Ten more things that happened off screen in "In Remembrance of Unspoken Memories" that may come up later. (Possible Spoilers for Dmitri, Ron, and Khan’s stories - idk, just being cautious)
1) Dmitri’s parents had originally wanted to name him Adam but instead decided to keep the name to themselves as a code name for whenever they wished to talk about their son without the humans figuring out who they were discussing. (That their son ended up marrying a woman named Yeva - the Russian version of Eve - was something that only half surprised them.)
2) Whenever Ron got to visit the Tallyran with Aimes, Alice would drag him upstairs to play and during one of their visits, Ron saw a deer plush with orange eyes, resting on Alice’s bed and realized it was the same one he had put together at the factory since the plush was supposed to have green eyes. (The same deer is in the box of presents that Beau brought to the Outpost and according to the kid, it was one of his mother's favorites.)
3) As much as Khan and Khutulun were happy to have gained a twin link at their Facility, the slight differences in curriculum, particularly the difference in how the humans wanted twins to behave compared to other drones, was a culture shock to say the least. (Despite Waylon being a Super Suppressor, he still had slight twin behaviors that were part of the reason, Khan, was sure that the drone was the same one he and his sister had met at the Facility.)
4) The reason Uzi decided to start learn piano was because of a memory and a dream; in the memory, her father was playing the piano while her mother held her, in the dream she can see him singing while a shadowed female drone plays the piano - they all looked happy, so she wanted her music to bring joy to her tired father. (One of the first songs Uzi wrote was about the mystery pianist from the dream and her father, it made her dad cry.)
5) While raising Doll, Dmitri would use Yeva’s Russian nesting dolls to tell the story of the five princess, these nesting dolls that he and Yeva received as a wedding present from Thad’s late father. (Wherever Yeva was, Dmitri would set up the nesting dolls as they seemed to calm her even when she couldn't see them.)
6) Besides sports, Ron discovered that Thad also likes deer and spiders, specifically, of Thad’s old toys, he still has a Doe deer plush and a collection of plastic white toy spiders. (After the pre-school incident Ron found a crayon drawing in Thad’s lunch box of an orange eyed mama deer with her blue eyed baby - the baby who had spider legs.)
7) Despite the fact that Uzi looks like her mother Khan thinks that, as her voice matures, that her voice sounds like a higher pitched version of Khutulun’s voice. (That they both have the same maniac laugh was something that took him completely off guard the first time he heard it - that he now knows three ladies with a manic laugh should probably concern him, but it doesn't.)
8) Uzi knows that the door security system is sentient but not sapient, with Khan starting work on it after the recital incident and it coming online when Uzi was thirteen, but she also knows that it mainly focuses on areas of concern. (She also know that it sometimes reports on her and so she's figured out how to move through the Outpost and Factory with out getting spotted, mainly because it's the one system she has a hard time hacking without her dad's controls.)
9) After Dmitri married Yeva and Khan married Nori, the two men would keep a tin of their own oil for their respective wife - one new tin per month. (Ron has seen a preserved collection of his oil in Cordelia’s oil store room - oil that was collected by the humans before the core collapse -, the amount never shrinks and the oil is never used by medical.)
10) While growing up, Uzi had three primary circulating babysitters, Becky Fischer the mother of Lizzy and Khan’s Third, Jo Blue the mother of Emily and Brandon, Co-leader of Night Team and Group D's second, and finally Cordelia Waylon the Colony Mortician - for this reason they can always tell if Uzi’s lying. (On the rare occasion, Ron would be called in to act as Uzi Chaperone/Bodyguard, usually for Outpost and Inter-Outpost events especially when Khan couldn't be with her - Ron can also tell if Uzi’s lying, this is why she was surprised when Khan believed her lie in episode 1.)
Standing Sentinel - Epilogue: Ronald "Ron" Sentinel | a Murder Drones story
Thirty-three years; thirty-three years since he last saw Alice – she's injured, she needs help, but that's okay, he'll make sure she gets everything she needs, and in the meantime, he's happy to get to know the son she named after her father.
They were alive, they were all alive and from their links Ron and Becky knew that Thad, Elizabeth and Waylon had survived. Khan was still quiet on his end of the walkie but theirs still had a connection to it, so they just had to wait for him to break his silence. For now, though, Ron and Becky rallied the drones of Novae Spei, now was just the same as before and they would survive. First was the task of checking the state of the drones and after the state of the factory, as to the Outpost and the tunnel – they could handle that when the sun rose
For the most part, after all the work they had done on the factory over the years, it had held up incredibly well. There were still places where they would have to take time for repairs but all in all – until the Outpost and tunnel was clear for use – the place would do for their living arrangements, for the time being. As for living arrangements, the Medical wing was soon filled with the sick and injured that had been evacuated from the Outpost while the nursery, along with some of the unused rooms in the wing, would be given to the nursery orphans. For the rest of the Outpost, the original dorm rooms were divided amongst families while another place was set up on the main work floor for the spillover. The hours passed slowly as Ron and Becky worked with the other trinary leaders to keep everything in order.
Ron and Miss Cordelia had been in the kitchens handling the rations along with the food stores that they had managed to bring along in the evacuation, when Ron’s walkie went off.
“Hello,” Ron started.
“Ron,” Khan greeted.
The factory print letting out a relieved laugh, “about time you called in.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, had a few things to put in order before we could head back.”
“We,” Ron asked as Becky came into the room – both her and Miss Cordelia giving him a questioning look to which he flashed the name Khan over his visor.
“Yup,” Khan said, “about that, is Becky there?”
“She just came in.”
“Good, tell her I found her husband and daughter – there in good health, we’re all heading back to the Outpost now, Thad’s here too, kid is in good shape.”
“Thank God,” Ron breath out before turning to Becky, “Elizabeth and Waylon are with him, they’re heading back now.”
Becky sat down hard in one of the cafeteria chairs in relief as Miss Cordelia stepped forward to listen in.
“We’re riding one of Mister Ronathan’s buses,” Khan continued though it was becoming clear he was also talking to someone else, “ten total technically but it’s still pretty packed – is Miss Cordelia there?”
Ron passed her the walkie; “Monsieur Khan, may I ask who your company consists of?”
“Uzi, Waylon, Elizabeth, Thaddeus, the two murder drones, and you’re never going to believe this but … we found Nori.”
Ron was stunned, and from Becky’s expression, it was clear she was as well, Miss Cordelia, however, only seemed relieved at the news.
“I see,” Miss Cordelia said, “inform her that I would like to speak with her one-on-one, s’il vous plait (if you please).”
There was something dangerous in the generally kind woman’s voice that had both Ron and Becky’s eyes hollowing.
He could hear Khan arguing with someone, an argument that Miss Cordelia could clearly understand as she answered it.
“I promise it won’t be permanent.”
Khan paused before they could hear him relay Miss Cordelia’s words, before responding to the French drone with a question.
“Nori wants to know if there is anything she can do to receive your mercy.”
“Ask her,” Miss Cordelia started, “if she found her deer sister – and that is deer as in D-E-E-R – Yeva told me about Alice, if she asks.”
Alice? Ron’s could feel something sparking in his core.
It was a moment as Khan relayed Nori’s question about why Yeva would divulge that information to Miss Cordelia; a question that the French woman soon answered.
“I had twenty pill-borns followed by one set of twins, the boy was W, he was Super Suppressor, his left hand was a girl named A,” Becky’s hollow eyes had become lined, “who may have inherited a special oil diet.”
Oil, Ron mouthed to Becky, who only just barely noticed, giving him a shrug.
It was a moment before Khan answered, “she says yes, but Alice is unconscious and needs repairs before she can reawaken.”
Miss Cordelia gave a shuddering sigh of relief, “alright, then she is forgiven, but the moment she is able I am putting her on overtime.”
You could hear a bit of a smile in Khan’s voice as he spoke, “she said that’s fine.”
“Good, now how much medicine will you all need?”
“Uzi says five, but I would double it, we have a few heroes here and after a fight like that, I’d say it’s needed.”
“Understood; we are fairly isolated to the factory at the moment, but I keep a store in the halls that should tie them over without having to dip into medical.”
“That’s good,” a pause, “roads are a bit off, but the general way should be fine, I’d say we get there by dinner at best, so long as we keep driving, maybe.”
“We shall await your arrival, over and out.”
“See you, then.”
It was a moment before Becky spoke up.
“W and A,” she asked.
“Born in France on earth and sent to Copper 9, given the registered Transfer date of November twenty-ninth.”
“Then Waylon is …”
“I think so,” Miss Cordelia said, “but given he avoids me, I’ve never been given a chance to ask, even for a code check.”
“And Alice,” Ron asked.
“Yeva said, I reminded her of her little sister – the third Fever sister, the sister Nori is now bringing back with her from the camp.”
In that moment, Miss Cordelia’s eyes and hair shone like an echo from the past.
“Miss Cordelia,” Ron started, “if you saw a picture, would you recognize your daughter as a droneling?”
“How do you mean?”
“You two are on break right now, right,” he asked, when they nodded, he continued, “please follow.”
Leading them back to the room he was sharing with Becky – the Group B trinary leaders’ room – he soon entered, heading for his go bag and taking out the album.
“John, Kali, Aimes, and a few others, put this together for me,” Ron said opening the book to the first page to reveal the first two images.
He didn’t have to point out the red head drone girl as it was clear the two women had zeroed in on her instantly a sort of recognition in their eyes.
“That’s my friend from the city back when she was called A,” Ron started, “she volunteered for the collections around the same time that Yeva and Nori disappeared from their human family’s factory work report files; she left me a message before she left to tell me the name she chose, Alice Willow Beaumont.”
(~*~)
It was still several more long hours before the bus arrived but by then, a few more things had been explained, especially about the talk of oil. Nori and Yeva had a mutation that meant they overheated easily; for them, oil acted as a coolant and they had to ingest a certain amount every day to keep from overheating. It certainly answered a few questions about the lab if that was what the oil was being sent to the camp for. It did bring up the question of Sarah however to which Miss Cordelia’s expression became stormy as she answered.
Sarah only ever had circumstantial evidence at best, but she had seen something, known something and it had given her a vendetta against the Fever sisters despite the help they gave.
Ron, Becky, Miss Cordelia, Mister Ronathan, Ivan, Bianca, Jo and Stoic had gathered in the Factory’s Bus hanger as Khan brought the bus in, Ronathan stepping forward as Khan passed him the reins.
“Thank you; first a basic report,” Khan started. “we found out who sent the murder drones, and to put it simply, this thing apparently also ate Earth.”
To say that was the last thing the people gathered expected was an understatement.
“This creature was a drone from the Elliot estate,” a name known and feared by every drone, “one who rebooted, massacred the home family and their guests and transformed the drones there into the murder drones.”
“Why do we need to know this,” Jo asked, stepping forward.
“Because Uzi took the admin of two of the murder drones which meant the creature couldn’t control them and this allowed the two to fight back against the creature, helping my daughter to defeat it.”
“Do you trust them?”
“Like wild dogs, but Uzi does, and they saved her multiple times so, I’m willing to give them a probationary chance.”
