Chapter Thirty Two

Five

Five has her ear to the door of Alexis’s apartment, to hear what’s going on inside. She had seen Marek take her in there, and it looked like something was wrong. When she hears him come towards the door, she backs up to the railing of the catwalk and patiently stands there with her arms folded, waiting for him. He tells Alexis that he loves her as he backs out of the door and closes it, not noticing her there until her turns around.

She looks at him with somewhat of a scowl on her face. It’s because she’s sad for what happened to Alexis. “You know, I used to be like her, like one of you. That’s what Gabriel said.”

He squints at her. “Were you just listening to us in there?”

She doesn’t answer his question. Besides, he already knows the answer. “I guess, one night, someone, by someone, I mean Paul, picked me up and murdered me in the night. At least I can only imagine that’s how it went. Could’ve been bad, like what happened to that girl, I don’t know. It could’ve been easy for all I know. Maybe there’s a reason why they blanked my memory out.”

The disgusted look on her face says which scenario she believes on its own. Alexis’s story certainly helps her understands why Arma has always refused to accept where she came from. It makes her feel shame to be human, and she didn’t even do anything like that. Like any flaw that comes with a specific product, it’s a stain on what they are. She’s never heard anything remotely like Alexis’s story, and it changes things.

Marek looks almost sick to his stomach too. His voice is depressed to match it. “Look… Five, You and I both know that there’s some real bad shit out there, but there’s more good than there is bad. No one would be here if that weren’t true.”

She looks at him as if there could be something wrong with him, like he were diseased. “Is there something wrong with men? Is it only them that do depraved shit like this?”

He understands where she’s coming from. Sometimes he wonders that himself, especially now. He isn’t even sure how to explain this to her. “No. I wish I could say that it’s only men. It’d be a hell of a lot easier that way, but it’s not the truth. Women…, they’re different. The have their own ways of being awful. I hope to god you never find out the truth of that the hard way.

She doesn’t mean to put him on the spot, but this is not something she wants to settle on taking someone’s word for it. “What’s a woman ever done to hurt anyone like that?”

He’s never told anyone, not even Alexis about what happened to him. He never wanted to sound like he was ever hurt by anyone, ever. “It was my own mother. It wasn’t violent, or depraved in the way people always fear, but it was still soulless. I remember her pulling up to the curb were there were some people standing around a fire barrel under an eave in the rain. I tried to hold on the seat, but she kicked me and kicked me until I got out of the car. I was only maybe six years old. She yelled at the two of us and said she couldn’t stand us for one more second. That was it, and she never came back. I don’t think I remember anything from before that.”

She looks up at his face. It’s twisted with a hurt that she wasn’t expecting. Even when another guard passes between them, he doesn’t take his eyes off of hers. She still can’t see how this is anywhere as bad as raping and mutilating a girl though. She knows him to be a tough person, in and out, but she’d never imagined he didn’t start out on the street. He could’ve had a normal life.

Marek pauses for a moment, trying to picture his sister’s face, but he’s forgotten what she even looked like. “After about a week my sister left me too. She told me it was my fault, and to stop following her. She told me everyone hated me and that I was…” He won’t repeat it. “She hid from me, and I never saw her again.” He puts his hands in his pockets and looks down. “Not a single person ever loved me. I think I’d rather take a bullet than go back to that.”

She looks down at her wrist communicator to check the time. It’s already midnight. “What were you guys doing up this late anyway? Alexis isn’t on night shift this week.”

“Oh, we we’re try’n to figure out how to get rid of those investigators. You know, kill em. We were talking about this drug…” He turns his neck to look back to the closed door behind himself. “Then Alexis kind of got sick.” He looks down at his own battle com. “I’ve gotta get back to the office actually.”

As soon as he turns to head back to the stairwell, she follows right behind him. “Oh, cool, I wanna come. I never get to do any of that stuff.” She was expecting him to object in some way or another, but he seems to be fine with her tagging along. She feels like a kid walking up the grate steel stairs behind him. She swears he’s gotten bigger somehow.

When the two of them step through the door into the upstairs office over the lobby, Sy is sitting behind his desk like usual, while Vaun is hunched forward in his chair, setting his glass swirling the ice in it. When he looks back at them coming in, she can hear him say “what the?”

Sy looks her over, as if she were a teenager walking into his tavern. “Where’s Alexis? She alright?”

