The bot released, and I pulled the handle to pop the door open. It flapped straight into its face and knocked it into the side of the house.

“Let’s go!” I said, and Mia pounced back in.

“Did you see that?” she hooted.

Backing into the yard, I turned the car around and shot down the driveway onto the road. Our neighbors rubbernecked from their stoops, a few with their phones in their hands. Let them gawk. With any luck, someone had captured footage of it breaking down our door. That’d get a few clicks on social media.

“This is the worst day ever!” Selena sobbed.

“Call the police,” I said to Mia. “Make sure you speak to an actual human and tell them what happened.”

“Where are we going to go?” she asked.

“Nana’s.”

“But she said we weren’t allowed to go back there.”

“I know what she said. I don’t care. I’ll drop you off and come to pick you up later.”

Red and blue lights flashed in the rearview. “That was fast,” Lucas said, poking his head around the seat to see out of the back window.

“I didn’t call them yet,” Mia said. “My phone is out of service.”

They were unmistakably the lights of an emergency response vehicle. No, two response vehicles. No, four. I adjusted the mirror for a better look. It seemed our Genesis emergency service robot had friends. Security bots on identical motorbikes formed an entire convoy behind us, and I didn’t like how fast they were gaining. Hopefully, the spell cast by Lucas’s magic codes hadn’t worn off yet. I slammed my foot into the accelerator.

“What are you doing?” Lucas grabbed the handle above the door. “Stop trying to kill me!”

“I’m trying to get the attention of the real police.”

The open road between cities was one thing, but driving at top speed down a suburban street while people were on their way to work was another. Pumpkin recited a list of warnings at me, but I also got a few from fellow drivers in the form of honks and fingers. I whirled around corners and zipped back and forth around obstacles, but the maneuvers it took to shake our tail set off the emergency settings of surrounding traffic. Soon, people were pulling over and the road cleared for the bots to follow.

“We get it,” Lucas said, “you’re a real Richard Petty! Slow down already!”

I did, but not because he told me to. We were more than halfway into town, and there still weren’t any human police vehicles behind us. My plan wasn’t working. No one was coming to our rescue.

I didn’t realize how tight my hands were on the wheel until I nearly swerved off the road when Lucas touched my forearm.

“I have an idea,” he said. “Look.”

He drew my attention to the sidewalks where dozens of onlookers had gathered to see what the fuss was about.

“Stop the car,” he instructed.

I started to pull over, but he held the wheel straight.

“In the middle of the road,” he said. “Let’s stir up some trouble.”

If he wanted trouble, he could have it. I turned to block oncoming traffic. Our security bot tail spread out, two on each side of the road, surrounding us. Their robotic voices called out in deadpan unison. “Citizens, we are emergency services specialist robots, and we are here to assist you. Please step out of the vehicle.”

Lucas and I opened our doors and stepped into the street. They must have identified me as a threat. In the blink of an eye, a bot slammed me against the hood of the car while a second frisked me for weapons. Metallic hands pulled at my shirt and stuffed into my pockets. I pushed them off, and their prying hands caught my right glove.

The other two crept toward Lucas. They weren’t armed, but their palms hovered over their leg compartments. “Citizens—”

Lucas slammed one of his crutches against Pumpkin to get their attention.

“Stop!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, banging his crutch again and again. The clang of metal against metal echoed down the street. “Stop right there! You two, get off of him!”

“Citizen—”

“Stop, right now, or just shoot us,” Lucas demanded. “Go on! Go ahead! We’re not going with you, and we’re not doing anything you say.” He slammed his crutch down even harder. “There are three young girls in this car right now, and you’re putting them in danger. They haven’t done anything wrong. Back up, I said!” A bot gave up on trying to sneak up behind him. “You want to kill me? Well, do it! Right here, in front of all these people! Kill my friend and the girls in the back too. Let everyone see what Genesis bots are capable of!”

The bots on top of me stepped away.

I picked my head off the car, an ocean of gawking eyes washing over me. People of all ages, all genders, all different sizes, shapes, and colors had come out of their homes, their shops, their places of work, even from out of their own cars to get a better look at the four security bots threatening an unarmed man standing over a car full of children. They all knew, if there was really any danger, living and breathing human cops would be there. A squad of unsupervised bots had no reason to pick on a small family. Not to mention, all of us but Lucas were in our pajamas, and none of us had shoes. There was something inherently pathetic about a person not wearing shoes.

Phones snapped pictures and recorded videos. Voices muttered angry words about Genesis and robots. This would hit social media like a bomb, and from that moment on, it would be used as a weapon against anyone who claimed robots were good guys. Every second the security bots remained was a chink in Blaise’s armor.

They had no choice but to let us go.

“Citizens, please remain calm,” they said, no longer to us but the crowd. “We are performing emergency services. The police are on their way.” With their attention elsewhere, I planned to jump back in the front seat and drive away, but I encountered a new problem. Mia and the twins were no longer in the car.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “Get in. Come on. We have to go.”

But they didn’t listen. Lucas didn’t, either. He glanced across Pumpkin’s hood wearing a look on his face I didn’t like. It was a look that said, I’m so sorry.

The twins huddled behind Mia as she guided them to the sidewalk. Tears streamed down Selena’s face. Sophia caught her lip between her front teeth. And a breeze tickled the remaining skin of my right fingers.

My gloveless fingers.

I closed my eyes. Please. Please, if there’s a God, let this not happen, I prayed.

“What are you?” Mia asked.

“It’s me.” I stepped toward them.

They jumped. Selena shrieked. Mia held out her hands to protect them.

And I froze.

“What’d you do with Mama?” Mia roared. “What the hell is going on here?”

Lucas stepped forward. “It’s not what—”

“I wasn’t talking to you!” She shoved the twins into the crowd. “Come on, you two. Let’s go. Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait! Where are you going?” I gasped.

“Get away from us!”

“Mia, please!”

The surrounding horde recoiled, but a few stepped in to keep me from coming too close. Even more stepped in to capture me on their devices. Regardless of their intention, they swiftly formed a wall between me and the girls.

“Mia, wait! Let me explain!”

Hands were on me. Humans hands this time. Pushing me, pulling me, assaulting me.

“They’ll be okay, Chance,” Lucas said. “We need to go.”

“No.”

“Chance! I’ll leave you here, I swear I will.”

“Just go.”

I couldn’t see them anymore. I’d lost them. My vision blackened, mock breathing reverberated in my ears. My thinking slowed, like slogging through waist-deep mud. Where were they? Where would they go? What was happening?

“Hey!” Lucas’s voice was a distant whisper. “If the cops show up, they’ll turn you in to Genesis!”

Let them.

“Mia!” It didn’t register at first that it was my own voice screaming. “Mia! Selena! Sophia!”

I wobbled on weak knees. At any second, I’d be on the ground. But someone grabbed my arm and pulled me up. Whoever-they-were shoved the crowd away and chased off a security bot creeping up from the left. He hauled me off to the car and stuffed me into the passenger side.

“Snap out of it!” he barked. “Those bots will follow us. Your sisters are going to be fine as long as we get out of here now.” He slid into the driver’s seat and gave some instructions to the car. “They’re going to be fine. Don’t worry.”