The Bot wouldn't leave Rena alone.
"Uhm, some privacy please?"
"And why would I do that?" It retorted. "Once I turn around, you would take that branch by your feet to capitulate me, which would probably just be you swatting me with the stick. And I would squeal in pain and beg you for mercy and bring you back to the Savior. Am I right?"
"...so you do have powers," was all Rena replied.
The Bot snorted, another human sound, and continued to stare at her.
Yes, her plan failed; but Rena still did desperately needed to go. "Can you at least half turn around?"
The Bot remained immovable.
"Please?"
Grunting, the Bot did a hundred-eighty degree turn. Rena scampered behind a nearby bush, and the Bot didn't move. I wasn't looking at her.
Perfect.
Rena dashed. She didn't know where she was, but she ran straight. Her bare feet sloshed against something wet and smelly, and Rena willed her mind to keep looking ahead and that it was just wet mud staining her feet.
Living on a plane her whole life, Rena's breath quickly shortened. She had never swallowed so much fresh air, felt so much sweat, panted so much before. Gulping down more air, she started running again—
"Where do you plan on running to?" A voice said into her ear. Before Rena could turn around, run, do anything, she was scooped up again into its arms into the sky.
"No! Put me down!"
"I hope you better have a good bladder because I am not going to let you out of my sight again," it seethed through its teeth.
Rena suddenly felt a churning in her stomach, but she pushed it down. "I am not going to Eden with you."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I am not!"
It reached the same towering tree and flew to the thickest branch. The branch didn't shake at all when the Bot landed heavily and when the girl squirmed like a worm.
"Yes, you are," it replied, its voice calm but bubbling with anger.
"No!" She kept pushing against its chest, hurting herself more than him. "Put me down!"
"No."
"Yes! Let me go!"
"No." The Bot tightened its hold around the girl's small body and sat down to sit against the trunk. "Since I obviously can't leave you out of my sight now, you're going to have to sleep with me."
"What?" She squirmed more, trying to kick its face, its chest; but it simply locked its arms around her and challenged her with its fierce eyes to continue.
She stopped moving, but she held her glare against its.
Monster. I hate you. She tried to send the message telepathically to it.
Perhaps with its powers, it understood; and it shrugged. Hate me all you want. I don't care.
"I saved you," she said, a tinge of desperation lacing her words. "Shouldn't you save me?"
Its eyes flickered. Guilt? Sadness? Fear? Rena wasn't sure.
"Just go to sleep," it muttered, closing its eyes, trying to block out the sight.
But he could still hear her, and Rena continued whining. "It's only morning, and I'm hungry."
It groaned. "Why are humans so fussy?" It muttered underneath its hot breath that brushed the top of Rena's hair.
She gulped, squeezed her eyes, and blurted out, "Are you human?"
Silence.
She peeked open an eye. The Bot's eyes were still shut, and Rena would almost believe that it was asleep save for its quivering lip.
She needed to know. "Are you human?"
It bit its lip to stop the shaking; and a mumbled "I don't know" slipped out.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
The Bot sighed and opened its neon green eyes. "You're never going to shut up if I don't tell you, are you?"
Turning around to face it, she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Oh, yeah, she knew she was stubborn.
The Bot sighed again and ruffled its silky hair. "I don't know." Its lip quivered again. "Why...why do you think I'm human?"
Being the one to pose the questions, Rena was taken aback at the change of intercourse. "Well...because I faced a Bot before."
It stiffened.
She continued. "Everyone has a role on the Savior—pilot, chef, doctor, entertainer. Well, mine is—was a storyteller. I tell stories to different groups every morning on the Savior during breakfast." She tried not to flinch at the thought that right after she told her story just yesterday morning, the Bot came and ruined everything. "But I've never told this story before because...I didn't think that people would believe me. I thought they would say I had the trauma effect on my memories, but I still remember when a Bot caught me as I was running away. It clamped onto my arm, and I could feel myself being lifted up into the air—then it let go.
'Run!' It told me. 'Run before I lose control!' I saw its eyes turning dark brown. I saw its pale, whitish skin turning flushed. I saw it turning back to human. 'Get away before it comes back!' It cried out to me again, its voice hoarse and raw and loud. As I ran and ran, I ended up at a dead-end when...when another Bot showed up. I had hoped that this one, too, would change back to humanity. I let my guard down as it swiped at me and—and that was when the Savior came for me."
Rena wrapped her hand around her wrist as if she still felt the Bot's clamp on her. She nearly jumped when the Bot, the one whose lap she was sitting on, touched her shoulder.
She repressed her fear and asked again. She needed to know. "So, tell me, are you really human inside?"
The Bot leaned back against the trunk of the tree and said, "How do you know if you're human?"
"Hmm... Well, do you have a heart?"
The Bot touched the left side of its expansive chest. "I think so."
"Does it beat?"
The Bot cocked his head, listening to an invisible sound. "I believe so."
Rena instinctively leaned her head against its chest. She nearly laughed when the Bot jumped at their sudden closeness, but Rena snugly pressed her ear against its thudding heart.
"Why is your heart beating so fast?" She whispered, the heartbeat reverberating through her.
Rena could hear the Bot gulp as it replied, "I don't know."
"Are you nervous about something? Scared?"
Rena lifted her head off its chest to meet the Bot's blinking, confused eyes. "What are those..words you say?"
"They are human emotions. The human heart can react crazily to excitement, fear, and—she couldn't help blush—"love."
"Love?" The Bot mouth the foreign word across its tongue.
Rena cleared her throat. "Oh, are you hungry? Let's go find some food! I'm starving."
"Starving?"
Rena stood up and out of the Bot's nest of arms. "Come."
