Karla took an entire day to stumble her way back to an inhabited part of the city. She couldn’t see a damn thing, but wherever she was, this section had steep streets and people who spoke mostly Spanish and French. The habs were spaced out here or nonexistent, with actual daylight reaching the ground. Karla could only tell because of the warm sun that heated her body as she walked.
She stumbled over trash and curbs, but she was surprisingly mostly unbothered on her route. The people here gave a wide berth, and those that approached quickly altered course once they saw how modified she was. Of course not everyone left her alone.
“Whoa there girl! Where are you headed?” A high-pitched woman’s voice called out as they placed a hand on Karla’s shoulder.
Karla could sense the arm, organic. She tilted her head. “I’m looking for my friends, maybe a technician.”
“Oh damn. I can see that! Amadou! Check this chica out! She’s fucked up!”
A man stepped close, his face so near Karla could actually make out his features with her senses. A man of African descent, he also had no major modifications on his body that she could see. “Damn, real fucked up!” He laughed as he reached out a hand, slipping it into her chest pocket where the machine pistol sat. It was so smooth, that a blind person would have never noticed.
Karla grabbed his wrist in a fast motion, yanking his hand back and away painfully. “Ahhh! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! It’s just, you leave such nice equipment just hanging out there, it’s asking to come with me is all!” He cried out as footsteps spread out around the pair. Karla let go and he stumbled away, looking over his hand. “Ah putain! Ma putain de main! Il est peut-être cassé!”
The woman smacked him on the shoulder. “Idiot! C’est un cyborg! Sorry, miss. My friend here didn’t mean any harm he can be a bit handsy sometimes.”
Karla cocked her head. “You mean thieving?”
She took a step back. “Well, haha, when you’re in the Canyons, you can’t let a potential score just walk off. We thought you were some smacked out druggie coming up out of the sewers for air. We were doing you a favor taking that dangerous-looking gun off your hands, really.”
Karla froze up. “The Canyons? Did you say we’re in the Canyons?” That was over 200 miles south of where she started. How the hell had she come all this way?
“Yeah! Can’t you see? Or not, huh?” The woman stepped around her, quiet for a moment. “Only Clan members and Scavengers walk around with the gear you have on, and not down here. That pistol ain’t cheap either. Any security forces from the city would lock you up quick for bringing that kinda gear down here. Who are you with if you don’t mind me asking?”
There was a tension as several other footsteps began to circle her. She cursed her luck. “I’m ‘with’ nobody. I have friends up in the north of the city, but was attacked by a Clan, and then the Scavengers, then chased off by the Security Forces.”
“You gotta be with somebody… Personal guard, perhaps? No way you can afford all that without some kind of backing.”
Karla laughed. “You could say that. I have friends, and I’m looking for them, that’s all. Maybe they’re hurt, and I want to help them as soon as I can.”
“Friends, huh?” Selena paused for a moment. “You know, I have a friend that can maybe fix you up! Your one eye still looks kind of salvageable, and there are replacements floating around for the other if you have the cash, though they are few and far between.”
Karla could hear the footsteps and breathing of the group around her. They sounded like they relaxed a bit. “Your friend, does he take IOU’s?”
“Ha! Hell no, but he does take favors, especially from a kitted out cyborg. Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”
“Baby no.” The man reached out with his good hand. “Leave it alone, a cyborg is nothing but trouble.”
“Relax Amadou. Freddie needs some work done. You know what I’m talking about. Just leave it to me, okay? Come on miss cyborg. Or do you have a name?” The woman began walking off, Karla followed by the sound of her footsteps.
“K—” She hesitated. Should she tell anyone her name? Was she recognizable? She shook her head. She just had to deal with this Freddie guy, get some vision back, then head back to the north side of City West. “Kat. Call me Kat.”
“Kat? Okay, okay Kitty! I’m Selena. What you’re standing in is currently my father’s turf, the Amarillo Heights. You can tell by all of the rocks… Oh, yeah. You can’t see shit, can you?. Though, you can, a little bit, right? Or do you have spatial sensors built in?”
“I can hear you moving. Your friend Freddie, he knows what he’s doing?”
“You snatched Amadou’s hand by sound? Crazy… Oh, and yeah!” Selena reached a small alley where dozens of small motorcycles were stored. She began wheeling one out. “Freddie’s good, damn good. He gave my father his current arms and his eyes after those punks from the next ridge over fucked him up. Ambushed him, left him barely alive and Freddie brought him back. Once he recovered he made all of those Putos pay.” She threw a leg over and flicked a switch. “Come on.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Karla drew close and leaned down to inspect what she was getting on. A chopped and customized cruiser bike was slung low before her. It had what appeared to be pistons, and its loud, cracking exhaust echoed over the alley.
Karla had only heard electric engines since she woke up, she was beginning to think gasoline had gone extinct. “Is that gas powered?”
“What? Hell no! What are you thinking? I’m not gonna risk gas mites. Once they get into your system, they eat away everything that has touched gasoline, inside out. Then every other ride you have, then the garage you keep them in. The fools at the bottom of the valley used to use it, had their entire garage fall to pieces after mites got in.”
