Accidental Evil (23 page)

April bit her lips and thought. She looked at the gray house in front of her and the red garage to her right. Her back was pressed to a white house with black shutters. She couldn’t place any of these buildings. The robots moved them around at night to confuse her. They repainted them at three in the morning to disorient her. Every morning when she stepped out of her apartment, the world was a freshly-confused place.

North would probably be her best bet, but she didn’t even know her directions. She looked up. The sun was no help—it was pretty much straight overhead.

“To the right,” she whispered.

April trusted her out-loud voice.
 

She wasted no more time. Pushing away from the side of the house, April turned right and ran. She didn’t hear any buzzing overhead—that was a good thing. When she got beyond the edge of the houses, she saw it. She saw the twinkling lake just beyond another row of buildings. April jumped over the fence and ran.
 

[ Fight ]

She should have watched her feet. April didn’t even see the little spidery robot that slipped out from under a bush and tangled her legs. She went down hard, tumbling in the grass and winding up on her back. The little puppy-sized robot was on her in an instant. The tiny claws at the end of its metal legs pinched her skin as it raced up her leg and perched on her chest.

As it rose up, she saw the triangle of yellow eyes regarding her.

April screamed and swiped at it, trying to knock it from her chest. The thing’s claws were firmly attached to her dress. It rocked, but it didn’t lose its grip. The pinchers were like the little legs under a lobster. They looked useless until they got ahold of something.

She rolled over and jumped to her feet. The thing creepy-crawled up her chest and used its little claws to grab her chin. April batted at it again as she ran. Now that it gripped her skin, it was even more tenacious. It wasn’t going to let go.
 

The lake was right there in front of her.

She ignored the pain and tried to ignore the waving appendages that had sprouted from the top of the robot. The segmented, metal antennae reached up for her eyes and began to explore her nose.
 

April screamed and splashed into the lake. The bottom dropped away fast. When the lake was no more than up to her knees, she dove for the deeper water.

She felt the probes retract as the little robot hunkered close to her chest. Her dream of the thing shorting out was dashed, but at least the water seemed to tame it. April breached the surface and took a deep breath. The weight of the robot wanted to take her down.

“Dive,” she said to the air. She dragged in one more breath—even deeper—and then let herself sink. Her descent accelerated as she let the air bubble out of her nose. April looked up at the receding sky and felt her ears pop against the pressure.

The thing on her chest seemed dormant. She pushed it away with both hands and its claws gave up their grip on both her skin and her clothes. With it untethered, she dropped it in the mud at the bottom of the lake. April was almost out of air, but she forced herself to swim even farther out before she began to pull towards the sky.
 

When her face broke the surface again, she filled her lungs with a groan. She splashed at the water to keep herself afloat. It took her several seconds to gain her composure. April fought the urge to swim to shore. There were too many shadows that could hold more of the puppy-sized robots. When she had mastered her breathing, she put her face under the surface to look down to the depths once more. She thought she could see those three yellow eyes down there, but it could have just been her imagination. It was possible to imagine anything down there.

The water was thick with life, and it was impossible to see anything deeper than a few feet. It was all a shade of fuzzy greenish-brown.
 

A little farther out, a floating buoy marked the channel. April kicked in that direction. She wrapped her arms around the red marker and felt it settle under her weight. Her feet found the chain that held it in place. She studied the shore and the air for signs of the robots. Every few seconds, she stole a panicked glance under the water, convinced that the robot would be crawling up the chain towards her feet.

April reviewed her options.
 

Behind her, the other side of the lake was lined with little camps. The hill rose up at a sharp angle from the shore. Those camps were accessible only from the water. She wondered if people were living in those buildings, oblivious of the robots across the lake from them. Geographically, the idea made little sense. The robots could simply cross the bridge and hike through the woods. They would probably have an easy time tracking down the people in those camps.

