Born of Silicon Book 3 Chapter 65

Cassie waits until we’re out of the room and away from Lance and Clover before she wipes her eyes.

“Are you ok?” I ask.

“Yeah, I just… I want a vacation.”

“I think we all do.”

Every door in the hallway has been opened. Behind each door is just storage filled with spare parts and spare bodies. The bodies lie limply on the ground, severed from their mind. If they didn’t look like Mara, I’d ask Cassie to stick her knife in one and hand the body over to Corax. Soone is going to need to carry Ivy.

The path back into the city is thankfully clear. The city is blissfully quiet, with no more gunshots going off in the distance. Nobody lets that lull them into relaxing, however. Corax and Cassie both keep their weapons raised, and are constantly turning their heads to look for the next attack.

A red liquid is dripping down from the higher levels, but I’m sure that’s fine. Don’t think about why.

“We’re coming in.” Cassie yells into the small room where Nimda, Lance, and Ivy were left before stepping inside.

Ivy hasn’t moved much since we left her. Her arm is still perched on her knee, trying to keep her pistol pointed at the front door. Nimda hasn’t moved a single servo either. Her cooling fans are still running at full speed, filling the room with their sound. Lance has to step back to give us just a little more space, but keeps his pistol pointed at the entrance, covering our back.

Cassie steps up to Ivy imdiately, who looks up with a mixture of fear and hope.

“She’s dead. Are you ok to go get Vince?” Cassie asks.

Little. Ok. Ivy signs, and tries to stand up, only to collapse back to the ground as her limbs give out.

Cassie crouches down and puts one arm beneath Ivy’s legs and the other supports her back. Ivy wraps her arm around Cassie’s neck in an effort to help however she can. Cassie’s legs easily let her stand up, but Cassie’s organic parts struggle under the weight.

“Fuck, why are you so tall?”

Ivy only gives an amused smile in return.

“Shut up. Just point towards Vince.”

Cassie staggers out of the room under Ivy’s unwieldy weight. Corax carries awkwardly behind them. Ivy notices that sothing is wrong, and sends a quick signal to .

Ok? She asks.

“Corax is in charge of my body right now. I need to rest.” I say.

Ok.

Ivy leads us on a short walk. A large, steel building is suspended just above the water. The front door is already open, welcoming us in.

Inside is a short hallway filled with closed doors. Ivy stops us in front of one of them, and tries to wiggle out of Cassie’s arms. She helps Ivy stand up, who manages to remain on her feet through sheer willpower alone.

“I swear to god if you could walk that whole ti…”

Ivy gives her another smile, and takes off her jacket. She glances up at one of the caras, and the thick steel door begins to slowly open. Ivy steps inside the mont there’s enough space.

“Ivy?” Vince’s voice sounds strained. “Is everything ok?”

Cassie enters behind Ivy, and Corax brings in as well.

Vince looks horrible. Ivy’s jacket is draped over his frail form. His hair is entirely shaved off, and dark bruises and cuts pepper his body.

“Cassie, Blue, Corax. Did you… Or did she…”

“We did it.” Cassie rushes forward, crouching next to him. “She’s dead, we can go ho.”

“Thank you.” His voice breaks from emotion and tears stream down his face. “Thank you.”

Ivy carefully lowers herself down to the ground and pulls Vince’s head into her lap. She pulls the cord out of the base of her skull out and plugs it into Vince. The mont they connect, she winces and is forced to unplug imdiately.

“What’s wrong?” Vince asks.

“I think it’s my fault.” I say. “I accidentally forced nonsense data into whatever processors she has when I was trying to disable so of Mara’s guards. She seems to be recovering quickly, but I can’t imagine it was good for her brain.”

“I’m glad you’re alright.” Vince reaches up with a shaking hand to place it against Ivy’s cheek. He lets his hand fall, leaving behind a dirty handprint.

“Both of you need to eat.” Cassie grabs a few dried fruit bars and a canteen of water from her backpack, and hands them both to Ivy and Vince. She turns towards Corax and gives us both a deadly serious look. “Make sure they both eat slowly.”

“Where are you going?” I ask.

“I can’t carry both of them. Just give one second.” She pokes her head out of the prison cell and talks into one of the caras in the corridor. “Hey Nimda! Can you send over Robin and either Lance or Clover? We need to get moving.” She pauses for just a mont before returning to the cell and taking her seat next to Vince.

“Did you say Clover?” He asks. “You found her?”

“It’s maybe not entirely her.” I say. “I don’t know how much you know about quantum AI, but she had to rejoin the hive mind, and only separated a little over a week ago. She still has the original’s mories, but is still trying to figure out how much of her is the clover you knew.”

“Alright, I’m not sure how I should speak to her then, but we’ll have a conversation when I’m a little better.”

“I don’t think she knows either.”

After so long being apart, after everything that has happened, after being through so much, nobody has anything to say. I don’t want to ask Vince and Ivy about what they’ve been through, and I can’t imagine they want to share. I’d love to tell them about the AI city, or about Cassie and I, but all that can wait.

