Never in my life did I expect to wind up a prisoner. I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, fighting for something I believed in, not wasting away in a cell of my own making! I kicked and screamed, but I could practically feel the noose tightening around my neck. How did I know we were running out of time, you say? I knew because I could only pull my belt so much tighter.
The last few weeks had been bad.
I pulled the door open, which took more of my strength than I was used to, and I found Rudy and Izzy sitting on the tile floor, staring blankly into the middle distance. Bob barked happily and bounced over to me, almost certainly looking for a belly rub, but my other two friends didn’t even look up. I scratched my dog behind the ears and shook the paper bag in my arms.
“I’m back,” I said. I waited, neither of them reacted. I reached in the bag and pulled out a small, bruised apple and took a bite. Both of their heads jolted up, and their eyes widened. I flipped the bag and its contents spilled on the floor.
“One jar of peanut butter, a can of chili, two granola bars and big box of dried coffee,” I said. “Eat up.” As the two of them attacked the nonperishables I went over to the shelf in the corner and grabbed the can opener and a can of dog food; at least Bob had plenty to eat. Other than the half dozen dog food cans the shelf was completely bare… but at least one of us was in good shape.
“It’s getting dark now,” I said, sitting, “but I’ll take another look in the morning. I only got as far as Twelfth Street today before I had to come back, I think there’s a bodega just a little bit further up that should be a gold mine.”
“But, the drones…” Izzy said. She frowned and blinked a few times, and I think she was trying to focus on me.
“Iz, relax. You gotta lie down,” I said. I took her hand and gently led her to the mattress; she tried to protest, but I didn’t wait for her to do so. I helped her lie down and went over to the vending machine in the corner- we were running low on water, just three bottles left. I sighed and brought her one of them.
“Rudy, how are you holding up?” I said.
He was hunched over the jar of peanut butter, eating slowly. “I’m thirsty man, I won’t lie.”
“Drink something,” I said.
“Nah, she might need it tomorrow,” he said. “What about you? You’ve been sprinting around all day, you need to drink more than I do.”
I shook my head. “I found a water cooler in an office building a block and a half over. It’s still too full for me to carry but I’ll take another drink tomorrow and I think I’ll be able to bring it back to you guys.”
Rudy chuckled. “Who would have thought it would come to this, huh buddy?”
I sighed and shook my head. I didn’t really have much to say.
“Those damn drones…” Rudy muttered. “Somebody in the Collective told them to get rid of us, that’s what happened.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but closed it. Hell, even if he was wrong it didn’t matter.
“…Steven,” Rudy said, staring down. “I think we should just link in.”
“No!” I said, spinning.
He spread his hands. “We have to eat, man.”
“I know we do. I’ll take care of it. I’ll go out again tomorrow, I’ll find more food,” I said.
“What happens when one of those things shoots you on sight?” Rudy said, letting the question hang. I didn’t answer.
The problem wasn’t a lack of food; after all, we were the only ones in the city who had to eat. The problem was getting to the food. I went to bed hungry that night, but I had started to get used to that feeling. The pangs weren’t exactly my favorite, but at least I could still feel them, right?
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I woke up fifteen minutes before my little alarm clock beeped, so I shut it quietly and gave my eyes a second to adjust to the dark of the old office. I had slept in my clothes so I snuck out of the room; no reason to wake the others up.
I made my way down the tracks to the nearest platform, and found myself wishing that the subway still ran. I was sick of walking.
I crept up the stairs and crouched at the top in front of the glass doors leading outside, and carefully scanned the sky. No drones, good. I opened the door and shut it behind me, then sprinted across the road to the nearest building, an old insurance office. I had a system, and the less time I spent on the street the better. All I had to do was hop buildings up to Thirteenth Street or a little bit further without getting gunned down from the sky and I’d be able to bring back as much food as I could carry! …At least, that was the plan.
I nearly made it, but I knew it was too good to be true. Coming out of a building on the corner of Eleventh I heard a familiar buzz behind me.
“Citizen, stop where you are,” the drone said in its eerie robotic voice. I breathed a curse and scanned the area, but it was no use. I was exposed. I stopped and raised my hands.
“Citizen, you are accused of fifteen counts of breaking and entering, five counts of disorderly conduct, three counts of vandalism, three counts of assault on Collective enforcers, and one count of public lewdness.”
I counted on my fingers- that sounded a little bit on the low side, actually.
“Stay where you are and wait for an officer of the law to arrive,” the drone said.
I frowned. That one was new, too. I stayed where I was; with the gun trained on me I didn’t have all that much choice. Officer of the law? Like a cop? That meant somebody else had to live in the real world, cut off from virtual reality, the Collective… no way. It was like my luck to get stuck with the one drone they forgot to update.
I considered running but I knew I would be gunned down immediately; I stood and waited for something to happen. It took fifteen minutes and I shivered as I stood perfectly still in the cold breeze, but far to the West I heard a noise that I couldn’t immediately place. I knew I had heard it before, but where? It sounded like a low rumble, almost like thunder… a truck.
My heart sank.
