SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

twenty-two ━ electric sheep

A single direction amidst the blizzard stood out to him. Everywhere else he looked, a faded greyness had taken over the scenery and only in that single spot, light made it through the storm. He was desperate to get moving, to keep his systems running for as long as possible, so the choice really made itself when he dragged his feet through the mountains of fresh snow, wrapped his arms around himself to conserve what little warmth he still had and marched towards the light, squinting to keep it ahead of him at all times.

His scanners weren't working properly and much to his dismay, Connor had no way of appreciating just how far away that light really was. He had to keep hope that he won't completely shut down before he reached it, but one slow step at a time, his body became heavier and his shivers more pronounced.

When the timer in the edge of his vision slowly freezing over slipped under the one minute mark, Connor heard the faintest echo of Mia's voice, coming from the center of that light.

"Come back to me."

In an attempt to move faster, Connor collapsed forward, taking another nose dive into the ice cold snow.

<< Biocomponent #8456w Damaged >>

His Thirium pump regulator took the worst of the fall as bracing himself against the snow with his palms opened his chest to come against the frozen surface. Entire dozens of seconds got depleted from his countdown in the absence of a proper functioning regulator for the Thirium pump he felt more agitated than ever in his chest. Without that proper flow of blue blood to every part of his body, his other biocomponents were bound to quickly follow suit into failures and critical states.

The first major component to fail him were his legs. Much as he tried to bend his knees, nothing below his waist worked anymore.

Connor looked up, not knowing if he wished to apolgoize to Mia there and then, or if he wanted to try his luck again at appreciating how close he really was to that light. Instead, he was met with her voice, as distant and gentle as it had been that night, before they arrived at Elijah, when he dared lay his head back and slip into stand-by knowing he could count on her singing to be his beacon through the dark, letting him know of her safety.

His vision was going darker now too, and his hearing component could not distinguish any words from her singing clearly, but just to hear her hum was enough to help Connor make a decision. He propped himself on his elbows and startled dragging himself forward, crawling towards that light which he couldn't make out past the frozen blur of his eyesight. All he had was her voice for compass and that dreadful countdown for company.

If I can't make it, he thought to himself, grimacing at the sensation of ice making it past his damaged regulator and into his body, I would rather die trying than giving up.

He had ten seconds left in his countdown when it had crossed his mind that maybe the light is too far away. Maybe it wasn't even there, just like the house and his dream of Mia. What if he was crawling towards nothing? His doubts grew teeth with that question and tore into his resolve, unbeknownst to just how resilient his subconscious attention was to keeping his hearing component active and following her voice.

The first thing he felt was a strange warmth encompassing his fingers. From their very tips to the ridges on his knuckles, the warmth had taken its time, draining seconds from his counter. His vision had turned black before the warmth had decided to spread so fast through his still body that Connor flinched.