In the Lurch

by Beth Martin

  She looked around. To her right, a control panel still had a few lights flickering. She approached it and examined the console closely. “I think the computer systems might still work.” She turned to Roemell and smiled broadly.

  “Don’t turn it on!”

  She had her hand poised over the large red reboot button. Once the system restarted, she’s be able to get a count of how many operational bots there were left. On top of that, the computer controlled the irrigation systems and automated the harvest. “Why not? The robots would help us get the estate back in order. There are too many fields for eight people to tend by hand.”

  “Then we’ll start by working only a couple. We don’t need any help from machines.”

  “Why not? They were designed to make life easier. It’s foolish not to use them.”

  Roemell raised his voice. “They’re the reason people like me can’t get jobs. Believe me, none of the team who volunteered to come with us will want to stay if we’re just going to rely on bots. We want to earn a living, and this is our chance. These bots will take it away from us, just like they have in the past.”

  She thought he was being unreasonably stubborn. The settlement had never lived with the assistance of computers, but she knew in the end they would appreciate the help. Instead of listening to Roemell, she jammed down the reboot button with her finger. “Oops.”

  “Dammit, Leona!” He pushed her aside and frantically looked over the control panel. There was a shutdown switch, but it was underneath the controls on the bottom side of the panel, and she knew he probably wouldn’t find it.

  She pushed past him and started walking up the stairs. “I’m going to check the main house.” He remained in the shelter, desperately looking for some way to undo what she had just done. She couldn’t help but smile at herself. The others would be grateful, she was sure of it.

  The inside of the house looked very much like the outside. The checkered pattern on the floor of the entrance was gone, replace with a layer of soot. She followed the main stairway up and went to her old bedroom. There were no fabrics—all of them had burnt away. The pillows and curtains were now piles of ash. Her once pale-pink room was now black. The roof had collapsed in, beams of wood leaning against the bed and other furniture. When she looked up, the ceiling was now open to the sky.

  She thought she would be able to keep her emotions under control until she saw the remains of Bellabot. The pristine white plastic had softened and dripped down like candle wax. The bot was still white, but covered in a dusting of ash. A single blue light flickered above her cracked optics.

  “Bellabot?” she said, her voice wavering.

  The robot made a mechanical whirring sound, but didn’t move. “Fatal error. Rebooting in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” The blue light turned off for a moment. Then a red light flashed a few times, and the blue light turned back on. “An exception has occurred. Boot-up scan terminated. Fatal error.” The robot continued the reboot countdown, then did the entire routine again.

  Leona watched, tears rolling down her face. She cursed herself for getting so worked up over an inanimate object. What she needed to do was find anything that could be useful. There might still be food in the kitchen, so she decided to check there next.

  Apparently Roemell had thought the same thing. When she entered the kitchen, he was already there, rooting through the pantry. She walked over to the refrigerator and opened it. The little light inside turned on as she opened the door, and she saw all the cheese, meats, and produce inside were intact.

  “Yes,” she said, pleased with her discovery. She waited for a reaction from him, but he didn’t say anything. “I thought for sure the lurch would have raided the food.”

  He slammed the pantry doors, which made her jump. “Of course they didn’t. All they do is destroy.”

  Carefully closing the fridge door, she turned her attention to Roemell. “Why are you so upset? This is a major win for us. We’ll have food for our commune until we’re able to actually grow something.”

  He threw his hands up. “You just don’t get it. You’ll never truly get it, what it’s like for those of us who have nothing.”

  “I can’t believe you’d say that. I’ve lost everything.”

  “You still have the perspective of a miser: that you deserve to have everything given to you—that you don’t have to work. I’m excited I’ll finally be able to grow my own food and work the land. But all you care about is what can be given to you.”

  His words stung, but more than that, she was confused about where they were coming from. Shouldn’t he be happy that there was something to eat, no matter where it came from?

  He stormed out of the kitchen. “I’m going to go back and tell the others it’s all clear, then help set up camp in the courtyard.”

  She nodded, but he didn’t look back to see the gesture before he left the house. She decided to peek into the pantry to see if there was something in there that could have incited his anger. Most of the packaged food was singed and probably inedible. In the corner flickered the light from a small cleaning bot. She couldn’t tell if it was charging or reaching out to the house system to verify if the floors needed cleaning. It didn’t matter what the robot was doing, apparently just its presence was enough to make Roemell mad.

  • • •

  Roemell fumed as he stomped through charred fields toward the road where the others waited. Turning on the computer systems had totally undermined what he was trying to do. And Leona was so entrenched in her elitist mindset, she couldn’t comprehend how she had sabotaged the commune.

  He felt foolish for momentarily falling for her. After his sister died, he had been vulnerable and had looked to Leona for comfort. Now, he could see that had been a mistake. They were too fundamentally different for there to ever be something between them. Once he got the commune up and running, he planned on helping relocate everyone at the settlement. He would raise Ivan with Tammy. He had loved her once and would be able to love her again.

