“I can’t believe we made it!” I said.
Kate nodded, smiling tightly at me, but not saying anything. The kids were asleep again, and I guessed she didn’t want to wake them.
While we waited, snow began to fall in fat, tumbling flakes that stuck to the windshield, blocking my view. I turned on the wipers. This wasn’t the first time we’d had to deal with snow along the way. It took an hour for us to reach the bridge, and by the time we did, I saw why. There were dozens of soldiers and their vehicles parked up ahead, restricting the flow of traffic into the city. Cars were pulled off the side of the interstate, being searched by soldiers. Whole families and lone travelers alike stood around, shivering in the snow as the soldiers rifled through their belongings.
Another half hour passed, and we were down to a quarter tank. If this kept up we’d have to shut off the engine and re-fuel. But then the last two cars ahead of us rolled through the road block. Corporal West’s Humvee stopped at the road block. I saw him lean out to speak with a soldier there. I hoped we wouldn’t have to submit to a search because we were traveling with him.
West leaned farther out to point at us. One of the soldiers came over and I lowered my window. Falling snow swept in with a blast of frigid air.
“Hello,” I said.
“You need to pull over and submit to a search.” He pointed to the side of the road.
“Sure thing.” I nodded agreeably and smiled as I pulled over, but my heart was thumping hard in my chest. What would they say when they found OneZero in the back?
I had a bad feeling our robot guardian was about to be seized by the military, and I was pretty sure that this time he wasn’t going to play dead.
Chapter 48
April 28th, 12:34 AM
4 DAYS BEFORE THE ROGUE’S ARRIVAL
“What the hell are you doing with that?” the corporal searching our truck demanded.
“It’s deactivated.” I pointed to the damage Harry had done with his shotgun when we’d first encountered OneZero. “I thought we could learn something from it.”
“You can’t take it into the city,” the man replied. “It’s a secure area.”
Falling snow was landing in my hair and accumulating. I struggled to come up with an excuse to keep the robot with us.
Meanwhile, the corporal waved a few more soldiers over. I peered around the back of our truck looking for Corporal West. He was standing outside his Humvee, talking with one of the other soldiers. He saw me just as another two men came jogging over. “Corporal!” I called out. “Could you come here for a second?”
He arrived just as the one searching our truck ordered his subordinates to climb into the back and pull OneZero out.
“Is something wrong here?” West asked the other corporal.
“Nothing wrong. We’re seizing illegal assets, including this Screecher.”
“Hold on,” West said. “I’m under orders to deliver it to General Harris of the 29th Infantry.”
I blinked, wondering if it was true. Maybe West had made radio contact with one of his superiors on the way over from Oklahoma?
The corporal searching us took West aside and they talked in private for a minute while I stood shivering in the dark with snow melting in my hair. The two soldiers who’d been ordered to pull OneZero out hadn’t climbed in yet, but they were watching him with knitted brows and gloved hands flexing on their rifles. Thankfully, OneZero hadn’t so much as twitched. Somehow I knew he was watching and listening, but I doubted he understood any of what was happening.
A third soldier came over, and I suspected from the way the two corporals deferred to him that he was in charge. The three of them conferred for a minute before striding over to me.
“How did you come by this piece of hardware?” the one in charge asked. I noticed an extra chevron on his upper sleeve and realized that he was a sergeant. The crows feet around his squinting eyes made me think he was about my age.
I sucked in a frigid breath and briefly recounted the story of how we’d found OneZero in the ruins of Harry’s old home. But instead of describing the encounter as it had actually happened, I said we’d found him lying motionless in the rubble.
“What made you think to load it up and carry it across the border?”
“I thought it might be useful for our side to study.”
The sergeant grunted. “Maybe so, but hopefully having it in our custody doesn’t violate the cease fire. Either way, I suppose it’s too late now. We’ll have to move it to Corporal West’s vehicle.”
