by Isaac Hooke
“Come,” War Bitch told the creature. She walked away toward the dead bodies, and waited patiently. “Come!”
The animal didn’t obey.
“I don’t think it’s going to listen to you,” Jason said. “Not yet.”
Jason approached one of the dead Rex Wolves, and examined its underbelly. Nope, that was a male. He went to the next. It was female, but didn’t have what he was looking for. Finally, on the third, he found a pair of swollen udders. And there were no injuries on its body. Well, save for its lack of a head. But if he arranged the body a certain way, perhaps he could mask the smell of blood from the hindquarters.
He dragged the body by the legs to War Bitch, and set the udders down next to the Rex Wolf. It backed away slightly, but then came forward curiously, sniffing. Because of the way Jason had dragged the body in, the head was positioned well away from the living beast.
The young Rex Wolf promptly wrapped its lips around the udder, and began to suckle.
“There we go!” War Bitch said excitedly. “That’s a good boy!”
That opened the floodgates; the other Rex Wolves came forward, one at a time, and began to suckle the teat. There weren’t enough nipples for them all, and one Rex Wolf, the runt of the family, didn’t get one. It tried to force one of the other wolves away, but it snarled at the runt, who promptly backed away.
“Aw, poor little guy.” War Bitch went to that one and wrapped her arms around it. Though it was a “runt,” it was still about half as big as her mech. “I’m going to call him Runt.”
When one of the Rex Wolves had had its fill, War Bitch guided the Runt to the body.
“There’s not going to be any milk left,” Jason said.
“Maybe, maybe not,” War Bitch said. The little guy tried to suckle, but seemed dissatisfied, and gave up after a short while.
“Told you,” Jason said.
War Bitch carried the runt to another Rex Wolf in the pack, one that also had a swollen rump, and shoved its face into the teat. Runt began to suckle.
“Of course, this brings up the question, how are we going to feed them going forward?” War Bitch said.
“First she attacks me, and now she wants to raise alien creatures with me,” Jason said.
“Technically, they’re not aliens, since they were created from Earth-based DNA,” War Bitch said. “Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to survive in our atmosphere.”
“All right, alien bioweapons then,” Jason said. “If you want to get technical. Look, I don’t have any desire to raise these things as pets.”
“Fine, I’ll do it,” War Bitch said. “It’s the least we can do, since we killed their parents.”
“Their parents attacked us, in case you forgot,” Jason said.
“I haven’t forgotten,” War Bitch said. “It was simply a case of mistaken identity.”
“Mistaken identity?”
“Yes,” War Bitch said. “The pack mistook us for prey. They won’t make that mistake again.”
“They certainly won’t,” Jason said, examining the bodies. He returned his attention to War Bitch. “So you’ve agreed to team up with me, then, it sounds like?”
“I suppose so, for now,” War Bitch said. “It’s fairly obvious you’re in need of my help. Though I’m still kinda pissed that you cut off my arm.”
“You don’t have any working repair drones?” Jason asked.
“No,” War Bitch said. “When I woke up, my inventory of the drones was completely empty.”
“Let me help you with that, then,” Jason said. He nodded toward her arm.
He activated his repair drone subsystem, and a panel slid open in his lower leg. The drones began to buzz outside.
One of the Rex Wolves came running at Jason. No, not at him, but for a drone: it snatched it right out of the air and chomped it into a ruined pile of metal.
“Hey!” Jason said.
“I could have told you that would happen,” War Bitch said.
Jason promptly recalled them, and sealed his leg panel as a couple of the excited Rex Wolves gathered around.
“We’ll have to go somewhere private,” War Bitch said. She wrapped her arms around Jason, and the world winked.
He was standing on top of the nearby rock buttress, and overlooking the plains below.
The small creatures were looking around in confusion.
“Hey doggies!” War Bitch shouted over her speakers.
The Rex Wolves turned toward the buttress, and began jumping up and down happily when they saw her again. Even Runt, who had finished his meal. They tried to scale the rock tower, but it was too high for them.
Good.
Jason once more activated his drone subsystem, and allocated three of them to repairing War Bitch’s severed limb.
“You’ll have to hold it in place until they get the joins fixed,” Jason said.
“Yup, I read the manual, too,” War Bitch said. She pressed her severed arm into the shoulder socket.
Meanwhile, the drones swerved around the joint, issuing repairs, melting the raw materials of her arm that were too damaged for repair, and reusing them to 3D print brand new pieces.
Jason had the rest of his drones work on repairing his own injuries. He had a lot of dents from the little joyride War Bitch had taken him on. Not to mention the bite and acid marks when one of the Rex Wolves had scooped him up.
He punched the rock underneath a few times until it was broken down enough that he could pick up a handful. He did that, and shoved it into the ammo-processing chamber of his left bicep.
While the drones worked to repair the two units, War Bitch looked up at him. “Tara.”
“What?” Jason said.
“My name is Tara,” she said.
“Jason,” he told her. “What happened to War Bitch?”
“Just a name I came up with when I thought we were being judged by the Brass,” Tara said.
“The Brass…” Jason said. “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned that word. You come from an army background?”
