30:

We run for our lives, and she gives me a warning. She tells me that if we die our relationship will never progress. It strikes fear in me, for I have not yet told her that I've fallen in love with her.

Something on the side of us comes crashing down, filling the area with a thick sheet of dust. I admire it for only a moment, for I feel it deeply represents the limbo I've found myself in. I am certain that I love her, but I am incapable of knowing what she's thinking in return. I can only hope she feels the same, but I won't have an answer unless I tell her how I feel. A scream rips me from my thoughts as I look to see 1.5 in the hands of the beast. I can't see how, but it takes her life from her very quickly. Her body falls to the earth and lands in front of me.
My eyes shoot open. I breathe so fast that I am almost unable to continue. I clench my chest in hopes that it will help slow my heart rate. I am endlessly thankful that it was only a dream. Once I am eventually able to calm myself down, I am able to return to my sleep, which is seemingly dreamless, but that changes.

I lay in the grass, out in the meadows. 1.5 lays next to me, smiling peacefully. We look up at the clouds together, and admire the perfect, blue sky. Birds chirp and bees buzz. Our friends relax around the meadow, talking and laughing. Children play. Two of them, a set of girls, stand out to me, but I just can't seem to get away from 1.5 to get a better look at them. I am too busy being happy to be distracted.

I bring 1.5 home later that day, and I tell her how much I enjoyed spending the day with her. I walk her to her room, where she just smiles at me playfully and returns all of the feelings I have for her. She invites me into her room, and we sit together on her bed. Everything around us just seems to disappear, and she becomes the only thing I can focus on. She leans toward me and just kisses me gently. I feel my whole chest get tingly as it deepens. I pull her closer, trying to apply all of the thoughts and feelings to it, so she truly understands what's running through my head.

Thunder rolls outside the window. 1.5 lets me go to look out of it, now covered in little droplets of rain. Suddenly, I start to feel shaky, as if something is wrong. The back wall of the room falls, revealing the beast.
"Oh, god!" 1.5 shouts, trying to get away. She holds my hand, trying to pull me away with her.
"30... I know this is a bad time, but I need to tell you something really important!" she says to me, holding my hand as we back up.
There's an explosion, and I shout as I force myself awake. Once again, my heart is pounding, and I'm panting like I just ran a long distance race. I hear a knock on the door, with a quiet voice accompanying it.
"30? You okay in there?"
I can clearly tell that it's 1.5's voice. My heart flutters when I think of her.
"Come in." I whisper.
She enters, with a blanket wrapped around her. I sit up in my bed, and she sits beside me.
"I thought I heard you shouting in your sleep... I-I was already awake because I had some bad dreams, but I wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Yeah, I'm okay." I pause. "I'm sorry you had bad dreams."
"Eh, it's fine, it happens to everyone. I'm sorry you had them too, presumably."
"I did, but whatever. It's over now, and they aren't real. That's what matters."
"I guess you're right." She says, re-wrapping herself in the blanket. "What was your bad dream about?"
"Oh... I had a dream that were just hanging out together, minding our own business, and then the beast burst through the wall and you got really hurt..."
"Oh, goodness." she says quietly.
"How about you? What was yours about?"
"It wasn't too different. We were together and things went wrong when the monster appeared. I think I'm just nervous about tomorrow, that's all."
"I can perfectly understand why you might be."
"I mean, this could change our lives... we'll be so much more free to do what we want. I-I'm looking forward to that, because honestly, I think it'll be a lot easier to spend good time with you."
"Aww, come here." I say with a big smile. I put my arm around her and snuggle her up to me. I readjust her blanket so she stays warm. She just sits next to me, hugging me tightly.
"This is really nice..." she whispers. I kiss her on the side of her head, holding her as close as I can.
"Do you mind if I stay here until the morning?" she asks. "If it's not a problem, of course."
"It's absolutely fine. I love having you here with me."
She cuddles up closer and we lay down in my bed together. I make sure the blankets are over her so she's nice and warm. I put my arm around her, and just admire her for a few moments. It's at this time that I actually begin to feel like 1.5 feels the same things for me that I feel for her... I hope it's true. I mean, it's a big assumption to make but she's shown me plenty of affection and appears to return my feelings and gestures. She's always listened to me when I speak, and I am sure that she understands me. She always speaks positively of me and talks about the future like it's already given. I have my flaws, but she doesn't seem to care. I feel like she really cares about me for me. She's not afraid to open up or talk to me, and neither am I for her. I think we really value one another, as well as our thoughts. She's always there, and she tries to do nice things for me. One day, I was folding up some blankets in my room and she brought me this brown and black jacket that she made herself. She barely had an explanation why, she just wanted me to have something from her. She still was very thankful about me trying to save her life... but she just seemed so happy. Something just felt really right, and it still does. Oh, I can only hope the feelings are mutual.

