Synthetic Intuition

Chapter 8 - Apprehension and Evasion | Trezza

I knelt there in the middle of the hallway, horrified at the sight of blood streaming from the cop's neck and soaking into the messy carpet. Lazlo and Katie stared at me in terror. I was still unable to comprehend what had come over me. The Overwatch undoubtedly knows that their vitals have faded and have already charged me with 2nd-degree murder. It felt like a whole minute before I gained the nerve to speak again.

"We need to leave the city..." I whispered.

"With what and how! You just murdered two individuals!" Lazlo shouted As if he was waiting for the perfect moment to break the silence.

"They were far from individuals. They could barely think for themselves" I replied, my tone changed from panicked to threatening in an instant. I slowly rose from the ground.

"There are more on their way. Get those bionics on if you want any hope of surviving" I continued to speak as I grabbed the belt and gun off the second cop. I searched his corps for a body shield. No luck, as I predicted. Body shields were expensive and I don't see why the lowest tier of city police would be wearing any, especially in Crush.

"We are just leaving... Do. Do we have anywhere to go ore..." Lazlo stuttered as he slid his leg into a metal boot.

"I know exactly where we are gonna go, but we need to be as unpredictable as possible so I am not gonna say anything," I said, pulling off the cops plated vest and throwing it over myself. I looked over to see Katie. A tsunami of fear and sadness washed over me. 

I kneeled next to Katie. I could feel tears beginning to pool in my eyes, realizing the fate of her life was sealed. I was incapable of imagining how her future would go now. She was weak and had no way of surviving without slowing us down.

"Please... put this on," I said, removing the vest I had just put on. I wasn't pleading so hard for her to put on the vest, that I knew she would do willingly. I was pleading for something else that was out of my control. Tears ran down her cheeks as she turned around allowing me to tighten the protective vest.

I then rushed back into my room swiping the other cop's vest and throwing it over myself before throwing open my closet doors and reaching into the bag, pulling out the sword my father had left me before he was killed as we wher about to be. The blade was still razor sharp due to the lack of usage and the fine craftsmanship that went into it was still recognizable. I slid into my black hoody and tightened the strap that was connected to the sheath, around my torso before I ran across the hall to Lazlo.

"You might need this," I said, handing him one of the cops' guns.

"shouldn't more cops have arrived by now?" Lazlo asked as he picked up the helmet, the final piece of armor, off the ground and slid it onto his head.

The bionic suit was intimidating by itself on the stand in the ruins of the old facility, but it somehow seemed even more intimidating now Lazlo was inside it. He was a good half a meter taller than he originally stood.

My fear was momentarily suppressed knowing that he was likely on our side. The armor altho old, would still probably hold up well to both ignition and energy weapons.

"No. Overwatch is smarter than that, way smarter. There were probably no guards patrolling the outside of the dome because they didn't want us to fear coming to my own home. There are probably loads waiting at the bottom for us to come out.

"Attention residents. Non-citizen detected in your block. Cooperation with your search team permits full credit reward" The cold emotionless voice of the Overwatch echoed through the area.

"That is what they want everybody else to think, not as much as us," I said to Lazlo as I grabbed Katie and walked towards the front door.

"Are we heading to the roof?" Lazlo asked, following behind me.