by Mark Lingane
“Run!” Melanie screamed. “We’re not going to Camooweal anymore.”
They veered away as tightly as they could and raced off toward the southeast.
Several groups of cyborgs ran to their bikes and took off in pursuit.
The next morning the sun rose over the fading clouds of the previous night’s rains. Long shadows cast out to the horizon and rapidly clawed their way back to the city as the sun ascended.
The accompanying noise could be heard for some time before they arrived. The clicking, the hissing, and the sound of gristle twisting, all alien sounds, rolled in over the city walls and sunk their fangs of fear into all those on the inside. Finally the sea of black swarmed over the horizon.
There were thousands of them, all shapes and sizes. Dragons. Sullivans. Cyborgs. They all came and besieged the city.
“Close the gates,” Captain Barnes shouted to his men.
The guards took their positions and commenced rotating the large closing mechanism.
“Don’t you dare close those doors,” came the shrill voice of Kerry Constantine. “We leave them open. They are our guests.”
Barnes looked at her as if she were the most insane person on the planet. “I’ll leave you to greet them.” He gathered up his men and they made for their defense stronghold.
“Here shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
The cyborg army came to a halt a dozen yards from the front gates. A group stood aside, revealing a lone cyborg. Her name was Isabelle.
She strode forward to the gates. Her eyes glowed red, as if fueled by an internal furnace. She looked the middle-aged woman with her sensible hat up and down. She held out a small black device, which made a loud clicking sound.
“She’s a threat,” Isabelle said. “Kill.kill her.”
“I am no such thing. I am your friend.” Kerry bridled with indignation.
“The device does not lie.”
A large cyborg raised its weapon to her head. The weapon started to buzz loudly.
“Wait, I know where the child is,” Kerry said hurriedly.
“Which child?”
“The one you’re looking for.”
“We come to kill your god. Omega must die.”
“But to kill Omega, you must kill alpha. That’s what the scriptures dictate. They are one and the same.”
Isabelle paused. “No,” she said. “Iris says @alpha will come once Omega is with us. Take her to the information-gathering facility.”
They had sped through the night. The weather was on their side, causing pursuit by the cyborgs to be abandoned. It had been several hours before the cyborgs could form another pursuit party, and by then most cyborgs had to be involved in the great press towards the city. In the end, only a handful of the most unhelpful were spared for the pursuit.
The team had pulled over two hours before the sun rose, securing themselves within a well-protected circle of rocks, where they lay down to rest.
The cyborg trackers had caught up just as they were waking up.
“They’re near,” Isaac said.
Sebastian nodded in agreement.
“About five?”
Sebastian nodded again.
Melanie looked up over the rocky outcrop. She squinted into the sun. “I can see them,” she whispered. She raised a set of binoculars and peered out. “Yeah, five, just wandering around, looking like the big stupid oafs they are. Hey, this is funny. They go from the biggest at the front, all the way down to the smallest at the back.”
She dropped the binoculars and rested her chin on her hands. She squinted once again, and with a puzzled expression reached for the binoculars again. “I was right. One’s down. It’s the small one at the end. It looks like … it’s a female one.”
“That’s the first female we’ve seen out in the field,” Isaac said.
“She’s got a red cross on her breastplate.”
Sebastian sat bolt upright.
“Something must be wrong; she’s lagging behind the others. Uh-oh. She’s turned around … oh dear.”
“What?”
“He shot her. She’s down; the other cyborgs are going to kill her.”
Sebastian grabbed the binoculars. He zoomed in. Her face fell into perfect focus. It was the same cyborg with the big green eyes that had helped him. “I’ve got to do something.”
With that, he stood up and dashed across the expanse of sand. He strode as fast as his legs could carry him. He shouted and screamed until the cyborgs detected his presence and turned away from the female. Sand erupted on either side of her. He paused, focused his mind and aimed a wave at the cyborgs.
The electromagnetic wave rolled out from him and the cyborgs came to their customary standstill. Some were knocked over by the force while several remained standing, paralyzed by the dead electronics that normally powered them.
He scooped down, picked up the small cyborg and ran back.
“What on earth are you doing?” Melanie screamed. “She’s one of them. You know, the other group that’s trying to kill us.”
“But they were about to kill her.”
“Good.”
“We have to save her.”
“Why? Let them finish the job. Less work for us to do. Hand them the gun, for all I care.”
“Lay off him. He’s right. We should help her. An enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that,” Gavin said.
Melanie turned in utter amazement. “Am I the only sane one here? She’s the enemy. Give me a real good reason why I shouldn’t just shoot her right now.” She theatrically withdrew a pistol from the back of her belt and waved it in the air.
Sebastian dropped his head. “Because I think she saved me.”
“A cyborg saved you? This would be one of the same cyborgs who’ve been hunting you down for the last couple of years, with the express aim of your total and complete annihilation?”
“I’m sorry. It just seemed wrong. Maybe she’s different.”
“Of course. A totally cloned and programmed army will have heaps of singularities.”
“I think she’s delirious,” Sebastian said.
