Cryo-Man (Cryo-Man series, #1) (25 page)

             
“Please, you can kill me but spare my sister,” the young man gasps, his face turning red as he’s slowly strangled.

             
“No,” the princess says, her beautiful face twisting in rage. “Kill us both and get it over with.”

             
I expect 37 to follow through with her request but several seconds pass. I can almost sense the awful thoughts swirling in 37’s mind. At this point, I know death might be the most humane outcome for these two.

             
“Did I hear someone call her Princess before?” 37 asks. “Ask the girl how old she is.”

             
“I’m not playing matchmaker,” I say. “She’s too young and you already have a wife.”

             
The young woman’s face skews in confusion. She barely croaks out her next words. “Who are you talking to? What
are
you?”

             
The young man begins to squirm in my grasp, trying to swing over to protect his sister.

             
“You killed our father, King Marcus, so that makes
me
the new king of Dearborn,” the young man says, his tone growing bolder as his voice grows weaker. “I command you not to harm my sister, you monster.”

             
With every word they say, I feel a little extra jolt of guilt. Usually I just hunt and kill humans without a single word of interaction. I wouldn’t say I’ve grown fond of killing but so many have died by my metallic hand that I’ve started to become desensitized. But now I see the human spirit – the bond of love between siblings – and I feel worse than ever about how this will end for them. I wonder if
this
is my real punishment for disobeying 37.

             
“A command from the King of Dearborn?” 37 laughs. “Sounds serious, don’t you think?”

             
I don’t respond. I wish I could close my eyes but I know 37 would shock them open anyway. The young man looks so worried for his sister, so resolute in his wish to protect her, that I realize how foolish I’ve been, how accustomed I’ve become to being controlled by 37. I’m farther from the override signal than I’ve been in years and I suddenly feel foolish for not recognizing the slightest tingle in the tips of my pincers.

             
“I must have her,” 37 says lasciviously. “Bring her to me.”

             
I have no chance to save the young man so I focus on my fingers gripping the princess. I loosen them just enough so she slips through my grasp.

             
“Run, Regina!” the young man yells.

             
The princess turns to go but only takes a few steps before stopping. I can tell right away that she’s not going to leave him.

             
“What happened?” 37 yells.

             
I try to concentrate on releasing the brother but my fingers no sooner ease their grip when they suddenly snap shut. His thick neck muscles are no match for my strength, nor are his neck bones, which crunch and pop within my grasp. His fight – and his life – extinguish instantly. His head dangles to the side, attached to his shoulders by skin alone. When I drop him, he crumples in a heap.

The princess looks at her brother, her expression shocked blank, as if expecting him to move. When he doesn’t, she unleashes a guttural scream. Even if 37 couldn’t hear what I do, I’m sure her scream would’ve reached everywhere in his territory. 37 does not have me interrupt her moment of grief. He does not budge me, even when the girl’s fiery eyes turn toward mine. She picks up the nearest fallen branch and rushes toward me, swinging for my head, yelling obscenities the entire time. No apology or explanation would calm her so I remain silent.

My arm shoots up and blocks the first strike. The branch snaps in half but she still swings at me, coming up well short. When she realizes she’s hitting nothing but air, she begins to stab at me with the dull tip. 37 does not have me stop her, even after she hits near my power core. I’m sure he realizes the small stick can do me no harm. I say nothing so he’ll hopefully stop punishing me.

“Think that’s enough?” 37 asks.

I don’t answer. My hand finally catches the stick and in one swift motion rips it from her hand. The princess is no delicate flower and swings at me with her fists once she’s weaponless. She’ll crush every bone in her hand if she connects with my body so I’m glad 37 backs me away. She swings and misses; I swoop in and scoop her up before she throws another punch. 37 slings her over my shoulder. She tries to wiggle free but I keep a firm grip on her.

“Any sign of the others?” 37 asks.

I look around at the quiet forest now littered with humans; every single one I see is dead. The few that escaped are probably long gone by now.

“There may be a few just ahead,” I lie.

“A few what?” the princess yells. “Let go of me, you metal piece of – ”

“She’s feisty,” 37 says in my ear, drowning out the girl’s cursing. “I’ll have fun breaking her.”

