BOUNTY COLLECTED

An Unexpected Ending

Walking slowly towards the stairs, taking the first step up, Saffron noticed she was a bit shaky. “Nerves?” she thought, “Or maybe the bug I ate last night?” As she ascended the stairs, she saw that the papers on the floor had been disturbed. Slowly rounding the door jam she noticed a hump shape in the corner. “STAND!” she commanded, as she took careful aim. “TURN! Face me!” she commanded once again. 

The being turned, Saffron was shocked to see this being, although humanoid, this being no face to speak of, only what seemed to be a helmet made from an old yellow tv. It was wearing an old lime green sweater with a pink heart sewn onto the chest. She commands “Take off the helmet and tell me your name!” Confused, like a dog hearing a new sound, it cocked it's head from side to side. Suddenly, without warning his head spun a full 360 degrees. 

“Who are you?” she asked in a demanding tone. Silently, except for a few metallic clicks that seemed to come from inside it's head, a pale green rectangle lit up on the screen, “ME?” the text read as it appeared on the screen. Saffron put the blaster back in the holster, for she suddenly felt no threat. “Yes, you.” A mute symbol appeared on the screen in response to her. “NO NAME.” read the screen.

 Afterwards, a lemon emoji appeared on it's screen. It shook its boxy yellow head as if the emoji was a mis-type or it wasn't supposed to me there. “Is your name… Lemon?” Saffron said confusedly. The screen suddenly lit up and the thing excitedly nodded its head up and down “NEW NAME :D” read the screen. Saffron took a moment to examine Lemon before getting any closer.

“Yellow, lots of yellow and green. It's got vines growing on it all over, it must have been laying here for years to have gotten that amount of plants on it. The sweater it's wearing is baggy in the arms but not the torso, maybe it's made from two different sweaters or pieces of clothes. Is it human? Is this real? Maybe I'm hallucinating..” she thought 

As she stepped closer to Lemon, it shifted closer to her, mimicking her actions. It put a baggy sweater sleeve out to her like it wanted to hold or shake her hand. She did not reach for Lemon's hand as she was still skeptical of it. It continued to reach for her hand. Almost as if it was pulling her in, Saffron caught herself and pulled back. “Who do you work for?” she asked.

Lemon thought for a moment as a pale green loading symbol appeared on the screen. “NO DATA FOUND UNDER.. WORK.” Read the screen. Saffron started to realize that there was no helmet on its head, but the tv IS it's head. She shook her head and sighed, she wouldn’t be able to just leave it all alone after this. 

Suddenly, the window behind them shattered and a group of Bounty-Bots swarmed in, with heavy metallic thuds as they took their stance. The “leader” of their group held out a CD sized disc and it split in half to reveal a hologram, it was a wanted poster for Saffron that said “DEAD or ALIVE.” Their leader spoke “Bounty number: 82467 we request that you come with us, please.” he said in an oddly formal way. “I'm not going anywhere with you!” she shouted.

 The leader spoke again “I regret to inform you that there is only one other option ma’am.” he said as they all took a synchronized aim with their chrome colored blasters. Simultaneously, the bots fired. It took less than a millisecond for Lemon to thrust its body in front of Saffron and take the full brunt of the blaster bolts. 

Shocked at what just happened, Saffron looked up to see Lemons head had turned 180 degrees looking at her. A pale green rectangle crossed it's face with a text that read, “FRIEND?” Saffron nodded her head to acknowledge that she was his friend, pulled her blaster, and quickly dispatched all 3 of the bounty bots. They lay on the floor in pieces, their leader repeating his last message, as his fuel tank emptied from the blaster hole onto the concrete floor.

Saffron inspected Lemon for damage and found relatively nothing except a small dent, which wasn’t even caused by the blasters. They made their way onto the roof of the building, Lemon cheerfully leading the way as if nothing had happened. As they got to the roof Saffron and Lemon overlooked the cityscape.

She was feeling something she had not felt in years, freedom. She was no longer being hunted, she felt joy and lightheartedness as she watched the first sun rise. She even started to feel safe as she felt the hot blaster bolt piercing straight through her back. She dropped to her knees ,slumped forward, and fell to the ground. She turned over to see Lemon standing over her with a smoking blaster in it's hand. It knelt down beside her, and leaned in, a pale green rectangle flashed across it's screen. The text read, “BOUNTY COLLECTED.” 

Fading, she reached up as if to hug Lemon and though she was passing she felt at peace she was no longer someone's bounty, “Bounty collected?” she said. Lemon nodded it's head “Me too” said Saffron as she showed Lemon the two pins of the concussion grenades she had pulled from her belt. The pale green rectangle flashed across the screen one last time, “OH FU-”