Sanctuary

More and more people began to fill the street, seeming to manifest from nowhere at all. In only a minute or two, there was a whole crowd, all trying to get a look at the new arrivals. Capri immediately flapped out of Felix’s arms and flew back to the cart. The bird perched on top and cawed, as if calling for everyone else to join him. Lavinia positioned herself in front of the three children as they backed away, standing between them and the villagers.

“W-We don’t want any trouble,” she announced to the strangers. “Our wheel is just—we only want—”

She didn’t know how to react, and even her voice was failing her; the people of Seventy-Seven weren’t like this. Their best option was to get back in the cart and—go nowhere because the wheel is broken. Into the trees would be the best option. The kids would go first, and she could help Arlo if he needed it, then—

“Hey, you’re like me!” a girl said behind Lavinia.

Glancing back, she found an excited girl holding up her thin, gold-painted metal left arm to show Arlo. She appeared younger than Mira, Arlo, or Felix, and had two gold legs to match her arm, sticking out from a pair of shorts. Her metal limbs were unique compared to those of others around the crowd, and nearly skeletal, especially compared to her fleshy right arm. The girl’s hand and feet were almost cartoonishly big compared to what they were attached to.

“Well, you’re like me before papa gave me my new arm,” she added.

“They must be here to see the doc,” someone in the crowd said, and a visible wave of understanding went through everyone that Lavinia was out of the loop on.

“Well, why didn’t they say so?”

Slowly, everyone began to wander off and back to whatever they were doing, leaving Lavinia and the children in total confusion.

“Can anybody help with our wheel…?” she mumbled as the crowd dispersed. “Okay, thanks anyway.”

“Are you really here to see my papa?” the golden-armed girl asked.

Lavinia turned to her; the girl was staring up at her. Papa…?

“Oh, uh, no,” she said. “We just need to get our wheel fixed so we can get back on the road.”

“So, unless your ‘papa’ can do that, back off.” Mira was glaring at the girl.

“Hm…” The girl thought for a moment, “I dunno about wheels, but he fixed me and everybody else here.”

“I saw a guy with a robot head,” Felix said. “If he can do that, how hard could a wheel be?”

“Well, I s’pose it couldn’t hurt,” Lavinia said.

“Great! I’ll take you to him!” The girl smiled at Arlo warmly and ran up the street, oblivious as Mira grabbed his arm and pulled him close to her.

Lavinia glanced back around at the three children and followed along after her. Arlo did his best to shuffle along after her with Mira hanging onto him as if she was worried about him bolting if she gave him even a little space. Villager after villager watched the group as they passed by. Whenever Lavinia saw them, they’d smile and nod. She’d return it—manners were still important—but there was something off-putting about everyone. She found herself wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.

As they continued on though, past an open market and people chatting on the street, she considered: Was she the one who was wrong? Heck, the people there weren’t doing anything more unusual than the folks back at Seventy-Seven. These people crowded around as soon as they entered town and startled them, sure. But who wouldn’t, when a strange woman comes to town with three kids, one who was holding a crow and the other lifting a cart being pulled by a big ol’ white stag? To the locals, they must be the strange ones.

She hadn’t even asked the girl’s name who was helping them out. Here mama’d be appalled at her lacking manners.

“What’s your name?” Felix asked first, beating Lavinia to it.

“I’m Cora,” the girl replied. “Who are you?”

“I’m Felix, the clingy girl is Mira, the other boy is Arlo—”

“Who’s mine, so back off,” Mira added. Arlo shifted away from her.

Lavinia rolled her eyes. “I’m Lavinia. Please disregard anything Mira says. So, what’s the name of this town? I didn’t see any sign outside or on the road.”

“It doesn’t really have a name,” Cora said. “It wasn’t even a town at first, just where me and papa settled down. Then more and more people came to stay, and more buildings got put up. Hm… But a lot of people here call it ‘the sanctuary’, so I guess that’s its name?”

“Sanctuary…” she considered. “So, your daddy’s some kind of doctor? Mechanic?”

“Mhm, papa’s really smart. Oh, we’re here!”

Cora ran ahead again; she could go surprisingly fast on her skinny metal legs. She stopped at a large, rounded building that seemed to be at the very center of town. Lavinia looked up at it and frowned. There was something off about it. Beneath its bronze dome, the building seemed cold and hard, a solid brick structure with no windows or any features beyond the metal door Cora was eagerly swaying in front of. As they walked up to it, Lavinia glanced back at the children following her.

“I’ve got a weird feeling about this place,” she muttered. “You three stay near the door, in case something’s up.”

Arlo frowned. “What do you think could happen…?”

