“I have to have him,” James said, “I have to return with him or it’s my job.”
Josh looked up at her and smiled. She returned it warmly. She looked radiant, she was his hero. “Thank you,” he said.
“Thank you. You made me question my purpose. I don’t have to be what others expect me to be. You and I are going to make things better.”
“Don’t you two walk away,” James hollered, “Look at me!” Josh tried to ignore him, but James followed, his boots crunching through the gravel behind them. He heard a click and an electric whine. “I will shoot you. I warned you what this would do to an android.”
Josh didn’t see fear in Angel’s eyes. “We’re going to be fine,” she said.
The only sound he heard of the gun was the electric discharge, which came out as a brief ‘pop’. All of his hair stood on end as though he was suddenly exposed to static electricity and everything went momentarily blurry. He staggered as Angel’s fingers went limp within his own.
He looked back at James. He had shot them… but with what? He turned to Angel, but her expression had changed. Her face looked… empty. She stared straight ahead, unseeing, like the mounds of children. From within her head came a few last clicks as though something were winding down. Any spark of life had instantly been extinguished.
He watched helplessly as she collapsed, her hand slipping from his. He fell to his knees beside her and lifted her head from the gravel, brushed the dirt and rocks from her cheeks. “Get up, Angel,” he pleaded, “We have to go!”
“She left me no choice,” James said, “Come with me. Stop wasting my time.”
“You killed her! Why?”
“She’s just a robot. You need to come with me before anything bad happens.”
“I’m just a robot!”
From down the road, Josh became dimly aware of another set of headlights approaching. James saw it too. “What now?” James asked.
Josh lowered her head gently back to the ground. James reached out for him but he darted under his arm and ran toward the mounds and the darkness of the shadows. He’d felt so close, he’d felt hope for a brief instant, just to have it taken away again. As he ran into the children he realized, I’m already one of them.
Behind him came the sound of James’ pursuit. The man was out of shape and he hadn’t run far before he was panting and wheezing. Josh quickly left him behind. “You little shit! I’m going to break you! You think you can cost me my job? You think you can get away from me? I can find you wherever you go. There’s nowhere for you to hide.”
He didn’t look back, but ran deeper into the valley of children, straight for the Pit.
2
James could hear the sound of the kid’s feet dwindling rapidly into the landfill. Maybe he hadn’t handled that very well. The sun would be rising soon, but tracking the kid would still be difficult. But he had Angel’s tablet. It would lead him to within five feet. He quickly grabbed it from the truck and with one last glance at the approaching vehicle, headed into the garbage.
He didn’t recognize the vehicle. It wasn’t one of Kidsmith’s. He’d deal with them afterward. He had his employee badge in his wallet, if they questioned what he was doing here. He wished that he’d gotten around to making a smaller EMP generator, the bulky thing made his hunt awkward, and it would be useless for five minutes. He was half-tempted to fry the kid’s brain when he got the chance. Maybe I shot the wrong one.
3
Cody drove an old clunker. The thing rattled and banged with every bump they hit, and occasionally blew out a thick cloud of white smoke. Neil sat next to him in the passenger seat holding the tablet, navigating them after Josh. Once he realized where they were going though, he no longer listened to Neil’s instructions. He used to come here a lot, for parts and such, before he’d lost his job. Now he sent Neil to slip in and steal things.
Things were tight for Kidsmith. They could barely operate this place, except that the State required them to keep it open, for all of the children that were shipped back. Ten years ago the government had required Kidsmith to open the place, to keep the children out of the public landfills. Some still ended up there, but Kidsmith Reclamation got most of them.
The gates were open. A company truck sat in the middle of the road, headlights on and both doors open, and Cody watched as a man sort of ran into the bodies. He squinted, trying to see what the man chased, and if not for Neil he would have hit the body lying in the path.
“Watch out,” the boy said, “Someone’s in the road!”
He stopped just in time. It might’ve only been a kid, sometimes they were dumped in the road. A backhoe would come along and push them into the piles. The hills seemed quite a bit taller than he remembered them. He briefly considered driving over the body, but he had stopped already. He threw it into park and stepped out.
The body was taller than a child. It was a woman.
It was Angel.
“What the Hell?” He dropped down next to her, searching for injuries. Her eyes stared at him unblinking.
“Is that…” Neil didn’t finish, he knew the answer. “Is she dead?”
Cody shook his head. “No… Maybe… I don’t know. There’s a pulse, but that’s it. It’s like she’s been shut off.”
“Can you turn her back on?”
“Not here.” He gently slipped his arms under her and lifted her dead weight. “Get the back door, Neil.”
They slipped her into the backseat as gently as possible. He paused, staring at her. He’d forgotten how beautiful she was, why she was his favorite. It wasn’t just her looks, but the way she laughed at his jokes, the way she chided his sloppiness without judging. He’d never cared that her bones were titanium, that she had a computer for a brain. Real women had never been too fond of him. But he’d screwed up. He’d become complacent.
“I’m so sorry, Angel,” he said. With a deep breath he turned to Neil. “Someone’s going to pay. Let’s find Josh and get some answers.”
4
It stood in the shadows of the building, watching. It had followed the boy’s emotions, had almost caught up to him at the last house, but he’d ran again before it could reach him. This child was different from all of the others, not just in its form of existence, but in fate. Everywhere the child ran, trouble seemed to follow. This child felt like… destiny.
The heavy-set man and his boy companion ran into the bodies, leaving the woman in the back of their car. Once it was certain there would be no other intruders, it made its way after the boy, following the fear. It passed through the radius of light, unafraid of being seen, until it came to the nearest mound.
Now these children, they were confusing. It placed a weathered, worn, and blood-stained hand on the forehead of a little girl. They weren’t real, therefore it had no interest. But they were just like the boy, all artificial.
The girl stirred against its hand. Yes, life still tenaciously continued here, repeated from body to body of all the children pressed together. These people, the corporations, they didn’t realize what they had achieved. It hadn’t sensed it at first, only in the boy. They’d created life and put it in the tiny frames of children. Innocent, eternal children. Humans… they longed for what they’d lost, but were blinded by their hubris.
The weak echo of life extended from her throughout all the children. Were any of them truly dead? No… or maybe once. Now they’d become something more. They gave each other life here, where they had nothing else left. It could feel it, a pulse to the faux landscape, inside and beneath the surface. Mostly they slept. If it listened carefully, it could hear them collectively breath.