Battlestar Suburbia by Chris McCrudden

Author:Chris McCrudden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrago

Chapter 24

‘What do you mean no one’s following us?’

Darren couldn’t believe it. They had run to the cleaning cupboards expecting the place to be crawling with machines. But there was nothing. After a few unbearable minutes Kelly produced her powder compact and a mirrored brush and improvised a periscope.

‘See,’ she said, nodding towards an empty corridor. ‘Nothing.’

Paula sounded less surprised than relieved. ‘I’d better get back to work then.’

Kelly stopped her. ‘Oh no, you don’t. We go together or not at all.’

‘The lift’s just there,’ said Paula. ‘We get it down to the ground floor. Casual. We walk slowly and calmly back to the dressing room. You sneak out the way you got in, I go back to my schedule and get on with my life. How does that sound for a plan?’

‘Too simple,’ said Darren. ‘We walked into something big there. They won’t want to let us go like that.’

‘Looked like a few robots playing silly buggers with virtual-reality helmets to me,’ replied Paula, ‘which is perfectly normal around here. Is he always such a mitherer, Kelly? He reminds me of your bloody mum.’

‘I don’t like it either, Paula,’ said Kelly. She still hadn’t taken her eyes off the mirror. ‘Shit. One of them’s leaving.’

All three craned their necks to see the reflection of the keyboard leave the lab but hover in the doorway, listening. Wordless shouting percolated down the corridor.

‘They’re still at it,’ said Darren.

The keyboard broke away from the door and headed, to everyone’s great relief, in the direction of the stairs. A few seconds afterwards came Pam’s stunt ride to freedom, which impressed even the jaded Paula.

‘What the hell was that?’ she asked, struggling to get a view of the skid marks all the way up the walls.

‘Just something I threw together,’ said Kelly. ‘She was a breadmaker this morning.’

Pam’s exit prompted the three executive machines to spill into the corridor. Two of them picked up the keyboard and the other his keys, and together they followed Pam’s lead, exiting the third floor by the stairs.

‘Right then,’ said Paula. ‘Lifts.’

Darren barged past in the wrong direction as they went out into the corridor, heading back to the lab.

‘What are you doing?’ said Paula.

‘There’s humans in there being mistreated,’ he replied. ‘I’m going to go and let them out.’

‘So we can all run away together like one big happy family?’ Paula was incredulous. ‘If we’re quick, I can just about save your skins. We don’t have time to take five more on board. This was never part of the deal, Kelly.’

Kelly snapped her compact shut and put it away. ‘I think you’ve been living around machines too long, Paula. You never used to be this hard-faced.’

‘If I am,’ said Paula, ‘it’s because that’s what Janice made me.’ She raised her voice. ‘The lifts are right here!’

The lift doors opened. Inside, a pair of tazers flanked another machine. It was blank-faced apart from a pair of blinking L-Eye-Ds and most of its body was taken up by a voltmeter, with its arms ending not with hands but flat metallic pads.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.