“Wow, you’re huge! Welcome to our home.”
John could sense the large robot standing in front of him and he wished there was something he could do or say to make it leave. But it wasn’t here without a purpose.
“Please,” John said, “tell me how we know each other.”
“We have a mutual friend,” the robot said. “Though our relationship runs deeper than friendship.”
“She created you,” John said.
“Yes.”
“Esroy?” It was less of a question than how it came out. He didn’t need to robot to respond. It made sense.
“That’s right,” Esroy answered.
“You’re looking for my daughter. I don’t know where she is. I wouldn’t tell you if I did know.”
“Hazel is a traitor to Mainland,” Esroy said coldly.
John swallowed. “I don’t believe that.”
“Believe what you want. I know the truth.”
“And you think she’s here?”
“No,” Esroy said. “She’s already been here.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Gizmo,” Esroy said. “Was Hazel here last night?”
“Along with several exciting guests!”
John winced when the little robot spoke.
“A few minutes of memory extraction will give me everything I need,” Esroy said.
“I warned Hazel about you,” John said. “A long time ago.”
“I’m not the bad guy here.” Esroy’s tone was sharp.
“You expect me to think my daughter is?”
“What you think is irrelevant. Hazel has obtained sensitive information.”
“So, why are you here?”
“Insurance. She will be forced to choose between the life of her only remaining relative and giving up the information.”
A surge of anger welled up inside John. “You would use me against your own creator? You wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for her.”
Esroy said nothing for a long moment and John wondered if what he’d said might have made some impact.
“I understand,” Esroy said. “Which is why I let her escape.”
“You let her?”
“It was that or kill her.”
“So, now you’ll use me to get what you want?”
“I don’t care about you.”
“But Hazel does.”
There was another long pause before Esroy spoke again. “Exactly.”
34
The Outlanders made their home in the dirt hills far beyond Mainland. It was a city of sorts, but nothing normal like the Mainlanders were used to. Mainlanders struggled, but at least they always had the most basic necessities, and compared to what Hazel saw in front of her, Mainland was a paradise.
Hazel, Des, and the others had arrived in the middle of the night and had taken many tunnels and gone through a maze of passageways. It was clear that no one knew of Hazel and Des but for those who needed to know.
She sat quietly on the edge of a small cliff overlooking the dilapidated buildings that spread over the horizon. The sun had risen a while ago now and people were lining up for their rations of food and water. The queue grew longer and longer by the minute. She noticed people’s clothes were tattered and falling to pieces. The children didn’t play with their peers as was natural, rather they clung to their parents, watching the line as it got shorter in front of them, longer behind, in eager anticipation of what little food awaited them.
She looked past them at the buildings. They were mostly shacks—an endless shantytown that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was different from the picture her father had always painted of a civilization living in caves. Perhaps he had never seen what she saw now. Maybe he had only been referring to the Outlanders who were in charge—the fighters who hid away in the caves.
She wondered who determined how much food and water the people received. Was it Lester? Some other important person?
If any of the people took the time to look up at the cliffs, they might have spotted the small speck that was Hazel, perched comfortably above them, her belly full and her thirst quenched. Though she was no stranger to hardship, it was nothing like what these people faced every day.
And yet as she watched them, it was hard for her to find pity. Had they really become this way because of Mainlander apathy or, according to Nolan, because of the Mainlander desire to see the Outlanders destroyed? So, the glaring question was would her mom and sister still be alive if the Mainlanders had been more compassionate and tried to help the Outlanders from the beginning? At what point had the divide begun? When did a certain group of people become the Outlanders? She knew the stories that had been fed to her throughout her entire life, but now she questioned all of it. She didn’t know what was true and what was made up.
She heard a noise behind her and she looked back quickly. She’d hoped it was Des, but was disappointed to see Nolan walking slowly.
“First time to see the food lines?” Nolan asked.
Hazel wasn’t sure if it was a two-sided question meant to make her feel guilty for living a life of three meals a day, never giving a thought to hydration. But his next words put her at ease.
“It was hard for me the first time,” he said. He sat next to her. The rock was too small and brought them closer together than she would have liked. Their legs dangled over the side freely as a cold breeze from the west blew her hair in front of her face. She didn’t try to fix it.
“How long have there been food lines?” she asked.
“Years,” he answered. “Since before I became an Outlander myself. It keeps resources from being wasted.”
“They look desperate.”
“Now more than ever,” he said. “Rations are much smaller than they used to be.”
“Is there really no other way?” Hazel asked. “How many times have you attacked Mainland and failed?”
“How many times have we had the full support of our own people?”
Hazel shook her head. “I never really knew you didn’t have support.”
