The sound of oil popping underneath a layer of hashbrowns dances off the concrete walls of the man’s kitchen. Fresh bread gets sliced after he tosses in a variety of vegetables in a bowl of whisked eggs. He’s preparing a delicious, home-cooked breakfast for Yume, who has never had a meal that didn’t come with heating instructions printed on its package. He has a slight smirk on his face and turns to her.
“Ya’ know, I don’t think I ever introduced myself properly”
“No…you certainly didn’t.”
“The name’s Junker. That girl out front is Rosie”
“…Junker?”
“They call me that ‘cause nobody gets junker than me!” He says and lets out a hearty chuckle.
Yume laughs back out of curtesy.
“Nah, I’m just kidding, I don’t really drink much these days. They call me Junker because I fix junk.”
“Like trash?” Yume asks.
“No, I wouldn’t disgrace it to that degree. I fix broken bots. Just because something doesn’t have a brain doesn’t mean it isn’t deserving of love.”
“I can understand that to some degree. Although I am having a hard time loving bots after my recent experiences”
Junker laughs and then abruptly stifles it after catching a glimpse of her missing hand.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have much love for something that did that to me either. It certainly took me a while to share my heart with them after the culling.”
Junker lifts his arm up and grabs onto either side of his goggles, pulling them up onto his head. They reveal a large scar beneath them, spanning across his eyes, both of which are not intact aside from their vacant slits. It appears he had them cut out of his face.
“Don’t get it twisted though, it’s The Chamber that makes these things so vile. Part of what I do here is fix that. Kill the seed, not the plant”
Yume nods in understanding.
“Do you have any bots you could show me?”
Junker’s eyes light up at the question.
“Yes, as a matter of fact you’ve already seen one of ‘em! Rosie is my favorite repurpose”
Yume gasps. “That’s a bot!?”
“SHE is! SHE was part of a real dark experiment from The Chamber.” Junker suddenly grows a bit serious. “You see, wildlife down here gets a bit messy from the runoff. Anything that drinks from it either gets cancer or a quirk of sorts.”
Yume bursts out. “I’m sorry…a quirk?! She is a twenty-foot centipede!”
“I know it’s a bit outlandish from a runger like you, but this has been going on for hundreds of years down here. Rosie is a beautiful creature!” Junker breathes in trying to regain his train of thought. “Like I was saying, The Chamber implanted hardware into some of the creatures down here to control and study them.”
Yume experiences intense culture shock. First giant, mutant animals, now giant, mutant, bioengineered animals? It’s all too much for her, but Junker still has more to explain.
“They didn’t end up keeping the live specimens, so they sent them all back down. Absolutely disgusting if you ask me…treating these innocent lives like used toys.”
“Yeah, I can relate.” She motions upwards.
“Heh, yeah they sure know how to treat everything with kindness, don’t they?” He sighs. “So, I found Rosie down there not too far from where I found you. ‘Course she wasn’t too thrilled to see me. Doubt she was thrilled to see any human after what she went through up there. Nevertheless, after I gained her trust, I took out the code from the chamber.”
“Why does she still have the hardware on her? She has lights for eyes.”
“That’s the nasty thing about bioengineered work. Those are her eyes. The metal pincers are what feed her. There as much a part of her as her brain, it would be cruel to take that from her.”
“I see. Even though Rosie does terrify me, I am grateful she found me. Even more grateful that you healed my wounds too.”
Junker blushes a bit and shrugs it off. “Don’t mention it, these things aren’t that hard to come by down here.”
“What was it? I’ve never seen bones mend that fast, it was instant!”
“That was a dose of fixer! There’s an alchemist up the way that makes it. Some process with the run-off that’s a bit out of my paygrade.”
Yume is intrigued by this. The runoff that ran all throughout The Rung made the people up there nauseous just from the smell. It’s nightmare-inducing to think about consuming that. That liquid has always seemed toxic to her, it is mixed with trash and waste after all.
“Huh, run-off is the last thing I would have guessed for the source of that.”
“Like I said, I don’t know what she does to it, but the people here love it.” He crinkles his lips a bit and looks disgusted. “A lot of folks down here get wasted on it. You take that when you’re not injured, it’s a whole different experience. Can’t tell you how many people stub their toe and go to her about it.”
“It’s strong, that’s for sure. I can understand the attraction.”
Junker looks a bit disappointed but lets out a giggle. “‘Course you’d say that! You just had your cherry popped.”
“I’m not interested in another dose, Junker. Hopefully that’s the last time I’ll need fixing for a while.”
“Well now that you mention it, there is another thing I was wanting to fix for you.” He points towards her arm.
“What…What do you mean, fix?”
“Let me give you a hand!” He lets out a booming cackle.
Yume rolls her eyes.
