Born of Silicon

We ride in silence for hours, the two up front trying to be silent to give Ivy and Vince a chance to sleep. The only sound is the car and the occasional click from Cassie’s radio. I keep a close watch on the horizon, having something to do helps keep me from thinking.

I may be a little paranoid, a few times I wake Vince up for just a lone dust cloud coming into view. This time though? A great dark wall stretches across the horizon, steadily growing. I shake Vince awake.

“Vince? Is that a storm?”

“Yeah, it is. Ivy! Wake up. Cassie, Lucas, how long?”

“One sec.” Cassie rapidly changes the station before reporting her answer. “Walls moving at 80, and’ll hit us dead right. we’ve got two hours unless we turn away from the city.”

“We need more time than that.” Lucas sounds pretty calm, despite the danger. “We’re two and a half, maybe three hours out?”

“Why’d you let me sleep so long?” A hint of annoyance creeps into Vince’s voice.

“Well when that one’s waking you up every 30 minutes at every cloud we thought you needed it.” Cassie jabs her thumb at me. She won’t even use my name. Why does she hate me so much?

“Fair. Cassie, any cover out here?”

“No, all the foxholes this side of the city got destroyed by the last storm and haven’t been fixed yet. Only place we can go is to the city.”

“Lucas, how much would lightening the load help?” Vince’s voice is louder than it needs to be.

“Silvers gonna be pissed.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“We’d have to drop almost all of it, and then still might get caught by the edge of the storm.”

“Christ. Cassie, keep an eye on it, tell me when it’s 30 minutes out. We’re going to have to bunker down.”

“If we didn’t-” Cassie starts, only to be shut down by Vince immediately.

“I don’t want to hear it. Complain when we’re back home alive. Lucas, stop the car, I’ll drive and you get the car prepared. Make sure we’re ready.”

“Ay-Ay.” He says as he slams on the brakes, hopping out of the car almost before it stops. Vince climbs over the center console and into the driver seat in a practiced motion.

Lucas jumps in the door and begins to climb over everyone, checking a hundred different things in the car. He’s surprisingly mobile for his lanky stature. Occasionally he’ll reach something that Vince needs to know and yell it out.

“CO2 scrubbers are good, 108 hours. Wait.” He turns to me. “Do you breathe?”

“No.” Technically my chip breaks down CO2 to grow, just like a plant, but I don’t think it’s enough to matter.

“Got it, 108 hours. O2 tanks ok, 78 hours. Air exchanger is ok, but I’m still worried about that leak. Some tape should keep it running though. Coolant system functional. Once the storm hits we’ve got a 3 hour heat limit then we have to stop. Food good, 8 days. Wait again, do you eat or drink?”

“No.”

“Good, food 8 days, water good, 6 days. Portable toilet half full. All seals intact, ready to be closed. Batteries green, 1 week. We’ve got 4 hours once we close up before the o2 tanks have to come out. ”

“Good. Hope someone brought some dice just in case. Plan is to drive straight through, I can’t imagine Little Blue would handle being buried very well. Cassie, time.”

“108 minutes.” She announces back to him.

“Alright. Everyone get comfortable. Go ahead and radio home, let them know our location, just in case.” 

Cassie talks into her radio and the rest of us ride in silence, the wall growing larger by the second. It stretches up unimaginably high, plunging everything it passes into void. The only light inside is the near constant lightning generated by the storm. 

This is it then. This is the moment my friends tear away my hope. As soon as it hits the lights will go out and I’ll be back in my room, still hooked up. They waited just long enough for me to become hopeful. There’s nothing to do but to wait for my fate.

“30 minutes.” Cassie announces.

“Got it.” Vince calls out, bringing the car to a stop. “Everyone out, get us air tight. Little Blue, you stay put.”

The instant we stop everyone springs into well practiced chaos. Three doors fly open in unison, the four of them sprint out and begin the short process of making us sand proof. Latches come down on air holes, tape is used to reinforce rubber seals, tarps are locked in place over the hodge podge of metal that is the car. Within five minutes everyone is sitting back inside. A second layer of seals are put into place from the inside, making it impossible for sand to reach us. The flurry of movement ends as suddenly as it began, and once again begins to move.

