So this is what it felt like to have power. Terra grinned to herself although her robotic face wouldn’t show it.
When she had pushed the cowardly Scout into the bunker, she’d asked Petri to tie him up while she and Indo talked. It took a bit of convincing to get Indo on the same page as her, but she managed to convince him to bug the Scout’s comm device so it would divert his call to the HQ receiver to the receiver Terra knew he had in the lab. She left the dialogue to him since she didn’t really know much about the whole Scout and HQ system, but she’d lived with him for months and knew that he’d spent some time working for some company called GreenHouse by overhearing him. She was pleasantly surprised when Indo had been so convincing about protocol and code words that the Scout had broken out crying.
Terra had initially just wanted him to answer her questions truthfully, but when she saw that she was going to be getting almost nothing out of him she initiated the plan. And boy did it work wonders! He practically became pudding in her hands when he thought he would be the cause of so many deaths. Terra could relate a bit, but that was a long time ago. Before she had someone die in her arms after she had been tortured. Before she had actually died. Before she had spent months living in her own mind with only her own voices to talk to her. She was tired of caring about people’s feelings; she was going to twist things to work for her from now on. And if it didn’t bend under her will, then she would break it all.
“So what do I have to do?” 895G asked while walking behind her, fiddling with his new collar.
“Nothing yet. I’m sure Indo has some questions for you, which you will answer in length, otherwise,” she held up her new favorite toy; the little button.
He seemed to get her message and shut up. They walked into the lab where Indo and Petri were waiting anxiously. Indo had covered up the receiver with papers just in case 895G saw it and got suspicious. At this point, it didn’t really matter if he knew it had all been a ruse since the collar would paralyze him if he tried anything funny.
“Does GreenHouse know I’m here?” Indo started.
895G looked down at his shoes trying to determine what information he should give away before being declared a traitor.
“No. At least not yet. They sent me to see if it was a false alarm.”
“I see.” Indo leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes while massaging his temples.
Petri left the room for a few minutes and the remaining three stayed silent until he returned, carrying a tray with a tea kettle and cups. He poured the hot flavored water for everyone except Terra. 895G was surprised to be treated humanely and gratefully accepted the cup, relaxing as he felt the tea fill his belly and warm him up.
“Alright, this is what we’re going to do,” Indo spoke up. “ Petri, you pack the clothes and non-essential necessities. Terra, you pack food and water. I’m going to pack up the lab and grab anything else we need. Do not bring more than you can carry. Fis--Terra, I trust you can still watch 895G while packing?”
Terra nodded and pushed 895G out of the lab.
“Wait, what’s going on?” 895G asked as Terra guided him to the kitchen.
“Guess, genius. If you were able to find us, then don’t you think others can too? Even though the reinforcements were called off doesn’t mean they’re not suspicious.”
895G shut his mouth; the robot had a solid point. As he watched the robot pack, his curiosity got the better of him and he opened his mouth again.
“How were you able to take down those Combatants?”
Terra stopped stuffing cans of beans in a pack and looked up at him.
“Combatants? Is that what those robots were called? It really wasn’t that difficult.” The robot continued with its task.
Stolen story; please report.
“But they were just released within this past year. Your model is incredibly old in tech-time. How can your processor run the program necessary to move like that?”
“You’re starting to get on my nerves. I don’t need people constantly reminding me I’m stuck in this body.” Terra growled from inside the cabinet.
“Does that mean Indo has perfected human consciousness transplantation? I read a file about him from twenty years ago about being able to move--”
The collar lit up with electricity and 895G felt his muscles lock into place. He couldn’t breathe or speak, he just had to wait until the sensation passed. Gasping for breath, he looked to Terra who held up the button for him to see.
“Oops, your talking made my finger slip. Make yourself useful and grab one of those bags and drop it off near that ladder. You should remember it from the time you almost pissed yourself from fear and were crying like a small child.”
895G gritted his teeth and bit back the remark that threatened to leave the tip of his tongue. Apparently, he couldn’t even ask questions around here without getting electrocuted, but he wasn’t stubborn enough to keep sating his curiosity at the expense of his well-being. Begrudgingly, he grabbed the bag nearest to him and dragged it over to the ladder. He hoped he wasn’t stuck carrying that pack since it felt like it was being weighed down by bricks.
The whole packing process took about an hour with all of them working. Terra was done faster than anybody else, so she helped Petri finish packing everything else. Indo had been running back and forth from the lab to the living room, carrying scientific equipment and papers each time he cycled through. The last thing the doctor brought from the back was a small stasis cube wheeled out on a cart.
“Are we really bringing her?” Terra asked.
“I thought you’d be the most adamant about it since it belongs to you. We still need to learn the secrets of her genetic code.” Indo clarified.
“I was talking more about mobility. As much as I’d love to lug around three hundred pounds of metal, I don’t, so unless you’ve got a trick up your sleeve on how to carry that thing around besides that cart I’m all ears.”
Indo shot the robot a little smile and pressed a button on the face of the stasis tube. The tube vibrated and then floated up a foot off the ground. The robot jumped forward and started pushed the stasis tube around the living room, making it bounce into furniture and laughing when it knocked over the cups on the coffee table.
895G was more than confused with the robot’s odd behavior. First of all, it was common knowledge that stasis tubes could float off the ground, so why was this robot named Terra making such a big deal out of this small fact. Had it really never seen something like this before? Maybe the human soul inside the robot hadn’t seen it? That is if that is really was a human inside the robot body.
Terra, on the other hand, was having a blast. She’d regretted not fawning over the floating cars in her previous life, so she was going to do just that with the floating tube. It, unfortunately, couldn’t hold her weight while floating, but she still had fun pushing it into walls. Indo stopped her after a few minutes of playing around.
“We need to preserve the battery since we only have two more power cores after this one runs out. Whenever we reach flat ground we’ll push it on the cart. We can restore power in the cities. Our goal is Tinyon. There we’ll sell our old supplies and equipment to buy passage to Varuit and just hope GreenHouse stops looking for us.”
Indo handed Petri and 895G respirators and thick coats.
“Put those on.” Indo turned to 895G. “You won’t be getting any more atmosphere injections like you do at HQ, so you’re going to have to suffer through the air the old-fashioned way. Make sure the mask is snug otherwise the respirator won’t work.”
895G did as Indo said.
“And Terra, you’re going to have to remain quiet. Anything out of the ordinary for that Efficiency model will just draw unwanted attention. Understand?” He shot Terra a knowing look and the robot just crossed its arms and pouted.
895G wanted to laugh at the sight of the robot who took down a squadron of armies sulking, but he didn’t want to be electrocuted again. Plus, now that they were going to be passing through cities there was the possibility of him running into one of his comrades and getting out a message that he needed help escaping. He just hoped the robot wouldn’t catch on and foil his escape before he could even set it in motion.
Once everyone but the robot was bundled up safely in layers of clothing, the four moved the packs of items out of the hatch and then one by one left the bunker. Terra was last to go as she was tasked with turning out all the lights and shutting down power to the bunker once and for all. When she locked the bunker behind her, she kicked a mound of trash over it to hide the hatch and bid good riddance to that stuffy old life.
Turning around, she glanced up at the eternally red sky and the dark city past. The world didn’t seem as horrendous as it had the first time she’d laid eyes on it. Maybe it was because she was finally in control of her body to an extent. Maybe it was because she was finally going exploring into something unknown. Maybe it was because she had some companions she could talk to (although one hated her). Whatever the reason, she was glad to finally learn more about this ominous world and what it held in store for her.