We kept our hats low, as we wove around a few vehicles and people, going as fast as I dared. The roads grew thicker with traffic, as we crawled through the entertainment district. People were practically giving away synth on the street corners, and all of the familiar sex workers were huddled together, none offering services on the doomed planet. Though Kinnopolis strove to be a Utopia, even in a relatively bright and sunny haven, one still had to contend with the shadows of gods.
I leaned forward and rested my chin on the crook of her neck, and then said, “They are panicking.”
“We need to get off this planet.”
“Do you even care about all the people that are going to die?”
“Caring is something that is taught, not born with,” she replied.
I shrugged away from her, and we drove onward. What was she? Was she artificial? That might explain why she had no implant. Her entire frame might be a shinka, an independent organism that was alive, yet not human. Whether she was bioengineered or cyber-engineered remained to be seen, but either way, she was not entirely human.
Some might see her differences as evolutionary adaptations, while others would see a de-evolutionary species. The people on this planet did not like change, and Kore epitomized it. But why did the overseers want her? Who created her and why? If she had no feelings, did she have morals? Would she do things that normal people would or could not do? Was she programmed to not hurt people? Could I trust someone who could not feel loyalty or remorse?
We wove around a crowd of people walking with knapsacks towards the capitol. Doors and windows were boarded up. Good, they were taking this seriously. I leaned forward into her and asked, "What are you going to do with me once you get off this planet?"
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to kill me?”
"I have never killed anyone. I think you are the murderer Jett Ρ2." She had me there. I may not have killed often, but I have killed.
“I did what I had to in order to survive.”
“That is all I want to do too,” she told me. Would she kill to survive? Would she kill me? If she did not kill me, did she have room for me to survive by her side? I still did not know why I would follow her to the ends of Icharus and beyond, but I knew I would.
"Why are you allowing me to help you?" I had thought she might have needed a guide or something, but now I was not so sure.
She did not answer my question, so I pressed the issue by sliding her hand off of the power ignition. Immediately, our machine disengaged. She slammed her hand back on the disc, and we jerked forward once more. Finally, she said, "I cannot tell you why… it is a feeling I have."
So she could feel things. Intuition? I wrapped an arm around her and felt the warmth of her body settle against mine. This part of her was definitely not mechanized. I considered that it might be the instinct for survival she was experiencing. My attraction to her certainly was. She looked like an improved version of Astrid. Hell, if I was completely honest, she looked like a goddess. How many others have felt this way about her? How many more would come and try to take her away from me?
I squeezed her tight against me and asked, “Who else is looking for you Kore?”
“Do we need anyone else?”
“No, I guess we don’t.”
A plazbar had been set up, barricading the road. We would have to find another way to rendezvous with my family. I leaned to the left and turned the steering mechanism, so we headed down a back alley. All the windows in the buildings lining this alley had been left open, and despite the hum of the engine, no other sounds were detectable. The electricity that had buzzed through this town mere dags ago was gone. After looking up, none of the flying scavengers, we called moorlings, could be seen. Even in this hotbox filled with noxious gases and radiation, the moorlings could always be found, and if not in the air, then by the waste on the ground. Even the vermin that normally lived in the cracks in the city had abandoned it.
“Turn off the machine Kore.”
“Why? Are we close to where your family is?”
"No. We have to go the rest of the way by foot. They are closing down the town." She shut off the machine, and we stepped off of it.
“Are we going to make it?” she asked.
“We’ll wait until most of the people have left and then travel with the stragglers out of the town. There will be less security that way.”
“How do you know that all these people are leaving?”
“Look at them. They are going to try and get to Kinnopolis in case an evacuation is ordered. They think it will be the first and maybe only city that will get evacuated from Icharus.”
“Won’t we be caught if we travel with them?”
“We won’t be going all the way with them.”
“Will they not identify us?”
She had a point, so I changed my plan. “Follow me, we’ll hide over there until most of the traffic has moved on,” I said as I pointed to a water storage bin. She looked impassively at our hiding spot while I walked over and unplugged the bottom plug valve. Water spurted out into the alley and then I jumped up to grab the rim. After pulling myself up on top of it, I lifted half of the lid. I reached down a hand, which she reluctantly took, and then I pulled her on top with me.
I wished I could say we had a better vantage point from up top, but the buildings on either side of the tank towered over it. I looked down into the well and saw that finally most of the water had been drained out. Waiting with Kore in here should be better than the time we spent at the transport facility.
“After you,” I said.
She looked into the dark space and said, “I’ve been in worse.” Then she jumped down. I followed after her and estimated that we had about three oras to wait for darkness and the people should be mostly gone. I took out the oculus and made one last communication, using the highest encryption method I knew. I knew that Koda or Malik would be able to decipher it, they were more paranoid than me.
