Robotics and Necrotics (Book 1): As Nations Fall

by Vale, Silas

  "You can shower. I'll do this." He said, scrubbing the dirt from his skin with the coarse cloth. The feeling of being clean would be a welcome change.

  "Alright. Have fun with your sink shower" She strolled into the bathroom behind him, chuckling a bit as she did so.

  "Move your ass." She squeezed past him and moved towards the shower, peeling off pieces of her clothing as she went. Shaun kept his eyes averted as she took her shirt off, stepped into the shower, and then proceeded to take everything else off and throw it over the curtain.

  "How the fuck does this thing even work-" She was cut off by a rush of water from the showerhead, and then yelped when that water was inevitably very cold. "Son of a bitch!"

  Shaun laughed, continuing to scrub the dirt from his body with the white cloth that was consistently becoming darker. He let the water run for a while until it was steaming, then used that to attempt to boil the dirt off of him. He hadn’t felt hot water in a long time.

  It felt so dreadfully nice to be clean.

  He walked out into the main room once he finished, taking off his filthy clothes, scrubbing down the rest of his body quickly, and then pulling on clean ones he found in a drawer. He pulled out clothes for Aisling, realizing she had forgotten them, and sat them down on the toilet seat.

  "I put your clothes out." He said with a half-cocked grin, walking back out and sitting on the bed.

  "You what?" She peeked out at him from the shower, furrowing her brows a little bit before she disappeared back behind the curtain. She had gotten the hot water to work, and the room was slowly steaming up, fogging the mirrors and creating an atmosphere of warm humidity. "Can you check and see if there's conditioner under the sink or anything?"

  Shaun grunted, nodding as he made his way back to the bathroom.

  "Have you eaten?" She asked, frowning somewhat despite the fact that he couldn't see her from behind the shower curtain. "There's like a cafeteria thing- I had some stew, but if you're hungry, I could honestly go eat again."

  "I don't think I've eaten, but I had an IV in. I probably got nutrients that way, but fuck it, I could totally eat." He said this as he opened a cabinet under the sink, rummaging around for hair products. He found a half-used bottle of shampoo and a three-fourths empty bottle of conditioner. He put his hand around the curtain, making sure he couldn't see, and said, "Here."

  He gave them to her and walked back out into the large part of the room. It was a queen sized bed, so they would have room, but not much to themselves. He found himself kind of looking forward to the night, which he kind of hated himself for. But he couldn't shake it, and waited eagerly for her to get out of the shower.

  He was hungry as hell.

  She came out a minute or two later, dressed in clean clothes, though her hair was still wet. Now that the layer of dirt had been washed off of her skin, it was more fair. Her freckles stood out more, and any flush or rosiness to her cheeks was certainly much more apparent. She sighed and ruffled her hair with her fingers to get it to dry out a little faster and looked over at Shaun. "Are you ready to go?"

  She moved to the door and grabbed her coat. "Do you have anything warmer to put on? It's about a two-minute walk, but it's bloody cold out there." She looked him up and down with a slight frown. "… Here." She held out her jacket to him.

  Shaun laughed a good, hearty laugh. "There's no way I'm taking your jacket, ma’am. I'll find something." He rummaged around the drawers, until he came up with a bright white blazer. Pulling it on, it fit him quite nicely, and contrasted starkly with his pitch black hair. He smiled, and took her hand in his. "I suppose we should go. It wouldn't do to keep everyone waiting."

  He was at ease around her. It felt nice, being around someone like her. He felt open, honest, and trusted. He was beginning to fall, and he could feel it. It was obvious to him, and it was probably obvious to her. His cheeks were bright red, and a smile split his face into two equally happy halves. Maybe he would tell her that night. Maybe, while they ate, he would explain to her what he felt.

  Shaun threw open the door, and stopped dead in his tracks. His cheeks flushed, but for a completely different reason. His face went red, and then completely, icily pale. His hands clenched, and his heart sank, yet fluttered, at the same time.

