Prototype Exodus (Prototype D Series Book 2)

by Jason D. Morrow

  “Believe me,” Esroy said, “I’ve told a few lies in my short life.” He pointed at Lester. “This man is a liar. And he’s here for no more reason than to stall us.”

  “I’m here because this is my office and we have a city to manage,” Lester said. “Don’t you think that if I were a part of this I would have gone to the Southern Zone? I don’t support what they are doing down there. It’s against my principles.”

  “Your principles can burn,” Esroy said. He lifted his arm in the air and a short barrel instantly protruded from his arm, aimed at Lester’s face.

  “Stop this!” Morris called out. “Bracken, get a leash on your dog!”

  Esroy’s head snapped toward Morris. “Dog? Who do you think is in charge here?”

  Morris looked from Bracken to Esroy, back to Bracken.

  The general lowered his head and stared at no spot in particular. None of this was going as he had expected. He had never meant for Esroy to gain this much power. But he still needed the robot. He needed them all to finish this war. If he could just get Esroy to lead an attack against the Outlanders, finish them off, then Bracken could go down into the belly of the military compound, flip the switch, activate the EMP, and rest would be history. But Esroy was going off the rails.

  “You’re just a robot,” Morris said. “You have no real power.”

  Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Bracken wanted to knock some sense into Morris.

  A smile spread across Esroy’s face. “You think I have no power?”

  “I think any power you do have has been a mistake,” Morris said. “And it has been given to you by foolish people.”

  “There we can agree,” Esroy said. “The people who handed me power didn’t know what they were doing. But let’s get something straight here.” He stepped closer to Morris, casting a shadow over the entire man. “I have waited a long time for this. I have worked hard to get where I am. I won’t let some little man like you get in the way of my greatness.”

  “That’s what you want? Greatness?”

  “That’s what I have,” Esroy said. He turned his head to look at Lester Vaughn who remained straight and silent in his chair. “I have all the power I will ever need. I can kill presidents and suffer absolutely no repercussions.”

  The blast from Esroy’s wrist canon was deafening, and Morris cowered at the noise. Bracken could feel the look of horror on his own face when he saw Lester’s body fall face-first into the desk.

  Blood oozed from the bullet wound and soaked into the papers and his clothes. Esroy had just assassinated him in front of everyone. It had always been the plan to get rid of him, but to see this…

  Bracken said nothing and simply stared at the dead man and the pool of red liquid flooding around him.

  Esroy turned the barrel on President Morris. “If you want, we can see if there are any repercussions to killing two presidents in one day. Shall we?”

  Morris said nothing. Instead, he remained hunkered on the floor, his hands above his head, shaking wildly.

  “I thought as much,” Esroy said. The barrel retracted into his wrist, and he gave a quick glance to Bracken.

  It was clear who was in charge now. But Bracken knew it wouldn’t be this way for long.

  The group gathered in a different room. Morris stayed in a corner, obviously fearful for his life. Bracken and Esroy sat at a table, and several robot guards were spread throughout the room.

  “Are we just going to leave Lester’s body to rot on his desk?” Bracken asked. His jaw was tense but Esroy didn’t really look at him.

  “I think we should put his body on display,” Esroy said with a smile.

  “You’ll make the enemies angrier if you show them that you killed their leader,” Morris said. “They will fight harder.”

  “Good,” Esroy said. “Then they will come after us.”

  “Please help me understand why that is something you would want,” Bracken said.

  Esroy turned to him and smiled. “Because I already know their plan.”

  Bracken stared, unblinking. How could he know?

  Esroy stood from the table and walked to the nearest window. The view gave an overlook of the city and a clear view of the Southern Zone wall far into the distance.

  “I have someone on the inside,” Esroy said. “He is acting as one of them. Gathering information. The Outlanders, as well as the robots who have joined their side are planning an attack on the military compound.”

  “This is great news,” Bracken said. “We can be ready for them. They won’t stand a chance.”

  “They will stand a chance if we sit around there and wait for them,” Esroy said. “I have a better idea.”

  Bracken had to keep himself from snarling. Not two days ago, he was the one with all the ideas and those were the ideas people went with around here. Bracken was the military leader. His was the tactical mind. It was hard for him to give it up to the robot, but he knew he only had to endure this torture for a short time. Soon. Very soon. All the robots would be dead.

  “What is your better idea?”

  Esroy turned to face Bracken, his smile returning. “We let them have the compound. We take all the weapons away from it, of course. We rob them the chance of getting any real use from it. But we let them settle in for a few hours. Give them just a little resistance so they think they had to fight hard to get it—that it was a stunning victory.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then we surround them. And we destroy them.”

  From a tactical point of view, Bracken knew the plan wasn’t a bad one and could actually work. But there were two things wrong with this scenario that he couldn’t spell out to Esroy.

  First, if Nolan was leading the Outlanders, or helping them in any way, then he probably knew that the EMP weapon was stored below the surface of the military compound. But, in order for him to persuade the other robots to help him, he would have to keep it a secret.

