by Simon Curtis
I make it to the bathroom door and try the handle. Locked.
A moment later JB walks up to wait in the hall beside me.
Perfect.
He looks to the wall in front of us, but I can practically feel the smirk on him. I do my best to keep the blushing at bay.
“Thank you, for what you did last night . . . today, I guess.” I’m so bad at this. “I know you pulled me out of the shower. You didn’t have to risk yourself like that. I really appreciate it.”
I feel like a stammering dwarf next to him. He’s one of those people who are so nauseatingly tall and pretty it makes them difficult to look at. He looks at me again, still grinning. Even his teeth are perfect. Ugh.
“I’m pretty sure you’d have done the same for me.”
There’s a hint of something behind his bright eyes that I can’t quite put my finger on.
“Of course.”
The door unlocks behind me and an older man steps out of the bathroom. He nods at both of us as he passes and walks down the hall. I step inside.
I’m about to close the door when JB pushes his way in as well. He closes the door behind him and quickly locks it.
I’m panicked, kind of aroused, and totally confused, all at once.
“Okay, I don’t know what your relationship with Azure is, but you need to know that you shouldn’t trust her.”
My mouth goes dry. “What are you talking about? She saved me.”
“Did she? Because a few hours ago she was about to let you die.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You were in the shower. She wasn’t going to save you. She tried to stop me from saving you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I didn’t think so either. That’s why I wanted you to know.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut.
“But I thought we were all on the same side?”
“There are lots of sides out here, Isaak. And from what I’ve heard, I don’t think you’ll find yourself on hers.”
His eyes look deep into mine before he unlocks the door behind him.
“I’m glad we found you,” he says as he pushes the door open and steps back into the hall.
• • •
When I leave the bathroom, I hold the door open for JB at just the right angle as to avoid eye contact. He brushes past me without saying a word.
Azure is waiting for me at the end of the short hallway with two bottles of a neon-colored sports drink. She eyes the spot where JB was standing and hands one to me.
“Oh. No, thank you. I don’t really like that stuff,” I say.
“You do now.” She puts it in my hand. “We get more out of it than the average person.” She scans the room and then looks back at me. “Electrolytes.”
Kamea approaches from the counter with a small bag and two cups of coffee as JB comes back from the bathroom. We move toward the door.
As we walk past the man in the shirt and tie, sitting at a booth with his laptop, Azure slides her fingers along the top edge of the screen. The man stares at her openly, and she returns his gaze with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips, almost challenging him to say something.
He doesn’t.
She pulls her hand away and wipes it on her shirt as if she’s touched something contaminated, before walking out the door like nothing at all awkward has just happened.
Kamea stops as though she means to say something, gives me an unreadable look, then follows her out.
“I think they’re going to be really good friends someday,” JB says as he watches Kamea follow in Azure’s wake.
Confused, I pop the lid of my drink and take a sip as I step back out into the morning air.
It tastes like salt.
• • •
The sun is fully out from under the horizon by the time we get back to the car, which is when the drink hits my bloodstream. It’s like manifesting all over again. Everything rushes into me—morning radio shows, cell phone calls, credit card machines taking payments, e-mails, texts . . . everything. It doesn’t hurt like it did the other night, but I’m fully aware of it once again. It’s like I’m standing knee-deep in a river teeming with bright, silvery fish gleaming in the sunlight, and all I have to do is reach into the water and grab one. I reach for one, and miss.
“Don’t get lost in it right now,” Azure interrupts. “This stuff heightens our awareness. I need to be fully alert today, but you don’t know how to navigate it yet, so try to just accept its presence and move on.”
“Then why did you give it to me?” I hold out the bottle.
“Because you need to learn how to ignore it just as much as you need to learn how to use it.” She opens the back hatch of the car and grabs the bags. “Leave the keys,” she says as she turns and heads out of the parking lot and into the grass alongside the road.
“I guess we’re not taking the Jeep,” JB says to no one in particular.
“Guess not.” Kamea watches Azure carefully.
We follow.
• • •
I feel the heat of the day rise along with the sun as we trudge through a grassy ditch along the road. I’m damp with sweat as we reach the shade of an overpass, but it’s hot under here too.
“So are you going to tell us where we’re going?” JB’s voice echoes in the cavernous space under the sound of rush-hour traffic. Azure remains silent as we step back out into the sun and see one of the car dealerships alongside the highway.
I think I know where this is headed.
We come to the edge of a sprawling lot full of cars and step onto the blacktop. Without missing a beat, Azure approaches a car near the road in the corner of the lot. It unlocks itself before she even touches the handle for the back hatch. She opens it, tosses the duffel and the backpack inside, and hops into the backseat. We all follow suit.
JB takes the driver’s seat once again.
