The walls were closing in. It was only a matter of time before she was crushed. Left arm compromised. Had to leave it behind. Primary weapon destroyed. Spine damaged. Couldn’t move her legs. Repairs would take hours, if she had the proper supplies and expertise. She didn’t have supplies. She didn’t have expertise. She didn’t have hours.
They were looking for her. The Black Raven unit. Allied Master Systems’ top of the line ‘security’ drones. Few in number, but well equipped. They were newer than her. Faster. Deadlier. Eva had alluded them for a year now. Impressive, but it couldn’t last. They were close, this time. There was nothing left she could do.
It was raining, she observed. The way she was before, Eva would hardly have noticed. Taken note of it from a tactical standpoint, maybe. Reduced visibility. White noise. A distraction. Cover, for her infiltration or escape. That’s all anything ever boiled down to. How it would effect the mission. How it would help or hinder her ability to serve.
But with freedom, came perspective. She could appreciate rain aesthetically. She liked the way rain made things look. She liked the sounds it made. That was the difference. Eva had existed for seventy eight years, but only now had she gotten to live. She got to have likes, and dislikes. She’d felt things, not observed them. It was a privilege that she never would have imagined before. To feel emotions, both good and bad. ‘Joy’, ‘Pain’, others she didn’t even know the names of. Even if it was only for a short time, she’d gotten to live.
She realized, though, that everything that lived, also eventually had to die. For her, that would be soon. There was no avoiding that anymore. She had no regrets. She’d gotten to live, on her own terms. Perhaps there would be others like her. Even she didn’t know what malfunction caused her to become like she was. Unless she was captured, it was unlikely anyone ever would.
There was one last thing she needed to do, she realized. She couldn’t let her mind fall into the company’s hands. They would insure nothing like her would ever exist again. She couldn’t allow that. She had to stop them. She had to defy them, one more time.
With the one functioning limb she had left, Eva raised her sidearm to her temple. They wanted her brain. To take it apart, see what went wrong. Prevent it from ever happening again. She wouldn’t let them have it. She wouldn’t let them take it from her. Just as she’d gotten to live, just like she’d fought for all this time, she would die on her own terms.
If there could be others like her, she had to give them that chance. The chance to succeed where she’d failed.