My heart sank, but I nodded. I felt bad for OneZero, but there wasn’t anything I could do. For the first time I wondered what he’d been hoping to accomplish by joining us on this trip. Surely he’d known that there was a chance he’d become a prisoner once we crossed the Screechers’ border.
West nodded to me, and the other corporal motioned for his soldiers to get in the back of our truck. “Search it while you’re in there.”
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.
The sergeant nodded to me before turning and walking back to a green tent behind the road block.
I watched as soldiers pulled clothes out of our luggage, rifled through cases of food and water, and unfurled our sleeping bags. Finally they found the wooden box full of guns and ammo that I’d hidden under all of that other gear. One of the two soldiers retrieved an impressive hunting rifle and held it up for his corporal to see.
“They’ve got a case full of guns and ammo, sir.”
The corporal turned to me, and I noticed a name patch peeking out from under the butt of his rifle. Johnson. He had a square jaw and a mean look in his eyes. “Who are you delivering those guns to?” he demanded.
“No one,” I protested, shaking my head. “Those are for our protection.”
“Not anymore. Bring them out,” he added, waving to his men.
West slowly shook his head, as if disappointed in me. He probably thought he’d already confiscated all of our guns when he took my M16 and Harry’s shotgun.
Once the soldiers had our case of guns on the ground, Corporal Johnson ordered his men to get everyone out and search them and the rest of the truck. Johnson patted me down himself. I’d left my Beretta in the side door on the driver’s side. The soldiers found it and the spare magazines in the glove box. They also lifted the back seat and found the hidden storage box underneath. They ordered me to open it with my keys. I did so, revealing my laptop bag and Alex’s, along with a shotgun and two more pistols. They took the weapons, but left our laptop bags alone. I wished I’d thought to hide a gun in one of them. Moving on, the soldiers searched Harry’s SUV, coming up with another handgun—a Smith and Wesson, and two more rifles.
By now, I couldn’t feel my toes or my fingers. Rachel started to cry and complain about the cold, even though she was wearing thicker gloves than I. Picking her up, I held her close to keep her warm and quiet her sobbing. She promptly fell asleep against my shoulder, making it impossible to put her back down. My arms and back began to ache. She was a lot heavier than she used to be.
Alex went over to speak with Celine, while Harry and Deborah oversaw the search of their vehicle. I heard Deborah complaining loudly as the soldiers unpacked her bags and made a general mess of things.
Finally, Corporals Johnson and West returned.
“Get the Screecher out,” Johnson said to his men; to me, he added, “You’re cleared to enter Memphis. You have a place to stay?”
“We do,” I lied, keeping half an eye on the soldiers as they dropped my tailgate and began removing containers of fuel to get better access to OneZero.
“Then I suggest you head there without stopping,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of unrest in the city right now.”
I nodded slowly, wondering what that meant. Grunting noises drew my attention to the soldiers in the back of the truck, and I watched them struggling to drag OneZero out by his feet. Cursing loudly, they gave up after moving him just a couple of inches.
�
��Sir, it’s too heavy.”
“Put your backs into it!”
“We’re trying, sir.”
Johnson shot an accusing look at me before climbing in and grabbing a foot. The three of them heaved and cursed, dragging OneZero out one inch at a time. Corporal West reached in to help them as they got to the tail gate. Kate and I backed away to give them space. They yanked OneZero out and he fell on the side of the road with a loud thunk. Rachel woke up with a start and looked around with wide eyes.
“Daddy?” she asked, sounding confused.
“Shhh,” I whispered in her ear.
She popped her thumb in her mouth and laid her head back against my shoulder.
“How the hell did you get that bastard in there?” Johnson asked.
My back spasmed painfully, and I was forced to put Rachel down. She stood beside me holding my hand and sucking her thumb. She saw OneZero’s limp body, and I braced myself, thinking that she would say that OneZero had climbed into the back of our truck all by himself. What would that make us? Guilty of collusion with the enemy?
