Chapter One

I looked out my window, the black dots of the robots walking in a single line, going to door to door looking for more people to recuit. They were close.

"Jess!" I called. "We've got to hurry. "They are only a few houses away." I threw a few things, not caring about what they actually were, into a suitcase.

"I know. I saw them", she said, coming in the room, backpack in one hand, suitcase in the other. "You got everything?" She scanned the room to make sure everything important was taken and put into our three items of luggage.

"Yes", I said. "We have to go now, I can hear their footsteps. They must hear us, because they have amazing hearing."

Thump! Thump! Thump! They sounded like a herd rather than actual humans. I would rather die than become one of them, one of those robots with no emotion, with no color, only black and white. I didn't want to be one of them, I didn't want to be someone who can walk in a straight line, that could kill the ones that didn't worship Alcott like a god, like everyone else. It was simple. You join Alcott's army if you were a boy, worship him in his temple's, and do whatever he says, or you were killed. And if you decided not to follow any one of his rules, his many rules I might add, you were punished. Severally punished, or murdered, depending on what you did.

Jess opened the window. "Ang! Let's go now!" She jumped out.

I ran, heavy bag in hand, and jumped the one story window. I didn't care that I was afraid of heights. Nothing mattered, but escaping this house, before the army invaded it, and found us. We would either be forced to become a member of their army, or be killed. Our only hope was to escape, to flee into the mountains.

Landing in the snow, I quickly sprang up, and ran into the woods, not too far behind Jess. I was starting to run out of breath, but I had to push myself to run even farther, because they probably could still see me. I was on their list of non worshippers of Alcott, and I would be killed. So was Jess. If we didn't run, we would either be one of their believers, or end up dead.

"Ang! Ang! Ang!" Jess shouted.

"Jess, I'm right behind you. Don't worry, I'm fine", I said. "Run to the cave. Worry about yourself, we'll get there".

I ran, feeling every ounce of oxygen release through my body. I hated running, I couldn't run, at all. But if I didn't, they would catch me, the last non robotic human. Well, not counting Jess. We were the last actual humans on the planet. A non robotic human, anyways.

Jess stopped running.

"Angela!" she called.

I caught up to her, panting. "What?" I asked.

"Where are we going to go for shelter?" she asked. "There is nowhere that is no obvious to hiding for miles."

I sighed. We needed somewhere that was out of view, deep enough into the woods so that no one would notice that we were here, the last of the human race as we know it. If they found us, then…I shuddered at the thought, me wearing all black, pale as a ghost, emotions drained from my body, hair up in a bun, and worshipping Alcott like he was a god. And drinking out of that cup, a gold cup that was found in every household in the planet. Well every household but ours.

"Don't you have a tent on you?" I asked.

"No, I didn't bring it. It would have been too obvious," she said. "After all, we are in hiding, remember? The last thing that we want is to have them see a tent. They would know that we are hiding from them. That would be the end of us, Angela. We might as well turn ourselves in if we hang up a tent."

I nodded. "Good point. Well, where else would we go? Nature hasn't provided us a shelter."

"A cave would work. No one would guess that we were in there, its dark enough", Jess said.

"Jess, where are we going to find a cave?" I asked.

"Remember when we were kids, and we used to go into that cave?"

"No."

"Well when we were little, we used to go to a cave and play hide and go seek. Don't you remember?" Jess asked, getting a flashlight out of her bag.

"No," I said.

"Well we did. And, we had a lot of fun," she said, finally finding the flashlight.

"Do you think that they will find us here?" I asked, dreading the thought of them finding us, my body converted from a normal human with faults, to a robot, who worships a man who probably was as human as I am. As I hope to always be. I don't want to be brainwashed by a creep, who is brainwashing the entire human race. Brainwashing the entire human race to be exactly like him. To be pure. To be innocent. To be emotionless. To be able not to think for themselves. I didn't want to be like that. I could never be like that. I shivered.

"Are you cold?" Jess asked, clearly concerned, digging through the bag for a blanket.

"No, Jess. But thank you. I was just thinking about what would happen to us if we got caught by them", I said, shivering.

She shivered. "We're not going to get caught, Angela."

"How do you know that? They may eventually find us".

"Eventually is not now."

"But its someday."

"Angela, don't worry. No one is going to catch us."

"Okay." The fear still remained, a rock at the bottom of my stomach. A hard rock, cold as ice. I shivered again.

"You're not going to forget about it, aren't you?" she asked.

"You know me so well," I said.

"Yes I do. Now, don't you worry about a thing."

"I won't", I said, lying through my teeth. I didn't want to worry Jess. We have enough to worry about. And I knew that she was lying through her teeth as well. I knew that she was scared of being caught. Of being one of them.

"Angela, it is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine," Jess said, switching on the flashlight.

I swallowed. "I don't believe you."

"Well you got to. Hope is all we got, Angela. It is all that we have left. That and each other."

I looked up at her, swallowing back tears. I couldn't cry. I didn't want to scare her, because I am scared myself. I was scared enough for the two of us.

"Jess, I'm scared," I said. The fight between me and crying was getting harder and harder with every word.

She dropped the bags, and went over to me and hugged me.

"Angela, its going to be okay. I am scared myself. I'm scared that they are going to find us. I'm scared that we are going to be this way for the rest of our lives, and I'm scared that we are going to be separated. I have more fear than you, Angela", she said.

I let the tears go, and we sat there, outside the cave, hugging each other and crying, the tears drowning us in a river of our fears.