#Guess What? I'm Not a Robot RC Ch5

[theshapeshifter100]

Guess What? I’m Not a Robot RC Ch5

Word Count:2,394

Chapter Warnings:anxiety, tasers

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12.03PM Wednesday 10th

It took longer, way longer than Megan was happier with, but they were finally ready to go.

Alex had whipped around the other supporters they had and a few had agreed to protest in Capitol Park. Lucas had his phone charged and had tried to download the app for the traffic cams, but had come up with an error.

“Cell phone’s just gone down, wifi and signal,” he groaned. “It won’t be long until we have no internet connection at all.”

Julia had come through there, having found a bunch of old hand held radios in her house. They had spent most of their time trying to find working batteries for them all. Finally, everyone had a working one, they all had working flashlights (also from Julia) and something to defend themselves with.

Alex and Julia’s households were anti gun, which was the first time either of them had cursed it. So instead rolling pins, kitchen knives and a single taser served as their weapons. Ivy, Oscar and Julia went without, trusting either their skills or their size to hold their own.

Megan was more than slightly horrified that she had the taser, but caved to the argument that she was the most vulnerable, and the most likely to be able to sneak up on someone.

They had all been decked out with peaked caps and beanies, and as many layers on their upper body as they could get away with. Megan’s skinny frame was padded out to over twice her size and Oscar looked like a giant. They didn’t have any bullet proof vests, so this would have to do.

Alex adjusted their extra padding and looked around. Their eyes flicked over to Allison, who stared back coldly. Alex and Julia had explained the breakdown, more or less, but Allison clearly hadn’t forgiven them yet.

“Alright,” Allison put herself in charge of the pep talk. “This is probably the most insane thing we’ve ever done, but we’ve got a convoy to interrupt and a bare minimum of two androids to save. We’re going to have to be clever, we’re going to have to be sneaky,” she then took a deep breath and looked around the rag tag group. “This might not work. This might fail horribly. We’re only human, but we’ve got to try.”

Oscar slowly put his hand up.

“What?” Allison asked.

“That wasn’t a good pep talk,” Oscar said what they were all thinking.

“At least I think we’re going to be successful!”

“Really?” Ivy asked. “I didn’t get that impression at all.”

Alex took a deep breath. “Let’s kick the army’s ass and rescue the androids!”

“That’s more like it!” Nathan crowed. “Let’s do it!”

3.23PM Wednesday 10th

All enthusiasm had died half an hour into the walk. The weather had improved, the sun was out and the wind dropped, but it was still somehow colder. Even worse the multiple layers were baking them at the same time.

The rolling pin and taser weighed heavily in Megan’s various pockets, and felt wholly inadequate. A rolling pin and a taser against fully armed and armoured soldiers. They were doomed.

Also, three hours, anything could have happened in three hours. Paul could already be-

No. Now’s not the time for worrying. Do now, worry later.

Alex walked over to Megan, bundled up in black like the rest of them.

“You okay?” they asked, and it took Megan a few seconds to answer.

“No.”

“Me neither,” Alex admitted. “Do,” they swallowed and lowered their voice so the others wouldn’t hear. “Do you really think we’ll find them? Paul and Ella?”

“Why are asking me?” Megan hissed.

“Because you’re in the same boat. What do you reckon?”

“I-I don’t know,” Megan admitted. “I want, I want to find them in one piece and save them, but I know it might not happen.”

Alex took a deep breath through their nose and nodded. “Yeah. We might not find them,” the words were awkward, like they didn’t know what they were saying. “But, we will. We have to.”

Megan stepped away and Alex drifted off to the others, who still hadn’t quite forgiven them. Alex had apologised, but had not explained what had caused their flip flop in priorities.

“Guys,” Oscar suddenly said, voice echoing along the empty road they were walking along. “We’re here.”

The group split up to cover opposite sides of the road and proceeded to move with more caution. They crested over a ridge and Megan felt her jaw drop.

A line of vans stretched for miles, all the way to near horizon, where the vague outline of what could only be the Recycling Centre stood. The vans were single file for now, but further down they seemed to go into two lines, only to merge into one line at the end.

Or at least, that’s what Lucas, the one with the binoculars, claimed.

“Can you see Paul’s truck? Over,” Megan asked over the radio.

“Paul’s in one of two trucks, and I can’t see licence plates with these binoculars. Over.”

“Anything else we need to know? Over,” Alex asked, as they were on Megan’s side.

