The Oracle

Lavinia woke with a start from an already hazy nightmare. Something about Arlo riding a turkey and then trying to eat her… it was scarier in the dream. Her face was glistening with either sweat or morning dew, she couldn’t tell which as she wiped it away with her arm. For a few moments, she remained sprawled on her sleeping bag, her arm gone limp and covering her eyes in an attempt to go back to sleep.

That wasn’t gonna happen. It felt like every sound was extra noticeable; the wind was blowing through the trees and the crickets were singing just for her. She could swear even the moon dipping across the empty horizon was making some kind of noise.

She sat up and peered through the pre-dawn darkness at Arlo, Mira, and Felix sleeping nearby. She’d been able to have a little bit of peace most days at dawn unless Mira didn’t sleep, or until Arlo woke up before the others. Not that she didn’t like… most of the kids. But having some time alone never hurt. There was a river nearby that she’d seen on the map. It’ll be fine, they hadn’t seen a single other person the whole trip. She’d be back by the time they woke up.

Getting up as slowly and quietly as possible, Lavinia crept away from the campsite. None of the children stirred, but Astus blinked and lifted his head up to look at her. She put her finger over her lips and pulled up a clump of weeds as a bribe. The stag accepted and munched in silence as Lavinia walked off.

Finding the river wasn’t hard. Like with everything in a twenty-mile radius, all she had to do was listen. It was little more than a stream, only seven feet across and flowing lazily past overgrown banks dotted with rocks. Lavinia examined them for a few moments. Some of the formations were single boulders, others were smaller stones stacked up. From the amount of moss built up over them, they must have been watching the river for a long time. But at least whoever put them there wasn’t.

With her clothes in a pile on the shore, Lavinia stepped into the water slowly and gracefully. At least, that was what she meant to do. Instead, she immediately slipped at once on some algae and tumbled down into the river. The shock of the cold water made her body rigid as every muscle clenched up. She burst back up at once, her thick hair hanging over her face and neck like a hood.

“S-So refreshing…” she grunted through her teeth.

Lavinia hurried back to the shore and sat down in the grass, dipping her legs in the water and hugging herself against the cool night air. She lowered herself more and more into the water as she adjusted to its temperature. This time, she was more careful with her footing too. She soon sank halfway down into the water.

The river wasn’t so bad when she could gradually lower into it, rather than dropping all the way into it at once. After a few minutes, she found herself shivering more from the dawn air over her face and shoulders than from the river.

“It would have been much more refreshing if you came once the sun was up,” a creaking voice said.

Lavinia yelped and dropped down until only her head was above water. “I-I don’t know who’s out there, but you’d better clear out! Show’s over, creep!”

“I am not here to spy on you,” the voice replied. “And at the risk of seeming pedantic, I was here first.”

She looked up, and saw the eyes open on what she mistook for a big rock in the pre-dawn darkness. It was an old woman whose skin was just as weathered as the stones she was perched upon. The cloak around her small frame had a similar moss growing too. The woman stared past Lavinia, and her hazy eyes seemed to reflect the darkened blue sky as dawn approached.

“Who are you?” Lavinia asked.

“I have no name,” the old woman replied.

“Uh… Okay. Why are you sitting out here in the middle of—”

“What do you expect to find at the end of your journey?” the old woman asked.

Lavinia blinked, surprised. “What?”

“What do you expect to find at the end of your journey?”

“I want to help Arlo,” she said.

The old woman continued staring ahead. “Is that all you seek?”

“What else should I be looking for? All I want is to make sure he’ll be okay.”

“And you will, but in ways you do not expect,” the old woman said. “Mind, body, and soul. He has been missing, and longing for, a piece of himself long thought gone.”

“A missing piece…” Lavinia looked up at her. “What are you talking about? His arm?”

“In a sense. You will learn, soon enough. But for now,” the old woman looked directly at her, “breathe.”

Lavinia shot up on the riverbank, her body fighting to cough out water and suck in air at the same time. Birds were singing in the trees as the first light of day was filtering through the trees around her. She wrapped her arms around herself in a poor attempt to beat the chilled air.

“What’s going on…” she muttered through her shivering. Her pile of clothes landed in her lap.

“You snuck out here and slipped into the water.” Mira was standing beside her, her usual white cardigan and skirt soaked and dirtied up to her chest. “You’re lucky that deer woke me up, and that we still need you to help fix Arlo.”

Mira stomped off back to camp, leaving squeaking footsteps in her wake. Lavinia threw her clothes back on as fast as her shaking hands could go and looked back further up the river. The stacked rocks were still where she’d seen them. She walked back to them and looked for where the old woman had been. In its place was the statue of a woman, its blank eyes staring forward. There was a plaque beneath it likewise dotted with moss. The statue’s name had long since worn away, but below it was a quote: “The river has great wisdom and whispers its secrets to the hearts of men.”

