by Drew Cordell
“Maybe we should head back?” Violet suggested. “This doesn’t seem like a good use of our time.”
“And sitting on the boat would be?” Gerald asked, half amused.
Violet cast him a flat look. “I know we only have a set number of fishing poles and equipment, but what’s to stop us from splitting up and fishing directly from the docks? I’m sure Jasper would be happy to rig up some improvised fishing equipment for us.”
Grez turned his attention back toward the empty city in front of us, only I knew it wasn’t empty—not entirely. “No. Let’s stay focused. I’m sure they will catch more than enough fish to have to put some of it through Jasper’s God forsaken processor.”
Mary, Violet, and I continued searching buildings in our own group, moving as fast as we could to try to clear more ground than the others. If there was another skeleton with resemblance to the Champions, we needed to be the ones to find it. Dread was congealing in my stomach as Grez’s group scouted the buildings as we moved closer to the center of the ruined city. Fortunately for us, building after building yielded nothing but dust.
The signs on the buildings were irrelevant. Several times, Grez yelled out in excitement as he shined his light on signs advertising technology and weapons and other valuable goodies. Yet as he rushed inside, his intricately complex tapestries of cursing would drift out onto the street as his searching remained fruitless. It was impossible to stop thinking about what we had seen and the decaying emblem in my pocket. I kicked a fist-sized chunk of concrete, and it skittered into an empty gutter.
Grez called out that he had found something interesting and we moved over. Street graffiti burned into the side of a building with a laser was still readable through a dusty outer layer. ‘PRAISE TO THE BUILDER.’ Underneath the text was a machine, exactly like the thing that had been hunting us in the Maze. The center body of the machine was rotund and featured the lengthy, coil-like appendages tipped with various tools. The lines on the laser-burned image were smooth, but it didn’t capture the slimy, sludge-like silhouette of the machine we encountered which was probably just the result of too much time in that filthy water. This Builder was probably responsible for the construction of the strange robots we knew almost nothing about.
“Keep an eye out for more mentions of this Builder and call the group if you find anything,” Grez said. With that, we split back into our individual groups to search for more clues.
“Do you want to head back to the boats?” Mary asked, obviously uncomfortable with more time for Grez to discover evidence of Champion residency in this city.
Violet shook her head, keeping her voice low as we walked. “Bad idea. If they find something, I need to talk to my father the moment it happens.”
“Last time he was mad he hit you,” Mary said, appraising her.
Violet’s face hardened, the friendliness or tolerance that had budded between us seeming to disintegrate. “That’s none of your business.”
“Sorry,” Mary replied, closing the subject.
Violet’s face relaxed slightly, some of the tension fading. “Besides, I would rather stick close to the group in case we run into trouble.”
“Look,” Christopher called, pointing. We were approaching what looked to be the center of the city. The light from the open cavern above illuminated the street, removing the need for our flashlights. As we got closer, bluish gray light bled from above.
The hole in the cavern should have led to the Vermont equivalent of the Slums rather than open sky. That wasn’t the case. It didn’t look like there were any buildings above. As a cloud shifted, the light got brighter, washing the chalky buildings around us in brilliant light, making them look even ghostlier than before.
“Check for rads,” I said, suddenly thinking of the potential of radiation raining down from above. Christopher pulled his sleeve back to reveal a wrist computer much like the Artemis Links we wore when out working for the Champions. It looked like he had sensors monitoring a variety of factors of the environment. “I’ve been monitoring it, not even getting trace amounts.”
We walked further into the sunlight, advancing toward the center. Something was wrong with the road up ahead, though. It seemed to vanish at a point in the distance, replaced by nothingness. We proceeded slowly, the rest of the group readying their weapons and taking up a tactical formation.
“What the hell?” Grez asked, his rifle slumping. As we got closer, I could see what was wrong. Where the street ended, a colossal pit sunk hundreds if not thousands of feet below at a 90-degree angle. It wasn’t empty either. In fact, it looked like everything from the city was piled in a massive snow-covered heap in the center, perfectly lit by the radiant sunlight above. There were skeletons in the mix, sticking out in awkward, broken poses amongst the mass of broken machinery, discarded furniture, and crumbling garbage from a time long past.
I noticed things moving in the pit, tumbling and sifting through the chaos. Grez and the others with better guns sighted in and got a closer look with the magnification of their weapon optics. It didn’t look like they liked what they saw. Christopher ejected the magazine from his rifle, pulling back the slide and catching the round in the chamber. He passed the gun to Mary and me so we could get a better look at what was happening below.
Mary went first. She maneuvered the rifle to get a better look at what was happening before passing it to me with a frightened expression on her face.
The things moving around were identical to the mechanical monstrosity hunting us through the Maze. These robots seemed smaller, but maybe the pit was just that deep—it was hard to tell. As I watched, more of the things started surfacing from what looked to be an intricate network of tunnels which dove beneath the surface—almost like a mound of ants. I passed Christopher his weapon back, and he reset the magazine in the weapon with a sharp click, adding the extra round he was holding through the rifle’s breach with some effort.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Grez asked, breaking the silence.
