by Chris Bostic
“She seems pretty happy with her new man,” Joe said, brushing off the comment.
“Do you think that’s weird?”
“About Connie dating an android?” Joe asked, and Leisa nodded weakly. “Maybe. But she seems so much like a real person.”
“I’m sure he’s not the first guy to do something like that,” Leisa said. “I mean…anyway. I dunno. Just makes me wonder about her creator.”
“Like he’s some kind of perv?”
“Well, yeah. Like why’d he make her so hot?”
“Jealous much?” When Leisa tightened her eyes, Joe quickly added, “You shouldn’t be. You always look amazing.”
“I’m sweaty, tired, and starving to death. You must be delusional.”
“Could be,” he joked. “Might be heatstroke or something.”
Leisa slugged him on the arm.
“Ouch.” Joe rubbed his shoulder in pretend agony. “Remind me not to make you mad. You sure can’t take a joke.”
“Neither can your girlfriend. It’s funny how she shakes her pretty head every time Connie says something inappropriate. They’re quite the interesting couple.”
“That’s for sure.” Joe leaned back against a tree. He dabbed at his brow, but his palm came back dry. “At least you’re still sweating. I think I’m done.”
Leisa’s eyes narrowed. “We can’t go much farther without water.”
“Yep. Not good.” Joe straightened up and waved over Connie and Jade. The big man looked slightly winded while Jade showed no sign of any exertion. But Joe had seen her that way before. She could work tirelessly for hours digging trenches around the prison camp, but once she hit her limit she basically passed out. It made him wonder if she had some kind of flaw that prevented her from knowing when she’d been overworked, but Joe didn’t have the time to ask. When Connie had his mind set on something, his focus was unstoppable.
“We need to keep moving,” he bellowed, and rushed on past with Jade in tow. “No time for slacking.”
“Slacking? We beat you here,” Leisa protested.
“And now I’m taking the lead.” Connie threw his reply over his shoulder. “Be prepared to run until you drop.”
“Dang, we just did,” Joe complained. He shared a shrug with Leisa and tried to catch up. Connie seemed determined to make sure they didn’t.
The forest was treacherous for a long time. Joe had never sidestepped so many brambles and tugged his boots free from so many vines. Before long, his legs ached all the way to his hips.
He swung his coilgun like a machete at times, trying to knock the bushes aside.
Finally, they hit a small clearing. Joe was sure Connie would let them stop for a minute, but the big man was on a mission. He blew right on through.
“No break,” Joe said to Leisa.
“No reason to, I guess.”
“Except that we’re dying.”
Leisa nodded. “No food, no water equals no break.” With a noncommittal shrug, she added, “It’s probably better to keep moving.”
“I guess you have a point,” Joe said. “I just want to be there.”
Bionic-eared Jade turned around. “It’s not far now, babe. We’ve covered a lot of ground. My house is less than two miles away.”
Connie slowed at that remark, coming to an unexpected halt. “Huh. No kidding. That seemed too quick.”
“In a sense,” Jade said cryptically. While the others struggled to catch their breath, she said, “You picked just about the most efficient route through the forest, Sarge. I’m impressed. We’re coming out at the edge of a little neighborhood not too far from my house.”
Joe looked around the endless green of the forest. “How the heck do you know that? I can’t see ten yards.”
“I have built-in global positioning, effective down to one meter accuracy. It’s really sophisticated, but nothing that you couldn’t get yourself as long as you have a handheld device with access to the nav satellites.”
“Wait a minute.” Connie spun toward her. The look on his face sent a shockwave through Joe. “You’re online?” Jade nodded sheepishly. “You need to break that connection now.”
“Oh, crap. A-a-are they…” Joe stuttered. “Can they track you?”
CHAPTER 4
“They can’t trace me,” Jade said. “I’m on a secure network.”
“Whose network?” Connie asked, hands coming to rest on his hips. The others gathered in closer. “The Republic’s?”
