Mockingbird (A Steampunk Thriller)

Chapter 9

Someone knocked on the door in the morning, and I stumbled up as I started to slowly step backwards. Eva or Augustus would have just unlocked the door, so whoever the hell was out there was not Eva or Augustus.

"Military Police, is anyone in there?!" I heard a man shout.

I kept stepping backwards, and then I clumsily tripped over the leg of the chair behind me. My metal body crashed to the floor, making the most loud sound possible. If I had a heart, it would have stopped.

"Military Police, open the door!" the man shouted again.

Eva, I thought. I have to call Eva.

I clumsily got up, and I stepped towards the strange phone in the back of the garage. I lifted the ear piece, but I had no way of knowing what number to call, so I stood there helpless as the man banged on the metal, garage door once again.

"Military Police!" he shouted for the third time, "Open the door or I'm breaking it down."

I suddenly slipped the pair of sunglasses over my red eyes, and I got on the coat that Eva lent me. I was terrified, but I opened the door.

"Hello," the officer said, a little stunned that I actually opened it. He was on the shorter side, and he had the same uniform as the people who I saw outside of the city. "You didn't hear us the other two times we knocked?"

"No," I answered. "I was working late last night, maybe had a little too much to drink, and I was out cold. Sorry, officer, what can I do for you?" I stayed in the darkness of the garage, and I was extremely fortunate that the sun wasn't up all the way quite yet.

"We found a dead man in the street this morning," the man said. "Do you know anything about it?"

"I'm sorry, I don't," I lied. "Good luck. I hope you catch whoever did it..." I started to back up, and a ray of sun illuminated a line in my face that was the boarder between two steel plates. I stepped back more, and before I could close the door, the man suddenly held it open, touching the cold metal of my left hand.

"I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the garage," the man told me as his expression suddenly flipped from confusion to concern.

I froze in my tracks. Looking around, there were about 15 other humans behind him. They were all armed and clustering by the body of Harrison.  If we had jut thought for a minute, Eva, Augustus, and I would have deposed of it.  But it was too late.

"I can't do that," I broke to him.

"Backup!" he shouted as I stupidly ran inside of the garage again. I found Eva's crossbow, and I picked up. So much for not touching Eva's stuff. I took off my sunglasses, and I started to load the bow. In front of me, there was about six humans, armed with both crossbows and muskets.

Sooner than later, I was holding the crossbow in the air, ready to fire, and all of their weapons were pointed at me as well. We stood there for about a minute.

"Please don't shoot," I told them. "I don't want them to actually have a viable reason for hunting me down when I fire back."

"Drop the bow, and we can work this out," the man from before told me.

"You see, I would," I started. "But I have no reason at all to believe you."

"Prometheus!" I heard Eva shout from the doorway.