Hardwired Faith (The Exoskeleton Codex Book 1)

by Sean Kennedy

  A lone figure on a squat dirt bike crested the ground swell in the moonlight, their legs pumping hard as their breath came wild through a helmet’s respirator mask.

  The bike raced towards Jacob but then, as if shot, the rider made a horrible gurgle as their body locked into a jagged seizure. The handlebars snapped to the right, launching the rider and their courier bag through the air, suspended like a falling statue.

  Landing on a shoulder, the leather jacket and helmet took the brunt of the impact, and the face mask respirator broke free as the figure tumbled into a jumbled ball amongst the sounds of limbs slapping in the moonlight.

  The rider's body stopped in the middle of the road, not far from where the rolling steel bike collapsed. Jacob heard struggled gasps over the spinning tire’s clicks as the rider thrashed in a seizure.

  Jacob let out the breath he’d been holding. Above the noise of the spinning tire, the running thunder of feet on asphalt carried through the night’s oily air. The rider's fate had not yet been decided, but the running hunters behind him meant it soon would.

  Without thinking, Jacob launched from the cover of the sailboat and ran to the downed rider.

  He latched onto the rider’s leather collar, and avoiding the handle of a sword tied to it, he looped his arm through the bag's strap and improvised a harness.

  Jacob turned and bent his knees, using his weight to pull with all his might. The rider’s body seizure bounced against the rain-slick asphalt, making it easier for Jacob to drag the body back to the sailboat’s shadow.

  The darkness of the boat's cave swallowed them, blocking Jacob’s view of the road. The rider’s breath was desperate and rapid, but starting to slow. Jacob pulled them both against the back of the hull, resting the helmet against their courier bag like a pillow.

  He looked back to the keel cave entrance expecting to see angry hands reaching to drag them from the safety of darkness, but there were none. Jacob held his breath between quiet gasps, and was glad when the rider stopped shaking and lay still.

  Far above, another transport flyer’s engines howled before fading into the rising sound of running feet.

  He listened. He heard the run dissolve into shuffling. Jacob tried to stop the blasting of his heart. He wondered if he could stay still and quiet enough, perhaps it was possible to turn invisible.

  Jacob heard the slow steady footfalls of two, maybe three individuals, clacking against asphalt, coming closer to their broken sailboat shelter. They were just outside the opening when a fog horn blasted open the night.

  BWAAA!

  The deep noise rattled the sailboat’s hull, and past the moonlit shelter’s opening, a yellow light flashed in bright sweeping strobes. Amongst the swirling light came the terrible sound of torn steel, like monstrous jaws had taken a crushing bite of metal pipes.

  BWAAA!

  Jacob felt a battering ram’s impact vibrate through the ground like an explosion, and a moment later something heavy fell to the earth behind their hiding place.

  BWAAA!

  The scattered footsteps were running again, the sound retreating into the distance. Jacob tensed, anticipating another horn blast to rip the air, but there was only silence as the sweepingyellow strobes stopped as suddenly as they started.

  The running footfalls fell away into the sound of the rider’s steadied breathing beside him. After a few shallow breaths of his own, Jacob forced himself to crawl forward and look out.

  There, in the middle of the road, was a synthetic torso. It was a dark metallic form, its body bisected by being crushed in a neat line across its waist. Loose wires dangled in seeping black fluid from where its hips and legs used to be, but were now nowhere in sight

  Jacob stared at the destroyed droid for a few breaths, expecting it to twitch at any moment, but the only movement was the black fluid trickling like a wandering crack towards the roadside.

  As the fence plastic flapped against the wind, Jacob crouched and ventured out from his boat cave. He gave the crushed torso a wide berth in the eerie Moonglow, and moved over to where the rider’s bike had landed, the wheel still clicking as it lost momentum.

  The bike didn’t look damaged, so Jacob turned the handlebars straight and stood it upright. It rolled easily enough and he walked it back around the torso towards the boat’s shelter.

  As he got closer, Jacob saw a gloved hand reach from within the keel’s shadow. The leather clad body of the rider pulled itself into the Moon's dim light, dragging the courier bag behind.

  Jacob froze as the figure painfully shifted into a sitting position against the hull. The rider paused a moment, letting their hands drop to the ground and groaned from the effort.

