Gen One

by Amy Bartelloni

“You have to prove yourself,” he continued.

  “I’m not sure I want to know what that means.” Delilah slipped into a building’s open foyer to cross the lobby and come out the other side. They took cover in the doorway and watched the street for a minute.

  “I think you’d pass,” Brute said with a smile. He tipped his head. “But for a code name? I’d say you’re Stealth. Nobody hears you coming.”

  Delilah had to cover her mouth to not laugh as she stepped over a jagged piece of glass. “I’m the biggest klutz you’ve ever seen,” she told him. They emerged onto the street next to the hospital. Wisps of smoke carried on the wind, along with a metallic, oily smell, and the hospital rose like a tower in the dark. Only Delilah knew that was deceiving. The building was no light in the dark. More like the center of a spider’s web. Tall weeds had overtaken the street, but otherwise, their route forward was clear.

  “Well, Brave was already taken,” Brute told her. He rubbed his head as he studied the building. They faced the side. The doors and windows were intact, and, presumably, locked, at least in the lowest levels. They’d have to find another way, or break a window.

  “Thanks,” Delilah answered. A flush rose to her cheeks but she couldn’t afford to look down. Brute had the gun and held it out as they walked slowly down the street. All the windows were blown out here, and when they got closer, she saw some boarded over. Brute gestured to one where the plywood looked like it would easily come off. He pursed his lips, looked up and down the street, then handed the gun to Delilah. She kept watch while he worked on pulling the plywood off, but the hand holding the gun shook.

  “I’m serious.” He yanked the first wedge of wood off, pausing to make sure no one heard. The second one was nailed on more securely. He pulled with both hands and grunted his next words. “Not everyone could walk into a revolution, Stealth.”

  She kept the gun trained on the corner where they’d come from. “Not everyone loves someone, I guess.”

  Brute paused and wiped his forehead. The board was almost there. “Lucky guy,” he said. He went back to work on the board, and it snapped off.

  The window behind it was mostly shattered, but Brute knocked out the remaining pieces of glass so they could climb in.

  “One thing is bothering me,” Delilah said. She climbed in first. The former conference room still had a round table surrounded with chairs and she dropped into one, then hopped to the floor. “Why Zane? Why would the governor take Zane back, and not just…” she swallowed, “…kill him?”

  Brute jumped in, wiping small pieces of glass off his pants. “Who knows what that whack job is thinking,” he said, but she noticed he didn’t make eye contact.

  She followed him to the door. “Okay. But why does Rank care so much about Zane?”

  Brute frowned. He opened the door a crack and looked out. “For a girl named Stealth, you have a lot of questions,” he said.

  “Luke.” She grabbed his arm before he could leave the room, and she had his bicep in a strong hold. She wasn’t letting go.

  He sighed, and uncurled her fingers one by one. “It’s not my story to tell,” he said. “Zane is important to Rank. That’s all I can tell you.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “But there’s more?”

  He looked her up and down and gave her a curt nod. That was all she would get for now. She tried not to think of the reasons or implications for Rank and Zane’s strange relationship. The result was that Rank would go out of his way to make sure Zane was okay. There were at least a dozen reasons Rank might want Zane dead, ranging from petty thievery to skimming from profits, but instead, Rank protected him.

  The corridors were empty. Empty of people. Empty of bots. A low drone sounded in the walls, vibrating the floor. It had the effect of muting the outside noise, but even the explosions seemed to have quieted. It was as if they’d stepped in a time warp, and everything inside had frozen. Conference rooms with X-rays still up. Offices with papers on the desk. They passed through a lobby where signs hung over them pointing to places like pediatrics, radiology, and a bunch of different departments. Zane would have a field day here.

  She picked up a stapler and played with it, clamping it shut and opening it. “What now?” she asked. It pinched when she put her finger in the wrong place, and she squealed and dropped the device on the floor. Brute frowned at the noise, and Delilah sucked a bead of blood off her finger.