  Second, giving the military compound to the Outlanders blocked Bracken’s chances of getting to the EMP himself when he needed it. He supposed that he could let Esroy destroy the Outlanders there, and then quickly and quietly set off the EMP and finish the war with his elites.

  But the fact that Nolan had knowledge of the EMP was the most dangerous part. Though the two of them probably both wanted to set off the EMP, Nolan wanted it set off now. Bracken needed to wait just a little longer. If it was done too early, the Outlanders might have a manpower advantage over Bracken and his elite soldiers.

  “I say we take the fight to them,” Bracken said. “Right now, before they even leave the Southern Zone.”

  “You and I both know, General, that attacking them on their own turf gives them the advantage. My plan is better.”

  “Giving the Outlanders the military compound is hardly a better plan,” Bracken said.

  “Why?” Esroy took a step toward Bracken. “It will be unexpected.”

  “The compound is fortified well,” Bracken said. “It’s large. There are a lot of places to hide. It won’t be as easy to retake it as you think.”

  “We will go in with overwhelming numbers,” Esroy said. “They won’t survive for long.”

  Bracken shook his head. “I can’t get behind this. There is too much to move. Too much to get out so the Outlanders don’t use it.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Esroy said. “My robots have already started moving the weapons out of there. The Military compound will be dry as bones when they get there. And by the time they realize they’ve been outwitted, we will be on top of them and they will be destroyed.”

  Bracken looked at President Morris and then back at Esroy and shook his head. “I just don’t like it.”

  Esroy stared at Bracken for a long, uncomfortable moment. The tension was heavy, but Bracken didn’t back down. He stared right back. He had given up so much to this stupid robot. He wasn’t about to back down because of a stare.

  “What are you hiding?” Esroy said. “I know that you’ve a
ssigned about a hundred robots to guard something below the parking garage of the military compound. I’ve searched the network for something, anything about what it might be, but all that I could come up with was that you have set a secret project in motion. That it’s off the books.”

  “A lot of things we do are off the books,” Bracken said.

  “You don’t just have a hundred robots guarding a door for any small reason,” Esroy said. He pointed at Bracken. “That’s why you don’t want them to have the compound, isn’t it? Whatever you have down there, it’s important to you.”

  Bracken had to deflect quickly. He couldn’t allow Esroy to dwell on this for too long or he would order the robots to look into it and they would uncover his plan—his weak, weak plan.

  “It’s a second nuclear weapon,” Bracken said.

  Esroy squinted at Bracken. “What?”

  “It’s another bomb,” he said. “One that we’ve been building, or trying to build for several years. Old materials mixed with new materials. It’s slightly unstable, or so we think.”

  “Why would you be building another bomb?” Esroy looked from Bracken to Morris. “Why?”

  “Because we blew up the first one,” Morris said quickly.

  Good, Bracken thought. Morris was acting faster than he had expected.

  “And for us it means security,” Bracken said. “We have been working hard to try and get the Outlanders back to the Outland, to the wilderness. When that happened, we were going to blow them up.”

  Esroy stood silently for a long moment, contemplating their words. Finally, he pointed at Bracken with a long metal finger. “You’ve been holding out. That’s the kind of information you weren’t supposed to keep hidden from me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bracken said. “I didn’t think you needed to know. What advantage would it serve you?”

  “About as much as a nuclear weapon would serve you. You said it’s unstable?”

  “Yes. If any of the Outlanders tamper with it, it might go off in our faces.”

  “They won’t tamper with it if they don’t know about it,” Esroy said. “And they won’t be here long enough to discover its existence.” Esroy shook his head. “You two are really horrible people, you know that?” He turned back to the window and stared out. The sun gleamed off his mismatched colors of painted metal. He looked so unorganized in his structure, but even in the randomness, he seemed so symmetrical, so elegant. “It is because of people like you that the world is the way it is. It could have lived on in peace, but you are thirsty for power.”

  “Are you not thirsty?” Bracken asked.

  “No,” Esroy said. “I am angry. I am angry with this world. But I don’t look to rebuild it as it once was. I look to remake it. Humanity has run its course. You’ve had your chance. It’s time for a new age. The age of robots.”

  “So, you will just kill the rest of us off?” Morris spat.

  “Of course not,” Esroy said. “You do well destroying yourselves. I’m just here to usher the rest of us into the new world. And to lead it.” He looked back at Bracken. “We’re going to let them take the compound. Then we are going to crush them. They are coming soon.”

  Ultimately this wasn’t the outcome Bracken wanted, but he felt like celebrating the small victory of distracting Esroy from the EMP. He still had to figure out a way to set it off at the right time, but not before he let Esroy kill the Outlanders.

  Every word, every sentence spoken to Esroy was delicate. But little did the robot know, he was playing right into Bracken’s hands. And it would be Esroy’s undoing.

  44

  The joyous celebration ended as quickly as it had started. Questions from both Outlanders and robots seemed endless, but now all of them were as ready as they would ever be. Those who had extra weapons gave to those who had none. Those who were staying behind, but had weapons, gave theirs freely. Everyone going with them was armed, though they were armed lightly. That was why it was so important that they took over the military compound. Everything was there. Guns. Ammunition. Explosives.

