The first time I became aware of the guy who talks through the helmet was a couple weeks into working for D. After two weeks of just sitting in the same room as her as she typed with both her front and back hands, she just told us that we had to leave within a week. So we packed up and left for the coast.

Once we finished the two-hour drive and arrived at the house in the gated community over there, D immediately got out of the car and tried to get into it. Eli had to run over there and unlock it for her, since she didn’t know what was going on. Once I got into the house, after closing the other car doors, I could hear D puking her guts out. Or at least trying to. I don’t think she had eaten that day, so it was mostly just dry heaves. Between each heave, she tried to talk, but Eli asked me to start bringing stuff down before I could make out any actual words.

By the time I finished bringing stuff in, Eli was upstairs bathing D. At first, I thought it was weird that she had to do that, but it made sense with how her prosthetics were. I don’t think they were compatible with any kind of shell, so they were easier to damage.

After a while, they came back down. D’s eyes were all red and puffy.

“What happened?” I asked.

Eli lowered her voice. “Said she saw one of Medi’s goons. That she knew that he was with ‘em because of a helmet he had on. Apparently, he’s part of some kind of unit they’ve been planning or something.”

I looked at D, who had sat down on one of the chairs at the kitchen counter. For the first time, I had seen her visibly shaken. Visibly shaking, too. Rubbing her mechanical hands together and just staring at the floor. Up until then, I’d pretty much only ever seen her staring straight at her screens, typing without a single hesitation. Seeing her as scared as she was, though, almost made me scared. It made her look like an actual kid.

“Matty, I’m gonna need you to stay with her a bit. Just while I go get some food, alright?”

The words didn’t really sink in that much, but I nodded anyway. She headed out and D jumped slightly at the door closing.

“Where is she going?” she asked, her voice wavering.

“Just to get food,” I answered, walking over to stand by her.

“What if she doesn’t come back?”

I looked at her, confused at why she’d ask that. She seemed like she could start crying at any moment.

“Why wouldn’t she?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Maybe MediTech will find her and take her.”

“Do they even know who she is, though?”

Again, she shrugged.

“Well, either way, I’m sure she could take on one of their thugs. Maybe even more than one, with how easy she took me down and broke my leg.”

She didn’t respond, just kept staring at the floor.

“I’ll even stay out here with you until she gets back, if you want.”

She didn’t answer, so I just assumed that she had too much pride to admit that she wanted me to stay. Whatever the case, I pulled out the chair next to her and stuck by her side. Even if the reason was only that I didn’t have any other choice, I was there to protect her.

Was that the only reason I stayed? Thinking about it, I don’t think it was. Not completely, at least. I’m sure that, even then, I felt some amount of indebtedness to both D and Eli. I know I do now. After all, they were the ones who got me out of that room. They gave me a place to live, bought me new clothes. They gave me people to care about.

I wake up in a panic as I realize I’m late for my shift at the grocery store.

Except not really. I haven’t worked there in nearly two years. It’s the third time this week that I’ve woken up for the same reason. I guess my body still just associates the feel of an air mattress with retail work. Whatever. Guess I’ll wake up.

Just like when I still worked over there, I start the day by exercising. Mostly I do stretches and core, back, and shoulder stuff, since I don’t have much left in my arms and legs to work out. After that, I practice punches and kicks, just to keep the muscle memory for them. Finally, I shadowbox. I don’t have anyone to spar with, so it’s my only option for practicing.

After I exercise, I take a shower. That middle-aged guy brought soap with the groceries. I guess he thought of everything.

After the shower is breakfast. I bring the helmet D talks through down with me and start cooking. Today’s is eggs. Specifically scrambled, since it’s the only way I know how to make them. I don’t put anything on them.

I finish eating and toss the paper plate in the same plastic bag I’ve been using for trash all week. Time to wait five hours to see if that middle-aged guy will come over and finally tell me anything about what’s going on. Just, like, stare at a wall and wait, or something. Maybe I’ll see what D has to say later, but I don’t really feel like talking. Really, all this doing nothing is really frustrating. It really is like back after I got fired from me job, but worse because I can’t even go online for anything. Like, I guess I could turn on the phone D had given me, but I don’t want to risk it. I don’t know if they have the info on it.

“D,” I eventually say, checking if she’s plugged in.

It takes a few seconds for her to answer. “What?”

“Do you know how they track me?”

