Sarah7

Ch22

The shattered buildings loomed tall around Sarah as they made their way down the ruined street toward the city center. As the twisted metal, concrete, and rust from old cars surrounded her she was reminded of her origins in the derelict ship, and shuddered.

The rest of the scavenger team had left as they progressed, going back to their families, or reporting for duty at stations along the way. Now, it was just Sarah in borrowed scavenger gear, Hale, the twins, and Max .

Sarah glanced sidelong at the mech. He had been strangely silent since they had joined up with the scavengers, only answering with the shortest responses and not volunteering any comments. Sarah was more than a little worried about him.

“Are you okay, Max?” She said as they turned down another empty street corner. The air cooled as twilight fully arrived and a cold wind blew debris about.

Max turned his head to her as he stepped carefully along behind the group .

“Be careful Sarah. We do not know how much we can trust these people.” Max said. It was the most he’d said all day.

Hale raised an eyebrow, over his good eye.

“We are almost to the city center. Sarah, our Leader wants to meet you as soon as you are ready, we have a place for you to change, get cleaned up, and eat. ” Hale said diplomatically. He moved his horse closer to Sarah and pretended not to have heard Max.

Sarah blushed and nodded.

“What about Max?” She asked.

“Leaf and Twig will escort him to a safe place. We can hide him underground in the subway tunnels. ” He lifted his chin in a gesture to Leaf.

Leaf swung his horse in front of Max. “Come with me robot!”

Max stopped abruptly and raised his arm. It swiveled in place to reveal a gatlin-gun like weapon. The barrels began to spin, emitting a high pitched whine that echoed through the streets.

“Max! Stop it!” Sarah pulled her horse awkwardly in front of Leaf.

Max recoiled as if stung and raised his weapon to the air. A few rounds went off before the mech could halt the weapon. Everyone ducked as two blasts struck a nearby building, shattering the ancient glass.

“Max. These are our friends! They brought us here to protect us. You must go with them to the subway . I’ll be alright. ” She gestured to her earpiece that she had carefully kept hidden.

“Ok. Take care. I will not harm your ... Friends” Max said. His voice was even more emotionless than usual. Was he - jealous?

Cowed, Leaf and Twig quietly led the mech down a side street. The clopping of their horses hooves a slow echoing counterpoint to the heavy metallic stomp stomp of Max’s feet.

Hale whispered to Twig as she passed , “You know what to do.”

Almost imperceptibly, she nodded.

---

Sarah had never felt more rested, full, or clean in her whole short life. She felt the memories of the original Sarah welling up within her. Memories of a time before the invasion. It seemed almost inconceivable that a person could be clean, dry, and not hungry or exhausted, as her memories had revealed to her. But as she found after being led to a clean building that seemed well taken care of and shown how to use the bath, her memories were coming more in line with her current experience.

Fresh clothing and a plate of fruit and bread had been left out on a table outside the bathroom, and Sarah dug into it ravenously.

Despite the city’s outward appearance of devastation and decay, the inner city seemed to have been cleaned and restored in many ways.

Sarah walked out of the room they had sent her to to find Hale waiting for her in a lobby of sorts.

“Feeling better?” He asked.

He too had washed and changed. He was wearing a dark leather vest over a light green sleeveless shirt that seemed made to show off his muscular chest and arms. His long dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his eyepatch was different as well with golden traceries across the patch suggesting a stylized eye.

Sarah wondered what kind of leader not only had the resources to equip their citizens so well, but also able to garner such devotion. She suspected the former was responsible for the latter.

“Yes, quite a bit. I can’t believe how well taken care of people are here. Is everyone treated this way?”

Hale smiled. “You’re a very special guest. But yeah, the Leader believes in equality for all, so we all share in the prosperity each of us contribute to.”

“Sounds pretty great. Do you not worry about the Vixen?”

“The Vixen could care less about us. The human race is just a mild nuisance to them now, and we have learned to prosper without technology to rouse their anger. ”

“Doesn’t it bother you that the world is being slowly destroyed?” She asked.

Anger crossed over Hale’s face before it became a tightly controlled smile.

“You should save your questions for the Leader, she’ll explain everything .” Hale said, and gestured with his hands toward the door.

Bemused, Sarah took a deep breath and followed the burly scavenger. Something was nagging at the back of her mind. She dismissed it as nerves and walked on.

---

Max was worried. Despite his best efforts, Sarah was falling into the same path. The path the other Sarah’s had followed. And he was powerless to stop her.

Leaf and Twig led Max further down a long dimly lit corridor to the modified entrance to the ancient subway system. Max detected signs of technology all about the tunnels, but dismissed them as artifacts of the ancient railway system.

“This way, ’bot” Leaf said, cajoling him to follow. They were entering a small enclosed area surrounded by metal mesh. Max was puzzled but remembered Sarah’s insistence that they trust these people.

He took three steps forward and stopped cold.

“Now!” Twig cried.

Max’s servos whined with effort as he tried to pivot his torso around to blast the device he now realized was there.

He was a fraction of a second too late.

The EMP went off with a loud “CRAK!” and Max immediately slumped to the floor after crashing into the wall. His momentum from turning flipped him over into a jumbled arrangement of arms and legs.

The metallic cage door slammed shut behind him with a hollow boom.

---

Sarah’s breath caught as she entered the large “throne room” of the leader. Apparently, word of Sarah’s arrival not only had been sent ahead, but this “Leader” had issued orders for everyone in the city to attend this meeting.

She was suddenly very anxious and full of doubt. Why was she being treated this way? What did they know about her? She could not imagine that they always greeted newcomers this way, and that meant they knew who she was. The thought of that filled her with a grey dread that rested in the pit of her stomach.

She proceeded down a long aisle. On either side of her throngs of people sat wearing what must have been their very best attire. They were all looking at her with open smiles, and hushed words as she passed.

“Hale, what is going on? Did I come at the same time as some kind of party?” Sarah whispered to the muscular swordsman who was walking quietly behind her.

His lips smiled, but his eyes seemed to be hiding some other kind of darker emotion.

“You are a very special guest, and this is a special occasion.”

Sarah shook her head and her heartbeat quickened as she looked at the entourage that awaited her at the end of the aisle.

There were half a dozen warriors surrounding three people on a raised dais. Two of them appeared to be very old men with long white beards and elaborate, decorative clothing . The figure in the middle was covered in a brown cloak that obscured their features. Apparently this was the “Leader”.

Sarah’s legs felt weak as she closed the final distance between her and the stoic figures. She abruptly sensed the presence of Hale behind her, and it almost seemed as if he was herding her towards the cowled figure.

An overwhelming sense of being trapped came over her. She suddenly wanted to turn around and run out the door, as fast as she could. Something was WRONG.

The crowd became hushed as one of the guards banged his staff on the floor. The sound echoed hollowly throughout the immense room, and Sarah tensed.

“All rise! Peace and prosperity to all! Give praise to our Leader on this auspicious occasion.” The guard boomed.

His powerful voice caused Sarah to take a step back, but that led her to bump into Hale’s powerful chest. She looked up sharply to see a rapturous look on his face , almost manic in his gaze.

She looked back as the cowled figure stepped down from the dias and stood before Sarah.

Female hands reached up and pulled back the heavy hood.

Sarah’s eyes opened wide as she gazed on the face of this “Leader”. She gasped.

Standing before her, smiling gently with lightly greying hair and more than a few wrinkles across her visage was a woman who looked perhaps to be in her late 40′s. A woman wearing Sarah’s face.

“Hello Sarah 7. It’s nice to finally meet you. My name is Sarah. Sarah 5.”

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