The System, Chapter 5

Chapter 4: The resistance

         Kilo Goodwin slowly blended into the late afternoon traffic, constantly checking behind him to make sure that a drone was not tailing him, after several miles Kilo felt confident enough to turn onto the old interstate. He pulled out what looked not unlike a cellphone and flipped a switch. A blue glow began emanating from somewhere within the device. Kilo sat the device down and looked at his son for the first time since saving him from the execution-bot. "Are you alright son?" Kilo asked.

         "Ya dad, thanks for saving me." James replied, shrinking into the faux leather seat. Then after a moment of thought added, "How did you know where I was."

         "You need to be more careful with things that can be tracked." Kilo stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Then looking at James' confused face, Kilo added emphasis to his statement by taking James' cellphone and chucking it out the window. "Cell phones have a tracking chip wired inside of them, the police force used this to triangulate an area where suspects are. That is, before we were replaced with these machines." Kilo continued down the deserted road towards a hard used truck. Kilo killed the ignition and stepped out of the car.

         Carmen Goodwin burst out of the car and immediately went and surrounded James in a hug. "Don't you ever scare me like that again son!" She exclaimed. Then turning to Kilo added, "I just got off the shortwave with Danny, he said that he understands our situation and will let us try to convince the resistance to help." With that the small family got into the truck and headed off.

         "Mom, Dad, what is going on? Where are we going? What is this resistance you were talking about?" James asked earnestly.

         "Be quiet James, you will find out soon enough." Carmen soothingly stated. The truck stopped in front of a power station and the family got out. After opening up the gate they stood in front of a seemingly normal section of paneling. A few moments later the panel gave way to a man in a cloak the same shade as the metallic paneling. "Hello Danny." Carmen said.

         James could not believe his eyes, the man standing in front of him was a member of the anarchist group that he learned about in school. James tried to stay away but his mom's tone told him that it was ok. So he followed his parents to the stairs inside the panel and his vision went for a moment when Danny closed the panel. When his vision returned he noticed that he was in a maintenance section of the station. There was a group of people sitting around a table and he listened while his dad introduced them. After the introductions were over his dad encouraged him to tell his story. After telling the group about his hidden discussions and his close brush with death the group rallied and decided to hold a protest in front of city hall. "If we can't get our story out, then we will not be members of the resistance, we would just be a group of people in hiding." One of the members stated.

         "You did a good thing in there son," Kilo said to his son, laying a hand on James' shoulder. "Get some rest, I don't want you to be at the rally tomorrow but be sure to watch on the TV for any news." James obeyed without any struggle, almost immediately after hitting the mattress he was asleep.

         James woke up with a start, suddenly realizing that he slept in too late, the rally already started. He ran to the television and turned on the news. "Thank you Janet, this is Stepha Lura in front of city hall where a group of individuals are protesting the growing use of the Automatic Crime Stopping Bots or A.C.S.B. in our city. Sir, can you explain why you don't approve of the ACSBs?"

         "These bots are making civilians afraid to speak their mind, essentially voiding the first amendment. This is another blow from our government trying yo make us the proverbial silent majority so they can do whatever they want." Kilo stated, looking straight into the camera.

         "Thank you sir, again from channel nine news this is.... wait a moment, what is going on there, Bob swing the camera around." Stepha said, a tone of urgency in her voice." With that the television went blank.

         Across the street from Stepha a bot cast a grid around a pedestrian that stopped to look at the rally. With horror she watched as the grid closed in and killed the civilian, then turned towards the group of protesters. One by one grids began forming over the protesters, she noticed Kilo grasp her arm and pull her towards the subway. "Keep on going through this door, you will find people who will help you out." Kilo pleaded.

         "What about you," Stepha replied, "They will kill you."

         "I will hold them off as long as I can, just run!" Kilo yelled. Stepha ran towards the deep darkness. As she heard the electronic fizzle she tried to not think of her fate as the same as the man who saved her.





Chapter 5: New Allies



         Carmen was startled to hear the reverberating sound of feet meeting concrete and turned towards the predetermined emergency pathway. Fearing the worst she opened the cover to see who was coming. “Kilo?” she inquired.

         “He is dead, just like the rest of the group!” Sepha panted, nearly collapsing against the safe house wall. “We need to hurry up, that, that thing will be coming soon.!”

         Carmen's mind began racing, dead, that can't be, this was supposed to just be an open show of dissatisfaction. She quickly drew together, every member of the group had prepared for any situation, including evacuation. “Come, quickly.” She urged the newcomer, “You must help me destroy evidence of our occupation.”

         Sepha looked at the woman, her mouth slightly open. She snapped out of it and grabbed the books that were nearby.

         “No, there is no time for saving anything, just press the button on the outlet to cause a surge that will start a fire in the room, the escape is through the next door, under the rug.” Running to the other room, she shook James, who was still glued to the television, waiting for any information of what happened. “James, we have been attacked, we must leave now!”

         “But mom, what happened to Dad, is he alright?” James asked, knowing what she was going to say.

         “No, he was killed by a bot, we must go now!” Carmen said, a tear streaming down her cheek. James wasted no more time, as he opened the trap door and began placing the C-4 charges on the outside, he attached the end to a fuse that would be lit by the electrical fire that Carmen was setting. Within the minute the group heard the bot begin to open the emergency door and the three climbed down the hole, giving one more glance at the location, James shut the trap door and hurried off towards the next safe house.

         Upon arrival of the safe house, the trio waited as the hidden detector made sure that the group were friendly. James held his breath, he knew if they were diagnosed foe the group would be hit with a surge nine times more powerful than a lightning bolt. He released his breath when the door opened and they were met by Danny Lincey, a former associate of James' father. “Come in, quickly,” Danny whispered, “we have been expecting you ever since the news transmission. Tell me, what do you know about the attack?”

         “I am not the person to ask Danny,” Carmen said, “I know just about as much as you do, however, Ms. Luras was an eyewitness to the account. We need to get her informed to our operation as soon as possible, then I think we all need to take a breather, we just destroyed the compromised safe house and personally the whole ordeal made me quite drowsy.”

         “ Fine, first we will get Ms. Luras informed, then we will all get some sleep.” Danny said, “Sepha, I have seen you on television so I know what you do, so let me introduce you to who we are. The people who led you here are James and Carmen Goodwin, who are all that remains of the leader of our organization, now that Kilo is dead, Carmen will be taking over leadership until other arrangements are made. I am Danny Lincey, my job here is head of security, we are a group of people dedicated to putting an end to these bots usage and return to the American people the right to be able to speak in public without the fear of being imprisoned, or worse, killed.”

         “I understand,” Sepha said, still in a state of shock, “so, what do you want me to do?”

         “For now,” Danny said, “get some sleep.”

         With the group asleep Danny walked back to his small, makeshift office. James, who was feigning sleep, sneaked towards his office to hear the ending part of a conversation.

         “Yes, I will try to keep the group here, if it is all possible.” Danny said, looking about the office nervously, “I will call this number if anything changes, goodbye.”