How to Date an Android

How to Date an Android Chapter 15 (revised!)

Oh wow. That was unexpected.

But after that I got even more scared.

Another car hit him from the other side of the road. That's also weird too because it's not easy to disengage the autopilot systems in magnetic rail cars. They don't wreck on autopilot driver-less mode anymore. So car wrecks are unusual now. Society in general accepted that the traffic networks controlled and drove their cars better than they did. So its not easy to hit a car like that.

They'd hit him on purpose.

Holy crap. Holy crap, holy freaking crap!!

My heart is pumping so fast that I don't know what to do. I can't run and save him either with my injured state. I can't do anything except watch and maybe report it.

And before he can get out of the little work truck, I can hear and see gunfire from both sides of him peppering the little truck like a swarm of bees on prey. With the little popping noises there is little bright white flickers that are so far away it's hard to see what's going on as they are storming his truck and destroying it.

Gunfire?!

What?!

But gunfire is very easy to tell what it is, since it's so noisy and it carries a long way with how it echoes loudly, particularly certain rifles for hunting big game. For a full three minutes they are firing non-stop into the android's truck. They don't stop for awhile but the timing between shots dies down as they can see the android in the truck isn't going anywhere anytime soon or they just want to keep up their targeting practice.

Everything is still while I'm trying to back up.

They are small specks so I can only pick out the gunfire at first. But then I see like a small flicker and something being tossed. Then I can see flames in his truck cabin.

...

The anarchy from Wisconsin was it here already? Or was this an isolated incident?

I wasn't sure which it was yet. There didn't seem to be any other gangsters, but just these guys. But even they were enough to cause trouble.

I got in the house as fast as I could, which is hard for me with my bad spine. But the robotic leg caging supports my back and legs safely; I just can't go fast or do any real work with it yet. I'm healing pretty well but it just isn't easy. Even before those guys tossed the Molotov cocktail into what's left of the truck down the road I'd been trying to retreat but it's hard with my legs not working right and slow. That heightens my fear tenfold.

I'm lucky my house doesn't stand out in any way from the other nearby houses. Other houses also have fences. And so does mine, but mine trumps all other houses at looking down trodden and old, because years ago I'd had a vandalism problem from people stealing from my shop before people converted away from hard real cash money and went to credits.

People targeted people that had stuff, so I went out of my way to make things look old and beat down, and under par, to make it look too troublesome to go through.

The Corporations also thought electronic credit chips would solve crime and stop robberies. They were wrong and just trying to sell one more thing to the public. If you need a thumb print or a DNA scan to sell or buy with your credit chip... it just means they'll cut off eyes and hands. Or bring the person under gunpoint with them for money withdrawals.

There's always a way they'll cheat.

But I was grateful for my fence now.

From the angle of the way the street winded I doubted they could tell where that android had come from but I'd still shut off all the lights. Anything that made it look like someone was here I hid or turned off or put away. The other houses on my street all looked more tempting to burglarize too. Several of my neighbors had nice backyard pools, and beautiful gardens and masonry that practically screamed they were wealthy.

I had to go slow doing it. Lucky I didn't have anything in the yard anyway. And most of my lights were already off, which saved me a lot of headaches. The shop area I just close up and lock up and its good. But that was already done.

I got inside. I shut the door, and activated the voice automated system in my house to kill all the lights on my property just as one of the killer bandits turned up my lane. They shouldn't have seen me before because I had other houses in the way and they didn't right? I'm not completely certain but very hopeful. The uncertainty grips me like terror.

How do I really know if I got inside in time?

I was tempted to panic.

I'm thinking they'll do lighted houses where they know people live first. The most down trodden houses will be poor targets, which is in my favor. Those guys, if they are really robbing people they'll do the big nice houses first.

It's a close call turning off the lights before they get here.

I am peeking out a small corner of the heavy dark drapes through like a sliver so small I can hardly look. At the same time I'm holding my thick dark drapes so they don't rustle or move around while I peek out this small sliver.

Sure enough, a small old mag pickup, that was probably stripped down and stolen, is being hand driven very slowly through our neighborhood at about 5 mph. They are looking for any sign of people anywhere. As they approach I can see the mag car has two gunmen with dark blue bandannas over the faces of the two riders in the back of the truck with pantyhose covering the tops of their heads. There are also two up front, one of which is the driver. All of them have piercing harsh stares that sweep the whole street constantly. Looking for prey. Looking for easy pickings.

They seriously look like wolves. They are human. Not wolves. But its like the spirits guiding their bodies are insane wolves. No... it'd be unfair to compare the wolves to those guys. Even wolves don't deserve that.

They even shoot the yellow Labrador a few houses down just for being there out in the open. Honestly it was so overfed it was too fat to bark anyway. Its good they didn't see me.

How cruel. Now they are getting closer.

But then they stopped and 2 of them got out and put the dog's body in the back of their track. They were laughing at how much meat it had on it.

Then they shot another dog in another yard. But decided it looked 'ill favored' and left the corpse there.

"Wow," I whispered.

They are armed well too. One of them has a high powered deer rifle, while the others just have handguns. They are looking for people to see if someone saw them jump the android obviously. Plus whatever psychotic dream fantasy that's promoting their current agenda.

I'm lucky I got my lights killed in time. Other houses on my street still don't have their lights out like I do.

The gunmen or gang let loose a whole volley of shots into the 63 year old widow three houses down from mine. They must have pumped over twenty bullets in her, and were still trying to get their kicks. While laughing about it. It's a shame because she was half blind and probably didn't even see them when they were only like twenty feet away while she was doing some evening gardening in her front yard near the porch. I'm sure she didn't have that much money either.

They still decided to rob her.

Her hand hedge trimmers sunk into the flower garden point down and were quivering in the air long after she'd hit the ground.

But now they are arguing. They are VERY loud. Its strange how loud they sound.

One of them wants to search the houses in this street door to door.

The other fellow disagrees.

One guy asked if the granny's meat was any good. The others said its disgusting to eat old people and that they should go for younger people instead.

Now the next guy suggests they vote on it.

What will happen?

They are right in front of my house.