  Still holding the bike, Jacob watched the figure reach up to pull off their helmet to reveal a boy not much older than Jacob, with wild blond hair and the sharp features born of quarantine zone nutrition.

  He was breathing heavy, as though taking his helmet off was the last great effort he could muster. His head fell back against the sailboat, making a hollow thump against the hull.

  A moment later, Jacob watched him pull the courier bag onto his lap and produce a small black cylinder, not much larger than the bike’s hand grip. It had a retractable tube, like a long flexible straw, coming from the narrow top. A blue light came from a small button on the side.

  His fingers found their place over the light as he put his lips on the tube. His chest swelled as he pulled in a long breath through the device. He held his breath and dropped his hands onto the courier bag, still holding the black cylinder.

  After what Jacob thought was a long time, the blond boy’s breath exploded into white smoke as clouds shifted the moonlight.

  The rider took a deep breath of the night’s air and for the first time opened his eyes in Jacob's direction. His eyes stayed loose and unfocused until he noticed it was his bike Jacob was holding and his blue eyes became wide and stark.

  “Hi! I’m Jacob,”

  The rider didn't move or speak.

  Jacob went on, “I saw you... well... I heard you being chased, and you just... kind of locked up and crashed, so I hid you,” he realized how strange it all sounded.

  “I was just bringing your bike off the road in case anyone else came along.”

  Silence closed in behind Jacob's words.

  “Why?” the boy asked.

  Jacob's shoulders dropped as he thought about the question. “I don’t know... I mean... I'm trying to get out of the quarantine zone so my glasses will work ...and ...I just...” he stopped before the words got too tangled.

  He waited until a sentence formed in his mind and took a breath.

  “You just looked like you needed help.” Jacob said and saw a smile on the rider's face.

  The boy’s smile grew, and Jacob felt himself smiling along with him. The smile spurred him into motion, and he pushed the bike up against the broken bow of the sailboat.

  Another VTOL transport roared from far overhead. Its blinking lights flashing on its flight path, and the hollow sound faded away as quickly as it had started, leaving only the intensity of the rider’s eyes.

  “Bro!” he blurted out. “Did you just land or what?!” His voice was energetic and loose.

  ‘Uh...Yeah,” Jacob hoped that landing meant arriving.

  “An’ you just decided to help a bro, because a bro needed help?”

  Jacob nodded and wondered if he had done something stupid. The disbelief on the rider's face made it seem like helping people was not something that was done in the quarantine zone.

  The boy threw back his head and unleashed a wild laugh, free and booming across the nighttime roadway. He ran out of laughter but continued shaking his head at Jacob.

  “Bro you don’t even know me....” He spoke as though the enormity of it was too much to realize all at once. “Like… you… totally just saved me bro!”

  Jacob shifted,“Well, I mean, it happened pretty fast. You fell and....”

  “So you just saved some tot
al zoner, when you got no idea what you're even doin’?”

  “I ...guess so. It just ...seemed like the right thing to do.” Jacob shrugged his shoulders.

  The rider's head started to bob with an easy nod. His large blue-ringed pupils shone in the moonlight as his eyes flashed over Jacob’s clothes.

  “You’re from the arcs!”

  “I am." Jacob said, “At least...I was.”

  “No-WAY!” The rider yelled as he continued his exaggerated nodding. He let out a shrill laugh and looked into the dirt, as though still trying to understand what was happening.

  “BRO!” He yelled and stuck out his hand. “Call me Teeva!”

  Jacob felt his tension float away as he reached out and took the rider’s gloved hand in his own. Before he could shake, Teeva wriggled his hand into a different handshake, then readjusted into a third strange handshake before dropping from Jacob’s grasp, nodding his head emphatically the whole time.

  “So what’cha gonna do now, bro?” Teeva asked.

  Jacob looked along the illuminated arrow’s path. “Well, I guess I’ll keep going until I can get online... and... and..." He thought about it for a moment.

  What will I do?

  “No-no-no bro, that's not what’cha doin’,” Teeva pulled his feet under him. Grimacing as he stood, stretching tall before pounding fists into his thighs, as though trying to beat feeling back into them.

