The Rise of the Cyborgs

Chapter 22/Zoe's escape

The Greywing:Meta's POV

When Brookyln and I got to the wing we found Craven was also waiting for Zoe. He wasn't pleased to see us.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked briskly.

There were other warders there. Craven couldn't do to much to us unless we got out of line.

"We've come to take Zoe to her first class," we said holding a fresh Teeshirt to put on under the yellow overalls. It was an old favourite one - she liked the texture.

There was a clack as the door opened. It was mechanical here. Apart from the CCTV and the cleaning robots, everything was all pre-digital. Mechanical locks everywhere. The place even had a faraday cage to stop radio transmission.

Then Zoe came out. She was thin. There were marks on her wrist where she had been handcuffed. Otherwise, she looked OK. She didn't make any expression when she saw us.

"Are you happy or unhappy to see me? I can't tell" she said. She didn't sound hugely different. Spending a period on her own only gave her a rest from the difficulties of processing people's emotions.

"Happy," I said.

Zoe tilted her head while she looked at me "This is your happy face?"

"Yeah," I said smiling. "him too." nodding at Brooklyn.

Zoe pulled a face like she was about to rip my face off with her bare teeth. Incisors showing.

"You OK?" I said to Zoe.

"Yes" Zoe began "I just did my happy face too. We go.  must not be late for first lesson" she added.

She walked past Craven with as much space as possible.

"See you later jailbird" Craven said to me.

We walked and wheeled with Zoe.

"Zoe we are going to make sure Craven doesn't touch you," I said. "everyone is."

Zoe looked over "Why are you doing that? Craven is my boyfriend. "

Brooklyn and I both glanced at each other pulling a WTF face.

"Craven is your boyfriend," I said, "how do you know that?"

We turned a corner down the corridor. Then enter the dim dining hall. The tables were out from the meagre breakfast. The odd bowl of porridge left in place. The order of the tables now broken by the haphazard positions of the benches. Small fist-sized clearing robots were scrubbing the surface of the tables.

"Because he told me," Zoe said.

"You aren't a girlfriend and boyfriend because one of you says so. Its because you feel something for each other" I said.

"He told me I loved him." Zoe said. "he said he knows that I do."

At this point, we left the dining hall and went towards the classrooms. The corridors were empty as everyone was moving into the classes before the bell.

'Let me have a go' Brooklyn said silently to me.

Brooklyn with a hard push of his arms wheeled forward. 

"Zoe. Wardens aren't allowed to be boyfriends. You're too young your not 18 yet. It's against the rules."

"Birthday next week," Zoe said as we arrived at the class.

My shoulders slumped. I knew Zoe did feel things, anger, frustration, she laughed at her own jokes but could she be so inept at social interplay as not to get this right? It was hard to say. I had discovered my dyslexia was different from the others I had met. Leon in my remedial English class could spell his own name. He was good at sports and could swim. There were other Aspies. Some who could hardly talk and needed huge amounts of help. Every one of us was different. We might have the same armband but it didn't mean we were the same. It was hard to know if Zoe really understood what she was getting her self into. I wondered if this was part of Warden Craven's grooming. Zoe was a girl, perhaps she wanted what so many wanted. As an impaired, it would be difficult. She would never be permitted to have a marriage licence. Perhaps she saw this as her only option. Perhaps Craven had promised her something. It was so difficult to know what she thought. Even so, having Craven as your first was nearly enough to make me throw up.

***

We went with Zoe to the first Maths class. It was quite complex stuff which I was doing with ease. The maths teacher walked around with his taser at his hip. Brooklyn also was also now finding it basic. This was good, it meant we could 'talk' while we pretended to work.

'So we keep Zoe from Craven. How long can we keep it up?' I said silently to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn glanced over while he filled his book with fake working out.

"I'm of the opinion that you should kiss Zoe." He said back silently.

"After all you've been through? You were an accident." I said silently.

Brooklyn looked down at his page then smiled. "Thanks my parents say that all the time to," he thought.

"but I don't want to put her through all that'" I said silently.

"Except this time you can give her a choice." Brooklyn said silently back "Tell her what will happen."

He did have a point. I guess the problem was how far should I go? Should I cure everyone in the dorm? Everyone in the school? The whole world. Should I make this the 'eugenic utopia' Mason Kane claimed? He claimed wanted a world without disability. I could do that.

As soon as someone found out those I had kissed would be directed faster than you could say CSI. Whatever happened would make being stuck in an institution seemed like a good thing.

"We are assuming this is a cure. Perhaps it was built to make super soldiers or something." I said. "Its clearly under wraps for something. Hey see the teacher's laptop can you see if you can pull that apart?"

Brooklyn looked at the laptop intently for a second.

"There's a large file on called 'Project Liberation'. But it doesn't make sense" Brooklyn said silently.

Checking behind me I followed Brooklyn into the laptop. It was weird I could sense her was here In the machine with me. I found the folder and the file Brooklyn told me about. IT was massive. Bigger than anything on the drive.

"I'm guessing it's a video file," I said silently. "I'm thinking its encrypted."

"How do you unencrypt ?" Brooklyn ask me.

"If you can't guess a password I'm not sure." I thought back to him.

The issue of what to do about Zoe kept repeating its self over and over again even after we had handed Zoe over to Hannah for her next class. Warden Craven was bound to be there over lunch. I had to come up with something. Normally, I would talk to my mother about this. She never knew the right answer but she always seemed to know enough to help me find the answer in me. I wondered about the changes the ones happening to Brooklyn and myself. I didn't know where these things will end? I felt smarter, I could read. while the process wasn't pleasant I couldn't fault the final result. Perhaps Brooklyn was right. If I explained everything to her. If she consented if she wanted it then it was okay. 

I decided I would talk to her tonight.