Rubberwerks 2 - Part 16

The Tatum drone moved past her without acknowledgement on its way to fulfilling its own task. It would find others like it and follow them to the doors that dared shut them out. When those doors were finally opened, the Tatum-drone and those like it would fill the rooms, surround those who resisted, and allow the rubbery flesh of their bodies to extend, rope-like, and whip around the human who could not see the beauty of service to Mind. Soon, their thoughts would be heard throughout Mind's disparate nervous system and then it would swallow those thoughts and insert new ones.

All around town, these scenes played out. It wasn't surprising that the humans resisted. That was their nature. It was only surprising that this resistance would be so weak, and so easily overcome. They were, Mind understood, a simple species. And better off being led.

Jenny looked out the windows, watching. When night first fell, there were sounds of others, screams or shouts. Since the streetlamps winked to life and the stars climbed overhead, there was nothing. A stillness that not even their small, manufactured town achieved before that night.

"What are you looking for?" the old woman, Rask, asked.

"Anything. Nothing's moving out there."

"Maybe they hibernate at night," Rask offered.

Jenny shrugged. "Or they're waiting for us to come out."

"Someone will come."

That was the old lady's mantra. Whenever someone was especially vociferous in their wailing, Rask would poo-poo their worries and assure them that someone was coming. rescue was minutes away. They only had to wait.

That was what she was saying outwardly. The voice in Rask's head sang a different tune. She had been a money woman all her life. And money was simple. Addition, subtraction, easily countable and quantifiable. What was happening beyond the walls of the bank was something she couldn't begin to fathom.

Her venom was usually reserved for those who disappointed her. Now, though, it flowed freely in her direction, a constant stream of growls in her head, telling her how foolish an old woman she was for coming here. Why had she left the comfort of her life in the States? Why, to lord over someone new. To be superior. And now, Rask found herself wildly out of control.

"Someone will come," she repeated.

Jenny looked askance at her, but only for a moment. Her attention was drawn back to the streets. There was movement.

"Quiet," Jenny hissed to the young woman beside her.

She had been weeping since Jenny arrived in a state of panic. It didn't take Jenny long to understand that things were changing fast and in a dangerous way. Along with that realization came the understanding that she didn't have time to panic. Her unnamed friend did not have the same understanding. When she saw the black figures gathering outside, the sound of her sniffling cries ceased almost at once and she gasped instead.

"What are they doing?" the old woman asked.

Jenny didn't answer. There was no need to.

There were dozens of them, all standing in perfect symmetry, lined up in deep rows. It reminded Jenney of soldiers in parade formation, only these figures were not moving. They had assembled so quietly and so quickly, Jenny hadn't noticed them at first. They stood straight up and down, unmoving, faceless, featureless.