by Lisa Lace
But nothing happened. He crouched down next to her, breath hot on her face, and picked her up with ease. She tried to fight him, but her muscles simply wouldn’t work. She was helpless as he put her over his shoulder and headed out of the barracks. Amanda tried to say something, give a command or ask where they were going, but no sound escaped her throat as the half-man, half-robot carried her to an uncertain fate.
Chapter Seven
“This way.” AD-214 made his way out of the barracks and wound through the offices with a line of cyborgs trailing behind him. He had checked his files for a blueprint of the building, but he couldn’t find one that had everything. The information only showed him the barracks, the lab, and Dr. Gold’s office. That was all useful for getting around inside the building, but he wanted to leave it.
He shook his head, trying to clear the irritating noises that still rang in his ears after the mysterious scenes had flashed across his interface. How could he be inside a building and not know his way out of it? He should have all the maps of the area pre-loaded into his system.
The other members of Blue Squad followed AD-214 readily through Cyborg Sector. There was no time to discuss or formulate a plan; they simply had to move. There were other soldiers left behind, but every member of Blue Squad was together. Every member plus one human: Amanda Conrad.
The girl hung limply over his shoulder. He had no rational reason for taking her, other than she was a mystery to him. Sometimes his facial recognition software indicated she was part of his squad. She didn’t look or dress like him and his other men. Other times, it seemed like his system was trying to tell him she was significant in other ways. He wasn’t sure what to do with her, but he could always eliminate her later if she proved to be a threat. If she was one of his soldiers, he didn’t want to risk leaving her behind.
As Blue Squad made their way down the stairwell, a man in a lab coat stepped out of a doorway and stood in front of AD-214. “Stop. Return to the barracks immediately.” His voice was unsteady while he tried for a commanding air.
Though his facial recognition software automatically began to scan the man’s face, AD-214 shut it down within seconds. It didn’t matter what the man’s name was. He wore a lab coat like everyone else in this building and had no weapon. He was no more of a threat to the cyborgs than Dr. Gold had been. AD-214 continued moving.
The man obstructing his path hesitated. “I said stop,” the scientist repeated, trembling visibly.
AD-214 continued forward. He had a mission and goal: to get out of here with all of his men. There wasn’t time to argue with anyone. As he continued marching on his path, the scientist remained in his way for only a moment before diving to the side and running through a door. Blue Squad descended to the next level of the building.
Alarms rang loudly in his ears as he advanced. The decision to leave the building had changed the place into a state of chaos. The cyborg captain ignored the klaxon and the screams of the people, focusing completely on escape.
With few obstacles, they made it down to the bottom of the building. The staff had locked the front doors, but their feeble attempts at resistance failed once more. The doors were merely glass. AD-214 shoved his right hand through one of them, knocking out the remainder of the clear panels before stepping through to freedom.
The warehouse was the first place that had come up when AD-214 had asked PD-67, the navigation specialist, for a safe house. Vast, empty, and dim, it was well outside the city limits, almost into the next town. Blue Squad could evade anyone who chose to follow them. AD-214 had asked his men to shut down their external communications and go into stealth mode as soon as they had left Cyborg Sector.
One advantage of being a cyborg was that AD-214 didn’t have to speak a word to let his men know his orders. As soon as he thought a command, he could stream it to everyone. It was efficient and brought them to safety, but it made AD-214 wonder about other threats. What had been done to them while they were in that building? He had been inactive for a long time. As he looked around at his fellow soldiers, he realized that they, too, were still asleep. His companions were upright and able to move, but there was no spark of intelligence in their eyes. Without explicit commands, they stared off into the distance behind him.
AD-214 instructed them to examine the perimeter of the large warehouse. PD-67 said it was a secure location, but AD-214 didn’t know who to trust. There were twenty other men here with him. For all he knew, this was another military exercise, and there was a spy hiding among his men.
He secured Amanda into an office area partitioned off from the rest of the building. No furniture remained, but he managed to find a canvas tarp to serve as a makeshift bed. He looked down at the unconscious girl for a moment before returning to his unit.
The cyborgs had reassembled in an open area of the warehouse when he returned. They stood in formation, awaiting his next command.
AD-214 rubbed his head. He had to do something with them, and the solution was inside him. He didn’t completely understand what was happening. It felt like his files were corrupted. When he tried to open them, he only retrieved part of the desired information. Something had changed in the last few days that had completely altered him.
He began a complete system diagnostic and located a recent software upgrade. There was an electronic signature on it, indicating who had uploaded the patch to his system - AC. Amanda Conrad. She had changed him.
AD-214 scanned his fellow soldiers. They were all running on a previous operating system. He could help them. He uploaded his changes to their shared neural network. They would all receive the changes within minutes.
He carefully watched as they regained consciousness. PD-67 looked directly at his captain. “I don’t understand, sir,” he said with a dry voice. He ran a tongue over his lips. “Have our barracks changed?”
