The days passed quickly, and the day of their group’s departure arrived. The Wall had given them each two outfits, one black and skin tight, and one an undeyed lightweight wool meant to look more “native”, and an armor that was printed ceramic plates inside a tough grass green fabric made with recycled plastics. It was actually effective armor compared to the leather exile armor that really only protected from tree branch scratches.

Dan looked in his pack on the bed, and then after a thorough search just walked out of the room.

Elizabeth wondered if something was missing from the pack. Looking through it and comparing it to the inventory list, it looked like everything that should be there was. She saw radiation medication, preserved foods for sustenance, a number of other medications in case their bodies detected anything wrong, a water bottle with a water purification device to filter any water that did not meet standards, and the aforementioned clothes and armor that were currently pulled out on the bed.

Her list also noted that they would be receiving their weapons at the gate to the outside along with a mount for Dan and herself.

The door to their room opened and Dan walked through the opening, fiddling with a small black cube. He rolled the cube in his hand and then held it out to Elizabeth. “I requisitioned our own Xatron database. It won’t have everything the main network has, but the two of us will have access to it, and it will allow us to store all information we absorb while traveling to hand over to the elders.”

He held it out expectantly like she was supposed to take it and do something with it.

“You need to connect to it before we leave. Once connected you can disconnect from the main system at any time,” His words answered her unspoken question.

“Did we even need to use spoken language with the network?” She thought while focusing on wanting him to hear her question.

“No.” She heard his voice speak in her head as she took hold of the smooth cube. He finished the thought out loud, “But I prefer spoken language. The way questions are translated is the computer's interpretation of your thoughts. Sometimes it gets it, sometimes it gives a bunch of additional random words if one’s brain is working multiple threads at once, and sometimes it oversimplifies the usage. Since the computer does not provide feedback on what is sent over, I prefer to curate my words myself.”

She looked down at the black box, and felt it offer a connection. She accepted the link, but nothing seemed different. “Should anything happen after connecting?” she asked.

“No. It’s just a smaller version of the main hub with less information stored on it. You might notice something when you disconnect from the main hub though,” he answered as he began changing into the light wool garment.

Elizabeth set the box down on top of her bag and also changed into the light weight grayish shirt and pants. The light colored clothing was much more practical for everyday usage than the supposedly tactical outfit.

After changing, they packed the items on the bed into the packs, and Elizabeth found herself fitting the small black box into her pack since it was in her pile of items. With the packs ready to go, the two of them swung the packs onto their backs at the same time in unspoken agreement. They headed out, and took a mover down to the main entrance.

In the dimly lit great chamber there was a small gathering of people in similar loose fitting gray wool wearing smaller packs than the ones Dan and she were wearing. There were also two horses being held by a Wall person. The exiles were either ogling from a distance or attempting to get close and pet the horses. Horses were a rarity mostly known to the Most Honored class. These two happened to be outsider and Wall bred though. One was a clone of the stock that originally produced her Kingston and the other was Dan’s horse from outside that the Wall had been keeping.

“Why don’t we get horses?” She could hear Felise questioning the Wall person holding the horses as they got closer.

“You don’t need horses to travel a couple days to the village. Horses are in short supply and mainly created from frozen tissue samples via cloning. Creating enough horses for everyone leaving the City is literally impossible!” The Wall man sounded quite exasperated in his response, and the horses seemed a little nervous from him waving his hands a little.

Elizabeth quietly took Kingston2’s reins from the Wall man, and Dan on the other side took his horse’s reins as well. She could see her chosen weapons were attached to Kingston’s saddle along with an additional pack of grain for the horse.

She turned to Felise and smiled to soften her words, “We’ve been asked by the Wall to travel past the village. These horses are to help us in our task.”

Felise, who was just slightly taller than her, seemed surprised as he opened and then closed his mouth. “Will you be staying at the village with us for a little bit at least?” he asked.

“No,” she shook her head. “We don’t want to put undue burden on the border village.”

“Oh,” he replied and scuffed his foot against the smooth floor of the grand room. “I was hoping I could ask you some questions.”

“You have three or four days to ask while we travel,” she stated and turned away to lead her horse to the exit without waiting for a response from the young teenager.

Behind her, she could hear him say, “But what if my brother doesn’t want to see me again.”

That worry did not seem logical to her. She did not deign to answer and instead led toward the airlock to outside.

Everyone followed her through the small doors, and once the final stragglers were in, the doors snapped shut. The exterior doors opened into the bright world outside. Behind her she could hear gasps from the people who’d never stepped foot outside the city before. She stepped forward and out into the radiating light of the ever brilliant sun. The sun prickled welcomingly against what was left of her human skin, and she took a deep breath of the dry air outside the City.