We fall asleep holding each other. My nightmares stop for the rest of the evening, for I know 1.5 is safe and sound laying right next to me. When I wake, she's no longer under my arm. I wonder if I even dreamt all of that too. It really messes with my head for some reason, especially when I see that her blanket is still here. I leave my room to see her standing outside the door, leaning on the wall with a smile on her face. A happy grin returns to mine when I see her.

"Morning." she says, walking up to greet me.
"Same to you. Why'd you get up?"
"I didn't want to, but I figured that we'd get pestered to no end if our friends saw us walking out of your room together."
I chuckle and hug her.
"You think of literally everything." I laugh.
"Eh, I know. I wish I didn't sometimes." She jokes back. "I wish I could just take a breath and relax."
"You'll be able to soon." I say, holding her tightly.
She looks at me with hopeful eyes. I feel like she's trying to speak to me through her look, but I honestly can't decipher it. I ask her what she's trying to say, but she just says not to worry about it, and that we'll talk about it later once everything is all done and over with.

Later in the morning, we all gather together and go over the plan one last time. The doctors wish us well as we pack our bags and head off. We secure everything to us and begin to tread the sand that leads to Waterloo Village, about four miles west of where we are now. Our journey is not very lengthy, and we reach the factory in only an hour and a half or so.
As we enter, we quiet our voices and get ready to end this. The monster is resting, so we nod and prepare to climb up its back and drop the bomb down the neck vent.

15, V, and 9 stay on the ground to radio to us if it wakes up. They give us a thumbs up and half-hide behind different pieces of scrap metal just in case.
I climb up its front leg, careful where I step. 7 and 14 climb up, and I follow them. I carefully pull 1.5 up, because she has the explosives in her bag. We tiptoe our way over to the neck vent, trying our hardest to tread with caution and not lean on or touch anything by accident. There is a gap between the torso and head, connected by wires and boning.

"I'm gonna have to lean in. Someone hold me so that I don't fall." 1.5 whispers, looking to me and the others as she takes her bag off of her back. She slowly removes the bomb from the bag, careful not to make any fast motions that might cause things to go wrong. 7 grabs 1.5 on one side, and I hold her on the other. 1.5 carefully lowers herself towards the vent, and holds the bomb with one hand as she unlatches it from one side. She gets her grip back on our weapon, and gets ready to drop it. I look over at 7, who seems to be losing her grip. She might've gotten something on her hands on the climb up here. 1.5 tells us that she's about to do it, so we need to pull her back as soon as she drops it. I nod to her, but 7 seems to have trouble holding onto 1.5's leg as she leans forward more. 7 tries to regain her footing, but slips, letting go of 1.5's leg. 1.5 falls forward a little, with only me holding onto her. I slide closer to the edge, beginning to panic. 114 apparently tried to just save 7 from letting go, but didn't react fast enough. She bumps into my back, and I flinch because I'm so close to the edge, and accidentally, I let go of 1.5.

