Original Fiction: The Anarchist's Almanac, Episode 11

In this episode, the dwellers meet face to face with their enemy!

Sorry for the delay, I reached the end of the work that was finished, so everything you're reading right now is brand new, premiered here on Steemit!

“I think that is a highly bad idea, for the record,” John replied.

“We have no idea what other kind of reactions this thing will have to you jumping in there with that chip in your head. Eugene’s right, though, it’s not just your call.”

“Dad, we have to try. Think about it. Even if all we get is early warning of when these things are coming…” Dax added.

Joshua chewed his bottom lip, “You’re right. It’s not my call. We need to see what we can get out of this. It’s way too good to pass up, but I think we ought to move it up to the farm house after this, just in case.”
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Over the next two days, a team of Dwellers worked with the suit almost around the clock. Eugene was able to crack the programming code, which allowed him total control over systems, like the security protocol that had caused Darian’s burns.

John rewired the harness and added a kill switch on the chest, so that either the wearer, or anyone outside the suit could shut it down when needed.

“Dad, we’ve been over everything a thousand times. If I’m not ready, I’m not going to be, “ Dax said.

The truck was packed for the supply run and they had decided that Darian, wearing the suit would accompany it, running alongside. Joshua and Jenre made up the rest of the four man team.

Their weapons lay in the bed of the truck and camping supplies were stowed in case they needed to stay somewhere along the way.

“Just tell me one more time. What do you do if confronted by a Reaper?” Joshua stood between Dax and the truck.

“Hide if possible. Run if my odds are good of escaping, cooperate if not, but under no circumstances am I to challenge the Reaper,” Joshua said, his eyes rolling as he rattle off the memorized instructions. “But, we aren’t going to see one.”

“Get in the truck. One more word and I will leave you here,” Joshua swatted his son playfully as the boy climbed into the middle of the front seat, next to Jenre who was already in the truck.

Joshua slid behind the wheel and put on his night vision goggles.

“Darian, you ready?” He asked adjusting his radio headset.

Darian, suited up in the Reaper armor, bent down outside the driver’s side window and gave Joshua a thumb’s up, “Ready when you are captain.”

The supply drop was two hours away at an old rail depot they had been using for about a year. Joshua had initially voted to postpone the run, but their water supply was dangerously low and the water at the Settling was dangerous, according to Consensus reports.

So, they could do the run tonight, or, wait until it was a crisis and risk making mistakes in their hurry.

They rolled away from the farm in the wrong direction, heading out a few miles, then paused at the top of a hill to look back.

Once they were sure they hadn’t been followed and no attack had been launched against the settling, the cut down a road at a right angle to their path and eventually swung around headed for the depot.

Every ten miles, they stopped. Darian seemed to be doing fine. There had been no repeat of the heating response and all systems were go. In fact, being hooked into the Reaper, he said, was rejuvenating, it felt like a good, easy workout.

The last piece of their approach took them in a wide circuit around the town for about ten miles, watching for signs of Consensus activity. Nothing had changed since their last trip down.

They made stops at three Dweller checkpoints, where message boards were kept. Two were in barns and one in an abandoned church, there were no new warnings posted.

They pulled into the road leading up to the depot and stopped. They had decided that as long as they had it, the Reaper should make the initial approach. Joshua pulled out a pair of field glasses and propped himself on the hood to watch.

Darian trotted down the road, circled the depot building and stopped in front of it.

“All clear,” Joshua’s radio said. He took one last scan of the surrounding area and climbed back behind the wheel, his chest tightening slightly. Something felt off, but he was convinced it was just his apprehension about Dax being here.

He put the vehicle in drive and rolled down the street, passing abandoned warehouses and industrial buildings.

The depot had been used for freight and had been abandoned since the mid twentieth century. No town had ever really grown up around it, so, except for a few stray houses, and what was left of an ancient trailer park, the area had all been manufacturing and shipping.

The building was low, with red brick siding and windows set high along the top of the wall, just under the flat roof.

Every scrap of wire, pipe and mechanical had long since been stripped for recycling, leaving empty brackets and cages where HVAC equipment, downspouts and plumbing had been. Most of the windows stood empty, but the roof was intact.

The real beauty of the location, though, lay inside. Toward the back of the main warehouse, was a large cooler that had once held sides of beef from a nearby stockyard. The cooler had been left intact, except for the refrigeration apparatus, so that the shell worked as a kind of vault against weather and animals that might disturb their supplies.

Joshua backed the truck up to the dock and Jenre hopped down, dropping the tailgate. Dax eagerly scrambled out and hopped onto the concrete dock, looking up and down the structure.

“So, what’s my job?” he asked.

“Well, we’ve got to get the boxes from the cooler and bring them out onto the dock…”Joshua began to explain, but Dax was already gone.

He was across the warehouse and opening the door of the ancient cooler, with a squawk as the hinges, nearly frozen with rust, gave off a shower of dust.

Joshua had insisted they not be oiled, to avoid giving away their presence here. He rolled out the tarp they used to cover and camouflage their load on the dock and turned toward the cooler.

“Dad!” Dax’s voice was panicked, something was wrong.

Jenre pelted across the warehouse to the cooler door, then froze, looking into the cooler. The older, slower, Joshua ran as fast as he could and drew even with his friend, expecting to find Dax had spilled something important.

He brushed past Jenre until he could get a good view of the cooler interior. There, standing in the shadows, was the outline of a Reaper, one of the larger units, it’s green visor glowed, eerily in the darkness.

Dax’s feet were a full six inches above the floor, the machine’s hand wrapped around his throat as he struggled to open its fingers.

His radio crackled, a single word, “Aware,” came calmly in Darian’s voice. Joshua looked at the metal monster and made a decision, it was too risky for an inexperienced Reaper driver to be battling it out with this thing while his son’s life was held in the balance.

He took the radio from his belt and replied, “Conceal.” To tell Darian to hide and stay hidden.

If this Reaper was here, they had missed something. It wasn’t alone.

“This message is for Joshua Claiborne,” the machine broadcast, “We are prepared to accept your unconditional surrender. We intend you no harm. We work only in the spirit of first law. Do not attempt to interfere, or pursue your son, or you will be arrested under first law protocol and placed in immediate stasis and a candidate for judicial murder. Report to the time and place indicated in the documents left for you here, good day.”

The Reaper shifted Dax, so that he was no longer choking the boy. It almost cradled him, as it backed, quietly out of the cooler and then walked out of site around the corner of the depot.

Where are they taking Dax, will Joshua be forced to trade his freedom for his son's life? What about the other Reapers and how did the Consensus find out?

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