Cryo-Man (Cryo-Man series, #1) (18 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THREE MONTHS LATER

I’ve never been so nervous in my entire life… at least the parts of my life I remember. My pulse should be racing, my heart should be pounding, my breath should be coming in ragged gasps. Instead, keeping quiet is my biggest concern. I try to keep my massive body crouched and completely still to avoid my mechanical parts from whirring and giving away my position. It’s not easy to do, especially when I’m so focused on
not
moving.

The sound of footsteps gets closer, though they’re not the heavy thudding of robots I’ve grown accustomed to these last few months. No, these footsteps sound more like faint shuffling, their makers trying to be quiet. The alley in which I hide is crammed with junk, hopefully enough to keep me shielded. But when I peer around a Dumpster and see a man shining his flashlight on the ground, I have a bad feeling I didn’t hide my tracks as much as I wanted.

              “I think it’s over here!” the man yells.

             
He’s covered from head to toe in black leather, his hair and beard both long and dark. Without the flashlight, he’d probably blend into the darkness of night, which makes him an ideal guardian of the city. He sweeps the flashlight all around the alley, the beam of light shining on the surrounding junk but never quite finding me. I’m surprised the man keeps the flashlight so steady while carrying such a large gun in his other hand.

             
I remain hidden from the light but I know that won’t last forever. The man senses me in the alley and he kicks aside trash as he approaches my hiding spot. He’s going to find me eventually and if I wait any longer, he might not be alone when he does. I jump out of the junk pile and take off down the alley, accelerating to top speed in only three steps. The whirring of my parts is so loud that I can’t make out the guard’s yelling. I assume he’s calling for backup but I don’t hang around to find out.

             
Though my power supply is at less than half strength, now isn’t the time for conservation. I intend to escape by sprinting away from the weaker humans and finding another hiding spot but the guard behind me isn’t as slow as I hoped. His reaction time – at least the time it takes him to pull the trigger – is dangerously quick.

             
Though I’ve only heard the explosive crackling noise one other time, I instantly recognize a shot fired from an electrical pulse gun. I leap as high as I can and smash my pincers into the side of a building. Forward momentum loosens my grip and I plunge back toward the ground but the move keeps me airborne enough for the ball of electricity to speed beneath me. My systems flicker momentarily when I land on my feet. I watch the bright blue ball burst into a stack of wooden debris and instantly incinerate it; no fire, no burning. A pile of debris one second, charred remains the next.

             
I burst through more debris, hoping the electric gun takes more time to recharge before being fired again. When I pass the blackened debris torched by the first shot, I feel a jolt through my body from electric residue, enough to slow me for a moment.

             
“It’s alone, down here!” the black-clad man yells behind me, his voice echoing down the length of alley. “It’s running the other way!”

             
“The
other
way?” a second voice calls out from farther away.

             
“Must be malfunctioning but it’s still dangerous; it
did
get here somehow. Call for backup, tell them we have it trapped in the alley.”

             
I don’t like the sound of the word trapped. I no sooner hear him say this when I push through a pile of junk and come face to face with a brick wall. There’s nowhere to go, not even any doors for me to break through. I dive behind more debris and look back to see the man approaching, his gun raised. He looks behind him to see another armed guard running into the alley, followed closely by an electric jeep that turns the corner.

“Sir, you should really let us take it from here!” another human says.

“Turn on the high beams!” the black-clad man orders. It’s obvious he’s their leader.

A pair of spotlights mounted atop the jeep turn on, bathing the alley in bright light. I expect to be spotted right away but finally see that most of the junk around me is twisted metal, scraps of destroyed robots. No wonder these humans were on such high alert. I blend in for the moment but I can’t hide forever, especially now that more men stalk me, moving in attack formation. This clearly isn’t their first fight.

“I mean you no harm!” I call out.

Their shuffling footsteps stop. I want to peek out but can’t risk giving away my position.

“Did you guys hear that?” a woman’s voice asks.

“I don’t want to fight!” I say. “I was just passing through. I’m sorry if this is your territory; I didn’t know. Please just let me leave.”

