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Crunch opening

CRUNCH

 SPARKS OF FREEDOM

The Visual Book

PREFACE

INTROCTION

CHAPTER 1 / CRUSHED

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM

ORDERING THE FULL VISUAL BOOK

Crunch / Sparks of Freedom  Copyright© 1994 Kenneth B Aronson

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PreFace

Man shall rise and fall,

But hope is never fleeting.

It only takes one man to build a sand castle, and another to destroy his hope.  Yet if these two men are to work together anything is possible until their hope is taken away.

It has been said that if you make a mistake you should endure in your mistake.  How often does a single man make a mistake that is so grave, that his dreams and hope are devoured forever.  If a man was to gather all his courage in the darkest hour of his life, and to step forward and motivate his fellow man to stand up and take back all that he has lost. Can this be done? It only took one man, to take a country defeated by the whole world, to rise up and rebuild his mother land, and challenge the world again in twenty short years.  Another  man gathered the hopes of his people in one country and assaulted the raciest in his mother land.  No man is an island, yet his dreams are the foundation of his mortality.

I give you a man that is stressed to the end of his willingness to live his life in the manner that the world has given him. Sure he has made mistakes but it takes a real man to face his mistakes no matter how harsh the consequences. There fore I give you Henry Snyder, a man that most live to save our world.

Introduction

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Chapter 1

 CRUSHED

"Get out of the doorway ass-hole."

The man's words were brutal yet commonplace.  Looking up, the older man was relieved that the man had not kicked him in the ribs.  He didn't like his wake up call, but it could have been much worse.  He picked himself up off the ground, folding his tattered blanket, then tucking it under his arm as he moved away from the shop's front steps.

"Sir, you wouldn't happen to have . . . "  his words were cut off by the store-owner's sharp interjection.

"Mister, if you want money, get a job!"

     	"Would you happen to have one?"  he replied.

     	"Listen bum, I only tolerate you sleeping on my doorstep because you're the cleanest bum I know, but you know how times are:  If you're not mechanical, you cost too much.  I'm just barely making enough to survive."

     	"Sure . . . thanks,"  he strolled away from the shop's entrance, turned back to him, and spoke again:  "I only wanted the time."  But the man ignored his words, so Henry turned back around, starting back in the same direction.  He stopped at the crosswalk, looking down at his suit.  Again he noticed that the suit was as wrinkled and dirty as the clothes he kept at Becky's place.

     	Henry looked up from his clothes to see a suit pull into the gas-station.  He decided to tuck in his shirt and straighten up his tie.  He crossed the road and entered the gas station, looking for the rest room.  The droid  that ran the place usually tolerated Henry's use of the facility.

     	His suit stunk, but there was nothing he could do to make it smell better.  Stepping out of the rest room, he recognized the droid at the counter.

"Hello Jim."

     	Jim was the name of the machine that ran this particular station.  The droid had the typical rubber skin, which covered many metal alloys from which the droids had been constructed.  Henry watched a Suit  leave the small station for his car.  The almost flawless resemblance of the new droids to human surprised him.  The original droids where issued without the rubber, but their sales were unsuccessful, because it reminded most people of harsh movies and books about robots taking over the world.  To ease the public conscious, they gave the droids a highly residual rubber coating.

"Any luck?"  Questioned Jim as he wiped the already clean counter.

"No, the field has advanced too far for the likes of me."  Henry said, looking down at the counter.

     	"No shit.  I saw one of those new executive type droids charge his system up today--I wanted to surge his system really bad but I would get surged as well."  Jim put the rag he was using to wipe the counter in a small pail under the register.

     	"I know what you mean."  He didn't like talking to most droids.  Jim was different, he was his friend.  Hell, they use to tell jokes about one another when things got really rough.

     	Jim once told him how he had been overcharged, which is what had put him in his present position.  But deep down inside, Henry knew why he was in the slums with the rest of the human trash.  Jim slipped Henry a small note along with a few scraps that he had cleaned out of the food processor.

     	Henry took Jim's small gift and headed out the entrance in search of work.  Times were tough all over; droids had all the labor-type jobs.  He had a quest for today.  Yesterday, Jim told him that there was an opening at the new Biodian corporation.  The word on the streets was that they were looking for something really hot and new, and he had a great idea.  All he had to do was get across town before ten o'clock, and the job should be his.  At least, that was what their previous conversation had come to, but still, he had to get across town.  Supposedly, Jim had gotten him a spot on the review committee.

     	He looked down on his watch, it had a crack in the crystal.  The cracked crystal bugged him, he wiped at the face of his watch as he left the station, heading downtown. The six-thirty traffic was nonexistent on this side of town.

     	"Freaking human!  Watch where your walking!"  Henry hadn't been paying close attention to where he was walking, stumbling upon what appeared to be a rather large droid.  For a moment, he thought it was a 9400 series, but after taking a second look, he knew it was otherwise.

     	"Take it easy 'chip,' you never know who your messing with."

     	"Is that fuckin' supposed to scare me?  I would work before taking any shit from some helpless human like your ratty ass!"

    	Henry hated the attitudes that the street droids took.  He wished there was something he could do, but what could he do? Hitting one was just punishing yourself, it would be like fighting an anvil.  Henry just turned and walked away.

     	"That's right, turn and walk away!  You know who really runs this fucking earth.  Thanks to you, we do!  Thank you, you fucking worthless piece of human scum!"

     	He heard the scrap-metal's words as he walked away.  Every day, it seemed like the more he walked around the streets of Jacksonville, the more droids he saw--and fewer people.  He had enough credits to take the train, but the train was one of the worst places in the whole town.  Droids ran the trains, and any human who could live through the trains was either the Son of God or the complete opposite.  Way back in the ninety's, it would have been human hoodlums instead of droid gangs.  Gangs started to incorporate droids into their cultures, because they were accountable for their own actions.  It was the perfect explanation:  it was hard to frame the gang members for what the droids had done.  The only problem was, the droids also developed a love for money, then took over the gangs selling the drugs to the humans.

     	He tried to forget the droids and decided to walk instead of taking the train, even if it did take him three hours to make his destination.

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CHAPTER 2

    	"Can I help you mister?"

     	"I've got an appointment,"  he said, giving the building guard his appointment card.

     	"Really?" the guard joked cynically, but Henry didn't laugh.  "What's the matter, droid  got your tongue?"

     	"I hate droid jokes, they're not very nice!"  Henry said, ripping the card out of the guard's hand.

     	"I know what you mean.  Go right in, the office is on the thirteenth floor."

     	Henry left the guard and headed into the building.  It actually surprised him that they would not have found a droid to fill the guard's position.

     	He admired the building's beauty, although it wasn't all that appealing to his taste in architecture.  He pushed his way through the crowd of droids and found his way to a human rest-room, where he shaved and cleaned up again.  He liked dry shaving as about as much as he liked carrying his disposable razor in his jacket pocket.  He left the rest-room and headed to the thirteenth floor; the card said room forty-seven.  He didn't like the idea of being on the thirteenth floor, but that was being superstitious and that was something rarely mentioned in this era of time.

     	He pushed his way through another crowd of droids to the room.  Finding the room unlocked, he found a seat and became one with the chair.  As his mind began to settle, his feet began protesting the long walk.

     	"Good morning Mr. Snyder, it's good to see that a human can make it on time."  Henry quickly stood up.  He hated human jokes worse than droid jokes.