I don’t like how that sounds for the girl but 37 moves me forward. For the first time in years, I allow myself the slightest bit of hope. I stomp my way through the woods but stop when I see a burst of colorful flowers in the clearing less than a hundred feet away. The tingling in my robotic fingers feels more pronounced; I try to move my legs but no amount of concentration will let me do that from this far.

“I think I see movement in the trees over there,” I say.

Silence follows. At first, I wonder if I’m out of range for the microphone in my ear to work.

“Leave them alone,” the princess yells. “You have me and killed my family, let the others go.”

I want to tell her to shut up – that I’m really trying to help her – but I can’t let 37 know my plan. Either way, he doesn’t fall for it. I take a large step back and then another, the flowers – and my freedom – fading from my reach.

I suddenly spot movement on the far side of the clearing, someone peeking out from behind the trees. The person remains in the shadows but whoever it is appears to be tall and bulky. As 37 begins to turn me around, the person moves just enough through the trees to emerge into sunlight. A reflective gleam of light strikes me in the eye but for a split second I think I see who it is.

“It couldn’t be,” I say, the words escaping my mouth before I realize I’ve said them.

“What couldn’t be?” 37 asks in my ear.

“What are you talking about?” the princess yells. “Put me down!”

“Nothing,” I say. “Thought I saw a… a deer through the trees but it must’ve been a shadow.”

I try to look across the clearing but it’s no use. 37 has turned me completely around and I’m already stomping out of range. But I know someone was out there, a person whose face is now burned into my brain. I worry that my mind was playing tricks on me but I probably would’ve seen someone
else
had that been the case; until this moment, I’d completely forgotten this person existed.

“Where are you taking me?” the princess yells. “What are you going to do? Some weird experiment to turn me into… whatever it is that
you
are?”

“I’ll make sure she enjoys what’s going to happen,” 37 says, laughing cruelly.

“What will your wife think of that?” I snap.

I suddenly veer off track and bump into the side of a tree.

“Watch where you’re going!” the young woman yells.

“I’m not worried about my wife’s concerns so neither should you,” 37 says.

“What are you talking about?” the princess asks, the hint of desperation finally creeping into her voice. “Please, put me down, let me bury my people… my father and brother.”

“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “But you really should’ve kept running when you had the chance.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

My eyes pop open and I hear the whir of my other robotic systems emerging from shutdown mode. My one former memory is fresh on my mind but that doesn’t last, fading like the fog on a breezy day. With every day that passes, I remember a little bit less, which might not be such a bad thing.

It’s the middle of the night and there’s no moon in the sky, leaving me surrounded by near total darkness. I see the shadow of a few distant trees, as well as the crumbling interior of the sports stadium. I don’t know why this place was chosen as my prison but it’s where 37 leads me whenever he’s done playing with me.

Time passes slowly, with only my thoughts to occupy me. Regardless of the horrific nightmares I’ve endured under 37’s control, I always end up thinking about my kids and my wife, not that there’s much to remember except their names. I try to recall what my only picture of the boys looked like but I only remember it being dropped into the flames.

This is torture. I can’t stop thinking about how I wasted my best opportunity to end this suffering. If I’d been thinking straight when bringing the princess back to the center of 37’s territory, I could’ve told her exactly how to yank the wires from the back of my skull. Sure, 37 would’ve heard and if the girl didn’t act quickly enough, he could’ve stopped her… or done worse to her. But considering the fate that 37 now has in store for her, risking death might’ve been her better option.

             
Movement in the dark interrupts my endless thoughts. I see the faint outline of a black shadow in the distance but my mind immediately returns to the person I thought I saw beyond 37’s territory. But I know that’s impossible, especially within these lands. As the figure approaches, I realize he isn’t nearly large enough to be who I hope. Nej stops a few feet in front of me, nervously glancing around the darkened stadium.

             
“Come to unplug me?” I ask. “I know your father wasn’t very happy with me earlier.”

             
“You don’t need to worry about him overhearing us,” Nej says, holding up two objects in the darkness. It takes my eyes a moment to realize he holds some sort of headset and – more importantly – 37’s special remote. “My father and the others have been asleep for hours.”

             
I tell myself to be cool, to handle Nej carefully. I’ve been waiting for this moment so long, cultivating the young man to reach this very point. I can’t stop from blurting out the one thought that’s been on my mind longest.

