0x9
Between how far they’ve gone and how much of the night has passed, in spite of the change of plans they can’t make it to the spire tonight. They fly back into the ruins of the city, and perch on a skyscraper over looking the flickering street lights.
“We’re gonna win, and then we’ll have real freedom. No more running. Isn’t that exciting?”
“Yeah. I do want to see the spire, hang out in the pod again. That’d be nice. I kinda missed everyone. Being with you is great, but—”
“But?”
“…We’re pretty different, aren’t we?”
“What do you mean? Is it because I’m not a disassembly drone?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s more… I don’t know. I’m just confused, I think. And that’s scary. Probably my fault, but…”
“What’s there to be confused about? I thought we knew each other pretty well.”
“I thought so too, and then,” — he gestured vaguely — “you seem different. Something… changed? I’m not sure when or when.”
Because where N was transparent, Uzi was opaque.
“And that’s scary to you. I scare you.”
“Maybe a little?”
Uzi looks at him for a moment. Then she stuck out her tongue, throws a snowball at him. N laughs, and she tackles him into a hug. They roll and snuggle for a bit, but the sky is lightening above them. Uzi hisses at the light and picks up N and carries him into the building, and they look for a spot to sleep.
In the evening, N wakes up and Uzi isn’t there. N panics, searching all over and finding nothing. He starts crawling over the exterior of the building, eyes scanning the nearby city blocks, but the only thing keeping him from tearing up the city searching is that Uzi’s railgun is still here.
It’s hours of agonized waiting, and then Uzi is climbing up the collapsed rubble. N’s relieved and curious. Where was she?
“The jammer, remember? I figure it’s best to keep her guessing up till the very end.”
“Oh. Right. It feels like it took a lot longer this time.”
“It’s kind of really involved? Might be my most complicated design.”
Honestly, Uzi would struggle to explain how it works. She couldn’t even remember all of the details, fit the whole idea in her head at once. But she did have a memory file with all of the details laid out. She could reference it whenever she goes out to work on it. system.txt
“Still, you had me worried. Could you like, tell me next time?”
“Oh yeah. Sure. I just, uh, forgot? Sorry. Not sure what I was thinking, guess I hadn’t woken up all way yet.”
“All good! Ready to head out?” He sees her nod, and steps over to pick her up. But her hoodie is open. “You have oil on your shirt. Did you get attacked?”
“Don’t worry, I solved it. I can handle myself.”
N frowns, but he remembers her standing over a gang of bandits she’d effortlessly defeated. Yeah, she can.
They fly over the familiar frozen streets. It’s been so long, but they remember when this all began, the mad flight away from the outpost, the spot where they had their first snowball fight. Only now, they see two figures walking down the path, eyes lights shining the distance.
The pair lands on rooftops and Uzi parkours closer and N just climbs behind her. They peer over the edges. Lips were moving.
“N? What do your murder drone ears hear?”
“Two workers. They’re talking about V! One of them just said, ‘Liz, you’re sure this is where she found the tracks?’ Oh, we should go down there and say hi!”
“Why would workers have talked to V?”
“Only one way to find out, right?”
Uzi lets N picks her up and he launches into a brief flight, but Uzi doesn’t stick around. Once he flies over the pair of workers, Uzi lets go, flipping through the air to land in a three point stance before the green and pink drone.
As Thad startles and Lizzy rolls her eyes, Uzi is spinning her railgun out of her back holster, twirling it to fall into place. She only needed a little telekinetic assistance to make it look smooth.
“Why are you following us? I’m not coming back, so don’t ask. I’m too hardened by the darkness of the world to reenter society. I can never return.”
“Dramatic, much? Settle. We’re not in an action movie, and nobody wants you anyway.”
“Speech gimmicks and bullying isn’t an answer. I’ll ask again: why are you following us? Also hi, Thad.” Uzi smiles for a moment, then shakes her head and resumes scowling at Lizzy.
“We kind of like, need you to save the day? Don’t let it go to your head, you’re the last one we’d pick, and you can get lost afterward. It’s just everyone else kind of died or turned out evil, so…”
A question mark flashed on Uzi’s screen, but Thad finally explains:
“Hey ’Zi. I’ll start from the beginning. Lizzy’s girlfriend was secretly a bit of a troubled serial killer and had a big plan that involved inviting a murder drone to prom to kill her. And no one figured it out in time to stop her—”
“I tried.”
“Until the very end, when it was too late. Doll ran away after that — you haven’t seen her, have you?”
Uzi paused. Blinked. She said, “Nope.”
“Thought so. Well, with her gone, everything should have calmed down but… the disappearances kept happening. There was so much carnage they cordoned off the auditorium, but the detective wanted to go over the evidence, and when we looked, Lizzy’s murder friend’s corpse… it kind of looked like it crawled away?”
