CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." - Author Unknown
Leaving the underground provided Harry with another kind of excitement. The experience resulted in the usual symptoms: palpitations of the heart, perspiration forming on skin, irregular and rapid breathing. If you could call fear of the unknown and anticipating danger around every corner reasons for ecstasy, Harry was ecstatic.
The journey to and from the underground shopping center required walking the dark streets of the city for about twenty blocks, and meant plenty of opportunity to be spied on and questioned by Cyber security. Together, Harry and Dar wound their way through the most isolated paths, deliberately trying to shake Barry's surveillance tails. Both were now experts in surreptitious movement, having been Touchables for several months now, and were confident they could make it back to The Watering Hole without incident.
.
As they arrived at back The Watering Hole, Harry and Dar observed two security cyberts entering the premises, leaving the door ajar behind them.
"What do we do, Harry?" Hissed Dar as she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the shadows.
"I don't know. Something!" Harry froze.
Dar started toward the doors. Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him. "No, wait...You stay here. Hide!"
"No!" She whispered loudly. "I'm not hiding. Where you go, I go."
Both knew The Watering Hole had forty or fifty Touchables present at any given moment day or night. However, at peak times during special Touchable social events, there might be a hundred or more in the sanctuary.
"I want you safe! Please!" he pleaded with her as he directed her back into the blackness of the building shadows. "Stay there until I come for you. If I'm not back in ten minutes, get as far away from here as you can."
"But, Harry..."
He grabbed her shoulders and held her firmly. "Promise you'll do as I ask. Promise?"
She nodded reluctantly. He left her in the darkness and made his way toward the building's entrance. Dar waited and watched Harry as he made his way to the entrance via the darkest shadows.
With the bravado made of ignorance, he made his dash, zigzagging in and out of the shadows to get to the entrance. The slightly open door revealed flashes of light, muffled noises of protest and surprise. Then, screams.
The cyberts weren't asking the Bios to surrender! They were executing them on the spot! Harry hesitated for a moment to catch his breath, several feet away from the open doorway. Just as he did so, Desiree bolted from the doorway. A specialized pursuit cybertank on caterpillar treads was rapidly gaining on her. She saw Harry and cried out as she ran past him.
"Run! Harry! Run! Save yourself!"
She headed for the darkened alley as the cybertank's searchlight fell upon her, creating a silhouette against a blinding wall of light as she gave up the race. With nowhere to go, she stood there motionless until Harry grabbed for her, pulled her into the darkness between buildings and held her fast as she fell exhausted into his arms.
"Go away, Harry! Please!" She cried. She begged him to leave her as he dragged her further back to where he had left Dar. He knew—he just knew--that the cybert wouldn't fire on him.
Why had it allowed Desiree to pass unharmed? There had to be a more important target!
The cybertank positioned itself in a building's shadow, probably waiting for the cyberts inside to exit the building before destroying the entire structure.
Desiree was sobbing, tears streaming in rivers down her face. He had never seen her like this—so bruised and battered, blood pouring from several places on her head and upper body. Examining her wounds quickly, he was certain they looked worse than they were; with some first aid and a few stitches she'd be fine. Harry surmised that it must have taken her quite a struggle to get to the door. There must be many others who had not been so lucky.
"Easy. Take it easy. You're safe now."
He held her close, covering her sobs with his body. He was so glad he had found her again and relieved she was alive after witnessing The Watering Hole carnage. As he held her, a little more gently now to soothe her pain and fright, the gigantic shadows of four security cyberts glided by the alley's entrance without pause. Harry's heart skipped. He had forgotten the danger for an instant. Have to watch that, he thought, but for some strange reason they seemed safe for the moment. Surely the cyberts have heard the sobbing and his talking?
"Are you all right? Are you hurt? What's going on in there?" He didn't even breathe between questions, but it made Desiree smile.
"I'm so glad to see you again," she smiled tenderly, exhausted. "How did you know, Harry? How did you know?"
She lapsed into unconsciousness for a moment, then suddenly terrified eyes wide open. Now passing in and out of consciousness, frantic when she awoke to the horrible reality Outside, Desiree clung to Harry as she spoke.
