by Eliza Green
Their journey into the unprotected valley agitated the visiting orbs. They swarmed faster in the space above them, tracking them all the way to the entrance. Dom arrived at the mouth of the valley first and looked out. He heard the bullhorn playing Carissa’s whistle over and over. The orbs ignored it, which confirmed the city had changed the frequency command code.
He stuck his head out as the orbs rushed into the open landscape like a swarm of bees. Then he saw something that destroyed his last shred of hope. Three, maybe four diggers were coming at them. But that’s not what shocked him most. Behind were half a dozen Guardian beasts, each carrying two Copies on their backs.
‘Shit.’ He pulled back. ‘There’s a whole load of Copies and Guardians heading this way.’
They were too far gone to turn back now; the valley without its anti-magnetic protection would trap them, not protect them. Dom hoped the trucks bringing up the rear would make it through to serve as a battering ram. He glanced back to see one of them had already gotten stuck on an impassable fragment of rock. If they had more time, they could clear the valley. His hope deflated as Max pushed ahead of him and cursed.
‘We can’t turn back now,’ said Max.
‘So what do we do?’ said Dom.
‘We have no choice. We must fight.’
Dom sucked in a deep breath and swapped the safety of the valley for the open landscape. His team followed him out in the lead, while Kaylie’s team set up a defensive arc around them. He released a tight breath and kept an even walking pace, despite the thrumming of his heartbeat, willing him to run back. His left hand, part of the most recent experiments on him, gripped the Disruptor tight. Max beside him held the Atomiser. They’d already used both guns to take down the giant digger, but they had to get closer than this to use them.
He got set to run towards the diggers, but what he saw changed his mind. The machines were slowing their approach.
Dom glanced back at Max. ‘What are they doing?’
Max also frowned as the machines came to a stop about a quarter of a mile out. ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure what they’re waiting for.’
Dom took a guess. ‘Maybe they didn’t expect us to show up. Maybe they expected us to be in the trucks.’
Max chewed on his lip. Charlie and Jacob pushed through to the front, surprising him.
‘Dad, Jacob, get back to where it’s safe!’
Jacob held up a hand to Max. ‘Please, let me explain. It’s a standoff. They’re protecting something. They’re not here to fight.’
‘What are they protecting?’ said Max.
Dom wondered that too as he checked the approaching group for a glimpse of their true intentions.
‘My guess would be something has happened in the city,’ said Jacob. ‘They are pre-empting our return there. I won’t know for sure what’s happened until the reprogrammed orb returns, but I should be able to call for it now that the anti-magnetic field is off.’
Max jerked his head back to Rover, stood with his head low. His glare was fixed on the beasts similar to him, hidden behind the digging machines. ‘Okay, but could you do that from back there?’
Both men nodded and retreated to stand by the waiting wolf.
Dom turned back to the standoff. ‘So what should we do?’
Max said, ‘If we go back, they could block off the entrance to the valley and trap us. At least out here, we can keep them at a distance. And if they approach, we can scatter.’
As soon as Max walked towards the stationary diggers, Dom signalled for his team to follow. Together, they neared the waiting machines. They jerked to a stop when the machines started up again. But instead of hovering forward, they shifted to the side to create a path. One of the Guardian beasts carrying two Copies on its back walked through the gap. Dom watched as one of the Copies jumped down from the beast and stood next to it.
Dom didn’t understand what was happening. ‘Does he want to talk?’
Max shrugged. ‘Only one way to find out.’
They continued their approach to the lone Copy, who came closer to their position while his beast followed at a short distance. Max signalled for Dom to stop. His team halted their progress.
‘We should meet him alone,’ said Max, glancing down at his gun.
Dom agreed. Together, they could take out one Copy.
In a neutral space between their two groups, Max and Dom faced off with the Copy. He was dressed as a guard, but Dom didn’t recognise him from his time in Praesidium’s medical facility.
‘Is he familiar to you?’ whispered Max.
