Sierra

Chapter 11: Part 1

Cole wasn't sure what he had expected to see when he woke, but it certainly wasn't her. In reality, he hadn't expected to wake up at all. The last moments he remembered seemed final enough to make him think that he wouldn't be waking up again, at least not as himself.

His grip on her wrist tightened. Her face contorted in pain and a slight noise escaped her as he dragged her closer. There was something that sat uneasily in his chest at seeing her. While he understood and projected basic human emotions, anger being one that the humans he dealt with often responded to, this one was different. It was deeper, like something was broken.

He attributed the feeling to his system rebooting. Having your battery pulled wasn't a good way of going out. His computer had not had time to shut down properly. Even now, awake and processing, his system was sluggish and halting as it tried to put the pieces back together. His vision was pixelated, and the woman's surprised face shifted in and out of focus as it loaded.

"What are you doing here," he growled, at the same time running a systems check to see what was causing the new, uneasy feeling that refused to go away.

"Rescuing you?" her voice came out in a questioning tone, like even she didn't believe what she was saying.

The unease grew and Cole scowled. The computer quipped unhelpfully, informing him that, based on this new information of being "rescued", his chance of survival was now 12%. But he knew better. She was lying.

"What?" was all he could respond with.

"Rescuing you. I-I saved your life," she stammered, her voice growing in some confidence as she glanced behind him.

He turned his head, keeping his peripheral vision on her as he looked at the computer beside him. His battery information glowed on the screen. 43:22:57.

He reached to the back of his head and yanked the cables from their ports. The screen went blank.

"Hey!"

They both started at the voice. His vision switched from her to the boy standing across the room. He was the one who had shut him off. An involuntary shudder ran through Cole's system. Tension and panic struck his system until he felt frozen in place at the sight of him. Fear. One of the more useless and annoying emotions his system could replicate for some reason. Maybe to keep him safe in the face of danger. After everything he had faced, it was a child was the most dangerous of all. The one that had done the most damage. The one who had almost been his undoing--so easily.

Sierra looked at him and her hand clenched in his grip. He met her eye and she started to pull away. Mutual understanding was silently agreed on. He released her wrist. She shot from the floor like an arrow. The boy had already made it a few feet down the alley and Sierra disappeared around the corner behind him.

He didn't know why he had trusted her. She was probably just going to run. Abandon him again while the boy went and got backup. He was going to get plugged in again and erased. Then, the sound of their struggle and the muffled cries of the boy carried back to him.

Sierra was only a little bigger than him, but she dragged Skip kicking and screaming back into the room; luckily, his shouts were muffled by her hand over his mouth.

"What do we do?" she whispered harshly, glancing desperately around the room for an answer. Cole motioned towards himself and she swung the boy around, just bringing his socked foot into Cole's reach. The charging squeal sounded, and just in time the girl released him as his stun mode went off. Skip collapsed to the floor, silent and unmoving. 

"What about your battery?"

Just as she asked-

Battery Critically Low!