14. Acquire Chips

Out into the light. In the distance, the cartaurs’ engines growled. Zeke glanced left and right, then went to run left.

Ryan grabbed his arm. “Right, let’s go right.”

Zeke hesitated. He looked at Ryan. “Foresight?”

Ryan hesitated. He nodded. “Yeah.”

Zeke narrowed his eyes. Ryan’s being extremely suspicious. I’m not imagining it. Something’s up. With all of time at his disposal, it could be anything. Did he lie about Regression? Is it really just this ‘Foresight’ ability, which I don’t remember seeing on his skill list back when I ate his arm?

Zeke paused for a moment. What an insane thing to think. And even wilder, that really happened. I really ate my best friend’s arm. What the hell.

Shaking his head, he refocused himself. Still, the point is, when we find somewhere quiet, I’m figuring this situation out. Ryan isn’t allowed to be mysterious anymore. When he gets mysterious, it means he’s cooking up something horrible. Like murder, for example.

The hell has happened to my life?

Ugh. And I still need to decide if I should tell my family to head to Heather’s or run for the hills… Zeke rubbed his forehead, scowling.

“Zeke, come on!” Domi stage-whispered from the corner, gesturing him onward.

Zeke looked up. “Coming, coming!”

They ran through the city, darting from alley to alley, building to building. The sound of the cartaurs faded away, their growling engines swallowed up by the dense buildings. The closer they got to the city center, with its glittering, glowing towers, the more Zeke’s hairs stood on end. Nothing moved. No cars, no people, not even cats or pigeons. A few bits of trash drifted by, rolling down the center of the road.

A mournful wind blew. The dingy, broken down city outskirts remained as broken-down as ever, barely if at all changed by the Cyborg Apocalypse’s Domain. Potholes still opened in the roads, the road lines still faded and crumbling. Zeke tilted his head, curious. We’re inside its Domain, but out here, it’s basically unaffected. Do Domains get stronger toward their centers? Or… does it perhaps spread out from the Apocalypse themselves? If we head toward the strongest expression of the Cyborg Apocalypse’s Domain, will we find the Apocalypse?

He glanced up. LED panels and neon lit the skyline ahead. Despite the bright noon, the city center still hung in shadow, just dim enough for the lights to shine. Strange metallic objects floated high in the sky, and lights and cars moved around on the streets below, bustling with life. The lower buildings blocked his view of the street, but from the noise echoing through the buildings, the street was packed full of cars and people as well.

In any case, it’s a good place to start.

Domi ran her hair back and sighed. “Why’d we abandon the vehicles so far out?”

“We were making too much noise. The cartaurs were up our ass,” Zeke reminded her.

“Yeah, but like, this is a lot of walking. Where’s my motorcycle? Zeke. Get me a motorcycle.” She nudged Zeke and gave him a look.

“You have an entire bag of dog food on hand?” Zeke asked her.

Ryan squinted. “Why dog food?”

Zeke shrugged. “That’s what I used last time. That and cat food.”

“No, I get that, but why start there? Demand a buffet, at least. You know. Human food.” Ryan shook his head at Zeke.

Zeke clicked his tongue in regret. You know, I really should have started there.

“Oh, look. A pet store,” Domi said, pointing.

“No, no, no, I’m reformed. Human food only,” Zeke insisted, cutting his eyes in the direction Domi pointed. Is there a pet store, though? Emergency food is still food.

At the end of her finger, a pawn shop and a gas station without any pumps awaited him. Zeke sighed quietly, disappointed.

“Motherfucker ate a frog yesterday for no damn reason and you’re telling me you’re human food only?” Domi crossed her arms.

“That was yesterday. Reformed, I’ve reformed.” Zeke nodded.

“You ate the kite back on the overpass. You just ate the cartaur,” Ryan reminded him.

“I reformed ten minutes ago, okay? Everyone deserves a second chance.”

Ryan snorted. “Right, sure…”

Zeke shook his head at them disappointedly. “Can’t please everyone.” He cleared his throat. “But speaking of human food, can we stop by the gas station…?” Ordinary food isn’t doing much for me, but it still does a little. If I load up on the sugary, high-calorie-density stuff, I should be able to compensate for at least one fight.