  The lights in the building were functional and lit up the space like nothing Delilah had ever seen. Electricity was rare in the Rez and even in the Banks. They used kerosene lamps and fire for heat. Even though the afternoon had turned chilly, it was warmer inside. Delilah rubbed her hands together.

  Brute walked over to the elevator banks, but Delilah hung back.

  “No way,” she said. She’d seen elevators in the buildings she and Zane had snuck into, but there was no way she’d go in such a death trap. Brute tipped his chin to the display above where the Authority City Symbol was beside the 12.

  “They’re on the twelfth floor,” he commented. Delilah took a step back.

  “Are you scared of heights?” he teased.

  “I’m scared of boxy death traps,” she answered. She looked around. Behind them was a door with a picture of stairs on it. Easy enough. She pointed, but Brute stayed completely still and looked around. He pointed to the camera in the corner. The unblinking red light was on. There was no scrambling here.

  “They know we’re here,” Brute said, under his breath.

  Delilah pulled the door to the stairway open. “I told you something was weird,” she mumbled. It didn’t stop her though.

  “It’s more than weird.” Brute walked slowly to the door. “It’s more like a trap.”

  “Come on.” She took a couple steps in, but Brute didn’t follow her.

  He shook his head. “Something’s wrong here.”

  “You think?” she asked. She itched to get upstairs and find Zane, trap or no trap. Rank had their backs. Somehow she’d learned to trust him. In the last couple weeks, her world had been turned upside down. She used to be terrified of the man.

  “Dee—” Brute stayed put, and she took another step.

  “I’m going,” she said, and she picked up her pace. If Brute wouldn’t go, she’d have to get it done herself, or die trying. She owed it to Zane. She owed it to herself. After a floor and a half, she heard Brute curse, and then his heavy footsteps on the stairs. She took the steps two at a time, cautious of the cameras that turned in their direction every time they passed a floor.

  She was winded when they made the twelfth floor, but she tried hard not to show it. Brute paused at the door, reached back and took hold of the gun, then nodded to her to open the door.

  “Hey Stealth,” he said, when she opened the door a crack. She looked back at him. He met her eyes with a wink. “Be careful.”

  She nodded, too overwhelmed to answer him. Outside the stairway, in the white hallway, the overhead lights were all on, bathing them all in a harsh light. The floors were clean and smelled of bleach. But under that, a slight odor of decay wouldn’t go away. Small droplets of blood covered the floor, like memories that refused to let go. Delilah’s heartbeat raced. Too late to hide her fear now, all she could do was face it.

  They took a left and headed toward two wide doors that read: “Surgery.”

  The soles of Delilah’s boots squeaked on the floor, but not loud enough to drown out the noises from behind the surgery doors. Low moans echoed out, and an occasional scream cut past them. Brute went before her since he had their only weapon, which, Delilah thought, was probably not a great idea. But whoever was waiting for them in surgery knew they were coming.

  There was activity behind the frosted door panels, but the view was too blurry to see exactly what was going on. The antiseptic smell was heavy, and Delilah jumped back when someone in a white coat walked pa
st the window.

  Brute held the gun with one hand and put the palm of his hand on the door. He paused before opening it.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  What choice did she have? She nodded, and he pushed the door open. They stepped in quickly. Before the door swung closed behind them, someone grabbed Delilah and Brute by the arms. Delilah couldn’t see her attacker before her wrists were jerked behind her and put into tight handcuffs. She fought against the cold metal on her wrists, but it only made them cut.

  “Please, don’t struggle,” someone whispered in her ear. She craned her neck but she couldn’t see, not until Leo stepped around. He was still wearing the same shirt and pants he’d been wearing before, but a streak of red cut through his gray hair, and the lab coat thrown over his clothes was covered in blood. He held his hands out. “I’m doing what I can for you, but don’t struggle. Not now. There will be a time and place for it.” He eyed the bot standing behind Delilah, who snapped her cuffs firmly in place. She pursed her lips closed and checked Brute.

