by Simon Curtis
JB stands and begins walking toward Kamea, but Azure holds up her hand in signal for him to halt.
Then they can hear it as well. It’s coming up the bluff, right behind us. My heart starts to race.
Kamea’s eyes shift to the duffel bag of weapons sitting in front of her. The KDPR I’ve kept in my pocket the past two days is sitting on top of it, its smooth metal surface glistening blue in the morning light.
The noise gets closer.
And then goes silent.
We all stand perfectly still.
Then the gear noise sounds again, louder than ever, and a creature appears on top of the boulder behind Azure.
At least I think it’s a creature.
It has four, multi-jointed legs and a narrow, triangular head housing a single, large eye. The creature freezes, perched on the rock above us. A smooth, matte black metal finish covers its entire body. The oddly jointed legs splay out to the sides a bit, perfectly gripping the rock. It looks like it’s incapable of losing balance.
The large, round eye in the middle of its head begins to shine a brilliant green light over us. Its body is frozen in place. Its head tilts up and down, then side to side, scanning each of us in turn.
And then the light turns red.
In a flash it leaps over our camp and begins climbing the rocks to the top of the bluffs behind us.
Azure dashes to the duffel, grabs the KDPR, and races behind it.
“It’s a drone!” she shouts as she bounds around the cliff.
Kamea and JB follow, so I take off as well.
Azure keeps a close distance behind the machine, leaping fearlessly from rock to rock in pursuit. The machine’s limbs are nimble and precise, locking on to surfaces and into crevices with accuracy only a computer could achieve. It looks like a massive black wolf, bounding up the bluffs, bouncing from boulders to sheer cliff face and back again. Azure remains firmly on its trail.
I’m able to keep up once I begin to let go of my fear of falling. My body is more sure of itself than I give it credit. I spot spaces for my feet to land and propel myself from them before I’m even conscious of it. I’m still not used to my newfound strength. It’s exhilarating.
I keep my eyes on Azure and race behind her.
Kamea and JB do their best to keep up with us. JB fares a bit better than Kamea simply because of how long his legs are. We leap through the trails and rocks and strain to keep up.
Several yards ahead I see Azure lift the KDPR, and a pulse of rippling air flies toward an outcropping of rocks above the dog machine. A massive boulder explodes ahead of us, the fragments of which begin to explode in chaotic, random bursts around us.
The machine leaps from the flying debris, unscathed, and crests the top of the cliff.
Azure follows right behind it and, without thinking, I make a leap for an outcropping near the top. My feet leave the rock underneath me as I launch toward the cliff. My hands barely grasp the edge of the rough sandstone, but it’s enough for me to pull myself up. With a grunt, I lift myself over the edge and scramble to the flat ground in front of me.
Azure is ahead, running after the machine at full speed.
I chase after them.
I can’t believe how fast the machine is, bounding over the flat terrain now at what has to be close to fifty miles per hour. Azure is just behind it. Flashes of blue start to light up in front of the machine as it runs, but it dodges them expertly. Azure’s arms fly through the air in front of her as she sends up shield after shield, trying to impede the machine.
Suddenly, Azure stops, allowing me to catch up with her.
Before I can ask what she’s doing, she opens her eyes. Radiant blue light shines from them, brighter than I’ve ever seen before. She lifts both hands and flicks her wrists in unison.
A shield, twenty feet wide, sprouts up before the machine. It crashes into the veil and stumbles.
With another flick of her wrist, Azure wraps the shield into a dome around it, trapping the mechanical beast inside.
She holds the blue light in her eyes and walks over to the dome, shrinking it with every step.
By the time she’s close, the dome is little more than an airtight cage, holding the machine perfectly in place.
In less than a second the shield blinks away and Azure’s hand darts down. Sparks fly from the machine as it stumbles to the ground, lifeless.
Azure walks back to me and drops the machine’s triangular head down into the dirt. It’s ripped cleanly from its fallen body.
