Cyberpunk 2077: V

Prologue: Chapter 10 - Goodbye Jake

"Well...sounds like we have a solid plan," Jake finally said.

V nodded numbly, unable to speak. It didn't feel real, standing there. Knowing that tomorrow, Jake would be gone, and she would no longer be with the Bakkers. The last three days had gone by in the blink of an eye, whirling together until V suddenly found herself shuffling the toes of her feet nervously against the dusty stone of the cave floor. Jake had a backpack next to his boot, filled with some extra supplies. V's cot and other items she'd left there were now stowed back in her little Galena.

It didn't feel real.

V's eyes flickered over the cave, superimposing memory of where the cot had been, the now swept and cleaned firepit, the trash bag, the water jugs. After a fashion the cave had felt sort of...homey. Nice. Set apart. A haven. Jake stood just offset of her, doing the same long sweep of what had been combination surgical room and temporary lodging. He suddenly inhaled quietly, but sharply, squaring his shoulders.

"All right. So tomorrow you'll come here to pick me up. We will drive approximately an hour and a half in a diagonal line to the expected MiliTech travel route. You'll drop me off and retreat to a good observation position in case they change course. After that, I'll wait for MiliTech to show, wave them down, then get a ride back to the nearest base."

Jake picked up his helmet, which was sitting next to the backpack, and wiped at it. A fine layer of dust had settled on the visor while they were talking. 

"What time will you be here?" Jake asked. Again. For the third time. Maybe V was just imagining it, but he seemed distracted. Nervous. Maybe even...reluctant? She swallowed down a strange ball in her throat. 

"Dawn. That will give us plenty of time t'get packed up and delta for the convoy," V replied. Jake nodded, then set his helmet on the ground. He looked at it, moved as if to pick it up again, then marched over to the mouth of the cave. He moved easily, with only the slightest hunch indicating he still felt his injury, but it was healing well. Jake leaned against the cave entrance, one arm bracing on the red rock as he stared out into the desert.

V bit her lip and looked down at the dust under her feet. She nudged a rock with her boot. It was awful, this sudden awkward air between them. It was nothing like their usual meetings, where they sat and talked and did things around the cave together, ate together, checked on his wounds. Talked about their futures. Their pasts. What each other's favorite food was, favorite color, their families.

Jake's favorite color was green. His favorite food was synth sirloin noodles from a Chinese stall at the MiliTech base he was stationed at. He wanted to advance through the ranks in MiliTech and lead his own battalion one day, so he could make enough money to set his mother up for the rest of her life. He felt he owed her that much for keeping him alive all those years. His father had been a gang member, trying to stay straight and protect his mother, but the gang killed him for being "soft". His mother was a low level corpo clerk who managed to escape into MiliTech territory and get a job with them. If Jake advanced enough, he could get benefits for her too. 

V wanted to talk like that again. She wanted to know more about him. Wanted to know his deepest thoughts, his convictions, his beliefs, his pains, his turmoils, his struggles. She wanted to know him.

But tomorrow he'd be gone.

The silence stretched on until the need to hear his voice again forced words out of V's throat.

"Hey...you okay?" she finally managed to stammer.

Jake flinched, then turned to look back at her. His eyes shone with apprehension, surprising V.

"Yeah, I'm okay, just...worried. A little. I've told you about MiliTech and the other corps. How they operate. I'm just really...no, I'm fucking insanely worried that they either already wrote me off as dead and sold all my assets, or..." Jake turned to V, leaning his back against the cave wall.