"The personnel interviewer will be in shortly, so please be ready."  The droid's voice was gone along with its picture that had momentarily came to life.  He hated the liquid crystal monitors.  To him, this was not a good sign.  He had the feeling that they were watching him with some kind of two-way receivers; it was like a touch of "big brother paranoia."  Henry shrugged it off and sat back in his seat, staring out the window.  He began to wonder if it was a real view or one of those LCD windows, which makes everything look really nice.  He walked up to the window and touched it:  Cold glass, just as he remembered--the view was real and immaculate.  You could almost see to the beaches.  Since the early ninety's, the homeless had begun packing up and heading to Florida, overpopulating the warmer parts of United States.  Since Florida was the warmest of all states year around, it was the hardest hit.  Twenty-three years ago, in 1995, there weren't that many homeless.  The world entered a new realm at the start of President Bush's second campaign.  The recession had turned sour, bitterly sour.  With the introduction of the Robotic Labor Movement, the rich became all there was.  The so-called middle class either got rich or fell to the streets.  Now, in 2018, droids were in almost every money making position.  Only a few thousand humans now have control, and even that was rapidly changing.

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Chapter 3

  	"Good morning Henry, I'm Doc Readon.  I've looked over your resume; it's quite impressive.  For a moment, I thought you were one of those new droids."

"That's it, I've had it with this droid  shit!  No, I'm not a freaking droid.  What I am, is a damn smart human looking for work so I can better my living condition."

"Mister Snyder, I understand your concern.  It's just that we were looking for a droid," the man said as he stood there. He was looking down on him, smiling as though he enjoyed his job turning down humans for employment.  Henry got up from his chair and looked at the doctor dead in the eyes.

"Why did you waste my time?  You knew you wouldn't hire a human in the first place."

"The government requires us to interview fifteen hundred humans per year."  The man said, offering his hand.

Henry, being the gracious man he is, took his hand as an apology.   While shaking his hand, he noticed that the man was slipping him some kind of note: a card-like note.  Right away he knew that the doctor had to be careful because of the EYE in the sky.  He took the note casually, slipping his hands into his pocket.

"Henry, have a nice day, I wish I could have been more of a help to you, but I am just a pawn in this game."

Henry was puzzled.  He didn't know what to think of this mess.

"Thanks for the time . . . I was really hoping things could have worked out."

Henry left the room as Doctor Craig Readon followed, closing the door behind them.  Craig hoped he would read the note in time, but there wasn't much more he could do for the poor man.

Henry made it to the elevator with no trouble.  Once he was on the elevator, he selected the ground floor, pulling the note out of his pocket.  Trying to keep it concealed, he cupped it in his hand and acted as if he were rubbing his forehead.  The note read for him to go to 19th and Millison street, building 1743-1230, the pass phrase is `I hate droid jokes.'  He flipped the note over; there was more written on the back.

P.S. Bring a friend or two: Humans.

Only after flipping it over, he saw the sign which showed the note had come from one of the underground movement groups.  He knew there was another chapter in Jacksonville, but he didn't know where it was located.  While looking at the card again, Henry noticed that it was folded over; another note had been placed inside the first.  The note read: 'do not get off on the ground floor--leave through the parking garage.'

     	Once the elevator reached the fourth floor, he hit the third level key to avoid whatever danger the note had vaguely forewarned.  The elevator stopped on the third floor.  Henry scouted the area out before stepping out into the open.  He found the hall empty; there was another elevator opposite the one he just left.  He looked down the hall hoping to find a stairway entrance, but none were in sight.

     	He started down the hall heading right from the elevator until he came upon a group of five doors:  Three on the left, two on the right.  They appeared to be office spaces.  The second door on the right was inset by a window. Henry passed by the door, casually glancing inside to notice a droid working, but  the droid noticed him as well.  Suddenly made uneasy, his gut instinct told him to run, so he did.  The hall was short; at the end he found a corridor that ran fifty feet to the right and a couple hundred to the left.  The EXIT sign convinced him that the left was the right way.  Henry turned and started to head up the left side, when he heard the rapid drum of foot steps approaching.

     He was through the door and on the way down the stairs when  he heard the door close behind him and slam open again.  The cement stairs  were hard and narrow, making it difficult for him to descend at an easy pace.  Jumping the last ten steps, he crashed  onto the cement landing.  His ankles felt like they were burning from the jolting impact, but he sprang back on his feet, taking  his second set of stairs with more care.  He knew better then to jump so far the next time.  Half limping, half running, he glided clumsily down the stairs.

     Certainly, his pursuers were droids.  For one thing, humans would be hollering, screaming, or even shooting at him.  It was against the droid law to kill a human, but droids had been known to break laws just as humans did.  He looked behind him, seeing two droids descending the flight of stairs that he had jumped--just two more agonizing levels to go.   His chest burned like cold fire every time he exhaled, but after seeing the droids were advancing two steps for ever one of his, he knew he was far from done.  He had to get rid of the droids.  He heard a loud crashing sound just behind him he looked to see a droid had landed just behind him.  He noticed the markings on his torso an carbon enforcer.  This particular droid has more rights than the average human, and far more strength.  He wished he had a stun gun or something.  All he had was a note, a razor a small screw driver, and his life.  Henry leaped, jumping way too many stairs he thought as he came upon his landing, but he was way beyond the time for thinking it was time to react.  He crashed into the surface his knees cracked but he stayed on his feet.  He was again at a stair case in the lead, but that was not enough the droid was springing and would likely tackle him.  He stood still, hard against the wall.  Henry looked back facing the droid which was in mid air.  Looking in the droids eyes he saw that it didn't calculate the odds, he watched the droid's approach waiting for the perfect moment.  He side stepped just before the droid slammed into him, allowing the droid to slam head first into the wall snapping its head separating the main control of the droid from the torso, ending in the final crashing of the droid's program.  He picked the body up, it was much lighter then he thought it would be, but he could tell it was very strong, he knew he wasn't strong enough to throw the body.  Yet he had a plan that just might work.  He saw the other droid approaching. He figured it to be a thinker type droid rather then the labor type that he held in his arms.  His hands were tingling with weak electrical voltages.  The droid was one set of stairs away.  He stopped and looked Henry in the eye.

"Why are you here human?"

"I came here for a job interview,  and got off on the wrong floor."

"You're a fuckin' liar."  The droid said bluntly.  " This company does not hire humans."

"I know that now.  I think there might be an arrangement that we can make."

"Arrangement?  What would you have that I could possibly need that is worth your life?"  The droid said as he started slowly moving one step at a time down the stairs.

"A power chip ."  The droid's robotic eyes grew wide.

"You do not have a power chip."

"I have one in my arms."  Henry replied.

"But I don't know how to take out, let a lone put in without destroying my self."

"I do."

"Who might you be?"

"I am Henry Snyder."

"You, you're a killer, how can I trust you."

"You don't, after I remove the chip you digest it, and it will automatically install itself in place."

"You lie."  The droid replied.

"Fine then I shall destroy it."  Henry pulled a small screw driver out and held it over the opening between where the droids head and neck started.  The droid's craving of the chip grew soon over power him.

"All right, I hope you know this means a lot of paper work."   The droid said as he hurried down the stairs.  "I have been called Luak."