Before Marek can answer, she butts in. “Alexis should sit this one out. It’s not really my place to tell of her personal history, but all I’ll say is that she…” She audibly exhales from her nose. “She had a rather grizzly encounter with the stuff you guys were talking about, and while she’s a tough girl, I’d rather she pass on this one.”

Sy looks at her as if she ought to turn back and go get Alexis before he has to tell her to. “Oh? What does basement-girl know of the killing side of this business?” Both Marek and Vaun’s eyes go wide at his mockery of her.

She was hoping he would pull a stupid on her like this, so she wouldn’t feel awkward about putting him in his place. “Basement-girl is a little fukin tired of bein basement-girl… smartass.” She gives him a look, daring him to go on. “I’m taking her spot on this one. And before you start losing any more points, I suggest you think about where pissing me off will get you.”

Sy knows that if he smacks her around a little bit, she will feel it, and she won’t have any marks to show for it either. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s had to explain the chain of command to someone in that way. But, he refrains from acting on his imagination. Instead, he squeezes at his temples and clenches his teeth.

“Explain to me then, Five, why I would let the most valued technical asset, in this entire effing company, walk out this door to go and do grunt work? Hmm?” He thrusts both of his hands out towards her. “Look at you! You’re like what, five foot two, maybe a hundred twenty pounds. You can’t even do a mag change on the standard rifle without practically setting it down first!”

“We’re not gunning them down in the street though are we Sy? I’m not a computer that just plugs into the wall downstairs!” She watches them all look at her, but by only moving their eyes. “Not any goddamn more I’m not!” She laughs. “You think Aaron gets snippy after he’s been cooped up for too long, just ask Gabriel what a real meltdown looks like! I’m fit to kill someone one way or another.”

“Yeah, what if you’re captured? Then we’re all fucked aren’t we. Cris and Gerald would blow this up to the world. They’d have their killer robots, and they’d drag everything you little murderers have ever done back out into the daylight. No way!”

Marek is silent and is trying to not get caught in the middle of their little thumb war, while Vaun looks like he’s seriously wrapping his mind around all the angles. He did originally make the point that one of the robots would be invulnerable to being drugged, and she certainly doesn’t have the stature of a credible threat either. An attack would be much more unexpected.

She isn’t having any of it. “If these guys get the upper hand, they’re gonna aim for the head. And no, I’m not the most valuable asset here.” She pats herself across the chest, where some of her phoenix tattoo is too big to be covered by her black tank top. “I’m just a body.” She taps on the side of her head. “I, am still downstairs in a hard drive.

Sy hates it when she’s right. He rolls his eyes and huffs. “They’d still have you. You’d be their proof.”

“Hardly. AMF makes bodes like mine all day long. Besides, you brought us on to make a point didn’t you? While everyone else has to play by the rules, we don’t. Don’t forget that.” She looks at him, as if annoyed. “You make it sound like I need to hold your hand through this Sy. I feel like you’ve forgotten why we’re here, or why any of us stayed.” Her shoulders slump. “I suppose it’s time I show you what it means to live on the other side of death. On top of that, you think I’m a pipsqueak too. Don’t forget I’m not even human anymore, and that even I can put you in your place if you make me.”

The mood in the room has completely changed. Seeing that she’s really put the pressure on Sy, Marek decides to help her tip the scale a little bit more. “We’ve got the runners too, and she’s actually the fastest rider we’ve got. If she gets into any kind of trouble, they could pack her back here, dead or alive. They won’t let anyone get ahold of her body, especially not with three of them.”

Sy’s eyes are about bulging now. “What in god’s name are you thinking she’s gonna do, go and tear these guys apart in front of everyone? What happened to all the sneaky shit?”

“No no no. That’s not what I’m sayin. In don’t know, maybe we can let her start out on something smaller though, like going out and getting the drugs. Maybe the two of us can take the runners out. She can wear Alexis’s old cloak, and I can wear mine. If these guys actually leave their little comfort zone, and do come for us, we’ll go deep into rat turf. It’s a dark zone. There’s no way they’ll follow us in there. If they’re that stupid, they won’t be coming back out. Trust me.”

Sy folds his arms grumpily. He was at least expecting Vaun to back him up a little, but apparently not. He’s a little sauced, and hasn’t said a damn thing. “Alright, Fine. I’ll play along, up until I don’t. Call your stupid friend, the watchlist guy, and see if he can get us a line on this shit.” He scoots the phone over to Marek, takes it off the hook, and puts it on speaker.