"They've found us... You've got to do something... You knew the cyberts wouldn't hurt us... You knew... You're the one they told us about, remember? Help us, please."
Unfortunately, as he was about to ask her who "they" were, she faded again and passed out. She was losing a lot of blood.
"That was very stupid, Harry," Dar whispered from the darkness, and waved them toward her.
Harry nodded and pulled Desiree toward Dar, who had taken a post just inside the entrance to the alley.
"I don't mean to break up this lovers' reunion, but we have a serious problem here." She eyed him suspiciously as he tore his own clothing into bandages to minister to her wounds.
"How did you know those cyberts that passed by wouldn't hurt us, Harry?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. I just knew the Cyber wouldn't harm us at that moment. I'm sorry I can't explain it. We don't really have time for this discussion."
The cybertank—now that was a problem. Harry knew it was specialized for something bigger than Bio flesh. We're going to need more protection, he thought.
"We seem to be safe here for the moment," Dar said, but motioned Harry and Desiree to move further into the shadows. His answer would do for now, but something just didn't feel right to her. "Strange, it doesn't seem all the Cyber have night vision," she said, more to calm herself than anything.
Dar watched Harry's back as he pulled Desiree further back into a narrow space between buildings, and motioned for her to follow.
"You'll be easy prey in there," whispered Dar. "Maybe you have a death wish, but I don't."
"Most cyberts use heat sensors to see us. The buildings have a heat signature, too. If we wedge ourselves in tightly, the cyberts may not be able to detect us."
Dar stared at him in amazement.
"If you have a better idea, Dar, let's hear it," commanded Harry, showing some spunk after all.
"You must be part Shadow," she said as she broke the tension with a smile.
Wedged between the two buildings, she was painfully aware of being Outside—cold and dirty. No cozy feelings from SensaVision—just harsh ancient steel and prefab composite concrete. Dar stayed close to the two other Touchables as if she alone could protect them. She seemed relatively unmoved by the rejoining of two old friends.
While Harry looked after Desiree's wounds, Dar maintained a lookout where the shadow of the Cyber security force had passed. How can I be so blind—so stupid to let this happen? she asked herself. I should have known that I am one of Makr's pawns—like all other Bios.
"What's happening?" Harry caught sight of movement in the shadows. The shadows themselves were moving as if blown by the wind, and then slithering along surfaces like a smoky snake.
"War." Desiree's voice had the timbre of defeat, monotonous, with barely enough breath to get the words out. "Pest removal. We're the pests, Harry. Makr's exterminating us, killing us... Executions... Lies... It's all been lies, Harry. Can't co-exist..."
Desperate Touchable voices from in and around The Watering Hole cried out for help. The cries became screams of horror that reverberated
in the night as that help didn't appear to be coming. They knew soft flesh opposing hardened metal made it no contest.
I can't save you, thought Harry. Not Bios. Suddenly he saw Bio eyes, human eyes floating suspended around him, moving like a school of fish. He tried to shake the hallucination but he couldn't. Desiree and Dar? He couldn't see them anywhere—just the tormented eyes staring back at him, pleading with him to save them.
Remembering the mechanical bees, he cried out, "I can't hurt machines! I can't hurt Cyber!" Unlike the bees that had enveloped his entire body, the school of eyes surrounded only his head so everywhere he turned, he saw them looking into his own eyes. The eerie wailing became deafening. As he grabbed his ears, there was silence for only a fraction of a second, then a voice, a gentle voice in his head that said:
"You must help them. It's all up to you."
"It can't be me. No human. Not one." He answered aloud. Dar and Desiree, puzzled, looked his way, but both were too weary or too frightened to react.
"Pest removal," echoed Dar. Desiree has it right, she thought.
Desiree, more alert now, was having her own revelation. She was convinced Dar had had something to do with this. She had heard Dar say the cyberts didn't seem to have night vision. That was ridiculous! It was just the opposite. Of course they did. Dar had to know most security cyberts were equipped with infrared vision! Any child Outside knows that. Why wouldn't Cyber security be able to see in the dark? It would be necessary for them to do their jobs.
She watched Dar who appeared to acting as a lookout. Looking out for what? Is she protecting us or guarding us? What are we waiting for? Why aren't we trying to kill the cyberts? she thought.