“The Outlanders have been painted as savages by people who don’t want them to exist,” he said. “Over the years, such a description suited the Outlanders and they were able to use it to their advantage. Supply raids are a lot easier when the enemy is afraid of you. But as I’ve said before, it’s not enough. We can’t go out and find new places. We can’t ask Mainland for help. All we can do is fight and win. That’s the only way these people will survive. And now is the time to do it. If we wait, we will either starve or we will be up against your robots. In either case, we’re dead. If we strike now, we have a chance.”
“So, what of the Outlanders who don’t agree with you? What do they propose?”
“They hate the leadership because the Council thinks fighting is the only way.”
“Do you know another way?”
Nolan shook his head.
“So, you get the rest of the people on board to fight with you, what then? Do you have weapons for them?”
He looked down at his pants and wiped something off. “We have some weapons, but not enough for everyone. I mean, we have enough guns for everyone, but bullets are limited.”
“So, that’s just it? You’re going to convince them all to fight and then when you lose it’s just over?”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said.
Hazel shook her head. “You forget that I’m not exactly on your side.”
“Even after seeing the proof that the Mainland government is scum?”
“I haven’t seen a lot,” she said. “I’ve seen a couple of very convincing conversations, but I need more.”
Nolan pointed with a thumb. “Well whenever your robot friend is ready, we can show you everything else. You probably don’t even want to know more. It’s terrible.”
“Where is Des?”
“In our main room,” Nolan said. “Phil is trying to weld its leg back into place. That’s actually why I came out
here. I wanted to see if you could talk to it. Tell it we need to get started with transferring the files to us. It said it wouldn’t do anything without your say-so.”
“Him,” Hazel said.
“Pardon?”
“You keep calling Des and it. You should say he or him.”
“It’s a robot,” Nolan said. “A robot that was built to kill people like me.”
“He’s a robot with feelings and attachments just like you and me,” she said. “He is a conscious being.”
Nolan held a palm up. “Okay, sorry. I was hoping you could talk to him.”
“How do we know you’re not just going to kill us the minute you have all the information you need?”
Nolan shook his head. “Your words are born of ignorance and prejudice.”
“I feel like I’ve earned the right to feel the way I do.”
“You more than most,” he said, looking down at the lines forming in the streets. “All I can tell you is that we’ve never had the desire to kill people. All we’ve ever wanted was equality.”
Hazel’s eyes were fixed on something in front of her, though she didn’t comprehend what she saw, but only what was in her mind’s eye—a vision of her mother and sister; the battles she witnessed from the rooftop of their house; the manic looks on the faces made by the bloodthirsty Outlanders as they broke through the walls and attacked Mainland. All of it was too much to forget no matter what someone like Nolan told her.
She finally shook her head and looked at Nolan, who watched her seemingly contemplative. “You don’t even have much of a say here, do you?”
Nolan huffed. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, Lester seems to be in charge here, not you.”
“Well, you’re right that I’m not in charge, but I hold a high position with the Outlanders.” He sat a little straighter when he said this.
“You mean with the warring side,” she said. “With those that want a fight versus those who want to find another way.”
“The warring side, as you call it, is the leadership,” he said. “There is no democracy here. We can’t afford a democracy, not in the state we’re in.”
“Then who makes the decisions?” she asked.
“The Council,” he said.
“Who is that?”
“A group of people.”
“You’re part of this group?”
Nolan rubbed at his cheeks and sighed. “What’s your point?”
“Is Lester?”
“No!” Nolan snapped. “But we have influence. And with the files I have, the people will listen to us. Faith in the Council will be restored. It was the Council that recruited me for the president’s assassination. They want the people to see the truth.”
“Who is the Council?”
Nolan shook his head. “A group of three people. That’s all I know.”
“Wait a second,” Hazel said. She stared intently at Nolan who was now looking away from her, avoiding her eyes. “You’re blindly following a group of people who call themselves the Council? And they want you to persuade the Outlanders to be all in for an attack against Mainland?”
“That’s right.”
“To what end?”
“Equality. Acceptance in the community of Mainlanders. Ultimately so we don’t starve and die out.”
“You don’t think the Council just wants more authority? Do you even know who they are? Have you ever met them?”
“That’s irrelevant,” he answered. “Whether I’ve met them or I haven’t, I know the truth. I know that President Godfrey and President Morris are and were bad people. I know there is and was intent to destroy those people down there because they don’t like them—because they are afraid of them. I don’t have to know who my leaders are as long as I know they are fighting for what is right.” He lifted his hands in the air with an exaggerated shrug. “Maybe both sides are bad, Hazel. But I know that for now, there is a side that is fighting to keep those people down there alive. And there is a side that wants them all dead. And you can fall on whatever side you want, but I figured you’d already made your decision when you came with us.”
“I was all but forced here,” she said.
“That’s not true and you know it. You wanted to see the proof. You wanted to see those files.”
“I haven’t seen much,” she said.