Marek punches his trader friend’s number in on the phone and spreads both of his hands out on the desk while it rings. When the phone pics up on the other end, there’s a hesitation before Doug answers. It’s not a number he knows. His voice is slow and apprehensive.

“Heloooo?”

“Hey, Doug, it’s me Marek.”

“Dude, they’re in the same place as last time, their apartment. I told you I would call you if they went anywhere. You gotta quit calling me like this man. And don’t use names over the phone, ya idiot.”

“It’s not about that, I need something else. I need… drugs.”

“Uh, I’m not a drug dealer dude, and I’m not just sayin that cause we’re on the phone. That’s not my scene.”

“Yeah, I know, but this is different. I need the dangerous kind, not the fun kind.”

“Ha! No fukin waaaay brother! Get them your damn self. Oh wait! You can’t! cause a bunch of dudes around here want your ass on a pike.”

“C’mon man. I don’t know anyone else. These guys killed my Migo. He was my friend. You forget about him already? Why do you think I’m doing this? We all need these guys dealt with. You lose your appetite… or your balls? I’m sending someone in. You do your part!”

There’s a long pause, and then they can hear Doug shout obscenities out into the air before coming back to the phone. “Fine, I can show you where the dealer’s at, but that’s it. I’m not gonna have anything to do with it past that. If I make even one deal, then I’m that guy. They’ll have their claws in me and I’ll never shake em. You pay for this stuff with your soul my friend, and no one ever forgets.”

“Good God Doug, give me a break. I’ll call you when we’re close.”

With it settled, Five goes over some of the obvious things, like not being able to take the Runners anywhere near the Rats. They absolutely cannot be spotted, and will have to hang back at the ready while she goes in on foot. She won’t be alone. Doug will be going with her too. As Marek had explained way back, traders are supposed to be considered hands-off. That, and being a woman, should give her a fairly protected status. No one will be able to see her all that well in a big cloak at night anyway, and it’s not like she won’t be going unarmed either.

She holds her wrist up, still excited to have her own battle com. “You’ll be able to see and hear everything on my communicator the whole time too. See, we’re all covered. Even if all hell breaks loose, you can come for me guns-a-blazing. The cops won’t go in there.”

It takes a moment before Sy realizes that the room has gone a quiet and the others are all staring at him patiently. Apparently, he still has command of the place. He stiffly swivels his chair around to look outside, finding that it’s good and dark out.

He turns back around, still lazily leaning all the way back in it his seat. “Alright, fine.” He motions for them to shoo-off with his hands. “Go on.”

Five tries to contain herself and not jump up and down in front of him. She has to stay professional, and look tough in front of the bosses. She was kind of expecting Marek to be at least a little excited too, but he definitely isn’t. He still has that same face of dread from when she met him on the balcony. The look he and Sy share at the last moment is concerning. It’s like he already knows it’ll cost them more than they’ve bargained for.

When she and Marek swing back by his and Alexis’s apartments to grab his and Alexis’s old cloaks. Alexis is hard asleep and has no idea when they come through. He’s never seen her like this before, and she’s never let anything off her chest like that either. A mouse fart across the room could have her reaching for her knife any other time, but not now.

As they get the runners and their gear all ready in the machine shop, they come to find that Alexis’s cloak looks pretty silly on her. It’s way too big. Marek has to tape the bottom hem of it up quite a bit higher, as well as the sleeves. Fortunately, the hood still fits well enough to not be a complete obstruction. He of course looks pretty sharp in his, and by sharp, dangerous.

Underneath her cloak, she has her chest rig on, with her automatic and extra mags stuffed in it. On her thigh, is the big knife Aaron made for her, snugged up in the heavy leather thigh sheath Marek made for it. It makes a little bit of a zipping sound in the cloak when she walks, but it all conceals well enough. Traders are supposed to have random stuff under their cloaks anyway. No one will know.

With all three of the runners upgraded, and turned into menacing tools of their trade, they decide taking an extra one wouldn’t hurt. Marek’s mood completely changes the second he takes his mount up on his own new runner, Hogan. It’s the first time he’ll have gotten to take it out. He pats its polished metal shoulder with his gloved hand and talks to it, as if it were his trusty trail horse. With only a few of the lights on in the dark shop, its gleaming metal finish camouflages with contrast rather than stands out.

