20 Goin' Solo

When Sia reaches the solid ground, she stumbles as she takes control back over her body. Her legs feel a little tight, but overall, she feels fine.

'You probably took the chance to heal all my bruising and tiny scraps.'

AFFIRMATIVE

Sia shivers and rubs her arms. The land transforms from this flat waterfront into a hill. Sia climbs the hill little by little.

'I don't suppose I could just stay in enchanted mode while traveling?'

AFFIRMATIVE

PROLONGED ENHANCEMENT JEOPARDIZES PRIORITY #1

Sia gets to the top of the hill and is rewarded with the sight of desolate snow-covered buildings. Her field of vision cannot make out any living beings, mammals or otherwise.

'Priority #1?'

SYNTHETIC INTELLIGENCE PRIORITY #1: ENSURE SUBJECT 001 STATUS REMAIN STABLE

'--unless commanded otherwise…yea yea okay. I remember.'

UNLESS COMMANDED OTHERWISE.

Sia rolls her eyes.

She turns around to view the distance she made between herself and the others. She can see that the methane hasn't stopped burning by now. They probably can't see her from her vantage point on this hill. Especially with several years of methane buildup burning right in front of their eyes. The ice will probably have melted in several places. Crossing that area will be impossible until the ice is frozen once again.

To get a better peace of mind, Sia finds a flipped car to sit behind and shield herself from view. She must figure out where she is going from here on out. Running into the city - into its many terrors - with a clouded mind will just get her into even more trouble. She remembers back in middle school when she let emotions cloud her mind. She had made so many bad decisions that embarrass her to this day.

'Ugh, the slamming of Sia into a locker. Ugh. Forget, forget, forget.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When her father had seen her avoid going to school and asked her about it all, she had thought he would laugh at her or take the other person's side. Instead, he went to the school and figured things out. Her tormentors vanished.

When she returned that day from school, her father sat her down and spoke with her. He said that he was glad to help her solve her problem that day, but in the future, she needed to evaluate her situation and figure out how to solve it herself. She wouldn't always have someone there to depend on. That's not how life works.

Meditation and summer leadership training took up her time from that point forward. The leadership training never stuck, but the meditation came in handy. Especially when people found the time to ridicule Sia again. Sia seemed so unphased by their activities that they were under the assumption that she was a mentally deficient teenager. The average person couldn't withstand such mistreatment with a simple batting of an eye! Sia could.

The fools at her academy had tried and failed to manipulate her into starting fights and turned teachers against her. Chen Sia would not bow.

It was just as her father said, "The wind bays, the mountain never bows."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Ha…how right he always was. Moment he remarried he had better things to worry about,' Sia bitterly thinks. 'At least he taught me a few tricks before leaving me high and dry.'

'Hey, can you keep a lookout while I rest?'

AFFIRMATIVE

Sia smiles, 'At least I know I can always rely on you.'

INVARIABLY

SUBJECT 001 AND THE SYNTHETIC INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPER ARE SYNONYMIC

Sia doesn't understand what the machine means but feels elated at knowing she isn't alone.

'Me and you til the ends of time.'

It's only been about a week, but Sia feels like she has spent months with this device inside her head. All the things she has been through in these past few days make her feel so feeble. She is used to choosing her path and sticking to it, not letting the world around her dictate how she must act. It's really been a confusing and chaotic journey so far. Sia needs to change this.

Closing her eyes, Sia evaluates her thoughts and feelings:

Sia feels happy to be away from those people. Happy that they won't be hurt chasing after a group of people that don't exist. Happy that she won't be responsible for their fate any longer.

She was planning to leave them all behind anyway.

The moment she finds a way to her family, she does not want to have to factor other people into her plan. Their world is terrible, sure, but she's the one who doesn't belong here. They got dealt a bad hand, it's not her job to fix that.

On the other hand, she finds being alone in an unknown world to be frightening. These past few days, she has been traveling with chaperones. Guardians that shielded her from the disturbing place this country has become. What might she encounter while out here alone, without people to distract her, or hide her from harm?

The howling wind amplifies the fearful thoughts that consume her mind for a moment.

No allies, no resources, but there is no going back now.

She doesn't need them…she has Lil Puter. The synthetic intelligence developer device might be new to this world, but it has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Her sleeve. THEIR SLEEVE.

