RoboNomics

Chapter 49

If I don't believe it, if I don't overlay this dire reality with optimistic imaginings, I won't be able to go on. I'll fall down right here, let the weight of purposelessness take me down, pull me down into the ground, and then I'll fade slowly away.

"Are you okay?" Austin echoes my question when I sigh.

I look up at him to answer. But before I reply, I notice one of the guys that Austin was talking with last night. He steps in our direction, a smirk across his face.

Austin follows my gaze.

"Good morning!" The guy says.

Austin greets him back. We both stand to meet him. I give him a half-smile and he nods back at me.

"Stellar sleep?" He asks us.

"The best," I say sarcastically. Austin nods.

"So what's next?" He asks, crossing his arms. I notice a couple more people, and then a few more, approaching us. Do they think Austin is a leader here? Did he let it slip that he was on track to becoming a neurosurgeon? I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"We haven't figured that out yet." To his credit, Austin gestures at me. This is between us, it's for us to figure out - not just him. Not the group. "You?" He asks.

"We were talking about that this morning. Don't know how much longer we can stay here."

"No doubt."

"Shelters?" Someone else suggests.

"Maybe for most," Austin says. Then he looks at me and I will him not to tell them my truth.

"We'll probably make other arrangements."

Arrangements. It sounds so civilized.

"You know," a woman in the small crowd suggests. "There's really nothing stopping us from taking up residence in our old places."

"That's true," someone else agrees. "I've been back to look at mine. It's just empty. It's not like they sold most of them."

Austin nods vaguely. "And what about food? We're running low again."

"Power in numbers," the woman shrugs. "We'll go back to the aid center, or one of the other ones in the city. Raid it."

I look around the group. Heads nod, some more vigorously than others. Across from me, an older gentlemen with heavy beard and long, mousy hair catches my eye. His nod and his smile are both vague, almost distracted. There's something familiar about the gestures. I can't place it.

"Overcome the patrol bots? Impossible." Austin interjects.

"Not if we go before it opens."

Just as it dawns on me where I've seen that vague smile before, there's a glint in the old man's eyes as his nodding head dips in and out of a sunbeam. An orange glint.

Austin glances at me, and then back at the group he's talking to. "It's not a bad plan," he says. He's about to agree to it.

I put a hand on his arm. "Wait."

"What? What is it?"

"You'll want to be careful what you say." I look at Austin, then I catch the eyes of others gathered. And then I point at the old man. "That's a bot."

The smile on the android's face doesn't disappear as it turns. It pushes people in the little crowd out of its way despite their shouts, and takes off running across the square.

"Hey!" Someone yells. There's at least five of the crowd that take off after the machine at top speed, the rest of us jog behind. The fastest of our group catch it before it makes it to the border of the park, the he hauls it back to us as it strains to keep running.