Chapter 6 - Resist

Chapter 6 - Resist

“Where... Am I…”

My mind spun in circles, as I tried to open my eyes. My vision was blurred. I blinked over and over until my sight returned to normal. My head bobbed side to side, and I was unable to focus on anything around me. I saw what seemed to be two people looking at me from a distance. The spinning stopped, and my thoughts began to gather. My arms and my head jerked, as I tried to get up. My movements were stopped. I couldn’t move an inch. I looked down at my arms and saw they were restricted by some kind of transparent material. I pressed my arms hard against the restraints but it had no effect on them. The material was thin, yet somehow stronger than metal.

I looked up to see the two people from earlier. It was Ashe and an elderly man. He had glasses and a white lab coat on and was pressing down on a hologram repeatedly. Lights flickered on it and the object I was forced down onto began to move. The object angled forward, and I was able to get a better view around the room. The room was made up of metal in all directions except for where Ashe and the man were. They were more of the see-through material between us. My heart rate spiked as I realized there was no exit to this room, except for behind them. I looked in every corner, only to see cameras and other machines, instead of an exit. I tried to calm down and focused back on Ashe and the man. The man looked caught up in the hologram, and Ashe was frowning.

“Ashe. What’s going on?! Are you okay?” I pleaded with her.

She didn’t respond. Instead, she turned to look at the man and tapped his shoulder. He looked up at me and his face turned into a wolfish smile. He pressed down on the hologram and the material between us pulsed from the center. Several small holes formed in front of him and the man began to talk.

“You know, It really is amazing what my Artificial Intelligence can do. It even surprised me to find out that it sought out partnership.” he bragged.

“What... What are you talking about?” I questioned him.

“Oh. Right. Well, she isn’t human you see. She’s an android. Her mind's made up of my programs and her body is from a deceased girl.” he divulged.

I looked over at Ashe as his words repeated through my head. I felt confused, betrayed, and my heart ached. Ashe crossed her arms, looked down, and her hair covered her face.

“Ashe. Your feelings aren’t just some program, right? ” I proclaimed.

She lifted her head and looked at me eye to eye. She put her hand against the glass. The man looked over at her and pressed the button again. The holes closed and I was unable to hear them. It looked like he yelled at her but I couldn’t tell what he had said. She cowered away from him and backed against the wall. He opened the holes again and stared at me with a dark expression.

“She may have free will, but she can’t disobey me. She has been ordered to find anyone with one of those tattoos and bring them to me. Even with her ‘feelings’, she couldn’t stop herself from following my orders. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in that chair right now.” he stated.

“Now. I am going to have to extract the tattoo. The process is painful, and no one has lived through it before. However, it’s the law. No one outside of the militia can have that technology.” he continued. “I’ll also be running some tests. Very few people retain control when the chip inserts the nanobots into the host. Including you, the one who gave you these powers, and the inner cities’ leaders, make the number of successes twelve. There were well over a thousand failures and all of them died when their tattoos were removed.”

As I listened, I struggled to get free. My wrists had turned bright red and I had started to breathe heavily. There was no way to escape. The man pressed more buttons and the machinery in the room began to move overtop of me. It all combined into the exact shape of my body. It started to lower towards me, and my heart started racing. I had no choice but to try and buy myself some time to think.

“Please... at least let me say goodbye...” I pleaded with him.

“...Ridiculous. It’s not like it’s going to change anything. If it will get you to stop this nonsense then fine. You can spout your goodbyes. After this is over, I’m erasing all of this from her memory.” he replied after a long pause.

He pressed down on the hologram and a door appeared, similar to the holes had.

“An exit!”

She walked up to me and her stone cold face turned soft. She hugged me and apologized for more times that I could count. My heart returned to normal, and a glimmer of hope entered my mind.

“Hey. It’s going to be okay. You can resist him. You just have to will it.” I whispered in her ear.

She stopped hugging me and stood up as a tear fell onto her cheek. Her expression turned even colder as she wiped it away.

“No.. I don’t.. I can’t...” she whimpered.

I looked at the man and he was turned away.

“I believe in you. We both kept secrets. You just have to resist him!” I reassured. “Just break one of these so I can use my powers. I know you are strong enough.”

She looked down and froze. It was the same as when she first saw my tattoo. A small rectangular drive came out of her arm, and she pulled it out. She nodded at me with a smile and set the device in my hand. Her hand twitched forwards and grabbed the restraint. Her grip tightened, and a small crack began to spread across it.

“TIMES UP. Get back in here.” the man shouted to Ashe.

She released her hands and turned around slowly. Her movements were slow and robotic. I struggled again with the hope she had done enough for me to escape but it was of no use. The further she moved away from me, the closer I got to giving up. The warmth she had brought me was fading away. The hole in my heart grew larger with every step. My heart rate and breathing were crazed and the memories of my family flashed through my head like before. I struggled one last time, to the point it felt like my arms were going to be ripped off. A tear similar to the one when my family was murdered dripped down my face.