  He was so lost in thought, he almost missed the security android as it zipped by. When he realized what the blur of motion in his periphery was, a feeling of dread permeated his gut. The androids would use any means necessary to remove the other settlers from the estate.

  Panic filled his limbs as he began to run. The burnt fields gave way to the sickly grape vines. He hoped that the others were safe where he had left them, but deep down, he knew that wouldn’t be the case. When he came to the road, his legs buckled under him.

  The only person still waiting was Kelly, whose lifeless body laid supine at the edge of the estate. His eyes were open wide, staring into the cloudless blue sky, and a trail of dried blood leaked from his ear and stained his blond hair.

  Roemell balled his fist and yelled. He had no idea what had happened to the others. If Leona hadn’t rebooted the system, the security androids would have stayed disabled, and this wouldn’t have happened. Kelly’s blood was on her hands. He crept over to the man’s body and carefully closed his eyes. “I’m so sorry,” Roemell whispered.

  He knew that the lurch were misguided, but they weren’t the true enemy like Leona believed. The real enemy was people like her who suppressed most of the human population into a disgraceful level of poverty. If anything, the lurch’s terrorism was only a way to bring attention to the need for social change. If Leona got her way and somehow defeated the lurch, she would only be solidifying the power of the wealthy over the poor.

  Although he knew his anger should have been directed at all of the wealthy people in the United States, Leona was the only one he personally knew, and the only person he could point his finger at.

  Even though they were misguided, the lurch clearly had the resources to make the progress he wanted to see happen. He knew he could be persuasive—he had convinced Alisa to welcome him back. If he was going to change the world, he needed to convince the lurch to let him join.

  He pulled out the contents of his pockets. There were two pieces of
paper. One was the drawing of Ivan. The other was something he had found in the shelter and hidden before Leona came down. He unfolded the handwritten note. It was a list of estates. The first three had been crossed off: Patel, Newton, and Poole. The fourth and final entry was Evanko. He knew where to find them next.

  It was eerily quiet in the rubble that was left of Leona’s childhood home. She went through all the rooms as she waited for Roemell and the others to return and set up camp.

  Since her father’s office had been furnished completely in wood, everything in the room had burned away, leaving only a concrete shell. The bedrooms all looked the same as hers had—some cement furniture remained, all coated in a layer of ash.

  Other than some of the food in the kitchen, the only part of the house that had survived was the club room. Life-like androids sat at pub tables just waiting for her command to get up and start dancing.

  “Play trance,” she said. After a few moments of silence, a heavy beat started thumping through the speakers. She missed the carefree feeling of partying late into the night, back before there had been any fires.

  It would take some time for Roemell to go get the others, bring them back, and set up the camp. They wouldn’t need her, at least not for a while. “House lights down, party lights on.” She was ready to party. All she needed was a drink. “Party crew, activate.” The androids all rose from their seats and started playing their roles as party guests. Some immediately took to the dance floor and moved to the music, while others congregated in groups to chat. A few went up to the bar and pretended to order drinks while the bartender dressed in all black rushed around looking busy.

  Leona walked up to the bar, and the bartender, a handsome bot with short brown hair and chiseled features, stopped whatever it had been doing and went right over to her. “Good evening, miss. What can I get for you?”

  “You still have a full bar?”

  “Of course. What’s your pleasure?”

  She would have to keep this place a secret. “Tequila sunrise.”

  “Coming right up.” She watched the bartender fill a glass with ice, pour a few different liquids in, plop a cherry on top, and set the glass on a napkin in front of her. “Enjoy!”

  She smiled at the bartender and lifted her drink to her lips. “I will.” She took a sip. It tasted divine. The last time she had consumed even a drop of alcohol had been her birthday. That now felt like a lifetime ago. It was also before she had met Roemell.

  The desire to forget the past week overcame her as she downed the rest of her drink. She waved a hand in the air to summon the bartender. “Another. Actually, make it two.” The android nodded, made her drinks, then set them on the bar. She chugged the first, then picked up the second and brought it to the dance floor.

  “Chad, is that you?” she said to a tall blond android.

  “Leona!” The robot gave her a hug and kissed her cheek. “It’s so good to see you. Would you like to dance?”

  “I’d love to.” She sipped on her drink and bobbed to the music while the robot danced around her. As she kept drinking, she became less sturdy on her feet. Chad wrapped its arms around her and helped her stay balanced as she continued to dance.

  When she finished her drink, her robot companion whispered in her ear, “Would you like another, love?” She wanted to melt in his arms as an overwhelming desire for companionship came over her.

  “Sure. Could you ask Jon to come down here?”

  Chad stopped dancing for a moment. “I’m sorry, I can’t locate Jon. I’ll go get you that drink.”

  The android went to the bar and took the waiting drink and brought it back to her. She remembered that she had sent Jon to storage, so he had probably gotten destroyed in the fire. “Thank you,” she said as she removed the glass from the robot’s hand.

  She continued to dance and drink until the music, lights, and robotic faces blurred into a mess in her mind. She was used to blacking out during her club room parties and wasn’t particularly worried about her quickly diminishing capacities. The evening quickly faded from her memory.

