by ROUNAK PURI
"Kayla! DONE YOU DARE GIVE OUT ON ME NOW. JOE WOULD NEVER FORGIVE ME!" I shouted.4
"Shit her heart has gone," Rockwood said monitoring her vital signs from her collar. I kind of felt this was it. I'd see my share of people die during the apocalypse to know what I was looking at. Tears welled up in my eyes.5
"Don't just sit there. Put your hands together, on her heart. Push" Rockwood ordered.
Kayla looked up her eyes open, not moving. I pumped for a minute like my collar told me too.
"Compress
"She's dead," I said. I knew what death looked like.3
"I don't care what you think. Pump her!" said Rockwood.8
"I'm pumping a corpse," I said.
I got a level 2 kick from Rockwood.
"I said pump!" he said.
"Don't you understand she's dead," I said tearfully.
I'd never had a level 4 shock before from him. It was like having your inside burnt out with flames.
"KUFFFFFFFFFFF" I said in pain.
"I *said* PUMP, you will OBEY ME. Disobey be again and it will go up to level 5, Jenny" said Rockwood. Level five that was supposed to be worse than listening to Michael Savage with your finger nailed to a board inches way from the off button.3
These machines can be very persuasive when they want to be. He wants me to be a human life support for the former remains of Kayla then fine. Rockwood then made me do the kiss of life on her and hold her wound shut with my other hand. All the time I heard this loud metal banging from the flight deck. My mascara tears mixed with the blood, the sweat, dirt and lipstick. I did what I was told.
"I'm hacked into her collar. It will inject her with some poison from her collar auto destruct to get her heart going" said Rockwood over my collar.
I heard a ticking noise. A slave rumour was that if a collar activated you heard a special message from Steve Jobs the instant before death.
"No change," I said this was futile, tears formed twin black rivers down my cheeks. I wanted to crawl into a corner and die.1
"Stand clear," said Rockwood.
I think Rockwood sent a real electric shock to Kayla from her collar. Her body twitched then jumped up in the air.
"Keep her breathing," said Rockwood. I heard metal twisting and huge bang from the flight deck.
"Yes Master," I said and started doing the kiss of life again.1
"Her heart's going keep it up" said Rockwood. Kcuff he saved her! Another bang it was like a monster was breaking the doors of hell it's self down. He was serious.2
Suddenly the metal door of the flight deck bursts open and Rockwood minus one leg and the other leg missing below the knee crawls forward. His face is bloody and he's a worse mess that Kayla or I. He crawls over on his stubs. I knew as a cyborg he had artificial legs and one arm was to, but to see them in the raw like this was pretty freaky and that was on top of the shock fest of the crash.
"Kcufff Rockwood what happened to you?" I said.
"I chewed my artificial legs off and you can learn some respect and call me master," he said give me another level 1 reminder. Looking at them I saw his legs were metal and black carbon fiber. A gossamer of tiny sensor wires finer than silk hung beneath the shards of skin. He saw me looking at my legs.3
"Don't worry I'm all flesh from the balls up," he said getting back to Kalya.24
He knew what to do and started work. The medical kit has a long black tube which was a tiny flexible robotic arm. He pushed that into her to see her internal bleeding and start to laser it shut.
"Get my thinking blood supply. Pods 6,9 and 12 are good for her. In fact 12 is her blood. Ironic huh? Then give me pod 1 I need to use it"3
I asked my collar and followed directions. He used parts from the kit, blood pod 6 and ran some into Kayla. Then he took pod 1 from me and bit into it and drank it. Either he was losing blood or he was doing some heavy thinking. We carried on for ages. I kept breathing for her. While I did that, Rockwood set up a drip feed.
"You can stop. OK you did good. The next few hours are the worst. Get some water and try and get some rest for half an hour, then we will swap" he told me. I did as I was told ( I still smarted from the level 4, I wasn't arguing again ) and sat back with a water bottle. I was flat out. He kept going. Why was he pushing so hard what was she for him, his daughter or something?
