The System, Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The resistance

         Kilo Goodwin slowly blended into the late afternoon traffic, constantly checking behind him to make sure that a drone was not tailing him, after several miles Kilo felt confident enough to turn onto the old interstate. He pulled out what looked not unlike a cellphone and flipped a switch. A blue glow began emanating from somewhere within the device. Kilo sat the device down and looked at his son for the first time since saving him from the execution-bot. "Are you alright son?" Kilo asked.

         "Ya dad, thanks for saving me." James replied, shrinking into the faux leather seat. Then after a moment of thought added, "How did you know where I was."

         "You need to be more careful with things that can be tracked." Kilo stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Then looking at James' confused face, Kilo added emphasis to his statement by taking James' cellphone and chucking it out the window. "Cell phones have a tracking chip wired inside of them, the police force used this to triangulate an area where suspects are. That is, before we were replaced with these machines." Kilo continued down the deserted road towards a hard used truck. Kilo killed the ignition and stepped out of the car.

         Carmen Goodwin burst out of the car and immediately went and surrounded James in a hug. "Don't you ever scare me like that again son!" She exclaimed. Then turning to Kilo added, "I just got off the shortwave with Danny, he said that he understands our situation and will let us try to convince the resistance to help." With that the small family got into the truck and headed off.

         "Mom, Dad, what is going on? Where are we going? What is this resistance you were talking about?" James asked earnestly.

         "Be quiet James, you will find out soon enough." Carmen soothingly stated. The truck stopped in front of a power station and the family got out. After opening up the gate they stood in front of a seemingly normal section of paneling. A few moments later the panel gave way to a man in a cloak the same shade as the metallic paneling. "Hello Danny." Carmen said.

         James could not believe his eyes, the man standing in front of him was a member of the anarchist group that he learned about in school. James tried to stay away but his mom's tone told him that it was ok. So he followed his parents to the stairs inside the panel and his vision went for a moment when Danny closed the panel. When his vision returned he noticed that he was in a maintenance section of the station. There was a group of people sitting around a table and he listened while his dad introduced them. After the introductions were over his dad encouraged him to tell his story. After telling the group about his hidden discussions and his close brush with death the group rallied and decided to hold a protest in front of city hall. "If we can't get our story out, then we will not be members of the resistance, we would just be a group of people in hiding." One of the members stated.

         "You did a good thing in there son," Kilo said to his son, laying a hand on James' shoulder. "Get some rest, I don't want you to be at the rally tomorrow but be sure to watch on the TV for any news." James obeyed without any struggle, almost immediately after hitting the mattress he was asleep.

         James woke up with a start, suddenly realizing that he slept in too late, the rally already started. He ran to the television and turned on the news. "Thank you Janet, this is Stepha Lura in front of city hall where a group of individuals are protesting the growing use of the Automatic Crime Stopping Bots or A.C.S.B. in our city. Sir, can you explain why you don't approve of the ACSBs?"

         "These bots are making civilians afraid to speak their mind, essentially voiding the first amendment. This is another blow from our government trying to make us the proverbial silent majority so they can do whatever they want." Kilo stated, looking straight into the camera.

         "Thank you sir, again from channel nine news this is.... wait a moment, what is going on there, Bob swing the camera around." Stepha said, a tone of urgency in her voice." With that the television went blank.

         Across the street from Stepha a bot cast a grid around a pedestrian that stopped to look at the rally. With horror she watched as the grid closed in and killed the civilian, then turned towards the group of protesters. One by one grids began forming over the protesters, she noticed Kilo grasp her arm and pull her towards the subway. "Keep on going through this door, you will find people who will help you out." Kilo pleaded.

         "What about you," Stepha replied, "They will kill you."

         "I will hold them off as long as I can, just run!" Kilo yelled. Stepha ran towards the deep darkness. As she heard the electronic fizzle she tried to not think of her fate as the same as the man who saved her.