by Alex Nast
She scoffs at me, "listen to her. That score is going to her head. Think's she so much better than us."
I've taken my scarf off more in the last couple of days than I did in the entire month before that. I'm out right now, in broad daylight, a busy street right behind me with my scarf down. Maybe it is going to my head. I quietly replace my scarf over my face.
Oliver smacks Maz in the shoulder. "Play nice!"
Maz shrugs at him, "why does it even matter? She looks practically feral. She probably can't wait to leave."
"Aren't you at all curious about us Juno?" Oliver seems to be trying to play peacemaker, but maybe it's too late. "Or do you run in to other 9s all the time?"
"I guess I never thought it was safe for people like us to be together," I say quietly. This is going badly. I'm torn between walking away and telling this Maz to go to hell, and trying to see if Oliver really is as genuine as he seems to be. I don't know if she really does blame me for everything that's happened or if I did something else to offend her.
"You see," Maz says, "she doesn't want anything to do with us."
Oliver holds up a hand to Maz. He doesn't take his eyes off of me.
"You know we tried talking to the giant man guarding the door, to get an audience with his highness Arthur. We tried working the room too, seeing if anyone could get us out of the city. Nothing was working. We were about to leave. But you walked right up to the big guy and had Arthur coming out in a minute. No problem."
He doesn't say anything more, just keeps looking at me like he's trying to figure me out.
"So what?" I say.
"You're resourceful. You know things. Maybe you know another way out of this city, and you just don't feel like sharing? I wouldn't blame you, the way this one this one," he nods in Maz's direction, "is being a total jerk."
He wants something from me. Of course. I think about Felix for half a second. He's the only other way out of the city I know of. But I can't go back to him after what he did. It would be suicide. And for all I know Victor already killed him. I'll find a way out. I don't know how. But I'll do it by myself.
"Thanks for the help in there," I turn and start to leave.
"You might know a lot," Oliver calls after me "but I bet you don't know how to find the Free City."
I slow down, and then stop. Shit. I turn back around and go back towards them a little. "What do you know about the Free City?"
Oliver shrugs, "what do you know about getting out of New Seattle?"
I wish I knew if I could trust him. He seemed so genuine, but maybe all he ever wanted from me was a way out was this, a chance at a way out of the city. I was naive to think that I could ever join them. But if they know something about the Free City, that might be worth everything.
"How do I know I can trust you?" Felix is still fresh in my mind. The one time I was stupid enough to let someone get close and it almost got me killed. Twice. So what if these two saved my life. Felix saved my life too. Maybe that counts for less than I think it does.
"How do we know we can trust you?"
I'm tired of this game.
"I could tell you that we need to earn each other's trust," he continues. "But somehow I don't think that would convince you of much. You're not exactly a team player are you?"
There's so much I want to say to that. I wish I could lay bare my entire mind, let him see the never ending battle between wanting to have people that I can trust and being betrayed by everyone that I ever put any trust in. "It's what's kept me alive."
Oliver smiles, "that sounds awfully lonely."
I look away and drop my face, not wanting him to see that he hit so close to the truth, and he quickly drops his smile.
"We want the same thing," Oliver says. "You can trust in that. Mutual self-interest, I believe it's called."
Maybe I can live with mutual self-interest. Other people are black boxes of motivations and intentions, but mutual self-interest I can understand at least. It's not what I want out of meeting these two, not even close, but maybe I'm just destined to be alone.
I look at Maz, trying to see what she thinks about all of this, but her face is unreadable behind her scarf. I suppose mine is too.
"Okay," I say, "I may know another way out of the city. But you're going to have to kill someone. Someone more dangerous than any of those guys back there at Arthur's."
He smiles, "I like a challenge."
12
The days and hours are blurring together, and somehow I'm back standing in front of this damned warehouse. I want to burn it to the ground. Somehow it feels like I was always going to have to face Victor eventually. The moment he saw my face, one of us was going to die.
