by Elisa Hansen
“Why do you think he followed us? It’s not my blood he wants to drink.”
Scott twitched at the memory of the way the vampire ogled him, at how its frigidness seeped through their layers of clothing for the second it pressed against him by the rocks. If it had managed to put those icy hands on him, or its slimy lips on his neck… Scott shuddered from head to foot. He shook out his hands and focused on Carol. “He said you were friends.”
“We’re not.”
“Then why didn’t you shoot his face off?”
She stared at him, like she was trying to decide how to reply. The hesitation appeared almost human, but Scott knew better. She was probably analyzing all possible responses she could give to get Scott to react in the best possible way for her desired goals. He hated that. Hated feeling like he was being handled.
“Why would you believe a vampire?” she asked, her tone exasperated, tired.
But she didn’t get tired.
“How did he even catch up to us? Huh? Have you worked out an answer for that one yet? How did he know which way we drove? Oh, I know. You must have told him something.”
Carol bent to drape the hose over the red fuel can. “You don’t believe that.” She straightened and stared at Scott. “You are trying to manipulate my emotions by implying you doubt my intentions.”
“I’m trying to manipulate?”
“And you’re doing it poorly because you are under-rested and chemically imbalanced. It’s been seventeen hours since you last ate.”
“I felt carsick.” And then all that thing on the rocks did to his guts… No, not going to think about it.
“A moment ago, you criticized me for leaving town in haste to escape the vampire for your safety, and now you accuse me of betraying you to him? You know my mission objective.”
“And I also know you have total free will! How do I know you didn’t randomly change your mind?”
“Because I’m your friend, Scott. And I care about you. Is that so hard to believe?”
He rolled his eyes and kicked a roadcycle tire. Of course, she would say that.
When he didn’t answer, Carol turned from him and crossed the highway. Scott looked up. She stopped on the opposite shoulder, her back to him, and just stood there.
How the heck was Scott supposed to tell if these represented her real true feelings and not more manipulation? Women.
So what if he was hungry? His points remained valid. Food bars stuffed his backpack, and he had no good reason not to eat one. But even as his stomach grumbled, he made a face as he imagined their sandy roughness and twangy flavor on his tongue. What he would give now for that resentful fish dinner of eleven years ago. He never told his mom sushi later became one of his favorites. Thinking of it made the insides of his cheeks hurt.
First thing, he reminded himself. First thing.
He watched Carol’s back for a minute. She didn’t move, and for all he could tell, she had powered down. He hated when she did that. Who was she to decide when an argument ended? Just because she possessed infallible rationality didn’t mean she was always right. The rationality also remained open for debate as far as Scott was concerned. Too often, he found her as annoying and stubborn as any human girl he ever attempted to understand. And she definitely didn’t have any of their other assets to make up for it. Besides, it wasn’t like he meant what he said.
When his stomach growled too loud to ignore, he kicked the tire again and sighed. “Hey, forget it. Sorry. You’re right, I’m hangry or whatever.” He waited another moment. “I’ll eat a bar.”
“As if I would not sacrifice everything for your sake.”
He winced. “Yeah, I know.” It wouldn’t be the first time.
He stepped around the bikes to her. “Carol, you just, you know. I can’t ever be a hundred percent sure. That has to make sense to you, right?”
“You think I’ll change my mind on a whim because I’m not human and I don’t have real feelings. I know.”
When he reached her side, he wiped some dust off her shoulder. The back of her metal head framed his face’s blurry outline. “No.” He sighed. “I know you wouldn’t do that.”
“That’s not true. You think I’d do it unintentionally. You trust me, but you don’t trust what makes me.”
“Well, can you really blame me?” Scott let his hand fall. “You’re just, you know…”
“Yes. I know.”
“Carol, come on. I know Nick made you the best. There’s no other AI like you. Nick put her all into you. You practically are her. I guess I…I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like I’m with her again? And then it hits me that you’re not her. That we don’t actually have all that history. That you’re, you know.”
