“Aaron,” the boy said as she finally set him back down on the sofa where he had been sleeping for so long. “My name’s Aaron, and I’m seven years old.”

Terna paused, a hard sadness in her heart as she took her first real good, probing look at him. He was a handsome child, despite his hair being tousled about in a raggedy way that stuck up in all directions. Except for the far side of his head. That looked like it had taken a hard long lick from a Long-Legged Wilder Beast.

His dark chocolate brown eyes widened, and he stuck out his hand.

“Now you’re supposed to tell me, nice to meet you, Aaron.”

Terna’s face broke into a tentative smile. She reached out and shook it once. “Nice to meet you, Aaron. Did you sleep well?”

“I did,” he replied, looking down at his shirt and blue jeans. Both were gray with dirt and grime, and they were obviously too big for him. The knees of his pants were slightly ripped, but she couldn’t see any skin.

Which was good. Infections killed fast in the Hundran wastes.

“Who is that?” Terna asked, pointing to the stuffed sheep doll lying on the sofa Aaron had used as a pillow. He glanced at her, his eyes narrowed, and he glanced between them both before snatching and clutching it tightly to his chest.

“It’s Chingoo, and he’s mine. You aren’t going to sell him.”

Terna smiled, though her insides twisted in guilt. “Keep the ones you hold dear close to you, always. Otherwise, they might be lost.”

Aaron nodded matter-of-factly, squeezing Chingoo tighter. “Is that what the tank was talking about? Their ex-is-tents is outside the system?”

Terna nodded, her throat suddenly dry and clenched. “Yeah,” she managed to croak.

“My mom and dad’s ex-is-tents is outside the system. Everybody got boomed, and there was yelling and shooting, and then I was at Wiz-Nee-Bur.” He swallowed hard. “I miss them.”

Terna nodded, unsure of what to do. “Were they NoMorts?” she asked.

Aaron nodded back. “Wiz-Nee-Bur said we were. Human NoMorts. Said we were rare.”

Terna sighed. At that last moment, when the facility was collapsing around her, she’d been correct. Somehow, when she’d been taken in, she gotten this idea that only hobbs were NoMorts. But it made sense that there would be others wise and sacred enough to avoid the devilish bargains of BuyMort. “Your parents were good people. Do not worry, Aaron. We are going to find a safe place. Together.”

Aaron smiled, and he hopped out of the sofa, Chingoo in hand. “I’d like that,” he said, wrapping her in a large and heartfelt hug.

Something inside her broke, and she finally began to cry.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, letting go and instead reaching out to touch her arm.

“I cannot find my people,” she replied, shaking her head and wiping away tears. “They are NoMorts too, and they cannot be tracked by the system. The BuyMort has devoured their souls.”

“I know I’m a NoMort, but what’s a NoMort?” Aaron asked. “Maybe if I know, I can find them.”

Terna took a deep breath. “NoMorts are people who do not cooperate with the BuyMort system. We live off the grid, unseen by the demon who controls the multiverse. We do not engage with its promises and lies. We ignore its calling, and for that, we are free and invisible.”

Aaron listened intently. “I’m not invisible. BuyMort is saying I can be for morties, but Mom and Dad said don’t ever say yes. So I’m not gonna.”

Terna laughed despite herself. “Yes. Do not ever. I will take care of you and all the other NoMorts. We will find them and save them, and no one will ever have to say yes to The BuyMort. We just . . . we need to find them.”

Aaron put a finger to the corner of his mouth, his little face squeezed into thought. “Do you think they might be in the place with the flying ships and doctors? That’s where the Wiz-Nee-Bur found me. They boomed a ship, then there was guns and lasers. Boom. Bang. Mom and Dad’s ex-is-tents went outside the system.”

Terna’s eyes widened. “Yes. Maybe,” she said, suddenly hopeful. “I had a place like that too. A place where my tribe was taken. Where I was to be an experiment. That is what we will do, Aaron. We will head to the place where we first escaped from my abductors.”