  His eyes widened, his nostrils flared. All of his body appeared to go into a sort of overdrive. His senses were heightened; he could hear every snowflake hit the ground, could see every single fiber of her clothes.

  Because standing all by her lonesome, about ten meters off in the distance…

  Was Krystalynn Hudson.

  A Rude Awakening

  "… Shaun?" Aisling furrowed her brows when she caught sight of his demeanor, looking up at him with a frown. "Is everything alright?" She put a hand on his arm and looked out into the snow. She squinted for a second. This woman seemed familiar, and she could've sworn she had seen her face before, but she couldn't quite tell where she had seen her.

  She pursed her lips, and glanced back up at Shaun. "Hey, earth to Shaun. Hello?" She poked his cheek, the telltale signs of worry starting to creep into her voice. He was kind of starting to freak her out, and not knowing what was going on certainly wasn't helping.

  All thoughts faded. Everything reasonable was gone. Everything he had thought about for the past five months faded away with the thought of, Holy shit she's alive.

  He ran. He ran as fast as he could until he stopped in front of her, breathless. She looked at him. He looked at her. They stared into each other's eyes, the surprise in each of their expressions evident from meters away. They didn't touch. They didn't hug. The only thing that came out was a weak, "Shaun?" From the girl's lips.

  He laughed. He smiled. He cried all at once. He held her in his arms, hugging her for the first time in what felt like decades. He pulled back, sobbing hysterically as he looked at her.

  But wait.

  Something wasn't right.

  She wasn't crying tears of happiness. The tears that rolled down her face were ones of despair. Ones of sadness. Ones that had been cried many times before, by those who had lost the people they love.

  "Shaun… I'm not Krystalynn."

  At first, he couldn't register. He couldn't possibly understand why she was lying to him. Why she was telling such an absurd and outrageous untruth. But it dawned on him then, the terrible truth that he had put aside for months.

  Krystalynn had told him once about how her and her sister looked so similar, they were often confused by even their closest friends.

  And considering he hadn’t seen Krystalynn in nearly a year… It made sense that he made the same mistake.

  This wasn’t the girl he’d loved. This was her sister.

  Aisling's lips parted in surprise, before her brows furrowed with worry. This was not going to end well, and she knew it. After a second, she put her coat on properly and silently walked up behind Shaun. She put a hand on his back and said nothing. She had gone through her fair share of meltdowns over the past year, and knew how nice it was to just have someone… There.

  She quietly glanced over at the woman in front of Shaun and gave a shy smile, before she looked back towards him, the smile fading into a look of concern.

  "Hello, Kasey." He muttered, turning to look away from her. He couldn't bear to see Krystalynn's face, with the voice behind it being so entirely wrong. He turned to Aisling, and took her hand once again. This time, however, it was not a warm embrace. It was a fierce, clutching hold, that of someone barely holding on.

  "Let's eat." He said. His voice was ragged. On the edge of tears.

  "Wait!" The girl said, looking at Shaun. "Have you seen her?" Her voice was hopeful, though hesitant. It held a certain kind of familial love, one that Shaun had never known.

  "Yes. I did." His voice held a finality, and the girl started crying, then and there. Shaun simply walked forward. He wouldn't let Aisling go. He couldn't, or else he would fall to his knees in the snow.

  And he wouldn't get back
up.

  Aisling squeezed his hand tightly and interlocked their fingers. She lightly touched her shoulder to his, and after a moment leaned her head against his shoulder. "I've got you, okay?" She murmured quietly, looking up at him with a frown, the telltale lines of worry etching themselves across her face. "We don't have to talk if you don’t want to."

  She paused for a moment. Shaun was fearful he’d begin crying during the silence.

  "I mean, maybe we should, since I don't know what's going on, but… Not right now." She looked ahead of them to lead Shaun to where they were going. "Right now, let's just sit and relax and have a quiet dinner. They have stew there, and it's really good. Just like how I told you there'd be some." She rambled along to herself. "You don't have to talk back to me, I get it. I'll just ramble to fill the void for both of us." Talking calmed her down, so she figured it would do the same for him.

