of the still smoky air; the city smelled like death. When he turned to look back, he saw that Lisa was covering the eyes of her children as they emerged from the ruin. The exterior of the building was in even worse shape than the interior. The east side of the structure was mostly gone, and what little remained standing was pockmarked from rocket and railgun fire; the crumbling building wouldn’t be standing for much longer.
“Well, we made it,” Rose said as she appeared at his side.
He laid his arm over her shoulders. “I guess so,” he said. “You know, I really could have used that auto-repair feature when the Nurse was torturing me; why didn’t it work?”
“Bob and I turned it off,” Roxi said as she arrived beside his sister. “That was on the last night we were with you during the long walk down here.”
“Why’d you do that?” Rose asked.
“Well, you were initially designed to be a soldier for Pike City, and the ability to heal yourself was part of the contract,” Roxi said. “But during the long walk we realized that you both had to be left behind, and to stay hidden you had to appear human, so we turned your repair systems off.”
“That’s why Liam’s leg never healed,” Rose said.
“Yes, exactly,” Roxi replied. “But now you’ve both taken control away from us. I guess you’re all grown up and ready to be on your own now.”
“But what happened, why aren’t we soldiers?” Liam asked.
“Well, the contract was to build a mindless warrior; something that would be fearless, kill without mercy, and follow orders without question. The problem was that no matter what we tried, you refused to do any of what our customer demanded and rejected any command that would hurt others. John and I started calling Avery ‘the teenager’ because you were so damned uncooperative. It was right about then we realized that you were alive and sentient. The first clue was when you started lying to us.”
Rose frowned. “Is lying a sign of consciousness?”
“As it turns out, yes. A creature that isn’t self-aware would never have a reason to lie.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Rose said.
Roxi smiled as tears lined the edges of her eyes. “You know, I think you’ve both evolved into something that’s better than us. You won’t kill or harm anyone without reason, you’re guided by empathy and compassion for others, and will even sacrifice yourself for their sake. You’re both the human ideal, everything that we pretend to be, you already are.”
Denise joined their group just then, and lightly touched his sister’s arm. “You remember me, don’t you?”
Rose smiled and the two women embraced. “Yes, of course I do. I’ve missed you. Where’d you go?”
“I missed you too,” Denise said. “Keith planned for Bob, Roxi, and I to escape on the way down here. They wanted me because I know a lot about hydroponics; and Roxi and Bob were taken because they needed technical help for their big project.”
“What kind of project?” Liam asked.
“We’re getting ready to survive the end of the world,” Denise answered.
“The Tribes have had spies inside NOAA for a long time,” Roxi added. “And with Flatiron’s help they’re prepared to survive the solar storm.”
He frowned. “How?”
“Underground cities up in the mountains,” the older woman said.
Denise smiled and leaned in to give him a warm hug. “I’m so relieved that you’ll be there with us Liam.”
He gently touched Denise’s cheek, then turned to the rest of their little group. “I think it’s about time we got out of here, don’t you?”
Denise stepped away but still held his hand. “You know, I’ve always had a huge crush on you.”
“You could care for a machine… a robot?” he asked.
“No, but I might come to love a person,” she answered. “I’ve known what you are the whole time, and it took me a while, but I’ve come to terms with it. What you’re made of doesn’t matter nearly as much as who you really are.”
He smiled in response. In truth he had always felt the attraction as well, but the timing never seemed to work out. He even made a carving of her face back when they were still living in Flatiron City. “Oh,” he replied finally, feeling uncomfortable and unsure of what more he should say.
“I guess we should get going,” Denise said, then together they all walked north toward the city gate.
*****
They saw Keith just as they entered the besieging army’s camp. He stood at the side of the muddy road looking bedraggled and as if he were lost with nowhere to go. Rose strode angrily toward him. “Where the hell were you?” she shouted in a voice that if raised just an octave farther would have shattered glass. “We were waiting for you! We sent messages begging you to come for us; you should have been there.”
Keith stepped back and defensively held up his hands. “I was there, I swear I was!” He trembled as he looked away. “I couldn’t handle it; there was so much blood, I thought you were dead.”
Rose stepped toward him while shaking her finger und
er his nose. “Well, I guess you were wrong!”
As he watched his sister argue, Liam leaned over to whisper into Denise’s ear. “She’s just like our mother used to be, she’d get so angry at our dad...” He suddenly frowned. “Oh… well maybe that never happened. It’s weird, I have a tangle of memories stuck in my head that aren’t real.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll sort it out,” Denise answered. “Rose and Keith will be fine too. She’s just venting a little.”
“A little?”
“I’ve seen your sister get really wound up,” she replied. “This is nothing, believe me.”
Rose’s tirade continued. “So, just a little blood and you run away? Tell me, how am I supposed to count on you for anything after this?” She stepped forward with her finger still waving erratically. “How? How am I supposed to do that Keith? You ran away when I needed you the most.”
Liam leaned toward Denise again. “Does Keith know what we are?”
“Probably not.”
“Should I say something?”
Denise just lifted her shoulders and raised her eyebrows in response.
He took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Sis… Keith doesn’t know what we are.”
Rose’s head spun toward him with her eyes wide with fury, but then she suddenly relaxed. “Oh! You don’t know, do you?”
Keith seemed glad for the respite, but still looked bewildered. “Know what? You were dead… more than dead, and I don’t understand how you’re here now.” He closed his eyes and shuttered. “I should have gotten to you sooner. I wasn’t there when you needed me, and the railguns had torn you apart. I couldn’t handle it and I just ran away like a coward.” He reached out beseechingly. “I’m so sorry.”
Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and lay her head against his chest. “I’m sorry too,” she whispered. “You didn’t know, so it’s not your fault.”
“Didn’t know what?” Keith seemed happy to not be yelled at any longer, but was confused by Rose’s sudden change in mood.
She stepped back and looked him squarely in the face. “I’m not like you. My brother and I aren’t like anyone else.” She nodded toward a battered white truck that sat unattended a little further down the road. “We’re machines, manufactured just like that old thing over there.” She took both his hands in hers. “When I was shot, my body automatically repaired itself. I can’t be hurt and may never grow old and die. So, you see, strictly speaking, Liam and I are not exactly human.”