Backstitch

Chapter 11

The song above is for later on in this chapter. I don't usually do characters singing in my stories, so just bear with me.

Come to find out, most of them couldn't swim. Babo was merely lucky he could practically float in the water since he carried Wage, Ox, Mandy, Moxy, and Ugly Bat. They sat on his stomach as he slowly backstroked toward the shore. Ugly Dog was literally swimming circles around them, once or twice splashing Lou in the face as he swam beside Babo with Nolan clinging onto his shoulders. "Hey! Cut that out!" Lou sputtered and shook his head to clear the water off. Ugly Dog laughed and swam ahead of them, waiting by the shore.

"Why do we even have an ocean here?" Wage sighed dramatically, and she kicked a foot idly in the water. "Seems like a waste of space."

"Maybe the factory had flooded, and they didn't bother fixing it," Lucky Bat pondered aloud.

Nolan kept his eyes on the shore, "It doesn't look like anything's happening in the town. Maybe Greyson hasn't started yet." He didn't know what the CEO could be waiting for. Not that he was complaining about the delay, but the short interaction Nolan had with him didn't give off the impression of a procrastinator. When they left him, Greyson was absolutely livid, and Nolan could only imagine how long he'd stewed in his rage before someone left him out.

"Don't jinx it," Lou panted, "He doesn't wait for anyone. Let alone us." They finally made it to the shore. Lou staggered out of the water with Nolan still clinging to his back, legs wrapped around the blonde's waist. "Alright, this is your stop, and I'm not carrying you all the way to town." Lou huffed.

Nolan pouted but slid down, "Party pooper." Lou playfully pushed his shoulder.

It wasn't quiet, either. There was a chatter going on, and they soon walked up to the center of town. All the Uglies and Pretties were gathered and murmuring amongst themselves. Lou looked around, "I don't see any of the robots," he pointed out worriedly. "Greyson might have called them back for recall."

"The robots too? I thought recall was just for the dolls?" Mandy asked.

Lou shook his head as they walked toward the crowd, "The machines will get rebooted. Anything to keep mistakes from happening in the Model 12s. The robots here in the Institute will most likely be reprogrammed to do what I was supposed to do."

"So, the robots are gonna teach the dolls?" Babo scrunched his face at the thought. They seemed pretty bland and straightforward. Despite Lou's...interesting way of teaching, it definitely had more pizzazz than the robots would probably have.

"No, they'd get rid of any dolls that don't come out pretty." Lou glanced at their shocked faces. "I told you, I was just doing the job I was told to do. A part of my job was to make sure any doll that didn't meet the company's standards would have to be thrown in recycling. I broke the rules many times, keeping a lot of dolls here and letting them go to the Big World."

"Geez," Ugly Dog whistled, "That Greyson man got issues."

Some of the dolls had turned to notice the gang walking toward them. There was instantly a chorus of shouts, "Mayor Ox is back! They're back!" The oncoming dolls soon had everyone's attention. Ox waved to them.

"What's goin' on?" He asked the nearest doll. "Why are ya'll gathered outside?"

"The robots told us to," he answered with a shrug.

Lou had to refrain from scoffing at the response. He wasn't rude when he told Moxy and Mandy that the other dolls were mindless. It was the truth. Despite having autonomy, they really were just a bunch of sheep that would get lost the second their shepherd was nowhere in sight. There was no initiation drive from any of them, exempting just a select few.