“I do,” she said. “I’m a private first class. Or I was, when I got my scan done. Feels like yesterday. Wait, it was yesterday, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Feels like only a few hours since my own scan,” Jason said.
“You just woke up?” Tara asked.
“Some hours ago,” Jason said. “Why, how long have you been awake for?”
“Five days now,” Tara said. She cocked her expressionless head slightly. “You know, this is actually a really bad form of communication. We’re going to have to rig avatars in our HUDs at some point, so we can at least read each other’s facial expressions. Until then, how about we reconvene in VR?”
“Sure, why not,” Jason said.
5
Jason received the VR invite a few seconds later, and he accepted. He put his body on standby mode, setting a background process to wake him should the cameras detect any motion in the distance. He was able to mark the young Rex Wolves as friendlies, so that they wouldn’t trigger an awake event.
In moments he found himself standing on the beach-side patio of a beautiful mansion. There were no other houses on the stretches of beach on either side of him, so that meant he was on a ranch or estate of some kind. A horse and rider were approaching in the distance at a gallop. The rider was a woman dressed in a diaphanous white dress. Her long dark hair streamed out behind her. She was extremely fit, with a flat belly much tighter than his own.
Wait a second, I can make my belly as flat and muscular as I want.
He did just that, reducing his body fat slider closer to zero. Before he could make any other changes, his eyes were drawn back to the incoming rider: he could see the slight outline of her breasts underneath the translucent fabric as they bobbed up and down with each gallop, and he increased his time sense to enjoy the view.
When she arrived, she pulled the horse up short, and Jason restored his time sense to normal.
She looped one leg ov
er the horse, and leaped down. Jason’s eyes were drawn to her pubic area, but disappointingly she was wearing panties underneath the translucent fabric, denying him a view. But the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra made him extremely happy.
“That was quite the entrance,” Jason said, forcing himself to look at her face. It was difficult.
Tara gave him an unimpressed look, then shoved passed him into the house proper. Jason followed her.
He couldn’t help but stare at her hourglass figure as he followed her inside.
He knew she was doing this on purpose, dressing provocatively to get some sort of reaction out of him, but he promised himself he wouldn’t give her the pleasure of doing so.
“So this is your little slice of paradise, is it?” Jason said. He swept his gaze across the high-end furniture around him, but none of it could hold his attention for long, and he found himself staring at that tight little butt again.
Tara reached the kitchen counter and spun around.
Jason immediately lifted his eyes to her face, trying to pretend they’d stayed at that level the whole time.
“A drink?” Tara said.
Jason shook his head. “Don’t drink,” he lied. He didn’t want to encourage her, after all. At least that was what he told himself. But that spectacular figure of hers, and—
This is silly. None of this is real. We’re machines…
Tara shrugged. “Too bad for you.” She materialized a glass of wine in her hand—it contained a sparkling white—and she leaned back against the counter to take a sip. The counter top and the bar stools in front of it were fashioned out of bamboo, as if they were meant to convey an island atmosphere.
She gestured toward her surroundings. “I modeled this place after my childhood home. I grew up on a ranch in Honolulu. It wasn’t so close to the beach, but hey, the wonders of VR.”
“Nice,” Jason said. “I’ve only just begun experimenting with my VR.”
“I look forward to seeing what you’ve done with yours,” Tara said.
“Hey, you’re assuming I’ll invite you,” Jason said.
Tara shrugged. “I don’t really care if you do.” She glanced down at his body, then back up to his face. There was no desire in her eyes; mostly, it seemed, curiosity. “Have you altered your avatar at all?”
“No,” he told her. “This is exactly what I look like in real life.”
“I thought as much,” Tara said. She smirked slightly, then took another drink.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jason said.
“Nothing,” she said. Her sea blue eyes sparkled mischievously.
“What about you?” Jason said. “Did you change your avatar?”
“Of course,” Tara said. “I’m much more beautiful in real life.”
Jason frowned. “I see.”
“Do you?” she said. She dropped the glass, but before it hit the ground, it vanished. She walked toward him, swaying her hips provocatively, and extended her arms, so that for a moment he thought she was going to wrap them around his neck in an embrace. He simply stared at her, entranced.
But then she yawned, and he realized she was stretching. She lowered her arms and walked right past him, seating herself on one of the couches overlooking the patio and the beach beyond.
“Have a seat,” Tara said.
Jason approached, and was about to sit down beside her, when she pointed at the couch that was situated at a perpendicular angle to that one.
“Not here,” Tara said. “There.”
“Someone’s not pushy or anything,” Jason said. But he obeyed, sitting on the other couch.
Tara stretched out, so that she was lying down on her chosen couch. “I want to lounge.”
“It’s your VR environment...” Jason said.
She glanced at him. “So how about you? I was in the army when I scanned, and what were you?”
“A nobody,” Jason said. “Just someone trying to make ends meet.”
“You didn’t have access to Basic Pay?” Tara said.
“No,” Jason said, gazing out at the beach outside. He watched the waves lap against shore. “I lived in too nice of a place. Inherited it from my parents, you see, before they decided to join the Mars colony.”
