by Mikayla Lane
After shutting and locking the door, Cin collaborated with his nanites on how they would keep watch over them while he slept. Confident in his growing symbiotic relationship with the technology and AI, Cin laid down and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
It felt like only moments later that Cin was jerked awake, but the nanites confirmed it had been almost ten hours since he laid down. Immediately aware of what awakened him, Cin slid out of bed and went into the bathroom.
After a long, hot shower, Cindrac went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, nodding at Loquan, who was sitting on the couch. Once he got it started, Cin opened the refrigerator and scanned all the items they’d stolen from the bunker.
When he had the list, he put it through a recipe database and scrolled through the options until he found one that sounded interesting. Cin poured himself a cup of coffee and sipped it while pulling everything he needed out of the fridge and placing it on the counter.
Loquan moved away from the mess around the couch and sat at the bar to watch Cin. To keep her distracted, Cin slid a cup of coffee across the counter and waited for her to try it.
“Ugh, it’s bitter.” Loquan made a nasty face and slid the cup back.
Running through the databases’ information to figure out how to fix it, Cin smiled, added a bit of milk, and a teaspoon of sugar before sliding the cup back.
Loquan looked at it skeptically but took a sip, and this time her eyes lit up. “OK, now that’s good! Why the hell didn’t you give it to me like that to start with?”
“I like it plain and wasn’t sure if you would or not.” Cin shrugged and turned his back to her so he could cook.
The simplicity of cutting fresh vegetables and preparing a wholesome, non-chemical ridden meal was calming and interesting for Cindrac. He found that he enjoyed the process and hoped the results would be just as gratifying.
“How did you learn to do that? Only house and restaurant slaves are allowed to cook, and even they aren’t allowed to eat anything other than rations like the rest of us.” Loquan was growing more suspicious of Cin by the second.
“It’s a recipe for a western omelet that I found in the global database. I figured that if we started our mission with a good-tasting and nutritious meal, it would make tonight go better for us.” Cindrac shrugged, not caring what Loquan thought since he was enjoying himself. “You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to.”
Loquan was nearly drooling at the tantalizing smells coming from the pans on the stove, and she shook her head, realizing her mistake.
“No, no!” Loquan rushed to say. “I was just curious where you learned it.”
Cindrac finished sautéing the vegetables and folded them into the eggs in another pan, ignoring Loquan’s eyes boring into his back. He wasn’t surprised when his nanites caught her going through the global database to verify the recipe existed.
“So, are you having any problems accessing certain information, or do your nanites not respond sometimes?” Loquan tried to sound casual but was too high-strung and unhinged to pull it off.
Cindrac kept his back to her and pretended to consider her words while running the information through his nanites and rapidly evolving brain.
“I think there’s a lot I haven’t figured out yet, to be quite honest.” Cindrac knew Loquan would assume he agreed with her when he was speaking of the alien databases that he still hadn’t discovered yet.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re light years ahead of me and keeping me ignorant?” Loquan sounded hurt, but it didn’t fool Cindrac. She was pissed off.
Sliding a plate of steaming omelet across the counter to Loquan, Cin shook his head. “The two of us are all we got — you and me, against an entire world. Just because we don’t know one another yet, doesn’t mean that we won’t be friends and allies. We need each other, and for you to be useful, I need you on my level. Therefore, I won’t keep you from evolving.”
Cindrac refilled her coffee cup and then his own while Loquan added the milk and sugar to hers as he had done earlier.
“You think that’s what’s happening to us? We’re evolving?” Loquan was honestly curious but hadn’t tried to understand it all yet.
“Yes. I think the nanites and AI, coupled with some of the computer chips, are evolving our brains,” Cin admitted before taking a bite of the omelet. “This is so fucking good! You have to try it!”
Loquan was shocked at Cin’s excited outburst and watched him devour half his omelet before trying the strange looking thing on her plate. One bite of the fluffy eggs and vegetables, and Loquan was shoveling it in as fast as she could chew.
