by Chris Bostic
“I heard that. That had to hurt.”
“Yeah,” Connie said. “Anyway…wonder if I can break it down.”
“Follow it all the way around,” Joe suggested when Jade’s voice carried to them again. It sounded like she was down a long hallway, hiding under a blanket. “There’s another door.”
Thanks to the sunlight seeping through the cracks, Joe could follow Connie’s bulky outline as the big man turned and followed the interior wall toward Jade’s voice.
“Keep talking,” Connie told her, then chuckled to himself. Everyone knew Jade would do that. She couldn’t be quiet to save her life, which had almost literally happened more than once before.
They felt their way along the false wall. Unlike the rotted boards on the outside, it was surprisingly smooth.
“Who builds a barn inside another barn?” Joe mumbled.
“It’s a brilliant disguise,” Connie answered. “Who would’ve thought this was in here?”
“That’s true. And it’s almost like they put the snake and bees there to keep people away from the door.”
“I’d say there’s something worth hiding in here,” Connie said, growing noticeably excited.
“Around the corner,” Jade chirped. “Hurry, guys. I hear you coming. You’re going to like this so much.”
“We’re trying, darling. It’s a little hard when you can’t see-” Connie pitched forward, slamming against the outside wall before hitting the ground hard. “Dang it!”
“I forgot to tell you to watch the tripwire,” Jade said. “Too late, I suppose. Sorry, Sarge.”
“That’s alright,” Connie grumbled as he climbed back to his feet. “What the heck was that all about anyway?”
“Just a little added security,” Jade answered, suddenly very close to them. “Let me find the lights.”
“What? Now?” Connie grumbled. “We’re practically there.”
Joe was more curious about how she’d figured out there were lights. “How do you know that?”
“It’s my creator’s barn,” she answered.
“Now you tell us,” Connie interrupted. “What the heck, woman?”
“I never spent much time out here. It was for his other projects.”
Joe shook his head. “You didn’t think that was important?”
“I mean it’s not my house,” she said. “But I think we can get there from here.”
“You think?”
“We used to be able to. We have Faith to show us the way.” She paused for a moment, and a series of tiny but powerful lights at ground level popped on. “That’s better.”
“Over here!” Leisa called. At the end of the long hallway, by the front of the barn, she waved from behind Jade. “This place is amazing!”
As great as that sounded, Joe was more concerned about the renewed aching in his calf. “Does it have any water?”
“Better than that,” Jade said. “Hurry up.”
“I’m trying,” Joe muttered. He hobbled the rest of the way with an increasingly heavy coilgun in one hand. The other helped balance himself.
“In here,” Jade said, holding a solid steel door open. “You need to help me with Faith.”
“What’s with the needing faith business?” Connie asked. “You’re doing just fine without that.”
“My sister, silly.” Jade ushered them into a well-lit, sterile room. The heavy door clanked shut behind them. “You’re pretty good with fixing stuff with your hands. I need your help.”
“That kind of Faith,” Joe whispered. “Your sibling.”
“Yeah, she’s over here.”
Jade hurried off with Connie to the back corner of a large, open room. Joe stood awestruck next to Leisa.
“Whoa,” he uttered after a long look around. Surfaces gleamed with polished steel. Countertops like work tables lined all the walls. Several workbenches filled the middle of the open room, with sheets draped over various-shaped lumps on every one of them.
“It’s like a cross behind a hospital and a workshop,” Leisa whispered. “Can you imagine all the cool stuff in here?”
He thought about the dusty, rickety barns he’d seen around home before he’d left, most of which had probably been reduced to piles of toppled timbers. “Definitely not the typical barn,” he replied, and added a low whistle of amazement.
“Just wait until you see Faith,” Leisa called. “Or maybe you shouldn’t.” Joe looked at her curiously. “You’ll find out.”
In the back corner of the workshop, Connie and Jade blocked his view of a seated creation. Between their bodies, he could make out the very toned, shapely legs of a young woman.
