[Log 3.10.1]

[Ozymandias - 1]

“Wolf!” I yelled, and Zephyro immediately thrust his hand forward. A split second later, a blue shield snapped in place in front of us, humming with energy. The wolf, already in motion, crashed into it, and the field cracked, bright lines spiderwebbing from the impact point, accompanied by the sound of breaking stone. The creature’s snarl rolled through the alley like the sputter of a broken speaker. It moved back, tensed its back legs, and launched itself against the shield again. This time, it sounded like safety glass cracking, and the shield flashed white.

The Feral hadn’t made it through, and unlike after the first hit, it actually seemed dazed. It shook its head, the motion rippling through its entire body, then perked up and brought its nose against a crack in the shield. It sniffed, deep and greedy. The cube of Logic hidden in my robes twitched. The beast growled, sounding almost pleasantly surprised. Its hackles rose in anticipation.

“Chris, how are we on those turrets?” I asked breathlessly, whirling around and falling into a sprint.

[User CHRIs is currently busy: Code_dojo.exe]

No time. Sprinting by him, I pulled Zephyro toward the other end of the street. “Another alley? Circle around?”

“Follow me, Sultana.” He tried to get ahead of me to lead the way.

I grabbed him by his combat vest and pulled him back. “You’re blind. Stay behind, I’ll do the scouting, you navigate.”

“But—”

“Shut it. I won’t die here. Not because of your stupid sense of honor or male ego or whatever.”

He didn’t reply, and we were running too fast to ruminate if I had hurt his feelings. What mattered was: He’d listened to me. My anger pulsed through my entire body and into my legs as they pounded the sandy dirt below. Something told me I wasn’t being logical, that I should apologize. I blasted the thought away, focusing on our need to escape. Men always felt like they had to take charge to prove something. It was always “my honor” this, and “my duty” that. They thought they knew everything better, and then they died. They all died.

I grabbed the edge of an older building and used it to turn quickly turn the corner. The ancient stone crumbled under my fingers like the sky crumbled into the void. My feet slid on the dirt and whirled up a cloud of dust. It smelled dry and earthy, mixing with the notes of smoke and sweat that filled the air around us.

Is this who you want to be?

I kept running.

Are you willing to pay that cost?

I tried to ignore the thoughts, but a pang of guilt moved within me like a tiny stone in a shoe. Every second of Zephyro running behind me felt like a lonely feather’s brush against my anger.

Is this who you want to be, Sam?

Fuck. Fucking fuck.

“Sorry,” I muttered between breaths. I kept my focus on the road ahead. The tiny stone didn’t go away. Not completely. But it didn’t poke as hard anymore. Zephyro picked up speed, coming close enough to respond, but before he could say anything a boom echoed through the streets and washed over us. I could actually feel it in my chest. I stumbled, taking the chance to risk a look backward. The sky was filled with glittering shards of blue, slowly dissipating.

“Your shield?” I panted.

“Yes, Sultana,” Zephyro said. He didn’t sound winded at all, but he was glitching again. Streaks of blue light shot over his body, and it stopped.

“Got another?”

“In 5 minutes.”

We looked at each other. Then we went back to running without another word.

After a while, the alleys around us changed. Paintings of torches and smiling women who looked a bit too much like me started to appear on the walls. The sounds of the collapsing city faded from overwhelming chaos to sonorous background noise. Like all sounds of distant violence, it was dangerously easy to get used to. The screams and the collapsing inferno almost seemed like a distant dream. If it hadn’t been for the flickering red hue and motes of embers still coursing through the night sky, the streets would have almost seemed normal. Well, that and the ripped-open doors and occasional smears of blood on the ground.

