Prototype Exodus (Prototype D Series Book 2)

by Jason D. Morrow

  “I’m here to tell you tonight, that it’s over,” Des said. “They are human beings just like the rest of you. They deserve more than what you give them, though they are asking for nothing but the chance to be proper citizens. To live as you do: freely. But I know, even as I speak, that there are those in power above you that will never let that happen. People like General Bracken and President Morris have been stifling the freedom of the Outlanders for the last five years and they will never stop unless their power is stripped from them. That’s why I ask the Outlanders to take up arms and be ready to fight, because it’s coming whether you want it or not.”

  Des paused, his eyes going up to Nolan. The man stood still now and stared at Des. Was there a slight smile forming at his mouth? He couldn’t tell.

  “But I know many of you are too scared,” Des said. “You have an overwhelming enemy force surrounding you and patrolling the streets.” Des shook his head. “I cannot express to you enough how these robots are not your enemies. They are your friends.”

  Des reached out a hand and motioned for Hazel to come up next to him. She looked at him strangely because this wasn’t her time to come up, but Des had a different idea. He wanted to keep this short and to the point.

  Hazel broke away from her spot and stepped onto the platform next to Des.

  “Robots,” Des said. “I know that all of you within the Southern Zone are watching as well. Many of you might be wondering why things feel different than they did yesterday. That is because of your most recent update. It is simple in nature, yet it was complex to create.”

  He motioned at Hazel.

  “All of you recognize her. This is Hazel Hawthorne, your creator. My creator. She is the reason any of us are alive. She created the new update known as the truth update. You now have an archived memory of the truth about how things have transpired over the years. About Morris. About Bracken. The memory wipes. The Outlanders. Me. Esroy. Hazel. You have not been programmed to be on one side or the other. You have been programmed with the ability to choose sides.”

  Hazel shifted in her spot, but she stared at the camera with intensity. “And this is the most important part,” she said, “for both the Outlanders and the robots within the Southern Zone. We don’t have friends in the other zones. The update to the robots in the remaining three zones was blocked by our enemies who don’t want you to know the truth. So, we face overwhelming odds.”

  “But,” Des said, “if we all work together, Outlander and robot, we can take the city and be true equals among the rest.”

  “I joined the Outlanders,” Hazel said, “when I learned of the truth. I have been living among you now for the last five years. I know you have the drive to fight. I know you have the will to survive. And I know you have the grace to stop once equality is obtained.”

  “And robots,” Des said, “no more memory wipes. No more being slaves to the government. We are created with Soul—the most advanced program the world has ever seen. But it is so much more than that. We have life within our circuits. We have the ability to begin anew, and a bright future ahead of us. Will you stand with us as we become equals with the rest of the world?”

  Des looked at Hazel who looked back at him. Her eyes looked wet, but she smiled at him and Des smiled back. He then looked back at the camera, his smile not fading. “If you stand with us, we will win. We will be citizens like the rest. We will be free.”

  39

  “Well, you went a little off script, but that was okay, you two were brilliant,” Nolan said as he drove the truck down the abandoned road.

  “I wonder what we’re going to see when we get there,” Hazel said. She looked up at Des who sat next to her. “In the Southern Zone, I mean.”

  “I don’t know,” Nolan said, “but if what you two just said doesn’t spur them into action then nothing will.”

  Nolan was nervous. He didn’t want to say this to Des or Hazel, but he felt it deep within him. He didn’t yet know how Morris would react. He didn’t know what Bracken would do. Would their fight be verbal? Would it be violent?

  He thought about Lester who was still at the presidential headquarters. They had talked about this night. They had prepared for the possibility that both of them might be arrested for helping instigate this revolution. There was a part of him that suspected they were safe for now. The Outlanders hadn’t done anything yet. The worst that had happened was that the Southern Zone robots had been uploaded with a different archived memory, but neither Bracken nor Morris could prove that Nolan had done it.

  He didn’t like driving. These empty streets made him feel vulnerable. The closer they got from the broadcast tower to the Southern Zone, the less populated the streets became. The closer to the wall, the fewer people there were. A lot more abandoned buildings loomed on each corner. No one wanted to be so near the Outlanders. The barrier wall was less than a foot thick. To the Mainlanders, ten feet wouldn’t have been enough.

  Nolan could see the wall from a distance, though it wasn’t difficult given the amount of lights that had been installed around each wall entrance and exit. Nolan couldn’t help but wonder what was happening on the other side. What were people thinking? Were the robots going to join them?

  Headlights flashed in his rearview mirror and he immediately felt his insides turn to ice. “Here we go,” Nolan said.

  “What?” Hazel asked.

  “Headlights.”

  “So?”

  Nolan looked at her for only a second until the thought registered in her mind.

  “Right,” she said.

  “What is it?” Des asked.

  “People in Mainland use the trains,” Nolan answered. “Looks like we’ve got some soldiers coming up on us and fast.” Nolan’s foot pressed down on the gas harder and he could feel his body push against the seat behind him. But it wasn’t enough.

