Human Code

11 || E L E V E N

"But even logic isn't dependable. It's all impulsive. Can't you see?"

*

"Call for backup!"

The moment the androids were just feet away from the officers in the street, they broke out into a run. I couldn't see them but heard them, felt them. Their metal meeting asphalt sent vibrations up the street and through the alley, sending painful surges up into my skin. I hissed into Mary's shoulder and held her tight.

And she held me back. "It's okay," she whispered, almost in tears. "If we stay here, they won't see us."

Guns fired again. Screams echoed in the air. The officers shouted at each other as cars started their engines. But the sounds of breaking glass and failed sirens came right after.

They were losing.

"We can't stay here." I trembled, feeling the warmth of my fluids sliding down my chest. The heat of the bullet damaged my skin. My nano-bots couldn't react and heal.

This... this is a human death, isn't it? Bleeding out. Fading away.

"We have no choice." I felt Mary turn her head towards the street. Her whimpers hit my ear. Each time a gun fired, a body slammed, she tensed. Her heart beat like mad, I could hear it. "If we move, they'll find us."

I slammed my head back against the brick behind me and stared up at the sky. The clouds spread over the sun, hiding us in late afternoon shadows. I heard thunder rumble in the air. Even nature knew of the troubles we were in.

"But Wendy." I lifted my hand to cup the back of her head to keep her close. "If I don't leave here... Wendy will..."

I wasn't sure what would happen to Wendy. I couldn't think of it, either. The androids—or Rogues, as the cops called them—had ulterior motives, far from the limits programmed within our cores. Why else would they attack? Kill? Androids would never do that, broken or not.

But Mary had said it, right?

These droids weren't broken.

What were they, then?

"Javi." The side exit to the grocery store clicked, unlocked, and Mary's fingers gripped my sweater so tight, the material rubbed against my wound. I shifted back, hissing in discomfort, but kept her close. Both of us looked at the door as it pressed against the brick wall, opening wide.

Moving slowly up the wall, I kept her close to me, eyes on the door. My computers tried to scan the store, but without much power, I was practically useless. Each attempt to pull up a command came with a subtle, yet dangerous reminder.

Battery low. Twenty-nine percent.

"We have to run," I whispered into her curls, glancing back at the violence that filled the streets. "I just can't analyze which way to go."

"There's no way to go." Mary's voice was as quiet as mine. She moved her head to look up at me. "We're stuck."

Stuck was a good word. Because I'd rather have been stuck, then dead. But death at this point was inevitable.

Right?

A single, white gym shoe stepped out from the door and paused as if waiting. Watching. I watched it, too, hoping my sensors would kick in. I only needed one to tell me who, or what, it was.

But the shoe was followed by a leg, with dark jeans that blurred with static as I looked at it. Half of a body came next, then a hand, and a face. When the person turned to look at us, I sighed with relief. It wasn't a droid or a cop, but Will, my old friend.