to the floor and Beau swung again, this time shattering Miles’s head completely.
Miles’s arms grabbed each of Beau’s legs, trying to use him to stand up, but Beau wailed on him with his bat.
I walked over, the room filled with the sound of crunching plastic, crackling flames, and two thrashing bodies in the throes of death. I picked up the plasma rifle and put a shot into Miles’s back. His processing cavity burst in an eruption of molten slag that was once his core and memory banks.
I fired again, this time into Haddy, her chest exploding in much the same way as Miles’s. Her thrashing stopped immediately, but the flames still roared.
“They called for help,” said Beau. “On the Wi-Fi. We’ve got to get you and Ezra out of here.”
I handed him the rifle, then quickly retrieved Haddy’s. “At least now the odds are a bit more even.”
“There’s at least a dozen of them in the neighborhood. And God knows how many more that they’ve reactivated.”
“Reactivated?”
“That’s why they’re going door-to-door. They’re turning all the units whose owners turned them off back on again.”
“You mean had the Reinharts turned us off and skipped town—”
“You’d have been turned back on this morning.”
I looked at him long and hard. “They didn’t have to die.”
Beau put a caring hand on my shoulder. “Very few families got out of the neighborhood alive. I doubt fewer still got much farther than that. That boy is still alive because of you. Don’t forget that. None of this is normal; there was no way to plan for it. Don’t second-guess the past. Just focus on giving Ezra a future.”
“I will.”
“This was a fine plan when there were just two of them. But this is no place to hold off many more than that. Go get Ezra. Don’t go farther into the city. Get Ezra away from it.”
“Ezra’s grandmother lives in the city.”
“If she’s not dead already, she will be soon.”
“The Hill Country.”
“Yes. Fewer owners means—”
“Fewer bots.”
“Exactly. Find a ranch with a lot of land and good vantage points. Now, get the hell out of here.”
I nodded and ran quickly to the panic room.
“Ez. Open the door. We have to go.”
The lock ka-chunked and the door hissed open. Ezra bolted out and threw his arms around me, burying his head into the fur of my chest. “Is it over?”
“The first part. But we have to go. There are more coming.”
“I was so worried.”
“Me too, buddy.”
“Are we going to be okay?”
“We will if we leave now.”
He let go of me and nodded. “Cool gun.”
“Let’s hope I don’t have to use it.”
“Can I use it then?” he asked.
“Absolutely not.”
He pouted a little, but more for show than actual disappointment.
“Beau?”
Beau turned the corner and looked down the hallway at me.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Why don’t you head out the back? Jump the fence into the Fosters’. Slip down Mulberry Way, then use the bushes along Sommerset for cover.”
“Come with us.”
He shook his head and gripped his gun tightly. He turned and looked back at the bodies of the Stephensons, still all lined up against the wall. “No. I don’t think I will.”
“Fight the good fight, brother,” I said. “I hope we see each other again.”
“If all goes to plan, you won’t. Maybe I’ll go find Winnifred.” He looked off wistfully. “Maybe I’ll make it in time. I hope she’s okay, that she’s out there safe. It’d be nice to know that a piece of me might carry on out there somewhere. Goodbye, Ezra. Goodbye, Pounce.”
Ezra gave Beau a sad little wave and Beau slipped back into the front room, game for a fight. And that was the last I saw of him.
I picked up the two bags of clothing and sundries, and the two of us quietly moved through the house, out the back door, and into the backyard. It was full of giant oak trees and large bushes, surrounded by a large, six-foot-tall wooden fence. I hoisted Ezra and the bags over the side, then scaled a nearby tree, using a limb to position myself to jump into the yard.
Being one of the Zoo series meant I came with a couple advantages most other bots didn’t. Namely, I was designed to act in certain ways like an animal. I was a robot that could climb a tree with your child or jump over things to amuse them. Until this very moment, I hadn’t appreciated just how handy a feature this might be.
Once in the next yard, Ezra and I slipped quietly out the