The Human Farm (The Human Farm Trilogy Book 1)

by Young, B. R.

  “Then when we have enough free humans, you will need to teach us the best way in which to sever the heads of the guardians, if enough of us know how to do it and can do it properly, then we stand a much better chance,” said Kev.

  “Very well then, we will first go to the farm in Philadelphia and see if we can free as many humans as possible. If they are willing to come then we will bring them here and train them. You will not want to free too many at once, otherwise the A.I. will notice vast amounts of humans missing and will start searching the countryside. It will be best if you get no more than four or five people at one time,” said Dawn.

  They decided they would head to the farm in two days’ time to infiltrate and try to gain the trust of some of the humans there. It was decided that Lili and Dawn should go together, Lili would first make contact with one or two humans and talk to them about the world above and try to introduce them to Dawn, if all went the way they hoped then they would try to get a couple more and bring them on board as well, then they would work on a plan to get them out of the farm.

  The following day they worked out all the details of how they would get into the farm. The layout of all the farms was pretty much the same once you got through the tunnel systems, so Lili would have no trouble finding her way to the places they would need to go in order to find people. The hardest part would be getting through the tunnels and bypassing the patrols. The A.I.s spent most of the morning teaching Kev and Lili the best way to sneak up behind an A.I. Unit and sever the head. Since they did not have the physical strength to simply pull the head from the body they would need to use a hatchet and would need to make sure that the first swing they took counted, otherwise they would alert the other guardians to their presence.

  The afternoon they spent making sure they had all the supplies packed and ready to go. They also made sure they had spare batteries charged. It was still another hundred miles to Philadelphia and it would take them at least a day and a half to walk the distance as long as they did not stop too much, they decided they would take the carts with them so that when Kev and Lili needed to sleep they could sleep in the carts. Dawn, Reggie and Bard could easily push them while they slept so they could keep moving without having to stop.

  The following morning Lili and Kev both woke early, they were eager to be on the road and get their plan underway. Lili was happy she was finally able to walk around without the aid of crutches and without any pain throbbing through her ankles.

  The morning was fairly hot so they packed plenty of bottles of water so Kev and Lili could stay hydrated on the long walk to the city. They also had plenty of cooked meat and some of the berries and roots they had gathered from the forest.

  Dawn had spotted a drone off in the distance shortly after they’d started walking and they had to detour off the road to find a place to hide for a while until the drone passed on by. It flew over the area doing a sweep, it hovered for several moments and then took off again heading towards the city they were heading to.

  They managed to get back out onto the road and continued the long walk to the city with the hot sun beating down. For the three A.I. units this was not a problem, they could not get thirsty or dehydrated, for the humans however, thirst, hunger, and the heat could be another problem entirely, they could only hope the weather would cool down.

  They’d been walking non-stop for five hours, Lili and Kev both had sweat pouring off of them, they had both drank several bottles of water to keep themselves hydrated. Finally Reggie suggested they climb into the carts and rest and let them push them for a few hours. The A.I.s could easily push them with no effort and they would be able to get some rest without having to worry about getting heat deprived.

  They’d managed to walk nearly seventy five miles by nightfall and had only another twenty-five to go. The last twenty five would not take more than a couple of hours so the group decided they would stop and wait until it was early morning before they made their way to the city. Lili and Kev were able to stretch their bodies and get some food. Bard had done some exploring and found a stream nearby. Lili and Kev decided they were going to go and bath, they had not taken a proper bath since they left the farm nearly three weeks ago and they both realized how desperately they needed to be clean, especially after the long hot walk.

  It felt good for the humans to be able to wade into the cool running waters of the stream, granted they had no soap with which they could wash but it helped just to be able to wipe away some of the grime and dust that had accumulated. They made a mental note that the next time they went scavenging they needed to find soap.

  Once they felt clean and refreshed they joined their friends at the small camping spot they’d set up for the night. They went over the plans once more to be sure everything went as smoothly as possible.

  26

  Dawn woke them early the next morning, they were eager to get the last few miles out of the way and get into the farm to meet the new humans they hoped would be joining them in the world above. The weather today seemed to be better than the day before, it started out just as hot but the wind was blowing a nice cool breeze.

  They reached the city in a couple of hours, now came the hard part, they needed to locate the entrance to the farms and get everyone inside without being seen. Reggie volunteered to be the one to venture into the city and scout out the location of the entrance into the caverns that led to the farms below. “Be careful that you are not seen. If you are caught without being linked you will be deactivated and tossed into the scrapyard,” said Bard.

  “I know, I will return soon,” said Reggie.

  The others waited on the outskirts of the city, they sat and waited for nearly three hours and were getting worried that Reggie had been captured, Dawn and Bard were about ready to head to the scrapyard when he came around the corner towards them. “It took some searching but I finally found the entrance. It is in an old subway system tunnel, several blocks deep inside the city. It will take some stealthy maneuvering to get there,” he said.

