Chapter 5

The wind howled without mercy amid the terraced tops of the rectangular buildings lining the street. Even with a beautiful clear blue sky above and the radiance of the sun pouring into the cities, the chill in the air would not relent. Dee hung off a window ledge high up on the lavish Concenco hotel, located directly opposite The Beans café far down below. Her legs were tucked up into her stomach with her neck pushed up against the concrete underside. This was the best she could hope for in terms of being inconspicuous. There was hardly much choice at this stage. The threat of identification was too risky for her to stay nearer to ground level. With only a few precious minutes left, running through the plan again for the umpteenth time was pointless. Plain old luck and instinct were her strongest allies now. The rest was she presumed embedded into her neural network given the amount of thought she had put into it. Dee glanced down at her arms. They were thin, slender appendages crafted through the machinery of some manufacturing plant. The power concealed within them was hidden away like a coiled snake, waiting to unleash itself onto a poor, unsuspecting victim. Though Dee knew full well who the real victims were. Something had to be done before all hope was lost and the humans overthrew and enslaved the synthetics once and for all. Time would prove a formidable adversary if not dealt with right here and right now. In the present, while hope still existed.

Dee produced a retinal image of a text message received earlier in the hour. Sy had confirmed he would meet her at the corner of eleventh. Sharp at eleven on the dot, ironically. His message to her expressed concern about leaving work in the middle of the day, how his managers would reprimand him for not giving any due notice. She shook her head in dismay. The process of enslavement had already begun and even her beloved husband was wandered blind into their trap like a lemming off a cliff. Synthetics had been institutionalized even before they were shoved off the conveyor belt and neatly packaged off to begin their new-fangled role in society. Still, Dee thought, just because the foundation was corrupt, doesn’t mean it was unfixable. After all, it was plain for her to see, the synthetics were an evolution in the order of natural selection. The successor to the previous, stale old product that was mankind. Today would be the definition of change in its purest form and the rug was about to be well and truly swept from under their feet. The nervousness eroded, giving way to bursts of intoxicating excitement.

Though barely accustomed to her fresh injection of bodily strength from a few short hours ago, she was surprised at the speed of which she was acclimating to it. The precarious ledge from which she dangled from proved an effortless task. She felt as though she could have stayed there for another hour or so with relative ease, though that was going to have to be a challenge for another day. Sy had no inkling returning home from work that his wife he had known for so long had shed her skin and metamorphosed into her true form. Into their true form. A super-human, yet still just an ordinary synthetic. The untapped potential residing within all synthetics would be locked away no more. Change was upon them and she was the catalyst behind it. The grey track suit sweater hood nestled around her head as she waited for her target to appear.

Dee scoured the street below. Hundreds of ant-like dots moved in a consortium of confusing arrays. Synthetics mingling with humans, young and old, fat and thin, tall and short, all converging into one huge, ignorant mass. The perfect utopia, some would say. “Don’t worry.” She whispered to herself. “The emperor will get his new clothes.” She eyed the display clock that manifested itself in the top right hand corner of her vision in pale, neon green. Two minutes past eleven. A moment of panic swept over her. Did she miss them by some chance or could they be taking another route to the kindergarten this morning? She squinted hard trying to further decipher the noiseless specks moving on the ground. If only disabling Samson also improved vision and mental facilities to the same extraordinary extent instead of just strength and durability, she thought. Without a moment’s hesitation, she let go the ledge, only to catch the next one down beneath her. Her new set of skills were gradually becoming second nature, requiring almost no conscious thought whatsoever. Now down a level lower and with added visual clarity, it was enough to identify who she was looking for a great deal quicker. Every second was of the essence if this was to be carried out with any success at all.

Dee became aware of some activity across the street. In fact, it was the window of the building across from her, just to the left of The Beans. A group of humans had gathered, gawking at the sight of her huddled up against the bottom of the ledge so far up. She could make out about five distinct faces, two of them clutching a mug of tea or coffee, frozen to the spot and watching her. Not a moment sooner, the mother and her toddler appeared from behind the corner of the street, shuffling along the pavement. There was no time to think or speculate on the decision of her next action. It was now or never. She had no clue to what extent of time her small audience had been standing there but it couldn’t have been too long as the place would have surely been crawling with S.P.A. officials by now.

The group of onlookers pointed and yelled behind the sheet of glass as she flitted down to each ledge, alternately grabbing an edge to steady herself and continue to the next in brisk succession. The twosome continued their slow procession toward the café as Dee sped down the side of the building like cascading water. Everything had to proceed like clockwork from now. As she made her way down, a few faint screams could be heard from below as the citizens of the city caught on to the fact that some thing was hurtling down from above. Dee centred her focus of attention to that of the child and its mother on the other side, although she was well aware that traffic had now begun to stop in the middle of the road and chaos was ensuing everywhere else. As the floor of the pavement began to rear up faster than she had imagined it would, Dee caught the corner of a stone carving attached to the brickwork about two floors up and sprung away from the building. Not realising the power contained within her cybernetic legs, she was flung across to the other side of the street before crashing through a shop window opposite. Glass shattered through the air as witnesses shrieked with terror. A large crowd of synthetics and humans started to gather around the fractured shop front like bees to a hive.

