Contrition (The Perception Trilogy)

by Strauss, Lee

  “Let’s get you to bed,” I said, helping her to her feet. We shuffled back to the mine shaft. I watched her brush her teeth.

  She looked at me with embarrassment. “I have to go to the bathroom.” Up to now, she’d been strong enough to tend to nature’s calls on her own. I hesitated. I wanted to help her, but we were both apprehensive.

  “I’ll take her,” Rebecca said. I hadn’t seen her come by. I nodded at her appreciatively.

  When they returned, I helped Zoe slip onto the mat and under her blanket.

  “I feel like a child,” she mumbled.

  “It’s okay. You’ll get stronger. Just give it time.”

  She smiled. “Thanks for tucking me in.”

  I stroked her hair. “I plan on tucking you in forever.”

  “I hope so.” Her eyes drooped shut, and I kissed her goodnight. A lump formed in my throat. My gut told me she was dying. Just like Ma. I felt so helpless. I had to do something.

  The only thing I could think of was the very thing Zoe wanted me to promise not to do.

  I shook it off and joined the others back outside. Everyone sat quietly, listening to the growing song of the cicadas.

  Mary tossed more sage brush into the fire. It snapped and crackled. Fred stood like a statue in front of it, like a mythical god.

  “Is he just going to stand there like that?” Buck asked, breaking the silence. I glanced at him. He caught my eye. “He’s making me nervous.”

  I smirked and then stared in horror. A bullet lodged in Buck’s forehead, a trickle of blood dripping from a perfectly formed red circle. The other borgs dove like dolphins into the darkness, and gun shots rang out.

  The girls screamed and ran for the shaft.

  Mary, who’d been sitting nearest Fred, lay on the ground, blood spreading across her chest. In an instant, Jabez was prostrate over her body. A loud wail escaped his mouth. “No, no, no.”

  I aimed my gun at Fred’s back and fired. The bullet ricocheted off his shoulders like I’d shot a cement wall. I dove to the ground fearing return fire, but he didn’t even turn toward me. His eyes were searching the darkness where the borgs were hiding. He pointed and shot. Cursing erupted. Shots were returned. Fred walked determinedly toward them. For some reason, he wanted the borgs dead.

  It wasn’t Fred, exactly, who wanted them dead. Someone else. Someone who’d programmed the shooting spree into him.

  I couldn’t’ help but notice that Taylor was safely out of sight.

  It was obvious that bullets weren’t going to stop Fred. Jason jumped like a striking snake from a mesquite tree, onto Fred’s back. Despite his heavy borg hardware, Fred whipped him off as if he were a rag doll.

  Jason lay winded on his back. Fred continued in his direction, a weapon aimed at Jason’s head. His shot was exact, and Jason collapsed with a bullet hole in the center of his forehead.

  Sly launched a grenade. Fred whipped around as if he’d heard it coming and sprinted with supernatural-like speed outside of the explosion. The force of it threw us all to the ground, including Fred. He pulled himself up in one smooth motion, his eyes scanning the darkness. He was after Sly and Lebron next, and with perfect night vision, he walked toward where they were hiding.

  The flash of ammunition brightened the darkness at gunfire rang off. The borgs’ efforts were of no effect. Fred stepped confidently toward them. Sly jumped, arcing high over Fred, firing his weapon as he went. Fred fired a shot at him, missing, then returned his fire to Lebron who made a dash for the next dune. He didn’t make it. Sly rolled along the ground, reaching the cover of the ATV.

  I jumped into the buggy and started it. I turned on the lights so I could see my target clearly and hopefully blind him. He remained unconcerned about me, letting off another round toward Sly.

  I revved the buggy and yelled, driving it as fast it would go into Fred, clipping him in the back of the legs. He went down. I jerked forward in the sudden stop. I backed up, revved again and took another run over his prostrate form. He disappeared under the buggy. My heart nearly stopped and my chest heaved with loud and hard breaths.

  Did I kill him?