  Shaun looked to her. Then looked back towards the snow.

  "You're the only thing keeping me together."

  He whispered the words aloud, though they were barely audible. "I just want to fade away into nothing. But you won't let me. You're the only thing keeping me going."

  He didn't understand how true that was until he said it, but as soon as he did, he realized that it was. He would be dead without her, and if the world hadn't killed him… The pistol in the back of that truck would have been pressed to his temple by none other than himself.

  This world had not been kind to him, and she didn't even know about the impending cancer that laced his brain.

  Maybe the cancer was a gift. Maybe it would tear him from the world, leaving a minor rift in a few people's lives. He knew it would hurt Aisling, but he had been enough of a burden on her already. Maybe she would be happier without him.

  "I'm sorry for being such a burden." He spoke the thought aloud, though continued to walk slowly and resolutely.

  "No, you're not a burden." She stopped, gently tugging his hand to pull him towards her, placing her hands on his cheeks to keep his focus on her as she studied his face. Her eyes softened, and she stood up on her tippy-toes so she was more level with him. "You've saved my sorry ass more times than I can count. You're the only person I trust anymore."

  She sighed and lowered her eyes, moving her thumbs to wipe tears away from his face. "I know it's hard, okay? Believe me, everyone I've ever loved is practically dead. My…" Her eyes darkened, the spark in them dying out before she shook her head, and looked back up at him. "And I'll be damned if I'm gonna lose you too. So we're gonna get through this together, you and me. Otherwise I'll kick your ass." She smiled a little bit, and leaned up to press a soft kiss to his nose. "We'll just take everything day by day."

  A kiss.

  That shocked Shaun, but not as much as it would have mere hours earlier. His heart tried to flutter, but it was so weighed down by the awful truth that it merely tugged a bit at his heartstrings. "Alright." He said aloud, finally allowing a slight smile to pull at the corners of his mouth.

  By then, they had finally reached the doors of the cafeteria-like building. It was odd; so much had occurred on that walk that it felt like it had been days since they’d discussed it.

  "I suppose we're ready." He said, though his voice was rather sad. He pressed his hands against the oak doors and pushed them open.

  "Yeah." She stepped inside, and looked around the place. "Okay, so there's a line-up thingy over there-" she pointed across the room, "-and they give you a bowl and shit, and then we can find a place to sit…" Her voice trailed off when she came face to face with another man trying to leave.

  The man sneered at the two of them, angry purple eyes glaring them down from behind a blond mess of hair. He looked to be an older man, mid-forties or fifties at least. He reeked of alcohol, the stench so overpowering you could almost get drunk off of it alone. "Would you two move-" Purple locked onto purple, and though his irises were dead and flat, the simple color of them made it abundantly clear who this man was.

  "You…" Aisling's voice gained a low, quiet tone. "You asshole!" She snapped, voice exploding like a firecracker as she shoved past Shaun and stormed past him with full intent to strangle whoever this was to death. "How the fuck are you not dead by now, you-" She sputtered, so filled with a hot, violent rage that it seemed to almost short-circuit her. "I'm going to kill you." She snarled. "If that fucking hellhole out there won't then I'll do it myself!"

  "Don't touch me." The man growled back, voice low and dangerous. "I don't want nothin' to do with you."

  Shaun looked on, shock and anger rising within him. He didn't know who this man was, but the similar irises led him to believe it was her father. She had never spoken much about the man when he had been staying with her. He only knew they weren't on the best of terms, as evident by the current shouting match.

  Shaun took hold of Aisling, pulled her arms to her sides and her body against his. "Hey, hey. I know how it feels, and I know you hate him. But we can't do this here, not in the cafeteria." He said, gesturing at all the people around. "I promise, I will help you drag him through a pit of zombies later, but right now, we can't get kicked out of here."

  He was thinking more selfishly, now. He didn't particularly want to live at that moment, but… He couldn’t imagine dying. And the doctor would be necessary to help with his cancer.

  But he couldn't tell her about that. He just had to make it sound like it was for another reason.

