a cog in the machine: the Ellara series book one

chapter six

I was eating breakfast the next day when I heard a gunshot a few blocks away. The gunshot itself wasn't unusual. People usually resort to violence over resources, drugs, or food. But knowing that, didn't make me not flinch. Loud noises like that tend to scare the s**t outta me for about a moment before I can remind myself “oh God. this is normal, don't freak out.”

What was normal quickly became not normal when someone started banging on my door and shouted. “Please help me! I'm Ellara from the sky kingdom above! And- these people want to- want to use my parts for scrap metal! And I'm scared!”

Shocked, I opened the door and let in the robot ellara, she stood before me in a broken state of exposed metal, wires, and living organs leaking a blue fluid all over the floor. Not sure if robots can even get the sickness, I immediately put on my mask.

“What's going on?! Why did you come here?!”

“I'll explain l-later. I- I need to hide because they are after me!”

Without thinking, I pointed to the bathroom and she stumbled and fell in there. When I got the bathroom door closed a police car pulled up outside and one of the officers noticed the trail of blue- I actually think it's blood- leading up to my door. “She went this way.”

“J17, we have reason to believe you are hiding a dangerously unstable individual. She could pose a danger to you or to others.”

“Huh?” I faked not knowing, “why would I hide anyone?” I laughed a little nervously, “you guys know I wouldn't jeopardize my job for anything.” I looked at my watch, “s**t, I'm gonna be late!”

I wasn't lying about being late. I actually was going to be late if I couldn't run faster than I'd ever ran before. So I was about to take off when one of the officers stopped me. “We will explain to your boss what happened. He will understand. But we need you to be honest with us, are you hiding someone in your house?”

“No, this is puke from someone who got the sickness. The man was here earl-” I was cut off by some man who came ambling out of an alleyway puking up the familiar, disgusting, blue vomit of the sickness. It was clearly a darker blue than Ellara's blue blood, but it was enough to convince the officers of my innocence.

The one officer sighed under his mask as the sick man fell over and died right there on my doorstep, “ok, your boss will be informed of this morning's incident.”

I took several deep breaths as they left. And I was left staring at the dead man on my doorstep wondering (what the actual hell just f*****g happened!)