Love in the Robot Dawn

by C. W. Crowe

  I didn't know what to say. "But . . . If we need to contact you then . . ."

  "There will always be two of us on duty - usually down near where you entered town. The humans here are docile, so I do not expect any problems. Just remember, I will return with a task for you soon."

  I had to ask. “What is the task?”

  The two of them turned and left. Without looking back, mom said, “Later, Leonard. I will tell you later.”

  *.*.*

  As soon as we were alone inside, Lucy started issuing orders. “The first thing we need to do is pile up stuff that we would take with us if we decided to run - clothes, food, that kind of stuff. Let’s make a big pile here.”

  “But I thought we were taking the horses? We’ve got some decent supplies already. We can carry some more food, but that’s about it.”

  Lucy nodded. “That’s a good idea. Make two piles. One of food that we can add to our stash when we ride away and a second with everything else. That will be the larger load and we’ll hide it under the front porch. They’ll never think to look there.”

  I was still confused and must have looked it because Lucy explained, “We need them to think we ran, Leo. That we’re out somewhere in the woods.”

  “But . . .”

  “No buts right now, my husband. We’ve got too much to do. Help me, will you?”

  Somehow I knew that, even if I objected and demanded to know what was going on, I’d still end up doing what she wanted.

  So I just went ahead and did it.

  *.*.*

  The place looked like a shambles after we’d opened up all the drawers and closets and cleaned out the kitchen. Lucy smiled at the effect as she sat in one of the kitchen chairs. She took a pair of scissors from a drawer and handed them to me, as she reached across herself and pulled off the sweater she’d been wearing.

  I felt something cold in my chest.

  “Listen Leo, we’re getting close now. In a very few hours, we are going to be free again like we were before we came to this awful place. Do you like that idea?”

  Of course I did. Nothing could possibly sound better. I told her that.

  “Then there are some things we have to do. Some of them will be . . . hard, but not this one. All you have to do is cut my hair. Cut it off as close to the scalp as you can so that we end up with a thick rope of electric blue hair. Don’t worry about how it will look when you are done - I don’t care at all. Just cut it off. All of it.”

  I was too shocked to think of any reason to refuse. I stood behind her and lifted a bundle of her hair straight into the air. I put the scissors on her scalp with the hair between the blades.

  I hesitated until she said in a gentle voice full of trust and love, “Go on, Leo.”

  *.*.*

  We stood side by side in the bathroom staring into the mirror. I was ashamed at the job I’d done. Lucy’s remaining hair was uneven with little tufts here and there so that I could see her unnaturally white scalp through some of them. A foot long thick rope of hair sat on the counter, tied using the same tie she’d used to make a ponytail.

  She should have been yelling at me, but instead she smiled, kissed me and whispered, “Thank you, Leo. Now I’m going to take a shower. You go on into the bedroom and wait for me. It’s time for me to tell you the plan.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three: Recovery

  She started by saying, "You gave me the idea, Leo, when you said we'd have to be magicians to escape from there. That led me to think about how magicians work. It's misdirection! That's the key! They get you to look at their right hand while their left is doing something else. That's what we're going to do, Leo."

  She had been right to not tell me. I would never have been able to act normal around the Faculty or robots or anyone else. I would have tried to talk her out of it, refused to go along, yelled and screamed and begged - anything to not do what I had to do now.

  Her plan was brilliant and would probably work. By this time tomorrow, we would probably be alone in the mountains, our two sleeping bags zipped together and her head resting on my chest as we held each other.

  But that was tomorrow and we had to make it through tonight first.

  Lucy cried when she told me what we had to do and those tears broke my heart. I think she was surprised to find herself so emotional because she said she was a coward, a weakling and that only I kept her from giving up. I kissed her tears dry and held her to me until she said, “All right Leo. I’m ready.” She was the bravest woman I’d ever known.

  She turned on her stomach as I picked up the knife. She’d sharpened it so that the edge glowed silver in the light. I had the first aid kit opened, bandages at the ready.

  My hand was literally shaking, the tip of the blade making small circles. I remembered the first time I’d met Lucy, she’d been holding this very knife and it had been wavering in her hand too. “Go on, my husband,” she whispered as she stuffed the corner of a towel into her mouth and bit down on it.

  This was the key part of her plan. We would never escape with that DRP on her neck, so it had to come off. The problem was that we didn’t know if it even could be removed. It felt a lot like a scab, sitting on the outside of her neck, but we knew that at least part of it went deeper inside.

  I slipped the blade under the edge and lifted the handle to see if I could pry the edge of it up, away from her skin. I saw Lucy’s neck muscles contract in pain and she moaned quietly. Her hands were opening and closing as the light glinted on her wedding ring.

  The thing did lift slightly, so I moved the knife tip a quarter inch and inserted it again.

  *.*.*

  It took what must have been a half hour, but once the whole thing was loosened, the little tentacles that had been inside her neck slid out easily and I took one final tug on the DRP to free it from Lucy.

