Cyborgs

Consciousness. The slow creep of feeling returning to my body. The fog of sleep clung to the edge of mind refusing to clear. I opened my eyes. I squinted my right eye against the sudden flood of bright light. With a whir and a click, my left eye corrected for the levels of light, enabling me to receive a clear view of the room from at least one eye.

I sat up and looked down at my synthetic limbs. No longer frightened by their sight, as I once was, I ran my hand down my right leg. I marveled at how real the skin felt, knowing what really lay beneath. Bolts protruded from my legs on both sides where I could attach my equipment, if necessary. An involuntary twitch surged down through my legs. The metal moved without creating a sound. The electrical impulses from my brain caused the skin to ripple and surge as the machinery beneath responded to my thoughts.

I looked over at my right arm. I knew it was synthetic to the shoulder. The artificial flesh was so perfectly created that one would think it was real, if not for the small metal bolt protruding from my forearm. I resisted the urge to run my left hand down my arm to feel the alien flesh that looked so real. My right hand turned over, the fingers curling and uncurling. The machinery moving in silence. Efficient.

Then, I noticed movement. I looked around at my surroundings. I was lying on a bed of blankets in a dull bleak room which contained only the bed I was still sitting on. Laying on the ground next to the bed were three metal plates, and 2 weapons. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and started collecting my belongings.

"Nick, they're moving", the voice said through the door. I nodded to myself as I snatched up my stuff with a greater sense of urgency. Then I stepped up to the door and with a gentle push, eased it open. There, standing in front of me was my commanding officer.

Sargent James Sadura stood a full six and a half feet tall. Codenamed Rhino for his brute strength. Sadura's entire upper body was cybernetic. His arms were powerful enough to lift and throw cars, as I had seen him do in the past. In his full uniform, he was an impressive figure.

Sadura wore a helmet that was gray green in color. A pair of cyber glasses were attached to his face, covering his eyes. The rest of his face looked human enough. Sadura's neck was entirely metal. Interlocking plates gave the impression of plate armor, but moved without a sound as he turned his head back and forth. He had on a grey-green shirt that was tight-fitting. The shirt revealed Sadura's large cybernetic form underneath. Over the shirt he wore a vest of metal clips. The vest was dark grey in color. Sadura's arms were both cybernetic like my right arm. The only difference was that his were twice the size of mine. Protruding from both of his forearms were bolts, also identical to mine. Attached to both bolts were guns. They were cocked parallel to his arms, but away from his hands. On his legs Sadura wore pants of an identical color to his shirt. On his feet were large black leather boots.

"I'm ready to go, sarg", I said stepping into the hall next to him. We were dressed in the same garb, but we were entirely different.

We walked down the hall side by side. No words were passed between us. None were needed. We were both alive and had survived outrageous situations. The war was almost over.

There was a door at the end of the hall. We both stopped. I opened the door just a crack, with slow steady pressure, achieving a silent result. The sun shone brightly in the narrow street. At first, I did not sense any movement. The street was devoid of life. Then I sensed it, them. They were in the building across the way. Rhino and I stepped out of the building. They did not know we had found them, yet. I closed my right eye, and my left switched modes, displaying heat signatures. I reached over and started tapping on Rhino's arm. In Morse code I described their exact location. The two of us moved towards the wall, our steps slow, sure, and silent. We crouched beneath the window. Rhino opened his vest and pulled out a small rectangular object. A ring protruded from each of the four sides. I grabbed two of the rings, and he grabbed the other two. We both pulled at the same time and the rings slid out with a soft, barely audible click. I started backing away from the wall as Rhino stood. He cocked his arm back and threw it through the window.

In an instant I was on my feet and running towards the door I had just come out of. Barely audible above the dull roar of the wind in my ears was the sound of Rhino attempting to keep up with me. Something he could not do. Not bothering to open the wooden door, I threw my right shoulder into it, causing it to explode with the high-speed impact. The door slowed my pace only a hair as I sped down the hallway. Then I heard Rhino enter the building. He missed the door. Then the bomb went off. I dove for the ground as the explosion ripped through the building. As I dove, my foot caught on something. My body swung downward hitting the floorboards. They shattered underneath me, and my momentum carried me downward. A single thought passed through my mind, basement? Then I hit the floor. As fast I could, I rolled over and looked up. A second explosion filled the air. I rolled back over and covered my head as the floorboards above me were vaporized with the power of the explosion.

