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Danny nervously stroked Tom, who seemed unbothered. To be clear she was perfectly used to making friends as she traveled from town to town, usually negotiating to repair a few things in exchange for whatever necessities she needed at the time. The people that met her seemed to like her enough, at least enough to seem to want her to stick around before she would politely head out to the next town over. All in all, she considered herself a fairly sociable person.
But here, where people had deliberately chosen to stay underground or otherwise had no idea they could leave, the situation felt very different. What would they expect from her? Would they even be open to the idea of strangers visiting their literally very closed off community?
The subway train ground to a halt, having reached its stop at a dimly lit station. Danny stood and listened closely.
High pitched electric screeching could be heard up the stairwell outside, as well as a heavy pitter-patter. People running? A vehicle crashed up ahead with a crunch.
Not wanting to risk her nearest exit back to the surface getting lost in a skirmish, Danny took the keys from the conductor's station and pocketed them. She stepped out of the safety of the train and into the station, covered in trash and graffiti. The barest hint of daylight spilled down the stairwell.
Tom led the way up the stairs and through a hole in a chain link fence covering the final step, which Danny had to get on her belly and squeeze through. At the main entrance a second fence, padlocked shut, was covered in boards blocking most of the sunlight.
A small three-wheeled commercial truck was imploded where the gate met the wall, the headlights still lit. The driver was missing. Digitized shrieks and the sound of movement continued loudly out in the daylight. An occasional crack of electricity, like a popped fuse, pierced the air.
Maybe today wasn't the best day for a visit.
Danny turned to usher her furry friend back down the stairs, but he wasn't there. She spun and nearly lost her footing before spotting him on the other side of the fence, trotting into Midtown.
"Wait!" she hissed. She ran up and pushed through the hole in the chain-link wire made by the vehicle.
Danny stepped out into a path overlooking the lower level, a wire barrier going up the railing and over her head. Something electronic grumbled nearby like a voice.
A group of three robotic Peacemakers, red light on each of their security camera like heads ablaze, were running up from the open warehouse door on the left end of the path. One stopped and let out a chitter of static, staring directly at Danny.
Danny pointed a finger at herself in question.
The Peacemakers charged, all three carrying crackling stun guns.
Danny turned tail and ran, nearly tripping over a short set of stairs, around the corner, and up onto the street. She breezed past a few Companions running in the same direction, and barely noticed a pair trying to drag away a limp friend. Tasing pellets rang past her ear.
Danny swerved down a neighboring alley to throw them off. She raked down a stack of boxes to block her pursuers as she passed. Frustrated chattering followed in the mess. She huffed in satisfaction as she made it to the alley opening.
A Peacemaker rammed into her side, knocking her into the wall. Something snapped.
Danny's face exploded in pain and her eyes blurred with tears. The Peacemaker held her against the wall, left arm pinned to her back, not giving her enough room to so much as turn her head to relieve her throbbing nose. Its other hand was planted against the wall as it continued to expel electronic nonsense at her. Why the hell wouldn't it just tell her what was worth breaking her nose?
It paused and looked at its hand, covered in some of the blood dribbling down the wall. It squealed in fear and shook its hand to remove the droplets. Danny grabbed the multi-tool from her pocket, swung out the knife, and stabbed the Peacemaker directly into its rubber hip.
The thing went alight with electricity and staggered away from her, shrieking. Danny's hand involuntarily dropped the knife, her whole arm suddenly numb. Freed from the wall, she continued her flight, the stomping of reinforcements in close pursuit.
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Clementine was pissed. She had told Simon and his group that it wasn't worth the risk, that they weren't prepared to just run in with the two, two, stun guns that the Residence had acquired. But honestly, she didn't know that to expect. Like most of the Companions huddled into the three-story apartment building, one of their friends had been arrested. If one of the Outsiders, like Zbaltazar or Momo, had been taken to that awful place, she probably would have lost all common sense too.
Regardless, both the stun guns were now lost, and she was suiting up with a group of volunteers to go after the stragglers. Their only form of defense being three sets of industrial rubber coveralls that the apparel shopkeeper had managed to bring with him when the Peacemakers snapped. She zipped up the gray suit, completely covering her bright orange scarf.
