Chapter 4
She Turned and Ran
Dianna perched on her seat, pushing the brunt of her weight on the stool by now. She’d grown more accustomed to her surroundings, despite the shoddy state of the architecture. She examined the drone, silver face with some rust around the edges. The Order presented a very different picture of the Old World. They’d left some things uncovered, as it were, evidence to the contrary, considering the tale they’d spun.
“What was the date of your last day in operation?” she asked.
The drone responded quickly. “December 22, 2086.”
Dianna smiled. Good to hear. The date he mentioned was about one year into the global conflict. The city must have shut down abruptly once the bombs fell. According to her geographical knowledge, this city would have been in the Old World’s Central America. The underground locale presented more questions than answers, however.
“Is this city subterranean?”
“Excuse me ma’am?” the robot asked. “Please clarify your question to those within my knowledge base.”
“My apologies,” she said. “Was this city underground during your last day of service?”
He hummed and whizzed. “No. I have no recollection of such an act.”
They buried it. Dianna bit her lip. This was a troubling scenario for her, as she’d stumbled onto something much deeper than she’d expected. It would have been easy enough for the warring factions at the time to find a city in the middle of the States, easier still for the Order to bomb these ruins into the dust.
“Let me ask you something, robot,” she said. “How many people are currently registered as living in this city?”
The drone processed her question with considerable difficulty before it spoke. “As of December 22, no individuals currently resided in Chicago. Evacuation began on December 19.”
“Evacuated a whole city in three days, eh?” she said. “Why clean house? Why stave off the inevitable?”
“I am sorry, ma’am,” he said. “My knowledge base does not allow for much in terms of extrapolation. Can I offer you a cold beverage?”
“No, thanks,” Dianna said, sidestepping the comment. “What was the official news headline the day of the evacuation?”
“Specify source, please.”
“Little machine,” she said. “The most read one, I suppose.”
He retrieved the information with more difficulty this time. The circuits blazed and gears grinded inside his metal body. The drone stood on his last leg since her arrival, but these inquiries of hers only served to accelerate the process.
“Beware the Blood Order,” he said. “City-wide evacuation in process. The Blood Order claims Europe.” He paused. “The aforementioned were front page headings.”
Dianna stood up from her seat. She watched the stool crumble beneath the wake of her movements. She took a few steps back as the robot whizzed, and the last breath of life sparked free of it in a pile of smoke. That was all she was going to gather from it, but the statement left her with a cold chill in her inflamed arm. She clutched it to feel the warmth from her hand, a futile effort.
“The Blood Order,” she said. “Now, that’s a name I’ve never heard before.”
Just how much did the Order cover up? Moreover, how much of what they claimed was actually true? She thought on the matter for a moment or two, but the silence of her thoughts and the hum of the tavern broke abruptly with the sound of sirens. Drones from the Order. They’d come to rescue her, or at least she would have considered it moments ago.
Dianna paced over to the open, rotten doorway to the tavern and peeked out into the dark void to spot tiny red and blue lights in the dark of the chasm, accursed beads in the belly of a forgotten world. Dianna stepped out into the street. She turned away from the drones, and she ran.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends