by T. J. Quinn
“I have no idea what you are talking about. Let me go. I’m not the enemy,” she protested, struggling harder to get free.
“His scent is all over you, female. There’s no use lying to me.” He insisted, tightening his grip.
Another couple of blasts sounded near them, and the whole structure quivered under the attack.
“If you’re talking about the cyborg, then yes, I was given to him, while he was here. But he left the colony a couple of days ago,” she assured him, and if Rafaroy hadn’t talked to his friend just minutes ago, he would have believed her.
Astonished, he stared at her, having trouble to believe this woman was protecting his friend, a cyborg she was given to as a slave. “Are you sure, female? Because I can still sense him here,” he said with a mocking grin.
“Then your sensors are malfunctioning,” She insisted, in a defiantly, still trying to free herself from his grip.
Another blast sounded even closer, and she looked at him with a deep frown. “Don’t you think we should leave this conversation for some other time?” she grumbled. “I’m sure your friends need your help fighting the Taucets, and I really would like to get somewhere safe, if you don’t mind.” She added, her rage evident in every single word.
He had to make an effort to hide the wide smile struggling to crack his face. The little woman was fierce. “I can’t let you go. It’s too dangerous,” He insisted, nonetheless. If she was with Khajal, he needed to make sure she was safe.
“I’m sure there’s more danger for me with you guys than by myself. Now, let me go, damn it.” She yelled at him, tugging harder.
He pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear. “Are you going to meet Khajal?” he asked, printing every word with the urgency the situation merited.
“Even if I was, and I’m not saying I am, why the hell you think I would tell you that?” she replied, through gritted teeth.
Once more, he was amazed by the way she protected Khajal, even when he wasn’t around to see it. He had never seen any human act that way towards a cyborg. “Because he’s my friend and I want to be sure he’s alright,” he said, in a stern tone.
“And why should I believe you? I have no idea who the hell you are and I sure as hell won’t trust you,” she snarled at him, clearly unwilling to give him any information that might endanger Khajal.
“I’m your best chance at getting out of here,” he assured her.
Rafaroy realized he had bumped into the reason Khajal had stayed so long at the colony. For some reason, beyond his understanding, his friend had gotten involved with a human female. He sent a message out to his friend. “I believe I bumped into your woman,” he informed, in a mocking tone.
The snarl that came across their private channel almost deafened him. “Don’t you dare harm her.”
“Easy boy... I knew she was yours since the first moment. She stinks to you,” he mocked his friend. “She’s trying to get outside the facilities where we are.”
“Let her go, she’s following my instructions,” Khajal said, sounding a bit more calm.
“Should I go with her? This place is a maddening chaos.”
“It’s too dangerous, they could be tracking you, and I don’t want them close to me,” Khajal warned his friend.
A bomb exploded too close to where they were. Looking around, Rafaroy pulled her out of there, through the nearest door, looking for a safer place, as an idea started forming in his mind. “Khajal, this is my opportunity to escape. Can I trust your human? Do you think she can help me deactivate my control system?”
There was a silence on the line for a few seconds, before his friend replied. “Do you remember all of the codes?” he finally asked him.
“Of course I do.” Those codes were engraved in his memory.
“Then, ask her to help you access your control system. Tell her I’ll be waiting for her at the rendezvous point we agreed upon,” Khajal said.
“How she will know she can trust me?” Rafaroy asked, considering how suspicious and distrustful the woman was. He dragged her after him, still looking for a safe place amongst the chaos surrounding them.
“Tell her you know I’ve been licking her code bar to make it fade away. She will know you’ve been in touch with me,” he told his friend. “Get to it. I want to leave this place as soon as possible.”
“Sure thing,” he replied, frowning. What the hell did his friend mean by that? But it wasn’t the moment to think about that. He finally reached a small corner, hidden between two of the igloos. “Listen, I need your help. I’ve just spoken with Khajal, and he told me I could trust you to help me.”
“Yeah, sure, of course, you did,” she replied scornfully.
“We have private communication channels, that allow us to talk when we’re close enough,” Rafaroy explained. “But I was expecting your reaction, so I asked Khajal for something only he would know. He told me to tell you about the way he has been licking your code bar to make it fade away.”
Startled, she looked at him, for a few moments before she gave him an answer. “Very well, what do you need from me?” she asked.
He pulled a sharp knife from his armor and handed it to her. “I need you to access my control system. We’re programmed in a way that prevents us from accessing to it by ourselves,” he explained.
“You want me to cut you open?” she said, horrified.
“It’s the only way. With it open, I’ll be able to reprogram my system and free myself from the humans’ control,” he told her, urging her to do it.
She looked at him and at the knife still doubting, but another blast near them seemed to be enough for her to make a decision. “Very well, show me where, exactly.”
He pointed to the area, and a few moments later, she was running the knife across his skin, forming a frame and exposing a small control panel.
“That’s it, thank you,” he said, through gritted teeth, as pain rushed through his body. That area was extremely sensitive, another thing humans had developed to stop cyborgs from even trying to access it. It felt as if he had his guts out and not only a small square of skin.
