Chapter Fifty-Two

Gabriel

Gabriel keeps an eye on the news while he waits for the media vans to finally leave. It doesn’t make any sense how none of the others have been found yet. The entire city has been on the watch for them, but yet they seem to have all somehow vanished. He needs to figure out where they could’ve run to in such a hurry. They could be in a random parking garage anywhere for all he knows, but he doubts it. They wouldn’t be able to move. They’ve taken supplies, so they must've had a plan of some sort.

On his way out of the Werker lot in one of the vans, things immediately turn dangerous. He was forced to stay fairly late and now the sun is already going down. There are rats all over the place, even out in the middle of the streets. Quite a lot of things are being tossed at the van, but at least things aren’t getting overly aggressive. None of the windows have been broken yet.

When he gets to Barry’s place, the three Pauls are waiting to scold him. They’ve been watching the projector all day and have it set in their minds that he must’ve done a shit job with the media. The investigators didn’t seem very sincere in clearing Werker of the incident.

The news is still on, but the media’s focus is now on the masses of zealots gathering together. They’ve not done anything like this in over ten years, since back when the first autonomous officers were fielded in Welan City. They are now claiming that the robots that attacked them last night were directed by the city, and are the start of a new attempt at exterminating them. Some of them believe it, while others simply use it as an excuse to go out and cause trouble.

The three Pauls relentlessly grill him on every detail of what’s happened, what they’re going to do, and how much he’s screwed everything up from the start. The three of them outright bully and threaten to do savage and awful things to him. Their freaky faces and psychotic behaviors have him on the edge of running away as fast as he can. The only thing stopping him is the fact that he would never be able to escape them.

He’s done with always getting the shit end of the stick. He’s been abused by Paul, Mikel, Marco, Valerie, Barry, Five-One, and even the damn rats. He starts to think of how he can end this giant nightmare once and for all. From what he’s seen, everyone but him is willing to fight to the death for all this bullshit. It seems all it should take is to get everyone together in the same room and throw in a lit match. While Paul continues to berate him about something, he stands there counting his next moves on his fingertips.

His eyes flick open a little wider when it dawns on him. “They must’ve gone to Evan’s.”

It seems every time Valerie runs into robot trouble, Evan shows up. With all that happened last night, surely some of them have been damaged. It’s not like they’re going to get away with strolling on over to AMF for a few hours this time. If they’re all at his place, it’d be a good time to send the three Pauls in there to get the party started. For good measure, a pile of rats on top of all that couldn’t hurt either. Riled up by his new plan, he manages to muster a little bit of courage from out of his despair.

“Alright, you guys want to blame everything on me, that’s easy to do. Let’s see what’ve you all done to help? Other than getting yer ass kicked by a couple of girls, I’ve had to do everything, along with saving your very existence twice, and all by myself. All you do is complain. How about you pull some of your own weight tonight. How’s that sound?”

The number one Paul folds his arms in front of himself, raises his eyebrow at Gabriel, and cocks his head to the side. “I have been stuck in this fucking house for months because you never finished your job… you little shit. Point me in the direction and I will show you how things get done around here.”

He’s not impressed by Paul’s lack of forethought in the matter. “Well, what is your plan then? Are they going to give up and let you beat their heads in, just because you’re scary looking? Three of them are robots now, and one of them is using the same frame as you are.”

All three of Paul look at one another and for a moment. None of them have a smart-ass answer this time. One of them backs up a few paces from where he’s standing in the living room and looks up. He stomps up the stairs to the loft and pulls something down from off the wall. The other two step into the room as well and catch a pair of large old battle axes when are thrown down to them. Following that is the sound of ringing metal when a large two-handed sword drops down and sticks into the floor between them.

He looks at them in disappointment. He simply cannot seem to care anymore at this point. “I guess this is how we’re doing things these days.” He purses his lips while considering that this is falling right in line with what he wants. “I guess it’ll only be fitting that you make a whole gory mess out of this.”

As soon as the last Paul is in the van and the side door is closed, he slams on the gas and leaves a trail of flying gravel all the way out onto the pavement. He so badly wants to get this all done and over with. When they reach the nice public park that Evan’s home is bordering, he finds an inconspicuous place alongside the groundskeeper’s shed to stay out of general sight. He makes sure to not drive anywhere near Evan’s house. If they are there, someone is sure to be watching out front.

Number one Paul pulls the handle to his door and paused before hopping out of the passenger seat. “I’m gonna go and see if anyone’s even there. The rest of you stay here. If I’m not back within the hour, I would suggest not coming after me.” He waits till there’s no one in sight before running across the street and jumping the wall surrounding another neighboring home.

