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Dark Humanity

Page 174

by Gwynn White


  Then he squeezes her breast and walks back up to the other men. She didn't budge of course, when he touched her. Her companion programming requires that she adheres to their wants. She doesn't address his words that she can't lie—who knows where he got that rumor from? What a concept.

  Still, she eyes Sidney again. "All right," she says. "You don't have to let her go—but you do not touch her."

  As if it's a challenge, the big burly man steps back. "Mate, you said these ones are made to make us all happy."

  The other raider nods and looks at Petra again. "Hey, aren't you made to make us all happy?"

  "I am," she agrees. "But I’m also made to protect Allendian children, like her." Part of her companion programming requires that she knows how to negotiate, but they don't need to know that part.

  Understanding flashes across all three men's eyes and they look at each other as if mentally discussing their options.

  "All right," Burly finally says. "She's not the one we really want anyway. We'll still keep her ‘til you bring us to this vault. Leverage, see?"

  Then he picks Sidney up and throws her over his shoulder. The others eye Petra expectantly and she walks forward, meaning to take them back a ways.

  It's unfortunate that her plans with Sidney have failed, but this is what must happen now. She'll manage to bring her back where she needs to. For now, they'll need to travel all the way back to the city.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Henry

  As his chest heals, Henry closes his eyes and tries to stretch his toes, his fingers, to see if he's getting any feeling back. So far, nothing.

  Then he wonders if Petra's fixed him at all, or if he's destined to die here in this state, awake and aware, but still unable to get up, unable to walk again.

  For the longest time, he rests and listens to the birds in the trees. Then he hears another distant sound, one that used to be part of his life for such a long time, he'd wondered if it would ever go away.

  It's the sound of raiders’ bikes, of this he's sure. His heart trots as he understands that he's in the most vulnerable state he's ever been, unable to do anything but stare in this position, and they're getting closer. He manages to turn his head left, then right, and he knows he has some feeling back in his shoulders. From here, he can tell they'll be near in about five minutes.

  Given that he's sat here for what's felt like over an hour already with hardly any movement in his upper body, there's no way he'll be able to move at all within the next five. Still, in desperation, he throws his head to the side, willing his body to fall to the ground, begging his hands to please heal faster, his legs. Come on come on.

  Still nothing.

  Then his left hand twitches as a lightning bolt of pain shoots up his arm. Okay—pain. At least it's something. Something to feel. It's promising. The same feeling goes through his right arm and he manages to throw himself to the ground. The roars of the bikes gets closer—from the south, he realizes.

  He looks up the trunk of the tree he's been leaning on but knows there's no way he'd be able to climb it a day from now, least of all within the next three minutes before they get to his spot. So instead he places his left palm right under his chest and, with his right hand, he pulls all one hundred pounds of Henry forward, an inch at a time, until he's dragged himself all the way to the other side of the tree just as the first bikes reach the spot. He hears them roar past—one, two, seven bikes in total. That's one of the largest factions of raiders he's heard of, and he wonders why they're heading that way when the outer dome is just a couple hours south of here.

  Still, he pushes himself around to the other side again and his jaw drops as he sees Petra sitting on the back of one of the bikes, Sidney's still form on a trailer behind her.

  "What the—" he says out loud before he shuts his mouth. Though he was loud, he knows there's no way they would have heard him from there, not with all the bikes at full speed.

  Okay—they have Petra and Sidney. Knowing everything he knows about raiders, he can hardly let them just get away. What other option is there though? He can't even stand, how in the world will he catch up with all those bikes going at over a hundred an hour?

  I can't, that’s how.

  He stares after the bikes hopelessly, and though he still can't feel much, he knows he has tears falling off his cheeks. He knows what they're about to experience, and all he hopes is something in Petra will decide a law's been broken before they get to hurt Sidney, or even hurt her for that matter.

  Then he lies in the dirt, crying as he waits for his body to finally decide to work.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Sidney

  Loud, harsh, headache-making. Those are the first thoughts in Sidney's mind as she comes to. Then everything rushes to the forefront of her mind—someone had grasped her ankle in the water.

  So the raider got her. Now they have her, the three raiders she'd seen on the shore. Her eyes flutter open and she stares up at the sky, moving past much faster than she'd ever seen in her ten years alive.

  Whatever she's lying on rumbles and shudders under her, making her shoulders ache and itch. Still, she doesn't dare to turn over to see exactly what it is. All she knows is, it's moving fast and she's in the hands of cannibals.

  "They'd eat you," Nayne said the one time they saw them in the city. They were both hiding in the tiniest spot they could find, where Nayne said they'd never look for them.

  "Whatever you do," Nayne had said, "don't ever let them catch you. If they catch you, they'll eat you for breakfast, for lunch, for supper."

  "I wouldn't last long, Nayne," Sidney replied, "I'm too little."

  Nayne snickered then told her to shush, to stop trying to make her laugh, because they needed to be quieter than ever.

  So they stayed like that, quiet, soiling themselves in that hole, until two days later when the raiders had finally driven off.