“Cameras,” she says. “They have everyone from the RED unit logged in a facial recognition program connected to every open city camera.”

I nod. “Is that the only thing they track?”

“I don’t know.”

“Could you check?”

“No.”

I stop what I’m doing and look at “her”. “Why not?” I ask.

After a long pause, which is either her thinking of what to say or holding off on saying anything until she knows no one’s listening, she says “I don’t have access to that information.”

Confused, I move to where I know she’ll see me. “What do you mean you don’t have access? Then why’d you even get yourself taken?”

She’s quiet for a longer amount of time than usual, probably close to a minute. Long enough for me to get frustrated at her not answering. Eventually, she does speak back up.

“Wait and see,” she says. “I won’t be able to talk for some time.”

“What do you mean, ‘for some time’? For how long?”

She doesn’t answer. At first, I just wait, expecting her to just be taking a while, but one minute becomes five becomes twenty, and it becomes clear that she really isn’t gonna be talking for a while.

A few hours pass with nothing happening. It really is like after I lost my job, just without being able to go outside. More and more, I’m tempted to turn that phone on and see what’s been happening. Even just local news would be fine. It’s not like I used to check that, either, but I just need something to pass the time, like how I used job boards.

The doorbell rings. I head downstairs and, like I did before, peek from the other side of the wall. Same as before, it’s the middle-aged guy. However, someone else is with him. I can’t really tell who, though, since they’re off to the side from the door. Whatever, I just open it anyway.

“He confirmed your information,” he says. “And will provide you with whatever resources you need.”

“Tell him to get me a bed and a computer, then. I can’t sleep on an air mattress.”

“A computer?” the other person asks, the familiarity in her voice making my heart skip a beat. “You gonna take a page outta D’s book?”

It takes me a second to respond, to collect myself and push down the anger at both her and myself and find the words. “Why are you here, Eli?”

Her usual smile is gone, and it looks like she hasn’t shaved the sides of her head in a while. “What? You didn’t think Ivie would call me to check if D actually knew you?”

I feel myself start to click my teeth, but manage to stop myself. “No,” I answer. “I didn’t think about it.”

She makes a sound that, at least to me, sounds like it has contempt behind it. I try my best to ignore it, but it’s hard to. “Well, either way, I’ll be staying with you until you find her.”

A single word, which I immediately regret, drops out of my mouth: “Why?” Before she gets a chance to answer, I trying to correct myself. “No, I didn’t mean to ask that, I know why.”

“Yeah, well, whatever,” she says. “I’m gonna go get my bags out of the car real quick.”

She walks off and the middle-aged guy says “I’ll let him know about your requests.”

“Yeah.”

He walks off to help Eli out with her stuff and I head back to the room I’ve been using. They talk to each other while working. What about, I have no idea. I don’t really pay attention to any of it. I almost don’t actually want to hear her voice. At least not right now.

Eventually, the front door closes and the guy drives off. Eli walks around the bottom floor of the house and eventually starts coming up the stairs.

“Oh, you were up here,” she says. She enters the room and sits next to me on the air mattress. “Matty, I want to ask you some stuff.”

“Ask, then,” I say.

“Okay. How did you know Medi took D?”

“I didn’t. I assumed it.”

“And you came all the way out here just because of that assumption?”

“What else was I gonna do? You kicked me out.”

“Yeah,” she says, flopping back to lay down. “That was probs a bit impulsive, but can you really blame me?”

Turning to look at her, I see that she’s staring straight at me. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but she has dark bags under her eyes. They don’t really suit her.

“No,” I say. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I’m sorry.”

She looks genuinely surprised at my apology. “Wow, Matty. I thought you had too much pride to apologize.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve had time to think about it. It’s not like I didn’t regret saying it when I said it, either.”

“Well, that’s progress, at least.”

“Yeah. I also met up with your cousin, Aurelio. He helped out with that a bit.”

“Wait, you know Auris? Or, wait, did you barely meet him, or what?”

“I’ve known him since high school. We dated for a while.”

“You dated him? Like, was this before he knew, or…?”

I sigh. “Pretty sure he knew the whole time. Just wanted to please his parents, or something.”

“Ouch. Sorry you had to go through that.”

“It’s whatever, we talked it out. Did you know he’s married now?”

“Wait, for real? For how long?”

“Didn’t ask. Apparently, he tried inviting me to the wedding, though. Even called my dad when I didn’t pick up.”

