895G was surprised to see so little Patrol agents on the way to Yunto, making him doubt whatever hope you had left on escaping, but there were still a few large cities on the last leg of their journey that would allow him to make contact with someone.

Yunto was a prominent trading route because of its location on the river and was a major trading hub, drawing many merchants and sellers there. It had a booming market that sold everything from common respiratory masks to artwork to the rare live animal. Those with big purses mingled with those who lived on the streets, making Yunto one of the most liberal cities in the Wivern country. This meant that their group of four carrying packs and pushing a stasis tube wouldn’t seem like something out of the ordinary as they would most likely be assumed to be merchants carting products around.

“Keep your heads low and don’t draw attention to yourselves,” Indo announced before they reached the densest part of the market. “Especially you Scout. If you so much as make eye-contact with someone I will shoot you. Not electrocute you, shoot you.”

He did as he was told and focused on Petri’s feet walking in front of him to draw suspicion away from him, fiddling nervously with his fingers, hoping his heartbeat didn’t betray the small note he had written that was tucked away in the palm of his hand. ‘Scout 895G, Taken Hostage, Tinyon Destination’ was what it read.

Keeping his head down proved difficult as they merged with the moving bodies in the market. Although there were more floating lanterns lighting the road, with thousands of bodies crammed on streets and squares, the ground proved difficult to keep track of and 895G kept stumbling into random strangers and bumping into Petri’s back. He occasionally glanced up to grab his bearings and once he made eye contact with Indo. Indo gave him a dirty look but seemed to be struggling himself, attempting to push through the crowd in an efficient manner.

895G saw an agent he recognized from the academy dressed in an informal manner walking towards them. He had found an undercover Patroller! Taking a deep breath, he calmed his heart rate so the others wouldn’t tell something was up. As the Patroller got closer, his eyes flitted up to try and catch the agent’s attention. The distance between them was getting closer, but 895G’s frantic attempts at nonverbally grabbing the Patroller’s attention proved fruitless; he was going to have to come up with another strategy.

The Scout tripped over his own feet and crashed into the Patroller, bringing them both down and pushing other people to their knees around them, eliciting a lot of cursing in their direction.

“I’m so sorry!” The Scout apologized and grabbed the Patroller’s hand, shoving the slip of paper with his message into the other’s palm.

“It’s fine, just watch where you’re going.” The Patroller said gruffly and let go of his hand, taking the note with him.

“Klutz.” Terra nudged the cart into the back of his calves when the Patroller had blended back into the crowd.

895G shook off the comment and hoped the Patroller received his message. His heart was beating uncontrollably in his chest as the weight of his action struck him. If the Patroller did read the note, in just a few days he would be freed! A smile formed on his face and he was glad he wore such a large respirator otherwise the others would want to know why their hostage was grinning ear to ear. His newfound hope drove him to keep his head down the rest of the way to the docks.

The ferry they boarded was much larger than 895G thought it would be. Its three stories were covered in blue lights, contrasting the dark waters and the red sky above. He figured Indo had splurged on the purchase since when they boarded, they were met with dirty glances from the well-dressed passengers. A crew member went up to them and led them to their cabin where they would spend the night. Although they were on a luxury ferry, Indo had only bought one cabin with one bed and no private bath for the four of them, or three since the robot never slept. With all their packs and luggage, it proved a tight space even if all of them were able to sleep on the bed. It was decided that Indo and Petri would share the bed while 895G would do his best and find room on the floor to curl up on and attempt to sleep. It was still early evening though, so Indo and Petri left to find something to eat while 895G tried to find a bathroom--he had needed to go for the past hour and would explode if he didn’t find one soon. He shot Terra the look she was very familiar with at this point.

“Fine, go. I’m still tracking you and if your heart rate gets elevated I will hunt you down since I’ll assume you’re escaping.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

895G burst out of the room, glad that Terra was letting him go alone this time. The first few times he’d needed to go to the bathroom when he had been taken hostage were incredibly awkward since Terra insisted on following him in. The past few days, however, Terra had granted him more bathroom freedom and didn’t even walk him to the toilet, instead of doing her own exploring in the surrounding area while he did his business.