The rumble increased and increased until I could actually feel the ground shake, and sure enough a truck came into view over the hill. It was… huge. It roared as it approached, and as it got closer I could see it wasn’t a truck at all, it was one of the military vehicles designed to drive over bombs and escape unscathed. My parasympathetic nervous system took over; I couldn’t flight with the drone’s gun still trained on me and a heavily armored vehicle speeding towards me, so I prepared myself to fight. What else could I do?
The MRAP stopped twenty yards in front of me and the doors opened. Three men in grey camouflage stepped out, their faces hidden under opaque helmets. They all carried automatic rifles, and all three guns were trained on me. Death by firing squad then; the drone could have saved them all the trouble.
I opened my mouth to speak when a fourth figure exited the vehicle, and her long blonde hair fanned out around her as the wind picked up. She brushed it out of her face and I unconsciously did the same. Her rifle hung over her shoulder, and apparently she had decided I did not merit a helmet. She turned to address me… remember when I said Izzy was gorgeous? I had never in my life seen a woman with such a beautiful face as the soldier standing before me. She must have been about my age, too.
“You’re the one who’s been giving the drones trouble?” she said. She had a lovely voice.
“They…” I stammered. “They started shooting, all of a sudden.”
“Well, did you resist arrest?” she said.
I frowned. “Allegedly.”
She scrutinized me for a moment. “Enforcer, stand down,” she said.
I blinked, and then spun as the drone behind me flew away.
“What’s your name?” she said.
I thought about lying… but would that really get me anywhere? “I’m Steven,” I said.
She nodded. “Steven, I’m Lieutenant Caitlyn Prescott of the Collective Global Police Force. Did you know there was a Global Police Force?”
I shook my head. She looked me up and down for another moment. “You look hungry.”
“I mean,” I said, “food is hard to find when the drones open fire on sight.”
“Why don’t you go back to your Unit and link in?” she said. “The drones will stop, and the Collective will take care of your body.”
“Honestly? I’d rather starve to death,” I said.
A muscle near her mouth twitched, and her eyes took on a nearly imperceptible sparkle. “You’d rather live your life in the real world,” she said. “You value your freedom.”
I nodded. “It sounds like you do too.”
She actually did smile this time. “You can tell?” She waved her hand, and the three other soldiers put their guns down and snapped to attention. “These monkeys are still linked in,” she said. “Their bodies follow orders and have all the reflexes of real soldiers, but their minds are with everybody else.”
“So you call the shots,” I said.
“Bingo.” Her smile grew. “Steven, have you ever flown in a helicopter?”
My eyes widened. “You have a helicopter?”
“With a pilot and everything. I’ll tell you, there’s nothing quite like it.” She stared into the distance for a moment, dreamy. “Anyway, can I offer you dinner?”
“Dinner?” I said, blinking. “Weren’t you here to execute me?”
“Well, are you a bad person? Are you a threat to the Collective?” she said.
“What do you think?” I said.
“I think you’re somebody I want to share dinner with,” she said with a smile. “Let’s go boys, in,” she said to her soldiers. They obediently climbed back in the MRAP, and she hopped up as well. She extended her hand to me and I didn’t really have a reason not to take it.
The inside of the vehicle was cramped, so the Lieutenant sat close to me. Her hair smelled like strawberries, and I became rather self-conscious of my own hygiene. Nobody talked; the silence got to be uncomfortable after a moment.
“So, is being outside illegal now?” I said.
She laughed. “Of course not!”
“But the drones…” I said.
“The drones got tired of you breaking all of the real laws. We can’t be everywhere at once,” she said.
I frowned. “But… why do they all have guns all of a sudden?”
The Lieutenant frowned. “Do you know how many people choose to live outside of the Collective, Steven?”
I shook my head.
“Not very many. Solely because of your efforts Brightside City is an epicenter of crime, as far as the drones are concerned. This could be the most dangerous area on Earth,” she said. That actually flattered me a little bit.
The MRAP lurched to a halt.
“Good, we’re here!” she said. I opened the door and climbed out, and found myself in the middle of a park, staring up at a big helicopter, one of the futuristic looking tiltrotor ones.
“Told you,” the Lieutenant said with a wink.
She reached into a crate nearby and threw me a package marked Crackers. She produced a few others like that- Grilled Chicken Breast, Potatoes, and Baked Beans were the most notable among them. The food wasn’t exactly good… but I was quite literally starving.
“There are a few of you people, right?” the Lieutenant said after we began eating.
I hesitated, and then nodded.
She smiled sadly. “I forget what that’s like,” she said quietly.
“You don’t spend much time with any other officers, Lieutenant?”
She laughed, and the sparkle in her eyes got even more beautiful. “That’s not really a big part of job. We mostly leave each other alone. But you can call me Caitlyn.”
She dug around in the crate and came out with MRE Apple Pie for dessert.
“Caitlyn, do you ever link in?” I said.
“I have to sometimes, just to get orders,” she said with a nod. “I hate it.”
I felt uncomfortable, really. It had been a long time since I had talked to anybody other than Izzy or Rudy. What did people usually talk about?