  Then the buggy shimmied and the driver’s side rose. I screamed as Fred lifted the vehicle up into the air and tossed it. I flew out of my seat and landed with a thud on the hard desert floor, gasping, unable to inhale.

  Sly started the ATV, shining its headlights on Fred whose clothes were shredded. He was missing skin on his legs and arms, and wires sprouted out in places like weeds. He walked in a jilted manner toward the ATV. The green glow of the dashboard lights lit up the grim expression on Sly’s face as he gripped the steering wheel. He revved and drove straight into Fred. His humanoid body was no match for the army-issued vehicle and he flew through the air, landing only feet away from where I lay.

  His eyes searched my face and I shook violently, searching my back vainly for a gun. It wasn’t there, and I didn’t know where it had landed. Fred reached out an arm to me. I skidded away on my butt.

  I expected him to recover, lift his robot self off the ground and come after me, but then his body shuddered and brightened with electricity. He slumped lifelessly to the ground.

  Chapter 28

  What the hell just happened?

  Sly exited the ATV and limped over to me. “You okay?”

  I was winded but fine. I stood and brushed the sand off my legs. Sly tore off his shirt and wrapped it around a bullet wound, high on his thigh.

  I ran back to the fire pit. “Mary!” Hannah knelt awkwardly by Jabez. Rebecca hovered over them, looking like a frightened bird.

  “Is she gonna be all right?” I asked when I reached them.

  Hannah looked up at me with glazed eyes and shook her head. Jabez whimpered and stuck his nose in Mary’s hair. I felt like someone had punched the wind out of me and I fell to my knees. Mary’s dead?

  I pinched my eyes tight, fighting back the tears that pooled there. This was Jabez’s big loss, not mine. I wrapped an arm around his back, and he let out a loud wail.

  How did this happen?

  Taylor appeared out of nowhere. “I’m sorry, man,” he said to Jabez. He motioned to Hannah. “Sly could use a little help.” He offered Hannah his hand, helping her get to her feet. Her stomach had gotten huge over the last couple of weeks. She lumbered over to Sly with the first-aid kit in hand.

  “The others? Taylor asked.

  “They’re dead,” I spit out. “As if you didn’t’ know.”

  Taylor wrinkled his brow. “What are you talking about?”

  “Did you program Fred to kill the borgs?”

  Taylor exploded. “No! Why? Dude, why would I do that?” He rubbed his face and cupped his chin. His eyes narrowed in thought.

  “What?” I asked.

  Taylor shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “They found out somehow,” Sly said, wincing as Hannah poured antiseptic on his wound. “They knew Fred was coming here, and they knew what the guys and I were up to.”

  “Who are they?” Taylor asked.

  Sly waved a hand. “The universal they. The government. The president.”

  “How did they know?” I asked.

  Taylor’s leg jiggled up and down, his eyes moving from Hannah to Rebecca and then to me. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I didn’t trust him. Not by a mile.

  His eyes moved to motion behind me.

  “Noah?” Zoe’s voice broke through before anyone could answer the question. I jumped to my feet and rushed to her side. “What happened?” she asked.

  I sat her down and her eyes locked on Mary in Jabez’s lap.

  “What happened!”

  “Fred turned on the borgs. Mary got caught in the crossfire.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. She’s…?”

  I nodded and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  Zoe’s attention whipped to Sly, her eyes searching. “Where are the others?”

  I shook my head. “They didn’t make it.”
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  She gasped and buried her face in my chest. I barely heard as she whispered, “It’s all my fault.”

  I pulled back to question her, but she shook her head subtly. She didn’t want to talk about it in front of the others.

  We had one shovel. The desert sand was hard, baked clay, and I grunted with each effort. A pile of dark soil grew to my right, filling my nostrils with a dry, earthy scent. Dust clung to the sweat on my brow, and I stopped to wipe my face with my sleeve.

  “Give it to me.” Taylor held out a hand. I gave him the shovel, happy to let him have a turn. I took a drink of water as my eyes darted to the three borg bodies lying ten feet away. I stepped over to each one, and stripped them of their weapons and useful tech devices, dropping them into the passenger seat of the buggy.

