Contrition (The Perception Trilogy)

by Strauss, Lee

  The air grew cooler, and I shivered. My hand reached out to the cold, damp, ragged wall as I braced myself. I turned on my flashlight with my other hand, and continued along the dark, sloping tunnel until the stream grew wide enough for me to drag a bucket through it, past the shallow pool we used for cleaning.

  The bucket was linked by its handle to my elbow, and I released it from my arm. I took a moment to wash the grime off my face. I couldn’t believe how bad I smelled and wished I’d thought to bring a bar of soap. My consolation was that we all smelled like wild beasts, and besides, I hardly had time for vanity. Our enemy was camped on the other side of the ridge, and we had no idea how long they’d be there. I just hoped we could stay sane, all cooped up together in that small space, and wait them out.

  They could be there for days or, God forbid, weeks.

  There was no way we could sneak into Tucson for supplies, and we had nowhere else to go, even if we could get there.

  We were trapped.

  At least we’d have stew in a couple of hours once I got this bucket of water back safely. I had to hold my flashlight in my mouth since I needed one hand to brace myself against the wall and one hand to hold the now heavy, full bucket. I eased out, fighting against my shivering form, hoping there was enough heat captured by the cave walls to get my core warmed up again.

  I had to brace myself to face the wind from the relative calm of the cave. I turned off my light and stuffed it into my pocket then leaned into the wind, clamping my eyes closed as much as I could without blinding myself.

  I stumbled on a rock hidden in the blowing sand and almost lost my precious cargo. Last thing I needed was to have to go back into the tunnel.

  I rounded the corner then froze. Had I seen a shadow creeping through the brush? I couldn’t open my eyes anymore without the sand blasting them, and cursed myself for not being better prepared.

  I shifted carefully farther back into the shadows and waited. Had a cyborg left ranks to snoop around? Perhaps sent on an investigative mission?

  What would they do to us if we were discovered?

  My heart thumped against my ribs as I debated the consequences of tossing the bucket and hightailing it back to the cave. Maybe they were already discovered? My throat was parched and raw, and the hard swallow that followed was painful. One thing was for sure. I had to get out of this storm or I would die anyway. I took another step forward, and then gulped. The shadow I’d spotted moved again. Then I let out a breath. Only a coyote. It took off when it noticed me. I ran as fast as I could without spilling until I was back at the cave. All heads spun toward me as I skidded in.

  “I was just about to come after you, man,” Jabez said. Hannah leaned into him up against the cave wall. He didn’t look too concerned about me.

  Zoe was another matter. “You made it,” she said, relief erasing frown lines around her mouth.

  “Yeah, it was fine, outside of the wind. I’m afraid the water has sand in it.”

  “We can strain it,” Rebecca said. She already had the snake gutted and was cubing the meat.

  “Where’s the rest of it?”

  “Buried,” Jabez said. Except for this. He waved the rattle. “I guess it belongs to you since you shot it.”

  He reached out his arm, and I took it. I had to admit it was a cool souvenir. Not that there was a chance I could ever forget this time hiding out in the desert.

  Hannah shifted her heavy body up into a standing position to help Rebecca make the stew. Taylor adjusted his contraption as Rebecca poured the strained water into the pot. Then she dumped the snake meat in to cook. Hannah returned from the food stash with a can of mixed vegetables and a box of dried potato flakes. Before long it started to smell awesome, and my stomach growled with anticipation. I sat close to Mary and ducked to look into her dark eyes. She didn’t even blink at me. She worked the muscles in her jaw, pulling her mouth tight. I knew I’d ticked her off, probably in a dozen ways. We couldn’t exactly get into it in front of everyone, and who knew when we’d get a chance for privacy again?

  The cave lit up as a flash of lightning brightened the sky.

  “At least we don’t have to worry about the cyborgs for the duration of the storm,” I said, looking away from her.

  “Yeah,” Taylor added, “lightning is probably the one nemesis that all that circuitry can’t beat.”

