Metal in the Blood (The Mechanicals Book 1)

by Nicola S. Dorrington

  But could I go home? Now I knew the truth about the world? About the Mechanicals? Could I slip back into the easy life? Knowing that there was a terrible possibility that the money that made my life so easy, so simple came from torturing and violating hundreds, thousands, of innocent people.

  My thoughts were interrupted by a new sound. Ground vehicles.

  I glanced at Daniel and knew he’d already heard it.

  “Sarah. Robert?” His voice was low, little more than a murmur, but they both stopped and waited for us to catch them up.

  “Is there a road near here?”

  Robert nodded. “One we have to cross. There is a ravine up ahead. It’s too deep to climb down, definitely for her, and probably even for us. And to go around it would take us miles out of the way.”

  “How close are we to the bridge?”

  Robert cocked his head for a second, listening to the distant drone of the car engines. “Closer than they are, but not by much.”

  “They must know we are heading this way.”

  Sarah nodded. “They know the approximate location of the Sanctuary. They just haven’t been able to pin it down yet. They move every few weeks. Not much, but enough to throw off all their search patterns. But they know we have to cross that ravine.”

  “So either they catch us at the ravine, or we lead them straight to Sanctuary?” Daniel said shaking his head. “It’s a win-win for them.”

  “We can’t let that happen,” Sarah snapped. “Neither of those are acceptable outcomes. I will not go back. I will not be ‘fixed’.”

  Robert nodded, but his eyes were distant, thoughtful. “If we could somehow get to the bridge before them. If we could cross and somehow stop them from following-.”

  I snorted. “What exactly did you have in mind? Did you plan on ‘blowing the bridge’ or something?” I laughed at the idea, it was like something out of a movie, but the smile slid off my face when Robert started nodding.

  “That might be the only way.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I was joking. How exactly were you planning on doing that? Do you guys just carry a block of C4 around with you?”

  I wasn’t expecting Daniel to nod seriously.

  “Kind of, yes.” He half smiled at my incredulous expression. “We have a power cell. A back up power supply. If you know what to do it can be turned into a fairly powerful explosive.”

  “Ok, so we remove one of your power cells and take out the bridge behind us.” I couldn’t believe how casually I was talking about destroying a whole bridge. I was distracted enough that it was a second before I noticed the look that passed between the three Mechanicals.

  “What? What am I missing?”

  Daniel grimaced again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

  “The power cell is integrated into every part of our body. Every nerve, everything.” He touched the first vertebrae at the base of his neck. “It’s right here. Buried in the spine. To remove it would mean severing the spine.”

  I felt like I was being a little dense. “So it won’t work. Next plan.”

  It seemed like I wasn’t the only dense one because it was a moment before Sarah burst out.

  “Oh no. Don’t even think about it.”

  Robert caught her hand. “It’s the only way. If they catch us we are all going back to the lab. Destroyed, or worse, reprogrammed. Fixed. If those are my only options then you know that I would rather go out on my own terms.”

  My brain baulked at the idea, but I finally grasped what Daniel and Robert had in mind. “You want – you want to blow yourself up?”

  “To save a damn human,’ Sarah spat.

  “No, to save you.” Robert used her hand to pull her towards him. With his other hand he cupped her cheek. From the way he was looking at her I could tell that he didn’t see the damaged eye, or the waxy silicone skin. To Robert, she was beautiful.

  “I want to know that you are free. Safe. If this is the way to make that happen then my death will be worth it.”

  “We need to move fast.”

  I wanted to punch Daniel for his blasé tone. It was the first time he’d ever struck me as anything less than human.

  “You can’t seriously want to go ahead with this.” I tried to grab his arm, but he and Robert were already turning towards the as yet invisible bridge.

  Sarah glowered at me, but hurried after the two men.

  “Daniel?” I had to practically run to keep up with his pace, but for once he didn’t slow to let me keep pace.

  “We need to reach the bridge,” he said by way of apology. Without slowing he reached back to help me over a fallen tree.

