She opened her eyes to see that she was surrounded by complete darkness. She held one of her arms in front of her but couldn’t make out the shape of it in the dark. She lifted one leg and slowly took a step forward, the sound echoed across the room. A slight sliver of light appeared on the ground just off the corner of her eyes so she cautiously went towards it. As she got closer to the door the light underneath begins to spill out. When she reached the door she could see it was made out of oak, she moved her hands around it looking for a doorknob. There wasn’t one. She pushed the door. It wouldn’t budge. She knocked on the door. No one answered. She begins banging on it and screaming. A loud noise made her stop, footsteps. Someone was coming from behind the door. As the sound got louder she kept staring at the door until she opened her eyes.

“H-huh?”

Sweeper blinked twice and looked around the room while still lying on the bed. She was in the medical bay due to the injuries she suffered. How long has it been… she thought to herself before finally noticing that there were two other people in the room sitting next to her.

“Looks like you’re finally awake.” It was the Captain’s voice.

“That’s great! I thought we’d really lost you!” Guard proceeded to get a little too close to her face. She had to use her hands to push Guard back so that she can regain her personal space

“Hmm it seems your limbs are still useable Private First Class Sweeper. That’s good.”

“What happened, how long have I been out?”

“Oh man we were so worried about you, it’s been about…” Guard quickly turned around to look at the calendar, it had strange scribbles all over it. “3 days since you got hurt.”

“It’s been that long? Did anything else happen?”

“Well after you went unconscious during the car ride back to base, the Captain carried you in. Also me, Dealer and Reaper had to clean up the jeep since it got singed by Reaper. It ended up being so bad we had to order new car seats from Command, I was the one that talked to the communication guy! So while we were deciding on the look of the car seats the Captain had the great idea to suggest asking for more stuff like guns and ammo. Well I accidently disconnected the call and we all panicked except for Reaper who just sat there staring at the black screen. Buuut we managed to get the call back and the things we ordered are scheduled to arrive in 4 more days.”

“Did ANYTHING else happen?”

“Nope, it’s been quiet. I sent Private Dealer and Private First Class Reaper to scout out the forest to the north, since that is the most likely location they will attack us from.”

Sweeper was now up to speed so she proceeded to try and get up but that was immediately stopped by the two who both jumped up from their seats and held her down. There was a brief pause and she could see the shocked expressions on their faces. Guard was the first one to speak up.

“Uhh I don’t think you’re ready to stand up just yet.”

“What do you mean? Oh jeez, if I look down and pull the cover off will I find out that I don’t have any legs?”

“Oh don’t be dramatic now. It’s not like that at all.” Savage anxiously smiles at her. “You see, none of us here at the base know anything about repairing. Except Guard here, who surprisingly shows great aptitude in putting things back together.”

“Yep yep. When I was still working at the bank, we were all installed with the ability to make on-site repairs to the infrastructure. Those iron bars would wear down from the constant damages. We also had to wipe off the blood from the walls.”

The Captain sat back down while Guard continued to hold onto Sweeper. Guard’s words really didn’t put her at ease since there should be some noticeable difference between androids and banks.

“What’s the problem then? I should be fine right? Oh jeez, if I were to look down now will my legs be replaced with iron bars.”

The two other soldiers looked at each other and laughed before looking back at Sweeper, who was now even more worried.

“Don’t be silly Private First Class Sweeper. Private Guard, explain.”

“Well you see, our model’s ability to repair only extend so far as infrastructure. I had a hard time fixing you up because you suffered major spinal injuries. But in the end, I managed!”

“Continue.” Savage sternly said.

“The damages were pretty bad and we had to take some stuff out of you. Uhh the machines in the medical bay helped with the skin and fluid replacement and provided us with many parts that fit into you perfectly, like a spine. And well it didn’t have any instructions on how to replace a broken robotic spine. So I had to, uh, wing it.”

“What’s wrong with my spine? Guard, what did you do to my spine?”

“Nothing, it’s perfectly fine. Except you can’t bend over.”