"That's nice," Henry didn't care what he was called.  He just wanted out of there with all his body parts.  He knew his plan would work, to droids power chips were like heroin, in the fact that they would act just like humans when it comes to getting their hands on a power chip.  Henry set the torso on the floor using the screw driver he made quick work of the dying shell, and pulled the chip.  As he handed the chip to Luak, watched his eyes glass over.

"Thanks," the droid said as he swallowed the chip.  They shook hands.  Henry turned descending the final set of stairs leaving the building he heard the droid say that he owed him one.  He straitened up his suit, and walked down the parking lot behind the building.  There where a few cars parked none looked all that fancy.

He headed back to the gas-station where he would give a certain droid a large piece of his mind.

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CHAPTER 4

"You set me up!"  Jim looked at Henry, Henry looked like a mongrel.  Jim could tell that he had a bad interview.

"I swear, I had no idea the interview was a trap.  They said they were taking human applications, and that they had humans working on their staff."  Jim watch Henry slowly walk up to the counter.  Jim was glad to see that Henry had not armed himself before coming back to interrogate him.

"Your right, they did have a human working there.  He did warn me about the guards, and he did give me the location of the local meeting."

"Really!  It's supposed to be impossible to get them to invite you to one of their meetings."

"I think they found out who I really am "

"I don't think so, I'm a droid  and I didn't know."  Jim used his infrared scanners to find out if he was equipped.

"You know I'm not going to rewire you."

"I know that Henry; but I don't feel you trust me."

"Jim, I'm just a little confused at the moment. I don't know what to think of this situation.  I've known you to long to distrust you, and just think of all that you've done for me and the dwellers.  Sometimes I feel for you, having your humanity circuits activated."

"I figure that I'm a better person for it."

"Right, I gota go."  Henry said as he left the gas station.  He had to go talk with Joey about what has happened if anybody can help him figure out this mess, he can.  Joey was real smart for a human, Joey and Henry used to have conversations that most couldn't comprehend.  Joey's a dweller on the east side of town.  Which to Henry was little more then a five-block walk from the gas station.  Henry didn't like the journey to find Joey for one block away from the station and he would be entering the Slim .  Where the droids ruled like a pack of wolves.  He had been told stories of droids gathering humans and selling them to food factories for power chips but this was a rumor and the rumors where always wild and harsh.  First he had to go to his dumpier and change for the Slim.  He hoped Becky would be there.

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CHAPTER 5

  	"Oh Henry, what are you doing?"  She was there, and looked good for her living condition.

"Well if it isn't Becky Berks, I figured you would be gone by now."

"Don't I wish.  You know better then I do, there is no way out of this hole.  It's worse the some of the bigger cities."

"Yeah it's hard all over."   Henry wanted the best for his wife but he could do nothing but defend for himself and if he ever were to get so lucky he would take her out of the streets.  Becky really wasn't his wife but he wished she was, but she wouldn't marry him.  She said that she couldn't stand the thought of putting extra burdens on any man.  He knew that was a line, but she wouldn't have him at this time.  He loved her and he thought she loved him.

"Tell me where the hell your going."

"No where."

"Like hell your dressing for the Slim ."

"I got to go talk to Joey.  I got to go now."

"I don't trust that guy, he's a shady character."

"He's no worse than you or me."

"It doesn't matter what I say; you'll still go."

"I have to go.  I'm tired of being walked on.  This is my problem, and I have to do something.  I just can't sit idly any longer."  Becky stood by watching him dress like a personal dressing droid  would.  Putting on a beat up pair of old jeans, ragged  denim shirt, and heavy work boots and then the over coat.  Becky was reminded of the movie she had seen in her youth.  " Bye Becky I'll see you later tonight." He said as he left the old abandoned building.

"Hey man, I got just what you need."

"Yeah, I got what you need."   Henry said to the pusher droid that propped himself up against the building.  Henry drew his piece out.

"Hey man, there's no need to get hostile."

"I don't care what your intentions are.  I don't like you.  I'll give you to the count of three . . ."   Henry didn't need to finish his statement the droid saw the weapon.  Nothing similar to a gun, what it is, was a common placed five thousand volt magnet that produced a special pattern that's capable of frying any circuit in a five-foot radius.  The weapon was outlawed five years ago when droids took the voting majority in the house.  That's when the world was lost.  He tried not to dwell on the past, but the past was all that he had.

He tramped down the alley heading to the gas station.  His pace was crisp.  He didn't even stop and talk with Jim;  just passed on by.  He hooded himself a block before entering the Slim.  He wanted to prevent any entanglements of any type.  The Slim was the worst place in the western hemisphere.  The Slim's activities would make the riots of ninety-two look like a peace protest, buildings were constantly on fire, some of which burned white hot.  Burning the bodies of both dead droids and humans.  The Slim had been guesstimated to consume some eighty square miles of street and suburban land.  Nobody really knew how the Slim became what it was.  Many believe that it was where the first droid plant was located and when the bill of rights was ratified.  Humans rose up and crushed the factory and any droid employing facility.

He passed the Automatic guard patrol , most of the old warning signs had either been blown up or rewritten.  He was just glad that the guards didn't search him.  He pushed through the rubble.  He didn't see many humans wandering the streets mainly for the fear of the droid gangs that controlled the majority of the Slim.  He had to make it to what used to be known as the house.  A place where communications where handled.  Not more than three street blocks in the Slim he saw the rats, a minor droid gang, still fighting to get their piece of the pie.  He hoped to avoid conflict, but the powers that be sought otherwise.  He felt trouble in his bones.  He didn't like the looks of the group at least fifteen former military droids, all heavily built.  He knew that his magnetic charge would only hold for three take downs.  He ignored the group and headed straight.

"Freaking human, " Henry heard one of the droids call.

"I want blood," another cried.  Henry knew this was not good.  He put his hand into the coat.  The better prepared, the longer the life, was his motto.  He continued his present coarse.  Trying to prevent any entanglement no matter how obvious that one was upon him.

He watched the group gather some thirty or more, that was far more then he could handle alone.  He watched the group approach expecting there to be some kind of clash.  He knew they could smell him.  His weapon was fully charged, he was nervous.  He had no help of any kind, which forced him think fast.

NOTE

The word popped in his mind.  He saw the leader in the middle of the group.  Looked hard he pulled the note out of his pocket with his free right hand.

"I'm on a mission."  Henry cried as he held the note out in front of the group.  They stopped their decent, the leader proceeded by himself.  Henry stopped dead in his tracks.  He hoped it would work, yet he was not sure.  All he knew was, if he didn't chance it he would surely wind up dead, and death was something he had an allergic reaction to.

"That piece of paper doesn't prove anything."

"I know, I have to show it to Joey."

"You lie, I don't know of any Joey."

"You lie."

"I could blow your life away with the twitch of my hand."

"So could I."   Henry showed his wand like weapon.  Knowing that the weapon could affect their leader.  From the distance he glared at the baffled group advancing toward him.

"What's in it for us?"

"What you crave."   He knew the leader would follow for the leaders where always the smartest of the group.  Droids where funny about that.  The leader stared at the pouch.  Henry knew that his trap was well baited.

"I've got one power clip, but I have to find Joey so I can install the device.  Henry knew he couldn't scan him for he had the weapon and it's normal magnetic field hindered on board scanners.

"Then allow us to escort you, human."   The leader of the droid remarked.