She handed him the knife. “You’re welcome. I have to go now. Take care,” she said before she turned away.
“You too.”
Once she was gone, he leaned against the wall behind him, closing his eyes for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath. When he was finally able to deal with the searing pain he was experiencing, he took his hand to the control panel. Breathing hard, he pressed the numbers one by one and waited.
“Main programming system activated, please state your commands.” A robotic voice sounded, and he almost let out a shout of rejoicing.
“Deactivate command 7789 at once,” he stated, deactivating the command that forced him to fight the Taucets no matter what.
“This command requires a password to be executed. Please state the password.”
He stated the password and the response came back immediately.
“Command deactivated.”
With a huge smile on his face, he proceeded to deactivate all commands that subjugated his will to the humans. In a matter of minutes, he was a free cyborg. All he had to do now was to escape, using the reigning chaos to leave the colony unseen.
Placing the patch of skin in its place, he waited a few more seconds for his nanocybots to start working on the wound and straightened up.
He still heard blasts all over the place, so he figured it was the right moment to escape. I was about to leave when a message from Khajal reached him.
“These are the coordinates of a rendezvous place, not far from here. The free cyborgs will be picking me up there in a few days. If you manage to escape, try to meet us there.” He transmitted the GPS coordinates and ended the message.
Rafaroy smiled pleased and left his hideout.
CHAPTER FOUR
Elena guessed two days had passed since she had been captured. So far, no one had come to talk to her or do anything else, for th
at matter. Other than bringing them food three times a day, she hadn’t had any contact at all with their captors. And she was sure none of the women around her had either. Other than some occasional whimper, the place was submerged in thick silence.
Until they heard the first blast. And the second, and all the others that followed. The colony was under attack. The lights flickered before going off for a few seconds before the emergency lights came on. But even those didn’t last much and a few minutes later, they were out too. The place was dark.
The women started to cry, realizing they were sitting ducks inside those cells and if no one came to open the doors for them, they would certainly perish in that dungeon.
Jumping out of her bed, she walked to the door and tried to open it up, forcing it. To her surprise, the door budged and she was able to open it.
Relieved, she stepped out of the cell, trying to look around, but it was too dark for it.
She walked carefully to the next door and tried to open the door. It opened.
“Girls, the doors are opened, get out.” She shouted as she started walking towards the exit, or at least, where she thought the exit was.
Cries of fear mixed with relieved echoed around the place, as the women started to open the cells and leaving them.
It was chaos, but after a while, she managed to reach the exit door and open it up. The rest of the women followed her and flooded the hallways in all directions.
Elena stopped for a few seconds, trying to get an idea of where she was and where she could find the nearest door to the outside.
She had to go back to her hometown, and she wasn’t going to wait for the soldiers to help her. Especially, when she was sure, they left the town, with no protection, as a decoy for the Taucets. That attack spoke volumes on that theory.
After all the other women disappeared down the hall, she walked to her right, recalling she had seen a door near the dungeon, when they had brought her there.
Fortunately, she was right, and the door opened into what looked like the backside of the colony. Just a few yards away, a huge wall separated her from freedom.
But, it wasn’t just that. Outside, the ground was covered with a thick layer of snow, and it was so cold Elena could barely breathe. She couldn’t go out wearing the rags she had on. She wouldn’t last an hour, and she needed to survive. She had to find her sister, no matter what.
Walking back inside, she looked around. She had to find something to warmer to wear. But she had no idea where she could find that. In her cell, she hadn’t had even a blanket, so going back there would be useless. She would have to search all the rooms around to see what she was able to find.
The bombs blasting around her, the cries of the women and the bursts from the weapons urged her to get out of there. So, quickly, she started looking, praying she wouldn’t find anyone in her search.
The first door she opened was some sort of lab, and there wasn’t anything she could use there. The next three doors had the same result, and she was starting to feel desperate when she found what looked like a bedroom.
Sighing relieved, she searched the place and found a few of the black jumpsuits she had seen on the Taucets. Quickly, she put a couple of them on, hoping they were made of thermal fabric. Pulling the sheet from the bed, she formed a small pack where she put a few more jumpsuits. She even found a pair of boots. They were at least four sizes bigger than what she usually wore, but after wrapping her feet in strips of sheet, she managed to walk with them. She needed to protect her feet, or she wouldn’t last long out there in the snow.
Ready to leave, she walked out of the room. The battle hadn’t reached the area where she was and quickly, she headed back to the door she knew would take her out of there.
This time, she didn’t feel so cold when she walked out of the igloo, and she sighed. She might pull it off after all.
Running, she reached the wall and started to walk along it, always attentive to the battle sounds coming from the colony grounds. So far, she seemed to be surrounded by what looked like greenhouses, and for a few seconds, she considered looking for some food inside them.
But that wasn’t a good idea. Elena needed to get out of there as soon as possible before anyone saw her. At this point, she didn’t trust anyone.