“Yeah, yeah. Hey, about that motorcycle, though.” Waggling her eyebrows, Domi grinned.

Zeke rolled his eyes. “Just grab one off the side of the road.”

Domi stuck her tongue out. “Fine, fine.”

They turned off into the gas station. The door clanged, locked. Zeke pressed his lips together. How did I not expect that? And yet… I didn’t expect that.

Domi pushed him aside. “Here, let me—”

Ryan gave her a look.

She put her hands up. “Go ahead then, go ahead.”

Ryan vanished from beside them to appear on the inside. He reached up and flipped a lever. With a metallic click, the double doors unlocked.

Zeke stepped inside. A blast of AC ruffled his hair. Running fingers through his short bangs, he looked around.

Shiny bags pointed toward the door, full of tasty treats. Refrigerators lined the walls, holding soda, sports drinks, and alcohol. On the counter in the corner, rollers carried the blackened remains of what had once been hot dogs. Off to one side, slushie machines droned, circulating brightly-colored frozen beverages.

“Now this is what I’m talking about.” Looking around, Domi licked her lips in anticipation.

“Yum, gas station food,” Ryan snarked.

“It’s not all bad,” Zeke said, spreading his hands.

Ryan gave him a look over his shoulder. “Says the guy who eats people.”

“Look,” Zeke said, but had nothing else to say. I can’t really defend myself. I do eat people now.

Gears ground. Bright yellow eyes flashed in the darkness. “Can I take your order?”

Zeke jumped. Instinctively, he grabbed Domi. Domi yelped. Ryan outright vanished, completely gone from beside them.

From behind the counter, a mostly-robot cyborg in a gas station clerk’s uniform stared at them. “Can I take your order?”

Hesitating, Zeke watched him closely. Is he going to attack? Or…?

The clerk stared at them unblinkingly. He barely moved.

Domi leaned in toward Zeke. “Why’s he trying to take our order? This is a gas station, they don’t really do orders, do they?”

Zeke shrugged. “I don’t know. Bad programming?”

“Do these cyborgs count as being programmed?” Domi asked.

“I guess it depends on how the Cyborg Apocalypse conceived them,” Zeke muttered, half to himself.

“How it…what them?” Domi furrowed her brows at him.

“Er—conceived of, conceived of,” Zeke said, waving his hands. “I mean, with our Concepts and everything, the System mostly…er, manifests our Concept based on how we conceive them. How we think of our Concept. Which is to say, if the Cyborg Apocalypse thinks of the cyborgs it creates as programmable, then they probably are programmed.”

“Oh,” Domi said. She squinted at the cyborg checkout clerk. “So you’re saying, if the Cyborg Apocalypse thought of its cyborgs as all being part of a big hive mind, that guy would be calling home right now?”

“Yeah,” Zeke agreed, suddenly uneasy. He eyed the robot, then leaned toward the door, watching the road as far as he could see it. Are the cartaurs on their way again? Or something worse?

“But if it thought of him as a robot it could program, then he’s just a robot. Might be feeding some CCTVs somewhere, but the Cyborg Apocalypse would have to be monitoring them, or have someone monitoring them,” Domi reasoned, nodding to herself.

Ryan cleared his throat, appearing from a few aisles down casually, as if he hadn’t fled moments ago. “If we enter the city center, we’ll need different chips, or else they’ll immediately catch us as non-cyborgs. In there, there’s checkpoints, barriers everywhere… we can’t get by without them. We need the second-level chips. Like what that guy has.”

Zeke turned, looking at the clerk. We’d have to kill in cold blood. He hasn’t done anything to harm us, as far as we can tell. It isn’t a matter of fighting back, or even killing for hunger, we’d kill him for something he has that we want. Nothing more, nothing less.

His stomach squirmed. He rubbed the back of his neck. I don’t like that. I know it’s an end of the world, but even so, killing someone who hasn’t tried to harm me is…

Mechanically, the clerk turned toward Zeke. “Can I take your order?”

“He isn’t attacking us, though,” Domi said.

Ryan pressed his lips together and shook his head. “If they start attacking, it’s too late.”

