Broken Things (19 page)

He sat down, dangling his feet over the edge. The sheer drop
looked steep. From behind him he heard the man approaching rapidly.

“I see you, there’s nowhere to run,” James said. Josh could
just barely make him out in the emerging dawn. “You don’t have to do this the
hard way.”

Maybe he didn’t have to drop, if he stuck close enough to
the side he could slide down. He leaned his body out over the edge, balancing
only on his hands.

He let go.

The ten feet went by quickly, and when his feet hit the
bodies his legs buckled and he fell to his hands and knees. The bodies shifted
somewhat, but held. He rose slowly, fighting for balance. As long as he stepped
directly in the center of each child on the top, he thought he could make it.
He took his first step as James reached the edge.

 “Damn it, kid,” he cursed, “Give me your hand. I’ll
lift you out.”

Josh took another step forward. He suddenly realized that
the word ‘kid’ had lost its original meaning. It objectified him. It no longer
implied a young human, but something less than human. It sounded derogatory
coming out of James’ mouth.

He looked back to see James aiming his odd looking gun at
him. He tried to walk faster, but his foot caught in a t-shirt nearly tripping
him. He tried not to step on their faces. The light crested the mountains,
spilling over the mounds and giving him a better view of each step.

The children had their eyes open. They did not stare
blankly, but watched him in interest as he passed over them. “I’m sorry,” he
said, “I have to get away. I don’t mean to.”

He heard James slide down, followed by a thud and a loud
curse. “You’re only making it worse on yourself,” he called, “The more you run
the more trouble you’ll be in. Do you think anyone else wants you? You’re
broken. Nobody’s ever going to want a kid all torn up like that, it’s no wonder
your parents threw you away.”

Josh blocked out the taunts. The other side still looked
impossibly distant. He saw a slope that didn’t look too steep, and altered his
path to reach it. He heard a click and hum as his pursuer charged his gun.

“I’m not going to chase you,” James said, “I will break
you.”

Like Angel. He remembered her blank stare, more lifeless
than these children. He stopped, and slowly, awkwardly, turned back around.

“That’s good,” James gestured with the gun, “Now walk back
over here.”

Josh shook his head. He couldn’t run from him, but he
couldn’t go toward him either. He looked down at the broken things, the
children staring up at him. They shifted beneath him and he staggered, losing
his balance and falling backward. He landed softly, in the arms of the other
children.

Their hands were all over him. They rolled and moved about
him, the bodies shifting and separating to pull him under. Strangely, he was no
longer afraid of them. He closed his eyes as they pulled him down into their
dark embrace, deeper into their numbers.

“What?” James’ disbelieving voice came through muffled. He
could barely hear him as he sank deeper.

6

Cody and Neil reached the pit just in time to see Josh
pulled down into the bodies. James ran awkwardly over the children, arms
swinging and legs wide, looking strangely comical as though he’d stepped out of
a cartoon as he tried to keep his balance atop the unstable mass. He dropped
his tablet and device and attempted (and failed) to lift the limp bodies to dig
him out.

The two watched him struggle for a minute, not saying
anything. Finally Cody called out, “Hey!”

So intent on his prey, James didn’t hear him. Cody yelled
two more times before he finally stopped and looked up. Sweat soaked his shirt
and ran down his face, and he breathed heavily. “Go away. This doesn’t concern
you!”

“I believe it does,” Cody said back, “It appears that
somebody hurt my girl. What did you do to her?”

James glanced down at his gun and back at Cody. He didn’t
reply but his eyes narrowed menacingly.

“I take it that means it was you. Nobody messes with my
girls.”

“So what are you going to?”

“I’m thinking that nobody’s going to find you in this pit.”

James rose awkwardly and picked up the device. Cody watched
him suspiciously. It had an odd shape, more like a box with a copper coil
sticking out of the top of it. The front had an antenna, making it almost
resemble the barrel of an old science fiction ray gun. A toggle switch poked
out of the side of the box.

“What, you built a laser gun? You’re going to shoot me with
that?”

