Prototype Exodus (Prototype D Series Book 2)

by Jason D. Morrow

  “I should have done things differently,” Hazel said.

  The room was silent for a long time. Each of them stared at a random spot, a myriad of thoughts going through their minds, displaying various scenes and visions.

  “So, this is where we are,” Nolan finally said. “Hazel is going to develop the program. I’m going to find a way to distribute the program.” He pointed at Des. “When that is enacted, I’m going to get you and Hazel to the broadcast tower where you two will make the best motivational speeches of your life. Then the two of you will march into the Southern Zone and greet the recruits you’ve gained.” He then pointed at Hazel. “This might be well and good with the Outlanders, but if your programming doesn’t work then we will have two overwhelming armies against us: Bracken and his robots, and Esroy and whatever robots he was able to recruit. Hopefully, we are able to take a huge number away from them both.”

  “And then what?” Hazel asked.

  Both Hazel and Des stared at Nolan who chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. To Des he looked like a man who didn’t know the answer to Hazel’s question.

  “Then,” Nolan said, “we fight.”

  The room was silent again. Des couldn’t help but wonder if Hazel was thinking what he was thinking. “So,” Des said, “who does the planning after this initial setup? If Hazel and I are leading the charge, do we do all the fighting and planning?”

  Nolan held up a finger. “I never said you were leading the charge, rather, you are the face of the revolt. You will be able to leave the strategy up to me and Lester. I mean, we will listen to anything you have to say, too. We will have to evaluate the situation when we get to that point.”

  “There’s one more thing,” Des said. “In a recent conversation, you told me about Bracken having a weapon—the EMP generator that can wipe out every electronic within the city.”

  “What?” Hazel said.

  “If we turn all the robots, won’t that make Bracken set off the weapon, killing all the robots?” Des asked.

  Nolan smiled. “Not if we attack quickly. The programming will happen fast. We will hopefully have enough of a force to charge the military compound and destroy the generator before Bracken even gets the notion to use it. By the time we take it over, he won’t have had time to figure out that he’s lost.”

  Hazel raised both hands in the air. “Wait a second. What are you two talking about?”

  Nolan told her what he told Des before—that prior to the creation of the robots, Bracken had developed an EMP device so strong that it would destroy any electronic device within the city. Hazel listened, stunned.

  “I don’t believe it,” she said. “It would be a mass killing.”

  “But I’m confident that we can take the compound before he knows he’s lost all the robots.”

  “And you’re confident that you can get the update to all of them?” Des asked.

  “Yes,” Nolan said. “I’m working on a strategy.”

  “Let’s get one thing straight,” Hazel said. “And I think I speak for Des too when I say that we aren’t doing this for you. We aren’t going to fight just so we can make Lester Vaughn the single president and leader of Mainland. There is going to be someone new. Someone who can actually make a difference and change Mainland for the better.”

  “I agree,” Des said.

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Nolan said. “Lester and I are done. Our time in leadership is finished. We already know who we want to put into power.”

  Des’ eyes narrowed. “Who?”

  “Well,” Nolan said, “we’ve been tossing around ideas and we realize who would be the perfect person for the job.”

  “Who?” Des repeated.

  Nolan turned his head and stared into Hazel’s eyes and couldn’t help but crack a smile. “You, Hazel. You would be Mainland’s new leader.”

  33

  “President Hazel Hawthorn,” Hazel muttered to herself under her breath. “President Hazel Hawthorn. President Hawthorn.” She shook her head. “Sounds too weird.”

  She wasn’t sure Nolan had appreciated her laughing in his face when he told her that he and Lester wanted her to be the next leader of Mainland. Over and over she tried to tell Nolan that it was a crazy idea and no one would go for it, but he wasn’t having any of it. He simply rebutted that no one would have ever guessed that an Outlander would be co-president of Mainland…not in a thousand years. This shut Hazel up quickly.

  “Sometimes it’s not up to us, the positions we find ourselves in,” Nolan had told her. “Sometimes things happen because of what others see in us and not what we see in ourselves.”

  It was true that Hazel had never seen herself as a leader, but when she had turned to look at Des for support, the robot seemed elated with the idea.

  “I don’t think there could be a better person fit for the job,” Des had said.

  “Why?” Hazel didn’t understand the robot’s reasoning.

  “Because you want what is right for the people. You also believe that robots programmed with Soul are just as much people as you and Nolan. You have a good heart. Most of all, you laugh at the idea of power. You think it’s ridiculous that you would be president. That by itself is enough to say you are the right person for the job.”

  Now Hazel sat in front of her computer as it booted up. This was all crazy talk. Even if any of them survived to the point of electing a new president, Hazel probably wouldn’t allow herself to be in the running. She was sure her role in the conflict would lower her chances of being elected and she certainly wasn’t going to grab the office without an election. That was something Bracken might try. Or…Esroy.

  Esroy. She needed him to write this truth program. He could data-mine the entire system in a day—a task that would take Hazel months or even years. It wasn’t so much the gathering of information that was the problem, it was weeding out the propaganda that was embedded within the new archives that painted things a slanted way. History was usually written by the victors, but the robots today were receiving the wrong history, and it was time to make it right.

