14.

It's cold and the lights from the amusement park cast the trees in a purple haze. I lean against an elbow against a tree as I bend over to pick up the mushrooms at its roots. They're wedged in there, and it's as I'm collecting the fungi that I pause.

Not even a metre away is an android body.

It is clothed in the garbs of the Resistance—the cape and layers, the thick boots, and the goggles—except half the goggles are gone because half the head is gone, revealing, it its place, fine circuitry and imitation blood.

I straighten.

The machines in the amusement park aren't responsible. They're non hostile. A little crazy, but non hostile.

Unless—?

Well, no. Judging by the music and singing, they are still more occupied with partying than killing.

Is there a hostile machine life form around, then?

But this body looks like it has been here for some time.

I tuck the mushrooms into my pack and kneel next to the android. It's obviously dead but I check its pulse anyway. A male Resistance model.

The only wound is from its head.

It's a little tasteless, but it's dead and I'm still alive. I also don't have the time or interest to sit around knitting, so I get to work stripping the clothes from the android. It should all fit okay. I've been growing and I've had to make new clothes in order to properly cover myself, so this is a bonus.

"Sorry." I pull off its boots. They're brown and look kind of new. I pull off the cape and drape this over me immediately and I sit on my knees, eyes shut, and reflect. The cape is cold but the longer it cocoons me, the warmer I get.

I'll investigate a little. If an android has been killed here, maybe the hostile machine is nearby. This place is too close to the machine village for my comfort.

I get up and walk towards the amusement park gates. Fireworks launch into the air, spattering the world in a splendour of colour. They sprinkle through the sky until they arch back down, dying into nothing.

There's a machine at the entrance asking me to dance.

"Excuse me." I stop next to it. "Did you see what happened to that android in the forest?"

"What android, what android?" It flails its arms.

I jab a thumb over my shoulder. "Right over there."

It leans over to peer past me. "I am afraid I did not see a thing that was suspicious other than an android stealing its clothes."

I peer down at it.

"Tee-hee. I jokes."

"Anyway." Most machine life forms assume I'm an android, which is interesting. They can't "sense" otherwise. "Be careful."

"Of course! We are not violent here. No violence, please and thank-you. We sing, we play, we dance." It grabs hold of my hands. "Dance with me. Let's dance. Let's play."

"I'm a little busy." I try to tug away but the damn thing clings on.

"Ha-ha-ha. This is fun."

"Oh, whatever." I let it spin me around the square. Other machines, these ones wearing the bizarre festive designs and wonky hats—wherever they even found these things—come close and throw confetti at us. It sprinkles about my hair and gets caught in the folds of my clothes.

My bag of spoils—the food I've gathered and the clothes and boots I just took from the dead android—is heavy. I arch my back and endure until the happy machine finally lets go of me. It sails off with a wailing laugh that is pure damn nightmare fuel. If it wasn't so ridiculous I'd be disturbed.

I roll my arm, circling my shoulder, as the other machines continue to stand, stare, and toss confetti at me.

"You can stop that now." I adjust the bag strap on my shoulder. "Did any of you machines see what happened to the android out front?"

"Not I," one declares.

"I only see with my heart," another says.

"I love you, you love me," the third sings.

Yeah, why did I come here again?

I push past them and head up the stairs. I'll take the bridge through the back of the park. Going into the city ruins is always a task harder than it should be. Both Resistance and YoHRa have been more active there and it's a bit of a pain to have to watch out for androids every step of the way—especially since they can sense me.

It isn't that I don't like androids. It's just that I don't want one to drag me to the Bunker.

I can't—

I can't have an android meddling until I want them to meddle.

I head to the side door and when I open it I nearly kick the small machine waiting on the other side as it screams at me.

"Congratulations! Congratulations!" It waves its rickety arms. "You found our secret passage. You are a winner. No. You are the winner."

"And I win a heart attack?" I nudge it aside with my knee. "Don't ambush people."

"I ambush only with joy and fun!"

I speed walk to the ladder and haul myself up to the catwalk.

At the top, I pause and peer around.

The wind whistles in my ears.

The hair on my arms are erect. A chill sweeps through me. The sensation of being watched by something more adept than me. It's not a sense I'm unfamiliar with considering I am not strong in this world. I'm unfit for it, as hard as that is to accept. The humans died and the world moved on and I have not adapted.

I lock eyes with the machine below.

Not that. That isn't what's got me reeling.

I carry on down the catwalk, fast.

The children crowd me.

"Ribbon!"

"He is back!"

"Let's play!"

"Hey, everyone." I'm exhausted and I want to fall face first into something fluffy, but I've gotta appease these little guys first. "I'm sorry I didn't bring anything back." Well, for them. I've got stuff for myself. Speaking of which, I'm famished. My stomach's probably hollow.