A fish kissed her foot. When she and her sisters were kids playing in the lake, they had been terrified of fish biting them. April’s brother had teased them when they didn’t want to get in. Her mother had said, “They’re just kissing you, because you’re so sweet.” After that, the girls had loved to feel the tickle of little fish lips—real or imagined. But “kiss” was an old Germanic word. It’s roots weren’t sweet, they were guttural and dangerous, and that was not a fish!

April jerked her legs up and stuck her face underwater. She saw the triangle of yellow lights. The thing had climbed the buoy’s chain. April pushed away, swimming for deeper water.

[ Collection ]

T
RINA
LOOKED
FROM
J
OHN
Endicott to Peg Polhemus, and then over to her cousin, Gerard. She saw his hungry eyes taking everything in, and then saw that he was standing on a throw blanket. He was up to something. She broke away from Mary and Wendy, who were tending to Peg. She tried to look casual as she walked over to Gerard and inserted herself between him and the others.
 

With her back to most of the room, she questioned him.

“What do you know, Gerard?” she asked. She kept her voice low, so the others wouldn’t hear.

He shook his head and tried to look innocent.

“Don’t try to play me,” she said. “You’ve been busy on your little trips the past couple of days. You know something about all this, don’t you? What do you know?”

He only shook his head. She could tell by the way he held himself—he was dying to know what was going on behind her.
 

“You should think very carefully, Gerard,” she said. “You need me. Your mother has a slim chance of surviving. Nobody else in the family seems eager to take you in. You want a roof over your head and someone to feed you? You’ve got two choices—you can go back to one of those group homes, or you can live with me. Which would you prefer?”

It took him a second, but he raised his finger to point to Trina.

“I’m going to need you to say it out loud.”

“You,” he said eventually. “I want to stay with you.”

“I thought so,” she said. “And in return, I’m going to demand very little from you. But one of the things I’m demanding is that you tell me
everything
you know about what’s going on here. Understand?”

“You need me too,” he whispered.

“Pardon me?” She tilted her head, challenging him to say it again.

To her surprise, he did. “You need me too. The family is starting to think that maybe they’ve carried you long enough. They’re starting to think that maybe you should be paying your own way. Taking care of me is your ticket to staying in their good graces.”

“I can survive on my own, Gerard.”

“And I can survive in a group home if I have to. There are levels of survival.”

She hated to admit it, but he had a point.
 

“So we’re in this together then. Tell me what you know because we’re in this together.”

He considered it, and then seemed to reach the same conclusion. He nodded and then began to whisper. He started with what happened at the golf course.
 

After a second, he shook his head.
 

“No,” he said, “that’s not the beginning.”

He started the story again with when he met April Yettin outside the Grill.

[ Synthesis ]

When Gerard was done, Trina rubbed her face with her hands and turned away from him. She looked down at his feet and looked at the black blanket he was standing on.
 

All the details ticked around in a circle. Nothing connected or made any sense. Gerard was a big bag of strange observations. She couldn’t even be sure about what was real and what his odd brain had invented.

Trina thought about where she had found him.
 

Gerard had fled the park while Trina was pulling Ricky from the lake. She had walked down the middle of the road, thinking she would never track him down. It was April’s yells that drew her to Gerard. April Yettin had stood in the side lot of the bait shop on a fresh patch of asphalt and had yelled, “Marked!” She had been pointing right at Gerard.

He had to be crazy, didn’t he? The things he described simply didn’t happen. Then again, John Endicott had never struck her as crazy, and he had reported things that were just as odd. And Bruce Hazard was about as steady a person as she had ever met. He seemed really shook up by something as well. Maybe the
world
was crazy. If that were true, only a crazy person would stand around and deny it.

Trina turned her attention towards Peg Polhemus. Mary and Wendy were still attending to her. They looked about ready to give up. Peg was simply sitting there, staring off at nothing. An injury demanded attention. What was wrong with Peg seemed to demand something they couldn’t supply. It was like she had PTSD or something.

Trina turned back to Gerard.