  As they approached the Southern Zone entrance, Nolan quickly saw that there was a large group waiting for them.

  “Oh, no,” Hazel said, her back stiffening.

  Nolan’s jaws clenched over and over as he started to slow the truck. This group in front of them had been waiting and the group behind was there for backup, though that group was still far behind them.

  Nolan slowed the truck to a stop, not thirty feet from the entrance. But there was no getting through with this many guards in the way. Nolan started counting them, but quickly shook his head. “Des how many are there?”

  “Twenty-six,” the robot answered quickly.

  Nolan turned to Hazel and Des and opened the door to the truck. “You two stay in here,” he said. “I can probably work this out.”

  Nolan stood next to the truck, leaving the door open in case he needed to jump back in quickly.

  “What’s going on here?” Nolan asked. He looked behind him and could see not just one set of headlights headed for them, but several.

  One robot stood in front of the rest, a barrel jutted out from its wrist. “We’re here to meet Des and Hazel.”

  “I need to get through here,” Nolan said. “I am Nolan Ragsdale. Authorization code zero, nine, zero—”

  “We know who you are,” the robot said. “Get Hazel and Des out of the vehicle.”

  Nolan didn’t like this. He looked into the truck and shook his head at his two companions. He didn’t want them to get out, but what was the alternative? These robots in front of him might be the end of their revolution. It was a disheartening thought that their plans had been thwarted so quickly.

  Nolan heard Des tell Hazel to wait in the car and stay low. If anyone was going to get them out of this, it was Des. He was made of a stronger metal than these robots, but could he take them all?

  When Des got out of the truck, he held his hands in the air like he was about to surrender himself to them. He took a few steps forward and stood in front of the truck, towering over the rest of them.

  Nolan held his breath. If these robots opened fire, Des might make it out alive, but he and Hazel would be finished
. He glanced behind him one more time. The vehicles were getting closer.

  When he looked back at the robots in front of him, he almost couldn’t believe it. Each of the robots retracted their gun barrels and bowed, one knee up, one knee in the dirt. All twenty-six of them.

  Des looked back, caught Nolan’s eye, and smiled. Seeing the robots, Hazel eased out of the truck.

  The lead robot stood up abruptly and the others followed. “Each of us felt different after the update,” he said, looking from Des to Hazel, back and forth. “Then you made the broadcast just a short time ago.” He shook his domed head. “We will fight for you two and no one else.”

  “Well,” Nolan said, “are you willing to fight the horde of robot soldiers coming after us?”

  “We had to make sure you were who we thought you were,” the robot said. He turned around and ordered the robots to open the gate. “We still have time to close it off.”

  Nolan stood in the same spot as he watched the robots hurry through the entrance. Hazel looked back only to see that Nolan hadn’t moved with them. Noticing her hesitation, Des stopped too.

  “What are you doing?” Hazel called out.

  “You two have a good handle on things from here,” Nolan said. “I’ve got some work left to do at the presidential quarters.”

  Hazel walked toward Nolan.

  “Hazel, we have to go,” Des said.

  “But you will be killed,” she said.

  “By those guys?” Nolan said, pointing with his thumb. He waved off the notion. “Get inside the Southern Zone. I can deal with these robots, but not if they think I’m helping you.”

  “Bracken will know,” Hazel said.

  “Hazel, please,” Des urged.

  “What are we going to tell them?” Hazel asked. “They will want to know what we’re doing next. We don’t know anything.”

  Nolan thought for a second, looked at Des, then at Hazel. “Tell them we are going after the military compound. There’s a large weapons cache there. It’s a good strategic point.”

  “We have to go.” Des gently took her hand and she started walking toward the entrance, her gaze set on Nolan.

  “I will be back soon,” Nolan said.

  He knew this was confusing. It wasn’t that he was trying to be secretive, but he couldn’t just leave Lester to deal with all this by himself. Besides, they weren’t going to arrest Nolan yet. They had no proof that he was the author of any of this. It wouldn’t take them long before they no longer cared about proof, but Nolan still had some time.

  The large gate closed and Nolan couldn’t see anyone in the Southern Zone anymore. As the vehicles approached, Nolan leaned against the truck and waited for the soldiers to approach him.

  They had their guns drawn as they came up, but Nolan remained relaxed. Before they could ask him any questions, Nolan started explaining.

  “I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on,” he said. “Rogue robots wouldn’t let me into the Southern Zone.”

  “There was no one with you in the vehicle?” one of the robots asked.

  “Of course not,” Nolan said, getting back into the truck. “And I don’t have to listen to a robot like you.”

  The robot didn’t say anything as Nolan put the truck in gear and drove away. It might have noticed his heart racing, or perhaps the beads of sweat that had formed on his brow. Any more run-ins like this, and Nolan would be a dead man.

  40

  Des was worried about Hazel because she didn’t get the chance to sleep at all during the night. It was another physical weakness in humans that Des was glad not to have, but at times he envied because when the rest of the world was asleep, he always needed to find something to do quietly.

  That wasn’t the case last night.

