Crisis averted.
Now time to check on Robertum.
Drake turned the corner of the truck to witness the synthetic toss the tanks into the fire. He himself looked like the scorched remains of a human. His clothes were gone and his skin was a uniform black. Only his eyes when he opened them were still white.
“I did it,” Robertum said, not with pride but apparent surprise right before he pitched face first into the ground.
Everyone rushed over, even Chimmus, to help the Syn up.
“Let’s get you inside,” Appie said. “Pipo will know what to do.”
Drake watched as Appie and Mattu help the only semi-conscious Robertum into the tunnels.
“You have saved us, yet again, Drake” Chimmus said then planted a kiss on his cheek.
His skin burned where her lips touched. And not necessarily in a good way. His body wanted to explore the sensation further, but Drake had a few rough run ins with the cheerleaders at his high school before he became ill.
They were a tricky lot.
So Drake backed away. “Robertum did the heavy lifting on that one,”
“Yes, he is strong, but not like you.”
Drake didn’t bother to explain to her that he wasn’t talking about physical strength.
Tonka came over and nuzzled Drake’s hand with his trunk. Drake stroked up the smooth metal appendage. The elephant pushed into Drake. He’d had pets before, a Golden Retriever that was his best friend until Rufus died when Drake was fourteen. Right before he got sick. After that, he couldn’t have pets due to his immune system being down.
“You’re just like Appie,” Chimmus sneered. “Always acting like they are real.”
He knew that Chimmus meant that as a slur, but with Tonka’s trunk tickling his ear he couldn’t take it as anything but a compliment.
* * *
The sun was dipping below the horizon as the clan finished loading the trucks. The Brachiosaurus were still grazing in the area. Appie watched as Tonka munched alongside them. Normally they would have tried to take one of the great beasts down, a difficult process at its best, but with all the supplies they didn’t need to attempt it.
Appie was glad for that.
Hunting a T. Rex was one thing. Killing one of these gentle giants was another thing.
“Ready?” Mattu asked her, opening the door to the truck. They were packed with three other people. They had to double up until they reached the parking lot and gathered more vehicles. She didn’t mind the company. Appie slid in alongside Pipo as she closed the door.
Tonka came over, reaching his trunk inside the window.
“Don’t worry great man, you’ll get ridden.”
There were some in the clan, like Lik, who didn’t trust the new rumbling machines. They blamed it on the Syns, even though these vehicles were through and through human creations. Tonka backed away and kneeled to allow his passengers to climb aboard.
Robertum, bandaged nearly from head to toe rode in the back of Appie’s truck, strapped to a gurney. Pipo had done the best she could, now it was up the Syn to replicate his own skin to heal.
The amount of grumbling and cruel chatter had died down since everyone saw what Robertum had done for the clan. She was glad for it even though someone shouldn’t have to nearly get burnt to death to prove a point.
The lead truck with Mattu at the wheel roared to life and pulled out. Drake was next and Appie pulled in behind him.
Used to the quiet of the plains, she felt like she was trapped in a tornado rather than a truck. Thankfully the parking lot wasn’t far. They would collect the other vehicles and long be on their way before Durnag awoke and gave chase.
Hopefully they could shake the Syns before they reached their winter grounds. Then there was the celebration of the gathering to look forward to mid-winter. She smiled as she thought of the games and the companionship. And for once they would not be worried, trying to barter their way to safety. They would be the ones exchanging vital goods for a bit of luxury this winter. Not much. Not like the Yarbers who flaunted their wealth each gathering. Wearing gold and diamonds.
No, Appie just wanted Lavla to have a nice chair so she could sit and nurse in comfort. Maybe a steel handled spear for Mattu. And even enough money for Chimmus to get those long complicated braids she liked to wear.
They rumbled by the Brachiosaurus who barely lifted their heads from their grazing. This they ignore but those stupid Dromaes they run from? Strange creatures.
Appie took in a deep breath. It was filled with the scent of exhaust, of course. No wonder the old world had died. Who thought that the environment could take much of this smell and soot? How they had lasted so long ignoring the consequences to their actions amazed Appie.
Anger rose again at her ancestors. Childish, short-sighted and dumb. But dang could they make great movies.
She smiled at the thought of all the movies that Drake had. She knew what she was doing this winter.
This truly was the start of a new life for her and her clan. This year had spun so hard on its edge that she could only imagine what next year would look like. They now had living with them an old world boy, a Syn, and three truckloads of supplies.
They would be the sensation of the gathering that was for sure.
And hopefully the Brachiosaurus crisis would be their last.
Appie chuckled to herself.
Yah, right.
CHAPTER 10
Durnag swam in a stream of data. It reminded him of when he first became sentient. At first he was not there. Not really. He was more just a thought than an entity, then he felt it. The warmth of self-awareness. He was no longer nothing. He was something.
Someone.
A part of a greater society. That was when he’d first felt pride.
Not now, though. Even with the gilded data infusing his body, Durnag was not proud. Something had happened to make him this way. This was not his birth, it was his failure.
