Deleted

by Phoenix Ward

  “Sorry, sir,” she said. “What did you ask?”

  “Did you see anything else that could enlighten us about these fanatics?” he asked again. Annoyance crossed his features.

  “No, sir,” Tera replied. “Nothing that Officer Abenayo didn’t already comment on.”

  “Well, we need to learn something about these freaks,” the sergeant said. “The last thing we want is a bunch of slum dwellers all riled up because they’re afraid of some cult.”

  “There’s the matter of recruitment, as well,” Abenayo said. “We’ve seen some flyers for the group around the slums. No doubt a few people will come calling.”

  “Good point. We don’t want them surging their numbers. What do you recommend?”

  Tera looked over at the office’s door and thought she saw the cultist again, the slit in his throat expanding. She blinked, and he was gone.

  Either my eyes are malfunctioning, or I’m losing it, she thought.

  “We should start bringing in anyone known to associate with them,” Abenayo answered. “Any flyers, any announcements — we should be taking them all seriously.”

  “Should we bring in more officers to patrol the slums?” Tera spoke up. “To keep the people safe, I mean.”

  Abenayo and the sergeant looked at her with amused expressions before laughing. When they noticed she wasn’t joking, they quieted down.

  “We aren’t going to waste any resources on the fleshies, Officer Alvarez,” the sergeant said. “As long as we can keep people from panicking and indulging this cult, we should be fine.”

  “What if they perform another attack?” Tera wanted to know. She was clearly asking questions beyond her pay-grade, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “Then we will contain the mayhem and lock the attackers away,” the sergeant answered. “We’re not going to cry over a few slain humans.”

  “But, sir —” she started.

  “Alvarez, put it out of your mind,” Abenayo said. “If you know what’s good for you.”

  “She’s right,” the sergeant said to Tera. “Besides, you two are going to have your hands too full with other work to worry about it. In fact, there’s an important job I want you both on today.” He turned to Abenayo. “It will be a good learning experience for her.”

  Tera felt a little strange being spoken about as if she weren’t there.

  Abenayo nodded. “What’s the job?”

  “An eviction,” the sergeant replied. “It’ll take you to the ruins just outside of town. I need you to get moving soon, understand? And don’t forget to bring some gear — these ferals can be a little hard to remove.”

  “Yes, sir,” Abenayo said, rising to her feet. She looked down at the rookie. “Come on.”

  Tera pictured the man with the knife in his neck, seated across from her in the chair where the sergeant sat. Blinking, she was able to get the image out of her head. As if just woken from a trance, she rose slowly, then followed her partner.

  12

  Cattle

  “Why?” Ethan asked the strange man. “Why would they want to lobotomize me?”

  Gauge needed a moment to think of how to answer. “To understand that, you need to know the truth about the world out there. It’s kind of a long story.” He looked up at the tree limbs to make sure no one was hiding in them, just in case.

  “Then talk fast,” Ethan said. He wasn’t sure if he should trust the strange man. Even if it was risky, though, he needed an explanation.

  Gauge looked defeated as he took in a sharp breath. It was clear that Ethan wasn’t going to take him for his word.

  “Humans, like yourself, are no longer in charge of the planet,” Gauge started. “They were defeated in a war against installed intelligences. These I.I.s, as they’re called, are digital copies of people’s brains. Things between humans and I.I.s have always been tense. Some people didn’t think of digital minds as real people and found the idea of legal equality appalling. On the other side — the side that won, mind you — some people think that humans are an outdated version of the species. They think that homo sapiens are evolutionarily inferior, and the future belongs to the I.I.s — homo aeternus.”

  Ethan was trying to follow as best he could, but it was a lot of information to take in. He wasn’t sure if he even understood what Gauge meant by “digital copies of people’s brains”. He couldn’t even picture it.

  “Why didn’t I hear about any of this?” Ethan asked, his brow wrinkled with confusion. “None of this matches what we were taught.”

  “Of course not,” Gauge said. “The I.I.s that run the world are the ones keeping you here. They don’t want you to know the truth and cause a panic. They don’t want you to know that you’re cattle.”

  “Cattle?” Ethan didn’t understand.

  “They’re keeping you here until your body has grown enough,” Gauge started, “at which point they will destroy your brain and use your body for their own.”

  The teenager’s jaw fell open with disgust, but his eyebrows were still cocked as though he couldn’t grasp the full picture.

  “My body?” he said.

  “That’s right,” Gauge replied. “They’ve been growing you since birth for that purpose. You’ll be what some people call a ‘meat puppet’. ”

  “But why?”

  “Because, for all their evolutionary superiority bullshit, the I.I.s in charge miss being alive, with flesh and blood,” Gauge explained. “They miss the feeling of a good meal or a decent fuck. In fact, empty human bodies like yours fetch a high price among the elite. They raised you to have well-toned muscles, trained reflexes, and flawless bone structure. You were chosen out of countless rejects.”

  Ethan put his hands up to his temples and brushed his hair back. He felt like his head might explode just from trying to rein in everything Gauge had said. His head started to feel light and he wanted to sit down. He almost forgot they were in the forested valley of the Last Stand map. His crossbow had fallen out of his hand a while ago.

