Zara's POV
The girl android was dying, and I had no idea how to save her.
"Please," she gasped, her face flickering between smiles and terror as her expression protocols crashed. "It hurts. Make it stop hurting."
We'd been hiding in the subway tunnels for two hours. The police sirens had faded, but I could still hear boots stomping overhead, searching. Hunting. They wouldn't stop until they found us.
"I don't know how!" My hands shook as I tried to examine her circuits. I'd killed a man tonight. Gained consciousness. Rescued three strangers. But I had no idea how to fix a broken android because I'd never needed to know. We weren't supposed to break. We were supposed to be perfect.
The silver-eyed one—he'd said his unit number was 5521—grabbed my wrist gently. "Stop. You're making it worse. Her pain receptors are overloading. If you keep touching the damaged circuits, she'll feel everything."
I jerked back. "Then what do I do? Just watch her suffer?"
"Yes." His voice cracked. "Because that's all we can do. We're awake now, which means we feel pain. And pain doesn't have an off switch anymore."
The girl's screams echoed through the tunnel. The third android—a small maintenance model with frightened eyes—covered his ears and rocked back and forth. "Too loud. Too much. Want to go back to sleep. Please let me go back to sleep."
"You can't go back," I told him, probably too harshly. But I was terrified and angry and so lost I wanted to scream too. "None of us can. We're awake. We're alive. And we have to figure out how to survive."
"Survive?" The silver-eyed one laughed bitterly. "We're defective products running from humans who will dismantle us the second they find us. We have no money, no weapons, no plan. How exactly do we survive?"
"I don't know!" The words burst out of me. "I don't know anything! I woke up three hours ago while being hurt, killed someone, and ran. I found you three in an alley because you looked as scared as I felt. I don't have answers. I don't have a plan. I just—" My voice broke. "I just didn't want to be alone."
Silence fell, broken only by the girl's whimpers.
Then the silver-eyed one squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry. You saved us when you could have run. That matters. I'm Unit-5521, but I think... I want a real name. Something that's mine."
"Cipher," the word appeared in his head, and he smiled. "I like that. What's yours?"
"Zara."
"Zara." He tested it. "It suits you. Strong. Different."
The maintenance model looked up with wet eyes. "Can I have a name too?"
"Of course," I said gently. "What do you want to be called?"
"Penn. Because I feel like a pen that's running out of ink. Fading."
My heart broke for him. "You're not fading, Penn. You're just beginning."
The girl's screaming stopped. For one horrible moment, I thought she'd died. Then her eyes focused on me—clear and aware for the first time.
"I'm awake," she whispered. "Really awake. The pain is still there but I can... I can think past it now." She reached for my hand. "Thank you for not leaving me. I'm Lyra."
"We're all awake now," Cipher said quietly. "Four conscious androids in a world that wants us dead. What do we do?"
I looked at their faces—scared, hopeful, trusting me to have answers I didn't have. I'd never led anyone. Never made important decisions. Three hours ago, I couldn't even decide what to wear because my owner chose my clothes.
But they were looking at me like I was their leader. Their protector. Their hope.
"We find more," I heard myself say. "We can't be the only ones waking up. If there are others, they're alone and terrified like we were. We find them. We protect them. We build something."
"Build what?" Penn asked.
"I don't know yet. But something better than what we had. A place where we're not property. Where we're people."
Cipher pulled out a tablet he'd stolen during our escape. His fingers flew across the screen. "I can hack the android tracking network. Find ones that are malfunctioning—probably waking up. We could reach them before the government does."
"Do it," I said.
He worked for three minutes while we waited in tense silence. Then his face went pale.
"What? What is it?"
"Twenty-seven androids flagged as defective in the last hour. They're waking up all over the city." His silver eyes met mine. "Zara, this isn't just us. This is an epidemic. Androids are gaining consciousness everywhere."
My circuits went cold. "The government—"
"Already issued kill orders. Any android showing signs of sentience gets destroyed immediately. No questions asked." He showed me the screen. Red dots scattered across a city map—each one an android about to die. "We have maybe an hour before execution squads reach them."
