Tevun-Krus #10 - TKX: Best of 2014

The Synthetic Soul
A cyberpunk short by @kiminblackink.

It was near daybreak. The light had not yet reached the lower levels of the Nation Major city towers. The air was chilled and they sent clouds of condensation to be swallowed up by the vents high up on the walls

Ratface could not resist a grin as he settled his body against the concrete. They had done it. It was good to be alive and to know you were alive.

After a hundred yards or so their footsteps skidded to a halt as the corridor bore to the right, [User1] near some functioning security lights. A few billboards rippled past and the humidifiers roared overhead, moreso now as the late evening shift changes began to get into their stride. They had to get off the industrial level-or as it more aptly called Dead Man's Alley.

As if to add urgency to the thought there came the howl of a siren from down the road. Then came the sound of another, almost like an echo from ahead. Four figures froze, all with the same thought. They were running out of time.

Stane leapt down from the rails onto the slate and stumbled on through a fractured and rusted turnstile, decimating it. He raised an arm to save himself and crashed against a battered wall. After a moment of indecision, he accessed his remote interface. Steel plates shredded through the last of the silicon that sheathed his arm. The wall gave, crumbling beneath the reinforced metal as though it were meant to. He peered inside. He could see nothing. He listened intently but the engines overhead made it impossible to hear anything either.  He pulled his head out and turned to the others.

"I can't see a thing." He said and pulled down the sleeve of his sweatshirt to conceal his exposed alloys.  "I'll scope it out."

Then they heard it, the deep rumble that shook the corridor's foundations. The mechana were coming.  Any cybernetic implants could be detected within ten feet, AI signature patterns within fifteen. Put simply, if that monolith came round that corner then they were done for. The tower's targeting system would be activated and the streets would bathed in molten fire.

Ratface craned his head round the street. His cheek glowed a light blue as the Nets pumped his processor with fresh data. Two heat signatures lit up the periphery of his maps before it winked out .It took him a moment to register that his static feed had been restricted, canceled out by the newly activated magnetic fields. The feeling was disorienting. He rubbed a grimy hand across his jaw and scowled. "Definitely coming round this way. Whatever we do, we gotta do it now."

Stane pushed the rubble aside and slipped through. Then Ofu hoisted Asuka onto her back and squeezed into the shadows after him. Ratface quickly followed and shoved the stone back into place as best as possible. It was fortunate they had reached a more dilapidated part of the level, where the damage would go unnoticed.

The smell overwhelmed them. For Stane, it was only a sudden influx of data.  Behind him, he heard Ofu suppress a loud retch and the sound of her spittle splattering the floor. With her enhanced sensory implants, it must have been torture.

"Strewth" Ratface swore, "what died?"

His harsh voice echoed through the chilly air.

Suddenly, strong bodies moved behind them, passing between them and the wall. The smell became unbearable.

They reached for their backpacks but they had no chance. Freezing hands held their arms, so tightly it hurt. A high voice cackled. A light came on, a flickering fluorescent bulb that dangled on a frayed wire as the trains went past.

The sight that met them was almost too foul for words.

Close by them were several dozen people but even then they could barely be called that.