Ch11 Bitter Pill

I kept exploring after I separated from Mikey, mainly just testing if I could navigate from his house to Maggie’s diner without needing to backtrack. Luckily it seems like even in the most confusing areas the streets still follow a set pattern. The map that Mr. Kimber displayed helped me here. The city was almost perfectly round, with some streets forming straight lines from the center to the outer edges, and the rest of the streets forming concentric rings around the center. Using this information I was easily able to navigate back to the tunnel entrance.

 

I spent the rest of the afternoon hunting rats to test my new mask. I would most likely have to fight while wearing it and I wanted to make sure it didn’t impede me.

 

I put the mask on and adjusted it to the size of my head. It fit quite snugly, even when I changed the shape of my head while wearing it.

 

Once adjusted I began checking my senses. Sight, smell, hearing, none of them were severely impacted which surprised me. Outwardly it didn’t really look like it was doing much, but in order to not hinder smelling and hearing while being form fitting it obviously had to be more complicated on the inside. I would like to open it up and see the inner workings, but Sandra had warned me to not try to modify it. Plus I was doubtful I understood enough to put it back together. My specialty was organic components, not inorganic ones.

 

I made sure the helmet was properly in place and then began stalking the tunnels to look for rats. I started where I destroyed the nest last time and went from there. Quickly I found a fresh trail and followed it.

 

Searching the tunnels for a while I eventually found a new group of rats. This time it was a group of six big ones without any of the tiny ones. They were currently jumping out of a pipe in the ceiling, most of them with small parcels in their mouths. Maybe this was a scavenging party.

 

I charged around the corner using the same strategy as last time. As long as I didn’t perform worse than last time I would consider it a successful test of fighting with the mask on.

  

Reaching the first one I stabbed it in the back of the neck with my knife. The second one I slashed its neck artery, and gave it a good kick to daze it while it bled out. Surprisingly the rest didn’t run like last time, and dropped their parcels to charge me.

  

For all the good it did them.

  

The third rat reached me and I stomped its head, using my traction claws to get a good grip and grind its face into the floor. When the fourth came close I flung the third rat’s corpse at it, knocking it away.

  

From that point forth the fight became a dodging test. They would leap or charge and try to grapple me, while I dodged and used my height and weight advantage to rain blows on them. I had to say, while the drone form wasn’t very combat specialized, being upright and tall was still a great advantage versus crawling foes. As long as I wasn’t tripped I could put most of my weight behind the blows.

 

Eventually four rats laid dead or dying around me. The two survivors tried a last resort and one charged my feet while the other leaped. I kicked the one that went for my feet away, but the second landed on my upper torso and tried to bite at my face. It went for my eyes, but apparently it was too stupid to realize I was wearing a shell and instead its teeth scrapped uselessly at the mask. I grabbed it around the middle and squeezed, increasing the pressure until its spine finally snapped.

 

Dropping it to the floor I readied myself for the last one, but I needn’t have bothered. It was running far down the tunnel and ducked behind the next intersection as I watched.

 

Well then, the mask definitely helped this time. But even if the rat hadn’t attacked my face the mask hadn’t hindered my normal fighting methods at all. I’d say this was a successful test run of the mask.

 

 

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After testing the mask I decided to hibernate for the night. Technically I could continue to scout the surrounding areas, but I was worried about what the drone at the school had said about being out after dark. There just had to be a real reason for why it would mention that, and if the rest of the drones were following that advice I would need to follow it too just to not stand out.

 

And I suppose I needed to rest Human.exe as well. I knew I could push it but there was no real pressing need to.

 

 

I scouted buildings for most of the morning, climbing up walkways and staircases to see how the area looked from up high. With one building I used the metal bar staircase to reach the roof, and as I looked out over the city I saw buildings spreading out around me far into the distance. In the area around Maggie’s they were only a few levels tall, but in the direction of Ashwood St. they created the illusion of a sloping hill as they gradually increased in size. Looking in the direction of central I could almost make out the tops of the mega structures that dominated that area. A massive panorama.

  

I had to be wrong about the shape of this place. The ceiling wasn’t a ceiling. But I didn’t know what else it could be. I didn’t have enough information to even make an informed guess.

 

But I knew one place where I could find out more.

 

I made my way back to Clemont High School. If I was timing it right I should have about half an hour before lunch, and I used a higher walkway to scout the school without drawing the attention of the security guards. The main entrance to the school was a wide bridge that connected to the level three ‘road’ walkway that made up the majority of Ashwood St. however other smaller bridges extended to other walkways around the surrounding buildings.

 

I spotted the security guard that had apprehended me last time. Getting caught by it again would probably not end as harmlessly as last time. It was a ‘stickler’ for the rules if Tim and Mikey were to be believed.

 

I decided to sneak in a little after the bell rang for lunch, walking to one of the walkways that was one level above a side bridge. When a guard walked passed on the bridge I waited until it was a good distance away before I jumped down onto the bridge behind it, and soundlessly entered the single door that led inside.

 

Inside was a corridor, and students were filtering out of the classrooms to go to the cafeteria. I quickly fell into place with the crowd. One or two young drones had seen me enter, but like I had noted yesterday the student drones basically ignored one another unless they were part of the same social group, and I continued along unquestioned by them.

  

The pattern from yesterday held, and the cafeteria was again a mass of young drones waiting in line for food. Curiously I noticed that there were slightly fewer drones here today. Enough to be noticable. I suppose that many ‘parents’ had decided to withdraw them early after yesterday’s announcements. While waiting in line I spotted Mikey and Tim already at a table. Luckily between a quarter held by one of the rats from yesterday, and keeping a look out for loose coins this morning, I had managed to scrape together the necessary two dollars.