  “We can’t let Robert do this. It’s – it’s suicide.’

  We’d reached the edge of the road quicker than I’d expected, and as Robert and Sarah hurried on Daniel pulled me to a halt at the edge of the black tarmac.

  “It’s sacrifice,” he said, turning to face me. “A sacrifice I would make to save you, if you were in the danger Sarah is. If I could.”

  “Never.”

  He shook his head. “Sadly, my power cell is not as easy to overload as Robert’s. His is a much older model.”

  I tried to ignore the fact that he said he would die for me. As romantic as it sounded I didn’t want him to die for me. I wanted us both to live. A long time. I didn’t want to be Romeo and Juliet. I wanted to be their boring cousins no one ever talked about because all they’d ever done was live a normal life and grow old together.

  “No one has to die,” I insisted finally. “We can just run.”

  As if to put the lie to my words the drone of the ‘copter came closer than ever and I finally caught sight of it. A dark splotch above the tree line, growing bigger with every minute. Just as I was certain they would have to see us they veered off and circled west.

  “Destroying the bridge won’t keep that from following us,” I said, seizing on anything.

  Daniel nodded across the bridge to where the trees rose dense and dark. It made the wood we had been traveling through look like an open park. It was an ancient forest. Something that had stood long before us, and would still be standing long after we were gone.

  “But we will have to stick to the road once we get in there. And they are too close. They will catch us up. They will be able to follow us straight to the Sanctuary. It isn’t just about us.”

  The faintest tremor began in the tarmac beneath my feet.

  I glanced up at Daniel. “One car can’t do that.”

  “I highly doubt it’s one car. They know exactly where we’re heading. They will make the best of this chance.”

  It took me a second to realise what he meant. This wasn’t just my parents trying to bring me home, or Kendall trying to reclaim his lost property.

  This was the Government using this opportunity to put a stop to the gathering of Mechanicals once and for all.

  We had all brushed off the idea of a Mechanical sanctuary as a myth, an urban legend. Even my conspiracy theory nut of a friend had scoffed when it had been mentioned. But the Government weren’t nearly so stupid. No doubt they’d been looking for it for a while now. The foolish runaway girl was their perfect chance.

  Daniel shook me, and I realised I had been frozen for too long.

  “We need to move, Ellie. If we are going to do this, it has to be now. But if you want to stop here, I won’t blame you. We can go on, and you can go home. You don’t have to get any more involved in this than you already are.”

  Home? I wasn’t even sure I knew what that was any more. I looked up into Daniel’s glittering eyes. Circumstances, or fate, had bound us together, in a way I didn’t think I really understood. There was no leaving now. Were we star-crossed lovers? Not quite, not yet. But we were getting there. I just hoped I could find a way to change the expected ending.

  I grabbed Daniel’s hand and he nodded, leading me up the road towards the bridge.

  It was an impressive thing. Old. Built before the age of steel and cable, it was a
many arched span of brick. The foot of each arch disappeared into the wooded ravine below.

  Sarah and Robert waited half way along its span. Robert had his back to Sarah and she was busy fiddling with something at the base of his neck.

  “Are you really going to let him do this?” I whispered, knowing Daniel would hear me.

  “We don’t have much choice. I won’t go back. Not now. Not ever.”

  I couldn’t blame him. All he had to go back to was a laboratory, more pain and the loss of what self-awareness he had regained. Kendall would never made the same mistake twice. He would never break his programming a second time.

  We reached the others and Robert must had seen something in my expression because he reached for me and gave my arm a squeeze.

  “Don’t. Don’t be sad for me. It might seem harsh to you, but my real life was over a very long time ago. I don’t even remember the man I once was.” His eyes flicked to Sarah and he gave a half smile. It was as much as his altered face could manage.

  “Once I woke up, I was lucky. I had a chance at something, some kind of life. Even if it was in hiding. But even that was over until you showed up. I would have spent the last of my days slipping into a horrible stasis. Aware but unable to move or speak. Thanks to you I get to go out with a bang – literally.”

