It had taken only six hours for Mud to start showing the signs. They had just broken into an abandoned shack a few miles away from the still smoking production building, when, after a half-hour of growling and pacing, she threw herself at the wall opposite the front door.
In the path Mud slid to the floor, a crack appeared.
Nano’s reaction was immediate. He quickly ran to the panting dog, skinny arms stretched as if already around her. But Jag was quick too and it took him one move to grab the boy by the collar of his shirt and pull him back. Zana could do nothing but work her fingers, already knowing what had to be done.
Apparently, Nano did too because he struggled desperately in Jag’s hold. “Let me go!” he screamed while flailing his arms and legs. “Let me go! I have to help her! Don’t you see? She’s sick!”
“Not sick,” the man- Samuel, Zana reminded herself- murmured beside her. His eyelids were so low that they appeared almost closed as he watched the crazed dog with the same calm he exuded when he’d carved the resurrection symbol in her arm. Zana grew uncomfortable. “No, not sick,” he repeated again when Mud started foaming at the mouth, viscous yellow fluid creating a pool by her twitching paws.
Jag startled and then cursed. “Shit!” Nano, arms still outstretched, began to cry.
“It’s that robo-juice, isn’t it?” Sorcha questioned from where she had pressed herself against a closet door frame. Her long, pink bangs had swung forward to shield her face but Zana knew that there were tears in her eyes. There were always tears in Sorcha’s eyes. If clouds decided to mask the sun, those same tears would be in Sorcha’s eyes. Next to her, P.M placed a hand on Sorcha’s shoulder in comfort before shooting Zana a look as if he knew what she was thinking. Zana averted her gaze, pretending not to see.
“It’s not robo-juice,” Samuel replied with some censure. “It’s strain-77.”
“Strain- 77?” Sorcha echoed, confused.
Zana refrained from rolling her eyes, only because the mood was too grim for to show her annoyance with Sorcha’s ignorance. Honestly, hadn’t Samuel already explained all of this? Where was Sorcha’s mind when they were scrapping for every piece of information they could find? Why was she even there? However, in an effort to keep the peace, Zana only said, “It’s what they’ve been using to animate the robots. Without it, they’re just metal and wires.”
And yet, still teeming with life, Mud began to howl. From across the room, Zana could see the dog’s eyes turning glassy with madness. She was shaking where she lay on the floor, long tongue lolled out and that ugly yellow liquid still spewing from her mouth. From the wound in her thigh, the glowing white of stain-77 flowed steadily, it’s work already done.
Sorcha clutched her throat and turned her body away from the dog who had abruptly stopped wailing. “But what does it do? What’s it doing to Mud?” she asked tentatively.
After a tense moment of quiet following Sorcha’s question, the man answered, his tone grave. “In something that isn’t living, it creates life. Thus the animation of robots. But when it is used on a being that already has consciousness…” Here he paused and only the sound of Mud panting and Mar’s gasping sobs could be heard in the shady darkness of the room. Samuel continued. “It attacks the brain, trying to dominate what is already there. There is no room in the body for two minds and strain-77 is powerful. In a matter of hours, there is nothing left of what used to be.”
Jag cursed again, using his free hand to thump his thigh. “That’s what they were shooting at us, those good for nothing… They were trying to make us all fucking crazy!”
“Not necessarily,” Samuel admitted. “What are the robots but tools for the Queen and her Factory? Crazed humans who are addicted to strain-77 can serve the same purpose.”
A hush fell upon all of the occupants of the room. Each was thinking of a world where their mind, the one thing the Queen had let them keep for themselves, was given to the Factory too.
“Is there a way we can save him?” Nano whispered, finally breaking the silence.
The man was already shaking his head. “I’m sorry. There is no way,” he said, sounding truly regretful for the first time. “In order for Mud to not become another weapon at the disposal of the Factory, it is better for us to let him go now.”
“But she,” the boy began haltingly, “But she saved my life. “
Once again, Zana couldn’t help but think that a kid had no business in this fight. Nano was only a year older than her own brother and already embroiled in a war that had no mercy for even children. He looked at her then, brown eyes so wet that she was surprised they didn’t wash out. His too big lips were quivering and Zana- who hadn’t let out a tear since she was four- felt the sudden urge to cry.
“Hey,” she said walking over to him. “Hey, don’t be like that. You know Mud doesn’t like it when you cry. C’mere.” Her only answer was a sniff and Nano throwing his small arms around her neck. “It’s alright, little boy. Mud didn’t go down without a fight. And this shows us more than anything that we have to end this.” Nano nodded against her shoulder, shaking like a jig.
Zana looked up at Jag, who was staring at her with a strange expression. “Can you take Nano outside?”
Nodding, still with a peculiar twist to his brow, Jag gently grabbed the boy from Zana’s arms. In just seconds they were slipping through the front doors. Zana watched after them before pulling out the gun she kept on her hip. Sorcha, having seen the glint of Zana’s steel weapon, finally let the tears fall and P.M could do nothing but drag her outside. Her sobs joined Nano in a crescendo of grief. Samuel, the only other human occupant in the room, stood resolutely behind her.
A minute later, a shot rang out, shattering the silence of the night.
Science Fiction
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Like I have said before, you have a talent for fiction. Your flow of writing is well done. I suggest going back and reading it again, however. For Mug there were some gender shifts that confused me, but those are just little things. I loved your story!
Thank you! Great to get some feedback because I struggled a bit with the direction of this. I just noticed the issues. Halfway through the edit, I decided to change Mud’s gender because- why not?- and must have missed a few.
I like the world you’ve started to create here. The struggle these characters are engaged in is intriguing and I’d like to know more about it all.
Is this a part of some larger work? I ask because you bounced around a lot of characters inside a short amount of time and I struggled to sort out each personality, which I could only glean from their dialogue and some of your simpler stage directions like “Zana refrained from rolling her eyes.”
If this is part of something larger, it might be a good idea to provide links to the other sections if they are on this site already. Or if this is an excerpt, let us know that too, and give us a hint of what role each of these excellently-named characters play. I’m all for large casts but jumping into the middle of everything is off-putting.
Hey, thank you! It is part of a larger work. I was debating mentioning it but decided to leave it as is. This was actually the only section that I felt was good enough to have others see. Thanks for your critique, it was really thoughtfully put out.