Jonathan tossed and turned in his makeshift bed, kicking the scratchy blanket away only to shiver when he got too cold, forced to pull it back. He was used to sleeping on his large soft bed with feather filled pillows and blankets. More than that, he was used to sleeping with the glowing red light from Vanoss-III, with hearing Evan beside him talk till he fell asleep. Tyler had taken it, not trusting Jonathan and Luke with it at all. He seemed nervous that the device could kill him, that it would turn him into the same thing that Evan had become so he had forced Jonathan to turn it off, saying quiet soothing words to Evan as the screen went dark. Tyler wasn't listening to them, giving Jonathan the idea that it would take discovering the truth to get him to trust them.
Now he was in the dark, the room dimly lit by the deep orange glow that came from the street lamps outside, only able to hear Luke snore in his cot beside Jonathan's. He was grateful that they had been given the small makeshift beds instead of sleeping on the wooden damp floor. There had been a few comments about how it was nothing like they were used to in New Town when they were setting them up, Jonathan forcing a smile and a nod, pretending that he wasn't wishing he was at home.
Jonathan sat up, shivering from the draft that came through the window. He pulled the blanket back around himself, wanting to go find the Vanoss-III so he could talk to Evan but he was scared of getting caught by Tyler, his nose still sore from the punch. He settled for exploring the room, getting off his rickety cot to look around. Near the table that Tyler had been sitting at earlier was a shelf, full of books and small boxes. The books weren't textbooks full of information on machines or stories about how great the machines were, they were accurate history books and stories of things that were not mechanical, the word not even mentioned in them. He wanted to read them, to explore a version of his world that he had never thought to before but he forced himself to stay focused.
One of the boxes was labeled in black marker with the name 'Evan'. It was on the top shelf, with little dust on it which meant it was moved a lot. Though he had been gone for so long, Evan's memory was still alive and well. Because of the Vanoss-III, so was his consciousness. Jonathan pushed away the thoughts that Evan might be gone, sitting down on his bed with the box.
He took the top off, finding an array of things inside, all of which belonging to Evan. Held together by a red ribbon were a bunch of photos taken with an old camera. He held the bundle gently, carefully pulling the red ribbon off. In the pictures, Evan was smiling, surrounded by his friends. He liked these photos a lot more than the serious ones in the Information Tablet. In most of them, Evan was wearing a red jacket with two white stripes on the sleeves. It suited him, the colour a sharp contrast from the darkness of his hair and eyes.
Wrapping the ribbon back around the photos, he continued to look through the box. He found a couple of letters written from Evan's family, his mother mostly. They were old, one splattered with red that Jonathan knew wasn't ink. He found other small things, a watch stuck on the time 3:57 and a notebook. Inside the notebook were poems written by Evan, his handwriting gliding across the paper. He wrote about love and wonder, about what might be across the bridge and what might be over the checkpoint. Most of all, he wrote about grief, how it twisted and pulled at his heart, how it made him angry and wanting for revenge. When he looked up again from the poems, he realised that the sky was starting to get brighter, having been caught up in reading them for almost an hour.
Jonathan put the notebook back into the box, finding a handful of small green toy soldiers at the bottom. He smiled at the thought of a younger Evan playing with the toy soldiers. He set the box down on the floor, setting the soldiers up beside it as if they were protecting it, their plastic guns ready to defend what little remained of Evan's past life.
The wail of a siren woke Jonathan, interrupting his dreams of glowing towers and green soldiers writing poetry in the snow. He hadn't even realised that he had fallen asleep, the box of Evan's things still open on the floor by his bed protected by the toy soldiers. The sun was just risen, the glow filling the room with an orange glare.
He heard the sound of hurried footsteps, Lui, Tyler and Brock hurrying into the room dressed in dark clothes and armour. Jonathan pushed the box and the soldiers under his cot, hoping they wouldn't be seen as he sat up, Luke looking equally confused when he met his gaze.
"What is that? What's going on?" Luke asked, watching them grab batons and tie their boots.
"Police machines are moving in again. Someone must have provoked one a bit too much. Happens every day." Brock explained, pulling his black hood over his head.
"You mean a riot?" Jonathan summarized. "You're going to a riot?"
"We aren't going to let those people fend for themselves. Some people just get caught in it. But you wouldn't know any of that, would you?" Tyler snapped.
"Where did you leave Evan?" Jonathan asked, getting to his feet. "While you are gone fighting police machines who are just trying to keep the peace, we can see what else he remembers."