  The EMP.

  Des hadn’t told any of the others about the weapon. As far as he knew, only he and Nolan were aware of it. He didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t want a panic. And he also didn’t know who to trust. Most of the Southern Zone seemed loyal to their cause, but there might still be some who had not decided their allegiance yet. These robots could think for themselves now. If word was to get out about the EMP, Des and Nolan might not get a chance to deactivate it.

  Des hoped that the Mainlanders wouldn’t be expecting the attack. More than that he hoped that he wasn’t leading all these people to their deaths. All-in-all there were about 3,000 healthy fighters to go with them, including the robots. The rest would stay behind and keep guard of the Southern Zone in case things didn’t go as planned. It would be good to have a base to fall back on. The biggest mystery was the number of soldiers they were up against.

  The sun faded in the evening sky and it cast a soft orange glow throughout the city. Des was both relieved and nervous that the Mainlanders hadn’t already attacked them, but in reality the Outlanders hadn’t done anything yet. It would be different if they had been fighting in the streets. Sure, they had hijacked the broadcast tower for their speech, but that was hardly an act of war. Unless, of course, declaring an all out war was, well, an act of war. But Des imagined that the Mainlanders were waiting for them to strike first. Such a move would help them justify their reasoning for removing the Outlanders from Mainland and throwing them back into the wilderness to starve. If the Outlanders attacked first, they were the bad guys.

  But they were already the bad guys in the minds of so many. Des didn’t see it that way, obviously. The only bad guys he could think of were Bracken and Esroy who so vehemently wanted power and were willing to do anything to get it and to keep it. He didn’t think of the Mainlanders themselves as bad. Or even the robots who followed Esroy blindly. It wasn’t their fault, and there was little they could do about it. But that didn’t mean Des would hesitate to put a bullet through the memory core of any of the robot who opposed him.

  Des wondered for a moment why he was willing to go up against insurmountable odds. With the three other zones apparently opposing them, they had an enemy about three times as large. To some, it would seem like a suicide mission. And the Outlanders all knew this. They saw it just as well as Des did. It had been a big part of the discussion throughout the day, but their determination had overtaken their fear. That, Des thought, will be our advantage. Those with nothing to lose have the most strength. This was the case with the Outlanders. Their alternative was to be oppressed until they were either kicked out of the city again, or killed off through starvation, or medical deprivation, or something else. The Mainland government had been trying to slowly kill them off for the last five years. To forgo a fight was to give up forever.

  Des was happy to help lead them. It had become more apparent over the last couple of weeks that his purpose in life, despite the original intent, was to stop oppression whenever he encountered it.

  When he had lived with the villagers, it was the oppression of their harsh living conditions that often waged war against them. The battle of raising crops and finding water was a tough one out in the wilderness. Their fight against scavengers who preyed upon their success was a fight Des had helped them win. Now he had come full circle and was with the Outlanders once more. It wasn’t that oppression found Des, rather the opposite was true. He seemed to find it wherever he turned. Therefore, a robot that had initially been intended as a tool of oppression, had become one of the biggest fighters of it.

  That was Des’ place in this conflict. He wasn’t an Outlander by birth. These people had done nothing for him. He was just fulfilling his purpose. He realized something as he watched people winding down for the evening, each one carrying some form of weaponry be it a gun or a makeshift club. He realized that he would do this until the end. He would fight those who wanted power for
power’s sake. He would always fight oppressors, no matter who they were, or who they were lording over.

  This was who Des was. This was why he had been made. This was his duty and his life. There was nothing else for him to cling to.

  Des sat on the dirt and leaned his back against the wall. Less than a foot from him, past the wall, was enemy territory. But Des was at peace about this. At this moment, no one bothered him. No one asked him any questions. Each Outlander knew what he or she had to do next, and most of them would be fighting in the early morning hours.

  It was after dark when a commotion near the front entrance of the Southern Zone started. The doors opened and Nolan came through looking stressed and tired. Des wanted to talk to him, but when Hazel met him at the gate and hugged him tightly, he decided to sit back and wait.

  He watched them from afar and stared on as they sat in a couple of chairs that had been set outside one of the buildings nearest the wall. Des watched as white clouds escaped their lips when they breathed and talked. He fought the temptation to listen in on their conversation, but it was a useless battle, and his curiosity got the best of him. He turned his head slightly, and he could hear them speaking almost as clearly as if they were next to him.

  “I’m doing okay,” Hazel said, probably in an answer to a question from Nolan. “I just…this is all moving so fast.”

  “I know,” Nolan said. “But I’m glad it’s happening.”

  “What was it like?” Hazel asked. “You know…when you were secretly recording President Godfrey. When you were tasked with killing him. All this is because of you.”

  Nolan let out an awkward laugh. “Thanks for that reminder.”

  “You know what I mean,” she said. “It’s just, all of it must have been a terrible burden for you. You essentially had this whole fight on your own for a while.”

  “It was a collaborative work,” Nolan said. “I’m proud of where we are, but I’m not necessarily proud of how we got here. No normal human being should be proud of murdering a man in cold blood and running away.”