  "I need the doctor's help for these burns, and I don't want to be here without you." He still held her, tightly, and glared at the man as he said the next sentence. "But I promise, when the coast is clear, I'll help you take him down."

  His promise held all of the sincerity he had ever felt the need to possess.

  She struggled against his grip, but eventually slowed her struggles to a stop, her chest heaving up and down. Her face was flushed red with anger, and her body tensed as liquid rage made her veins run hot. "He- he- he…" She sputtered, tears welling up in her eyes. Not sad tears, no, but rather those that come from intense emotion.

  The man rolled his eyes at her, looking down at her with a scowl. "Turned out how I thought you would." He wasn't helping the situation, and if anything, he was making it worse, considering Aisling’s muscles coiled up again. "What about yer mom? Get what was coming to her?"

  At this Ais yanked an arm free, lunging for him like a dog on a chain with full intent to gouge his eyes out when she got her hands on him. Her mother was a bit of a soft subject for her, evident by the fact that she was pushing against Shaun's body with everything she had, trying to get away from him so she could beat her deadbeat father shitless. "FUCK YOU!"

  Shaun couldn't help but let her go. She struggled and hit him where the sun doesn't shine, and therefore he fell to his knee with a gasp.

  He didn't want her to get thrown out though. He knew that someone would have called for a leader already, and therefore he had to act fast. He pulled her with all of his might off of her father, and he himself pinned the man to the ground.

  "So. I hear you aren't the nicest of guys." Shaun pressed his forearm into the man's neck, so breathing became difficult. "This is what's gonna happen. I'm going to restrict airflow to your brain." He did so, pressing his arm into the man's neck with more force. "You'll pass out after a bit, simply because Aisling won't get enough satisfaction for beating you while you're unconscious. Then, when the leaders walk in, we probably won't get thrown out."

  Shaun hoped so, at least.

  Aisling stumbled back with a snarl, before it faltered when she saw Shaun on top of her father. Her chest heaved up and down, but she held back for now. A plump, motherly looking woman came up behind her, gently resting her hands on her arms to keep her there so she wouldn't get herself hurt. Aisling tensed, but said nothing in protest.

  Marcus, as that was her father's name, snarled and moved his hands to try and shove Shaun off of him. "G- get the fuck off of me." He spat, voice somewhat strained because of the lack of airflo
w. He paused, before he spit in Shaun's face. Gross.

  Aisling's lust for blood lit up again, and the plump woman behind her grabbed her to keep her from lunging at her father. Interestingly enough, nobody seemed to really like Marcus enough to intervene in what was going on.

  Shaun pressed his arm inward one more time, completely restricting the airflow, for a total of twenty seconds. The man passed out before him, but not before spitting in his face again. After he had passed out, he gave him one good right hook in the jaw, just for the spit. It was gross.

  He pulled the sleeve of the blazer across his face as he stood, wiping the saliva from his cheek. His breathing was ragged, his eyes angry, and his jaw set. "They'll bring him to the hospital ward, where I was. I can get us there tonight." He whispered to Aisling as he took her by the hand. Everyone was watching, but Shaun no longer cared. If they wanted to intervene, they would have.

  "When the leader gets here, tell them that this man assaulted us for no reason." His voice held authority, and he pulled Aisling past her father without so much as a glance at him.

  "Let's eat." Shaun said, his change in subject abrupt and welcome.

  Aisling sniffled, squeezing his hand tightly and wiping her face with the back of her sleeve angrily. "M'sorry." She mumbled, taking a deep breath to try and bring herself down, now that she could disconnect from the situation. Her muscles were still tense, her jaw still locked in anger, but she was slowly coming down. "But he- he can not talk about Mom." She clenched her teeth angrily and lowered her eyes to the floor with shame.

  "I don't want to look at his ugly face ever again." She rambled on, somewhat to herself. "I hate him. I hate that I have his eyes, and I hate everything about him. He- he hurt her. And I'm gonna make him fuckin' pay if it's the last thing I do."

  It took a little bit to bring her back down after she got riled up like this.