“Don’t go... I can’t lose anyone else that I care about!” I proclaimed.

Ashe’s body stopped and the man turned around. The man pointed to the room and commanded her again. She turned her back to him and gave me the saddest smile I had ever seen her make. She reached down and grasped the restraint with both hands and pulled. As she struggled, there was a loud crack and the material shattered apart. She collapsed to the ground and the man was in awe. I looked down, tapped my tattoo, and the red power coursed through my veins. I broke myself free, and completely shattered the table I was hooked to. I landed down on the floor in pain. My wrists had been covered in small cuts from breaking myself free.

I tore the sleeves of my shirt and wrapped them around my wrists. They became blood-soaked and stained dark red. The pain was intense, but I forced myself to focus. By the time my focus had returned, the man had dragged her by the wrist behind the transparent wall. He was frantically typing until bright red lights began to flood the room. Giant slates of metal opened from the floor and machinery ground beneath them. I limped away from the openings and kept pressure on my wounds. The noises continued, and something lifted up out of the floor. Bright blue light emanated from the metallic objects. The floor closed underneath them and the sound of a locking mechanism echoed through the room.

“AIM!(Artificial Intelligence Militia)”

These were different than the ones before. They were larger and their shape was weaponized. Sharp edges covered their arms and legs. The robots heads turned and stared at my arm. Their blue lights switched to match the red filled room. It was hard to focus with all of the colors. I looked down at the openings and thought of a plan. I placed the device Ashe gave me in my pocket and braced myself. In an instant, the first AIM attacked. It’s legs pushed against the ground rippling the metal underneath them. I switched to resistance right as one of them pinned me against the wall. A crater formed behind me, and I coughed up a small amount of blood. I looked down, to see a large cut on the side of my chest and a large bruise on my stomach.

Adrenaline and pain coursed through my body simultaneously. My face angered, and I switched to strength. I kicked with both legs and launched the robot into the wall across from me. It knelt down and electricity sparked from its back. A mechanical claw reached down and started to repair it. I switched to speed and ran up to the doctor and Ashe. I slammed my fists against the wall and barely made a crack in it. I punched and punched, but couldn’t get through. They exited to another room, and Ashe’s face turned void of emotion yet again. A giant metal slate slammed down in front of me blocking off any chance I had.

The second Aim made haste and charged at me in a similar fashion to the first. I jumped across the room and landed on one of the walls.  The room had begun looking like a battlefield from all of the cratered metal. The robot continued after me every time I lept away. I was severely wounded, and my legs were slowly broke down after every leap.

“Faster!”

I changed the power to teal in order to protect myself, but it wasn’t fast enough. The first AIM stood back up and was about to attack as well. I took one final deep breath and focused my mind. I thought of all of the practice I had running through the town and what I had done to catch up. I switched to strength, leapt off the wall, switched to resistance and landed on the next. I did this several times and increased my speed over and over. Once more, I leapt forwards. This time onto the ceiling. I launched myself straight down towards the area the floor had opened. I turned purple and braced for impact. I covered my head as I braced for impact. The metal tore open from the force and a weightless feeling surrounded my body.

I had broken through the floor and continued to plummet downwards. Bright lights, mechanisms, and sparks flew past my eyes. The fall felt infinite; but after a time, I collided with the ground. A quake erupted from the hard ground and machinery crashed all around me. It caused a sound so loud, it could have been heard for miles. I had lost so much blood that my senses were all dull. I couldn’t even feel the pain I knew my body was in. It took all of the strength I had to crawl towards a light in the distance. I put pressure on the wound in my side and kept struggling to move. I finally reached an exit, and my arms collapsed under my own weight. I felt so helpless. I couldn’t save myself, let alone free Ashe from that crazed scientist. I tapped my arm over and over, but the power wouldn’t turn on.

“What’s the point..  if I still can’t save anyone?..”

Just as I had given up, I saw a figure as it approached in the distance. It closed the huge gap in seconds. My vision was going in and out and between the blackouts, I was lifted onto a familiar person’s back. Jake was carrying me away from the lab. I should have been excited to be rescued, but all I could do was worry about Ashe. I used what little energy I had to roll off of his back. I crashed into the ground and dug up dirt as I slid for several seconds.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Jake shouted at me as he pulled me back up off the ground. “We need to get you out of here.”

“No… We can’t just leave. We need to go get her.” I pleaded. “That man.. He’s got Ashe.”

“That place isn’t something we can handle. It’s a Military base. It’s got dozens of those robots ready to come after us.” he reasoned. “Even if you were completely uninjured, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

I pulled myself up to his face and cried. I begged him to go save her. It didn’t matter if I was going to die. I didn’t want her to be forced to do that man’s bidding anymore. I didn’t want her to forget me. I didn’t want her to forget us. He looked back at the base and then back at me. He closed his eyes his face tensed as if he was in deep thought. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck and my conscious disappeared. Not only did thoughts of my family being murdered flash through my head, but so did visions of Ashe. The void had grown larger..