“Well yes, but they don’t know I’m using their navigational satellites.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Positive,” Jade insisted. “I can slip through the firewalls without leaving the slightest trace.”
That didn’t keep Joe’s heart from racing. His eyes drifted to the canopy, not that he could see more than leaves and vines pressing down on him like an environmentally-sensitive prison.
Connie seemed more curious than disturbed. He asked, “Is there anything else you can do on their systems?”
“Yes, but…” Her vibrant blue eyes dulled.
“But what?”
“It’s much too risky, and I’m not authorized to do so.”
“Of course they won’t authorize you,” Connie said, while scratching his head.
“It’s not them,” Jade replied though it seemed as though she hadn’t really wanted to share that.
“Then who?” Joe asked.
“My creator.”
“Oh. But you could if you were authorized?” Joe asked.
Connie jumped back in. “Yeah, like what if I ordered you to check something out?”
A sliver of a grin turned to a giant, toothy smile. “Sorry, Sarge. You can’t order me to do anything.”
Joe forgot all about being nervous. He and Leisa couldn’t stop laughing, which threatened to make their sergeant’s new frown permanent.
“I need to talk to this creator of yours,” Connie grumbled.
“I kinda like things the way they are,” Leisa said. “It’s about time someone told you no.”
“I suspect my creator would do the same,” Jade said. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think he’ll agree to relinquish control over my programming.”
“Well that’s just great.”
Leisa narrowed her eyes at Connie. “Why would you want to control her?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he shot back.
Joe was going to point out that she was a person, but stopped himself when he realized that wasn’t exactly the case. Still, it seemed entirely wrong, and he couldn’t help but mention that. As a result, they briefly launched off onto a tangent about their oppressive government.
“The Republic would mind control us all if they could,” Leisa insisted.
“You’re talking about the same thing, Sarge,” Joe added. “Like bossing some…uh, someone around just because you want to be in charge.”
Like normal, Jade didn’t seem to recognize any of the oppression all around them, which had always confused Joe. Obviously, she had been sheltered. Still, he had to assume that her creator was no friend of the government, especially if he had been hiding all of his creations from them. Yet, Jade never seemed to see the evil acts despite knowing enough to steer clear of the well-protected servers. It made him think she needed to poke around in there a little more.
Before Joe could suggest it, he had to calm his sergeant. Connie was still hung up on defending himself.
“This is nothing like the government,” Connie said. “I just like when you people listen to me. Why else do you think I’m in charge?”
“You’re the oldest,” Leisa said.
Joe piled on. “Yeah, you’re the old man of the group.”
“You are pretty old,” Jade admitted. “You look to be in your thirties, although-”
“I’m twenty-five,” he protested.
“Like a cranky old man, always talking about how these dumb kids won’t listen to his genius ideas.” Leisa pretended to use a cane and hobbled of
f into the woods. “Follow me, Grandpa. I’ll get you back to the old soldiers’ home.”
“Whatever,” Connie grumbled. “Enough of that.”
He ended up following Leisa. They hadn’t gone more than a few steps before he turned back to Jade. “Tell me more about the servers. Why is global positioning easier to hack than the others?”
“They don’t protect the nav servers nearly as well as the other ones. It would be very risky for me to try to infiltrate those.”
“But potentially very helpful?” Joe said. “It could be worth the risk.”
“I don’t know about that,” Jade replied. “If I make a mistake or overlook some spyware, they’d know where I was at in a millisecond.”
“But just you, right? Is there anything that would tie you to all of us?”
“Doubtful. They don’t have a clue that I teamed up with you guys at the prison,” she explained.
“They also don’t know that you’re both a computer and a person,” Joe reasoned.
“Correct. So I suppose they would expect that I had company. Any false move online would come to them as a notification that a computer from a certain IP address had entered unlawfully, so they would likely expect to find a hacker sitting at a computer terminal somewhere.” Jade looked around. “Right here.”