“What was that?” My breath is short and my legs start to tremble as the adrenaline leaves my system.
“Another drone.”
She walks past me and starts her descent back down the cliff toward camp.
“That was a drone?” I lower myself down to some rocks that form a small trail at the edge.
“Yes. A new model, apparently.”
We make our way farther down, and it hits me: Kamea and JB aren’t with us.
I race past Azure, adrenaline back in full.
I jump down from rock to rock and round the last corner where I remember seeing them.
And there they are.
Kamea is kneeling over JB. He’s lying in a pool of blood.
His blood.
And he isn’t moving.
“Oh my God.” My breath is short and panicked as I approach and see the damage.
His left leg is broken nearly in two. Bone is jutting out from the side at a horrifying angle, and blood is pouring out all around him. His head is cocked lifelessly to the side. My heart stops for a moment until I see his lungs rise.
He isn’t dead. Yet.
Kamea’s hands are covered in scarlet red as she tries in vain to hold pressure on his thigh and curb the blood loss.
“What happened?” Azure says as she runs to his body.
“You used a stick on a cliff full of boulders and rock,” Kamea says, her voice full of acid. She takes a breath to collect herself, redoubles her efforts on his thigh, and looks to Azure, pleadingly. “You have to do it.”
Azure clenches her jaw and looks away from his dying body. “No,” she says, and stands.
Kamea clenches her jaw tightly as tears fill her eyes. Then she looks to me. “Isaak, I need you to help me.”
“He will not!” Azure stands between me and Kamea protectively. Shielding me as if Kamea means to attack.
“He’s going to die if you don’t!” Kamea screams through her tears.
Blood continues to pour from JB’s dangling leg, and the whites of his eyes roll out from under his eyelids as a nauseating gurgling noise comes from his throat.
All of my anger and confusion flare up inside. I am so fucking sick of being surrounded by endless mysteries and questions and not getting answers to any of it.
“Azure. Move.” The brevity of my voice scares even me.
Stunned, Azure steps aside.
I look at Kamea’s dirty, tear-strewn face and into her eyes. “Tell me what’s going on.” I try to gentle my voice, but I’m angry and scared.
Kamea opens her mouth to speak but is interrupted by another painful gurgling noise from JB’s throat. His breathing is heavy and slowing down. She looks at Azure instead.
“Please.” Her voice is barely a whisper.
I turn to face Azure, looking for answers.
She heaves a deep sigh and kneels next to JB as she draws a knife from one of her pockets.
“Robot blood,” she says as she presses the edge of the knife into her palm, “functions almost exactly as human blood.” She drags the knife through her skin, slicing it open the entire length of her hand.
“Except that our blood cells are a nanorobotic technology capable of healing virtually any human ailment, illness, or injury.”
A crimson stream pours from her hand. She drizzles it over JB’s open wounds.
“The downside, however,” she says as she grasps the exposed bone and forcibly shoves it back in place, “is the human immune syste
m’s potential reaction to the new cells.” JB’s body begins to convulse as she clamps down. “Human bodies that receive Robot blood each react to it differently. Some accept the cells without issue. Most seem to suffer in varying degrees—a rash, or achy joints, or even heart disease and kidney failure. The human body does not know how to interact with the cells and inevitably fights itself to death trying to rid itself of them.”
JB’s body stops convulsing and his breathing begins to even out.
“Once Robot blood is introduced to a human system, the human’s germ cell reproduction is controlled by the synthetic cells. The question becomes: Do you die now, as your human body intended? Or do you cheat it and run the risk of decaying in your own skin for the rest of your cursed existence?”
I look over to Kamea and wonder if she knows the gamble she just took with JB’s life.
Azure lifts her bloody hand away from his leg. Her sliced palm begins to seal immediately. I watch in wonder as JB’s leg begins to as well.
“He should be fine in a half hour or so,” she says as she wipes her hands on the front of her pants.
