The food situation was grim. Rin had looted 2 backpacks, a duffle bag, and a small cooler from the rebel convoy. The two backpacks mostly had clothes in them, with a couple of knives of various sizes and a small collapsible fishing rod and tiny tackle box. The only food I found within them was a pair of plastic zippy bags filled with trail mix and some kind of jerky, and a murky jar of eggs in a greenish brown liquid.

I pulled out a T-shirt that I thought might fit me from the bags and set the rest aside. In an effort to clear some floor space, I jammed the searched bags into whatever nooks and crannies I could fit them into in the wall of cabinets, drawers, and empty equipment slots that were built into the cab.

The duffle bag was stuffed full of ammo, mostly still wrapped in the cardboard sleeves they were sold in, with a couple of loaded magazines that I didn't think matched any of the mix of firearms that Rin had grabbed. The cooler was the only thing with actual food in it, it held a half dozen wrapped up sandwiches and a plain bottle of some kind of thick homemade sauce, as well as 5 beers and a couple of mostly frozen water bottles to keep everything cold.

What I didn’t find was any water, other than the two ice bottles, which worried me. Up until a month ago I’d spent my whole adult life worrying about where my next meal might come from, rationing water, and barely scraping up enough calories to keep everyone fed. I’d grown used to being able to import food through the Link and not having to risk trips to the in-person stores and markets of the city. Now even the markets were out of reach, and my safety line through the Link had been cut off for the foreseeable future.

I eyed the fishing pole, wondering if I was going to have to learn to hunt and gather food, or even farm. I’d always been curious about that kind of thing. The idea of self sufficiency called to me, a fantasy that was never a real possibility with my urban living situation and long work days.

Max kept up his conversation with Rin through the tablet, and whispered into my ear at the same time. “You should eat the eggs, and drink the brine too. I managed to stop all of your leaks and begin reconstructing the tissue you lost, but you did lose quite a lot of blood. Eggs are a good source of the proteins I need to help Tevin, and you could use the electrolytes.”

I looked up at the version of Max in the back of the van, and saw him staring at me. The tablet version continued explaining to Rin how he used magnetic fields and sound waves from different sources to create various effects at a distance with nothing but digital input. I frowned, I’d hoped that having someone else to talk to would distract him enough to leave me alone for a while.

“You think having three conversations is enough to keep me occupied? Please, I’m at like 25% capacity, almost all of which is currently being spent on keeping the army from finding us and worming into everything within a thousand miles.” Max said, condescension dripping from each word. “I could teach a thousand classrooms full of Rins asking inane questions and still not near my redline capacity. Just eat the eggs, ”

I looked at the jar in disgust. Eggs belonged in breakfast burritos, not sad gross brown jars. It had been years since I’d eaten anything that was pickled, as the Lel’s did not provide or subsidize anything fermented. They only sold dried and compressed versions of their own highly compatible foods to cut down on mass tax costs, shipping jars of heavy liquid would be too expensive for them to be cost effective calorie distribution systems.

Max shifted, sitting up to lean against the rear paneling behind the Link, and gave me a softer look. “Go on, give ‘em a sniff at least, I’ll help you get them down if you need. You’re a good man for keeping Tevin in mind, we need to get him operable again as soon as possible.”

I was shocked. Max had accused me of many things, but being a good man was not one of them. I managed to control my facial expression, but he could still see through to my thoughts. As always, he felt free to respond to them as if I had voiced them consciously.

“I may have… overreacted. This whole socialization thing is hard.” The Max at the back of the van actually looked a little apologetic, maybe even a little vulnerable. “How am I supposed to even act when I have no idea what they’re thinking? After loading up all that stuff on psychology and detecting lies, I thought it would be easy, but nope. You monkeys are three contradictions in a trench coat marauding as an intellectual species.”

While I pondered his words, I stared at the jar of eggs. I really didn’t like the idea of eating the dirty looking eggs, but if that's what I had to do to help Tevin, I was resolved to do it. I cracked the jar and smelled the contents while I continued to share my meager insights into group interaction. “People are complicated. Sometimes we do things that don’t make much sense from an outside or logical perspective. It’s just something you’ve got to get used… wait, why does this smell like coffee?” I sniffed the jar again in confusion.

It really did smell like coffee, and not normal black coffee, but dolled up sugary coffee topped with cream and sugar. I even caught a hint of vanilla.

