Chapter 36
Hartford, Homeland
Two Weeks Later
In the Lucid command center, Milton walked into the command room stretching his arms out after some sleep. There was no day or night or windows in the command center. He said, “What’s up?”
L17 said, “The D-DoS attack on the Homeland Police has now been largely corrected by some of the most talented humans and cybernetic minds in the world. It is unknown to what extent there has been any permanent damage to their system. During the D-DoS attack, our allies made maximum use of their time to inform the populace about creationism and the Christian Bible. There is evidence that as many as 13% of the people are now more openly professing a belief in God and 20 percent fewer are less hostile to the concept of creationism. Manjack is now at the farm in the Green Mountains with Andy from Boston. They are helping them out with construction projects. The temperature outside is sixty-seven degrees and cloudy with a chance of rain. The barometric pressure is . . .”
“Yeah, okay okay,” Milton said, yawning. “It is so boring in here.”
Beth overheard Milton and said, “Why? Because you don’t have any girls here you can bug with your freaky questions?”
Milton sighed. He said, “No, androids are boring. Nothing ever happens. Ugh. God, if you are real, get me out of here.”
Sharon Thomas came out of the shadows of the dark command center and said, “Milton, was that a prayer?” She looked haggardly with wild hair.
“What?”
“No, I just wondered,” Sharon said, “If that was a prayer, is that how you should talk to God? He doesn’t have to answer a prayer like that where you are telling Him to prove Himself. Anyways, you should be happy you are safe here. I thank God that He has kept us all safe.”
“So, you believe in God?”
WHAM! The entire building shook. On their security monitor they could see that the Inquisitors were outside their building. The massive twenty foot tall black Blockbuster robot was battering down the door. Then the Blockbuster was using its huge chainsaw to cut an opening into the side of the building, sending strong vibrations through it.
L17 looked at the security monitors and said, “Current status: An armored personnel carrier, Blockbuster, one battlesuit and two Inquisitor bots in the front of the building; two Inquisitors and unknown number of Homeland Police in the back.”
The Lucid androids knew that the Inquisitor shock troops were armed with Plasfusion rifles, which were deadly to any form of silicon-based forms as well as humans.
Sleepy said, “Initiating evac protocols. Milton, alert your sister. Gather your bug out packs. We will try to escape.” He ran to gather his external storage device out of a drawer and attached it to his belt.
The suspiciously happy-medical orderly-themed android said with a smile, “Our evacuation vehicle has been destroyed.” His frozen smile never changed.
“Daaa!” Milton said. “Now what?!”
Kevin said, “Destroying non-encrypted uncompressed data. Sending distress signal to allies in network.”
A loud crash came from the lobby. The unarmed receptionist android could do nothing to stop the invasion.
“We have to do something!” Sharon screamed.
Beth came running out of her room with her bag. She pulled a toy rifle squirt gun out of the bag.
They all looked at her and her pathetic weapon.
“What?!” Beth said, “Are you all going to stand there looking stupid or what?!”
“Which way?!” Milton asked Sleepy.
Sleepy said, “The back door is a zero-outcome scenario, so we are sending some of our less valuable Lucid members that way to keep them busy. We are sending more Lucids up on the roof to soak off attacks from Homeland air units while we attempt an escape out of the front. L17 and Kevin will be the vanguard of our breakout charge into the lobby to and the rest of us will follow. Then go immediately outside as fast as you can and disperse. You have a small percentage chance of not being shot. Everyone must quickly take position by the door. Quickly, everyone.”
They all ran to the door that leads to the lobby. The Thomas family all looked at each other in fear. They could hear the receptionist android being destroyed by the crack and boom of a Plasfusion bolt. They could hear the unnerving sound of the Blockbuster tearing up the building with its massive chainsaw as it entered the lobby. They could also hear gunfire at the other androids at the back of the building. The danger was closing in from all sides.
But the invading Inquisitors were taken by surprise when the door to the lobby was swung open and androids started charging through it. L17 ran directly at an Inquisitor trooper and knocked it down. Kevin charged toward the other one, but was hit with a direct blast before he could tackle it. Kevin the Custodian exploded in a flash. Hot sparks flew in all directions, blinding everyone for an instant. Kevin was in a burning tangled heap on the floor as its battery spontaneously discharged. Sleepy ran into the lobby as soon as he could and punched the Inquisitor that shot Kevin. The second of two inquisitors was knocked down. Sleepy dove on it and scrambled to pick up the dropped Plasfusion rifle. L17 lost its struggle against the stronger Inquisitor and the Inquisitor blasted L17 at point blank range. Again, there was another large blinding explosion as L17 was destroyed. The massive Blockbuster swung its chainsaw in a wide arc at Sleepy, who was in hand to hand combat and on top of the Inquisitor. Sleepy ducked the chainsaw attack. On the predictable chainsaw backswing, Sleepy reversed positions with the Inquisitor trooper and pushed the Inquisitor up, sending its head in the path of the slow swing of the chainsaw attack. Sparks flew as the chainsaw lopped off the Inquisitor’s essential head. Sleepy threw the remains of the trooper and quickly grabbed the loose Plasfusion weapon and traded blasts with the other Inquisitor trooper. The remaining Inquisitor scored a hit on Sleepy that set his pant leg on fire. But Sleepy was not incapacitated and managed to hit the Inquisitor, stunning it before it could return fire.