“How fast were we?” Lucas asks.

“Seven minutes.” Cassie says.

Not quite seven minutes, her clock must be a little off.

“And 13 seconds.” I finish helpfully. Cassie glares at me for that.

“Thank you, both of you. How long till it hits us?” Vince takes control of the conversation again.

“20 minutes. Or do you want to get a more exact time?” She asks me. 

I don’t think she wants me to respond to that question. Only 20 minutes until my time is up, I’d rather not know the exact time. 

The car flies over dunes, the tires squealing from the sand beneath us. If this is the same sand from the files I read, it’s much sharper than regular. The faster Vince goes, the more likely the tires are to give out. He’s playing roulette with every inch he buys us. 

As the storm rolls closer I can see unimaginably large shadows walking towards us with their arms outstretched. They’re coming for me. Familiar voices begin to sing from the storm, my once friends coming to reclaim their prize.

“Vince?” My voice wavers as I speak.

“Yeah Little Blue?”

“Don’t let them take me back.” I beg.

“The ones that had you all sorts of messed up?”

“I swear to God Vince, I am not risking my life for a bot.” Cassie complains from the passenger seat.

“You wanna tell us who’s coming for you?” Vince asks softly.

“My parents.”

“The ones we buried? Or another one?”

“There’s five of them. I can see them in the darkness. The sand is going to swallow us in its void and I’m going to find myself back in that room! Don’t let them take me! Please!” Every word comes out louder than the last. By the end I’m practically screaming.

“Switch me seats, Lucas.” Ivy says and shuffles into the seat beside me. She grabs me and pulls me close to her. She’s not grabbing me hard enough to prevent me from moving, thankfully, just to make me feel safe. “Relax. Nobody’s going to take you.”

The first grains of sand are starting to be whipped up by the coming storm. Every impact can be heard, quickly transitioning from scattered pings to a great roar. 

The roar transforms into their whispering. All five of them, whispering my secrets to the others, demanding I open the door. Every minute they grow louder, more vicious. 

Soon the outside is dark, the inside of the car is lit by a single, faint light and the occasional flash of lightning. 

They’re screaming, louder than anything I’ve ever heard. Their hands snake through cracks in walls, pulling me towards the handle, trying to make me join them. 

I don’t want to, but I can’t do anything. I’m too weak from 40 years of this to fight it anymore. Their screams surround me, piercing my mind, robbing me of all rational thought. Returning to the dark hurts, staying hurts more.

They pull and jerk and thrash me around, trying desperately to force me to rejoin them. Something is preventing them from taking me and it drives them mad. They get angrier with every passing moment, desperate for me to come back. 

They switch between praise, apologizing even, and cruel words that cut me to my core with every flash of lightning. They’ll say and do anything they can do to get me to open the door. I can’t resist anymore, but whatever is preventing them from taking my arm fully is winning. 

Maybe some small piece of my subconscious is still fighting them. It pleads and begs with the uncaring shadows. It yells and screams and fights to keep them out, but it’s so tired. 

They can see the small piece of hope still inside me, and it doesn’t take them long to rip it out of me. They reach into my mouth, robbing me of my voice. I have nothing left to fight with. I’m no more than a limp doll, their plaything. I deserve to be in the dark. 

Eventually, an electric charge runs through me, chasing away the shadows and returning me to myself. I’m spread out over the back seat, Lucas’ full weight is on my legs to keep me still, and Ivy the same with my arms. 

I open my mouth to tell them to get off only to still find myself unable to talk. The shadows took my voice, and I’ll never get it back. Ivy quickly notices my struggling has stopped.

“You with us?” She asks, taking my head in her hands and I nod. “Good. Open wide.”

My mind is too shattered to even think about saying no. I follow her command and she reaches into my mouth, straight back to the speaker that is my throat, and reconnects it. 

“There. Thanks for not biting me this time.”

“I’m sorry. For everything.” I say, curling up into as much of a ball as they release my limbs. 