"To die and lie in a yard of scrap droid is far worse then an eternity in hell."  Quoted as the group of droids that had been gathering around him and the leader.  He didn't trust them; but he had no other choice, and they did.  The further they walked the fowler the air grew.  Joey's dwelling was now two blocks away it took him forty minutes of steadily walking the Slim to get this far.  He was released to make it this far without further incident at this point.  A few minutes of walking he would be safe inside the dwelling and free from the Rats.  He still had the worst part of the Slim to cross.  For they were entering the Homes Territory.  A group of droids that no one wanted to mess with, human or not; any entanglement with the Homes was death, at it's finest.  Henry looked up to see the falling skies.  They where the usual milky blue in color; clouds had been rolling in from the ocean most of the morning.

"Human I want the device now."   The leader said as he grabbed Henry by his jacket.  The droid being six inches taller than Henry and much stronger with his one hand he set Henry on his tiptoes.  Henry swallowed hard then commented.

"I told you, I need the tools that Joey has and we're almost there."

"I want it now and if I don't get it now you'll never see this Joey in your miserable fucking life."  The leader tossed Henry against the wall of an old abandoned building which was on his right.  He hit the wall of the building hard.  His head crashed against the wall milliseconds after his back slammed into the brick surface.  He stood up but the world wouldn't stop spinning.  Pressing his hands against his head to try to stop the spinning motions.

"I don't like the way that our working relationship has turned out."

"I don't care what you like or dislike.  I want the device now, or I'll smash your freaking head in and then you'll just be dead and that will be that."

"I told you brain-dead droids that I don't have the tools to do this."  Henry screamed to the ugly droid which towered over him.  He had his right hand on the weapon.  The droid didn't know what hit him.  Henry activated the weapon and all the droids in a seven-foot radius suddenly turned to each other and fell over.  This was not good for Henry, the leader was standing right beside him, which meant that when he activated the weapon the leader fell on top of him.  Henry tried to get out of the dead droid's path, but he fell hard knocking him to the ground.  He jumped trying to dodge, feeling the lifeless thing twisting him as he was thrown out of the way of its destructive fall.  He got to his feet and found the other droids keeping their distance.

"What are you? " One of the Rats called.

"I am the creator."  Henry called as he raised his arms in the air.  "And I am tired of life with you."

"Kill him before he kills all of use."   Henry was trying to scare them away but he forgot what he has dealing with, and so acted on the notion that his hunters were the same as he.  He watched as the droids all leveled off on him.  He felt his pants increase in weight.  Looking down the barrel of a gun he had done before, didn't like the sight then and now with some twenty guns of various types aiming at his head.  He had to think and act in heart beat.

"If my hand leaves the coupling device on the weapon it will release a pulse that will scramble every one of your magnetic drives into a continuous write sequence causing you to end up just like the rest of the junk lying around us."

"Four of them dropped their weapons and ran with their tails between their legs.  Henry stared down the barrels of the guns still leveled at him and he could see fear in their robotic eyes.

"Be gone, or be a corpse."  All but one droid dropped their weapons and ran.

The one remaining droid lowered his machine gun.  "I thank you for letting me live.  I was made to conform with this group, I'm in your debt."

Henry looked at the droid not really sure what to think of him. Sure he looked some what different then the other droids,  but then again nothing looked the same to him any longer. "You can call me Henry."

"Henry . . ."   The droid waited for Henry to give him a full name but none came forth. "I have been called Trim, which has puzzled me for the longest time.  Do you have any idea what this means?"

"They might be calling you Trim because you're thin, compared to a human.  At the most it could mean that your just thinner then the average droid."

"So what's a human doing here in the Slim?" Trim questioned.

"I'm here to find a friend."  Henry continued on his quest, closely followed behind by Trim.

"Oh yes, Joey I believe, you said."

"Yeah, Now it's your turn.  What's an executive droid like yourself, doing in a street gang like the Rats?"

Trim looked to the ground, he wasn't sure what to say. He thought about the question for a moment, then decided that to tell the truth would be wisest.  "I wouldn't conform to the activities at work, which got me relieved of duty."

"I see, your humanity circuits got just a little too much juice."

"I don't know if that's the whole truth."  Trim stopped and began kicking at the lifeless droid's chest plate leaving a dent in its hull.  "This one deserved to die, more than the rest of them did."   Henry was surprised, he figured he would have hated the leader more then this particular droid.  "He was a drug dealer; and he's the one that brought me to this Godforesaken hole, saying it was the best thing that ever happened to him . . . freaking' liar." Trim continued to kick it harder and harder bashing the system that was placed in front of him.  The droid's metal shell was now cracked and oranish fluid flowed slowly from the cracks.  Henry had never seen a droid get so angry with another for selling humans drugs, most droids thanked each other.  He had also never seen the orangish fluid flow from droid before.  He had worked on them before though, replaced circuits and other minor work but he had never seen a droid bleed this way.  Henry looked into Trim's enraged eyes.

"Hey, back off!"  Henry pushed the droid trying to stop his thrashing rampage, but he couldn't move the machine.

"I'm free, free from their diseased way of living."   Trim said as he stopped kicking the lifeless machine.

"Free, you muck, Free is a word not yet born in this age." Henry said as he started to walk away from the mess of mechanical corpses.

"Why do you say this?"  Trim asked as he picked up three of the many guns lying around, and continued following Henry.

"Why do you act as if you care?"

"I don't know, I just do."  He paced himself to catch up with Henry.

"I used to believe you fucking droids could care, but I soon learned that it was only a program.  A program that could be turned on or off at will."  Henry said as he continued to walk ever so briskly.

"You self-conceited human, you think your so much better than us, we're no different from you."   Henry turned around nearly colliding with Trim.  He used his fist to knock on Trim's metal casing.  " Yeah right, we're made of metal and you're made of flesh."

"Wrong, we're human and born and you're. . .  You're manufactured in a factory;  mass produced.  Hell, you can't even have sex."

"There you're wrong, I can have sex with a human or a droid.  It was supposed to be an enhancement.  Personally I think that sex is over rated."

"Of course you can't feel a damn thing."

"Wrong, I can and I still think it's over rated."  Henry was trying to keep from laughing.  He had never heard of a droid that could perform sex, nor did he think that humanity would do such a thing as to build a sex droid.

"Tell me what was your job title, and why were you cut loose."

"I was a companion for a lady."  Henry couldn't stop laughing.

"What's so funny?" The droid requested.

"I just thought of a reason why you were fired . . .  You were too small."

"Actually, I was let go because I wouldn't preform with a male human.  That's why I left, I didn't feel that it was right."  Trim said as he followed behind Henry with his metallic head hanging low.

"I do understand what you seem to feel.  I sure as hell wouldn't stay at a job like that."  The two of them approached a street crossing.  The road was empty except for the tremendous amount of rubble that had been left behind from the harsh street wars.

"Seems pretty quiet."

"Actually it's not quiet enough for charge time."

"Charge time, what do you mean?"  Henry turned around and gazed into Trim's pulsating eyes.

"Most of the Gang members don't have the resources to buy a new Power chips every six months. So every twenty to twenty-three hours we have to recharge to stay alive.  Much like you humans have to sleep and eat...  We have to charge."

'Yes, it figures it would give them even more power.'  Henry said as he scratch his head and turned back around to start across the street.  "It was supposed to last two to three years."

"They said that's impossible!"

