I feel tremors. Someone is digging hard and fast, ripping out huge chunks of earth by the sound of it. Good thing, the air tank is empty. I’m just rebreathing whatever is in my pocket of darkness now, and it’s been getting claustrophobic in here really fast.

“Careful, we’re almost to him,” I hear from above me. That voice, that deep, resonant voice. It sounds familiar, but it’s wrong for some reason I can’t think of.

A beam of light peaks through as the dirt above me lifts away like magic. I remember light. I open my faceplate to let it all in. The cold air shocks my face. It tastes so good as I gasp it in.

“Come on, brother,” says the voice. My index triggers on seeing his face.

“Hey, Evan.” I reach up and take his proffered hand.

Wait. No. Evan is dead.

“Get him up here, let me check him.”

That’s Louise. She’s dead too.

Oh. This is the afterlife then. I always imagined it with less dirt. I look around for Mom, but I don’t see her anywhere yet. Oh well, she was always better than me. She’s probably in the one without the dirt. I feel Evan’s strong arms gently lifting me as he flies up and out of the deep, deep hole in the ground.

“Get him out of that armor,” I hear Louise’s voice say as we reach the surface.

My armor melts away. Did I do that? I don’t even know. I’m enfolded in something soft and laid down on my back. Someone warm wraps crawls inside the soft thing and clings to me.

A bright light shines into my eye. I see Louise up very close.

“He’s alive! And awake!” she declares loudly. I hear cheering from all around.

“No,” I protest. My voice is thick and slurred. My throat is so dry and my mouth isn’t working right. “No. I’m dead. Just like Jeff. Why are you all dead too?”

“No, Noah,” the warm one attached to my side says. That voice is so familiar and nice. I want to hear it all the time. “No, we all made it. That last attack that the nanobot swarm did was brutal, but everyone survived.”

“Sorry it took us so long to get to you,” Evan’s voice says. “Andrea said we had time, and we really had our hands full with that last wave from the pit. They were flying, moving in coordinated groups, everything we ever worried about. We’re pretty sure the original swarm AI was running on them. I’m just glad that we had so much backup here when they started growing again and that it was already freezing.”

One more failsafe, here on the surface. Of course.

“Why are you two not dead then? I killed you.” I bounce my single eye between him and Louise.

“Aw, man, did you forget again?” Evan laughs. “What, did you just scroll back through the last few hours without getting the full story?”

“No. I saw it. Jeff saw it, too. Through the eye. I killed you. I killed you both. I saw you die.”

Andrea steps forward. Her long, blonde hair floats in a cloud around her, accentuating the pure white of her spotless, gleaming armor. She’s like some avenging warrior angel. She gestures, and a copy of Evan appears next to him.

“Brother!” The false Evan shouts. His voice is perfect. Then his head explodes backwards and the whole image disappears.

“Wow,” I marvel. “That’s amazing.”

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“Well, it was your plan,” Evan says. Andrea nods in confirmation.

“Really? I must be pretty smart then.”

“No,” the warm voice next to me says. “You are a very foolish man. You didn’t listen to me, you made me think you had gone bad, and you scared me to death.”

She manages to sound both angry and relieved at the same time. Who is she? I look down to see her face and my index pops. Lin. I love Lin. I’m going to marry her one day.

I cough, it’s a dry, sad sound.

“Get this man some water,” Lin demands. In a moment, she’s sitting me up and putting a bottle to my lips. It’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I sputter and cough again, then drink some more when she puts the bottle back up to my mouth.

“The failsafes,” I say. That’s important. “Sixteen of them. Cities along the river. I have the locations, and the code. We have to stop them again tomorrow.”

“We know,” Evan reassures me. “Andrea got your messages. We’ve got the Geologists on their way up the river already. They left right after they dug the shaft to get you. They should have them all taken care of soon.”

“That’s good,” I say. I feel terribly tired for some reason.

“Noah, I’m going to check you a little more,” Louise says. “Is that all right?”

I nod. Louise is good. I can trust Louise. She takes a seat on the ground next to me and opens a medbot box. Lin slips around behind me, her legs around me. She keeps me from falling back down. I feel Louise’s bots tickling around my empty eye socket. Why is my eye socket empty? I can’t even remember.

“Hmm, very rough work here,” she mutters. “I hope you made him suffer for that one. A few more hours and you would have had a very nasty infection.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “He just went to sleep. He was so sad and alone. And so broken. Like me.”

Louise motions another woman over. Her name pops in my console. Valerie. I know her. She rifles through a bag and does something with whatever she finds there, then lifts a fluff of whiteness to my face. I feel a sharp sting followed by a soothing sensation where my eye once was.

Lin squeezes me harder from behind.

“I’m going to close this whole thing up until we figure out a prosthetic,” Louse says. “Lin said you had a stroke earlier?”

That sounds familiar. I check back through my logs.

“Yeah. I think so. A burst arteriole anyway. I don’t know where the line is between a stroke and an aneurysm. Primary motor cortex.”

“Slurred speech, I can hear that even with whatever you’re doing with your bots in your jaw. Any paralysis?”

“I can’t move my whole right side. Left side isn’t doing great either, but at least I can still move some things over there.”

“Can I connect?” Louise asks, pulling a cable from her small pack.

“Yeah,” I tell her, almost falling back onto Lin again. She keeps me up. She’s so strong for her size.

Louise does some fiddling with her bots, then calls Evan over to help her, something about a sealed port. Eventually between the two of them, she connects her appliance to my satchel. A glowing blue brain pops into the air between us.

“Hmm, yes.” Louise stares into the model intently. “Looks like the implant did a good job of taking care of the aneurysm, but that hypoxia afterwards didn’t do you any favors. I think we’ll be able to reverse a lot of this, but I’m going to need to bring Max in. I don’t envy your next few months though. Sorry. Wish I had better news.”

I sigh. Lin lays me back down. Is she crying?

“It’s OK,” I reassure her.

“I know,” she sniffs. “I’m just so happy you’re alive. We’re getting married tomorrow. Today, actually. We’re way past midnight. We’ll get some sleep first, but I’m not waiting one more minute than I have to.”

“That sounds nice,” I say. I’m so tired for some reason. “Let’s do that.”

“No,” Louise says firmly. “Doctor’s orders on that one. We’re waiting at least a week before anyone does anything else life-changing. And there’s no way we’re doing it without all the siblings and our grandparents there.”

Another face comes into view. Valerie, my index tells me.

“Well, if you’re getting married, we are too,” she says. I hear Evan shout something joyful behind her.

“We’ll do a double wedding in a week then. I’ll call Alan and start getting arrangements made,” Lin says, getting up and giving my hand a squeeze. “Come on Valerie, let’s plan this event.”

The two women step away, chattering giddily.

“Have him get us a hotel for tonight while he’s at it,” Evan says. “I’m exhausted.”

“I think we all are,” Louise adds. “Food first though. I’m starving.”

My one eye closes without me telling it to. I’m alive. I’m back with my family, and they’re alive too. I’m even getting married to the woman of my dreams. I’m so tired, but so very happy.