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A REPETITIVE TAPPING sound woke 62. His tired eyes winced as it competed with the ringing he couldn’t shake from his ears. Light poured through the open curtains. He covered his head with his blanket and pushed the world away, fighting the viselike grip of the sounds on his headache. There was a break in the noise, then a series of loud bangs vibrated the glass in his window.
62 sat up slowly, staring into the clear blue sky outside his window. Moments later, pounding footsteps filled the hall outside his door. Panicked shouts came from somewhere deep in the building.
“Hello?” 62 called to the people running through the hallway. “What’s going on?”
When no one answered him, 62 inched his way out of bed, fighting the nauseous dizziness that threatened to topple him over. He forced his feet into a pair of boots, not bothering to do up the laces. He pulled the door open slowly. As loud as the world had been a few moments ago, now that he stood in the hallway, everything fell silent.
62 tried to think. He was in no condition to go chasing after whoever had stormed through the jailhouse. As he was considering what to do, the repetitive taps and bangs started up again. The noise was coming from outside, he was sure of that, and there was only one place he could think of where he could safely see what was happening without having to get dressed to go outside.
The elevator wasn’t far away, but navigating the hallway on his own was still a challenge. The floor tipped under his boots, and if he didn’t squint just right, the whole world wavered in front of him as if he were under a pool of water. He made it to the metal doors of the lift and pushed the button to go up.
He braced himself in the corner of the elevator as it carried him to the top floor. He took so long getting out, the doors bumped him when they tried to close. Eventually, he made it to the end of the hall where 00’s room was. The door was locked. 62 couldn’t sift through his foggy memory enough to remember the combination, so he settled for the next best thing and entered the room next door.
This was the room in which they’d originally hidden N302. All that remained from those early days were a trio of tables and some abandoned chairs arranged in a horseshoe. 62 passed the furniture and made his way to the window.
Outside, the desert spread out below 62. He could just make out people crouched behind boulders at the head of the trail that led to Hanford. One of them held what he thought might be a gun. The person with the firearm crawled toward the trail with caution, then scuttled around a pile of rocks and shrubbery. The person disappeared into the hillside.
Scattered bangs assaulted the air and 62 gasped when he finally recognized the sounds as gunfire. “The sentry,” he whispered.
62 turned on his heel, gripping a nearby table for balance as he fell into it. He walked carefully, but quickly, back to the lift. He mashed the down button and breathed deep to keep from throwing up as he rode the elevator down to the third floor. He made it to the radio room, sighing with relief when he found the door unlocked and open.
“I guess there’s no point locking it if Sunny is letting people see the computer,” he mumbled to himself.
62 flicked on the light. The radio was on, but the volume was turned down low so he couldn’t make out the words coming in over the airwaves. He spun the knob to the right, and Parker’s voice flooded the room.
“... anyone there? Can you hear me?”
62 mashed the transmission button. “It’s 62. I’m here, but the jailhouse is empty. I think everyone went outside. What’s happening?”
“62! They followed us out! Two of them. You said everyone’s gone?”
“I saw some people outside. I think they left when they heard guns shooting. Who followed you?”
“Sentries! We didn’t know they were tracking us until we started up the mountain. We’re caught on the trail. They’ve got us pinned. N302 is firing back, but she doesn’t have as much ammo as the others.”
“What can I do?”
00’s voice wavered over the radio now. “Is the computer on? N302 lost her antenna. She says she can’t connect.”
“She?” 62 asked as he looked over at the computer. Someone had unplugged it. He didn’t wait for an answer. “The computer’s shut off.”
“Turn it on! Turn it on!” 00 screamed through the speakers.
62 worked his way around the table, struggling with the cables until they were plugged in. He flipped the switch and the Machine started booting up. It was a long few minutes before the computer reached a point where it could do anything.
“It’s turning on,” 62 said into the transmitter mouthpiece.
“Okay,” 00 said. “Tell N302 we’re under fire, and we need her to send that signal to shut these sentries down!”
62 slumped down in a chair, puzzling over who “she” was. He watched the computer slowly wander through its programming sequences. Once it was fully up, N302 came alive.
N302> HELLO.
U> Hi. It’s 62. There are sentries outside. 00 wants you to send your signal on the radio to shut them down.
A noisy signal of beeps, growls, ticks, and screeches filled the room. 62 cringed at the noise and turned the radio’s volume down until it was low enough that his headache stopped throbbing in time with the computer’s data stream.
Several minutes passed. 62 listened for a voice over the radio, but it continued to be nothing but screaming electronic language. 62’s eyes wandered over to N302’s screen just as text appeared.
N302> THANK YOU, BOY 1124562. YOU HAVE SAVED US.
U> What happened?
N302> I HAVE DISABLED THE ATTACKING UNITS.
U> With what? That noise?
N302> YES. PLEASE CONTACT 00 AT YOUR EARLIEST CONVENIENCE AND REQUEST HE HELP ME DUPLICATE MY PROGRAM TO THEIR HARDWARE.
U> Can you really take over more than one sentry at a time?
N302> ONCE MY PROGRAM IS INSTALLED, YES.
U> What does 00 need to do?
N302> PLEASE REQUEST HE MOVE MY HARDWARE FROM THE CURRENT UNIT AND INSTALL IT IN ONE OF THE DISABLED UNITS. I CAN REPLICATE MYSELF TO THE OTHERS USING THE ON-BOARD COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM.
U> I’m not sure what we’ll do with the other sentries. At least you can make sure they stay shut down to keep them from shooting at people once you’re installed, I guess.
N302> NEGATIVE. I WILL UTILIZE THE ADDITIONAL PATROL UNITS TO OUR FULLEST ADVANTAGE.
U> You mean, you’re going to keep them?
N302> YES.
62 gaped at the screen. This morning, the jailhouse had been populated by nothing but a ragamuffin band of rebellious souls. Now they had three sentries.