  I hoped that she’d passed out, but when I took her hand, she squeezed mine. I cleaned and bandaged the wound which looked almost like a bad burn and prayed that it would heal and that she would be up to what was to come in the morning.

  Once she was covered with blankets, I think she slept. Our agreement had been to let her sleep for an hour if she could.

  I waited at least two before I woke her up.

  *.*.*

  "Lucy . . . Lucy," I spoke softly, wanting to wake her, but not wanting to jar her awake.

  She sat bolt upright and her abrupt movement gave me a start. I sat beside her as she turned to look at me and started to fall backwards.

  I caught her and pulled her to me. "You need more rest." Had I damaged her when I removed that thing?

  "No, I'm just a little dizzy, that's all. I'm going to stand up now."

  She was warning me to be on alert in case she fell, but my help wasn't needed because she put her hand on my shoulder and stood. I held my breath as she still seemed a little unsteady. She reached up and gingerly touched the bandage on the back of her neck. "You did a good job, Leo."

  "How is it? Are you in bad pain? Do you want some of the Tylenol?"

  She walked around a bit, testing her legs as I watched her carefully, just in case.

  "No, I don't want anything." Her hand went to her stomach. "It's not too bad. I can handle it."

  She held out her hand and I rose and took it as she led me to the bathroom. On the counter was the DRP. It was a black thing, as ugly as sin with its uneven shiny surface and it trio of thin tentacles each a couple of inches long.

  "Anything suspicious happen?" she asked.

  It had been one of the unknowns in her plan. Did the DRP get power from its connection to her? And if so, would the robots lose contact with it the second it was removed and come investigate?

  "Nothing. I watched outside as you slept and everything was quiet and still."

  She nodded and then turned to me and we embraced. I looked over her shoulder, into the mirror. My hands were on her back below the large white bandage that covered the wound I'd made when I cut that thing out. Her hair was a mess where
I'd cut it, little clumps of blue scattered over the white skin of her head. I felt a pain in my chest and, once again, marveled at how the words "heart break" could be so perfectly descriptive. Our freedom was coming at a price and she was paying it.

  She pulled back and said, "You go on now. I'm going to get ready."

  I didn't want to leave her and she must have seen that in my face. She smiled, "I'm all right, Leo. The worst part is over now."

  Her smile helped a lot, so I left the bathroom, closing the door behind me.

  As I prepared to leave, I thought about what she'd said about the worst part being over.

  I hoped she was right.

  *.*.*

  The Faculty shared everything equally, or at least that's what they said, though I had noticed that Peter Readner and Elaine Lawson had houses that were bigger than the other equals.

  But they did share their Segways, parking them under an awning beside one of the neighborhood houses. They were all identical units so sharing was easy - they would just get on any of them and ride away since they kept the key fobs taped to the units.

  This had been my one contribution to the plan. Originally, Lucy had us walking to the warehouse in the middle of the night, but I suggested we steal a couple of the Segways instead.

  I'd explained it to her just last night. "First, Lucy, you'll be in pain and probably weak. Riding that mile will be a lot easier than walking it.

  "And second, they'll notice the missing pair of Segways when they drag themselves to 'work' in the morning. They'll check our house but there will be no answer at the door, so they'll go right to the warehouse to see if we are there. We'll get them looking for us right away, suspecting that maybe we bolted."

  She'd nodded her agreement, "Okay, but we park them out by the woods behind the warehouse. That way, it'll look like we abandoned them once we reached rough ground and continued on foot towards the mountains."

  *.*.*

  While she was getting ready, I went and got the Segways and parked them right outside our front door. They were practically silent at slow speeds so there was little danger in taking them. The night was still, but a fog hung in the air and it was noticeably cooler than it had been. It wouldn't surprise me to get some freezing rain. Good. Maybe that would make it harder for robot aircraft to check out the area.

  As I approached our door, Lucy opened it and I got a shock. She was bald! Not bald like she had been after I'd cut her hair, but bald as in no-hair-at-all-except-her-eyebrows bald. Her scalp was now an even shade of white which stood out all the more when compared to her sun and wind tanned face.

  "Like it?" she asked, turning her head left and right to give me a good look. I didn't know what to say.

  "I didn't plan on this, but there was a razor in the drawer and well . . . I just want to put this whole place behind us. I want to start over fresh and clean, you know? It seemed like a good idea and it'll grow back."

  I found my voice, "It's beautiful, Lucy. You're beautiful."

  She laughed. "No human on earth ever said those words to me, Leo. I never expected anyone to either. But, you know what? I believe you mean it. I really do."

  She handed me the bag of supplies we were going to take with us. "Now it's time. Let's go."

  Chapter Thirty-Four: Bodies

  While Lucy was getting ready in the storage room, I took the horses well back into the woods and tied them. I hated to leave them that way, but there was some brush nearby they could nibble on and they seemed to like it after their meal of corn flakes.