Another Argument

“Mira?” Felix asked. “Are you… okay?”

The girl, who’d been staring ahead without realizing, blinked and turned to him. Both he and Arlo were watching her with a nervous reluctance.

“I’m running internal diagnostics.”

Arlo frowned. “Again? Is something wrong?”

“What does it matter?” she snapped. “My diagnostics are my business, stay out of it.”

“Fine. I don’t know why I even asked.”

Arlo and Mira turned away from one another as their strained relationship continued, leaving Felix caught in the middle.

In the three days since he jumped out of the cart and ran into the woods, Arlo hadn’t experienced any significant incidents. Mira claimed the laurels for that, after she uploaded temporary safeguards copied from her own mainframe into Arlo’s. Whether that measure was actually responsible or not, he didn’t have any further hallucinations, pseudo-seizures, or other signs marking accelerating system failure.

He did report a few sporadic and seemingly unconnected problems, though. Numbness in his fingers for an hour or so; sensitivity to light through most of the day before that left him curled up with Lavinia’s denim jacket over his head; only being able to speak verbs in Spanish. Even when Arlo wasn’t experiencing even mild symptoms, there was another persistent issue that arose.

That of three children stuck together in a cramped cart after six long days on the road. Their brief tête-à-tête that morning was relatively tame compared to some of their other recent bickering, with Felix once again finding himself as the increasingly fatigued mediator.

“We’re just a little worried since you keep staring off in the distance like, all the time,” Felix said.

“It isn’t any of your business either,” Mira replied.

“If something’s wrong you can tell us. Maybe we can fix whatever it is when we get to the factory too.”

“She doesn’t want to talk about it,” Arlo muttered to him. “Stop trying, she isn’t worth it.”

“That’s not nice…” He glanced at Mira then back to Arlo, “If she’s feeling guilty about what happened to you, she can just tell us and—”

Mira glared at Felix. “How about we talk about your issues? We can start with your weird bird obsession.”

“Oh, sure!” Felix smiled, “I found Capri when he was tiny and pink. He must have fallen out of his nest, but I couldn’t get him back up to it.”

“I didn’t actually want to hear—” Mira started, but Felix only continued on and on. Taking Capri home, when he started growing feathers, mashing up food for him to eat. She stared at the boy, unsure if he was intentionally rambling on to annoy her. When his story stretched for minutes more, she instead turned to Arlo. He only gave her a look as if to say You’re the one who brought it up.

“Stop talking!” she finally shouted, jumping to her feet and jostling the cart. “I don’t care about your stupid crow!”

“You kids settle down back there,” Lavinia called over her shoulder from the driver’s bench. Astus snorted as if in agreement.

Arlo stood too and moved between her and Felix, despite what Lavinia said. “Leave him alone. He actually cares about you and wants to get to know you, for some reason. He’s the only one who does.”

“I never asked him to care,” Mira said.

“You don’t get to be upset at him, or me, or anyone else.” He winced as a familiar headache began to form near the back of his skull. “It’s your fault we even have to do any of this.”

Mira rolled her eyes. “This again?”

“Yes. Again. Because you still don’t even care what you did!”

“Ms. Lavinia said to—” Felix started.

“Is that why I’m helping you get to the stupid factory?” Mira said. “Because I don’t care?”

“You’re only coming because you think keeping me from dying will fix everything, but it’s the absolute minimum possible.” He glared at her with tears in his eyes. “You never even said you were sorry for what you did to me. Not for taking my arm, leaving me buried, or trying to erase everyone I care about.”

“I…” She turned away from him. Her hands were trembling. “I didn’t even have to do this much!”

Lavinia turned around in her seat then, “Alright, that’s enough. Both of you sit back down now before—”

The cart rolled off the even pavement while Lavinia’s attention was on the children, its front wheel dropping into a shallow but wide pothole. Some cargo slid over, and the sudden force sent Mira sprawling into Arlo. The two barely missed Felix as they fell to the floor, and a heavy crack resounded in the air as the entire cart threatened to turn over.

The Town

As Lavinia stood in the road staring down at the cart’s broken wheel, hanging at an angle and nearly broken off, Arlo and Mira did their best to hide behind each other and Felix. There was no point in trying to shift the blame. It took both of their weights falling into the cart as it rolled into the pothole that broke the wheel. They were both in trouble now, and it made Arlo want to cry.