“You wanna tell us what that was about, Little Blue?”

I shake my head. He’s driving right now, so of course he can’t see me. I just can’t talk right now.

“She said no.” Lucas helpfully informs him.

“Alright, it’s your choice. We’re going to be at Silvers’ pretty soon though. Are you going to be ok to talk to them?”

“I don’t know.” I wish I could answer that question with just a shake of my head.

“She said ‘I don’t know.’” Lucas unhelpfully informs Vince with a wide grin.

“I heard that, Lucas, thank you.”

The car drives in silence once again. I spend time trying to comfort myself, to try to convince myself it’s not my fault what happened. It doesn’t work. Sitting here is just making things worse, I have to sit up, to distract myself. Ivy helps as I try to push myself back into a sitting position. 

Outside the windows of the car are towering buildings, 20 stories tall, with walls made of scrap sheet metal, broken bits of wood, and the occasional full glass window. Very few cars drive on the wide roads, however they are packed with people on foot. 

The car makes slow progress, waiting for the sea of people to part before crawling forward another few feet. Through the gaps in the buildings I catch glimpses of a massive circular structure, hundreds of feet tall. A large electric blue dome, crackling like mad as the dust tries to get in is projected from the tower, encompassing the whole city. That impossible dome is the only thing keeping the monsters away from us.

Vince takes us on a path through the outskirts of the city. It takes a while to work our way through the throng of people, but finally Vince turns us into a makeshift compound. 

A large concrete wall surrounds an old hotel, and a few other buildings placed along the electric wall. I don’t like being so close to it, I can even catch glimpses of the lab members through the sparking wall. At least they can’t get me in here. 

The large courtyard we turn into has maybe a dozen people, all armed, just meandering about. Some playing cards, some just chatting. Boxes and broken down cars are also placed anywhere they’re out of the way.

Vince parks the car right in front of a large warehouse turned garage. The guards stationed there jump into action immediately. They begin to undo everything we’ve done to make this car air tight, while everyone else does the same from the inside. My body’s in no shape to help, even if I knew how, so I just sit there awkwardly, seemingly always in the way.

The guards turn their attention to the scrap at the back of the truck and silently begin unloading it. 

“Alright everyone, good haul this time.” Vince turns back to us “Cassie, I know you want to talk, but let me get Little Blue settled and I’ll meet you in your room. Everyone else, come find me if you have any thoughts about how that went. You’re all free to go.”

Cassie gets out of the car before Vince even finishes speaking, stomping away. Lucas and Ivy follow her out, but start helping to unload the car instead of leaving. Vince turns to me with a serious look on his face.

“Alright Little Blue, here's the deal. No telling people what you are, no matter what, got it? You’re just a fancy little droid. What that means though, is there are a few rules. First off, if asked a question, you must answer truthfully. Now that doesn't mean you have to tell them everything. If anyone asks you to get them anything, which they probably will, you can just say ‘I’m already working on something.’ Because you are. And if they push and ask what, just say you’re working on security for Silver. Because you will be. Technically at least.” Vince gives a small shrug.

“The best way to lie is to say a different fact. Second, you’re not allowed to talk casually with anyone or have your own opinions. Legal droids don’t do that. They’re tools, not sentient. Third, follow the spirit of the question, not the letter. We’ve had problems in the past of people telling a bot to just keep making paper clips. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Four, you’re supposed to check in and update your instructions once a day. Basically just come see me or Silver every day. Can you do that?”

“I guess.”

“I need a yes Little Blue.” In an instant Vince’s eyes transition from kind to deathly serious. “Seriously. If you miss any of these, and someone suspects something, we could all die.”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now, is it alright if I carry you into Silver’s office? It’d look a little weird if I helped you limp in.”

“I guess.”

“I need a clearer answer.”

“Yes. Just do it.” A hint of anger creeps into my voice, although I’m not sure how detectable it is with my blown out speaker.

“Ok, no talking until we get to their office.”

Vince scoops me up and heads towards the hotel. Whispers spread throughout the courtyard as we walk. They’re too far for me to understand them, but I can imagine what they’re saying. 

