“What do you mean we’re here?” Cassie asks impatiently after taking a quick look around.

  “This is where the map has the town marked down. It’s not here.”

  “What?” Anger and disbelief fre in equal measure fill her voice.

  “I don’t know. It must have been put on that map on purpose. It’s the only non-affiliated town anyone can get to on a single charge, and designed to get us stuck in the middle of nowhere without a car.” Don’t panic. Think.

  “What the fuck do you mean it’s fake! You didn’t even bother to check?”

  “The mountain range should be about seventy miles south of here. We can be there around midnight tomorrow. Hopefully before a storm hits.” Nothing to do but to take another step.

  “Are you even listening to me?” Cassie asks loudly.

  “What do you even want me to say? I’m sorry I screwed everything up? Sorry it was too dangerous to plug myself into random devices? Sorry you’re the only one I have a chance at saving? If I don’t keep moving, I’m going to break down. Talking is only going to make things harder.” My expnation comes out ft and monotone, just like everything else.

  “Can you at least react to literally anything? Just pretend to feel upset, for one second?”

  “I’m just trying to keep you and Corax alive. I can feel upset when both of you are there to bring me back.”

  Cassie closes her eyes, takes in a deep breath, and lets out a rge sigh.

  “Why do you have to make it so hard to be mad at you?”

  “Sorry.” An apology slips out before I can stop it.

  “Nevermind, it’s easy again.” I gnce down at her face to try to figure out if she’s joking or not, but she still looks very upset.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

  “That was a joke.” She cuts off my apology before I can finish.

  “Oh, I didn’t realize.” Don’t say sorry, I’ve already apologized too much.

  “It’s fine. At least you sounded a little more alive while apologizing.”

  Did I? I’m not sure if that’s good, or just dangerous. Regardless of which is true, it’s too risky to try to figure it out. I just need to take another step.

  I do my best to stick to the valleys created by the endless dunes. Someone is going to come try to find us eventually, and at least down here I can pretend we have cover.

  It’s not long before our luck runs out. We don’t even make it a mile south before Cassie says the worst thing she possibly can.

  “I hear a car.” She whispers.

  “What direction?” Maybe it’s a caravan, don’t freak out.

  I turn my head towards the direction Cassie points. Towards Mara’s trench. Vince is already standing atop the hill, looking out across the ndscape.

  “How many?” I ask him.

  “I’m still not real Little Blue, I have no idea. I’m just here to get you through this.”

  “Right, sorry Vince. Cassie, how many?”

  Cassie’s face flicks between far too many emotions to even begin to dissect.

  “I just said I don’t know. It might be one, but could easily be more.” She says quickly.

  “Alright.” I can kill a few more people, it’s fine. Plus, that car would need, at minimum, enough charge to get back home safely. If it can buy us another hundred miles, maybe we can reach another trench, hopefully a real one this time.

  I lower Cassie gently onto the ground, and draw Vince’s rifle.

  “Hide yourself and stay here. I’m going to get their attention elsewhere.”

  “I’m not just lying here!” Cassie draws her pistol and pushes herself into a sitting position. She gres at her legs, trying to make them move through sheer anger.

  “Vince, make sure she hides herself.” I turn and sprint off to the south. I have to fire a shot from somewhere else. I can’t let them find Cassie, no matter what.

  “Ivy will take care of her. I’m staying with you.” I round the bottom of a dune, only to find Vince already waiting for me.

  “Make sure she does, please.”

  “I will.” the faintest hint of Ivy’s voice reaches my ears. “Just don’t forget the wind.”

  I sprint as fast as I can for a few hundred feet, always keeping my head below the surrounding dunes.

  I poke my eyes above the sand, and see a single car only a few hundred feet away. They’re slowly following the path that we walked. I thought our footsteps were covered enough, but I guess I’m wrong.

  Four men sit in the car, covered head to toe in bulletproof armor. Identical bck helmets sit on their heads, with thick, tinted visors covering the rest of their face. Their body armor doesn’t leave a single square inch of skin exposed.

  Those who aren’t driving are scanning the horizon. One of them turns towards me, and his mask meets my eyes.

  My gun jumps in my hand.

  A crack sounds through the air, and the car window explodes into a white spider web. The gss holds strong however, arresting my bullet without breaking. Of course they have bulletproof gss, why would I expect anything else?

  I need to stop the car, but how? Shoot the tires? No, they’re airless, a few holes aren’t going to do anything to slow them down. Can I break the engine? Maybe if I had more bullets. After taking everything from the people I killed, I only have 29 left in my magazine, and a few loose bullets I left in Cassie’s pile of supplies. If I tried to break through the car’s armor with just one magazine, it’s likely I’ll be left with just 9mm against heavy duty body armor. That’s never going to work.

