by Lisa Lace
A woman with short, dark hair yelled at him, throwing things while she screamed. Her eyes looked furious. AD-214 fought against dodging the objects that only came at him in his mind. “You have your orders.”
When the briefing finished, Amanda decided to speak up. “What can I do?” She remained off to the side of the soldiers, looking entirely out of place. She had paid attention to everything AD-214 said to his men, listening to their strategy. Amanda had explained everything she knew about the C-class cyborgs to give Blue Squad as much of an advantage as possible. Unfortunately, she hadn’t worked much on the cyborg clones, which were part of a different department.
“I want you to stay in the office, where we can keep you safe.” AD-214 pointed his finger at the door.
The scientist crossed her arms over her curvy chest and glared at him. “I’m not going to let you lock me away. I refuse to sit around while you fight for our lives a few feet away from me.”
AD-214 had already made up his mind. He had scanned through every file in his system, searching through every military strategy manual he possessed. While there was nothing that related to their particular situation, he had absorbed everything he could to prepare for the upcoming battle. None of his plans included putting Amanda in harm’s way. He needed her alive, and he wanted her with him.
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “It’s safest for you in the office.”
The look on her face told him she was dissatisfied, but he couldn’t coddle her. She could be angry at him later when they didn’t have an army about to knock on the door.
PD-4 spoke in a shaking voice. “Sir, they’re closing in on us. Their vehicles are parking a half mile away. I believe they’ll be advancing on foot.”
“Show me.” The surveillance specialist had hacked into a satellite transmission, confirming the location of the C-class cyborgs. AD-214 made a broadcast to his unit, telling the soldiers to move into position.
The cyborgs dispersed from the center of the warehouse and set up in formation around the perimeter of the building. Blue Squad found themselves woefully underarmed for their situation. They didn’t have high-powered rifles that could take out the enemy at long distances, or any heavy ordinance. Their programming allowed them to become experts in using rocket launchers or driving tanks, but that required the correct equipment.
The only weapons they had access to were the ones built into their bodies. AD-214 began charging the plasma gun in his cybernetic hand and heard similar squeals echoing throughout the warehouse. At least they wouldn’t run out of bullets.
The soldiers positioned themselves up at key points throughout the warehouse. Large doors on either end of the building were a vulnerability, as were the small, square windows set at even intervals down the sides of the building. The warehouse itself was nothing but sheet metal. It wasn’t designed to be a fortress. AD-214 planned to stay in the center of the building, where he could see as much action as possible and determine the tide of the battle. He watched as Amanda walked sullenly to the office and closed the door behind her.
Silence descended on Blue Squad as they waited. AD-214 knew the rest of his men were as confused as he was. Something had happened to make them wake up, but they were only beginning to understand their place in the world. He had the sense that there was more data that he was missing, and he didn’t know where to find it. He wondered if they felt the same sensation in their stomachs that were in his. It felt as though his insides were turning on themselves, fighting for space within his body. They threatened to leap out of his throat. He didn’t know the name of the sensation, but he didn’t like it.
The cyborg captain knew they were fighting for a useless cause. AD-214 wondered if his men suspected it as well. It was always worth being on the side of freedom. There was perhaps no greater motivation. There was no reason to fight against their brothers. They should be allies. He didn’t voice his concerns to his soldiers, and no one raised any doubts with him. There was no point in asking questions about things they couldn’t change.
“They’re coming over the rise, sir,” PD-4 murmured from his position next to his captain. The road leading to the warehouse sloped up into a small hill before descending to the large metal building. AD-214 slightly shifted to the side so he could use his eyes to verify PD-4’s surveillance system report.
The driveway leading to the warehouse was barely visible through one of the windows. After a moment, AD-214 saw the helmets of the Red Squad soldiers appear at the crest of the hill. Their eyes stared straight at the warehouse as they advanced, the dead looks on their faces not revealing any hints about their strategy or thoughts. AD-214 reached out over the cyborg communication network, wondering if he could catch any part of their battle plans, but the clones had shut themselves off. An armored vehicle trailed behind them.
Red Squad fanned out around the building, each of them quickly marching to their positions like they were participating in another training exercise. AD-214 watched through the tiny windows of the building. He hadn’t anticipated this. It had seemed likely that the clone cyborgs would come at them simultaneously from every direction, approaching quietly on every side until Blue Squad found themselves surrounded. They weren’t even trying to conceal their presence.
“We know you’re in there,” came a voice over a loudspeaker. He recognized the voice instantly.
AD-214 changed his position so he could look out a different window. The armored car had stopped in front of the large warehouse doors that had admitted trucks and forklifts at one point. The vehicle was large and black, with heavy-duty tires and tinted windows. The voice was coming from a small speaker on the front of the roof.
“I’m giving you the chance to surrender,” Dr. Feldman continued. “I suggest you take it. Red Squad is a superior force, and you know it.”
The commander of Blue Squad stood still, listening quietly. He could have sent one of his soldiers outside to respond to the man from Cyborg Sector, but doubted any negotiations would end positively for him. At best, they would be forced to return to Cyborg Sector and put to sleep again. The more likely scenario was complete destruction. He had to protect his men.