Thieves might be able to steal her equipment, but they can't steal her greatest advantage. As a matter of fact, thieves should be avoiding her. She's got weapons of mass destruction downloaded into her brain. The sky is the limit.

INCREASE IN HEART'S ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY

LOGGING INCIDENT

Sia opens her eyes. The sound of the wind no longer resembles ominous howling. She now hears the encouraging roar of the earth anticipating her next move. She is bolstered by its cheers and answers it with a roar of her own.

"Ha ha ha! Look out world, I've arrived!"

Sia shadowboxes an imaginary opponent. Dramatically lowering her fists, she stands up straighter than usual and forces out a breath in mockery of a martial artist.

"This will be a walk in the park."

She takes big exaggerated steps into the city and refuses to look back. One look might make her falter and lose the hype state she has put herself into. There is no going back now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

The woman breaths out a sigh of relief as she hides behind a large piece of rubble. Clouds of anxiety vent out of her clenched teeth. A ripped backpack with missing straps is held tightly to her chest. Movements can be heard approaching her hiding spot. She holds her breath and tries to distance herself from the rubble without making much noise.

Her sneakers scrape against the ground as she shuffles away to a flipped car. A stone comes flying at her. It hits the back of her head and propels her forward into the wheel of the wrecked vehicle. She catches herself on the wheel and drops the bag.

"Give it up, whore," a dirty woman yells at the injured woman.

Men and woman converge in front of the injured woman holding sticks and stones. The injured woman sniffles and spits a wad of bloody mucus onto the ground.

"It's mine…" She says before another stone comes flying toward her.

She raises her hands to block the stone from hitting her face. The force behind the impact makes her flinch. The people yell abuse at the thief.

"You know the rules. You find stuff, you share it amongst the lot of us."

"Stealing from the dead we can excuse…but stealing from your own people?!"

"Selfish whore!"

"You're nothing better than a Savage!"

"—lucky we even took her in."

"Beat her! Beat the whore!"

The thief whimpers as she bends to grab that bag once again. Out of the crowd, a child rushes out to the thief and rips the backpack from her weak arms.

"Hey!"

"Aaaaaah, Bastard!!"

"Get that Freak!"

Bang!

One of the men in the crowd shoots the female thief dead, but he does not waste any bullets on the child. The curly headed child runs for his life. He can hear several adults pursuing him. He runs into an alley and slows down a moment to move some boards to the side. He crawls through an open crevice in the brick wall. Quickly, he replaces the boards and turns to hop up and continue running.

"Where the hell is that Freak?"

The curly headed child crouches as he passes the large storefront windows of the building. People can be heard running back and forth. The bag is held tightly to his side as he avoids debris. When he leaves the store, he peeks out to watch both ends of the street. Nobody is around.

He tiptoes to a corner and looks back behind himself to ensure no one is following him. When he gets to the corner he bumps into a large body. Arms grab hold of his shoulders to keep him upright.

"Oh. Sorry, kid. Are you alright?" Sia asks the small body below her.

He flails his unoccupied arm and pushes away from the larger person. He growls at her when they get some distance between themselves. Then he sees people in the distance behind her and he takes off down a different street as fast as he can.

The frightened look in the kids' eyes spurs Sia to follow him. She doesn't have to check behind herself to know there are people tailing them. If those people can put such a fearsome look on a child, she can't image how terrifying they must be.

'Maybe they are Savages?!'

He is quite fast, but with the synthetic intelligence developer enchanting her body she could probably keep up with an Olympian.

"Kid!" she yells.

The kid spares a look over his shoulder to look at Sia and seems to run even faster. He turns another corner, climbs a fence, hops down onto a frozen car, and begins running again. Sia stops at the fence and looks around at her surroundings.

'Where are we in relation with the laboratory now?' Sia asks Lil Puter.

SYNTHETIC INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPER LOADING TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OF COLDSTONE…

IT APPEARS TO BE 4 MINUTES EAST OF YOUR CURRENT LOCATION

Sia debates with herself if she should keep chasing that kid. She no longer hears the other people's loud shouting.

'Well, he's survived this long by himself. He probably doesn't need me,' Sia rationalizes.

'Onward to the Lab then…I guess.' Sia declares.

She bites her lip as she walks away from the fence and follows the directions given by Lil Puter. She came this far to visit this place.

'It would be a waste to die before I even get the chance to discover the truth.'