by Tara Brown
At least I see Liam for who and what he is. A psychopath, for sure. Well, Leah said psychopath and she’s super smart, so I’m going to assume she’s right. But he’s also something else, something more. How did he know to give permission to the bots?
“Why do you need a rampart?” I ask as if I know what a rampart is. I’m assuming he means the huge wall we’re standing on overlooking the fields. It surrounds the castle. My castle lore is rusty as hell.
“Protection,” he says so casually, as though I should have known that.
“From what?” I laugh. “You have an undead army—”
“Drones,” he corrects me. “We call them drones. They’re workers. Doers.”
“What?” He’s confusing. “Like in a hive?”
“Precisely. You and I are thinkers. They are doers.”
“I thought we used the word ‘plotter’ for you,” I say cautiously.
“I do like to plot,” he remarks, his eyes narrowing. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot since we last saw one another,” he changes the subject.
“Why?” His words make me uncomfortable.
“I told you, your eyes.” He steps closer, staring down on me. “I want to know why they glow like that.”
“I don’t know.” I take a step back, fighting to stay calm. “They just do.”
“Have they done that since you were bitten?”
“I guess. Why?” Could he know what I did? “You’re obsessed with it and you keep asking me the same questions over and over. I told you, I don’t know.”
“I can’t help but be curious. You’re different. The bots react oddly within you. I wonder if they recognize you as your father’s daughter, perhaps detecting the lineage there.”
“Why would nanobots care if I am my father’s daughter?” He’s losing me.
“Would they not have a special relationship with their maker’s daughter?” His eyes widen a little as he smiles, charming me. I suspect it’s intentionally done. “You are their queen. Perhaps I am the right leader, but maybe you are the rightful one.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.” I scoff.
“I do. And Dr. Jacquard wants to see if I’m correct.” He leads me by the arm to another doorway, not the one we came in.
“He’s here?” I ask.
“Of course, where else would he be?” Liam shakes his head slowly before pausing in the doorway and gazing back over the land and army. “Did you know that during the feudal system there was a stability rarely seen without proper slavery, and the lives of the people were the safest for the time?”
“Isn’t feudalism slavery?” I don't recall much about it, but I’m pretty sure it’s bad. We studied it a couple of years ago and I might have paid attention to half of it.
“No.” His eyes find mine, shining with passion. “It’s a trade, safety and security and protection for goods and services. And it’s control. It’s basically communism, a simpler form of it. And we’re practically living it now. A leader protects his or her people and they work to keep life going. To keep the order in this world.”
“Yeah, but they’re like robots.” I point to the zombies below.
“They are, but Lee isn’t. You aren’t. I’m not. We’re still us. Just improved upon.” He scowls as if I am missing the point. “Don’t you feel it? The lack of messiness? The lack of emotional neediness and even a void where there used to be excessive emotions? We’re the new humans. The new species, a combination of science, evolution, and genetics, adding what is necessary, what we have been missing all this time. And subtracting that which we have never needed.” He steps closer, leaving the doorway. He takes my hand in his and squeezes. “You feel it too. You feel the balance and harmony inside yourself?”
And he’s right.
I hate it but he’s right. He’s crazy and evil but also correct.
My mind takes a short trip back to before.
I was emotional. I was needy. I was imbalanced.
And I haven’t really been that way. Even with the pressures I’ve faced and the trauma of my losses. I’ve stayed on an even keel through it all. Kyle and the way I feel about him and us, our relationship, runs through my mind. I wonder if I am as attached to him as I could be. I’ve been able to leave him and not give it much thought.
“See?” Liam smiles. His eyes are lit with a sparkle I haven’t noticed before. “The bots are here to help us. And who are we to say this wasn't God’s plan? Or the evolutionary destiny for us all? Maybe we were meant to advance to the point we could save ourselves from ourselves.”
His words could be true. They feel true.
“Humans are messy and destructive. Child abuse. Sexual assault. Domestic violence. Animal cruelty. Depression. Toxic masculinity. Addictions. Need. Want.” His tone lowers as if he doesn't want to say the next words, but he can’t help it. “Obsession. Murder. Fantasy. Greed. Worship. Laziness. It’s all gone. Inside us is the new dawn, the new way people will be. Like bees, we’ll live for the greater good. We’ll help one another. We’ll become what we were always meant to be.” He lifts my hand and places it on his chest, right over his heart. “Our emotional bodies will be controlled and contained. The recklessness of free will shall be a thing of the past. One heartbeat, one people, one goal. Save ourselves and this dying planet.”
Just like the last time he gave me this spiel, I’m convinced for half a second, completely sold on his brand of Kool-Aid, before my brain reminds me, He is a psycho and a liar.
“We keep having this conversation when we see each other. But what about free will? What about choosing for yourself? We can’t control people and force things on them. We have to let people be who they are. Not some hive mind.”
“Where has free will gotten us in the last three thousand years? Women have never been safe. Children either. The earth was so heavily populated and run by corrupt capitalists, we were dying. What was so great about free will?”
