Freegans part 53

Cara
"Is he crazy?!" Matt gasped, when Ben launched himself at the Drone.
"I've probably rubbed off on him," Madiza commented. Kestrel un-slung his plasma rifle, and began blasting at the Drone.
"Hurry! I'll help him!" he cried. Without stopping to argue, we headed to the Computer and ATM. Without pausing, Madiza began typing on the small pad in front, fingers dancing feverishly across the keys. As she worked, doing something too complicated for me to understand on the screen, she was humming feverishly. It was something about a General, and vegetables, as far as I could figure out. We stood around her protectively, in case the Drone should overpower both Ben and Kestrel. The way things were going, it seemed a possibility.

I don't want to insult their prowess in fighting, but the truth is, they were no match for that Drone. Even with one arm, all it had to do was look at them, and make that droning sound, and they fell to the ground, nearly immobilized. Which was why they stood on opposite sides, so it would only get one at a time. Unfortunately, the Drone was apparently not all that dumb, because while it turned on Ben, the rifle thing on its' back unslung itself, and began blasting at Kestrel. He ducked, dodged, and finally went for its' legs. The Drone jumped, and smashed down on his chest. He must have either been very tough, or wearing some kind of protective armor underneath the uniform, because he shoved the Drone off, and got up, without any evidence of being hurt.

Now they were cornered. The Drone, to our surprise, turned its head up into the air, and began making that awful noise upwards.
"It's calling for reinforcements!" Kestrel cried. "We need to stop it NOW!"
"Almost done!" Madiza sung out. Ben leaped onto the Drone's back, and grabbed its' head, trying to wrench it free, as he had with the robots down in the tunnels. But this Drone was made of tougher stuff. It reached up with the free arm, and grabbed him by the neck, pulling him down. And then, just like magic, the light died out of its' eyes, and it slumped down.
"KillCode activated!" Madiza proclaimed happily.

Freegans part 39

Cara
"What's 42 mean? Does that have some significance?" asked Matt. All of us looked at him, wondering how it was that a guy who could act so smart could also ask such abominably stupid questions.
"No duh, Matt," I said, rolling my eyes. He looked down sheepishly.

The Ox said, "One of the most important prisoners being kept in the prison goes by the code name of Deep Thought."
"Like in the book by Douglas Adams?" I asked, remembering why the number 42 sounded so familiar. Dad had given me a copy of it a couple of years ago for Christmas. The Kestrel and Ox both nodded.
"He has an odd sense of humor like that. Anyway, he's one of our most important members, a great computer hacker. His time is running out before they execute him, so we need to get to that computer, and have Madiza type in the KillCode, within at least three days."

I looked at Madiza. She was sitting on the floor, still drawing, muttering to herself; I think her words at that moment were something like 'rabbits' and somebody named George. It was hard to believe that this scrawny, ragged little maniac was instrumental in basically saving our lives, as well as the lives of everyone else on the planet still free of the consumerists. Of course, at that moment Matt had to ruin my pondering by asking, "So what about us?"
The Ox and Kestrel gave us equally unnerving fixed stares.
"Yes, that is the question, isn't it?" asked the Ox.

Freegans part 38

Lucy
The Ox looked at each of us carefully, almost like he was searching for something. Then he asked,
"Madiza, do you know what the KillCode is?"
Her eyes widened, and I could practically see the gears inside that warped brain of hers turning. She looked up at the man, and nodded.
"Can you tell me?"
"I could, but should I? After all, three can keep a secret, if two are dead. Hee hee hee!"
The Ox nodded, looking slightly pleased. "Good idea. You can reveal it when the time comes."
Seeing our perplexed expressions, he said, "It's a special code that can shut down the Golden Church's Security Drones for at least an hour."

We knew what the Golden Church was. About the same time the Amish had been eliminated, the consumerists created a new church advocating the idea that their wealth was a gift from God, and that they should revel in it. It was very similar to some of the ideas of the tycoons of the early twentieth century. We'd learned about it in school. The Golden Church, or the Church of Golden Light, was one of the main problems the Freegans were facing. Because of the faux religious fervor, they were better able to spread their propaganda against us.

"Isn't the Golden Church full of a bunch of wacko flagellants?" asked Cara, with her typical bluntness.
"Some of them. More importantly, they have a Prison Sanctum, where they store heretics and anyone who opposes them. It is guarded by vicious robot-androids known as Drones, which are controlled by the Sacred Computer and ATM of Light. Madiza happened to see the KillCode, therefore memorizing it, and if she types it into the computer, she can shut down the Drones."
"What will that do?" Matt wanted to know.
"It will help us to enter and save our missing comrades-" The Ox stopped talking with a small gasp. He was looking down at the floor. We followed his gaze, only to see more of Madiza's scribblings. In the middle of them, she had written the number 42, which was also circled. She looked up at him with a smile.
"Yes," said the Ox unsteadily. "Exactly."