KETTY'S SUBDIVISION Wattys2017

Chapter 5-Part III

"The substance is inert, cover your mouth with a piece of cloth." She reached down and ripped the hem of her once beautiful black dress. It didn't tear evenly and now she was wearing a mini skirt, but at least she could keep her lungs clear. As they approached the house, Bromide dropped her roughly to the ground and sprinted to the barn.

Now the grit was everywhere and she could feel her thighs chaffing with every step as her legs rubbed together. Whatever it had been, she saw it was selective. The barn was demolished, a massive pile of melted polymers, there could be no survivors. Her heart leapt with a small bit of hope because the house was intact.

By now the evening sun had poked free and she even heard a few birds chirping. Rayjack stood in the door to her house, barricading it with his body. He had already searched and though he tried to keep his features stoic, Ketty could tell he was trying to hide something.

"Nooo." She ran to the front door and pounded on the robot. "Let me in, Rayjack."

"Please, no Miss Ketty."

"I will never forgive you, Rayjack. Let me in." Deep inside the base of his brain, nano-biotic fluid shifted inside his emotional learning center. Old connections disbanded, new ones formed, his thinking changed. He was evolving exponentially under the heavy stress of the disaster. Was it a feeling or emotion? He cared about her more than he did about trying to keep her from harm. This modified the first law of Robotics and allowed him to make decisions he couldn't make moments before.

His arm dropped and she ran into the kitchen. Her parents were lying on the floor next to each other, holding hands. They stared up at the ceiling, but there were no eyes, just bloody red sockets, and the odd way their heads sat in massive pools of blood told her the backs of their heads were blown out. She could see the delicate pink swirl of brain matter floating in the blood like putrid tomato soup.

Her scream was long and guttural, piercing deep into the rapidly evolving emotions of the three robots who stood around her. It went on that way for a long time while they endured the emotional pain coming from the one person who actually cared about them. No programmer could have ever prepared them for this emotion, or tried to duplicate it. No engineer could have foreseen how the sintered brain began evolving internally beyond its design limitations. Ketty screamed from the depravity of the human condition. It was a place where the true greatness of the human will to survive was born, and her robots adapted their programming as they took on a new appreciation for the strength of their trainer.

Below the pain a resolve to survive was being born. She didn't even know it was there yet, but her bots were keenly aware of her plight. Then her brain began to function, operating out of shock. The last memory was tarnished by the fact they were getting a divorce. Then she thought of her brother, and her favorite bot.

"Boondock!" Somehow, she pushed her emotions aside. She could mourn later. They bolted out to the barn with Bromide, Rayjack, and Sizy following behind. She tried her internet connection, searching for Boondock, but of course it was down.

"Help. I do believe I need some help."

"Boondock!" Her heart leapt, as she clung to the last shred of hope. Bromide stood at the top of the pile, tons of carbon and glass that would have crushed a human in seconds. The light whirring of the weapon doors made an odd sound, then he began firing small bursts straight down.

"Be careful."

"I can assure you," Bromide spoke even as he worked, "I have precise control over my field of fire." A large hole began forming through the rubble as he blasted and moved debris in a frenzied precision.

Ketty knew the small power plant located in his groin area could maintain this pace for years. Each bot had a similar power supply, a fist sized Collapse-core generator. Ketty knew the basic principle that it operated on at an atomic level. Atoms were the small building blocks that made up all matter in the known universe. These particles were held together by strong forces of energy, electrons buzzing around a proton core in a mad fashion. But the Collapse-core removed the electrons and packed protons together, so tight they all had to touch each other. This did not make them happy, thus the Collapse-core would naturally suck more protons from Dark Matter and shoot them out in a pure energy stream. Clean, radiation free energy. It was the same technology that propelled massive star ships up close to the speed of light.

"Aaagghh, the world is ending!" Boondock's pathetic cries went on until Bromide dragged his ragged frame out of the rubble.

"I could have tunneled my own way out. You didn't have to be so violent. Look, you have scorched my fine skin with your plasma jets." Even as he spoke, small nano-bots, began repairing the damaged areas, without him exerting a drop of effort. Bromide lifted him gently out of the hole to where Ketty waited.
"You'll be fine, just relax." They climbed off the destroyed barn and she saw Rayjack and Sizy in the front yard, a mound of fresh dirt piled up. She got down on her knees and looked Boondock in the eyes.

"I need you to shut down your emotional protocols for a couple days, ok little one." His eyebrows shot up in excitement. "Do it now, and don't ask why."

She left him there with a puzzled look on his face. At the edge of the hole, she saw her parents had already been placed in the grave, hands still intertwined. Sizy had covered their faces, and now the five of them stood in solemn respect.

"I pray Deity shows them favor. May revenge be swift and sweet." Ketty didn't even know where the words she spoke came from, but she threw a handful of dirt onto the grave and walked away. Revenge against who, she wondered? There wasn't an enemy, only the destruction of living and electronic things. She found it odd how selective the cloud of destruction had been, yet she had no answers. Later, as the sun set, Rayjack brought out a pile of supplies he had gathered. By now, a short wireless connection had been established between the four bots, but it had a limited range of about a hundred yards.

"We have to get moving towards the city," Ketty said as she rummaged through the pile. A small case held the Ion knife she used to practice with. It was a short extension of her arm, with a double-edged plasma blade that could cut through anything.

Another black box caught her eye as she tried to push back the pain of her parent's death, but it came back in waves, like bad menstrual cramps. Except this pain would last longer, though by now she could at least think clearly since the mental shock was wearing off. The latched opened to her thumb touch, and inside was a blue velvet cushion that held four boomerangs. These were star shaped, with four blades that had sharp edges hardened by atomic power. She pushed the small button in the middle, and the first blade lit up with a whine. A blue light flashed, indicating the system was ready and she was thankful a few electronic devices had made it through the destruction. She grabbed it, throwing from a sitting position. Her aim was true, hitting the green plant that emerged from her kitchen window and wound up the side of the house. A small vine fell and the blade returned to her outstretched hand with no effort.

"Nice," she said as she placed the blade in its case.

Darkness fell and a chill shivered down her spine. She had to survive, and now it dawned on her, there would be some desperate people out there. Rayjack had food, water, weapons, and other crucial equipment, but how would they haul it all?

"Bromide, are any of the vehicle's operational?"

"Negative, all electronics have been damaged beyond repair."

"But you four are still alive."

"Yes, we are still functional, but I haven't processed that information yet."

"Think about it and let me know if you have any theories." She turned to Rayjack and said, "Set up some sort of perimeter guard, in case we're attacked." She knew he could handle it, all the bots, except Boondock had passed their military qualifications. Now her mind shifted from her loss to the task at hand. She had to survive and find out what was happening.

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