  This was another uncertain part of the plan. Ideally we would have left the horses behind, but we needed them so that was out of the question. And since they'd apparently been put away and forgotten, it seemed like a good bet that no one would notice they were missing. I felt a flash of anger towards the kind of people who would put animals in a cage and leave them to starve.

  I patted Lucy's horse and he snorted. "Don't worry boy. We'll be back and those people won't hurt you again. I promise."

  *.*.*

  The first hint of morning light appeared as I returned to the warehouse. I went directly to the storage room, checking the door carefully. Yesterday, I had nailed a piece of wood to the floor of the hallway right outside the door. Now, as the door tried to close, it hit that piece of wood and stayed open just enough so that the lock could not latch.

  Lucy was ready when I got there. "I checked the nest, Leo, and it's all set. I put up a couple of extra blankets, but it's still going to be hard."

  "We've slept on hard ground before," I said.

  "And I hope we'll be doing it again real soon."

  *.*.*

  It was at least an hour before the Faculty arrived. Lucy and I had spent that time up in our nest on the top of the shelves, twenty five feet above the floor below. We'd climbed up the ladder and then pulled it up with us so that it couldn't be seen by the people who would soon come to this room. Lucy had a little box with her that contained the things she would need.

  We spent that hour talking about everything except what was coming. We talked about our baby and what we might name it. We talked about Las Vegas. We talked about us.

  We lay together behind some cartons, spaced so that we could see what was happening below. Lucy's back was pressed to my front, but part of that was because I held her tightly against me.

  I was missing the smell of her hair when the door below us burst open. The Faculty had arrived.

  *.*.*

  They poured in as a group, clearly upset. "See Elaine? I told you they wouldn't be here! They've run. I knew it!"

  “Run? But Leo was supposed to . . .” It was Kris Blalock. I felt Lucy stiffen in my arms.

  Doctor Elaine Lawson, the woman in charge, cut her off. “Shut up, Kris! You can play with the other men the way you always do.”

  The group gathered around her. “I must say that, like my colleague Peter, I am not surprised. That boy was fine, but that woman - how could he stand her? She was practically a hillbilly - no sophistication at all, plus she was so subservient to her man. It made me sick.”

  Peter Readner spoke up when he heard his name. “But the baby . . .”

  “Yes, Peter, I was looking forward to experimenting with it myself, helping it grow so that it fit in to our new society, but it’s probably for the best. It would likely have had a low IQ and a nose the size of Nebraska.”

  There were a couple of chuckles as I pulled Lucy even closer.

  Elaine continued, “Plus, we’ll have other babies soon enough. The robots promised. This one was just going to be practice anyway.”

  She looked around and counted. “All right, everyone is here and we’re safe. I’m going to report them missing.”

  They were right in front of the communication station. She reached for the button, but Doctor Kristen Blalock stopped her hand. “They knew they were leaving. That’s why she said Leo could come over this afternoon. They lied to me. Let me do it.”

  And with that she pushed the button and told the robots that Lucy and I had run away.

  *.*.*

  We couldn’t see everything that was occurring, but we did hear the loud clicks that signified dead bolts being driven home. I imagined the rest - the door to the Raptor room opening automatically as well as one down the long hall that led to the outside. In my mind, I saw the raptor robots go from totally still, to humming with energy, their snouts in the air not to pick up a scent, but to detect Lucy’s DRT signal. All three of them leapt out the door and into the hall and went towards the open door at the end - the door that led outside.

  But they didn’t go all the way down the hallway. The signal started to get weaker as they passed the door to the storage room. The rest Lucy and I saw as it happened.

  *.*.*

  The Faculty didn’t at first notice when the door in the far wall opened ever so slightly. But then it squeaked and every eye turned towards it. The door was supposed to be locked - how could it be opening all by itself?

&n
bsp; A nose slowly started to become visible as the Raptor was pushing the door open. In an instant, its head was fully in the storage room, its eyes darting.

  Another Raptor head appeared above the first one. It growled with a low pitched sound that froze the Faculty in place.

  Lucy reached into her box and removed the DRT. I’d wanted to do this, but she’d insisted. She tossed it into the air, right over the humans.

  *.*.*

  All three Raptors exploded through the doorway with enough force to almost tear the heavy door from its hinges. The fastest one leapt and caught the DRT in its teeth just before it came down on the Faculty, biting at it the whole time. The creature’s feet came down on Kris Blalock and its claws cut her almost in half.

  The Raptors were robots, but they’d been programmed to behave in a realistically primitive manner. All three of them started biting and clawing. The screams from the Faculty were sounds that I didn’t know human beings could make. These were punctuated by roars of victory from the Raptors.

  Now Lucy reached into her box again and brought out her blue hair. It had a band near one end, holding it together like a ponytail. She tossed it into the melee and a Raptor caught it just before it landed on the mass of flesh that had been the Faculty.

  *.*.*

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw mom and little Elle walk in followed by two other robots. She was frowning and lifted a hand. The Raptors instantly stopped their movements and became frozen.