At the end of the first installment of this piece of Halloween fiction from Wendy Parker, the heroine, trucker LaRonda’s zombie codriver had taken over their haul through the non-oxygen-dependent zone … (Click here to read Part 1 in full.)
The truck rolled to a stop, having been sensor-tuned to obey checkpoint commands. Dash’s driver side window auto-rolled enough for a Half-Chip to snake its viewing camera up into the cab. LaRonda had hoped for anything but a Half-Chip at the checkpoint.
Once regarded as super-humans, the micro-chip implanted half-breeds were increasingly cranky with their decisions to be willing capture for the Enforcers, but had become far too enmeshed with the motherboard to realize it, or be able to do anything other than be angry about it. The once-prized position of power had become more of a slave labor job as Half-Chip technology progressed and programs were given precedence over biological thought process.
“Pull the vehicle into the catacomb.”
“Safety rebuttal denied. Pull the vehicle into the catacomb.”
With no further rebuttals allowed, auto-control did as it was ordered, and slowly moved the truck toward the catacombs. This was completely unfamiliar territory for LaRonda. She had never been pulled into the catacombs and wondered if her computer map had been updated to navigate the dark corridors. Dash certainly had no skill to do so. His left eye had popped out again and was hanging in the folds of his dirty t-shirt. She had no choice but to sit back and wait, and hope her tablet held the credentials she’d need to be allowed to leave.