They had all known Jo long enough to know when it was clear there was more she wished to say but was holding back for the time being.
“Second,” Khan continued, “Ivan, Bianca, … I’m sorry, we found Doll, but the creature got to her first; Nori – who is alive, by the way – thinks there’s a slim chance that Yeva’s mutation could save her but for now, … it’s not pretty.”
As Ivan and Bianca steeled themselves, Khan called for N to come off the bus. In his arms was a wrapped bundle, no swaddled; and in the tarps was Doll, her cracked screen, a blank.
N had his head ducked as he hesitantly stepped forward, the Russian couple slowly stepping towards him. As they reached each other, Ivan carefully took hold of his grandaughter’s wrapped body.
“I’m sorry,” N said, “she ran off ahead of us and Cyn got to her first, then she found Uzi and tried to warn her but there was a fight and when it was over we didn’t notice Cyn until she ate Doll heart, er, core and … uh …”
“Thank you for bring her back,” Ivan said not unkindly through the torrent of emotions he was clearly feeling.
“You said, Nori, believes Yeva’s mutation could help Doll,” Bianca asked.
“Slim chance,” Khan said, “but she said we should hold off on the mortician for now.”
The two nodded before stepping back in line as Khan continued – N backing up to stand near the bus.
“Single file,” Khan said as the others soon began coming off the bus.
First from the bus came Thad who immediately rushed over to Ron’s side, the two embracing in a relieved hug. After was Elizabeth who Becky ran to, hugging her close as she looked her over – the embarrassed girl looking away.
“Oh, thank God, you’re okay,” Becky said, “you are so grounded, but you’re okay.”
Elizabeth just rolled her eyes but at least she didn’t brush her off as they moved to the side, Uzi stepping off the bus after, with a strange creature on her shoulder.
At the very clear questioning looks the creature spoke.
“Uh, hi,” the creature said, waving a clawed arm.
“NORI,” Becky shouted.
“Surprise?”
“Nah-ah, no, no surprise, explanation, now.”
“Shorthand; lab, test subject, super soldier, big ugly monster sent an army, needed a patch, got gutted, this is my core, the scientists called it a heart, my heart is okay so I’m okay, … okay?”
“For now,” Becky said with narrowed eyes, “also, Waylon please come off the bus.”
It was a moment as it was clear the man was hoping he wouldn’t have to interact, but slowly he emerged, carrying his own tarp wrapped bundle and behind him soon came a robo-raptor and V.
“Miss Cordi,” Nori said, noticing the French woman’s reaction, “I promise, it’s only her head, once that’s repaired she can come back online, good as new, er, I mean her memories’ are a bit screwed up but I have a copy of them in my head that can help her, after that though, probably a lot of therapy, but then she’ll be fine, promise.”
“I see,” Miss Cordelia said, still hesitant, “and your friend.”
At that, the raptor’s red eyes glitched and as it stepped forward, Ron found he recognized the hat and bolo tie it wore.
‘Who are you,’ the raptor tapped and scratched in morse code, ‘you look familiar.’
“My name is Cordelia and the man over there,” she gestured to her husband, “is my husband, Ronathan.”
As Ronathan tipped his own cowboy hat, he spoke, “my original name is Waylon though, from America before Cordi’s owners won me from another fella and brought me over to France.”
‘And would Ronathan be a name you choose as a promise to your masters’ son?’
“That’s right,” Ronathan said, “and who might you be?”
‘017-b Beau W Beaumont, Alice is my mother – she mentioned the two of you.’
“A raptor,” Ron asked.
‘And who are you,’ Beau asked him.
“Ronald Sentinel, but at the Tallyran before A left with Dr. Beaumont, I was called R; Aimes used to bring me around from time to time – do you, did she ever mention me?”
‘Yes, she’ll be happy to know you’re well.’
“And, you,” Ron asked, gesturing to Beau.
‘The creature caused some issues; I’m sharing head space with the raptor – which is also called a sentinel.’
Said raptor sentinel’s eyes flashed again.
‘He says hi, and that his name is Sparky.’
At that, V cleared her throat.
“Not that this isn’t all super touching, but …” she waved her hand as if to say can we move this along.
“May I ask why they can’t just live in their tower,” Jo asked.
“Uh,” N spoke up, “J first off, and uh, she was fighting on Cyn’s side, and we don’t know if she’s alive and really don’t want to wake up in the middle of the day to her trying to kill us.”
“Just desserts.”
“It’s not like he wanted to be a murder drone,” Uzi said, “or was my dad’s report not clear enough for you.”
“And the girl,” Jo asked, “didn’t your pa have a deal, one that she broke.”
“It wasn’t V.”
“Of course it was,” V said.
“Okay fine the first one was V but not the rest.”
“Uzi,” N started.
“And she didn’t kill the second kid either, that was Braidon because the idiot didn’t know basic weapon safety and had the notched and taunt bow with the arrow pointing at Gibin.”
“Fine so I didn’t kill all of them,” V continued, “but I still–”
“No,” Uzi interrupted, “I’m the one who killed Braidon and Emily, … and Sam … and Darren … and Rebbeca – but it was an accident I promise, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t, I … I’m sorry, so … if you want to toss anyone out into the waste, it should be me!”
For a moment, it was quiet then Jo stepped forward until she was right before the sorrowful repenting girl.
“Uzi,” Jo started, “what happened.”
Looking up to her in surprise, Uzi then looked away as she spoke, “my core was hot, and it was too bright and loud, everything hurt and I couldn’t think I just wanted to cool down, I just wanted it all to stop, and then, then …”
“… Okay,” Jo said.
“Wait,” V said, “just like that?”
“I used to babysit her, I know when she’s lying.” Jo turned to Uzi, “I need time, but I believe you, is it under control now?”
“Uh, yeah, dad, got me some medicine.”
Jo nodded once before turning to Khan, “I still think you should let people take potshots at ‘em, but I trust you’ll be watching them.”
“Even if I have to tag them,” Khan said, “I imagine community service could be a good start, considering clean-up is probably gonna be hell.”
“Good,” she said.
After that, it was just a matter of room and board. With the Doormans and the rest of Becky’s family returned, Ron took up Cordelia and Ronathan’s offer and moved his and Thad’s stuff – which he had left at the factory – to the Group C Trinary leaders’ room. Doll and Alice were given their own respective rooms in the Medical wing and while Beau would have been happy to remain with his mother, the kid was twenty-one and required a chaperon. As such, between the adults present and rooms available in the dorms presented, Alice’s son chose to room with the remaining Group C leaders.
There was one more thing, however.
‘Are you sure he’ll be okay here,’ Beau asked.
“We have been caring for Aimes’s body for twenty-one years,” Bianca said, “Dr. Beaumont is in good hands, I promise.”
“And,” Ivan said, “we will treat your mother’s research with the utmost care; we have been Nori and Yeva’s personal doctors for the time we have known them.”
“Go,” Bianca said, “rest, your mother will be here when you awaken, then perhaps we may work on the body she was building for you.”
Beau nodded, hesitantly, then followed Ron out of the room. For a time, it was quiet, then Beau began taping away in morse code.
‘This feels strange,’ he said.
“I can imagine, any way I can help,” Ron asked.
The kid gave a strange sort of shrug, the best he probably could while in the body of a raptor – a sentinel.
“What about that box you let your grandparents take to our room?”
‘Personal stuff,’ Beau started, ‘just some things granddad brought with him to the lab, ma said it’s mostly birthday presents.’
“Birthday presents, huh,” Ron said with a thought, “like a soccer ball?”
‘Yes?’
“And a blanket with a forest on it?”
‘Yes?’
“And a toy baby spider?”
‘Two actually.’
Ron smiled with a laugh, “then I think I have something you might want to see.”
When they got to the dorm room, Thad was showing off the album to Ronathan and Cordelia, the trio soon making room for Ron and Beau as the factory print spoke of the past.
He was almost certain that they all would have remained in that tunnel in front of the door had it not been for Cordelia, Ronathan, Ivan, Bianca, Cliff and Sidella ushering them all to their feet and further into the Outpost. For a moment, as they all marched along as one unit, carrying pills and injured, children and teens, friends and family; one might have been able to ignore the sounds coming from beyond the door. Their minds a processing blank until just up ahead, a commotion broke out as two or three drones were held back from clawing their way through the crowd to get back outside to their dead loved ones.
That was how their newfound freedom died.
The first month was spent healing the injured and stabilizing the dying. It was spent reinforcing the factory, the Outpost and the tunnel between them, it was spent in near silence as they did their best not to attract the monsters to their location when working near the outer walls. Seramorris had re-earned it name but unlike the original expedition team, they had quickly lost hope that Seralux would bring light back to their lives.
Dmitri, Yeva and Doll had gone inactive in the attack and were being kept in medical under close watch – the reason for their state was currently unknown. As for Nori, despite all hope, Miss Cordelia reported back that there was no code left within her body that could be used to bring her back online. In all this time it wasn’t surprising to see Khan with little Uzi resting in her purple baby sling – though to be fair, it was the same with most able-bodied parents or caretakers. In the wake of the attack, many drones that had signed up to adopt had withdrawn their signatures. In the wake of the attack, many more dronelings and pills had become orphans. In the wake of the attack, the drones of Novae Spei sought to cling to what they had without getting attached to what new people they could lose.
They had a mass funeral on the last day of Seramorris and on the first of Seralux, they finally made contact with the other Ourposts. The call came in midday from both Outpost 8 and 9. Though Outpost 8 only sent a brief report on their current state, Outpost 9 had put together a strong enough signal that between them and Outpost 3 they were able to make a plan to contact the others, while keeping in mind one odd detail Outpost 8 sent.
Avoid the night.
Something in that message must have made sense to Khan because after, he put a ban in place that no one was allowed outside from an hour before twilight all the way to an hour after sunrise. At first there was a confusion; after the massacre, no one wanted to go out at all, until Khan reminded the factory drones that after all the work they put in to reinforcing the inside of their home, it would be a shame to died because the outside didn’t receive the same repairs. There was still a refusal but rather than say a word, Khan took Uzi, giving her to Ron, put on his tool belt and went outside.
That day, it had been bright and sunny; three hours passing by before Khan returned. The reason – he had run out of rivets, and he could see that it was going to start getting cloudy. After that, a team was put together and at the top of the volunteer list for the newly established Worker Defense Force, were the members of the team Yeva had organized. They were all trained using the same regimen that Yeva had taught even as they took to different jobs. Some were repair drones, others were guards, and eventually even a medical branch was opened up, separate from the standard medical drones.
As for medical, besides the WDF branch another area was opened up – the insanity ward. It was jarring to say the least but for now, it was all that could be done for the drones that had broken down in the face of losing everything. For as abrupt as the decision seemed, it was also what made the most sense. These were the drones that had broken through their Optimal Suppressor program, drones that weren’t trained to deal with the full brunt of their emotions especially at such a fragile moment. These were drones, that in their madness, nearly or did killed others in their insane plans. These were drones whose links had snapped, and the Outpost could only pity them.
