Born of Silicon-Book 5 Chapter 15

Born of Silicon-Book 5 Chapter 15

I woke up to a kitchen full of food and water. Mara had taken her place, lounging across the couch.
“Where did all this come from?”
“This is our tribute.” She said with a wicked grin. “Everything that survived the explosion. We earned this. You earned this.” She grabbed an unopened bag of chips from the table next to her, and tossed it my way.
She knew I wouldn’t be comfortable with our blood-tainted gains. Holding that over my head only made her smile grow. I didn't want to let it show though. I got Rusty some breakfast, sat down at the table, and ate, all under her close watch.
“What now?” I eventually had to break the silence.
Her eyes shone with excitement, exactly the question she wanted to hear.
“We take their place.” She said as if it was the simplest, most obvious answer in the world. “We call ourselves heroes, turn around and take half of what they did. They’ll be happy to pay it.”
“And if they don't?” I already knew I wouldn't like the answer.
“We twist their arm.”
That was our first shakedown. Mara decided on a fact that day. You need two legs to find food, but only one arm to bring it home.
I'm not sure if us being kids helped or hurt in convincing people to give us food and water. A few felt bad, and those who didn't? Mara put her theory to the test.
I won't say it wasn't nice, not having to scavenge, not having to do anything. Just go around occasionally and collect. Fifteen different apartments giving us fifteen gallons of water, and almost eight pounds of food a week? We didn't need to worry, as long as you could forget every bite was stolen straight out of someone else's mouth. But I guess that's what the alcohol was for.
It didn't take long to find out the city wasn't quite as dead as we thought. Every skyscraper had people fighting for survival, with someone like us at their head. And most buildings were bigger than ours. People from other groups came knocking, investigating, trying to figure out where our weaknesses lie, and if we're worth knocking over. And with just the two of us, we were a very easy target.
“We need a plan.” Mara said one night, staring out the window at yet another storm. “When someone comes looking for our heads, we're in a shit position.”
“What do we do?” I asked. “I don't know how many people we can fight.”
“I’m not going to die here. We leave and come back to get revenge later.” She paused for just a moment before continuing. “We’re stuck without the car working, and the second it is, it gets stolen. Start bringing food, the wheels, and gas downstairs. Get it stored in the closest room to the garage.”
“Ok.” I brushed my hand against Rusty’s head before doing my job. “Where are we going?” I asked.
“Albuquerque, Vegas, San Francisco. Word is that the ocean still exists, and San Francisco has enough space for us to carve out a niche.”
“Ok.” Rusty stayed at my heels while I started hauling everything downstairs.
Mara was gone when I came back for a second load. I had a bad feeling that I knew what she was doing, and my feeling was only confirmed when I came back to more food on the table than I left. I grabbed it and headed downstairs.
I was most of the way through hauling stuff, in the downstairs apartment when the door began to open. I drew my pistol and pointed at the door. Rusty crouched down, ready to pounce.
Mara came through the door. She almost looked proud if you can believe it. That I was finally willing to defend myself.
“Heel, Rusty. It’s alright boy.” I dropped my pistol back in its holster, and Mara wordlessly grabbed a tire, some tools, and pulled a makeshift mask over her nose.
I kept working and she got the car fixed up. It took a while to bring everything down, the storm was just ending as I finished. She was already out by the car, protecting it. Fully working and functional cars were already at a premium, and she cared about that car far more than she cared about me.
The car ended up packed. The trunk full, the back seats drowning in food and water. I even had to pack stuff in beneath my feet, leaving Rusty to sleep in my lap.
She handed her rifle to me, and headed out. I rolled down the window and did my best to keep us covered.
We got out quick, before any of the other skyscrapers could stop us. A scout recognized us on the way out and sprinted home, but we were out of the city before word spread. I can only hope the people we left behind got taken in by a better group, but I’d really be surprised if that’s true.
We had a physical map we found in a glovebox, and we did the same thing we did when we were headed towards Dallas. The roadsigns weren’t quite buried, and while most cars were fully beneath the sand, semi trucks were still visible.