“Digging,” Christopher said, kneeling down and brushing a hand along the edge of the pit. “Feel how smooth that is. The ground didn’t cave in here; this is all machined. Whatever they’re doing, they are taking the entire contents of the city—minus most of the buildings—a lot deeper into the earth.”
Grez reached down and felt the concrete like Christopher. “Well, I don’t think we’re going to find anything here, and I don’t have any intentions of going down into that pit. Those things don’t seem to notice us for now, and I like to keep it that way and leave them undisturbed.”
“Think this Builder guy is responsible?” Gerald asked.
Grez shrugged. “Maybe so, but I have a bad feeling the lab is under that pit. We should head back to the boats.”
“If that’s the case then we should just leave. Based on what we saw in the river, those robots are going to want to kill us if they know we’re here,” Agatha said. “Maybe we could get some information from one of those robots.”
Grez raised an eyebrow. “And how do you propose we do that? Throw a line down the pit and go ask for some directions and maybe a meal to go with it?”
“No, but what if we trap one of them if we can manage to create something to draw them up? If the Builder is still alive, wouldn’t he or she come looking for it?” she suggested.
Grez looked skeptical. “There are hundreds of them. Why look for one that went missing?”
A thin line of a smile formed on Agatha’s face. “It’s not about the numbers. It’s about the fact that one of these machines went missing in the first place in a city that was otherwise empty. By the looks of the place and all the dust, I’d say we are the first ones here in a very long time.”
“And if the Builder isn’t alive anymore and they’re running on autonomous code?” Christopher asked. “What happens if all of them stop what they are doing and come after us? We know they can swim and one of them was almost enough to kill all of us. Besides, if we don’t disable it
, it probably has some kind of geographic location device integrated beneath armor so it can be tracked. With the sophistication, it’s probably pretty safe to assume these are running on some kind of neural net, like a hive mind.”
Grez nodded. “That is a possibility as well. How do you suggest we capture and disable one of these things?” he asked.
“Why not just fire a round at one of them and see what happens?” Agatha suggested. “I don’t think they’ll send the entire swarm up to investigate. If there’s a few of them, maybe we take up positions on a third or fourth story building and bring them down. Christopher does have a couple tubes left for his rocket launcher, you know.”
I had to stop myself from letting my mouth hang open. It was one of the worst ideas I had ever heard in my entire life. If we took some of the robots out, they would just send more up to take their places.
“Grez, you can’t be seriously considering this,” I said. “That will put all of our lives at risk for no reason. We need to come up with a better plan.”
To my horror, Grez was considering Agatha’s suggestion. “What if this Builder can help us? What if he knows everything about this impossible network of underground river tunnels? If we can borrow one of his machines, maybe it will do the work and lead us to him.”
I shook my head. “And if this is an Omniscience Engine operation? What then?”
Grez smiled wickedly. “We’re moving the mission clock up and going to the weapons lab now.”
15 THE BUILDER
∆∆∆
“And the others?” I fumed.
Grez gave me a flat look. “I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that, Jake. We’re getting first claim on the weapons lab, and we need more food anyway. Do you think Jasper would have agreed to fish if he knew we were running our mission now? No, he wouldn’t have, even though we need more food. It’s better this way. Besides, Marwin is the last one I want around right now.”
I didn’t realize I was scowling until he mentioned it, and I made the effort to put a more neutral look on my face. “What about Marwin? He should be here.”
“When the time comes, we’ll get him and the others. I honor my word,” Grez said. “Now comes the issue of finding this Builder. As much as I don’t want to believe it, logic tells me the weapons lab is under the city, maybe even under that pit.”
“You’re sure there isn’t any more data on the map that brought us here?” I asked.
Agatha shook her head. “It just points us here, to the center of this city. There are no instructions.”
Something sounded behind us. As we turned around, a Spinner zoomed toward us from one of the streets we hadn’t explored, still 50 feet away. The robot retracted all of its limbs into the base of its body.
“No one shoots unless it attacks us. Hold your ground!” Grez yelled.
I turned around to look into the pit. The moving shapes below stopped what they were doing. Things were still for an uncomfortable length of time, then the shapes surged forward in a coordinated mass of rolling spheres. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them rolling over the terrain below. They were coming from below the pile now, surfacing and falling into line with the others as they approached the wall of the pit in front of us.
I fought the intense desire to run for my life. If this didn’t work, then there was no hope of making it out alive. We already knew these things could fight, and they had numbers beyond comprehension. I squeezed Mary’s hand as I forced myself to remain rooted in place.
“Either this works or it doesn’t,” Grez said as the machines started to climb. It was slow work at first, but as I looked over the edge of the cliff, the sight sent fear surging through me. The machines lanced their long appendages forward, driving them deep into the concrete and stone and heaving themselves up before repeating the cyclical process, climbing at surprising speed. The front line grew closer while the mass of robots below surged toward the wall and started the long climb. It quickly became apparent that running or fighting would not do us any good. Our fate was sealed one way or another.