  The stew wasn’t exactly gourmet, a little tasteless, and the snake meat was chewy, but it had protein and vitamins and fluid—all things we were in desperate need of. Since we had no way of preserving it, we kept eating until the pot was empty.

  Then we lay down and groaned, glad that we had full stomachs.

  The storm had blown over by the time the sky broke with the pink hue of sunrise. I peeked out.

  “We don’t have to worry about them finding the buggy,” I said. “The storm filled it with sand. It looks like a dune.”

  Jabez joined me to view our only mode of transportation. “That’s gonna be a drag to clean out.”

  I agreed, but staying hidden was our first priority.

  The sun beat hard, drying any dampness left by the storm or morning dew. Taylor lay the generator solar panels in a concealed sunny location. Other than that, we only left the cave for quick bathroom breaks.

  The heat increased our personal stench and irritability. Frayed nerves and overtired bodies made for bad company. I could hear Taylor and Hannah huddled together in the tech room. Their muffled voices grew louder and soon their argument bled through to the big cave.

  “He’s not right for you. Not now and not… later.”

  “We’re just friends.”

  “I’m not blind, Hannah.”

  “So what? Simon’s gone. Jabez’s here. I like him.”

  Jabez’s eyes narrowed and he stormed to the tech cave. “You got something to say to me, man? Let’s take it outside.”

  Taylor brushed passed him. “Just stay away from my sister.”

  Jabez pushed him up against the wall. “I’m not good enough for you?”

  Taylor shoved back. “No, you’re not.”

  “Because I’m black?”

  “Because you’re you.”

  I thought they were going to fight it out, but Taylor ducked away from Jabez and headed for the entrance. I grabbed his arm. “No go, man. Just calm down. This—” I motioned to Jabez and Hannah across the room, “—is a problem for another day.”

  Tension stayed high but at least it was time to sleep. The girls got ready first, and I sat on the rock as they left to tend to nature and brush their teeth, spitting into the brush. Taylor parked himself close to Hannah, pissing Jabez off. He paced back and forth, unable to reign in his agitation.

  “We should take turns guarding the entrance,” Jabez finally said.

  “They’ll be sleeping too, don’t you think,” I said. “They’re cyborgs, not humanoids. They still need sleep.”

  “I just feel more vulnerable in the daylight, even if it’s an oven out there,” he insisted. “I’ll go first.”

  Jabez was right. It would give him something to do as he calmed down. “Wake me in three hours,” I said. “I’ll take the next shift.” I lay down with my hands behind my head. My mind wandered from my last trip into Tucson with Taylor, when our biggest worry was getting food.

  I was too worked up to sleep. I tried thinking about my family, remembering happier, easier times. I wondered what they were up to now, what life was like for them. I pictured Davis and Jonathan going to school with the lunches Skye packed for them, healthy and safe in LA. It’d been a year almost since I’d seen them, and I missed them with a deep ache. Davis had probably changed the most.

  I twisted and turned, but there was no way I was going to fall asleep soon. I got up and sat beside Jabez at the entrance.

  “Hey, man,” he said.

  “Hey.”

  “Can’t sleep?”

  “Nah.”

  I figured he’d settled down by now, and thought he’d jump at t
he chance to lie down, leaving me there alone, but he stayed put. A quick perusal outside the mouth of the cave showed low desert activity. A couple of hawks floating through the sky looking for their breakfast of rabbit or rodent, the saguaro cactus standing tall like saluting soldiers, a warm breeze rolling sagebrush in a hurry to nowhere.

  No cyborgs in sight.

  I studied Jabez’s profile. Strong, sharp features, scruffy face like mine, dark eyes and chocolate brown skin.

  “Why are you here?” I asked.

  “To watch out for attacking cyborgs?”

  “No, I mean, what are you running from? You know why Zoe and I are hiding. Why are you?”

  Jabez plucked a stalk of hard grass and chewed on it. I guessed he figured he had nothing to lose because he started talking. “Mary and I, we’re orphans, you see. Our mom died when we were little, so our dad raised us. He worked day and night running the factory. We didn’t see him much. I guess you could say Mary and I raised each other, but at least Dad put food on the table.