“I’m sorry I had to!” He continues to laugh. “In all seriousness though, I can build you a new hand.”
“Umm…well…I’m not sure.” She looks around the room, debating internally.
“I bet you’ll want two once I’m done! Prosthetics used to be my role in The Constellation, I can make it good for ya!”
Yume considers her options. If she takes the hand, will she still be human? She certainly loved having full dexterity, but the integration of a mechanical hand wasn’t something she thought she ever wanted. Then again, how human is she now? She already has a node system running though her body, what more is a hand? It would be helpful after all.
“Okay fine. I will take it. On one condition though.”
He puts his hand on his chin in a questioning manner. “You’re giving me a condition… for helping you?”
“Yes.”
“Alright I guess, what is your condition?”
“You help me back into The Rung.”
He shakes his head. “You still got some fixer in your head? They’re not gonna let you back up there.”
“I want to get my mom out. I know she’s still up there. Well, not up there, but the next level or beyond.”
“Yume, you are out of your fuckin’ mind.” He braces himself against the counter. “We don’t have the power to get you into The Rung, let alone another level up.”
“My father did it, how hard can it be?”
Junker takes a pause to let her rethink what she just said. Yume maintains her choice and stares at Junker awaiting a response.
“Your father had thousands of people to support him. Research, planning, and coordination. The entire population down here assisted to some degree. What do you think a retired surgeon and Rung dropout are going to accomplish?”
Yume looks down at her feet, realizing the foolishness of her words.
“I’m sorry…I didn’t know. He never seemed like a very coordinated man to me.”
“That’s alright dear, but I can’t accept your terms. Do you want the hand or not?”
“Yes, I would love that.”
“Perfect! Glad we could get that sorted out for you. Now let’s eat this before it gets cold.”
Junker hands her a gigantic plate full of scrambled eggs, veggies, and hashbrowns. She thinks to herself how strange it is to be eating again after her past twenty-four hours. She didn’t think she’d even be alive now. It gives her a new appreciation for what’s been given to her.
Yume takes a bite of the hashbrowns and then shovels in mouthful after mouthful of the rest. The food tastes incredible and this strange, new man, while standoffish at first, is now welcoming her into his home. He’s already tended her wounds and is about to give her a new hand. A second chance at life is manifesting before her. How quickly things have turned from despair to hope overwhelms her with emotion and she tears up.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
She wanted to avoid the pit so desperately that she went as far as to order the GuideBot. She came so close to never seeing the world outside of The Rung. Fate had its cords twisted, yet she still came to the place that she was sentenced to exile in. Perhaps the path destined for her was unavoidable.
It’s not too terrible in the pit, at least as far as she’s seen. She’s able to have a conversation with another living person. There are no towering, decrepit buildings or an ever-lasting haze obscuring the sky. There’s grass and trees here; not to mention exciting wildlife.
Yume looks out of the window to see the sun beginning to rise in the distance. It must be near six or seven in the morning now.
“It’s so strange to not have my uniform on by now. This is about the time I’d leave for the plant.”
“This is usually ‘round the time Rosie and I come back after gathering her food. Say, what did you do for work up there?”
“You’re looking at packer zero two seven. I thought I was packing livestock meat all those years, until the whole altercation with the GuideBot.”
Junker snickers. “You’re not too far off!”
Yume sighs and laughs the pain off with him. She wonders how he can be so upbeat about all of this after what he’s been through. Surely, it must have taken some time to get over such grief. She feels a slight breeze as the giggling dies off and readjusts the blanket to cover more of herself.
“Oh, that reminds me, I think I have some extra clothes around here somewhere. Don’t want you running around naked for too long” Junker heads into a small room attached to the kitchen and opens a cabinet.
He throws a red cloak and undergarments out of the room, vaguely towards Yume. “Think these might fit ya!”
“Thank you!” She shouts towards him, unsure as to how far away he is.
She looks down at the garb and roughly determines that these will fit her. She thinks it’s a bit strange that a man this size has clothes like this but doesn’t want to press him for information.
Junker exits the room and answers her unspoken confusion immediately “These are my sister’s! Well…were my sister’s. I been hangin’ onto them ever since…ya’ know.” He points a hand towards his eyes.
Yume nods solemnly. “I see. Well, I will ensure these are taken care of. I can’t thank you enough for all the help.”
“Don’t mention it. Besides, these have been sitting up here for years, almost forgot about em.” He lets out a reminiscent laugh. “She had quite the reputation. You got some big shoes to fill! Surely not too big for the moon daughter though.”
Yume looks puzzled by this nickname. “Uh, what? Moon daughter?”
“Your father silly! That moon tattoo on his forehead, he never explain that to you?”
“Nope. He and I didn’t exactly have many heart-to-hearts by the time he had that.”
