Gen One

by Amy Bartelloni

  Sunny clicked off the flashlight and pressed on the hidden door. It opened with a click that sounded louder than it probably was. She left it open a crack and waited. Delilah felt Zane shift behind her. She knew he’d want to push his way out.

  Sunny pushed it a little further and gave the all clear.

  “What were all the theatrics about?” Zane complained as they emptied into the warehouse. Everything was the same, down to the screw that had fallen on the floor. Zane illuminated it with his light. Sunny swept hers around.

  “Just a feeling,” she whispered. Delilah had the same intuition. Was it warmer than before, or was that in her mind?

  “Were those moving before?” Delilah gestured to the cameras in both corners, illuminated by low lights in the ceiling. One stayed stationary, but she followed the slow, almost imperceptible, movement of the other camera to the left and right. Theoretically, the image captured the far side of the warehouse, but if it were recording, she had no doubt it would see the light from the beam.

  “Shit,” Zane muttered, and shut his flashlight off.

  “They’re trying to go over the hacks,” Brute muttered. “It shouldn’t be getting live feed, but we need to get the hell out of here.”

  Sunny kept her flashlight on, but down and away from the camera. It was the only way they’d see to get out. She called down the stairs for the others to hurry, over the sound of Brute trying to figure out what was going on.

  “I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Zane said. He grabbed Delilah’s hand and pulled her across the warehouse floor. “We’ve got a rat.”

  Zane knocked a chair over, a move that would almost certainly draw the attention of the camera if it were working properly. It continued its slow arc across the far end of the room.

  “They’re not fully functional.” Brute kept his voice just above a whisper. “But I can’t guarantee the visual doesn’t work. Keep the light down,” he instructed. They followed Sunny’s beam and managed to avoid any more major collisions. As they reached the door, the other members of the group began to file out from downstairs, slowly and quietly.

  Sunny reached the door and started to key in the password when Brute held her hand back. He opened a small, round device in his palm that showed a real time, three-dimensional map of the area in a miniature, light blue color. Delilah leaned in.

  “It’s hooked up to the cams.” She heard the pride in his voice. “The real cams.”

  Sunny pointed to two areas. “There are still heavy patrols near the bridge, and there, on the far side of the warehouses by the ocean. Unusual.”

  The industrial zone bordered Authority City. Both faced the ocean on their south side, but were separated by branches of the same wide river that cut off the Rez from the industrial zone. The security around Authority City was high. There would be no sneaking in and having meetings there. Not that anyone would want to.

  Delilah couldn’t help herself. “Why is that unusual?” she whispered. “I thought they regularly patrolled this area?”

  Sunny frowned. “They do. But that many, in the docking area…” she trailed off.

  “They’re getting a shipment,” Zane finished. “Or sending one.”

  “In the middle of the night?” Brute asked. The little dots moved around the map.

  “Bots don’t care what time it is,” Zane responded.

  “Maybe it’s something they don’t want the humans to know about,” Sunny interrupted.

  Brute closed his palm, and the map folded up. “At any rate, we’re good if we stick to our original plan. Go north and find the boats by the old railroad tracks.”

  Delilah rested her head on Zane’s shoulder, knowing he’d soon be shuffled off to a safe house. She was still wearing his jacket and pulled it closer despite the warmth in the room. “I’ll be okay,” he told her. “We’ll follow you to the bridge.”

  Sunny pressed the code in the door, and opened it a crack, allowing a sliver of moonlight in. The rain had passed, but mist hovered in the air, and mist could hide all kinds of things.

  Zane lifted her hand and kissed the back, then lifted the ring to the moonlight. “Look to the stars,” he teased, but her heart was in no mood for teasing. She pulled away reluctantly. They’d had goodbyes before. Some said in jest, some said in anger. Some said through the bars of an Authority holding cell. None felt as final.