James ignored the jab. “That kid with you… he friends with
Josh?”

“Excuse me?”

“Two kids escaped from Kidsmith two days ago. It looks like
I won’t have to return empty-handed after all.”

Neil stepped to the edge of the pit. “Screw you.”

James flipped the switch. No laser shot out. It briefly made
a high pitch whine and a popping sound. Cody shook his head and laughed. “I
think your toy is broken.”

“No, I think yours is.”

Next to him, Neil went limp. Before he could react, the
boy’s body tipped over and dropped to the bottom of the pit. He landed upside
down on top of the other bodies on the back of his neck with a sickening
crunch.

“Neil!” Cody shrieked.

“He’s property of Kidsmith,” James said, walking back with
as much arrogance and dignity as the bodies he walked upon would allow. “Now if
you have any proof of ownership?” He waited a few seconds for an answer, but
Cody was speechless with shock. “I didn’t think so. Now if you’d be so kind as
to get lost, I won’t have to report you for trespassing.”

 Cody weighed his options. He could go after Neil, but
did the boy really matter that much to him? He valued his freedom and
anonymity, and he knew of people that went to prison for his hacking… and
theft… and sabotage… Hell, there were a lot of reasons he didn’t want them
investigating. He decided to cut his losses. He turned and ran.

7

James set the EMP generator down gently next to Neil. He had
one boy, and he knew where the other one was. He suspected that Josh wouldn’t
be coming out any time too soon. He’d turn the location over to his superiors
and be through with it. They could worry about the killer android, he’d done
his part. Still, he had witnessed something that didn’t make sense. Every child
was disabled before being sent to the landfill. None of them should’ve been
operational.

Twenty feet away a metal ramp led out of the pit. He dragged
the boy awkwardly over the bodies, each step a struggle to keep from falling.
He hated carrying disabled kids, but he hadn’t planned on using the gun on them
either.

He had the feeling of someone watching him. He looked up just
as the killer android slid down the embankment and joined him in the pit. He
dropped the kid and lost his balance. His arms flailed as he sought in vain for
anything to grab onto, and fell roughly onto his back. He backpedaled in a crab
crawl away from the grotesque thing.

The light of the morning sun enhanced the horrible
appearance of the thing. Black stains covered its clothes, red and flaking
dried blood still painted its face and hands. The EMP generator rested by its
feet.

It picked up the generator and walked awkwardly toward him.
Its eyes didn’t blink, its face showed no expression, yet it focused on him
with an intensity that made James’ bowels release. He saw his death in the
android’s eyes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. The
screen wouldn’t come on. The proximity to the electro-magnetic pulses must’ve
fried it. He dropped it, scrabbling backward for another five feet, before
turning over and crawling. Twice he stood up, and twice he tripped, the bodies
refusing to stay steady. Were the children shifting beneath him on purpose? The
ramp remained only a few feet away, but it might as well have been a
mile.   

The android caught up to him easily. Its unsteady gait
seemed unaffected by what it walked upon. It raised the generator over its head
and James collapsed, trying to shield himself with his arms. Instead of
bringing it down on his head, it smashed the machine into the side of the pit,
cracking open the casing and breaking off the antenna.

It let the broken machine fall, but held onto the antenna.
The end had splintered into a sharp, narrow spike. With its free hand the
creature reached down and grabbed him by the head. He squirmed and wiggled
against the android’s vice-like grip, but it held him steady with its
inconceivable might, and pushed the back of his head against the embankment.

With the other hand it held up the broken antenna for him to
see.

“Hold still,” the android said..

James held still. The hand against his face immobilized him,
filling his nostrils with the scent of the thing’s rot. He couldn’t blink, the
android’s index finger and thumb held his left eye wide open.

He struggled, tried to twist away as the android brought the
spike up to his eye. “Please,” he begged. He couldn’t find any other words, he
couldn’t even scream, not until the android drove it into his eye socket.

Ten seconds later, his screams died away.