“Dang, he must really like you, then.”

“Yeah. Even after I tried to get further from him after graduation.”

I sigh, feeling as if a weight has been taken off my shoulders, even if it’s just a little bit of it.

“He said he misses you,” I say. “Call him if you can, alright? He wants to meet up when we’re finished with all this.”

“Alright,” Eli says, sitting back up. “I’ll let him know I’m doing alright soon. For now, though, I gotta unpack.”

“Alright,” I say as she starts heading back out of the room. “Also, I probably should’ve said it earlier, but thanks. For looking out for me.”

“No problem.”

“I’ll fill you in on what I know once you’re done with everything you need to do.”

“Okay.”

“So, you were going to fight anyway?”

It was the first time I’d seen him face to face. At I had thought it was face to face at first. The most I could tell that seemed off was how he didn’t move when he talked. I couldn’t completely tell with the helmet, but it didn’t look like his jaw moved when he did.

“You should’ve told me that before I broke the door down. Well, let me get ready, then.

He started to unzip his coat. Before he even got halfway down, I let out a kick, hitting his arm.

“You couldn’t just let me finish, could you?” he said before grabbing my leg and pushing down. “Show some sportsmanship and wait, alright?”

Annoyed, I clicked my teeth and started to talk before getting caught off guard by the striking red of his arms. They were the same as the ones that were on me.

“So you’re a RED, too?”

“Kind of, but not quite.”

“What?”

He dropped down into a boxing stance. “Now, I’ll give you one last chance. Both you and the one who’s been stealing inf-“

Tired of hearing his voice, I threw out a punch, which he easily dodged and countered with a hit to my face that sent me staggering backwards.

“Fine,” he said. “But remember that I gave you a chance to come peacefully.”

That smugness pissed me off, so I threw another punch. That time, he blocked, then countered, hitting me again.

That continued for a while, me trying to get a hit off on him only to be blocked, dodged, or thrown back with a punch thrown at me for good measure. I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure my arms’ “bones” got broken a few times, too, taking less time to reform than usual. It was hard to tell in the heat of the moment.

Eventually, I got a single good hit off from a kick to his head. He actually got staggered.

“What the hell?” he said, panic coming into his voice. “Why isn’t it responding?”

I went in for another kick in his confusion, but he managed to move enough to get under my leg. As my foot landed back on the ground, he closed the gap between us and landed a heavy punch to the side of my head, knocking me down hard.

“Are you going to come along easy now, or do I need to knock you out?” he asked, not sounding even slightly winded.

For the first time in years, I was disoriented. I probably had a concussion, like when I got into real bad fights at school, but worse. I could barely even move. All I could do was laugh. Laugh at that feeling, laugh at myself for getting beaten so hard, and laugh in his face for thinking I’d give up just from being knocked down.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, obviously annoyed. Probably already had an emotion he wanted to see from me.

After a second, I manage to answer. “There’s only one thing here to laugh at, right?”

I couldn’t see his expression, but I could’ve sworn there was a killing intent behind his silence. Him pinning me down only confirmed it. He locked his hands together and lifted them up. Looking back, I’m sure he hardened them to make the hit worse.

Before he could drop his hands onto my head, the sound of a car door and approaching footsteps caught both of our attention. Before he could turn to see who it was, he was cold-cocked into the wall, his helmet falling off as he landed.

“What the fuck?” he yelled, his voice coming from the helmet itself. The body didn’t move even slightly. “Put it back on! This isn’t a fair fight! Put it back on now!”

“You alright, Matty?” Eli asked, pulling me up to standing.

“Yeah,” I said. “Get D, I told her to lock herself in the bathroom.”

“You sure you can get to the car on your own?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just get her.”

“’Matty’,” the voice in the helmet derisively said. “Don’t think this is over! I’ll keep coming back for you!”

My head still spinning from the hit to the head, the words spilled out of my mouth. “And I’ll beat you down hard when you do.”

Before I was even out the door, D quickly walked past me, a box of hard drives in her arms. Eli gave me her arm to hold onto. I complied, and we left for another town on short notice.

The helmet sits on the kitchen counter, staring at us as we prepare some soup.

“So, where’d you get that helmet? You steal it off that guy?”

“Not exactly,” I say. “I think Medi tried using D to do the same thing as that guy. She didn’t really fight me when they sent her out, though. Just kept trying to get me to stop fighting her.”

“Wait, did she talk to you through it?”