For about a minute, wood pieces and dust rained down on me. That one minute felt like eternity. Something large landed next to me. Grey seeped into the edges of my vision, blotting out the world around me. Memories became reality...

***

My arms were folded on my desk, underneath my head as I existed in that grey space between reality and dreamland. Someone was droning on at the head of the classroom. He was saying something about our history, but I was too tired and excited to pay attention. It occurred to me that it was something important that I would regret later not knowing, but at that moment, I really did not care.

I was too tired because I had not slept the night before because of the exciting news I had received the day before. I had been picked! Among the thousands of eligible seniors, they had picked me. Last night, after I had gotten home from school, I had found a letter from the government addressed to me. It started that I was one of the lucky fifty seniors that would be transformed, Cybernetically. I was instructed to, after graduation, go to an airplane and fly off to Nevada for training. The date was already set for my "transformation" four years from now. Another month and I would be in Nevada, training. No one had refused the invitation. I did not intend on being the first. Only college bound seniors were eligible.

I lifted my head and rested my chin on my forearms. Life was good, and about to get better.

***

I turned over. It was no longer raining dust. Above me was the clear, open sky. Nothing was left of the building that I could see from my vantage point. I slowly turned my head from side to side to survey the damage. I was lying in a basement. It was filled with dust and large pieces of wood. Somewhere over to my right was a large pile of dust with a piece of wood leaning against it. Something seemed remarkably familiar about it.

I rolled over onto my hands and knees and crawled towards the pile. As I got closer, I saw the sun glint off a piece of metal. At that moment I recognized it. Rhino! As I got closer, I could see the very subtle movements of his shallow breaths. Then I was next to him. He looked up and me and frowned. I looked around and found one of his hands and he started tapping on the back of mine.

"They are still alive", he tapped as I grimaced in response, "They are looking for us."

In my hurry to find Rhino, I had forgotten about them. Now they could be anywhere. I turned my head to the left and looked in the general direction of the center of the debris. Something else was moving. I could hear the soft hiss of a seeker.

Over the rim of the basement came the seeker. Seekers are small missiles that can be programed to accomplish a variety of tasks. Some of these include motion, heat, metal, or even other seekers. From the color patterns playing across it, this one is set to movement. It was almost silent as it moved into the now open basement. There was nothing we could do. Well, almost nothing. Throwing something would be our doom. It would go to the source. Our only choice was to hold our breath until it went away. As a result, we both froze. The seeker floated down into the basement. There was no way to tell where it had come from. The slow but steady movement inched towards us. We held our breath as it moved past us towards the pit. Rhino twitched his finger, visibly frustrated. He never had any patience. The seeker stopped and turned back towards us.

With the speed of thought, Rhino brought up his left arm. At the same time the gun swiveled into the palm of his hand. The seeker burst forward faster than I thought possible. But faster still was Rhino. He fired one shot directly at it. The small device exploded in a flash of bright energy halfway between us and the wall. In a snap, both Rhino and I were on our feet moving towards the other side of the basement. Where there had once been stairs were only the destroyed remains.

On our way to the wall, I spotted an area that seemed darker than the rest. We moved towards it. A tunnel! A shot rang out. Something exploded next to my feet.

"They found us", Rhino cursed to himself. I bolted for the tunnel. Easily passing Rhino, I sped into the darkness. Three more shots rang out. Rhino came bursting into the darkness. His left arm hung at his side, limp and unmoving.

"They are using neutralizing bolts", he explained as he pushed past me. I reached into my vest and pulled out a small flat disc. Tossing it to the mouth of the tunnel, I turned to follow Rhino. Then I heard the hiss of a seeker behind me. A sharp explosion sounded behind me. That barrier would not hold for much longer. I did not wait to see who followed it.

