My quarters were located in a gated compound in a small one-storey building. There were three others, all identical, situated at each corner of a central square. At the centre of the square was a shelter for the guards, six of them. A flimsy construction, but enough to protect them in case of bad weather. The shift changed every twelve hours, and the men were replaced by another six, armed with rifles and laser handguns that could be set to incapacitate rather than kill the target.
The front door of my quarters was locked, but I had access to a high-walled garden at the rear. In the three days I had been there, my only visitors had been kitchen staff, who delivered three meals a day.
I was lonely, confused, and apprehensive about what the future might hold. I grew increasingly restless and often paced aimlessly around the garden, trying to burn off energy so I could sleep. I heard nothing from outside the walls of my quarters, except for the steady tread of the patrolling guards. I spoke to no one; the men delivering the food refused to answer my questions.
On the morning of the fourth day, I was awoken from a fitful sleep by the sound of a car engine. I jumped up and raced to the window, and saw an armoured vehicle coming to a halt outside the building diagonally opposite mine. Two armed guards went inside and emerged shortly after, escorting four figures I instantly recognised as Jarvis, McCloud, Rogers, and the Canadian airman, Joe.
I felt a surge of excitement and shouted to them through the locked window, but they didn't hear. The men were placed into the back of the van, and a guard locked the door. I watched as the van drove to the gate of the compound, and a barrier was raised to let them out. My elation was replaced with fear of never seeing them again. And where was Sol? Joe had said Sol was with them in my dream encounter, but what had happened to him?
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a siren going off in the distance. Shortly after, a squadron of drones could be seen approaching, high in the sky. The sound of activity intensified outside the gates, and then there was the thump of anti-aircraft fire. White clouds of explosions surrounded the drones, but none were hit.
Soon they were overhead, and sticks of bombs started to fall. Some landed outside, but the guard hut in the compound took a direct hit, followed by a huge explosion in my back garden that blew the rear wall off. The blast sent me flying forward, and I crashed against the front wall in a cloud of choking dust. I was temporarily stunned but had the wit to roll myself under the steel frame of my bed as the roof came crashing down. I could hear the sound of more bombs dropping in the compound. Surely, we could not be the main target; it must be just chance that we were taking such a hammering.
Curled up under the bed with my hands covering my head, I waited for the barrage to stop. Eventually, it did, and I burrowed my way out through the fallen debris. The roof had been a light, wooden construction; otherwise, I would not have survived.
Pushing aside the wreckage, I forced myself through where the back wall had stood and into the garden. The garden walls were blown down, and I stepped over the smoking rubble and into the square. Dust was still falling, and I pushed my shirt over my mouth to keep as much of it out of my mouth as I could, but it was still hard to breathe.
The five bodies of the soldiers were scattered across the square, none of them intact, and I turned away. There was nothing I could do for them. Instinctively, I made my way to the house where my friends had been kept, hoping to find some clue of what had happened.
Predictably, the house was in ruins, and as I picked my way through the wreckage, I saw the metal arm of Sol, half-submerged under the rubble. I got to my knees and frantically began to dig him out. Sweat poured down my back as I slowly uncovered his complete body. Lying down flat on his back, he was completely inert, but I could see no visible sign of damage. General-purpose robots were built to last.
How could I revive him?
I remembered Jock energising Sol when he was found collapsed in the snow of Main Street. I struggled to recall how he had done it. It was something to do with his head, and I placed my hand on Sol's faceplate, and it came back to me.
No, not the head, the neck!
I eased Sol's head to the side, and when I saw the button on his neck, I flicked it open to reveal the entrance point. Jock had fired a laser beam down the aperture, and Sol had revived. I had no laser gun, of course, but the guards did. I did not relish the gruesome task of removing a laser from the mangled body of a guard, but I had no option if I was to save Sol.
I picked my way to the centre of the square.
The first guard I saw had his head completely blown off, and I had to close my eyes to the dreadful sight to control the bile rising from my stomach. I took a deep breath. This had to be done, and keeping my eyes off the place where his head should be, I retrieved an undamaged laser gun from his belt.
"Sorry," I said to the corpse. A strange thing to say to a dead man, but these soldiers were local men, and previously, my friends. I turned away and made my way back to the house.
I had to do this right. I was sure that McCloud had fired two shots, not one, and I put the laser on a low setting, remembering that I had to clear any blockage in Sol's system first.
McCloud had used a tube to guide the beam, but I did not have that choice and fired down the dead centre of the tube as accurately as I could.
Instantly, Sol jolted his upper half upright and then fell back again, showing no sign of life.
Now for the big one.
I dialled up the power on the laser and shot down the tube.
Sol reacted the same way as before and jerked semi-upright, but this time he stayed up. He fixed his eyes on me and blurted out,
"Seven!" – My machine name.
He instantly corrected himself.
"David, it is wonderful to see you again."
"Me too, Sol. Is Steven with you?"
"Yes, I am, David," said the familiar voice.
"In this world, Sol and I are reunited, but I retain all memories of our past life together. I must warn you, David, that we are in a very dangerous place. The world we have entered is corrupted, and there are powerful supernatural forces that will stop at nothing to destroy us. You are their prime target, and their leader has the power to not only remove you from here but also from every previous incarnation you ever lived.
He wants you obliterated from the memory of the multiverse. If he succeeds, it will be as if you never existed.