“Yeah. Still does sometimes. Said she won’t be able to for a while though.”

Eli sighs. “Well, at least we know she’s alive.”

“Yeah.”

We both go quiet as we cut up the vegetables. Carrots, cabbage, zucchini, et cetera. The chicken goes in later. All of it, including the pot it goes in, Eli had bought earlier. I’ve never actually made soup, but it seems like she has.

“Matty.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not messing with me about the helmet thing, right?”

The question makes me stop what I’m doing. I keep myself from looking at her. I know it’ll be worse if I do.

“Why would I do that?” I ask, pushing down the slight simmer the distrust has brought up in me.

She sighs. “You’re right, sorry. I guess I just…” She stops what she’s doing, too. “I dunno. It’s just I’d been taking care of her for a couple years, so I don’t know why she didn’t just come to me about it.”

The heat has gone back down. For a second, I consider my words. I can’t just say the first thing that comes to mind anymore. “She said she didn’t want to get you involved,” I say. “She probably came to me after she left since they were already after me.”

“But she already got me involved by asking me to help her in the first place!”

“That’s what I told her. Though, do they know your name?”

She’s quiet for a bit, probably trying to think of if they would or not.

“I don’t think so,” she finally says.

“Then probably that.”

Again, she sighs. “Yeah, but I still wish she would’ve asked me for help.”

I get back to preparing the vegetables. “Well, you’ll be helping her now, right?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

She gets back to working on what she had been doing.

Not that long after, we finish putting everything into the pot with the broth.

“I’m gonna sleep for a bit,” I say. “Wake me up when it’s done.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll also sleep. I’ll set an alarm for, like, five minutes before.”

“Alright.”

As I walk into the room I’ve been using, I realize that the tapping sound from Eli’s phone is still pretty much right behind me. I turn to see that she’s following me in.

“You gonna sleep with me, or what?” I ask.

“I mean, I don’t have a bed, so…”

“Whatever, I guess. Just try not to move around a lot.”

We both get onto the small air mattress. It’s been a while since I’ve slept in the same bed as someone. It’s to the point that I almost can’t fall asleep being this close to her. Eventually, though, I do.

It’s been only relatively recently that I’ve noticed the hum of this city. I don’t know if there was one back home, but there definitely is one here. The lights, the people milling about, the nearby passing cars, and the ones further out on the expressways between Medi’s buildings. It’s like they’re all carrying the same electricity, passing it between each other. Even while I sleep, I feel that hum inside me.

I’m woken up by someone lightly shaking my shoulder.

“Soup’s ready,” Eli says.

“Did the alarm go off?” I groggily ask.

“Yeah, you slept through it. I gave you another half hour.”

I sit up and wipe my eyes. “You could’ve woken me up earlier.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I wouldn’t’ve let it get cold before you could get any. ‘Sides, you look like you aren’t getting a lot of sleep.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” I say as I get out of bed. “You didn’t even have those bags last time I saw you.”

“Yeah, true. But I’m sure you already get why I have ‘em now.”

I just say “yeah” and head off into the kitchen. Even at the top of the stairs, I can smell it. Once I get down there, I get one of the cheap plastic bowls the middle-aged guy brought with the groceries last week and just scoop some soup out with it.

“I got the ladle for a reason, you know.”

“Right, sorry. I’m still kind of asleep.” After drying off the bottom of the bowl with a paper towel, I start eating at the part of the counter opposite of the oven.

The soup’s good. The tastes of the chicken, vegetables, and broth mix well. I can’t really compare it to any of the other kinds of soup that I’ve had, since I haven’t had any in some years. I can’t really remember them that well.

Eli’s the one to break the silence. “So, what’s your plan, Matty?”

I finish chewing on a piece of chicken before answering. “I’m gonna connect the phone D gave me to the computer I asked for.”

“Why? Did she tell you to?”

“Nah, she told me not to connect it to anything unless it’s brand new or hers. Wouldn’t tell me why.”

She seems to give it some thought before simply asking “That it?”

Her question catches me off guard. ‘Is that it’? I mean, I guess. I didn’t really head over here with a plan aside from “find a way to get D back”. How was I supposed to even think of one when I was kicked out so suddenly? And it’s not like D has given me enough information to come up with one.

“Yeah,” I say. “I’ll figure out the rest after I check if it does anything.”

“Fair enough,” she says before walking off to some other area of the house.