The other two volunteers, the book-worm Ledoc and elder Albert (still wearing his traffic cone hat), were still getting dressed. They didn't exactly have much of a fighting spirit, but Clementine knew them better than the other locals due to their shared history in the Slums. And right now, she really needed people she could trust.
Clementine pulled aside one of the partitions in the make-shift wall sealing the front of the Residence apartment courtyard to peek outside and see what she was about to lead them into. The distorted voice of a Peacekeeper squealed.
Clementine huffed. Maybe one of the rebels landed a lucky shot.
Meow.
Clementine's monitor flashed an exclamation point, and she searched for the source of the sound. Above was her fluffy friend, observing her from a nearby AC unit.
"Little Outsider!" she exclaimed.
The cat leapt down to the pavement and rushed to meet her on the other side of the gate, purring as he rubbed against her legs. Clementine crouched down to greet him.
"You came back! Why did you leave the surface? We were going to come up to meet you," she spouted, head tilted.
The little organic meowed and sprinted away from her back out onto the street, before turning to wait for her. Whatever he had to show her had to be important.
She turned to the rest of the rescue party behind her, "Are you two ready yet? It's time to go!"
Ledoc finished zipping up and came to stand behind her, hunched over pensively. Albert finished tugging on one of the legs so the folds stopped pinching in the side of his hips, before reporting "Ready!"
Clementine opened the barrier the rest of the way and ushered them out, following the orange bundle of fuzz as he led back into the city. Before even making it to the end of the street, the four missing residents in question came barreling down, two dragging along a very disoriented Simon.
Albert rushed to their back as they scrambled inside, watching for the suspiciously absent Peacekeepers. The cat meowed again, still trying to lead them down the street.
"Bring them inside, I'll be back. Ledoc with me," Clementine instructed over her shoulder before chasing her furry friend, Ledoc following closely behind.
The cat led them down the street and into a neighboring alley, jumping up onto the overhanging awnings, window sills, and light boxes. A group of Peacemakers stared upward into a nook set into the side of the building behind the nightclub, instructing whoever was hiding there to come down so they could be transferred to jail to be questioned and rebooted. The cat snuck around and into the sheltered space, unnoticed by the robots ranting below.
Clementine turned to Ledoc, "I'm going to lead them away, you get whoever that is down and back to the Residence."
Ledoc's display was dripping with sweat but nodded.
Clementine snuck around behind the distracted Peacekeepers to the other side of the alley. She picked up a discarded glass bottle and threw it. It shattered against the head of one of the Peacekeepers, who nearly fell over and gripped its head in pain. Clementine ran for it as two of the three authorities gave chase, shooting after her.
The straggler limped toward the wall, leg apparently damaged, and stubbornly climbed up.
Ledoc looked around, saw another bottle, and snuck to grab it. He wound up and threw it as hard as he could.
It bounced off the Peacekeeper's head, only a foot below the stranger's hiding spot.
"Refrain from using physical violence. Turn around and raise your hands above your head to be escorted to the nearest re-programming facility." The Peacemaker dropped down to the awning below, wobbled, and withdrew a stun-gun from its belt.
Ledoc searched wildly for more projectiles. He grabbed a nearby empty box and threw it.
It bounced harmlessly off the Peacemaker's chest as it took aim.
A television crashed on top of it, sending broken glass and plastic flying. The Peacekeeper fell from the awning and onto the concrete below, unconscious. The stranger, standing overhead, quickly made their way down.
Ledoc's monitor displayed a humbled open mouth before running up to meet them. They were nearly completely covered in clothes, and wore some sort of fuzzy headpiece covered with a hat? They made low and slow sounds at him, like they were glitched. Ledoc flinched as they turned around.
Their plating was soft and sculpted, like a squishy old-world mannequin. Red paint ran down from the vent in their face and soaked their gray shirt. Their eyes were wide and mouth pursed thin. They spoke softly again, voice trembling.
Ledoc inched forward, hunched low, and reached for their sleeve. They grabbed his hand tightly. He nearly panicked and threw them off, their hand practically seeped into his! Ledoc ignored the squeamish thoughts bombarding him and tugged the stranger back toward the Residence stronghold, cat following closely behind.
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