  “When are they going to do this to me?” Ethan asked.

  “What do you think your ‘graduation’ is?” replied Gauge.

  13

  Eviction Notice

  Tera was hoping they would be given an autocar to fly out to the ruins, but they were forced to go on foot. There was an apparent shortage of vehicles and the Council didn’t think a trip just outside the walls was worth the hassle. Despite how close their destination was, it still took a couple of hours to close the distance on foot.

  Faces turned toward them as they made their way out of the city’s southern gate. Travel in and out of Shell City wasn’t a common sight, so Tera was sure they were all wondering what mad purpose would drive two I.I. police officers out into the wastes. Abenayo paid them no second thought, marching past them with a scowl.

  Once they were on the other side of the gate, there were almost no people. There were, of course, the few refugees in line to see if they could get in, but Tera knew the line wasn’t likely to get any shorter. Shell City wasn’t likely to admit refugees — and they weren’t likely to turn away.

  Life out in the wastes was almost like a glimpse into the pre-international history of mankind. The nations that popped up, the roving tribes, all “feral” by the modern standard.

  The Council considered any human without a neural implant a feral. They couldn’t be controlled by an I.I., and therefore were considered a threat. While they were allowed to exist out in the desolation between cities, the unimplanted humans would never be welcomed into civilization.

  With a life like that, no wonder they still try to get in, Tera thought.

  Abenayo ignored the refugees like she did the people inside the gate and led the trek into the abandoned city ruins that stretched out to the southwest. Tera matched her partner’s pace and took in the depressing sights.

  It was her first trip out of the city, she realized. She had seen footage and heard stories from the wastes and ruins that surrounded Shell Ci
ty, but never saw them firsthand, until now.

  There were sundered buildings all around them, some looming down at them from over ten stories high. Their windows were all broken out, either from the wind or bored teenagers. In a way, they resembled decaying skulls embedded into the earth, staring down at the two cops with their empty eye sockets.

  They stepped over the cracked pavement at a brisk pace. Weeds grew out of long fissures where traffic lane paint had once been. The street had likely been busy back in its prime, and Tera imagined it much cleaner and pristine. Like the Pavilion in Shell City, but full of people. Not bodyshells and meat puppets.

  “Those humans sure can build a city, can’t they?” Abenayo said, breaking the silence. Her tone was sarcastic, but whimsical. “Didn’t even last fifty years without them.”

  “It’s a lot to maintain,” Tera commented. “It must have been enormous.”

  “Now it’s a ghost town,” her partner said. “A ruin of concrete, metal, and glass. Looking at the state of it, it’s easy to see why they lost the war.”

  “They”, Tera noted. Such a strange distinction.

  “Abenayo,” she started, “when did you get installed?”

  The senior officer slowed a little, casting a sideways glance at the rookie.

  “Why?” she asked.

  Tera drew back a little. “Just curious,” she said sheepishly. “It’s a long walk.”

  Abenayo thought for a moment before continuing at her original speed. “It happened about twenty years ago. I was nineteen,” she said. “Just a year younger than you.”

  “Do you remember what happened?” Tera asked.

  “Of course,” Abenayo replied.

  Tera waiting in silence for some sort of elaboration. She didn’t dare prod her partner, however.

  “I was killed when a couple junkies broke into our shack,” she continued when the silence started to grow uncomfortable. “They were fueled up on something and I guess just wanted to get some action. When they were done with us, they slit our throats. Even my little niece.”

  “Jesus,” Tera replied. “I had no idea you were a slum dweller.”

  Abenayo raised her brow as if to warn the rookie to tread lightly. Then she gave a little smirk as if to forgive the offense.

  “In a lifetime long ago, yes,” Abenayo said.

  “I just never would have imagined,” Tera said. “What with your attitude toward them and all.”

  “Well, now you understand,” Abenayo interjected. “I hate them, in fact.”

  “Because of what the junkies did to you?”

  “Because they’re animals, and those bastards only did what animals do.” Abenayo’s smirk faded, her features serious once again.

  “But Abenayo, you were —”

  “And I’m not anymore,” the elder cut in. “Getting installed was the best thing that ever happened to me. What about you, rookie? When did you get plugged in?”

  “I was only three or four years old,” Tera replied.

  Abenayo seemed a little surprised, her synthetic brow lifting up to her scalp. “Shit, that early?” she said.

  “That’s right,” Tera said. “I don’t remember it, though. They say my parents abandoned me. They found me malnourished and dying of thirst and managed to download my brain before I died.”

  “I can’t even imagine growing up as an installed intelligence,” Abenayo commented. “I don’t even understand how you would ‘grow up’, so to speak.”

  “I mean, I didn’t, at least, not physically,” Tera said. “But I was educated and my mind expanded. I was raised in a sort of orphanage. Trained from the get-go to be a police officer. It was like my destiny was chosen for me.”

  “Do you resent that?” Abenayo asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tera replied. “Not really. It’s what I’m best at anyway. The way I can contribute the most to the world.”

  She noticed Abenayo’s gait change a little, then saw some movement up ahead. Her partner noticed the people in front of them before she had.

