Human Code

09 || N I N E

Mary.

I opened my eyes and waited as my computers recovered from my sudden power outage. My sensors ran over the usage left. The data appeared on the edges of my vision.

Thirty-six percent.

Groaning, I turned my head and looked up at the sky. As the clouds passed over the clear blue, everything that occurred over the past fifteen minutes replayed with high speed. At first, it was backward, beginning from the moment my computers died and the panic that had filled me because of the android, his voice, and my sister. A replay of her cries echoed in my head and I remembered slamming my hands against the van.

Why hadn't I done more? I could've ripped the doors off the hinges. Smashed my hands through the windows. I could've saved her.

I failed.

The pressure on my chest eased, and my sensors came to life. I sat up fast, but before I could call out Wendy's name, a hand came over my mouth, my face, and pulled me back.

"Don't," Mary's panicked hiss hit my ear as I fell back into her chest. Her heart slammed against my back. Fingers trembled over my mouth. I tasted the salt of her sweat as it touched my lips. But I didn't look back at her. I looked ahead.

The parking lot was filled with flashing lights, the police reds and blues. I counted seven squad cars and fifteen officers. The teachers who had been inside the school cried as they spoke. Some shouted, pointing at the streets. The officers who spoke to them recorded their answers on tablets, calling to the other with new details. Different findings.

And I picked up the feedback that applied to me:

Androids. Malfunctioning. Defective.

Pushing back against Mary's arms, I heard her hit the grass and rush forward, hands clutching my shoulders. Her fingers dig into the folds of my shirt. I looked back at her and caught the look in her eyes, so wide, I saw the sparks of her fear.

"I need them to go and find Wendy," I said, pulling myself free. "If I report to them the errors I detected today, they'll—"

"Kill you," Mary whispered, reaching to grab me again. "They're ordered to kill you."

What?

I looked back at the squad cars, at the officers. There was a female cop near the school's entrance, leaned against one of the cars. Her hand was to her ear, city-band to her lips. I could make out what she said, even with the feet between us. "We haven't found any of the rogue-droids, sir, but we're looking. Yes, our guns are equipped. Shoot at the mark, understood."

Rogue-droids? Shoot the mark? Destroying the mark means they'll...

"Erase my data..." I finally fell back into Mary's arms and let her pull me behind the trail of trees that bordered the school's playground. Once behind the trees, I let her check my face, my chest. Her fingers pressed and prodded against the sensor nodes under my skin. But I couldn't focus on her. I wanted to hear the other officers.

"They caught six androids off Lake St. Slaughtered the mall's assistant guards." I caught the words of an officer on the left. His hands were pressed into his red hair as he talked to another cop just as tall as he was. "The only thing we can do is shut them down. It's our asses or theirs."

"Bionics needs to step up. This isn't our mess. It's theirs."

"Javi." I focused on Mary's face, blocking out the voices around us. Searching her eyes, I let my sensors calculate her mood in mathematical form, while the color on her cheeks told me the truth before she could. "They got here half an hour ago. All the teachers came out on the front lawn. They told them the androids did it, that they had taken Wendy. And the cops got the orders to search and destroy. I couldn't..."

I listened. I focused. I felt.

"... I couldn't let them catch you here."

But I could only focus on my priorities. My life wasn't high on my list.

"You didn't go after, Wendy." Mary sat back on her legs as I spoke. The sound of another car came close. The loud whoop whoop from one vehicle to another carried on along the wind. "You stayed here with me instead of saving my little sister."

Her hands slid away from my chest, eyes darting to the side to look through the leaves that kept us hidden. "Javier, if I had left you here and they found you..."

Looking back at the cars, I analyzed the situation. Three drove off, leaving four and eight officers behind. My computers told me their names, their badge numbers, and their orders, which did not work in my favor. According to each of them, I was the criminal. To them, it didn't matter why I came here.

"The cops can find her. And save her."

To them, Wendy didn't matter. Civilians were second to technological terror.

"They're not going to find her." I turned back to Mary and shook my head. "Do you think I'm just going to sit here and wait for them to do their job?"

When I stood, she tried to pull me down. "Javi, you can't go out there—"

I snatched my hand away. "You didn't go after her."

"—because if you do, they'll kill you!" Her whispers rang with anger, shouting as quietly as she could. "If we just wait for them to leave, then maybe—"

"There's no maybe." I reached down and grabbed her wrist. It took just one hard tug to pull her to her feet. The shock on her face couldn't register with my computers. Data fizzled out of clarity, letters breaking down into pixels. They turned to dust before my eyes, blurring the edges of my vision like mist in a fog. "Their job is to protect the people they can see. Wendy is last on their list. And I won't sit around here and wait until they leave before I can do my job. My family is who I need to protect."

As another car drove past, sunlight reflected off the front hood and spread rays between the trees. Mary reacted, panicked, and pressed herself against my chest. But I didn't hold her, comfort her. I kept her wrist in my hand.

"If the broken droids took her, where would they go?"

Mary looked up at me. Her dark brown eyes were wide, confused.

"Where are you keeping them?"

"Androids sighted near August and North! A conference hall is surrounded. Move out!"

Feet hurried across the parking lot. Three of the four cars turned on and sped down the street. With the air free of constant, worried chatter, Mary slumped against me and closed her eyes. I felt her breath hot against my chest.

"Okay," was all she said.