Dom shook his head.
The Copy stopped, forcing Max and Dom hold their position.
He spoke. ‘I am here on behalf of the Collective. It wishes you no harm.’
Max pointed to the machines behind him. ‘If so, why didn’t you come alone?’
The Copy guard nodded at the team gathered a short distance behind Dom and Max. ‘Because you didn’t. The Collective asks that you return its property now.’
Property?
‘We don’t have anything belonging to your Collective,’ said Max.
‘Copy, designation 173-C; Guardian, designation unknown; Breeder, designation 33-X; Newborn, designation unknown; Inventor; and the Librarian. You will return all assets to the city immediately.’
‘Or what?’ said Max.
‘Or we will take them by force,’ said the guard. ‘But the Collective believes you can be reasoned with.’
From Dom’s limited experience of the Collective, if it wanted something it would take it by force. The city had another game plan, he was sure of it.
Max smiled at the stony-faced guard. ‘They are guests of mine. If they want to return, I won’t stop them. But I won’t force them to leave.’
The guard stood tall while his beast dipped his head low and menacing. ‘You will return them to their rightful owners. The Copy, the Guardian, the Breeder, the newborn, the Inventor and the Librarian.’
‘The last two do not belong to you,’ snarled Max.
Dom tightened his grip on his gun. He failed to see how they would reach an agreement.
‘The Inventor and Librarian have been in the city for a year. That gives the Collective automatic rights over their fate.’
Max held his gun down by his side. Dom knew his commander well enough to know it was just for show. He would act fast, if needed.
‘I said no.’
The Copy pressed a button set into his temple and spoke to a voice unheard and a person unseen.
While he did, Max whispered, ‘They’re nervous about something. They don’t look armed. We could take them down.’
Dom checked the other Copies perched on the backs of the Guardians, hidden from sight behind the digging machines. ‘We can’t say that for certain.’
Max shrugged lightly. ‘What’s the alternative? They don’t want to fight. We do. I don’t know about you, but I’m curious about what’s going on in the city.’
This group meeting also piqued Dom’s curiosity about the state of the city.
The Copy guard ended his one-sided conversation. ‘What is your answer, Original?’
‘Go to hell,’ replied Max.
The Copy guard looked back as a second beast walked through the gap between the digging machines.
He looked to the front and pinned his glare on Max. ‘The Collective hoped you would say that.’
34
Dom
So much for negotiating.
The machines widened their gap farther as five more Guardians, a Copy on each back, charged through the space. Dom had been right about their firepower. Pointed at them were several weapons. He recognised them to be Electro Guns.
‘Electricity,’ said Dom to Max.
Max nodded as though they looked familiar. Maybe he’d seen them, when he and the others had infiltrated Arcis. These weapons had been on the fifth floor. The good news was the weapons had a limited charge. The bad news was their guns did too.
&n
bsp; The lead Copy guard, without a weapon, dropped back while his armed counterparts raced towards their group.
‘Scatter!’ shouted Max.
Dom looked back to see the three main groups belonging to Imogen, Kaylie and Julius divide, but without breaking apart their formation. Carissa, perched on Rover’s back, looked terrified as she clung on with both hands. Rover growled as Jacob and Charlie stood defiantly beside him.
The Copies were under instructions to take back their property that included Rover and Carissa. The other beasts were headed straight for them. Dom looked back to see Imogen and Kaylie creating separate arcs not only to protect the pair, but the two old men in the vicinity. Vanessa, who had one of Anya’s revolvers, helped her group to protect the entrance to the valley. Julius and his team were retreating to help them.
Where the hell were the trucks?
He caught Anya glancing back inside the valley, then to the front. She didn’t look happy.
Dom checked his Disruptor. It served two functions: to disrupt the air and the orbs’ flight pattern, and to steal a machine’s energy to use it against them. He cursed to find his gun, with a full store of energy when he’d left camp, was now empty. The anti-magnetic field must have disrupted the magnetisation of the gun and drained it.
