Metal

by Thomas Hall

  He ducked back into the ditch in time to avoid the shots they fired once they had recovered. The mound of debris in front of him exploded. It covered him in dust and fragments of the building that had stood there.

  Brett raised his gun to shoot again, but, before he could, they fired and he ducked into the shallow hole.

  They missed.

  When he looked again he saw that the Droids had come closer and it seemed unlikely that they would miss a third time.

  The Machines didn’t take prisoners, so he couldn’t even surrender. The only hope he had was that Samuel and the others would step forwards soon and take out the Droids from the sides. Minutes seemed to pass without them doing so. He began to entertain the idea that they had never been there at all.

  He only had their word to go on that they were supporting him. While in the Resistance that had been enough. He knew that this was not the same thing. They might have decided that he was an acceptable loss, or they might have been planning it all along. Either way, the only thing he knew was that they weren’t there now, when he needed them most.

  Still laying in the dirt, Brett raised his weapon and squeezed off shots without looking. He could tell that none of them hit, but he felt better to be doing something.

  He didn’t dare look again, but he glanced at his Blaster and saw that he had a little under thirty percent charge left. It might be enough to take out one of the Droids, if he got lucky, but luck didn’t seem to be on his side at the moment.

  But there was nothing else for him to try.

  With an inner sigh, Brett raised his hand and started shooting. He kept his finger on the trigger and didn’t pause to see whether any of his shots hit their mark. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter.

  He heard something heavy hit the ground, and guessed that meant he’d hit one of them. That was something at least.

  His Blaster whirred as the charge ran out. He lowered his hand and saw that the screen on the back was flashing on and off. Soon that stopped as well. It would no longer be able to charge itself, it was as good as dead until he could find a charging point.

  Brett waited for the end to come. He thought about Dina and all the things they had been through together. He wished that he could believe they would be together again soon.

  Something crashed to the ground on the other side of the ditch. Brett thought it was another building falling.

  Another crash came and then a roar of celebration. He couldn’t place it, wouldn’t allow himself to hope.

  Brett waited for the Droids to appear above him, to see their weapons aim at him as the mechanical eyes watched. His death would mean nothing to them. Human life was an illogical contradiction of inefficiency. The Machines would never understand it and had given up trying a long time ago.

  “Are you going to lay in there all night? Or are you going to get off your ass and come and help?”

  Richard was looking down at him. His face was dirty with ash making the whites of his eyes stand out like lights.

  “What are you doing here?” Brett said. He didn’t move, didn’t understand.

  “What does it look like I’m doing here?” Richard said. “Saving your ass as usual.”

  Brett was too stunned to move.

  “Get your ass out of the hole!” Richard said.

  Brett nodded and pushed himself up, finding it easier what he was told, than to think for himself.

  “We need to hurry,” Richard said. “Are you hurt?”

  Brett checked himself for injuries. Other than a sprained ankle he seemed fine.

  “Good. Now hurry up and follow me.”

  He followed Richard towards the buildings which were still standing. Samuel and the women were standing outside with their Blasters drawn.

  “Where’s Joanna?” Brett said.

  “Still inside,” Samuel said without turning to look at him.

  “More Droids?” Brett said.

  Samuel shook his head.

  Brett considered his dead Blaster and hoped that he wouldn’t need of a weapon. It had been a mistake to let it run out. He felt foolish for believing that they would have left him to die.

  A few moments later Joanna appeared at the door.

  “Have you got it?” Samuel said.

  She held up a brown canvas bag and smiled. “It’s all here.”

  “Then let’s go before any more Droid’s show up.”

  No one argued with that.

  Samuel took point with Brett behind him. They moved through the dark, abandoned streets. It wasn’t long before he began to hear a familiar and terrible buzzing sound.

  The others didn’t realise what was happening. Joanna looked up but there was more curiosity than concern in her expression. The rest of them kept moving, as if they could outrun the sound of the Drones hovering out of sight.

  Brett braced himself for what was coming. He cursed himself for using the charge up on his Blaster.

  “This way,” he said, keeping his voice low, despite the futility of doing so.

  “What are you talking about?” Richard said. “We got them. We’re fine.” There was enough uncertainty in his voice to tell Brett that any explanation would do.

  “That buzzing sound,” Brett said. “It’s Drones. They’ll lead more Droids to us if we don’t lose them.”

  “This way then,” Richard said, pointing in the opposite direction to the one Brett had suggested. He thought Richard was only saying it to be difficult. Then, as the group turned, so did Brett and he saw that it was a much better route to take.

  The buildings were more intact, but they had a ramshackle quality to them. After the first attacks by the Machines, the survivors had made do with whatever they could find. They’d built new dwellings out of scraps and debris and gotten on with their lives.

  The streets were narrow and a definite fire hazard. Corrugated iron walls and dirt floors. It was impossible to tell what was scrap and what had been a valuable part of someone’s house.

  He could still hear the Buzzards overhead, but not see them. The slum had a roof, of sorts, which blocked his view.

