Steffo got stuck trying to keep all the little kids in line by himself when the fighting started, and as soon as he freed himself an adult put him to work driving the jitney. Despite being the only vehicle in the village, it had not seen much use lately and most people were content to stand around and gawk at it instead. Possibly because it was the only vehicle in the village.

But now Steffo drove the jitney back and forth around town to haul whatever gear wherever it was needed, while also loading it with goods for their upcoming trip. All manner of food and survival equipment accumulated in the back of the jitney, until Steffo could no longer ignore the obvious problem.

"There's no way this one car can carry everyone. Are we really going to use it to fight through Belvidere and reach the train station? You don't have to pretend for our sake."

Ms. Uxral winced a bit at the question and explained, "We aren't taking the train to the city. I'm not about to risk everyone's lives for that, and… none of us can enter the city without breaching our contracts with CyraCorp. That would just make everything so much worse. So we're trusting you kids to look after each other and follow my instructions."

Steffo stopped asking questions after that.

Only one person amidst the hustle noticed that Phanya and Ricky were still moping in their corner of the cafeteria. Grandbag Bristol rolled up in his scooter and shook his cane at them in mock annoyance. "Shouldn't you kids start packing? You've got a vacation coming!"

"Yeah, they're doing all of this because of us. Because we screwed everything up," Ricky said. He was hunched over the new journal that Ms. Uxral helped him bind, writing down every system message in an attempt to distract his own guilt.

"Bah, it was bound to happen. Some things the new generation just has'ta experience firsthand." Bristol leaned forward and held one hand up to his mouth to look like the most obvious spy and stage whispered, "Between you and me, Sophia doesn't have the room to talk. I remember when she was your age, girl was so full of piss n' vinegar that she would've shanked the bastard first chance she got. Oh yes, don't let the schoolteacher act fool you, little Sophia was a real hellcat back then. I learned my plastic braiding for her."

Bristol's smile was equal parts teeth and holes, and now that he had their full attention he pulled out a coil of tightly-braided plastic string with a pen tied at each end. He always had one, and the kids always assumed it was just a way to keep his old hands limber. "Used to be, I could twist one o' these garrotes in 30 seconds flat. We could walk into any office anywhere and before they knew it we'd take out... ah, I'm ramblin' again. Point is kids, do what ya can with what ya got, and you'll do alright." He gave a conspiratorial wink and rolled away, leaving the youth too confused to properly mope.

"I really need to pick a good second class," Ricky mumbled.

Tapper spent most of the preparation time attempting to administer the regeneration potions to anyone injured in the fight. Unlike Aazran, these patients were conscious and none of them wanted to have their wounds wrapped in bandages soaked in his bitter potion. They were even less willing to try drinking it, no matter how much Tapper tried to reassure them with its classified nature.

By sheer happenstance, Aazran happened to walk by the sickbay and smacked one of the patients, telling all of them to stop complaining and let the robot work. The same stuff healed his broken jaw like new, after all! That one compliment, even if Aazran hadn't directed it at him, warmed Tapper's emotional center and burned away all the mounting frustrations. It was almost worth putting up with the uncooperative patients.

But there was no time to bask in the warm feelings, and as soon as Tapper finished someone put him to work lugging gear. One fetch quest sent Tapper down to the storage basement, and while wandering in that maze he stopped at the sound of a muffled mumbling. He split his processor between his hearing module and quieting his movements, and to his surprise the walking program actually listened. Tapper snuck around the corner to find Steffo, squeezing his head with both hands and quietly hyperventilating to himself.

"Damnit… I don't want to leave again… hate the freaking city… I wasn't even in the damn fight, but of course the big dumb bulk has to go along as protection…"

Tapper quietly retreated, thoughts and programs at war. His emotional center demanded to rush in and comfort his friend, and his social programming countered that his friend clearly wanted to be left alone. But they both agreed that Steffo's comments about being treated like an object were strangely empathetic, and required some deeper consideration.

"Okay, that's about everything!" Ms. Uxral shouted, suddenly turning the hypothetical plans into a reality that the kids were not prepared for. Each one tried to protest, to offer other last-minute plans, but the adults would not hear it. Hugs were squeezed, hair was tussled, and parting thoughts were lost to the overlapping commotion of voices. Everyone gave more than they should; Struzick even insisted on leaving his coil rifle in the jitney, "just in case."

The trip was only supposed to last a few days, but no one pretended that was guaranteed.

Still, Ms. Uxral was the only elder not putting on a face for the kids' sake. Her face showed the strain that everyone felt, concentrated onto the hand-written letter in her hands. She scribbled something down while the others were talking and folded it with neat, crisp edges. A larger, sturdier piece of paper folded around it to make an envelope, and she sealed most sides with a can of spray glue. At the last flap she hesitated before she took off her brooch and sealed it into the envelope, spraying an extra gob of glue in the middle to look like a wax seal.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Despite never explaining or drawing any attention to it, the instant it was gone Ms. Uxral looked positively indecent to Ricky and Phanya. She wore it every day, to the point where it blended in with the rest of her body and it took effort to remember what it even was — just some wires twisted to resemble a bundle of wheat. They never realized how much it clearly meant to her, until they saw its absence.

"I need you all to listen close and listen good." Tapper, Ricky, Phanya, and Steffo all tried to wrangle their various misgivings, and mostly managed to maintain eye contact. "The plan is simple, you're going to follow the train tracks into town and find an old comrade of ours named Saulizai. Do not enter that name into any electronic search engine, he'll find out. Just look for the nearest soup kitchen, they can point you in the right direction. Give him this and he can tell you when it's safe to come home. I wish we could do more, but... talking to him has always been a one-way street."