  I duck back beneath the dunes and sprint even further south before they can fire in response. Maybe I can fire into their windows enough to block their sight? They can’t drive the car if they can’t see. I guess that counts as a pn. Or maybe I should just fire into the same spot a few times and try to get through the gss?

  “Stop panicking Little Blue, make a concrete pn.” Vince says.

  “Right.” I need to force them out of the car, and put a few rounds into wherever their armor is weakest. I think that’s my best bet.

  I pop up at the top of another dune, only to see the car barreling down on me. It’s less than fifty feet away, and quickly getting closer.

  How did they follow me? It doesn’t matter, new pn! I dive to the side with as much force as my body can produce, and Vince’s rifle fires into the car's windshield, right at the driver. One, two, three, four bullets impact in nearly the same pce before the windshield shatters.

  I’m too slow, the car sms into my legs, sending me tumbling down a dune. Is my coont pressure dropping? No. Do my limbs work? Yes. I’m fine. I block out the crushed nerves that are crying out, and Vince tries to pull me to my feet.

  My leg colpses the moment I put any weight on it, sending me back to the scalding sand. That’s really, really bad.

  I’m dead, that’s it.

  I’m dead, Cassie’s dead, and Corax is never getting reactivated. I don’t even feel sad about it, just empty.

  “You’ve got to move, girl!” Vince starts pulling me up the dune, desperately trying to get me into a sembnce of cover before the car can turn around.

  “Right.” I’m not dead yet. I scramble up the hill as fast as I can, dragging my limp leg behind me. I make it over the hill just as the car turns around, lying just below the crest to keep as little of my body exposed as possible, and take aim.

  All four car doors open before I can get a shot off, and the people jump into cover behind them. They take aim at me, and lean out of cover. A storm of bullets rains down on me, and I fire back.

  They will win this fight, I need to stop them from fighting. My gun jumps four times in rapid succession, lodging a single bullet in each of their visors. Each bullet blinds one of them temporarily, forcing them back into cover.

  One of them flips up their visor, before revealing themselves once again, their barrel trained on my head. Too slow. They colpse to the ground in a lifeless heap with blood streaming out from her helmet.

  Twenty bullets left. That has to be enough.

  The other three are smart enough to stay in cover. They gnce at each other, nodding or shaking their heads, forming some silent pn. That’s fine, they can pn all they want. I can wait here forever for them to make their move.

  One of them pulls out a small cylinder from a pocket, pulls a pin from the side of it, and tosses it over the door. It nds in the sand in between me and the car, only fifty or so feet away from me.

  The three of them scatter before the grenade even explodes, sprinting away as fast as possible while hiding their faces, desperately trying to get behind another dune. If they’re willing to risk the grenade, I have to as well.

  Body armor is weakest at the joints, and a bullet to the back of the knees will put anyone out of commission. I take aim, and the grenade explodes.

  A huge wave of light and sound sms into my mind, sending my consciousness reeling. Vince guides my aim, and coaxes me to flex my finger. It takes a few shots to find home, but the three of them nd hard in the sand, one after the other.

  One of them rolls around in pain without thinking, clutching at their new wound. The moment their face is revealed to me is the st moment of their life. A second tries to crawl away, and their other knee is blown apart. They won’t st long.

  The third draws their pistol and fires wildly in my direction. I duck behind the dune and wait for them to stop. When the world goes quiet, I poke my head back above the sand, and sure enough, they’re dead.

  “Thanks Vince.” I look down at my leg to check the damage. A lot of damage has been done to my knee. Despite the servo still technically working, it begins to slip the moment it encounters any resistance.

  “One more walk together?” He asks.

  “Yeah.” I begin to drag myself towards the car, while Vince walks silently beside me. At least pulling myself across the sand is easier than pulling myself through the digital forest when I tried to rescue Corax. And at least this journey is far shorter.

  I pull the driver out of her seat and start to climb in.

  “Make sure you take their supplies and armor.” Vince is crouching above one of the dead people, inspecting them. “Cassie’s right, you have no money and that stuff’s expensive.”

  “Do I have time to do that?”

  “Even if they got a message out before dying, you have four hours at minimum before anyone can reach here. Plus, if you don’t mind me being selfish for a moment, you taking this stuff means Mara doesn’t have it.”

  “Ok. Can you tell Cassie I’m ok, and I’ll be there soon?”

  “We’re still not real, Little Blue.” He says gently.

  “Right. Sorry, I keep forgetting.”

  “It’s alright.”

  Stripping their armor is kind of hard from the ground, but ultimately doable. I toss all four sets of armor and weapons into the trunk, and pull myself back into the driver’s seat.

  “Let’s go get Cassie.”

  JanePtinum