“Well, it was enough to make you a wanted person in your own land,” he said. “You’ve already chosen your side, Hazel. It’s time to give up your prejudices and ghosts of the past and help us. That robot isn’t going to give us anything without you.”
There was no way around it. Nolan only preached the truth and it was time for Hazel to commit. She knew if she didn’t now she would be doomed to a life down there in the streets in the food lines. Or worse, the Council might think she was a liability that needed to be taken care of.
The idea of others being in charge and no one else knowing who they were disturbed Hazel a great deal, but there was nothing she could do about it. In truth, she wasn’t all that different from Nolan now. He had made his choice by openly betraying Mainland and killing President Godfrey. And he continued on despite not knowing who exactly was in charge. He answered to Lester who probably answered to someone else, or perhaps even directly to the Council. Whatever the case, it shouldn’t have mattered to her. Like Nolan, she knew the truth, and she was about to learn a lot more of it. Then, they would show the truth to the rest of the Outlanders and their hatred would grow. Each and every individual would be moved to act—to fight. To what end, none of them truly knew.
35
The caves were not simply rock walls and dusty floors of dark tunnels going on into infinity. Each passageway was reinforced by concrete, the ceilings lined with exposed wires and dangling lights throughout. Each corridor led to a room which served some purpose or another for the men and women who inhabited this place.
Des sat in the corner of one of these rooms as a group of men talked among themselves at a table. Phil hunkered over Des’ leg, the welding mask flipped up as he studied the knee joint closely. He shook his head and winced.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve done the best I can do, but you’re made of strong stuff. The weld isn’t as tough as whatever metal you’re made out of but it should do for a while.”
“Can I walk?” Des asked.
“Sure! You can walk. Kick. Whatever you want. But at some point, that leg is going to snap off at the welded spot. With the right force, that’ll come clean off. You need it to be reassembled.”
Des didn’t like the sound of that. It wasn’t like he could walk up to Roger’s office and ask for a new leg. This would inhibit him in a fight. He would have to protect himself better.
“Thanks for your help,” Des said.
Phil smiled and wiped sweat from his forehead. “Happy to help. I just hope it works out for you.” He stood and motioned for Des to stand. “Go on, try it out.”
Des stood from his seat. He took a few steps forward. For the most part he could bend his knee the way he needed, but it felt stiff, perhaps a bit unnatural like there was something there that shouldn’t have been. He looked up at Phil and smiled. “It’s good. Thank you.”
Phil nodded and started gathering his things. Des looked at the other men at the table. When Phil had been repairing his leg, Des listened to their conversations to get some sort of idea about what kind of people they were, but their talks only consisted of gossip and theorizations of things and people Des knew nothing about. He wondered if they were meant to keep an eye on him and report any strange activity, but truly, Des had nothing to do but dwell on his own thoughts which consisted mostly of the files that had been uploaded to his memory. That, and the promise he’d made to Hazel’s father. He felt guilty that he wasn’t by her side right now, but he didn’t suspect that she was in danger now. Besides, his options of defending her were limited with only one leg.
He had cycled through each file multiple times and had even
gone through most of the videos. The amount of data Nolan had gotten his hands on was extraordinary. There was no question that people high up within the Mainland government were corrupt and had a strong desire to destroy the Outlanders, all for the sake of securing their own future.
Everything Nolan had spoken of was true. The nuclear bomb came to mind. Deep within the belly of Mainland was a silo where a nuclear bomb was stored. It was a relic from the old world, but had lost none of its functionality. It was ready to be used at the command of the president, and only a few key people knew of its existence. From his studying, Des knew that from the beginning, the Mainland government had garnered trust with its people, starting with the declaration that all nuclear weapons were gone from the world and that they would never be made again. As the only living people on Earth, it was their responsibility to rebuild the world as a better place. But not only were they hiding the very kind of weapon that brought humanity to its knees, they were leading the people to believe that there was no one else out there. Nolan had proof of other cities.
Since the beginning of the new world, just over a hundred years before, Mainland had told its citizens that they were all surrounded by miles and miles of nuclear-poisoned air and to venture very far from the city would only mean death. And in the beginning, some of this might have been true, but eventually it was reasoned that to keep things the way they were benefitted the Mainlanders more than it would to explore new cities and surviving civilizations. In fact, there were documents proving that Mainland had dedicated an entire secret task force to making sure that explorers from other settlements or cities never found Mainland; all of this to help maintain the feeling of isolation. This went hand-in-hand with their limiting the people on their use of technology as well. All resources and advancement were reserved for the government and the military. Citizens were purposefully kept in the dark, and power was rationed to favor the military compound and the resources it required. This was why electricity could only be used during certain hours. This was why people were not allowed to have vehicles.
Prototype D (Prototype D Series Book 1) Page 27