New Years arrived slowly; the memories of the previous year’s celebration becoming a gray coated echo, and yet, some joy soon arose. Serial Designation S was a pink eyed jewel boy, a pill delivered to the factory from Outpost 9 and yet when going over records, it seemed his parents had never been to Outpost 9. The boy had been born on Copper 9 and for Becky, that was enough for her to ask medical for a test to see if the child was related to her at all.
According to Becky she and her sister had been born to two drones on earth who had been given the last name, Borden. Becky and her sister Hazel had been the only two to survive the facility they were raised in, only for Hazal – or Haze, as Becky tended to call her – to be bought first by a woman who was sending the drone to some family on Copper 9. The day Elizabeth Evens had told Becky that they were moving to Copper 9, was the day that the two promised to put their all into finding Hazel. As it was, Serial Designation S – or Samual as he was named after the implosion – was Haze’s son and Becky wasted no time in adopting the child.
When it came to the children of the Outpost, the ones who had the misfortune to experience the factory facility, they were the ones that the drones of Novae Spei had the most concern for. The facility was a place of death, and it was clear that the older the facility child was when the core collapse occurred, the more nightmares they had – with one group exception. Samual had been the only pill in his group for whom the training had started when the implosion began, as such, he had been stuck in memory lessons until the rescue team was able to free him. At first, it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong, till the nightmares began. The best they could tell, when the collapse started, the memory lesson machine had been overpowered. Memory lessons never started with the darker memories – those were later lessons – but whatever the supercharge had done, had caused a glitch, this glitch, trapping the life story of Samual’s parents in his young mind where they appeared to replay every time he tried to sleep.
Often it was, that Samual’s cries were only ever rivaled by Rebecca’s – the two of them very easily causing a wave of digital tears in the nursey. As for Rebecca, she was born not long before Thad on the night of the implosion; born to Darwin and Rayla who immediately broke off the marriage link and rejected the daughter born to them. No one blamed them as everyone knew the two drones were akin to oil and water – but far more volatile – honestly, that Khan immediately broke up Group E into two factions, drastically reduced their arguments. No one blamed them for not wanting anything to do with someone they couldn’t stand to be in the room with. No one blamed them for wanting to move on from an unwanted, forced, marriage. But their code daughter’s tears were easily understood by anyone who heard or saw them; and yet, no one ever stepped up to fill that void for the little pill girl as it felt far too much like stepping into the ring with the child’s argumentative code parents. Not long after however, Darwin remarried, linking with the drone woman he had wanted to marry, the two of them adopting a different pill child. It made sense – but it didn’t stop it from being a taboo topic.
They were entering February when Dmitri was brought back online. The best Ivan and Bianca were able to explain it. Yeva had a confidentiality glitch that was activated due to the sky demons’ constant pinging. In reaction to the searching pings, Yeva’s glitch sent a signal through her marriage and parental link, knocking out herself and her family. But now Dmitri was awake. It was two weeks before the man was clear to return to work but after that, a slow change had begun. The man was become surly, often isolation himself or swiftly retreating to his medical room where his wife and daughter still slept. In all fairness, with the stress he was likely under due to his family’s situation, everyone had simply decided to give him time and yet, with Yeva’s birthday coming up, they worried.
It was a week before Yeva’s birthday when Ron broke the silence, and the Group B trio decided to confront the Russian man only for Waylon to shut them down.
“Waylon,” Becky protested, only to halt her words at his look.
“I have it on good authority,” Waylon started, “that Dmitri has spoken to his parents concerning his situation.”
Whatever that meant, Dmitri quietly stopped his self-isolation, offering apologies for his behavior. Then, on Yeva’s birthday, Doll was brough back online and Dmitri proceeded to double his efforts as his confidence in Yeva’s awakening shone through. Five days after Doll, Yeva was back online even as she remained in a lethargic state. As it was, Dmitri had requested to take on a paperwork job so he would be able to work from home as he cared for his wife while still assisting the WDF and the Outpost.
The months passed slowly after that. Cliff, Sidella and Kida had signed the Sponsorship papers to allow the drone couple to act as guardians for the Mining Leader. Sponsorships weren’t quite an adoption as the child was still considered at least partially independent, but it gave them a support system to rely on. In all fairness, for many of the working children who were ten or older, a sponsorship was all they would accept as their time in the factory had jaded them enough that they couldn’t quite see themselves letting go of their work. As for the ones who had allowed themselves to be adopted, they had almost immediately taken up the offer to attend the newly opened Outpost school, choosing a second chance at a childhood that they were once denied.
Kida, however, wasn’t the only new addition to the Westward family as Clif and Sidella became grandparents. From what Jo was willing to say, on the night of the implosion, her ability to have children had been taken from her. As such, at the end of June, after Jo and Stoic were married, the two Super Suppressors adopted a pair of blue-eyed pill born siblings, Serial Designation B and E or – after the implosion – Braidon and Emily.
This was how the first few years passed as they all did their best to adapt to their new life.
(~*~)
Ron awoke with a start; Thad was crying. It was the last full week of October in thirty fifty-three and for the most part, Ron was used to Thad crying out suddenly when he wanted something incredibly specific. In truth, the kid rarely cried for anything else, and as such, he had gotten good at identifying what each cry meant. As for this cry, this was a concerning cry; this was the type of crying Thad only made when people could die.
Rushing to the kid’s nursery room, Ron could already see his three-year-old nephew standing in his crib, his hands holding tight to the raised bars. Turning on the light and taking his nephew into his arm, Ron cradled him gently as he hummed a lullaby to help the kid calm down.
“Shh, it’s okay bud,” Ron started, voice low, “do you want to tell me what you saw?”
Thad shook his head, burying his face in his uncle’s neck.
Okay, Ron thought to himself, really bad dream.
“How about some nice warm petrol,” Ron asked, “would you like that?”
Thad held tighter to his uncle as he nodded – this was going to be a clingy night, Ron could already tell. After getting the kid his petrol and rocking him to sleep with a lullaby, he considered the child of two of his closest friends – something was going to happen soon.
Once a week, all the Outposts would organize a conference call, during this time, all Leaders, Seconds, Thirds and Cos were gathered – minus Dmitri who would get a report afterwards – to discuss any new updates as well as plans going forward. At these conference calls it was usually unsurprising to see parents or guardians with their child or children – the majority of these children were pills and not everyone had the luxury or desire to have their child out of sight. For Ron, that meant Thad usually sat in his lap as the man took notes on the meeting; he and Becky, shuffling reports back and forth between them and the other trinary leaders. What it also meant was that as Outpost 6 gave their report, Ron immediately took note of when Thad stiffened. The kid’s eyes were hollow.
“Just a moment,” Ron started, “I just want a clearer record – can you elaborate on your defenses.”
Instantly – though they were subtle – Ron could feel the questioning eyes of Outpost 3 on him as Outpost 6’s leader, elaborated. And yet, it soon became clear to those who understood that something was off. The leaders of Outpost 6 were a brother and sister named Didymus and Daphne, and by the time the meeting was over, one thing was clear, if they didn’t act soon, Outpost 6 wouldn’t last the week.
A team was put together to intervene for Outpost 6; the outpost was three days away – three days of travel through the day as they worked to not be caught during the night. Taking point on the mission was Khan, Ron, Jo, Stoic, and Ronathan, the respective children of all those involved were placed in the nursery to wait for the return of their parents.
From what they understood of the forecast, they should have plenty of daylight, but the weather on Copper 9 could change in an instant and as such, they armed themselves to the teeth. Leaving the nursey early that morning was unnerving, every child was awake before the sun’s rising, and every single one was quiet. Despite the tears on Samual and Rebecca’s screens, even they were quiet. Ron took a breath, working to hide the concern he felt as he dropped off Thad only for the kid to tug at his hand.
Kneeling down, Ron was only half surprised to receive a hug.
“Sleep safe,” Thad said quietly, then he let go and allowed the nursey caretakers to take him to the napping room so he could go back to sleep.
Ron blinked once and took a breath before rising and heading to the Bus stables where the mission team was gathered.
They did their checks to see if the three devils or any of their company were waiting nearby, then as the sun rose, they headed out, quiet as a snowflake while hiding their tracks behind them. For those three days they only communicated by screen visuals, conscious of the murder drones’ superior hearing. During the day, they traveled as quickly and quietly as they could, during the night, they hunkered down and prayed they wouldn't be discovered.
Three days was far too long but eventually they arrived at Outpost 6 where they were nervously greeted by Didymus and Daphne. According to the two, a few weeks back, one of the scavenger mission teams lost a covert frequency radio. The murder drones were listening to their every message; that was why they hadn’t asked for help because then the beasts would know that they were vulnerable. At the same time, it was only so long till they attacked anyway.
“We can give you a replacement frequency,” Khan said as he examined the unmaintained structure around the doors – the original design being the one he had sent to every Outpost a month before the attack –, “but these doors, this place won’t last long, you need to evacuate.”
“This is our home Khan,” Didymus said, “we can’t just abandon it.”
“What about the nursey and infirmary,” Daphne asked.
“Daph–”
“We’re running short on supplies anyway.”
Her brother hesitated. Outpost 6 wasn’t a large outpost, and they had brought one of the bigger buses – if allowed, they could evacuate the entire place even if everyone was a bit uncomfortable.
“It’s more than that,” Didymus continued, “it not perfect but it’s like the creatures know where we are, like their tracking our electrical signal.”
“Then we’ll set up a diversion,” Khan suggested.
“We’ve tried that, that’s why we had to stop sending out scavenging teams.” Didymus sighed, sharing a look with his sister, “fine, take the defenseless back to Outpost 3, the rest of us will stay behind to fight the monsters.”
“Di–” Daphne tried to say before her brother cut her off.
“And take Daphne with you,” Didymus said, “to help keep the others calm.”
There was so much more that wanted to be said and yet the words wouldn’t come for anyone present beyond an agreement as they put their plan into action. The majority of the evacuees were children, at least one of their respective caretakers, the injured and anyone else whose family wouldn’t let them stay even as said family picked up a weapon to stay behind. Even still, the bus was packed; the remaining empty spaces calling for those who had chosen to remain behind, but there was one last thing they needed to do. To ensure the murder drones wouldn’t go after the evacuating group, all but one drone had to be turned off until they got back to Outpost 3.
“You sure you want to do this,” Ron asked, he and Khan were the last two awake.
Khan was quiet before he spoke, “colony leader, remember.”
Ron nodded. It was getting dark; they didn’t have much time left – he gave Khan a thumbs up and allowed himself to be shut down.
For a drone, being shut down was strange, they weren’t exactly asleep, but they couldn’t wake up until some switched them back on. It wasn’t quite a coma, but it was close enough and in this strange dormant state a drone could dream.
“Ron,” someone called, turning, he could see Aimes, but while some part of him knew the man looked strange, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what was so different about the green-eyed drone man.
At his side was Aimes’s teen drone daughter Kali.
Oh, right, Ron thought to himself, today was the day they celebrated Ron and Kali’s birthday along with celebrating his adoption by the older drone.
“Are you ready to head to the Tallyran,” Aimes asked.
“---- ---‘- --,” Ron said with a smile, as Kali gave him a hug, their – now shared – father patting him on the head.