Oliver doesn't hesitate, just keeps walking towards the door like he wants to get this done so that we can get out of the city before nightfall.
"I'm not sure what kind of weapons he has," I say, trying to keep up with Oliver. "And there's his wife, I don't know how dangerous she is. Or if she's even here."
Oliver whirls around on me. "Stop talking Juno."
"Don't you want to know what you're walking in to?"
"No, I don't care. Kill this guy. Kill the wife if she gets in the way. Save the kid. Save this other guy, Felix. It's so simple, either we kill him or he kills us. Stop trying to make it complicated."
He starts walking again, and Maz passes me. I share a look with her, but she just shrugs. "Try to keep up."
I wonder just how far mutual self-interest requires me to risk my own life to help these two against Victor. And how far they'll go, if I'm the one that needs help. I promise myself I'm not going to get caught or killed for either of them, then I hurry to catch up.
Oliver goes striding in to the room where I was tied to the pipe, but it's empty. He's pacing around when I get there, looking impatient for the killing to start. He looks at me and raises his hands in the air like it's my fault there isn't someone here to throw his knife at.
"Through there," I say quietly, pointing towards the doorway that leads to the hallway, and Victor's secure little room.
Oliver nods and he's off again, Maz and I hurrying to catch up.
No hesitation, no fear, he goes striding in to the room, knives in his hands. I'm still in the hallway but I see him whip one knife at something farther in the room, and allow myself to hope, for a second, that it really could be that easy. I round the corner and see the hilt of Oliver's knife sticking out of Victor's back.
Felix is there, tied to a chair and covered in so much blood. Too much. I can't tell if he's alive or dead. A woman cowering in the corner too. The wife. My knife is out, Maz has both of hers in her hands. I'd flash my gun but I don't think Victor would even blink at it, let alone put his hands up and surrender.
Victor whirls around, snarling, striding towards us. Oliver's hand flies and another knife goes whipping towards Victor's eye socket.
But somehow Victor knows. His hand goes to his face and the knife meant for his eye and his brain buries itself in his hand instead, passing right through it.
Victor barely even grunts.
And then I hear a sound that still makes me feel dread, the buzzing of that infernal stun gun. Oliver crumples to the ground, muscles seizing. He struggles against it, and for a half second I think he might be able to fight through it the way Victor did. But he can't get up off the floor. He looks at us. He looks afraid.
My hope dies.
I yank on the two wires from the gun and the prongs rip of out his skin and come free. Then I pull on the wires in the other direction and the gun comes spinning out of the wife's hands. I look at Oliver, hoping that somehow he will pop back up, invincible as always and ready to fight, but I remember the way my hands felt after getting shocked. I remember how even Victor couldn't work his hands properly. It's going to be awhile before Oliver is throwing any knives.
I think about running right then. I half expect Maz to run too, but she stands her ground, like she's barely phased by Oliver's failure. Her knives
are cruel, hooked things, like animal claws. Thin and sharp looking. I've never seen anything like them. I hope she knows how to use them.
"You're back again? Juno, is it? Felix told me your name." Victor pulls the knife out of his hand and lets it clatter to the floor. He stopped when Oliver dropped. Didn't even bother coming to get us. Probably doesn't want to damage our valuable bodies.
He reaches around and just manages to get the other knife out of his back. He looks right at me. "Not only were you stupid enough to come back here, but you convinced a couple of other nines to come with you." He smiles. "Amazing. Really.
Victor looks down at Oliver. "I've heard of you," he points at Oliver, who is struggling to his feet. "You're a bit of a legend with Body Hunters. More than a few of my friends have turned up dead from a knife to the eye. Heard of others too." He looks at Maz next. "You know what those things you're holding are, or did you just think they were prettier than a straight blade?"
Maz gets down in to a fighter's stance. "Come and find out."
Victor flexes the hand that now has a hole in it. Wiggles his fingers. He looks like fine. He comes striding forward, no weapon visible, just his two hands, and I start backing up. I'm going to run, I'll find another way out of the city. Mutual self-interest doesn't require me to die here.