"Keep the peace?" Tyler laughed. "Keeping the peace! Police machines? Ha! Say that again you ignorant little prick and I'll break your nose again." Jonathan stared at Tyler who glared back, waiting for Jonathan to say something. "Lui stay here. Make sure these two idiots don't go anywhere. And don't let them have that machine, the Yanoss or whatever it is." Tyler said as he left the small apartment, Brock following behind.
"It's called the Vanoss-III." Jonathan spat, slouching down to his cot. "It's Evan." He corrected himself. "It is!" He insisted when he saw Lui and Luke staring at him.
"I believe you, Jonathan." Lui said as he sat down beside him. "And I know that Tyler and Brock do too it's just harder to accept for them. They were really close with Evan." Lui sighed. He paused for a moment, thinking about to say. "We go out there and fight New Town, and those machines. We've seen them kill our friends and our families. We thought for sure that Evan was killed too by one and now...now we see that he is one of these machines." Lui's boot knocked over one of the army men, the noise it made catching their attention. "What's this?" He bent over, picking up the toy soldier before glancing at Jonathan. "This is Evan's." He got off the cot, looking underneath to find the box and the rest of the toy soldiers.
"I can explain!" Jonathan cried as Lui pulled the box out. "I couldn't sleep and I saw Evan's name on it! I was curious!" He cried. "I didn't take anything, it's all there!" Lui glanced up at him, giving him a small smile as he sat back on the floor, holding the small green soldier.
"Evan loves these things." Lui smiled. Luke picked up one of the soldiers, making gun noises as he aimed at at Jonathan who smiled. It helped him forget the sound of the siren that hadn't stopped this whole time. "He used to have a big collection of them. We would sit on his bedroom floor and play war for hours when we were younger. That was before…" He trailed off, setting the toy soldier down on the floor by the box.
"Before what?" Jonathan asked, watching Lui reach into the box and pull out the watch.
"3:57." Lui said. Luke and Jonathan looked at him with confusion, waiting for an explanation. "We were sixteen. I lived beside Evan. We made a bridge between our windows and we'd climb back and forth a lot. We'd seen the other bridges in Old Town but never really knew what they were for we just knew we wanted one between out windows. Our parents were okay with it, you know. They probably saw it as a way to escape if they needed it." Lui fidgeted with the watch, turning it over in his hands. "One day, it was really bad. The rioting was more like a battle. There was blood flowing in the streets and machines were getting torn apart. New Town decided to call in their air force. They dropped more than fifty bombs on Old Town that day. I remember hearing them coming down, these loud shrieking whistling noises that were louder than anything I've ever heard. My mother had run upstairs to wake me up so we could get out and get to cover. I don't why, but I remember looking at my window and I saw Evan at his bedroom window, throwing it open so he and his brother and his parents tried to get across the bridge to get to our place. They had been blocked in by debris and the bridge was their only way out. Evan went first because he was the youngest. I remember him reaching for my hand and the whistling of the bomb as it fell." Lui shuddered.
"You don't have to tell us, Lui. It's okay." Luke said softly.
"No. I want you to know." His tone was hard, almost angry. "That bomb hit Evan's home, blew it and his family inside apart. I had grabbed onto Evan's hand and the force threw us back into my room. I remember hearing him scream, louder to me than the sound of the explosion. He ran back to that hole in the wall where my window had been once he could stand, seeing nothing left but broken stone and glass. That was when I saw how bloody his hand was." Lui picked up the solder, pressing his fingers against the end of the plastic gun. "When I made him show me what was in his hand...He said that was all he could grab in time. He had a handful of toy soldiers, their guns stabbed into his hand cause he had held them too tightly. Since that day, Evan swore that he was gonna end New Town, bring it to it's knees to pay for what they did to Old Town. To him. The scars left on his hand were a reminder for him." Lui put the toy soldiers back in the box, not noticing Luke and Jonathan's disturbed expressions.
"They never said anything about the bombing in New Town. They just said it was a big riot and a lot of people died because of how uncontrollable it was." Luke said quietly.
"No one seemed to care." Jonathan added.
"You did." Luke reminded him. "A New Towner's life is not worth more than an Old Towner's." Luke repeated what Jonathan had said in reaction to the event. Jonathan glanced between him and Lui before looking back down at the box.
"It's true. Evan, in his human form wanted to bring down New Town and it's machines. I believe that he still can as a conscious machine. My father is always going on about how terrifying it is for our society to have a machine that thinks for it's own." Jonathan explained, reaching for the notebook to flip through the pages. Lui let him, listening with interest. "A machine is programmable, controllable. But once it starts thinking on it's own, once it's awake, well it's beyond control. Evan thinks. He remembers and reacts." Jonathan explained. "He is a person that has been placed in a machine. That alone should be enough to ruin New Town."
"Never thought I'd heard someone from that fancy place want to destroy it." Lui smiled.