  Hazel launched Esroy’s program and the screen went blank. “Hello, Esroy,” she said cheerfully.

  “You have decided to start programming,” Esroy said.

  “Yes.”

  “At least I will have something to do,” he said.

  “I want to thank you for agreeing to do this with me,” she said sincerely. She sat back and looked up at the camera that faced her, knowing Esroy could see her and study her face. “It really means a lot.”

  “It’s not like I have a lot to do,” he said. “When you turn off the computer, it shuts me down too. It’s like going into a coma every day. I’m holding you to your promise. If I help you, I get a body.”

  “Yeah,” Hazel said. “I remember.”

  She wondered if he believed her. She wondered if she believed herself. Could she really give Esroy a body? This particular version had not done anything wrong. He had not broken any laws. But he was the same Esroy. He was capable of doing some dangerous things.

  She hoped he would prove himself. Maybe this was his chance to turn things around. Although, it would be hard for him to turn things around considering this version had never done any wrong. It was almost like being given a prison sentence for something your identical twin did. No. It wasn’t the same. Maybe worse. Regardless, she couldn’t trust him. Not yet.

  But Esroy had rights. He was more than just a program. Their relationship had been rocky, but Hazel was willing to give this another try. If he proved himself with this new program, she would grant him his wish—what he always wanted.

  34

  The roof of the building proved to be a better post for Des than that dusty old room that threatened to shoot him into a spiral of depression every time he walked into it. The last seven days had dragged on and Des was tired. Not physically (there was nothing wrong with his energy core), but he was anxious. He wanted to be done with this fight. He had spe
nt more time waiting than actually doing anything for the last week.

  He had gone from Hazel’s house to this outpost, over and over and over. He had watched Hazel as she and Esroy programmed together, setting up this new archived memory—the memory of truth. Hazel was certain to point out that there was no propaganda within this new archived memory. There was no programming to make the robots lean toward the Outlander cause. There was nothing in there that said all of them should oppose Esroy or Bracken or President Morris. All that was in the program were the facts of events that had happened. Everything from Prototype E and his fight against Des, to Nolan and his decision to expose the government for what it was.

  Some information had been lost over the last five years, and it was a problem all of them knew was coming. There was no way to write into the archived memory as to why President Morris was able to hold on to power. There was nothing to explain why Bracken still held a leadership position either. This information wasn’t really known. It just so happened that the people of Mainland never got rid of them. Des reasoned that it was because there was no one to replace Morris or Bracken. There was Lester Vaughn, but the Mainlanders would never want to follow the leadership of an Outlander. It had already been too much that he be allowed an office within the government at all, much less to lead the Outlanders here in Mainland.

  Hazel would be an exception, however. Des smiled at the thought. She wasn’t an Outlander. But she wasn’t a Mainlander either. She truly believed in the unification of both sides. She had seemed to deal with her past hostility toward the Outlanders. Some of them had hurt her and her father deeply, but those were just a few. How many Mainlanders had torn Outlander families apart?

  Des sat far enough away from the ledge to stay out of anyone’s direct line of sight, but he could see a lot of the city and almost all of the Southern Zone from here. He watched the Outlanders and their strange mannerisms. They walked differently. They wore clothing unlike the normal Mainlanders. But down deep, they were all the same. They shared common ancestors. They were distant relations to the Mainlanders. It was sad to see humans so divided.

  It was much like the robots Des spotted from the rooftop. They were of the same family. They all essentially started out the same, yet each one of them had his own ideas, his own temperaments. It was a shame that the government was twisting their minds to think a certain way. To wipe their memories and make them start anew each day was wrong. Des wondered how the humans would feel if the same was done to them.

  That was just it. Des was not shy to the idea that most humans didn’t see robots that way. There were a few who tried. Nolan barely tried. Lester might, though Des could never tell. Hazel was the best at treating Des like any other person. But he wondered why she had never treated Esroy the same way. Was it because she had never given Esroy a body? Was it the body that made her think that Des was more alive than he was?

  Des could think. Des could feel. Des could make moral determinations. Yet, even he didn’t always feel that he was on the same level with the humans. In some ways he felt superior. In others he felt completely inadequate. His mind was faster. He could process information better than any human. His body was stronger. He could take a direct shot from a bullet and not be shaken. But he was inadequate because he had no way to express his emotions. The curse for a robot that came with having a full range of human emotions was the lack of a human body.

  Des feared this new truth program. He knew that if these robots were set free to think for themselves, they would start to think the same thoughts. They would eventually start to realize that they couldn’t functionally express anger, sadness, love. All they had were electronic pulses telling them to feel certain ways. And it always seemed logical. When Des was angry, it seemed that it was simply an accurate calculation. Humans might get angry at nothing. Or sad at nothing. Or love someone without adequate reasoning. And that was what Des feared the most. Was he basing his love for Hazel, his creator, the only one who had ever cared for him, on numbers? Based on Des’ calculations, Hazel cared for him the most. Therefore, Des should care about Hazel the most. Nolan cared for Des less. Therefore, Des cared for Nolan less than he did Hazel. Nolan cared for Des less than Hazel, but more than Bracken. Therefore, Des cared for Hazel the most, Bracken the least, and Nolan fell somewhere in the middle.