With Max by his side, he sized up the danger. Three Guardians carrying mounted Copies charged at Imogen and Kaylie. Both stood to the front of their teams protecting Rover, Carissa, Jacob and Charlie. A hail of electrical charges discharged from their guns, designed to disable the machines’ mechanisms. The air crackled with electricity as the Copies returned fire with their Electro Guns. Orbs zipped overhead, but Dom ignored the devices without weaponry.
His empty Disruptor was of no use. He aimed the barrel up and attempted to draw power from the electrical discharges around him, but the energy had dispersed too much for the gun to latch on to anything. Max ran at the beasts and fired his Atomiser. His attempts weakened their outer shell momentarily and revealed their innards. But without a follow-up disabling shot of power, it did little more than aggravate them. One turned and swiped at him with his metal paw. Max flew backwards. Dom’s heart pumped too hard and too fast; he thought he might pass out. But then Max got to his feet and he breathed out a sigh of relief.
A panting Max scrambled back to his side. ‘The Atomiser’s useless without a follow up blast from the Disruptor.’
Imogen and Kaylie’s team continued to fire their weapons at the approaching Copies. Their efforts kept them from getting close to Rover, Carissa or Jacob. The beasts yelped when new blasts hit their sides. Copies dismounted and tried to attack from a new position.
Dom wanted to help them, but that would mean walking into the Collective’s trap and abandoning their strategy. Against his better reason and with an empty gun, he held his position. That’s when he saw the lead Copy guard charging at him, a weapon raised at his side. He was pointing it at Dom.
The beast galloped towards him. In a panic, he grappled with his empty gun.
‘You can arm your weapon with a blast from theirs,’ said Max.
The beast turned sharply to the right. A shot discharged from the Copy’s weapon. Dom dodged the blast and raised his Disruptor in response. Setting the trigger to pull not release, he braced the gun against his chest. The Copy fired his weapon again. The Disruptor shook him as it absorbed the new energy into his gun. The Guardian galloped past, then charged at him again. This time, Dom was ready.
‘The Atomiser will work best if we slow them down,’ said Max. ‘Don’t shoot too early.’
Dom watched his attacker come at him. He flicked the trigger to release but hesitated, unsure which entity to hit: the Guardian or the Copy. Both had the power to hurt him, kill him, even.
The Guardian was almost upon him, the Copy almost in firing range. He raised his weapon higher and fired.
The discharge of electricity popped out of his gun and propelled towards its target. The Copy guard attempted to fire at him first. But Dom’s blast hit him before he had a chance to release the energy. The force knocked the gun out of the Copy’s hand and him off his seat. Both hit the ground with a thud. The Guardian, clearly shaken, kept running.
‘Crap.’
Dom dodged its attack as it galloped at him. It stayed on its path until Dom heard a new whistle that turned the Guardian around and brought it tearing past Dom and Max. It returned to a safe spot behind the diggers.
Max ran up to the stunned Copy on the ground. He shot him with the Atomiser. A giant hole appeared in the Copy’s side. Dom pointed the Disruptor at the gaping hole, flicked the dial back to “capture”, and drew energy from him.
The Copy screamed in pain before his eyes went blank and he entered a sort of shutdown mode. Dom thought he heard a tinny sounding voice shout, ‘Pull back.’
He watched in confusion as the Guardians retreated to safety, their Copies doing little more than steer them. He looked back at the Copy on the ground, his eyes frozen open in shock.
His gaze landed on a frowning Max next. ‘What are they doing?’ The digging machines stayed put in the distance. The last Guardian and Copy disappeared behind them. ‘Why have they dropped back?’
Max looked up at the orbs, which hadn’t left them alone for a second, and hazarded a guess. ‘They wanted to see what weapons we have and how they work. And we just showed them.’
It was one theory. Dom heard a scream that sounded like it came from Anya.