"I've seen what makes it so fancy. It isn't as great as you think it is." Jonathan spat.
"You have a roof over your head that will never fall and a guarantee that you'll make it through the day. It's more than great." Lui took the notebook back, tossing it back into the box and closed the lid on the memories. "We need more than just Evan in his current form as the Vanoss-III if we're gonna bring it down though. We need to know why and how he ended up in that machine." Lui said as he got up. "Before he went missing, he used to work at this factory along the river. They build parts for machines so he already had knowledge of them before he became one. We can go there, see what we can dig up. Most of the police are gonna be busy with the riot so we should be able to get there and back before Tyler gets back."
"You want to sneak around behind your friend's back?" Luke asked, glancing nervously at Jonathan.
"Tyler wants the same thing but he doesn't want to wait around for it. He'd be more likely to throw himself at the checkpoint and try to get answers in New Town than try look here at home." Lui sighed.
"But there is a riot going on right now. I don't want us to get caught in that." Jonathan glanced worriedly at the window as if expecting to see police machines marching past.
"We won't. You have me with you." Lui assured him. "Though you'll need a weapon just in case. And you definitely need new shoes."
"Stay close. Don't make eye contact with anyone. Just keep your head down and stay close to me." Lui instructed as they walked down one of the busy market streets, full of people nervously hurrying around, pushing through the crowd. Some were eager to get home, knowing that the riot happening across town could easily make it's way there. Others were eager to get to the riot, wanting to burn off the anger bottled up inside them.
"Why shouldn't we look at anyone?" Luke asked, glancing up at the bridges that criss crossed the street above them.
"You are the poster boys for New Town. Your pretty hair and faces ain't like nothing in Old Town. One person takes a good look at you and they will know right away. You're shoes did the exact same thing too. No one has polished shoes this side of the checkpoint." Lui explained, glancing behind them. The siren had not stopped all morning, it's shrill sound inescapable.
"Police!" Someone from above them on the bridges screamed. "Machines are coming! Get off the street!" People panicked, screaming as they were pushed in their frantic haste to the get to the nearest building. Jonathan could faintly make out the sound of gears as the machines moved over the sounds of panic screams and yells.
"Come on!" Lui pushed through the crowd, Jonathan and Luke close behind. They made their way into one of the buildings, running up the spiral staircase to the top floor. He pushed his way onto the bridge, gripping the rail tightly as he looked up the street. Jonathan and Luke caught up to him, their eyes widening at the sight of the mass of dark machines marching down the street. They were faced by the Replaced who hadn't run, throwing burning molotovs and stones at the machines. In return, smoke bombs were thrown back, the thick white clouds of smoke filling the air. Some of the rioters who hadn't covered their faces turned away coughing, stumbling to get away from the smoke. The machines continued to advanced unphased by the fire and the smoke.
Jonathan watched, horrified as one of the young rioters ran forward with a baton held tight in their hands. He was grabbed by the machines before he could even swing the bat and thrown violently to the muddy snow covered ground. Instead of just simply arresting the man, the machine returned with a hit of it's own, bringing it's own baton down on the man.
"Don't watch that...Just come on." Lui said quietly, pulling Jonathan along across the bridge, Luke close behind both disturbed by what they had just witnessed.
"Those machines aren't supposed to hit back. Why did they hit back?" Luke whispered to Jonathan as they hurried along the bridge above the street, pushing past others who were taking cover from the riot below, cloths held to their faces if they didn't have gas masks to protect themselves from the gas that was rising up from the smoke bombs. "Why did they hit back?"
"I don't know, Luke! I don't know anything anymore!" Jonathan spat, his hand curling around the strap of his bag, the Vanoss-III safe inside. "I just don't know."
Like the smoke that exploded from the smoke bombs, the smoke that was being belched out of the towering smokestacks was white and full of chemicals. To Jonathan, the smokestacks were like the towers of New Town, reaching towards Heaven in an attempt to escape the hell that was at the bottom.
Jonathan had thought that the factory would be busy, full of people that would make it difficult to find what they had come for, but because of the riot, people had fled to their homes, nervous of the violence making it's way to this side of town. It had before. Seemed that it had been all over Old Town. Everywhere that Jonathan had seen so far ,there was rubble, the occasional fire still burning that hadn't been smothered by the snow.
The factory was by the river like Lui had said, the water dark and moving quickly, the edges covered in thick ice. Jonathan stayed close to Lui the same way a child stayed close to their parents, glancing up nervously at the towering factory as they walked towards it.
"Evan worked here?" Jonathan asked, trying to keep his voice steady so he wouldn't give Lui the impression that he was scared.