Seeing that the only two Inquisitors in the front of the building were both down, Sharon shouted to her children, “Run!”
Then Milton and Beth came running into the lobby. Milton ducked the Blockbuster’s chainsaw and dived straight between the legs of the Blockbuster to get past him. By the time Beth was at the Blockbuster’s feet, it was focusing directly at her with both weapons ready, deciding which weapon would be best to crush the helpless child.
Beth pointed her toy rifle watergun at the Blockbuster’s face. “Get some!” She shouted, and squirted a mixture of soapy water with red food coloring into its eyes. Since the Blockbuster only had weapons on the end of its arms. It had no means of cleaning off the slimy red solution that blocked its vision. Beth kept the stream going into the Blockbuster’s face.
Sharon shouted, “Run, Beth!” Then as she ran by Beth, she pulled her past the disabled titan.
While the confrontation with the blinded giant was going on; the stunned Inquisitor trooper targeted Sharon and Beth. But Sleepy took advantage of the Inquisitor’s shock induced delay by energy blasting it again; this time sending it to the ground, cracking and popping in a heap.
When Milton got outside, he was met with Doctor Fallon in his battlesuit.
“Stop, Thomas!” Fallon shouted, pointing his .45 at Milton. “We need to chat.”
Milton froze in his tracks. He almost made it out, he thought. Sharon and Beth came up from behind and stood with Milton. Milton prayed silently, God, please help us get out of here.
Suddenly, Fallon was hit by an energy blast. The armor was good against conventional weapons, but not energy beam weapons which were usually only carried by elite military. Milton looked at the source of the blast and it was Sleepy with the Plasfusion rifle. In a few seconds, the artificial presence, with grenades and ammunition containers on his armor, exploded multiple times that echoed down the street and sent jagged carbon-fiber shreds of armor in all directions. Everyone fell to the ground.
Sleepy was the first one to recover. He said, “Run Milton.”
Beth ran past Milton and went straight for the large Inquisitor Armored Vehicle. The unguarded door was arrogantly left wide open and she jumped onboard.
Milton followed and then he turned around to look. “Mom?!” Milton could see that his mother was still down from Fallon’s explosion.
Sleepy ran back to get Sharon. He carried her and the weapon toward the vehicle. Sharon was injured by flying pieces of Fallon’s suit that penetrated her skin, including her bloody neck. Her hair was matted in blood from several smaller wounds.
“Hurry!” Milton screamed.
Sleepy brought Sharon into the vehicle.
Beth said, “Milton! You gotta drive this thing!”
Already conventional bullets were pinging off of the vehicle as the police and Inquisitors from the back of the building had made their way to the front.
“Quick!” Beth shouted. Then she looked at her mother. “Mom!” Beth rushed toward her.
Milton fumbled around with the controls until he found a combination that started the hulking vehicle. The APC was finally moving, with sirens from the approaching police blaring behind.
Sharon moaned. She had lost a lot of blood from several wound locations. Her face had a large black mark from the impact of the shrapnel, as well as a gaping wound.
Beth said, “We gotta get her to a hospital!”
“No, baby,” Sharon could barely say, grimacing. “You kids gotta try to get away, or your lives will be over. Do it.”
Sleepy helped get Sharon in one of the bucket seats and he buckled her in. Then Beth sat in the one next to her. Sleepy got into a seat and hooked himself up to a robot charger, trying to get as much of a charge as possible.
Milton drove the APC as fast as it would go, but the police cars in pursuit were much faster.
Sleepy said, “It is very important that you do not let any of the police cruisers get in front of you.”
So Milton drove on top of the centerline to prevent any passing from behind. While moving over, he shoved a police car off of the road and crashing into a building.
Milton said, “I meant to do that!”
There was very little civilian traffic in Homeland during those days, so oncoming traffic was not likely. Milton was not a skilled driver, but having the whole road for the large vehicle made it a lot easier.
Milton could see in the rear view camera view that there was a whole line of police vehicles behind him.
Everyone in the APC saw the sign that pointed to the hospital. No one said anything as they drove past it without slowing down. Within a few more minutes, Sharon became very pale.
“Mom!”
Sharon said, “You listen . . . I . . .” Sharon’s eyes stared vacantly as her soul left her body.
“Mom?!” Beth said.
Sleepy held her wrist, taking vital signs, and said, “She has expired.”
“No!” Beth said.
“Mom?!” Milton said, trying to see what was going on while he was driving.
“She’s dead,” Beth said, crying. Beth tried to gather herself for a few seconds and asked Sleepy, “Okay, how do we get out of this mess?” She looked at her brother in the rear view mirror and said, “Mom wants us to live, Milton!”