“Not knowing that you’re both the hacker and the device.”
“Precisely, babe.”
“And we’d rather not blow your cover,” Connie said. “Let’s worry about getting to your house before we worry about getting this authorization to take on the entire grid.”
“If you can convince my creator, I’m all yours.”
Connie mumbled something back to her that Joe couldn’t hear. He assumed it was some kind of weak pick-up line or perverted remark, so he was happy to have missed it.
They trudged ahead for countless paces. Following a gentle decline, they finally entered into a section of forest that opened up.
The trees seemed taller, like the roof of an old stadium closing in over their heads a hundred feet above. Even the air thinned out a bit, but it brought no relief from the oppressive heat. Having gone from the same temperature in the northern hills, down to the cold valley, and then back to intense humidity was hard on Joe’s body.
Despite the moisture practically hanging in the air, his sweat had long since dried up. His legs cramped, and he fought back a curse as the knot ran from the back of his knee to his Achilles tendon.
“Hang on, guys,” Leisa called ahead. “You okay?”
He gritted his teeth as he nodded. The muscle felt tighter than rope and twice as thick. He hobbled on one foot until he could reach the closest tree. Dropping his coilgun, he massaged his calf muscle.
“Cramp?” she asked.
“Yeah.” The leg burned like fire, but still he didn’t sweat.
Leisa came over and attempted to knead the aching muscle like bread. Though he usually craved her touch, he wanted nothing to do with that.
“I got this,” he muttered.
“Sorry. I just thought…”
“It’s okay, just… it’s killing me. Sorry.” Joe sighed as the muscle finally uncoiled. He tentatively stretched it out, expecting it to snap tight again like a mousetrap any second. Fortunately, only a dull ache remained.
“Better?” Leisa asked.
“Sorta. I’m dehydrated.” Joe hung his head. “It’s only gonna get worse.”
“That’s true,” Jade said, having come over to join them. There was none of the trademark sympathy most people would have offered; however, she was able to share some good news. “On the positive side, we’re almost out of the woods.”
“I wish we were outta the woods,” Joe muttered.
“I just said that.” Jade frowned.
“It’s a figure of speech,” Connie explained. “While we might be out of these woods soon, we won’t be outta the woods for a very long time.”
“More like out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Leisa said. While Jade stood to the side looking like a confused puppy, she offered Joe a hand to pull him up. “Let’s get out of these woods, bud.”
“Fine,” he grumbled.
“It seriously is only a bit farther.” Jade motioned off to her right. “You see where it’s a little lighter over there? That’s it.”
Joe couldn’t tell, but nodded anyway. With a grunt, he reached over to retrieve his coilgun, and waved for Connie to lead the way.
“I could get used to being a point man,” Connie said with a bluster of bravado.
“Yeah, now that nobody’s shooting at us,” Leisa said.
“That’s true,” Joe said. “You sure didn’t want it before.”
Back in the hills, Danny had been the squad member out in front up until they’d lost him to an onslaught of savages.
“Well you’re not gonna put the brains of the outfit out walking a tightrope,” Connie stated.
“You didn’t mind having your pet Danny up there,” Leisa said.
Connie tapped his head. “Like I said, gotta protect the brains.”
Though Joe had harbored no love for Danny, he hadn’t disliked the guy either. He knew Connie was all bluster, but he was irked enough to say, “That’s not cool. Why you gotta be that way?”
“That’s low, man.” Leisa shook her head in disgust. “Do you talk about all of us that way?”
“You would know,” he replied. “You’re the only ones left.”
“Wow. Just wow.” Leisa continued to mutter until Joe tapped her on the arm.
“It’s his coping mechanism,” he whispered. After all they’d seen, Joe couldn’t necessarily blame anyone for how they processed all the deaths. It was a heavy load, unfortunately made heavier by Connie’s insensitive words.