“Need any help?” Joe asked.
“Actually, yeah,” Connie replied. “We need to move her.”
He stepped aside to reveal arguably the most beautiful creation Joe had ever seen. Leisa was perfection in his mind, and Jade completely flawless; however, Faith was absolutely stunning—even with her eyes closed.
Long blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders, framing a sculpted face complete with dimples and a perfectly rounded chin. An overly ample chest strained against a form fitting shirt. Long, lean legs flared to hips and back to a narrow waist that completely defied natural human proportions.
“Unholy alliance, she’s like one of those dolls,” Joe blurted, and quickly regretted it. “I mean, uhm…you know…”
“Yeah. Every little girl’s had one. They’re all totally unnatural and misrepresentative of reality,” Leisa said. “This creator of hers is some sort of major perv, and definitely not helping women with realistic body issues.”
“He’s really no such thing,” Jade said, but otherwise stayed uncharacteristically quiet.
“Just give me a hand,” Connie told Joe. “We need to get her up on the workbench.”
“Sure,” Joe agreed, perhaps a bit too quickly. He turned to Leisa and asked her to help too.
“Right here is fine,” Jade suggested as she cleared off a spot on the nearest table.
“Grab her legs,” Connie told Joe and Leisa, and they settled in to pick her up off the chair.
“She’s so cold,” Leisa remarked.
“It is cool in here.” Connie looked to the ceiling as if searching for air conditioning vents or a fan. “Amazing they could hide this operation in such an old building.”
Having felt Jade’s skin the couple times she had passed out previously, Joe was aware of the unnaturally cool way she felt. Her skin was perfectly humanlike, but the temperature was very chilly. Faith seemed no different in that regard, though perhaps the slightest bit more rubbery to the touch.
“Did she pass out like you?” he asked Jade.
“It’s a shutdown mode. It usually happens to me when I overheat. It’s a self-preservation kind of defense mechanism.” She gestured to the table again. “Roll her on her side, and I’ll see if I can get her to reboot.”
Jade stood back as they deposited her sister on the table. While Joe and Leisa stepped away, Connie seemed to linger a bit longer.
One side of his mouth curled in a leering grin as Jade reached to Faith’s neck and pulled down the zipper on the back of the exceedingly tight shirt.
“She’s some creation,” Connie whispered. His hand lingered on her arm as he watched Jade pull Faith’s shirt away from the top of her shoulders.
“Sarge, would you please hold her hair back?” Jade asked him, seemingly unaware of the way he watched the two sisters like a creeper.
“Sure, darling.” Connie slipped around the table to take the hair Jade had gathered up into a ponytail.
Joe took a seat in a chair not too far away from the table. He leaned forward to watch Jade work.
“What’s with the neck thing?” he asked. “Like an access panel?”
“Exactly.”
Jade lifted her sister’s eyelids first and gazed into glazed over brown eyes. Then she returned her attention to her sister’s neck. She gave a quick grunt and frowned before kneeling to get a better l
ook. After another round of pulling and groaning, she stretched back out to her full height. “It seems to be stuck. I think I’m going to need to pry it open.”
“That sounds painful,” Connie said. “Want me to try?”
“Sure. I’ll grab the pliers and a mallet.”
“Yikes,” Joe whispered to Leisa. “Maybe I don’t want her trying that healer magic on my bad leg.”
Still standing, Leisa leaned over Joe’s shoulder to whisper in his ear, “I offered, but no. You wanted the savage talker to do it.” He could hear her chuckle within a soft breath. “I coulda fixed you up, babe.”
Her lips tickled his ear, and he forgot all about the pain in his leg.
“Could you ever. Kinda rough, though.”
“You don’t like it rough?” Leisa winked.
“Hmmm. You about broke my leg the only time we tried.”
“What?”
“The massage,” Joe said. “I’m trying not to be a perv here. I wouldn’t want you to confuse me with Connie.”
“It would be hard to reach his level of creepy. Poor guy needs a little, uhm, affection.”
