When everyone woke up Terra had scrounged together a makeshift breakfast with canned meat and mashed potatoes. Terra had arrived an hour earlier, tired of walking around under the dark sky, and figured a meal would lift people’s spirits. Jealousy of their meal, although it didn’t look appetizing, hit her as she watched them eat. Being a robot did have its perks, but everything was numbed through her eyes since she couldn’t feel anything. Sighing to herself, she cleaned up the room and repacked all their materials while they ate, wanting to do something to distract herself from those depressing thoughts.
“You didn’t call attention to us?” Indo asked in between bites.
“If I caused trouble, we’d already have left. I know how to lay low.” Terra sniped back.
Indo shrugged and set his plate down, walking to the bed he had laid in and pulled out a little cube, similar to the cube that Terra had used to download her voice.
“I worked on this last night. Download it and you can have a more human voice. From now on we’ll be treating you as a person rather than a robot.”
This caught Terra off guard and she accepted the cube.
“You’re not trying to overload my system again, right? Last time it didn’t work and it won’t work now, but I’ll remember it.” Terra warned as she plugged the cube into the nape of her neck.
Icy water trickled through her brain and opened her mouth. A deep voice came out, so Terra adjusted the pitch until it sounded more like the one she remembered.
“Thanks, Indo,” Terra said, finally glad that she could use inflections and not have to hear that annoyingly monotone robotic voice say everything she wanted to say.
“Wow, I always thought you were a guy,” 895G called out, licking his plate clean.
“And I thought you were a pussy. Oh, wait, you still are.”
“You don’t have one of those things to make her nicer?” 895G asked Indo. “Or maybe turn her entire personality down a notch?”
Indo laughed heartily and Petri cracked a smile.
“I asked this before,” 895G started. “But exactly why am I being held captive? I’m just another mouth to feed and I’m just a Scout, so I don’t know top-secret information.”
“So you’re saying I should just kill you then?” Terra spoke up. “After all, you are just another mouth to feed.”
895G stammered, trying to come up with an excuse, mentally kicking himself for even bringing up the topic.
“Terra came up with the idea to keep you as a hostage, I was for getting rid of you once we got our answers. Hell, even Petri wants to get rid of you. You’re Terra’s pet for the time being until you do something stupid, and then you get put down. For now, you will just warn us where new HQ buildings are being constructed, high areas of Patrols, and inform us if you see any hidden Patrol agents lurking around. Understand?”
895G nodded meekly. Identifying undercover agents and revealing Patrol locations was an act of treason, automatically labeling him a criminal. But there was no way of this group of outlaws to prove what he said was true, so he could probably lead them straight into a trap without them even knowing.
Indo unrolled a map, pointing to the city of Eldern.
“This is us. We have to walk twenty clicks southeast to Yunto. There, we’ll catch a ferry to Hollindayse, and then it's another thirty clicks east until Tinyon. Here are all the bases I remember from my youth,” Indo circled four small cities along the way and then handed the marker to 895G. “Mark the rest.”
With a shaking hand, 895G marked two bases on the map. Only one of them was correct, the other he hoped would push the group to walk through the Patrol area of the other one, giving him the opportunity to bump into a Scout and gaining freedom.
“You do realize that collar reads your heart palpitations. I can tell you’re lying.” Indo frowned, disturbed by how naive this younger man was.
“Yup. Doesn’t help that I’m also a robot and don’t need that collar to tell.” Terra chimed.
“Anybody with eyes can tell you’re lying,” Petri spoke, turning everyone head.
Indo tried to stifle his smile but absolutely failed, his pearly whites beaming at his assistant. Clearing his throat, he covered his mouth and continued.
“Exactly. Now tell us where the real bases are otherwise zap-zap.” Indo stared down at the lying Scout, finger playfully grazing over his switch.
895G didn’t want to get electrocuted again, but he refused to give into these extremists. He stubbornly set his jaw and released the marker in his hand onto the table, signaling that he was done giving up information. Indo’s eyes narrowed at the challenge. Before Indo could press the switch, Terra jumped in. “Hold on, he’ll tell us.”
Without another word, she pointed at the first base 895G had drawn and stared at the Scout. After a few seconds of silence, she pointed to the next one and stared at the confused Scout.
“First one is real, the second one is fake.” She announced.
Indo turned to 895G.