  “It will be okay,” he told her, but she had no time to ask how because Sunny shushed them again. She led them down the dark road the same way they came in, only this time there were four instead of two, and the danger was even more deadly. Sunny was stealthy for her small size and kept them to the shadows where the mist swallowed their forms.

  “How do you hack the cameras?” Delilah whispered to Brute. They paused for Sunny to stake out an intersection. Behind them, the next group filed out and headed the other way. Smoke wasn’t with them.

  Brute smiled. “I work technology for Rank down at the Banks. I know most people think we’re hired for our good looks.” He laughed. “And most of them are idiots. It’s why I got the tech job. I’ve set up all his systems.”

  “Puts you in a good place to spy,” Delilah guessed.

  He nodded and watched Sunny wave them on. “It sure does,” he answered, but there was no laughter in his voice. “Also puts you in a good place to get killed.”

  “The men, down at the Banks?” she asked. “The ones with their throats slit?”

  Zane answered. “They were ours,” he said. Delilah sucked in a breath, but she was saved from further questions by Sunny picking up their pace across a wide, open street.

  They ran across another main boulevard, similar to the one they’d passed before. Though the industrial zone was laid out in a grid, Delilah was lost. All the warehouses looked the same. Zane must have had the map burned into his head. He’d have to, because one mistake could cost him more than a night in jail.

  At the end of every street and alley they paused, and Brute opened the disc in his palm and checked the map. Nothing had changed. Still a heavy patrol at the Banks, and even more presence on the docks. Sunny argued to go there, and Delilah had a bad feeling they planned to go back.

  “Please be careful,” she told Zane while they waited for Brute to check the next road. Brute was able to mess with the cameras from his device, setting them on a loop or whatever he did. Or at least he was ‘pretty sure’ he could, which didn’t help Delilah’s nerves.

  “I’m always careful.” Zane tried to win her over with a smile, but it didn’t work.

  “Sunny thinks this delivery could be a big deal,” he admitted, as they hid in the shadows, watching the river rush past. Sunny made them hide while they waited for the boat Brute had arranged. The edge of the industrial zone abutted a small, overgrown road that led north. It was next to a grassy bank similar to the one they’d crawled back from before. The evidence was still all over her clothes and hair. She didn’t relish going over the water, but closing her eyes and a few deep breaths pushed the panic off as far as it would go for now.

  “And by big deal?” she asked, blinking her eyes open. She could see the twinkling lights of the Rez in the distance. There were miles of destroyed suburbs to cross first. It was a dangerous place to be out at night, but she’d done it before. Often, in fact, but usually with Zane. Brute would be with her this time, and she trusted him and whatever device he held.

  Zane pursed his lips. “Just…trouble,” was all he would say.

  Delilah hardly saw the little boat on the water. There were no lights, and just one person rowing a canoe.

  “That’s the boat?” she asked. Her stomach dropped.

  Zane rubbed her shoulder. “You’ll be okay,” he said.

  She looked into his brown eyes—the last peaceful moment she’d get in a long time. She memorized it in her mind. The tousled dark hair. The expression of concern in hi
s eyes that he tried to mask with humor. His smile, which reached all the way to his eyes. “And you?” she asked, but he didn’t get a chance to answer because that was when all hell broke loose.

  The wind buffeted the boat, tossing the little craft left and right as it approached the bank. A metallic smell associated with the bots hovered in the air. Not unusual, especially given their location, but the smile quickly fell from Zane’s face. He pushed her back into Brute, and didn’t bother to hide the panic in his voice.

  “Get her out of here!” he yelled, over the sound of the first blaster shots. They were high pitched, almost musical if you didn’t know the damage they could do. Damage being, freeze your entire body or vaporize you on the spot. A bot emerged from the boat and shot Sunny straight in the chest. She started to open her mouth to scream, but her body stilled mid stride.

  “Sunny!” Delilah reached back, and the bot’s red eyes zoomed in on them. Zane stepped in front of her and ducked behind the corner as the bot shot at them. A piece of concrete blasted off the building’s corner, and Zane pulled out the blaster Sunny had given him. It would barely do any damage to the heavily armored bot.