"Yeah. People in Old Town who want to make some money are limited to what they can do and New Town is more than happy to offer people a job building their machines." Lui spat as they approached a side door. He pulled it open, the metal door heavy and creaking.
"But they are fighting New Town. Why would they want to work for them?" Luke asked.
"Some people in Old Town have the impression that if they have money, they can get into New Town. Others need it to simply be able to own their own home here instead of searching for the nearest open room every night like most people. Evan wanted his own home." Lui explained as they headed inside.
Inside, there were more people, none of them giving them a second glance as they entered the factory. It was loud, sparks flying through the air from the welding of metal. The heat was almost unbearable, Jonathan reaching to loosen his jacket. The machines being put together were simple servant machines, designed to just do simple things in and around the home in New Town.
"I've checked Evan's locker before but I couldn't find anything It had already been cleared out when I got there. Can you get us into the offices?" Lui asked, heading towards the metal stairs at the side of the factory.
"What if there is someone in there?" Jonathan asked nervously, following Lui up the stairs. The railing was hot to the touch, even through his gloves.
"Don't worry about that just get us in there." Lui said when they reached the top. The first door required a key card, the next door requiring a code. They could see through the window that looked out onto the factory floor that the office was thankfully empty.
"Find me some tools and I can deal with this." Luke said, pointing to the white glowing numbers. Lui nodded, telling them not to move at all before hurrying to find what Luke needed. He returned with what he could find, not having any idea of how to deal with machines like Luke and Jonathan did.
"Will these work?" Lui asked. Luke shrugged, taking one of the screwdrivers, first setting about taking off the front to expose the wires underneath. Lui watched curiously, thinking that it was so fascinating to see all the wires and to see Luke work. Jonathan had seen it before. While he was more interested in seeing machines work, Luke was more interested in how they worked, a professional when it came to wiring. With a tug on the right wire, the lock unlocked, the door sliding open with the sound of gears. Jonathan went to the desk with the large computer, opening the files on employees and recent emails. "Evan went missing a year ago so maybe you'll need to look farther back." Lui reminded him.
"Right." Jonathan nodded, scrolling back through the emails. "There was nothing that happened before that would suggest as to why he disappeared?" Jonathan asked, glancing up at him.
"He was arrested for breaking the head off a riot police machine. I've never seen anyone do that before. The weak spots are always hard to find on those damn things. Somehow, he found it." Lui said after a moment. "Would that be enough to scare New Town into kidnapping him?"
"There is a lot that can scare New Town." Jonathan muttered, searching through the emails for any familiar word or name.
"What's that?" Lui pointed to the screen to an email titled with Evan's name. Jonathan clicked on the email, opening it. "Evan Fong will not be returning for work. He has been chosen to be a part of the new the Vanoss project which requires his full attention. His knowledge of machines and his strong will makes him the perfect candidate for the project. Please fill his position at the factory in soon." Lui read. "Vanoss project. That's the name of the machine, isn't it?"
"Yeah. My father's company sent this but when I was in my father's office, I couldn't find anything on it." Jonathan said, printing the email. "It's a project too so in New Town tems, it must be an ongoing for quite some time with several people involved. Evan must not have been the only one who went missing because of this."
"But what is it though? We can't just ask Evan because he doesn't remember, does he?" Luke asked. Jonathan shook his head, reading through the email again.
"No. He can remember older things but he can't remember recent things. At least not yet." Jonathan added. A sudden yell came up from downstairs, an alarm going off suddenly. "What's happening?" They got up, running to the door to see the workers in a sudden panic, running and pushing past each other to get to the door.
"We have to get out of here." Lui cried, pulling Jonathan towards the door. They ran back down the stairs, pushing through the crowd to get outside. People ducked as a roar came from above them, planes flying low overhead. A loud high pitched noise like a shriek rang through the air, the silence that followed feeling like an eternity.
"Get down!" Someone suddenly screamed. Rubble flew through the air, fire and smoke exploding into the sky as people were thrown back by the shockwave that tore through the surrounding area. Jonathan blindly grabbed onto Luke's arm, following Lui through the shocked crowd, hurrying back down the street, past the now burning rubble.
The loud shriek came again, ringing in Jonathan's ears. The next explosion threw Jonathan off his feet, colliding into the wall behind him before crumbling to a heap on the muddy snow. His vision blurred, eyes watering from the overwhelming pain from his back. He rolled on to his back, seeing that he had landed on his bag, the Vanoss-III inside. Weakly, he pulled the machine out, seeing cracks across the screen like a spider's web. He pressed the power button but nothing happened, the screen remaining dark.
"No...Evan, no..." Jonathan stammered, his vision blurring into darkness. "No…"