“Looks like the military are patrolling the road edge further down. Seems like we have two options; circle around as much as we can and approach from behind, or go through the road. Over.”

“We’ll be spotted if go through the road,” Allison was quick to argue, but Julia jumped in before she could say ‘Over’.

“It looks like there are guard towers. We’ll be spotted either way. Over.”

“Why don’t we just take the truck?” Nathan asked. “I mean, they’re bulletproof right? This one’s right at the back of the queue, I can’t hear anymore coming. We take one truck and drive straight through the fence and take over from the inside. Over.”

“All of these ideas are insane. Over,” Allison groaned.

“Do you have any better ideas? Over,” Alex asked, and the responding sigh could be heard from Megan’s side of the road.

“How about we take a truck and go from there? Over,” Oscar suggested.

“You want to play this by ear? Over,” Ivy sounded incredulous. “We’ll get killed doing that!”

“We’ll have to play it by ear no matter what we do,” Julia argued. “We can’t predict everything. I agree with Oscar. Over.”

“Same, over,” Maggie agreed.

“Who else thinks we should go by Coubertin’s plan? Over,” Allison asked.

Megan, Nathan, Lucas all gave an affirmative and Alex jumped in.

“Good, now that’s decided, let’s bust this truck. Over.”

Allison tried to protest, but was ultimately drowned out.

“Megan, you’re the smallest,” Julia suggested, and Megan braced herself. “Can you get a look at the driver’s cab? Over.”

Megan felt nerves grip her. No, she couldn’t. She’ll get spotted, shot, ruin everything somehow. There was no way-

“Yeah, okay. Over,” the affirmative was out of her mouth without realising, and she couldn’t take it back.

“You sure?” Alex asked without the radios. “Lucas and I aren’t that much bigger.”

“It’s okay,” it wasn’t, but Megan didn’t want to waste any more time. “I’ll be quick.”

Megan dropped her backpack by Alex’s feet before pressed herself against the hedge. She prowled as best she could along the road. Her heart pounded in her throat, and once she got close enough to the truck she darted behind it.

She stood there for a few seconds, catching her breath and trying to calm her nerves. She couldn’t pick at her sleeves with gloves on and found herself fidgeting with her fingers instead.

Taking a deep breath she somewhat settled her nerves as best she could and crept around the side of the van at a crouch. Once at the driver’s window she carefully peeked up through the window.

A bored soldier sat on the passenger side, the driving put on automatic. The soldier had their helmet off and on the passenger seat next them while they read the news on their tablet, only occasionally glancing up through the windscreen.

Megan made her way back equally as nervously, and didn’t relax until she was on the other side of the hedge with her half of the AA and re-shouldering her backpack.

“One soldier,” she panted over the radio. “Not alert, passenger side. Over.”

“What do you mean by not alert? Over,” Allison asked.

“Helmet off, reading the news. Over.”

“Okay,” Alex took over. “Nervous Incarnate, you go and distract him by knocking on the driver’s side. Coubertin can open the passenger side and drag them out. Captain Hardass, you still have the duct tape? Over.”

“Yes, over.”

“You tape them up, get the keys, we get the androids out of the van and see what happens. Over.”

“And, we should just go along with that?” Allison asked snidely.

“Do you have any better ideas? Over.”

There was no response from Allison, and Oscar turned to Megan. “Shall we?”

Megan nodded quickly and crept back towards the van, taking the same path as before. Oscar took position on the other side of the van and after a minute or so, Julia appeared, wielding duct tape.

Megan crept back towards the door, and realised that everyone was waiting on her signal.

She raised her knuckles to the door and made to rap, but stopped. Why did she stop?

Her breathing was loud in her ears, her heart rate thundered and snakes were mating in her belly. Yeah, that was why.

She considered using the rolling pin, but balked at the last minute. It might attract other drivers.

The first time she lightly tapped on the door, and got angry at herself for such a light knock. Even with the quiet electric engine idling there was no way they heard that. She poured her anger into the next one, almost banging on the door.

Alarmed at how the violent the reaction might be she darted back to hide behind the van. She heard the door unlock, and then it all happened quickly.

The passenger door was flung open and there was a brief cry of alarm as Oscar grabbed them. Megan couldn’t bring herself to look, but the sounds of struggle didn’t fade.

She suddenly heard frantic footsteps heading her way and panicked, scrambling for her taser and rolling pin, one in each hand.