Shame burned its way through his artificial synapses. This had been done to him. He had been short circuited. By one of his own.
Robertum. The new synthetic had betrayed Durnag and his entire kind to save the woman. To save the clan.
He had the Tuckers. He had them and then there was black.
Durnag opened his eyelids to find it was night or by the position of the moon, early, early morning.
There were a few other synthetics sitting around him in a circle, waiting for him to awaken. Was this all that was left? Robertum’s betrayal had cost far more than Durnag’s pride.
“Durnag,” one of the soldiers said, bowing his head.
“Where is the clan?” he asked finding his voice scratchy. Not all systems had come back on line properly. He would have to reboot each one to harmonize his body after the harsh shut down.
“They left in vehicles, sir,” another responded.
“How much lead time?” Durnag asked noticing the first blush of dawn on the horizon.
“At least six hours and they were traveling at over twenty miles an hour.”
Durnag did some quick calculations. Their top speed was thirty miles an hour which they could only maintain for short distances. With that many hours, they could never catch up. At least not on foot. Not alone.
He was not going to allow the clan to get away. Not when it had been his error in judgment that had led to the failure.
“How far are we from the Stanis Plains?”
The soldier cocked his head. “Thirty miles to the north, but that is not the direction the clan traveled.”
“We make best speed to the Plains.”
“Then?”
Durnag felt a smile form on his lips. His makers had tried to imbue their creations with as many human traits as possible. Perhaps they thought if the synthetics were human enough, they would not be as dangerous. Unfortunately for the developer, human traits like self-determination and colonization had transferred over as well.
“You will see,” Durnag said with a
smile.
* * *
Drake blinked, trying to stay awake. He’d think after all the sleep he’d had, he’d never want more. But his body had different ideas. Even with the nap, he was still bone weary. So tired he didn’t even react to Chimmus’ hand on his leg.
The girl certainly was brazen, but now she was asleep as well, her head on his shoulder. That felt nice. The hand, not so much.
The hand seemed a bit needy, like she wanted to consume him. And right now he was still trying to wrap his head around everything that had happened. He had spent the hours since his awakening just putting one foot in front of the other, doing what needed to be done to survive but this long drive in the middle of the night was giving his mind way too much unoccupied time to think about all that he had lost.
He was glad Chimmus was asleep and didn’t hear him cry. Drake hadn’t wanted to go into the cryo tube in the first place. Even if it had only taken a decade to find the cure, he still wasn’t sure how life would be with his parents ten years older. With everyone ten years older. His classmates would have graduated from college by then. Married, started families and here he would be still a kid.
How silly those concerns were now.
He had lost everything, not just time, but people and even his entire world. Gone were his Xbox days. Or Wi-Fi or even indoor plumbing. He’d never really liked camping and now he was living in a world without even toilet paper.
It turned out leaves were a bit rough on the tushie.
Yet he was alive. What did his mother used to say when they argued about the cryo? Life was better than any other option out there. Yet ,his mother and father had chosen death to give him life so who was he to complain?
But would his parents have still chosen to die had they known he would awaken to this? Drake liked to think so. Again, life was always better than the alternative. His parents were such nerds. He used to get so embarrassed about their bookish ways. They were way uncool parents, but he thought they would be fascinated how the world had turned out. They certainly would have been saying “I told you so.” He’d seen far too many anti-fracking rallies in his young life.
They had been right though. Their vegan, hemp lifestyle would have translated nicely to this world.
Him? He’d always liked his creature comforts and sure he still had his laptop, but without the internet it was like a husk of a computer. Not good for a lot. He missed having everything he needed to know at his fingertips.
He looked down on Chimmus. The life she had led. This truck was a creature comfort. She’d lived her life just as Appie and the rest under the tip of a sword. One that could fall at any moment.
Drake knew what he needed to do. He needed to skip the other four stages of grief and jump right into the last one. Acceptance. He’d had enough counseling once his prognosis had been fatal to know what languishing in the anger and bargaining steps got you. A whole heck of a lot of nothing. He couldn’t blame his fellow cancer patients, but dang some of them could be real downers. Almost like crabs, wanting to take everyone down with them.
He remembered one older man, bitter that a patient older than himself had gone into remission. He’d said, “I’d use that time better.”
Drake could remember hearing that and thinking, that is messed up. He’d tried to take his illness in as good of spirits as he could. He’d known his parents were losing a son, he didn’t want them to lose him while he was still alive.
Just like his cancer, he couldn’t change the life he’d been awakened to. He could only improve upon it in the best way he knew how.
He was alive and he had his parents to thank for that. Drake wanted to make them proud wherever they were.
His reverie was cut short by the brake lights of Mattu’s truck coming on, blazing into the dark night. Drake stopped as Appie slowed behind him. The rest of the vehicles they had picked up at the parking lot came to a halt as well.
At first Drake didn’t know why Mattu had stopped. The man knew the area well and picked the route to avoid gulleys and rivers. They should have been crossing the last of the plains and heading up into the foothills.