"Of course to better control the work force."   Henry's ears began to ring, telling him that Trim's scanners were active.  'There must be something around close, to damn close by the pitch of his sensors.'   Henry's thoughts were mottled as he started to race across the street.  When he felt a sudden impact on his back, Henry flew back as Trim pulled him. Only to twist Henry's body around leaving his head to rest under Trim's arm pit.  While Trim held a gun to Henry's head.

"Henry just go along with me, I think I'm tracing a Tripper.  They hate the Rat's colors, but they will not take a human life, so we might make it this way."  Henry could see five large heavily armed droids approaching at a steady pace.

"Trot's in visual sight."

"Halt Rat."   Trim stopped.

"Trim let me up, I might be able to persuade them to leave you alone."  Henry called in a low voice.

"Your human friend has made it obvious that you do not intend to kill him so let him try."  The female droid said as she lowered her weapon.  Trim loosened his hold, allowing Henry to stand up on his own will.

Henry looked at the droids.  He could tell that the one in front was a Japanese model, which really didn't mean a thing, except that it's outer shell looked similar to their makers.  Excluding the normal clothes and hair; these didn't take shame in the metallic forms like some of the robotic forms that were roaming the country.

Trim moved forward brushing his digital fear aside.  "I do not wish to die."

"Then why do you wear the colors of a Rat."  The center female droid growled.

"Please,"  Henry said as he started toward the group of droids.  "I'm looking for Joey."

"What do you know of Joey?"

"I'm a friend searching for a friend."  He hoped they hadn't changed the code words.

"These words are familiar, but they are long past."

"I have also been long past."  He knew that the placement of words were more important than putting them in order so they would make sense.

"Then you shall pass with your play-mate."

"Fuckin' damn whore, I ain't no sex toy."  Trim screamed back at the group of female dominated droids.  (They are real females; not just looking and acting like female droids, they can create new droids through intercourse.  In a way, there's is a mathematical chance if the numbers come up right, and a order is put in at the factory and the new top of the line machine is assigned to their living space.  Although an actual computerized reproductive act hasn't occurred in several years.)

"Damn it, will you shut up."  Henry said as he turned around and pointed at Trim's soft metallically structured face.  Trim had no facial expression, being that his facial structures only changeable part was his vocal system.

"Don't worry about that pathetic droid.  We'll take you to Joey."

"Trim's with me, I may be able to salvage him."

"What!  Salvage me, I ain't a piece of fucking junk.  If I had a new power chip  I would rock this freaking place."

"Trim, I didn't mean it that way."

"That's the big problem with you humans, you can forget, and you think that everything's fine and dandy.  Well it's not!"  He knew that Henry didn't actually mean what he said, but he couldn't let him get away with saying it.

Henry and Trim walked up to the group of Trots.  The group was made of four female droids, which were very thin and agile.  Henry was nervous all of a sudden.  It came across him like a cold in the winter; quick and deadly.  Drawling his weapon he asked.  "What is Joey?"  We waved Trim off, and he jumped back and drew his gun.

"What do you mean?"  The one that was doing all the talking asked.

"Is he a human, or a droid?"  Henry pointed his jet black staff like weapon in the face plate of the loud one.

"Human."  The droid answered.  Henry turned to Trim looked him in the eye, then winked.  As Henry turned around, Trim jumped as Henry activated the device, then watched the majority of the droids hit the ground; except the male droid that stood in the back ground.  He was a large droid, one of the first that were built.  He didn't have the same type of logic drives as the newer droids.

 The older droid shot off his gun.  Henry felt his leg rip, tossing him to the ground.  He heard the sounds of a hundred guns ring through out the air.  He rolled trying to prevent being hit any further.  His leg hurt, and he had no other weapons.  Henry looked up to see the droid's left arm get ripped of and fall a few feet behind the old droid.  He turned his head he saw as a few rounds dented Trim's metallic alloyed and rubber coated chest cavity.  Trim's jaw was locked shut, and he was holding a large machine gun in each hand.  His trigger fingers was clenched, and from Trim's secure grin, Henry swore that he could see saliva pooling in the corner of his mouth.

"Tried to fucking kill me, huh,"  Henry saw Trim start to step forward as he called the harsh words.  Trim repeated the statement with every step keeping his gun firing once he even reloaded the guns from the metal pack on his back, and continued to pulverize the mass of scrap metal, even when it fell to the ground.  He finally ran out of bullets, and heard Henry calling for help.

He was sitting up trying to stop the flow of blood.  Trim rushed over, and tended to the wound. The wound was small and went through the side of Henry's thigh.  Trim scanned the wound, all the major bones and arteries were missed, he judged.  "The slug just tore up the muscular tissue."  He applied a tourniquet to the wound.  Not to cut off the circulation, he tore Henry's shirt in three strips and balled up the two of the strip placing them on the entrance and exit of the gun shot wound.  Then helped Henry to his feet, Trim found that Henry couldn't stand on his own.  Henry leaned on Trim as he stepped forward.

"Trim, thank you, you saved my life.  I think I can get something for you, these Trots, they were supposed to be the ones that protected humans right?  They're cattle herders!"

"Tell me, how you know that they were lying all of a sudden."

"I don't really know.  It kind of hit me suddenly, I decided to play a hunch.  You said it was charge time.  Yet you and these trots were up walking around, so I figured you being a newer modal, had a fresh power chip.  Then I noticed one of the other droids in the Trot group.  The older one that is no longer of any use, was up walking around very lively at charge time.  Which meant he had to have a fresh, or semi fresh power chip.  How does an old droid like that get a power chip?

"That's easy buy one." Trim replied.  "I see where you're going, I thought human farms were a fabrication, to scare the mass into doing whatever they were told."

"I've heard that several of the street people are disappearing."

"It's possible, but what would they want people for.  I mean to farm them as cattle would be useless."

"Excuse me!"

 	"I mean, what human wouldn't eat another?"

"I don't know, your probably right.  It wouldn't be that profitable to capture people, and use them in that manner."

"Whatever, we don't have much time, I need to know if this Joey will accept me."

"What do you mean?"

"Charge time is nearly through, and the streets won't be safe for any humans or Carbons ."

"Carbons, what's a carbon?"

"I'm a...  carbon droid."

"I've no knowledge of this."

"There's no time for explanations I have to hide."

"No, the entrance to the dwellings is near.  It will take but five minutes to get there."

"Then I would say that it's vital for us to get moving."  Trim was nearly carrying Henry, who was trying to quicken their straggling pass.

"How do you know that the charging hour is nearly over?" Henry asked as they crossed the street.

"The static electricity in the air has increased by two percent in the past five seconds."  Henry didn't comment.  His leg was growing numb.  He didn't know how much blood he had lost and he knew now that he didn't have the time to pull the power chips out of the droids like he wanted to.  Further more Trim wasn't going to let him stop to pull any chips out of some stinking droids.

Henry didn't know why he liked Trim, even if he liked him at all, or if Trim liked him, but he felt that this meeting was proper. Something in him told him Trim was about the only droid he could really trust. Henry noticed a few of the buildings that were still standing as they came upon the door he remembered using once before to see Joey and  friends.  He only hoped that Joey and the rest of the group was still there.  The building looked like a factory, Henry didn't really care what the building was being used for or why.  Henry knocked on the door seven times.  Then limped away from the entrance, by stepping to the side of the door (actually to his right facing the door). Trim took the left side of the door.  Two full seconds after he was out of the doorway, gun fire reamed through its wooden structure, a few seconds after the rifle fire, a voice erupted.  `What is Joey.'  The male sounding voice called from the other side of the door.