  “They were decent guys,” I said. “Even though they were borg.”

  At least their faces were peaceful. The first thing I’d done before Taylor and I hefted their heavy bodies to this spot away from the mine shaft entrance was close their eyes. Lebron the rebel’s rebel, Jason the doctor, Buck the jokester.

  I wondered if they had families waiting at home somewhere, anxious with worry and weighted down with the heaviness of not knowing where their loved one was, and if he was okay. I was sorry that we couldn’t let anyone know.

  I took another turn with the shovel, and we passed it back and forth that way until we had three shallow graves dug.

  I grabbed Lebron under the shoulders, and Taylor took his feet. I strained under the dead weight. We placed him in the first grave. We repeated the action with Buck and Jason.

  I shoveled desert soil onto the corpses until they were completely covered.

  “I don’t understand what happened,” I said as I shoveled. “Why did Fred turn like that?”

  Taylor pinched his lips together and shook his head. “I don’t know, man.”

  My lungs felt like they were crushing under the weight of this nonsensical tragedy. Everything had changed drastically in that moment. I had no idea what we were to do next, what our future could possibly hold. I rested by the embers, ignoring the burning blisters that had formed on my hands.

  We still had one grave left to dig. Taylor pressed the blade into the ground with his foot.

  “I’ll do this one.” Jabez’s voice startled me.

  “You sure?” I asked.

  His expression was stoic. Taylor handed him the shovel, and I watched as Jabez’s dark biceps flexed with each dig, his breath releasing in hard puffs. Tears streamed down dusty cheeks. The glow of the sun rising broke through on the horizon behind him.

  I looked away and pushed back at the lump forming in my throat. How would he manage without Mary? She was his rock and compass.

  When the hole was completed, Jabez scooped Mary up, an arm under her shoulders and one under her knees. He kissed her cheek before laying her in gently, like she was asleep and not dead.

  Jabez got on one knee and closed his eyes. His lips moved, and I knew he was praying. I prayed, too.

  I helped him fill the grave with dirt. Together we made twig crosses and pressed them into the sand on each grave.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “Yeah, me, too.”

  I patted him on the arm. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  Sly had disappeared earlier into the borg side of the shaft, moaning loudly as he dropped the distance into the hole. I’d never been shot before, and that had to hurt like hell. The girls were all sleeping, but Taylor wasn’t on his mat. I investigated the borg hall and found him there.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Just making sure everything is turned off. Fred’s GPS was fried, but I disassembled him to make sure.”

  “Do you think we’re still safe here?”

  Taylor turned his back, continuing his task. “For now. I’m not sure where to go next.”

  “We can think about it in the morning.”

  “Yeah.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye, and I shrugged it off as emotional stress.

  A mistake.

  I pressed in close to Zoe and fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke, Taylor and the girls were gone.

  Chapter 29

  Taylor left a note apologizing for the sedative he’d added to the water Jabez and I had been drinking, which was why we hadn’t heard anything when he’d rounded Hannah and Rebecca up and driven away in the buggy.

  I wanted to think it was a badly timed joke. I searched the shaft and called his name, but knew it was pointless.

  I read the letter again, still disbelieving.

  —I’m sorry to end things off this way. I hope you understand. My sister is about to have a baby, and I’m responsible for them. She needs a hospital. We need a proper home. I want her and the baby to become GAP like me. It all takes money.

  This is the hard part. When we get to Phoenix, I’m reporting Zoe. Again. I printed up enough meds to last a month, but honestly, I don’t think they’ll work. Zoe needs a doctor or she’ll probably die. It hurts me to say that. Zoe, for what it’s worth, I think you’re really cool, and in another universe, we could’ve had a lot of fun together.

  Anger burned in my gut and I wished I’d punched the guy in the face when I’d had the chance.

  Noah, you have to surrender her, and I figure I might as well cash in. I want Zoe to live, and I don’t really care if she forgets you in the process.

  Taylor

  I showed the letter to Jabez. “Hannah left without saying goodbye?”