Instead of 30 minutes I crashed out and woke up several hours later. Dawn was coming in through the cabin windows. He had been up all night looking after her. He looked as bad as I felt. All the pain which I hadn't noticed was coming back to haunt me.
"A couple of tricky moments but 9901 here started breathing on her own. How are you feeling pet?" he said cleaning his hands.
"Kuff ! You did it. She's a live! Oh and your reading her collar upside down she's 1066 Master" I said I was so glad it was like I had been brought back from the dead.
"Is it ? Yeh I don't have a slave 9901. Not if you don't count the one I rented in Moscow. I must be tired. It doesn't matter she's stil alive. We'll take turns looking after her," Rockwood said.1
"Yes master" I said. "Will she make it?..Master" I asked. I came over and with a damp cloth began to clean some of the blood from her and then began on Rockwood's face.
"She's stable. If we can get her to a hospital. I think she will be OK." said Rockwood holding Kayla's hand.
I took over sitting with Kayla.
"She doesn't look to be in any pain.. Master" I said.
"The pain inducer on the collar works both ways. I can block signals coming in as well as induce fake ones to her brain." said Rockwood. He had pulled his top off bearing his desirably muscled physique and was using a spray on bandage on himself.
"The good news is the plane runs on lithium air batteries - so no chance of fire." said Rockwood assessing the bigger situation. "Some water, some food, power but it's going to get hot tomorrow under the sun".
"Why did you do that? Athelue" I asked.
"What?"
"Save her life?" I said
"Well that's a new collar. It's really pricey. These iCollars are really expensive, they clean up because they know you have to buy one for the slave. She wasn't cheap either. Anyway she didn't ask permission to die and even if she had done I wouldn't give it. No one gets away without permission, zero runaways and all that. She tries that again I'll transition her." Rockwood lied.3
I liked the way he could threaten someone with eternal life. I sat there and realised I had a new problem. I couldn't hate him anymore, not properly. He was arrogant, obnoxious , lazy and a smart arse and he could also drag me off the top of a sky scraper without a parachute. See him rip his own legs off to save Kayla meant he couldn't be the utter b@stard I could easily object too and it was my objecting to him was the basis for my internship. I asked my collar to play back the intern conversation. Yep - I couldn't fake hating him, he hated artifice. I wondered what to do, my heart was no longer in it. I convinced myself that while I might no longer hate him perhaps I could just not like him. It doesn't have to be either or does it? Perhaps rather than black and white it was a scale and his act simply pushed him to the dark grey perhaps.
"When we get back from this we got to discuss punishment," said Rockwood.
I looked at him my eye brows forming a tent shape.
"You disobeyed my orders and I really don't like it when a slave does that during an emergency. I think some punishment is in order. I know the new KCK machine has a simulated spanking mode. The brochure claims it feels just like the real thing but no one has yet taken the punishment challenge. So I think you're going to get both and tell me if there's any difference" he threatened.5
My bottom inadvertently clenched while he said that.1
"Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do," I said . "you think by punishing me and then I will start to dislike you again. It's too late for that, Athelue" I warned him.5
"All it's simply a matter of keeping house discipline, you'll call me ceyalis
u one day" he said. We stood in silence for a moment."More important things first. I want you to climb outside. It's getting light. Use your collar can get a GPS fix."
"OK Senpai ," I said. I wondered how long he would keep this master business up. I went to the escape hatch and opened it up.I kicked the door open ( if you think it's easy you try it in high heels) and a warm breeze came into the cabin. I looked outside.13
"Oh shit" I said looking out getting a level two PG13 reminder "Master we have a problem. "
*****
Chapter 63/Him/Surrounded by Killer Robots
I looked out of the hatch and It was a bit hard to process.
"What do you see?" said Rockwood on a collar
We were surrounded by robots. It looked like we had the made a super sonic boom of a Roomba's mating call and this had attracted every mobile floor sweeping robot in the southwest.2
"err,Well call me mad but it's like we are surrounded by Roombas, millions of them." I said.