  “It's crazy out here fo-sho bro, you gotta be freaking out big time. But listen, I gotcha back now, bro!” Teeva said with sudden intensity in his eyes.

  Jacob couldn’t think of what to say before Teeva saw the wrecked t-droid on the road. “No-way!” He looked back at Jacob. “Bro... did you do that?”

  “No, I was hiding. After I pulled you up under the boat, I heard some noises and this really loud horn. Then there were some yellow flashing lights and it sounded like...” Jacob thought for a second, “well.. I don’t know what it sounded like. It was loud, and after I looked out and I saw that in the road.”

  “No-way bro!”

  “What is it?” Jacob asked

  “That's one of the Dead Droid Posse, bro,” Teeva turned and smiled as another revelation exploded in his mind, “Well, it was one of the Dead Droid Posse, but now it's ours bro! C’mon!” He pushed himself off the hull, stumbling as he walked towards it.

  “Who’s the Dead Droid Posse?" Jacob asked as he followed him to the shattered droid’s torso.

  “Thugs who think they own the zone.” Teeva said, “run by a skid named Devon. Him an’ his skags rip everyone they catch on the fringes.” Teeva shook his head. “I was sloppy bro, real sloppy, but I got an extra life thanks to you, bro!” Teeva held out his fist.

  Jacob stared at it hanging in space.

  Teeva smiled “You gotta bump my fist with yours, bro,” then added softly, “don't leave me hanging.”

  “Oh!” Jacob balled up a fist and bumped Teeva’s.

  “Boosh!” Teeva hollered in the night and Jacob decided he liked Teeva, even if he seemed a little unstable.

  “That's it then, you’re comin’ with me, bro.” Teeva said.

  Jacob struggled. “Uh ...why?”

  Teeva laughed and slapped Jacob on the back. “Because bro! You look like you need some help!”

  Chapter 4

  “Why do you want this?” Jacob asked as Teeva used some well-weathered string to tie the shattered t-droid’s torso to his bike.

  “Recycling bro! Salvage is the name of the game in zone town.” He winked at Jacob as he tied the severed legs to the torso Jacob remembered landing outside the boat.

  Using the bike as a makeshift cart and with the load secured, Teeva pushed off down the road a few strides before Jacob realized he was expected to follow.

  He caught up and walked beside Teeva in the moonlight. Jacob waited for Teeva to ask more questions, but instead, he plodded back along the road in silence, nodding as though speaking in an internal conversation. Jacob noticed sweeping spotlights in the distance past the edges of the great ship’s hulls, when Teeva spoke. “Never seen an Arc’er before bro.”

  “I don't remember anything since the wipe, so it's not like I’ve really seen one either.” Jacob said, and Teeva stopped walking, staring at him as though slapped “No-way! You got wiped, bro?!”

  “That's what they called it. They said it was because of my parents and licensing issues.” Jacob shrugged.

  “Whoah!...” Teeva nodded with gaping eyes, “So you don’t.... like....”

  “I know who I am....and I know a lots of things, but I don’t know how I know them.” Jacob squinted, watching the sweeping searchlights.

  “I can’t remember my family” Jacob smiled. “The netscreen said they were on a mission, but the jump just... screwed up, I guess.”

  “No-way bro!” Teeva sucked in his breath, “Your parents were on the Guanyin?!”

  “You know about that?” Jacob asked, and relaxed a little more.

  “Oh yeah bro, tons of ambient reports, it’s always huge news when a ship...” Teeva shook his head. “Sorry bro, my parents are gone too, Dad died two years ago, an’ Mom killed herself as soon as we got zoned.”

  “Why did you get... zoned?” Jacob asked.

  “I’m a lifer out here bro, you're lookin’ at a bon-E-fied Iatrogenic.” Teeva grinned.

  “What's an Iatrogenic?’ Jacob asked.

  “Seizures bro, the black shakes. It's what took me off the bike.” Teeva stopped walking and considered Jacob’s small frame for a moment.

  “Hey bro, no lie. What’d you do to the posse droids back there? You got backup goin’ on?”

  “I don't think so.” Jacob thought about how much disease was in the quarantine zone.

