This chapter is Revenant PoV
"When you're ready, stand up and walk to me."
The girl is just a couple meter away from me but I feel like those few meters will be a pain to make.
Gladly, my right arm worked well on the first try yesterday. Today, I asked for my left leg and since they put it back, I feel something strange. A stiffness or something like it.
They attached a simple prosthesis where my right leg should be so I can have a bit of balance for the walking exercise, but it's very limited. That other leg doesn't fit my proportions and even after calibrating it, I still miss some centimeters on my right side.
Concidering that and the weird feeling in my own leg, I'm more expecting to fall than walk.
After letting an annoyed grumble resonate in the room, I stand up.
I take some secondes to adapt with my prosthesis flaws and try to make my first steps.
Y/n looked neutral until she saw me tremble on my left side. She actually react faster than I do. Maybe repeating myself that I will fall just numb my awareness.
She and her father grabbed me in time to avoid my skull hitting the floor and sit me back in the chair.
They take a look to find the reason of my fall.
The doctor has some hypothesis but she ain't sure about it.
"I think it might be the junctions that are clutch and stiff. If not, we may have to take a look in the wiring and wish we don't have to touch the spine again."
They can't imagine how pissed I am right now.
"How long will it be?"
I couldn't repress a grunt of anger before I spoke. Eh... It's not like it will change anything.
"I can't tell. If we are lucky, it's just a matter of an hour. If we are very unlucky and have to touch your spine again... Let's be optimist and say it'll be done for tommorow noon."
I'm internally wishing for you that you are very lucky doc. I don't want to wait too much and you know it.
We pass three hours exploring my leg from the toes to the hip, touching, changing and moving screws, bolts and wires here and there and making me walk to see if anything changed.
After a while, the doc comes with a final diagnosis :
"It's more complicated than we thought. I'm sorry Revenant, but we will need the whole day and maybe tommorow to make it works."
"What's the problem? Spit it!"
"As we told you before, we don't know your anatomy. Your body is quite old and your model unique, making repairing more difficult due to the unknown specifities of yours. Because of this, my team didn't plug the wires and cables in the proper slots. They tried to guess which one is related to each slot but they are not genies and don't perform miracles."
"Well, plug them right back."
"Easy to say but ain't that simple. None of us know how your legs work. It will be a 'miss and retry' job. We will do our best to make it quick but you'll have to be patient and work with us."
I just stay silent to avoid making things worse. I know for sure that having an argue right now will just make things go even slower. But I'm infuriated at the moment and cooperation will be hard.
We take four more hours plugging and unplugging, walking and falling, but in the end, we made progress.
I'm not falling anymore and I can walk... Very slowly though. I can't tell which of my leg or the prosthesis is making me limp like this.
Just when I was starting to be optimistic, Roy decides to put it an end:
"Ok everyone, it's late and we are all tired. Gonna stop for tonight, eat and rest. We are back at it tommorow at eight. You should rest too Revenant, day wasn't easy for you neither."
Once again, I only stare him back in silence to avoid making a scene.
He and Myriam put the tools in a corner of the room, get their stuff, kiss goodbye to Y/n and leave the appartement.
" You should go back to your bed. Do you want help? "
" No. I can 'walk' you know."
" Haha I know you can."
She really thought I was making a joke here. How naive...
As I reach the bed and lay on it, she joins me and sit on the other side.
Since when did she got THAT comfortable staying around me? Is she thinking we are friends?
" Do you want to talk? "
What?
" Why would I want to talk with you rignt now?"
" I don't know. I felt that you were very tense up earlier and I'm a bit worry for you."
" You're worry? Really? How sweet of you..."
" No need to be sarcastic here. Listen, healing you is cool, but letting you sink mentally isn't. I can feel it. You're not OK. You were never OK. And on top of that, I felt your anger today. Time to spill the tea. Why are you mad? "
" Don't pretend you have no idea about it. I just want things to be done as quick as possible and now it's getting delayed. You told it yourself, I'm impatient. Nothing new here. Just want my body to be fixed so I can leave and mind my own buisness. "
She gives me a weird glare. Like she is scanning my mind.
" You're scared. "
" What are you talking about? "
" You are scared of getting found back by the Harvesters, don't you? "
It kills me to admit it, but...
" Yes! So what? You got it! The spooky murderbot is scared of being put back where he was. Condamned to only listen at the emptyness of his abandonned flat. Go for it, laugh if you want. I'm scared, right! "
" I won't laugh. You're human. Anyone being threaten to a similar fate would be scared. Nothing to be ashamed of. "
I don't know how to answer to this.
She softly approach a bit and lay next to me.
" You know what? I'll be honest. I'm terrified since we discovered that the Harvesters are in the process. We already bothered them once or twice and got troubles. But never we saved a sim they punished before. And we know how dedicated they are about it."
She stays silent for a bit, certainly choosing her words.
" And I can tell you that my whole family is terrified too. Especially my father. He is scared of loosing us."
...
"We could have betray you since the beginning and give you back to them to avoid their punishment. But living with the idea that we participate to your suffering is way more painful than living with the fear of them tracking us."
" And you will regret it one day... "
" Maybe. "
She stands up and smiles at me.
" But for now, we are alive, fine and happy. And you are safe with us. Please, take this time to recover your mental health. It hurts me to see you sad, you know. "
She pats my shoulder and leaves the room.
She cares too much for me and not enough for her own safety.
I need to put an end to all of this.
I can walk now. I'm able to leave that place. The only problem is her. She won't let me go and I can't walk fast enough. I need to find something. A diversion? Or incapacitating her maybe?
I finally come up with a plan. I know some oil cable that aren't too important for my body to work. Gonna cut one of them, pinch it to rise the pressure inside, call for her 'help' and realese the oil when she is close enough. If she gets oil in the eyes, she won't be able to catch up on me and it'll take her ages to clean them off. Plenty of time to run away, even slowly.
Not the best plan I've came up in my life, but it will work.
I grab one cable in my torso, cut it swiftly and pinch it immediately. I can feel it swells by the liquid getting stuck.
Good.
"Hey ! I think I've a problem! Can you take a look?"
I hear her footsteps coming fast to the bedroom.
"What's happening?"
She enters with a clear anguished look on her face.
" I saw some oil leaking here. I'm not feeling well."
She runs at me to watch closer, exactly where I needed her to be.
Closer.
Closer...
I release the cable and a blue liquid spills in her eyes.
Wait, blue?
She suddenly screams in pain and puts her hands on her face, trying to get rid of the viscous substance.
I messed up. This is not oil but cooling liquid. And unlike oil, it can damage her eyes badly.
She runs to the bathroom, bumping into walls and doors in her blindness. I hear her opening the tap and rinsing her eyes frantically.
I get up and leave the room as fast as my legs can. Once in the corridor, I pass next to the bathroom and stop. She is having a hard time. She can't see what she is doing and the cooling liquid doesn't go off that easily.
Now is my time. I should go, NOW.
But I can't move. My legs are stuck in the middle of the corridor and my eyes on her.
Am I... Feeling guilty?
...
Yes I am.
I can't lie to myself. I feel... Bad.
I stay here a moment, watching her struggling. Then I move in to help.
We took about twenty minutes to clean and treat her eyes with her guiding me in the supply she has.
In the end, her left eye is fine, it will just stay red for few hours. The right one got more damages and she will have to wear a patch for some days but it should be fine if she use proper medication daily.
We didn't talk about the incident for the rest of the night. She keeps acting nice with me but I just avoid looking at her. Seeing her patch just makes me feel uncomfortable.
I won't tell her but for the first time in a while, I'm sorry.