  He turned that smile on me, and for a brief moment I saw the boy he must have been once. Mischievous, full of life. They’d taken away everything that was supposed to make him human, but they hadn’t been able to touch that. His soul, his heart, whatever you wanted to call it. They’d suppressed it, buried it, but they could never destroy it.

  Impulsively I grabbed him and hugged him. His body was hard, unyielding, but after a startled second he wrapped his arms around me, almost lifting me off my feet,

  He let out a short bark of a laugh and released me. “Take care of her,” he told Daniel.

  “Always.”

  Robert nodded and turned to Sarah. They didn’t kiss, or embrace. They barely even touched. Only the palms of one hand, pressed together at hip height. They spoke, but they murmured low enough that I couldn’t make out the words. Daniel may have been able to hear, but he wasn’t letting on.

  “Now go.” Robert gave Sarah a gentle nudge, nodding at me and Daniel.

  Sarah hesitated only for a moment and then took off at a run.

  In the distance the government convoy was kicking up a cloud of dust. There was something horribly ominous about it.

  Giving Robert one last desperate glance I gave in to Daniel’s tug on my arm and we turned to follow Sarah.

  We didn’t run, but we moved fast. The bridge was long, and neither of us wanted to be caught on it if Robert’s plan worked.

  I didn’t dare look back. I wasn’t sure I could go through with it if I looked back and saw Robert standing all alone, willing to die free rather than live as a slave.

  Once into the forest the road wandered and meandered and we soon lost sight of the bridge even if we did look back.

  Everything stayed silent. Even when we caught up with Sarah, stood motionless beside the road, her glittering eyes wide and unblinking,

  “Did something go wrong? Did it not work?”

  Daniel shook his head at me, head cocked. His ears were so much better than mine, and I wondered what he was hearing.

  Sarah let out a sudden dry sob and the next instant my eardrums nearly burst.

  The sound was so loud that I felt it as much as heard it, the vibrations skittering up my body, making my teeth tingle.

  Sarah’s knees buckled and she hit the floor, her hands over her face. Her tear ducts had been sealed, so she couldn’t cry, but her shoulders heaved with dry sobs.

  Above the trees black smoke billowed upwards.

  I felt numb. There were no tears. I was too shocked for that. I honestly hadn’t believed he would actually go through with it.

  The truth of it astounded me. Even though they had told me often enough, I still wasn’t sure I believed the idea of death being preferable to lack of freedom. But then I had never faced what they had faced. I couldn’t know that I wouldn’t have made Robert’s choice if faced with the same options.

  Daniel’s fingers closed around mine, gripping so tight that I worried he might cut off the circulation.

  I looked up. His eyes were haunted, desperate.

  “We need to move,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Sarah didn’t move, didn’t even look at him.

  We waited, shifting anxiously. I kept glancing towards the distant bridge. Had it been enough? Had Robert’s sacrifice been enough to halt them in their tracks?

  “Sarah?” Daniel crouched down beside her. “Don’t let it be in vain.”

  When she looked up she looked at him like she wanted to rip him limb from limb, but after a snarl she pushed to her feet.

  “Let’s go.” Her voice was brittle, hoarse, and she refused to look at either of us.

  Her eyes flicked once to the cloud of smoke still rising from the bridge and then she squared her shoulders and strode off the road into the trees.

  I looked up at Daniel, but he only shrugged and plunged in after her.

  Seventeen

  We walked all day in silence. Sarah kept herself ahead of us, her jaw clenched and her eyes glazed. But even in her distracted state I still trusted her to lead us safely to the Sanctuary. Having a built-in compass and GPS did wonders for a sense of direction.

  The buzz of ‘copters was a constant companion, but beneath the thick canopy of trees they could only guess at our location and direction. Kendall’s trackers, imbedded somewhere in Daniel and Sarah’s skin, also gave them our general location. But the truth was, they didn’t really want to catch us, they wanted to follow us to Sanctuary. They wanted all of the free Mechs, not just a couple of runaways.