  “I’ll hold him,” Zane said. She didn’t have a chance to say goodbye, or hold his hand, or even see him again because Brute pulled her along.

  “He’ll catch up,” Brute said, but she heard the pessimism in his voice as shots fired over them. He pushed her around the next corner and they ran several blocks into the industrial zone where the sound of the battle faded.

  Delilah paused there. Not only because they were at a corner, but because her heart pulled her back. She took a step backwards and Brute grabbed her upper arm.

  “We have to help him!” She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, and tried to pull out of his hold, to no avail.

  Brute struggled to get the map out of his palm and open it with one hand. He let out a breath. “It’s as I thought,” he said, loosening his hold. Even she could see it would be suicide to go back. Authority bots swarmed the area, and they fanned out and surrounded Zane. They needed to move, but Delilah’s legs wouldn’t budge.

  Brute gave her arm a squeeze before he let go. “He’s alive,” he said quietly. He pointed to two red dots among the swarm of blue. “Reds are human,” he explained. “Curious, though.” More human dots were massing there. They’d have to move. He minimized the map, and got to work on the cameras. They stopped their panning as he hacked them all, one by one, then wiped the sweat off his brow.

  “They’re all down, from here to the docks. We have twenty minutes if they reboot the system.”

  “The docks?” Delilah took a step back. She wobbled on a dip in the pavement, and Brute took her arm to right her.

  “It’s our only chance,” Brute said. “We have plans. Exit strategies for emergencies.” He started to talk fast, then took a breath. “The river is crawling with bots. We’ll never get across. North of us is Authority City, and even if we got past the security and across the river, I assume that’s somewhere you don’t want to go?”

  He didn’t wait long for her answer. “And south of here is miles and miles of marshland. If we don’t drown or freeze, the Authority bots will find us for sure. Our only chance is to melt into this group of humans…” He held out the map. A swarm of red and blue dots covered the docks. “And maybe get a boat out of there, up the river, or to the Banks.”

  “Blend in?” Delilah reached out to touch the map on his hand, but it was a hologram. The red dots wavered at her touch. “With a group that we have no idea who they are or what they’re doing?”

  “It’s where the others would go, if they got the chance.”

  Delilah’s eyes blurred. She hadn’t thought of Smoke, or the others. “Why can’t you contact them?”

  Brute closed the map and pocketed it. A small, plain oval of silver covered it, much like an ancient pocket watch. Something that would be sold in the Banks. “This is homemade tech,” he said proudly. “They have signal scramblers. Sometimes I can pick them up, but I can’t be sure it’s them. Humans are humans.”

  Maybe they’re dead, Delilah thought. She couldn’t say it out loud. For now, it was enough Zane was alive, at least they hoped so. As Brute said, a human signal was a human signal, but these two were right where they left Zane and Sunny. It hadn’t moved, not since Brute had the map out. She squared her shoulders. “Okay,” she agreed. She still had a few hours before her shift started. She couldn’t help Zane from an Authority cell.

  Brute frowned. “The quickest way is right down the boulevard, I’m afraid.” The moon peeked in and out of the clouds, but the bots didn’t need a moon. They needed their cameras. Delilah took note of the closest one, off and angled down.

  “A mad dash it is, then.” She lifted her skirt, heavy from the rain and mud, and they bolted out from behind the building. She eyed the greenway as they ran, wondering how it would feel to run on the grass, and toward something instead of away. But then, she was running toward something. Danger.

  At the top of the hill, Brute paused and opened the device. “I need to check,” he said softly. They could see the harbor from there, where large cargo ships waited, larger than the kind Delilah cleaned. The bots hadn’t taken over every city or country yet. Rumor had it some cities were able to maintain a mix of bot and human, while some were in all-out war. Some traded, and those were the ships that waited in the harbor, bobbing in and out. Security was tight. But then, it usually consisted mostly of bots. Brute was right. So many humans gathered here was curious.

