The Human Farm (The Human Farm Trilogy Book 1) (9 page)

22   

They walked all day, staying off the road until they were clear of the city where the guardians would be roaming. Once they were free of the city and guardian patrols it was a little easier traveling but Dawn warned them there were still roving drones that did countryside patrols every now and then. If they found any traces of Kev’s blood around the building where he was cut they would be sure to send out drones in search of the source. It was near dark by the time they passed a sign that said welcome to Pennsylvania.    

              The places they saw now looked much like the farm they were from with the exception of the sun and the sky all around them, there were lots of fields full of grass as far as the eye could see and plenty of deep wooded areas. Dawn figured this would be the best place to stop for the night. They walked deep into the forest so they could have a fire to cook some food without the possibility of the fire or smoke being seen from above.

              She had Lili sit on an open area in the woods and clear a spot on the ground to make a fire while she had Kev gather enough wood to last them the night. While they were doing that she went out into the woods to hunt for food that Kev and Lili would be able to eat.

              She came back to the campsite and Kev had a huge pile of dead wood piled up high near a tree and Lili had cleared a spot of leaves and managed to gather rocks to form a circle to help enclose the fire. Once they got the fire started, using the laser from Dawns new laser arm, they managed to skin and clean the rabbits Dawn had killed and started them cooking. The hard part now would be in getting Lili to eat the meat, but as Dawn had once explained to her, sometimes you had to do things you did not like in order to survive.

              The food had finished cooking and Kev cut off a big chunk and handed it to Lili, she took it and just stared at it. He took another piece for himself and bit into the juicy, tender meat savoring each bite as if it was his last. Lili watched him eat holding her own piece in her hand, “Lili you need to eat, you will never gain any strength and be able to keep moving if you do not eat,” said Dawn.   

              Lili pulled the meat closer to her mouth and took a small bite out of it, she chewed and swallowed the piece and then she took another. She realized just how hungry she was and started biting into it as if it was the last meal on Earth. She ate it clean down to the bone, when she was finished she tossed the bone to the ground letting out a loud belch and leaned back with a smile, “that was actually really good.”

              Kev let out a loud laugh, “I told you, you were missing out by not eating meat for all these years, but yea there was something different about this meat compared to what we usually have back on the farm. I’m not sure what it is but it had a different flavor to it.”

              “That would be because the meat you have on your farms is from domesticated animals, animals that you raise and keep in pens. They are tame and used to being around humans and are fed by humans. These animals are wild and free, they know nothing of being cooped up in cages or being fed or even what a human is for that matter,” said Dawn.   

              “Well whatever it is, it was really good,” said Lili as she stretched and let out a yawn.

              “It’s getting late and I’m tired, we should get some sleep. We need to figure out where we’re going and what we are going to do from here,” said Kev.  

              Kev and Lili cleared spots on the ground and settled down to go to sleep, it didn’t take long before the two of them were fast asleep. Dawn stood guard as she always did, she knew it would not be long before she would need to find a city and get near a power unit to charge her battery, she only had enough charge left in her for a week at most and the laser arms had sucked more power from her than she thought they would.  

23  

They woke the next morning feeling refreshed and better than they’d felt since the day they’d fled from the farm. They quickly packed up their belongings and cleaned up the area. “We should head southeast from here, there is another farm located there in an old city called Washington D.C. it was once known as the capital of this land. I believe if you truly wish to find answers to why the A.I. keeps you on the farms that is where you will find your answers,” said Dawn.   

              “That sounds like a good idea to me, perhaps we can find a way to shut them down and free our people from the farms showing them there’s a better world than the one they have been living in underground,” said Lili. 

              “I’m up for it,” said Kev.

              “Then it is settled, but I warn you it is a long walk and we are bound to run into many A.I. patrols on the way and in that city. It will be heavily fortified, especially if they know we are coming so we must be careful,” said Dawn.    