As if they were bonded, she, of course, has to choose Runner to ride. Monster has an appeal that is hard to resist, but she has her loyalties. Both she and Marek puff up their cheeks and exhale some nervousness at the same time as they cue their machines towards the door. A few people passing by watch as the two of them duck their heads under the frame as they move out into the hallway. She smiles at the sight of him when he takes the lead in front of her. The two of them look like lawless bandits like in the old movies.

The guards who are still up this late watch them with curiosity, some even following to see what’s going on. She doesn’t know about Marek, but she’s been smiling behind the black bandana on her face the whole time. As they slowly head for the main bay door, someone opens it for them and stands tall at guard as it opens. As soon as it’s wide enough for the two of them go side by side, they break into a full run, pulling their flapping cloaks behind them.

In the dark of the night, the two of them scramble across everything but the actual road, and as fast as they can. With their runners able to see in the darkness, they merely point them in a heading and hold on for dear life, not stopping or even slowing through blind intersections. What would normally take a half hour by car, they do in less than ten minutes.

After letting Marek take the lead, when they cross into the older district of town, they find a dark place to stop under an overpass about six blocks away from the giant iron bridge the homeless congregate under. While she beds the runners down, Marek checks the area for anyone still around. The homeless are quiet and stealthy in the night. He has to make sure no one is watching. It looks like whoever has set up the small nearby camp is out for the night, likely gone to the gathering themselves.

After Marek calls up Doug again, and goes over the small details of the area with her, she sets out on her own to walk the rest of the way alone. As soon as there’s nothing left but the darkness and her own thoughts, she remembers how wary she is of the night. It doesn’t take long before she finds herself being followed. In the distances around her those shifty silhouettes that used to scare her, start to move about, never visible for more than a glimpse at a time.

Only when they cross nearby a lot with lighting, can she tell between who are men and women. By the shape of the person following her, she is unmistakably a woman. Like Alexis had told her, women stick together. When the woman joins her, she still remains fairly quiet and wary. Eventually, she hears the soft gritty footsteps of yet another behind her. They’re not a man either. She can tell by the gentler sound of their tracks. She only looks back for a second to see. Both of them are staying close alongside of her, but still well out of reach The closest one to her makes small talk, to let her know she’s ok.

“It’s really dark tonight, huh. I’ven’t seen it like this in a long time. Mus be from the clear sky. Maybe’s why so many folks’r out.”

She’s worried about saying anything back, because she clearly won’t sound like a rat should. She tries, so she doesn’t come off as being unsocial. “Yeah, it’s neat. Ya suppose there’ll be a grip of us under the bridge tonight?”

“Oh, hard ta say. Most’ll probly wanna have fun out’n the shadows, but ya never know.”

It’s all either of them say to one another. She can see that the woman is trying to get a glimpse of her, but she still keeps her distance. She remembers that it’s customary to show one’s face as an offer of trust. If a person doesn’t it’s not a good sign. She reaches up and tugs back a small amount of her hood, only enough to give the woman a small look of solidarity. The faint headlights from a distant vehicle turning in the distance give her enough of a glimpse of the other woman to tell that she is missing some all of her teeth. Both of them do their best to hide their looks of surprise when they see one another. The other woman clearly wasn’t expecting such a pristine youthful face.

The woman quickly looks around, a little worried. “You’re not… alone, are you?”

“No, no. I know better than that. I’m meeting someone.”

“Ok honey, just… be careful. I’ll stay with you for a li’l bit.”

As the two of them get close to the bridge, she can see Doug, off in the distance, in his trading cloak. Marek said he’d have a red stripe cross the top of his hood. He’s standing in plain sight under a light pole in a parking lot, smoking. It’s the very same lot she and Arma got surrounded by rats in, while they were waiting in Mikel’s truck. There’s so many more derelicts out tonight than there was then. It makes her skin feel strange, and her shoulders shake for a second.

The smile she had when she and Marek left SSS is completely gone now. All she can think of is the swarm of people all around her. She tugs her hood all the way forward again, making sure her face is hidden again. These people are like a pack of wild dogs and they will sniff her out like an injured animal if she isn’t careful. At the first sign of weakness, they’ll chase her down like a pack of dogs. Even now she can feel their hands on her, trying to tear her apart, and the weight of them crushing her to the ground.