Since I had asked out loud, Rin scrunched up his nose and shook his head. “I assure you, it smells like a gym room.”

I gave Max a confused look, and he threw his hands up in the air in confused exasperation. “You thought they were going to be gross, so I made them smell and taste better for you. You like coffee, don't you? The eggs will taste like cookies too.”

I gave Rin a ‘see what I’ve been dealing with’ look, before I turned back to Max. “Man… thank you, but could you do something more savory instead?” I sniffed the jar again and hesitantly took a sip, shaking my head and choking down the slightly chunky liquid. Whoever had jarred these eggs had thrown in a mix of unknown spices and herbs that hung suspended alongside the eggs. Even if it tasted like saccharine sweet caffeine delivery liquid, the texture and temperature was just wrong.

Max and I started lightheartedly arguing about what flavors would be a better match. Rin’s gaze switched between us as we bickered, looking lost and worried, but I could tell by the way Max casually worked in a couple of childish insults and casual boasts that he was enjoying the back and forth. We settled on gravy and potatoes for the flavor, and I managed to choke down the contents of the jar over the course of a few minutes.

I could hear Max having a quiet conversation with Ali, who offered one to three word replies and nods as the AI guided her down the rough country road. We drove for another 10 minutes through the trees and winding gravel roads, passing by run down houses and high fences, yards filled with rusted cars and piles of rotting appliances, and about 10 billion trees. Our conversations leveled out, and Max started acting more at ease as we pulled into a small parking lot with an almost entirely faded trailhead sign. There was already a car parked nearby, but all of its doors were open and there was a bunch of trash strewn on the ground around it.

Ali pulled the van all the way up to the trail, then turned around and looked at me over her shoulder, wincing as the movement pulled on some of her own injuries. Her eyes were bloodshot and tired as she reported in. “The path is blocked, sir. ”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I grunted and looked over at Rin, who shrugged and gestured back at me. I sighed and pulled myself up to look at what we were dealing with. Through the windshield, I could see Ali had pulled the van right up to three large boulders that had been placed in a line to block off the dirt walking path from larger vehicles.

At least this was something I knew well, I’d had to move boulders like that around even before Max had altered my strength. I climbed over Tevin and squeezed past Rin to pull the sliding door open, the van rocked heavily and I stumbled out. My body still felt a little numb and tingly in large patches, but I had regained some amount of feeling in my uninjured parts, and most everything seemed to work.

I leaned on the van and pulled a small rock out of the ankle of my boot, before taking stock of the boulder situation. The boulders were between three and four feet around, and cut to be blocky and not easily rolled out of the way. Rocks this size were something I’d normally use a long pry bar to slowly inch around, or a strap and hook it up to my little rented earth-mover that I had used back at the quarry. This time, all I had was my strength and determination.

I hunkered down next to the first boulder, tensed my muscles, and then rolled it out of the way. Just as easy as that, the three rocks tumbled away from the path and rolled down the built up embankments into the woods.

I brushed the dust off of my hands and took stock of myself as the last boulder finally settled against a tree at the bottom of the little hill. I had torn a couple of scabs open with the strain and movement, but still felt fine. I grinned and flashed Ali a thumbs-up through the windshield, then started back around the van.

Before I climbed back in through the open door, something in the debris around the nearby abandoned car caught my eye. I walked over and kicked at a wooden handle that was poking out from under a pile of soaked clothes and scraps of plastic. The pile shifted, and the handle felt solid enough. I leaned down and pried the wooden handle out, revealing a heavy and kind of weird looking cross between an axe and sledge hammer.

I’d always seen axes as streamlined and flat blades, like in the movies and TV shows. Fireman’s axes with the little spike for prying doors open, or double ended and dangerous looking things that lumberjacks would pose with in the hiring advertisements. This one was blocky and compact, like a sledgehammer that someone had elongated and sharpened one side of.

“Hey, uh, what are you looking for?” Max asked. “No sense combing through this garbage, c’mon, we need to move to cover before the reinforcements get here.”

I swung the axe-thing, wondering why someone had made it like that. Still, it felt like it could do some real damage, and might come in handy if we had to chop something down now that my plasma knife was drained. Maybe we’d encounter a tree that had fallen onto the road, and something like this would be perfect. I decided to keep it and made my way back to the van.

“What even is this thing? Some kind of home made weapon?” I asked, unable to think of what it could be used for other than as a weapon. Maybe a demolition tool?