  “I’ll take that,” Leo told the bot behind Brute. He took the gun from the all-automated bot. The human skeletons gave her the creeps. Not only were they not capable of independent thought, but they made a mockery of humanity with their metal bodies. And their skull-like faces were the stuff of nightmares. It handed the gun to Leo, who checked the rounds then snapped it back into place.

  “Seven, huh?” he asked. He tucked the gun into the back of his pants. The faint smile he gave Delilah gave her a little bit of hope. “We’ll have to make them count.” He cleared his throat and Delilah looked around. They were in some kind of recovery room. Curtains blocked the view of each patient, but Delilah didn’t think she’d want to see what was behind them, anyway. Someone vomited in the room closest to her.

  “Where’s Zane?” she asked.

  “He’s fine.” Leo looked behind him and shuffled a step away from the closest curtain. A bot walked quickly past them, but it swept past the curtain so quickly Delilah couldn’t have seen inside if she wanted to.

  “The governor wanted you to have a little tour.” Leo pursed his lips with distaste. “But I think we can dismiss the formalities. I assume you’ve seen enough.”

  Brute stepped away from the bot behind him, but the bot only responded by stepping closer. “I assume your victims go straight from here to the zoos,” Brute commented. “This is where you do your little…experiments.”

  Leo sighed. A wholly unnecessary thing since bots didn’t need oxygen, though Delilah wondered, with Leo’s gray hair and wrinkled skin, maybe his maker did create him to need oxygen. He seemed more human than most.

  “Some, yes,” he answered. “The failures.”

  Delilah took a step toward the curtain. “And there are successes?” Delilah asked. She struggled with the cuffs.

  Leo addressed the bots. “Take the cuffs off. They can’t escape.”

  The two bots’ eyes went blank as they consulted the hive, and maybe, the governor himself. They nodded in unison and unsnapped the cuffs. Delilah rubbed her wrists, which were already red and raw.

  “Depends what you describe as success,” Leo said. He hesitated, then pulled the curtain back.

  The bot that had gone in fiddled with an IV bag hanging from a pole next to the twin bed. The smell of vomit wafted out, but the wretched creature in the bed didn’t notice. Whatever the bot did had put her to sleep, and thank goodness. Metal plates, right up and over her skull, replaced half of the girl’s face. The other half was covered with thick, blonde hair down to her shoulders. The metal plates extended down her chest and under the hospital johnny she wore. Her chest moved slowly up and down.

  “This is your success?” Delilah swallowed back her own revulsion. She and Gen had many talks about what it meant to be human, but it was too hard to think of that now. She considered Gen a human, and a friend, and Gen had died for them. Combining human and bots was playing with fire though. What was the end game?

  “She hasn’t rejected the metal parts,” Leo said sadly. “Not yet.”

  The bot pushed the johnny back to look at the woman’s chest and Delilah cried out when she saw the dead skin attached to her shoulder. The bot didn’t waste a beat before she covered her back up, ripped out the IV, and called for the failure team. A silent alarm went off, and a red light flashed in the corner of the room.

  “The failure team?” Brute asked, his voice edgy.

  Leo gave him a hard stare. “Usually the arena. The bots seem to enjoy the brutality. But they are programmed to. The governor likes to encourage them.” He stepped to the side as two bots came to claim the body. “Today, though, probably the ocean. As a warning.”

  Brute tried to step in the way, but the bot in charge of him pushed him back, and not gently. “That was a human!” he argued. “She deserves more respect.”

  Delilah fell to his side. “Time and place,” she reminded him. They were here for a fight, but this wasn’t the place. This was just some theatrics to let them know what they were up against. Delilah was familiar with the tactic. She wouldn’t let it intimidate them. The governor wanted them to know what they were up against? Fine. The odds were long. She’d still take them.

  She cracked her knuckles. “We get the point,” she told Leo. “Now take us to Zane.”

