Deliver Us Huis

I was sitting at the computer on the top floor when Petrus burst in, breathless.

“Tel,” he gasped, “You’ve got to come see what Nickolai has cooked up in the lab.”

I looked at him warily. We hadn’t spoken since the Caliban incident five days ago, and now he wanted to talk to me all of a sudden?

“What do you need?” I asked.

He walked over to the table and pulled up a chair, “I know you haven’t been happy with me since… well, what happened with Caliban.” he cleared his throat, “But I’ve been making something to help make up for it.” He grabbed my hand, “Please just come down?”

Curiosity overwhelming me, I followed him to the elevator. Stepping out in the lab I saw Nickolai standing at the lab table next to a cloth covered bundle.

I approached the table apprehensively, “What is that?”

“That,” said Petrus, “Is the newest Anthrolem module, the Class C.”

He whipped off the covering to show a gadget that looked like a mechanical spider, only the size of my head. However, that wasn’t the only defining feature. It was a strange kind of black, no light was reflected off of it, I could discern no joints, it seemed to be made of pure liquid darkness, “The blackness comes from a new material only created inside a lab, It absorbs 99.85 percent of light. It also absorbs, radar, infrared, and almost any other wavelength.” Petrus started to type commands on his pocket screen and the eyes of the creature started to glow a deep crimson.

I took a step back, “Well, this looks... interesting.” I stepped to the side to be out of the glare of it’s red eyes, “Er… why did we need another kind of Anthrolem?”

Petrus tapped the pocket screen, making the Class C scurry down the table leg, then across the floor, then up the wall until the machine perched on the ceiling over my head. I looked up to it’s beady eyes fixed on my once again.

I walked toward Petrus, and the creature moved along the ceiling, following me as silently as a ghost.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck, “Petrus stop, this thing is creepy.”

He laughed, “That’s exactly what it is meant to be.”

I raised my eyebrows, “So you just wasted more of our resources to make a creepy Anthrolem. Wow, how useful.”

The spider-like creature dropped, and then scurried back to the table. Petrus typed in a few more commands, and it quickly and silently morphed into a vague human shape: The eyes elongated into slanted slits that oozed a red fog. “The entire Anthrolem is actually created out of a few million miniature robots, allowing it to take on any shape necessary for the job” Nickolai continued, “Let me demonstrate” He turned to the robot and gave it the command to open an unused safe in the corner of the room. Once again the utter silence of the machine was disconcerting.

When the machine reached the safe, it extended an arm towards the lock, a stream of blackness flowed from the tip and entered into the locking mechanism. Within seconds, the safe lay in pieces around the contents of the safe: A computer, some old machinery.

Nickolai started getting excited, “They are also nearly indestructible.” Nickolai hefted a six kilogram hammer, and flung it with all his might towards the machine. The Anthrolem impassively opened a hole in its abdomen, allowing the large hammer to fly through unobstructed. Nickolai picked up a Class A’s rifle, set it to full auto and fired. Not a single round impacted. miniature slits opened in the torso, arms, and head. The bullets whispered through without even touching.

I turned to Nickolai, “No one has told me why we have created a new Anthrolem, will you?”

Petrus dropped his pocket screen on the table and faced me, “Come on Tel. You haven’t noticed the need for another kind of Anthrolem? We have Class A’s, the soldiers, Class B’s, the tanks, and now we have Class C’s, the assassins.”

My mouth fell slightly open, “Assassins?”

“Yeah,” Petrus bounded behind the table, “This is the weapon that will cut down the opposition, the weapon that will make people fear us, Tel!”

“Fear us?” I asked, my mind a whirl of confusion. But Petrus was already explaining to me how the Class C worked.

“You see the Class C’s are designed to make a person feel their ultimate fears. It uses sounds under five hertz. It is so low it is impossible to hear. However, it vibrates the organs, the eyes, the stomach, the brain. It causes nausea, dizziness, apparitions in the edge of vision. These can literally morph into any shape and cause horrible effects, since the millions of micro bots are so extremely small, they can interface on the molecular level. Thus, if enough of them are present inside a host’s body, they can literally take over, reprogram all the cells, mutate the body to fit any form necessary. In short, they are ultra aggressive parasites.”

I started backing away slowly, keeping my eyes on the machine. They had made monsters. Terrifying monsters designed to cast a shadow of fear with our reign.

“The best part is,” Petrus said, “Is that we’ve already started production. Nickolai and I found an old warehouse and we started production of Anthrolems there. Our output of soldiers has doubled. We have, quite possibly, a couple thousand here, and twice as much there. We have an army, now complete with these assassins.”

Suddenly from the crack under the door, the air vent, and every other possible angle the black liquid forms creeped and reformed. The room was suddenly filled with dozens of the horrors.

I almost toppled over. I couldn’t stand for this kind of fear machine. But the words of opposition were stuck in my throat and in my horror I said nothing, but simply walked away.

Petrus found me later curled up in a ball, staring out over the city. Saying nothing he sat beside me and we stared out at the city in silence for a few moments.

“Tel,” Petrus said, his voice soft, “I’m sorry. I got caught up in the... presentation. Those machines… they’re horrible. If they upset you so much I’ll make sure Nickolai destroys them.”

“It’s not that,” I choked, “I just feel like the whole purpose of my mission is changed. First we started stealing, then Caliban got killed, and now assasin Anthrollems?” A sob erupted from my throat, “I don’t think I can do it any more.”

The tears started to roll down my cheeks. Then I felt warm arms enveloping me and I was being held tightly by Petrus. I buried my face in his chest and cried, sobs wracking my body. I wasn’t okay, but somehow Petrus accepted that, and that made things, just a bit better.

Catching my breath shakily I leaned away, turning to lean against the cool glass. Petrsu did the same and for awhile we simply sat there, backs against the glass, each staring out into the room.

I took one last shaky breath,“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be crying so much.”

“Tel,” Petrus shook his head, and looked at the ceiling, “You don’t have to… do all this, you know. If it upsets you so much, let’s stop.”

I took a moment, playing with the idea of letting it all go. It was a freeing thought, but no, I couldn’t.

“These people need me.” I said, “Our world is falling apart and if I can help it, I should.”

“But you know you don’t have to, right?” he asked, turning his head to look into my eyes, “You don’t have to do any of this. You can just be Tel, and that in itself is a pretty significant and wonderful thing.”

“I know.” I said, and this time I meant it. Because right in that moment I felt more loved and accepted than I had ever before.

Looking into Petrus’s eyes I barely noticed him moving until his arms were around me again. But this time I didn’t bury my face into his chest, but rather raised my face to his.

Gently, but firmly, he brought his lips to mine. My arms wrapped around his neck and I leaned into the warmth of his kiss.

Delight rippled through me and I pressed closer to him, feeling like I belonged forever in his arms. And for the first time in a very long time I felt like everything was going to be alright.