KETTY'S SUBDIVISION Wattys2017

Chapter 10-Part II

"Eeeiieee... Humans must die..."

"It speaks," Rayleen shouted. Thwarp, thwarp, thwarp. Rayleen's quantum rifle fired in her hand, smearing its brains into the dirt. Thwarp, thwarp, thwarp. She continued firing. Every nerve in her body tensed up in anguish. Her stomach was tied in a tight little knot at the grotesqueness of it all. That feeling when you squish a bug under foot and it makes you sick. Thwarp, thwarp, thwarp, she continued firing, the quantum slugs digging a hole where green blood and brain matted formed in a puddle of sizzling alien flesh. The rifle was overheating in her hand but she didn't let up. "Aaagghh," her guttural scream of anguish and frustration erupted from deep within her soul. "Why? What have we ever done to you?" Warning sensors went off, then the gun shut down completely. Click, click, click. She was still pulling the trigger.

Sizy gently took the gun from Rayleen's shaking hand. "Well done, I think you have eliminated your opponent," she said in an attempt to reign in sanity.

Beyond the bloodshed, under the relentless tenacity of Rayleen and Sizy, Lindy was alive. Her left arm hung by a few ligaments, almost completely severed, but she had tied it to her body. With an auto-doc, it could be saved. Rayleen hugged her frail body, not releasing it until Sizy dragged them back off the trail.

Sizy did all the work, allowing Rayleen to rest for a few moments. She wrapped Lindy in a small blanket and tossed her over her shoulder. Then, they were running. Night fell as they approached the sewer pipe. When they found nothing but a huge hole, Sizy realized Ketty might be dead. She talked quietly to Lindy who had lost enough blood to feed a family of vampires.

"She's not going to make it," whispered Rayleen to Sizy. They stopped when armed militia from the farming village could be heard in the distance. Sizy knew her allegiance had shifted to Rayleen, through some form of battle right, as if Rayleen were her new owner. It was impossible, unless the company switched programming, but the stress of survival had allowed Sizy to override those protocols. She had bonded to Rayleen, and Rayleen needed her to save Lindy. Sizy ran through multiple scenarios in a heartbeat and came up with a quick answer.

"We have to take a prisoner and sneak into the farming village for medical assistance." Even as Sizy spoke, a loud crashing in the brush sent Rayleen into motion. She jumped through a hole in the brush and landed on his back. He fell face first in the dirt and she clubbed him with the butt of her pistol. The blow had no effect and he rolled over on his back and grabbed for her neck. All she saw was Scott's face so she pushed his arms down with her legs and began beating his face with her fists.

Was she out of control, or desperate to save Lindy? It didn't matter. She continued pummeling his face with one blow after another until he was motionless. It was an instinctual thing, a gut reaction driven by fear and desperation. Rayleen swung her fist, but he was unconscious.

"I think we have a prisoner," said Sizy.

She left him for Sizy to carry, devoid of feeling or emotions.

The medical facility was nothing more than a small shack on the outskirts of the village. The only one inside was an ancient technician, stooped over so far, it was a wonder he didn't fall on his face. The place was clean with a small auto-doc showcased in the center of the room.

"You'll never get away with this," the old man hissed, but when he saw Lindy's arm, he went to her immediately. "Help me, you lazy bot." He pushed past Sizy to cradle the wound and get her in the device.

"You have power?" asked Rayleen. It was more of a statement than a question. The lid closed and he bent to the intricate controls, ignoring his captors. Sizy saw Rayleen was dead tired.

"Get some sleep, I can handle these two."

Rayleen slumped to the floor and drifted towards oblivion, thinking of the one who had saved her.

Ketty.

Her Princess.

Her best friend.

Without Ketty, Rayleen would be a typical girl in this modern society. Her life would have been thrown away, a dream lost in the vast ocean of perfection. But Ketty had come to her rescue, and she didn't even know it. For that one thing she was thankful. She remembered her first times with Ketty, how it had felt, the smoothness of their new found relationship. Rayleen had been desperate back then, in a different kind of way. Her whole world was in turmoil and Ketty was a bastion of security. A strong fortress in a world that remained beautifully stagnant for thousands of years since New Earth cut its ties with Ketty's Subdivision.

Society always hoped to be better, but in Rayleen's world, it seemed no different than in the past, when humans deemed it necessary to abandoned family values, hide sexual abuse and consider child molesting something that rarely happened. Rayleen knew first hand that was a lie. She remembered with bitter clarity when she was a little girl. No more than six, her father was not the perfect man he claimed to be. She would cry at the drop of a hat, with no one to talk to but her dolls, and her spider bike.

It was a fusion powered scooter in the shape of a spider, which she could ride or just sit on to play. But the tiny stuffed head had all the presence of a best friend. She would talk for hours, telling it every shameful thing that no adult was willing to hear. Her dad was a monster that clawed at her perfect little body in the middle of the night. The spider was her solace in a world that didn't make sense. Then she felt herself being shaken, her body unwilling to move, like she was trapped in the quicksand of the past. Was he coming for her? Who was that in the shadows? But it was only Sizy, waking her up and shoving a power bar into her mouth before she could speak.

"Help me get her out," said Sizy. Rayleen chewed the dry nutrients then pulled Lindy from the auto-doc.

"What about them?" she mumbled with her mouth full.

"Put them in the chamber." The two prisoners stared wide eyed as Sizy deftly manipulated the controls and applied a strong dose for pain. Then she pulled the universal power supply from the device and grabbed a wireless antennae. Up till now, they had been without communication or electricity, but that was about to change. Outside, the sun was rising but Sizy pulled Rayleen in a different direction.

"We need to go to the next air vent. Hopefully they have made it further than twenty miles." That made sense to Rayleen. Somehow, they got out of the village without being discovered. Lindy was regaining consciousness and soon she was walking on her own. Sizy came upon a brush pile and dove inside where a shiny buggy was stashed. She plugged in the power, and the control panel came on line. Rayleen had never been so happy to see a computer screen in her life!

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