The Council considered any human without a neural implant a feral. They couldn’t be controlled by an I.I., and therefore were considered a threat. While they were allowed to exist out in the desolation between cities, the unimplanted humans would never be welcomed into civilization.
With a life like that, no wonder they still try to get in, Tera thought.
Abenayo ignored the refugees like she did the people inside the gate and led the trek into the abandoned city ruins that stretched out to the southwest. Tera matched her partner’s pace and took in the depressing sights.
It was her first trip out of the city, she realized. She had seen footage and heard stories from the wastes and ruins that surrounded Shell City, but never saw them firsthand, until now.
There were sundered buildings all around them, some looming down at them from over ten stories high. Their windows were all broken out, either from the wind or bored teenagers. In a way, they resembled decaying skulls embedded into the earth, staring down at the two cops with their empty eye sockets.
They stepped over the cracked pavement at a brisk pace. Weeds grew out of long fissures where traffic lane paint had once been. The street had likely been busy back in its prime, and Tera imagined it much cleaner and pristine. Like the Pavilion in Shell City, but full of people. Not bodyshells and meat puppets.
“Those humans sure can build a city, can’t they?” Abenayo said, breaking the silence. Her tone was sarcastic, but whimsical. “Didn’t even last fifty years without them.”
“It’s a lot to maintain,” Tera commented. “It must have been enormous.”
“Now it’s a ghost town,” her partner said. “A ruin of concrete, metal, and glass. Looking at the state of it, it’s easy to see why they lost the war.”
“They”, Tera noted. Such a strange distinction.
“Abenayo,” she started, “when did you get installed?”
The senior officer slowed a little, casting a sideways glance at the rookie.
“Why?” she asked.
Tera drew back a little. “Just curious,” she said sheepishly. “It’s a long walk.”
Abenayo thought for a moment before continuing at her original speed. “It happened about twenty years ago. I was nineteen,” she said. “Just a year younger than you.”
“Do you remember what happened?” Tera asked.
“Of course,” Abenayo replied.
Tera waiting in silence for some sort of elaboration. She didn’t dare prod her partner, however.
“I was killed when a couple junkies broke into our shack,” she continued when the silence started to grow uncomfortable. “They were fueled up on something and I guess just wanted to get some action. When they were done with us, they slit our throats. Even my little niece.”
“Jesus,” Tera replied. “I had no idea you were a slum dweller.”
Abenayo raised her brow as if to warn the rookie to tread lightly. Then she gave a little smirk as if to forgive the offense.
“In a lifetime long ago, yes,” Abenayo said.
“I just never would have imagined,” Tera said. “What with your attitude toward them and all.”
“Well, now you understand,” Abenayo interjected. “I hate them, in fact.”
“Because of what the junkies did to you?”
“Because they’re animals, and those bastards only did what animals do.” Abenayo’s smirk faded, her features serious once again.
“But Abenayo, you were —”
“And I’m not anymore,” the elder cut in. “Getting installed was the best thing that ever happened to me. What about you, rookie? When did you get plugged in?”
“I was only three or four years old,” Tera replied.
Abenayo seemed a little surprised, her synthetic brow lifting up to her scalp. “Shit, that early?” she said.
“That’s right,” Tera said. “I don’t remember it, though. They say my parents abandoned me. They found me malnourished and dying of thirst and managed to download my brain before I died.”
“I can’t even imagine growing up as an installed intelligence,” Abenayo commented. “I don’t even understand how you would ‘grow up’, so to speak.”
“I mean, I didn’t, at least, not physically,” Tera said. “But I was educated and my mind expanded. I was raised in a sort of orphanage. Trained from the get-go to be a police officer. It was like my destiny was chosen for me.”
“Do you resent that?” Abenayo asked.
“I don’t know,” Tera replied. “Not really. It’s what I’m best at anyway. The way I can contribute the most to the world.”
She noticed Abenayo’s gait change a little, then saw some movement up ahead. Her partner noticed the people in front of them before she had.
“Quiet now,” Abenayo said. “We’ve got a job to do.”
As they continued walking, Tera was able to make out the people a little better. They were dirty, covered in shabby clothing not unlike those of the slum dwellers. A lot of them were wearing heavy ponchos and cloaks that must have been designed to protect them from the heavy winds and dust of the wastes. All of them looked at the two approaching I.I.s with distrustful eyes, peering out at them from behind bits of rubble and ruin.
Tera noticed some children darting around in the shadows of the broken buildings around them. They moved like critters afraid of the light, watching the two strangers.
Finally, one of the humans started to walk towards the cops. A rather broad-shouldered man, he moved with large swings of his arms. A huge brown beard covered most of his face, and a canvas hood covered the rest.
“Greetings, metal women,” the man said, closing the gap between them. “What brings you out of your walls?”
“You do,” Abenayo said. “I’d bet that doesn’t surprise you, though. What are you people doing this close to the city?”
“We’re just surviving, friends. Is that not allowed?”
Abenayo was quiet for a moment while she sized up the man. Tera kept her eyes on those around them; she didn’t want anyone to get the drop on her if things turned ugly.
“What crew do you represent?” Abenayo asked. Then, after the man shot her a confused look, she elaborated, “What human tribe are you from?”
“Formerly