Since her first day at SSS, she knew this day would come. For some unconscionable reason, she has found herself wanting and waiting for it. Not anymore though. If the rats get at her tonight, only small shreds of her will be left to save, and she’ll surely be remembering every little detail. It’s been a long time since she’s felt a torrent of anxiety like this, and it’s hardly manageable. It’s like back when she was on the rooftop across from Aaron’s apartment all over again. Things have hardly started, and she already wants to make a run for it. She’s been sitting at the desk far too long.

When she walks up behind Doug, he knows it’s her, and that she’s there, but he takes his time putting out his cigarette before turning around. When he does, he looks a little surprised. He wasn’t expecting her to be so short, or a woman.

“Jesus.” All he can see is her smooth pale chin and the shadow of her lips, but it’s plenty to know she’s a civilian.

She shrinks back into her hood a little. “What? I can put my bandana on.”

No. Shit. You’re not gonna get away with covering your face where we’re going. Um, let me see your teeth.” When she shows him her perfect white teeth, he puts his hand on his face and sighs. “Marek, you asshole.” He hunches down a little to look at her. “Just… don’t smile ok. And stay behind me, like really close behind me.

Even in the dark, with her hood over her head, and her face hidden behind Doug, she catches people still eyeing her. Most of the people gathered around tend to look downwards and mind their own business, but the men, especially the younger ones, are different. It’s like she might as well be walking naked in front of everyone. Their heads snap in her direction with alarming notice. It makes her imagine the stories Aaron would tell of wolves preying on helpless calves.

As she walks closely behind Doug, she keeps her face pointed forward and hidden as much as she can. She knows they’re being followed now, she can feel it, but she still can’t look back. In her peripheral, men nudge one another as she walks by them. She wants to tell Marek to get the runners ready, but she can’t be seen talking on her communicator right now. She has to keep it hidden out of sight.

When a woman scolds the man she is with for staring at her, it dawns on her that the only reason she is being watched by the younger makes, is because she is good looking. She had almost forgotten. She takes her hidden hand off the hilt of her dagger and scrunches her nose in disgust. The thought of any of these individuals being interested in her sexually has her shoulders shaking again.

When they venture a ways through the throng of people, past the main fire, the ground starts to slope downward toward the ravine under the bridge. She didn’t get to see the giant iron bridge last time, because she and Arma had to wait in the truck. Even after seeing some incredible things in the outside world, the size of it is still unfathomable. It’s hard to understand that the whole thing is made of steel. The entire Werker factory could fit beneath it.

When the crowd thins out enough to where she and Doug aren’t constantly rubbing against other people, the two of them start to talk candidly about Marek, Alexis, and Migo. As far as he is concerned, she really is a friend of theirs, but he can’t fathom why they would try to send such an unblemished girl like her into such a place as this. She’s pretty sure he knows she’s from SSS, and likely dangerous, but he clearly has no idea what exactly she is.

The farther she descends into the derelict camp, the more she notices the quality of the individuals around them beginning to drop at an alarming rate. There’s a variety of folks at SSS, but not anything like this. These people are shocking. Aaron had given her the impression that humans are rather fragile, and die easily, but that is not what she is seeing. These people look like they should have died long ago, but somehow can’t, like they are cursed.

Bodies are littering the ground in some places, but they aren’t dead. She gasps when one suddenly moves erratically, twisting this way and that, like it were in some kind of extreme pain. A man with only one shoe on, rolls his head around, while at the same time, flipping over and over across the ground. There are no words coming from any of them, but only moans and suppressed screeches. The dread of something terribly wrong is gripping her chest.

Another woman, much like all the others around her, has horrible looking ravaged skin that looks like it’s been haphazardly stretched across her bones. She and the others are folded over where they stand, so that the backs of their hands drag on the ground. It looks like they’re stuck that way. The woman intermittently cradles her own head and paws at it, as if was itchy on the inside of her skull. The scene is so awful, she starts to feel dizzy, panicked, and wanting out of there immediately.

What she doesn’t understand, is how Doug can ignore them like this. Everyone is ignoring them, like they are invisible. Maybe whatever it is, is contagious. It makes her thankful to not be biological. Before he had been killed, Aaron had told her all about the weaknesses of having a human body. Rotting while still alive seems to be one of them.