He’d never, ever disregarded what Lavinia said or messed something up so completely. He’d never disappointed her—at least, as far as he knew. It would have been preferable if she’d just shouted at him so they could move on and pretend it never happened. But she never shouted so that wasn’t going to happen…

“Well,” she finally said. One word was enough to make Arlo flinch. “This is a problem.”

“Can you fix it…?” Felix asked, hesitant as though he was the one in trouble.

“I—”

“I’m sorry!” Arlo’s sudden outburst made both Felix and Mira jump. Even Astus looked up from his grazing. “I didn’t listen when you said to sit down, and now the cart’s broken, and—”

“Woah, woah, Arlo. Calm down.” Lavinia went over to him, and the other two children swiftly moved out of the way. “The cart isn’t broken, just the—I don’t know, axle or whatever. There’s a town up ahead that might be able to help.”

“There is…?”

“Well, I hope so. There was a sign a ways back on the road while you and Mira were distracted, and it looked newer than the other old rusted out ones scattered around.”

“Even if the town is there,” Mira butted in, “how are we supposed to get there?”

“Oh, I’ve got an idea or two,” Lavinia said, eyeing the girl.

***

It was a slower effort than normal, to the point where even Astus seemed annoyed by the lacking pace. But there was no way to continue along any faster from the awkward shuffle Mira had to do as she lifted the front corner of the cart so it could move with the stag pulling it. The girl grunted as she lifted up the broken side that only came up to her chest.

“Shouldn’t be much further now,” Lavinia called from the driver’s bench.

“Y-You’re enjoying this too much,” Mira replied, followed by several muttered curses. “Why am I the only one carrying this stupid cart?”

“Felix is only a human boy and couldn’t do much to help out.” She glanced at the child beside her, “I would have Arlo join you since he helped break the wheel too, but for some reason, he only has one arm.”

Mira grumbled again and they continued down the road. While Lavinia sat in the front to direct Astus, with Arlo seated beside her, Felix walked on the side of the cart opposite Mira. Lavinia glanced over at the boy once or twice along the way. He’d watch Capri circling above them, or carry the bird in his arms or on his shoulder, and there was a sense of peace on his face. She couldn’t tell if it was in remembrance of their travels together that led to Seventy-Seven, or the opportunity to stretch his legs.

Beside her on the bench, Arlo was noticeably less content. He sat withdrawn, staring down to purposely avoid meeting her eye. Lavinia elbowed him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

“I’m not angry at you,” she said. “A little disappointed, maybe. But I’m not gonna tell you you’re wrong to be upset about what happened.”

“I wish… I wish I could stop being angry at her…” he muttered. “She’s the only other person I know from Back Before. Everyone else is gone, and sometimes it feels like if I never see her again, my old life will feel like it never happened either. But she’s just so…”

“I know.” Lavinia rested a hand over his.

Arlo looked up at her. “Should I forgive her?”

“Honey, she hurt you twice. Real bad, both times.”

“I know…”

“But I think that somewhere, deep, deep down, she regrets it.” She squeezed the boy’s hand, “Just remember that, even if she does, and if she does help fix what she did to your head, that doesn’t mean you have to forgive her. You don’t have to, even if she does make things right.”

Arlo only nodded and grew quiet again, a new thoughtfulness visible in his face. Lavinia patted his hand before taking the reins again. The boy needed some time to think, and she was going to give it to him.

The cart crawled around the curve, and they all saw at once as the village came into view not too far ahead, the first sign of life in the wider world since leaving Seventy-Seven. Their speed picked up; Mira must have gained a new enthusiasm in her effort now that the end was in sight. It looked as humble and small as Lavinia’s own home, and the signs of life became clearer as they made their way along the road.

The buildings were rustic but maintained, with no sign of broken windows or dilapidated structures consumed by the ivy. Specks roving around grew into people out and about. There was an odd glinting coming from the town, which Lavinia attributed to the sun reflected in windows. Everyone became captivated at the imminent arrival, at meeting these strangers who seemed to be the only other people on the planet. The minutes seemed to drag on until, finally, nearly an hour later, they arrived. Felix ran ahead excitedly as Capri fluttered up to the roofs. Lavinia helped Arlo off the cart, before almost falling on him as Mira released her broken corner of the wagon.

“Um…” Felix called back, “Remember a few days ago when we were talking about if there were any other mechas? And Mira said there weren’t?”

Lavinia and Arlo walked up to Felix, joined by Mira as she knocked the dust off herself.

“Yeah? So what?” she replied.

Then they saw and stopped.

Many of the townsfolk were out in the street. Each person, adults and youths alike, all had robotic arms, legs, hands, eyes, or, in one person’s case, an entire head. They all stopped and stared back at the unexpected guests, clearly just as surprised by their presence.

“I think you just got proved wrong,” Felix muttered.