Page 13 of Alliance
I slid up to it and knocked quietly, pressing my shoulders against the wall so the men at the end of the alley could no longer see me.
[Warning: unit requires hydration]
I swallowed on a dry throat and knocked again. My unit’s condition was becoming dire. And pain… It sapped my strength. Even if I turned back and walked towards the guild outpost as instructed, I would not make it.
“Please,” I whispered, remnants of the other human and her companion brushing against my senses. I angled my mouth towards the seam in the door. “You dropped your shirt. Here…” I pushed it through the open space between the track and the wall and something pulled it the rest of the way through. The man sighed and slid open the door enough to make eye contact. His eyes were beautiful and framed in such lovely lashes. Like a deer from Earth.
“I-I don’t know where to go,” I admitted.
“I can’t, I’m sorry.”
“Wait!”
Before he could close the door in my face, I put my blistered bare foot in the way, shoving at the burning metal with my shoulder. His ears flattened as my skin sizzled. I bit my lip as pain shuttled up my neck, determined to change his mind.
“Please, I saw you at the Conrad–”
“I’ve never been to the Conrad.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Not you… I saw these,” I swirled my hand through the halos. “The data. From the human and the red venandi.” I licked my dry lips, but there was no moisture leftin my mouth. “Im-Imminy and Vinjis. I think I know them, and I think you can help me.”
The man’s eyes widened. He looked at me more closely, his grip on the door loosening. “You’re… one of the dolls? You saw Vin and Imani?”
Those were their names? Yes, of course they were. I nodded. The man leaned into me, his ears popping out between my face and the door to glance both ways down the alley with them perked up like satellite dishes, listening. Wrapping an arm around my shoulder, he pushed me inside.
“Come in. I can at least give you something to wear.”
I slipped into the darkened room, and the man locked the door behind me.
05
Fásach pushed the human doll through his one-room shanty and shoved the green plas curtain aside as he ushered her into the water closet. His heart pounded louder than the music in Xenoden.
What thefuckwas he thinking, letting her inside?
But also, what did it matter? His shitty little house was already compromised, and he needed to know more about the guild’s situation before he made his next move.
He slipped on one of her bloody footprints as they stepped onto the cool marble tiles.
“How are you still walking?” he blurted, getting a good look at her feet for the first time.
“My vitals deck regulates pain sensory input,” she said, curling her burnt toes. “And I had no choice. I had to come here.”
Fear skipped down Fásach’s spine. “Why? Did someone instruct you to come here?”
The doll shook her head with a perplexing smile, as if she were excited and proud. “No! I instructed myself. But I couldn’t stay there. I need to find the other human.”
“Imani.”
“Yes, Imani. And Vin… Vindilus!” She clapped her hands together once. “The head of security in Renata.”
Fásach blinked and shook his head. As many questions as he had, they both were covered in a foam that was slowly eating through his fur.
Not to mention, she was naked and blistered.
“Right,” he said, getting himself back on track. He bent down in front of a trough and spigot, where the day’s allotment of water had been collecting overnight. A reinforced ice box sat beside it, hinges rusted over from years of use. He’d bought it secondhand from the pawn shop two streets down, and it had been a lifesaver for Misila especially, since she was still too small to regulate her body heat well. He opened it up, turned off the sanitizer puck keeping his small collection of washcloths from mildewing, and withdrew two that dripped with cool water.
The doll blinked at his hand, taking the towel slowly.