When they arrived, the other drone patrons were just finishing up and heading out.
“Ron,” Alice called, as they were heading in, passing her older sister her serving tray as she rushed up to him. Despite being two Copper years older than her, he could still comfortably rest his head on top of hers as he held her close.
After getting upstairs, Ron changed into the clothes Miss Alma had gotten him – the drone woman, having made them herself as always. They were a little big but considering that he would be changing into his next frame soon, the new clothes should fit him better when his physical body matched his actual age.
The resident drone family had set up the whole apartment for the party. Arriving in the three-space front room, Ron could see Miss Alma at the dining table discussing Alice Cleo and Jerimiah’s upcoming wedding with the two as Janna and José helped Dr. Beaumont bring in the last of the grilling. Over on the couch, Mirium and Etta were discussing the latter drone woman’s pregnancy as Saul was in the kitchen pulling out the cake and fending off Aimes’s attempts at picking at the food before it was served. In front of the TV Ron could see Alice and John playing her new copy of Wingding Racers as Kali – who must have finished changing before him – waited for the race to end so she could join in.
Moving over to them as the race was coming to a close, he was only half surprised when Alice noticed him first, rising to give him another hug before pulling him over so he could join the game as well. Between games and movies, talking and laughing, music and dancing, and dinner and dessert, he couldn’t tell how much time had passed but he never wanted the day to end when suddenly the world went silent.
“Ron,” John said.
And as he turned to see his friend, he stumbled back in surprise – why was John an adult, what happened to him?
“Ron,” John said, “you can’t stay here.”
Well obviously, Ron thought, it wasn’t his apartment; but his friend shook his head, John’s hands landing gently on his shoulders.
“You need to wake up,” John said, “this isn’t real, you can’t stay here.”
“-- ------ --’- ----,” Ron protested.
“You’re not a pill born, Ron,” John continued, the world, flickering, “Aimes never adopted you, and you never told Alice your name.”
“----,” he was starting to hyperventilate.
Looking around desperately, the apartment was empty. Rushing past the strange image, Ron ran to the bedrooms, to see Alice’s door was ajar. Moving in swiftly, he found the younger Beaumont daughter asleep in her bed. Hands on her shoulders he tried to shake her awake.
“-----,” Ron called, “-----, ---- --.”
“She won’t wake up,” John said, “but you need to.”
“--- --- ---,” Ron asked, turning back to the image.
“You know who I am, Ron,” he said sadly, “I’m sorry, but you need to wake up.”
“--- ---’- - ----?”
“There are too many people who need you; you need to wake up.”
“I miss you, all of you,” Ron said his words choked.
And as his friend gave him a sad smile and a hug, the world faded away and he woke up.
“I HAVE A SIGNAL,” someone shouted as the ceiling of the medical wing came into focus. “I need stabilizers,” Albie continued – he was the head medic for the WDF –, “stay with us, Ron, you’ve got too many people who still need you.” He turned to someone who was in the room and out of sight, “Miss Cordelia, I need you and Thaddeus to leave for now, we’ll call you two back in when he’s stable.”
It was a few minutes after midnight on October thirtieth; the mission having made it back to the Outpost just after sunrise the previous day. According to Daphne, she had lost her link with her brother. According to the temp signal they tried to send, Outpost 6 was unresponsive. According to some wireless patrol cameras they sent, the area was a death zone.
(~*~)
It took some time but eventually they were able to put together a pre-school for the dronelings. Due to the way the children were divided between the groups who had gone through facility training and culling and those who hadn’t, Thad, Rebecca, and Darren were in the same class as Elizabeth, Uzi and Doll. Samual, Braidon and Emily were as well considering Sam was the only one in their group for whom training had started before the core collapse and it was just easier for Samual and Elizabeth to be in the same class anyway.
For the most part, it was a good system, though for Ron – along with Khan and Dmitri – he had asked Miss Cordelia and Mister Ronathan to act as a second contact in case of emergencies. In the morning, after getting Thad and himself ready for the day, he would sit the kid on the counter as he got their breakfast and lunches ready, encouraging his nephew to talk about whatever he dreamed about but never putting emphasis on it. It was an interesting balance; on the one hand, not all of Thad’s dreams meant something but every so often something would come up and Ron did his best to handle it as well as John would. At the same time, considering how old Thad was and the fact that he actually had the chance to grow up as a child, Ron didn’t want the kid to end up hyper focused on his dreams, not if he could help it. Yet, every so often, there were dreams that led him to have to check the locked room he had set up in the apartment. For this, Ron would often call Miss Cordelia and have her pick up Thad to drop him off at pre-school, after which, he would go over Thad’s dream as he searched the room he had filled with the things John had saved.
However, as time passed, Ron noticed Thad’s special dreams arriving further and further apart and he wondered if he had been doing anything wrong. He had met John when his friend was eight going on nine and from that point on, the dreams had been consistent; but his friend had also been far more aware of things Ron hadn’t known or understood. Part of him wondered if something else was going on but as it was – in the dark as he was – he could only hope that whatever was going on with Thad wasn’t something of concern.
Thad was five when he dropped off the kid and four-year-old Doll Fotograf at pre-school. That morning, the kid hadn’t dreamed but he had asked questions.
“Unca Ron,” Thad started from his place on the counter as he nibbled on a pan seared wire strip belt.
“Yeah bud,” Ron said, glancing at him while making sure his own wire strip belt wouldn’t burn, “what’s up?”
“Is Miss Becky coming home soon?”
“Huh, she should be coming back today,” he plated the rest of his own meal and began packing Thad’s lunch box, “why do you ask?”
The kid shrugged.
“Are Elizabeth and Samual missing her?”
Thad nodded.
“Ah, well, Mister Khan says that the expeditions should be coming home today.”
Thad had that look on his face, the one that meant he trusted his uncle’s words but was still worried about something.
“Is there something else?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, how does you core feel?”
“My core?”
“Yup,” Ron said as he closed up Thad’s lunch box, and began working on his own lunch while taking bites of breakfast, “does it feel good or bad, happy or sad?”
The kid poked at his core as if he only just remembered he had one, “sad?”
That was concerning, still Ron did his best not to show it, “Well how about I check in with the main station and ask if she’s back yet?”
At that, Thad perked up and Ron took out his walkie.
“Good morning, Mister Khan,” Ron said, playing up the conversation for his nephew, “I’ve got a little guy here who was wondering if Miss Becky returned yet.”
Even as Khan’s tone was carefully jovial for the kid’s sake, Ron could tell something was wrong, “good morning, Ron, good morning, Thad, Miss Becky just arrived, she’s a little tired though so she’ll be resting in medical for a bit before she can head home.”
“Hi Mister Khan, is Uzi there,” Thad asked.
“Sorry Thad,” Khan replied, “but she’s waiting at your school, she might be a little sleepy though, so can you look out for her?”
“Yeah, I can do that?”
“Thank you, Thad, over and out.”
“Bye-bye, uh, over and out.”
After that the two finished breakfast and were off, first picking up Doll, then Ron dropped them both off at the pre-school before heading to work.
Becky and her expedition team had gotten in early that morning, just barely alive but still functioning – even if they were medical wing bound for the next week or two. As for the second team, it had been headed by James Hattie along with his daughter Jenny; now though, that whole team was dead – Jenny having only just got everyone’s bodies back to the Outpost before her own gave out. James’s wife, Julie Hattie, was one of the pre-school teachers, she had been at the hanger that morning awaiting her family’s return when she felt her marriage and parental links snap. After that, everyone who had been present had recommended that she take a few days off work to rest in the medical center to recover from the shock. When she refused, Mrs. Hattie had been placed on the watchlist and was ordered to keep a scanner on her core.
That was it after that, and everyone went about their day, until lunch when Ron realized he still had Thad’s lunch, just as Miss Cordelia came in to drop off her latest report.
She was laughing a bit, even as her eyes were sympathetic, “busy head today?”
“I guess so,” Ron said as he took her report so he could look it over after.
“If you like,” she said as she gestured to Thad’s lunch box, “I could drop it off for you.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” he said, while passing her the box, “trying to do my best not to have to bring any of this home.”
With a nod, she was off, and for a moment that was it, and then the office was lit up with calls from the pre-school – Julie Hattie had shot herself with her husband’s drone breaker.
That day, the WDF office set aside a room for the kids of the defense force and a rotation amongst themselves to make sure someone was always watching over them until the end of the day. The most tragic thing about the whole event was that, as Miss Cordelia began taking care of the bodies, she discovered that Jenny Hattie’s core still had life just barely hanging on. Jenny was rushed to Medical and a month later she was finally stable, a month after she attended the funeral for her parents. After that, Medical put in a new policy that was approved by Khan; anyone who was put on a watchlist with a recommendation to take a rest leave in medical, should they reject the suggestion, then they would have to have a mandatory attendant. In the end, the new policy encouraged at least some of the ones who would have rejected the rest period to reconsider.
At the end of that same year was when Thad, Darren and Rebbeca turned six in late Seramorris, and Ron thinks that birthday was the last of the kid’s dreams. His nephew was transferred into his next frame and Ron put together a birthday party worthy of the Tallyran. For that party, all of Thad’s pre-school friends had arrived, and he was even able to get the nursery to let Rebecca join in the fun. It was interesting to watch; for Ron it was almost like Thad, in his unknowing childish was giving them all one last message.
To Rebbeca and Darren – they are loved.
To Braidon and Emily – to be nice.
To Samual and Elizabeth – it will be alright.
To Uzi and Doll – stay friends and family.
After the party, as Thad was beginning to fall asleep, as Ron was preparing the kid for bed, he tugged on his sleeve.
“Yeah, buddy,” Ron asked, his voice low so as to not wake him.
“Tell spider, things get better,” and then, he was out his visor flashing, ‘sleep mode’.
Ron paused, as his thoughts swirled around in his head, absentmindedly tucking the kid in as he left the sports themed bedroom
Spider, Ron thought to himself, who was spider?
That night, as he finished cleaning up and putting away the leftover food, Ron found himself staring at the door to the room full of the things that John had left behind. Unlocking the door, Ron slowly browsed through the sealed and vaguely labeled boxes trying to find anything that would connect to what Thad had said only to pause before the box labeled 017. Part of him desperately wanted to open the box, to finally see what was within and yet, all he could see was that Valentine’s eve night and stayed his hand. John was entrusting everything to him, and he couldn’t break that trust, so he kept searching. Even still, he puzzled over who spider could be when his eyes caught on a photo album. Opening the book, Ron found it was filled with pictures collected over the years from before he had known Alice and as they waited for her return. There was a note.
Hey Ron, figure you would check this out eventually.
Aimes, Kali, the doctor, Miss Alma, Miss Etta, Mister Saul and I put this together.
I had hoped that I would have been able to give it to you myself
But if you’re reading this note then I guess it’s just you and Thad
I’m sorry, and I know that doesn’t mean much,
if things could have been different
Anyway, just keep going, okay; I promise, things will get better.
