by T. J. Quinn
“What…?”
“They’re friends, Rafaroy and Zandar,” Elena quickly assured her. “In fact, they were the ones that took you out of the camp,” she added.
Alanna frowned, as she looked at Rafaroy and then at Zandar, pointing at the last one. “I know you… you were at the camp. You used to tease me…”
Zandar shrugged, with a naughty grin on his face. “You seemed to need a bit of stimulus to go on… so I gave you one. I’m sure you were planning the moment you would kick me in the ass.”
At first, Elena had looked at Zandar, upset, but when she realized what he had done, she couldn’t but smile. He had given her sister a purpose in a dreadful existence.
“We can continue this tonight when we stop for the night,” Rafaroy suggested. “The sooner we’re out of here the better.”
They all agreed and soon they were on their way. Though at first, Alanna didn’t seem very comfortable traveling in Zandar’s arms, a few minutes later, when Elena peeked under Rafaroy’s arm, she had cuddled up against the powerful cyborg, as if she had been born to be there.
It was a strange thought, Elena knew that, but she couldn’t help feeling it.
That night, they stopped in a small clearing, deep in the woods. They were very far from Camp Mirage, and though none of the men seemed to be relaxed, Elena refused to believe they could be caught again. She had Alanna in her arms again, and no one was going to change that.
Rafaroy spent a few minutes helping Zandar to change the rest of his codes and deactivating those ones submitting him to the humans. When they were done, he went looking for a couple of rabbits for dinner. They still had some of the food Rafaroy had taken from Savannah’s place, but with two more people in the group, they would need a bit more food to complement that.
Elena took a seat with Alanna in her arms. They had so much to talk about, she didn’t know where to start.
“What happened after the attack?” she finally asked her sister.
“There was chaos everywhere. The teachers didn’t know what to do, so they tried to take the children out of school building and into the yard,” Alanna explained. “I remembered what you had told me, so, I escaped through the school’s back door into the woods, like we had discussed. It only took me a few minutes to get to the old mine and hide inside.”
Elena hugged her hard. “You were very brave.”
“I waited until nightfall, but you didn’t arrive. I thought about going back to town, but it was very dark, so I decided to spend the night where I was. I ate some of the food you had left for us there, and on the following morning, I went back to town,” she continued. “When I arrived, the soldiers were coming back. At first, I thought about going to meet them, but Captain Summers was leading the group, and I remembered you didn’t trust the man, so I waited to see what was going to happen.”
“And? What happened then?”
“They took the kids out of the Mayor’s house and forced them to get on a military truck. The small kids were crying for their parents, and all Captain Summers was able to say was there would be no more parents…” she sobbed.
Elena clenched her hands into fists wishing she could meet the old bastard face to face. The man was a pitiful excuse for a human being.
“When I saw them taking the children away, I was happy I hadn't shown myself. I went home, got more food and clothes and went back to the mine to wait for you,” the little girl continued explaining. “After a few days I went back into town and there were more people there, more soldiers but also other people I had never seen before. I heard some of them saying the soldiers had attacked the Taucets colonies and that all the people they had found there had been taken to Camp Mirage.”
There was so much anger in the little’s girl tone, Zandar couldn’t help smiling. He had been listening to her story and couldn’t help feeling a bit surprised by the girl’s courage. No wonder she had called his attention. She had more fire on her little finger than most people had in all of them.
“I shouldn’t have believed in them, but I was feeling so lonely… and they were saying people had been taken to this place called Mirage, so I came out of my hiding and allowed them to take me there,” she continued with her story. “But they lied. Not all people were there, you weren’t there, and when I decided to leave, they said I couldn’t, that I was now under the government’s custody. I was so furious, but they didn’t even listen. So, I tried to escape, but they caught me…”
“You were very brave. Were you able to see other people from back home? Johanna? Savannah?” Elena asked, hugging her sister a bit more.
“Yes, there were some people from back home. All the children were there, some were reunited with their families, but some didn’t, but I didn’t see Johanna or Savannah,” she replied with a slight frown, tilting her head to look at her sister. “What will happen now, Elena? We can’t run away for the rest of our lives.”
“We won’t, sweetie. We’ll find a safe place for us to live in, I promise.”
Rafaroy arrived, and soon they were cooking dinner and discussing how far they would be able to go with the MotorStorm, before it ran out of fuel.
“I believe it should be able to take us a fair distance tomorrow. Since it’s carrying more weight than it should, it’s consuming more fuel. Even so, it should take us far enough to put us just a few hours from the rendezvous point,” Rafaroy said, while he watched the rabbits roasting slowly.
“That would be great. My leg is getting better at full speed, but it was a hell of an injury,” Zandar explained with a grimace.
“What the hell happened to you, after all?” Rafaroy asked, turning to look at his friend.
“A sudden explosion at the colony. I wasn’t able to get out of the way of the flying wreckage, and a metal piece almost ripped off my leg.”
“Damn… that must have hurt…”
“It did… but what hurt me the most was knowing I was too hurt to even try to escape…” Zandar said, shaking his head. “How did you manage to escape, by the way?”