“We’re willing to negotiate,” Dr. Feldman said, as though reading his thoughts. “But first, we need to see that Amanda Conrad is alive and well. Send her out to me. I’ll escort her to safety. You have my personal guarantee that we’ll let you surrender quietly.”
Amanda peeked out the office door at AD-214, her eyebrows raised questioningly. The cyborg captain gave a small, quick shake of his head, indicating she should go back where she belonged. He didn’t want Dr. Feldman to confirm Amanda’s location and didn’t believe anything he said.
“Very well. You leave us no choice. The Red Squad has its orders.”
A silence full of anticipation hung in the air for a moment, rapidly shattered by the sound of explosives pummeling the side of the warehouse. The metal siding shredded making a noise like a screaming animal. Blue Squad had erected barricades against the doors, but they began to shudder from the pounding of numerous clones. Random bits of broken furniture and old crates were no defense against a fully equipped cyborg force.
As the clones began forcing their way into the building, Blue Squad fought valiantly to fend them off, using their built-in plasma guns to blast identical faces that seemed to appear in every window and doorway. Each time AD-214 turned around, he saw the same soldier who had just been killed or maimed, fresh and ready for the fight. It seemed like the constant flow of enemies was never-ending. His plasma gun could not recharge fast enough to fire at the enemy. AD-214’s backup weapon, a length of metal pipe from the bowels of the warehouse, didn’t have any effect on the clones.
His soldiers were falling around him. They fought valiantly, doing everything possible to fight back, but the cyborg clones easily overpowered Blue Squad. The escape from Cyborg Sector had been quick and unplanned, with no opportunity to arm themselves on their way out. They had managed to sup
ply themselves with food from the surrounding houses, but no residents on the outer edge of town had large arsenals of military-grade weapons lying around.
When he sensed they were losing the battle, AD-214 changed tactics, making his way through the throng of fighting cyborgs toward the office. He had decided to go to Amanda and get her out of an unfortunate combat situation. When he burst through the door, he immediately realized he was too late. A Red Squad clone had cut through the metal siding of the warehouse and stormed straight into the office. Amanda was trapped in his arms, fighting in an ineffective effort to escape as the enemy soldier dragged her back through the hole.
Why had he ever let her stay in here alone? Why didn’t he realize that the surveillance systems of the clones were far more advanced than those of Blue Squad? Dr. Feldman knew exactly where she was in the building as soon as he arrived.
The clone looked at AD-214 coldly as he left with the scientist. AD-214 charged his plasma gun, but couldn’t find a firing angle that would avoid hitting Amanda. One blast from the weapon might blow off her arm. He roared in anger as he plunged through the hole, but there were more clones on the other side.
Diving back into the warehouse, AD-214 sent new messages through his unit’s internal network. “Retreat. The enemy has Amanda. Scatter to evade Red Squad and wait for my message to reconvene. The mission now is to keep yourselves safe.”
With a pain inside him almost as intense as the hurt in his chest during the visions, AD-214 made his way out the other side of the warehouse. He was dimly aware of the other members of Blue Squad doing the same thing, dispersing into the woods bordering the large building. Many of them had fallen, but at least they had taken some of the cyborg clones with them. Pausing on the hill to make sure no other Blue Squad member needed assistance, AD-214 turned and disappeared into the woods.
Chapter Fourteen
When Amanda heard AD-214 give commands to his men before the arrival of the clones, she had been determined to disobey him. It was ridiculous for her to hide in the office when she might be able to fight back. She knew she wasn’t a match for any of the cyborgs, but she wasn’t willing to let anyone die to protect her without trying to help.
But as the clones closed in on the warehouse, it quickly became apparent that there wasn’t much for her to do. She had no weapon except for a broken board with a jagged edge from one of the crates. As the C-class cyborgs began breaking into the warehouse, her plan had been to sneak out of the office, creep up behind clones that were busy fighting Blue Squad soldiers, and hit them in their microchips. This approach had taken down MD-69 quickly and efficiently, and she knew that the clones would be vulnerable to the same type of attack.
Unfortunately, the clones were wearing helmets, which made it harder to hit their weak spot. Even if they didn’t have armor, there were too many of the cyborg clones for Amanda to make a noticeable impact. She managed to hit a couple of them that inadvertently wandered too close to the office door, attacking them like they were bugs walking past the nest of a trap-door spider. Each one Amanda eliminated made her heart beat harder and her adrenaline pump faster. She was eager for more.
Amanda shouldn’t have felt like this. She had been part of the cyborg program for a long time and had invested herself in its success. But these clones weren’t hers. They were fighting against members of Blue Squad who had become close to her heart. She was determined to help them fight back.
As she ducked back into the office after whacking a third cyborg, she heard the screeching sound of metal tearing apart. A hole appeared in the wall. An arm thrust through the hole, grabbing onto the siding and increased the size of the opening. The lengths of two-by-four wood supporting the siding splintered and broke apart. Amanda screamed and turned toward the door. She frantically attempted to push it open, but there were too many mangled bodies outside the door for her to escape. Two cyborg clones looked at her immediately with weapons raised and angry looks on their identical faces.