Ahead of me I could hear Rhino lumbering down the passage. The tunnel veered sharply to the left and down. Easily catching up with Rhino, we both turned right at the intersection that followed. The walls of the passage were smooth and seemed to be heading into some kind of sewer system we had not seen before.

"I wonder where this goes", I asked under my breath. With a shrug of his shoulders Rhino continued down the passage.

"Go back, send a seeker, and block off the entire last intersection", Rhino said to me as we trudged along. I nodded and turned on my heel. After tossing down two more discs blocking the other two branches of the intersection, I opened my vest and pulled my shirt up. I tapped once lightly on my chest where my bottom rib should have been. The skin slid to the left and revealed a metal panel. Then that too opened. Inside were three small rows of seekers. I touched the tips of two of them. Without a sound, they floated forward and out. The metal door closed, and the skin slid back into place.

"Movement", I said and pointed back towards the ruined basement we had come from. The two seekers took off in a flash of energy. I pulled my shirt back down in place and refastened my vest. Then I stepped into the passage leading towards Rhino. I tossed another disc over my shoulder as I sped down the passage. I found him just a little farther than I had left him.

Sadura sat on the ground with a small metal rod about the size of a pencil in his right hand. He held it poised over a black mark on his left arm. Then his left hand twitched. A second later Sadura put the rod away. He then stood up and flexed his left arm. Then he motioned for me to follow, and we trudged down the passage together. An explosion rocked through the tunnels. Rhino stepped up the pace.

"That sounded like one of the fields", he said as he stopped, "Step ahead, I am going to collapse the tunnel."

I quickened my step and moved past him. The ceiling of the tunnel was right above Sadura's head. Rhino reached up and put his fist against it. Then he drew his arms down and plunged them into the ceiling. His arms disappeared into the rock up to his elbows. Then he jumped back and yanked down with both arms. The ceiling came crashing into the ground. Dirt and rock followed sealing the passageway. Rhino turned back towards me and started to run past me. I moved over against the side allowing him to pass me. Then I followed him.

We jogged at an easy pace for an hour, not slowing down. Together we went through many intersections and turns. Then suddenly Rhino disappeared in front of me. The tunnel continued in front of me, and I could see quite clearly ahead. He was gone. I had come to an abrupt stop when he vanished. Now I turned and looked around the tunnel for him. I did not see him. Then I took a step forward.

The ground vanished beneath my feet and I fell. The darkness below quickly enveloped me. I had no way of judging how far down the bottom was. It would not do to fall and break my legs. I reached up underneath the back of my shirt with my right hand and depressed a button in the center of my back. The whir of moving metal filled my body. I glanced down at my legs, marveling at the transformation before my eyes.

The metal frame of my legs was compacting. The skin of my feet had spread out. Small flames were sprouting from the bottoms of my feet. My descent slowed, and I hit bottom. As quickly has it had started, my legs started to return to their original shape. With a light step, and a smile, I stepped away from the spot where I had landed.

Suddenly I heard the whir and click of something metal moving into place. Then I was falling backwards, my legs knocked from underneath me. As I fell to the ground, I saw a small hole punched into the wall. That would have been my head, I thought as I came crashing to the ground.

***

The clear blue sky over my head whispered of winter. I sat up brushing the grass off my back. The police had come to my house, just like every other in town, collecting firearms. It had happened. They had managed to create a "smart bullet". These bullets supposedly avoided human tissue. Wars could now go to a new level. In any case, I had been in the way as they walked up to my front door. Being fifteen and naïve, I did not have the good sense to move fast enough. So they had simply pushed me out of the way. I slipped on the grass and fell to my back.

Now they were coming out. The only weapons they carried were metal sticks with electromagnetic energy. Those were for people stupid enough to try and stop them. I was not that stupid. Every gun in the country was being collected and nobody was going to stand in their way. Not me, not anybody.

"Have a nice day", one of the police officers said as he walked down the street to the next house.