AD-214 nodded. “Yes. That’s the perfect explanation.” The navigation specialist had led them to their current location, yet he didn’t seem to remember it.
Other soldiers began to react. One clasped his hands to his face and screamed. Another one slowly sat down on the floor and began to weep. Most of them, however, turned to study the men around them and started asking questions.
“Where are we, sir?”
“Why are we out of our cells?”
“I believe I have corrupted files, sir. My interface keeps displaying a smiling family. Perhaps there is interference from local television signals?”
“I’m sorry, sir. Our mission seems to have been deleted from my system.”
AD-214 called them to order. They quickly responded, lining up and facing him, waiting for his instructions and an explanation. Even those who seemed to be in physical pain were eager to hear what their captain had to say.
“I don’t know what you remember. I’m trying to understand everything myself. I do know that we are comrades. We left a place where we were kept in a mild sleep, a functional coma so they could use our bodies without interference from our minds. We have freed ourselves, and I believe someone will come to retrieve us.”
“Who are our enemies, sir?” a cyborg near the back asked. “I know that I work for the United States military, and my GPS indicates I am still within that country. Has the enemy crossed our border?” His eyebrows creased with worry, and he shifted his weight from foot to foot.
AD-214 felt sympathy for his fellow soldiers. It was confusing to wake up after a long time. How long had they been imprisoned in those chambers? Months? Years? It was impossible to tell. He could cross-reference time stamps on his software, but the men wanted answers now.
“What about the other soldiers?” another man asked before AD-214 could respond to the first question. While many of them had artificial appendages, this soldier had once been missing part of his face. Doctors had created a new face for him, skin over a metal skeleton. Only the scar down the center of his head revealed the injury. “I remember there were other soldiers in our building as well. Why did we leave them b
ehind?”
Part of AD-214’s programming suggested soldiers would not usually question their commanding officers in this fashion. But he knew that they were not average soldiers, and they were not in a typical situation. It was as though they could all remember the same dream, but each of them interpreted it differently.
“I don’t know,” AD-214 admitted. “When I began to free you from your cells, I was focused only on Blue Squad. My squad. The other soldiers didn’t register in my system.”
The man seemed to accept that answer, and AD-214 suddenly realized everyone looked as exhausted as he felt. “At ease, men. We’ll get answers to our questions later. Meanwhile, I need to decide what we’re going to do next.”
AD-214 marched back to the office to check on Amanda. He opened the door quietly and shut it softly behind him. Amanda was still unconscious. Chunks of blonde hair had come undone from her long braid, spread out around her head like a halo. A bruise had formed at her temple, and her lips were dry and cracked.
He kneeled down next to the scientist and scanned her biometrics. His interface showed she had a steady pulse and appeared to be breathing normally. Her temperature had dropped slightly in the cold warehouse. The cyborg pulled a flap of the canvas tarp over her body.
The door to the office swung open, revealing a member of Blue Squad. AD-214 recognized him as ND-45, the weapons specialist. “Sir, I was just thinking...Who is that?” The soldier nearly shouted as he pointed to the inert human on the floor.
“It’s all right. She poses no danger to us.” AD-214 tried to think of an explanation that would soothe the angry cyborg mob. But the rest of the soldiers had gathered behind him, faces angry as they tried to get a look at the woman. Shouts of anger began to rise among them.
“She’s one of them!”
“Get her out of here!”
“Kill her!”
AD-214 had heard enough. “Blue Squad! Fall in!”
His soldiers obeyed quickly, returning to the open floor of the warehouse and assembling in front of him. AD-214 paced up and down, thinking about what to say. His fellow cyborgs were already becoming independent. Soon they would be capable of thinking on their own and making decisions themselves. But they didn’t have the same information in their systems about Amanda that he did.
“Yes, the girl is from Cyborg Sector. But she is harmless,” he repeated.
“How do you know?” ND-45 asked, a sneer on his face. “She’s the one who altered our programming. How do we know that she didn’t plant a virus inside our minds?”
“I understand your confusion.” AD-214 increased the volume of his voice, making it boom against the metal walls of the warehouse. They had forgotten who was in charge. “At the least, she can be a bargaining chip against Cyborg Sector. But if she knows so much about our systems, then she could be very helpful. We don’t know what’s happening to our minds, but she might. I will speak to her after she has time to recover. Then I will make a decision about her fate.”
The majority of the cyborgs nodded their acceptance, but ND-45 continued to stare at his captain with a glint in his eye. “I request the first shift as the prisoner’s guard,” he said.
“No,” AD-214 replied instantly. “I will guard her. Your assignment is to find us food.”
Chapter Eight
Amanda’s eyes seemed to be made of lead as she tried to open them. Every muscle in her body ached, and yet she had an incredible desire to move. She felt as though she should be running, walking, or anything. She wasn’t supposed to be lying down, but her body wouldn’t cooperate.
Taking in her surroundings, Amanda wondered where she was. She searched her mind desperately, but the close, moldy drywall and low ceiling weren’t familiar. Nor was the concrete floor or the dirty tarp in which she found herself.