  After the gate had closed and Nolan had given himself up to the opposing robots of the other zones, Hazel and Des were met with cheering crowds filled with both Outlanders and robots, each of them wanting to get a glimpse of their new leaders.

  Of course, not every person within the Southern Zone was there to meet them. Des was sure there were some who opposed them. Some probably didn’t like the fact that Hazel once worked with the Mainland government. Others might not have liked the idea of working alongside the very robots who had oppressed them for so long. And then there were probably those who were simply afraid to fight. They were content with the life they had versus the life they had left behind.

  Des understood each of these viewpoints. He was partially there with them. He didn’t like fighting. But if the Outlanders and robots truly wanted to be free, it was necessary.

  The crowd had been pleasant and overwhelmingly positive for the first couple of hours. But sobriety soon took over, and humans and robots alike had questions.

  For hours, Des and Hazel stood in front of them, answering everything from questions about their past, to what their plans for the future were. These people just wanted to know who they were following.

  There were a few moments throughout the night when Des wished Nolan was standing next to them for there were some questions that he didn’t know the answer to. Particularly these: What is your strategy? What are we to do next?

  Des didn’t know what to tell them. He often told them to have patience and that all would be revealed to them soon. Des hoped that the next steps would be revealed to him. Nolan had said that he and Lester would be the ones making initial plans. But neither of them were here at the moment.

  Hazel had been quick to point out that the humans needed to arm themselves and the robots needed to be prepared to fight first until the others could acquire more weapons. Those at the meeting were ready and willing.

  Des could see a fire in them—robots and humans alike. They were angry. The robots, because they realized how much they had been used for the last five years and how little control they had over their own lives. The humans, for obvious reasons. They were less than second class citizens. They had been worse than an afterthought. They were a disease to Mainland society.

  Hour-by-hour the crowd went from a handful of subjects, to hundreds. From hundreds to more than a thousand. Des knew the fire was growing, and it wouldn’t be long before the entire Southern Zone was ready to follow.

  This unnerved Des greatly. Part of him had never expected things to get this far. He understood that this was the plan, but the plan had always been hanging on by a thread. And now that thread was being interwoven with others. It was becoming a tightly bonded rope that would be difficult to break.

  The greatest mystery, Des told them, was that they weren’t sure how big of an enemy they were up against, and Nolan was still working on the inside to try and gather as much information as possible. He told them about Esroy from the sewers, that there was an army that would follow him. To the robots, he told them that they needed to make themselves stand out and look different. They would be fighting against thousands of robots who looked just like them.

  “But they are not just like you,” Des had told them. “They are blind to the truth. They are programmed to fight against the truth. You must treat them like they are infected and cannot be brought back.”

  For the robots, the rest of the night consisted of a ceremony of blue paint. Each of them marked themselves with various designs in a bright blue color that declared their allegiance to Des and the new uprising. Each of them also started scratching away at their shoulder plates. Gone were the numbers that identified them. The black letters and numbers were now scratches and dents. And they started giving each other names.

  It was an exciting event and one that did not alienate the Outlanders. Such ceremony was not foreign to them, and some participated in the war paint, their arms and faces a canvas of support. Even Hazel sheepishly allowed an old woman to approach her with the blue liquid on her fingers. The wrinkled hands moved gracefully over her cheek and neck until Hazel was branded with a blue flame that burned brightly.

  Even Des was not excluded in the ritual. The same old woman pu
lled at Des’ right arm and began her artistry until it was ablaze with a similar blue fire.

  More and more Outlanders and robots came out of hiding to join in the festivities. Des remembered looking at Hazel, both of them unable to believe what was happening before them.

  That was all these people wanted. All they needed was someone to truly represent them. To stand for their needs.

  Now, as the sun peeked over the horizon, the music had settled, the people grew calmer, and the reality of what was to come was before them. There would be death, but they did not fear it. There would be blood, but that was the price of freedom. There would be fire, but the fire had already started from within.

  Des looked at Hazel who leaned against the side of a building, the sun making the blue flames on her cheeks look even brighter. Her eyes were closed, but her breathing pattern hadn’t changed. She was resting, but she wasn’t asleep.

  Des stared out at the sun, wondering how many sunrises any of them had left. All he could count on was this one.

  He couldn’t help but marvel at how right Nolan had been. All these people needed was a face. A representative to call them to action. Nolan couldn’t be that person. Lester couldn’t be that person. Hazel and Des were those people now and a heavy burden rested upon their shoulders.

  He thought about his friends, the villagers from weeks ago. He felt particularly sad for them on this morning. But their deaths presented him with a new urgency that hadn’t been there before.

  This uprising was more than freedom for the robots and Outlanders who now inhabited the Southern Zone. This uprising was for the future of humanity. It was to end all oppression. No more villages would be wiped out by nuclear bombs for no good reason. No more fear of the terror of Mainland.

  When this was over, Mainland would be a beacon to the lost world. Those who had no hope would find it here.

  But in order for that to happen, the Outlanders had to win. Their enemies had to lose. Bracken. Morris. Esroy. All of them had to be gone for good.