He could hear Terra’s footsteps casually walking behind him as he ran to the end of the hallway and found the lavatory. He blasted through and entered one of the stalls, quickly releasing himself of his pants and relieving himself.

“I got your note.” A gravelly voice came from the stall next to him.

895G nearly slipped and pissed down his leg, but caught himself just in time. Sucking in a breath, he tried his best to calm his beating heart as to not alert Terra.

“I didn’t realize you were following me.” The Scout confessed.

“Who are the perpetrators?” The Patroller asked.

“Indo and his crew.”

“The Indo?” The other man questioned in disbelief.

“The very one. He’s produced a special type of Efficiency robot that took down a Breacher and three Combatants. I’m guessing he transplanted a human mind into it. Just take my word for it, I know how ridiculous it sounds.”

“Alright. But how are you a hostage?”

“Some sort of collar. I’ll need it removed if I can hope of escaping.” 895G told the Patroller to peek over the stall since he was done to see what he was talking about. “Delivers ten thousand volts whenever they flip a switch. All of them have a switch, so either the collar needs to be removed or their devices need to be taken or disabled.”

“Understood.” The Patrol agent agreed. “Tinyon is the final destination, correct? We’ll have extra patrols there with your party’s descriptions. We’ll ambush them when the time arises.”

“That’s not a good idea. That robot I told you about, you shouldn’t underestimate it. If you do, it’ll be the end of you.”

The Patroller went silent, thinking for a moment.

“We’ll set up the area beforehand to our advantage. Trust me on this, the HQ never leaves a Scout behind. Tinyon will be your freedom.”

A light bubbly feeling filled 895G’s stomach at those words. He was going to be free. He was going home.

After washing his hands, he left the restroom, leaving the Patrol agent behind. He assumed they didn’t want to risk being seen so they stayed in the bathroom. Good thing too since 895G ran right into Terra outside the bathroom.

“What were you doing in there?” she asked, glowing eyes full of suspicion.

“Going to the bathroom, what else?” He answered back nonchalantly.

“Your heart was doing some crazy things in there for it to be a simple bathroom visit.”

“Uh, it was diarrhea. Must have been all that imitation meat.” He gave her a sheepish smile, hoping she believed his, literally, shit excuse.

“Hmmm,” Terra added, eyes still wary.

“Been having some stomach problems since I’ve started eating canned garbage three meals a day.” He tried again, mixing in this partial truth to hide his lies.

After an intense staring battle, Terra shrugged and pushed 895G down the hallway. The Scout thought they were headed back to the room, but Terra pushed him right past it.

“Where are we going?” 895G asked, slightly panicked that maybe the robot didn’t believe him and was going to finally pull the plug on his life.

“Getting you some food that isn’t garbage,” Terra said as she pushed him up the steps to the main deck where a large table filled with food stood in the open.

Without a word, she grabbed a plate and loaded everything on it, then placed it in his hands.

“Eat,” the robot said, irritated for some reason.

His first bite was like nothing he had experienced; the meat he had put in his mouth seemed to melt on his tongue. Maybe it was because all the things he had eaten for the past week had no flavor or because he was actually hungry, but this was the greatest meal he had ever eaten. When he finished his plate, he went to get seconds, ignoring the looks the other passengers were giving him.

“That good, huh?” The robot commented, and he could hear a smile in its voice.

“Words can’t even begin to describe it.” He gushed. “Want some? Oh, right. Robot.”

Terra sighed and the Scout could tell that it was disheartened by the fact it wasn’t able to eat. He was too busy eating to worry about hurting a robot’s feelings and finished his second plate in record time. The Scout thought about getting a third plate, but he was already on the verge of vomiting, so that would have to wait until morning. Terra pushed him back to the cabin, where Indo and Petri were already knocked out and spooning on the small cabin bed.

895G curled up beside the bed, using a spare shirt as a pillow and coat as a blanket. He dreamt of being back home and eating real food in his cot. It was the best night’s sleep he’d had in months.