The Bot furrowed his eyebrows in a defensive stance.
"No more tricks. I promise. I am just seriously hungry. Let me show you what being human is like," she chuckled.
The Bot stood up, shaking the tree, standing over a head taller than Rena, and grinned. "Show me."
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'*ﾟ▽ﾟ*'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*
"Your arms are going to loosen when you sleep. Then I'll escape."
"Try me," he replied, eyes still shut.
She was back in the trap of the Bot's arms. They had spent the whole day trying to find food...to no avail.
She huffed, taking the moment to scan her surroundings. Leaves. Branches. More leaves and branches. They were up way too high for her to jump down, and Rena wasn't confident in her arm strength to climb her way down. What else could she do?
"Sleep," the Bot said.
Rena tried to build fortresses around her mind if the Bot could really read her mind and crossed her arms. She couldn't sleep. How could she sleep when she was hundreds of feet into the air and in the arms of her enemy? Was it still her enemy?
She couldn't help smile when she thought of the moments it truly seemed curious to know what being human was like, how a heart worked.
But she couldn't trust him.
No, she wouldn't sleep tonight. She would scheme tonight and be ready for a new plan for freedom tomorrow.
She smiled and stared at a distant brownish leaf, trying to get her screws turning.
"If you want to have the energy to fight me tomorrow, you should sleep," the Bot said, peeking an eye open.
She continued staring at the leaf, pushing all her hatred and venom for the Bot into it as if she could incinerate it with just her stare.
She didn't know how long she stared at the poor leaf; but her eyebrows started hurting from furrowing, and her head pounded. Her eyes burned, and her throat felt slick with dehydration. Sleep. Just for a second. She'd close her eyes for just a second then continue her evil scheming.
Despite herself, Rena leaned against the comfortable man beneath her and fell asleep.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'*ﾟ▽ﾟ*'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*
Rena awoke to the smack of wind in her face.
With a gasp, she found herself still between the Bot's arms but in the sky.
"Wh-what?"
"Morning, sleeping beauty; or should I call you snoring beauty."
"Shut up!" She pushed against his chest again, angry at him, angry at herself for sleeping.
"See, didn't sleep give you so much more energy?"
"Let me go!" Sleep didn't, however, help with the dryness of her throat or the squirming in her stomach. "Let me go!"
The Bot's eyes hardened. "You want me to let you go?"
"Yes! Have you not been listening to what I've been saying? You are a deceiving, evil monster who is just as cruel as his master and—"
"I have been patient with you, girl. Do not push me any further!"
She shoved him. She gave him a defiant look in her eyes, but it quickly faltered when his arms let go of her.
And she had to fall, of course, down into the empty sky—but she didn't mind the wind ruffling her hair or the impending doom below. Anything—even death—was better than going to Eden.
Her hand instinctively floated up to clutch at cold air and empty clouds; and Rena saw the Bot diving to get her. But she didn't want him to save her. Nobody could save her.
Instead, she squeezed her eyes tight, gulped down the terror in her throat, and twirled in the air—only to be rescued by an enormous net in the sky.
Rena's eyes locked with the Bot's before the net encapsulated her body. She bounced on the soft net, and gravity sent her slamming back into the rescue net (or the trap net).
More confused than scared, Rena fingered the thick cloth net and observed her surroundings.
Sky. Definitely still high up in the sky—very high up, Rena noticed, trying to calm her heart. And a...balloon?
Better known as a blimp, the strange vehicle bobbed heavily up and down with the changing wind currents. The inflated balloon swelled as large as a dinosaur, with a humongous platform shaped like a deck for people. People.
Could they be more survivors or spies of Eden? Rena wondered.
Well, she didn't have to wait any longer to find that out because the net started to gently scoop and rein her in—
Rena bounced unsteadily again as a heavy weight crashed into the net.
"What are you doing?" She shrieked, attempting to roll away from her captor; but that involved shifting her head to look at the nonexistent ground beneath her, so Rena resolved to kicking.
"Go away! Leave me alone!"
"I'm supposed to take you to Eden!" The Bot growled our frustratedly.
"No!"
Unwavering, the Bot sat straight, its body rocked from the turbulence and from the kicks. "Are you done yet? We have to get out of this trap!"
He roughly pulled her towards him like a sack of barley. "Hang on!" He cautioned, his legs ready to spring back into the air.
"What do you mean? How do you know if it's a trap—"
Her voice faltered as the pink sky faded away from their view, and the two of them got swept into the unknown vehicle like dust on a broom; and everything turned grey.
"Welcome aboard," a voice said in the dark shadows, "to your new home."
The Bot sprung—Rena encapsulated in its arms. It landed steadily on the metal platform, twenty steps away from the voice. "Where are we?" The Bot demanded. "Who are you?"
Chuckling, a thud and a squeeek reverberated the floor; and an outline of a long-haired man in a wheelchair appeared. "Come with me," the voice beckoned, "and I'll tell you."
The Bot remained still, despite the wriggling girl in its arms.
"There is no way out," the man added and pushed his wheelchair through the mouth of a wide door.
A pause. A flicker of hesitancy. Then the Bot followed the strange man, bringing Rena along with it. And all Rena could do was hold onto the Bot tightly and watch as they entered a possible doom.
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'*ﾟ▽ﾟ*'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*
I have been trying to shift and add and edit chapters around, so please forgive me if you read a section of this before already 😓😅
Grey? Dun dun dun. Do you guys like the color grey?
Sometimes, when I see that a book has many chapters, I start to stagger and lose motivation to read (I admit...); but if the book is good, I'll keep reading! Which is what I hope many of you will continue to do 💖 especially you, PinkSky1105 ! You're my main motivation to keep writing!