“I don’t know what anyone ever sees in Mars,” Tara said.
“Neither do I,” Jason said. “Believe me.” He returned his gaze to her face. She definitely had modified her avatar to look better. No one looked this good in real life. “So what did you do as a private first class in the army?”
“The usual,” Tara said. “Remote operation of autonomous drones. I lived aboard a ship that operated in the Pacific Theater. We sent our drones into the uninhabited areas of China, always on the lookout for any surviving bioweapons. I worked on that post for only a year, and I only ever encountered one herd of the creatures. They were nothing like my new doggies, of course. I relayed the coordinates to the bombers, who came in and dropped a few clusters, wiping them out.”
“Only a single herd?” Jason said.
“That’s right,” Tara said.
“We’ve only been here a few hours, well, days for you, and already we’ve encountered a pack of bioweapons,” Jason said. “I think you just weren’t in one of the hot spots.”
“Probably not,” Tara admitted. “My particular team was restricted to operating along the coast.”
“There you go,” Jason said. “So you were just a drone babysitter, huh?”
“That’s right,” Tara said. “All army personnel are, these days. Even infantry. Because I’m sure you know, autonomous drones and combat robots aren’t allowed to fire unless human operators are behind the controls. By law.”
“You’d think that law would have changed since the alien invasion,” Jason said. “But nope. And that reminds me, did you notice we have no lock downs on our minds? No Rules of Engagement. Full access to our emotions. I did some reading up on Mind Refurbs before getting my scan done. I thought there was supposed to be something called Containment Code that would prevent us from disobeying orders. Or from feeling emotions.”
“There is,” Tara said. “But for some reason, the army didn’t apply that code to us before installing us into these war machines. That’s why I thought this was all some kind of grand experiment. Now I’m not sure what to believe.” She tapped her luscious lips. “So what do you think is going on? Truly.”
“I already told you,” Jason said. “If it’s not a survival trial, it has to be an alien invasion. Either that, or someone sabotaged the satellites.”
“I still think we could be operating entirely in VR,” Tara said. “Because if it was a survival trial, the military wouldn’t be risking our units like this. But if it’s not, sabotage sounds like the more likely option to me. The question is, who would sabotage all the military surveillance satellites that pass over the uninhabited zones, and why?”
“Don’t know,” Jason said. “Could be part of some virus meant to target all satellites. There are a bunch of rogue hacking groups out there, motivated by money and political agendas. It could be anyone.”
Tara materialized another wine glass, this one filled with a red. Incredible, Jason could smell its subtle aroma from here. She’s really amped up the potency of the drink in her VR.
“I’ve been heading west,” Tara said. “Based on my calculations, there should be a city nearby. It was once known as Brussels.”
“Brussels?” Jason said.
“That’s right,” Tara said. “It was part of Europe, before the invasion.”
“How do you know where we are?” Jason asked her.
“I’ve been making a map of the area,” Tara said. “Crossing dried out riverbeds, and burned up forests. I even came across a small town. Its signs were still intact. With all that data, I’ve been able to get a fairly good idea of where we are.”
“Why do you want to go to Brussels?” Jason said. “It’ll be empty.”
“Yes,” Tara said. “But at least
we can set up a defensible base of operations. Unless you’re happy staying out in the open, taking shelter on top of a rock buttress for the rest of your life.”
“That’s a good point,” Jason said. “But it does make me wonder how long I was lying on those plains before I woke up.”
“Probably not long at all,” Tara said. “You haven’t seen what comes out at night.” She shuddered.
“What?” Jason asked.
“Roving bands of bioweapons,” Tara replied. “Creatures from your worst nightmares. They’ll hunt anything that moves. Even if they can’t eat you, they’ll devour you, and shit out your undigested parts.”
“Well, either I got lucky, and these roving bands overlooked me,” Jason said. “Or you’re right, and I wasn’t lying there long at all.”
“How much dust was on your hull when you woke?” Tara asked.
“Not much,” Jason replied. “In fact, I don’t think any dust had settled on me at all.”
“There you go,” Tara said.
“How about you?” Jason asked.
“I wasn’t covered in dust either,” Tara replied. “So neither of us were out there very long at all. But getting back to the topic of the city… who knows? There might even be a working Internet we can connect to. They still had a lot of fiber optic lines in the area fifty years ago. We can find out what’s going on in the world, maybe shed some light on our predicament.” She took another sip, and Jason found himself staring at her throat longingly. His eyes drifted inevitably to her breasts; she caught him, and he quickly averted his gaze, feeling his cheeks grow hot.
“You know,” Tara said, “if you weren’t a machine, I’d probably...”
“Yes?” Jason met her gaze.
She smirked suddenly, and sat up. She drew her legs to her chest, hiding her breasts. “I probably wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”
“I see how it is,” Jason said.
Tara shrugged. “We are what we are.”
“Well, I think we’ve dallied here long enough,” Jason said. “It’s time to head west, to Brussels, wouldn’t you say? Set ourselves up a base of operations?”
Her eyes twinkled. “And so it is. We also have some new pets to feed.”