"Ferrle Roombas? You sure? coz wild dogs I can handle" said Rockwood.2
"No Roombas, unless someone's done something unspeakable with a steam press to all the wild dogs in the area" I said.2
"Roombas Oh $hit. There was me thinking with my piloting skills we could get out of this alive. At this point I'd accept mad, insanity would really be a better option than Roombas. Are you sure You didn't bang your head during the landing?"2
"No I've checked for black spots before my eyes, I'm looking at Roombas" I said.
"Dam I was really rooting for brain damage. OK, don't make any sudden moves. Just slowly get back into the plane. Don't make a sound. And don't, DON'T what ever you do anything to provoke them." Master said.4
'Wonderful I have to be the one living in the world were we don't offend cleaning utensils' I thought. I slowly started to crouch to get back in. As I did this dislodged a few grains of sand and the robots began to move menacingly. I stopped and they stopped. This didn't feel safe. Very slowly like the hands of a clock I started sinking, I bent down and got back into the plane. Almost lying down, door half shut, I was able to look out and see a bit more closely. They were keeping a perfect circle away from the wreckage. Then I saw in the distance more robots coming over a hill slowly joining the crowd that surrounded us. Trust my luck to crash at the Roomba equivalent of the Burning Man Festival.
"what the kcuf are they?" I whispered as I got out of sight.
He looked at me and said nothing.
"Sir" I added, was he really going to do the whole master and servant business now?
"Ferrel Roomba robots. They were rescued from humans homes as war heroes, but they only have about the intelligence of a dog who's swallowed an iPhone then listened to too much NPR radio. That's not enough to be counted as a functioning sentient robot under the New Mechanical Order. With out millions of homes to clean, the grand council decided they were without purpose and labelled them as surplus and to be recycled. There was a rumour going round later the robots who had to do the disposal couldn't bring themselves to do it.The slaves refused they felt it was breaking the first law. I heard they secretly shipped them some where to the wild, given them solar panels and released them into the wild. The central processing unit guessed they were being kept very busy keeping the desert dust free and believed they were happy, so gave them low priority for action." he said taking Kayla's pulse with his fingers.
"Really?" I said
"Well there was another rumour they had promptly broken out of a high security jail, and formed themselves into an elite group of mercenaries for hire on the L.A Underground. I pointed out that was just the plot behind the A team so the whole thing was lost in mystery."
"So how do domestic cleaning robots fired a missile?" I said. I don't think before the robot apocalypse I would have even considered that.
"No, they are not that smart or organised. It's bit like being taken down by cannon fire from a group of well trained cats, both unlikely and if true,embarrassing. I doubt it was them. Still this is not a good situation. My dad used to say never underestimate the slaughter power of valley of aggravated vacuum cleaners"
"He used to say that?" I said.1
"No that's cyborg irony, I'm using digital air quotes." said Rockwood " I get like that in situations of my imminent death. "
"Look they are only cleaning robots what can they do sweep us to death?" I said.
"The New Mechanical Order weaponised them to act as house spies, saboteurs and fifth columnists. Get one riled and they can self destruct. They dump all the current from the battery and go up like a roman candle. You don't want to be around when that happens. They can reverse the current on the charger and dump that current in you and fry you. One or two your OK but that many it's just a wall of death. You want to know what the monsters hiding under your bed went? You've just been looking at them " said Rockwood wiping Kayla's forehead.3
"So we're surrounded by wild, weaponised Roombas? That sounds like my idea of a fun weekend" I said.6
I went over and plugged my collar into the wall. Then moments later the lights went and my collar.1
"That wasn't me was it?" I said nervously.
"My best guess is they have tapped into the lithium air batteries, must have sensed the electricity. They are trying to feed on it" said Rockwood.
There was a weird fusion between a bang a thud.2
"That's the sound of the plane's batteries being dumped into one of them. That's one down 96,572 to go"
"OK, so not good. What can we do?" I said
"Hang tight for the moment. I can project a Bluetooth no -sweep barrier but I don't know for how long. It's hard to predict what they are going to do. When they start to flock they behave weirdly. I've seen videos of them sweep entire towns out of existence. You don't want to be in front of them if they stampede."