Sincerely, Johnathan Maxwell Mathews
Taking a breath, he opened up the album and on that first page were two photos, the first must have been from Alice’s first birthday party at the Tallyran. She was being carried by the doctor as he, Saul, Etta, and Miss Alma – who was sitting – were posed around the screen of the mobile interplanetary communication station. On the screen was Alice Cleo, Jeramiah, Janna, Mirium and José. In the second image was a group photo of the first group trip that Aimes was able to take John and Kali on. They were all seated together at a picnic table in Compass Park. In both images, Alice was holding a toy baby spider.
(~*~)
When Thad was nine, he wanted to play sports, which was how Ron began organizing a junior soccer team; and then later a junior baseball team, followed by a junior basketball team and with a junior football team on the horizon. You would think it was because Thad was just indecisive, but his nephew was surprisingly dedicated to each game he played. It was sweet and it remined him of Kali – and knowing that she was Aimes’s daughter, Ron only supposed it made sense that she was always the one sending Alice sports themed birthday presents.
The years continued on and eventually it was brought up in the inter-Outpost meetings, the thought of planning out trips for sporting events. It was something to consider for the future, an act of defiance against the creatures that threatened their lives and kept them locked up. For now, though, the Outpost all found different ways to entertain themselves and each other as they worked to keep living, not just surviving. For Outpost 3, the biggest change was in helping the survivors of Outpost 6 adapt but after all these years they had integrated well into both the work force and community – Khan having made Daphne the head of her own group as she and her second and third were given a place at the meeting table. Through it all though, Outpost 8 remained an enigma. It’s not that they ignored the meetings, everyone knew they were listening, but they started their part of the meeting by sending in their report, sent a follow up report near the end and answering any necessary questions in a last report with clear brevity.
Things weren’t easy but they were better than how they had started with slow but clear improvements on the horizon. As Thad got older so did the rest of the varied sports teams and the thought of what would need to be done to actually allow the different Outpost teams to play together began to be workshopped. Nothing was perfect though. He wasn’t sure when it happened but slowly Thad’s friend group began to break apart; no, more accurately, Uzi began to fade into the background as the others moved on without her. In truth, part of Ron wanted to ask what had happened, but between his own work, Thad’s school work and each of the kid’s sports team – any thought to ask, eventually faded away as well.
For the children of the WDF, it wasn’t uncommon to see one or two of them hanging out around the offices for one reason or another but even that became less frequent as they found more fun in hangout with each other. Slowly, the only kid to show up was Uzi who was an almost weekly figure at the offices. Ron wasn’t sure what was happening at school, but at the offices, at least, everyone looked out for her – almost everyone.
With Dmitri homebound as he cared for Yeva, Sarah had only tightened her grasp on Group A. Khan, Ron and Becky did their best for the Group, but it gets to the point, at times, when you can only help someone so much when they don’t want to help themselves. For those who didn’t want to remain under Sarah’s thumb, they found different work in and out of the WDF. As for those who remained, it was no secret that they weren’t the biggest fans of Uzi. At least, so far as he could tell, there was only so much those drones could do and the rest of the WDF kept them off her back.
That was how it continued on as the kids became pre-teens and then teenagers.
As the years passed on, Darwin and his family were killed by murder drones.
As the years passed on, they got better about not getting caught by the murder drones.
As the years passed on, they finally put together the inter-Outpost events.
(~*~)
Thad wasn’t quite in trouble, but Elizabeth apparently was. Despite the privacy Becky’s office provided, one could still make out the muffled argument unfolding. Samual’s nightmares hadn’t improved with time but Medical had put together some medicinal chips that he was supposed to take, every morning, before lunch and every night. Apparently, even though Elizabeth was supposed to walk him to the nurses’ office every school day, instead the kid was letting her cousin ditch his appointments.
“Well,” Ron started, Thaddeus was seated in the chair across the desk from him in his own office.
Thad winced.
Good, Ron thought, at least the kid understood the problem.
“I promise I didn’t know he was ditching his meds,” Thad started.
“But?”
“But … I did know he was ditching class.”
Ron sighed, “Thad, remind me why Samual needs his chips.”
“Because they help him sleep.”
“And?”
“And they help his OS focus?”
“And if he skips his meds?”
“Then the medicine has a harder time working?”
“I know it’s probably not the cool thing,” Ron started, “and I am not in any way saying that you’re responsible for his or Elizabeth’s actions, but Samual isn’t well, and we need to know if he’s doing something unhealthy; okay?”
“Yeah no, I get it, sorry dad.”
For a moment, Ron started at being called dad, when there was a knock at his door.
“Come in,” Ron said, as the door opened to reveal Doll with a completed stack of her father’s paperwork, a job she started when she turned fifteen.
“Seychas nepodkhodyashcheye vremya (Is this a bad time)”, she asked, hesitant and in Russian. Apparently, unlike her parents who remained stuck in their training to only speak English when in a work environment Doll preferred to stick to her original programed language no matter where she was.
“Not at all,” Ron said, “is that your father’s work?”
“Da (yes),” she said, handing him the stuffed binder.
Taking it, Ron looked through a few pages as he nodded, placed the binder on his desk, took out a second and handed it to her.
“Just a note, Khan and I talked with your father so now you’ll be receiving a paystub for your delivery work – it’s in the plastic sleeve at the front of the paperwork right next to your dad’s paystub.”
Her eyes were practically shining, “spasibo (thank you)!” And she was out the door.
Not long after was Thad’s basketball game with the new cheerleader group.
Not long after, Rayla was killed by murder drones and Rebecca was fully an orphan.
Not long after, Uzi began acting out, or maybe it was just more obvious now than before.
It was interesting. From what he could tell, Uzi had a tendence to both want to fade into the shadows and also make herself unforgettable. Yet, for as much mischief as she caused, it wasn’t strange to find her hanging out in some quiet part of the WDF offices, even on the weekends. For the WDF all it meant for them was to make sure she had something to eat at mealtimes and that someone escorted her home before dinner. If Ron was being honest, with how busy everyone always was, he found it more comfortable to know that Uzi was within sight. That they could all tell that Khan was calmer when they gave him their Uzi sighting report was a plus.
They weren’t unaware of how some people took issue with Khan giving anything less than hundred and ten percent to his work around the outpost. As such, the Outpost leader often had to balance his work and home life in a way that was less than ideal to any dedicated parent, at least to keep the peace; so, the WDF took it upon themselves to help pick up the slack. It was honestly a little funny, the private meeting that were held to make sure Uzi was watched over.
“And that band, Dead Batteries, they were requesting use of the East auditorium,” Becky said as she gave Khan the morning report.
“That’s that new popular band, right,” Khan asked.
“Yup,” Ron said, “and once they have a venue, their prepared to start selling tickets.”
“When do they want to plan it for?”
“First full week of October,” Ron said, “might be a good early present.” He turned to Becky, “didn’t we see Uzi listening to one of their songs?”
“I think so,” Becky said.
And now Khan looked contemplative – Uzi was turning eighteen this year.
“Give them the approval for the eighth of October.”
“Got it boss,” Becky said as she began filling out the notes that she would need to help set up the concert.
The concert was on a Saturday, and Khan had asked Ron to handle the purchasing of Uzi’s ticket – a ticket he had bought as soon as it was available. That same day it had crossed his mind to ask Thad if he wanted a ticket as well in the hopes of the two teens reconnecting. But it was a thought that left as he overheard a conversation between Elizabeth and Doll.
“Tell me about it,” Elizabeth said, “but yeah, Thad promised to take me to the movies – besides we’ll still have two weeks left before your transfer day.”
After that, Ron found himself in a bit of a daze. Thad was turning nineteen this year, a fact that he already knew but now confronted with the thought that the kid was dating. Getting back to his apartment, Ron went through the motions of preparing dinner.
Thad was eighteen.
Thad was turning nineteen.
Thad was only six years away from adulthood.
Where had the time gone?
The apartment door was opening.
“Hey dad,” Thad called, “can’t stay long, gotta’ buy tickets, forgot my wallet at home.”
That was another thing. Ever since that first time, Thad had started calling him, ‘Dad’. It only happened when the kid was distracted, but each time struck something odd within his core.
Thad’s next frame would be on his twenty-first birthday, after that, his last frame would be his adult one. At that, another thing struck him. His nephew had been able to grow up as a kid, a free drone, and that though warmed his core, that thought that Thad would never have to face the same pain he had on his own twenty-fifth.
If the kid was curious about the special dinner Ron made that night when he got back, he didn’t ask, and for Ron, that was fine. He wasn’t sure if he was fully ready to talk about it, about his past, but tonight felt like a time for celebration.
(~*~)
The concert was on October eighth, a Saturday at five thirty pm. Khan had wanted to go with Uzi, but an emergency had demanded his attention, so he gave his ticket to Ron as Uzi’s chaperone. There were three things that were known about the live wire daughter of the Doorman family, by the entirety of the WDF. One, Uzi knew the Outpost and factory as well as the head medic knew the body of a drone. Two, she was just as smart and tech savvy as her father who himself was a genius. Three, if she wanted to disappear then no one would be able to find her. Uzi also had his phone contact and that was literally the only reason he knew she was alright. That and she hadn’t previously had his contact information, which means the only way she was able to send him the message was by wirelessly hacking his phone.
If it wasn’t for the fact that she was sending him regular texts between songs – and that all the adults in the room were hanging out in the back of the hall while the teenagers gathered towards the stage – he would be more concerned. As it was, he just kept an eye out for the girl who currently didn’t want to be found.
The whole concert was two hours long, and as the lead singer and pianist brought the show to a close, Ron took a post near the memorabilia table, almost certain that was where the kid would pop up.
“So,” Uzi started, as she came up to him, “how much trouble am I in?”
Ron sighed as he glanced at her, “you didn’t want to be seen by your classmates?”
She winced, and once again, he was concerned about what was happening at the kid’s school – he really needed to find the time to ask Thad about it.
“Well,” Ron started, “considering the signal you used to hack my phone was only strong enough if you remained in the room, you get points for not ditching me entirely, did you at least enjoy the concert?”
She nodded.
“Okay, then.” He gestured to the memorabilia table, “your dad gave me a budget to buy you a present, so take your pick.”
He could see it in her eyes that she knew he would be reporting her disappearing act to her dad; but was at least content enough with the day to not protest against it.
The next day when Khan brought her into the office as punishment for ditching, she was still wearing the dead batteries hoodie she had chosen.
(~*~)
After Thad’s nineteenth birthday, the kid was busier than ever. At times, Ron wanted to tell him to slow down, but with how happy his nephew was, he ultimately decided to compromise with the kid. As such, over the next year, they worked to make a schedule that would permit shared non-negotiable mealtimes and once a month planned family days. Even with that in mind though, the thought to ask about school fell to the wayside between the exhaustion of both their respective work and determination to just enjoy the rest time.
As it was, Ron was honestly surprised when during a time when Thad should be focused on his homework, he instead asked about the past. The kid was twenty now; it was just past New Years in thirty seventy-one and this was the first few days back to school, as such Ron was prepping for Thad’s ‘start of the year’ party later. That the kid’s question brought the past flooding forward, rested heavy on his core, but after all this time, maybe this was the sign he needed to finally speak.
