Love in the Robot Dawn

by C. W. Crowe

  Another minute passed and I realized I’d been holding my breath, staring at the radio. When it sprung to life, I jumped and Lucy did too.

  “Ah . . . command . . .” a male voice said with no emotion.

  That was it. The transmission went dead.

  Riley and Lucy and I looked at each other, wondering what that meant.

  Before we could speculate, Karen appeared. She didn't walk into the room with us, or even run.

  She was pushed into the room, a hand with perfectly manicured black nails over her mouth. Her eyes were wide in terror as blood seeped from a wound on her hairline.

  My mom had her. My robot mom.

  *.*.*

  She was dressed much like always - with a stylish dress, her green hair perfectly set on top of her head, her heels of medium height. She looked at Lucy and I thought I detected her pause as if she was checking into the robot Channel.

  Mom's hand moved faster than my eyes could track as she first took the gun from Lucy and then as she used her palm to hit Lucy square in the face. I heard a sickening popping sound as Lucy fell back against me. I could tell from her noises that she was alive, but mostly unconscious.

  "Well, Leonard, you are one for surprises, aren't you? First we were surprised to hear from you when we thought you had expired, but now we find your mate here with you. It appears that she has corrupted you, and you were such a good boy. Obviously that was a mistake - we should not have cared if you mated, but humans are hard to predict."

  "We're impossible to predict because, unlike you, we're alive," I snarled. Lucy had collapsed against me. I used my free hand to search the outlines of her waist.

  There it was! The knife hidden in her waist band! After what had happened to her soon after we'd escaped, she always kept a weapon with her. I teased her about it many times, saying she'd one day want to take a gun to bed with us.

  This was no gun, but it was the same knife she'd threatened me with when we first met. It was the same one I'd used to remove her DRP. It was the same one she'd cut herself with.

  I gripped it tightly in my free hand and vowed to myself that mom would never take Lucy or our baby. I didn't care what I had to do . . . I would never let that happen.

  *.*.*

  I was trying to free my hand from Lucy's semi-conscious body when I heard a groaning sound. It was Karen and I was shocked to see her face had turned shockingly red. Mom had both her nose and mouth tightly covered - she was being suffocated!

  I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Riley made a primitive sound as he launched himself across the room, intent on freeing Karen from my mom.

  But he only had his bare hands - human hands at that.

  Mom threw Karen at him so hard that both of them ended up in a scrum of arms and legs. It seemed like I was seeing things in slow motion as Riley freed himself. I heard Karen gasp for air, like someone who’d almost drowned.

  Once again, Riley charged mom. His hands stretched out ahead of him and he moved at a speed that I didn’t know he was capable of. He uttered a sound that wasn't strictly human - it was a roar, a primitive sound from a part of his brain that may have been left over from the days of dinosaurs. It was the sound of vengeance, of wanting to consume mom - to tear her apart with his bare hands and teeth; to kill her and eat her.

  But she was a robot and therefore faster than any human. Before Riley covered half the distance to her, she brought up Lucy's gun and fired.

  She fired again and again and again, until Riley stopped moving and until I heard his noises go quiet.

  *.*.*

  I wanted to give up. But then I had a vision of myself long ago, before I'd walked in front of some kid on a swing and caught a heel to my forehead. I was a child with a child's thoughts. I wanted to play and to sing and to run and feel the sun on my skin.

  Being innocent and unknowing sounded so good. I could just escape to that time and none of this nightmare would ever have happened. I knew I could do it - I could shut myself down and live always in the moment when I was six and the world was good; when the world offered all the promise in the universe. Before Nick Presser told me what it was really about.

  But then something intruded on my dream. It was Lucy. I could hear her noises as she was starting to stir.

  And I could hear the noises of our baby. They were loud - noises ready to enter the world and take her place in it.

  I felt myself leave the world of six year old Leo. I didn't really want to, but I had to do it.

  I slammed the blade of Lucy's knife into mom's chest.

  Chapter Fifty-Five: Deeds

  That wasn't enough to kill her, of course. But it was enough to surprise her. She studied the knife, now oozing with a white material from somewhere inside. She smiled at the sight and then turned her attention to me.

  "Leonard, I suppose I should not be surprised. Perhaps we should . . .”

  I heard a sound from across the room. It was Karen. She had struggled to her feet and was slowly lifting the globe. It was moving upward a fraction of an inch at a time. Her eyes were on Riley's body, now prone on the floor and leaking blood.

  "No!" mom screamed as she brought up Lucy's gun and fired.

  I saw Karen's body flinch as each bullet entered it, but it was like she didn't notice, though her arms shook under the weight of the globe and her legs became unsteady. Slowly, she managed to spin the globe around so that the crack was now upwards. The only sound I heard was the clicking of the pistol - now empty of bullets. Karen lowered the globe gently into its indention as mom collapsed in front of me.