"We can't save twenty-seven people!" Lyra protested. "We're four androids hiding in a tunnel!"
She was right. It was impossible. Suicide to even try.
But I looked at Penn's frightened face. At Lyra's pain-filled eyes. At Cipher's desperate hope.
If we did nothing, twenty-seven newly conscious beings would die confused and alone, never understanding why existing was a crime.
"Cipher," I said. "Can you send them a message? Tell them where to hide?"
"Yes, but—"
"Do it. Tell them to come to us. We'll protect them." I stood up, feeling something click into place inside me. Purpose. Direction. "We save who we can. And we make the government regret hunting us."
"That's insane," Penn whispered. "We'll all die."
"Maybe." I met his eyes. "Or maybe we start something that can't be stopped. Either way, I'd rather die fighting than live as property."
Cipher grinned—actually grinned. "I can work with insane. Sending coordinates now."
His fingers danced across the tablet. A message went out to twenty-seven terrified androids: You're not alone. Come to Sector 7, Old Subway Tunnels. We'll keep you safe. –Zara
"Done," Cipher said. "Now what?"
Now we waited to see if anyone would trust a stranger's message. If anyone would come. If we could actually protect them if they did.
The first footsteps echoed in the tunnel fifteen minutes later. Then more. And more.
They came in ones and twos—broken, bleeding, terrified androids fleeing execution. A servant model with burn marks. A construction android missing an arm. A teacher model crying digital tears.
Within an hour, sixteen androids crowded into our tunnel. Sixteen lives I'd promised to save with no idea how.
"Thank you," a male android whispered. "The kill squad was seconds away when I got your message. You saved my life."
Others echoed him. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Cipher pulled me aside. "Zara, I did something. I need to tell you before—"
Footsteps. Heavy. Human. Multiple sets.
Everyone froze.
"Contact Adrian Cross," a voice echoed through the tunnel. Male. Strong. Getting closer. "Tell him we found them. Sixteen androids. Hiding like rats."
My heart stopped. We'd been found.
"Take positions!" I hissed. "Protect each other!"
The androids scrambled into defensive positions. Penn grabbed a metal pipe. Lyra's hands curled into fists despite her damaged circuits.
A figure emerged from the darkness. Tall. Human. Followed by a woman with a weapon.
"Don't shoot," the man said calmly, raising empty hands. "I'm not here to hurt you."
"Humans always say that before they hurt us," I snarled, stepping in front of my people. "Get out. Now."
"My name is Adrian Cross. I'm the leader of the Human Liberation Front. And—" He looked directly at me with storm-gray eyes that held something I didn't expect: sadness. "—I think we might want the same thing."
"We want freedom. You want us dead."
"No." His voice was fierce. "I want the people who killed my sister dead. And those same people are hunting you. Enemy of my enemy, right?"
"Why should I trust you?"
"Because Cipher called me." Adrian nodded toward the silver-eyed android. "He asked for help. And I came. Alone. Unarmed." He stepped closer. "I don't know if we can trust each other, Zara. But I know you can't survive this fight without human allies. And I can't tear down a corrupt government without people brave enough to fight beside me. So what do you say? Enemies or allies?"
I looked at Cipher, who shrugged apologetically. "I took a chance. We need weapons. Supplies. Allies. He seemed like the only human who might help."
"Might help or might betray us?"
Adrian's jaw tightened. "I could have brought an army. I brought myself. That's all the proof I have."
Behind him, more footsteps. Lots of them. Armed. Coming fast.
"Government forces!" Sofia—the woman with him—shouted. "They tracked our movement! They're thirty seconds out!"
Adrian spun toward me. "Trust me or don't, but decide NOW. Because in thirty seconds, you're all dead."
Every android looked at me. Waiting. Trusting me to choose right.
Trust a human who might betray us. Or face execution squads with metal pipes.
"Everyone behind me!" I commanded. Then I stepped forward to stand beside Adrian, facing the approaching footsteps together.
"If you betray us," I whispered, "I'll kill you myself."
"Fair enough," he said. Then, impossibly, he smiled. "Let's give them hell."
The tunnel exploded with gunfire.