The Cyborg's Daughter ( I'm close to 100K reads! Then Party)

Chapter 13/The streets of New York

We waited a couple of minutes then left. Jenny and I walked along the streets. I tried to think about the mission but was too caught up with the spectacular parade of new things around me. We stopped at a crossing next to another male slave waiting for our collars to tell us it was permissible to cross.

"Out of my way scum" can a voice. I got a hit again, not painful just irritating. The man next to me let out a cry like he had just been stung by a bee. He stood aside and bowed

"Yes master" thank you master, He said, we copied him.

The collaborator just stepped out into the flow of traffic without looking. All the vehicles stopped for him. The male slave tried to copy him but got bumped by a car. It looks like the fail safes on the cars only worked for collaborators.

As we walked I wondered about the way the collaborators punishment hadn't worked.

"What kind slave collar doesn't give a painful punishment?" I asked Jenny. It had been sitting badly at the back of my mind ever since the 'punishment' on the car.

"I don't know what kind of slave collar doesn't give a painful punishment?" said Little Jenny.

We carried on. People in the street started to stare at us. Slaves should be seen and not heard and preferably not seen either I remembered. This is what happens when you get a F in slave craft ( I had been quite proud at the time).

"No it's not a joke" I said.

"oh" said little Jenny.

"A collaborator collar" I said.

"Oh you knew all along," said little Jenny. 

We passed a couple of young collaborators with slaves on leads behind them.

The letter had mentioned 'REMEMBER COLLABORATORS ... DON'T TRUST ANYONE' I thought it meant look out for collaborators. Perhaps it said I was a collaborator and perhaps it said 'REMEMBER COLLABORATORS ARE SMART THEY DON'T TRUST ANYONE'. Perhaps my mother was a collaborator, but If I was the daughter of a collaborator then why wasn't I living in Judas city? If it was a collaborators collar it would have some kind of invisible unlock mechanism. On the other hand why did the resistance hide me? Why send me back? Why am I protecting Jenny.  The prospect of being a collaborator or daughter of a collaborator was bad. I felt really uncomfortable about the possiblity.

"75% battery" said my collar.

My heart sank. I had never had to worry about my battery levels before. I had charged up at the empty hotel. If I didn't have some were to charge up the collar would self destruct some time tomorrow. It was the most brutal way the machines stopped runaways.

"I have one for you, what has horns but nothing pointy?" said Jenny.

"TURN LEFT AT THIS CORNER <ZING>" said my collar and I turned into a small side street.

 I was still quite over whelmed by the size of everything. I wondered about money, I looked at Jenny, we both could sell blood. That would be enough to buy some food for us and power for Jenny and I. I was a pity it wasn't enough for a ticket to washington 2.0. My attention was distracted by the food and the smell of cooking. We walked along suddenly. I think Jenny was bumped by some black biped robots - Ovids they were cyborgs in almost total mechanical form. They used to be the brains animals the machines had augmented up to humans levels of intelligence. They were as smart as a people but the robots hadn't removed  their emotions, especially hate. The Ovid's wore the worst human haters and had helped the machines take over with a passion. These ones had clearly transferred from their animal bodies to more humanoid form. The animal cyborg's preferred human bodies as the human cyborg's were generally thought to be more respectable than the animal ones. These Ovid had transferred to black shiny bipeds bodies the only thing which reminded you of their half animal parts were the two curled horns which acted as antenna.