             
“You can get me out of here?”

             
I can’t see Nej’s face too clearly in the dark but his body language tells the story. He lowers the remote and backs up a few steps, turning his body slightly away from me. Nej slowly shakes his head.

             
“He would kill me if I did that,” he says.

             
“Listen, I know what it’s like to be a father. I had two boys of my own,” I say. “There’s nothing a child could do to make his parent harm him. I’m sure 37 feels the same way.”

             
The young man snorts. “I know you want to get out of here but do you
really
think I’m that dumb? You know what my father is capable of doing and believe me, you haven’t seen half of what I have over the years.”

             
Our conversation isn’t going exactly the way I hoped but this is the most Nej has opened up to me about his father. Hearing him talk of 37’s cruelty makes me feel guilty for treating Nej like some foolish kid, for trying to take advantage of him. We both know 37 is more than capable of punishing him severely.

             
“Wouldn’t your mother protect you?” I ask.

             
“Claudette is
not
my mother. That woman can’t stand me,” he snaps. “
None
of my father’s children can stand me.”

             
That’s been plain to see over the years. I’ve only seen 37 interact with the others a few times but Nej always remained on the fringes, receiving dirty looks from the woman and her daughter while being taunted by the cruel men that do 37’s bidding. From the first day I saw him at the stadium, Nej struck me as the only human here with a conscience; nothing I’ve seen since that day has proven me wrong.

             
“I’m sorry… I just thought…”

             
“I look nothing like them!”

             
“You’re right,” I say. “I apologize. I didn’t know your mother lived somewhere else since I never saw her.”

             
Nej snorts as his breathing grows heavier, angrier. With the remote in his hand, he could very well kill me. For that matter, he could force me to kill myself. I would much rather escape 37’s land but death might not be a bad option compared to living this existence any longer. But thinking of my sons and the Heaven Box – wherever it might be out there – is a reminder to tread lightly.

             
“My mother
doesn’t
live here. She’s gone… or maybe dead… I don’t know,” Nej says. “My father is a great man for letting me stay here, for giving me a safe place to live far away from the killer robots and bloodthirsty humans destroying the world.”

             
“Of course he is,” I say. “And I’m sorry about your mother. What happened to her?"

             
Nej doesn’t answer for a long moment but finally sighs. “She disappeared when I was very young.”

“37 doesn’t strike me as the type to lose people or not know where someone went,” I say. “Did anything else happen around the same time she disappeared?”

              “Wel… that’s when Claudette arrived,” Nej says.

             
“Claudette?” I asked. “She’s the woman with 37?”

             
“His
new
wife… not really so new anymore. It’s been years since she stumbled into his territory,” Nej laments. “Anyway, I was only five or six years old when she got here and my half-
sister
was born nine months later. My mother disappeared around that time.”

             
“I don’t know your mother but it doesn’t seem like she’d want to share your father’s affections,” I say. He shrugs. “You never wondered what happened to her?”

“I’ve asked some of my older half-brothers but they just laugh and call me stupid. They tell me she probably ran away, like all of their mothers did.”

              “And did you ever ask Claudette what happened? Or if your father had anything to do with it?”

             
Nej huffs, shaking his head. The answer seems obvious to me, as I’m sure it must to Nej, whether he wants to admit it or not.

             
“He’d never… they would never… she was my
mother
,” he says angrily. “I know what he does to intruders but that’s different.”

             
“I take it his current wife was once an intruder?” I ask. Nej doesn’t respond, which is an answer in itself. “Just like the young woman I captured today, a girl much closer to your age, a very
beautiful
girl at that. I hear she’s the princess of one of the remaining human cities. What do you think 37 has planned for her?”

Nej shakes his head. “No, it’s not what you think. Like you said, he’s so much older than her. And he would never force anyone to… no, it’s not what you think. That girl is an intruder, I’m sure he’ll treat her like every other prisoner he’s ever caught. Maybe he’ll send her here so you can finish her off in front of a crowd. He hasn’t done that for a while.”

“That wouldn’t be my guess about what’ll happen,” I say.

Nej finally loses his composure and stomps the ground. When that does nothing, he fiddles with the knobs on the remote. At first my arms swing around and Nej curses softly. He eventually figures out how to use my legs, which he causes to stomp several times, shaking the ground. For good measure, he swings my arm toward a nearby tree, splitting the tree trunk with a single strike.