“She just saved your ass. Alright everyone, grab a pack, put on your respirators, and let’s go.”
While Indo and Petri grabbed packs and struck up their own conversation, 895G pulled the robot aside.
“How did you know?”
“Are you serious? I just told you I could tell if you’re lying since I’m a robot. Do you have ears?”
“Oh,” was the Scout could say, feeling like a complete idiot.
Terra ripped her arm out of the Scout’s grip and grabbed her two packs and pushed the stasis tube to the door. 895G was the last to leave the room. They took the elevator down to the lobby and dropped their keycards off at the front desk. The bright man in pink was coincidentally there as well.
“Such a short stay, you wouldn’t want to stay a night longer?” The man pasted on his best salesman smile. The man looked around at all the faces and his own face twisted in befuddlement. “Where’s the Efficiency?”
“Afraid not, we’re on a tight schedule,” Indo stated curtly, not bothering to offer the second question a response.
“Safe travels!” The pink man said, and Terra saw his grin shift as soon as they turned.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Terra recognized the greedy look in his eyes and told herself to stay extra vigilante on their travel through the city.
The sky was an ugly mixture of grey and bright red when they left the inn, giving the ground and the air around them an otherworldly feel to it. Well, to Terra it felt otherworldly, to the others it was probably perfectly normal. It wasn’t until they were about halfway through the city that Terra noticed someone following them.
The person with a blue respirator had been following them for the past four blocks, eyes trained on their group. A minute after she noticed that one, two more joined the person, spread apart in a way not meant to draw attention. Indo stopped all of a sudden, bringing the group to a halt.
“Can we help you, gentlemen?” Indo’s voice didn’t shake as a large man stood in front of him.
The man was dressed in brown leathers and covered head to toe in light armor. His respirator had a skull drawn over it, most likely drawn to intimidate everyone who wasn’t already intimidated by the bulky figure carrying a gun.
“Hand over the Efficiency.” The man growled, uncrossing his arms so one of his hands grazed against the handle of his gun.
“I’d love to,” Indo said. “Efficiency, would you go with these men? Just wait until we’re clear of the area for you to do what you want. Try to lay low at least.”
Flinging Terra a wink, Terra handed her packs to 895G and almost laughed when his knees buckled under the weight. Petri took the cart that had the tube on it. They walked around the corner, out of sight.
“That was surprisingly easy. I thought they’d at least put up a fight.” A man said. Terra turned her head slightly and saw the voice came from the first man she had spotted.
“We didn’t need this many people then. I even called out Urie and Oui and now we have to pay them.” The large man who had stopped them grumbled. “Classic Efficiency models sell for more than all of us put together, so it doesn’t matter in the long run. Efficiency,” He turned to Terra. “Follow me.”
If Terra could raise an eyebrow, she would. She didn’t move.
“Efficiency,” the man said again with more force. “Follow me.”
“Is it broken? Would they still pay for a broken one?” Urie asked, joining the other two.
“Shut up, it’s a collectible so the buyers wouldn’t care if it worked.” The blue-respirator one snapped at them.
“It’s going to be such a pain in the ass to have to carry it though. How was it following the other crew?” Oui added.
“Are you guys finished?” Terra asked, annoyed. Nothing was happening and she didn’t want these people to keep talking about her when she was standing right there.
“You don’t get--What?”
The four bandit’s heads turned to her and she crossed her arms and leaned her weight onto one leg.
“It’s really rude to talk about someone right in front of them. Oh, and I’m not going with you, just thought I’d let you know.” Terra was trying her best to provoke them; she really needed to let out some steam.
“Hold on, this is an Efficiency model right?” The largest man turned to the man with the blue mask.
“Yeah, my intel was solid. Definitely Efficiency.” He defended.
“Then why the fuck is it talking back to us? That isn’t an Efficiency model!” The large man grasped the smaller man by his collar and lifted him off the ground.
Shrugging off her coat to reveal her metallic arms, she rolled her arms back to loosen up her limbs.
“Guys, seriously. I’m standing right here.”
She could tell the large man was deliberating whether to believe what his eyes were telling him or his brain that was screaming something entirely different. The skull-respirator man dropped the other man to the ground and pulled out the gun from his waistband.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m going to get my money. Come with us or else.” He threatened.
“That’s more like it!” Terra said cheerfully. The drama queens were finally over their squabble and were going to come at her seriously. She hoped this fight wasn’t going to disappoint her too much.