Again, I gulp in the words and images he creates. It makes sense. It makes more sense this time than the last one. Is he doing something to me? Did he make me believe this or are the bots listening because they want to or is this making sense because it does? Whatever it is, I don't have an answer to the question. What was so great about the world before?
“Imagine a world where your Littles are just safe and free.” He hammers it home with my kryptonite. “They walk through the streets safe at all times. No more worrying or stressing.”
He turns and walks through the door, pulling me gently. I don't drag my hand from his, I don't know why. I let him hold my hand and lead me and convince me of everything. My fight is gone. Liam, King Crazy Pants, is right and I have no argument for that.
“There’s something I want you to see.” He guides me down a massive hallway and a flight of stairs I didn't come up.
The castle is huge.
“Also, if you don’t mind”—he leads us along a corridor that’s nearly finished—"like I said before, I’d like Dr. Jacquard to have a look at your bots,” he asks casually. “And he’s quite eager.”
“What? Why?” That makes me pull back. My paranoia resets the weird effect he has on me, almost compelling me. What if Dr. Jacquard sees that I’ve taken bots from other people? Dead people?
“So he can try to figure out why you’re glowing so much more than anyone else?” He says it like it’s a question and I’m being unreasonable. I might be, but I also did something creepier than anyone else has done. I don't want Liam to know that is possible. He might be right about humans being like locusts, but it doesn't detract from his God complex. “Don’t you want to know why?”
“No. I don't want to know why. I don't care.”
“Well, I do.” He spins and his tone changes. “Why are you being like this?”
“Like what? Let’s not forget that you and I aren’t friends, Liam. You trapped me in a house. Tried to trick me. Then tried to kidnap my family. And you are building a castle with your own home-grown undead army. How is it unr
easonable that I don't want to be pulled apart and dissected by the guy who helped start the zombie apocalypse?” I add some extra tone to match his. My bots struggle to contain my annoyance. “I don’t trust you.”
“You mean the guy who helped your father start the apocalypse?” he says cheekily.
“Yeah.” I don’t try to defend my father. The bitterness of his being part of this isn’t gone. It might never be. The bots want it gone. They want me to see the brilliance in it all. But I refuse. I refuse to see that this is better. I understand Liam’s words and reasoning, but I will never commit to the belief that this is better.
My mother is dead.
She had no idea how much I loved her because I had no idea how much until she was gone, and I can’t change that. This world sucks. The parts missing are too large to agree to it being better.
The disagreement springs to life a different kind of reasoning, the parts attached to my old feelings, and it starts to trickle back in, taking over again. My common sense, the human kind that can’t be replicated by bots, is back.
Maybe we were killing the earth and each other, maybe kids were starving and women were oppressed. But we had love. We had our thoughts. And now mine might not be free. What if they can report back to Dr. Jacquard? What if Liam can see the things I think? My teenaged brain whispers about the shame of him knowing I find him hot, but I push that to the bottom of the list of important facts he might find in my head.
I can’t let them see.
“Look.” Liam points, holding his hand into the doorway we’re next to. I walk in ahead of him, contemplating getting out of an appointment with Dr. Jacquard. But the room sucks all thoughts from me. It’s stunning. It’s circular with a wooden beam floor.
The walls are filled with windows made of stained glass, huge panels depicting scenes from history and literature. Romeo and Juliet. Adam and Eve. Lady Liberty being floated into the New York Harbor. The Times Square kiss with the nurse and the sailor. Martin Luther King giving his “I Have a Dream” speech. And so many more.
It’s crazy and beautiful and sort of creepy to see weirdly random and heroic moments in our past and culture displayed on the walls as if they’re worshipped. Commemorated in art made by zombies preprogrammed to do so.
But the art and the carved walls that give me a mild Viking hall sort of feel are not the reason we are in this room. I see that straightaway.
“Do you like it?” he asks and I suspect he’s testing me. He’s not a hundred-percent certain I understand the reference or importance of a giant round table with carved chairs around it.
“It’s cool. Who are the knights who sit here?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow like I’m kidding, but continuing to think about how to get out of the Dr. Jacquard thing.
“We will create a council. Together. Choosing people who are opposite thinkers, to challenge us. But to ensure all voices are represented.” He is way too proud of this whole thing. Like smug on crack.
“Okay, well it’s super cool and that’s a great idea. But I should probably be finding my friends.” I fold my arms and wait for his shitty reaction to this. It’s surely coming. “Before they worry.”
“You disappoint me,” he says flatly and something stabs me in the back.
Everything goes dark.
Chapter 18
Just hang on, words drift into my mind. They’re part of a dream or thoughts or something hazy that’s floating about, maybe in the air around me.
“Is she all right?” a voice I recognize asks.
“She’s fine. I’m just running the diagnostics,” a man says. I would know his voice anywhere. Dr. Jacquard. “I’ll send word for you when I’m done.”
“Fine,” Liam mutters with a sigh and a door closes. He’s gone. His buzz is gone with him.
“He’s gone, you can stop pretending to sleep,” Dr. Jacquard whispers.
“I wasn’t pretending,” I whisper back. “I just woke.” I blink. My eyes are fuzzy for a moment before they focus on the older man’s face. He’s paler than the last time I saw him. More grizzled maybe too. “What happened?”