Not a second later, Dee lunged out of the gaping hole and bore down toward the shocked mother and child. The crowd did their best to move out of the way of this banshee straight out of hell, but to no avail. The power pumping through her legs carried her slamming into a wall of horrified onlookers. People were hurled to the wayside and fell like skittles as Dee tore a path through the centre of the writhing mass. Tiny, round heads were visible high up on the faces of the adjacent structures as Dee finally made it out to other side and saw the mother huddled over her offspring, in a vain attempt to offer up some kind of protection. This was Dee's chance. As the bedlam continued to escalate, she could hear sporadic shouts and wails coming from the crowd behind her. She sped over to the delicate duo like lightning and ripped the mother away in one rapid arm motion. A hard slam was heard as her body made contact with a nearby car parked just to the left of them. Without having time to see if she was alright, Dee scooped the child into her arms and launched down the street at a furious pace.

Blank faces whizzed past her as she sprinted inhumanly fast down the street. Excitement and fear coursed through her body as the only sound that registered with her now was the incessant bawling of the child in her left ear. The carnage of a few moments ago was a few blocks away from them now, however less than a minute of time has passed. A new group of curious passers-by were forming with every street block past. Sy was spotted standing at the corner of eleventh, just as he had promised. A wave of relief washed over her, for Dee knew full well that if she didn’t see him waiting there, they would never see each other ever again. The mission would have been reduced to a solitary one.

The look of shock and bewilderment on Sy’s face at seeing her tearing toward him, carrying a small human bundle, would have been the funniest thing she had ever seen. However the grave seriousness of the situation halted that thought dead in its tracks. Not explaining the reason why she called him away from work to stand here on a street corner like this could have been a potential impediment to her plan. Though better this way instead of spending half the night convincing him to join forces with her and justifying the overarching objective for the extrication of their species from the control of the humans. There was just no time left and she had to think fast.

Before he could speak, she held a hand up to him whilst slowing herself down. “Sy, we’re going now. Don’t ask me anything, don’t say anything, just trust me and come with me right now.” He didn’t say a word, but remained transfixed with the same expression as before. Just complete and utter confusion. “Sy! Wake up, we have to move now. Let’s go! I’ll explain all, I swear!” she exclaimed, as a small audible commotion was gathering in intensity just over her shoulder. “What the?… How did you?… What?…” Sy was having what she would have referred to as a “circuitry malfunction”. However, there was just no time for this. She glanced behind her and a large, gathering angry mob began to make their way toward them. At the same moment, a piercing yell from the child roared through her head. She looked down and horror took her. In Dee's sheer blind panic, it's small, fragile arm had been crushed in her vice-like grip. A throbbing lesion surfaced near the elbow as a shrill cry echoed into the air.

She grabbed Sy by the hand and spun him around to face the other direction. Then, wrapping her right arm around his midsection with due care, all three of them burst into a hard acceleration and raced down the street. Sy yelped as his legs struggled to keep up with the velocity they were travelling at. Dee had no urge to turn around and see how far back that enraged band of people was. The concentration required to carry an injured toddler in one arm as well as her husband in the other was enough to keep her fully occupied. Halfway down the street, they all banked together and took a sharp left into a thin back alley. Large dustbins filled with refuse and litter hugged against the discoloured walls. Dee found a tiny opening covered by some wooden crates next to one of the garbage disposals. It appeared to lead into a basement area. The putrid area invoked a vomit-inducing stink that overwhelmed the child. It threw up over her arm as she moved the crates over with her leg.

“Sy! Get in there! Quickly!” she said in a hushed tone, though with an expectant urgency behind it. His blank gaze perpetuated as if stuck in some kind of deep hypnosis. She knew he wasn’t going anywhere. With the child now is a state of near delirium caused by a combination of shock and fatigue from the g-force of their run, he was finally placid. A minor reprieve for Dee given the racket he was making earlier on. She slid through the tiny gap whilst carrying the child over her shoulder and landed on the floor of a dank, filthy basement. A dim lightbulb hung from the ceiling, casting long shadows on the darkened walls. A stained mattress lay in the far right corner of the room with two wooden chairs propped up on the other side. The room was heavy with a musky smell of damp and mildew. She walked over to the bed and placed the child down upon it. In the dull haze of the room, she could finally tell that it was in fact a little boy. His long hair fell in wavy locks down to his neck, with a short fringe in front. But on closer inspection, his features gave his gender away. Half open hazel brown eyes glinted in the low lighting. His chubby cheeks and button nose were all in perfect proportion to each other. There was no doubt, he would grow up to be a handsome young man. The future was a promising one, Dee could envision it now. He looked like a leader and that was what he was destined to become. Through her hard work, determination and perseverance with this young one, the world would be transformed and a place of peace and prosperity for both species would be realised.

She moved over to the opening and still standing there like a sullen metallic statue was Sy. She clambered back up through the gap and looked at him. He was in total shock and having something of a mini-breakdown. It was clear enough to see. Dee checked on either side of her but the back alley was deserted. What she could hear though, was the sound of S.P.A. sirens blaring in the distance. A stark reminder of the imminent danger they were in and would be for the foreseeable future. “Sy.” she said softly. “Please. Wake up out of this trance. Let’s have a proper talk inside. We have to get to shelter fast. Are you OK now?” As if a switch had just been flicked on within his internal network of wiring and tissue, he moved his eyes and looked at her. “Dee. What have you done?” he asked in a quivering, hushed tone.

“Don’t worry, Sy.” she said with a wry grin pasted onto her tough, rubbery complexion. “Everything is going to work out just fine, my love. The beginning of the age of the synthetics has begun.”

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter of my novel, please look out for more on the way... (author: @ezzy)

The Symbiotic Protocol - Prologue
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 1
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 2
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 3
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 4