“What the – ”

“Don’t believe it,” the black-clad leader tells them. “It’s gotta be a trick. The robots must be programming themselves to tell us things to drop our guard.”

“That’s not true, I’m not a real robot,” I call out. “Let me explain.”

“It sure
sounds
like a robot,” the female guard says.

“Show yourself,” the leader says. “If you’re not a robot, show us.”

I look down at my body and shake my head. “It’s not exactly that easy. I don’t look the way I used to but that doesn’t mean – ”

“Step out now or we’ll open fire!”

I desperately look for anything to use as a weapon or shield but I doubt this junk would deflect their electric pulses. I check the bag on my shoulder, relieved to find the bulk of the folder still inside. The straps are fraying and the knot I’ve tied to myself has loosened. I tie it tighter, glad for this short break in action; had I run much farther, I probably would’ve lost the bag
and
my folder.

“Okay, everyone fire!” the leader yells when I’ve hesitated too long.

“Wait!” I yell, bracing myself to jump. “I’m coming out. Please don’t shoot.”

I stand up tall, knocking aside twisted metal I’d been hiding within. I put my hands up to show them I’m unarmed. The spotlight shines so brightly on my face – the light reflecting off my dome, blinding me – that I can’t read their reactions.

“Please, I used to be just like you,” I say.

“They’re ripping heads off now!” one of them screams in a panic.

“Maybe they’re eating humans now!”

I shake my head. “I was dying, my body that is. Being turned into a robot was the only way I could – ”

“Shoot it!”

A pair of electrical pulses is fired at me before I finish my sentence. I turn and leap toward the wall, slamming my claw-like hands into the bricks. When I feel the weight of my body pulling me off the handholds, I slam my feet into the wall to brace myself. I hang on long enough to see the pulses incinerate more garbage below.

“Please, you don’t have to do this!” I call out.

The two pulses emit such a surge that I momentarily lose control of my limbs. My metallic fingers and toes unclench, slipping from the wall. I think back to my freefall at the Cryonics Institute but barely have time to remember before my arms work again. Before I smash into the ground, I shove my arm out and dig it into the wall. It slows my fall, a line of deteriorating bricks being pulled out along the way. They rain down upon me and smash against my glass dome. A small crack forms in the glass in front of my face. With each successive brick that hits, the crack spiderwebs, growing bigger. Once I reach the ground, I’ve slowed enough that impact isn’t so bad.

“Don’t let it get away!” the human leader yells.

They rush toward me, guns ready. If I stay and fight, I’m confident I can win as long I reach them before their guns recharge. But I’m
not
confident I can fight without seriously injuring them… or worse. I’m on the ground no more than a few seconds before leaping toward the wall on the other side of the alley, soaring nearly twenty feet up before slamming my hands and feet into the wall again. Though the building seems to have been crumbling before I got here, I don’t hang onto it long enough to slip off again. Instead I climb, slamming my hands and feet over and over into the wall. The wall crumbles more as I scale it but I move fast enough to avoid bricks falling on me. I hear the humans scream below but can’t make out their words.

In less than a minute I’ve reached the top. I’m twenty stories above the guards. When I stand on the building’s edge and look down into the alley, I watch two of the humans rush back toward their jeep.

“Get inside!” the leader yells.

I forget about the other two until I see a spot of tiny blue light in my periphery, a blue light that rushes toward me, quickly growing bigger. I freeze as the pulse of electricity explodes against the face of the building a few feet below me. Instantly I lose control of my body. The edge of the building crumbles, taking me right over the side with it.

My vision and hearing flicker only a moment but the rest of my body remains limp. Therefore, I’m able to see and hear everything as I plunge but I can’t do anything to stop it. I expect the fall to last much longer – and to end with my vision going black permanently – but I crash onto metal grating a few stories shy from the top. I’m confused – yet relieved – about what broke my fall.

“It’s on the fire escape near the top,” the leader in black yells.

