More Than Just a Bio-Machine
By Eule Vix
Disclaimer: I do not own Welcome to Night Vale nor do not make money off of this fic.
Chapter 2: Cyborg
The room had been long cleaned, her arms a continuous pain, and the skin on the bottom of her feet burning in her shoes. Yet she continued to stare. Smile hidden, face lax, and eyes dull.
She knew what he would say. She knew that like the leader, he was created to be she would have been chastised for such unproductive behavior. And yet here she was, new Vice President of Strex, completely in the position she always hoped to have one day, and yet she couldn't bring herself to even as much as smirk.
[+]-[+]-[+]
It had been too months since she had started her work at Strex HQ. She had been in the small handful of people who had managed to make it past Orientation; and just in that she was proud of herself.
She had been given menial tasks for the moment until she could be trusted with larger more important work. For now her days would rotate between coffee gopher, copy runner, and interrogation room cleaner. Today she was particularly happy since she was on the rotation to clean up after the mandated questioning of various Strex employees. Sure, sometimes there was quite a mess to pick up, but it wasn't the limbs or eyes or organs that Lauren enjoyed seeing. No, it was once all the small contributions had been given, the employees who gave their still hopefully alive, she would be allowed to visit their cubicle and with the remains help decorate their office for that special personal touch; sometimes literally when there were a few hands to be able to adorn the walls with.
She had already filled in her mandated 2 hours of overtime, but had decided that the office of Ms. Mirth needed an extra special touch. She was happy with her choices today, she didn't have any fingers as she usually liked to use, but found that the overabundance of tongues did quite nicely for the sunflower she was making on the back wall above the couch. She always fancied herself an artist, or at the least someone who was very skilled with her hands. She had made sure to mention this in her interview; anything that was an asset to you was an asset to Strex and would mean you were more likely to keep it attached. Anything else was up for contributions.
As she finished pinning the last of the slimy pale pink tongues she reminisced of times that were happy, and so very long ago. Some of the memories were blurry, a haze of red and grey in the forgotten network of her mind. But what she did remember was the ash falling from the sky like snow, so many limbs and heads and bodies that littered the street for days, and the stunning things she made day to day as she wondered the streets in her stained yellow dress. Oh, what she would give to be six again, to be able to frolic to care free and not have to worry of the world she would return to every night, to forget the scratchy bed of the orphanage.
She was glad to find herself done with her latest work before her mind turned to dark, less smiling, places. She stood back and judged it, deciding she was satisfied and that there wasn't anything else she could add to her masterpiece of the day. She did her best to remember the pattern so that if she got the chance she could re-create it in a week when the decorations needed to be changed. She gathers up what remained and headed out, locking the office door behind her.
She wondered the halls, heading towards the storage unit for all the left over employee contributions. She pulled open the large metal door, the rush of freezing air pricking her skin. She hated the cold, preferring the heat of the desert as her comfort. She hadn't thought to bring a stylized jacket that day, only wearing a light green business suit with short sleeves and low cuts. She brought the box closer to her chest trying to conserve what heat she could as she traveled through the large fridge. She had just found the correctly dated spot for her container when she heard a voice that sounded familiar.
"Please explain what you two are doing in here unauthorized and off the clock?" It was her Orientation Leader Daniel, after that day she'd made sure to commit that voice to memory.
"Oh look, it's Mr. Perfect the Bio-Machine who thinks he can boss anyone he wants around." The voice was high pitched almost like that of a whine. She was always one to be tempted by curiosity and she found herself losing to it. She gave in and edged herself against the shelves heading towards the sound, box still in hand, doing what she could to see what was going on without getting caught.
"That is not my designation." She was so close to being able to see the three figures around the corner now, standing in a deep and almost hidden part of the freezer.
"Oh, like it matters. You're not human, so what do you care. We can call you whatever we want cyborg." She felt her body tense. She had heard of the discrimination of the new Bio-Machines, some people upset saying that their human brains made their still imperfect and thus should be destroyed. Others just hating them that they were not human at all, claiming only those born only of flesh and organs could be made perfect in the eyes of the Smiling God. Lauren had never bothered to learn of the troubles concerning the bio-machines, figuring that her own had been more pressing. So she found herself slightly confused as a fierce anger surged in her veins at the slur word uttered by the third girl.
"I repeat. That is not my designation. I am giving you both one final warning be-"
"Before you what? Are you going to spill some of your precious oil on us?"
"Better not tell him that Abby, he might be one of those weird cyborgs that get off to that kind of stuff."
"Ewww….How could you be so vile, and in front of sweet young ladies like us?"
She didn't know when she had reached into the box in her hands, nor when she grabbed hold of the largest bone chunk she could find, but before she had much time to even think about stopping she had lunged out of her hiding place. She place a right leg behind her and reared her arm holding the bone into a powerful throw and aimed at the nearest girl's head. She smiled glad she did not know her own strength when the sharp jagged edges of the broken bone ripped across the girl's head and ear, cutting her flesh. The girl let out a cry as both Daniel and the other girl turned to see where the assault had come from.
"Back off!" Lauren reached into the box again, this time finding only a foot as her largest weapon. She again reared back ready to throw, aiming this time at the other girl who's eyes were wide and body shaking. "Before I make you…" she felt her muscles tense as she was about to hurl the bloody stump.
"That's enough." Lauren froze as though a command word had been uttered, she watched Daniel, his face flush with anger. He looked back to the two girls, hands balled in fury behind his back. "Now, before I decided I need to have a serious tall with both your Managers I suggest you both leave. And if you don't," he paused making sure to look them each in the eyes. "I will personally make sure that the correct paperwork for the firing process is completed."
Lauren watched them both pale, realizing too late they had upset the wrong Bio-Machine. The one who did not have the head wound grabbed the other by the wrist and pulled her quickly out of the freezer. Lauren slowly lowered the severed foot she had been holding and placed it back in the box. She found herself unable to make eye contact with Daniel and so she just studied the blood patterns that crept along the sturdy cardboard surface she held in her arms. She knew she had over stepped her boundaries on a multitude of levels, that she should have never assaulted another Strex Employee, that she should never have threaten another Strex Employee, and more importantly that Daniel was the obvious one in charge and she should have left it to him to handle in the first place.
She could hear the clang of metal against metal as Daniel slowly made his way over to where she stood. He kept her head low, ready to accept the punishment that was to be torn from her. She silently pleaded in her mind that he would make it quick. She then felt a warm and heavy hand on her shoulder. The synthetic skin of his feeling comforting but odd with its foreign texture.
"Thank you."
The words shocked her, she felt confused and unsure of how to respond. The hand was removed as Daniel continued on, his footsteps echoing off the walls of the silent metal cooler. She listened even after the squeak of the door and the fade of his steps behind it. She was then all alone, encased in the chill and wrapped up in her own confusion. It took her some time but she soon finished the task she had at hand and clocked out for the night.
It had been two weeks before she had heard anything in reference to the two girls from that day. Apparently one had been caught preforming some unproductive actions with another girl, a different one, not the one who had the wounds. Lauren learned that her severance package paperwork and other forms for the firing process had been filled out by the end of that day.