“And I don’t think it’s very healthy,” Jade interjected. “Sarge, you should really let your true feelings out sometime.”
That elicited a chuckle from Joe. “Sarge? Feelings?”
“Quiet down,” Connie whispered harshly.
Joe’s reply died in his throat when Connie raised a hand to signal a quick halt.
Leisa and Joe instantly went into warrior mode and dropped to a crouch. Their coilguns rotated to their shoulder like they belonged there.
“Get down,” Connie told Jade, and reached out with his free hand to pull her behind his back.
“What is it?” Leisa whispered.
Joe couldn’t get a clean glance through the bodies in front of him, but more sky blue than green stared at him from up ahead.
“Smoke,” Connie answered. “Lots of it.”
Leisa and Joe crept farther ahead until they were right behind Connie and Jade.
“That’s a huge fire,” Jade was saying. “I’m surprised you can’t smell it, Sarge.”
Joe couldn’t smell anything but the wet, musty odor of damp bark and moss. He looked down long enough to see the once leaf-covered ground had thinned out to mud. It squished ever so slightly as he settled back into a fighting crouch. The knee of his pants dampened.
“It’s cooler here,” Leisa whispered as she kept staring ahead. “And wetter.”
Joe nodded, and leaned to the side to catch a glimpse between Connie and Jade. Beyond the trees, a tall column of black smoke rose until it seemingly turned into ominous gray clouds.
“So your house is that way?” Connie asked.
“It should be past the smoke,” Jade answered. “It’s almost exactly a mile from the edge of the woods, and that big plume is six-tenths of a mile from here.”
“So your house is okay?”
Jade cupped her hand to her ear and twisted. “There’s a lot of heavy machinery driving around. The ground’s practically shaking.” She looked to Connie. “You can’t feel that?”
“Not a bit, but the fire looks awful serious.”
“Yeah it does,” Joe agreed. “So what about this machinery? Like trucks?”
“Definitely bigger. More like earthmoving equipment, but I think there�
�s some trucks in there.”
“What’s between here and your place?” Connie asked.
“It’s a relatively old subdivision for some of the wealthier folks,” she replied. “Mostly big, solid houses on large acreage. Pretty landscaping, and manicured bushes. Some have outbuildings for horses.”
“Whoa, that’s high end,” Joe said. “I didn’t think anyone other than the elites still lived like that.”
“Not without security. Maybe a giant wall and armed guards all around the compound,” Connie said. “Kinda figured I’d get a job in private security if I lived long enough to get back home from the front.”
Before Joe could follow up on that, Jade gasped. She made a visor out of her two hands and stared toward the flames. “Looks like they won’t be living like that anymore.”
“Say what?” Connie asked.
“That’s what’s burning,” she answered softly. “Andersen’s is gone. Old doc Barnwell too. It-it-it’s a warzone.”
Joe hadn’t heard any gunshots yet, but the idea that the savages might have already caught up to them had him rattled. He swallowed exaggeratedly as Connie asked, “We need to know what’s out there, darling. Otherwise we’re stuck here until dark, or…you know.”
Joe’s stomach turned inside out and resumed eating itself. He groaned, as did his cramping muscles.
Jade only made things worse. She tilted her head to the side. “Well, I…I don’t have a clue.”
CHAPTER 5
“Can you see anything?” Connie asked Jade.
“I can see plenty of things.”
“Let me rephrase that. What’s goin’ on out there…like savages? Are there any running wild?”
“And is there another way around?” Joe added.
“I’d be more worried about her house,” Leisa said, ever the realist.
Though her voice lacked any emotion, Jade said, “I feel like it’s okay. I’m not sure why my neighbor’s houses are burning, but it’s definitely not savages.”
“Maybe it’s looters. We’re outside the limits of the protection of the Pasun Police,” Connie suggested. “We should probably try to get to your place and secure it, if it’s not too late.”