“So wait. Germ cells . . . That means a person—a human—who uses Robot blood will only produce Robot children from that point on?”
I look at all of their faces, in wonder of how little I know about myself and what I am.
“For men, yes,” Azure says, trying to wipe more of the blood from her hands.
“For men?” I look to her face, awaiting more answers.
“Women,” Kamea says, her bleary eyes fixed on JB. “We go sterile.”
Wind whips up through the rocks around us, and everything is silent except for JB’s labored breathing.
“Isaak, come with me,” Azure says. “We grab the weapons and nothing else.” She looks up along the ridge above us. “We won’t be camping anymore. If we don’t make it to a safe house today, we won’t be making it, period.”
She turns and starts back down the cliffside toward our campsite.
I look to Kamea and try to think of something to say, but her eyes stay firmly on JB. His head is leaned back on a rock, eyes closed. His breath is finally starting to normalize.
I turn and follow Azure down the rocks.
• • •
Everyone sits in tense silence as we make our way toward Flagstaff. The safe house Kamea spoke of didn’t exist anymore—the only thing left was the charred frame of a two-story house in a neighborhood that made Pacific look like a utopian luxury colony. We didn’t even bother stopping. We simply drove past and began the long drive back toward the interstate.
It was only a five-mile detour, but it felt endless.
Now we’re back on the highway, and every minute feels like an eternity—exposed, vulnerable, waiting for yet another attack. I keep an eye on the black duffel bag on the floor next to me. The KDPR is in my pocket.
At least I can stretch out a bit in this minivan.
“I really hate this, by the way. Stealing cars from people.” I speak to no one in particular. Inside, I think I blame Azure more than anyone. For whatever reason I feel like she takes pleasure in it.
“Well, what would you prefer us to do, Isaak?” Azure says from the driver’s seat, eyes fixed on the road ahead.
“I don’t know. It just feels wrong.” I look out the window and my stomach turns at the sight of the endless expanse of brown flying by around us. I am so sick of the desert. Tired of feeling like hunted prey.
“We really don’t have a choice, Isaak,” Kamea says gently from the seat beside me. “It’s too risky doing it any other way.”
“I get that. I just . . . I don’t know. A car is a big deal. It’s not like stealing food or something. It feels like bad karma.”
Azure snorts in the front seat.
“Isaak, you are currently a member of what is essentially the most endangered species on the planet. A species that is being hunted viciously by the most powerful military force on Earth. You belong to a group of beings who eat and breathe and think exactly like those who are hunting them, yet have been—in fear of their superiority—deemed unworthy of the right to live. You are currently facing genocide.” Her voice rises, and I see her knuckles tense around the steering wheel. “Fuck karma.”
The sound of the tires on the road below us is the only noise in the van.
“She has a point there, kid,” JB says, craning his head around to me from the front passenger seat. He tries to give me one of his grins, the first since he regained consciousness, but it only makes me want to lean back and kick his face.
“I’m not a kid.”
He turns back to the front and I gaze out the window.
I might’ve been a little too harsh.
• • •
We stop for gas outside of Flagstaff. Azure parks by one of the pumps at a station near the highway and kills the engine. I can still feel the road vibrating underneath me.
“I need a snack,” I say to Azure as I hold out my hand.
She undoes her seat belt.
“Maybe one of the kind humans here will lend you some money. Wouldn’t want to taint your karma with what I stole from the ATM.”
I leave my hand up.
She slaps a twenty in my palm, and I pull the loud, sliding side door open beside me.
“Anyone want anything?” I look to the other two.
Kamea shakes her head.
“All good,” JB says, staring ahead.
I slide the door shut again and walk away.
Guess I pissed him off.
The gas station’s mini-mart smells of mopping fluid and cheap air fresheners as I make my way to the snack food. I can’t bear the thought of getting back in the van, back on the interstate. I’m ready to drown myself in junk food. I’m browsing the selection of chips when I notice a girl staring at me from the across the aisle. She has caramel-colored skin, strong cheekbones, and a shaved head. She looks hard—severe—and I quickly avert my eyes.
