Despite Cassie saying we still don’t have a pn, talking did calm her down a little bit. Her leg stays mostly still throughout the day.

  A little before sunset she gets ready for bed. I already converted the bnket into a cloak for her, and she wraps it tightly around her as she settles down. My own patchwork covering is done too, bunched up in my p to give Corax a nest.

  I end up reading to the two of them while she’s falling asleep, and don’t stop even after Corax heads out for the night. It still helps to have something to focus on and keep the dark at bay.

  Most of the stories I stole are pretty bad, at least in comparison to Cassie’s books. They’ve repced the complex, interesting characters of the romance books with meaningless, hollow action seemingly just for the sake of it. I’m not sure if someone actually enjoys these stories, or if it’s just all they could find, but I’m really missing Cassie’s stash.

  The second the sun is fully behind the horizon, I park the car temporarily to reignite the steam turbine. That of course wakes Cassie up, but I quietly assure her everything is fine, and she returns to her rest, lulled back to sleep by the book.

  With the turbine running, the car is still losing charge as I drive, but noticeably slower than it was. It’ll get us to Vegas, but it’ll be tight. If we take too many detours, I’ll have to start running it during the day as well and just hope nobody bothers investigating the pilr of bck smoke we make.

  It’s a starless night, at least at the beginning of it. There is still too much sand from the storm in the upper atmosphere for me to see anything other than a faint glow where the moon should be. As the night goes on, however, bits of the moon start to reveal itself, and stars begin to twinkle into existence. It takes hours before the tapestry of the universe is id out before me.

  It’s overwhelmingly beautiful, like always.

  I even stop reading while I just stare while only dedicating the minimum necessary attention on driving.

  How hard would it be to just go to the moon and get away from everything? I’d need the force of a city behind me, but it might just be possible. I can pull pure oxygen and hydrogen from the air as fuel, and I’m sure it’s possible to refine the scrap into something far nicer to make a rocket out of.

  Once on the moon, I could just nd at a pole and mine ice. I wouldn’t even need a space suit, just some minor adjustments and protections for my chip. That water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen using electrolysis, plus the melted ice can be used for hydroponics, or aquaponics more likely. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll get power there for everything, but that’s a solvable problem.

  I could just bring everyone I care about, and live out the rest of our days in peace.

  No, that wouldn’t work. I can’t take Cassie, Ivy, Vince, and Lucas away from their friends, that’s not fair to them. Corax and I could though, although I’m not sure if he could fly in low gravity.

  Actually, I could set up something much easier, and substantially simpler. If I found a way to reliably generate electricity, we could just bury ourselves somewhere we’ll never be found and live in a network of our own.

  Maybe we could even find somepce nearby to Arc City, so everyone could come visit whenever they want. Maybe digging ourselves deep into the Rocky mountains with a few automated turrets to convince unwanted people to leave. That might be nice.

  Is this how Zero feels? Just wanting to be alone and watch their creation, separate from the goings-on and stress of everything? I hope not. I wouldn’t want to help someone like me if I’ve lived like that for so long. Why would I? Why take the risk of destabilizing what I’ve created, even if the risk is almost non-existent?

  I hope I’m wrong. But even if I’m not, we’ll just have to get into Eight’s penthouse somehow. Or we’ll find another AI, it’ll be fine. We’ll manage.

  The silent night is interrupted by Corax nding on the window.

  “One car.” He reports.

  “Are they coming this way?”

  Corax only nods.

  “Shit, ok.” Don’t panic. I’ve kept all the lights in the car off for this exact reason. They might not know we’re here. We’re going to be ok. “Cassie-”

  “I heard.” She must have woken up from Corax’s first word. She’s already drawn her pistol and is quickly going through the process of checking it.

  “Can we avoid them?” I ask Corax.

  “Maybe.” He says, and points for me to turn to the left, which I follow.

  “What does the car look like?” Cassie asks him.

  “Headlights.”

  “Right, of course. Do they know we’re here?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Fucking great. Give me the radio.” Cassie says.

  “I haven’t heard anything on any channels.” I pass the headphones to her, and she quickly gets to work clicking through the stations.

  I plug myself into the car, and begin checking Vince’s rifle. Magazine full, magazine in gun, receiver empty, charge handle, receiver full, safety off. I’m not going to be able to keep getting lucky with fights. I’m not going to let that stop me from protecting Cassie.

  “Do you think they’re with Mara?” I ask.

  Cassie gives me a side eye, silently asking how she expects me to know.

  “Corax.” She doesn’t even bother responding to me vocally. “Tell me as soon as you’re sure we can’t avoid them.

  Corax disappears into the pitch bck sky, the occasional star momentarily winking out of existence is the only hint of his presence.

  There has to be something I can be doing right now to prepare. I grab both the helmets from my back seat, drop one in Cassie’s p, and snap the other into pce on my original body’s head. I’d put her helmet on her, but it won’t fit with the radio headphones, and I don’t think she has enough time to put on her body armor.

  I pull myself onto the lip of my window, mimicking the position Ivy got into while we went through the southern pass. Vince’s rifle is braced against my roof, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. If the car that’s coming for us is anything less than prepared to instantly fire, I have a good chance at coming out of this alive.