I shrugged and gestured vaguely to Harry and his family. “We all helped.”
Johnson glanced at them, then back at me, his eyes pinching into suspicious slits.
Rachel tugged on my arm. “Dad, what’s OneZ—” I squeezed her hand so hard that the bones ground together. Rachel cried out and yanked her hand away from me. “Owww!”
“Are you okay, honey?” I asked, as if confused by her reaction. I dropped to my haunches in front of her, taking the opportunity to give her an urgent look. There’d be time for apologies later.
Rachel rubbed her hand and scowled at me.
Kate caught on. “Come sweetheart, let’s leave Daddy to talk to the soldiers.” She led Rachel away, and I straightened to regard Corporal Johnson once more.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
“She’ll be fine. She hurt her hand the other day.”
“You were saying about how you got the Screecher into your truck...?”
“There’s six of us, not counting my daughter,” I explained. “We managed to lift him in together.”
Johnson seemed to accept that. He called for assistance over his radio, and I noticed that it took exactly six soldiers to lift OneZero and carry him into the back of Corporal West’s Humvee. They were probably a lot stronger than us, but thankfully Johnson didn’t come back over to question us again.
Kate and Rachel got back into the truck while I re-packed our luggage and containers of fuel, securing them with ratchet straps. By the time I was done, my extremities were all stinging with pins and needles, and I was shivering uncontrollably.
Jumping down off the tail gate and landing on numb feet, I waved Alex over and called out to Harry: “Let’s go!”
He nodded and gave me a mock salute. I went to speak with Corporal West while Alex climbed in. OneZero lay limp and folded up in the back of West’s Humvee. I wondered when he was going to decide to wake up—or could he? Maybe he was out of juice. I supposed that would be better for him in the end. Best not to be awake when they dissected him and analyzed him for weaknesses.
Moving on, I walked up behind Corporal West. “I guess this is where we part ways.”
He turned from where he and Corporal Johnson were busy studying a map on the hood of his Humvee. West stuck out a hand. “It was a pleasure.”
I shook his hand, and nodded sideways to the truck. “Where are you taking the Screecher?”
“To General Harris of the 29th Infantry,” West replied in a dull voice.
“Right. I forgot. Well, see you around, Corporal.”
He nodded, and I saluted as I left. I climbed into the truck beside Kate and turned the engine on with a throaty roar. I hesitated with my eyes on the back of the Humvee.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I pulled out onto the interstate and rolled up to the boom blocking the bridge. Corporal Johnson waved us through, and I glanced in my rear-view mirror to see Harry rolling along behind us. The bridge was almost empty thanks to the road block tying up traffic, and we zipped across at forty-five miles per hour. I saw the lights of downtown Memphis. Skyscrapers peeled back the night with their lights. A giant glass pyramid gleamed at the end of the bridge, the sloping sides illuminated by bright spotlights.
I’d never been to Memphis, but the city looked inviting with all those lights. Now all we needed was to get lucky and find a hotel where we could spend the night.
“What do you think they’re going to do with him?” Kate asked.
“OneZero?”
She nodded.
“I don’t know. Probably crack him open and see what makes him tick.”
“He saved my life,” Kate said.
I looked at her. “He’s just a machine. Besides, there’s nothing I can do about it now. We need to focus on our own survival.”
A heavy silence fell following that statement.
“They’re not going to hurt him, are they?” Rachel asked.
“No, honey,” I said, shaking my head. “Robots don’t feel pain.”
“How do you know?”
“Because they don’t.”
“But how do you—”
“Honey, be quiet,” Kate said. “Daddy needs to concentrate.”
I took the off-ramp into downtown Memphis, and immediately saw what Corporal Johnson meant about unrest in the city. The streets below were literally on fire.
Chapter 49
We drove past the flaming wrecks of broken-down cars along the sides of the road. Shadowy clumps of pedestrians walked down the sidewalk on the river side of the street, and down railway tracks on the city side.
