RoboNomics

Chapter 55 - 2016

"How did you get this food?" Austin asks. 

My mouth waters as I look at the thick, fatty broth. There are chunks of meat in it. Curls of steam are beginning to rise up out of the pot.

"The Anti-Robotists. They say this is their territory. I'm sure they say that about everything. Don't they, Frank?" She calls towards a set of seats along one wall. A man lays across them.

"Sure they do." 

He lifts his beat-up felt hat from his eyes. His chocolate skin is covered with a white beard. I wonder whether he has greyed prematurely from the stress. 

"They also bring the firewood." He points to the flames.

"Why would they do that?" I ask.

"They say we're an outpost...something like that," Frank replies. "That we all owe them and one day they'll come for their pay." 

He replaces his hat over his face and crosses his arms over his thin chest.

"Doesn't that scare you?" Austin asks Lilly.

"Why would it? They won't do anything to a little old lady like me." 

Austin and I look at each with raised eyebrows.

"And anyways," she leans towards us and speaks with a low voice. "We have ways of protecting ourselves if they make good on that threat." 

One of her gloved hands goes into the folds of her trench and she peels back one lapel. I gasp when I see it: the sight that Austin and I have been waiting for his whole time.

She's wearing an iTronics crest pinned to her faded sweater. Austin and I look at each other and he nods. We both mirror Lilly's action of revealing our crests.

"Oh, my dear!" She claps her hands. "I'm so happy. We're all Resistance here."

"Resistance?" Austin echoes the word.

"Yes. Anyone who wears that symbol resists the Anti-Robotists and their silly rules. I thought you'd know that since you wear it."

"We know what it means," I say. "We just haven't heard the word before. We haven't really talked with anyone in awhile."

"You've been on your own this whole time? Well, don't worry about that anymore. We'll take care of you now."

A part of me is relieved. So relieved to be warm, to smell real food and sit with friends that I could break down and weep with gratitude. 

But there's another part of me, a bigger part, that feels like I've heard promises like these before. A part of me is wary of yet another organized group who would claim responsibility for my well being. 

The union never came through on that claim. The government never did, the Protest Group never did.

"Have they been doing that for you?" I ask her. "Have this Resistance taken care of you and your family?"

"As well as they can." Her face darkens. "It's been hard for Andre and I, for anyone, to deal with our boys."

"Oh, your boys," I exclaim. "Where are they? And Andre?"

"Last car. Quarantine."

"Quarantine?" Austin snaps. "Are they sick?"

"Oh my gosh," Lilly brightens as she tears her eyes from the rusty pot to look at Austin. "I completely forgot that you're a doctor. Can you look at them?"

"Of course." They both rise to their feet.

"Andrea, watch the stew," Lilly commands. 

She grabs Austin's hand and drags him towards the back of the car. 

"You can look after them. You can probably cure them," she babbles. 

She pushes the door between the subway cars, trying to get it open.

"Austin, are you sure you should go?" I ask, unsure if I trust this Resistance yet.

"I have to go. They need a doctor. I have to do my best, Andrea. I took an oath, remember? That may not mean anything to anyone else, but it means something to me." 

He turns back to help Lilly with the door. I look at the pair. Austin is smiling. His face is lit from within in a way I haven't seen in years.

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