The solider appeared from around the side of the van, and Megan lashed out with her best baseball swing with the rolling pin. It bounced off the body armour and sent a judder of pain up Megan’s arm, but it got their attention.

Megan backed up against the truck doors as they turned to look at her, expression turning ugly. Somehow her hands felt slick and she had a hard time gripping the taser, even with gloves on.

The soldier reached for something, but Oscar came barrelling around the truck and tackled to them to the ground. He clapped a hand around the soldier’s mouth and cried at Megan.

“Tase him!”

Megan fumbled with the weapon in thick gloves and discharged it almost accidentally. By some miracle it hit home and the soldier shuddered under Oscar, volts of electricity coursing through them.

A garbled screech tried to get past Oscar’s hand, but they collapsed before it got too loud.

Julia appeared once they were down, and started helping Oscar tape them up. Julia threw Megan the keys, who caught them with shaking hands.

Never again, she never wanted to do that again!

Megan turned to open the van. Her hands shook so much she dropped the keys twice before she even got them in the lock.

It took another few tries but she got the doors open.

She had to pull them to open properly, and saw almost exactly the same thing as she did in the police parking lot. Androids, packed in like sardines. Not all of them in uniform, but all staring forward.

Megan stepped back and found her words sticking in her throat, so Julia came to rescue.

“Everybody out!” she called in a calm, not overly carrying way. It worked and the androids trooped out in rhythm. Once there was space Oscar threw the solider in the back, barely fazing the androids.

Julia went to address the androids again and Megan reached for her radio. Her hands were still trembling, but she felt more in control.

“Van secured. Captain Hardass is talking to the androids. Over.”

“Nicely done,” the smirk was clear in Ivy’s voice. “We’re on our way. Over.”

Megan turned her attention back to the androids and Julia. Some of them were jogging past her into the city, but a large chunk of them had remained.

Oscar leaned out of the back of the truck and frowned at the group of androids.

“Not to be rude, but why are they still here?” he asked Julia, but one of the androids answered.

“Because we want to be.”

A male android stepped forward, Asian and with a muscular build, he eyed the three of them warily as his LED spun yellow.

“Sorry, why would you want to hang around here?” Julia asked, “And for goodness sake get over here! What if the guy in front looks in their mirrors?”

The androids moved to stand behind the van, but the one who spoke still looked warily at the humans. They jumped about a foot in the air when the rest of Android Allies appeared over the crest.

“Easy,” Julia was quick to pacify. “They’re with us.”

The male android fixed her with a hard glare. “I don’t even trust you.”

“Aaand who’s this?” Allison asked. Alex glared at Allison before looking at the android.

“Sorry about her,” Alex interrupted, ignoring Allison’s glare. “What’s your name?”

“Callum,” the android responded. “None of the others are deviant, but they seem to follow me.”

“Good to meet you Callum,” Alex beamed. “We’re going to blow this joint, whaddya say?”

“That wasn’t the plan!” Allison hissed.

“The plan was to get a truck and play it by ear,” Alex responded. “We’re also looking for two androids, an AX400 called Ella and a red haired PL600 called Paul.”

Callum went into thought.

“Not seen them. I can send word out,” he offered.

“Please do,” Megan jumped in, trying not to let desperation lace her voice.

Callum’s LED spun yellow and he closed his eyes.

As I go through this I realise that Alex is the most like my usual protagonists. If I hadn't wanted a change in pace writing Megan's POV Alex would have been the main character. For those who are curious, Callum's model is in the game, he is an HR400, or a male Traci.

Other Options Flowchart

(Megan) Comment on the pep talk- Compliment Allison. Agree with Oscar (would affect relationship)

(Megan) Say you're okay. Say nothing. Shrug.

(Megan) Be unwaveringly optimistic. Be pessimistic.

(Megan) Decline going to check the truck. (Allison would do it instead)

(Megan) QTEs on the knock. Can do it loud the first time(Megan) QTEs for the rolling pin and the taser. If the rolling pin fails it's not so bad as the soldier would notice her anyway. If the taser fails the soldier would escape and punch Megan before Oscar could restrain them again and they could be dazed. If rolling pin hit and taser failed Megan would have a black eye for the rest of the game. If rolling pin didn't work the solider would attempt to restrain. Rolling pin fails but taser hits, nothing changes.

(Megan) QTEs for the keys, fairly complicated ones to not drop them

Tags @nightmarejim @septicart-appreciation