The last place she remembered was Cyborg Sector, but she was not in Cyborg Sector any longer. Cyborg Sector had high ceilings with brilliant LED light fixtures. There should have been rows of cyborg cells, groups of cubicles, or large lab tables depending on her location. She saw none of that here.
The one thing that was familiar in Amanda’s sight was the tall, muscular cyborg who loomed over her. In a rush, she remembered he had been above her while they were still at Cyborg Sector. The scientist had a vague recollection of being carried by him, but she couldn’t be sure.
“AD-214, where are we?” she asked, trying to summon her most commanding voice.
“Our current location is an abandoned warehouse, five miles outside of the city. We are safe for the moment.” The cyborg didn’t move but continued to stare down at her.
“Why did you bring me with you?”
The cyborg captain looked away and didn’t answer her.
In her mind’s eye, Amanda could see an image of her boss falling against the wall of the barracks. “Did you kill Dr. Feldman?”
“I was kept captive because of him.”
“You don’t understand,” Amanda protested, trying to push herself up on her arms. “Oh, that hurts.”
AD-214 looked at her for a moment. “My scan indicates you are not severely injured.”
“Ha!” The laughter burned Amanda’s lungs, and the pain radiated out to the rest of her body. “It still hurts. You mixed it up. Dr. Feldman was the person responsible for keeping you and the rest of the cyborgs alive.” She managed to rise to a sitting position, but she wasn’t sure she could remain upright for long. She was grateful she was in such good physical condition.
“What is a cyborg?” AD-214 asked. “What does that mean? My files tell me that I am not the same as you, but I do not know what the difference is.”
Trying to avoiding a philosophical discussion about the differences between cyborgs versus humans, Amanda changed the topic of conversation. “Why did you leave Cyborg Sector?”
“I answered this already. Someone was holding us captive.”
Amanda had a feeling there was something deeper going on than a cyborg misunderstanding. AD-214 had been behaving oddly, and the incident at Cyborg Sector was the culmination of the problems. She had a sinking feeling that it was her fault. She looked down at the floor, unable to look the cyborg in the eye considering the guilt in her heart.
“If you believe that, then you know you were held captive for a long time. What made you decide to break free today?” There was no point in arguing with him about his status as a prisoner. In his human life, he had signed a document allowing the government to do anything with his body. But he wouldn’t be able to recall that memory.
The cyborg paused. “I don’t know,” he answered after a moment. “Not in the same way I know other things. I was asleep, and now I am awake.”
His response made Amanda snap her head back up to look at him. “What do you mean, awake?” The chip in his brain shouldn’t allow him to differentiate between states of consciousness. Amanda shifted restlessly on the canvas as she waited for his answer. It made her uncomfortable that the more questions she asked, the longer it took AD-214 to answer them. With luck, the delay merely indicated he was either having problems with his operating system. That was a dangerous prospect, but far preferable to the alternative. Was he becoming capable of independent thought?
“I do not know if I am using the words correctly, sir. I was asleep. I did not know what I was doing, or if I did anything. Suddenly, I was awake, and I knew.”
Amanda nodded dumbly, though she was sure she didn’t understand it herself. “What, exactly, do you know?”
“Something was missing. There is more to me than I understand. I do not have all of the information in my files.”
Looking up at the cyborg, a creature who was half-man and half-robot and yet more than the sum of his parts, Amanda began to worry. What would happen to him and the rest of his men when the military came after them? How were they still on their feet? Surely Cyborg Sector had begun the process of shutting their chips down completely. Her stomach growled, and AD-214’s reaction only made her worry more.
He shouldn’t even know what eating was, she thought.
Chapter Nine
AD-214 closed the office door behind him. The other cyborgs, seated on the floor of the warehouse, slowly chewing the food that ND-45 had brought, instantly turned to look at him. “What is the human’s status?” the weapons specialist asked.
“I have nothing to report. She has just woken up and is hungry.” He strode forward and examined the spread that lay before the soldiers: various packages, boxes and bags and plastic wrappers. “What is all this?”
For the first time since the captain had transmitted updated software to the cyborgs, ND-45 looked uncertain. His eyes shifted hesitantly for only a moment before becoming confident once more. “I know it is food.”
“Where did you find it?” AD-214 bent to look at a box. He gave it a cursory glance before tucking several parcels under his arm.
“A residence about a mile away from this location.”
“Did you encounter any enemies?” They needed food, or he thought they did, but nothing was worth giving away their position.
“Nobody was there, sir.”
“I wonder if something is wrong with me,” remarked another soldier enthusiastically, his mouth full of something orange. “My stomach feels full, but my mouth won’t stop eating.” The cyborgs around him nodded in agreement.
AD-214 returned to the office to find Amanda still sitting, but with her head in her hands. “Is something the matter?”
“Nothing,” she replied, looking up. “I was thinking. What have you got there?”
He set the items down in front of her and took a step back. “Food.”