We all just sit together silently. Vince and Ivy close their eyes. Even if they aren’t lded, they still seem to be bathing in each other’s company. Even Cassie has settled down, her ever-bouncing legs are finally quiet for the first ti in a long ti.

Corax ticks loudly in our arms, and I let all my relief and happiness show on my face.

I spend a mont looking inward, towards the landscape of my mind. That definitely answers my question. For better or worse, I’m just better at handling my mind barely working. Huge chunks of my mind have been torn asunder. Threads have ford small, flimsy bridges between the floating chunks of my mind. At least this system still lets think, even if my healing is going to go slowly. That’s fine though, ti doesn’t matter anymore. We have forever if I need it.

Our peace together is interrupted by the sound of a throat being cleared. Lance stands in the open door with his hands folded professionally behind his back. Just behind him is Robin, in a nearly identical pose.

“I’m sorry to interrupt.” Lance says. “Do you need dical attention?”

“I’m alright.” Vince reassures him.

“He’s lying, but we’ll take care of it later.” Cassie says.

“I suppose that works. Before we carry you out of here, we have a gift.” Lance removes a handful of hard drives from a collection of pockets and sets them on the ground in front of us. “This is what remains of Mara. It’s yours to do what you will with.”

Ivy doesn’t hesitate to grab a pistol from Cassie and fire once into the small collection. She passes the gun to Vince, who fires as well, and passes it to Cassie. Cassie pulls the trigger, followed by Corax, and he returns my hand to . I put one last bullet in her and set the gun to the side.

“That felt good, thank you.” Vince says.

“I thought you always told revenge wasn’t worth it?” Cassie jokes.

“Looks like I was wrong.”

“Are you ready to go?” Lance asks.

“Yeah.” Vince says. I don’t have enough space in my mind to figure out what he’s feeling right now, but I think I can relate.

Lance steps forward and carefully picks up Vince, and Robin does the sa for Ivy.

“Do you have anything you need to pick up?” Lance asks.

Ivy nods.

Top floor. She signs, and Cassie relays the ssage.

“Alright.”

Nimda and Clover et us at the elevator, and we take it up to the top floor. The walls of the elevator are open, giving an unfortunate view of the city.

It’s a disaster. Nimda didn’t discriminate after she got control of the turrets. It seems like anyone on the streets for any reason were killed, regardless of if they were ard or not.

Everyone else barely even blinks at the piles of bodies and rivers of blood. I close my eyes, I don’t want to see any of this. I don’t want to know what I’ve done.

Corax nibbles on my finger only a few minutes later. I tentatively open my eyes, and find us in a room that has been carefully destroyed. The bed is ripped up, furniture broken, and clothes tossed into the blood pools outside.

Cassie shoves whatever dirty clothes she can find into a backpack, and gives Vince the cleanest set she can find.

“Thanks.”

Lance helps him stand up while Robin helps him cover himself.

Ivy removes a small, half empty vial of clear liquid from her pocket. She stares at it for just a mont before letting it fall from her hand. She reaches for it the mont it leaves her fingers, but misses, and the vial shatters against the ground. Ivy takes a deep breath, clenches her hand, and lets it relax into a sign.

Ok.

I close my eyes again as we turn back towards the street. I don’t reopen them until we reach the central elevator and it slows to a stop.

Nimda has already opened the garage to the outside world, and our car is sitting undisturbed in the corner. Cassie imdiately rushes towards it, throwing open the door.

“She didn’t touch anything.” She says disbelievingly.

“No, she was surprisingly sentintal.” Vince says. “She’d never destroy a trophy.”

“We need to figure out where we’re going.” Nimda changes the subject. “Chances are, we won’t be able to get to the mountain before the storm hits, and I’d rather avoid hunkering down here.”

“I know a little cave we can stay in.” I say.

“Lead the way then.”

Cassie steps aside while I climb into the driver’s seat and wait for Ivy and Vince to get loaded into the back. The two of them lean into each other, supporting each other, not wanting to be separated by even air.

I get my arm back, and run my hand over the drawings on the dash. The dog that represents Vince. The small mouse with crumbs falling from its mouth and hands that is Cassie. Ivy’s immaculately drawn gun. The ace of hearts and clubs that Lucas glued to the dash. Drew’s human brain wrapped tightly in thorny wires.

“Can I add a drawing to the dash?” I ask.

“Of course.” Vince says. “I think there are so supplies in the glovebox?”

Cassie grabs a small set of painting supplies and hands them to .

“Corax, can you drive?”

Corax unplugs himself from and hops up onto the dash. I plug him in, and the car begins to slowly roll out of the garage and into the endless desert.

I block out everything and entirely stop my mind from repairing itself. I need to give everything I have to this, nothing else matters. How many tis have I almost died since I started traveling with everyone? Too many, I need to leave them sothing perfect to rember by.

I slowly generate an image in my mind, paying attention to even the smallest detail. Only when I’m entirely happy with it do I begin to draw.

I start with a lumpy, white circle glowing on a dark, starry background. I begin to add details to the moon, large craters to contrast the sunlight reflecting off its surface. I add a black streak across the entire moon, Corax flying through the dark night.

It’s perfect.