She falls down the vent, swearing and trying to catch herself and the bomb in some way. As she comes close to the floor of the tunnel, she grabs the bomb and balls up around it, hoping to soften the impact. She hits the floor with a hard thud, groaning in pain. We hear the machine wake up. I start to panic even more, nervous that the person I love might not live. 15, V, and 9 run up to us with a plank of wood, and all together we connect it between the head and torso so that we can hopefully help 1.5, or at least be able to see her. I look through the vent at a certain angle, and I am able to see what's going on perfectly. 1.5 gets up, explosive in hand. She backs away from the monster in the brain, putting the device away in her bag. It slowly turns around to look at her, and it goes silent. Suddenly it strikes as 1.5 backs into a wall, slashing one of its arms into her shoulder. I scream as I see her expression turn agonizing. It looks up at us, and flashes its red eyes. Out of nowhere, it turns, rapidly flashing its eyes and scanning the area all around it. It temporarily blinds me, but I shake my head and my vision returns for the most part.

"You guys!" I hear her voice from down the tunnel. "Get out of here! I'm gonna use the explosive!"
"No, don't! You'll die!" I shout, unsure if she even heard me.
Because of my blurry vision, someone runs by me and bumps my shoulder. I lose my balance on the uneven ground, and fall off, crashing into things and eventually feeling my shoulders drag into the dirt. 15 pulls me off the ground and out of the factory. I look around, disoriented. Just then, I notice wires coming out of the monster that lead behind a pile of rubble. I observe, with a bizarre feeling in my chest. Just then, behind the rubble, I see three heads peak out, all looking similar to my friends, only red-eyed instead. The white-haired one smiles at me, and leads me to believe that the red-eyes might just be a hallucination. We all get outside as part of the factory collapses. We hear the sound of an explosion, and begin to wait sadly for everything to calm down. Most smile at the seeming victory, but bow their heads as the realization sets in that 1.5 is gone. My heart aches, and I begin to feel empty in my chest. My love is gone.

I try to hold myself together. 15 and V come to me, hoping they can support me. V places her hand on my shoulder, hoping to give me comfort. We stare at the smoke in sadness.
All of a sudden, a shadow appears from the smoke, and 1.5 rises from the dust. A few of of run up to her and hug her, making sure she's okay. 14 takes a cloth out of her bag and hands it to 1.5. She brushes herself off with it, and then ties it around her arm where she got stabbed to slow the bleeding. V gets our attention, and points into the distance, suggesting we go home (with big smiles on, of course). The whole group starts to walk east, and I am about to follow until 1.5 grabs my hand. I turn to look at her, grinning victoriously. She pulls me away from the group, and we venture off into the wasteland, into an isolated area. It has a perfect view of the sun in the sky, moving slowly toward the distant horizon. We sit down next to each other on a small, speckled rock. She comes close to me, and I put my arm around her. We watch the sky together, as the day becomes late. The transition into the night sets the tone for the feelings I have to admit to her. I've buried them so much and I know that it'll be such a relief to finally get to tell her the truth.
We just hold each other as we look at the clouds, changing their colors as time passes. Once again, I could stay like this for a really long time. I tell 1.5 so, and she smiles, wishing for the same thing.
"This is great, really. It's so nice to know that we can be safe now, and actually enjoy our lives without always having fear in the back of our minds." She looks up at me, and then into the distance. "The sky is really beautiful."
The heavens are turning a blue-ish orange, in a steady, slowly changing gradient. I look back at 1.5, who has a nice glow from the light shining onto her. I think about her words, and respond with the first, but presumably stupid, thing that comes to mind.
"Yeah, the sky is really nice, but still not as much as you."
"Oh, stop." she jokes, hugging me more. Her grip loosens on me a bit as she looks up, into my eyes.

"I... I'm assuming that this is actually the part where our lives begin? There's... no more danger."
"I guess so." I say to her, brushing her hair out of her face. "We have so much ahead of us now."
I just begin to lean in, almost with a feeling of Deja Vu. 1.5 tells me to pause. My mind is entering dreamland, making me hope that she'll just come back into my arms and let me kiss her.