  They ducked and dived through the narrow alleys. Richard moved as if he’d been there all his life. The rest of them struggled to keep up.

  “Where are we going?” Brett panted.

  Richard ignored him, but answered when Samuel asked the same question. “I know a place, if we can get there we’ll be safe.”

  They kept going, doing their best to ignore the buzzing overhead. It was either Brett’s imagination, or they were actually getting away.

  He turned and saw Joanna and Lisa falling behind. The bag from the pharmacy was flapping against Joanna’s led. Lisa was trying to help, but there was little she could do. If they lost the bag, then the whole journey would have been for nothing.

  Brett fell back and joined them.

  “Can you carry the bag?” he said to Lisa.

  She nodded.

  He handed it to Lisa. Then he swept the Joanna off her feet and carried her.

  “What are you doing!” she shrieked. “Put me down right now!”

  “Sorry,” Brett said. “But you’re slowing us down. We need to get out of here.”

  “I can do it by myself,” she said.

  “It’s too late,” he said. “Keep still and I’ll get you out of here.”

  She stopped struggling and that made it easier, but it didn’t get rid of the Drones. He could still hear them. They should all count themselves lucky if they managed to stay alive for a single minute longer.

  He caught up with Lisa and grabbed her free hand. He pulled her along behind him.

  Dirty faces peered out of windows, watching them run past. Brett wondered how they had survived, why the Machines hadn’t stormed through and killed them all. Then he felt guilty that his arrival might mean the end of whatever life they had managed to eek out here.

  How many people would have to die so they could take medicine to one sick woman? What made her life more
valuable than those of the people who lived here?

  It occurred to Brett that they weren’t running in a random direction. Richard knew these streets and was taking them somewhere specific.

  He looked up but couldn’t see the Drones. He could hear them though, and they were close. The Machines would be scanning the ground, and what would they see? How many humans were down here?

  Joanna’s weight, slight though it was, began to slow him down. Lisa started pulling him forwards, Richard and Samuel moved further ahead. They turned sharp corners and the streets got narrower. At times, he touched the walls of derelict buildings on both sides at the same time.

  They ran through a building, open on two sides. Brett looked up and saw a hollow tower above him, a huge iron bell hanging from the roof. It was another church, but empty on the inside. The floor was slippery, and he had to slow down again and let the others to get further ahead.

  “How are you doing?” he said to Joanna.

  “You can put me down if you want,” she said.

  He swung Joanna off his shoulders and down to the ground. She straightened out her jacket and then they ran on together.

  Out the other side of the church, the ground started to rise. They appeared to be in an older part of the slum because there were actual intact buildings. They had been added to over the years, pieces of scrap metal formed shelters and window coverings. There were more people, watching them and staring upwards as if they might be able to see the Buzzards.

  “It’s starting to get light,” Joanna said.

  Brett guessed that they had less than half an hour before sunrise.

  Ahead of them, Lisa had caught up with Richard and Samuel and they were slowing down. It was a few minutes before Brett and Joanna joined them.

  “What are we doing?” Brett said. “Why have we stopped?”

  “We’re here,” Richard said.

  “Here? Where’s here?” Brett panted. He was struggling to catch his breath and his chest ached.

  Richard looked at Samuel and then back at Brett and Joanna. Then he turned away from them and started walking. “Follow me.”

  They followed him across the road. The holes didn’t appear to be the result of battle. The buildings were small, squat and covered in scrap. They spread out in all directions.

  Richard ducked beneath scaffolding. Corrugated iron and sheets of plastic covered it.

  There was a car door leaning against the wall at the end of the passage. Richard bent down and pulled it open, revealing an opening.

  “Do we have to go in there?” Joanna whispered to him.

  “I guess so,” he said.

  Richard went first, Samuel, Victoria and Lisa followed.

  “It’s okay,” Brett said. “You’ll be fine.”

  She didn’t look convinced, but she crouched down and climbed through the space that the car door had been hiding. Then it was Brett’s turn and he decided that it would be better to get it over and done with. Trying not to think about what might be on the other side, he got down on all fours and climbed through.

  The passageway was short. When he got to the other end Brett found himself in a kitchen. The others were waiting for him, along with two people he had never seen before.

  Richard stood beside an old woman and next to her there was a matching old man. It was too dark for him to be sure, but there was something familiar about them.

  “Mum, dad,” Richard said, talking to the old couple. “This is Samuel, Victoria, Lisa and Joanna. And Brett.”

  The old couple smiled at them.

  “Everyone, this is my parents.”

  “It’s nice to meet you all,” the old woman said. “Can we get you something to drink? Tea? Coffee?”

  Brett couldn’t understand why, if Richard’s parents were here, he brought the Drones. Didn’t he realise that they’d led the Machines right to his parent’s doorstep?

  “We have to go,” Brett said, looking at each of them and wondering why he couldn’t see the same urgency in their faces.

  “Go?” the old woman said. “Why would we need to do that?”

