Outskirts of Loyalsockville
Jenny's POV
I borrowed a bike from Private 'Whistle' and we cycled to the town. The cycling motion Loop told me wasn't seen as 'human' parameter space so the machines assumed we were some kind of machine and ignored us. We approached slowly. From my point of view it looked completely like a normal town on a Sunday morning. Then I saw a sentry sentinel machine sitting at the entrance to the town. It was basically a turret mounted gun on the ground. Its entire life choice was moving left or right and killing something hows that for a dull life.
"OK princess you drop behind me. Anything goes wrong play dead wait for Rodi."
'It's at times like these I feel so much better I'm with you rather than safely locked up in a cage' I thought.
The turret tracked our movements smoothly and precisely, but did nothing.
"Don't worry about the gun turret. It's for stopping bigger things like tanks and trucks. Most of them are out of ammunition. It's job is to take our attention away from the auto snipers on the tops of buildings, dear" said Loop aka Mr Reassurance.
"You see you know just how to reassure a girl, could I be any more freaked out?" I said.
As we did we passed a telegraph pole after telegraph pole and I noticed that stapled to it was a paper poster. It had picture of me. It had a huge wanted sign. So I was able to answer my own could I be more freaked out question with a resounding 'yes'.
REWARD
MISSING PET
SLAVE
answers to name of Jenny
Collar ID 5642, Breed: human Model: 127/c
My beloved pet 'Jenny' Last seen in this sector on 02.92.1.4 was last seen being taken away by a hunter-killer with a missing leg. Very friendly, but not very good at ending sentences respectfully. Last wearing black silicon unitard and iCollar 3.0 ( may have been removed or switched ), eyes brown like chocolate kissing gold and star light flecks. Great sentimental value and very much missed.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONTACT LORD ROCKWOOD
on 059385039485304458320438230492834032948027
REWARD FOR SAFE RETURN
with my picture with the words 'have you seen this slave?' at the bottom . I was starting to wonder about this. Zola had sold me a line - but I had seen Rockwood say he didn't love me and was just using me. I guess he just wanted his property back. I felt weird but over him, the bubble had burst and the soap had got in my eye.
Loop pulled into a side alley out of sight of the turret and the guns. He stopped got off and I pulled in behind him.
"Hay we passed a StarBucks on the way in. Fancy going in and looting your self a coffee ?" said Loop.
"We should loot coffee at Carabou Coffee it's cheaper" I said smiling.
Loop heard something and turned. He crept to the corner and used a tiny mirror to peek, his face dropped. The smile had been lost now it was stern.
"Cyborgs why did it have to be cyborgs" whispered Loop to him self in horror.
"They have cyborg's posted here? I thought they were mostly the important guys like generals?" I whipsered.
"No princess you have it all wrong. The machines turned lots of animals into cyborg's. With machine upgrades the animals are smart enough to talk and to run local units like this. Look" said Loop.
"There you go have a look" he said handing me the mirror and switching sides.
I looked in the mirror in the distance I saw what looked to be a paddock with horses, they were running around. Then I saw the horns on the horses fore heads.
"Unicorns?" I said.
"Unicorns from your worst nightmare. The antenna on their heads allows them to control the targeting systems of many robots with their minds. If they are running the show we could be in luck."
"Your saying this place is run by cybernetically enhanced unicorns?" I said.
"If we are lucky princess" whispered Loop.
"And IF we are unlucky?" I said looking at the horses play. I heard voices shouting to each other.
"There , there might be a few sheep around the place," said Loop trying to be casual.
"Sheep.? Did you mean sheep - like Baa sheep " I said.
"Never say Baa to the sheep. Sheep only if we are unlucky. You don't get cyber cattle this far north and most of the cyber pigs are still in the middleeast and subjugating Ohio" assured Loop.
"So we have to be scared of some sheep? I think the marines have lost their edge." I said.
Loop sat back on the ground in the alley way.
"The A.I's upgraded a bunch of the sheep to sentience, human level intelligence" .
"I know what sentience is" I said.
" Then the cyber-sheep discover that not only were they being consumed in massive numbers for meat but then they were being specifically breed for domestication. You suddenly become like five times smarter and discover your children have a year to live and yeah they they got a little cranky. By cranky, I mean swore blood vengeance on the entire human population. You look at any human atrocity and there are probably a bunch of blood crazed sheep behind it. They're worse than the pigs and the cyber bulls put together*. The unicorns are far more reasonable they might let you live, sell you into slavery after giving you good kicking, possibly dragging your round for a bit, for a laugh. You get caught by a troop of robots lead by cyber-sheep and your looking at a meat hook through your foot, having your throat slit and hanging there for five minutes while your blood runs out into a bucket and the sheep reads out a prayer about revenge. You heard about Austin right?"
"Something big?" I said.
"Then I won't tell you much it will give you nightmares," said Loop.
Then I remembered just-read-the-instructions telling me 'I keep reminding my self I was one of the few to make it out of Austin alive' and thought *crap*. Maybe when Rockwood talked about the quad-fraction of the Cyborg council he was referring to the cyber animals, quad as in four legs. Looks like a huge amount of our former domestic stock had just been upgraded and was out for 10,000 years of revenge. That was super reassuring.
"So it's like animal farm but with heavy weaponry," I said. I don't think Loop got the book reference, clearly, my miss-spent youth reading didn't translate.
Loop got up, grabbed me and kissed me "For luck," he said. Not to be outdone I kissed him back.
"What was that for?" he said.
"To show I'm not superstitious," I said.
When I did I looked at his shoulder, there was a black mechanical spider on it. I knocked it off with my hand. Loop spun around and slammed a shot into it. The silenced gun sounded more like flatulence than a shot.
"Surveillance drones!" said Loop then he looked down. "Your leg!"
I looked down to my ankle to see something gripping round it. It was a small legged drone it raised a tail like a scorpion and before I could do anything it stung me. I felt like I was a woopy cushion deflating. All I could sense was that the sound of Loop desperately firing. The staccato burps, sounded like a room full of cowboys after eating bean stew for a week. I felt reassured I was falling asleep, I was wanted alive, I would come out of this..
***
* to be honest this sheep are worse than pigs/cattle debate is one which goes in many free human camps around the world. It all really depends upon who you lost most people to. Unicorns are nearly universally held as preferable in terms of surrendering to (if you have to). If it helps the cyborgs also debate the who has the better reason to hate humans which is similarly unresolved. In the interests of fair play we will point out this is Loop's personal opinion for reasons which will become clear in some future appendix. Feel free to suggest which animal would be likely to be the most revengy if brought up to sentience.
We are thinking of going walkabout - Reb and I have dreamt about putting our feet up and having a holiday over in the Humour section of Wattpad ( the weather is nice this time of year). So Be sure to add 'I'm a Cybrog's pet' to your reading list ( or follow RK ) as if you just look for Pet in the top 10 we might been a different top 10 next week.
Why do you think of the cyber animals. Join us next week for 'the Secret of the cyborgs'.