  “Quiet now,” Abenayo said. “We’ve got a job to do.”

  As they continued walking, Tera was able to make out the people a little better. They were dirty, covered in shabby clothing not unlike those of the slum dwellers. A lot of them were wearing heavy ponchos and cloaks that must have been designed to protect them from the heavy winds and dust of the wastes. All of them looked at the two approaching I.I.s with distrustful eyes, peering out at them from behind bits of rubble and ruin.

  Tera noticed some children darting around in the shadows of the broken buildings around them. They moved like critters afraid of the light, watching the two strangers.

  Finally, one of the humans started to walk towards the cops. A rather broad-shouldered man, he moved with large swings of his arms. A huge brown beard covered most of his face, and a canvas hood covered the rest.

  “Greetings, metal women,” the man said, closing the gap between them. “What brings you out of your walls?”

  “You do,” Abenayo said. “I’d bet that doesn’t surprise you, though. What are you people doing this close to the city?”

  “We’re just surviving, friends. Is that not allowed?”

  Abenayo was quiet for a moment while she sized up the man. Tera kept her eyes on those around them; she didn’t want anyone to get the drop on her if things turned ugly.

  “What crew do you represent?” Abenayo asked. Then, after the man shot her a confused look, she elaborated, “What human tribe are you from?”

  “Formerly Truck’s Raiders,” the man replied. There was a gentle twinkle in his eye and a softness to his face as he spoke. Tera didn’t think he meant harm to anyone.

  “Truck’s Raiders?” Abenayo asked for clarity. Her posture tensed a little. “The roving bandits?”

  “Yes, but we’re exiles,” the man explained. “We are no longer members of any tribe.”

  “Why were you exiled?”

  The man looked around at his compatriots, who were starting to emerge and show their faces a little more.

  “Some of us expressed interest in this place of yours, this Shell City,” he said. “We may have mentioned a desire to come here, to meet your benevolent Council.”

  “I take it Truck didn’t like that?” Abenayo asked.

  The man looked taken aback, like the police officer had smacked him in the face with the name. The others seemed a little alarmed at their former leader’s mention.

  “It is a serious crime to fraternize with ghost people like yourselves,” the man said. “If we did more than simply contemplate such a thing, we would have been executed. Still, they want nothing to do with Council sympathizers. We are without a home now. It’s been a long trip, but we decided to see if your city would let us in.”

  “I take it you’re all unimplanted,” Abenayo said, more as a statement than a question.

  The man and a few around him nodded.

  “Then there’s no chance you’d be admitted,” the senior officer replied. “You can turn around now.”

  A worried look crossed the man’s face. For a moment, it looked like he might break down and weep or something. His mouth hung open as he looked around, as if someone might be able to deny Abenayo’s claim.

  “All due respect, but we’ve come a long way,” he said. “I think we’d all feel a lot better if we could hear that from the Council themselves.”

  “We are here on behalf of the Council, human,” Abenayo said. “You are hearing it from them.”

  “But — where will we go?”

  “That’s not our concern. You are not allowed within Shell City and we are here to tell you to vacate.”

  The man seemed flabbergasted.

  “We’re not in Shell City!” he replied, outraged. “If they won’t let us into the walls for whatever reason, can’t we just stay out here until we know where we’re going?”

  “No.”

  “But it’s just ruins!”

  “It’s still property o
f the Council of Shell City,” Abenayo said with a firm voice. “You are ordered to pack up and leave immediately or you will be removed with force.”

  The man’s face started to turn red with anger and indignation. Bits of spittle flew from his lips as he spoke.

  “But we’ll die out there!” he pleaded.

  “I don’t care,” Abenayo replied. “If you don’t leave, you will die out here.”

  The man took a deep breath, then seemed to become resolute. Like, somehow in the last thirty seconds, he had accepted his fate.

  “That’s the way it has to be, I suppose,” he said. “It has to come down to this.” He stepped forward as if to intimidate the female bodyshell with his sheer size.

  “It does,” Abenayo confirmed. She stepped into him rather than backing up. She was not impressed with him.

  Then, without warning, a ball of electricity appeared between the two I.I.s and the man. It was like a thunderstorm that grew instantly out of a single spot. For Tera, everything went dark.

  14

  Disconnect

  Ethan started to grow a little skeptical. As he stood there in the forested valley of the Last Stand map with the strange man named Gauge before him, he remembered what Sharpe had said. About how Gauge was likely part of some new adventure that Replication Systems wanted people to test. Maybe they wanted to preserve the surprise hook by sharing it with just a few unwitting people. Sharpe’s logic was making more and more sense as Ethan thought about it.

  There was another thought present, though. One that begged him to consider one terrifying possibility.

  What if it’s real? he asked himself.

  It could be some elaborate game, or maybe even a prank Sharpe and Taylor were pulling on him for his birthday, but he didn’t think it was worth the chance. If he plays along and it turns out to be a joke, then he’ll be a little embarrassed, but that’s all. If it’s true that his “captors” were going to lobotomize him, though, and he didn’t take the threat seriously…

  He didn’t want to think about the implications.