“Khajal was on the colony, with a human female. I bumped in with her, and after some persuasion and Khajal’s authorization she opened up my control system allowing me to change my codes,” he explained, smiling. “I was almost out of there when I met a couple of Taucets that made a hole in my back. After erasing them from the face of the planet, I managed to escape into the woods where Elena found me and helped me.”
“Lucky guy…”
That night after they finished eating, Elena tucked Alanna to sleep over some branches the men had cut off from a tree.
“What you say we go for a walk?” Rafaroy asked, with a naughty smile shining on his eyes.
“Alanna could wake up.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Zandar assured her. “I’ll take care of her.”
Elena looked at him, still not sure, but Rafaroy didn’t give her much choice. Taking her by the hand he tugged her after him, going deeper in the woods.
“I found a small creek not far from here, and I thought you might enjoy washing in it,” Rafaroy explained.
“Why didn’t you mention it before? We could have moved the camp closer to it.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
But before she finished her sentence he was shaking his head. “Creeks are too easy for the drones to spot us. This time, we have people after us, we need to go as unnoticed as possible.”
“Yes, I guess you’re right,” she sighed. “But, yes, I would like to at least wash my hands and face.”
“I knew you would.” He guided towards the creek, at a fast pace.
Elena loved its cold water, running through her fingers, she stayed a few minutes there, relishing on it.
“Why don’t you take a bath? There’s a small pool over there, deep enough for you to bathe in,” he suggested.
“It’s too cold… and I didn’t bring anything to dry myself with,” she dismissed his idea, shuddering.
“I’ll warm you up, you’ll lov
e it,” he insisted, starting to take his clothes off, revealing an outstanding erection. “You can use my shirt to dry yourself.”
She arched a brow, tilting her head. “It seems you have a lot more than just a bath in mind, mister…”
“What made you think of that?” he asked failing miserably at sounding innocent.
She laughed and got rid of her clothes as well. A few moments later they were inside the cold water, in each other’s arms, lost in their passion.
Kisses and caresses, nibbles and licks, all quickly took them into that fantastic world of passion and bliss they always found when they were together.
“I couldn’t wait one more minute to be with you,” he whispered in her ear. “I guess I’ve become addicted to you.”
She chuckled and hid her head in the crook of his neck. “I guess I have to admit I’m also addicted to you,” she whispered back, with a deep sigh.
In his arms, she barely noticed the cold water running around them. Like every time she was in his arms, the rest of the world seemed to disappear, and nothing else seemed to matter.
That worried her a bit. She had no idea what would happen to them when they got to Arcadia, but she was starting to realize she was going to miss him like hell when he got tired of her.
They returned to the camp a while later. Zandar was still up but didn’t make any comment on their look, though his naughty grin said it all.
Elena blushed a bit, and after whispering goodnight, she cuddled up next to her sister and fell asleep.
“What are your plans for them?” Zandar asked Rafaroy, using their private channel.
“I’m taking them with me to Arcadia. They can’t stay here, both Taucets and humans would hunt them down until they caught them and I don’t plan on allowing that to happen.”
Zandar nodded. “I can see she’s special to you.”
Rafaroy frowned. “She’s a special woman, yes… but I’m still not sure what’s going on between us. We haven’t been living the most normal circumstances as for us to be able to analyze what we’re experiencing… all I know is that I’ve never felt anything like it.”
“That should be enough for you to know…”
“The only feelings I’ve known my whole life are those of friendship. It’s a bit hard to understand something you know nothing about,” he protested.
“Perhaps, this is the kind of thing you don’t need to analyze, that you should simply follow your instincts on it,” Zandar pointed out.
“That’s what I’ve been doing, but for people like us, that’s not as simple as it sounds,” he grumbled, rubbing his face.
“Yes, I know what you mean.” His eyes lay for a few seconds on the women sleeping, before he shook his head. “I’ll take the first shift watching. Get some rest.”
Rafaroy nodded and closed his eyes, allowing his body to get the rest he needed.
The following day, they left the camp with the dawn, after making sure they didn’t leave any trace of their presence.
The ride up the mountains was a bit harder since the vehicle was too heavily loaded to go up some small ravines, and they had to go around them. That took more time and more fuel, but they managed to reach the place where Rafaroy had planned to camp on before the MotorStorm ran out of fuel.
The men took some time to hide it from sight before they went to look for food. Zandar’s leg seemed much better that day, which was a relief since they would have to walk the rest of the way to the place where they were supposed to meet the free cyborgs.
Though she hadn't mentioned anything to Rafaroy, Elena was a bit worried. What if the other cyborgs wouldn’t let her sister and her travel to Arcadia? How was she going to be able to protect her little sister from the Taucets and the soldiers? She wouldn’t be able to keep her promise to the little girl of always protecting her, and the simple idea was heart-wrenching.
That night, she sought Rafaroy’s arms to sleep in. Fear of the future, of losing him sooner than she had expected made her lose any shame. She wanted to be in his arms for as long as possible, and she didn’t care what he might think of it.