  She ducked behind a tree. In this part of the industrial zone, the warehouses gave way to what used to be old houses and shops. They were used as offices now, or abandoned. Brute fiddled with the device. “More humans,” he commented. He scanned the harbor. “They’re unloading something.”

  A barge had docked and containers were being unloaded. She couldn’t tell what they were, though.

  “The cameras are problematic here.” He shook the device, then closed it and pocketed it. “Our network only goes so far.” He squinted. The harbor was still several blocks away. “We’ll have to blend in.”

  Delilah snorted. “Did you see where they took Zane and Sunny?” she asked. She watched as they unloaded freight. Once in a while, a yell would carry up on the wind. Giant bots with the form of humans and silver faces oversaw the unloading process. The same bots patrolled the Authority borders. Ten feet tall, heavily armed, and no qualms about taking life. They directed the cargo to a nearby warehouse while the humans did the work.

  Brute shook his head. “There were too many. I’m sorry.” He touched her arm. “But we’ll find them.” His words didn’t inspire confidence, but at least he didn’t lie and say any more. She knew Brute had already lost two friends at the Banks, and how many more before. Resisting the Authority was fatal. Zane knew that and did it anyway. Damn him and his morals. His sense of right and wrong. His desire for freedom. Delilah wiped a tear. She’d still take on an army for him. Even if the odds were hopeless. Because what was life without him?

  “They’re regular dockworkers,” she pointed out, shrinking back when a bot turned their way. “Why can’t the bots scan us from here?”

  At this, Brute smiled. He patted his pocket. “Signal scramblers. Homemade,” he said with pride.

  “But I don’t have one?” She peeked back around the tree. The bots had gone back to supervising.

  “I’m sure Zane planted one on you,” Brute said. “Did he give you anything?”

  Delilah thought. She held her hand up, and the ring shone in the moonlight. Opal, she’d heard it called. “How big are the scramblers?” she asked. She took the ring off, and on the back side was a small, round disk covering the back of the stone.

  “About that big.” Brute smiled. He slipped the ring back on her finger. “When we get there, you’ll have to deactivate it.”

  “How?” she ask
ed.

  “The only way is to pull the disk off. I have others, stay with me.”

  Delilah leaned as far forward as she dared. Even from here, unease was clear on the humans’ faces. There was a tremble in their hands. “What are they doing?” Delilah wondered out loud. It was too easy to slip into this war. She already felt like she was fighting, but then, she had been ever since her father died.

  Brute pocketed the disc, and considered for a moment. “They’ve been unloading at night, using prisoners.”

  “Prisoners!” She raised her voice.

  Brute scolded her. “This might be where Zane ends up. Another reason we should blend in. They’ve been doing this all week. It’s one of the reasons Smoke called a meeting here. She was planning to infiltrate them.” He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Just not this way.”

  “So, you have a plan then?” she asked. She noted the boxes had an Authority symbol on them. It looked a lot like the old anarchy symbol, tall, thin letters A and C in a circle. Prisoners struggled under the weight.

  He pointed to a shop down the street. “There are uniforms in there.”

  “And then?” she asked. One of the prisoners fell, and the bot in charge shot him with the blaster on the spot. His body was vaporized. Delilah covered her mouth to stop from screaming, but Brute didn’t miss a beat.

  “It’s common, unfortunately. Your only chance is to look like you belong.”

  “Or get vaporized?” She risked a look again. The rest of the line moved on as if nothing had happened. They walked over the remains of the prisoner, no more than a pile of ash. Delilah’s stomach turned. Prisoner or not, a life was worth more than this. The Authority was as bad as Zane suggested, maybe worse.

  She gasped, and again Brute told her to be quiet, but when she turned, this time it was she who had the hint of a smile on her face.

  “What is it?” he asked. He crouched onto the balls of his feet, ready to dash to the house where the uniforms were kept.