  “He had to shut the factory down when the economy crashed. That’s when Dad built the gym. He’d been a fighter in his younger days, and he started a betting ring. It wasn’t legal, but again, he kept Mary and me clothed and going to school.”

  Jabez paused to spit out the grass stalk he’d mauled. He plucked a second stalk.

  “Then Dad died, and we were on our own. Dad still owed the banks a load of money from factory debts, money Mary and I couldn’t pay. They didn’t care that we were kids. I was over eighteen and they wanted money from me, even if they had to take my blood to get it.” He smirked. “Turns out bankers don’t appreciate getting their noses broken. They pressed charges.

  “Mary and I took off, hid in abandoned warehouses, lived with the homeless. The authorities boarded up our factory and put a warrant out for my arrest. We stayed low, off the grid, but it was tough. We were hungry all the time.

  “Finally, we decided that if we were going to squat in empty buildings, why not squat in our own? That’s when we got the idea to start the fight club back up. We knew it couldn’t last forever. We had a plan in place for when they found us. The Cessna was gassed up and ready—we’d fly out. We just didn’t know we’d end up at the end of the freakin’ world hiding from a cyborg army.”

  I patted him on the back. “I never said, thank you for rescuing us, so, thank you.”

  “No worries, dude. Now, who’s gonna get some sleep? No sense in us both staying awake.”

  “You go,” I said. “I’ll wake Taylor next, that way you’ll get at least six hours.”

  Jabez lay down on his mat, and I kept up the watch. I wished for a coffee but settled with sipping tepid water.

  Chapter 13

  After three hours I poked Taylor with my foot, getting a sublime pleasure at pulling him from a deep sleep.

  He swatted at me. “Go away.”

  “It’s your turn to keep watch. Get up.”

  “We’re fine.”

  I crouched down and whispered loudly in his ear, “Get up!”

  “Okay, okay.” He pulled himself off the ground then ran a hand through his knotted hair and over his perspiring face.

  My gaze fell on Zoe, who was twitching in her sleep. Dreaming again. I wondered if I should wake her. Was it a bad dream? But maybe it was a good dream. I shouldn’t pull her from that. Dreams were our only time of escape from what had now become our prison in the desert.

  I took a moment to watch Mary as her chest rose and fell. She was a beautiful, strong girl. I was pulled to her, but it wasn’t the same as with…

  I shook my head. Maybe I should just swear off girls for now. Desert life wasn’t exactly conducive to romance anyway. I lay down quietly but I didn’t shut my eyes until I was certain Taylor was sitting by the door, fully awake.

  Not that I dreamed that much. Hardly ever, and when I did, I never remembered them. It was okay. I needed the emotional break. Exhaustion finally won out, and I drifted off into a restless sleep.

  I awoke sometime later, the light in the cave dimmer than before. My mind raced to remember what was going on. Right, the cyborg camp. We were taking turns watching the entrance. I stared at the bright spot ahead and to my right.

  It was empty. I scanned the sleeping forms in the cave, counting five bodies, six if I included myself.

  Taylor was nowhere to be seen

  I jumped to my feet. “Taylor?”

  He popped out from the tech cave with a glass that had a film of powder in it.

  “Dude, you’re supposed to be keeping watch,” I said, unable to keep the frustration from my voice.

  “I just left for a minute. Chill, man.”

  We unintentionally but successfully woke everyone else. Zoe stretched and rubbed her eyes.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. Didn’t mean to wake you.”

  Taylor filled the glass with water and stirred it before handing it to Rebecca. This was their daily ritual. She stared up at him like a lovelorn puppy as she reached for her meds. I didn’t know what was in that solution, but as long as it kept her seizures at bay, I was happy. We had enough to worry about without one of us falling to the ground suddenly and foaming at the mouth.

  Hannah rolled over, a hand carefully cradling her bulging stomach. Jabez smiled gently at her, then got up to pour them both cups of lukewarm water.

  “I’ll stand guard again,” he said after downing it. “I think someone should be watching twenty-four seven, just in case.”