She had no words to say. Many have disregarded the ability to bend as it is an ordinary thing that anyone with a working spine can do. Sweeper was one of them and at numerous times ignored the importance of proper back care. Taking care of one’s back is important even if you can easily replace it, maintaining good posture and doing stretches are some of the ways you can avoid having back problems at an old age. To her credit the average person will not experience a backfull of debris from an explosion.

“But don’t get too down Sweeper, you can bend about 10 degrees.” Savage made a small angle with her hands. “Further than that though, your back might explode.”

The words that escaped her immediately came back and released to an astounding “WHAT!?!”

Guard quickly got behind Savage before speaking. “We had to remove a pipe from the kitchen sink and reworked it to fit into you.”

“I thought you said the medical bay provided a spine that could be used perfectly for me?!?”

“I lied.”

Sweeper looked up at the ceiling in disbelief, she stared at the lights which were almost blinding. The door. She remembered her dream of an oak door in the dark. Wait, dream? Is that right? Androids can’t dream, could it have been a memory? She never remembered seeing a door that looked like that, especially one made out of oak. She snapped back from her thought as Savage stood up.

“Well if it’s any comfort you can probably still walk, Private Guard help me get her up.”

The two took a hold of Sweeper as they lifted her up and placed her down. She stumbled a bit when her feet touched the ground.

“Remember not to bend over at the slightest degree and you’ll be fine.” Guard tried to reassure Sweeper.

Sweeper began testing the movement of her legs before walking around. Fortunately it was fine though her movements were a little weird but that was mostly due to her trying not to exert any effort into her back. She moved her arms and everything was still fine. She realized screaming at Guard wouldn’t help anyone, she would still be spineless and unable to move without their help.

“Um, thanks Guard but I don’t know how to feel right now about not being able to bend over.”

“I should be the one to thank you, you saved my life.”

“And for that act of bravery you have been promoted to Corporal now, Corporal Sweeper.”

Sweeper’s eyes lit up when she heard that.

“You can just do that?”

“Yes.” The Captain reached and firmly placed her hand on Sweeper’s shoulder. “We should get you adjusted to walking and running.”

The three walked out of the medical bay and headed towards the kitchen.

“Wait, if Reaper and Dealer are still out there taking a look around and you two were here in the medical bay. Who’s watching the entrance of the base?

“I have that covered. Remember the droid you forgot to recharge, the one that would have helped out in the last battle? Well when the base got its power back, I plugged that sucker in and got it running.” Savage proudly smiled.

“We should bring you to meet it!” Guard ran ahead of the two before turning back. “We haven’t decided on a name for it yet but my vote goes to Mirabelle!”

“Aren’t we breaking some laws for having that thing around?”

Though they are at war with the United Countries, Sweeper knew that there are still rules and regulations that one needs to follow in order to not destroy the world any further. The Sydney’s Necessary Accord of Peace had banned the use of droids due to their effectiveness during the last parts of World War 3. The technology for the artificial intelligences of droids was banned and since then no android could ever reach the same level which was a good thing for it was the droids single-mindedness in killing that made them too dangerous.

“Don’t worry Corporal Sweeper, that’s where the next phase of my plan comes in.” Savage confidently smiled as the three continued walking.

Meanwhile to the north of the US base, Dealer and Reaper had just arrived at the forest.

“Something about these trees creep me out.” Dealer stared at the eastern white pines in front of her.

“Really, why?” Reaper tilted her head.

“They’re just all too lined up, you know what I mean? Doesn’t seem natural.”

“They’re trees, this formation must be natural.”

Dealer stood in front of the forest, she didn’t know a lot about trees other than that they were important. Back in America all the trees were like this too and even then it unnerved her but still she had a job to do, though she was forced into it. Reaper couldn’t be trusted with driving the jeep and the others had to watch over Sweeper. Dealer was worried about her.

“Hey do you think Sweeper is going to be alright?”

“Yes.”

“Heh, I wished I had your confidence. I’m not good at anything but lazing about.”