It looked much like her first passage with the abandoned frames of buildings lining the ancient road, but this time she could see footprints in the dust that covered the road in a fine layer. A horde of people headed away from the confines of city life and out into the world. It would be easy to find their way to the village with the clear path in front of them even if she didn’t have an internal compass to lead the way.

She took one final look up at the giant wall that stretched toward the sky and melded into the blue behind them, and turned off her connection to the main cyborg network. It was quiet. A number of connections she hadn’t noticed until then were silenced in a moment. There was only one connection left; the small cube on her back and the feeling of understanding from Dan. He was next to her, and they were still connected. They would still be able to protect each other, and as long as that was true everything else was secondary.

For the three and a half days they traveled, she walked alongside the other exiles and led Kingston. Dan walked next to her and they both answered a slew of questions that the City people had about village life, traditions, and what the expectations would be on them. Neither she or Dan had a great way to answer the final question except to say that everyone was expected to find work useful to the village to complete.

Felise had many questions about his brother and his brother’s partner, Sandy. Since Dan knew her the best, he answered many of Felise’s questions for her.

As they passed out of the wastelands and into vegetation, she could see a figure covered up in a dark cloak waiting for them.

As they came closer, a male voice that she recognized as Roderick called out, “Are Liv and Dan in this group? The other city folk said this would be the last group.”

“Yes, Dan and I are with this group,” she replied. She would correct his understanding of her name to remove that illogical nickname from usage later.

“Thank goodness. Means I won’t have to come out here again for awhile,” he said and then waited for them to trudge closer.

Once Elizabeth was about the length of a horse away from him, she stopped. Everyone around her also stopped. Roderick looked over the group before saying anything else, “Everyone here except Liv and Dan can go on to the village. Some of you will be allowed to stay, and some will be asked to continue on to other villages. You’ll meet some folks from the village up at that treeline that will guide you to the main village.”

“Wait, why can’t they come with us?” Felise questioned Roderick.

Rachel stepped up next to him, “Yes, Why can’t our friends stay with us?”

She could hear Jordan from behind her, “Liv’s my daughter and I’m not leaving without her.”

Elizabeth sighed and turned to look at her friends and relatives who were part of this final group. “Don’t worry about me, and go get comfortable in the village. This has been a long walk. Dan and I know Roderick here well, and we will be perfectly fine talking to him. He’s a native of the Wall who left with me the first time I left the city.”

Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Jordan spoke up again, “I guess if you know him, we’ll see you later when you make it to the village.”

The group passed the three of them, and Felise gave Roderick a strong glare as he passed, though Roderick didn’t seem to notice.

Roderick stood there silently watching the people walk away until they entered the forest in the distance. The last person walked into the forest, and Roderick pulled a pack off his back, “I’ve packed some extra food and water in this pack as was asked of me by the Wall. Should be enough for you two till you can hunt and forage for other food. I also put some of my hard earned coins, so that should be useful to you for your travel. I recommend going south and not traveling too close to the village. There are people who would be excited to see you and would slow down your travels.”

He paused, and she could see his cloak shift a little. “I’m sorry for the pain I caused in the past. I know you don’t care anymore, that you never will, and I’m really sorry you ended up this way. I just -.”

She waved her hand to stop him, “It is in the past, and it was your mission. As you stated, I do not care about such silly things anymore. I am Elizabeth the cyborg, not some silly child named Liv now.”

The hood of his cloak shifted, and she thought he might be looking down at the ground, “I hope - I hope you find balance in yourself,” his quavering voice belied some apprehension over his own words.

She nodded since this seemed to be a goodbye, “Good luck, goodbye, and know that I hold no ill.”

Dan took the pack he was holding out as she put her foot in the stirrup and easily swung up onto the black horse.

“One final thing!” Roderick rushed forward to Kingston2’s side, his hood slipping just a bit to show his pale face, “My father sent along a message for you with the first group. He said ‘The brightest flame burns out quickly and is gone with nothing left behind. An ember burns for a long time and heats a pot of water.’”

Elizabeth stared down at Roderick, her mind turning over the words and questioning why Roderick’s father would have bothered to state that. It seemed like common sense phrases, but at the same time it seemed silly to go through the effort of passing a message along for something like that. It did not have any logical reason to be said in the context of their mission. Was he just trying to tell them to be careful with their campfires? “I don’t understand,” she finally replied.

Roderick shrugged. “I don’t either, but since my father asked me to pass it along, I have. Maybe one day it will make sense.”

Dan tapped her other arm pulling her attention from Roderick. “We should get going, I want to travel some distance south before the sun goes down and we need to set up camp.”

She nodded, and turned back to Roderick. “I will try to figure out the meaning of his words. Farewell.”

With that she pulled her horse away and didn’t even turn to look back as Roderick called out to her, “Bye! Feel free to stop by any time!”

Together, she and Dan rode south with the sun slowly shifting West. It was time to explore more of this world.