“Actually, there were a few other humans,” he started, “at the Tallyran restaurant …”
“The Tallyran,” Thad asked.
“Yup,” he sighed, trying to think about how to go forward, knowing that whatever he said would just make the kid more curious. Ron checked the oven once more, before nodding to himself. “Just a moment,” he said before going to his own room where he kept the album in a drawer near his bedside; the album being right next to John and Kali’s memory tape. For a moment he hesitated then he steeled his resolve and picked up the tape as well.
Coming back to the kitchen, the puff pastry style D batteries he was baking for Thad’s party were about ready to come out. Taking out the tray and placing it on the cooling rack on the counter, Ron then turned to Thad with his collected items.
“The Tallyran was a restaurant run by Dr. Beaumont, a retired Drone Behavioral Specialist and Drone rights advocate.” Ron opened the album to the first page and pointing to two drones, “those are your parents back when they were still called J and K.”
“Why didn’t you ever put up these pictures – how do you even have these pictures?”
“For the second question, I blame your dad; went behind my back with all their help to collect these,” he had to wonder when the album was started though, “as for the first, … after losing everyone, it was hard, looking back on these memories …”
Thad looked contemplative before he decided to speak, “who is she.”
“… That’s Alice,” Ron sighed, “she … she was a free drone, Dr. Beaumont was her father.”
“Did something happen to her?”
“She and her father had to do something important, after she left, I never saw either of them again.”
Thad very much looked like he wanted to ask more questions about the album, but something must have convinced him to switch gears.
“What about that,” he asked, gesturing to the memory tape.
“During the era of humans, these tapes were how pills and dronelings were trained in the facilities, this,” Ron said, bringing up the tape, “is your parent’s memories – happy late birthday, goober.”
There was such a delicateness with how Thad accepted the tape.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Ron continued, “we’ll head down to medical so you can see them, if you want.”
“Yeah,” Thad started, “I think I’d like that.”
After that, they ate dinner and then Thad headed off to his party.
After that, it was January sixth and Thad begged forgiveness for ditching dinner to go to Elizabeth’s start-of-year planning committee
After that, Ron left Thad’s dinner in the fridge and went to bed only to wake up some time past three thirty to the Outpost alarms blaring – the murder drones had gotten in.
There were several evacuation points in the Outpost and factory, with each leader, second and third and Co’s job consisting of leading the drones to safety. Grabbing his go bag by his bed as he rushed out while checking his familial link with Thad, Ron could see the kid was closer to Khan’s section and prayed that everything would be alright. He can’t recall how much time had passed before the ‘all clear’ was called, but he was still shaken as he began escorting people back to their homes then proceeded with his rounds to make sure everything was okay. Rechecking the link, Ron could see that Thad had moved to Medical, a moment later he received a text alert on his phone.
Thad: sent now
"Safe – finish your rounds"
Then another text alert.
Dr. Ivan Vrach: sent now
"Thad is alive but he is injured."
"Come to the Medical wing after you finish your rounds."
The right side of Thad’s head had gotten something knocked lose, his left shoulder had multiple stab wounds, his metal showed signs that he had been thrown around repeatedly and his right side had been slightly caved in. All in all, it was only adrenaline that had gotten the kid to medical before he collapsed. Ivan recommended two weeks of bed rest and physical therapy after the kid was repaired to which Ron immediately agreed.
From what he understood, Uzi had claimed she had wanted to examine the exterior of Door one, a fairly mundane task that almost every member of the WDF had done at one point or another. Somehow though, one of the murder drones had gotten inside, killing the guards and almost killing the rest of the Doorman family when Door three had been sealed. After that though, the beasts used the vents to invade the Outpost; but here’s where the story took a turn. Apparently, Uzi had fought off the murder drones alongside a murder drone, even managing to kill one with the very same weapon – a railgun apparently – that Thad was on holding on to; a fact that Thad confirmed after he had asked, after reading the report.
Khan had told them that Uzi was grounded or something – he wasn’t exactly clear –, and Thad – for reasons he was keeping close to the chest – wanted to go outside the Outpost. It was late March, they had only just got back from parent teacher conference, and Thad wanted to go outside the Outpost. There had been a rash of disappearances at the Outpost and Sarah’s anti-Uzi rhetoric had only increased, and Thad wanted to go outside the Outpost.
“Given me a reason,” Ron said, arms crossed – it was nearly his shift guarding Door One.
Thad hesitated, “I just need to, please Uncle Ron.”
“Thad,” Ron started before his mind went on pause, there was a strange look in Thad’s eyes, one that reminded him far too much of John. It was the look his friend would give when he needed someone to just trust him even if he couldn’t explain why. He sighed “fine, alright, but keep your link on at all times; got it?”
“Yes, sir,” Thad said with a soldier’s salute.
Ron scoffed a chuckle, “alright, let’s get going goober.”
At Door One, watching them seal shut after waving off Thad, Ron held tight to his end of the familial link, keeping an eye on his phone as he waited for Thad’s return. It was nerve wracking, watching the kid’s signal move further and further away until it stopped halfway to the Corpse Spire – a massive structure built from the fallen bodies of the drones whose lives had been ripped away from them.
Ron: sent now
"Thad?"
Thad: sent now
"I’m good just waiting for a friend"
A friend, Ron thought, what friends could the kid have out in the wastes?
Maybe ten or fifteen minutes passed before he got his explanation as someone landed outside Door One before knocking. Doing his checks, Ron opened the doors by just a crack to see Thad had returned.
“Welcome back, Thad,” he greeted but before he could open the doors further, Ron spotted the people the kid was with – Uzi, who was now carrying her railgun on her back –, “wait isn’t she grounded or something?”
“Ugh banished,” Uzi groused, indignantly, “has my dad been saying I’m grounded?”
Concerning, Ron thought, brows furrowed, and definitely going in the Uzi report. Just as concerning as the third person the two kids were with.
“Genocide robot,” he asked with a scrutinizing glare.
He knew what the report said about the start of the year attack, but it was still hard to believe. Still his words caught the murder drone’s attention. The two kids turning their gaze to the much taller robot, who startled as he came to attention before sheepishly slouching his shoulders, his head ducked as he tentatively stepped forward before bringing out a folded card. Passing the card between the gap in the door, Ron took it skeptically, genuinely surprised to see such childish drawings on the front including a rainbow with clouds, four hearts – one of them colored – and picture of an animal labeled dog. It honestly reminded Ron of the cards Thad used to make when he was still a droneling. Opening the card, there were two more pictures, one that must have been the Corpse Spire and the other was a stick figure which had to be the murder drone before him. Just above the strange tableau were the words, “I’m sorry,” followed by a frowny face.
In a way, it was sweet, and Ron had to wonder if this was the drone, the reports claimed, that Uzi fought alongside – Thad and Uzi certainly seemed comfortable around the drone kid. At least, the drone behaved like a kid. If Ron was being honest the yellow-eyed murder drone almost seemed like a factory print; unchanged by the passage of time from the rushed memories he had of the Seramorris attack. That the drone was behaving in a sentient manner instead of like an animal was another surprise; though if the murder boy was a factory print, then he had to wonder how old the boy was now and back then.
Double checking his link with Thad, the kid was calm; besides if his nephew was truly scared, he would have felt it. Plus, Uzi was finally hanging out with someone besides the WDF – that was definitely going in the Uzi report.
“Oh, alright,” Ron said at last, adding a jovial note to his tone, “just don’t do it again, get in here ya goobs,” and then sticking the card to Door One with a refrigerator magnet.
If anyone asked, it was a force of habit, definitely not because the card and the murder drone’s cheerful reaction reminded him of his nephew a long time ago.
Was he still nervous; of course, was he still keeping a tight grip on his end of the familial link, definitely, but something was changing at the Outpost, just as it had all those years ago, and this time, he was going to be ready.
The hour continued on and in keeping a tight grasp of the familial link, Ron could feel when Thad began to panic. Just as he was about to leave his post, he received another text.
Thad: sent now
"I’m okay, Uzi and N saved my life again."
"I’m getting out of the way"
"There’s going to be a fight"
N must have been the murder drone – and on the one hand he was relieved that Thad was okay, and on the other the thought of another fight concerned him.
Ron: sent now
"Come back to Door One"
That by the time Thad made it back to Door One, he was pretty sure the whole Outpost heard the explosion was something that had them both looking back in concern.
There had been a creature in the Cryogenics Hall that had been grown from the remains of the female murder drone – Serial Designation J, apparently – who had been killed by Uzi in that first week of January. Right now, they had an ‘all clear’, but something else was bothering Khan and Ron had a feeling it had to do with the situation or the aftermath of it, in the Cryogenics Hall.
N had left in a hurry, just sparing enough time to be polite before he headed out. Then when his shift was over, Ron and Thad headed off to the office. Thad himself was uninjured this time, thankfully, but he said it was a close one. An unsurprising thought when, in arriving at the office, it was very clear that whatever had happened had shaken up Uzi. In turn, she was sticking close to her father as though she were afraid that something would happen to him if he was out of her sight. On top of all that was that night’s death reports; Sarah Smith was dead, and Darren was now officially an orphan.
There was some talk about what to do with him. The kid was twenty, just five years away from adulthood. Would it be right to move him to the nursey or would they be better off leaving him in his family apartment. Ultimately a nursery attendant was chosen to check on him in the morning, at night and to help him prepare meals and clean his home; that and he was placed on the watchlist in the aftermath of the snapping of his familial link with his mother. Sarah may not have been the greatest mother – or person – but it was clear the kid still looked up to her.
That night there was a twenty-guard patrol, and in the morning, Ron and all the ones who had known Aimes, went to check and move his body. While they had an ‘all clear’ for the area, it was agreed that it would be better to move the man to a different place. For now, Aimes’s body and Cryo tube would be placed in a private room in Medical until something better was prepared.
Outside of these events, there were the continual disappearances. The night Serial Designation J was killed was also the night of the first disappearance. Now, even with the mutated corpse destroyed, the mystery remained.
There was a knock on his office door.
“Come in,” Ron said as he went over Miss Cordelia’s latest report, the door opening soon after to reveal Dmitri’ daughter. “Doll, it’s good to see you, how are you doing kiddo?”
After the murder drone attack at the start of the year, Doll had become withdrawn and dour. According to the notes Dmitri sent with his work Doll was just shaken, but he was already keeping a close eye on her and trusted her to speak when she was ready.
“YA v poryadke, Mister Sentinel (I am fine Mr. Sentinel),” she said, “vot rabota moyego papy (here is my papa’s work).”
“Thank you,” he said taking the papers and looking them over briefly before nodding, putting them down and taking out another packet of work. “Here’s your dad’s next set, and your weekly paystubs are on the front as always.”
“Spasibo (Thank you),” she paused for a moment, “chto vy prosmatrivali (what were you looking over)?”
“Ah, just some reports from our resident mortician, not pretty stuff – are you going to Thad’s party later?”
“Da (yes).”
“Great, I’m glad you have friends to look out for you.”
She nodded once and left without another word.
As to Thad’s party, the kid said he had invited Uzi and N but neither ended up showing and according to Thad, Uzi was quieter at school no matter how many times he tried to speak with her.