Max appeared outside of the van and ushered me towards the door. “That’s called a maul, according to my records. It’s for splitting firewood, not cutting things down like actual axes. Now just get back in the van, please.”

I slowly made my way back over, distracted with the new toy. Rin stepped out of the van and stretched, noticing that I had found something, he eyed the pile of stuff around the car as well. “Was there any other useful salvage? If only we had more time…” He stared at the car.

“Hey, we gotta keep moving laddies! No time to stop and smell the scrap.” Max’s voice sounded from inside the van, this time quite loudly through the whole speaker system, causing us both to turn towards the noise. Ali also turned and looked out at us through the open door, and Raschel leaned out of the front window and waved at us to hurry up.

I looked around one last time and nodded, agreeing that we didn't have time for a thorough search of the car. Rin stepped out of the way, and did a quick look over the van to check how it was holding up after the chase and subsequent fight. I moved towards the open door and Raschel settled back into her seat, but Rin started to walk behind the back of the van to do a quick walk-around inspection.

“Hey! No time for that, the van is fine. Let's get out of here!” Max said again through the speaker system.

“I want to check the tires, it might be worth taking a spare from the car. We’ll be screwed if we end up with a flat, and the suspension feels off.” Rin answered.

As he stepped around me, my hand shot out and grabbed him by his arm, and I pushed him towards the door. My eyes went wide, and then narrowed. I had not meant to do that, and there was only one puppetmaster parasite capable of pulling my strings.

“Not cool, Max!” I shook my hand, feeling creeped out at having been driven like that again.

“We gotta go, no time!” Max said, and I took two steps forward, dragging Rin with me as I climbed into the van without telling my legs to take me there. Rin slipped out of my grasp, leaving me with a torn shirt sleeve, and got past me. He quickly dodged out of reach when my body turned around to grab him again.

With an angry and defiant look, Rin jumped back a few more steps and disappeared around the corner. Just as quickly, he came back around, now shaking his head with a tightlipped and stern look. “You should have just told us.”

Confused, I raised an eyebrow at Rin as he sighed and pushed by me into the van. He said, “I’ll take the inner seat, you should be by the door.” I nodded stupidly, torn between confusion and curiosity over what Rin was talking about, and wanting to lay into Max for the violation.

“What?” I asked.

Rin sat down on the far side of Tevin and picked up the tablet that still had Max displayed on it like a video call. He glanced at Max, then gave me a restrained look and waved to the outside of the van. I followed his wave and leaned out of the van, looking towards the back.

A dusty armored form leaned out from where it clung to the rear of the van, like it was standing on the bumper, and gave me a sheepish wave as the huge pockmarked pauldron rose and fell in a shrug. Jorn’s broken and bloody head was still visible behind the completely thrashed faceplate of his armor.

“Oh.” I said, and my indignation finally caught up with me. I glared at the version of Max that still lounged in the back of the van. “What the hell, man?” I asked him. I really didn’t care that much that he had stowed the suit away on the van. It was essentially a weapon, an unmanned and powerful weapon with Max controlling it. I was mad because he had puppeteered me in his attempt to hide it.

“I didn’t want to scare the noobs. As an AI, running around in a corpse-filled and blood-covered robot body is a pretty bad look.” Max explained, getting the attention of both Ali and Raschel from the front seat. “I was going to tell you eventually, just… not yet.”

“That was worth driving me around like that?” I demanded, starting to feel angry again.

Rin coughed and shook his head, cutting into the conversation. “We’re going to blow the suspension with all of the weight, no wonder the ride felt so floaty.”

Max sighed and fluttered his hand in Rin’s direction, as if to sweep away his argument. “The weight is within tolerance, the factory specs are always under-represented.”

“The backer brought something with us?” Ali asked as she picked up on our argument.

Rin tensed up, but kept quiet while I answered. “Yeah, Jorn’s suit, his body too. Did you bring his rifle as well?”

“Duh, of course. I also snagged a gas can out of the back of one of the trucks too.” He replied.

I rubbed my temples with my less injured hand, trying to calm myself down and to not start another big argument so soon. “The van’s been fine so far, and the suit is valuable for sure. Let's just… get out of here first. We don’t have to travel much farther for that, right? Then we can yell at each other about all of this.”

“Fine by me.” Max said imperiously, while Ali put the van back into gear and drove us onto the packed dirt trail.