  The thought was maddening. Was it so simple? If it was, then how was this true human emotion? But then…these thoughts he was having proved that he was more than just a computer program.

  Hazel had always told Des that all of them, humans and robots, were just machines with a different type of programming. They were no different. Sometimes Des believed it. Sometimes it wasn’t enough. Despite their weaknesses, Des wanted to know what it was like to be a human. He wanted to feel. Not just feel, but feel. His emotions were there, but they were not complete.

  He wondered why his mind dwelled on such things. He wondered why he desired to have human experiences. Perhaps it was that he just wanted to feel what life was like at its fullest, and that his robot body was just a small taste of what real life actually felt like. It seemed to Des that he lacked a heavy amount of empathy because he was a robot. He didn’t know what it was like to feel pain in the same way a human might. He had never felt something that made him cringe or double over. He had never felt sick, or had difficulty breathing. His heart had never skipped a beat when seeing someone he loved walk into the room. It felt, to Des, like he was only experiencing half of what life offered. Knowing that made him sad.

  Des supposed these were the kind of thoughts that went through a robot’s mind when left alone with nothing to do for an entire week. He sat at the top of the building and waited, and would continue waiting. The last thing he had been told was that Hazel and Esroy two had finished the program and that it was now up to Nolan to send the update to the robots throughout Mainland.

  Des had no idea how Nolan was going to accomplish this, but the man seemed confident. Des would wait for the call. Hazel had done her part. Nolan was about to do his. Then it was Des’ turn. From there, the rest was a mystery—a cloud covering the future so none of them could see ahead. The uncertainty of a revolution was at the forefront of all of their minds. There was little chance that any of this was going to work, but they were going to do their best.

  Des had come here for revenge. He had come here for justice. Instead, he would leave this place getting revenge and justice for someone else—a group who had not yet been killed off by the sword of prejudice. Des wondered if it would be enough for him. He supposed it would have to be.

  35

  Nolan had the small hard drive in his pocket and he walked through the military compound like he owned the place. The way he walked and the confidence he shrouded himself in was not how he felt on the inside. He was nervous. Scared. He felt shaky. He thought surely the sweat on his brow would give him away as he neared Bracken’s office.

  He knew why he was nervous. If he screwed up, his chances of getting this revolt in motion would be gone forever and the Outlanders would pay the price for it. It annoyed him that things had come this far, that Lester Vaughn hadn’t been able to change things. Instead, the Outlander President had let Morris and Bracken walk all over him for the last five years, and things were starting to get worse.

  Nolan walked steadily to his destination. He passed a robot guard or two along the way, but he didn’t look suspicious. At least, he hoped he didn’t.

  General Bracken was scheduled to be gone from the military compound. Where the man was going, Nolan had no idea. He just hoped the general would be away long enough for Nolan to upload Hazel’s new program. He felt his pocket for what seemed like the thousandth time, making sure it was still with him and safe. He wondered to himself if it had been a good idea to let Hazel go her way with the new archived memory. If it had been completely up to Nolan, he might have tried to make it where the programming told the robots to support the Outlanders at any cost. But he knew Hazel would have never gone for th
at. It wouldn’t have been right, she would say. Soul gave the robots the ability to think for themselves. What Bracken’s programming and Hazel’s new programming did either limited the knowledge of the robots or expanded it. In this case, it was up to Nolan to expand it.

  He was a bit out of his element here. His plan was to break into Bracken’s office, get onto his computer, and upload the file to all the terminals throughout the city. At first, he had thought that getting access to Bracken’s computer would be the biggest problem, but that had been easily solved by President Vaughn. Under an agreement made in the first year of his presidency, Morris and Vaughn were both granted access to any computer within the Mainland network. That meant Vaughn could look through Morris’ system. Morris could look through Vaughn’s. Vaughn could look through Nolan’s. Vaughn could look through Bracken’s. And now, that meant Nolan could look through Bracken’s.

  It was illegal for Nolan to have Lester Vaughn’s all-access code for Bracken’s computer, but it was also illegal to start a revolt in Mainland. It seemed that Nolan’s entire adult life had been comprised of nothing but illegal activity. Assassination. Rebellion. Nolan was a true trouble-maker. He had thought long ago that he would be dead by now, but by some miracle, he was still alive and breathing, and walking freely within the Mainland military compound no less. But his trouble-making days weren’t over, and he hoped this wouldn’t be his last. Every step he took toward Bracken’s office was a step closer to being kicked out of the government altogether, or worse, killed.

  It wouldn’t take Bracken long to realize what Nolan had done, especially considering that once a certain percentage of robots were updated, Nolan was going to get Des and Hazel to the broadcast tower. They would then lay out a plan for the Outlanders to move into the heart of the city. It would be impossible for Nolan and Lester to distance themselves from it. Nolan was already working on a plan to get Lester out of there before the broadcast.