Pascal appears and pulls the children away. "Now, now, children. Let's give Ribbon some space."

"Pascal." I grin and claw him into a hug. "I didn't mean to leave for so long."

"It's fine. I'm glad you are okay." Pascal pulls back. "My, you are taller."

"Right?"

"Why don't you stay in the village where it is safe?"

I pass him, reaching into my pack for a mushroom. "You know I can't."

"What are you doing out there, Ribbon?" Pascal follows me to our little house.

Pascal wouldn't really understand if I told him. He'd just worry.

"Just exploring. Getting food and learning about the world. Maybe finding hints about other humans." I take a bite out of the mushroom.

"You do not have to stay away for so long to do that."

"It's just easier to sleep outside sometimes." But really, sometimes I'm so far away I can't get back before nightfall. How will I ever get far if I keep coming back here as a starting point?

And how will I keep track if I don't watch?

"Pascal, don't fret." I drop my bag and then shrug off Cruel Oath from my back. "I've got this, after all." I mean, it's not much. Enough to keep me safe from a small number of machines. My best bet of survival is running, but sometimes I can pick off a machine or two if the situation isn't too overwhelming.

The weapons trader here also made me some bomb type weapons although carrying them around unnerves me. Any malfunction and I'm toast. I've got "throwing knives" which look more like needles, but they are designed to penetrate into a machine's exterior and then release an electric shock which should fry their circuitry and render them unable to move.

Still iffy. Running's always best.

Living with machines has kind of given me an advantage in avoiding them. Playing hide and seek with the children is far easier, sure, but it still gave me an idea of how to avoid the aggressive ones.

I chomp down a bunch of nuts. I've been growing and almost nonstop physically exerting myself so I'm always hungry. I need energy all the time. I've only been able to kill a couple animals on my trips, but the meat goes bad so if I don't consume it quick it spoils and makes me sick. I try to kill smaller animals so I don't waste them.

It's easier, too, than sneaking up on a sleeping moose and stabbing it in the neck. Way safer, too. If I don't fatally wound a moose or boar in one go, I'm dead.

And I can't die yet.

I lay on my back and cross my hands behind my head in a makeshift pillow. "Pascal, have 2B and Nine—9S comes through while I was gone?"

"Why, yes. A few times." Pascal drapes a blanket over me.

I push it off with a laugh. "You don't gotta do that, Pascal. I'm not a kid."

A few months ago, I went out and located the Resistance Camp. It's in the city ruins, hidden in a nook. I've never gone inside—the androids would detect me right away, even with my clothes coated in machine oil.

Pascal has a theory androids can tell I'm human by something that is similar to pheromones. It may not be an actual scent they detect, but it is something in the air around me. By draping machine oil around myself, I may be able to blend in as an android that has killed a lot of machines or something. It's better than me waltzing around without any plan.

Still—if I walk smack in the middle of a bunch of them, they're bound to figure it out.

Anyway.

"How are they?" I ask.

"They seem well. 9S is an abnormal android, I find."

"Why do you say that?"

"He is unusually forgetful, perhaps. I wonder if he has a glitch."

I shut my eyes for a moment. "And 2B? How is she?"

"She seems well, too."

My toes curl in my boots.

On a few of my "stake outs" I've seen her outside the Resistance Camp. She does seem to be doing well. Carrying on her duties with a straight face. I've seen Nines trail after her, following her every move. He's always yammering away about something, but I've never dared to get close enough to listen.

Watching them makes me sick. I want to pry them apart. Take Nines with me. Even without any memory of me, he'll come with me—because I'm human, and that has power over him that is unfair and irrational.

But it is the only power I have.

That, and the fuel his "death" spurred in me. I dream about it. The way he choked, the way he bled. Scenarios always conjure in my mind's eye: what it would be like to be with them again. If I appeared in front of them? The look of mourning acceptance on 2B's face, the look of awe on Nines'. Him coming to me, touching me and blasting me with questions, all the while 2B stands silent and grappling, knowing how this shit will end.

Time and time again, I've wanted to surprise them.

Show myself in front of another android and see if they'll take me to the Bunker. I'll find 2B there, and Nines. She can't kill me to wipe me clear. I can always tell Nines what she does.

But considering 2B was ordered to kill her own partner—is the Bunker really somewhere I want to be taken to?

What will they do to me?

Nines said androids are built to protect humans, but what does that really mean?

Will I lose my freedom?

Pascal is making tutting noises so I open my eyes.

"You know, 9S doesn't ask about you. I think he may have forgotten you." Pascal bends over and puts a hand on my shoulder. "If you are here when they come next, you should see if that is the case."

I make myself smile. "I'll do that."

Nines doesn't remember me, but that's okay.

Because I haven't forgotten.

I plan to make us both free.

AN: Our lil Ribbon growing up so fast and vengeful.

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