Hanna was both having fun and struggling while piloting the Mech. The piloting aspects were challenging to control, as it seemed the Mech was moving like a living creature or an extension of her own self in a much larger sense. In either case her motions seemed clumsy like a toddler learning to function.

The strange mental connection and data loaded information she was getting from the Mech, was flowing just like the times before. It was like everything she did was memorized perfectly in her thoughts. Before an hour had passed her skill had improved leaps and bounds compared to those first few steps that she had accidently taken days before.

The only disappointing thing was the information from the MCM3 wasn’t all that new. It was all the same as before, only with a few updates on the Mech’s conditions and standard system functions. Hanna felt like there had to be more, that this Mech was only just the beginning. However, considering that the information that she did have, Hanna had no idea what it all meant. So, she made the choice to just be content with what she had. After all, growing up in this poor town, getting something new was a treasure and her parents taught her to be content and thankful for everything.

That was another thing that the piloting the Mech had done for her, distract. When she was focusing on the Mech’s movement, the flow of information and working, Hanna no longer would think about the loss of her parents. Even though she had been improving outwardly and masking her emotions towards others, mentally the pain hadn’t gone away at all. The festering hate and fear of Martinez too grew in her mind. Yet just being in the pilot seat made all this worry and anxiety melt away.

The struggling part she was having was not only from trying to understand how the Mech moved about but doing so the way Terisa wanted. Every time Terisa’s snippety voice called out her name on the intercom Hanna jumped in her seat. Terisa wouldn’t let a single error go unnoticed, clumsy movement critiqued, or offer any improvement to be explained in length. The only thing that made it bearable was that Terisa did these same things to the other two MCM3 pilots Lane and Max.

“Hanna! What did I tell you about scooping a rock out from the ground?” Terisa’s harsh voice snapped over the intercom and shattered any thoughts Hanna was having. “You need to dig under the rock so that it goes into the bucket, not poke and push it through the sand.”

“S-sorry Miss Terisa! I forgot.” Hanna replied as she straightened up in the rubber seat.

“Forgot? You do that too much.” Terisa sighed and Hanna could almost visualize that Terisa rolled her eyes as she said this. “You need to be mindful of any and every action you make. That MCM3 is not a toy.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Hanna answered.

She then then put her tongue in her cheek to concentrate as she obeyed Terisa’s instructions. The bucket would sink easily into the sand and hold a lot of it. At first Hanna didn’t want to go to deep and break the Mech. Even though the Mech’s information was telling her it could hold hundreds of kilograms, Hanna didn’t have the real world understanding of how much weight that truly represented. But as she worked and did as Terisa said, the more confident she grew in her movements.

Hanna buried the bucket loader deep into the sand, just a few centimeters from the rock. Then upon reaching the top edge of the bucket, Hanna scooped the bucket upwards and leaned it back towards her. This would help ensure that the rock would roll into the bucket along with the sand instead of just being lifted out of the sand and potentially roll away.

“Finally, you did it right.” Terisa sighed over the intercom. “Now move it with the others by the edge and do not dump it out; place it gently near the edge. We don’t know how stable the edge is nor do we want it to go over the edge prematurely.”

“Understood.” Hanna answered.

She then took a few steps towards the edge following the Mech prints the others had left earlier. Reaching the spot with the other rocks, Hanna lowered the bucket loader onto the ground and awkwardly rattled the bucket up and down to get the rock to come out. After a few moments, the rock fumbled out along with most of the sand. It was at this moment Hanna made the mistake of looking over the edge of the cliff.

Unlike before looking over the edge of the dam, this was a different feeling all together. The looming drop was enveloping her vision and seemed to draw her closer within her minds field of view. The experience was not something she might have felt if she were on her own two feet but being at this unaccustomed height made the vertigo nearly impossible not to ignore.

Hanna felt kind of sick and unconsciously pulled back on the Mechs leg controls. Hanna’s Mech turned fully around and slowly plodded back to the sand pile. As she calmed herself, she realized what she had done. She had just been moving the Mech without thinking! Like she hadn’t been moving in the Mech but walking in her own body.

Yet before she could reflect on this action, Terisa called her name over the intercom and jolted her once again. “Hanna, Lance, Max, come on out of there and let us have lunch.”

Hanna and the other two didn’t argue, they were all feeling hungry. The mental focus of working on an unfamiliar machine was always draining to anyone. Not to mention the heat in the mech cockpits had made them extra thirsty. The water that Gillian had left in the cockpit with her had already been drunk down to the last drop. As they climbed down their ladders the smell of fish was faintly wafting their way.

“Come on guys!” Gillian waved to them from a small fire under the forests shade.

Here the ERM workers had built the fire and started warming up the fish from the fish fry to eat. Lisa was the only one that didn’t have a fish when the three joined them. She had politely turned the food down, not that she wasn’t hungry still, but that they needed it more than she did.

“So, Terisa, how was Hanna’s performance out there?” Gillian asked slyly.

