Immortal by Kelvin Kelley Page A

morning since he had last eaten, and he was
starving. Literally starving, he thought, as he turned the next
corner. And Gabrielle, he thought, she must be worried sick. He
needed to be at the meal building when she got there so he could
let her know that he was okay. The street was empty except for a
single Guardian, but at least this one was far enough away that
Jericho was not totally unnerved. Seeing Guardians on the street
was a commonplace occurrence, nothing unusual. They constantly
patrolled the entire village, the road, the factory, and the meal
buildings. Guardians were as commonplace as the streets and
buildings themselves. But since his recent ordeal, Jericho thought
that maybe he was a little oversensitive to their existence. As he
continued to walk home, the Guardian continued its patrol, as it
followed Jericho. He began pick up his pace, but the Guardian’s
speed remained the same. He did not quite run, but he moved as fast
as he could without actually breaking into a trot, Jericho finally
made it to his building’s entrance. Just as he stepped across the
threshold, he turned to see the Guardian as it still came at the
same rock solid pace. It appeared to not have noticed him at all,
but Jericho wasn’t so sure. He turned and ran up the steps.

Chapter 7
     
     
    As the Guardian came up behind Gabrielle, the
alarms that had been blaring suddenly stopped. Right before her
eyes one by one, each of her gauges fell to zero. Shocked, she
realized that her station had been deactivated. She turned in place
to the Guardian, and put her hands up in front her, unsure what was
about to happen. She did not have the presence of mind to look for
or locate where the Guardian held its control stick. Her hands
shook, and tears still ran from her eyes.
    “Be calm.” The Guardian said, as it stood
inches from her.
    “My station-” She began. “My station was
deactivated.” She managed to get out.
    “Be calm.” The Guardian repeated. A few
seconds passed, and then, “This station was in fault. It has been
deactivated.” It said. Seconds ticked by, the Guardian still did
not move. “You are in no danger.” It said. Suddenly it stepped
back, and Gabrielle dropped her hands, still unsure of what would
happen next. Seconds passed again, and then the Guardian spoke.
“You have been dismissed for today. Exit the factory.”
    Bewildered, Gabrielle stepped cautiously away
from her station, and slowly exited the room. She never took her
eyes away from the Guardian, that remained motionless. She saw the
control stick clearly now. It had never left the Guardian’s side.
She quickly made her way to the return road. How unusual she
thought, as she saw the road completely empty, and she began her
journey back to the village. She was alone on the road. Alone on
the road with her thoughts.
    She thought herself lucky that she was simply
dismissed by the Guardian. Her station had been in fault, no doubt
about that, and it was surely her fault. She had been too
distracted to complete her task effectively, and it obviously led
to the fault. Tomorrow she would do better, hopefully. Hopefully
she would find out that Jericho was okay tonight, and all would be
well. She felt sure that as she worked at her station tomorrow, it
would be okay, she thought. At the thought of maybe seeing Jericho,
she picked up her pace. Soon she would back at the village, and
might be one of the first in the meal building. She decided she
would camp out there waiting for Rebecca to find out what had
happened, or hopefully Jericho, so that she could see with her own
eyes that he was okay. She so hoped that he was. She would eat very
slowly, that way she would still be there when she or he showed up.
Very slow, she told herself, as she hurried faster down the
road.
    Shortly she had reached the end of the road,
and as she looked around she did not see Rebecca or Jericho
anywhere. She had barely seated herself in the meal building, when
Sarah came across the room