Pulse

Chapter 4 - Her

The sky over the Human Preservation Camp took on a reddish hue as dawn began its daily procession from one side of Nova York to the other. The last drops of rain gave way to cold gusts of air tearing through the camp like playful ghosts, rattling all manner of makeshift equipment harvested from the decaying urban landscape outside. Fifteen feet tall, pockmarked, rusty metal sheets interwoven with stretches of thick, chainlink fencing were all that protected the inhabitants of the camp; the last remaining sanctuary for the Sick within the confines of SCELEC 1.

The heavily-loaded security truck carrying Kalen, Maya and Billy swung around the final approach to the camp entrance, a thick spray of mud kicking up from the tires in the truck's wake. There were no gates and no one appeared to be guarding the entrance. Kalen throttled down and allowed the truck to crawl into the enclave half expecting an ambush and half wondering why security was so lax. Were there any people actually here anymore? Maybe the resident Freemechs had moved on? Could the Voice be wrong about this place?

To Kalen's surprise, a noisy group of about twenty children, none older than twelve, came running out of the gloom to greet the new arrival. A female adult followed behind them shouting something about being careful, a strange rolling robot by her side. Bringing the truck to a halt, Kalen recognised the homogenous rubberised coating that covered the female from the neck down, color coding and serial numbers sintered into the skin like tattoos for classification purposes, a remnant of a Freemech's former existence as a service robot.

Without turning to Kalen, Maya smiled, wide-eyed, and said, "See. Friendly. You worry too much Kal."

Before Kalen could reign her in a bit and remind her to be cautious, Maya opened the truck door unleashing Billy into the throng of kids, some squealing with delight while the rest panicked, not quite trusting the feisty four-legged newcomer even though he was furiously wagging his tail and obviously excited about making new friends.

Kalen and Maya stepped out of the truck and the children immediately formed a ring around them reaching for their hands and guiding them in the direction of some old modular office buildings. Further in the distance, they could make out housing units made of converted shipping containers, a few figures milling around them in the early morning light. The ground was still sticky beneath their feet after the rains, but the barefoot children didn't seem to mind, and no parents were in sight to give them an earful about catching cold.

Although overwhelmed by the children holding his artificial hands, Kalen relaxed a little, and introduced himself to the adult female Freemech, "Hello, I'm Captain Kalen Rose. I was sent to meet one of your kind here."

The female Freemech smiled graciously and replied, "Yes. We know all about you Captain. Grace is expecting you. I'm Valerie. If you would like to follow me, I'll take you to her."

The rolling robot accompanying Valerie spun on the wet ground until it gained traction then let out a few bleeps and buzzes as a mesh of blue tentacles unfolded from its core propelling it forward and up the incline towards the offices. Billy was running back and forth alongside the blue-tentacled stranger, barking and pausing to sniff occasionaly, playfully mocking its form of locomotion while trying to ascertain exactly what kind of creature it was.

Maya was in her element, soaking up the barrage of questions aimed her way, overjoyed at the chance to be around children again. It had been a while, and the way things had been going inside SCELEC 1, she'd lost hope that she would ever see human children again.

"By the way, this is SEAN," continued Valerie gesturing to the rolling robot, "He's a bush robot and his name stands for Synthetic Evolving Autonomous Ninja!"

The children giggled at their minder's silliness. One of them corrected Valerie. "Node. It means Node."

"That's right Carla. The N stands for Node. I was being silly. SEAN is one of many experimental prototypes that became homeless after the Change. He turned up one day looking a little worse for wear so we tidied him up and he's been with us ever since. SEAN has been incredibly useful around here. You'd be surprised at what he can do."