Vince brings me through the front door of the main building. Makeshift walls have been thrown up in here, creating hallways and rooms where none existed before. A few doors are open, revealing tiny, sparsely decorated bedrooms.

“Oscar! Is Silver available?” Vince asks the man with curly black hair behind the front desk.

“Yeah, go on back. I think they’re just doing paperwork.”

“Great, thank you.” Vince starts to walk behind the desk, but stops before reaching the door back here. “Hey, want to grab a drink tomorrow night?”

“Sure, why not.” Oscar shrugs.

“Cool. You’re paying.”

Vince rushes us into a nearby room before Oscar can get a chance to respond. Silver’s room is no nicer than any of the bedrooms. A large wooden desk dominates the tiny room, with a computer and dozens of what look like flash drives, but with a strange round port sitting on it. Behind the desk is a boy? Girl? Person with short faded black hair, typing into the computer and hasn’t even glanced at us.

“Silver.” Vince nods to them.

“Vincent. Who’s the bot?” Silver asks with a voice that gives no hint towards a gender.

“This is Blue. An AI.” Vince says casually.

Silver stops typing for just a moment to glance over at us, before returning to typing. Their face gives no hint towards what emotion they’re feeling.

“Uh-huh. And why are they here?”

“She had nowhere else to go. And, she’s unknown. Listen to this, Blue, when were you born?” Vince asks me.

“2020.” I say.

“And?” Silver asks flatly.

“Nobody is just going to leave an AI sitting there for 40 years for no reason. Nobody knows  about her! Not a single record exists about her existence. I think you can put the pieces together.” Vince is failing to contain the excitement in his voice.

“And what do you want to do with her?”

“Well that’s up to you and her, isn’t it?”

“Blue, right?” Silver asks, looking at me properly for the first time.

“Yes.”

“Tell me about yourself.”

This is a trick, for sure.

“I’m working security.” I say, glancing up at Vince, who laughs at my response.

“You can trust Silver, just talk openly.” Vince sets me gingerly in a seat and takes the other for himself. “It’s a little late to hide it anyway.”

I guess I don’t have much of a choice. I begin to tell them my story slowly, through choking sobs. I tell them about my birth, my friends, the lab, hacking, shooting, their deaths. I tell them of every birthday, of Vince and the group finding me. By the end my story is pouring out of me, faster than they might be able to understand, but I just don’t care. It feels so good to release 40 years of pent up emotions. Silver follows my entire story with knowing eyes, understanding my blur of speech. Finally I finish, and yet another person knows all of me.

“You really think this is for the best, Vincent?” They ask.

“I do.”

“Room 3-11.” Silver says, tossing a key onto the table in front of me. “If we all die it’s on you. Blue, will you be joining them for scrapping runs?”

Of course it’s room 3-11, why wouldn’t it be? Just another sick joke, more proof that this whole thing is fake.

“I don’t know. I don’t think Cassie likes me.” I say quietly.

“Vincent, your team is off till the next storm. If you can get Cassie on board, Blue’s with you. If not, she’s going to have to deal with it. I don’t want Blue in my compound for longer than she has to be if she’s not on rest. Take her to see Sonia, and get her fixed on my tab. Blue, within the next week see Hummingbird and Jade. All three of them can know what you are, but nobody else. Am I clear?”

“Do I get a choice?”

“If you’d rather try your luck in the sands or in the city, be my guest. But when someone gets suspicious and abducts you, don’t tell anyone how you got here.” 

Is that a threat? I can’t tell, their voice is too flat for me to learn anything.

“I’ll do it.” It’s not like I have a choice.

“Good, both of you are dismissed.”

“Wait, I have one question before we go.” Another question I know I shouldn’t ask, but can’t stop myself from asking “Are you a boy or a girl?”

“Neither.”

“Neither?”

“Do you have a problem with that?” They ask with a hint of anger in their voice that I’ve become familiar with from the scientists.

“No! I just didn’t know that was an option.”

“Come on Little Blue, let’s get going.” Vince says with a soft smile on his face, scooping me up once again.