  Teeva nodded “I believe you. Maybe whatever it was with the yellow lights would have hit me too if you hadn’t pulled me in, maybe that's like... twice you've saved my ass.” Teeva started pushing the bike again before going on.

  “There's a place not far down the road they got some crazy droids runnin’ around these big stacks of salvage.”

  “You mean my uncle's house?” Jacob asked.

  “Your uncle's house!?” Teeva stopped again ‘You live out there bro?!”

  “Well, I left…” Jacob couldn't think of what else to say.

  “Wow... huh... well yeah bro.” Teeva whistled through his teeth, blinking hard to try and understand it all. “Maybe you got backup after all, that place is crazy bro...”

  “Is everyone here sick?” Jacob interrupted him.

  “Naw bro, don’t worry; everyone’s zoned for different reasons. It's like you end up out here if they don’t know where to put you. There's no like, physically contagious folks out here. Apparently, I’m a genetic reject.”

  Jacob felt suddenly ashamed at his own fear and Teeva saw it. “Don’t feel bad bro, you can’t believe what people say about the zone, yeah the air is thick, and people are dying, but ain't we all? I mean, I heard all the arc’s were full o’ cheap gynoids.” he laughed. "Nobody tells the truth ‘bout anything. S’crazy bro, s’crazy.” Teeva nodded

  “Whats a gynoid?”

  “Oh bro, we got a lot of ground to cover, but trust me bro, you want one.” Teeva laughed.

  “Okay.” Jacob smiled with Teeva, but he still didn’t know what a gynoid was. Maybe he used to know; maybe he had one in the arcology but just couldn’t remember.

  “Lemme see those shields bro.” Teeva held out his hand, Jacob blinked, trying to think of what he meant.

  “Your glasses bro.” Teeva said and Jacob nodded and took off the Shidoshi iGlasses, handing them over.

  Teeva turned them over inspecting them. “Bro, these are pretty rad shields!” He tried them on and Jacob watched his expression change when he saw the arrow pointing out of quarantine.

  “Well, they would be if the skags hadn’t caged them.” He took them off and handed them back to Jacob. “Don't sweat it bro, Joni can break ‘em at the Dojo.”

  “The Doj
o?” Jacob asked.

  “Yeah, it’s our spot bro, it's where the Dragon Cobra Ninja Clan hangs. It'll be cool bro, no worries. Especially since you saved the bacon.” Teeva patted the shoulder strap of his pack. He looked over and saw Jacob’s bewilderment.

  “You’ll see bro, you're hanging with a Dragon Cobra Ninja Clan now!”

  Jacob walked in silence, trying to understand what his new friend was saying.

  “What’s a ninja?” Jacob asked.

  “BRO! You don’t know about ninjas?!” Teeva’s voice flared in the night, “You’s gonna get an ed-U-cation bro! This is gonna be rad! Hangin’ with you is like hangin’ with an alien bro!”

  Teeva’s enthusiasm was infectious. Jacob decided he would trust Teeva, even if he didn’t really understand him all the time.

  “Huh!” Teeva started his head nodding again “That's deep bro. What is a Ninja? Big question for sure.” Teeva furrowed his brow.

  “They’re like... awesome unkillable masters of mind and body.”

  “Really?” Jacob asked lifting his eyebrows.

  “Yeah bro, nobody can beat them. If their losing? They just pop smoke and vanish, leavin’ ninja stars stickin’ in yo’ face!

  “Huh!” Jacob was quiet for a moment before asking,“What’s a ninja star?”

  Teeva released a heavy sigh. “It's like a throwing knife bro, but like... a star shape with more blades. You’ll see bro, I’ll hook you up with some killer feeds.”

  “Okay,” Jacob felt a tiny warmth, no bigger than a pinprick in his stomach. He wanted to ask what a killer feed was, but decided he’d wait.

  They walked back over the end of the asphalt onto the compact dirt, and Teeva turned off to the right as the two reached the large empty blue fuel tank. A road lane was hidden amongst the scattered trash, leading away from the main dirt road.

  The lane wound its way through the trash, not like the cargo piles from his uncle's house, carefully stacked with intact items; this was plastic and packing, rusted alloys and brittle polymers left to rot in the zone’s abandoned wasteland.

  “The dojo is out here?” Jacob asked.