I browse through the doughnuts and the drinks and finally bring my haul up to one of the registers. The girl with the buzz cut sets an armful of brightly colored sports drinks down in front of the register to my left as I hand the clerk the twenty. She glares right at me and slowly slides her left hand away from the drinks.
There, on the inside of her wrist, is a small silvery triangle mark raised in her skin. Exactly like the one I have.
My eyes dart back to the clerk as he hands me my change. I take it and my bag of snacks as my heart starts to pound.
What do I do?
My feet go on autopilot and I start to walk away. I spare a glance behind me as I leave, but the girl doesn’t look back.
Did I really just see that?
I walk up just as Azure removes the nozzle from the tank and places it back in its holster.
“There’s a girl.” My voice falls to a whisper. “In there.”
Azure looks at me, puzzled.
“One of us.”
Her expression changes instantly, and she turns to watch the glass doors.
“Her.”
The girl walks out with her bag full of sports drinks and makes her way to a rusted old car at the pump across from us. She opens the door and tosses the bag onto the passenger seat. Before she takes a seat, she stops, turns to Azure, looks her directly in the eye, and nods.
I look to Azure’s face as she returns the nod.
“Get in,” she says.
Something tells me we might not be getting back on the interstate after all.
• • •
We’ve been following the girl in the rusted car for a half hour now. We took side streets across what appeared to be the main part of town and now head north and west. Tall pines start to fill the landscape around us. It doesn’t feel like desert wasteland anymore. Now we’re in the mountains.
The girl slows and takes a left into a nondescript neighborhood nestled in the foothills. Azure takes her time and makes sure to keep her distance, but follows nonetheless. The houses l
ining the streets are all quite plain. One- and two-story boxes that look like they were once someone’s suburban mountain dream but now live quietly on as someone else’s consolation prize. Consolation prizes in need of paint jobs.
Halfway up the street, a garage door begins to open on a house to our left. The rusted car slows and stops just ahead of the driveway. Azure slows the van and turns in.
“You’re sure about this?” Kamea asks, taking in our surroundings as Azure pulls into the garage.
“No, but what other choice do we have?”
I thumb the handle of the stick in my pocket as the garage door closes behind us. Azure turns the key and the engine goes silent.
“Should we get out?” I ask. My palms are sweaty and my legs are restless.
Before anyone can answer, the door to our right opens and warm yellow light streams out into the garage. A woman stands in the doorway and waves us inside.
“Yes,” Azure says as she opens her door and steps out.
I keep my fingers on the handle poking out from my pocket and follow Azure and JB into the house. Kamea comes right behind me.
We walk into a bare kitchen with beige countertops, a brown linoleum floor, a few dated appliances, and nothing else. The woman stands near the sink, arms folded, examining each of us as we walk in. The bulb in the old light fixture hanging above a plain, wooden dining table casts a yellow glow in the room. I can now see that an entire side of her face is covered in burn scars.
“Welcome to my house. You are safe here.”
The woman eyes each of us up and down as Kamea closes the door to the garage. “Two of you,” she mutters, barely above a whisper.
Before I can open my mouth to respond, the girl with the buzzed hair walks in. She’s more intimidating than I first realized, now that she’s standing in front of me, face-to-face. She is lean, muscular, and her brown eyes are hard. The muscles in her face tense and flex as she clenches her jaw.
“My name is Griselle,” says the woman with the burns.
A younger guy walks in from what appears to be the living room. He’s tall—taller than JB—but thin, lanky, and pale. His brown hair is pulled into a small knot on the back of his head, and he’s dressed head to toe in black.
“This is Tace.”
He gives a slight nod to everyone as he walks to the buzz-haired girl and discreetly grabs her hand. She drops her gaze from the newcomers for a brief moment, looks to him, and squeezes his hand in reply.