Maz lands one good knife swipe on the front of Victor's thigh and it's the first time I've ever heard him cry out in pain. The wound is ripped wide open, exposing muscle and flesh, and it starts oozing blood immediately. But then Victor has Maz wrapped up in a bear hug and I can hear her gasping in pain. He's going to squeeze her until she pops.
I take another step back. We were so stupid to come back here. I should have made them listen. Victor is too dangerous, even for three of us.
"Help her," Oliver grunts, as he struggles to his feet on muscles that won't cooperate. He sounds desperate. He goes stumbling towards Victor and Maz, not able to do anything more than lurch in to them and knock them both to the ground before careening off in to a corner of the room, grunting as he hits the floor hard. Maz almost gets free for a second in the fall, gets turned around so that her back is against Victor's chest but he grabs her again. He moves his hand up over her throat to choke the consciousness out of her.
There's movement in the corner of the room. The wife picks up the stun gun, and starts reloading it, glancing at me as she does. She's going to use it again on Oliver. She doesn't even consider me a threat. And I'm not. All I know how to do is run away.
In that moment I feel shame. Overwhelming, gut wrenching shame. It pushes me to act. I lunge across the room to the wife and rip the stun gun out of her hands. She falls back in to the corner of the room, terrified of me now. I grab her by the hair and drag her away from the walls, towards the center of the room.
"I'll kill her Victor," I yell at him. He can't see me, but he knows who I'm talking about.
But the only sound is Maz choking. Even with her arms pinned down at her sides I can see she's managed to dig one of her knives in to Victor's hip, creating a deep red stain on his pants, but it's like he doesn't even notice. Whatever was done to him in the military, he barely seems human anymore.
"I'm going to fucking kill your wife you animal," I scream at him.
"I don't give a shit," he grunts out.
His wife looks as surprised as I feel. He really isn't human.
The wife is shaking, pulling at my arm, trying to pry my knife away from her throat. I've got so much adrenaline coursing through me I'm shaking. Oliver looks drunk in the corner, trying to get his feet underneath himself.
I have to do something. Oliver doesn't have control of his body. Maz is just about blacked out and still fighting, and all I can do is stand there and spout off empty threats. I don't want to run away anymore. I don't want mutual self-interest. I want to help them. Even if it costs me my life I'm going to try.
I shove the wife to the floor, out of my way, and run at Victor and Maz. Victor's head is on the other side of Maz's body so he can't see me coming. I skid down on my knees beside them and plunge my knife in to the top of Victor's shoulder with everything I have, and the blade goes in right to the hilt. It goes so deep I half expect the tip to hit the concrete floor beneath.
Victor screams.
Every time he screams I get a little more hopeful.
I give the knife a yank as soon as it's in, planning to plunge it in to him again and again until he finally stops moving. I'm going to make him scream and scream and plead for his life. I'm in a frenzy, mad with the possibilities.
Instead, the arm underneath Maz's neck choking her shoots out and finds my hair. Somewhere in the chaos my scarf came off my head. Maz gasps for breath, coughing and screaming. Both my hands go to Victor's hand in my hair, trying to untangle his fingers from my scalp, but I don't stand a chance.
He smashes my head down on the concrete floor once, twice, three times and the world gets very dizzy. My body goes limp, my mind seems to fade away. I just go somewhere else.
Victor lets go of me. Dimly, I can see him trying to dig my knife out of his shoulder without having to let go of Maz. Somewhere along the way we must have done enough damage to him because he's actually struggling with it, but I know as soon as he has the knife Maz won't be getting up again. I don't think he'll kill her, she's worth too much. But he'll hurt her enough though that he can deal with Oliver and me. He's winning against us, but just barely. He doesn't want to kill us or damage us, but I have no doubt he will if he thinks we might overwhelm him.