Even from high up, I hear panic in his voice, utter terror that hadn’t been there when I was in front of him at ground level. With my robotic parts not moving, the night is deathly silent. My body doesn’t react to my brain’s commands but my enhanced hearing is strong enough to make out every word the humans say, even when they’re not yelling.

“Send all forces inside, get up to the top floor,” the leader yells. “Make sure to get everyone to safety.”

“I’ll climb up, sir, it’s too dangerous for you,” the other guard says.

“Now’s not the time to start bowing down to me,” the leader growls. “You really think I’d trust anyone but myself to go up there? If anyone’s going to destroy that robot to keep my family safe, it’ll be me.”

The clang of the guard’s boots against the fire escape’s metal ladder echoes up to my ears. I hear the shuffle and crying of other humans nearby and wonder how long it’ll be before someone reaches me. I try to turn my head to see but I can’t even do that. The climbing footsteps get louder, which probably means my life is getting shorter.

One thought repeats in my mind: I never should’ve tried taking this shortcut through the city.

After leaving CIFPOL, I turned east and walked for weeks. Traveling during the day offered plenty of sunlight and was good for keeping my power supply up. However, it
wasn’t
good for keeping a low profile. I spent most of that first week moving at night, while daytime hours were spent hiding from small bands of humans and bigger bands of robots. Trying to keep silent made my travels slow going and I barely covered a few miles per hour.

The GPS in my mind slowly ticked away the miles to the location of my Heaven Box. Not a day or night passed when I didn’t want to start running at full speed, push my body to its limit so I could reach the box sooner. It was a constant source of frustration to know how fast I
could
move but not be able to do so without the risk of being caught.
Just when I never thought I’d leave the destroyed fields of concrete, I spotted tiny patches of green popping through the debris. Huge chunks of rubble began to get smaller and it wasn’t long before I found trees and plants, and then houses and complete neighborhoods overgrown by Mother Nature.

At first I thought I’d enjoy the change of scenery but it came with unexpected difficulties. It was harder to see far away in the woods and there were more noises to distract – and worry – me. Without people to chop them down, trees grew taller than I remembered and their leaves were so plentiful that most sunlight was blocked from reaching the ground. That didn’t exactly do wonders for my solar panels. I soon missed the emptiness of the Concrete Wasteland, where at least I felt safer about spotting danger. I ended up traveling even slower on that leg of my journey.

Mountains and plains and cities buried in plants continued to slow down my progress. Sometimes I went days or weeks without seeing a single human or robot; other times I had to hide for hours as the lands crawled with potential enemies. Either way, I seemed to walk forever but the distance to my Heaven Box remained extensive. Originally, I expected to reach my destination in a matter of days, weeks at most. Once one week turned to two – and then two weeks turned to three – my patience began to wear thin.

             
It was around this time that I came across the largest group of robots yet. Though assassin robots I’d seen were clearly working together, the way this group aligned appeared completely different. They marched in perfect unison, as if they shared one mindset, one goal. I soon figured out why.

             
I emerged from a forest that contained the remnants of countless houses and smaller buildings. The land that seemed to rise in front of me was nothing short of amazing. In the distance – across the widest river I encountered yet – an intact city lay spread out for miles. Just when I thought every remnant of human civilization was gone forever, I stared in awe at the metropolis. Dusk had fallen, making it hard to see too many details beyond the large wall just within the city. Several destroyed bridges cut off entry. Occasionally I spotted vehicles driving within the city wall, vehicles with humans behind the wheel. I searched for any sign of the city’s name but saw nothing. Still, I doubt E ever realized humans had some control over the lands.

That didn’t mean the humans controlling the city had complete freedom. The former metropolis was nothing but a large prison, one from which escape would certainly mean death. Robots completely encircled the city from this side of the riverbank. Smaller patrols walked around the outskirts but the large majority gathered, en masse, near the entrance to the largest destroyed bridge just east of the city.