Amongst these people though, are others that are awful as well, but in a different way. These ones are all men, and have markings on their skin like she and the other guards at SSS have. Unlike her and the others though, these guys have their tattoos everywhere, covering their entire bodies, face and all.

Other than Paul, she has never seen anyone so frightening, simply in the way they look. It shatters her understanding of what people can become. Now she understands what Aaron meant by humans not being bound by any limits, good or bad. Undoubtedly, these men are the bad ones.

She wishes she could help these broken people, to save them, and make them whole again. Even if she could, she wonders if there’s anything left of them to save. She knows enough about the mind to tell that this kind of neurological damage is permanent. It breaks her heart to imagine that this is truly the end for them. There will be no second chance. All they have left is unimaginable suffering.

She wonders if Aaron never told her about these people because he was ashamed of them. It makes her wonder what kind of state she was in when she died. Gabriel said she was pretty, but maybe he was lying. Maybe that’s why they changed her to look like Clarice. She covers her mouth when she imagines that she might have been one of these people whom no one cares about.

When she and Doug reach the bottom of the ravine, she looks out upon the wide river flowing under the bridge. It’s so dark, it might as well be oil, and she can’t even see the far bank in such darkness. When she looks back up the hillside, and all around herself, there’s nowhere to go if she had to flee. She’s got herself real deep into trouble this time. She startles when Doug puts his hand on her shoulder.

“Hey now, calm down, you’re gonna be fine. There’s no reason for anyone to hurt you around here.”

“I’m alright. I’m not scared.”

He looks down at her with a raised eyebrow. “Right.” With a tilt of his head, he beckons for her to follow him. “The guy’s tent’s right over here. This grey one.”

The heavy canvas tent he leads her to is taller than most of the others, but simple, and handmade, unlike most of the cheap plastic ones pitched all over the place. The large tarp has been laid over a peaked frame and only drapes closed in the front with a flap.

As soon as they step inside, she realizes how poor of an idea the whole thing really was. The man inside is yet another contrast to the others out on the hillside. He is unnervingly skinny, where she can see his ribs and protruding collar bones. His body is almost completely covered in grotesque tattoos, to look like some kind of tortured skeleton with barely any meat left on it. His face has even been permanently marked as an exposed skull. He is unmistakably true evil in human form.

There’s not much more in the tent than the small rusty barrel the man is sitting on, a big wooden chest in front of his knees, and a small thin knife stuck into the top of it. He looks up at her, down to the narrow knife, and then up to Doug. For a moment, she looks at the man in disgust, over what he’s done to his own self. It’s like he has wronged the world with his existence, and tainted it.

He enjoys the disdain she has for him. The more she glares at him, the better satisfaction he gets from it. He can tell she is looking at his tattoos, the ones that look like his flesh has been cleaved to the bone and then sewn to stay spread wide open. She hates this man for everything he is, and he hasn’t even spoken yet. She would rather he not.

She’s not sure if Doug is a complete idiot, or what, but this man clearly means people harm, especially to young girls that look like her. It immediately reminds her of Alexis’s story. This is the man she has been looking to kill all her life. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she leaves tonight without killing him. She would have to come back to finish the job. The thought of him being out there, alive, would eat at her every waking hour.

Doug does nothing to guide her as was promised either. All he does is eventually nudge her from behind as if she’s the one that dragged him into the whole mess. “Go on then.”

The skeleton man leans forward, trying to peer farther up into her hood, and then abruptly sits up straight like something is wrong. He can surely see the hate on her lips. Before he gets up, she makes her demand of him, as if he should be lucky that she only be there for the one reason.

She holds a roll of bills in her fist, not out towards him, but at her side. “For your scopolamine. All of it.” The tone and depth of her voice is serious enough to surprise him, and even give him reason to not test her.

Without a word, the man takes the knife out of the top of the box and opens its lid. His eyes stay on hers as he feels for what he’s looking for inside. She doesn’t like that she can’t see the knife in his hands, but she has plenty in store for him if he tries anything stupid. She almost wishes he would, so she can bring his head back home to show Alexis.

He closes the lid to the box, and in one hand, holds a small bag of what looks like light pale tan colored powder. In the other, he still holds the knife. Gently, he sets both items down on the top of the box. He looks at her for a moment and then finally speaks. He doesn’t have an accent like she was sure he would. Instead, his voice is hoarse and quiet, as if having a hard time speaking. That’s when she notices the scar around his neck.