              The three companions made their way out of the woods, got their bearings and headed for the city of Washington D.C. Once they got out onto the road Dawn looked for road signs that would point to the nearest city, the sign read Philadelphia 150 miles. “We have a long walk and I am afraid my friends I may not make it as far as I need to on my own.”   

              “What do you mean you won’t make it?” asked Lili looking worried for her friend.   

              “These lasers have drained more power from my batteries than I thought they would, I only have about a week left in my reserves and we have 150 miles to the nearest large city where we will find a charging station. I do not know if we can make it that far in a week and it will be extremely difficult getting near a power charging unit. If I should stop functioning before we get there you would never be able to carry me,” said Dawn   

              “We have to at least try,” said Lili.

              “Then I guess we’d best get walking now,” said Kev as he grabbed the cart and started walking without wasting any more time.   

              “What are we supposed to do if we don’t make it to a city before your batteries run down?” asked Lili.   

              “You will need to find a heavily forested area like we just came from and live there, you will have to learn to survive. Teach yourselves to hunt, otherwise you will die or be captured by the guardians,” said Dawn.

              “Or you could just show me how to charge your battery and what I need to do. I could take your battery into the city and charge it, or I could get you another battery,” said Kev.

              “That would be far too dangerous for you,” said Dawn.

              “Not any more so than trying to survive on our own out here, we don’t know the first thing about this outside world. We couldn’t last long out here without you and you know it, we need you,” said Kev.   

              “Very well, if you must do this I will show you,” she said as she stopped walking. “All A.I. power batteries are located here,” she lifted up the shirt she was wearing and opened a plate in her chest with a small button that was just barely visible. The battery was the size of a human fist. “All you will need to do is pull the battery out of me and find a power charger in the city. It is a machine that has a lot of buttons, it will also have wires dangling from it, and one larger main wire will have two prongs that connect to the holes in the battery. You plug it into the battery, the units are usually in barracks bays where A.I.s charge up, and they will be heavily guarded. Your best bet will be to go to the basement where they scrap old A.I. units, there is usually an abandoned charging unit there. You will need to let it charge for 24 hours.”

              “Damn that’s gonna be tricky, couldn’t I just, I don’t know steal another battery from a unit that’s walking around? “He asked.   

              “Kev are you insane? How would you get one from a guardian that’s active?” Lili asked.  

              “It could be done,” said Dawn as she reached into the cart and grabbed the hatchet. “With this, if you can sneak up behind one and sever its head quickly it will be unable to communicate with the other units and you should be able to get to its power unit. That would be a much faster and easier approach,” said Dawn

              “So let’s just try that instead,” said Kev.

              “But that’s insane,” shouted Lili as she glared at him. “It may be faster but it’s also far more dangerous and could get you killed.”

              “Dawn is there any way you could power down for a while and ride in the cart, that way you could save your power for when we get closer to the city?” asked Lili   

              “I could do that, yes. However the cart would be heavier with my bulk weighing it down.”

              Lili looked at Kev with pleading eyes. “Ok fine, Get in the cart Dawn and power down I’ll turn you back on when we’re closer to the city.”  

              “If you are sure. Just remember to watch out for the sky patrol drones and wake me if you should need me for anything,” said Dawn.

              Dawn climbed into the cart and powered down. Kev lifted the cart and had to get a better grip, it was going to be a much slower walk. They were going to need to see if they could do some more scavenging and find a better means of transportation, something that wouldn’t be so hard on his hands and arms.   

              They found they could walk for 45 minutes to an hour at a time before he needed to stop and rest. His hands were aching and stiff. They had walked most of the day and it was starting to get dark, the came across a sign with the name of the city they were headed to; the distance however was too faded to make out. They walked on until they found a wooded area where they could set up camp for the night. Once they were deep enough into the woods they cleared the area and decided that neither of them was really hungry, they both went right to sleep.   