“That’s not true, if you put in effort you could find what you’re good at.”

“Don’t know about that chief. I had a pretty comfy life sitting around the cash register, barely anyone came around to the store so I didn’t have to do much. Plus the owner was really nice.

The two started chatting at the entrance of the forest about anything that could preoccupy them. With how the trees are lined up you could see the light coming from the other side of the forest. The forest itself wasn’t very large but it was still somewhat of a trek to get across it.

“Well let’s get going back, I’m pretty sure we would have seen the enemy by now.” Dealer turned back and headed towards the jeep but a hand tightly gripped on her shoulder.

“Hold up, let’s check the other side of the forest.”

“Do we have too?” She sighed as she was dragged into the forest. It was quiet, they couldn’t hear a sound from the wild life if there were any around. As they kept walking Dealer looked at Reaper’s right hand, nothing was out of place. It was burned almost straight to the endoskeleton just a few days ago.

“Are you alright? You got burned pretty badly from that last battle.”

“Yeah, I had to replace some skin and hair. The damages weren’t that deep.”

“If you say so. So what do you think of the name?”

“For the droid?” Reaper looked at her, not quite understanding what she was asking.

“For the battles. Capt. gave the first battle the name Battle of Former North Dakota and the second one Siege of Castle Bravo.”

“They work.”

Dealer shrugged. “She’s really trying to sell that we are actually fighting now. I mean, there were no battles for the last 6 months and then BOOM suddenly we have two back to back.”

“It’s good to do something now, before the only thing I could do was train.”

“You did put up quite a show. Almost everyone in the base would show up to see you shoot.”

They continued talking as they walked through the forest. Dealer could now make out the highway on the other side. The path heading towards the east was destroyed, it was like that before the army got here.

“This is nice.” Reaper smiled.

“Hmm?”

Dealer looked at Reaper in surprise. For the time that she knew her, Reaper was always quiet and was someone that was always in the background for Dealer. They were rarely around each other and Dealer didn’t really go out of her way to chat with her. This entire scouting trip was the longest that they have spoken to each other, probably the longest Reaper had spoken to anybody.

“Walking through the woods, it’s nice and peaceful.” Reaper answered.

“Huh? The reason you wanted to walk across this place was because it was nice and peaceful?”

“I also wanted to get to know you better.”

That response caught Dealer off guard. From what little she knew about the girl clad in black, she thought she would be more menacing and bloodthirsty.

“W-w-well it’s good to know. But you could have done that back at the safety of our base.”

“I wanted to get to know everyone better individually. So I thought this would be a good time.”

Dealer wondered what brought this change. But before she could ask Reaper suddenly looked forward, her eyes were sharply staring at something.

“Get behind the trees.” She quickly dragged Dealer behind a large tree and pointed out the figures moving in the distance.

“Are they enemies?” Dealer thought about it for a second. “Wait shit of course they are, who else would come here willingly.”

Reaper pulled out her sniper and aimed down the scope to get a better view of the targets.

“They don’t look like the UCNA soldiers we fought.”

The figures in the distance were retrieving stuff from their vehicles and placing them down, they were making a camp. The thing that stood out was there guns and armour, which threw out the option of them being lost campers.

“Their wearing black, the colours of the UCNA uniforms are gray and white.” Reaper pointed out.

“Oh crap what if it’s there special ops?”

“The road to the east is cut off, there is a higher chance that they came from the west.”

“So?”

“They could be from the US.”

“Is it back-up? Command would have told us that we are getting back-up right?”

“I’m not sure, we should pull back and report this to the Captain.”

As Reaper started to stand up she was pulled back down by Dealer. “If we can see straight through this forest then so can they. We need to wait it out just a little while longer until it gets darker. Then we can get the hell out.”

The two sat there waiting for the night to come. Dealer liked doing nothing but only if she was in a comfortable position which, sadly, this was not. Maybe if we crawl really slowly… she thought to herself but looking at the cold ground changed her mind. She really wished that she was back home.