Hard Times

IV

Mae walks into the cave, her mouth hung open as she took in the scene before her. There stood Yaz, Ben, Kenji, Brooklyn hovering over a headless BRAD.

"What happened here?" Mae fussed. "Why would you destroy the BRAD?"

"No, why'd your BRAD try to kill us?" Brooklyn asks accusingly.

"What? It shouldn't have tried that, I've programmed them to recognize humans." Mae explained. She picked up the head of the BRAD searching for anything that could've caused it to malfunction.

"Calm down Brooklyn, give Mae a chance to explain herself." Yaz mentions.

Brooklyn let out a heavy huff.

"Thank you dear, as I was saying I don't know what could've tripped them out like that." She sits at her desk. "I'll have a look at it." She places a white cube into a Petri dish before plopping in her seat.

The others slowly eased into conversation with one another, Brooklyn still interrogating Mae, Kenji trying to convince her to stop, Darius, Sammy, and Ben playing a game of cards.

Yaz saw this as an opportunity to slip away into one of the back rooms. She sat on the bed and rested her head against the wall. She let out a shaky breath, the lump in her throat building up.

I miss you mom. I just wanna go home, I wanna be in my bed again, if we don't make it home soon I might just ki...No I can't think that way, it's wrong. Why think that way when we've come this far.

What if she's dead, she could be sick or anything and I wouldn't know it because I'm stuck on this stupid island. I Just wanna see her again!!

Yaz quietly screams in frustration, she grabs at her hair pulling it, heavily breathing.

She begins inhaling sharply and exhaling even harder at a rapid pace. Her face soaked with tears. She wipes them but they just keep falling.

She was so wrapped in her emotions she didn't even hear footsteps entering the room. She felt warm strong arms wrap around her body. She jolted a bit in surprise. She immediately brought her hands to her face and wildly wiped the tears.

Holding the rest in. She eased into the hug, careful to not let anymore tears fall out.

She couldn't help it, the sweetness of the hug was just too much, it was stress relieving and assuring. It was like the dam holding back her waterfall of tears broke, she sobbed into the arms of non other than Kenji.

She silently cried as she tried to cover her face with her shaky hands, but Kenji didn't want her to. He pulled her hands away from her face.

She had to hold the rest of her tears back, she had to before it was too late.

Dammit! I need to be more alert, I have to stop crying now or he'll ask questions. I don't want to tell anyone, They'll think I'm weak. Plus he's seen me crying before so he'll think I'm double weak.

She sniffled before completely stopping the tears, just the thought of seeming week was enough to stop her from crying.

She closed her wet eyes and calmed her breathing. Inhaling and exhaling as Kenji inhaled and exhaled, syncing her breath with his calmed her. Something about him brung good vibes and a calmness to any atmosphere for Yaz. For Yaz, Kenji could be her way of coping.

Maybe I should tell him, I feel so calm and comfortable right now. I should tell him. Weak! Weak! You can't handle it on your own you weak bitch!

Her thoughts conflicted with one another, part of her wanted to just open up, to just admit to the nightmares, admit to her missing her mom, admit to her feeling depressed. She wanted to tell him everything, but if she couldn't handle it on her own that made her weak.