But here they were stopped, their headlights crisscrossing into the night. Then he saw it. How could he have missed it? A Triceratops. It stood taller than the trucks and wider too.
Its eyes were closed and it seemed to be in some kind of trace.
Chimmus was up, her palms on the dash. “They are super territorial,” she mentioned even though Drake sometimes didn’t like to hear all the bad news at once.
Mattu got out of his truck but left it running. Appie met him at Drake’s truck.
“The herd extends for quite a ways,” the powwaw stated.
Drake looked out the front window. All those shadows out there were triceratops with their armored heads and backs and three horns. They looked like they could do some serious damage if they wanted to.
“To divert could mean losing hours of time,” Mattu explained. “If we go much north there’s a river and to the south are canyons.”
Both inaccessible to the trucks. Even the smaller SUVs might have trouble.
“Is there a way through?” Drake asked shocked he was even asking such a thing.
“I believe so but it could be tight,” Mattu answered.
If Mattu thought it was going to be tight, then it was going to be tight. Drake hadn’t known the man for long, but an exaggerator he was not.
“I say send the smaller vehicles through first, then we’ll take the trucks?” Drake proposed.
Mattu grunted which seemed to be the man’s only way to give approval and headed back to speak with the drivers of the lighter vehicles.
Appie spoke to Chimmus across Drake. “Maybe you should get into one of the cars. I think that we will have the hardest time.”
Chimmus shook her head, grabbing Drake’s hand. “Where he goes, I go.”
Appie frowned and walked back to her truck.
Chimmus grinned though. “I know you can do it.”
Drake smiled at the girl. He only wished he had as much confidence as she did in him.
* * *
Appie gripped the wheel. Not because she was nervous. But in anger. She knew it was irrational anger, but seeing Chimmus and Drake so close together, made her blood threaten to boil. They had been inseparable since the bunker.
She barely had enough good will in her to wave to Mattu as he walked back to his truck. The other vehicles, Drake called them SUVs, broke out and around the trucks, snaking their way through the triceratops.
Soon she could only see their headlights in the early morning dark. They didn’t even have a moon to guide them. She could tell the herd went far back as the lights turned and jangled as they steered around the huge dinosaurs.
In the strange artificial twilight, it almost looked like a triceratops graveyard. The huge herbivores stood unmoving, you couldn’t even see them breathe. They did this each night. Not even a T. Rex threatened to disturb a sleeping triceratops. Not with that spiked tail and horns on their head. She’d seen a few younger T. Rex's who had tried to make them an easy snack. They did not last long. As a matter of fact, most scars on a T. Rex weren’t from other T. Rexes, they were from a tangle in their childhood with a Triceratops.
Appie looked over her shoulder at Robertum who was on his gurney in the truck bed behind her. His eyes, too, were shut. She wondered if Syn’s dreamed. She knew that their pain pathways were built completely differently. That pain was registered just as information rather than crippling and having metabolic consequences as it did in humans. However with a B9 model she wasn’t sure. Robertum’s expression certainly looked pained.
There was nothing she could do though. Pipo was driving one of the SUVs into the herd and Robertum had stated before he lapsed from consciousness not to waste any of their painkiller on him. That he would survive, it just might take a while.
The triceratops snorted in front of her.
Dawn was coming which meant the triceratops were
going to wake up soon. And what exactly were they going to do when they found a bunch of vehicles amongst them?
Mattu must have been thinking the same thing as he eased his truck forward navigating the triceratops maze before them.
Appie put her truck in gear, taking one last glance back at Drake as he moved forward as well.
What was the old world saying?
Here goes nothing.
* * *
Lavla wished she could shut her eyes. The baby was in the seat next to her. Strangely the child seemed to enjoy the sound and vibration of the car. He had been asleep since she had nursed him earlier in the night.
Instead of squinting her eyes shut, she had to keep them wide open, watching the way ahead of her. Luckily, the triceratops liked their personal space. They slept pretty uniformly about twelve feet apart in a grid-like pattern.
Even as a novice driver it was pretty easy to steer between them. The trucks that followed were another story.
She yearned for Robertum but understood that they needed to be separated. Still after only a few hours of being together, really together, it was hard to be apart even for these brief moments. It was like her brain assumed if they weren’t together, they couldn’t be together. She feared for her family in a way she never had before.
Other women had talked about once they gave birth they became fiercely loyal to their family, but Lavla didn’t think she could feel more strongly about anyone more than she did her clan. She had been wrong.
Up ahead, one of the SUVs picked up speed, heading in a straight line. It must have reached the end of the herd.
Just as hope filled her chest the triceratops in front of her opened an eye. Its pupil constricted tightly due to the bright headlights.
Lavla gripped the wheel, speeding up, darting past the triceratops before it could take action. There were only a few more to go.
Then another awoke, shaking its huge head, sweeping away the sleep. It took a step, blocking Lavla’s way.
Panic filled her. Reverse. There was a reverse on the SUV. She stepped on the brake and shifted the car from D to R and gently applied the accelerator. To her surprise, the SUV smoothly backed up.
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