Attacking Aggressively

Journal.txt(21)

The road seems go on forever, we have walked for a few hours now and the view has hardly changed since we started this great stroll. A grey, nearly brown range of tall rocks is all there is to our left, wasteland is all to our right, and the road continues out to the horizon on a flat track of asphalt turned blurry by the sunlight. Next to the gravelly, or perhaps dusty road, a dark-green sign appears.

As we get closer, we can spell "AUTHORIZED AREA: TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT".

Eve and Sam both seem frightened, and backs away from me on their respective side. They seem to take this very objective sign personal, somehow.

- Do you guys think they're already looking at us, right now? Sam asks the rest of us.

- Possibly not, Eve responds, though I am quite sure myself that they are PROBABLY not doing it... as long as no one has revealed where we are going. Sam's journal! Now, I am the one who slows down while the others proceed, and to their surprise I make a scan around the entire area in case someone or something is spying at us from the rock wall. There seems to be no one around, it is in fact suspiciously little security if we are really close to the factory. Perhaps a verbal threat is all needed to keep humans out, so we might as well have passed the primary barrier of protection when walking by the sign.

- PD? Sam asks as he gets closer to me.

- Yes? I respond easily. Though I am suspecting he is going to say something about the fear for what awaits us.

- What happened, back at the base? he asks me.

I then try to explain everything shortly and yet accurately, Sam seems to understand most of it.

- Why did Dema help us? Sam asks me after my already forgotten monologue.

- Because he was member of Bots United, sort of, I explain.

- But I thought they were all in Oxford, he answers.

- The same did I percieve. Eve, were you aware of the Bots United Towards Tyranny being part of an international cooperation? I ask Eve.

- There would certainly be people from different parts of the world that were against robot abuse, though I highly doubt that B-U-T-T and G-A-S hold some kind of direct collaboration, she explains. We do not talk much thereafter, as we are already struggling to endure our long stray.

We pass the landscape over and over, and despite the sign there is still no factory in sight. The weapon feels heavier around my neck. It hurts, but that really does not matter. The sun still stands high, so despite all the hours we have walked through it is still the middle of the day. Our chances to succeed are hard to foretell, but I am hopeful. The way to the factory implicates the only difficulties, because once we have the programs, all dangers will render naught but a memory.

- PD, you might want to observe this, says Sam and pokes at me, just as the road splits in two. One way goes on straight forward, whilst the other turn off straight to the left.

I glance into the aperture of the rock wall that leads in, and then I look out at the horizon.

- Which way should we go? And don't suggest us splitting up, Sam says.

To think of it, the discreet slip road is more likely to be the way to the factory than the open road ahead.

- I think we should turn left, I suggest. Then Eve walks away from us, and takes a step up the rock wall.

- What are you doing? I ask her in my worrisome doubts.

- Getting a view, She tells us, and manages to pull herself up in an ultimate effort. Even though she succeeds, it is quite obvious that she finds it difficult. And hence, I doubt that Sam will make it as his movement always has appealed as quite rigid compared to mine or Eve's. Getting up the rock wall does practically mean climbing up. However, my older friend takes the initiative and goes after Eve. However, I have to pinch in and help him and Eve has to pull him up. Once we have gotten a bit further on the hill and left the plateau above the road behind us, we see a tower appear up from the mountain range. As we for the first time see conrete evidence of the existence of the factory - save ourselves -we start to rush upwards to have a greater look at the location.

Close to the tower, we see the main building, which is huge and grey shape of a block. It has two lines of small, black windows and four turbines on the roof which is otherwise mainly consisting out of glass. Except the watchtower, with a cuboid that is rather thin and tall, the main building is surrounded by two smaller buildings. One of these has plenty of doors and windows, and looks something like twenty grey boxes stacked together in two levels in the dimensions 5x2x2. The last building is probably the biggest one except for the main building where the actual production probably takes place. This one has a complete glass roof and several windows on each side. There also seems to be a power station, but I do not count it since it is more of a hole in the ground than a building itself. There are three truck terminals at the main building, and these are very close to said power station. I just realized they were cargo terminals since a man just lead a box his own size into one of the trucks that drove away afterwards.

This vehicle has a logotype including text: "BOTDELIVER: FANCY TRANSPORT". As a matter of fact, it bears more resemblence to a van than the lorry that comes to mind by the word 'truck'.

Whatever is in that box cannot see anything. It is in a dark room, in which it is completely surrounded by some unidentified soft material. After waiting for a few hours, they will be able to hear two human voices talk to one another through the wooden crate...

The question is whether the content of the box will steal a stack of dollars and run away from the house, and not get stopped in the first town it goes to. Anyhow, it will not meet Sam or Eve, neither will it be saved by Bots United Towards Tyranny now that their headquarters is raided by the Civil Defence. Though I do not think the entire organization has been disrupted, now that Guys Against Sadism is around to do their job for them. What if we could be Bots United Towards Tyranny this time, what if we could be those who saved the content of the box.

- Come on! I tell the others, who both seem to understand what I mean.

- No! It is too much of a risk, Eve says and stops me, even Sam backs away as he notices Eve's disagreement. While keeping a steady grip around my arm, she points at the watchtower. Three, maybe four soldiers patrol along the railing, and I understand Eve's argument pretty much perfectly. To think of it, we actually have quite a good location at this cliff, which sticks out of a mountain but still keeps us hidden from the eyes of the factory. Ever since the content of the box disappeared to a hardly unknown fate, the three of us discuss how to break into the factory. We know that any way will be difficult, so it is all about finding the least risky way.

Even if my maps were not fading away in my memory they would probably not guide me inside the factory, since they could not even guide me TO it. I suggest that we threaten the security guards with our weapon, but Eve deems that they have even better weapons and are way quicker to use them. Eve is more optimistic about sneaking in through the roof, except there not being any way to get up there except by a ladder right in the field of view for the watchtower. Even if the guards are blind, which they are probably not since they happen to work in a watchtower, it will be impossible to take Sam along that way. This is confirmed by the fact that Sam prefers my idea to scare everyone over Eve's idea.

We must avoid to be seen at all costs, so Eve's next suggestion that we dress up as employees does not get too popular, even with herself. I have several visible injuries on my face, and Sam's way of walking totally gives him away. Besides, we are quite well known right now, especially around the area including Tibet and Nepal. The temptation is unbearable, now that we are so close to the end of the journey though unable to finish it. How badly do I and the rest not wish to just climb down the hill and head right toward the guards, take the small chance that they do not hit our heads? I sit down next to Eve and Sam, and we all look out at the factory.

- So this is our birthplace, Sam says.

- If it is their only factory, otherwise not it is not necessarily so, I add.

- It probably is. Few of those who desire AssaultBots can afford the high cost, it would just not be favourable to mass produce them, Eve explains.

- How do you know? I ask her.

- I have been active for a rather long time, she answers.

- How long? Sam asks, but of course she does not answer.

- I know how we are getting in! Eve says all suddenly.