              They woke early the next morning, they had heard a noise nearby that had startled both of them into waking. It sounded like it could have been an animal but neither of them were really sure what type of animal it could be as neither of them were familiar with the wild animals of the world above. They both rose from their spots, grabbed their gear and prepared to leave when the animal in question strolled out from the brush. The creature was huge, much larger than either of them and it was brown. The head of the thing was massive and the teeth were large and very sharp looking. The creature made a lot of noise as it rose up on its hind legs and when it did that it stood as tall as some of the trees in the forest. Lili and Kev were both too frightened to do anything, Kev reached down into the cart slowly, without moving too quickly, and fumbled around until he found the button on Dawn which would switch her back on.    

Dawn whirred to life and her red eyes looked around, seeing the menacing bear standing tall over her friends she did not have time to do more than simply react. She aimed her laser arm at the head of the bear and fired, blasting a hole clean through its head. The bear dropped to the ground with a thud. Lili and Kev both stood stone still, too terrified to move, both still in shock. Dawn climbed out of the cart and walked over to the bear easily flipping the beast over.   

              “Relax, the beast is dead,” she said.

              Lili let out a huge gasp of air as if she had been holding her breath the whole time. “What is that monster?” she asked in a weak voice.   

              “That, was a bear and it is a good thing you woke me when you did or you two would have been shredded to death.”

              Dawn rummaged through the tools until she found a knife and went to the bear and began skinning it and cutting away the meat. “Why are you taking off the skin like that?” asked Lili.   

              “Because the hide will make good clothing for you, it will start to get cold on the surface of this planet eventually and you will need warmer clothes if you are to survive up here. Thick animal hides will help to keep you warm, we will just need to clean them up and tan them,” said Dawn as she sliced into the meat. “And if you learn to smoke the meat you can preserve it for a long time and make it last without wasting too much of it. There are a lot of things you will need to learn to do in order to survive in this environment.”   

              Dawn had finished cutting off the skin and handed it to Kev and showed him how to clean the skin by scraping off all the fat. Kev got to work on the skin doing what Dawn had shown him. Lil sat next to Dawn watching her as she carved up the meat, “what can I do to help?” she asked.   

              “That depends on how your ankle is feeling.”

              “It’s much better actually I can walk on it now without the crutches you made me,” she said.

              “Good, then you can gather lots of wood, I will show you how to smoke all of this meat. I am going to teach you how to hunt and protect yourself Lili. You are going to stay here while Kev and I go to the city to get my batteries,” said Dawn.

              “But I could help,” said Lili.

“It is too dangerous Lili and the less people the faster we can move. We do not want to take a chance of you re-injuring your ankle. Besides someone has to stay behind and work on smoking all this meat and tanning this hide. This area of the forest will make a good place to live for the time being and we may be able to rescue and bring others here as well,” said Dawn.   

              “Oh, well what if another of those Bear things shows up? How can I possibly defend myself against something like that?” she asked.    

              “Humans once had weapons called guns that worked very well against them. I will travel to the nearest town tomorrow and see if I can find some, if there are any that are still of use I will show you how to use them. I still have a couple days of power left in me, so I should be ok,” said Dawn. 

              Dawn set to work showing Lili what she would need to do. She set up a wooden rack over the fire-pit and made sure Lili and Kev gathered plenty of wood. She told Lili to keep the meat strung up and plenty of green wood burning in the fire so that the meat would get cured. She also fashioned a bow out of wood and some string she had found. She managed to carve out some arrows and taught her how to shoot it. She told her to keep practicing with it until she could hit a mark every time.   

              She showed Lili and Kev the basics of how to use the tools and the materials around them to build a decent shelter and had them work on that while she was gone to the small village to look for more supplies they could use at the camp. Dawn looked around the campsite at the progress that had already been made and decided everything had been set in motion that needed to be done until she returned from the town.   

              “I should be back in a few hours, I will get as many supplies as I can.” said Dawn as she said goodbye to her friends.