Urie was the first one to shoot his gun, but it bounced right off Terra and ricocheted off and his Oui in the leg. Urie dragged Oui away in a tizzy.
“Already? Seriously?” Terra asked in disbelief. She should have tried to avoid the bullet so she’d still have two more opponents.
Learning quickly, the larger man holstered his weapon and tried to grab her arm. Terra easily avoided his reach and was pleasantly surprised to see that he recovered quickly and spun around with a side-kick that came within millimeters of her torso. It seemed that he had true combat experience. Changing his strategy, he grabbed his gun again, but held it by its muzzle and came at her using it as a club.
She heard something ting against her head and saw the smaller man holding a gun in her direction. Rolling her eyes, she held her hand up in the path of the next bullet and caused it to ricochet back at the man’s foot, leaving him clutching his foot and crying on the ground. She wanted to focus all her attention on this man that was better than anyone she’d seen in a long time.
Keeping her hands behind her back, she swiftly dodged the man’s oncoming attacks. He was moving a little slower than before, but his swings were all very close to hitting Terra. She debated letting him get a few hits in to encourage him, but she felt it was wrong.
“Make a fucking counterattack!” The man yelled.
Terra flashed back to the first time she had gotten angry at Alter in the dark world that was theirs. She had flailed her fists at her twin, demanding that Alter fight back. The dark creature that had emerged had haunted her dreams after that, but she never dreamed anymore and had completely forgotten about the whole monster epidemic. She sighed and thought about where Alter was now since Terra could now relate to Alter’s point of view.
A blow landed on her shoulder, knocking her out of her distracting reminiscent thoughts. Instinct kicked in and she punched his wrist away. Grabbing his hand and elbow, she used his own momentum against him and flipped him over her shoulder, making him land with a grunt on the ground ahead of her. She grabbed the gun from out of his hand as he struggled for breath and held it up against his temple while stepping on his chest.
“What do you want?” The man coughed out.
Terra thought for a moment. She wanted to go home to that place with the two suns in the sky and meet the man she had seen in her memories. She wanted to go back to Detroit and redo everything with the knowledge she had. She wanted to tell everyone in Hayland City that she was alive and well.
“I want your respirator,” Terra stated.
“Will that spare my life?”
“I never planned on taking your life, to begin with.” She tossed his gun on the ground just out of reach. “You just asked me what I wanted so I told you.”
Terra stepped off his chest and picked up her coat, shaking off all the dusk before putting it back on. The fight had been disappointing, but it was nice to move around again and forget about the numbness her body ensued. She started walked away but heard something hit the ground behind her. The large man was on his feet, pulling up his shirt to cover his nose and mouth, pointing at the respirator he had thrown at her feet.
“I owe you nothing! When we meet again, I will be prepared and take you down!” He yelled out at her, fighting back a fit of coughing.
“I look forward to it.”
Terra grabbed the respirator and strapped it on her face, drawing up her hood to cover all her robotic parts. She didn’t turn around again but could hear the two pairs of footsteps running away to the nearest building.
“What’s up with the mask? New fashion statement?” 895G commented when Terra caught up with the group.
“I don’t think it looks half bad,” Petri said. “Reflects your nature.”
“Did you draw a lot of attention?” Indo asked, a worried expression on his face.
“Probably,” Terra admitted. “But they were the only ones on the block. Don’t think that big one is going to forget me anytime soon though.”
Indo sighed and ran his hand through his hair, mumbling something about only having one job.
“Alright, we’ll face the problems when we come to them. For now, try and be more discrete.” Indo clarified.
“They came after me, I was as discrete as I could be. You were the one who left me behind and told me to do what I wanted.”
Indo sighed and left the topic alone and went back to chatting with Petri.
“You didn’t kill them did you?” 895G asked, eyes wide.
Terra sighed and grabbed the two packs that were hers off his shoulders and sped up to grab the cart from Petri.
“Still doesn’t answer my question!” He called out to her.
Terra continued to ignore his questions about how she beat the bandits and walked faster, practically leading the group though she didn’t know where she was going. Passing by a window, she caught her reflection.
None of her metallic robotic parts were visible anymore with her heavy hooded overcoat, shirt, and pants. To a normal onlooker, she looked human. Her grin was reflected in the smiling skull drawn on her respirator. All she was missing now was her human body.