The bone-man’s voice is slow, with a pause between each word. “What’s a sweet little thing like you want with something like this?”

He holds the bag out towards her, with his palm flat. Teasing her to snatch it from him if she dare. The irises of his sunken eyes are small and black, looking almost like he only has pupils. She doesn’t answer him, but only scoots the roll of cash in her fist out to the tips of her fingers.

His eyes snap back and forth between her and Doug. “Well? Are we gonna do this or what? I aint got all night bitch.”

Doug doesn’t want to be there any more than she does, and is getting testy too. He actually shoves her shoulders a little bit from behind. “You know the rules. Off with it now.”

“Off with what?”

“With your goddamn hood. You gotta honor the deal.”

The skinny man abruptly stands up with the knife tight in his fist. His voice is quicker this time. “What is this shit, trader?”

Five almost turns her face back to Doug, but knows better than to take her eyes off of the dealer for even a split second. “I am not taking my hood off!”

The man points the knife out towards her. “It’s gonna be your hood, or it’s gonna be your pants you little slut.”

Doug yanks at the back of her hood, taking it right off, and revealing her face. Both of the men are shocked when they look at her. It’s like they’ve never seen anything so confusingly perfect in all their lives. She doesn’t even have as much as a spec of dirt on her.

In an attempt to shout, the man screeches out the word “Intruder!” and stumbles back. Before he has the chance to squirm away, she lunges for him and snatches the wrist of the hand holding the baggie. In a panic Doug wrestle’s the man’s arm back as he tries to stab her. They both scream and struggle, kicking the barrel and trunk around inside the tent. She can’t peel the bag out of his fist so she pulls her knife free and stabs it into the base of his wrist, forcing it to the ground, and to release the drugs.

The man screeches in a hiss of a voice “Robot! She’s a robot! Infiltrator!” It’s the last thing she lets escape his mouth before slamming the tip of her blade up through the bottom of his jaw. She slams the base of the handle with her knee, making sure the blade goes all the way up into his skull. There is some relief knowing he can never be brought back.

Doug lets up off of the, stumbles backwards out through the entrance of the tent, and falls flat on his back outside. There are shouts going around outside as word spreads across the entire hillside. When she scrambles outside, nearly everyone in sight is looking in her direction. On her wrist communicator, she can hear Marek shouting to her that the Runners are on their way in. He could hear everything the whole time.

From behind her, someone kicks her in the back of the legs, the way Ray did to her back in the hall at Werker. It sparks a sudden rage within her that she had somehow forgotten. In the same way, she instinctively spins around, slashing her knife out around her as hard as she can. Two dark cloaked figures leap away, one of them yelping as they crawl across the ground to get away.

She feels awful that she’s screwed the whole operation up, but she at least killed the piece of shit in the tent. No matter what happens, she will want to remember that part. Doug looks up at her in absolute terror. As she makes her way over to him. He looks absolutely petrified, as if he’s next.

“What’ve you done? You’ve killed me! Why?”

He’s right, and it’s her fault. All around her, people are quickly gathering, closing in on the two of them. She stands over him and draws her automatic, waving it in a circle around them. In her other hand, she still has her big bright dagger, with the wings on its handguard glinting in the light of the campfires.

“Get back! I’m doing this for all of your good too! Don’t try to stop me. I will hurt you if I have to!”

Someone in the crowd speaks up. “Us? You’re a fukin robot!”

“I’m not a robot! Stop! Please, don’t make me.”

There is an uproar of screaming, shouting, and trampling coming in from the distance as the runners careen through the masses towards her. As if parted by an earthquake, a barren valley is cleaved through the crowds up the hill as everyone flees out of their way. Both Runner and Monster gouge up the hard packed dirt with their claws as they drag themselves to a stop along both sides of her. She holds her hand out at them over Doug, to make sure they don’t drag him out from under her and tear him apart.

She can only tell him that she’s sorry as she leaps up onto Runner’s back. “We’re trying to help you! Quit being so stupid!” She looks out across the crowd before launching Runner into a sprint. “Look at yourselves!” Her voice drops when she sees their pitiful faces peering up at her. “I can’t save any of you if you don’t get your shit together. You’re disgusting!”