“We can’t just kill a guy,” Zeke argued.

“He’s already dead. If the Cyborg Apocalypse dies, so does he,” Ryan pointed out.

Zeke fell silent. I know. I’ve accepted that before. But there’s a difference between accepting that living things, even if they’re merely semblances of what they once were, will die when I take down their leader, and killing one that isn’t hurting me simply because “he’s going to die, eventually.”

Domi glanced left and right, then stepped forward. “I’ll do it.”

“Domi—” Zeke reached out his hand, then fell silent. What am I supposed to say? Don’t do it? It’s not like we’ve never killed off corrupted people before. We never killed them individually, but did that matter to them? They still died. At the end of the day, they died. And at the end of the day, he will die, whether we do it personally now or impersonally, by killing the Cyborg Apocalypse. Will it make a difference to him whether we kill him now, or he dies, knowing nothing, when the Cyborg Apocalypse falls?

Ryan crossed his arms. He stepped back slightly, letting Domi take the lead.

Boom!

With a loud, metallic clatter, the man toppled over. Domi knelt at his side, fishing in his body. She lifted out a small red-colored chip. “Says ‘ACCESS.’ This the one?”

“That’s the one. Two to go,” Ryan said, crossing his arms.

“Well, now that we have one, I can go hunting for the next two in the city,” Domi pointed out.

Zeke pressed his lips together. He started to speak, shut his mouth, then opened it once more. “We… we could go next door, to the other shops. If this one had a chip, chances are, the others do, too.”

“Good call. Want me to take the lead?” Domi asked.

Taking a deep breath, Zeke shook his head. “No. I should get my own.”

Domi wiped her hands on the man’s body and thumped Zeke on the back. “That’s the spirit. I’ll loot this place while you got grab your chip, how’s that sound?”

Zeke nodded, though a little weakly. I can’t hide behind Domi. I need to face this myself.

A hand landed on his shoulder. Zeke looked up to find Ryan standing behind him. “Let me.”

“No, I can—”

Ryan shook his head. “I don’t want you to. I can’t let you grow inured to killing.”

“What about you?” Zeke asked, crossing his arms. I don’t want to, but… I don’t want to wimp out, either.

Scoffing, Ryan turned away. “I’ve done far worse.”

With that, he vanished, teleporting out of the gas station.

Domi turned after Ryan, then squinted at Zeke. “He didn’t stop me from killing, though.”

Zeke put his hands up. “What can I say? You never won the Apocalypse Incubator, I guess. You’re just not a world-destruction-level threat.”

She scoffed. “Damn. You’d think I’d win it at least once.”

Yeah, that is odd. Did I win the battle royale every time? Or…? Frowning, Zeke put a hand on his chin, then shrugged. More questions for Ryan, I guess.

“I got them.”

Both of them whirled. Ryan stood at the door, a pair of red chips in his hand. He tossed one to Zeke. “Let’s get moving.”

“Roger, captain!” Domi said, popping a mock salute.

Zeke nodded, quietly taking the chip. His eyes flicked to Ryan’s face. Even now, he can’t trust me fully.

Ryan looked at him for a long second, then turned away.

Cyborg Integration Activated. Would you like to integrate this chip? Y/N

Distracted, Zeke blinked. What the hell?

Wait, hold on. That’s the new skill I got from the cartaur. He frowned at it, then looked at the chip in his hand. It’s pretty small. Cyborg Integration… will it integrate the chip into my body like a cyborg? I might as well try, right? Worst case, I’ll remove the limb after destroying an Apocalypse and make good on that 300x regeneration rate and my skills to heal it back.

Hesitating one last second, Zeke hit Y.

The chip flipped around in his hand. With a will of its own, it lifted into the air, then dropped down into the back of his hand. There, it burrowed into his skin. Slender copper wires stretched beneath his flesh, merging with the nerves there.

“Ow,” Zeke muttered. What’s the point of that? I don’t have to carry it, and that’s nice, but other than that, I just put a chip in my skin for no reason.

“What?” Domi asked, peering over her shoulder at him.

“Nothing.” Covering his hand, Zeke headed for the door. “Come on. We wait here much longer, and the cartaurs will catch up.”