Terna glanced at Aaron, sitting there watching her with wide eyes. She knew he needed a distraction, something to take his mind elsewhere as she plugged back in and guided the tank to their new destination.

“Aeramo,” she said, her eyes stuck on the boy. “Raise a screen. Turn on entertainment parameters and find something for Aaron to do.”

“Affirmative,” Aeramo replied. A panel on the side of the tank’s interior slid open, revealing a large screen monitor. It flickered to life, displaying a tremendous array of subscription options.

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Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Aaron stared at the screen, his eyes shifting back to Terna.

“Morties,” he said, his voice shaking.

“Oh. Oh no. No no no no,” she tutted. “You are not breaking the rules. You are fine, Aaron. You did not do anything wrong. It is already here. We already have it. You did not accept anything.”

Aaron nodded, his eyes drifting back to the screen. “I am just going to find something for you to do while I go find the other NoMorts, okay?” Terna said, closing her eyes. She willed the system to show her the morties, and they appeared before her.

Terna NoMort

Level 1 BuyMort Consumer

Credit Level: 35 (Poor Shopper)

BuyMort Store Account Balance: 9,087,945 morties

Selecting Dizzy+, she paid for the purchase, then watched as a thousand options sprang up on the screen.

BuyMort.

She shook her head. It was okay. It was her doing it. It was her sin. He was simply scavenging what she had purchased, just as the lucky of her tribe had scavenged BuyMort homes.

Turning away from the boy, she moved back to the command chair and placed the Aeramo helmet over her head, letting herself flow into the vehicle. As the electric feel of energy chugged through her veins, she kicked off the tank treads, even before its Global Positioning System rolled into place and showed her the means to her destination. When it popped up with a definite route, she steered accordingly and veered North Northwest.

She moved through the snow, her treads digging into the icy ground and leaving long wide tracks in their passage. The wind howled around them, and Terna noticed that the sky had grown cloudy. A storm was coming, snow and ice whipping up to cloud her vision as she rolled her way through.

“Aeramo, is there any way you can help me see better?” she asked.

Her view changed to a top-down graphical map, filled with legends and marked hazards such as deep ruts and steep inclines. She pushed on, grinding through the increasing power of the storm as it whipped across her ceramo-plas plating.

The storm grew fiercer as they pressed forward. Snowflakes pelted the Aeramo’s exterior, turning the world outside into a blank-white void. Terna’s eyes narrowed automatically in her chair as she mentally focused on the display before her. It wasn’t easy. Every landmark was obscured by the storm, the Aeramo’s GPS was sluggishly ignoring their location, and the tank’s sensors were picking up conflicting data on their external sensors.

“Aeramo,” she called out to the AI, “can you fix these readings?”

“Attempting to recalibrate,” Aeramo responded. The display flashed, blanking to gray before reasserting itself into more definite lines, showing a better view of their surroundings.

Terna sighed, letting her stress leave her body. “Thank you,” she muttered, her gaze fixed on the path ahead. The storm wasn’t letting up, and the thought of what might happen if they were stuck fast and trapped within made her stomach churn.

“We need to find cover,” she said aloud, more to herself than to Aeramo. “We cannot afford to get stuck out here. Not in this.”

“Navigational systems indicate that there is a cave system approximately two kilometers to the east,” Aeramo informed her. “It could provide shelter until the storm passes.”

Outwardly, Terna nodded. But within, she felt cooling relief roll through her body. If the track got stuck somewhere, and the power ran out, they’d freeze to death. Or else be captured by an affiliate. “Let us do it. Show me the way,” she commanded.

The map shifted, a green line forming to highlight a route to the cave system. Terna adjusted course, grinding sideways to steering the Aeramo in the right direction. Things were tense. Her treads faltered, caught on a hidden deadly slick of black ice, and sending her heart into her throat. Fortunately, the digging treads caught some traction and dragged them out, engines whining, as the wind howled harder than a thousand hungry Hundran-wolves circling their doomed prey.

