Mere Mortal by AJ Stevens by Stevens AJ

Author:Stevens, AJ
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Splinter Press
Published: 2023-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

We bolt for the door, but it bursts inward as we reach it. The illuminated barrels of an obliterator take up most of my vision. Behind the barrel hulks a dark gray robot. It’s vaguely humanoid shaped and it looms over me. I find my eyes strangely drawn, not to the armored mechanical legs or the even the glowing blue obliterator arm, but to the “CB042” emblazoned on its badge.

“Show me your IDs.” Its rectangular eyes glow orange in warning and razor-sharp spines spring up along its forearms.

Not a casual copbot then, I assume. I hold my hands up and try to calm my breathing. “We forgot them at home.”

The robot stands taller and eases the gun back but does not lower it. The orange lights that serve as its eyes turn red as it scans me. “A lie.”

“She’s not lying. We’re chipped workers, brought in for a study. We don’t have ID.”

The robot’s head rotates toward Avi. It holds Avi’s gaze while extending an arm toward me. Avi grips the chair beside him with white knuckles. I give him a quick shake of my head before the robot’s metal claw grips my skull and turns me around head first. The hair lifts off my neck.

“No chip.”

Damn. A blur flies past me as Avi slams the chair into the copbot’s torso hard enough to leave a dent. Then, a sharp pain lances through the base of my skull and everything goes black.

The world sways when my awareness returns. A rhythmic clacking echoes around me. Cold seeps into my right side from the metal surface I’m lying on. I crack an eye open. My vision smears when I shift my gaze as if it is having trouble keeping up. My hands are stuck together. The whine of an electric engine swirls around me as I accelerate through the distorted world.

Clack-clack.

The sound is muffled and reverberates as if I’m underwater. I must be on some kind of vehicle or transport zipping through hallways and carting me along. The vehicle vibrates with the noise as we pass by some support beams. All my senses are muted, even my emotions—I ought to care what is going on, but I don’t. I’m just aware that I ought to. I wonder if this is what being Immortal is like.

Fluorescent lights scroll by above. The walls and ceiling of the long hallway are painted a glossy gray. It bends to the left, and the vehicle turns smoothly with the curvature. I pass under a sign that says “Genesis,” with an arrow pointing right.

I grunt as I push against the floor of the transport, trying to sit, but whatever tranq I’ve been shot up with still controls my limbs. They stubbornly refuse to move, no matter what incoherent noises I throw at them. My hands are cuffed in front of me. After several grunt-filled minutes, I manage to flop to my back. My head rolls sideways with the momentum. Avi is next to me. He faces away, on his side, and isn’t moving.

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