“Who? Melanie or the weirdo cyborg chick?” Isaac said.
“The girl. The cyborg. She’s muttering stuff.”
She looked up into his eyes. She raised her hand slowly and stroked his face, recognition flashing in her eyes, causing her to smile. She gasped for air. Closing her eyes, she relaxed and exhaled a long slow breath. There was a loud clicking followed by the sound of steel scraping. Her back arched, her eyes snapped open and she let out a silent scream. She closed her eyes and collapsed back onto the sand, breathing gently.
“That’s weird,” Isaac said.
“Her bullet wound has gone.”
The cyborg’s eyes snapped open again. She leapt to her feet. Melanie withdrew her pistol, aimed it and fired.
The cyborg’s arm came around, knocking Melanie’s gun to the side and causing the shot to go wide. Melanie twisted with the momentum and brought her leg around and down into the cyborg’s upper body. The force drove the cyborg to her knees, but she managed to grab onto Melanie’s leg. She went to punch Melanie’s inner thigh, but Melanie had stepped forward and brought her other leg around into the side of the cyborg’s head. The two fell to the ground.
Melanie rolled up onto her knees, then feet, and was surprised to see the cyborg already up and launching a punch. Melanie parried, twisted the cyborg’s arm around and locked it. The cyborg twisted out of the hold and brought her leg up into Melanie’s stomach.
Sebastian ran up and jumped between the two fighting females. He stared at the young cyborg and waved his hands in front of her. In full battle mode, she saw straight through him and planted a right hook on his jaw. He staggered in a semi-dazed state. She went to punch again. He raised his hands in defense. She paused, recognizing the boy huddling in front of her.
“You,” she said
. “I know you.”
She collapsed to the ground as a large piece of wood hit her in the back of the head. Isaac beamed.
37
THE WIND WHISTLED in over the plains as they dismounted from the steambikes. They set up a small camp for lunch after putting some distance, at speed, between themselves and the cyborg patrol. Melanie consulted with Nikola, who nodded. She called a meeting.
“This is insane. We can’t continue to take her.”
“But she saved me. Maybe she’s different.”
“Tell me how we can possibly trust her.”
“Let’s speak to her,” Gavin said.
Melanie turned and gave him a look of utter disbelief. “Isaac was the only one to show any kind of sense, when he bashed her over the head.”
“Wait, let me try,” Sebastian said.
He went over to the cyborg, who was sitting quietly. She was scanning the horizon distractedly, but gave him a smile when he sat down next to her.
“Hi,” he said.
She focused on him, looking intently at his face. “Hi.”
He handed her a flask of water. He thought her eyes were going to leap out of her head. She looked carefully at him. He offered it again. She gingerly reached out for it. He smiled. She grabbed it and tried to pour it down her throat. Nothing came. She whimpered and started to bang the flask against the ground. The sound of the water sloshing around inside irritated her further.
Sebastian held up his hands and slowly took the flask back. He placed a finger on the button on the side of the neck, and poured. The water flowed gently into the sand.
She took in a huge gasp of air, and her expression suggested he had drowned a kitten in front of her.
He handed it back to her. “It’s okay. We’ve got heaps on the bikes.”
She gave him a suspicious look, pressed the button on the flask and just about burst with pleasure as the water gushed out over her face. Her features lifted and she looked more human. Her skin took on a healthy glow.
“Can you understand me?”
Her eyes opened wide and were bright with enthusiasm. “Yes,” she replied.
“My name is Sebastian. I come from Talinga, where I grew up on a farm. I am fourteen. I am pleased to meet you.” He ended with a small nod.
He looked at her. She looked back at him, blinking slowly.
“Well? What’s your name?” He raised an eyebrow.
She watched him do it and imitated the action. “My name is @summer14Rose. I am derivative generation seventeen S. I am level thirty-seven on Farmville. I am also fourteen. My parents wanted to call me @summer but it was already allocated.”
“So? Can’t you have the same name? Isaac’s name is as common as sand.”
“Hey!”
“No offence, but there are three of you in your class.”
“Each individual must have a unique identifier,” @summer14Rose said.
“If you want, I can call you @summer,” Sebastian said. He gave her a smile.
“Really?”
“Yeah, no biggie.”
“LOL. You talk funny,” @summer said.
“Yes … um … why did they shoot you?”
“Who?”
“The others you were with.”
Her face dropped and went sad. “I am a prototype development, an alpha, but the functional requirements as a field reparation technician were not tightly integrated into the core values, producing non-optimal results and a poor user experience. So my programming authority terminated my connection.”
“Okay, I didn’t understand much of that. Are you saying they wanted to kill you?”
“No. Kill.kill.”
“Does saying it twice change it?”
“Much bad. Bad.bad.bad.” She shook her head from side to side, and was also rocking gently back and forth.
“Look, you saved me and protected me. If they don’t want you, would you like to join us?”
“I will do what my tinyIris says.”
“Your what?”
She extracted the device from the clip on her shoulder. Sebastian nodded in understanding. She gave it a puzzled look. She gave it a shake. “It’s not working.”