After a few minutes, she started seeing signs of destruction. For a moment, she considered going back and try another way, but she needed to find a hole in the wall or an unguarded door. She couldn’t go back. Walking even closer to the wall, she proceeded as fast as she could, trying not to look at all the dead bodies scattered around the place. It was a butchery, but then again, all wars were senseless slaughters.
A few minutes later, she finally found what she was looking for, a hole in the wall.
She was about to cross through it, when she remembered the words of the alien talking about the tattoo she had on her neck. Was it possible that security system was still on? All the others seemed to be out, but she had no way of knowing if the one keeping the slaves inside the colony was out or not.
A few blasts way too close to her were enough to make her decision. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the wall and closed her eyes for a second, waiting for the wave of pain she was told about.
Nothing happened.
Relieved, she ran out, into the woods, with no direction in mind. For now, all she wanted was to get as far as possible from the colony.
She must have run about two miles when she tripped over a huge bulge on the ground. Cursing her luck, she got up, and shook the snow off her clothes, turning around to see what had tripped her.
Whatever it was, it was covered with a thin layer of the snow that had started falling again, just a few minutes ago. Trying to convince herself it was just a trunk, Elena stepped closer, and when she was about to dust the snow off it, a strong hand came out of nowhere and grabbed her.
“Help me.”
Rafaroy was almost out of the colony walls when he was spotted by a group of Taucets. Distracted looking for a way out, he hadn’t been attentive to the battle taking place around him. His priority was to escape.
He ran for cover, pulling out his guns but, before he was able to shoot the first time, he was hit in the back by the enemy fire. Cursing his fate, he took cover in a corner and opened fire.
The pain on his back was sharp, and all he wanted was to close his eyes and wait for his nanocybots to do their job and heal him, but he was still under attack, and he needed to get out of there as soon as possible. He had spotted the hole in the wall he would use to escape, but first, he needed to get rid of the Taucets. And he did, but it took him several minutes he didn’t have to get rid of the small group. They fought viciously, attacking him with no mercy, aiming to kill him, no matter what. Fortunately, his weapons were far more powerful than theirs, and he was able to kill them all. Fearing their small battle had attracted unwanted attention, and after scanning the area, he dared to leave his position, heading as fast as possible to the exit he had seen before. The wound on his back was more serious than he thought, judging for the amount of blood he was losing and the excruciating pain crunching his guts, but he couldn’t stay there and wait for his body to recover. He needed to escape.
Gathering all of his strength, he left the colony as fast as he could and ran through the thick woods through the snow until he was sure he was far enough to be safe.
Falling to his knees, he tried to look at his back, but it was too bloody and messy for him to get an idea of the extent of the damage. Cursing his luck once more, he sat on the ground, with his back against a tree and closed his eyes. He needed time for his nanocybots to work on his wounds before he could get out of there.
He must have lost conscious to some level because next time he was aware of was someone tripping over him. A woman, judging by the person’s scent.
He could use some help, and this woman was exactly what he needed. Stretching out his hand, he grabbed her. “Help me.” Other than a request, his words came out as an order a
nd the woman didn’t look very pleased.
“Oh god, you’re a cyborg,” she muttered, tugging her hand to free herself.
“Yes, sweetie, never saw one before?” His words oozed scorn.
“No, never, and I could have lived my whole life without seeing one,” she assured him, tugging harder.
“Unless you’re planning on cutting off your hand, you’re not going anywhere,” he warned her, in a cold tone, pulling her closer and making her fall on her knees next to him.
“I didn’t get this far to be stopped by you, damn it,” she cursed, pulling harder, with no results. She could feel the cold of the snow penetrating her clothes and a chill ran down her spine. “Let me go,” she yelled at him.
“No.” His plain answer seemed to be more effective than his other words. “I need your help.” Normally, he wouldn’t have asked a female human for help, but in his present condition, any help would be welcomed, even if he had to force the helper.
“How could I possibly help you? The army must be looking for you, so I’m sure they’ll find you soon enough,” she said, still not giving up.
“I’m not letting you go,” he stated in a solemn tone. “If you really want to leave, you’ll help me, and then I’ll let you go,” he added, struggling to hide his pain from her.
“You can’t do this… I need to get as far as possible from the colony…” she protested, still struggling to free her wrist.
“You’re wasting time, woman,” he yelled at her. He too was in a hurry to get out of that place, but he needed to stop the bleeding somehow.
She let out a shriek of sheer frustration before she took a deep breath and turned to look at him. “What the hell do you want from me?” she asked, in a biting tone, tilting her head back to really look at him. Even sitting on the ground, she could tell he was huge, and muscled, with a powerful body, the kind you would expect on a fierce warrior, with wide shoulders and thin waist.
He was also incredibly handsome, with his dark brown hair and brown eyes. At first sight, one wouldn’t realize he was a cyborg, but his skin tone, slightly blueish and the absence of a pupil on his eyes, were clear signs he wasn’t completely human. She had never met someone like him, that was for sure, and she wasn’t referring to the fact he was a cyborg.