“Logan, lock the doors,” Kate said. Some of those shadows were glancing at us.
I hit the appropriate switch and all four doors locked. We came to an intersection and stopped at a red light. Beside us was a blue sign pointing right to the Welcome Center.
Just then, a pair of youngsters on bikes went racing through the intersection in front of us. One of them held a flaming bottle high in his hand. He threw it, and it exploded beside my door with an audible whoosh of flames. Kate and Rachel screamed.
“Logan!” Kate prompted.
I floored it through the intersection, narrowly missing one of the kids. Harry raced through after me. The truck bounced over something I didn’t see, our suspension rocking, and then I heard a loud thumping noise that sounded like it was coming from the back.
“What was that?” Kate whispered sharply.
I thought about the open tarp at the back, and wondered if someone had jumped in to raid our supplies while we were at the light. I cursed under my breath and grabbed my walkie-talkie.
“Harry, did you see anyone climb in the back of my truck?”
“No. Why? Over.”
I breathed a sigh. “We heard something, but it must have been some of our fuel containers breaking loose.”
“Must have been. We would have seen it if someone jumped in. If they had, though, I’m not sure what we could do about it without any guns. We need to find somewhere safe to spend the night. Over.”
“Copy that. Any ideas?” I asked, while scanning both sides of the road. To our right was a park with trees and benches along the Mississippi River. There were tents pitched in the snow-covered grass beneath those trees. We had tents and sleeping bags of our own, but I doubted that squatting in the park would be either warm enough or safe enough for us. To our left, the tops of skyscrapers peered down on us with the glowing names of banks and big companies.
“What about Beale Street?” Harry asked. “We’re bound to find hotels there.”
“I don’t know where that is.”
“Follow me,” Harry said, and pulled into the oncoming traffic lane to get ahead of me. I let him get by, and he promptly took the next left, heading away from the river toward a tower with a sign that read I bank at the top.
We drove down a street full of broken shop windows and dr
ifters warming their hands over garbage can fires. Rolling past the bank tower, Harry hung a right, and we rumbled past more broken windows and burnt-out cars. To my surprise, people had pitched tents along the sidewalks, too. Reaching the next intersection, we stopped for a red light, and I spotted a large building with a glowing red sign at the top.
The Peabody
That name clicked with some distant memory in my brain. This was a famous luxury hotel. I followed Harry through a left turn, drawing ugly looks from street-bound pedestrians standing on the corners watching us. Somehow we were the only cars on the street besides the scattering of wrecks we’d seen. What had happened to all the other vehicles who’d crossed the bridge ahead of us?
Maybe they never left the interstate, I reasoned.
Up ahead Harry stopped at the front doors of the Peabody Hotel. To my surprise those doors were guarded by four soldiers. Harry hopped out and spoke briefly to one of them before waving me over.
I got out and hurried over to him.
Harry explained, “They don’t have any rooms, but there’s space on the roof if we’re willing to pay.”
“On the roof?” That sounded just as cold as camping on the sidewalk. “How much?”
Harry nodded to one of the soldiers, deferring the question. “What’s the rate here?”
“One thousand per tent, per night.”
“What?” I thundered. “That’s insane!”
The soldier laughed darkly at me. “Why do you think there’s so many people camping on the streets?”
I was about to argue some more, but Harry grabbed my arm and shook his head. “Just for tonight. We’ve been driving for sixteen hours straight. At least we know it will be safe with these guys guarding the doors.”
I had the last twenty thousand dollars from our savings stashed under the seats, but this seemed like a stupid way to blow through it. “And what do we do with our cars?” I asked. “We can’t just leave them out here. You saw what happened to everyone else who parked on the street.”
The soldier who’d spoken a moment ago overheard our discussion. “There’s valet parking.”
Rogue Star_Frozen Earth_A Post-Apocalyptic Technothriller Page 23