She kept things slow, thankfully. I would have hated to excavate an entire car just to get a new set of tires. Still faster than we would travel today, but slow enough. I did my best to rest, but with her music, I didn’t get much of a chance.
It was night when we reached the southern pass, with me driving. Even back then it was busy, with distant headlights in the distance.
“Mara?” A single word was enough to bring her out of her rest. “We’ve got other cars.”
She wordlessly grabbed her rifle and rolled down the window. I did the same, and kept my pistol in my hand.
I took us in. The lights revealed themselves, turning into caravans. It very quickly became clear that we were the only solo car.
“Turn the lights off.” Mara ordered, and I did.
From the base of the mountain, just a few miles away, a few cars lit up. Three sets of headlights coming directly towards us.
“Shit. Keep driving.” She said.
I was still a kid, didn’t know how to deal with the nerves. I couldn’t stop myself from accelerating. The cars adjusted their course, trying to intercept us.
“What do we do?” I tried to keep my panic hidden from her. She was cool, in her element. I needed to be too.
“We’re not turning around.” She replied with a certainty that almost made me believe we’d get out of that mess. “Keep going.”
I gripped the wheel so hard I swear my knuckles were turning white. I still didn’t know how to handle the pressure of my potential death glaring at me. Mara wasn’t like that though. She only came alive when her life was on the line.
I kept driving, and Mara kept her rifle pointed to the incoming cars. I’m not sure how they tracked us so well in the night, but even when I turned, they had no problem following.
I sped up once again, entirely forgetting about the danger to our tires. Of course, a tire popped. The wheel jerked to the side, and the corner of the car dug into the ground. I gave up on trying to control the thing. I just held tightly onto Rusty and went along for the ride.
The car flipped. I don’t know how many times, I don’t know how bad the accident actually was. All I knew is that I came to upside down from a wet tongue on my face and a soft whine.
The smell of gunpowder filled my nose and lungs. In a daze I reached for my seatbelt, only to fall directly on my head. I clutched at my newest wound, and my hands came away bloody.
Rusty was still whining, he needed me. I crawled out through the broken window, tearing apart my arms. Rusty followed me out, unable to put any weight on one of his legs. I pushed myself to my feet and stumbled towards the passenger side of the car.
The three cars had surrounded us. My hearing was muffled, but I could hear an argument. I didn’t care about any of that. All I knew is that my dog was hurt, and there was a medkit in the glovebox.
I dropped to my knees in front of the window, the sand covered in shards of glass. I reached in and got the kit, didn’t give a single thought to where Mara ended up, to whatever the people around us wanted.
Rusty laid down, and with shaking hands I got to work. He was cut up, nothing too deep, thankfully, nothing vital was hit. I didn’t clean anything, just pulled out the glass shards and wrapped bandages tightly around him. They quickly turned red, although I had no idea how much of that was from his wounds and how much was from mine. Rusty whimpered every time I touched his front left leg, but he didn’t stop me from wrapping it.
He barked, and arms wrapped around my chest. I threw elbows, fought as hard as I could. I yelled, told them to get off of me, begged them to let me help Rusty. I got a good hit on the side of his head, the person who grabbed me let go and stumbled back. I didn’t even glance at him, just got back to work helping Rusty.
Someone yelled at me. No idea who it was, and no idea what they said. Everything was still muffled. A hand grabbed the collar of my shirt. I choked myself trying to get back to my dog.
They threw me back on the ground, and a boot came down on my chest. There was a gun in my face and I didn’t care. I didn’t stop struggling until one of them crouched down over him and started closing his wounds.
Another person roughly grabbed my arms and wrapped them as well. I just kind of stared blankly, barely able to process anything.
I got shoved into the back of a car and Rusty got placed in my lap.
“Tell me you have your pistol at least.” Mara mumbled.
“Huh?” I looked to my side. She was already in there, her elbow resting on the windowsill and her head in her hand. The entire side of her face was swollen and angry. I reached for my holster, only to find it empty. “Sorry.”
“Fucking useless.” She jerked on the handle, but the door didn’t care.
A plastic wall separated us from the front seats and the trunk. We were stuck, but we were alive. At some point, that has to be enough.

Book 5 Chapter 15