Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
What happened so far:
After being forced out of his home, Tristan joined the android’s army under the threat of death to protect his sick sister. Despite his aversion to violence, Tristan is soon made the leader of the human part of the army, because in contrary to the androids, the humans can actually kill, which is important in their quest to overthrow the remaining oppressive government. Tristan, who doesn’t want his sister Joy to know about his new position, is forced to lie to her about it, as he becomes a more important part of the events.
Tristan felt like every sound he made in the darkness was a hundred times louder than it was supposed to be. The rustling of clothing, the sloshing of water. It all sounded like an army marching through the house.
”Tris? What are you doing?” Joy had woken up. But he would have needed to wake her up anyway.
”We’re leaving. I’ll help you get dressed in a moment. Just need to pack some food first.”
”What? Why? Are we already leaving for the attack? But it has been just five weeks since we came here! You can’t be possibly ready yet!”
The fear and worry in his sister’s voice were overwhelming. He tried to not look at her.
”No, we’re not leaving for the attack. We’re just leaving.”
”They allowed us to go?”
He didn’t answer that and instead finished packing. Then he helped Joy sit upright and put proper clothes on. Warm clothes. The desert was deadly cold during the night and without a house to shelter them, Joy might just freeze to death if she wasn’t properly prepared.
”Tristan, why are you not talking to me? What is happening?”
”I need you to be very, very quiet now, okay?”
He strapped the backpack on and lifted Joy up from her bed to carry her in his arms. She was slightly heavier than when they had arrived, but still almost as light as a feather. For a split-second, he wondered how much weight she could gain if they stayed. He wondered if she could become a healthy teenager in the android’s care.
Maybe she would. But there were too many dangers associated with staying. Too many lies he’d have to tell her. And he didn’t want that.
When Erin had told him the first time that the androids couldn’t kill humans as part of their programming, he had been skeptical. But Erin seemed to trust him after a short while and all the evidence pointed towards them telling the truth.
For a short period, staying and fighting the war with them had seemed like the right choice. Safety for his sister, salvation for humanity, all that stuff seemed to be so close. He had already dreamed of clean water, clean air, good food and happy people.
Then reality had caught up with him.
He had been trying to train those assigned to him, he had tried to teach them to handle a gun, tried to teach them to survive, tried to teach them how to kill.
Some succeeded. Most didn’t. And he couldn’t blame them.
Almost none of them was participating voluntarily, they had all been dragged here by the androids with the threat of death dangling over their heads. They believed that they would be killed for every transgression and that their family would be punished.
It might be possible to build an army motivated by fear, but that army would never be a good one when tested in battle.
That’s what Tristan had realized, and it was the reason for him to decide that it wasn’t worth it. He knew they’d fail. And this failure would mean Joy’s certain death. He preferred to try his luck, pack up Joy and flee back into the desert. Maybe they would find another community. Maybe they’d be able to survive alone. Either way, it had a better outlook than the certain death that would follow this war.
Sneaking out of the city wasn’t supposed to be easy, but Tristan had privileged information. He knew where the androids were patrolling, knew their exact locations at any time and at which moment he could slip away unseen. By trying to make him a loyal and important part of the whole endeavor, Erin had given him all the tools, all the power he needed to make a successful escape.
It was almost ironic.
Carrying Joy in his arms, Tristan moved as fast and silent as possible, slipping by the patrols unnoticed. Joy kept her head pressed against his chest and he could feel her breathing fast. She was afraid. He couldn’t let her know that he was too. Maybe even more than her.
The androids might have been programmed to be unable to kill humans, but Erin lacked that programming. And it was Erin whose trust he betrayed right this moments. He didn’t want to imagine what Erin would do to him if he was caught. He didn’t want to find out how a machine with emotions would react to betrayal.
They left the dim lights of the city behind and entered the almost absolute darkness of the desert. Thousands of stars were the only thing illuminating the night sky, as the moon was darkened by the earth’s shadow.
After an hour of walking in silence, Tristan finally stopped and carefully let Joy down on the ground. He was exhausted. Walking such a distance as fast as he had done, with the combined weight of his backpack and sister had taken its toll. Even his improved constitution from living in the city didn’t have a chance.
”Can you explain now, Tris?” Joy asked. ”I don’t understand why we had to leave. I thought we were safe? I thought you had become friends with the androids and that your shooting skills were improving. Why did we leave? What happened?”
Tristan sat down next to her and let out a long, deep, exhausted sigh.
”We weren’t safe. Maybe at the moment, but not in the long run. Participating in a war is never safe. You yourself urged me to become a better fighter so I wouldn’t die, I thought you understood the danger.”
”But that doesn’t mean we can just leave …” Joy obviously had some ethical problems to fight with. It wasn’t any different for Tristan. He had actually started to like Erin, at least to a degree.
”We had to. It was the only right choice.”
Suddenly, Joy’s expression changed from desperate and helpless to hateful and … evil.
”You ruined the plan”, she said with a voice that was only vaguely hers. ”We were so close to taking over their main android, everything would have been resolved and we would have been the only rulers of earth! But you dumb human had to ruin everything. We should have recruited you, not this puny child.”
”Joy, what the …”
Out of nowhere, Erin appeared and pushed a syringe into Joy’s neck. She immediately went limp. Tristan was to shocked to react to any of this as Erin stood over him with a sad look, shaking their head.
”We suspected that the remaining government would send a spy”, Erin said. ”I didn’t expect them to take over your sister. I’m not even entirely sure how they did it. I should punish you for abandoning us, but if you hadn’t done it, the thing that controls your sister might have been the death to all of us, so I’ll let it slide. Come, get up.”
Erin offered Tristan a hand and he grabbed it. The android lifted Joy’s lifeless body up and started walking back towards the city. Tristan followed.
What choice did he have?
Picture taken from pixabay.com
