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Danny really, really needed a hot shower. Not a quick swim in a lake, not a dip under some cold run-off coming out of a busted drainpipe, a proper hot-tank soak.
She sat on top of a raised seating platform in the living room of a small, cozy apartment. The wall to her right was completely covered in wooden drawers and shelves, with a ladder leading up to a tent-like reading nook. Ancient rugs and the occasional pillow covered the floor. Lanterns, fabrics, and beads draped down from the ceiling. Plants hung in front of a tall textured privacy-glass window at her back, lit orange by the retreating sun. Tom laid on a large cushion on its window seat, blissfully asleep. The air smelled of sweet incense.
It was nice, to be sure, but sitting on the floor behind a round coffee table across from six very uncomfortable Companions was not exactly relaxing. Being drenched in sweat, dirt, and crusty blood was a terrible way to top it off. At least her nose had finally stopped its steady waterfall, though that was sure to start back up again as soon as she had the chance to set it in front of a mirror. She didn't even want to risk opening her bag for a homemade wet-wipe out of fear of upsetting her audience.
The six androids were startlingly different from any of the Companions from the Control Center above. The closest was her savior, a pale white recluse sitting with their head poking from under a protective blanket, occasionally sending her a wide-eyed sideways glance from the corner of the room. The other four closest to her she recognized from her escape down the street.
Two sat together to the right and front of Danny. One sat cross-legged with a hand patting a boombox playing soft electronic music, their plating a patched yellow with an orange puffy hat sitting on their head. Their gray friend was perched on a stool, a blue light bar across the bottom of their face instead of a screen, with a white hoodie zipped and pulled as far over their head as it could go. She recognized them as the one that had to be dragged out of danger, possibly hit with a taser. They stared mindlessly into space, preoccupied with their own troubles.
A particularly bold pair sat directly across from Danny, leaning close to whisper to each other. Presumably formulating theories since they had yet to stop staring at her. The red one wearing a thick nest of cables on their head like an ancient beehive haircut seemed particularly confident, gesturing wildly. Their yellow partner, who had a very narrow wide head with a tiny monitor on one end and what looked like a dark camera on the other, listened with an occasional interjection.
And finally, a Companion pitted with rust, a head composed of two small monitors and a large camera, and strangely wearing a traffic cone on their head, was looking impatiently out the front window at the end of the combination entryway/kitchen.
The odd group didn't seem to want to do anything until whoever it was they were waiting for appeared, so Danny stayed exactly where they had pointed and tried not to draw any more attention to herself.
She had passed a few other Companions once inside the walled off apartment complex, but she didn't see a sign of any humans, nor had a single Companion she had met thus far seem to understand English.
Unlike the Companions in the Control Room and the few she had met in her travels, these had apparently developed their own language, composed of complex electric beeps and whistles. Each wore at least one article of clothing, seemingly to show off their personal tastes. And all of them were in various states of wear and tear, though they seemed to have made their own repairs based on their mis-matched metal shells.
The Companions above wouldn't have the intelligence to do that. And loved though they were by their human caretakers, they didn't have the capacity to even want to. At least it explained why the Peacemakers outside behaved so strangely, though she had only ever met one before in her life and it was too worn out to do anything besides direct traffic.
It was enough for Danny's head to hurt, present injuries aside.
Everyone snapped their gaze as the front door squeaked open. The rusted Companion ran out of sight to meet whoever had just walked in. A few moments later and a new Companion, wearing a tan flat cap and long orange scarf that wrapped around their neck and down their torso like a sash, came into view. They were speaking animatedly to Rusty, completely oblivious of the tension in the room. They froze as soon as they saw Danny.
Danny fiddled with the hem of her tank. Being the center of attention was getting really old, really fast.
The room was dead silent as the new Companion strode forward and crouched down to Danny's level, just a little under three feet away from her. Their eyes made continuous saccadic movements, absorbing every inch of Danny. They seemed to realize they were staring and uttered a few short sentences.
Danny shook her head, "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
The Companion sagged in disappointment.
Danny looked down and observed the orange painted tattoos covering their body. One read "kiss me" on their left hand.
Danny straightened and pointed at the phrase, making the stranger jump.
"Wait-Wait-Wait!" Danny excitedly turned and threw off her bag, making the other Companions in the room rise in concern. Digging through her belongings, Danny pulled out a flat rectangle covered in a plush black sleeve. She removed it to reveal a Letter sized e-ink tablet, its once paper-like surface worn smooth and its chunky gray body covered in stains and scratches.
Danny placed it on the table and powered it on, bringing up lines and lines of notes and some scratchy sketches from her journal. She loaded a fresh page and removed the pen from a slot along the bottom. She wrote a few words toward the top, set down the pen, and turned the tablet to the orange android.
They picked up the tablet and studied the words. It read "Can you read English?"
They stared at the tablet. Looked at the marks on their hand. Stared at the tablet some more. Danny's smile drooped.