  

Today’s lunch was supposedly fried veggies with a fruit cup and beans on the side, but I wasn’t sure how much I believed them. I had seen fried veggies at Maggie’s and I don’t think they were supposed to leak.

   

Tasted fine this time at least.

 

I made my way over to Tim and Mikey. Strangely neither of them was eating, and Mikey was sitting with his head in his hands.

 

“Hello, may I sit with you again?”

 

Tim looked up at me, “Oh! Hey Tofu. Yeah, go for it man.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

I took a seat and started eating, but quickly I realized something was wrong with Mikey. He wasn’t talking or eating, when yesterday he had kept the conversation going with Tim rather effortlessly. Tim also looked like something was bothering him, altough it seemed more like he was worried about Mikey. I ate in silence for a bit, and eventually Tim tried to converse with Mikey.

 

“Hey Mikey, we’ll figure out something man. No worries,” said Tim. Even to me his reassurance sounded hesitant, and I decided to inquire.

 

“Did something bad happen?”

 

Tim looked over to me and was about to say something but hesitated, looking first to Mikey.

 

“My mother’s scumbag boyfriend happened,” replied Mikey.

 

Boyfriend? Scumbag? Those were new terms I didn’t recognize. ‘Boy’ and ‘friend’ I knew, and I had thought friend was a good term, I guess ‘scumbag’ invalidates the positive connotation? At least ‘friend’ implied the problem was a “who” and not a “what.”

 

“What did they do?” I asked.

 

Tim waited for Mikey, but when Mikey stayed silent he answered, “He stole the money that Mikey was saving for college.”

 

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‘College’. From what I had heard from the announcements yesterday and other students it was the next level of training after high school. Students needed to pay to be trained at this level then?

 

“…all six thousand of it,” whispered Mikey, so quiet I almost couldn’t hear him.

 

Six. Thousand.

 

Estimated worth = 600 cycles of operation minimum. Continuous.

 

I reeled at Mikey’s statement. Six thousand dollars! You could buy so much food with that! I hadn’t even realized it was possible to get that much money.

 

“H-how did you get that much?”

 

“He’s been working every summer since the last odd one,” Tim answered.

  

“And now it’s all down the drain,” said Mikey.

  

Well at least I now knew that a job paid well. Sandra had said that the minion job paid by every task done, but hadn’t given a hard amount.

  

“Is there no way to get the money back?” I asked.

 

“No, scumbag already used it to pay off his dealer. My mom was fighting with him about it yesterday but…” at this Mikey grit his teeth and clenched his fists before continuing, “I’d almost consider it money well spent if it would just get him the hell out of my life. But he’s like a leech. Sucking the life out of my mom, and now me too.”

  

It was then that the bell rang, and Mikey got up to go, leaving his tray of food behind (he had been too distraught to eat!).

  

“We’ll think of something Mikey. Promise!”

 

“Thanks Tim…” Mikey replied, but he didn’t seem very enthusiastic about it. As he walked away I turned to Tim.

 

“How damaging is this for his plans?”

 

Tim looked at me and replied, “It would have paid for the first semester at least. His grades are fine, but he didn’t get any scholarships. Plus the nearest college is still an hour away even with the subway. He was hoping to rent and maybe work part time. Now though… anyways I’ll see you later Tofu, I need to get to class.”

  

Tim walked away with his shoulders down.

 

I pondered the situation as I ate the rest of Mikey’s lunch. Technically this whole thing wasn’t my problem. My main concern was securing steady nutrition and resources without compromising my disguise.

 

But that didn’t really feel right to me.

 

I had not been anyone important to Mikey, and yet he had still fed me for free (two times now). If possible I’d like to maintain valuable drones like that. Who knows where else I would find someone willing to feed me for free?

  

Mikey had said that the money was probably not recoverable. But he also said he would settle for getting rid of the ‘scumbag boyfriend’.

 

Maybe I could help with that.

 

 

I spent the next two ‘periods’ in Mr. Kimber’s class, listening to a fascinating lecture on post Odd Summer supply routes. I was somewhat distracted by Mikey’s situation however. Rather than slowly take notes like he had yesterday, today he just stared at his desk. Disregarding knowledge and not eating. Definitely distraught.

 

When the bell rang I went to the ‘restroom’, and changed my face in the stall to attend Mr. Kimber’s class again. While listening to the supply route lecture a second time (repeated verbatim, obviously Mr. Kimber is a practiced professional), I calculated the risk of getting rid of the scumbag boyfriend. It was a bit more risky than the two ambushers, those had most likely been working only with each other. But the scumbag boyfriend was apparently subservient to this ‘dealer’, and its absence might be missed. Plus, I didn’t know how much it would take for ‘cops’ or super heroes to get involved.

 

As a back-up plan maybe it would be possible for Mikey to get the money from an alternate source. Gathering coins off the floor had worked for me so far, although I wasn’t sure if Mikey could gather as efficiently as I could. It depended on how long Odd Summer lasted, and on how long it took before the colleges started to function afterwards. I’d think of something. For now I planned to follow Mikey home again. This time I would take note of the exact residence and come back while Mikey was in school to get rid of the ‘leech’.

  

I just needed to make sure I killed the ‘scumbag boyfriend’ and not the ‘mom’. But I doubted that would be too hard to figure out.