“Do you want me to drive?” I ask, feeling bad that he’s done all the work thus far. Then again, I don’t know how well I’d handle a car chase with a horde of government killers should the situation arise, so maybe I’ve spoken too soon.
“Nah, I’m fine. Sheriffs, tornadoes, endless driving without sleep . . . I’ll be good.” His sense of humor is in stark contrast with the JB who pushed into the bathroom with me.
“He likes driving,” Kamea says as she passes back an open brown paper bag from the coffee shop, filled with sandwiches and small pastries. I take a turkey sandwich and say thanks.
Azure waves it away.
“I prefer driving something with a little more power, personally,” JB says as he looks up at Azure through the rearview mirror.
The car starts and goes into reverse without him touching anything. He jumps and grabs the wheel, taking control of the possessed vehicle.
“I love hybrids,” Azure says slyly as she watches the office from the edge of the lot and takes a sip from her bottle.
We pull out of the lot and head back onto the highway. The morning sun shines bright and golden in our eyes.
• • •
I really can’t explain the new sensations flowing through me. The entire world is alive in ways I’ve never known or even suspected. We’re out in the middle of nowhere now, out past Amarillo in a desert wasteland, and even here I can feel it. Invisible lines of every kind of energy enveloping me, emanating from everything and everywhere, and I can feel them all. It’s almost enough to make me forget about what JB said earlier. Almost enough to get me to stop worrying about who I can trust.
Almost.
“We’re going to LA, aren’t we?” I ask.
The car is silent.
JB glances over to Kamea, but they don’t speak.
“And you guys are all working together somehow?”
The fact that I know so little about any of what’s going on is really starting to get to me. The adrenaline from all of the chasing and Sheriffs and tornadoes has subsided, and I’m left
with questions that need to be answered.
“I think I have a right to know what’s going on here.”
Finally Azure looks at me.
“The three of us are part of a movement known as the Underground. We work in secret, all over the country, to find Unreclaimed before the government does, and shepherd them to safety.”
“And you’ve met before?” I ask Azure, then look to Kamea.
“A few times,” Kamea says, looking ahead. Azure says nothing.
I guess that’s all I’m getting about that particular story for the moment.
“And the safe place you’re talking about . . . it’s in LA, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Azure looks out the window to the flat landscape zooming by.
“How did you know?” Kamea turns back and really looks at me for the first time. She has high cheekbones and her chestnut skin is the texture of silk. She really is beautiful.
“Just a hunch. LA seems like a good place for a bunch of freaks to hide.”
JB looks at me through the mirror.
“I’ve always wanted to go there,” I continue as I look out at the desert around us, vast and lifeless.
“Unfortunately you’re not going to see much of it.” Azure doesn’t break her gaze out the window as she speaks. “The bigger cities make it easier to hide, but they’re also easier to get caught in. You probably won’t even see daylight while you’re there.”
“Now, don’t get him too excited about it,” JB says.
“He shouldn’t be excited. He should be cautious and alert. You should be driving.”
“Do you enjoy being a black hole of negativity, or do you just have something against organics?” JB sounds like he’s losing patience with her.
“Organics?” I ask. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
Kamea looks back to me. “It’s what we call ourselves instead of ‘human,’” she says. “We believe it’s dehumanizing to Robots for us to identify as ‘human’ as a means of differentiating ourselves. As if to say that Robots are not human.”
“But we’re not human,” Azure says. She glares at Kamea.
“Some Robots choose not to identify as human. Personally, I’m not comfortable talking to a person as though they’re not a person, and like to make sure the words I use reflect that level of respect,” Kamea says.
“And some humans choose to patronize us by assuming they are our equals and by giving themselves asinine names that insinuate such.”
“Synthetic, organic, whatever. I only have a problem with assholes,” JB says, staring at the road ahead.
Kamea turns away from us and the car goes silent once more.
• • •
Somewhere after the New Mexico border, JB reaches into his pocket. “Kam, will you see how far the nearest gas station is?”
He pulls out a phone and hands it her.
“Are you insane?” Azure shouts, and practically jumps out of her seat. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to get us all killed?”
She pushes my chest back against the seat and holds me with one hand, as if she’s trying to protect me from it.
“It’s fine. I swear,” Kamea says as she turns back and looks to Azure, holding her hands up in a peaceful gesture.
“I’m so confused,” I say, my chest pressed against the seat. Azure’s fingers are rigid and strong.
“Have you told him anything about what he is? I mean, anything at all?” JB asks as he glares back at Azure through the rearview mirror.
She doesn’t look at him.
He sighs.
“Robots connect to anything with an electrical current,” he says. “When you connect to something connected to the Internet, connected to the grid in any way, you then connect to it yourself. But it’s incredibly dangerous because the second you do, they can see it. It’s like a beacon to them. It takes a lot of training for a Robot to learn how to connect just long enough to do what he needs and sever the connection before getting caught.”