  “Good idea.” I turned to Taylor. “Can I use your laptop?” It was a courtesy question I asked every day and he always nodded. Taylor was responsible for keeping us abreast of world events and weather patterns; it was my job to connect with the people via my blog. No man was an island, and if we were going to make any kind of difference at all in this world through this rebellion against President Vanderveen and his new policies, we’d have to do it with as many people as possible.

  I was a spin doctor, making our rebel situation sound more promising than it was. I cheered loudly for those who stood against GAP policies and cyborg experimentation. I shared “success” stories, encouraged people to keep fighting the cause. I presented a vision of forward momentum; when truthfully, I believed we were slipping backward faster than ever.

  My chest tightened with anxiety as I considered our future on this planet. And what would all my fans and followers think if they knew I was hiding in a cave in the desert, quivering in my boots because of the cyborg training camp on the other side of a low lying ridge?

  I only stayed on for a few minutes at a time. Taylor swore we were secure, but I didn’t like to take any chances.

  I scanned the comments, always on the lookout for something from Skye or one of my brothers. Anything to reassure me that they were okay. Disappointment knotted in my chest. Nothing again today. It’d been so long since I’d heard from them; it felt like they’d fallen off the face of the earth.

  Or rather, I did.

  I signed off and returned to the main cave where Taylor, Rebbeca, Hannah and Jabez were busy eating something from a can. “Jabez, I thought you were watching the entrance?”

  “I am. Just taking a quick dinner break, here.”

  A quick glance around the room told me someone was missing. “Where’s Zoe?”

  Mary’s gaze darted to mine. “Ladies room.”

  “Alone?”

  “Contrary to popular belief,” she said, narrowing her eyes, “women don’t always go to the bathroom in twos.”

  “They do when there’s a cyborg compound nearby,” I replied.

  I raced outside. The sounds of the training cyborg army echoed over the ridge pushing my anxiety to new levels. I sprinted in the direction Zoe would’ve gone and didn’t slow down until I spotted her on her way back. “You shouldn’t go out by yourself,” I said, when she was close enough to hear me over the battle training noise.

  “Why? Do you think Rebecca and Hannah could save me f
rom a cyborg if I ran into one? Even Mary couldn’t work her mad kick boxing skills on that.”

  “I know, just, let me go with you. I’ve got a gun that will take one out.”

  She cocked her head gave me a look that said as if. She flashed me her gun and said, “So do I. By the way, the wind blew the sand off the buggy since last night.”

  She turned, and I followed her to the buggy where we scooped up sand and gathered sage brush, and pinned them down with stones. Sweat dripped like rain off my brow, and I swiped the moisture with my arm.

  Zoe worked on the far side of the buggy bending down to gather more stones, so she didn’t see the gleam of light. The sun reflecting off metal.

  “Stay down!” I whispered.

  “You there,” a low male voice called. A soldier with dark skin and black hair shaved to the scalp had a rifle pointed at me. My heart stuttered but I stood tall and firm. I forced my gaze away from the entrance of the cave and prayed that no one else would venture out.

  The cyborg took measured steps toward me, and I slowly raised my hands. My gun rested against my back in the waist of my pants. There was no way I could get a shot in before this goon shot back.

  I stepped slowly toward him. “I’m unarmed. And lost. I mean no harm.”

  A red stream of light flashed from his cyborg eye, scanning me. I closed my eyes but I wasn’t quick enough. It read my retina.

  The cyborg chuckled. “Noah Brody, huh?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Well, if this ain’t my lucky day.”

  Not so lucky, it turned out. A shot rang, and I flinched.

  The cyborg dropped his weapon and crumbled to the ground. I spun around to find Zoe standing with her gun pointed.

  It took me a fraction of a second to register relief that I was still alive and another fraction to compute that we had a huge problem on our hands.

  I hurried to the body on the ground and pressed my fingers to his neck, searching for a pulse. It was faint but there. The bullet skimmed his skull but hadn’t penetrated. Just left a bloody groove that would make for a nasty scar.

  Zoe stood over us.