9 reminded 0 of the Scientist. She barely had any true memories of him. The only memories she had were of the ones made after the experiment and the stories he told her while he fixed up her body to be more of what he imagined.
She wished she visited him like she promised. She wished she could've met the stitchpunks and get to know them before their deaths. She was amazed at how he was able to split his soul nine times! She, the Scientist told her, was less careful.
4 moved to lay on his other side with his back to her while 3 still had his arms around her waist and his head on her shoulder. It didn't take 0 long to find out that they craved the warm touch of another. The constant touching didn't bother her much; it reminded her of the children she watched over in Haven. They often held each other's hand or the hand of someone whom they adopted as a mother or a father or a sibling.
From the hallway she heard 7 and 9 whisper. Slowly she slipped away from 3's hold and snuck to the curtain while 3 readjusted to snuggle with 4. She opened the curtain just enough to see the two.
"How do we even follow someone we don't even know to a world we're unfamiliar with? I don't even think she knows which direction to head in."
"We'll figure it out, 7. It's like I said before, it's a less dangerous adventure."
7 didn't seem to buy her friend's optimism.
He readjusted his stance on the topic. His hand twitched toward hers. 9 wanted to take 7's hand and reassure her lovingly but he was too shy to do it. Instead he rubbed his arm as if there were a wound there. "We'll figure it out in the morning. There's no use stressing about it now when we can't do much." 9 started to walk away.
7 called out in a half serious tone, "Make sure to sleep with one eye open just in case!" 0 suspected she missed a part of the conversation. The joke didn't make any sense to her but it seemed to make sense to 9 who shook his head before he fell out of sight.
0 let the curtain fall back into place. 3 and 4 had woken up at some point and they stood behind her, their knees bent slightly making them appear smaller than her. She didn't need to tell them the obvious. Their friends didn't trust her very well. She didn't blame them. They didn't have any of the Scientist's memories. How could they know her if she never showed up in the beginning? How could they trust her so quickly? But she trusted them, despite her first instinct being to trust only herself and those she knew, these stitchpunks reminded her of the Scientist and everything about him. Did the Twins trust her? The question scared her.
"I'll need to find a map, I guess." She said softly as she sat by the curtain.
The Twins looked at each other, their eyes clicking in a language only they understood. After several minutes of clicking they grabbed her hands and led her back to their homemade bed. They slept on either side, their heads on her shoulder or against the zipper and their hands wrapped around hers. They must trust her enough.
Like always, 0 hardly slept. Every noise woke her up, every howl the wind made forced her to take in her surroundings and plan her exit if she needed one, and every movement she imagined hearing made her tense to the point one of the Twins would wake up and attempt to calm her down in some way as they fell back to sleep. Sometimes they made calming clicking sounds. Sometimes they tapped something nearby in a soothing rhythm, almost like a lullaby. At one point 3 and 4 both woke up and, after clicking with each other, hypnotized her with the lights that shined from their eyes that they often communicated with before falling back asleep.
They didn't really need sleep, they were machines, but the souls that rested in each of them still had the instinct to rest the body even though there were no repercussions the next morning if they didn't.
The last time she finally awoke sunlight spilled in from the cracks and the Twins weren't sleeping next to her. 0 took her time to stand, take in the still unfamiliar room, and walk outside. 7 was dusting off a small bird's skull that fit perfectly on her head when she put it on. 9 and the Twins were nowhere to be seen.
"Where are the Twins?" She asked 7.
This morning 7 didn't act like she did the night before when talking to 9. She was good at hiding her true feelings but so were all women and some men if they tried hard enough.
"Your guess is as good as mine. They were gone when I woke up." She picked up a stick with a knife attached at the end. "There was a lot of information last night. The Twins probably wanted to go somewhere to do research."
It was a good conclusion and 0 couldn't think of one better.
"Do you have a weapon?" It was an innocent question but 0 knew that she was probably probing her story.
"I did but I dropped it when you knocked me out." 0 was quiet for a long moment while 7 gathered materials she found. "If you don't trust me then why did you bring me here?"
She stopped gathering and thought about her answer for a long while. While she thought she started making something with what she found. "I guess…I wasn't suspicious until you said you lost your way and then you started going on and on about the past like you knew it. Your tone reminded me too much of 1."
Everything finally clicked into place. "It hurts still, doesn't it? The loss of your friends?" 7 didn't look at her. She knelt down and placed a hand on hers. "7, you need to let go."
"But we already have let go."
0 opened her mouth to tell her she still clung to the part of the past that could never be undone but the thought was interrupted by a screech above them. "Get down!" She pushed 7 and grabbed her weapon. "Stay down!" She ordered looking up into the sky. "Don't move." The black bird circled above them before finally perching on some rubble.
"What…what is that?"
"That is a bird. A raven or a crow, I still can't tell the difference." The birds black beady eyes watched them carefully. "Don't move, okay? It thinks we're a meal." Slowly 0 got between 7 and the black bird who's eyes watched them. She approached it halfway. It was a contest she had many times, as soon as one of them takes their eyes off the other they're dead.
"Now what?" 7 demanded.
"Now? Now you run for cover!" 0 attacked the bird. No fear. The fight was inevitable since the bird landed. Go for the neck. Snap the neck or hit an artery. It's what everyone in Haven was always taught. There was no snapping of the neck for someone her size, however. She had no choice but to go for an all-offensive attack and hit the neck.
The weapon lodged in the bird's neck and it made the wound worse by flapping its wings at her in a vain attempt to stop the attack. The neck tore open and the blood spilled quickly killing it in the most humane way a stitchpunk was able to.
Blood stained, 0 stood and tried to wipe off the sticky red goo that clung to her burlap body. 7 was too stunned to move. "I told you to run!" 0 scolded. "If I failed you would've died!"
7's eyes were huge. "How did you know the neck would kill it?" She asked.
"Something I was taught in Haven. Kill birds quickly by snapping their neck or letting the blood drain from their neck. Being our size snapping the neck isn't really an option." 0 helped 7 to her feet.
"Hey!" 9 and the Twins ran from the hill toward them. "I think we found a map. Well…the Twins did a long time ago." 9 quickly corrected while 4 looked at a blank space on the wall. He projected images of old maps 0 hadn't seen in years. She approached the map and touched the wall as if the map were tangible.
"I'll admit I'm surprised you even found this. Is this what you were looking for, 9?"
"No…" He said sheepishly. 0 was sure if he could blush he would. "The Twins found it shortly after we released the souls of our friends. They just now remembered it. I went to look at the Scientist's journal."
Finally her index finger rested on a dot near what used to be a river. "Here is where Haven is." She announced and moved south until she found a city. CAPITOL was written in big, bold letters. "This is where we are."
"It doesn't look that far." 9 put his hands on his hips.
"It's 20 miles!" 7 was amazed that such a poorly designed stitchpunk could even travel that far because of a few mistakes.
0 nodded. "That's right and it's very well hidden. To a machine this would be no problem but because of our size it'll take months." She realized how selfish she was being by expecting them to make the trek with her. "Are you guys even up to that task?"
The holographic map disappeared with a blink. The Twins looked at each other and clicked messages back and forth. Both of them nodded and moved to stand on either side of 0.
7 smiled. "They're right. We'll go wherever this Haven is."
"It won't be an easy task, 7. The bird I fought just now is nothing compared to the beasts we'll face. If you thought machines were scary wait until we're out in the wilderness."
The female stitchpunk's smile didn't waver. She looked at 9. "Where do you stand?"
"With you guys." His answer was unwavering.
0 smiled. "You really are the Old Man, 9. Let's get a head start now!"