Cin ate the last half of his omelet more slowly, wanting to savor and enjoy each bite of the first real meal he’d ever had. Only the elites were allowed meat, eggs, fish, fruits, and vegetables.
Everyone else was forced to eat prepackaged foods made with more chemicals and fillers than actual food. The quantity and vitamin additives were different for each slave class, but the tasteless food was the same for everyone.
The only choices given to the enslaved were which flavorless meal out of the four options they would eat at each of the two sanctioned meals a day. The omelet was the most food Cin had ever eaten in one sitting, and he’d never had something of this quality.
“We have to get more food like this!” Loquan hummed with happiness after finishing her last bite of food. “If the bastards fed my ass like this my whole life, I might not hate them so much!”
Cindrac noted how easily her loyalty could be bought, and it only heightened the odds that he would have to kill Loquan soon. According to her admission, Loquan’s nanites weren’t working correctly because of her mental defects or because they refused to give her the power to destroy everything around her.
The nanites and AI were hastening Loquan’s insanity, and the kind of power allowed to Cindrac would never be within her reach. At some point, her jealousy would force Loquan to try and kill him, and that was when he would do what must be done.
Until then, Cin would give Loquan a taste of the freedom she sacrificed her life for, even if it meant feeding and cleaning up after her for a little while. After everything Loquan had been through in her own short life, Cin believed she deserved a small slice of the happiness denied to all of humanity.
“We’ll definitely be raiding the food again. In fact-” Cin ran into the pantry and grabbed a stack of reusable cloth totes they could use.
When he came back out into the kitchen, Cin laid them on top of the counter. “We can fill these up!”
Loquan looked at them oddly for a moment before her eyes lit up. “This is perfect! We can grab more this way.”
“We need more spices, too,” Cindrac said off-handedly. “There are tons of things we can make with what we have now, but we lack the required spices.”
Loquan raised her brows at him. “Damn, I’m surprised the elite didn’t create you for cooking.”
Cin shrugged, making sure the nanites would remind him to go through the spices next time. “I like the process of cooking. It’s peaceful and allows me to plot our next move against the elite.”
“Yeah, how’s this going to go?” Loquan looked a little worried but was trying hard not to show it. “You saw the news and know they’re panicking. Plus, the elites are all scattered now, and they’re ramping up security.”
“I’ve heard the chatter over their comms,” Cin agreed with a nod. “It has no impact on how we’re going to proceed. They can’t defeat our strategy if we keep shutting them down.”
“They’re reprogramming the kill switch chips and changing the global network codes.” Loquan surprised Cin with how much she’d been paying attention to something other than propaganda on the TV news.
Cin nodded. “I’ve been watching them do it in real-time since I got up and already programmed a back door that we can both use.”
Loquan clearly hadn’t thought of that and was impressed and jealous of his intelligence and new abi
lities. “That’s cool. So, when do we leave for Denver? At dark again?”
“Yeah, we’ll stick with after sunset until it no longer works for us. I find it karmic for the elite to be sweating sundown every night, wondering where we’re going to strike.” Cin grinned.
He knew Loquan would appreciate the terror it would inflict in the minds of the elite each evening, wondering if they will be next.
Loquan rolled her eyes dramatically and smiled broadly. “We are so perfect together! I’m going to get a shower!”
With that, Loquan left the bar and her mess on the counter and went to her bedroom. Glad to be rid of her and the disturbing energy around her, Cindrac reviewed the building plans and other Denver information while cleaning up the kitchen.
By the time Loquan came out of her room, decked out in another nanite outfit that looked like leather, Cindrac had cleaned the kitchen, her mess in the living room, and done the dishes. He was finishing another cup of coffee when Loquan went to the fridge, grabbed a bottle of water, and handed it to him.
“It’s a good idea to take a few things with us. Just in case.” Loquan got a bottle for herself and grabbed the stack of totes.
