Chapter 4

It had been a while. After we ate the rations prepared for us a thousand years ago (that were somehow still good thanks to GAIA doing what I can only describe as wizardry), we realised that we were pretty much stuck here.

Neither Samina or I were particularly fit. We were scientists. We are scientists. We were in fine physical shape, but not the kind of shape that could climb our way out of the ruins. GAIA had assured us that Elisabet's clone Alloy-no-Aloy would be here soon. When Samina asked how the hell they'd be able to get us away from this place, GAIA smirked at her and dematerialized. I suppose Elisabet's cheekiness was bound to rub off on the AI at some point.

According to GAIA, Aloy was at some kind of private dinner party with the Sun King when she was contacted about us. The Sun King? What kind of governments were going on right now?

Oh. Samina was standing in the doorway to our make shift sleeping quarters. My pacing must have woken her up, even though I was in the next room over. Samina was directing one of those 'oh fuck she's lost it' kind of looks at me. That happened a lot while we were figuring out the kinks of our respective AIs. "Hi. Um, I didn't see that you'd woken up. Sorry for waking you Samina." I muttered, embarrassed at my pacing habit rearing its ugly head again.

Samina chuckled. "No apologies from you Margo. It's good to see you back to your familiar habits. Even at the cost of my beauty sleep."

I rolled my eyes, but honestly, I was glad to have a little bit of our dynamic back. It was something familiar to cling to in the midst of all this change. "So, what do you think about this whole clone thing?" I ask. Always the tactful one I was.

Samina to her credit did not scoff at me, but she looked around the barren room before answering, "If she's anything like Elisabet, at the very least she'll be interesting." I shrugged.

"It makes me uncomfortable," I confessed. "It's like somebody walking around who stole her identity?" Samina gave a far less charitable look. "Okay, I know it's irrational. I know, okay. Especially after GAIA told us the little she knows about the girl. It's weird, and I'm sorry I'm a mess about this." I was breathing faster than normal. And I was sorry that my outburst was making Samina uncomfortable. But it just felt wrong on a level I couldn't properly or logically articulate.

Samina noticed how much this clone business was affecting me and decided to sympathize a little bit. She was always so kind to me, especially if I was being a handful. "Look Margo, how about both of us reserve judgment about Elisab–Aloy ," she corrected herself from saying the 'c' word, "let us meet her before arriving at conclusions. This isn't one of those body-invader films you used to pester me and Ronson into watching with you. So calm down, okay 妹妹,?"

I looked up at her, and with a little shame lowered my eyes. Samina was right, I was being irrational. She took a step towards me and pulled me into one of her perfect hugs. "I'm so sorry Samina," I mumbled into her hair. "I'm freaking out. How are you so calm right now?"

Samina considered my question as she hummed in thought. "It will hit me later," she seemed to decide. "One day soon, if we manage to get out of our current predicament, I will collapse, sobbing to my knees, keening about how almost everything went wrong. It was the same when I finally got confirmation my elder sister and her two daughters died in that lorry crash when I was a teenager. I should've cried right? I should have been inconsolable for weeks. But I managed their funeral just fine. It was just a month later when shopping at a bloody grocery when I saw a young mother with her toddler twin boys that it finally sunk in to me that the last of my family was truly gone."

I was speechless for a small moment. I had never thought of grief like that before. Before my mind caught up with my mouth, I replied, "For what it's worth, you've still got me." I instantly cringed at how cliché that sounded. Not to mention insensitive; as if I could compare to her long-dead sister and nieces.

Samina just hugged me tighter, "Margo Shĕn, don't you ever fucking leave me."

We stood in that embrace for what was probably only a few minutes or so, but it felt like a warm comforting eternity.

We only broke apart when we heard a sound from the outside. There was a distinct hum of electricity before that was drowned out by a nightmare-fuelling metallic shriek, accompanied by the sound of dual explosions.