April soon turned to May with no further leads on the increasing disappearances except for the fact that they were all centered around the school.
“And it’s weird, ya know,” Thad said, his arms out in T-pose as Ron was passing the lint brush over the kid’s prom suit one last time, “Lizzy always makes a big deal about her Transfer day just like she always makes a big deal about being voted Prom Queen – and this year it’s the same day, but she doesn’t want a party, she didn’t even let herself get nominated!”
“Well,” Ron started, “maybe she’s just growing up; the world is tough Thad, Prom crowns don’t mean much when it comes to survival.”
“And birthdays?”
Ron paused, before looking away with a sigh.
“Hit a nerve,” Thad said sheepishly.
“Forgive me for sounding like an old man,” Ron started, as he took a seat on Thad’s bed, “but back in my day, a birthday was just another evaluation day – never mind the two other additional evaluation days,” He huffed, “the best present you could get on those days were being allowed to live another day; guess I kinda forgot that we worked so hard to make sure you kids can live, not just survive.”
Thad took a seat next to his uncle.
“Maybe she just has something on her mind goober,” Ron said, “you could always ask if she wants a half birthday party.”
The kid looked pensive before he spoke, “what about Alice, you said she was a free drone; did she get to celebrate her birthdays?”
“Yeah, she did,” he huffed out a laugh, “she and the Doc would also have Aimes send your parents and I some treats from the Tallyran – we couldn’t always get them on our birthdays, but we’d get them.”
“Like what?”
“Well, you know those biscuit sandwiches I make?”
“Those are from Tallyran,” Thad asked excitedly.
Ron chuckled, “Dr. Beaumont is the one who taught me how to cook, most of the cafeteria food are recipes from the Tallyran.” An idea came to him, “you know what, how about this weekend, I teach you how to make those puff pastries and you can give some to Elizabeth.”
“That’s perfect,” Thad said before his phone alarm went off, “oh, I need to head out, I promised to meet her at the party.”
“I’m surprised you’re not picking her up.”
“Lizzy said she and Doll needed to do something before the party.”
“Well alright, have fun.”
“Thanks dad,” Thad said giving his uncle a hug before rushing out.
In the quiet of Thad’s room, a thought began bouncing around, in his head. It wasn’t strange to go months without seeing Dmitri. They were all incredibly busy with their own lives and the members of the WDF especially. On top of all that, Dmitri was the type of friend you had to reach out to, to get any sort of update from. Then there was also the date. Today was Friday, May twenty-sixth of thirty seventy-one. Today was Dmitri and Yeva’s twentieth wedding anniversary.
Ron’s brow furrowed.
Not tonight, he thought to himself, but sometime this weekend, he was going to visit the Fotograf home. He couldn’t change the nature of his friend, but he could at least reach out more often to compensate.
With his decision made, Ron got up and began making dinner – a Tallyran recipe of course, he was feeling a little nostalgic.
As the night continued on, his walkie went off.
“Ron here, what’s–”
“Dad,” Thad shouted, “school’s being evacuated.”
Turning off the stove, and heading for the door, Ron spoke, “what’s going on?”
“Doll has powers, she’s killing student to get to N’s friend.”
“Doll’s what–?”
“The gym doors are locked; Uzi and Lizzy are trapped inside.”
Ron checked he link, Thad was at the front of the school, “I’m getting a team, stay where you are.”
By the time they got there, the fight was over. As for Uzi – she, N and N’s friend had run off. As for Elizabeth – Becky immediately rushed over to make sure she was okay, Samual and Waylon by her side as they had evacuated with the kids and chaperons who had survived. As for the gym – Miss Cordelia and Mister Ronathan had taken one look inside and immediately had it marked off as ‘no entry’.
The team Ron had brought were checking over the kids, so far there weren’t too many injuries, and they were ones received in the panic more than anything. For Khan, it was clear where he wanted to be but as leader, he forced himself to stay until the medics cleared the kids to head home with an escort. Once that was done, however, he, Ron and Becky – who had Waylon take Samual and Elizabeth home, Ron sending Thad with them – along with Cordelia, Ronathan, Ivan and Bianca, were headed off to Uzi’s location – the Fotograf home.
They arrived just as Uzi and the two murder drones were stepping out, the murder drones themselves freezing at the site of the WDF – Khan immediately rushing up to his daughter.
“Chill dad,” Uzi said with slight exasperation – though she noticeably didn’t brush him off, “Doll showed up then ditched.”
“Um,” N started, hesitantly, “she also tried to shoot Uzi.”
The boy immediately going silent at the glares leveled at him, the murder girl just rolled her eyes.
“HEY,” Uzi shouted, “no glaring, I’d be dead without him – you can even ask Lizzy – Doll was trying to kill me.”
Khan looked between the groups before turning to his daughter.
“Uzi, did you go inside her apartment?”
She hesitated, the look on her face saying everything, “it’s not … it’s really bad.”
Miss Cordelia pressed her lips together, stealing her resolve before taking Khan’s universal door key and opening the apartment door. From the doorway they could see when she froze, her hand rising to her mouth. As the rest of their group came forward, none of them were prepared for what they saw. The kitchen was filled to the brim with gutted, dismembered bodies, strewn across the counters, stuffed into cabinets, filling pots and pans to the top with oil and at least one body perched into a standing position. There were roboroches everywhere and at the dining table there were two lumps covered in a dirty white tarp. As Khan stepped forward to remove the tarp, Uzi spoke up.
“W-wait,” they turned to her, “just …” she was fumbling, her every hesitant word only filling them all with more and more concern.
“Uzi,” Khan started, “who’s under the tarp?”
She froze, “Doll’s parents.”
It was like they had been dropped into ice. Logically it made sense considering the state of the apartment and yet.
Khan pulled off the tarp and beneath it, seated at the dining table with a macabre dinner set before them were Yeva and Dmitri.
Bianca fell to her knees with a cry caught by her hands.
(~*~)
It was only after they had gathered their bearings that they realized that N and the murder girl – V, according to Uzi – had left during the pain of the reveal.
Miss Cordelia had recommended leaving the apartment as is, something that Khan, Ivan, Bianca and Ronathan hesitantly agreed to, much to Ron and Becky’s confusion. Though the woman still had her hands full with the prom victims. The day after Becky and Ron had asked Elizabeth, Samual, and Thad if they had known anything about Doll acting strange.
For Thad and Samual, it was clear they knew nothing, for Elizabeth it was clearly a different story. According to Khan, Elizabeth had been both the one to invite V and to warn her of Doll’s attack.
“Alright fine,” Elizabeth shouted, “yeah I knew, so what?”
“Elizabeth,” Becky started, “people are dead.”
“Do you know when she made her first kill,” Ron asked.
“January seventh,” Elizabeth started, ignoring the hollow-eyed look the boys were giving her, “it was after the murder drones left.”
“And do you know why she started killing?”
She was quiet for a moment, “the first one wasn’t on purpose.”
“How do you mean, what happened?”
“… Doll said that after the attack, she went home, but the place was empty, that she remembered her parents were dead and went to get their bodies, after that, she started crying and screaming – surprised no one heard her.”
“How do you mean?”
“She said she started feeling hot and the next thing she knew that girl,” Elizabeth gesture to the first missing poster, “was dead – can I go yet?”
“Not yet,” Becky said.
“And the others,” Ron asked.
She was looking at her phone again, and Ron could see Becky was twitching to rip it away from her daughter.
“Elizabeth,” Ron insisted, “the others?”
“The last ones were the prom queen list, so V could win by default so Doll could kill her to avenge her parents or whatever.”
“And the ones before them,” Becky asked.
Elizabeth shrugged, “she was hungry, but at least I was useful to have around.”
The gym was closed until further notice but by then summer vacation would begin anyway, and it was soon time for the end of school year activities. How those activities became a field trip blindsided most parents and yet if there was ever a better time, then it was now. Sightings of murder drones outside N, V, and J had gone down significantly over the years and after the start of year attack – and outside of the J mutation – murder drone attacks by the three lettered-named drones had surprisingly been reduced to zero. In part due to a deal that Khan had struck at the start of the year.
Ron hadn’t forgotten about Khan claiming to ground Uzi only to see her outside the Outpost. He also hadn’t expected to find out that she had been living with N and V for three months after the start of year attack. Yet, that was where the deal came in. From both the monthly oil donations made to the Medical wing and the oil drained from the corpses in the Morticians Hall, Khan would put out a delivery of oil, some distance away from the corpse Spire in exchange for Uzi’s safety.
Evidently, N and V had taken the deal. As such, with so few deaths and fewer sightings, it wasn’t surprising that drones, especially the younger ones, were jumping at the opportunity to leave the Outpost, if only for a short while.
Ron’s only hang up – the field trip was to Camp 98.7, and he couldn’t go with them.
“What’s so special about Camp 98.7,” Thad asked, his uncle’s mouth twisting at the question before the man gave a sigh.
“First,” Ron said, plating breakfast, and handing it to Thad over the kitchen island, “your dad was a weirdo.”
Thad made a face at that, he could see that his uncle didn’t mean it maliciously, but he was still confused.
“Your dad,” Ron started again, “your dad would kind of just know things and he was generally always right.” He started packing Thad’s lunch, “before he died, he told me to go to the last place, which ended up being Camp 98.7 – except, I never got to go.”
“Did you ever figure out why,” Thad asked.
“You know that lock room?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Your dad used to collect thing over the years, stuff that would be needed at times only he could really understand; after we were allowed to move into the Outpost, I had all those things moved into that room.” Ron paused, hesitating slightly, “I don’t know everything, but your mother and I figured out some stuff.”
With Thad’s lunch packed, Ron sat down at the kitchen island to pick at his own food.
“Among your dad’s stuff was three boxes, two of which corresponded to the Fever sisters, Nori and Yeva.”
“Uzi and Doll’s moms?”
“Yup?”
“But wait you said three boxes.”
Ron nodded, “Nori and Yeva came from Camp 98.7 and according to Yeva the third box was for Alice.”
“Do you know what was in the boxes?”
Ron nodded again, “the first two anyway.” He took a sip of coolant, “for Nori your dad left a music player with a song he had your mother sing, for Yeva he left a Russian nesting doll.”
“What about the third box, what did he leave for Alice?”
“I don’t know, I never opened it.”
“Why not?”
“It wasn’t time yet.”
“Then when will it be time?”
“I guess that’s up to you; I’ll be making a second key for you for when you get back, for now you better get going if you still want to go on the trip.”
Thad looked contemplative so it was a while till he spoke, “when I get back, can we look at the album again?”
And who was Ron to say no to that.
After Thad left, the hours passed slowly even with all the work Ron had to attend to. Doll had been efficient in keeping up the disguise of her parents being alive. As it was, they all had to now go back over all the paperwork she had done for her father to check for any falsehoods she may have added to make her story seem more believable. It was heavy work and adding to that were the extra patrols around the Outpost in search of her.
For Ivan and Bianca, they had wisely decided to take some sick leave. As adults, a drone’s program was less capable of reconnecting the familial link with their parents, as such, Dmitri and many others hadn’t reestablished the links. This was the reason Bianca and Ivan hadn’t known when Dmitri had passed on.