  Knowing that, Daniel and Sarah forced a pace almost impossible for me to maintain. As the day slipped by they refused to stop, even for a minute. Despite the broken bridge behind us and the protection of the ancient forest there was a sense of urgency that went deeper than ever before. Robert’s sacrifice had given us a chance, we had to take it.

  As dusk began to settle the smooth purring of my Mechanical heart, deep in my chest, stuttered once. I’d pushed it harder than ever before in the last few weeks, and I was terrified I’d pushed it beyond its limit.

  Just when I thought I would have no choice but to stop, to let Daniel and Sarah go on without me, there was a shout and someone dropped from a tree into the path ahead of us. A mech, an older model judging by the waxy skin and the metal extremities. What threw me was that he was armed. He wore a conventional gun on his hip and in his hands he held one of the cattle prod type wands they used to fry a Mechanical’s circuits.

  Daniel and Sarah drew to a halt, both raising their hands. I limped up behind them. The Mech looked them over and gave a curt nod, but as soon as he noticed me his hand dropped to the gun at his hip.

  “Traitors,” he hissed. “You brought a human here? Now?” He glanced up at the distant buzz of the ‘copters. “You brought Genesis and the army here?”

  “No.”

  To my utter surprise it was Sarah who spoke.

  “She’s human, yes. But she’s not one of them. She’s – useful. She saved me. Saved my partner. Rewrote our coding.”

  The Mechs eyes widened. “This kid?”

  “She’s good.”

  Daniel jumped in before the Mech could say anything else. “They are tracking us, and they are getting closer every minute. But it’s not her fault. It’s mine. I’m the one they are actually following. But have we found it? Is this Sanctuary?”

  The silicone skin of the Mech twisted strangely as he tried to smile. “Close enough. There is a mag field just ahead. It’ll disable your trackers. Then I can take you to Sanctuary.”

  Exultation erupted in my veins.

  We’d done it. We were safe. We’d reached the one place the Government couldn’t reach us.

&n
bsp; Daniel grinned at me and reached for my hand. Our fingers locked together as we fell into line behind the Mechanical lookout and Sarah. I looked back once into the darkening forest behind us. I didn’t really know what I was walking into, and I didn’t fully understand yet what I was leaving behind. At any time I could have turned back to my old life, I could have gone home, but I had thrown my lot in with the Mechanicals. I had made my choice.

  My skin tingled, but it wasn’t just from Daniel’s fingers, or the heavy realisation of the choice I had made. We must have passed through the magnetic field. We were safe.

  I turned to Daniel. He met my gaze, the excitement in his eyes matching my own. I opened my mouth and pain seared through my chest. Pain like I’d never felt before. My mechanical heart stuttered and something broke deep inside me.

  More pain nearly blinded me with its intensity and I fell forward, my knees hitting the ground first, and then my chin.

  There was no breath in my body, and I couldn’t get my lungs to draw in more. My hands twitched as I tried to force myself up, but I slumped back, black spots bursting in front of my eyes.

  “Ellie? El?” Daniel was beside me, though I couldn’t see him. His hands were on my hair, turning me gently. He lay me on my back and I knew I was facing the sky, but there was no blue, no sun, only blackness.

  I wanted to speak, to tell him what was wrong, but I had no breath for the words. I could only clutch at him, my fingers finding his on the grass. One last squeeze and then the world slipped away.

  Something beeped nearby. Soft but insistent. Regular. Like a heartbeat.

  I lay still, searching for a memory before the blackness. I still couldn’t move, and my chest felt like someone had placed a lead weight on it. But feeling was coming back. Just a tingle in my fingers and toes, but enough to remind me that I was definitely alive.

  What had happened? It was all a blur. We’d finally done it. Reached the safety of the camp. And then pain and blackness.

  “Ellie?” The voice was less than a foot from my ear, but in such a low whisper that it took me a second to identify it.