  He scrambled back to his mat, throwing it off the ground, tearing through his belongings until he found what he was looking for. A note.

  I watched as he read it. The pain in his eyes was unbearable.

  “She left me this note to say goodbye and that she’s sorry.” He balled the small piece of paper and threw it to the ground. “Just a bloody note! She’s sorry? That’s all the explanation I get? I’m sorry, too!” He stormed out of the shaft, and I followed him.

  He stood facing the sun, with his hands clasped behind his head. He drew in long breaths and blew them out. He’d lost Mary and Hannah in one fell swoop.

  “We have to leave,” I said quietly.

  “And go where, man?” Jabez beat his chest. “Go where?”

  “You read Taylor’s letter. He’s turning us in.”

  “He’s turning Zoe in. If you surrender her, you can still save yourself.”

  “I’m not—”

  He spun to face me. “Noah, man, think about it. She’s going to die.”

  “I know, it’s just…” Heavy waves of dread washed over me, and my heart sunk to my sneakers. I knew he was right. “Where should we go?”

  Jabez lowered his chin, his pain-filled eyes staring blankly at the ground. “I want to go to Phoenix.”

  “Zoe and I can’t go there. You know that.”

  “I know.” He caught my eye. “You can drop me off.”

  Oh. We were parting ways. It made sense. Jabez had no obligation to Zoe and me. “What are you going to do there?”

  “I’m going to find Taylor Blake and punch the nose off his pretty face. And I need to talk to Hannah.”

  “You really care about her, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. If she wants me out of her life, I’ll go, but she has to tell me that to my face. I’m not letting Taylor make that call for her.”

  I understood. I pointed to the borg ATV. “Can we get that started without the password?”

  Sly hobbled out of the shaft, overhearing that last part. “You plan on stealing my ride?”

  “Seems to me you stole it in the first place,” I said.

  Sly scowled and motioned to Jabez. “I’ll drive you to Phoenix, but then I have to disappear and I’m taking the ATV with me.”

  “Can’t you just run wherever you want to go?” Jabez challenged.

  Sly tapped his thigh. “Wounded here. I’m a borg, not a humanoid. You don’t have to run me over to kill or incapacitate me.”

  “
We need it,” I said. “Zoe and me.”

  Sly looked at me and scoffed. I pulled out my gun.

  “One more dead borg won’t hurt my feelings.” I was bluffing, but I hoped Sly didn’t know it. He narrowed his eyes then chuckled dryly. “I noticed all my ammo is missing. And I can’t exactly take you out with this leg.”

  “Best you just do things my way then,” I said. I forced him to go back into the shaft. “Lie on your stomach.” Sly hesitated, and I yelled, “Do it unless you want a bullet in your other leg!”

  Sly slid to the ground. I tossed the duct tape to Jabez. “Bind his wrists and ankles.” I watched until I was assured that Sly wouldn’t be any trouble. I handed a gun to Jabez. “You watch him. I’ll load up.”

  Zoe was awake when I went to our side of the shaft. “What’s going on?”

  I squatted low. “We’re leaving.”

  “All of us?”

  “We’re dropping Jabez off at Phoenix. That’s where he wants to go,” I added quickly.

  She closed her eyes. “How is he?”

  I sighed. “Not good. But he’s strong. He’ll get through this.”

  “I feel so bad.”

  “There’s more,” I said, holding her gaze.

  She nibbled her lip nervously, waiting for me to continue. “Taylor and the girls are gone.”

  “Gone?”

  “They left with the buggy.”

  “Without saying goodbye.”

  I would’ve shown her his letter, but I didn’t want her to see the part where he said she was dying. “He’s going to turn you in. He wants the money to take care of Hannah and the baby.”

  She worked her lips, thinking about something, a frown settling on her face.

  “He left these.” I handed her a jar of pills. Taylor had printed her meds and filled the gel capsules with the powder. Proved he still had a conscience. I handed Zoe two and a cup of water.

  “Will these eventually fix me?”

  “I’m counting on it.” I helped her stand.