As she barrels away back up the hill, she looks back, only to see Doug being taken to the ground by the others and dragged away. She can hear him cursing Marek’s name. Luckily, she gets back out onto the street faster than the rats can react. Enough of them still manage to throw things at her, but she doesn’t get hit too hard by anything. It could’ve been much worse. She wasn’t supposed to kill anyone, but she isn’t regretting it either. Sy probably won’t let her out of the building ever again, but she can’t wait to tell Alexis all about it.

Sparks fly off the runner’s claws as they skid down the concrete culvert under the overpass to where Marek is waiting for her. She doesn’t stop, and he’s already on the run when she reaches him. They shout to one another across their coms as he leaps up onto Hogan.

“What the hell happened?”

“The guy pissed me off. I don’t know, I couldn’t help myself!”

When they reach the hanger, Marek slowly and stiffly slides down off his machine. She should have known better than to push him so hard. He’s in a bit of pain, and grimaces while he tries to find a comfortable way to hang his arms at his sides.

They stick together as they saunter on up to the office, wondering what all they really should share with Sy. In front of the desk, she plops him down in one of the chairs and then nonchalantly sets the bag of pale powder on top of the desk in front of him. He holds it only inches from his face, looking at it with an underwhelmed expression. He shrugs his shoulders and sets it back down, sliding it back over to her. Marek abruptly squirms in his chair, alarming them to look at him. They relax when they find he’s simply pulling his phone out.

“Uh, hey Doug? What happened down there buddy?” he has a hard time not smirking.

“You son of a bitch Marek! You ask me to get you drugs, which is bad enough, and then, it turns out I’m escorting a fucking assassin robot! And! She killed the guy!”

Sy’s eyebrows raise, as he makes an awkward surprised face at Five. “Uh, what?”

Doug keeps yelling through the phone. “You know where I am right now? On my knees in front of leadership! And you’re on speaker.”

“Sorry Doug, I didn’t mean to get you mixed up in all this. It was supposed to be a simple trade. How’d you manage to screw that up?”

“She’s the one who stuck a knife in his skull!”

Sy’s eyes bulge, as if Five were his daughter, and she just got home drunk from a high school party at four in the morning. “I let you out for one hour Five!”

She indignantly retorts back. “He threatened to rape me! Fuck him!”

Someone on the other side, an elderly man, speaks up. “No one even cares about that piece of shit anyway. Him and all his friends are cancer. What we do want to know, is what you’re doing helping Werker robot assassins infiltrate our camp. This isn’t the first time you’ve done this either Marek. Why have you betrayed your kin like this? And what have you done with Alexis?”

Marek pauses for a moment. He’s not sure what he can or should say. He feels like maybe he should just tell them that it’s none of their damn business, but he does still have feelings for everyone he left behind. Most of them were good people. When he looks up at Five, she reaches out to take the phone from him.

“Alexis is fine, she’s here with Marek and all of us. This whole thing we did tonight hit a little too close to home for her. She would have done it herself, but I offered to take her place. It was even her cloak that I was wearing. You’re lucky it was me and not her. That piece of shit drug dealer of yours would have sent her into an apocalyptic spiral out of control. You got off easy.”

“He was not our drug dealer!”

“He was in your camp. I saw what he did to your people. You did nothing and let him do that to all of you. That is on your hands! You are just as sick as he is!”

“What the hell are you, robot, and why are you buying drugs?”

She looks over at Sy, trying to gage what he would say. “We are not associated with Werker. We never were. And honestly, we don’t want to be associated with you either. As for Marek and Alexis, they’re hangin with us now. We are not a threat to you. In fact we’re working together at the moment. We’ve paid you good damn money too. You’re guy almost screwed that up when he pulled his stupid ass move on me.”

There is some hushed quarreling on the other end of the line for a couple seconds before they respond. “Honestly, we’re grateful to be rid of that poisonous man, but you are a robot, the kind that all of our principles stand against.”

“To be frank, I’m not the kind of machine you think I am. I’m not going to explain myself to you right now, and I probably never will. All I can tell you is that my place in this world is at the apex, yours is at the bottom. I am the gatekeeper between who lives and who dies. You think you’ve been left behind already, but you can’t even fathom what more you have to lose. You idiots seriously need wake up. This is not a game.”

When she hangs up, everyone else but Sy is confused by her last vent. He stands up and smacks his glass down on the desk. “What the hell was that?”