Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 39

We walked back to my parents house to see my mother was sitting out on the porch this time. She looked up and smiled, getting up to greet us.

"You're not leaving yet?" she asked.

"No. We're going to be addressing everyone tomorrow morning at dawn," Aloy said.

"What's this message you're going to be delivering?"

"It's best if we discuss it inside," I said. "It's kind of a big thing to talk about and we don't want people to panic just yet."

"This way," she said and opened the door.

My dad was sitting at the kitchen table eating something. He side eyed us as we sat down.

"Mind your father, Y/N. Please, make yourself at home, Aloy."

"Thank you," she said and sat next to me. 

"While we were out seeing the world, we found out there is something greater than we had expected," I began.

"There's a whole world out there waiting to be explored even further. But we learned that there is a greater threat upon us," Aloy said. "I at first thought it was some rampant AI from what had created me. But actually, there's more to the story. There were these people called the Zeniths. They created this experiment where it was the minds of different Zenith people combined together. They left it since they deemed it a failure and now it's heading towards us, angry."

I tapped my Focus and an image of Nemesis appeared. My mother looked up at the glowing red orb.

"What is that?"

"That is Nemesis," Aloy said. "It's coming and we need as much help as we can get."

"You think the Nora are just going to risk their lives for this thing?" my dad asked. "You don't have any other kind of proof other than that."

We ignored my dad for now and continued to explain the situation and how we discovered Nemesis.

"Do you have a plan to stop it?" my dad cut in once more.

I looked over at him, "We're trying to find a way now. We don't have a direct time when Nemesis is going to be here, but if I had to guess, maybe in about a year."

"You don't have a lot of time."

My dad was getting on my nerves. I just sighed and continued to talk to my mother about what is happening.

"So with the possible help of the Nora, if worst comes to worst and we need to fight Nemesis, we need all the fire power we can get," Aloy said.

"And who is going to help you?" my dad asked.

We both turned to look at my dad. He had a dead look in his eyes as he stared us down.

"Well, I'm waiting."

"There's more people than you know that will help Aloy because she helped them. I know the Carja will help her since she saved Meridian. Add the Oseram as well. She is well known in the Forbidden West as well and has friends from the Tenakth. So their clan is already on her side after she helped defeat a rebel within their ranks. Then there's another group of people. She's made friends with one of their own and she can spread the word."

I stood up and got closer to my dad. He stood up, trying to intimidate me. 

"There's so many people that are willing to help Aloy based on her actions alone. And if one asshole of a person isn't willing to help, then there's more people to cover for him," I sneered in my dad's face.

He looked like he was ready to lash out. He reached up and grabbed my throat. Not exactly choking me, but his grip was tight. Aloy stood up and brought out her spear. He turned and looked at her.

"Put your spear away, outcast. You're in my house."

"Let her go and I will put away the spear."

He turned his head to look at me, "You never should have come back."

He let me go and I took in a deep breath. My dad walked out of the house from the back door, slamming it behind him.

"Are you ok?" Aloy asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. He would never do anything to intentionally harm me. He may be an asshole right now, but he still sees me as his daughter."

"You two must be very tired from the trip here. Y/N's room doesn't have that much space, but I'm sure you will make do," my mother said. "While you're here, I might as well make some stew. Do you mind seeing if you can get some more rabbit?"

"Yeah," I said and walked out of the house, Aloy following behind me.

"It's going to feel like old times," she said as we reached an area to hunt.

"First one to get a rabbit wins," I said.

"You're on," she said and tapped her Focus.

"Ah," I reached over and grabbed her Focus. "Without the Focus. You're in my territory now," I said and took mine off.

"Fine," she chuckled and we headed into the woods. 

I listened carefully to the sounds that were around me. I tried not to make any sound or sudden movement as I moved my bow around, ready to shoot anything that I heard. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, trying to hear anything. When I picked up on something, I slowly made my way to where the noise was coming from. I rounded the corner of a hill to see a deer. Deer was a bit hard to come by and when it does come by, we did as much as we could to get it. I loaded up my bow and started to slowly pull it back, trying not to make any sounds. I pulled it all the way back and released, getting the deer right in the neck. I chuckled to myself and before I walked over to get it, a rabbit came out of no where. I was about to get another arrow, but an arrow flew past my ear and got the rabbit right in the head. I looked behind me and smirked, seeing Aloy was behind me.

"Nice deer kill, but now what we're after."

"I know. But you know how hard deer is to come by."

"That's true. Let's get another rabbit before we head back."

"Sounds good," I said.

"So when you said that the first one to get a rabbit wins. Do they win anything special?" she chuckled.

"I'll reward you later tonight with cuddles. How about that?"

"Sounds good to me," she said and walked over to get the rabbit.

I walked over and grabbed the deer. Together we searched for at least another rabbit to get before heading back home.