He turned sharply to see Julius’ group stepping away from Anya’s group. Two of Julius’ soldiers had grabbed Jerome and Alex by the necks and were pulling them out of their line of defence. They had relieved them of their revolvers and were pressing them to their temples. Julius protected his two team members as the other soldiers shuffled the Breeder and the newborn along, past the other groups.
‘Stay back!’ shouted Charlie to the soldiers protecting Rover and Jacob, who were closer to Anya’s team than Max’s.
Dom stepped forward, but Max pulled him back.
‘That means you too,’ he warned.
But Dom shucked him off. Holding his weapon tight to his chest, he ran over to where Julius was herding members of their rebel group towards the digging machines.
He slowed his approach when he saw how jittery Julius looked. He’d sensed something was off about Max’s second in command. He hadn’t imagined this.
‘Julius, what are you doing?’
The soldiers who threatened Jerome and Alex both had a vacant look to their eyes. Julius was in control, but Dom feared he listened to another.
‘Stay back, Dom. This has nothing to do with you,’ shouted Julius.
Dom let the Disruptor fall to the ground. It had one charge, not enough to stop three. ‘Let’s talk about this.’
Julius shook his head and kept his Electro Gun on Dom. He must have stolen it from one of the Copies.
‘I don’t need to talk. This was always the plan.’
Dom didn’t understand. ‘What plan? To do what?’
‘To infiltrate your camp. Jerome wasn’t the only newborn.’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘Difference is I’ve got a chip in my head. I listen to only one voice.’
The Collective.
35
Carissa
Rover hadn’t stopped moving from the second they left the camp. But his nervous shifting unsettled Carissa, sat on his back. If it wasn’t for Jacob stood next to him, she was sure the beast would have bolted by now.
Carissa couldn’t tell what had made Rover restless. He whined as the Guardian beasts commanded by the Copies tried to get to her.
Jacob patted the wolf’s neck and said, ‘Hush now.’
The wolf wasn’t connected. He didn’t listen to the Collective’s commands. So why was he reacting like this?
‘He’s moving too much. I want to get down.’
The distance to the ground scared Carissa. If she tried without the Inventor’s help, she’d surely fall.
‘Rover�
�s just excited by the presence of the other Guardians,’ said the Inventor. ‘You’re safe up there.’
She didn’t agree, firming up her grip on the hand hold to keep still on Rover’s squirming back. She watched the Copy guards approach, guns pointed at the rebel soldiers who had created an arc in front. To protect not just her and Rover, but the Inventor and Charlie too.
The Guardians charged at the group, but a few well-placed pops at their heads put them off. Much to the Copies’ irritation, the wolves veered off to the left and right, away from the fight.
Orbs darted overhead. Carissa whistled at them, but they ignored her and continued their flight. Were they acting as Quintus’ eyes and ears?
She didn’t have to wait long to find out. A loud whistle sounded from an area behind the diggers that called the Guardians back. Rover tried to go with them, nearly knocking Carissa off his back.
‘Settle down, Rover,’ said Jacob.
Carissa sensed the old man’s alarm at his wolf’s eagerness to run after its replicas.
The second the last Guardian had returned to safety, a voice came through Carissa’s supposedly broken NMC.
‘173-C, come back to the city. We need all our children to return.’
The voice frightened her; she almost slid off Rover’s back.
Quintus said, ‘Your chip is self-repairing. All you did was damage it, not destroy it. You cannot break your connection to the Collective, 173.C. You belong with us.’
Commotion to her left drew her focus as two soldiers from Julius’ group attacked Jerome and Alex and took them hostage. Julius provided cover as they steered their hostages over to the Collective’s side.
‘He is one of ours,’ said Quintus in her head. ‘A loyal newborn with all his emotions intact, and an NMC. The other two listen to him. We didn’t realise the power emotions held in the Original’s world until we saw how you as a newborn interacted with the Inventor.’
‘How?’ she whispered.
Jacob below didn’t react to her one-sided conversation. He was too busy tracking the movement of Julius and his two rogue soldiers.
