Born of Silicon

I awake to rapidly fading dreams. This isn’t the first time I’ve been unconscious from blood loss, the dreams are always crazy. I’m pretty sure I was dating the moon? 

I focus on my hearing first and foremost. I can hear three people, two breathing regularly, one asleep. Two of them are almost certainly Vince and Ivy. Both of them have stuffed up noses, as if they’ve been crying recently. Lucas sounds like the sleeping one.

From the outside comes sand, pelting against the wall and the ever present roar of thunder. Often it’s nearly drowned out by the sound of the sand, but when the lightning hits the tower it’s nearly deafening. 

I must have been out for quite a while for a storm to roll in. My bed feels unfamiliar. If Lucas is sleeping in another bed, I must be in our room at the tower.

With a momentous effort I open my eyes. I was right on all accounts. One thing I didn’t realize is that there’s an IV dripping both blood and fluids into my right arm. I reach over with my left to investigate it. 

While it feels like my arm moves, in actuality, my arm stays lamely on the bed. Not again.

“Morning you two. Did you sleep well?” I croak out. Wow my throat feels like hell, I must have had some tubes in me.

“Cassie!” Ivy cries just loudly enough to wake Lucas while running over to me. “I slept like a baby downstairs, but Vince here has been running himself ragged. He must have ran ten miles on those stairs, going between the two of us.”

“Don’t you dare scare me like that again, Cassandra.” Vince says while he heads over to me. While his voice tries to be stern and serious, his face shows just how relieved he is. He walks over to my left hand and takes it in his own. “Can you feel this?”

“Nah.” I try to sound casual, but of course Ivy can see right through me, and she’ll tell Vince soon. “Looks like you’re going to be buying me another prosthetic, Vincent.”

“Hopefully we just have to replace the shoulder.” Vince says sadly. 

I’m sure he’s remembering just how torn up I was when I first lost my legs and ears. I’m sure I’ll be upset about it later, but for now? I’d say I turned out pretty lucky.

“We do have a conveniently unused arm available.” Lucas says way too energetically for only being awake for a few seconds. “How are you feeling Cass?”

“A hell of a lot better than the other guy. But yeah, I’m surprised by how little pain there is.”

“Well that’d be on account of all the opioids in your IV drip.” Ivy says casually. “Blackwell thought you deserved some extra.”

“That’d explain a lot. How long was I out?”

“Four days, but it feels longer than that.” Vince informs me.

“Four days, huh?” Not sure I’ve ever been unconscious that long before. “How close was I?”

“Top three for sure. It was really touch and go there for a long while. It wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if he hadn’t dug his fingers in. He did a lot of damage to your brachial artery.”

“Fucker.” I say halfheartedly. I just don’t have the energy to get properly angry. “How did it go after I killed him?”

“Surprisingly smoothly!” Lucas says with forced excitement. “He shot first, nobody cares much past that. Fair’s fair and all that.”

“Awesome. How are you doing Ivy?” I ask.

“Fine as long as I don't lift anything. Or move the wrong way. Or walk. Or breathe.”

“Want to come share my IV?”

“I think we both know that’s a bad idea.” She says with a small smile. 

“And you Vince? How’s your head?”

“A lot better than the other guy.” Vince says in an imitation of my voice. 

“Shut up.” I roll my eyes at him.

“I’m doing fine as long as I’m not too active. Once we get Blue back we’re all taking a long vacation.”

“Hell yeah. I’d love nothing more than a bath.”

“I’m not sure if we can bring Blue to the bathhouse, but we’ll figure out something.”

Nobody wants to mention that we might not get her back, for any number of reasons. The implication hangs over us for a few moments before Lucas tries to cheer us up.

“Even if we all just hang out at the compound it’ll be nice. We could just spend a week playing our tabletop campaign.”

“I’m down. We still get the backhoe right?” I ask.

“Who’s going to say no? Seven?” Ivy jokes. “We’ll just sic you on whoever tries.”

“Quiet Ivy.” Vince chastises her gently. “Yes we have it. Blackwell has taken charge of the base for now, and she’s going to send a driver with us too. We get to pick up Blue and head right home.”

“Assuming we even need it. You’ll never guess which direction this storm hit from.” Ivy gestures lazily to the raging sands outside.

“I swear if we did all this for nothing.”

“Blackwell’s honoring Seven’s IOU if we don’t need the backhoe. Plus she really owes us a second one.” Vince reassures me.

“Good. Oh I almost forgot. How’re the others doing?” I ask.

“Valerie passed, but Bernie’s somehow hanging in there.” Vince’s voice betrays the guilt he feels.

“I thought Bernie was looking worse when we brought them back?” I ask.

“He was. From what I’ve heard in the hospital, nobody's really sure how he lived.”

“Well I guess saving one makes it worth it.” If I don’t look at the bright side, I’m going to go mad.

“Here,” Vince picks up a bowl of mush and a large glass of water. “Eat something and then get some sleep. You’ll need your energy when we leave.”

“Sure.” When I take my first bite of whatever this slop is, my hunger really hits me. Vince has to remind me to slow down a few times. I don’t even taste most of it. Within two minutes both the bowl and glass are both empty. 

“Get some sleep.” Vince comes to my side and ruffles my hair.

“You get some too. You look like you need it more than me.”

“I’ll make sure he gets sleep, one way or another.” Ivy has a mischievous look on her face.

