No one seemed to dare approach the androids. Killing them couldn’t possibly have been that easy, or that simple. Knowing there were a dozen humans at my back with loaded weapons that would fire at the first twitch of machinery, I decided to poke the bodies. It was then I saw the damage. Their heads were hanging free from their bodies, wires sparking as the last vestiges of energy left the machines. Their guns had been knocked out of their hands and I whipped them behind me where they were gathered up. I used the muzzle of my gun to tip Eleanor’s face upwards. Her eyes had lost their color, twin pale orbs gazing to the sky. Zohei’s body was in similar condition. I almost felt bad for the two androids. They hadn’t done a thing that any human wouldn’t have done. They believed that one of their kind had been killed, and with the provocation of the aircraft flyby had promised to go to war. Then I remembered that not five minutes ago the bodies in front of me had tried to run me over. Okay, maybe less sympathy, more triumph.
Once they saw that there was no imminent threat, two of Eliza’s gunmen joined me and wrenched the heads from the androids’ bodies. I opened my mouth to protest—no one deserved to have their heads put on spikes—but then the scene behind me came into focus. Our attackers had hit more people than I expected. Most of the wounds appeared nonfatal, but a couple of bodies were covered in cloth. I gagged at the sight of one of them. It was small, too small to be an adult.
Damn it.
I had a growing sense of dread, but my feet carried me to the child-sized body. Bending down, I lifted the cloth from the corpse’s face and stumbled back. There, in the dirt, her eyes still wide with shock, lay Pawter Jones. Before I managed another thought, a shout came from far off. Martin. I threw the cloth over Pawter’s face and raced to catch him before he saw his sister’s dead body. Unfortunately my middle-aged reflexes were moments too slow. Martin fell to his knees and screamed, a long, drawn out sound that chilled me to the bone. Following right behind Martin was Pawter’s mother. Martin saw through his own grief enough to wrap his arms around his mother, effectively preventing her from seeing her daughter’s lifeless form. The sound of a mother losing her child. It was the biggest fear I had in this life and this poor woman was living it.
“Give me the heads, and get me two lengths of pipe.” I stood far back from the grieving Jonses, speaking to one of the gunmen. He brought them to me and waited to see what I was going to do. It took a few knocks with my fists, but I managed to mount both heads on the metaphorical pikes. “Go get Eliza. Now.”
Eliza’s eyes widened when she saw what I was holding, but she didn’t ask any questions. “You need to address your people, my love. Right now.” Her expression shifted into horror as she caught sight of Pawter’s body behind me. “This can not stand.”
“You’re absolutely right. Give me one of those. Give the other one to Marcus.” She hefted the pike from where I drove it into the ground and walked toward the front of the caravan.
“Gunmen, set a perimeter.” I spoke into my radio’s microphone. “Anything that moves outside of that line is shot on sight.” A chorus of affirmative responses answered me. Marcus gladly took the other head from me and together we waited for Eliza to speak. This time, she didn’t struggle with the right words.
“This unprovoked attack is proof positive that the androids intend to wipe humanity from the face of the earth. There is no justification for gunning down an unarmed opponent, and no reason for killing a child! As it was with Gabriel, we resolve here and now to never lose human life to a machine ever again!”
Shouts of “yeah!” and “kill the tin cans!” echoed from the crowd.
“To those who have lost a loved one today, I am truly sorry. I cannot bring them back, but I will promise this. Their memories will live on for generations to come as the fallen heroes that sparked the revolution of mankind. They will be remembered!” Even the lovers and families grieving their loss looked up for a moment. “If the androids should return, I swear to you that I will put myself in front of any member of this colony. I will defend you with my whole being, and until my last breath. I love you all.” She made her way to attend to the wounded, and the dead. The tender ending to Eliza’s speech surprised a lot of people. You could see it in the way they murmured to each other, casting glances at my wife that spoke of outright confusion. I was shocked myself. My wife could be a very tender and loving person, but she would sooner drop dead than act that way in public. Leadership forced her to open up and find a way to relate to people.
The biggest advantage of my stunt was that we now had