"What do you mean?"  Henry questioned back, he held his index finger to his mouth.  The voice called back once again.  "Is he human or droid?"

"He is, none of them."   Henry waited for a reply, waiting for a few minutes he begun to worry.  'Had they changed the password?'  Leading his mind to worry, had he killed the other droids on the street out of stupidity.  He didn't know these answers.  He didn't like the wait either.  He felt as if something was going wrong.  'I got five hours to get to the meeting and through the Slims.'  Henry thought.

"Enter Henry and friend."  He knew his voice had matched the memory banks.  He sighed of relief, then standing up on his own he took a step forward and collapsed.  Trim caught him on the way down, then picked him up and carried him through the doorway. Another droid met Trim at the door way, and helped him in the building.

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INTRODUCTION

"No!  They can't have her!"  Henry cried.

Sweat boiled off his brow as he looked around the darkened room.  Sitting up on his bed, he placed his hand on the cover, looking for the woman he had been sleeping with for many years. Not finding her, he stood up.  He couldn't make out the color of the boxer shorts or the carpet or the sheets in the pale moonlight.  His feet tingled heavily against the short, stiff carpet.  He moved swiftly through the room, not sure if he belonged there, then opening a door that proved to be a bathroom.  As the light in the bathroom came on, he saw his old face in the small bathroom mirror --something he knew he hadn't seen in more than a few years.  He pushed his long brown hair off his face, noticing the scar that he wore above his right eye.  He turned off the light and headed out of the bathroom with only the moonlight to show him around the shadow-filled room.  He opened the door that he thought would lead him out to a hall or another part of this place.  There was just a smear of moonlight that shone into the hall from the door he had opened.

A thin mist crept up from under his feet.  As he slowly stepped through the mist, his feet sensed the coldness of the hardwood floor.  His eyes were readjusting to the darkness when he saw a figure entering the small passage.  Fear stung him in the back of the neck as he realized something was there.  His hand reached for a weapon, but all he had to protect him was a thin pair of boxer shorts.

"Sir, is there anything I can do for you?"

Henry recognized the voice but could not picture whose voice it was.  When he was within three or four feet, he realized it was a servant droid .  When he stepped closer to the droid, it dissipated into the mist that had grown thicker farther down the hall.  A candle spontaneously came to life at the end of the narrow passageway.  As he stepped even closer to it, he began to wonder what any of this meant to him.  Once the candle was within reach, he retrieved it from its perch and opened the door before him.  The door dissipated between his fingers, as well as the whole house, but the candle remained intact, showing the ground before him.

Henry gasped at what he saw--bodies were covering the ground as far as he could see.  For a moment, he thought they were human bodies.  But after taking a closer look, he saw that they were both human and droid bodies. Blood was everywhere: flowing, dripping, and running through the mounds of torn droid bodies.  He started to course through the mounds of bodies that covered nearly every square foot of the ground.  None of the figures meant much more than the horrifying pictures of dead from the past.

"What is the meaning of this?"  He shouted as a new noise entered his ears. The deafening sound shuttered through his bones. Henry quickly turned around to see the face of the beast that covered his ears.  A large bulldozer machine appeared to be pushing the bodies into even larger piles.  On the side of the machine he could vaguely see the image of a sign, it was something spray-painted on the side of the machine.  He knew that he had seen this marking many times before, but his mind couldn't make it clear where he had seen it before.

Solemnly, he stepped around the bodies to get a closer look at the devilish machine.  He could barely make out two of the letters:  Y.A.  He tried to get a closer look by moving even closer, but he wasn't watching his footing and slipped on an old man's body.  The fall had caught him off balance, and he landed on the chest of a droid.  The terror of blood splashing against his face made him scream in horror.

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CHAPTER 6

"He's still bleeding!  It must be internal."  Henry could see himself being picked up and taken through the entrance.  He wanted to walk on his own, but the droids had him in a situation in which he was the lesser of the three.

"Please put me down, I can walk on my own."  Henry pleaded, neither of the droids paid any attention to what he was crying.  His ears told him that one of the droids' sensors where active. The high pitched buzzing hurt his ears, but it seemed not to bother any of the other people or droids in the building. They went through three sets of doors, the last of which looked to be cast-iron. Then they started to move down very fast, faster then any elevator he had ever ridden in.

"I'm called Trim."

"Shut up carbon."  The other droid  said in the harshest of manners. Henry listened to them both, he couldn't believe what his ears where telling him. Racist droids, droids that hated droids, because their make up was difference than their own.  He looked up to the doors of the elevator, the lights showed them on the fifteenth floor and descending. He wondered how far they where going to go down. He was starting to grow faint, just as the elevator slowed to a stop on the seventeenth floor.  He had never been down in this elevator before he thought. This was all new to him;  when he first met Joey they had met on the second floor of this old abandoned building.  The doors opened, Trim and the other droid set him on a medical stretcher.  Two humans started to evaluate his condition.  One checked his vital signs the other cut off his pants and tended his wound.  He felt the one checking his vital signs stick him with a needle.

"Mister please, see that the droid named Trim is h--." Henry couldn't finish his sentence due to the drug.

"He's lost two pints of blood.  Find his wallet and see what type of blood is needed."  The other man ransacked his coat finding his old drivers license.

"AB negative."

"Shit, We don't carry that kind of blood."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"I don't know."  Said the one which was now cleaning out the wound.  He was using a large cotton swab to clean it. He threw the swab in a trash bag.  "HIV negative."  A computer voice called over the intercom. "We'll probably have to use synthetic . "

"No, it will kill him." The medic listened as he began to dig deeper into Henrys wound.  "Who the hell said that?"  He said without taking his eyes off of his patient.

"I did." The man looked up from his work to notice Joey standing in the elevator.  He returned to his work.

"Then what do you suppose that we do, sir?"

"Take some of my blood."

"But surely you're by far more important than him." The other man said which was taking his blood pressure.

"Shut up, and do as I say.  This man is more important than anybody else in the world to me."  The man stopped taking Henry's blood pressure and wrote it down on a piece of paper.  Then he went to a cabinet in the back of the large room;  grabbed a few things and started to make his way back to Henry and Joey.

"Damn you, if this man dies from your lack of hustle.  I'll cut you freaking heart out."  The man tending the wound looked up, then went back to work.  He had put on a pair of micro-goggles , so he could see the wound better to do the stitching.

"Yes, sir, right away sir."

"Damn you Henry, I didn't want you mixed up in my mess."  The man said as he took his tan tweed full length jacket off, rolling his sleeve up preparing himself to give blood.  He laid down on the table clinching his fist.  He clenched his fist tight and opened it then clenched it again pumping his veins up to make the blood flow easier.  Closing his eyes his mind began to wander, drifting back in time to when he first met Henry.

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CHAPTER 7

It was several years ago; ten maybe even eleven. He and Henry were working together on a equal labor rights bill for the Florida Senate.  They had made many changes to the way humans and droids where treated, but they couldn't get equal labor rights.

"Hey Joey, I just got word that the state house is going to hold a vote on the package."

"That's not good!"

"What do you mean?"

"I was running a few background checks on the representatives.  Forty-four percent of the human delegates have come into vast amounts of property and cash in their personal portfolios."

"Shit, this isn't very good."

