Ito Ai: A New Dawn

Seeing Mai's panicked face caused Ai to let out a laugh. "You will be fine. Just think of it as a flesh wound. Come on, I will take it out for you. There should be some anesthetic in the medical room down here." 

Mai nodded and slowly got up. She flinched at the pain in her leg but Ai grabbed Mai's arm and put it around her neck to help her walk down the stairs. The basement area was very big. It had a sleeping quarter, a medical bay, a kitchen, a bathroom with showers, and storage for many things such as food, clothing, and weapons. It was many times the size of the bunker she had built and to top it all off there was an engineering shaft that led to a self-contained power grid that powered the whole thing. There were also long hallways that lead to other sections of the base with many more rooms off the side such as a command center but the main area was the area around the weapons storage. This to Ai was the most important since it would allow for them to have a somewhat normal daily life. 

In her past life, the bases she had been to she only got to use their facilities once and a great while since they were always out searching for more supplies and fending off machina. But during that time, machina seriously outnumbered people, and keeping a military base was a very hard thing to do. She had watched many die while trying to hold such bases. But this was not going to stop Ai from keeping this base until they ran out of supplies for traps. Only then would she take what weapons essential supplies she could and move on. The biggest reason she wanted to stay here was to work on her artificial eye. This place had all the tools. And places where they could lock up test subjects. 

Ai brought Mai into the medical bay and had her lay on a table. "Keep pressure on your leg. I will sanitize around the wound first before doing local anesthesia. Just give me a second to prepare." 

"Mmm… Ai… Do you think we will live to be old and grey?" Mai suddenly asked. After being through her first real large battle with machina she realized how scary and dangerous it truly was. 

"This… I am not sure. To be honest we will be lucky if we live for ten to twenty years. If we get lucky, maybe a good forty years more. Don't get me wrong, I want to live until I turn one hundred. But I am not sure if the human race will even last that long. Because moving to and fro like nomads was our only chance at survival, the number of people having sex during that time was very low. Well, those who were willingly doing it to make love to their lovers. Women did get pregnant but most killed the baby in their stomach before they got more than four months. There was just no way to have a baby during that time.

" Medical supplies were few and far between making them rarer than gold. So giving birth and risking a complication was basically suicide. Not to mention the pain a woman goes through during childbirth. They would be yelling and screaming which would risk alerting nearby machina of their position. 

"With how quickly humans were dying, I would not be surprised if we all died out before we even reached the age of sixty. I can only say we can try our damndest to live and hope we can reach our goal of dying of old age. " Ai answered as she walked back over to where Mai was lying down with the supplies needed to take out the bullet. 

"Ai… If at any time I become a burden, just leave me behind. I know you could live much longer if you were not taking care of me and keeping me alive." Mai was not sure how long she could continue keeping a cool head with how crazy everything was getting. She was scared she would end up getting Ai killed if Ai was trying to save her.

"Mai, enough of that. Today, although you were scared, you pulled through. On top of that, you performed excellently. As time goes on you will slowly get used to it all. I once thought the same way as you. But I still lived until I got disintegrated by a damn beam weapon. Even if you lose every limb on your body, I will pick you up and carry you off the battlefield. You are the only living family member I have left. I do not want to be alone in this fucked up world for my second life." Ai, had always been alone in her past life after the apocalypse. But things were different now, she was finding this life much more enjoyable. Although she could not stop her parents and Mai's parents from dying she would do everything she could to keep Mai alive. She would harden Mai up so she can live in this shit infested world.

"Then I will do everything I can to not become a burden..." Mai replied with a faint smile. She cringed as she watched Ai dig into the wound on her leg with a pair of tweezers. Although she could not feel any pain it still made her skin crawl. Ai on the other hand only shook her head. She had no real way to ease Mai's worries which was why Mai always worried about the same things. 

"Okay got it. Luckily it did not damage the bone. I will stitch you up and you will be fine. But it is best to stay off the leg for a week at least." Ai said as she placed the blood covered bullet into a tray. "I will drill a hole through this later and string it up for you so you can keep it as a reminder."

"Mmm… I was going to ask if you could. I need something to remind me that danger lurks around every corner. But if I can't move, what do we do about the remaining machina upstairs?" Mai asked.

"Don't worry about it. I will set more traps in the hallways and make a quick sweep of the area. I also need to trap the hallways leading to this area of the underground facilities. You just rest and read these medical books. There is a huge selection stored here. After a few more weeks we can go out and try to find some test subjects."

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