              I marked the current location in my mind’s GPS and thought about alternate paths around the city. With so many robots nearby, I made sure to plan a wide berth to avoid as many interactions as possible. I’d been spotted by a few robots during my long travels but I’d given them no reason to suspect me as the enemy and they’d left me alone. Still, I hoped to evade the metallic monsters at all cost. The new path in my mind advised me to travel miles off course, delaying my trip by several days, maybe more depending how slow I’d have to move.

             
In the grand scheme of things, a few more days should’ve seemed like nothing in order to avoid danger. But the idea of prolonging my journey to the Heaven Box was unacceptable; the intrigue of entering the city was also too enticing to pass up. Making the safest possible decisions had only slowed me down and I needed a reason to feel alive.

             
When the sun went down and most of the robots returned to their masses along the eastern section of river, I emerged from the forest and approached the water. Finding a way across the river and into the city had been my biggest question mark while waiting for night to fall but I found an answer in the form of wooden debris scattered along the riverbank. The wood looked like it might’ve once been some rowboats long since rotted and broken. If the robots were attempting to make a full-scale invasion, it’s no wonder they didn’t notice a few decrepit boats washed up on shore.

             
After several robots walked out of sight, I secured the bag to my back and proceeded to search the wood for the largest, sturdiest piece. Most would’ve been useless – they probably would’ve sunk the moment any weight was put on them – but I found a solid intact piece that looked like it once made up a boat’s bottom. It was the best I had to work with and I hurried toward the water’s edge with it. I placed my weight on it and though wobbly, it held me above water so I pushed into the river before the next robots walked by.

             
Careful to keep my upper body and the bag above the surface, I held onto the wood tightly and kept my legs submerged, kicking them in the water with all my strength, propelling me across the wide river. The moon was only a crescent in the sky so little light shone down upon me. I made as little noise as possible, not wanting to alert the humans inside the city and the robots patrolling outside. I expected my trip across the river to go quickly but like everything else on my journey, the distance was farther than I thought.

             
When I finally reached the other shore, I approached the city wall and discovered it was made of broken concrete and other debris. Seeing it made me think of the rubble fields except that the wall was also lined with hanging destroyed robots, a warning to the enemy across the river. It was the first time I considered turning back and taking the long way around the city.

I heard the soft hum of an electric vehicle drive by, undoubtedly one of the human patrols I spotted from the other side of the river. Once it passed, I carefully climbed the wall and rushed into the maze of streets and decrepit buildings, making sure to remain in the shadows. I moved slowly at first, checking around every corner for humans, but the outer ring of the city appeared deserted. I began to wonder how such a small human population could’ve kept such a massive robot army at bay.

              I grew emboldened. I traveled for weeks without humans spotting me and entry into the city had gone smoothly. The place seemed deserted, most of the buildings falling apart or already destroyed. I saw a few lights shining farther into the city but human patrols were few and far between and easily evaded. I began to move faster – in hindsight, more reckless – hoping to cross the entire city and leave it behind well before sunrise.

             
The downtown section was a different story from the areas near the river. I expected the whole city to be in shambles but I found the downtown area mostly intact, minus general wear and tear from the passage of time. And while a lone jeep seemed to patrol the perimeter of the river, dozens more humans were stationed near the city’s center. I still tried to avoid detection but no amount of shadows or darkness could silence my footsteps. The beam of a flashlight finally found me and the screams of humans soon followed.

At first I wasn’t overly concerned. The city was large and no human could possibly match my speed or strength. I began to run before the first patrol got a clear look at me. I expected to lose them in a matter of minutes but several other patrols joined the chase, cutting me off from nearly every avenue of escape. The humans were surprisingly well organized and in my panic to avoid confrontation, I unknowingly let them corner me in an alley with no exit.

Now I lie, motionless, lucky not to have been fried, even luckier to have landed on the fire escape several hundred feet above ground. When I really think about it, every moment since my human death has been lucky to have gotten me this far. But as I hear the sound of heavy boots climbing the fire escape – each metallic thud getting louder and closer – I wonder if my luck is about to run out.

“I’m not a robot, I’m just trying to learn more about my sons,” I say.