“He had you knocked out with horse tranquilizers so he could force you to come in here and be tested.” His eyes widen. “And with good reason, I see.” His tone suggests he knows my dirty little secret.
“I had to,” I say, almost sitting up but noticing the tightness on my head. There’s something blocking me from moving.
“Oh, I am certain you did.” He lifts his eyebrows even more. “Did your bots demand the joining or did the other bots come to you on their own?”
“I don’t know,” I answer truthfully. “But you can’t tell him.”
“I have no intention of telling him. I intend to use this.” He smiles wide. “I need your help. And we don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll cut to the chase.”
“My help?” I ask. “With what?”
“I met someone recently. She’s different like you. It gave me an idea. And now that I understand what your bizarre talents are, that plan has been altered slightly; it will be even more efficient now.”
“Okay.” I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“Liam thinks I’m under his spell. But I planned for my bots to die inside this girl Liam found, taking all my knowledge with me. For some reason, she burns up the bots. Her body can’t sustain them. She hums, making the camouflage so the undead don’t see her, but her bots don’t work. They’re numb. Something in her electrical system interferes with them. Biomagnetics maybe.”
“That’s unique.”
“It’s more than unique. And instead of letting her kill the bots, I’m going to let you kill me, Lou,” his voice cracks but he smiles like he’s crazy. “My knowledge will be imparted to you. And you alone will know how to stop this madness.”
I open my mouth to speak, to protest this, but I can’t. He’s brilliant. It’s a great idea. I hate that it’s a great idea.
“But you need the girl. Liam doesn’t know what she can do. Like you, she’s an anomaly. I’ve kept her hidden in a house not far from here. When you kill me, you’ll get the information.” He’s serious. He wants to die and he wants me to kill him, and it’s the best plan we’ve had yet.
“I can’t believe you don’t agree with this, Liam’s craziness. You made the bots.” I’m a bit taken aback by the whole plan and betrayal.
“Yes, I did. And I never intended for them to be used like this. What he’s doing here, it’s madness, all of it. Liam is an ex-patient of a mental institute for the criminally insane. He was already switched off, as far as humanity goes, when this started. The bots have processed him and decided his emotional indifference to the world and lack of compassion make him the ultimate candidate for their strengths. Don’t you see?”
“See what?”
“They’re evolving. They’ve taken their core programming and grown with it. Help humans, heal humans has become ensure humans survive in the simplest and easiest way.” His eyes narrow and for a second I think maybe he’s seeing something I’m not. “They were a brilliant invention with the purest of intentions. And then the military applications came into play.”
“Why do they want me to be with Liam?”
“You feel it?” Dr. Jacquard’s gaze focuses on me again. “The pull and call and lure of him? They’re doing that on purpose. They can control so much about us. But our bodies want to resist. Our minds want to fight them. Did you happen to have the dream, your mother calling to you, telling you to run?”
“I did.”
“Common reaction to the activation of the bots. Your brain was fighting back, giving you a dream or a message from someone you trusted, telling you that you weren’t safe. Warning you that the activation of the other bots had occurred.”
“That’s creepy.”
“More than creepy. You have been invaded. And now they want to take you to their leader and make you bend the knee. And he is all about the knee bending, that one.” He points his thumb at the door behind him
.
“Is something wrong with me then too? Why are the bots choosing me?”
“Something is wrong with you, like this other girl. And the diagnostics won’t reveal the problem. I don’t have answers. It would take me years to solve that riddle. Years we don’t have. All I could determine was you have taken bots from other people, killing them and taking their information. There’s memory left behind.”
“Memories, skills, everything. The bots are reprogramming me to make me a better weapon.”
“Then you need to be careful. They’re doing it to deliver you to him. They’re making you for him. Nothing they’re doing is for you or your benefit. This is all for the cause.” He sighs, slumping his shoulders. “They serve him in the same way he serves them.”
“Great.”
“It is great. You and the other girl, you two combined can stop him. Your evolved bots and knowledge and her strange ability to destroy is the answer to the riddle of how to solve this.” He smiles softly but there is a glint in his eyes.
“You should know, you will save us all from this, but there’s a chance you or she will die in the process.” He bites his lip and nods as if convincing himself this is for the greater good. That is the cost. A girl dying. “It’s unfortunate, she’s a nice kid like you. But you can’t let that interfere. You have to do this.”
“And your bots have all the answers?” I ask, completely confused on almost everything he’s talking about.
“They do.” He stares at the floor for a moment. “I just want to be sure that you will do as I ask, no matter the cost.” He lifts his eyes to mine. Fury and passion and maybe some regret burn in them. “Promise me, you will end this.”
“I promise.” I don't hesitate.
“You have to see where this will end if you don’t. Babies born with bots in them, controllable by bots. A world with no free will. Our humanity is attached to that. We are only human because of our souls, our spirits, our ability to love and choose based on that. He thinks this tidy world of preprogrammed artificial intelligence and the ability to control the chaos is where the future is going. He doesn't realize he isn’t offering us a future; he’s offering us a colony. He’s colonizing and he can’t understand that.”