“I don’t even want to think about that,” Joe replied with a grimace. “Then again, I can’t believe he hasn’t gotten it on with the android already.”
“Which one?”
Joe looked to Faith, then over at Jade. “Dang. That was harsh.”
Thankfully, Jade had been too busy rummaging through all the drawers of a giant tool chest to have heard them. She came back over to Connie a moment later with a heavy wooden mallet and screwdrivers of several different sizes.
“Maybe try whichever one you like.” Jade held up one that looked more like a spear than something for turning screws. “My creator usually likes the big one.”
“I think I’ll start a little smaller.” Connie selected the tiniest one, which appeared to be better suited for fixing a pair of eyeglasses. Still, he seemed more tentative when normal as he asked, “Am I gonna hurt her?”
Jade shook her head. “With that little tool? She won’t feel a thing.”
“That’s what she said,” Leisa joked, causing Joe to laugh inappropriately.
“Keep it down over there,” Connie grumbled. “This is delicate surgery.”
“Then why are you doing it?” Joe asked. “You’ll knock her head off.”
“I’ll knock your head if you don’t shut up.” Connie ignored them to slip up underneath Jade, who held back her sister’s hair.
“Right at the hairline,” she told him. “Find the crease and try to pry it open.”
“This is kinda…weird,” Connie mumbled. A second later, a flap of skin swung loose to reveal a multitude of tiny lights and microchips that looked to Joe like it resembled the inside of an old mobile phone.
“Thanks, Sarge.” Jade moved to inadvertently block Joe’s view. “I’ll get in there now. I need to make sure everything’s alright. Just a second.”
Jade fiddled in the back of Faith’s head for longer than Joe expected. Nothing happened. She muttered and grunted, even paused for a while, but still Faith remained motionless. Finally, she told Connie, “We’ll have to do a hard reboot.”
“Is she gonna be okay?”
“Maybe.” Jade paused. Looking more dejected than Joe had ever seen, she added, “It’s our last chance, besides trying a shock. I’d rather not do that. Even if I can locate the charger, it’s not really recommended.”
“So what do we do?” Joe asked.
Jade didn’t bother turning around to answer him. Instead, she took Connie’s hand and placed it on Faith’s oversized chest. Even he recoiled for a second, but quickly looked at ease. Perhaps too at ease.
“While I watch her eyes, you’ll need to do chest compressions. It’ll be just like CPR without the breaths,” Jade explained. “Pay attention!” She tapped Connie’s shoulder. “That’s better. Now this has nothing to do with an actual heart. My creator put it in as a failsafe in case any of us passed out in a public place. People would just think our heart had stopped, and the pushing generates a current by effecting a spring and magnet-coil induction cell located in our chests.”
“Wow,” Joe said. “That’s pretty ingenious.”
“He is a very smart man,” Jade said. “Now let’s get to it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Connie started chest compressions at an even rate. Joe knew how to do them as well, though he’d never had the chance. Every friend he’d watched die on the front lines had been riddled with bullet and bayonet holes, or blown to smithereens. CPR couldn’t have saved any of them.
“That’s a good pace,” Jade told Connie. She leaned closer until her eye was practically a millimeter away from Faith. “I see a spark. It’s working.”
Faith didn’t immediately wake up, or do anything more than continue to assume room temperature. Connie began sweating, which was soon followed by a heavy pant.
“I’m getting…tired over here,” Connie said between breaths. “This is…rough.”
“One of us can jump in,” Leisa suggested. “I’ll do it.”
“Hold on,” Jade said, then realized her poor choice of words when Connie slowed. “Not you. You can’t stop, Sarge. You’re so close. If she’s coming back, it’s now or never.”
CHAPTER 7
“Don’t you dare quit,” Jade said, growing obviously flustered. “There’s still a tiny spark. I’m not losing her.”
“I’m trying,” Connie huffed. He groaned and kept hammering away at the unconscious Faith’s chest.
“I’m taking over,” Leisa said, bumping up against Connie.