  “The Drones,” Brett said. “They’ll send Droids here.”

  “Oh I don’t think so,” she said.

  Brett looked from one face to another, hoping to see someone who shared his concern. This was a problem, a big fucking problem and no one seemed to realise it except him.

  “They won’t come here,” the old man said. His voice was like Richard’s, but there was a calmness to it which made it his own. “We’ll be fine.”

  “They’ll come,” Brett said. “They’re probably on their way already. If we go now we might be able to lose them.”

  “They aren’t coming here,” Richard said.

  Brett turned to him. “Why wouldn’t they?”

  Richard looked at his father, the old man shrugged. “It’s not a secret from friends,” the old man said.

  “You can show them if you like,” the old woman said.

  “Fine,” Richard said. “Follow me.”

  They followed him through the house, which was larger than it had seemed from the outside. A maze of twisting corridors, piled high with canned goods and bottled water, led to the back of the house. There was a door. Richard opened it and they looked into the room.

  “What is it?” Lisa said.

  It was the size of a small car, but a different shape. Roughly cylindrical and covered on all sides by an intricate network of pipes and wires. It didn’t resemble anything that Brett had seen before.

  “Richard?” Samuel said.

  “It’s a storage drive,” Richard said.

  None of them spoke but their questions hung in the space between his words.

  “It’s from the Nexus. The Machines won’t come here because they can’t see here.” He went to put his hand on the thing but stopped inches from touching it. “All the information the Drones capture when they fly overhead comes through this.”

  “It’s still connected?” Brett said.

  Richard nodded.

  Then he walked around to the side of the device and picked up something much smaller, no bigger than a Blaster. It looked like an old fashioned mobile phone.

  “It’s like a virus,” Richard said. “It takes all the data about the area that arrives and shreds it.”

  “Shreds it?” Lisa said.

  He nodded. “They know if you remove anything. This dissects the data and redistributes it into other nodes. There’s the same amount of information, but none of it makes any sense.”

  Richard put the mobile phone back down next to the device and brushed his hands as if that was the end of it.

  “That’s the problem with the Machines,” he said. “They aren’t individuals. None of them have the capacity to question why this place isn’t recorded. None of them have the ability to disconnect from the Nexus.”

  “So we’re safe here?” Lisa said.

  Richard nodded. Samuel and Joanna turned to Brett. He shrugged. He couldn’t believe it, but it appeared to be true. The Drones had flown overhead but they hadn’t sent in the Droids. The place continued to exist, despite the presence of Machines. He had a lot of questions, but they could wait. The important thing now was that they were safe and, it appeared, they were going to stay that way.

  CHAPTER 14

  RICHARD SPENT MOST OF THE DAY HIDING FROM them. His parents were more welcoming and provided a place for them to sleep.

  He tried for almost an hour, but then accepted that sleep would not come, and gave up trying.

  The house was quiet and he suspected that no one else was having the same troubles. He went to the kitchen and found Richard’s parents there drinking coffee.

  He stopped at the door. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t think anyone else was awake.”

  “Oh we don’t sleep during the day,” the old woman said. “And no need to apologise. It’s nice to meet some of Richard’s friends.”

  Brett grimaced. “I wouldn’t exactly call us f
riends,” he said.

  “No? Well, whatever you are. Do you want something to drink? Kettle’s boiled.”

  “Coffee would be good,” he said.

  “Take a seat then, I’ll bring it over.” She turned to her husband. “Move over Frank, make some space for the young man.”

  The old man, Frank, looked at Brett with an expression he had seen on Richard’s face all too often. “Maybe I should go,” Brett said.

  The chair closest to him shot out and the old man looked at him. “Sit,” he said.

  Brett did.

  “You’re from the tunnels?” the old woman said.

  “That’s right,” Brett said. He didn’t want to talk about himself. Talking about himself led people to ask him questions and the last thing he wanted to do was answer those. So, he changed the subject to something he was sure most mothers were happy to talk about; their children. “Is Richard an only child?”

  The old woman froze halfway between the counter and the table. Frank glared at Brett but didn’t say anything.

  “He had a sister,” she said. “She died.”

  “I’m sorry,” Brett said. He wished he could change the subject again, but his mind had gone blank.

  “You don’t have to be sorry,” Frank said. “You didn’t kill her.”

  “It was before we had the device,” she said.

  “Mary, you don’t have to...” Frank said.

  “I’m fine,” she said and Brett could tell that she was. The woman was strong, but he supposed most people were now. She turned back to Brett. “Ellen was a quiet girl, always in a world of her own. We used to joke that she hadn’t even realised that the Machines had turned against us. What was that place she made up Frank?”

  “Eyersome?” he said.

  “That’s right,” Mary said. “ Eyersome. She spent half her life talking to animals that didn’t exist and pretending she was a princess. She was twenty years old when she died, but she still acted as if she was six.”

  “Was she close to Richard?” Brett said, thinking that he could guess how this story went, but he was wrong.