We kept running. Zephyro told me we were approaching the richer, better-defended parts of the town. He explained that the shortest route would have involved taking the main roads, but he was afraid it wouldn’t have been safe. He suspected the enemy would move through the thoroughfares first, then spread out, like an infection moving through arteries on its way to the heart. Even if we had a bit of luck and the other gates had held, there were still an entire city’s worth of people fleeing toward the palace. I knew crowds of that size. Completely unpredictable, uncontrollable. If we got caught in a crowd that big, we’d get pulled along unless we fought our way out.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I was proved right a minute of running later. We entered an alley that went parallel to the main road. Tight corridors, drapes hanging overhead, some sort of wooden balcony to my right. As we ran, I caught glimpses through open doors and windows. The houses were small by my old world’s standards, but far larger than the ones I had seen in most villages on Tobes. One house I passed had its back door open towards the alley, and the front door was hanging on its hinges, revealing a view of the main street.

I slowed to a stop, amazed. Both openings aligned to show hundreds if not thousands of people fleeing in the same direction as us. We hadn’t heard anything from the wolf for a while. It had probably gone in search of slower prey. Like the people right there in front of me.

I’d known there were many people in this city, but knowing was different from seeing. Men with turbans, women wearing colorful clothes, children crying for… for a lot of things. The sounds of the crowd were dampened because they had to pass through the house, giving the scene a distant feeling like I was watching them through a TV. And yet, when I moved, the illusion shattered, and all I saw were people.

People who are going to die because of you.

As I watched, an older man fell, screamed, and exploded into a shower of teal sparks.

I shouldered past Zephyro, who’d waited ahead and got back to running.

We stopped at an intersection a while later. I leaned around the corner to check if the way was clear. Only dust and shadows flickering in the light of fires overhead. Zephyro indicated a smaller street to our right, blocked by a half-collapsed wooden handcart.

“Why can’t we just teleport to the palace?” I asked as we reached the barrow.

“Pardon, Sultana?” Zephyro asked, quickly shoving the wooden contraption aside so I could move past.

“You’re an admin here. Me too. And yet we’re running and not teleporting. Why?”

“Your… hmm, how to best put this… your essence, Sultana, is too dense.”

My eye twitched. He didn’t just call me fat. He didn’t. I was fine. He probably meant something else. No need to get upset about it. No need for anger. Had to save it.

I inhaled sharply to clear my head. Everything got a bit clearer, and the questions returned. Among the many things that didn’t quite make sense, one stood out.

“By the logic of this place, I should have appeared where I am in the real world. That means the ‘palace,’ I guess. And yet, I arrived on a hill somewhere far outside of town. That means you teleported me out, so why can’t you teleport me in?”

“It is not that easy, oh Sultana,” Zephyro said, quickly jamming the cart between the houses on either side of the alley with one hand. Blocking pursuers. Clever. “Remember the Ferals. Body and mind are separated here. And the rule is that everyone will always arrive at the outskirts of the town. No exceptions.”

“That makes no sense,” I said.

“And yet, it is the truth,” Zephyro said. “It is to keep ourselves safe. Besides, transferring Essence of your magnitude would take many, many cycles.”

I decided to drop the matter before I lost control again. The Ferals, the people dying, the city burning, it was… a lot to process. I didn’t need to wrestle with the thought of a Robot calling me fat. Or… was he? He’d said essence, but what if that meant something else?

Chris, can you show me the bootup stats again?

Beep?

The very first screen thing, I thought distractedly.

Beep.

The information drilled into my brain a split second later.

{SAMANTHA_v0.1}

{DOWNLOAD PAUSED}

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱ 99.9%

{15.6 LTB/15.7 LTB}

{0.00 LB/sec}

{LOGIC RAM: 7/10 LKB}

{SYSTEMS:

ACTIVE: NONE

DEFENSIVE: NONE

PASSIVE:

memOS 3 LKB

SAINTECH DPM v0.1 2 LKB

drivers_sensory_Sam_v_0.1 2 LKB

FREE: 3 LKB}

15.6 Logic Terrabytes? Can that be right? If that’s what Zephyro means by ‘essence’, I can see where he’s coming from.

I wonder how much Logic he has, probably around a thousand terabytes or something.

I didn’t say anything for a while, lost in thought. We had slowed to a brisk walk but still made good progress, always on the lookout for more Ferals. As we moved on, the noise swelled again. We were coming up to a bigger intersection, and the illusion of peace disappeared as quickly as the dreams of 20-year-old girls on their first job.