Born of Silicon

I push my servos to their limits as I follow Corax. He stays close to the ground, never letting himself crest the tops of the scrap hills. I’m not sure if it’s so I can follow, or if there’s another reason. 

We weave through the mostly abandoned junkyard, making turn after turn, climbing over pile after pile. All the while the sounds of our pursuers get closer and closer. 

“Corax! This isn’t working!” I yell hopefully loud enough for him to hear, but not so loud our pursuers can too.

“Run!” He cries back to me once again. 

Why did I toss my guns away? Sure I still have my harpoon on me, but that’ll only kill one person at best. From the sounds of it, there could be a dozen or more people following.

Sure I have a ton of information about how to fight in my head, but fighting a dozen people in close quarters combat? Assuming I can even get the drop on them? Without a weapon? There’s no chance of me winning that.

Maybe I can cause a landslide somewhere? Probably not without a lot of work. These piles can survive multiple 100 MPH sandstorms, without a lever a mile long there’s zero chance of me making anything unstable. 

The least I can do is grab sharp bits of glass and toss them into the path. Maybe some of them aren’t wearing shoes.

Crap, they’re probably following my footsteps, I’m making a path straight to us. 

“Corax! Keep us out of the sand! They can follow my footsteps!”

Corax, despite his panicked condition, follows my instructions. It slows us down quite a bit since I have to continuously clamber over unstable footing, but hopefully it’ll be worth it.

Immediately I discover it’s not. Even with me making almost no noise, they still have no problem following the two of us. They must have some other way of tracking us, but how?

I’m out of time to think anyway. Corax makes one last turn and we come straight into a long dead end. Corax stops at the very end, near a pile of metal on the ground.

“Hide.” He tries desperately to pull one of the metal pieces up. 

He doesn't have the leverage to move anything. I run up and help, moving a bit of scrap to find a small nest under it. Is this where he was living? I climb in and reach out for him, trying to pull him in with me.

“No. You.” He pecks at my hand, forcing me to drop the metal onto my head.

 Through one of the cracks I can see him shoot directly upwards into the sky. The instant he crests one of the hills a net shoots out from the top of one, bringing Corax crashing back to earth just as our pursuers turn the corner. 

Nearly a dozen men and women in ratty clothes but carrying a plethora of guns and knives quickly surround struggling Corax. They stand just a few feet in front of my hiding spot.

“Well well well, little birdy got desperate.” A fit man with tattered clothes barely clinging to his body crouches down above Corax. His body is a messy criss cross of guns and knives.

He’s close enough that I could reach out and grab a gun, but then what? I can’t kill all of them. And what if they aren’t kept loaded? Someone’s bound to see me if I try, but am I just going to let them take Corax? 

“Case was mighty worried about ya during that last storm. Why don’t we getcha home little birdy?” 

He picks up the net Corax is still fighting against and stands up. My one chance to fight is gone. I’ve let him down. Just like everyone else. 

The dozen or so people turn to leave, laughing and joking, either blind to or uncaring of the fear in Corax’s frozen eyes. He’s stopped fighting, instead he just stares at my hiding spot.

I’m sorry Corax. I’m so sorry.

They turn the corner and are gone. For the third time I’ve lost my only friend. 

I sit there frozen for minute after minute, staring at the last spot I saw Corax, holding that memory at the forefront of my mind. Just another person I won’t let be forgotten.

A hand reaches down from above, pulling the metal sheet I’m hiding under off of me. A second hand reaches down to help me up, a familiar hand.

“Are you just gonna let that happen? Or are we gonna do something about it?” Vince’s face is darkened by the sun behind him. I take his hand and he pulls me up and into a hug. “So good to see ya Little Blue.”

“You’re dead.” I just stand there as he hugs me. He can’t be here. He’s not real.

“Doesn't mean I can’t help you, now does it?” He shrugs with a big grin on his face.

“You’re not angry?” I ask into his chest.

“Nah, it’s not exactly how we expected to go, but we’d all made peace that we would die sooner or later. Now, come on, while Ivy and Cassie are keeping your other demons away.”

“Thank you.” I return his hug. He feels so real.

He drags me along the alleyway to the corner Corax was carried through.

“Now, do you know how to track?” He crouches down above the footsteps in the sand and scrap.

“Yeah, they put a lot of military information in my head when I was born.”