"Oh, shit!" Her yelling shakes me from my dreams. "30! Get up and run! Come on!"
She pulls me from the area and we run as fast as we can, trying to salvage our lives. The monster is dead, but the brain is alive, and it found us with our defenses lowered. She pushes me ahead, trying to save me the way I once tried to do for her. It is bigger than us, probably two or three times the size. It trails us quickly, and when 1.5 pushes me out of the way, she is partially crushed under its feet. She grabs onto its claw and tries to push herself out with the little breaths she can take. I run up and try to pry it off. I pull the limb as much as I can, with all the strength I have. As I feel my muscles strain, a miracle happens. The brain is no longer connected to power, and it plays a critical message about battery, system failure, and shutdown. Its eyes flicker off, and it falls backwards, crashing into the dirt. It releases 1.5, who is now choking and trying to inhale a sufficient amount of air. She breathes rapidly, taking quick, shallow breaths. I run up to her, kneel to the ground and take her into my arms. She still gasps to breathe. I worry that her lungs may have been crushed. As I pick her up, she murmurs, eyes wide in shock.

"30? I-I-Is that you...?" she mumbles.
"Y-yeah, I'm here." I brush some dirt off of her face in hopes that my touches will calm her down a little. I feel her blood dripping through the rag and onto my leg. I start to internally freak out.
"It's so g-good... to be in your arms... thank you for saving me." she manages to get out. She nuzzles her head against my chest a little.
"Well, it's good to know you're alive." I look down at my leg after feeling another drip of vital fluid. "You're still bleeding. We need to get you home so we can bandage you up."
I pick her up off the ground and begin to walk east at a steady pace.
"Please, let my lie down. I feel sick, 30."
"W-we just... we have to hurry. Try and hold off until we get home. The sooner we get home, the quicker you can get into recovery."
"Please..."
"Fine." I say to her sternly. "But only for a few minutes. I can't risk losing you, we have to keep moving and get you home."
"A minute is all I need, I-I promise."
I put her down on the ground, allowing her to get comfortable. She thanks me, and ponders why this had to happen. She laughs and says that now that the monster is gone, things will come much easier to us, like romance. I smile back at her, and tell her that I hope so, considering that we have so much less to worry about. She puts her hand out, and I help her up off the dirt. She suddenly hugs me, and I just return it. I don't even how long we stand there for, just holding one another in the silence. She kisses my cheek, or at least tries. It's really soft and it's more near my jawline because she's so disoriented. She looks at me with brightening eyes, but then, they change more, looking tired and weak again. She sits herself back down on the ground tiredly, but carefully.

"Oh, this is bad..." she says quietly, lying back down on her side.
"Let me get you home, please." I kneel down again, holding her top half up. She starts looking around, up at the sky and at my face. Her eyes open and close several times. She looks like she's going to go to sleep. I start verbalizing my fear, afraid that something inside of her has been crushed, and that her passing out may be permanent. I grab one of her shoulders and shake it lightly, hoping to keep her at least semi-awake. I does nearly nothing.

"1.5, no, please..."
As her eyes close, she tries to force out the words telling me to bring her home. My hands tremble. I beg her to try and keep her eyes open. I get a lump in my throat. It gets worse and worse as I try to keep her up. The lump gets tighter in my throat. I finally panic enough to where the lump bursts. 1.5 closes her eyes.
"Please, no... I love you!"
She doesn't hear me, for she appears to be gone. I bow my head and hold her tightly, trying to contain my tears. I gently scoop her body from the dirt, and begin to carry it home. As I slowly drag my feet towards Seneca Falls, a bed of grass and flowers in the distance catches my eyes. I turn right off my path and lay her down in the bright, soft blades. I pick some of the flowers, then move her arms and fold her fingers together. I place the flowers in her hands and just bow my head. I feel as though I've jumped too far ahead here, but I miss her so much already and it's overwhelming me. I just want to get away from these sudden feelings for a minute. I let this happen. I need to get home... I just need to go.