“No one shoots,” Grez ordered, dropping his rifle and letting it hang from its sling as the robot from behind us came to rest, appraising us with a single red eye. The others lowered their weapons as the first of the robots spilled over the edge of the cliff, leveling themselves to face us before retracting their limbs and rolling forward.
These robots were in good condition, like the one we had seen in the river but without all the slime and sludge. They were comprised of a sphere of heavy black steel with a complex lens system fixated in the center of the orb, glowing with dusty crimson light. The robots were surprisingly large too, probably weighing at least five hundred pounds and standing over six feet tall. If I wasn’t so terrified, their movement would have been fascinating. The sphere of their chassis rolled while the appendages and vision system somehow remained fixed in the center.
More of the robots rolled around, forming a circle around us which constantly grew and shifted as the robots continued to circle until they were all present, motionless and watching.
“We wish to speak with the Builder,” Grez called out, his voice surprisingly confident given the circumstances and the physical discomfort I was sure most of us were feeling.
One of the robots rolled forward, abruptly stopping right in front of Grez. The dial on the robot’s single eye twisted, moving forward and backward as it calculated. “Your purpose?” a distorted voice asked.
“We’ve come from New York seeking refuge and to negotiate a trade deal,” Grez offered, stretching the truth.
The robot regarded Grez without emotion, without anything but calculation. “The Builder will see you.”
“Good. How can we make this happen?” Grez asked.
“Follow me, please,” the robot said, pushing its way through the crowd which started to return to the work site in the pit below in the same mass-like movement it had used before.
Mary looked at me with uncertainty in her eyes, and I gave her a faint smile as we followed the lead robot through the street. The machine rolled forward, moving slow enough so we could follow at a comfortable walking pace. As we traveled, we moved out of the center of the city and into the darkness of the surrounding city, needing our flashlights to see once again. The robot that led us didn’t seem to have any lights installed, probably relying on infrared tech for vision.
“So,” Grez said, breaking the profound silence which blanketed our group. “How long have you been working here?”
The robot, if it heard the question at all, remained silent. Conversation clearly wasn’t its strong suit.
“Grez, what about the others? Marwin is a practiced diplomat. Perhaps it would be wise to have him with us while we talk to the Builder,” I suggested.
Grez shook his head. “It’s too late now. If you haven’t noticed, Marwin and I don’t really see eye to eye on most things. I think having him here would make the situation worse for everyone.”
I tried to conceal my discomfort. Marwin was good at talking, better than me, and better than Grez whose temper had a way of getting away from him. Without Marwin here, I didn’t feel as comfortable in my ability to bring reason to the conversation if things went bad. Violet’s words continued to reverberate in my head, spoiling and twisting into uncertainty and doubt. What if everything I pledged my life too wasn’t real? Answers might have been coming sooner than I expected.
A faint red light shined in the distance, orbited by two smaller novas of white light. The lights were moving along one of the streets lined with the shells of squat rectangular buildings. As they grew closer, we saw it was Marwin, Jasper, and Bob escorted by another one of the spherical worker robots.
Jasper and Marwin looked beyond relieved to see us as their guide robot filed in behind ours.
“I’m so glad to see you all alive and well. It was hard to believe what the robot was telling us, but fighting it wasn’t really an option,” Marwin said.
I nodded
to Marwin. “Glad you’re here.”
Grez remained silent despite his annoyance, and Violet filled Marwin in on the situation as we walked after Gerald took his carbine and extra ammo back from him, checking to be sure it was all there.
The rest of the journey lasted another hour and took us through an industrial area filled with the skeletons of large factories towering up into darkness. We eventually found our way to a tunnel with an unforgiving downward slant. Old fluorescent lights crackled to life, burning with dull sparks before increasing in intensity and providing enough light for us to see where we were walking. The tunnel was about ten feet wide and ran deep into the earth, seeming to pinpoint to a point of nothingness in the distance. The robots leading said nothing, just rolled forward while we walked down the rough surface. Cold water beaded on the ceiling overhead, dripping down onto the ground and sliding down the slope in slow moving streams that cut across grooves in the walkway.
Bob seemed to be struggling, and Jasper offered a hand to help stabilize the robot’s awkward movements as he traversed down the tricky tunnel.
Some time later, we reached the end. The air was hotter and stuffier now, and I had taken my jacket off about halfway down the hill, tying it around my waist and wiping a mask of sweat from my face. The others quickly caught on and readjusted their clothing to better suit the shifting environment. A heavy vault door rested at the end of the tunnel. It was massive and circular and deeply rooted in stone and concrete. A limb snaked from one of the lead robot’s joints and into a slot in the wall. The door in front of us clicked and pressure escape from the edges in the form of condensed mist. The vault swung open, moving into the building it guarded. We followed the robots inside.
As we advanced, the door once again closed behind us. This room was tiled with sterile white laminate and felt cool compared to the hot stuffy air of the tunnel. Featureless sleek walls lined the open space of the rectangular room. A hallway down the center lined with large glass windows on either side invited us forward, but we couldn’t see what the windows overlooked yet.