“Ahh, well I won’t get too into now, but we called him The Moon. A man of many faces. That wasn’t a tattoo, it was a node taken from an elite that he implanted into himself. The North star under his actual node is a tattoo, but that was the mark of The Constellation.”
Yume blinks a few times in a haze of bewilderment. “You’re losing me here…moons…stars…what?”
“Your dad stole the identity of a member in The Pinnacle. That’s the tippy top of the ladder. The moon is the symbol they use to identify themselves.” He pauses and makes eye contact with her, realizing it’s still going over her head. “The moon is a large, powerful icon, that dominates the sky.”
Yume nods.
“The North star under your dad’s node is from down here. We chose stars to represent us because stars are much smaller, but vastly outnumber the moon.”
“I think I get it. So, the moon-node is how he got into The Pinnacle?”
“All a piece to the puzzle, sugar! You enjoying your History lesson?”
Yume smiles and nods. “Honestly, yeah, I am. My dad never told me any of this.”
“Well, I’m glad I could be of service. I’m sure I’ll be teaching you a thing or two about biomechanics here shortly.”
“That’s right, my hand! How do we start?”
Junker excitedly motions his hand towards a door behind her. “Follow me!”
Yume follows him through the door and into a tall room with its walls covered in racks and drawers, stocked full of wires, circuit boards, and various tools. There’s a chair in the center with a robotic arm arched over it. The arm is reminiscent of those attached to the bots inside of the hospital, but it’s missing all its panels. Baren electronics neatly woven through a wire-frame skeleton.
“Take your pick.” Junker slides one of the giant drawers open and shows off a selection of cybernetic body parts. Feet, fingers, legs, and hands all scramble around as the drawer abruptly comes to a halt. Yume digs into the drawer and tries her best to pull out all the hands. She takes a few minutes to think it over.
There’s a pink one, a red one, and a green one. They all look a bit bland and don’t call out to her. She reaches for the green one and out of the corner of her eye spots a jet-black finger poking out behind a plaid foot. She clutches the finger and yanks it out of the pile.
“This one.”
“I like your style, kid! Take a seat on the chair for me.”
Yume hops up onto the chair and sets her arms on the rests beside her. Junker sits down on a stool and rolls himself over to her. He puts on a glove with tiny lights spread around the joints of his fingers. He opens and closes his fist a few times, causing the robotic arm to wake up. It swings around and waves a tiny scalpel at Junker.
“Hello again, love! Miss me?”
The arm shakes and wiggles around, returning the happy greeting. Junker then moves his fingers in a distinct pattern and the bot homes in on Yume’s handless arm. It puts the scalpel away and flashes a grid onto her arm. Junker lightly grabs her other arm.
“You ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.”
The bot finishes its scan and sprays something onto the end of her arm.
“You won’t feel a thing, just try to relax!”
The bot rearms itself with the scalpel and positions itself over the end of her forearm. It extends a segment of its wire and restraints above where it sprayed. She is entirely unable to move her arm; not that she wants to anyways.
It makes an initial incision. Yume has a brief flashback to her blood spraying the walls of her room. She looks down, expecting to see a similar scene before her. Surprisingly, there is no blood coming out. Hardly even a drop on the scalpel, and that is slicing through her now.
“What’s happening why is there no blood?”
“I’m not interested in causing more harm darlin’. That spray put the end of your limb in stasis. No mess to clean up afterwards is just the way I like it anyway.”
She puts her worries to rest, clearly Junker knows what he’s doing. This was his profession not too long ago. He has this down to perfection.
The robotic arm reaches over and grabs the new hand. It pulls wires out of the end of it and starts to fuse it to the innards of her arm with blasts from a laser. Piece by piece she can begin to feel sensation returning to her. Every wire that’s connected adds a new finger or section of the hand to her nerves. It then picks the hand up and glides it up onto her forearm. It shoots another beam out and etches around the end of the hand, creating a seamless transition between her natural body and the hardware. The robotic arm belts an enthusiastic tone upon its completion.
“Very good, girl! I’m glad you came out to help us!” Junker pats the arm up and down the top of its center joint. It wiggles again and then returns to its resting state behind the chair.
“Wow that was so fast!”
“Don’t get too excited now, I gotta add the finishing touch!”
Junker gets up from the stool and rummages through the shelves and drawers, grabbing tiny pieces of metal and wires. He sits back down and lays them all out on a tray next to her hand.
“Oh! Almost forgot the brain.” He gets up again and slides open a thin drawer. He pulls out a tiny processor, about the size of a soda tab. “Yeah this’ll do just fine.”
Junker grabs her hand and holds it in his lap. He reaches over to a counter and grabs a handheld drill. He powers it on, and screws open a small compartment on the hand. After collecting all the parts off the tray, he places them one by one into the compartment, meticulously building something inside of it.