Finally, they blushed in understanding of what was being asked of them and shook their head in admittance. Apparently, they couldn't.
They handed Danny back the tablet, who forlornly wrapped it back up and returned it to her bag. Even if she learned their language herself, there would be no physical way for her to speak it.
Danny remembered a small child she had met back in Greenhills. In exchange for food and shelter she had been asked to watch a little boy, who couldn't speak, while his mother and a few of the neighbors repaired a farmhouse that had collapsed in a recent storm. The language barrier was a bit of a problem at first, but the child was persistent, and managed to teach her a few signs so she could at least understand what he needed. She didn't end up with a very big vocabulary, but it was enough for them to become good friends.
Danny thought hard and picked one that was fairly easy to decipher. She closed her hands with the knuckles facing outward, placed them on top of each other so the top of her fingers touched, and rubbed them in circles.
"Wash."
Orange scooted forward a hair, perplexed.
Danny signed once more and pretended to wipe away the blood under her nose.
It suddenly clicked and Orange nodded enthusiastically. They stood and led Danny to a door toward the left side of the living room, her bag back over her shoulders. Inside was a bathroom full of plants and an odd mannequin wearing a traffic cone over their head. Must be an inside joke.
Danny whirled happily back to face her host "Thank you! Thank you." Danny brought the tip of her open left hand to her chin and waved it outward, like she was blowing a kiss.
Orange nodded again.
Danny smiled and closed the door behind her.
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Clementine turned and left her newest guest to their business.
A human. She still couldn't wrap her head around it. No one had seen one in a long time. Clementine couldn't even think of anyone still around that was entirely confident what they even looked like.
"It is isn't it! It's a Soft One!" Lyn loudly exclaimed, the cables of her headpiece shaking as she threw out her arms wildly. Pinu ducked to avoid getting wacked.
Clementine gave her a disapproving look, "She's human. And would probably appreciate us not yelling about her."
Lyn huffed "So what? She doesn't understand a word we're saying."
"That doesn't make her foolish," rumbled Albert good-naturedly, walking up from behind Clementine and taking a seat next to Ledoc on the long cushion on the floor. Ledoc scooted over to put more space between them, displaying a flustered blush.
"But where'd she come from? What is she doing here?" Asked Pinu. Lyn gave her a look.
Clementine paced, "She can't be from down here. Albert, you've been around the longest of any of us, could you understand a word of what she was saying?"
Albert shook his head, "No, everything had already been turned to Code by the time I came along. Everything still in English was either tossed or left alone."
Clementine stopped her pacing and crossed her arms, chin resting on her knuckles. It was true. Any English texts, music, films, or other signs of culture had been left to rot as soon as it had been translated to the Companion's primary language. Even the words she had painted on her hand, as the human had pointed out, were pulled from a comic book she had managed to find in the trash in her youth. It didn't hold any meaning anymore.
"She came from the surface." Simon said hollowly, looking up. "That means there's a way up there. Away from this shit-hole."
"It doesn't matter. Especially if the Peacekeepers continue to block the subway tunnels, as you demonstrated this morning," Clementine pointed out, mouth downturned. "If we're going to break everyone out of jail and safely up to the surface, we can't do it split up. And we can't keep wasting valuable resources without a plan in place."
"We had a plan– " Simon started, shooting up to his feet, light bar bright red.
"Which you four didn't bother to tell anyone about! You just took the tasers and ran for it as soon as our backs were turned." Clementine exhaled a puff of hot air through her vent. "I know you want Miko back. And it's hard not knowing how he's doing or when you'll see him again. But you can't do this alone. All of us want our friends and family back, we're trying just as hard to figure out a solution as you are."
Simon stepped forward to retort, but Jeanma grabbed his wrist. "Simon, we messed up. You almost got taken away today."
Simon turned and saw Jeanma's defeated expression. He sagged and returned to his seat on the stool. Lyn and Pinu looked away, ashamed.
Ledoc spoke softly, "What do we do?"
Clementine dropped down onto the cushion at the table between Pinu and Albert. They'd lost their edge in Simon's last-ditch effort this morning. They'd have to hurry and find a new one.
"We'll come up with something. Just let me think." She rubbed a hand across her forehead. It was going to be another late night of planning and debating.
There was a shout of pain from the bathroom, making everyone look up. It was silent.
Pinu asked in hushed tones "You think she's okay?"
Lyn shrugged. "Who knows, those things break easily."
Clementine shot her a glare behind Pinu's back.
The bathroom door opened, and the human stepped out. She looked much better, wearing a fresh pair of dark denim pants and green tank top. Her curly dark hair hung down loose and wet, colorful cap removed. Any traces of blood were gone, aside from the ratted-out towel held to her purple blotched nose, which had been covered with a white fabric strip. Her boots and backpack dangled from her opposite hand.
She offered an awkward smile and returned to her seat at the table, leaning forward to rest an elbow as she continued to hold the towel in place.
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