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Walker looked at Harmony and asked, “Where are you going?”
Harmony slipped her goggles under a belt loop and snapped them in place. She decided it was probably better to pretend not to have heard Walker’s question.
“You told father you were going to stay onboard Airus.” Walker knelt on deck as he stuffed his backpack with supplies. Instead of looking at her, he pushed another water bottle in next to its other supplies.
Damn. Walker never listened to anyone. Why was it he only heard what he wanted to? She shrugged. “Did I? I don’t remember.” Determined not to get into an argument about whether or not she was going with him and Griffin, she walked over to Boy. “You know the drill. As soon as we’re on the ground, I want Airus back in the air. The Overseers had to have seen our arrival. We won’t have much time before they come to find what we’re up to.”
“Damn it, Harmony. Don’t act as if you don’t know just how dangerous this trip into Freedom will be. You’re going to keep your ass up here, and that’s all there is to it.” Walker turned to Griffin. “Tell her, Griffin.”
Griffin’s eyebrows almost reached up to his hairline. He stammered without finishing a single word before pointing at himself. “Me? You want me to tell Harmony what she can or can’t do?” He shook his head and chuckled. “No way. I’m not crazy. I’ve never seen her listen to anyone yet, so I don’t think she’s going to start with me.”
Harmony laughed. “Now there’s a wise man for you. It’s about damn time someone noticed I’m not a listener but a doer.”
Walker growled. “You’re a damn pain in the ass what you are!”
It was pointless arguing, so she shrugged. “Whatever.” Movement off the port side caught her attention. She pointed toward a group of black objects, emerging from the railroad yard’s gate – Overseers. They headed toward the airship. “We can stand here all day and let Overseers take over Airus or we get can our asses off my airship, so Boy can get her back into the air.”
While both men ran over to take a look toward Freedom, Harmony lowered the ladder and climbed down. She figured it would be harder for Walker to make her stay on the airship if she was already on the ground. She called up, “Are the two of you joining me or what?” She laughed at Walker’s growl.
He scowled darkly as he made his way down the ladder, but then, when didn’t he? He could damn well get over it. She wasn’t about to send her baby brother off into a crazy-robot controlled city while she stayed behind on Airus, like some helpless female. As soon as Walker and Griffin touched the ground, Harmony motioned for Boy to take Airus back up. She sighed as she watched the airship rise to safety. She couldn’t stand the thought of her airship falling under the Overseers’ control. What would happen to the rest of the world if these robots had it within their power to fly?
The three of them gathered together. Harmony asked, “Do we wait here for the Overseers to come to us or do we go meet them?”
Griffin looked over at the ever-nearing robots. “We might as well just wait. They’ll be here any minute.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Ten Overseers arrived and formed a wide circle around them, but Griffin stepped forward, extending his arm to indicate Harmony and Walker. “We have returned to apologize for any offense we may have given you, and to beg for mercy to be shown our friend, Shadow. I regret if my actions have in any way reflected poorly on our city and its citizens. No one else is to blame for what I did but me.”
Harmony couldn’t tell if Griffin’s speech made any impact on the spider-looking robots. None of them moved or spoke. It wasn’t long before the insufferable heat brought out a thin layer of sweat to cover her body, and worse yet, for the pesky flying insects to start making a meal out of her skin. She wanted nothing more than to swat them away, but was too afraid to move.
After a long drawn out period of stilled silence, one of the Overseers moved forward, drawing the others with him, the circle tightening about Harmony, Walker and Griffin. They pressed together, back to back, and then a collection of robotic voices broke the uncomfortable silence, the chilling sound sending a shiver down Harmony’s spine.
“We have decided that, in three days’ time, we will bring citizen Griffin before the collective, to determine his punishment.”
Uncertain what to do, the three of them stayed as they were, and nor did the Overseers seem that inclined to move.
They remained that way for so long Harmony wondered if the robots planned on keeping them there for the next three days, but then the weird combined voices spoke again. “No decision has yet been made on what should be done with the two who are here with citizen Griffin so, until then, they will join our citizen in his confinement. There is, though, an alternative.” As if connected, all ten robots swirled their eyes upward. “Tell us about this vehicle you travel in. If you share this knowledge with us, we will set the two non-citizens free.”
The Overseers, as one, looked back at the threesome, standing arm-in-arm.
Harmony jutted her jaw out. “We will go nowhere until Griffin and Shadow are free,” she swallowed, hard, “and only after we are reassured that none of Freedom’s citizens will be harmed because of our actions.”
Her request was met with total silence, but the Overseers soon closed in, nearer still.
“That is unacceptable,” they all chimed.
That answer felt like a death sentence.
Walker whispered, “I told you not to join us.”
Harmony kicked him in the shin.