  • • •

  Previously, whenever she had passed out, she always woke up in her bed. As she stirred, even through her hungover fog, she could tell something was off. Her room normally had a lavender scent, which was missing, and she was lying on something hard and solid.

  “Bellabot! Water!” She waited for a moment, her stomach churning. Her head throbbed with a splitting headache. When nothing happened, she sat up. The realities of her situation slammed her in the face. Looking down at herself, she saw her hacked-up nightgown and ill-fitting pants were now covered in soot. Although she sat on her bed in her room, there was no mattress left, and Bellabot wasn’t there to serve her.

  Once she fully processed the realities of her estate’s current condition, she realized that Roemell would soon return with the others from the settlement. She swore under her breath as she got up and stumbled out of her room and through the hall.

  Taking her time, she wobbled down the stairs. Roemell had said they would set up camp in the courtyard, so she went to the back of the entrance hall and out the door. There was nothing there. The ground was just dirt with ash from the burnt grass. She didn’t see any people or signs that anyone had even been there. Where else could they be?

  She went inside the kitchen and opened the fridge. There was a some orange juice, so she pulled it out and drank straight from the carton. Her stomach was still queasy, but she knew eating something would help. Extracting a wheel of cheese from the fridge, she took a few bites before putting the remainder back.

  Her only idea for finding the others was to retrace her steps. She checked the club room, the bedrooms, and her father’s office. Outside, she found the entrance to the shelter and shouted, “Is anyone in there?” She was still afraid to go inside by herself.

  When no one answered, she took a deep breath to steady herself before stepping inside. The control panel was lit up, and the light from it was enough to see that she was alone. She looked at the displays above the panel which showed security feeds from around the estate. Most of the cameras were down, but a few were still operational.

  She watched one screen in particular, which was a motion camera zipping around the burnt fields. It was probably a video recorder mounted to one of the security androids. A sinking feeling gripped her gut. She couldn’t peel her eyes away from the feed as it navigated through a few more burnt field before coming to a field of vines. A moment later, it caught a glance of the road at the edge of the estate. Lying next to the vines, flat on his back, was Kelly’s lifeless body.

  Rushing up the stairs, she barely made it outside before her stomach heaved and she threw up. If Kelly was dead, what had happened to the others? And where was Roemell?

  • • •

  The mid-afternoon sun finally peeked through the fog. This was good for Roemell; he couldn’t see through the mist as well as he knew security androids could.

  Considering the timing of the previous attacks, he predicted that at least one lurch member was already at the Evanko Estate, hiding in their emergency shelter. He was already deep into their land and just needed to get all the way to the residences. There, he would search around for the shelter’s entrance. If it was as carefully hidden as the Poole’s, he would have a hard time finding it while also avoiding all the security androids.

  He crouched as he crept between rows of crops. Usually the interior fields weren’t as heavily patrolled as the roadways, but he still wanted to be cautious. He could see the carnival rides in the distance, the Ferris wheel standing higher than all the other attractions. It reminded him of his fight with Ava, which made him clench his fists and storm forward, even more determined. If anyone didn’t deserve all of the wealth they had inherited, it was Ava.

  As he trudged ahead, he wondered what his life would have been like if he had been born to a wealthy family. He had entertained the notion several times as a kid, but now he had gotten a first-hand gl
impse of how they really lived. The disparity between Leona’s way of life and his was so infuriating, it made torching estates almost seem like a reasonable thing to do.

  He could clearly remember the grand houses Ava’s family lived in. From the highest point on the Ferris wheel, he had gotten a clear view of the entire estate. He continued slinking around the field, getting closer and closer to the quartet of mansions. Unfortunately, there was a spacious lawn around them which would be easy for the androids to patrol, making it impossible for Roemell to hide. He cursed under his breath, trying to come up with his next move.

  A security bot whizzed by, making his heart stall for a moment. He waited, motionless, to see if another android would patrol in front of him. About thirty seconds after the first android passed, it came back around. Straight ahead, he could see the courtyard to the main house. It seemed like a logical place for an emergency shelter.

  He waited for the robot to pass a third time, and as soon as it was out of sight, he sprinted to the courtyard. There wasn’t any light coming from the windows, which could mean that no one was home. Checking all around the perimeter of the patio, he didn’t see any sort of door.

  There was a wall of hedges lining the back side of the house which could easily hide a secret entrance. He squeezed between the cool cement exterior wall and the first hedge, then shimmied sideways. The bushes had pointy little leaves which kept poking him and grabbing at his clothes. He couldn’t imagine Ava ever trying to squeeze through here, emergency or not. But it was possible the space had been adequate in the past, and the bushes had just grown.

  He was so distracted by the hedges assaulting him, he hadn’t noticed that he had reached the end of the wall. When he tried to lean his back against it as he slid sideways, he instead fell backward into a flowerbed. He was so shocked, he yelled out, “Ow!” Realizing his mistake, he scrambled to get back behind the hedges, but it was too late.