Ms. Uxral looked just as downtrodden as the kids for a split second before she forced some levity into her voice. "But! That just means you'll get to see the city for a few days. Now hurry, the whistleblowers are almost here." The matron figure of Fableton gave each person one last extra-long hug, and the kids were ushered into the jitney with all the steady inevitability of the outgoing tide.

Once the door shut behind them, the cabin of the jitney felt very quiet and very cramped. Phanya and Ricky were both still dealing with the reality of the situation; Steffo's stomach gurgled and he clenched at it, looking like he was ready to get sick at any moment.

Tapper made a sound to mimic clearing his throat and said, "Not to commit further subterfuge, but I believe that Steffo should stay here." Ricky and Phanya made sputtering noises, and Steffo looked up from his stomach in confusion, but Tapper charged ahead. "Speaking purely in terms of return on investment, you would do the most good by staying to protect Fableton. We can… take care of ourselves, and the people here will require all the assistance they can get."

Phanya stared Tapper down, before she shared a subtle nod with him and her mood instantly shifted. "Yeah, Tap's right. Don't get me wrong, it is badass that everyone in town are apparently still professional soldiers —"

Ricky joked before he could help himself, "More like war criminals."

"Yeah sure, war criminals, but they're old war criminals." Phanya slung an arm around Ricky's neck and let him struggle a bit while she continued, "We can take care of ourselves for a bit, they actually need the help but won't admit it. Struzick actually will not take back his coil rifle, that's weird!"

"I am also more capable of wanton destruction than Miss Uxral realizes." Tapper noticed the looks this earned him and clanked his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. "Only to facilitate keeping my promise to her." Steffo chuckled, just a little bit, and Tapper capitalized on the opening. "Plus, we shall only be gone for a few days. And I promise I will return so that I may see my first friend again."

"Awww," Phanya gushed, squeezing Ricky a little bit harder while Steffo's coloration darkened. Tapper wiggled his eyebrows, happy to alleviate everyone's mood.

Ricky struggled out of his exosuit in order to escape Phanya's embrace and got settled into the driver's seat of the jitney. "Look I agree and all, but we gotta go. You all plan on how we can ditch Steffo without Ms. Uxral reinventing capital punishment on our asses, and I'll drive."

A hand thumped on the vehicle from outside to emphasize the urgency, and after a few lurching attempts Ricky got everyone moving. By the time they circled the warehouse and aimed for the gate, the party had formed a new plan and said their second round of good-byes.

Phanya climbed up onto the jitney's roof via an access panel and helped haul Tapper up after her. The robot still wore his disguise, all part of the plan, but he struggled to hold onto it in the increasing wind. His constant shifting against the wind turned into walking in place, and once his legs were tapdancing on their own Tapper could suddenly balance much more easily.

"Is that really necessary, Taps?"

"It helps me balance," Tapper said simply. "From a perk I received."

Phanya just shrugged, they were here to put on a show so Tapper's eccentricities only helped. And the star of the show was Struzick's coil rifle, cradled awkwardly in her hands. An even grid of black dots spread in the sky from the direction of the recycling center as the whistleblower drones flew too high in the sky to make out any fine details, so Phanya didn't bother aiming for any specific one.

Even if they were close enough, Phanya would never manage to shoot one of the drones. The instant Phanya put her finger on the trigger she felt the wave of disorientation from the system rejecting the weapon, it even took some effort to keep her balance. Luckily, shooting the drones wasn't the point.

The point was to hip-fire the energy weapon into the air and drop it back down the hatch. Then Steffo took it, gave his friends a thumbs-up, and dived out of the moving vehicle. He worked out the timing with Ricky so he'd land in a softer pile of trash and hide out in Ricky's clubhouse, sneaking back into town once the sun set. By then it'd be too late for the Fableten elders to do anything about it, and they'd have no choice but to accept Steffo's help.

Phanya, meanwhile, raised both middle fingers into the air for the drones. Surely they had tracked the streak of energy back to her, and she needed to send a message. "CASPIAN FAIRBANKS!" She shouted over the wind. Could the whistleblower drones even hear her? Doesn't matter. "COME AND GET US, YOU FUCKING DWEEB!" Phanya held the pose for a second longer, just to make sure they saw. Tapper remarked that almost exactly half of the drones had indeed changed their course, and Phanya shoved him back down the latch. Just as planned, for better or worse.

Tapper landed unceremoniously with a crash, and Phanya landed ceremoniously on top of Tapper. Ricky started laughing to himself, half from nerves and half from disbelief. "Well, we did it. We got rid of our only bulk friend and only piece of high-tech weaponry. Holy shit, we're really doing this."

Tapper sensed Ricky's nerves, but his feeling of excitement still shined brightly. "All for the protection of Fableton, my friend. And I believe I am experiencing a new sensation regarding our predicament. What are you all feeling at this moment?"

"Anxiety," Phanya mumbled.

"Queasy," Ricky admitted.

"See, kaki-see!" Kakisi chirped.

"Yes! All of that together, plus a great deal of excitement. I believe the resulting combination is the emotion of Adventure."

"Tapper, that's not, uh, how it works," Phanya tried to gently explain.

"It is for me. Adventure!"

"...Ah hell, why not," Ricky said, twisting around so all three could bump fists together.

"ADVENTURE!"