Stand Against Infinity by Aaron K. Redshaw Read Free Book Online Page A

to
remain a part of this society do not do that unless they are crazy
or like prison and reprogramming. You do not look crazy, so you
must intend to no longer be a part of this society. You plan to go
to the Outcasts.”
    “Do you always think through things like
this?”
    He paused for a few uncomfortable seconds.
“Since I only have one brain, and I intend to keep it for the rest
of my life, I suppose so.” He smiled, a look that was both
disarming and unusual on his large face. He pulled down the visor
in front of him and looked into a mirror. “There is one more thing.
We must leave immediately, the authorities are behind us.”
     

Chapter 21
    The flashing lights shone through the back
window, and Samuel realized two men had already pulled up behind
him in their patrol cycles. Cycles were made for speed and could
easily outrun a pod. Samuel turned around and saw them both get off
of their cycles and slowly walked toward the car, one on each side.
Exuding authority, they were tall and muscular with dark hair and
grim expressions.
    Samuel glanced at U2258 who still had that
calm expression on his face. Samuel wished he could feel that way.
A man showed up at U2258’s window, and tapped on the glass. Samuel
made a move as if to roll down the window and then gunned the
acceleration, leaving the two men standing there.
    “You know,” said U2258, “they will catch
us.”
    “I know they’re sure going to try,” said
Samuel. He looked over to U2258 and he was smiling again. Samuel
decided he liked it. It was an honest smile.
    “Where can a pod go that a cycle cannot?”
asked U2258.
    “To the outcasts.”
    U2258 said, “But we will not make it that
far. The cycles are too fast, and they will call others. Our pod
will be stopped and we will be caught.”
    “Not today,” said Samuel. He turned the wheel
sharply around a corner and saw a straight stretch of road which
would take them much of the way out of the city, but he would have
to dodge the pods dropping people off at work. It was a busy
morning as usual.
    U2258 looked in his mirror again. “Six,” he
said. “And they are all behind you, gaining fast.”
    “I will get what distance I can, but I have a
plan and it will involve running.”
    “I can run.”
    “Good,” said Samuel. “What is the one thing
that a pod can do that a cycle cannot?”
    “A riddle?”
    “A puzzle with only one useful answer.”
    U2258 scratched his chin and thought about
this. He seemed interested in the challenge. Now the flashing
lights were right behind them again and they began the formation
that would bring their pod to a stop, two cycles alongside of him,
edging themselves past slowly until they would soon be in front to
slow him down by force.
    Now the rest of the cycles that had been
behind had also come along side as those in front were spreading
the inertia nets that would stop his car.
    “Well,” said U2258. “They are faster, more
maneuverable, smaller, more powerful, lighter.”
    Just as the cycles in front were about to
throw the net, Samuel looked both ways, turned to U2258, and said,
“Go backwards.”
    “Oh,” said U2258, but that’s all he had time
to say, because suddenly the wheels screeched and slowed and then
headed backwards. The change was so sudden that they both almost
hit their heads on the dashboard display of the pod. Samuel looked
backwards as he drove for two blocks and then screeched around a
corner while the cycles tried to slow and turn around on the main
street, but with so many of them they got in each other’s way and
it took longer than it should have.
    “All out,” said Samuel. And they both
abandoned the pod. Samuel led them through an old tall apartment
complex with a flickering light out front. A building he had never
seen before, but then again, neither had their pursuers. They
entered the front of the building and took an elevator to the top.
He knew the authorities would be trying to trap or chase him down.
Once at the top