“Fine. Just one of you do it!” Jade snapped. She went back to staring into her sister’s eye, pressing her face so close to Faith’s cheek that they touched.
Before Leisa could jump in, Jade’s head came flying back. With a giant cough, Faith spewed brownish goop all over the side of her face.
“Gross!” Jade whined.
Faith shot upright, knocking Connie off of her. He stumbled to keep his balance, but somehow Faith managed to catch his arm with lightning quick reflexes.
“Hey you,” she said, looking Connie over slowly from head to toe. She tucked her hair behind an ear. “You brought me back to life. Thank you!”
Jade stopped her own muttering to say, “He’s mine, Faith. Back off.”
“Yeesh. Since when did little sister get so bossy?” Faith launched into a very credible Jade impersonation, saying, “You can’t stop, don’t quit, just do it…back off my man.”
“Whatever.” Jade scrubbed at the side of her face with a rag from an adjacent table. “I don’t sound like that.”
“You kinda did there for a minute, darling,” Connie said, drawing a firm rebuke from Jade.
Faith chuckled and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, coming away with some leftover greasy bile. She wiped it on her skirt, and told Connie, “My apologies if I got any on you. That wasn’t much of a way to introduce myself.”
“What about me?” Jade said in the background, but Connie was still focused on the sister.
“Nice to meet you, little lady,” he said, and extended a hand.
Joe would’ve thought twice about shaking hands with remnants of the goop still clinging to her, but Connie never was squeamish like that. He didn’t end up shaking hands anyway. Faith pulled him into a big hug, drawing yet another protest from Jade.
“What’s your name, hero?” she said as she patted him on the shoulder.
If Connie found the situation awkward, he wasn’t showing it. While Jade huffed, he took his time extricating himself from the hug.
“You can call me Connie…or Sarge. I was just happy to help,” he said as he finally stepped back. “We’re glad you’re feeling better.”
“Not all of us.” Jade grabbed Faith’s arm roughly and pulled her away from him. She brushed her sister’s hair off her neck. “Now sit down and don’t move. I need to refasten your access port.”
“You really have gotten boss
y. I don’t see you for months, and you come back totally different.”
“You haven’t changed a bit,” Jade shot back. “You’re always trying to show off.”
Faith sat back on the table and patiently let Jade work on her neck. She tilted her head to the side and watched the others, her formerly dark eyes having changed to a cool blue that examined each person one at a time. Joe thought she seemed to linger the longest on Connie.
“Well I am glad you helped me out, little sis,” Faith finally said. “We’ve all been so worried about you.”
“Don’t get up.” Jade held out a hand to stop her from rising. “Anyway, I’ve been worried about you all too. Where is everybody? And why are you even down here?”
“It’s a long story,” Faith said. “But I’m not alone.”
“Spill it.” Jade left Faith on the table to go retrieve a chair. She sat in front of her sister. “I want the whole story.”
As much as Joe wanted that too, hunger and dehydration won out. “Sorry, but first…do you have any water? Or food?”
Faith shared a glance with Jade, waiting for a nod from her sister before answering him. “I’m assuming you know we don’t eat, right? Or drink.”
“Yes, but-”
“I might be able to find something if my sister will let me get up.”
“You rest,” Jade said. “Tell me where to look.”
“You can start by warming up Smig.” Faith pointed to a box-shaped lump underneath a sheet in the corner. “I can’t believe I had to be stuck here with him for so long. Even harder to believe it got worse after I turned him off.”
“You deactivated our brother!” Jade said, flying to her feet.
“Trust me, you would too. He’s insufferable with nowhere to go and no one to talk to.”
“Just like you. I wouldn’t want to talk to you very long either,” Jade shot back as she rushed across the room.
While she was busy over there with their brother, Faith gestured for Connie to come closer. “Help me down, big boy,” she said, batting her eyelashes at him. Connie looked over his shoulder at Jade. Faith poked his shoulder and whispered, “Forget about her. Give me a hand?”