She stretched and took off her grey combat jacket- she wore a t shirt underneath, and she wore it better than I believed it was possible for a t shirt to be worn. I think she noticed me staring, because she got a funny look on her face for a second.
“It’s gotta be nice,” she said.
I didn’t say anything.
“Those guys in the MRAP, they’re not really people, you know? They’re just another part of the Collective. I’ve been working alone with… hell, they’re not much better than robots. For three years now.” She sighed.
“You sound lonely,” I said.
“Lonely?” she said, and frowned. “I guess… you might be right,” she said. “But what’s the alternative? Link in, live inside everybody else’s brain for the rest of eternity?”
I shook my head violently. “Never.” I paused. “You could come live with us though,” I said with a shrug.
“When’s the last time you linked in?” she said.
I shrugged. “Three, four years ago? I never really made a habit of it in the first place.”
Her eyes widened a little bit, and she shook her head in disbelief. “You’re pulling my leg.”
“Come see for yourself,” I said. “Just tell the force you quit, I’ll introduce you to my friends!”
“Friends.” She let the word hang for a second, testing it out, dreamy, and then frowned. “No, I don’t think I could do that. They’d never let me walk away. But…” she looked up at me. “You could join us.”
I laughed out loud. “Me? A cop?”
“Sure, why not?” she said. “I could get your friends in too! You wouldn’t have to go hungry anymore…”
I thought about it for a second. “I don’t think I could to that.”
Caitlyn nodded, smiling. “Looks like we’re at a bit of a stalemate then.” She gestured over her shoulder. “There’s a liquor store up the street, you feel like a drink?”
I shook my head. “I don’t really drink, thanks.”
Caitlyn squinted at me. “You’re a bit of a mystery, Steven.” I winked at her.
“That, or I’m just more of a degenerate than you are,” she said. She stood and began walking. I frowned but followed her anyway- no sense in sitting alone. Sure enough, the first building across the street was a liquor store, and I watched in awe as Caitlyn slammed the butt of her rifle against the window until the glass shattered. I stood outside as she searched the shelves, my arms crossed.
I heard a buzzing behind me, but for the first time my heart didn’t leap. I figured with Caitlyn by my side I couldn’t do any wrong, as I turned and flipped the bird at the drone.
“Citizen, you are accused of sixteen counts of breaking and entering, five counts of disorderly conduct, three counts of vandalism, three counts of assault on Collective enforcers, and one count of public lewdness.”
Shit.
“Caitlyn,” I said, tilting my head.
“Stand by Citizen, do not move or you will be executed on the spot.”
“Caitlyn,” I said, a little louder.
“The nearest Officers of the Collective’s Peace are occupied, Citizen,” the drone said.
Good.
“Collective protocol therefore requires the nearest Enforcer of the Collective’s Peace to carry out your execution. This unit will bear that responsibility.”
My heart sank. Where the hell was Caitlyn? Did she trick me?
“Do you have any last words to offer the Collective?” the drone said. It buzzed a few feet closer to me, menacingly.
“Yeah, the Collective can pound sand,” I said. Or, I tried to say it. A burst of automatic gunfire interrupted me, and I hit the ground. I was dazed, but I think the drone hit the ground someplace near my head.”
“Steven!” Caitlyn yelled. “Steven!”
I rolled over onto my back. She knelt down over me and I blinked up at her a few times. “Are you alright?” she said, eyes wide.
“I… I think I need mouth to mouth,” I said. I sat up and grinned.
She threw her arms around me- she was softer than I imagined a soldier would be. She sat down next to me and exhaled.
“You saved my ass,” I noted.
She grimaced. “Barely… Sorry it took so long. I had to get a good shot or it would have killed us both.”
I opened my mouth to say something, and then closed it again. She tilted her head.
“You used me as a scapegoat,” I said.
“Well… I wouldn’t put it that way,” she said, a wicked glint in her eyes.
I stood and stretched. “Uh huh. So what really happened?”
“Well, that’s what happened. I just wouldn’t put it that way.” She winked, and stepped back through the broken window. “Sure you don’t want some?” she said a moment later as she emerged with a big bottle of caustic-looking brown liquid.
I sighed and held out my hand. She opened the bottle, took out the little cap from the top, and took a big drink before she handed it over. I took a tentative sip… and coughed so hard I nearly dropped the bottle.
Caitlyn laughed and took it back from me. “I’ll wipe your record, so you won’t have to worry about it for a little while,” she said.
I nodded my thanks. “But… didn’t you just break and enter that liquor store?”
She shrugged. “Most of these laws are pretty outdated, if you ask me.”
I squinted at her.
“We aren’t so different after all, are we?” she said, grinning.
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“A real live cop?” Rudy said in disbelief.
“She wiped our records and everything,” I said with a nod.
“But if she’s telling the truth, that means Brightside is the most dangerous place to be,” Izzy said, munching on some jerky from the box that Caitlyn had left me as a parting gift. She already looked a bit healthier, no doubt because she had a little less to worry about.
“I think I believe her,” I said. I reached down and rubbed Bob’s belly.
“So where does that leave us?” Rudy said, frowning.
“Depends,” I said. “How do you two feel about a change in scenery?”672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkDLqmRSZZ4