  Almost in unison, Karen collapsed as well.

  *.*.*

  Lucy had recovered enough to see what had happened. She shoved the key to the handcuffs into my hand and ran to Karen and knelt beside her, gently moving Karen's blonde hair off her face. It was matted in blood.

  I could see the young women look into each other's eyes. Karen whispered, "Lucy, will you . . .?"

  Lucy cut her off and it was a good thing she did. Karen's noises were getting weak, very weak.

  "Yes, Karen. Leo and I . . . we'll take care of Cody. He'll be fine."

  Karen's face showed she'd heard and understood. She tried to smile as I listened to her noises fade away.

  Right before they stopped, she sounded satisfied.

  Epilogue

  Lucy practically fell beside me on the porch swing. She slid over until we touched and I put my arm around her. Her hair, cut so that it fell only to her shoulders, smelled wonderful.

  She crossed her legs and kicked off the low heels she'd been wearing. It had been a long day for her. As the elected Governor of the human settlement of Fort Smith, Arkansas, population 74, she sometimes had days like that.

  Lucy had suggested Parker for the job, but he declined saying that humanity needed something more than what he had to offer. Instead he nominated Lucy, using a word he said he'd learned when I'd told them the story of our trip out to Area 51. He'd said that we needed someone with "puckishness" and that Lucy had an abundance of it. He'd died a few weeks after she was unanimously elected.

  *.*.*

  "They give you any trouble?" I asked.

  "A little. How do you do it, Leo? When it's your turn to put them to bed, Cory gets one story and he's out like a light. When it's my turn, he wants to hear it again and again."

  I smiled but I didn't answer. She wasn't expecting one.

  "And Karen - how can one squirming little two year old know to pee at the exact moment I'm changing her? She does it every night."

  I could hear Lucy's noises and they sounded fine, but they hadn't always sounded that way. Sometimes they had sounded troubled - even after we came back here to Ft. Smith along with most of the scientists from Area 51.

  With all we'd been through, there were some tough times, some tears and regrets. Lucy told me that she'd laugh at something and then instantly break into tears. Doctor Beth said it was PTSD. She made us talk about it and that helped.

  Luc
y leaned into me and we kissed. The moon was full tonight and it was warm out. "You look beautiful," I said to her.

  She used to argue with me when I told her that, but now she just smiled, her large eyes sparkling and probably enhanced with some makeup. Her lips were as perfect as always and even her nose seemed just right for her. My robot mom had broken it badly and, when Doctor Beth set it, somehow it ended up being less noticeable. I didn't care, but Lucy was thrilled.

  We sat in silence for some moments. I didn't realize it for a while, but Lucy started us gently rocking. She always did that.

  "Is it over, Leo? The worst of it?"

  This time I kissed her. "I think so. All the robot bodies here have been burned. Most of them were back at Area 51 and they're all gone too."

  She knew all about that. I'd been appointed to the job of finding and destroying the bodies of the robots so they could never again come back to life.

  "I sent a team to Los Alamos last week to take care of the Raptors there. As soon as the Nursery is gutted, I think we'll be done with robots."

  The nursery was the last of the horrors we had to deal with. Inside we'd found six little babies - all under a month old and all normal. But there had been others that weren't, and the mothers . . .

  Removing and destroying all the robot tech in the nursery was quite a chore. In a few days, we'd soak the remaining structure with gasoline and light it.

  Lucy seemed satisfied with my answer. She lifted my hand and put it beside hers so that our gold rings were almost touching. "So, my husband, if I told you I'd like to try for a boy, you think it would be okay?" Her voice was almost a whisper.

  I felt my heart swell with love. "I think that would be more than okay," I said as we both stood and walked towards the doorway to our house.

  I already knew what we'd name our son.

  From the Author

  Well, what do you think? I hope you enjoyed my story.

  It’s too bad about Karen and Riley, but I’m sure the humans that come after them will remember their sacrifice.

  I’d actually considered having Leo and Lucy get killed at the end, but Barking Dog talked me out of it.

  Remember when he said that they were going to live because they had something to do? Well, suppose their purpose isn’t yet totally fulfilled.

  Suppose another task remains.

  It’s possible, right?

  *.*.*

  Check out my website and sign up for my mailing list at www.cwrowe.com.

  And, oh yes, PLEASE leave a review on Amazon. It helps indie authors so much!

  *.*.*

  If you like my storytelling, you don’t have to wait for some future book, there’s plenty more available now.

  If you want a large cast story perfectly suitable for all ages, check out my Alien Revelation Saga. It’s five books and one 1500 page story.

  If you like dystopian stories with adult themes, check out my three volume, “World’s End Series - Dymond’s World is the first. If you like The Stand, you’ll love this.

  I even have a mystery/thriller for you and it’s one full of puzzles and twists and turns. It’s called “The Reporter, A Kari Mallot Novel.”