  By that time, Sidney was so hungry, she worried that her rumbling stomach would let them know she was there. Luckily though, all the noise they'd made themselves was loud enough to drown out anything her belly could come up with.

  Now—they've got her.

  Nayne, she thinks. What do I do now, Nayne? They've got me, they'll eat me for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

  Of course Nayne doesn't say a thing back and Sidney suddenly feels hopeless. She'd promised Nayne she would do whatever it took to protect herself from them, but she was careless by the lake—she'd never thought they'd go all the way out there. After all, it wasn't like there was anything they could raid out there, unless they were also planning to head out the dome? For what purpose? Maybe to raid another dome? Maybe they've finally run out of places in this one?

  Sidney's arms lie by her sides. She feels the metal griddle under her palms, then slightly pushes herself up so she can see around her more clearly.

  Her neck braces as she leans onto her elbows. She's in some sort of metal trailer. Behind her, trees are left in their wake as they speed through the forest. She thinks she sees Henry's dead body on the ground there but from a different angle than she'd left him in. She can't see Petra's body from here, maybe she did heal fast already. Then she looks to her left, sees raiders on bikes on that side. She turns to look right, and sees three more. She flips quickly on to her belly and looks forward, just to see the back of Petra's head. She sits on the back of another raider bike behind one of them. Sidney counts seven raiders.

  At least Petra's here, she thinks as she stares at the back of the bot's head, willing her to turn back, not wanting to move more or to encourage them to stop.

  Still, remembering where Henry is, she realizes they're traveling back north, and they're traveling fast.

  Doesn't look like they're about to stop any time soon either.

  Why in the world are they going north? If Sidney's guess is right, Petra would have negotiated with these raiders somehow. In that case, wouldn't she encourage them to go find the vault of food. Didn't Petra say that vault wa
s also south? it would have been somewhere near where she was.

  So why—the city?

  Sidney still wills Petra to turn but stays put, waiting. At some point, they'll stop. Then she'll have to deal with maybe getting eaten. She reckons not, Petra wouldn't allow it. Still, she waits patiently.

  Then she sees her knapsack over one of the raiders' shoulders and she narrows her eyes. It's the skinny one she'd seen on the shore. She means to get the bag back from him if it's the last thing she gets to do before they broil her.

  It feels like they're about to travel through the night but when the sun finally sets to their left, the bikes slow and Sidney knows it's time to stop, time to camp. Then what?

  The trailer she's in shudders and vibrates for a couple more minutes after the bike stops.

  Petra slides off the bike and looks right at her, smiling as she does. "Good to see you're fine, Sid," she whispers, before the biker she'd sat behind, the huge one with a dirty beard, grabs her by the hand and drags her away.

  But she places a small graceful hand against his chest.

  “Give me a half hour to comfort her, make sure she’s okay, healthy. She was under the water for several minutes. I need to ensure she’s okay.”

  He grumbles but walks away as Petra climbs on to the trailer with her, holding her close. She has Sidney’s book in her hand, and holds her tight in her arms as she reads some of the words, pointing at each one as she reads, and before long, they’re at the end of the book.

  “I’m glad it’s a happy ending,” Sidney says, closing her eyes in relief that she’s finally heard how the story finished. “Maybe happy endings happen only in books like this. Books full of magic. I so wish there was magic in our world.”

  Closing the book tight, Petra says, “In a way, there is. There’s heaps of magic in science.”

  Sidney rolls her eyes, remembering that her nayne used to say things like this, too, as they watched fire rise, burning everything it was fed.

  “Chemicals that react with each other just to create entirely new chemicals,” Petra says. “Cloakers, like the one in this story. Made of mirrors and lenses and light. Or me—”

  Sidney looks up into her blueish gray eyes. As the sun sets, she notices they have a tinge of violet to them.

  “You’re made of dust, liquids, and nerves,” Petra says. “I’m made of dust, liquids and wires. We’re very different, the way we’re made, but we’re very much the same. That’s magic.”

  Then the same raider comes and plucks Petra out of the trailer like she weighs nothing.

  "No!" Sidney yells as she throws herself out of the trailer. "You leave her alone!"

  The others stop, stunned that she's up at all. Then they laugh out as the man continues to carry Petra away.

  "No!" Sidney says. Why would they eat her? She's not made of flesh, as far as Sidney knows.

  Another raider grabs her by the waist and places her back in the trailer. Do they mean to eat Petra first then? Then her in the morning, for breakfast?

  She doesn't dare to make another peep, not another sound when the short raider walks right up to the trailer and stares at her. "We may have promised we wouldn't touch you girlie," he says in a low voice, "but you watch yourself. Or we'll let you watch us hurt her."

  Then he sneers and walks in the other direction. Two other raiders start up a fire in a clearing ten feet away as Sidney watches, terrified of what he means. "And don't even think of running away," he threatens, "if you know what's good for you, and for her."

  He cackles and grabs a tent out of the trailer, right next to where she'd sat. Then he walks away with it, helps another raider set it up along with three other tents they'd had in two trailers she didn't notice before.