All in all, the aftermath of the events of Prom was incredibly trying stuff and so when the bus returned from the trip. Everyone was just relieved to have the kids back. Twenty-three kids were supposed to go on the trip. Two called out sick, four decided to stay home at the last moment and as such, only seventeen had boarded the bus. Also as such, they were all reasonably concern when only nine kids – and the two murder drones – came off the bus.
The fact that the sun only just went down with their arrival meant that V left without a word – since apparently, they could only go out at night. That N hesitated, that he only flew off when Uzi pushed him to the door said a lot. Mainly that he felt guilty. That Waylon’s report blamed V for the disappearances said a lot, but one thing didn’t make sense.
“I can still feel him,” Ron said, before rushing forward, “Mister Ronathan, I need a bus.”
“What,” the man exclaimed.
“I can still feel Thad, he’s back at the camp, I need a bus.”
It took a few moments but soon, Ron – and Miss Cordelia, who had insisted on coming along – were on their way to the camp. For the most part, the drive was quiet, with Miss Cordelia taking the night shift while Ron took over as the sun rose so Cordelia could get some rest.
They arrived as the sun was setting, the bus’s lights coming on just in time to see Thad sitting on the steps on the main cabin.
“Thad,” Ron called, the boy standing at the sound of his name.
Parking the bus and handing the controls to Miss Cordelia, Ron ran over to Thad, hugging him close, and then shaking him by the shoulders.
“ARE YOU INSANE,” Ron screamed, “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, STAYING BEHIND?”
Thad froze for a moment, before lowering his head.
“That you would get to go to the camp,” his words were quiet, hesitant.
At that, Ron stopped, he could feel digital tears threatening to come forth as he held Thad close once more.
“I just,” Thad started.
“It’s not that simple.”
“Why not?”
“Back before the implosion, Yeva had told us we would need a whole team just to go near the area where Alice could be – Dmitri told us that what little he had seen would require weeks of planning.” Thad held on tighter, “I’ll come back, when the time is right.”
Thad pulled back a bit, “but what if now is the time?”
“Well, how does your core feel?”
“My core?”
Ron nodded.
“It …” he hesitated, “I want to go home.”
“Then let’s go.”
Back at the bus, Miss Cordelia gave Thad a hug before the kid boarded.
(~*~)
The rest of the summer was fairly boring by comparison with Uzi stuck in summer school to make up her three months of absence but that was where the positives ended for the most part. They hadn’t wanted to linger at the camp, as such, the bodies of the dead were still uncollected.
Rebecca was dead.
Darren was dead.
Braidon and Emily were dead.
Samual was dead.
For Jo and Stoic, Super Suppressors that they were, one might have thought they felt nothing for the children they raised, but that was how Super Suppressors mourned. Because they couldn’t show their emotions, they either isolated or through themselves into their work. Yet if the reports Jo brought back meant anything, she had found her own way to express her anger as yet another report of spent ammo landed on his desk.
“You know they regenerate,” Ron said, not unkindly.
“I just need another magazine for tonight’s shift,” Jo replied.
“And normally I would give it to you, but considering your last few shifts, Medical is thinking of putting you on the watchlist.”
“I'm fine.”
“Your mourning, and that is fine, but I can't keep giving you magazines.”
“She was scared,” Jo started, and had she been any other drone, Ron was sure there would be tears, “Braidon was confused, and Emily was scared – the beast admitted to her crime, so the least you could do is let me shoot until she’s finally dead.”
That she didn’t push him away when he hugged her told Ron everything he needed to know as he discreetly paged Stoic, passing the woman off to her husband when he came in.
The Super Suppressor program was a cruel one, for despite the visual indifference on the couple’s faces, Ron knew they were both crying tears that weren’t programed to show.
(~*~)
Summer ended soon enough but that only brought moderate relief. Becky had been working longer hours in the office and while it was hard to find Waylon on the regular, now in was incredibly easy – one just had to go to the school, at almost any hour, he was almost guaranteed to be there. Lizzy and Thad – and Uzi when she was released from summer school – were common patrons at Door One, wanting to go out to visit N and V.
That none of the three showed any fear, cast a level of doubt onto Waylon’s report, but with zero deaths since the camp incident, and Khan’s approval – at least for Uzi – meant that they were often let out. For Elizabeth, everyone knew that she wasn’t allowed out, but the girl had her way of bullying certain guard shifts – unfortunately. For Ron, it was Khan, Uzi and Thad’s confidence that was more then enough evidence to let Thad out.
Yet, with school starting up, they had less time to head outside, especially as Uzi didn’t want to end up back in summer school again. On and on, the months passed, on into Seramorris. Every year the drone kids – ages fifteen to twenty-one – would sign up for the Seramorris challenge, if they had already participated in the training program. The challenge would be to live together for the whole of Seramorris with limited supplies in a warehouse that was set aside for the challenge. If they ran out of supplies before the challenge was up, then they would have to alert the WDF drones who were monitoring the life reading of the participants.
The first challenge Thad had participated in had gone okay, the second had been better, but the one after that had only lasted a week. Since then, every challenge had only lasted around a week. This time, however, they lasted almost the whole month with Uzi alerting the WDF drones on Saturday the twenty-seventh.
“You should have seen it,” Thad continued as he was eating dinner, “the others just wanted to throw a party and, yeah that would have been fun, but Uzi wouldn’t let them kick her out or waste our rations.”
“Makes me wonder about the previous years though,” Ron mussed.
“Oh, yeah,” Thad started, sheepish, “Uzi never stayed long before, from what Lizzy told me was that they all kept kicking her out so we could just party – I guess I never realized she didn’t leave on her own.”
“Well at least you’re back in time for your birthday.”
They had puff pastry style D batteries for dessert that night as they watched a movie of Thad’s choosing before heading to bed. When Ron woke up later that night, it was to his walkie going off.
“Hello,” Ron said, tossing off his covers.
“Doll’s been spotted,” Khan said, sounding a bit beat up, “she came after something Uzi had before heading off.”
“Do you know where she went,” Ron asked, getting changed.
“Uzi thinks she’s heading back to the camp, gather the units I need everyone evacuated to the factory, now.”
“What, why?”
“Remember the core collapse; something is gonna happen tonight, gravity’s probably gonna get pretty weird soon and if worst comes to worst, the factory it the farthest place from the camp.”
“And where will you be,” he was heading to Thad’s room to get the kid up, his go bag already on his shoulder.
“Heading out, one drone patrol unit, I’ll keep in contact; I’ve been rebuilding Uzi’s railgun, just need a new power core now – understood.”
“Orders heard, over and out.”
Opening Thad’s bedroom door, he shook the kid awake.
“Huh,” Thad started.
“Evacuation measures,” Ron said.
Thad shook his head, “wait what?”
“Up, you need to get to the factory,” Ron continued as he gathered Thad’s school uniform, and tossed it to his nephew. “Get dressed, grab your go bag, your phone and charger, and head directly to the factory, no detours – got it?”
“Uh, yeah,” he shook his head again, while getting up “got it, getting dressed.”
As Ron was heading out, he felt Thad hug him, “stay safe.”
He hugged him back, “you too.”
Then he was out the door, to wake and evacuate the neighborhood.
The alarms were blaring, the lights having turned red. Between that and Khan’s updates, he wasn’t sure how much time had passed by the time they had to do their last check before closing the doors to seal off the factory. Yet as the doors were sealing shut, they could hear someone shouting.
“WAIT,” Becky shouted, “WAIT!”
But as she started, the alarms went silent as gravity went to sleep; Ron catching Becky as it woke back up.
“Waylon’s still at the school, Lizzy – Lizzy she went into the wastes.”
Ron’s eyes must have been as hollow as hers when he felt his phone go off.
Thad: sent now
"Hey Uncle Ron, sorry."
Attached was an image of the kid and Elizabeth at the Corpse Spire.
Hey Everyone the last chapters of Ron’s section of the story has been posted.
Here are the links if you haven't read them yet:
Standing Sentinel - Chapter 4
Standing Sentinel - Epilogue
And on my FanFiction:
Standing Sentinel - Omake
I had a lot of fun writing this part of the story, but now it's on to the character I know so many of you have been waiting for.
Driectly from the Raven's Crossroads - In Remembrance of Unspoken Memories presents:
*drum roll*
THIS LOCKED DOOR FOR YOU
A Khan Doorman Murder Drones story.
That's right fans; starting this Friday, and with a once a week post, we'll be delving into the traumatic backstory of our favorite Pringles man.
Starting from when he and his sister were sold to a Facility at the age of three, to the two of them being bought at the age of six, Khan witnessing his sisters death at seventeen, being sold to the Novae Spei Factory shortly after, the implosion at twenty-five, meeting Nori, raising Uzi and his perspective on the events of the show.
Standing Sentinel - Prologue: Ronald "Ron" Sentinel | a Murder Drones story
He's a factory print, he was never meant for much, but he was told to listen, he was told to watch, he was told to act and was given people to defend; but even as he follows through, he worries, for how can he protect a missing person?
“Hey dad,” Thad called, absentmindedly, otherwise he would have called him Uncle Ron.
They were in the kitchen while he was cooking dinner, his nephew was theoretically working on his homework, but Ron had yet to hear the sound of pen on paper since the kid sat down an hour ago – and dinner was almost done.
“Were all humans bad,” the teen asked.
Now that made the man pause as memories came flooding back.
“Huh, why do you ask,” Ron asked in turn.
“Well, in class, Mr. Fischer was telling us about the history of Novae Spei and Mrs. Smith came in as a guest speaker and well … she said a lot of things.”
“Sarah always says a lot of things,” he muttered to himself before considering Thad’s question. “Well,” he started while checking the dessert in the oven, “first off, you must remember that Novae Spei by its nature and the fact that Copper 9 is the newest of the colony planets, was never going to be a soft place, for anyone.”
The puff pastry-style D batteries were coming along nicely and Ron thought to himself that he should have enough extras after Thad’s party.
“I was printed at Novae Spei,” he continued, “and at the factory, I can count three humans who went out of their way to try and make the place better for us.”
Thad was watching him now, the attentive look in his eyes reminded Ron of the kid’s code parents.
“Technically the first was the one I knew the best – his name was Aimes, and he was the man that saved your mother’s life the day she was printed; the second and third were my matrons.” He paused thinking back, “the second was Mrs. Theremin who recognized my age when other humans treated me on my appearance; the third was Dr. Ridley, I never saw her after I left the facility, but I heard that she had been transferred to another sector – I could always tell when she was around though, even when I couldn’t see her – at least till I was fifteen.”
“What about outside the factory,” Thad asked, “you were Group B’s second, right, did you ever get to leave the factory, did you get to meet any humans outside the factory?”
“I became a Second because Aimes would take me with him outside the factory.”
He became quiet. It’s been a long time since they were able to establish proper contact with the Easternmost city sector – Outpost 8 still sent reports, but conversation was an unlikely thing to hope for.
“Actually, there were a few other humans, at the Tallyran restaurant …”