Once I received confirmation that it had been delivered, I smashed the device against the wall of the tank, and for added security, I crushed it under my foot in the three inches of water that remained in the tank.
“You know you have to fry the homing device in it,” she said.
“The water will take care of it.”
“I hope so.”
I hoped so too.
Chapter 14
I had never attempted to destroy an oculus before, so I did not know what to expect. But now that the outer covering was shucked off under my assault, a light started blinking from inside it. She picked it up and turned it towards herself. Abruptly, the light that had been emanating from it went dark, casting us in a gloomy blackness.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
"I knew where to press to deactivate it."
I heard clicking sounds and then asked, “What are you doing now?”
“Removing the capacitors and the tracking device,” she replied.
“How can you see in here?” It was Torvian dark in here, with only a thin sliver of diffused light trickling in from the rim of the lid.
“You can’t?” I could sense her head had lifted up to look at me from the tone of her voice, although I could not see it.
“No.”
“Maybe I am… different.” Better would have been the word I would have used.
"Hand it to me, and I'll jump out to fry it."
Nearby, a boom shook the water container, sloshing water against our knees. “What was that?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll take a peek. Hold me up so I can take a look.”
I nodded and grabbed her waist. She pushed up with her legs and up she went, her breasts resting on my head and my nose buried in her stomach. She had an odd smell that I could not place but likened it to a plant in the desert. When its stalk was broken, it bled out a purple gelled material that we could use to mend shorts in wires.
I was quite surprised by her lig
htness too. It was well known that we were slowly losing our pre-colonization height and weight, but she seemed to be immune to the planet's increased gravity. Also, she appeared to run just as fast as I could or quicker.
The lid went up, casting the cramped space in dim light, and after a few moments I heard her say, “Put me down.” I loosened my grip and allowed her to slide down my body. She felt good against me. Better than Astrid ever did, and then we were cast in darkness again.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing.”
“No smoke or fire in the distance?”
“No.”
“Did you see or hear anyone?”
“No, but I did see something odd. I saw some rodent creatures running en masse down the alley.”
“How many?”
“Fifty-seven.”
I did not know which was odder, the fact there were so many rats moving as a herd or that she knew the exact number.
“Now we need to fry that thing,” she added. “Hand me your gun, then throw the device into the air and I will cook it.” I hesitated only a moment to flip the charger on, and then I handed it up to her.
“Now throw it up.”
“Have you ever shot a plazgun before now?”
"You ask me this now? Just throw it up, and I'll shoot it."
I threw it up, and before it could hit the top of the container, she fired the gun. The next thing I heard was it splashing into the water at my feet.
"We can't stay here," I told her. "They will trace the last known point of it once they know it was stolen."
“Where is our rendezvous point?”
“He will find us.”
“So we do not have one?” she asked.
“I didn’t say that.”
I felt the tension rise between us, and when she shifted her body for me to release my hold on her, I added, “We are taking the Old Road to the border.”
“This Old Road has no meaning for me.”
“The Jasper Rail. It has been closed for many annos.”
“Where is this Old Road?”
“It just so happens to be about three k-los from here.”
“How much longer do we wait here before we head out?”
“Not long. I figure that most of the people will have moved out in about another ora or two, which means there will be fewer witnesses to see us.”
"They may be able to track us to this location before we leave. Is it not better to blend in with the mass of people leaving, to hide more effectively?" she asked.
She had a point. Most people will be preoccupied with escaping the region, looking for a way into Kinnopolis, but I also knew that she was everyone's ticket to staying alive on or off the planet now. If we left the safety of the artificial cistern, we had to change her appearance first. Wearing a head covering would be too suspicious this close to the capital, but once we crossed over into Aoki, where the winds and light were stronger, it would be easier.
“Do you have a blade on you?” I asked.
“Why?”
“We need to alter your appearance.”
“How?”
“Cut your hair and take some of the rust from the walls and rub it into whatever you have left of it.”
“Would that really work?” she asked.
“Your hair is nearly white, so my guess is yes.”
I heard the rustling of her clothes and then her she said, “This cutting is difficult since the blade is not as sharp as it could be.” I inwardly thanked the stars above for her lack of ego and willingness to do whatever it took. After a few moments, I heard the blade scrape along the walls of the tank.
“You might need to wet your hair first.”
I heard water sloshing and then, “All right, I am ready.”
I pushed the lid open using the length of my gun, but this time orange light drifted through the opening, and I glanced at her. Besides her hair taking on a reddish hue, she must have rubbed some of the rust into her skin, giving her a tanned worker appearance. She was decidedly less conspicuous now, resembling a water pusher rather than an Alpha science experiment gone right.
I then knelt down and laced my hands. Silently she put her foot in it and grabbed onto the ledge of the opening. After climbing on top, she reached down a hand and nearly pulled me out in one go. Once I was on the ground standing next to her, I had to hide my shock. What was she not better at doing? If their plan had been to breed a superior race, then I was little better than an animal when compared to her.