“You look troubled… what’s going on?” he whispered in her ear.
She shook her head. “I’m just tired, that’s all… my life was turned upside down, remember?”
“Yes… I understand… it mustn’t have been easy for you, being separated from your sister, and then enslaved by the Taucets… you never talked about what happened to you at the colony.”
“That’s because nothing happened. We were taken to some examination rooms, cataloged, pierced and tattooed and sent to some tiny cells where we were kept for god knows what purpose,” she recalled. “But, before they came for us, you guys attacked the colony.”
“I guess we did something right, then.” He chuckled.
She smiled. “Yes, I guess you did.”
He kissed the top of her head, inhaling her unique scent. “Get some rest, Elena. We’ll have a heavy day tomorrow.”
“I know…” she closed her eyes and cuddled up closer to him, trying not to think much about the future.
It was a long walk up the mountains. Despite Zandar’s words, it was more than obvious he wasn’t healed enough for a walk like that one, and it turned out to be too harsh on Alanna too.
By the end of the day, they were halfway to the meeting point, and Zandar looked upset with himself.
“I’m delaying you guys,” he grumbled.
“There’s no rush Zandar. It’s not like we have an appointment or something. We’ll have to wait to be picked up by Jarcor and his team, so don’t worry about it,” Rafaroy assured him.
“I wouldn’t be able to go any faster. If you’re slowing them, then, so am I,” Alanna pointed out with a frown.
Zandar looked so flustered Elena almost felt sorry for him. “No… of course not… I hadn't realized… I…”
“No one is delaying us. We’re a group, and we function as a group … so please stop this nonsense and let us focus on finding a good shelter. It seems we’ll have a bit a snow tonight,” Rafaroy stated.
They all nodded, and Zandar was the first one to find a cave big enough for the four of them. They all headed there and soon they had a good fire burning, right before the snow Rafaroy had sensed, arrived.
They ate from the cans of food they still had, and stood inside, away from the snow.
“We’ll have to think about food if we need to stay more than a few days in that place. I doubt there will be any left, judging by the places we’ve seen on our way here,” Elena pointed out, furrowing her eyebrows. “We can’t eat just meat.”
“We’ll find something, don’t worry about it,” Rafaroy assured her.
She nodded, but her real concern had nothing to do with the food or lack of it. They would arrive at the meeting point in one day, and after that, the countdown would start for her and for Rafaroy. She was sure he would lose all interest in her once he was with his friends and that possibility was like an iron fist squeezing her heart.
She knew she shouldn’t be so demanding of life… she had been able to escape her prison, and she had been able to recover her little sister. This should be enough to make her happy, but it wasn’t. The tall, strong and handsome cyborg had gotten under her skin, and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to live without him.
“I understand you had been in a Taucet colony, Elena,” Zandar asked her that night, while they were chatting around the fire. Alanna had fallen asleep right after eating.
“I was, for a few days. I was.at the same colony where you and Rafaroy got hurt,” she replied, intrigued by his question.
“They didn’t tattoo you? You know, with the code bar?” he asked again, leaning towards her.
“Yes, they did.” She tilted her head to expose her neck where she had the offensive tattoo.
“You can barely see it,” he pointed out, surprised.
Rafaroy looked at them surprised. “It had started to fade, but it was still noticeable,” h
e said, approaching Elena, to take a look. “But Zandar is right, you can barely notice the tattoo now.”
“How’s that possible? Aren’t they supposed to be indelible? To last you a lifetime?” she asked, surprised.
“That’s what we thought too… but yours is almost gone.” Rafaroy replied, clearly intrigued, as he scanned her skin. “The wires connecting to your nervous system are also destroyed. This tattoo is no longer a threat to you,” he concluded even more surprised.
“I had never heard of anything like that. At Camp Mirage there were several people with tattoos older than hers, and they were still functioning perfectly,” Zandar commented.
“Why do you think this happened?” she asked running the tip of her fingers over it.
“It’s as if something inside you had destroyed it…” he muttered, thoughtful.
“Like what?” she asked, startled until a thought crossed her mind. “You mean… your nanocybots? That’s impossible, right? You told me they died once out of your body.”
“Because that’s what we were told. But it’s the only thing that makes sense. Nanocybots function is to look for any threat to their host bodies and eliminate it. That tattoo was certainly a threat to your health and safety, so they started working to make it disappear,” Rafaroy explained his point of view.
“That implies they are living inside me…” she said, in awe.
“That’s my best guess… it seems they have accepted you as their new host and have been multiplying inside you, instead of dying.”
She looked at him not sure if to feel scared or pleased. She remembered her conversations with him on the subject, and she guessed she had had her wish come true. “Well… if that’s true, I don’t feel any different, except for the tattoo…”
“You wouldn’t feel any different, but there might be changes in your body you won’t be that pleased with,” he warned her, with a slight frown.
“Like what?” she asked, unable to see any bad consequence.
Rafaroy exchanged a hard look with Zandar before he opened his mouth to answer her question. “Have you ever wondered why cyborgs aren’t able to reproduce themselves naturally?”