“Yes. I know.”
“Carol.” He sighed.
“No, it’s fine. I understand. How could I not understand? I am not Nick. I do not want to be Nick. I am Carol. It is logical that you miss her. You miss your life with humans. My companionship cannot be more than a pale substitute. I understand.” She left him to return to the fuel can and picked up the hose. “Don’t you worry, Scott. I’ll get you back to her. I promise you. You will be among your own kind again.” Using the end of her blue scarf, she wiped the mouth of the hose.
“Carol, you’re not being fair.”
She offered the cleaned hose end to him. “Probability calculates this is the fairest of courses.”
“Stop that.” He pushed the hose away.
“Stop what?”
“Pretending to be all like a pre-personality computer. You can make choices based on how you feel.”
“Don’t you think I have been?”
He met her purple gaze. As morning light spilled over the hill at his back, her silicone features stood out with sharper definition. The usual irritated twist to her expression often negated her pretty LS face, but as she stared at him with wide eyes, he was struck by the gentleness there. She looked almost lost.
“Carol…” He shook his head. “I just—”
A cry interrupted him.
“Huh?” He gasped. It sounded like…
“Scott!” It came again, a voice from beyond the rocks.
He whipped around and squinted at the hill. “Did you hear?”
Carol dropped the hose, and her laser sprang out.
“Scott!” The voice sounded familiar. A moment later, Scott placed it. He shuddered.
The talking zombie chick.
He ran to where his shotgun lay by his backpack.
“Scott Sullivan! Wait! Please.”
He glanced to Carol as she planted herself at his side, her laser aimed at the rocks. “Easy,” he whispered.
A silhouette emerged from the boulders and made its way down the hill. With the light at her back, Scott could almost mistake her for human.
“Please wait!” She had her hands up, empty. “I just want to talk to you.”
“You…” Scott trailed off. He scanned the hill behind her as the sun crept over its ridge. She was alone. Or so it seemed. “How do you know my name?”
“I didn’t recognize you before.” The words tumbled from her as if she were out of breath. But zombies didn’t get out of breath? Her cautious footing appeared only as uncertain as any human’s on the downhill slope. “But as soon as you ran away, it hit me.”
Scott squinted at her sunken face. “You know me?” He was pretty sure he’d remember a talking zombie.
“No, not exactly. But I knew your sister. Nicole? We went to school together.”
Scott heard Carol make a whirring sound. “Wait.” He lifted a hand to keep Carol down. “You know Nick?”
The girl paused a dozen feet above the road. “I mean, we weren’t really good friends or anything, but we had classes together.”
“You did? Wait…”
“And Elias.” She carefully lowered her hands. “I heard about what happened to him. I’m so sorry.”
His brother’s name punched him in the gut. Scott exhaled against it.
He refused to think about Eli. Perfect Eli, the martyr, the hero. Stop. He peered at the zombie. What was that other thing she said? “Wait. You’re from Pasadena?” He took a step forward. Carol snatched his elbow, but he shook her off.
“Well, Long Beach, originally, but we, um, moved halfway through high school. You were three years behind us, right?”
Only because Nick skipped a grade and Scott’s birthday came after the cutoff date. But he never mingled with Nick’s friends. This chick was out of luck if she hoped he’d remember her.
“Scott,” Carol said on low volume with a shake of her head.
“Wait,” he whispered.
The girl picked her way down the slope. Before Scott could speak, Carol knocked the wind out of him with a backward shove.
She placed herself front of him, her heels almost on his toes. “Stop.” She aimed her laser at the zombie girl. “Go back the way you came.”
“Please.” Her hands shot into the air.
Scott grabbed Carol’s shoulder and pulled. “Carol, come on.” It was like trying to move a statue. “Wait a minute.”
“No,” Carol snapped at him, then focused on the girl again. “Go. Now. Or I will shoot.”
The girl glanced over her zombie shoulder, then back to them. “Just hear me out. I’m harmless, I swear.”