  “We were afraid that you’d been captured,” said Lili as she ran up to him and hugged the android. She wiped a tear from her eye as she backed away and gathered herself and the supplies together.

  Kev let out a chuckle, Dawn gave Lili a pat on the shoulder and smiled. “There is nothing wrong with showing a little affection Lili, even to us A.I. we may not process the affection the way you do but we understand and appreciate it the same.”

  Lili looked at Reggie and he was smiling and gave her a wink, she smiled back and grabbed the rest of her gear confidently. The others grabbed the rest of their things. “So Reggie, what’s the best way to get to where we need to be in order to get into these subway lines you mentioned?” asked Kev.

  “The streets are very heavily guarded, it will be very difficult. If we can get to the next street over, there is a manhole that leads down into the sewers, we should be able to find a way into the subway tunnels from there. I am pretty sure the sewers are unguarded,” said Reggie.

  They all nodded in agreement and made their way to the edge of the city, Reggie led the way as they crept along the edges of the buildings. They needed to be vigilant in case any of the A.I. patrolling the area were to walk by. They got to the end of the street and looked across to the manhole they needed to get to in order to go down below the city, just as Reggie stepped out into the street to cross, a robotic voice was heard, “Halt where you are,” Reggie turn to face his friends so the guardian would need to have his back to them.

  The A.I. stopped directly in front of him, “what are you doing…” that was as far as he managed to get before Kev had swung the hatchet, severing his head from his body. Lili looked at him in shock as the body fell to the ground. “Nicely done Kev,” said Reggie as he bent down and removed the battery from the android and tossed it into the sack he was carrying. “Might as well grab as many spares as we can carry,” he said.

  They looked around quickly to make sure there were no other units in the area then qui
ckly pulled the body into the alleyway and shoved it into a trash bin so it would not be discovered and then ran to the other street. Dawn yanked the manhole cover from its spot and the party quickly descended down into the sewers. Luckily for the human part of the party, the sewers had not actually been used in centuries and had pretty much dried up. There was a lingering smell of Earth and mold but nothing too fowl. The tunnels were small and everyone had to walk single file and semi-hunched over but they were safe from the watching eyes of the patrolling units above.

  Reggie peeked his head back out of the manhole cover to get his bearings and figure out which direction they needed to be heading and then he replaced the cover so no one would discover that the sewers had been breached. They headed off in a northerly direction that would take them in the general direction they needed to go.

  They walked on in a straight section of tunnel for what seemed like miles before they finally came to a junction point, they were able to veer off to the right into a much larger tunnel which gave them all more room to maneuver and stretch a bit. They took the tunnel and walked for about ten minutes until they could hear noises coming from ahead of them, it was a faint grumbling noise, like something an animal would make. They could slowly make out shadows moving towards them in the tunnel, Lili had started to get worried they had been found. As the shadows moved closer they started to shrink down smaller, once the creatures were visible Lili let out a small yelp. She had never seen a creature like this before and it was ugly to her.

  “What is that thing?” she gasped.

  “That, Lili, is an alligator,” said Dawn as she knelt down scooping some rocks up from the bottom of the tunnel and throwing several of them at the creature to scare it off. She tossed them hard enough to do some damage and it wandered off after a few snaps and hisses.

  “They are extremely dangerous and aggressive animals and very territorial. They would very easily rip your arm off if you got too close,” said Bard.

  Lili made a few faces at the thought and the party moved on farther into the tunnel. It was about an hour later that they came to an old wrought iron door built into the wall. They hoped this would be the way that would get them into the subway system and get them into the farms. Kev tried to turn the old style handle but it was rusted shut. Bard grabbed the handle and gave it a good twist and it squeaked and squealed into submission and finally turned until the door swung open revealing a dimly lit, tiled wall that was an old, long abandoned subway tunnel.

  They all entered the tunnel with smiles as they shut the door to the sewers behind them. It had taken them much longer than they’d hoped to get here but at least they had managed to do so without being seen by any patrols. They all stopped and took a break for a few moments so the humans among them could rest their legs on a bench along the wall while they quenched their dry throats.

  Reggie went to the entrance to the upper level and dared a peek up above to see where they were and see how far off track they were. He came back several moments later, “The entrance we need is about 3 blocks down that way,” he said as he pointed down the line. “We will need to walk down the tracks a bit before we get to the entrance.”

  So they gathered their gear and once again started out walking down the dark and dingy tracks towards the doors that would lead them down into the farms. It felt to Lili and Kev, almost like they had come full circle, escaping one farm and coming back into another one, only now they were here to help others try and gain freedom. They only hoped they could be successful in their pursuit.

  The entrance to the caverns below was easy enough to spot once they came across it, the only problem they could see was there was a guardian standing guard over the entrance. The group slinked back into the shadows and around the bend where they could not be seen. “You did not mention the guard at the door Reggie,” said Dawn.