“Gas mites?”
“Yeah! Little fuckers, the size of your thumb! They start out small, searching for sources of calories, then eat and eat and eat. They ate their way through nuclear reactors, through oil and gas refineries, and they’ll eat you too if they can’t find anything.” She glanced back. “Well, maybe not you. I don’t think much of you is edible, haha! Hop on! Let’s go already!”
Karla threw a leg over the rear seat, sinking the bike till it hit the stops on its suspension.
“Oh shit!” Selena leaned over. “Well, the tires aren’t busting, so we’re probably okay.” She pressed something on the dash and a whirring sound emitted from the bike. Soon, the bike lifted slightly, the suspension more appropriately pressurized for her considerable weight. “Let’s go!”
The engine snapped and crackled like an angry campfire, spitting jets of flame out of its long tailpipes. Selena tilted out onto a winding street that would have made Karla dizzy in the past, riding along the one of the great ridges that make up the Canyons.
The Canyons were a series of rocky formations that lifted up around Ensenada, Mexico. They formed the end of the Great Barrier Mountains that had made City West so safe to live. She’d never seen the Canyons, but had always wanted to come see it. That was long ago, and now she couldn’t see a damn thing.
The bike leaned till pieces scraped on the pavement, carving around the long, undulating corners that wound down the steep mountainsides. The smell of heated metal and hot plastics filling the air. She couldn’t actually smell anything, but her brain was analyzing the air, telling her what was mixed up in the surrounding atmosphere. Karla tried to focus on her gifts, but all she could sense was some of the bike, a passing sign or wall from time to time, and Selena.
Karla looked her over. Some simple sensors on her palms, one of her eyes was fake, and what looked like a stun gun was installed on her fingertips. She was so lightly modified most people would never notice.
Selena called back over her shoulder. “I take it you’re from up north?”
“How can you tell?”
“Well your clothes look like mil-spec, and you have some gear people would kill for down here. Something like your limbs are expensive and the interfaces to make it work is even more crazy. Besides, nobody has enough to go full cyborg like you are. That is a whole other level of pouring money onto a fire.”
As Selena went on about what kinds of cheap gear has been flowing into the canyons lately, Karla looked herself over with her senses, as much as she could. Her jacket was still intact, if dirty and scuffed. The pants were tangled around her torn up ankles, yet the cloth didn’t seem to be damaged. Even the grenade had only dirtied the pants, not pierced through.
I’ll have to thank Olivia, she thought. She didn’t leave me as bare as I thought.
The pistol in her chest pocket was in good condition, though the magazine was entirely empty. And that was it. All of her earthly belongings could be summed up as the clothes on her back, and the gun in her pocket. She sighed. She’d get an eye fixed, maybe find some ammo, then make her way up into the north side of the city. She wasn’t sure where Delta and Olivia went, or even if they made it out. Hell, she didn’t even know if there was still public transit. She’d have to improvise till she met them again. She tried to relax as the road wound down into the Canyons. With the crackling roar of the engine, the wind over her body, it felt nice, relaxing for the first time in days.
It became strangely warm the further down they went, with openings in the cliff side emitting burning waves of heat as they passed. She could hear shouts and orders, and mechanical operations within the mountainside. It sounded like the entire mountain was hollowed out and producing parts.
“A lot of the high-tech forges around here are owned by the Church, but they keep to themselves and under heavy guard. We make firearms, but we want to get into the bigger contracts. Shuttle and aircar parts and harness shit. The corporations that make those hold a tight grip on production though, no way we’ll get a contract for that anytime soon.”
“Why don’t you guys make gear? If it’s so expensive down here, make it yourself.”
“Ha!” Selena shook her head. “We do! But all of the good shit is shipped off to the north. The corporations and City both keep a sharp eye on gear in the South Sector. Nothing above the basics are allowed, and even those are expensive as fuck. Any nicer gear that gets brought down here are usually off the backs of the Scavenger guild or through small traders selling second-hand pieces. Even then, all of the gear that comes in is sucked up by the gangs. Some hoard pieces they’ll never use just so others can’t get a hold of them. Makes it damn expensive.”
“So everything down here is owned by gangs?” Karla said from the backseat.
“Exactly! The bigger gangs hold a lot of vehicle manufacturing, lots of profit, little chance of people sneaking shit out. If you’re making something like harnesses or gear, you are heavily regulated and those forges spend a lot on guarding their stock. One missing piece of equipment and their whole contract can be gone. Then you have security forces chasing it down, executing anybody they think is connected. Super tight security shit.”
The bike slowed, then turned into a slim alley that ran between two buildings. Along the mountainside were many small shops. One, a cinderblock building with a rough exterior seemed to be their destination.
“Here we are! Freddie will fix you up real nice!” Selena climbed off the bike and gestured to a door.
“And I’ll pay for these fixes with a favor, right?” Karla already knew what kind of ‘favor’ it would be, too. Probably violent, probably dangerous. But if nobody down here had decent gear or heavy weaponry, she’d be more than happy to pay for repairs with some physical activity. How hard could it be?
Selena nodded. “Real simple stuff. Easy for someone like you.”