  After only a minute of looming silence and the rapid clicking of the radio, Corax nds on my shoulder from nowhere.

  “Coming.”

  “How long?” Cassie isn’t even trying to hide her annoyance.

  “Minutes.”

  “Have they turned to chase us? Or are they just going straight?”

  “Straight.”

  “Alright.” Cassie lets out a tentative, relieved breath. A switch loudly clicks. “This is Scarlet on the short range. Other car, you’re getting awfully close to us.” She waits for a few seconds, and leans towards us. “Corax, which way do they have to turn to avoid us?”

  “Left.”

  “Turn left and you’ll pass us by.” She says into the radio and waits for their response. “Look. Turn around, turn left, I don’t care. If you come over that hill, we will fire.”

  Cassie waits a few seconds for a response before rolling down my window. She then draws her pistol, sticks it outside of me, and fires once into the ground. The shockwave sms into my mind.

  Panic takes hold for just a moment. I’m ok. Don’t panic. She didn’t shoot anyone. It’s just a warning.

  “Is that fucking close enough?” She asks.

  She waits for another response.

  “Thank you. We have a drone, we’ll know if you’re lying.” She hits a button to turn off the transmitter. “Fucking idiots, Corax, go make sure they turn.”

  Corax takes off, but I don’t leave my perch. Not until Corax says we’re safe. Cassie isn’t rexing yet either. I keep my rifle pointed in the same direction Cassie is pointing her pistol, she’s going to be able to hear the car before I can see it.

  I can’t see or hear anything, but Cassie’s aim begins to drift slowly to the right. Are they turning? Or still heading straight and just very close? I have no way of knowing.

  Cassie has to lean far out my window to keep her pistol trained in the direction she’s hearing the sound. They’re almost directly behind us and no longer traveling to the right, I’m just not sure if that means they turned away from us, or towards us.

  After several minutes of a tense standoff, Corax nds on my shoulder.

  “Safe.”

  I slowly slide back into the cover of my exoskeleton, make my rifle safe, and gently pce it in my back seat. Despite a small portion of my mind yelling not to, I unplug myself from the car.

  Cassie takes longer to finally pull back from the window and settle in her seat. She slips her pistol into its holster and drops her face into her hand.

  “Are you ok?” I ask.

  Cassie only shakes her head slightly without rising.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “They sounded like kids pying bounty hunter. Probably looking for us.” She shakes her head again and falls silent. Only when I’m sure she’s done talking and about to say something of my own, does she speak again. “They’re too fucking young and dumb to survive out here.”

  “Oh.” What do I even say to that? Am I responsible for them? No, I don’t think I am. “Should we go back and stop them?” That’s the only think I can think of.

  “How?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “No.” She gives one st shake of her head, sits up in her chair, and lets out a loud sigh. “You can’t change a teenagers mind, just hope they live long enough to make more fucking stupid mistakes.”

  “Really?” It can’t be that simple. “How do you know?”

  “You know I was one of them, right?”

  “Oh, right. Sorry, I kind of forgot that humans age and don’t just appear fully formed like I did.” I really need to get those hard drives fixed. “Is everyone like that when they’re young?” A few threads connect deep in the core of my mind, saying that I was the same way. I don’t want to relive the memories to confirm that though.

  “No, but even the smart ones? An unlucky mistake can cost an arm and a leg or two.”

  I don’t know how to respond to that. I’m pretty sure that was a joke, but I can’t ugh about something like that. Instead, I change the subject.

  “You should get some sleep. I’d hate for you to be tired while we try to make it off the seabed.”

  “I won’t be able to sleep with all this adrenaline. I’ll crash in an hour or so.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help you feel better? You really need your sleep.”

  “I’m fine.” Her voice is forceful, demanding I stop asking. Instead, she grabs the headphones and begins rapidly flicking through the stations.

  Over the course of a silent hour, the rapid clicks of changing stations begin to slow. She lingers on channels while her head slips to the side, only to jolt upright and resume her frantic switching.

  She’s afraid to sleep.

  It takes me a while to realize that simple fact, but once I do it feels so obvious. I’m not sure if it’s out of worry for the kids, ever present nightmares, or the fact that there are bound to be more bounty hunters out there searching for us. I can only fix one of them.

  “Corax will warn us before anyone can get close.” I say quietly.

  Cassie barely even reacts, pretending to not hear me. I guess that wasn’t her biggest worry.

  Despite that, her head eventually falls to the side and her hand goes limp. The headphones still sit atop her head. I can’t leave her with those.

  “Sorry, I need these.” I keep my voice as quiet as my speaker can manage.

  I try to gently pull them off her, only for her head to follow their movements. She shifts to the left, chasing the headphones, and eventually nds on my arm.

  “Warm.” She mumbles, and her arm snakes out of her cloak, wrapping tightly around mine.

  She’s going to be mad about this when she wakes up. I try to shift away, only for her arm to flex harder and a frown to find its way onto her face.

  I guess she’s keeping my arm tonight, I can’t bear to take it away from her. That’s fine, I can work the radio with my free hand, and steer with my left knee.

  JanePtinum