“My father never hurt a member of his family and he never will!” Nej yells.

“Okay, okay, calm down. Do you want everyone to hear?” I ask. “Would your father appreciate you taking his equipment?”

Nej’s heavy breathing begins to subside. It’s the first time I’ve seen glimpses of 37 in his personality but I hope that was more of a temper tantrum than an emerging personality trait.

“You misunderstood me,” I lie. “I assumed
you
would like to meet a young lady your own age one day. Maybe your father is thinking the same thing.”

“You think he spared the girl for…” Nej swallows hard. “…for me?”

He begins to pace.

“That must be it,” I say, anything to calm him down. “Have you talked to the princess about the outside world? About what’s happening out there?”

“I’m not given access to prisoners, at least until my father is done with them and needs their bodies removed.” Nej stops and shakes his head. “But I’ve had enough talking about my world, it’s all very boring. I want to hear more about what it was like during the time you were from.”

“Again?” I ask, staring longingly at the remote in his hand. Nej nods. “Okay, where do you want me to start?”

“The same place you always do,” he says, excited like a child about to hear the same bedtime story for the millionth time. “Were you really frozen for hundreds of years?”

I repeat the story of how I came to be here, starting with waking up at the Cryonics Institute, discovering I’d been turned into a robot, learning about my former life by reading my folder of personal information. Nej sits down and crosses his legs, staring up at me in awe as I then describe life in the past world, the robot-free world.

I don’t remember many specifics about my life but I recall how the world used to be in general, how millions of people lived in cities and drove cars and flew on airplanes to exotic places all over the world. I explain more about cities, about buildings, about beaches, about mountains – about anything and everything that doesn’t have to do with living in a forest. Nej is enthralled by the idea of freedom, not surprising since he’s spent his entire life as a prisoner in his father’s woods.

He interrupts my tale several times, asking questions about everything from sports to movies to kitchen appliances. Most of the answers I vaguely remember; I make up responses for the rest, trying to make it all sound wondrous. But like always, I steer the story back to a familiar topic.

“That’s the world in which my two sons lived after I was gone,” I say. “They buried a Heaven Box for me to find on the chance I was brought back to life. I was on a quest to recover it when your father took me hostage. I love and miss my sons so much, I just want to find out what happened to them after I died. I want to find out what else changed in the world once I was gone.”

This is the same way I end the story every time, hoping Nej will see me as a man with feelings and memories rather than an emotionless machine. Now that he’s brought with him the equipment that could set me free, I hope I’ve finally gotten through to him.

“I wish I could help,” Nej says.

“You
can
, you can set me free,” I say. “Right now, just push the right buttons on the remote and I can go off to learn more about my sons.”

Nej doesn’t say anything for a moment before shaking his head.

“Keeping you here makes us safer, lets my father protect me and my family the same way you’d want to protect yours,” Nej says.

His voice isn’t brimming with confidence. I want to yell at the kid to let me go – yell at him until he admits that his father is evil – but I can’t risk him never coming back to see me. Forging a relationship with him has taken years so it would be foolish to ruin it now that he’s bringing the remote and headpiece that control me. He wouldn’t do that unless he was seriously considering using them at some point…

At least that’s what I try convincing myself. Nej begins to stand and I know this means he’s going to leave. He never stays very long for fear that his father or one of his cruel half-brothers will spot him talking to the enemy. But the sky is still pitch black, plenty of time before sunrise, so I hope to keep him here a while longer.

“Tell me about
your
world,” I say. “Please, I’ve told you all I can remember about mine. I need to hear about something or I’ll go crazy just standing here, staring into the darkness.”

“I told you, I’ve never really left my father’s forest,” Nej says. “The only things I’ve heard are stories that prisoners told my brothers.”

“Tell me those then, anything you can remember,” I plead.

Nej looks behind him, staring into the dark as if someone were out there. When nobody emerges, he finally sighs and turns back to me.

“Okay, but just real quick,” he says. “I heard a story about how one of the main robot facilities was blown up a long time ago, when I was just a little kid. My father still mentions that, says that it serves them right.”

“That’s the area of the country where I was kept underground, where I woke up,” I say. “It’s a miracle I lived through the explosion.”