“I don’t know. I hope it’s just me being spooked after that welcome earlier, but get ready, just in case.”

The Doctor

“Papa, I’m home!”

Cora dropped into an office chair that went spinning across the cluttered lab floor. Tables and machinery filled the room, lights on which illuminated the room, and tubing lined the wall. Like the building’s exterior, it was cold and sterile. Lavinia glanced around for someone else, but couldn’t see anyone. A few floor lights turned on and washed the room in gentle light. No one besides Cora was there.

“Where—”

“Welcome home, dear,” an echoing voice replied. Clanking footsteps followed. “Who are our guests?”

“They’re new outsiders, papa!”

“Um… Where are you?” Lavinia asked, looking all around.

“O-Ow! Mira, let go!” Arlo said.

Lavinia turned and found the girl gripping Arlo’s arm, her eyes wide as metal footsteps echoed down the walls. What appeared to be a giant centipede walked down onto the floor near Lavinia.

It had four legs moving in unison like an ant, with another four on its torso. Once it stepped onto the floor, its body rotated around and contorted until it stood upright, towering over them all in an ambiguously humanoid shape of limbs and metal. Its head was faceless, like the Builder, but with a large round lens at the center, crossed by a softly pulsating upside-down “L” shape. Felix stumbled back into Lavinia as it turned to them.

“My name is Orlan,” the faceless machine greeted. “Welcome to my home.”

“I—I—” Lavinia stammered, staring up at the machine. Whatever she was expecting to find there, it wasn’t that.

Cora jumped out of the chair again and hurried over. “They’re neat, papa! They came to town in a wagon pulled by a big white deer!”

“Oh? My, that must be quite the deer.”

“I think it’s an elk or something…” Lavinia muttered. Orlan seemed to be peering straight through her; it was unsettling, but his attention snapping past her was somehow worse.

“And even more interesting are these children you’ve brought with you. Though, only two of them are mine.”

“What?” she asked.

“Papa? You have more children?” Cora asked, looking from Orlan to Mira and Arlo several times like she was searching for a physical resemblance.

“Oh yes, I had many hundreds once. But now…” A red light emanated from the center lens of Orlan’s head and flashed over Arlo, who stepped back in alarm. The light faded instantly. “Mark III Domestic Services unit X17GA. Arlo. And, of course, I recognize little MIR-A.”

Mira immediately looked down at the floor. Lavinia stepped in front of the children for a second time that day, attempting to block Orlan’s view of them despite standing at least two feet over her. He hadn’t made a move or acted threateningly, but… well, she didn’t like how he was looking at them. Lights and all. Arlo stared through her at nothing, trying in vain to recognize the familiar feeling brought on by Orlan’s words.

X17GA…

Images flashed through his mind that he couldn’t make sense of; a grubby off-white ceiling, a startled woman, something said in a language—Spanish.

“Hold on, are you saying you’re the one who made the mechas?” Lavinia asked, dismayed.

Arlo looked up at her; he’d missed whatever they just said. He turned to Orlan as his vision blurred. Felix turned to him, and all three of his heads looked concerned. He said something that looked like “Are you okay?” before Arlo collapsed to the floor.

***

It was dark again when he rebooted and slowly opened his eyes. Arlo’s head rolled to the side, and for a time he was transfixed by the small, colorful lights that hovered in the darkness around him. It felt as though he were floating among stars in the emptiness of space. Then something moved among the darkness; a silhouette slipped past the stars and headed straight for him. Arlo attempted to move away, to escape the shadowy form, but his body was sluggish and resisted him.

“Oh, you’re awake!”

Arlo blinked at the shape beside him. “Anne…?”

“We were all worried about you,” Cora said, coming into view beside him. “I thought my big brother was gonna die after I just found out I had one…”

“Big brother?” Arlo did his best to sit up as his eyes adjusted to the dark. “What do you mean?”

“Papa is my papa, and he also made you Back Before, so doesn’t that make us siblings? You, and me, and that other girl. Even if she was mean about it,” she added with a huff.

Mira. “Where is everyone?”

Cora started counting off her fingers. “Ms. Lavinia went to the tavern to get some help fixing your cart. That other boy, um… oh, Felix! He went to find his pet bird? And get some other stuff from your cart, and maybe feed your big deer too. And papa’s working on a way to keep your head from getting more messed up, and big sis Mira is helping him.”

“And… what were you doing hiding out in the dark?”

“I was waiting to see if you’d wake up!” she said with a wide, relieved smile. Then she paused. “Oh, I’ve gotta tell papa you’re awake too!”