Cindrac smiled. “Good idea.”
Cin led the way out of the cabin to the hybrid vehicle after grabbing a couple of apples and putting them in one of the totes. He waited until Loquan was inside and strapped in before turning to her.
“Just like the last time,” Cin gently reminded her. “Take out the power, shut down the kill switches, destroy the computers, kill the elite, but not the children.”
“Grab tons of food!” Loquan added with a grin.
Cindrac nodded his head as he shot into the sky. “Yes, grab tons of food.”
“Are you going to make sure they can watch it again?” Loquan had figured out that Cin left the security cameras on in the bunker.
He hadn’t tried to hide it from her.
“I thought it was a good psychological ploy. A last-minute kind of thing.” Cindrac wasn’t sure what Loquan thought until she displayed her creepy grin.
“I love it,” Loquan admitted. “Lab first?”
“Definitely,” Cin agreed, but not for the same reasons. “We need those computers destroyed first. Before the scientists and the elite figure out a way to enslave us again.”
“Never,” Loquan growled. “Never fucking again. The lab and computers go first.”
This time as they flew above the darkened city to the lab, Cindrac was heartened to see dozens of slaves, violating the order to stay away from their windows and watching their progression to the lab.
It gave Cin hope that freeing the people from the hell of slavery was the right thing to do. Cin could educate them properly in the mysteries kept from them with the knowledge he was acquiring and help humans reach the stars again. First, Cin had to destroy the elite overlords and their multitude of minions.
They landed on the lab roof, and Cin exited the vehicle first and looked over the edge at the ground below. He was shocked at the number of soldiers sent to protect the place. There were at least double what they faced at the other labs, and Cin wondered what they were so desperate to hide.
“Oh, yeah,” Loquan sneered from beside him at the bodies below. “They’re scared shitless of us. Let’s make sure they stay that way.”
Cin followed Loquan to the roof access door and disabled the lock before entering. It bothered him more than he cared to admit that Loquan wasn’t walking around the unconscious bodies littering the floor to the elevator but intentionally stepping on them.
Once inside the elevator, Cin powered it up and took it to the fifth-floor labs. “This is your floor. I’ll meet you on the roof when we finish. That, OK?”
Loquan strode from the elevator, stepping on a scientist’s hand on the floor. Pivoting with her foot to look at Cin, she ground her boot on his fingers.
“I’m more than, OK!” Loquan walked off and waved behind her. “See you soon.”
Cindrac tried to ignore the bruised and twisted fingers on the man’s hand and directed the elevator two floors above. When the doors opened, he saw so many soldiers that the unconscious bodies were lying atop one another.
The excessive security only made Cin more excited about what he would find on the computer he knew was hidden inside the lab. Making his way into the room, Cin was shocked and angry to see that technicians had made an effort to secure and move the computer.
Cursing that the elites would make this more difficult for him, Cin extracted the information from the unconnected computer and left the room. He waited until he was almost to the roof before he overheated the computers and destroyed everything.
Not seeing Loquan anywhere, Cin pulled up the lab's security cameras in his mind and spat a string of curses while he ran to the elevator.
Cindrac didn’t even bother to close the doors and watched the floors speed by until it stopped with a jerk on the fifth. Even if he hadn’t known where Loquan was, Cin could have followed her screeching and the sounds of destruction.
Racing down the hall, Cin slid into the lab in time to see Loquan smash a chair over the head of an unconscious and helpless scientist. Her eyes were wild, and she was splattered with blood, as was almost the entirety of the room.
“We need to go right now!” Cindrac growled, ready to kill her if needed.
He was no longer willing to tolerate Loquan’s rampant violence against those who didn’t deserve it. Her actions would only terrify the other slaves and make it harder for them to recruit the people to help them defeat the elite and their minions.
“Fine!” Loquan was smart enough to know she’d gone too far and stormed out of the lab.
Neither spoke until they were back on the ship and heading to the next lab.