“Which way?” she asked.
We walked to the end of the alley, and while most of the people were long gone, a dangerous few remained. More disconcerting was the fact that there were no vehicles to steal. We would have to walk through streets, exposed and easy prey for any larger groups.
“You are nervous,” she said.
I glanced to the left and saw a small gang of five patrolling the streets, which grew to seven when two returned from scouting for the group. They must have been on a looting spree judging the pouches that hung from their necks and waists. That was a king's fortune of synth in their possession, but why? If they thought their passage on the ships could be bought with it, then they were overestimating its worth. The overseers had no need for their synth.
“This is going to be difficult.”
She looked around the corner and said, “They are just people.”
“Desperate people.”
She stared at me as if she did not understand the word, but then again, why would she? I was beginning to suspect that she could not understand any complex emotion. Desire, thirst, hunger, and fear were all more instinctual reactions. Those she could experience. Those would help her survival. People with all their complex feelings and emotions only held back our own survival odds. That much was laid clear before me now. Fear clenched my gut at the realization that I was about to become obsolete.
“If time is running out, why are we not going?” she asked.
“If we go out there, we will be attacked.”
“Have your gun ready, it is time to put your disguise to the test." She pushed past me, and when I tried to stop her, she pulled and slipped out of my grasp. Frack.
Immediately the gang noticed her. A wargrat looking sort of fellow with long greasy brown hair called out to her. “Missed the exodus lovely. Why don’t you come over here and we can do what we were made to do.” He vulgarly gyrated his hips.
“I think not,” she calmly replied.
He took out an arcgun and said, “Oh, I think I can change your mind.”
I flipped my plazgun on and stepped out of the alley, keeping it hidden behind my back as I did so.
Another younger man who had been taking synth to build his muscles asked, “Who the nub are you?”
“I’m your Friend at the End.” My plazgun could shoot out in a burst of energy seeking out fluid filled sacks of human flesh from twenty feet away. He would have to get up close and personal to use his arcgun. Let’s see if he still wanted to play.
"Frack this, I'm catching the last train out of this forsaken place," said an older, thinner man. I would have felt no regret killing him since his time was soon coming to an end anyway.
“She looks familiar,” said a child of about ten annos of age. She had stepped out from a hiding spot from an alcove in front of a store’s entryway.
“Like the vlik, I slept with two nights ago?" the man with the arcgun said, following it up with a wheezy laugh.
“I don’t think there was much sleeping going on that night, if I recall correctly,” muscleman replied. “Screamer that one was.”
“Until I punched her hard in the head. Her screaming stopped pretty well after that.” They shared a laugh, bolstering his confidence.
This kind of talk should have frightened Kore, but I could almost hear her muscles tensing. I laid a hand on her shoulder, but she shook me off.
“Your boyfriend is pretty too. I’ll do him right after I finish with you,” he sickly added. I
clenched my gun a little more tightly behind me.
Just before they surrounded us, I pulled my gun out and said, "Which of you sick drags wants to die first?" But I did not wait for an answer, and I dispersed a direct the shot into the air at the ringmaster. Much to my surprise, he did not take on the brunt of the ball of lightning; instead, it immediately redirected itself to Kore.
It should not have done that. It should have dispersed into any person in front of me, not beside me. I called out to her, but she was oblivious, frozen to the world as she took on the brunt of the electricity. We were all stunned, even the gang members gawked as their intended victim was electrified from the inside out.
She started violently shaking, vibrating for about five reals, before it finally stopped. I looked carefully for damage to her fingers but saw none. Her skin was still the same pale pinkness it always had been. She had not even collapsed. I double checked my charge setting and found that it had been set just above the lethal level.
Her shoulder-length hair began floating, and she slowly held her arms out in front of her. I halfway expected electricity to arc out from her fingertips, but nothing as obvious as that happened. She lurched forward while screaming. Everyone scattered.
When they were long gone, she lifted her hand to point ahead of us and asked, “This is the right way, correct?”
“You should have at least passed out from the charge.”
“I still can, if you want me too.”
I laughed and blurted, “No, please don’t. I don’t want to have to carry you over my shoulder across the distance we are going.” If she had been Astrid, she would have been offended, but Kore simply shrugged her shoulders and started walking down the road ahead of me.
I ran to catch up to her rapid pace, all the while keeping an eye out for any more gangs that might emerge from the shattered and destroyed storefronts. I asked her once again, "Did you know you had resistance to electrical discharges?"
“No.”
“What did it feel like to you?”
“I… I felt the electricity filling up the empty spaces of me. I felt expansive… and constricted at the same time. I know that does not make any sense, does it?”
Icharus_ARC Series Page 11