Would Nick believe her? Probably. Nick would be all fascinated and stuff.
“No.” Carol shot at the ground in front of her zombie feet.
“Carol!” Scott dropped his gun to grab her laser arm in both hands.
She shook him off and fired again. Zombie girl scrambled away from the blasted dirt.
Scott jumped in front of Carol and threw his arms around her. He heaved his weight to push her back. “I said stop! She knows Nick.”
“You are being foolish, Scott.” She reached around him to fire again.
“Stop! I order you to stop!”
“I’m nullifying your orders for your safety.” Carol grabbed his arm and twisted. Ow!
Then she caught him by the shirt and shoved. The next thing he felt was his cheekbone hitting the ground. OW!
Before she could fire the laser again, Scott rolled over and shouted, “Carol: Robot slave mode!”
Carol froze. The light in her eyes dimmed and changed to yellow. She drooped, her weapon retracted, and her arm fell. Three long seconds passed, then she stiffened to attention.
Scott exhaled a half-sigh half-groan and rubbed at his face. Owwww.
“Why the heck are you always so damn pushy?” he muttered from the dirt.
A glance at the hill showed him zombie girl frozen mid-step in climbing the rocks. She peeked over her shoulder. He lifted a hand to halt her, then grabbed his gun and pushed to his feet, facing Carol. Her face was arranged in neutral, and her eye lights focused on the middle distance past his head.
He wanted to sock her in the chest, but it would only bruise his knuckles and she wouldn’t feel it. Instead, he smacked his gun against his non-sore hand, squared his shoulders, and used his authority voice. “Carol: Report.”
“Mode change successful.” The emotionlessness of the mode’s tone unnerved him as always. As much as he used to roll his eyes at the Robot Rightsers, RSM felt sleazy even to him.
“Mission objective:” Carol continued, “Protect Scott Sullivan. Design prerogative: Perf—”
“Yeah, yeah, okay,” he cut her off. “So, protect me.” He gestured to the hill. “Attack if this zombie makes any sudden moves. Cover my back. But shut up and let me hear what she has to say. Get it?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He gave a curt nod and turned his back to Carol. He heard her weapon extend to aim over his shoulder.
“So,” he lifted his voice to zombie chick, “what are the chances? Small desert after all?”
She was staring at him. Or at least he thought so. It was kind of hard to tell exactly with the milky film coating her eyes and the light behind her.
“Right?” she said. “Though it’s been a while since I’ve seen Nick. I mean since way before the Ecuador Explosion.”
“What did you say your name was again?”
“Emily Campbell.” She started down the hill. “Is she still building things?”
“Well, she…”
“She’s in Manhattan now, right?”
“How do you know that?”
“Like I told you before, I’m with the LPI. I’ve got people there. Please Scott, there’s so much I have to report. And you can help me get there. Like, look what’s happened to me. I was bitten by a zombie, right? But I still feel and act human.”
“You don’t look human.”
“Exactly. This is new. Something’s going on.”
“Hold on.” Scott lifted a hand to stop her, and she paused a few feet away on the road. He’d almost forgotten the most important part, and it felt like ice crystals crackled over his flesh as it rushed back to him. She was alone now. Good. But he had questions. “What about…Death?”
“No, no, I’m not dead. I’m undead. Which means I’m not not alive. So I’m still living, see? I’ve got to let them know about this. Scott, you know they need to see me. And there’s all this other—”
“No, I mean Death. That, that thing with you earlier. Where is it? It’s gone, right?”
“Oh, him.” She glanced up the hill, then back to Scott. “Yeah, he needs to get to Manhattan too. We figured—we were hoping—maybe we could hitch with you?”
Scott almost dropped his gun. “What!”
“You’ve got a gas can.” She pointed at it on the roadside. “You have a truck, right?”
“He’s not gone?” He’s real. “You mean you want Death to hitch with me? Are you crazy? I don’t want to die!”