“Are you trying to pull a fast one on me?” Terisa quipped returning the sly look. “There is no way she has only just learned to do all that. Come on, she’s a first year at a Mech school in Moab City, right?”

“Honestly, she really has no prior involvement with any kind of schooling.” Gillian replied looking satisfied that something finally stumped his annoying cousin.

“Hanna?” Terisa called out turning sharply to look at the little muddy red headed girl. “Where are you from. Tell the truth now.”

Hanna was embarrassingly caught in mid bite of a sizeable catfish and quickly lowered the fish to reply. “I-I have lived here my whole life. I haven’t even been outside of town before or gone to any school. Though it would seem fun to go to one.”

“Ridiculous!” Terisa replied tossing her hand above her to show here disbelief. “Gillian, you have a potential prodigy sitting right here and you haven’t even considered getting her into a Mech school!”

“Terisa, she not my kid or my only responsibility.” Gillian answered taking a bit of his fish. He then pointed at John and Lisa, “Ask them.”

“Same question. I don’t like repeating myself.” Terisa demanded looking between the two.

“I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Mech school for kids.” John replied before Lisa could answer. “I thought only companies, or the military did that with adults they employed.”

Terisa shook her head vigorously. “They do but there is so much more! The schools are created and funded by the Hunters Clan, MFA, most militaries, construction companies, and sporting teams worldwide have been creating these schools to produce pilots of all ages. Moab City has five such schools that teach both regular Highschool and college level courses in addition to Mech piloting. How can a town so close to Moab not know a thing about this?”

“Well, we haven’t had power for the last fourteen years or so and even before then bombings were our main concern for much longer. This towns notable industry used to attract AFR (American Fascist Regime) and TCC (Texas Confederacy Coalition) bombers here often. I even think the State of Jefferson (SOJ) targeted us at one time as well. Schooling was the least of our concerns back then.”

“Moab City was no different and I’d argue it was worse there. These schools have been around for God knows how long, but not that it matters now.” Terisa sighed. “Now that you do know, you need to send her to a Mech school as soon as possible.”

“I can’t make that choice so suddenly.” John replied stiffly. “My wife needs to decide with me. Besides there are some other things keeping me from sending Hanna away to some random school to be cared for by random people we have never met. Even if we were to go try to live there, you know the Moab government is extremely limiting with letting outsides migrate into the city.”

“Ah, just do it.” Terisa sighed waving her hand as if to say, ‘Shut up and do as I say’. “She will only be wasting her life out here working for my dim cousin.”

“Hey, I can hear that you know.” Gillian said defensively.

Hanna had been listening silently with great interest to the conversation of her schooling. “I wouldn’t mind going.”

John and Lisa looked over at the little girl. They could tell that it was probably the right thing to do, yet what John said puzzled Lisa.

“What things are keeping him from sending her to school? Money is the obvious reason, but why didn’t he say that?” Lisa thought.

“I know you might not mind.” John replied giving her a small grin. “But not yet. I’ll explain things better to you later, but for now I want to say I’m impressed by you.”

“Y-you are?” Hanna answered wide-eyed.

“I am.” John nodded. “Never would I have guessed that you have quite the talent to move those machines. I’m sure your parents would feel the same.”

Hearing this Hanna blushed and looked down at her nearly fully eaten catfish. Her muddy red hair covered her face as she replied quietly, “I hope they would be.”

After lunch everyone returned to work. Terisa explained that today they were only going to gather rocks and sand for the project. Tomorrow they were officially going to start laying the paths foundation. She explained that, “A jobs foundation is the most important thing to make. If the foundation is even a little bit of center, crooked or uneven the entire structure would collapse irregardless of how well the rest of it was built.”

Lisa couldn’t agree more. It was a sensible notion that was known by humanity for countless generations. “I will see if Mr. Hans can come and observe the construction of the path. Mr. Hans is a former DOT worker, and his knowledge will surely be useful.”

“That will be great. Having another educated person will be better than listening to Gillian’s advice.” Terisa replied.

“Hey, I still can hear you!” Gillian shouted over his shoulder as he was walking with John and Hanna back to the Mech.

Lisa chuckled and then turned to go. “Well good luck with the rest of the job. I have some other work that needs finishing up with my crew back at the dam. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodbye.” Terisa replied indifferently and then she too returned to the job site.

…

“Quickly! Eva, go find Lisa!” Tayvon hissed as quietly as he could. “We will follow after them if they leave. Henry will point you two in the right direction that they went. Right?”

Henry nodded, “Yep, Lisa is going to be so excited! They came back to that unit with a huge number of boxes!”

“Alright, but please be safe.” Eva replied as she ducked back behind the unit they were hiding behind. It was a unit at the far end of the column adjacent to the suspicious men’s unit column. “Remember we only need to follow them.”

“Relax, we can take care of ourselves.” Wayne replied in a whisper as he peeked at a man taking a box off a cart and going into the unit. He then turned and patted a pistol tucked in his pants pocket. “Especially now that we have guns!”

Unconvinced, Eva started jogging of urgently to go find Lisa.