I'm his prize though. No quick, easy death for me. I paw at his hand, trying to stop him from pulling out the knife but I'm useless. I feel like I'm on the edge of sleep, swimming, desperate to hold on to consciousness. I'm trying so hard to save Maz but it isn't enough.
Then I hear a dull, thumping sound and a grunt. I look up and see Oliver, finally back on his feet. He's kicking Victor in the head, again and again, almost falling over every time he lifts one foot up off the ground, but landing each vicious blow with his hard leather boots.
Victor tries to grab on to Oliver's leg but his hands are clumsy, and Oliver isn't taking chances anymore.
The sound of Oliver's boot impacting Victor's head is sickening. I feel like I'm going to throw up.
It seems like the kicking goes on forever, but finally Victor goes limp.
Oliver bends down and pries Victors meaty fingers from around Maz, who rolls away from him and stumbles to her feet, coughing and gasping and crying. Somehow still conscious. She kicks Victor's limp form a couple of times and then collapses against the wall.
Oliver goes to her, murmuring something, and she nods at him, not able to speak. Oliver comes stumbling over to me. "Are you okay?"
I try to roll over, to get my knees underneath me, but it's a struggle. "I..." I can't get the rest of the words out.
"You monsters." It's the wife, in the corner of the room, choking out words in between sobs. "He was just trying to make our lives better and you killed him."
He wanted to kill us, to make their lives better. I want to shove it in her face that I'm not a thing, that I'm a person and I won't just roll over and die because it's what Victor wanted. I want to remind her that Felix's wife is dead at her hands. Felix's daughter is nowhere to be seen. But I can't muster the energy.
Oliver looks past me, "shut up or I swear I'll kill you."
She glares at him but she keeps her mouth shut.
Good enough.
Oliver turns his attention back to me. He gently puts a hand underneath my chin and brings my face up to look in my eyes. I'm not used to being touched though, not gently at least. Something about that skin on skin contact is electrifying, even with my head swimming. He smiles at me, and I manage a smile back.
The thought that maybe Victor did some serious damage to my face comes swimming in to my mind. Will my score be changed? Will Oliver still look at me the same way? I hate myself for thinking that way though, and I shove the thought away. I don't want
to care about that.
Oliver bends down and pulls my knife out of Victor's shoulder. Victor doesn't move. "Hell Juno, you might have warned us. This guys not human."
"I did warn you." I can speak again, but I sound like I'm on drugs, and I can't make it to my knees so I settle for leaning my back against a metal cabinet. The room is tilting, and I still feel like I could throw up at any minute. What the hell did he do to me?
"Let's end this," Oliver says. He has a death grip on the knife hilt, willing his stiff fingers to hold it. He collapses to his knees beside Victor's head.
"Wait," a new voice says.
I manage to look up at the spinning room. Felix is moving in the corner. Not dead then. He just looks like it.
"Cut me loose." He coughs, and it looks like there's some blood that comes up. "I'm going to kill him."
"I finished him," Oliver says back, "he's mine."
"He killed my daughter."
Shit. His daughter. "Cut him loose," I say to Oliver.
Oliver looks at me, considering.
Stupid boys, fighting over who gets to kill him. One of them should just do it before Victor wakes up, if he's not already a vegetable. Or before his wife gets any ideas.
Oliver sighs, hauls himself to his feet and goes to Felix. He figures out the ropes and after a few curses manages to cut Felix loose. Felix promptly collapses to the floor.
Oliver gets a hand under Felix's armpit, but Felix shrugs him off and struggles to his feet.
We all look half dead. Maz is the only one that can still walk properly and she still can't catch her breath long enough to say anything.
Felix stands up straight and walks, slowly, to Victor. He kneels down astride Victor's head, and I half expect Victor's hands to lunge up off the ground, grab the knife and start the killing and maiming all over again. But he stays there, dead to the world. I can see his chest rising and falling, but his head looks misshapen. Whatever Oliver did to him, even all of Victor's military body-mods couldn't save him from it.
Whatever Felix does or doesn't do, Victor is never getting up off that floor.