“Nonononono, don’t worry! He won’t reap you. He’s not like that. He’s like, retired now.”
“Death is retired?”
“Kind of, basically.”
“Where did he go?” Real and retired and real. “He’s not coming back, right? He is not riding in my truck. I mean, I don’t even have a truck. But that’s beside the point. I’m not taking Death for a ride.”
“No truck?” Emily took a step closer, speaking in a quieter voice. “Do you have anything? What about these bikes? Look, all I’m really asking from you is to explain things to the LPI in Manhattan for me when we get there. If I go by myself, they’ll shoot me on sight. Like you did. All I need is to get into the city to see my coordinator. Let me just ride along behind you.”
Scott’s grip on his gun tightened, his eyes following her movements. “None of these have any fuel.”
“But we’ll find fuel, right?” Giving him and Carol a wide berth, Emily crouched next to one of the roadcycles. “These are good bikes. They don’t need charging at all. Look, how about we roll along one each until we find fuel, and then fill up and all ride together? Then you don’t have to have me in your car or anything.”
Scott shook his head. “What about Death?”
Emily glanced up the hill again.
Wait, was he up there? Oh, shit.
“Um, well, he can follow us if he wants to?”
“I don’t want Death following me!” Scott backed against Carol.
Emily let go of the bike to turn to him. “You don’t— Ah!” She yelped as her foot caught the tire. Her arms flailed for balance, and she came stumbling toward him.
Carol whirred. Before Scott could speak, her blast fired.
In the same instant, ice picks shot down his spine and a dark blur obscured his vision. Emily disappeared, and Death stood before him.
Scott choked and jerked back. He lost hold of the shotgun as his head clanged into Carol. She fired over his shoulder again and again.
His hands clawing his slippery face, Scott’s fought the seizing in his chest. He felt Carol separate from him. Between his fingers, he watched her run circles around Death, firing from every angle to try to hit Emily. But Death stayed between each of her blasts and Emily
’s body, moving too quickly for Scott to comprehend. The whole morbid kaleidoscope picture made his brain want to fragment. But the longer it went on, the less paralyzed he felt, and the more he grew queasy from trying to follow the circles.
“Carol, stop!” Breathe. He needed to breathe.
She froze in place on the far side of Death.
Scott clenched his hands into tight fists against his eyes and choked the nausea down. When he lifted his face to look, his brain fought the reality, but his body could not deny it. This was the realest thing to ever happen to him.
Death grinned, his bone hands clasped before his skull mouth, his index fingers tapping against each other. The clicking sound made frigid vines entangle Scott’s heart. He clutched it and staggered backward. “Carol,” he rasped. “Come here.”
She jogged to him, and Scott jumped behind her before he dared to look at Death again. Carol’s hard shoulders slipped under his sweaty, clutching fingers as he leaned into her. Come back, balance, come back.
Two thin gray hands appeared against Death’s robe to pull it aside. Emily emerged. “He’s not going to do anything to you, Scott.” She glanced up at Death. “Right?”
Death’s head tilted to the side as if considering her question. Click, click, click went his fingertips.
“Stop that!” Emily smacked his hands and then, after a stiff pause, gave Scott an apologetic half-smile. “He’s just messing with you.”
Death sighed and dropped his arms, turning from them to the bikes.
“What?” Scott gasped. “Why?” Inch by inch, as Death moved away, warmth returned to Scott’s limbs, and his heartbeat re-sane-ified in his chest.
Emily shook her head and smiled at Scott. With the tension in the air and her shrunken skin, the expression came off forced. Strained, stretched. And really, really gross.
Scott edged around Carol to keep her body between him and Death at all moments.
“She’s not going to do that again?” Emily eyed her up and down.
It took a few swallows for Scott to croak out a reply. “Yeah, she… I mean you looked like you were…” He flapped a hand in the air. Over Carol’s shoulder, he watched Death drift past the roadcycle graveyard. “Death is just…here? I mean, he’s…”