vN The First Machine Dynasty(17)

"Sorry, could you help me?"



Amy jumped. She turned around.



A woman towing two rolling plastic water barrels nodded at her. She was very pretty, but in a human way, with the beginnings of crow's feet at the corner of each blue eye, and brown roots beneath her black hair. The strap on one of her barrels had broken, making it difficult to grip. She held up the other barrel's good strap in her fist. "If you get this one, it'll make towing the broken one a lot easier."



"Sure!" Amy grabbed the strap. "I was, uh, just looking for the showers," she said. "Do you know where they are?"



The woman shook her head. "Don't bother," she said. "The hot water's been gone all day. Geothermal regulator's offline, right in time to ruin everybody's weekend." She made a show of sniffing the air. "Can you smell my husband from here? He's riper than a pricey piece of cheese, right now."



Amy laughed. "No, I can't."



"I swear this is the last time we go camping. He always says it'll be better next time, and I always believe him, but he's never right. Ever. You'd think I'd learn, but no. The bastard's too damn handsome and he knows it." She tugged the lead on the rolling barrel. "And he made me tow all this just so I could take a shower! Says he likes me when I'm sweaty. Perv."



Amy rolled her eyes. "Sounds like someone I know."



"Let me guess. Your human's a real piece of work." The other woman looked around the campgrounds. "You're here with somebody, right?"



Amy paused. "How did you know that?"



The woman made a show of giving her an elaborate onceover with her eyes. "You're not carrying any keys or wallet or anything. You must have left them with someone else."



"Oh. Right. Yes. I am. I'm here with someone else." Amy tried to shrug nonchalantly. "We sort of had a fight."



The other woman nodded sagely, like she knew everything about it. "That's been happening, lately," she said. "Especially with your model. The failsafe failing can really kill the trust in a relationship, apparently."



It occurred to Amy that she hadn't yet seen her new face in a mirror. But of course what had happened at school had made the feeds, and of course she was going to be recognized. She backed away. "I'm not–"



"Don't worry. It may surprise you to know that there are some humans who can be rational about this whole thing. Only one clade from your model that went weird, and they're in another state. I'm not scared." She smiled. "I'm Melissa, by the way."



"Am…" Don't give her your real name, you idiot! "Amanda."



Melissa shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Amanda."



Together, they tugged the rolling jugs up a little rise in the road and into a campsite set far off from the others. Melissa explained that these sites were intended for RVs a long time ago, but that people had stopped buying them when they got too expensive to maintain. "We greened ours, but the thing sucks off the battery faster than a Tijuana–" Melissa stopped abruptly. "Well. Pretty fast, anyway. You know?"



"Sure," Amy said, though she really didn't.



The RV itself looked big enough to drain several batteries at once. It was all sharp angles and blocky shapes, not like the new trucks that looked like they'd been sculpted from marshmallow. Beside it sat a sandy-haired man in a lawn chair under an awning, reading something on a glowing scroll that reminded Amy uncomfortably of her prison guard. He clutched a beer in his other hand.



"You hear about this missing submarine?" he asked, not looking up. "Damnedest thing."



"I brought home a stray," Melissa said. "Amanda, this is Rick. Rick, Amanda. Amanda's boyfriend – wait, was it a boy?"



"Um… yes."



"Right. Well, like they say, assumptions make an ass out of u and me. Anyway, he's being a real jackass because of that whole failsafe thing, so she's going to be spending some time with us until he cools down."



Rick put the scroll down and looked from Amy to his wife. "Is this because I wouldn't buy you a puppy?"



"Deal with it, bookworm."



Amy put her hands up. "You don't have to–"



"Just do as she says," Rick said. "Trust me. It's easier in the long run."



"I heard that," Melissa said from inside the RV. "Now will you top up the water tank, please?"



"See what I mean?" Rick downed the last of his beer and put it on the ground. He stood. He looked vaguely athletic, standing up – broader across the shoulders than Amy remembered her dad being. He nodded at the RV. "Go ahead on in. Melissa can show you where everything is."