All at once, the rocky entrance loomed out of the whiteness, black snow-slathered stone suddenly appearing out of nowhere. She guided the Aeramo inside, feeling the land change beneath her as she crossed from frozen mud to clammy stone, and she finally allowed herself to slump back into the command chair. “We made it,” she whispered. “Thank the ancestors, we made it.”

“Acknowledged,” Aeramo replied. “Thank the ancestors. Shelter secured. Storm conditions remain severe. Recommendation: it is advisable to remain here until inclement weather subsides.”

Terna nodded, her thoughts going to Aaron. She needed to keep him safe. And to do that, she had to keep him distracted. “Aeramo, how is Aaron doing?” she asked.

A small side screen flickered to life within her mind, showing Aaron curled up on the sofa, his eyes glued to the Dizzy+ screen. He seemed lost in the content, a mindless smile overtop his face.

“Good,” Terna said. “Keep him occupied. Let me know if he needs anything.”

“Acknowledged. Monitoring Aaron’s status.”

With everything seemingly taken care of, Terna could finally relax. She pulled off her helmet, running a hand through dirty and snarled hair as she leaned back in the chair. The cave was a good find, but it wouldn’t last. The storm would pass, and then they would be back in the multiverse, ready to be wrecked and sold at the whim of whoever killed them.

She let her mind drift back to the conversation with Aaron, to what she’d told him about finding them. It was a good plan but, with Wizneber gone, where would they go?

“Aeramo,” Terna said, her voice low but firm. “We need to think about where we will go once we find the NoMorts. We cannot ever stay in one place for too long. The BuyMort’s affiliates will always be hunting us.”

“Acknowledged, Terna,” Aeramo responded. “Do you have any specific locations in mind for potential refuge?”

Terna sighed, her thoughts drifting back to the time before everything had fallen apart. “There are a few places I remember from my travels with the tribe. Hidden valleys, caves in the mountains, places that the BuyMort’s reach might not extend to.”

“A detailed scan of such locations could be beneficial,” Aeramo suggested. “It would allow for a computational risk assessment on long-term survival.”

“True,” Terna agreed, before letting out a groan. “But it is pointless, is it not? The BuyMort is everywhere. It lives inside us, even those of us who don’t use it. There is no hiding.”

“Correct,” Aeramo responded. “The BuyMort app exists in all people who have encountered its nanite probes. It will always transmit, even to those who haven’t interacted with it and thus are not registered into its system.”

She frowned. There had to be something they could do. They couldn’t hide from BuyMort, but it couldn’t find them without their actions either. When she saved the NoMorts, all of them on this planet, maybe she’d get a ship and sail away to the farthest stars. Somewhere where there weren’t sapients looking to kill for morties.

They continued through the cave, the Aeramo’s sensors scanning the rocky walls for any signs of danger or hidden threats. As time passed, the storm outside began to lessen, the howling wind dying down until it was little more than a whisper against the cave’s entrance.

“It looks like the storm is easing,” Terna said, her gaze focused on the display. “We will wait a little longer, just to be safe.”

“Acknowledged,” Aeramo replied.

She sat, exhausted, the minutes ticking by. Around her the hum of the Aeramo droned on, and after a while she yawned before giving in and putting her head into her arms. When she awoke, she blearily cast a glance over her shoulder at Aaron, noticing that he had fallen asleep as well. Yawning, she placed the helmet back on her head, feeling herself fall into Aeramo’s systems, and gaining sight into the outside world.

The storm was done.

“Time to move,” she whispered. “Let us go find the NoMorts.”

The Aeramo complied, rolling out of the cave and back into the world. The sky was still overcast, but the worst of the storm had passed, leaving behind a blanket of crystal-fresh snow that glittered in the rising light of the morning.

“We are coming,” she muttered, her eyes narrowing in her seat as she rolled into the horizon. “We are coming to save you.”