Chapter 7

Fractured

Carl's Trans Am rolled through town, the man and his now robotic son looking for Sally.

Max had pulled up his hood again, and had put on a face mask and a pair of sunglasses to further hide his mechanical features, while still being able to scan the areas as they drove around.

And scan was right. By focusing his optics, he soon learned that they had more functions than the human eyes they once were. They would zoom in and out to give him much clearer pictures of distant objects than his old eyes ever could, even getting small boxes of detailed information in his field of view on whatever he focused on, be it a bug in flight, a tree, or a person out for a walk.

But no matter how much he looked, he couldn't spot Sally anywhere.

"Damn it, Sally… where are you?"

"Maybe her family took her in just like we did." his father suggested.

"I hope so, dad. I really hope so." Max looked back at his phone and tried calling Sally again, only to be met with the same message that the number wasn't accessible at the moment. "But why won't she start her phone? If only to send a text to let me know she's okay."

"I don't know, son. I wish I had an answer for that, I really do. We'll just have to keep going and keep our eyes open."

"Yeah… if only there was another way to locate her…"

Max pondered the question, searching his mind for an alternate solution.

There had to be a way to find her. His body had already shown abilities that was more machine than human, like his optics being able to zoom in on distant objects, and his brain giving him detailed analyses on the food he ate. Surely it had some way of tracking his friend as well.

"Come on, think! This body has to be able to find her. Scanners, an uplink system, tracking systems… anything! Please, just work!"

He looked up and out the car window again.

"Anything?" Carl asked hesitantly after a few moments.

"No… nothing…" Max vented. "If only this stupid body had come with a manual."

"That would have been something. I guess we just have to keep looking."

"Yeah…" Max kept looking out the window, but it felt more absentminded than before. He just couldn't stop thinking about Sally, and what might have happened to her.

He closed his optics for a moment to clear his mind, and when he did, he saw her in his mind. The tough but happy tomboy he had met at the camp, now a robotic version of herself. So different, and yet still the same, deep inside. Still his friend.

His first friend.

His best friend.

He felt a pulse in the core of his chest and Max's optics snapped open.

"Dad! I know where she is!"

"You do?! Where?!"

"Take the next right!"

"Hope you're right, boy."

Meanwhile, Sally had finally come to a rest underneath a tree in a forested area.

She had been running for what felt like hours, waiting for her body to give up on her from exertion, but that never happened. Her mechanical body was tireless and just kept going, with only her energy level dropping at a faster rate due to the physical activity.

As a result, she had soon found herself far farther from her home than she had thought. But that didn't matter to her, all she could think about was how her family, especially her mother, had rejected her.

"Do not dare call me 'mom'! You're nothing but a machine monster! Get out of our home! And never come back!"

Her mother's words echoed in her mind, and they hurt like a thousand burning knives in her non-existent heart.

Sally cried and sobbed, and still no tears fell. She didn't know what to do any longer. She had held on so long, waited as long as she had, because of the hope she had held of coming home again. But now that hope had been shattered.

All she could do now was sit against the tree and look at her robotic hands, a constant reminder to that her mother was right. She wasn't Sally any more, she was just a machine, a mechanical replica left behind in her place after the accident.

That had to be it. They had to have been killed in that chamber, with robot copies made to replace them.

She only thought she was Sally, but she was nothing but a pale imitation.

She placed her head in her hands and cried.

What was she supposed to do?

She could never go back to her family again, and she had left Max and his family behind without even telling them. There was nowhere that she could ever be accepted for what she was. If people wouldn't see her as a horror, they would want to take her apart and investigate how she worked.

Sally, or whatever she was, was utterly alone, and she had never felt so scared and broken.

Suddenly, a hand was placed against her shoulder, and time seemed to stand still. Her sorrow and grief had been so overwhelming that she had not noticed that someone had come up to her. She had thought that she was safe from detection where she was, but that was obviously not the case.

She knew that she couldn't dare look to see who it might be, as that would let them see who… what she was as well.
But what was she supposed to do?

"Sally…"

A jolt went through her systems. She recognized that voice.

Carefully, hesitantly, she looked up.

"M-max?"

It was indeed Max that stood next to her, a caring yet concerned look on his face.

And he saw the shock and confusion on hers, but he could also see the pain in her optics.

Max knelt next to her and put his arms around her, pulling her into a supportive hug, holding her close.

"Oh Max…" Sally wept. "My family… they… they…"

"Shh… It's okay, Sally. You don't have to say anything. I understand." he said in a low and soothing voice.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I shouldn't have left… not like that…"

"I'm here for you, Sally. Just like we promised we would be for each other."

"Max… are we… still us? Am I… am I really me? Are we just machines that think we are… us?"

Max pulled back a bit and looked into Sally's optics, his golden reflecting her emerald green, just like back in the chamber.

"Sally… we are not just the machines we have become. We are more than meets the eye, so much more. I told you before, and I will tell you as many times as needed, we are still us, and more still. I'm still Max, and you are still Sally, my best friend."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I feel it. In here." he pointed to his chest, but not where his heart used to be, but right in the centre. "That's how I found you. I could feel that you were here, and that you needed me."

"Max…"

"It will be okay, Sally. I promise. Whatever happens, I will stay at your side, just don't run away again."

Sally threw her arms around Max and wept. What she had gone through still hurt, and would hurt for a long time to come, but at least she had her friend there to support her, to light her darkest hour.

They stayed underneath the tree for several minutes, Max letting Sally cry against his chest, lending her his strength.

"Take all the time you need, Sally, then we will head back to my place." Max whispered soothingly as he held her softly. "You can stay with us for as long as needed. You will be safe there."

"Thank you… thank you so much…"

A short walk from there, Carl waited in the car, having parked on the side of the road. He didn't know how Max knew where Sally was, but if he was correct, then that was good enough for Carl. Especially considering that they had ended up a bit away from town.

If Sally truly was out there, then something must have gone wrong with her reunion, and that left a bad taste in Carl's mouth.

At least he could take comfort in that his son was the good friend that Sally needed, and he was truly proud over that.

After a while, he saw Max come back out from the woods, his arm around Sally's shoulders as he supported her.

"Good job, son." Carl said in a whisper with a small smile.

Back at Sally's home, her family were still reeling from their meeting with their now robotic family member, still trying to piece things together.

Ellen was sitting silently in the couch, just staring at her feet, and her father Hank was pacing back and forth trying to make sense of what they had just been witness to.

Finally, Jill, was on her knees and crying, still clutching the kitchen knife she had pointed at the mechanical being.

Whatever it had been, it wasn't their daughter, and that meant that she never got home. Something terrible had happened to Sally, and that machine had been sent to replace her for some reason.

Jill looked through the tears that stung her eyes and she saw the knife in her hand, her eyes reflecting on the smooth metal. She gripped the handle so hard her hand shook and her knuckles turned white.

Her daughter was gone.

Someone had taken her daughter from her.

And she was going to find out who.

Jill stood up, and still holding the knife, she pulled out her phone and dialled 911.

"Police? I need your help…" she held up the knife and stared at her reflection. "I believe… I believe my daughter has been kidnapped… possibly even murdered… please, help us…"

Poor Sally is going through so much now, she's even questioning if she's really her or not. At least Max has found her and is by her side now. He truly is fiercely loyal to his friend.
But now Sally's family is getting the cops involved, which is understandable, but I doubt it will make things easier for Sally and Max going forward.