“If we want the people to side with us, we cannot act like the overlords,” Cin ground out between gritted teeth. “We can’t let those bastards turn us into them!”
“Why do we need anyone?” Loquan snapped back. “We’re more powerful than anyone or anything on this planet. We should rule it!”
“So, you want to use an amazing gift and become nothing more than the animals that enslaved you? You don’t want to learn and become more than them? Better than them?” Cindrac was incredulous.
He couldn’t understand her lack of logic, considering Loquan’s now heightened intelligence. Her mental defects didn’t explain it either. She was consciously choosing to act as maliciously as the overlords and enjoying it, no differently than they did.
“I already am better than them,” Loquan sneered. “We’re better than everything.”
Cin’s nanites and AI were analyzing this new development, and he wasn’t the least bit surprised that the probability of him killing Loquan tonight had risen dramatically. Rather than think about that now, Cin turned his attention back to the mission.
The next lab was like the one's last night, but all the computers Cin wanted information from and needed to destroy were on the same floor. He hoped that his presence would help Loquan curb her need for senseless violence but wouldn’t hold his breath.
Like the previous lab, security was ridiculously high, and Cin led the way inside, stepping over the unconscious bodies and hoping Loquan would do the same. Watching the building’s security cameras as he went down the hallway, Cin saw Loquan was only avoiding the people when she thought he was looking. It sickened and infuriated him.
At the split in the hallway, Cin turned to her. “We need to make this quick so we can head to the elites and have time to grab food.”
Cin waited until Loquan nodded before heading down the hall, hoping the computer he was looking for was still there and wasn’t moved yet.
He’d checked all aircraft's flight logs during the last twenty-four hours and found dozens of aerial vehicles had taken off from different labs around the North American zones. All of them went to Cheyenne Mountain and dozens of other elite military bunkers throughout the world.
Cin did not
doubt that most of the computers not connected to the global networks were already moved to more secure locations. He was proven correct when he reached the lab, and the system he was looking for wasn’t there. Causing more damage to the room than intended due to his anger, Cin turned and strode back down the hall.
Loquan was in the process of taking a pen to a soldier’s eye when Cindrac angrily cleared his throat from the doorway. Looking irritated that she hadn’t been able to finish what she started, Loquan stormed out of the lab and down the hall to the elevator.
Cindrac destroyed the computers Loquan hadn’t even bothered to take care of before striding down the hall and into the elevator beside Loquan. Neither spoke on the way to the roof and when they got inside the vehicle, Cin turned on her.
“Enough with the violence,” Cin growled.
“Or what?” Loquan snapped, eyes blazing with fury. “They deserve it! All of them! You’re a soldier. You’ve done worse, so don’t lecture me.”
Cin watched aerial reinforcements heading towards them and didn’t bother to try and explain to Loquan that he’d only done as ordered because it was what he was bred and enslaved to do. Like the rest of the slaves, Cin was terrified and demoralized into believing he had no choice but to do as told. He knew better now and chose to be a different person.
Since the moment Cin integrated with the nanites and became free, he hadn’t taken an innocent life and wouldn’t if he could avoid it. He damn sure wasn’t going to allow Loquan to do it either.
“Are you just waiting for them to get here or what?” Loquan snapped and gestured to the massive cloud of aerial attack ships heading towards them.
“If you’re so fucking awesome, you handle it.” Cin got out of the pilot’s seat and stepped out of the ship.
Cin was halfway to the building's rooftop door when he heard and felt dozens of explosions go off behind him. Loquan hadn’t just dropped the ships from the sky, giving the soldiers inside a fighting chance. Loquan intentionally over-heated the fuel tank sensors and blew them all up.
He didn’t need to turn around to see the carnage raining down on the streets and buildings behind him. Cin was watching in his mind from the city’s security cameras. That was when he saw Loquan slip into the pilot’s seat and turn the ship’s weapon systems on him.