"Wait, it gets worse; last nights news added a new twist. Apparently the National House has a new bill on the floor."

"What now?"

"There's a bill that was introduced to the Congress, which basically says that all labor jobs will be handed over to the droid  work movement to better the lives of fellow Americans."

"So."

"Let me finish Joey, I foresaw this eight years ago. So what happens to millions of humans that lose their jobs.  Who's going to feed them--"

"I get the point that the average American Joe that luck enough to be working on the assembly line is going to be on the streeeeee--" Joey's words where cut off by the sound of a bullet cracking through the glass.  No gun shot was heard, just the sight and sound of the bullet crashing through the air. Henry watched the bullet crash through Joey's chest near the end of his sternum. He saw the blood fly in his face. He couldn't help feeling sick. He didn't like the idea of watching one of his best friends getting shot, or have  blood spatter across his chest. Joey fell back with the impact; seeing his own blood on Henry as he fell heavily on the ground.

He remembered waking up in the clinic which was run by droids.  Henry was sitting in a chair beside him with his hands covering his face. He couldn't believe that he survived getting shot.

"Henry." He called, his voice was weak but still audible. Closing his eye's Joey strained to raise his voice.  "Henry! Henry."  He opened his eyes again.

"Joey is that you?"  Henry uttered as he leaped to his feet.

"Why of course it's me, who else would it have been?"

"Joey, a lot has change in the past two weeks."

"What do you mean?"

"You died, it took them ten minutes to repair and bring you back. But you're not the same any more; you changed. I'm surprised that you actually remembered who I am at all." Back then Joey and Henry made a pack to tell each other everything, no matter how much it might hurt the other one.  For them it was the only way to keep the trust in their working relationship.

"What are you te--" His words are collapsed by the sudden return to the reality as we all like to call it.

"Sir wake up. We're done drawing the blood.  So now you must drink a lot of water for the next few hours."

"I ain't stupid. Now tend to Henry and his wound."

"Sir I've tended to his wounds. I need the blood now."  The doctor said as he held his hand out for the plastic bag full of blood like it was a turkey drumstick.

"But the blood has to be sterilized.  He might reject this blood if we don't sterilize it."  The second doctor rebutted.

"I know the past medical history of these two, and if it worked once it will work this time."  Argued the first doctor.

"I didn't think that he lost that much blood." Trim said as he took a step forward ready to aid in the care of his new companion.

"Shut up Carbon."  All three of them said in harmony.  Trim stepped back against the wall of the small hospital room. He turned and looked at the other droid which was at a military attention.  Trim wondered what was so special with these Joey and Henry characters that one would have the right to reserve so much respect over both humans and droid kind; and yet would give part of himself at a moments notice.  Trim was truly amazed.  He had not known Henry long but he trusted him as much as he trusted his mathematical mother.

Forcing himself to sit up again, Joey observed the two medical men reviewing Henry. One stuck a needle in his arm and the other shook the bags of blood trying to keep the blood active. Once the needle was in; the larger of the two men took the blood to the other.  He also noticed that Joey was now sitting up.

"Sir, if you don't lie down and relax I'll have no other choice but to restrain you and give you a sedative."  The doctor watched Joey look at him, he could tell that Joey didn't care.  Joey then turned around and laid back against the table. "Sam get him something to drink, something with a high caloric content." The droid left his military posture and proceed through the lab.  He walked behind the lab and through a door on the left side. Trying to fully fill his orders to best any droid could.

"Sir I said relax but not to go to sleep. I'm trying to save you friend's life. I don't have time to baby-sit you."  He knew he was pushing his medical authority;  but that was what he did best and the only thing that he knew to do. 'If Joey can't handle that fact, I can always go to some other group.' He thought to himself knowing damn well that this was the only place that he could work even if his pay was only shelter and food.

Henry opened his eyes to see a labor droid pass by carrying a paper cup full of liquid. He could see the two doctor like people standing over him. Suddenly his nerves announced the pain in which his leg had expressed. He tensed up and bit his lip; a droplet of blood trickled down his aged cheek. He started to sit up but the doctor closest to him pushed him down.

"You're not quite done yet."  The man said as he held him in place. "I estimate that you lost two and a half pints of blood at a minimum. Joey willingly gave you the fresh blood you needed."

"Where is he?"  Henry asked.

"I'm right here." Joey's voice was stronger; stronger then he remembered it being.  Now Joey's head wasn't spinning, he took the cup from the droid and sat up so he could drink the liquid, it was unpleasantly sweet.  He drank it in one firm swallow, then handed the cup back to the droid.

"Henry, don't you die on me!"  Joey proclaimed as he laid back on the medical table.

"Not this day you Slimy sap."  Henry said in a weak voice.

"Damn you old goat; I told you to stay the heck out of this shit hole!" Joey yelled  out sitting up, the skinny doctor gave him a face that he had seen may times before.  A face a mother usually give her child when she doesn't approve of their actions.

"I had to come!  I'm tired, I can't stand by and watch idly any longer."

"What the fuck are you talking about!  Stand by idle.  Out there you're nobody.  In here they will find out who you are, and you know what that would mean."

"I don't care any more.  It's not the same as it was all those years ago.  No man has rights, I'm tired of standing by, I can't even get a job." Henry was tying to sit up but the two medical men where struggling to hold him down.

"What's so different? There are no differences.  Man is still overrun by droids, and there is no change around here that warrants your coming down here.  Hell man, I've talked to people from New York and other parts of the country, you should be glad you're getting food. Hell they're eating each other in New York. I've even herd reports that gangs have been going down to New Work and up to Boston and kidnapping people and selling them on the open market. It's no longer a game of survival of the fittest; more like the sickest."

"Bull shit." Henry knocked off both of the medical men, pulled the note out of his pocket, and threw it at Joey.  The note flipped through the air landing halfway in between the two medical tables.  The droid stepped forward and snapped up the small piece of paper.  A red beam of light shot out of the droids left eye, it's beam swept the note in one swift movement.

"It's clean, sir."

"Did I tell you to scan the note?  Get you ass back over there. . .  I didn't need you to tell me it's clean." Joey ripped the note out of the droid's hand. The droid returned to his post beside Trim. Joey then read the note quickly.

"I think this is just what we we're looking for."  Joey spoke as he was getting off of the table.  "Henry, come with me, we don't have much time. The medical men started to stop them, but they knew that it was useless to try.

"Where ever I go, Trim goes to?"

Joey turned around and looked at Henry, his face showed distrust. "What, a carbon, you have been a way to damn long."

"That's my freaking point. I need to be part of this. I have to be part of this or all will be for nothing."

"Alright, come on take it easy with that leg and bring your toy."  Joey fought off the anger that wiped up inside him, since when he first noticed that the droid was one of those carbons.

 Henry was trying to figure out exactly what he had against Trim's kind of droid.  To him, he was a normal droid. Sure he looked different than most of the droids, but humans are all different. We strive for different goals, as well as droids.  He got off the table and motioned for Trim to help him walk. They followed Joey into a hidden passageway, which led off to the right of the elevator. "Sam, get Henry and this piece of shit some clean clothes.  Then bring them to my office." Joey turned back around, Sam didn't waste any time, for he knew that a droids life wasn't worth a hill of beans in this place or any other.