“You lead the way then! I’m a little incorporeal.” He reaches for the footprints, only to pass through the ground.

Is this some kind of trick? Is he going to help me save Corax, only to have me kill him with my own hands? Or is he-

“Hey, Little Blue.” Vince puts both his hands on either side of my face and forces me to look at him. “This isn’t a trick. This isn’t a ploy. Let me help you, alright?”

Can he read my mind? Or is he like Corax, and can just feel when I’m slipping? I guess it doesn’t matter. I have to trust him.

We start our slow walk along the path. Whoever these people are, they weren’t trying to hide their trail at all. I make sure we move quietly and slowly enough that we never run into them. I’d rather fight them at their base than in the open.

“You’re gonna be alright fighting them, right Little Blue? I can’t exactly hold a gun.”

“I killed three people to save Corax the first time. I still haven’t exactly processed that, but what’s a few more?”

“That’s not the healthiest thing I’ve ever heard, but alright, we’ll go with that.” Vince says.

I’m not sure if that’s a joke or not.

I pick up a solid metal pipe as we walk. I guess I should be prepared for whatever happens. 

It doesn't take long before we reach our location. I poke my head around one of the corners to see three armed guards protecting a door to a bunker built right into one of the scrap heaps.

“We should wait for night before you go in.” Vince stands directly in the open next to me. 

“I can’t see well at night. I should go in now, right?”

“You’re going to march in there when we know for a fact there’s over a dozen people inside? The best thing to do would be to find cover and watch for a few days. Get an idea on how many of them there are in total, and strike when not many are home.”

“You want me to leave Corax in there for days? Who knows what they’re doing to him in there!” It takes a lot to not be so loud as to alert the guards.

“Alright Little Blue, at the end of the day it’s your call. However, I would like for you to live just a little longer.”

“You were less manipulative when you were alive.” 

I creep away from the edge and spend a few minutes scouting out every pile that would have sight of the entrance. I guess just about everywhere would work for hiding, with half my plates missing I can really blend in as discarded scrap.

It doesn't take long for me to decide on a spot. There’s what looks like a half crumpled car about halfway up one of the piles with just the hood and very tip of the windshield poking out around the corner. The body of the car is just out of sight of the guards. 

It should be easy to climb into without being seen, and to crawl into the driver's seat. I’ll have great cover, and a greater view.

It turns out climbing up loose collections of scrap metal is pretty precarious, especially when a single of my revealed wires or coolant tubes getting snagged on any of the thousands of sharp pieces could very easily lead to my death. 

Vince of course has no problem heading up before me, but I’m left carefully testing every hand and foothold before putting my weight on them. 

It takes quite a while for me to make the precarious climb and drag myself through the blown out back window. 

The inside of the car is absolutely full of sand up to the windows, but there’s just enough space for me to drag myself up between the front two seats. Vince sits casually, with his legs crossed on the hood of the car, bowl of food in hand.

“Did you know you get to eat whatever you want when you’re dead? I haven’t had this cereal in 30 years.”

“You could have helped me up.” I grumble.

“No, I couldn’t. Incorporeal, remember?”

Right.

“Then how did you help me up from that hiding spot?”

“Just because you think you saw something, doesn't mean it happened.” He says casually. “That’s kind of how hallucinations work.”

“How am I even supposed to tell? Every memory I’ve had feels so real. Even you sitting here feels real. I can’t just spend every moment doubting what I’m seeing.”

“Fair enough I suppose, just thought it was something important to think about.” He goes back to enjoying his cereal.

We sit there in silence for a while, watching the three guards standing lazily at the mouth of their base.

Every moment my anxiety is growing. They could be doing anything to him in there, and my mind just keeps filling with endless possibilities.

“I’m going in. Don’t try to stop me.” I tell Vince and start my quick descent. It’s a whole lot easier than going up.

“I don’t plan on it. I’ll letcha know if I see anything you ought to know. And I’ve got your back if you start to break down.”

“Thanks Vince. Just make sure Kara and the others don’t make it to me and I’ll be fine.”

“What, you think Ivy and Cassie would lose a fight?” Vince sounds almost insulted.

“I can think of one they lost.” I say grimly. 

“Alright Little Blue, no need to get that dark. Just go kill some people and get your friend back.”

“That’s the plan.” I jump the last few feet to the ground and heft my pipe in my hand. Here we go again.