  The big man then takes Petra into one of the tents and zips it up as the others laugh and argue over who's "next" to go in.

  Sidney stays put in her trailer, not understanding what's going on, but wishing that she could be anywhere else.

  A heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach tells her that whatever Petra is doing, she is doing it to protect Sidney from these raiders. Sidney pulls her legs up to her chest and holds her arms tight around them. The others sneer at her some more but she turns her back to them, staring into the trees, wanting so much to be anywhere else right now.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Petra

  The raider doesn't last long. Petra lays under him as he snores, and a thread of drool slips from his beard into her hair, but she doesn't move to clean it.

  She knows that the moment he wakes, the next raider in line will come in here so she doesn't move, meaning to let him sleep for as long as he wants.

  Her companion programming is such that she has to do as the Allendians want, as long as they’re not ill, or criminal. Other Allendians might even find some of the acts repulsive, but she doesn't feel anything either way for any of it.

  Though there are certainly some aspects of companionship she appreciates more than others. The debates, for example. Hours-long conversations about the history and politics of Allenda, or the history of humans in general. She always found those far more appealing than any of these base acts.

  Still, she lays still. She scans and hears the heart beats of seven grown men and the slightly faster heart beat of a terrified young woman, she can tell. Still, from here, she'd know if Sidney's heart rate changes. She'd know if any of the others would deign to move on her—and Petra would react fast enough to stop them. These are things of which she's certain.

  What she's not certain about is what to do once they've reached the city and the raiders discover her lie. She assumes they'll want to harm her and Sidney, but she'll have to find a way once they arrive, to get away from them.

  She knows the ins and outs of the city better than any Allendian alive—except perhaps Sidney. She'll find an escape route.

  When the raider shifts, she expects him to wake. Instead he grunts a few times, moves off of her to sleep on the mat beside her and continues to snore.

  She's heard so many other Allendians snore over the years, she's become accustomed to the grating rumbling machine whistle that a lot of them seem to share.

  Sidney's heart rate slows and Petra hopes that means she finds some sleep. Because tomorrow, they will arrive at the city before dark, depending on how often these raiders intend to stop. If Petra's plans work out, they'll have to run for their lives. That's the best case scenario.

  As the raider grunts again, he throws his heavy arm over her, pushing her slightly into the mat. Still, she doesn't react.

  Then, finally, another raider unzips the tent and wakes the big one, pushing him out the tent as he mutters and growls back.

  This raider, the skinny one she'd negotiated with on the shore, turns to her and grins a wide toothy grin as he moves to drop his pants.

  Another part of Petra's programming fights to surface, but she tampers it down as she allows her companionship rules to take over.

  He walks deeper into the tent and she smiles up at him, her arms outstretched as if to welcome him in to a hug.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Henry

  Once his legs start working again, Henry pushes himself up to his feet and jogs on the spot. They healed a lot faster than he'd expected and he wonders if whatever Petra's poured in him is affecting him in ways he'd rather not know.

  Wouldn't it mean he's not entirely human any more? Wouldn't that mean he's turned into some sort of bot?

  Whatever the case, he can't really care right now. It's dawn, but remembering the life of a typical raider, Henry hopes they're not traveling quite yet. They wouldn't rush today, would they? To get back to the city? What is waiting for them over there anyway?

  He's already walking as he's thinking these thoughts, not exactly knowing how he's going to stop them from doing more of whatever they're doing to those girls. He knows Petra will be able to take care of herself, but Sidney—much as the kid is tough—there were seven raiders with them. He already
breaks into a run before he can fight the horrible thoughts in his head. Raiders aren't decent people, he knows, but he'd never been with any that would hurt a kid. Still, he'd heard stories—enough stories to know to run even faster.

  How did I get here? he thinks as his pace increases and he finds himself in a comfortable run.

  How did I go from my big family to becoming a raider faction's little lackey to this—this person wanting to save little girls and old bots?

  Why am I even running in this direction? He slows and continues to walk north as he thinks over his options.

  He was close to the outer edge of the dome—he could have continued to travel south, past the dome's exit and on to the dome in the south. He could try to find another vault of food. He could just forget about all this—and keep surviving in this godforsaken place, just hide from the rest of them until the re-emergence happens. Even then—

  He knows that this is not an option. He knows there's no way he can continue living with himself if he were to run off somewhere else while something happened to those girls—to Sidney. There's no other option, he decides. Since they'd found him and helped him, he feels somewhat obligated to return the favor, and admits there's a part of him that enjoys being around them.

  He'd been alone for so long after he got away from the raiders, sometimes he'd believed himself the only one around. Then the other raiders had found him, and when he refused to join their faction, they'd beat him and left him for dead.

  Then Petra and Sidney came along and saved his life and fed him. He knows why Petra did it—what with it being part of her program and all.

  But Sidney, with everything she knew, with her knowledge of explosives and everything else, she could have harmed him, no doubt, and she didn't. Well—not on purpose.

 

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