[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 26

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The tires squealed in protest. The gas starved engine roared as the truck lurched out of its hiding place and rocketed towards our only hope for survival. Some of the military robots stopped running, knelt with their rifles and fired on us.

The muffled pop pop pops far behind seemed harmless until the first of the bullets penetrated the cab. Shattering part of the back window and exiting through the windshield, it left a tangle of splintered cracks around the hole. “Fuck! Jesus!” Madeline shouted, hunching over as far as she could without compromising her ability to drive.

Our problems multiplied when, as we drew near to the gas station, more robots appeared. Must’ve been inside the attached convenience store until now. I studied them through the nocs. “No rifles. They’re unarmed.” Madeline, still rattled from the near miss, instructed me to hold on.

“Why? Wait, you’re not…” But she was. The truck plowed directly into the trio of robots waiting for us between the two sets of pumps, coming to a rest with one of them pinned under a wheel and the mangled remains of the other two scattered behind.

“I could’ve done with more warning” I griped as I nursed my aching head, noticing cracks in my mask spreading out from where it impacted the dash. Madeline swung the door open, stepped out and took aim with her handgun at the robot pinned under the truck.

It reached out for her with both hands as if pleading for help. We both knew better. “Citizen, you are in danger” it barked in a monotonous, commanding voice. “Return to your home. Once there, refer to the Emergency Alert System for further instructions”.

Madeline knelt to get a better view under the truck, guessed at where the battery was most likely housed, and put a few rounds in it. The robot immediately went limp. She turned towards the pumps. Just then, the robot’s arm shot out and grabbed her by the ankle.

Madeline screamed, dropping her pistol. The robot’s other arm groped about the asphalt trying to get hold of the fallen gun. “Aaagghh! My leg! My leg!! Shoot it!” she cried. I dove for the gun just as the robot’s other hand seized it, pointed the barrel directly between my eyes, and pulled the trigger.

Click. Click, click, click. In that moment, my heart felt as if it stopped. Saved by the empty mag. I stomped on its wrist until it dropped the useless gun, which I picked up and began clubbing its head with. Madeline finally pulled free of its grip and began kicking it with her good leg.

No use. I looked up and spotted the rest of the robots rapidly approaching. “Madeline!” Her gaze followed mine. At once, the two of us sprang into action. I noticed her wince in pain as she hobbled around the truck to get the fuel cap off.

I fumbled and dropped the fuel nozzle in my hurry. She swore at me, grabbed it and stuck it in the fill spout herself. “Just get in the truck!” She yelled. I obliged, and as soon as she finished filling up the tank and putting the cap back on, she joined me.

I heard the now-familiar pop pop pops of an automatic rifle, bullets whizzing past. Looking over my shoulder I realized we were out of time, the rest of the robots almost on top of us. Again the tires screeched under duress. Again, I was pressed back into my seat as Madeline hammered the gas pedal. I noticed her wince as she did so and wondered about her leg, but she didn’t complain.

Neither of us breathed until, as we watched nervously in the rear view mirror, the small crowd of military robots receded entirely out of view. After a few minutes of silence, I asked if her leg was okay. “No more phone” she demanded. “Take the battery out.”

I did so reluctantly, tucking the battery, phone and plastic backing into my bag. At least we were now running on a full tank. That’s what, four hundred miles? More like three the way Madeline drives, but still. I double checked the meter, the little orange needle now satisfyingly pinned against the protruding post next to “F”.

I had to give Madeline turn by turn directions as she wouldn’t trust the GPS enough to let me turn it on. I could see her side of it. The problem is that I rely on it so much, I don’t know the exact way to the mountain complex off the top of my head. We made more than one wrong turn followed by laborious backtracking before finally arriving.

Apparently Lars had the same idea I did when shit hit the fan, because there was his obnoxiously airbrushed muscle car parked just outside the entry tunnel. He waved at us out the open driver’s side window as we pulled up.

Madeline looked apprehensive. “Is that a friend of yours?” I hesitated. “Not exactly, but I know him. He’s okay.” She slowly brought the truck to a stop next to Lars’ tricked out mid life crisis on wheels so we could speak through the open windows.

“You pass any safe gas stations on the way here?” I told him about what happened when we stopped to fill up. “That’s what I meant by safe. I scoped that one out on the way here and noped the fuck out of there, it was crawling with metal. I hope you left with a full tank then because I got here on my last legs, I doubt if there’s more than a quarter gallon left in Rhonda.”

Madeline looked to me for clarification. “He means his car.” She rolled her eyes. “Why is the outer door shut?” I inquired. Lars explained that the UGV which normally scans our biometrics and work badges was infected. He gestured to the busted up remains on the side of the road. “Had to run it down. Fuckin’ thing made me dent Rhonda. Hope there’s a Hell for robots.”

Madeline let out an exasperated sigh. “You mean we made it all the way here, and now there’s no way inside?” He pursed his lips. “Fraid so. I dug around inside the bot after downing it, looking for the PCB it signals the security computer inside with.” He held up the shattered, twisted remains of a circuit board.

“Well fuck” I added, feeling thoroughly defeated. The three of us then debated what to do next. While we stood there, Lars noticed Madeline’s limp as she struggled to keep weight off her injured ankle. “Back at the gas station?” She nodded. “Here, let me have a look.”

He knelt, shined his flashlight on her ankle, then let out a long whistle. “So are you a doctor or something?” Madeline asked. “No, just into women’s feet.” She backed away. “Just kidding, geez. That looks pretty bad though. It’ll get infected for sure if we don’t treat it.”

I took the light from him and studied her ankle myself. It was badly bruised, purple everywhere the robot’s fingers closed around it. In places where the segments of its rigid plastic fingers came together, skin was pinched so hard as to split. The dozen or so small wounds wept thin trails of fresh blood.

“I’ve got a first aid kit” I offered. Lars asked if it had antibiotics in it. When I checked, it didn’t. Just some gauze, aspirin, a tiny cheap compass and an emergency blanket. “Huh I guess it’s really more for backpackers who get lost. Could we use gasoline to sterilize the wounds?”

Madeline shook her head, explaining that she discovered firsthand in Syria why that’s a bad idea. “It does have antiseptic properties, but it’s also toxic. Plenty of rebels had the same idea as you, not knowing any better, and wound up poisoning themselves.”

Lars checked for other sterilizing agents like alcohol while we loaded everything from the truck into Rhonda. We all agreed to siphon gas from one vehicle to the other since we couldn’t all fit in the truck, which was by this point pretty badly shot up.

When he got to Eric, Ellie and Hero 1 he looked at me disdainfully. “You brought toys? Really?” Eric looked up at him, eyes glowing. “I’m a dog!” Lars wrapped the blanket fully around the two Aibos and lifted them out of the cab. “No, you’re a toy. But I guess we have room.”

“No, he’s a dog” I affirmed. Lars looked downright perturbed that I felt it necessary to argue such a point right then. “Sure, okay” he laughed. “Just like Sue is a woman.” I gave him a disgusted look, but then thought to ask what became of Sue. “No idea” he said. “I tried calling, no answer. Inside the complex maybe? Or dead.”

He said it with an indifferent air that chilled my blood. Madeline has grown on me, but I was having second thoughts about spending the next few months riding around with Lars. He produced a siphon kit from his trunk, then spent the next few minutes transferring gas from one tank to the other while I used the binoculars to watch for any other incoming cars.

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