  Leo nodded. He walked past the other curtained areas, dozens of them. She tried to ignore the activity behind the curtains, but it was hard. The cries, moans, and screams cut into her very soul, but she breathed slowly and tried to retain her focus. Time passed slowly until they reached what Delilah figured was the back of the building.

  She took a deep breath when Leo pushed open the double doors. She hadn’t realized the wretched smell inside until she felt a blast of, if not clean, at least cleaner air in the hall. The experience had the effect they intended. Delilah was horrified, and afraid. The bots were strong. She had to be stronger, and smarter. The bots had weaknesses. She knew them. She’d have to exploit them, starting with this hive, which she suspected was somewhere here, and damaged. Taking out the hive was the key.

  When the doors closed behind them, they blocked out most of the sounds of misery, and Delilah forced herself to put them behind her. She took in as much as she could as they passed what was once a waiting area. There was no one waiting now for the sad cases inside surgery. If those people had family, Delilah only hoped they didn’t know their fate. It was kinder to believe they were dead. The waiting rooms had been used, though. They were clean, and the furniture was arranged in circles. Interesting, since the new gen bots had no need for sitting. They passed two tall guard bots in the waiting room, lasers crossed in front of their metal bodies, red eyes unwavering. She exchanged a wary glance with Brute. They’d have to be careful if they were going to ever get out.

  She waited until they passed the waiting area to speak, and she kept her voice low, though she was sure they were being watched.

  “Is Zane okay?” She stumbled and her voice cracked. The last time she’d seen him, he was hurt, and badly. She couldn’t get the image out of her head. Leo stopped at a wide door and turned to look at her as she continued. She ran a hand up her arm, which had broken out in goosebumps. “He wasn’t in there, so I hope…he’s still in one piece.” She forced the last words out. Brute cracked his knuckles.

  Leo tipped his head. “Of course, otherwise they wouldn’t have brought you here.” He put a hand on the doorknob. His hand was covered in brown spots and wrinkled. She guessed him to be eighty in human years.

  “Why did they bring us here?” Brute asked, while Delilah let out a breath. It was true Leo may be lying. Maybe Zane was lying dead somewhere, or equipped with new bot parts, but why would he?

  Leo’s cloudy blue irises looked down. “They want something from you,” he said, simply, pushing open the door.

  Delilah searched Brute’s face for the something they c
ould want. If they wanted someone in charge, they were looking in the wrong place. But on the other hand, Brute was higher up in the Human Coalition. Maybe they were after him? She took a hesitant step into a big conference room.

  A round oak table filled the room, but the twenty or so chairs surrounding it were empty. The smell of coffee filled the air. An assortment of baked goods sat on a side table. Delilah’s stomach grumbled, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat anything. Her attention was drawn to the large window taking up the far side of the room, and she walked past Leo and placed her palm on the glass. Fires had broken out all over the city, centered on the zoo that was once an arena. She doubted the building would last the day. Giant bots stomped up and down the streets, but they looked small from there, and there were less of them than she thought. Maybe a dozen that she could see. Beyond that was the harbor, their way out if they could make it. She was beginning to doubt that.

  “We’ll get there.” Brute read her mind. He stayed a step behind her, surveying what was left of the city. If he had any comments, he kept them to himself. They watched the battle play out. A giant bot fell behind a building and let out a loud crash that shook the building.

  “Ah, you’re here.” They hadn’t heard the governor come in from a side door, followed by Rank. Not the one she knew from the Banks, brimming with power and confidence, but not the one she’d met on the ship either, cold and steely. Mean. His expression was unreadable. He closed the door behind him.

  “Where is Zane?” Delilah took a step toward the table and put her palms on it to avoid shaking.

  “Sit down, Dee,” Rank instructed, in a voice that wasn’t to be argued with. “You, too, Brute.”

  “Not until I know what’s going on.” Brute squared his shoulders for a fight, but they both recognized the impossibility of it. She’d have loved to take out the governor right then and there, but there was something more going on here. She pulled a chair out and grudgingly sat, but Brute crossed his arms and leaned on the table.