"Harry? Harry?" Harry was cringing in another corner. Having one of those nightmares of his. I guess I always knew you were a coward, she thought disappointedly. No worse than anyone else though.
Unlike Harry, she couldn't control her thoughts or her reality. She couldn't help knowing that Harry was a coward and Dar was collaborator or spy or similar. I knew she wasn't ever going to be like us. I knew it! She's just guarding us until the properly modified cyberts arrive to take us prisoners or kill us.
A security cybert stepped into view behind Dar and fired his weapon at Harry and the others in the shadows. Missed.
The blast jolted Harry upright. Miss? How can it miss us? Harry thought. A wall of the building next door on their right was partially obliterated, and the surrounding zone scorched and melted, oozing angry red brick and concrete lava. They were trapped—unable to move as rivulets of white-hot steel and molten rock splashed searing liquid at them as it surrounded them. Any escape would mean climbing over this fiery ring around them.
It wants us alive for now, Harry thought. Then what? If Cyber can see us even in the dark, where can we hide?
Several Touchables from inside The Watering Hole managed to escape behind the cybert as it fired at the three in the shadows. The cybert now focused its attack on the escapees. One of them ran toward Harry, Dar and Desiree who were still helplessly trapped by the ring of fire.
Harry recognized him. Bob! The bright light explosion that followed propelled the trio back several yards. No one was running toward them now. Bob died instantly as his molecules were blasted into oblivion. Harry had never seen a man vaporized before. He knew he wouldn't forget the look of horror on the man's face the instant before. No second chance. No wound. No man. Nothing.
As their lava prison cooled and hardened, the trio was able to jump over it, with the remaining red-hot sludge radiating through their shoes, burning like bare feet would on hot coals.
Harry and Dar carried and dragged a defeated and weary Desiree down the street a short distance until they came to another narrow alley between two buildings. They hid there in the dark, Harry hoping selfishly that Cyber security would be distracted by the others escaping. He would be deserting and sacrificing his friends. He knew that was not right but he couldn't help himself. What else could he do?
Cyber security wasn't distracted, but instead headed right for the trio.
"Run, Harry." Desiree pleaded. "Save yourself if you can."
He ignored her plea as he watched the panicked exit of fellow Touchables. Some were fighting back, but most were running away. Why aren't they fighting back?
"We have no chance, don't you understand?" begged Desiree. "No weapons! Those who are fighting might as well be dead already. They don't have a chance!"
"Who's controlling the Cyber?" Harry asked, but he knew the answer and spoke it aloud, bitterly, "There's no State, no human behind this! This is Makr and Makr alone!"
Desiree looked desperately at Dar for her help to save Harry, not as a rejected or scorned other woman, but with a pure, decent motive.
"You must leave! Run!" she implored Harry. When Harry didn't budge, "Save him," she whispered in a final plea to Dar. "You must save him! You owe him that much!"
Desiree's out of her head, Harry thought. Anyone might be if they had seen ten or twenty of their friends murdered before their eyes.
Harry shook his head as if to get rid of some of his conflicting thoughts, and started toward the Watering Hole entrance again. This time Desiree held him back. He let her light touch restrain him as he continued holding her. He looked again to the Watering Hole's entrance where a few Touchables were still scrambling out two or three at a time. Seven or eight had managed to escape and had run headlong into the darkness away from the buildings without looking back. It was then he saw his friend Barry.
He was firing some kind of ancient projectile weapon at the cyberts coming behind him, covering his comrades ahead who made it to the darkness. The two cyberts, firing blasters, zeroed in on Barry and deliberately avoided hitting him; instead, they disintegrated those Touchables he had been trying to save. Two bright flashes of light and they were gone...as if they had never been.
The cyberts stopped a nanosecond for Barry to notice. He did, and turned. When Barry turned back again, he saw Harry, in the dark alley with the two women. He nodded an approval of sorts. Harry thought the look a bit odd. He could see his lips move, then the look on his face became strangely peaceful, accepting. The two cyberts fired simultaneously. The familiar blinding flash of disintegrating white light!
The Cyber whirled away from Harry, Desiree and Dar, and continued firing at the people exiting the building, who were running right into the line of fire. Then it was quiet. Deathly quiet.