“It has a bullet hole through it. The cyborg that shot you must have also shot your device at the same time. It looks pretty broken.”
“Broken? What will I do?” Her eyes welled. Fear, uncertainty and doubt flashed across her face in quick succession.
“I guess whatever you want to do.”
“But I need instructions from tinyIris.” She clutched her device to her chest.
“You don’t have to do what it says.”
“But what can I do?”
“What happens when you lose your device?”
“There’s a lot of trouble. It’s bad.bad. We must stay where we are until they come out and issue a new one.”
“What happens if they’ve terminated you for non-value results experience requirements?” She gave him a strange look. “Or whatever you said before.”
“We’re meant to be assigned a new one, but they won’t come.”
“So you stay here forever?”
She nodded.
“In this spot? With no food or water? In sunshine that can kill anyone who stays out too long?”
She nodded again.
“Why don’t you assign me as your new device? I can tell you what to do.”
“That’s a bad.bad.bad idea.”
“Why?”
“You don’t know everything.”
Sebastian coughed and shined his knuckles on his chest. “I think you’ll find that I’m pretty smart.”
She gave him a long flat stare. After a while it got embarrassing.
“Yes, well, would you like to become part of the gang?”
“Gang?”
Sebastian indicated the others. Most ignored her. Isaac gave him a face of skepticism.
“They don’t seem very friendly.”
“They’ll come around.” He got up and motioned for her to follow. “Everyone, this is @summer.”
She beamed, hearing the sound of her name.
“@summer, this is Melanie, Isaac, Gavin and Nikola.”
Gavin was the only one who made a friendly gesture toward her. Isaac folded his arms and looked away, letting out a small harumph.
“Why’s he acting funny?” whispered @summer.
“You look, well, to be honest, very scary with the, um, helmet with the death ray and scales that slide around making the slithering sound.” Sebastian shivered. “Sorry, it sounds scary just speaking about it.”
“I can change.” She reached both hands behind her head. There was a loud click followed by the sound of a snake being ripped apart. He did his best not to vomit, knowing that would look uncool. She lifted the helmet off her head and let her hair fall down over her shoulders. “Why do you have your eyes closed?” she asked.
“Because you might look gross. You could have, like, half a head, with great chunks of machinery poking out through your skin. Stuff like that.”
“No. I’m okay.”
Sebastian went for broke and opened his eyes. He screamed. Blood was pouring down her face. “Oh my god. Blood. It’s everywhere.”
“Oh. Sorry.sorry.” She rotated her arm and pressed a small red and white button on her wrist. The cuts in her face stopped bleeding, and the gashes created when she ripped the metal from her face shrank then disappeared.
“How did you do that?”
“We have a perma-needle that injects cell-reparation fluid into the body when we’re injured. Mainly into the spine.” She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder to her neck.
“Doesn’t that hurt?”
“Probably.” She blinked at him.
His mind calmed down enough to take in her appearance. She had long golden curls that fell around her face. She had large green eyes with long dark lashes. Her face was pale and she had a small chin and high cheekbones. Her lips were full and pink. Sebastian suddenly
realized he hadn’t thought about anyone in those terms before. And one thing he did notice for the first time: she was curvy.
His mind had a slight shortcircuit as it struggled for something to say. He swallowed hard. His mind was full of a million new thoughts. And he wanted to shout them all.
“Did I just say something stupid then?”
“No,” she replied. “You’ve been standing there staring for a while.”
“Phew. No, wait, staring is just as bad, isn’t it?”
She smiled at him. “Let’s find out if I get offended or not.”
38
MELANIE GAVE THE order and they rolled out. The first suggestion was New Toowoomba, where Melanie’s family lived, but her threats of violence and painful death shifted their focus to Toowoomba instead as their best option. Word had gotten out that there was a strong resistance there, among the ruins.
They saddled up and took off for the east. @summer sat behind Sebastian and wrapped her arms around him to hold on. The rough ground was taking its toll on all of them, especially Nikola.
@summer had her eyes closed and was feeling the wind through her hair. She leaned forward against Sebastian’s back, taking shelter from the constant battering of the hot wind. She lost her hold at one point and nearly fell off, but Sebastian was quick and hauled her back up.
She grasped his arms and squeezed them as she regained her seat. “You are strong.strong,” she said. “Do you #workOut? Do you have #hotAbs?”
“What’s #workOut?”
“When you go to the gym.”
Sebastian looked from side to side. “Look, you’re going to have to do better than that. Who’s Jim?”
“The room where everyone goes four times a week to expend seven hundred calories by performing aerobic activities like running or lifting weights. #workOut.”
“You do this if you do something wrong? It’s a kind of torture or punishment?”
“No, we’ve been told we #like it. It says so on my page.”
Sebastian sighed. He wondered how they could use nearly the same words yet be completely incapable of communicating.
Then they all saw it, gleaming on the horizon. Sebastian’s heart sank as he recalled the devastation from a year ago. The steambikes pulled up to the twisted and scarred wreckage.