“You’re basically saying we’re being invaded by robots,” she whispered. “Robots that came in from an electrical storm.”

He shook his head.
 

“No,” he said. “They came in during an electrical storm. Not from it. I don’t know
where
they’re from.”

“Oh,” she said. “And that woman is possessed by robots?” She gestured with her eyes towards Peg Polhemus.

Gerard nodded.

“But April Yettin said that
you
were possessed by robots. Why should I believe you?”

“She said I was
marked
,” he said. “Which, by the way, I don’t necessarily disagree with.”

“What does
marked
get you?”

Gerard shrugged.

“And what are we supposed to do about all this?”

He looked down at his feet.

“Right—they hate black. You told me.”

“I
think
they do,” he said. “It’s all I have to go on.”

Trina and Gerard both turned when Wendy Hazard screamed. Her husband, Bruce, came up behind her and pulled her back by her shoulders. Trina had a clear view of Peg Polhemus. She was staring off at nothing.
 

Trina saw what Wendy had screamed at. Just below Peg’s neck, in the center of her upper chest, three yellow lights glowed from under her skin.

[ Memory ]

“N
O
,
NO
!” L
ILY
WHISPERED
.

“What?” Sarah asked.

“Look!” Lily said. She pointed at Ms. Polhemus and her glowing chest. “I’ve seen those before. They’re eyes.”

“That’s weird,” Sarah said.

“We have to go,” Lily said. She raised her voice. “Mom, Dad, we have to go. We have to get out of here.”

Lily pulled Sarah by the wrist and began to gather her parents together. They were shocked enough that they followed the leadership of their youngest daughter. Meanwhile, Mary was leaning in closer to the yellow lights that had appeared under Ms. Polhemus’s skin.

“Don’t get close to her,” Lily said. She turned to her parents. “Let’s go home. Or let’s get out of town. Let’s go down to Uncle Francis’s house, okay?” He lived a few states south in Connecticut. She figured that should be far enough.

“We can’t go home,” her father said. “The house is not safe. And the cars don’t work. Anywhere we go, we have to walk.”

“Ms. Dunn, please don’t get too close,” Lily said. Ms. Polhemus was completely still for the moment. That might not always be true. Lily turned towards Trina. “Please, Trina, come with us. Let’s get out of here.”

“I’m not disagreeing,” her mom said, “but how?”

“What about Trina’s car?” Sarah asked.

“I’m under the impression that all the cars have been disabled,” her father said. When everyone looked at him, he retracted his statement. “I could be wrong. I certainly haven’t tested all…”

“A boat!” her mom said. “We’re lousy with boats. If the engines don’t work, we could take the sail boat.”

“It doesn’t fit all of us,” Lily said.

“Then we’ll row,” her mom said. “We can row all the way down to the Depot if need be.”

“I should go home,” Sarah said. “I should make sure my dad and Shari know what’s going on.”

“Please,” Lily said. She looked Sarah in the eyes. “Please come with us. You can get in touch with your father later.”

“No,” Sarah said. “You go. I’ll be okay.”

Lily turned to her parents for help. They looked to each other. It was her mother who spoke first.

“We’ll walk Sarah home and then we’ll double back to the dock,” she said.

Lily pictured the route in her head. It was a generous offer, given how far out of the way it would take them. It still left Sarah to fend for herself, depending on how helpful her father was. She decided to go along with the idea. Maybe by the time they got to Sarah’s house, she could change their minds. Or maybe Sarah’s father wouldn’t be home.

“You folks go,” Trina said. “Go on your boat. Gerard and I will walk Sarah home. We’ve got some business over in that part of town.”

“Are you sure?” Wendy asked her.
 

Trina nodded. Sarah thanked her.

Lily’s heart sank. She hated the idea of everyone splitting up and going separate directions. If they weren’t together, they couldn’t look out for each other. She didn’t seem to have much choice in the matter. Her mother pressed on her shoulder and led her towards the door.