“Is this…normal?”
“In the last few years? No. This was a trick I did for a few of the stars.” Junker cracks a smile. “Just a lil’ addon.”
Yume looks away and lets Junker do what he’s doing. Even though the sensation in her hand is now being emulated, it still doesn’t feel great to have someone poking around in it. Luckily, he is a very quick worker.
Junker sets his tools aside. “Alright take a look in the mirror! Let’s see how ya like it.”
Yume gets up out of the chair and moves into view of a skinny mirror off in the corner of the shop. She stretches out her new hand, trying all different kinds of movement.
She’s never seen a prosthetic this nice before, it has complete utility. There are tiny panels all along the fingers, palm and wrist that shift with her movement. Underneath the panels is a soft white light that illuminates their edges. She touches her face with it.
“I can feel my face! This is incredible.”
Junker smiles brightly. “All in a good days’ work! Why don’t ya see about grabbing something?”
Yume looks over to the counter near her and sees a can of soda. She goes to pick it up and accidentally crumples it with her grip.
“Whoa! I barely grabbed that, is this thing glitched?”
“Nope, that there is a bit of user error. You’re gonna have to lighten up a bit before I hand you anything valuable.”
Junker and Yume share a chuckle. She goes to set down the ball of aluminum and notices the small hatch that Junker opened on the top of her hand.
“Oh yeah, what’s this for?”
Junker points towards her wrist. “It’s a virtual system. You can pop a node in there and run it, without risking whatever is on it interacting with your body.”
“What am I gonna do with another node? See the old owner’s information? Seems a bit silly to me.”
“Oh, dear, now I know without a doubt you didn’t steal those nodes. You can do a whole lot more than just display info on them. They can be weapons, camouflage, viruses, you name it!”
“Now I’m having a hard time believing you.”
“Fine! See for yourself.” Junker motions towards her bracelet.
Yume looks at him and then down to it herself. She doesn’t hesitate and picks the one her father loved so much; the green one. She presses the back side of it in place into the hatch. Low and behold, nothing happens. She stares up at Junker.
“I knew you were full of shit!”
“Press it then, if I’m so full of shit.”
Yume clicks the top of the node, and it glows vibrant green. The light beneath the panels follow suit and emit a similar hue. From the top of her thumb outward, a long, broad blade manifests before her, composed of light behaving much like a liquid. It creates a deafening screech as she moves it gently in front of her. She panics and yanks the node out of her hand, carefully avoiding the screaming light.
“What the hell just happened.”
“You’re learning all sorts of things today, sweetie. Try not to let it get to your head.”
“I just- this is all so overwhelming. I have had a weapon on my wrist for years thinking it was my great-great-great grandmother’s jewel or something.” Yume groans, starting to get emotional. “My dad told me this one reminded him of my eyes.”
Junker puts his hand on her shoulder. “If I’m not mistaken, this was what I put in your dad’s hand. He used that node trying to buy all of us freedom. I would take that as quite the compliment.”
Yume chokes back tears. “Why did he leave this for me?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that.”
She sniffles and looks up at him. “Maybe you could help me figure that out?”
“Ehh…we’ll see about that. I think we should worry about getting you some sleep first. You look like you could use some.”
Yume looks at herself in the mirror again, noticing how pronounced the dark circles under her eyes are. She can’t recall when the last time she went to sleep was. Sure, she may have lost consciousness here and there, but that’s not really what one would consider a good night’s sleep.
“Yeah…maybe that’s a good idea.”
Junker leads her back through the kitchen and then through his house. He shows her to a small guest suite down a flight of stairs. There’s a small bed here with a heavy looking blanket, topped with a few pillows. She sits down on the bed and slides the blanket open, feeling the soft down fabric.
Junker leans against the door frame. “I know it ain’t much, but you can use it for a while if you need.”
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
“Don’t worry about it. I could use some help around the shop anyways.”
They share a heart-felt smile and Junker leaves her alone to get some rest. She snuggles up under the blanket and lays her head down. It feels like the first chance she’s had in days to breathe.
She closes her eyes and senses the absence of the nurse scolding her for being up late. A surge of realization washes over her. There are no alarms to wake up to, no job to show up at, and most importantly, no bots salivating over her demise. She is free of all commitments or predetermined fate. It’s exhilarating and she feels as though shackles have been slid off her feet.
Her insomnia should have little fight left in it, yet it still stands to test her. Not even the freedom of exiting the workforce can kill this curse. It feeds from her longing to reunite with her mother, and that chasm between them just became deeper.
Yume tosses and turns for hours before finally falling asleep. The euphoric release she feels as she slips away is indescribable. A slumber well-deserved for the hell she went through.