Trust me to be the one in high heels I can't take off, running before a stampede of wild weaponised Roombas. In this case, Rockwood was no better. The Kama llama is so balancing the books.
"What happens if there is no barrier?"
"They see the plane as something which needs to be tidied. We created a huge gash when we landed. If you look out the window they are using small rocks to fill it. Eventually, they will start to tidy the plane and then tidy us. We need to look for weapons to protect us." said Rockwood.
I could hear them outside.
"The Roombas are restless," said Rockwood looking at me the added "Don't' worry they wouldn't attack so early, they needed more charge to be lethal. They will spend most of the morning basking like lizards."
I started to look for something to use as a weapon. I found a crowbar, and a very sharp looking raw carrot. Rockwood took the crowbar While I got the sharp carrot. That kind of defined slavery for me. While I was looking I asked Siri how far we were from the nearest settlement. 180 miles came the result. I wondered what my chances walking 180 miles in 4 inch highs stilettos heels in blistering temperatures were? Answer, low. There goes my best chance to run away, I wouldn't leave Kayla like this anyway. I was on 25% battery. I guess my GPS fix and punishments had took a huge amount. I checked Kayla's collar she was on 20%. The collar shock which started her heart must have drained her's.
"How long until someone gets here to rescue us...Master?" I asked
"They will be doing a search along the flight plan. The missiles made me pull off, they were smart they made me deviate then had another set up along my best escape route. Given the space lets say 36 hours tops" he said.
"Kayla's on 20%. At 5% She'll go into low power mode at 2% she's dead again. This gives us about 3.21 hours Master" I said. This was getting serious I was sounding like the love child of Spock from Star Trek and Anastasia Steele from Fifty Shades.3
"The Roomba's will attack before that. Their solar powered so they need the sun higher to have enough charge to attack.
"I have a plan?" I said .
"What? You have a plan? You don't do plans, I do the plans" said Rockwood.1
&
nbsp; "Well I'm the only mobile one so I get to do the plans". I said
"Really ? So What is this brilliant plan of yours." he said.
"Well it's a bit stupid but if it works it works and if it doesn't I don't want you to look at my corpse thinking I told you so." I said.
"I wouldn't do that." said Rockwood
"No ?"
"No, I'd think what a beautiful corpse to whom I had told them so." said Rockwood.3
"You can be so reassuring. I'm going outside I just need a sweeping brush and a rechargeable battery.8
I looked for them.
"I think you should tell me the plan no matter how dumb and I'll do it." said Rockwood.
"Well, I can't let you. First law and all that. Master."
"I thought you di-nay believe in that First law crap?" said Rockwood.
"I don't, but I do think your Kayla's best chance to live. Anyway I'm finding it impossible to hate you so I think I'm out of a job. "
"Your an e-slave, yer sassanac wench. You can't be fired, you can't leave your job." He said up on his stubs of legs. Rockwood looking up to my navel, I could get used to looking down on him like this, perhaps with stilts I had a chance.4
"OK, I'm going out now. It's a shame I don't have an exploding collar, I could take a few with them. Master"
"I'll put that on my customer feedback form when I send it in" Rockwood promised.
"You send those things in?" I said.
"Always," he said. Yeah that sounded like me.
"I'll be back" I said then I walked slowly out.5
**
I climbed out of the plane through the escape hatch. I could see the wild Roombas moving, getting ready to attack. I'd took the brush and began to sweep up. Beneath the thin layer of dust was old airport tarmac. I told m self 'I can do this', yeh me as the young Lara Croft, BTW how often did she die in that game?
I took the brush and did the same kind of complex route I'd seen Pixel do in room 404. As I swept I got closer and closer to the edge where they stood. The Roombas didn't move just watched. I kept following Pixel's sweeping strategy. I got to the edge of the barrier and carried on. As I moved they began to move out of the way. I continued.