Before Arlo could respond, Cora raced off through the dark, somehow managing to dodge the cluttered floor of machinery. He blinked; he was alone once again and doing his best to process what just happened.

And I used to think Felix had too much energy…

Across Town

The tavern was like Vic’s back in Seventy-Seven. It was spacious yet full; most of their “welcome party” was scattered around at the various tables. And like the first time Lavinia walked into Vic’s, she felt excruciatingly out of place. But the longer she stood by the door, the worse it was going to get. She forced herself up to the bar and sat down at the penultimate stool; Mae always sat at the very end.

No… Gotta focus. Think about how much you miss her later…

Lavinia scanned the tavern. If that place was even remotely like home, most people winding down in the tavern would still have the signs of their professions. At least, everyone could tell she was a tinkerer right away. Maybe someone would have sawdust on their clothes, or would still be wearing a toolbelt. Heck, in that town, they could even have a hammer for a hand.

Looking around that place, though, it might be harder than she thought. Nobody seemed out of the ordinary—that is, nobody looked like they could help with her cart.

“Drink,” a voice like lightning said. Lavinia jumped and found the robot-headed man behind the bar across from her.

“O-Oh, a water, please.” Sure as heck can’t drink anything stronger right now.

The man nodded and turned, grabbing a pitcher of water from one of the shelves behind him. Lavinia watched him as he did. He didn’t have loose shreds of flesh around the base of his neck signifying outer damage, like Arlo had around his torn shoulder. His metal head was securely attached to the rest of his body.

“Are you… a mecha?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“You’re human?”

He nodded.

“Woah…”

Her head was buzzing with questions; if his original head or if only the brain was inside, how he maintained a balance system without the inner ear workings, and so on. But those were real personal questions for a stranger to ask, and there were more important things to worry about.

“So…” she started as the bartender sat her water down. “You wouldn’t happen to know anybody good with carpentry or general woodworking, would you?”

The bartender’s red eyes glowed softly for a moment, then he turned and pointed. Lavinia turned and saw a large man with a large metal arm at a nearby table. He was engaging two other men at the table in what sounded like a rousing story.

“Thanks!” She stood and hurried across the tavern to the man.

The bartender looked down at the water he’d just poured for her, left untouched and abandoned on the bar. With a sigh like static, he picked it up again and poured it in the sink.

***

“What are you doing here?” Mira demanded.

“Why, living, of course,” Orlan replied. One of his mechanical limbs was plugged into an antiquated yet pristine computer as data raced across the screen. “Just as you have clearly been doing over these many years, MIR-A.”

“Stop calling me that. My name is Mira now. It probably doesn’t matter to you, but it does to me.”

“Forgive me, Mira.” He glanced at her. “Having you by my side again, working on one of my creations together, takes me back to the old days. You were always a wonderful assistant.”

She looked away from him to dodge his gaze. “Those days are over. We’re leaving, I’m fixing Arlo, and then we’re both going where you will never find us.”

“That would be a shame, but I consent to your wishes.” Orlan laughed a bit, “I am pleased to find you haven’t changed much. You were always a bit of a loner.”

“That’s not why I’m warning you, and you know it. I don’t care how or why you’re still alive, if that Cora girl and everybody in this town is part of some new experiment you’re running, just stay away from Arlo.”

“There’s no need to be so harsh to young Cora. She’s truly a sweet child, and her personality is much like the one you always used to put on around others.”

“Stop changing the subject!” Mira shouted.

He turned to her. Mira’s eyes widened and she backed away, bumping into a back row of machines in the small room. It was as dark and as cluttered as the main lab. Orlan reached out for her, and she flinched. He only rested a clawed metal hand on her shoulder.

“Why do you recoil?” he asked. “You were never quite so jumpy when last I saw you. Though, as you said, the old days are over.” His head swiveled around to the computer screen again, “There is nothing I could learn from Arlo that would be of use anymore. And at his current rate of deterioration, I predict he has only days before he shuts down permanently.”

“You have to help him.” She was trembling. “Please…”

“Why? That model has already vastly exceeded its anticipated operational life.” His head swiveled back around, and he stared down at her. “There is little point in prolonging the inevitable, I’m afraid.”

Mira clenched her fists. “What do you want?”

“Papa! Big brother Arlo is—” Cora ran in, but paused. Orlan’s head turned to her and held his arms out to her. She smiled again and went up, hugging him to Mira’s revulsion. “Big brother Arlo is awake now.”

“Wonderful, thank you for telling me. Why don’t you and Mira run along and find her friends while I finish working on this program?

“Okay!” Cora said, grinning at her. Mira was clearly less enthusiastic.