***

I lay on the ground, not making a sound. Rhino was near me; I could sense him. He reached out and started tapping on my outstretched hand. He explained that there was some sort of primitive defense system. My left eye clicked into heat mode. I lifted my head off the ground and did a slow scan of the room. On the far wall there was some sort of primitive gun mounted.

One of Rhino's guns clicked into his hand. With his other hand, he switched the settings. Then he fired at the weapon. The blast hit, dead on. The weapon was vaporized, a hiss of steam rising from where it had once been.

"Let's go", he said as he pulled himself to his feet.

"Why couldn't you have done that before I got down, sarg", I said feeling a bit annoyed and sore.

"I wanted to see whether or not you would notice the defense system", he replied as he walked over to where the gun had been mounted. Rhino then stopped off to the right through an opening. I followed him. He stopped just inside the doorway. Stepping up behind him, I realized why.

The chamber was full of primitive weapons. Stacked with careless abandon in shoulder high stacks were old "dead shell" weapons. These guns could kill humans, unlike my own. Rhino stepped in, in a state of awe. At random, it seemed, he picked up one of the weapons.

"My dad had one of these", he said looking at the weapon with a fond smile, "Before the collection. A good old Magnum.45. Could easily take off your head, if it still worked."

Rhino put the gun back, straightened up, and looked over at me as I stared from the doorway, "We must have stumbled into an old weapon cache. Although, by the defensive trap, which is quite crude, by the way. I do not think this is a military cache. I think someone stashed this stuff when they heard about the collection."

"Shouldn't we report this back," I questioned.

"If there was a base to report back too, we would", he stated. This remark stung me. There was no base to report back to. I already knew this, but it still hurt to think about it. Our "birthplace" no longer existed. There was no home base. No headquarters. No echelons of command to report to. All gone.

"What are we going to do then, sarg", I asked.

"We destroy these weapons so that they don't fall into the hands of the general public. The recycling protocols call for us to deliver these to the government, but that would be too dangerous. Scout around, I want to know if there is another way out."

I turned around and jogged into the chamber we had started in. Spotting another exit, I sped into the next chamber. Standing there was a man. He was holding a gun that was from the chamber Rhino was still in. It leveled at my head. I blinked twice trying to wrap my head around the situation. Not one I was familiar with.

"Don't even think of moving", he said, "I know how to use this."

I stood there contemplating what to do. It would be impossible to shoot him, my bullets would not pierce his flesh. However, I could disarm him. In the blink of an eye, I raised my arm and fired at him. The gun disintegrated in his hands. It was his turn to blink in stupid disbelief. Then he started cursing.

"You're one of them, aren't you!" he said, anger raising his voice," you are one of those... cyborgs, aren't you? You are one of those guys who stole my job!"

Then it hit me. He was a member of the old military from before the first cyborgs came out. When the first fifty cyborgs were released and introduced to the world, all the military personnel were booted and given permanent leave. It would appear that some of the former soldiers did not appreciate this. The man in front of me was a member of that unfortunate number. He pulled a knife from his belt and launched himself at me.

With an easy step, I moved to the side and plucked the knife from his hand. A well placed fist found my face. My head rocked back. I took a quick step back and steadied myself. My vision swam for a second as he rushed at me. Dropping to one knee, I shoved him with my right arm. He flew across the room and smashed into the wall. Sliding down the few remaining feet, he settled in a little pile. I went over and checked him. He would live, but wouldn't wake for awhile. Just as well.

I stood and looked around the room. There was a doorway leading out. In the blink of an eye, I was in the doorway leading into the next chamber. Which turned out to be a hall. As I edged down the hall, looking for more signs of opposition, I noticed a door on my left. Farther down the hall was a staircase leading up. That was the exit we were looking for. I jogged back to the door. From the side, I used one hand to ease it open. The chamber was empty. Leaving the door open, I ran back to Sadura.

I gave him the brief version of what happened with the ex-military man, leaving out nothing. Sadura cursed as he walked into the room where the man lay. He was still slumped in the same position I had left him in.