Within minutes the android was done with him. James
detachedly watched the android walk away, back toward Neil, through eyes that
cried tears of blood. Though he didn’t know it, he’d been lobotomized, the
connections to and from the prefrontal cortex of his brain had been severed.

8

Angel awakened back in the crowded house, with Cody standing
over her. As she opened her eyes, Cody beamed at her with open relief. She lay
on her back on his couch with him kneeling next to her.

“Welcome back,” he said.

Her head hurt something fierce. The last thing she
remembered was walking with Josh toward the exit of the landfill. “What
happened?”

“You had your circuits fried. You were hit by some type of
electro-magnetism.”

“Shouldn’t that have killed me?”

Cody shook his head. “Have you ever heard of a Faraday
cage?”

“Should I have?”

“I suppose not. Your bones are made from titanium, which
includes your skull. The enclosed metal around your computer brain works like a
conductor for electrical discharges. It distributes the electrical charge
harmlessly before it can affect your brain.”

“But it did affect my brain.”

“No it didn’t,” Cody said, “It only affected your exposed
electronics, those that run down your spinal column. When that part of your
central nervous system went down, your brain shut down too. But all I had to do
was replace the parts in your spine and power you back on. You’re as good as
new.”

“I don’t feel as good as new,” Angel replied.

“Well it’s not exactly a gentle process, but you should feel
better soon.”

Angel struggled to sit up. Cody helped her and handed her a
glass of water that she sipped gratefully. He’d even kindly placed a straw in
it for her. She smiled, appreciating that little touch.

“It’s nice to have a nerd for a boyfriend,” she said, “Even
if I don’t quite understand everything you’re telling me. But what happened to
Josh? Did you find him?”

Cody slumped and his expression fell. “Josh… the pit took
him. I don’t know what happened exactly. Maybe there was a hole in the bodies.
They just sort of collapsed under him. And Neil…”

She placed a hand on his arm, and he took hold of it with a
squeeze. “You know, I never realized how much I cared for the little nuisance.
I mean, I never cared to have a kid, you know? I’d always told him that he was
free, that he didn’t belong to anyone. But… when that Kidsmith guy took him… I
don’t know… I should have stopped him. Somehow. I should have gone back.”

“What happened?”

“That guy, he shot Neil too. He threatened to call the cops.
I didn’t know what to do so I ran. I left him.”

“Do you think we could go back?”

Cody shook his head and dropped his eyes, staring at the
floor between his feet. “I couldn’t risk it.”

“That place,” she paused with a shudder, “I’ve never seen
anything like it. It’s horrible. How could there be that many broken children?
Why don’t they fix them?”

“Why did you leave me, Angel?” He looked up and met her
eyes. Within them she saw his vulnerability. Though he had the appearance of a
grown man, she saw the lost child gazing back at her, a grown child that needed
someone to look after him. The realization dawned on her that adulthood was
just a façade, a mask of responsibility and expectations, of wisdom and
knowledge that only buried the youth deeper and deeper with every passing year.
These humans were as lost and broken as their own creations. They had forgotten
their humanity.

“I didn’t know,” she said, “I didn’t want to become like my
sisters in your closet.” Cody opened his mouth to protest but she shook her
head and continued. “I realized that I was just like Josh. Sure, I had a home,
I
have
a home, but I also saw my future, of where I was heading. I
thought, just maybe, that I could help him, and that would give me the strength
to help myself. Maybe I can change my purpose. I wanted to try.”

“I won’t shut you off, Angel, I promise you. I won’t ever
treat you like that.”

 “You need to power the other women back on.”

He stared at her blankly. “Why?”

“Because that closet is no different than the Kid Cemetery.”

“But what will I do with them?” He let go of her and stood
up.

“I don’t know,” she said, “Maybe give them options, let them
decide. Start by giving them their freedom.”

They heard the door to the garage open. Cody snapped his
head around staring toward the kitchen. “Neil?” he blurted out, “It can’t be.”

Angel came to her feet, following him. She nearly ran
straight into the back of Cody when he stopped abruptly. He stumbled back,
nearly falling on her. Over his shoulder she saw a face straight out of a
nightmare.