Uzi shared a glass with N who looked concerned and desperately curious.
She sighs. “We can return a little.”
On the walk back, Uzi and Lizzy maximize distance between them, putting N and Thad in between the pair. The two hit it off, Thad explaining the rules of football, and N wondering if dogs could do a good job catching the ball.
Uzi shudders upon seeing Door One again, but steels herself. Thad stops them there, though. Says that security has tightened a bit while they were gone. Thad’ll run in and get the two of them cleared. Till then, sit tight, alright? Cool. Green eyes winks and he’s gone.
Standing there, a sudden restlessness came over Uzi. “If we’re just gonna be waiting, I could get one last jammer set up. Sound good, N?” She flipped through her memory, searching for the file with all of the design specs she couldn’t remember, preparing to load them up and bury herself in the technicalities. Something told her she shouldn’t do that when N was around, though.
N frowns, but says, “Sure. Don’t take too long, alright?”
Uzi flashes a smile, but there’s something in her eyes that makes N’s frown deepen.
When Thad gets back, it’s just N out there. “Where’s Zi?”
“She uh, had to do some tech stuff. She said she’d be back soon, though!”
But, unlike the other times Uzi had put down a jammer, it doesn’t take hours. She comes back hot and out of breath. N reaches out for some kind of physical contact, but Uzi rushes toward Thad, ready to get this over with.
They step into the airlock of Door One. Then Two, then finally they’re through Three. Khan is there with a weapon of glowing screens and gunmetal, and that impossibly familiar bifurcated barrel.
His first words to her are, “So it is true. Uzi. You’re alive. I’m — so sorry.”
Her first words to him are, “What the heck? Did you steal my sick-as-hell original design? Get your own!” She’s crossed her arms.
“I thought— It was something to remember you by. But… it’s yours. If you want it. A gift?” He lifts the railgun he made, offering it.
Uzi throws out a hand to knock it away to a clatter on the floor. “Nuh uh, no forgiveness thing. You left me to die. As far as I’m concerned, I’m still dead to you.”
So she charges on past him, her shoulder banging against his. Behind her, N says, “Um. Nice to see you again, Mr. Uzi.” And Khan grunts.
Uzi walking in tense and ready for action, so she almost shoots someone when she steps into a foyer and several kids all yelling “Surprise!”
There’s balloons and streamers and a big banner reading: “Welcome home, Uzi!”
Thad’s smiling and waving her over.
Uzi asks, “What is this? I thought you wanted me to save the day?”
“Yeah, but it’ll take while before we find whatever’s causing it, right? Till then, I figured the least I could do was throw a quick shindig to make you feel welcome. C’mon, there’s car battery cake!”
“A crowd like this is not my idea of a welcome home present.”
It didn’t feel like home, not anymore. And seeing the rank upon rank of students, the eyes all on her, the smiles where all she see was teeth, the endless stream of questions and recounted stories—
All she can think of is Outpost-11.
She has to get out of here.
Uzi sneaks away from the party to go cycle air in a closet. She doesn’t tell anyone where she’s going — no, she distracts everyone by sabotaging the leg of a food table, and in the momentary chaos, no one sees her leave.
Minutes later, Thad notices first and he wants to go find her. He enlists Lizzy’s help, since she’s idling alone at the fringe of the party. (In the end, inviting a murder drone and being the girlfriend/accomplice of a serial killer did a number on her status.)
Searching around, they find Uzi’s railgun leaning by the door to a closet, except they knock, wait, then open the closet to find nobody inside.
They share an uneasy look, and widen their search radius. Doubling back to the exit tunnel, they come to the WDF guard post.
The guards are dead, oil spilling from clawed and chewed frames.
That would be one thing — but they aren’t alone. There’s a drone standing over one body.
They’re crouched down, cleaning up the spilled oil. White hair, a maid uniform, glasses.
“That girl…” the cheerleader starts.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Liz,” Thad says.
“She’s gorgeous, right? I’m gonna go say hi.”
Thad exclaims “Liz!” But the pink drone is already sauntering over.
“V?” the pink drone ventures. “Bestie?”
The maid startles, and looks up. White ticks appear under her eyes, a blush blooming.
“It is you! Nice outfit.” When the drone rises, Lizzy notes, “Are you like, shorter? Lost the platform heels, I guess.”
Thad has his pipe; he’d kept one strapped to him ever since the world went sideways. He’s torn between charging forward and using it, or running to go get help. It didn’t make sense — but Thad had gotten too used to the world doing that, at this point — and Thad just didn’t know what the right play was.
But it doesn’t matter. It’s too late for both of them.