Shortly after Paul disappears over the rock wall, they hear a single bark from a dog, and nothing more. The remaining three of them wait for what seems to be at least a half-hour before starting to worry. All three of them swing around in their seats when they hear the rear door of the van suddenly crank open. The other two nearly attack Paul when he leaps into the back behind them. None of them saw him make his way back to the van, even though they were diligently watching for him.

“Are they here?”

“Yeah, you were right, I think they are all here. The three vehicles you said they have are in the garage.”

“Did you actually see anyone?”

“No, I didn’t look anywhere else. Their cars are here, that’s good enough. I didn’t want to risk being seen, so I didn’t go past the garage.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes. “It took you a half hour to get to the garage? Whatever. Fine, all of you, get out.”

“What?”

“Get out! Wait here till darkness and then go in. We’re in a big ass white Werker van right now! I’m not staying here. I’m gonna park in the alley a couple of blocks down and wait there. Besides, if the cops come, they’ll catch us trying to leave.”

As soon as they grumpily pile out of the van with their weapons, he drives off. He doesn’t go to the end of the alley where he said he would either. Instead, he heads back towards Werker, where all the rats are amassing. There’s so many homeless out wandering the streets that he’s spotted well before even getting close to the plant. Even in the dark, the van keeps getting recognized. Down every street he takes, people start throwing things at the van.

Before he gets totally surrounded and cut off, he darts into a dark alley and turns the headlights off. He knows that if he stays with the van for much longer, he’s going to be in serious trouble. To be less obvious of a target, he gets out and hunkers down alongside a nearby dumpster in the alley. Things are not going the way he had envisioned.

Dressed the way he is, he’s still spotted within minutes. He might as well have been holding up a neon sign. He knows he’s going to be killed for sure if he doesn’t run for his life. While he scampers away, rats begin following and squealing at him. “You’re in for a treat tonight little piggy!”

He doesn’t get very far before they surround him. “Please, I’m not the one you’re after. I know where the robots are, I came out here to tell someone, I swear!” They don’t seem to care about what he says.

He repeatedly tells them Evan’s address and how to get there, but they aren’t the least bit interested in what he has to say. When they circle in tight around him, some of them jab at him with pipes and other random things they’re carrying. When they know they have him beyond scared, they push him around from one to another in a big circle. He tries his best to not cry in front of them, but the things they are all saying to him are so terrible.

When loud shouting erupts around him, he drops to his knees and covers his head with his arms. He knows it’s the end this time for sure. Everyone around him is lashing out at one another, screaming, punching, and kicking everywhere. Before he knows it, people are falling on top of him, landing hard on the pavement, and running away. He hunkers down even more tightly and tries to protect his face the most. He can almost already feel the kick that is surely coming.

After the short bout of screaming and wailing, it’s almost silent now, except for the two pairs of boots crunching towards him on the dirty alley pavement. When he looks up, two men are standing there looking down at him. One of them is that same Marek guy who grabbed him by the hair out front of work. All he can hope for is that he is mad enough to kill him more quickly than the others would have.

Before he can plead for him not to, Marek grabs him by his hair again and lifts him onto his feet. He digs one of his fingers into his ear real hard until it hurts enough to make him scream out.

“I’ll tell you everything! Please! Please stop, I’m begging you! OW! You’re hurting me!”

“Tell me what you were just saying. Tell me where they are!”

Marek doesn’t let go of his hair but quickly tows him along back to the van. When they get there, someone has already started breaking into it. One of the side windows has been smashed and the thief is stealing everything they can out of the cab. Migo runs them off with his long walking stick while Marek keeps a good hold on him. There’s already a great amount of ruckus forming just down the alley from them. It seems they might’ve been listening after all. What he told them seems to have caused quite the stir.

Inside the van, he pretends to spill his guts to Marek. “I know where they’re all hold up. They'e at another employee’s house, repairing themselves.”

“All of them? Why the hell are you telling me this? Huh? Why are you, a Werker employee, selling out on your own robots?”

He tries to think what of a half-brained thing a rat would believe. “I tried to stop them before it got this bad, but they’re just fucking crazy! They’re killing for sport, I can’t do this alone anymore! Valerie did this, not Werker.”

After all the things Marek has seen, he can count on whatever this ass is saying to surely be a lie. He doesn’t care about what Valarie or her group is doing anymore either way. They have Alexis, and getting her back is the only thing that matters to him and Migo. As long as he can beat the hoard of rioters to where Gabriel told them to go, they’ll have a chance at getting her back alive. He grabs one of the bits of broken glass from off of the floor and begins pressing it into Gabriel’s forehead with his thumb.

“You are going to drive us to where the robots are and if we don’t make it there in ten minutes, for any reason, I’ll be throwing chunks of you out the window until we do. Run these idiots over if you have to.”