  “That is because he was not there when I found the entrance earlier,” said Reggie.

  “What are we going to do now?” asked Lili.

  “We need a distraction of some kind,” said Kev.

  Dawn found a small rock laying on the tunnel floor, she grabbed it and tossed it against the far wall of the tunnel. Everyone ducked back into the shadows, flat against the walls as the guard approached the place where the rock had impacted the wall. Dawn quickly raced over to the A.I. yanking the head from his body. She tossed the head aside and yanked out the battery tossing it to Reggie to add to their collection.

  With the way now clear they made their way into the subterranean tunnels that would lead them into the farm deep below the surface of the Earth. They headed into the long tunnels, Reggie quickly found a computer terminal and was able to hook himself into the interface and get a map of the tunnels so he would know exactly where he was going.

  “If we walk down this tunnel for one hundred feet there is an elevator that will take us down almost to the farm level,” he said.

  “Well that is convenient,” said Bard.

  “We should get moving before any more guards show up,” said Dawn.

  They easily made the hundred foot walk in a matter of a couple minutes and found the elevator where he said it would be, the only problem was that it was all the way down at the bottom, so they would have to risk hitting the call button and wait for the elevator to rise up. They hit the button and could hear the clanking of gears as the machine kicked and sputtered to life rising from the depths of the Earth.

  It took several minutes for the elevator to rise up, once it got up the doors opened and they all climbed in. However another problem soon arose, there was too much weight for the elevator to handle and the elevator started to groan and complain. Everyone immediately jumped off. “There is no way we can all go down there at once,” said Dawn.

  “You and Lili should go Dawn. Kev and Bard and I can go the long way around and meet you,” said Reggie.

  “Right, it will give you the time you need to find some humans you think can be trusted and then we can work out a plan to get them out of here,” said Reggie.

  So the group split up, Dawn and Lili climbed into the elevator and descended down to the lower levels of the caverns, and Bard, Reggie and Kev were left to wander the upper levels, making their way through hours of tunnels to get down below. The elevator clinked and clanked as it went farther and farther down into the Earth. Lili had a frightened look on her face as she had never before ridden in such a device before.

  “You have nothing to fear Lili, it is quite safe to ride. Your kind used to build and ride these things in those buildings up above all the time,” said Dawn.

  “That doesn’t make them any less scary when they make all this noise,” said Lili as she clung to the railing on the side of the car.

  Finally after several minutes the car came to a halt, the doors opened and they stepped out to the deafening sound of a waterfall. Dawn knew the entrance to the farm could not be too far off if the waterfall could be heard from this distance. They followed the sound of the water until they could see the light of the entrance and the cascading of the water beating near the side of the entrance.

  They slowly approached the entrance, taking their time and shuffling along the wall to glance out the side in case any of the inhabitants of the farm happened to be nearby. Luckily no one was there at the moment. They entered the vast area of the farm and Lili took a good look around. A part of her felt a slight pang of homesickness, this place looked exactly like the farm where she’d lived and it brought back so many memories for her. Granted she loved the world above and longed to be back there and wanted desperately for all of humanity to share in the world above but a part of her would always see this place as home.

  “We should avoid the pathways and stay along the edge of the garden beds near the walls. We can make our way over to the livestock area, that will be the best place to get a view of the comings and goings of a lot of people and still be able to stay well hidden in the barns,” said Lili.

  They stayed close to the wall and followed the
gardens, Lili led the way to the animal barns. Once they got near the barns they would need to keep their distance until mealtime when everyone would gather to eat. They ducked behind some nearby trees at the edge of one of the fields and waited.

  27

  They listened to the clanking of the elevator as they wandered their way down the long corridor, it would be a long arduous walk to get to the farms. “Why didn’t we just wait back there and call the elevator thing back up and ride down after them?” asked Kev.

  “You heard all of the noise that thing made when it came up and then took them back down again did you not?” asked Bard.

  “Yes,” Kev said.

  “Well you can be sure the other A.I. on other levels would have heard it as well, and you can be sure they will be coming to investigate why the elevator is being used without their knowledge. So we could not stick around any longer and risk being caught waiting for it to return again,” said Reggie.

  “Good point,” Said Kev.

  They rushed on down the corridors moving as fast as Kev could move. They came to a junction that Reggie said would take them down several levels. They took the juncture and started walking along a dimly lit tunnel for several more minutes, when they heard voices up ahead of them they scrambled around trying to find someplace they could hide. There was a small storage area just a few feet away they were able to duck into just in time to avoid being seen.

  Kev peeked out the crack of the door to watch as two guardians were escorting an older human, he looked as though he were a captive. He looked older than most humans Kev had seen. None of the humans on the farms ever lasted past their fortieth year. It is said once they turn forty they are taken to a retirement farm to live out the rest of their days, but no one ever sees them again once they leave.