After Amanda had slammed the door quickly, she decided it was better to confront the adversary trying to work his way into the office. She swung the board with all her might. Without having a good look at the target, her efforts were fruitless. The board made contact with the cyborg’s nose, sending blood spurting across the concrete floor, but he wasn’t deterred. He snatched the board out of her hands on her next swing and threw it to the floor.
There was no place for her to run. The office was small and only big enough to hold a desk. The C-class cyborg loomed over her, perfect white teeth set in a grimace as he advanced.
Amanda fought and kicked as he wrapped a heavily muscled arm around her. She scratched his eyes, clawed his throat, and swung her foot toward his groin. She would have easily scared off any reasonable man that tried to take advantage of her in a back alley, but the clone didn’t even notice she was doing anything. He kept his arm clamped around Amanda as he pulled her back toward the makeshift entrance he had made on the side of the building.
AD-214’s bulky frame appeared in the door, and Amanda’s heart soared. He would bash the clone’s face in and rescue her! But his arrival was too late. The clone slipped out the opening in the side of the warehouse before AD-214 could get close to her. They were out in the sunshine, a day that looked too beautiful for the ugliness that was going on inside the warehouse. More clones began surrounding the hole as AD-214’ let out an anguished howl behind her.
Amanda frantically dug her heels into the earth. She only succeeded in making parallel tracks in the dirt with her sneakers as the clone cyborg dragged her to the armored car. “You will be safe with us,” the clone said, his words stilted and unnatural.
“Let me go, you bastard!” Amanda screamed as she flung her elbows and fists wildly at him. She had never felt so weak and helpless. At least when AD-214 had taken her from Cyborg Sector, she had been unconscious and unable to understand what was going on around her. Knowing what was happening to her and being powerless to do anything about it was far more frustrating than before. Amanda beat him with all the strength she had, pressing against his chest and trying to make his arm release. Despite her efforts, the clone might as well have been made of metal instead of flesh. He didn’t move at all
The clone arrived at the armored car, flung open the back door, and shoved her inside. He quickly slammed the door again and moved to stand guard over the occupants.
“Amanda!” Dr. Feldman exclaimed next to her.
The young scientist ignored him as she reached angrily at the door, trying to get it open again.
“Calm down. You’re safe now,” Dr. Feldman said in a soothing voice.
Amanda stopped thrashing and threw herself into the seat, but her brain was still buzzing.
“Did the rogue cyborgs hurt you at all?” the older man asked gently, looking her over. “Do you need an ambulance?”
At any other time, Amanda would have been deliriously excited for this level of attention from her mentor. She had worked hard to get him to notice her, and now he finally seemed concerned. Today his attentions sat cold in her heart. She didn’t want a doctor or to be safe. She wanted to be with AD-214 and Blue Squad, where she belonged.
Her anger suddenly dissipated as she realized that being stuck in a car with Dr. Feldman might be the best thing that could have happened.
“You have to call off the clones,” she insisted as she turned to face Dr. Feldman. “They’re out there slaughtering the cyborgs, but I don't think there’s need for it. Blue Squad isn’t going to hurt anyone.”
“Amanda.” He drew out the end of her name condescendingly, as though he was speaking to someone far below his level of intelligence. He looked well-groomed with perfectly slicked-back blonde hair, the marks of a comb still evident in his appearance. He didn’t appear to be a man who had been recently shot by a cyborg. “What have they done to you in the past twenty-four hours? You know as well as I do that we can’t let rogue cyborgs roam the country and put people in danger. They aren’t unde
r our authority anymore. The mandate of Cyborg Sector requires control.”
“You don’t understand,” Amanda argued. “No one is in danger. They’re becoming self-aware. They need time to process the information.”
Dr. Feldman sat back against the upholstery, green eyes fiercely studying the young co-worker. “What do you mean? Tell me specifically.”
Amanda sighed. It felt like a betrayal to explain what was going on inside the minds of the Blue Squad cyborgs to someone else. They had trusted her with their secrets, flashes of their pasts that had been part of their personal lives. She reluctantly admitted to herself that they didn’t understand their memories were private, and Dr. Feldman might be the only person on Earth capable of helping them now.
“They’re having memories of their old lives, from before they became cyborgs. They don’t understand everything and they can’t control when they have a memory. I think it was a side effect of some new software I uploaded to AD-214. He inadvertently sent the update to the rest of his squad.” She waited hopefully for his response, thinking he would give a command to the clones and ask them to return to formation.
Dr. Feldman’s jade eyes looked solemn as they watched her. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes,” Amanda insisted. “I didn’t think it could happen, but I’ve been talking with them. They remember their childhoods, past lovers, and times in the war as human soldiers. It confuses and frightens them.”
The blonde man nodded and relief flooded through Amanda. She had fixed everything. She watched as he picked up a communicator, a device similar to a walkie-talkie that allowed him to speak commands to the clones over long distances.