“Thanks Ivy.” I don’t even want to know what she has in mind.

I let my head drop onto my pillow and am almost immediately out. What feels like only an instant later Vince is shaking my good shoulder to wake me up. 

“Hey, storm’s letting up. Here.” He places another bowl of food on my lap once again.

Blackwell must have taken my IV out at some point and my shoulder is certainly hurting. How in the world did I sleep through that? At least I have a few extra pills I can take if the pain gets too bad. 

I wolf down the food once again and move to stand up. I nearly fall off the bed when I try to use my left arm to push myself up. That’s going to take a while to get used to. 

Vince helps me get my arm situated in a sling and get to my feet. I’m a little weak, but luckily my legs don’t care. 

“Where’s everyone else?” I ask while I take a minute to catch my breath.

“Getting the car ready. Or at least Lucas is, all three of us aren’t allowed to lift anything.”

We start our slow walk to the garage. Thankfully nobody gets in our way. I have to rely on Vince often, and I can tell his head is still bothering him.

“We’re just a bit of a mess, aren’t we?” I say to him, half joking.

“Oh yeah. Lucas will probably be the only one even close to fine when we get back.”

“I can’t imagine Blue had some sort of epiphany under there. I just hope my light helped.”

“Glad to see you care so much.” He’s good at hiding it, but I can still hear a ‘told you so’ tone behind his words. 

“Shut up.” I know he’s right, I just don’t want to admit it. “I just don’t want anything to happen to her. That doesn't mean I have to like her.”

“Mm-hmm, sure.”

We head down the stairs in silence. I can’t believe just how weak I am after just a few days on death's door. 

As much as I wish I had my old legs back, the cybernetics sure have made my life easier. I’m not sure I could have made it down all these floors without them. Even then I have to stop for a break almost every floor. 

It takes us almost ten minutes to make it to the garage. Lucas is putting a wheel back on the car while Ivy is standing next to him. She has a few tools in her hands, ready to hand them to Lucas if he asks. 

“How’s she looking?” Vince asks, announcing our arrival.

“She’s perfect! Blackwell handed me Seven’s wallet and told me to go wild. We’ve got a full week under the sand, brand-new tires and breaks, I even fixed a few bits that didn’t quite need it yet, she’s good as new. I couldn’t make her better even if I had the world.”

“Glad to hear it.” Vince says as he settles down in one of the back seats.

“Apparently you’re right on time.” Ivy speaks up. “The ramp should be finished any minute.”

I go ahead and take shotgun, Lucas is the only one who’s in any condition to drive. Sure enough he takes the wheel, and Ivy slides in next to Vince.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Vince starts. “The backhoe is going to drive separately. It can’t go more than about 10 miles an hour, and I’d like to get there faster. If we get there and Blue’s uncovered, go ahead and radio to tell them to turn back. There’s a huge receiver on the backhoe, they should hopefully be able to hear us. We get Blue, we go home. Any complaints?”

“None here!”

“Nope.”

“Mm-mm”

“Good. Now I’m going to take a nap.” Vince rests his head on Ivy’s shoulder.

“Wait. Aren’t you going to do Silver’s speech?” I ask him with a big grin on my face.

He doesn't respond, instead he reaches forward and gently flicks my ear.

Everyone is too exhausted to talk while we wait, so I spend my time watching the other people in the garage. 

A convoy has been loaded up with scrap that I assume is destined for Arc City. All the other cars in here lie abandoned. It’s wild to see people not rushing out the first moment they can.

After only a few minutes of waiting, the garage door opens. Lucas makes sure we make it out in front of the convoy.

The storm outside has completely passed, and they’ve piled sand against the side of the building until there’s a small ramp reaching the garage. 

I can’t even imagine how they move this much sand after every storm. 

I spend my time on the radio, cycling through every channel I can find. Amazingly, Arc City’s transmitter reaches all the way out here. It’s almost entirely weather, announcing the end to the storm and a bit of political drama that I don’t care about.

For some reason the rich and powerful in the heart of the city think the rest of us care about their crap? Transmitting this far takes a lot of power, and there’s not enough of that to go around on the best of days.

I check in with the backhoe on regular intervals. It’s going to take them ten hours to arrive, while we’ll be there in four. I do my best to keep an eye out as well, but keeping us safe mostly comes down to Ivy. 

Vince just rests his eyes in the back. Luckily this route is basically abandoned. There’s so much material in Denver there’s no reason to head this way.

Our four-hour drive passes in silence. Not a single car was seen on the entire ride. My nervousness rises as we get closer without sight of the scrapyard. 

Finally we crest one large dune, and it comes into view, nearly entirely empty of sand. All of us let out a sigh of relief, I hadn’t even realized I was holding my breath. I radio to the backhoe to head home and we head in.

We start our slow drive through the junkyard, weapons in hand. Just because nobody’s arrived from the city yet doesn't mean nobody’s in here.

Luckily the path we take is mostly abandoned, and we reach the house quickly. Lucas parks and we all jump out. Ivy still can’t walk quickly, so it takes a little bit until the bus finally comes into view. I try to announce myself before walking in.

“Blue?” No response comes from inside. “I’m coming in.” As I poke my head inside all I see is an empty bus. Many of her skin plates are scattered all across the floor, and several seats have been ripped up. “Where the fuck is Blue?”