“And even then it’s incredibly dangerous,” Azure says through a clenched jaw.
“With phones, sometimes a Robot doesn’t even need to touch one in order to connect.” Kamea continues JB’s explanation. “Sometimes, depending upon the Robot, he, or she, can unknowingly connect just by being near one.”
“Which is why I’m wondering why you’ve chosen to keep one in the car with two Robots now?” Azure is a lion ready to pounce.
Kamea tries to look into her eyes and diffuse her. “Custom parts, custom software. The operating system was designed and built from the ground up,” she says.
“By yours truly.” JB grins.
“It’s completely off grid and totally Robot-proof,” Kamea says. I can see her eyes waiting to gauge Azure’s expressions.
Azure finally releases her hand from my chest and eases back into her seat.
Relieved that the moment of tension has passed, I lean up and grab for the phone.
“Let me see. I love gadgets,” I say as my fingers barely graze the edge.
Kamea pulls it away as Azure grabs my wrist. “I still wouldn’t mess with it until you know what you’re doing,” she says as she looks to Azure and waits for another outburst.
Azure grits her teeth, shakes her head silently, and looks back out the window.
• • •
“We need to stop and get camping supplies,” Azure says, cutting the silence as we make our way closer to Albuquerque. The afternoon sun is still high and bright. “No more motels.”
JB glances at her. “We have only one more night until we get there.”
“Are you sure about that?” She looks right back at him.
“She’s right,” Kamea says, staring ahead as she speaks. “We’ve been on the interstate too long.”
Azure looks Kamea up and down, then faces the window once again.
• • •
The highway winds around a mountain and descends down into the city. We take the first exit.
“Turn left up here.” Azure seems to know where she’s going.
After about a mile, she has JB park in front of a bank.
“Wait here.” She gets out of the car and walks over to the ATM.
“Your friend is going to get us in a lot of trouble,” JB says, shaking his head as we all watch Azure place her hand on the machine.
Is she my friend?
I bite my lip as anxious nausea starts to bubble in my stomach.
Outside, Azure pockets a thick stack of bills and returns to the car. She hops back in.
“There’s a store just up ahead. Let’s be quick.” She closes the door behind her. “We need to get out of the city and off the road.”
• • •
“The car is loaded up. Grab whatever else you’d like and let’s get out of here.” Azure walks back over to the registers at the front of the giant superstore and gathers some more sports drinks from one of the little refrigerators nearby. She just bought us enough camping gear to last a week stranded in any terrain or climate imaginable. I, however, am still deciding on what kind of footlong I’d like.
“I don’t know how you guys eat this trash,” Kamea says as she munches on a handful of almonds.
“This is food of the gods. How dare you,” JB says as he grabs a bag of chips. “Yeah, I’ll do the combo. Thank you.” He grins to the young girl at the register, who blushes as she takes his cash.
He’s obviously aware of the power his looks have over people. I make sure to take note.
After my order is finished, I pay, take the bag with my sandwich, and turn to find JB and Kamea whispering a few feet away by the soda fountain. They go silent when I face them.
I walk up and hold out the bag. “I need to go change.”
JB takes it, and I make a beeline for the bathroom on the other side of the store with the bag of clothes I just bought.
I step into the bathroom and stop in front of the mirror to examine my face for the first time today.
I don’t even know who I am anymore.
My hands fumble for the faucet, and I splash cold water onto my face. I let it soak in.
I cup another handful of water and notice a tiny, triangle-shaped mark that has appeared on my inner right-hand wrist, like a tattoo or a birthmark. I scrub at it, but it doesn’t budge. It’s inside my skin.
I wonder if Azure knows anything about this.
I change into the new clothes as quickly as possible and stuff JB’s damp sweats into the empty bag.
I step over to the urinal and unzip.
As I go, I start to think about what JB said to me earlier this morning. Can I trust Azure? Why would she try to stop anyone from saving me? Was JB lying?
It wouldn’t shock me if he was. He changes face so quickly, so expertly, I don’t know what to believe is real. If I looked like that I’m sure I’d be a master manipulator too.
But why would he lie about something like that?
It doesn’t make any sense. Any of it.
I just wish I knew whether or not I could trust Azure.
But she saved my life. She’s helping me. There is good and bad, and she’s obviously good.
But what if there’s a gray area in between?
Or what if they’re just rounding me up for another interested party?
The thought hits me like a slap to the face. What if these people are part of a Robot-trafficking ring, catching kids after they manifest and selling off their synthetic organs piece by bloody piece to the highest bidder?
I laugh at my paranoia and finish. As the toilet flushes, I pull the elastic waistband of my underwear back up and start to zip my pants.
The lights go out.
I can feel the size of the building as everything shuts down—air-conditioning units, lights, the registers outside the bathroom door.
Everything goes completely silent as I stand in total darkness.
Shit.
THE SHERIFF