Henry leaned on Trim trying to keep from putting pressure on the fresh stitches.  The pain was far less now that the wound was properly taken care of. The medic gave him some demurral just before he received the blood.  It wasn't a far walk, not much more than thirty to forty feet once they entered the hidden passageway.  They entered what looked to be some kind old factory.  Henry couldn't see what was being made; at the moment he didn't really care what they were making.

Joey found himself a seat behind a desk; there were at least seven our eight dozen chairs. Henry deduced that this was the place where the meetings where held.  Henry took a seat as Trim just stood there watching a few feet off in silenced distance. The other droid didn't follow them.  He just laid the cloths inside on the floor.  Trim was in turmoil, having so many people disliking him, for this wasn't his ideal crowd.  He didn't trust this Joey guy, but yet Henry trusted him and he trusted Henry.  So he was sure that he should trust him.  That was what his program told him at least.

"I don't know where you got this note or if it's truly real.  I don't know if I can trust this carbon either."

"Why do you hate me so much?"  Trim said as he rushed toward Joey.

"Don't you get hyper with me, you freak."

"Freak, I ought to cut your throat." Trim couldn't believe his ears: nobody had gotten away with a threat such as that without getting a mouth full of iron and rubber.

"You would like that wouldn't you.  It's just like you carbons!  You carbons wouldn't think twice about killing; tearing into a human dismembered corpse." Trim thought about his statement for moment.

"Nor would you, you Humans.  You would shoot through a crowd of droids that might be off to work for you pathetic humans.  I've seen your type laugh as you walked off with your giant guns of war."

"Damn, you're both acting like you're either married or children."  Henry says as he tries to force himself in between the both of them.

He didn't like the idea of being the one in between Joey and Trim.  It's true that he hasn't known Trim much longer than a hour or less, but he did save his life when it was him and the other droid.  He has never had another droid do that much for him.  As for Joey; it has been four years and five months since Henry left the organization.  He had came back only to see Joey twice and the last time was two years ago.

Joey and Trim both backed off from the their confrontation.  "What do you think this note means?"  Henry asked trying to turn the subject away from the fact that Trim's a carbon droid.

"I don't know what this note really means. It could be some other resistance group just trying to recruit new members. Or it could be some group trying to suppress any resistance.  This all depends on where you got the note?"  Joey glanced at Trim.  Trim could read the hate in his eyes.

"I was given the note this morning right after I got rejected from a job for being human.  I asked the guy why they even had me come in for the interview.  He said the company was obligated to hold certain amounts of human interviews a year.  He actually started to tell me a joke."  Henry continued his story running it through the chase scene.  Trim and Joey followed the story well.  Trim was shocked to hear that Henry knew so much about the internals of droids. 'Well humans are strange creatures.'  Trim thought to himself not noticing that his mouth was moving.

"Are you mumbling to yourself?"  Henry asked.

"Nothing that I know of."

"What kind of language is that for a Carbon."

"I don't know. Why do you loath me so much? I'll tell you one thing; I will not take any more cut downs from you."

"Is that a threat?"

"Will you two shut the fuck up! You're acting like a couple of damn children!" Henry stood up on his bad leg. Looking directly into Joey's eyes.  Joey could tell that he wasn't in a mood to mess with their bickering any longer.  Joey turned in his chair, it squeaked like the bellows of a dying cat.  "I don't care what you dislike about Trim, or what this Carbon bull-shit means.  But there is no time for this crap."

 These were not the words that Joey wanted to here, his chair flew back as he rose to his feet.  Raising his hand pointing a finger at his face.  "Shut up you old fool, you have no idea as to how things have changed.  Do you even know why they call him a Carbon?"

"No, and I don't care what you mean by Carbon either.  What  ever it means, he can not be held for being a carbon.  He didn't chose the way he was made.  All he knows is that one day he was, and from there on he is responsible for his actions.  That Carbon or what ever you call him saved my life."   Henry was interrupted by his distanced friend.

"Shut up; you have no right in deciding what I should and shouldn't do.  He's a fucking Carbon.  He doesn't deserve to live!"

"Why, why damn you, why shouldn't he live?  Because of his brain."

"Fuck you. That's plenty of a reason."

"Look at yourself, has it been so long that you forgot.  If it wasn't for these droids you would be dead. Damn it!  You have forgotten, forgotten that these droids kept you alive."  Joey withdrew his pointed hand and retook his seat behind the desk.

"I haven't forgotten!  Damn it!  I haven't forgotten!"

"The hell you haven't." Henry sat down, his leg began to throb again. He thought that he had done harm to his wound by standing on his leg. "It's not humans against droids."

"Bull-shit. It's always been humans against droids."

"I'm leaving."  Trim said as he got up from his post and headed back the way that they came in.

"Carbon, ah Trim.  I wouldn't leave if I were you.  For if you storm out of this room without one of my men, you will no longer operate."  Trim stopped dead in his tracks turned around looked Henry in the eyes.

"You're just as bad as him, you brought me here to die." Trim's voice was full of pain.  He could see now his meeting up with Henry was worse than his short term with the Rat's.  He wanted to cry but he could not, he wasn't equipped to cry. 'A droid's life wasn't fair,' he kept thinking to himself.  "I would rather die than listen to your pathetic bull-shit."  Trim said as he stomped out of the room again.

"Trim."  Henry called as he flew out of his chair.

"Henry let him go, he's not worth it."

"Worth it,"  Henry turned around finally realizing the changes that had happened. "You're not the same, look at you.  You look like some military ass-hole. The one thing we were against when we started out.  You, you're not worth it, I should have left you for dead back then."  Henry called as he stumbled out of the room barely able to catch Trim at the elevator door.

Joey kicked his feet up on the desk. Then opened the top drawer of the desk, fetching a cigar.  Biting one end of the cigar off, he spat it into a ratty trash can that was against the wall behind his chair.  After lighting the cigar he grabbed the phone from inside the desk.

"Mike take Henry and the carbon droid out of the Slim ."  Joey threw the phone back in the drawer with the cigars.  "We shall meet again, my friend."  Joey said as he puffed on the cigar.

MORE

SCORCHED PRODUCTIONS

WHAT THE WORLD READS


Glossary

A

Automatic guard patrol

C

Carbons

D

Driod rights

droid

M

micro-goggles

P

power chip

S

Slim

Suit

synthetic


Driod rights

In 2001 congress proclaimed that Droid workers have the right to live as humans do. Which included voting and the right to hold office.


droid

Term Given to man like machine that was created in 1993. They were places in heavy factorys to make life easier on the masses. President Bush saw these machines would help bost the economy and alloted fourteen billoin dollars to help speed the revitalization of the economy.


power chip

A power chip supplies the droids with power.


Slim

A part of Jacksonville that exstends to the beaches, which has been taken over by the droid gangs. Since then it has turned into a near war zone. No humans are known to live there.


micro-goggles

a par of goggles that can zoom into and veiw arteries at one hundred time their normal size. An exstremely hard piece of equiptment to get in 2018.


Suit

A type of droid that holds a high level position in a company. These droids tend to be newer and more inteligent then other droids.


Automatic guard patrol

Guards that partrol around the slim to insure that any violance going on in the slim does not spil over into the city. They were some what effective when first installed.


Carbons

A type of droid that is hated by those that know what they look like. Most carbon droids are feared to be hunter droids. Many myths have been made up about carbon droids.


synthetic

A artifical blood sorce that what used in the late 90's which was found to be fatal to humans that had past blood transfusions.