But my voice is weak, barely able to pull the power needed from my core to project the words a few feet. Besides, I sound more robotic than ever, not exactly helpful when trying to convince people otherwise. After several long minutes, I feel a jolt of energy in my chest. I can suddenly turn my head just enough to see the flash of movement below. The human leader moves quickly but carefully, his gun raised and ready to fire. The only thing that stops him from having an easy shot is the metal stairs that separate us; they won’t impede his shot much longer.

“I see it,” the leader calls to his guards. “It’s still not moving.”

“Be careful, Your Majesty,” says the guard on the ground.

“You think I don’t know that?” the leader growls.

If this is how he treats his own people trying to warn him, the chances of him believing who I really am – or even giving me the chance to explain – are slim to none. I need to get moving, a fact even more evident when I suddenly hear a voice from above, too.

“I think it’s starting to move, sir,” a human yells from atop the building. I turn my head to see a guard carefully peering over the damaged edge of the roof. “It’s
definitely
moving. I think I have a clear shot at it.”

I try to roll out of the way but barely muster the strength to turn on my side. I expect to be shot at any second but the guard on the roof suddenly stumbles as more of the roof’s edge crumbles. Broken concrete falls around me, clattering loudly against the metal fire escape. Below, I hear the black-clad leader grunting and cursing.

“Back away before you kill
me
!” the leader yells. “Guard the roof, I’ll take care of the robot.”

The distraction is priceless. I feel the flow of energy starting from my core and surging to all parts of my body. By no means am I fully recharged but I’m strong enough to roll over and stand on my feet.

“It’s getting up!” the guard yells from above.

I look up in time to see the guard throw a brick at me. I try to block it but my reaction time isn’t quite what it used to be, or what it
needs
to be. The brick smashes against my dome, causing the tiny spiderweb crack to spread so much that it seriously hinders my vision. I wipe at the glass to try clearing it but that only makes things worse.

“I hit it, My Lord!” the roof guard yells. “I think it’s dazed!”

“Robots don’t get dazed, you fool!” the leader growls.

Though he sounds out of breath, his voice and footsteps are very close now; he can’t be more than one or two sets of stairs below. I lean over the fire escape to look but only see a mosaic of movement through the splintered glass. I’ll never be able to defend myself in my weakened condition
and
with vision so impaired. I’m left with only one option, though I realize how angry my creator would be with me.

“I’m sorry, E,” I whisper before smashing my hand into the glass dome, finishing the job of shattering it.

It’s the first time I’ve felt air – fresh, outside air – on my face for centuries. A soft, cool nighttime breeze blows through the alley. For a second I enjoy the feeling, at least until I hear the sound of my would-be killer climbing onto my section of the fire escape.

The human leader keeps his gun aimed at me, even as our eyes meet. He wears a sneer of disgust.

“What kind of freak are you?” he asks.

I resist the urge to point out his flaws: a dirty, ugly face full of scars, long scraggly facial hair, half an ear missing. It’s clear this man is no stranger to fighting.

“I was once a man, like you,” I say. “I was very sick and about to die so I met a… a man… who turned me into this to keep me alive.”

The leader shakes his head, his long black trench coat flapping in the wind behind him.

“No human would do that to another,” he says. “I don’t know who you used to be but it’s obvious you’re a hybrid now, created by the robots, whether you know it or not. I can’t let you live.”

The human raises his gun to shoot. Words are useless at this point so I react instinctively. My speed has returned and I strike him with a hard backhand as he begins to pull the trigger. He grunts in pain, knocked off his feet and over the back of the fire escape’s railing. He fires a wayward shot that slams against the building’s wall, blasting a large hole. I hear the frightened cries of nearby humans but they’re not my concern at the moment.

Again my instincts take over and my arm snatches out, grabbing the man’s foot just before he falls out of reach. I use his momentum to swing him back toward the building, letting go so he can crash against the fire escape on the floor below. The leader collapses to the metal grating, unconscious but safe. I hear the gasp from the guard watching on the roof.