Cyberpunk 2077: V

Prologue: Chapter 8 - And The Ties That Break

Zach was true to his word. Double locks were installed on the salvage rig, mess truck, and Doc's work trailer. Even with V's abilities, she knew she couldn't risk getting caught stealing supplies. So, in the mean time, she did her best to act normal...or as normal as she could under the circumstances. All the while, she racked her brain for a new plan. It was hard to get her mind to think clearly, though. What had happened when she returned to camp sat like an open, raw wound in her chest that wouldn't heal. 

The camp was different after that. The acknowledgement V longed for from her fellow clanmates was there, but the looks she gathered now were ones of suspicion. Some glances even bordered on disgust. Before, no one went out of their way to talk to V, but now clan members went out of their way to make sure that they were no where near her, even going so far as to cross to the other side of the walkway when V approached. The only interaction V had with any of her "family" was when she was directed to her daily chores, or handed her food rations. She accepted this even more bitter isolation, however. It was, in her mind, a way to atone. A way to pay.

Pay for what she'd done. Pay for her guilt. Pay for the supplies that she'd stolen to help a dying corpo. Pay for the food she took out of the mouths of her clanmates to feed him. And, in a way, pay for existing. For, somehow, in a way V couldn't even begin to fathom, being the symbol of everything the Bakker's hated.

Lying in her tent on the bare desert floor, face and arm aching, V would stare up at the ceiling and think. And imagine. And dream.  V's thoughts of the future did not include her clan .She knew that she didn't belong here, with the Bakkers. In her core, she'd known for years, ever since Freddy had told her the truth that day. But while V knew she wasn't a Bakker, she did know that she was a Nomad; a member of the Nomad nation. It was the one thing she could claim, the independent part of her that embraced the Nomad way of life, the core values, and age old traditions...even if her clan didn't accept her. This realization brought some small measure of comfort to V.

But as V chased her thoughts around at night, the flicker of comfort would fade, and unprompted her soul would wonder. She may be a Nomad despite everything, maybe; but Nomads weren't supposed to be lonely. One of the very core parts of the Nomad was their family...and V didn't have that. And so, she started to wonder if perhaps she was never meant to have a family. Perhaps her destiny was meant to be a lonely one, if the circumstances of her birth could be taken into account. More and more V's mental energy turned to that question that had burned in her heart since the day she found out that she wasn't a blood born Bakker.

Why was V, a barely week old baby, left out in the middle of the desert? Was she left out there to die? But if that was the case, why go to all that trouble of driving into the middle of the desert? Why leave a note? A sword? Why swaddle her in an expensive silk business suit jacket?

How could those who left her know she'd be found? 

What did it all mean?

Who was V? Really?

Those next five days were difficult. V did everything she could to keep her head down and not draw attention to herself. Zach lurked around the camp, with V almost always feeling his eyes boring into her back. After about halfway through the third day, he got less interested in her and more interested in long range reconnaissance, discussing with some of the clan elders their supply numbers and if they should send out the salvage team or move the clan entirely after reports of extremely high Raffen Shiv activity.

Even though V's days were filled with manual labor, she didn't eat. She couldn't. She wanted to save as much food as possible for Jake, so that when she could finally slip away and give him the supplies, he'd be all right for awhile. Even though she grew fatigued and lightheaded, V threw herself into her work, and kept Jake at the forefront of her mind to stave off the hunger. Doing this, she knew she'd solved the food problem; but what about the bandages, disinfectant, and medicine? V decided to take a risk and slipped out one night, silent as a ghost, to examine the new measures Zach had put in place. More guards, more locks; she couldn't do it. And in the end, she knew that it was ultimately too risky. Zach would know exactly who took the supplies if it happened again.