Cyberpunk 2077: V

Prologue: Chapter 11 - The Choice

Shock kept V as still as a desert ram in the headlights of a speeding truck. Then the bodies of her clanmates shifted, cutting off her view of Jake. V couldn't breathe.

No...no...no... her mind kept repeating as she turned, trying to sprint towards Zach's truck all while her muscles felt like cold molasses. She dodged people left and right as she pushed her way through the gathering crowd around Kevin's car. When she finally burst through to the front line, what she saw made her heart to leap into her throat.

Kevin and Bill were standing at the side of their car, their hands gripping Jake's upper biceps. They'd wrapped Jake in electrical tape, roughly binding his hands behind his back. One black strip was slapped over his mouth. Jake made no move to struggle, and stood still, allowing them to hold him. Tension in his face showed that he was in pain, however. Perhaps the way they'd wrapped his arms back was putting strain on his injury. 

The clan was up in arms, all of them angry and some yelling with shock and fear. Fear that a Militech guard, a corpo, an enemy had found its way into their midst and had been so close.

Jake's face scanned the angry mob, his gaze calculating; but then his eyes met V's again. His expression softened. V felt herself take a step forward. Jake's brows furrowed and he shook his head ever so slightly, as if to tell her to stay back. 

V jumped and flinched back into the crowd when Zach's voice suddenly boomed out into the clearing.

"Where in the HELL did you find that corpo?!" Zach snarled loudly. He marched up to them, face tight and laced with glaring hatred. V felt fear start to climb up into her throat. She knew how Zach felt about corpos...especially MiliTech. It had been MiliTech that had almost wiped out the Bakkers all those years before, setting fire to his trailer and killing his sons. And it was a MiliTech soldier that had gunned down his pregnant wife right in front of his eyes. This hatred only seemed to burn hotter as time went on, evident in how he'd treated V. And it was the knowledge of this hatred which made V deathly afraid for Jake's life.

Kevin anxiously licked his lips, a charged light shining in his eyes.

"Like I said, up north a piece. Just a few miles outside of our usual patrol ring. He was just sittin' in an old Nomad cave, remember the ones Snake Country made back in the day? Just sittin there!"

Bill took that opportunity to chime in.

"We figured with the trouble the Shivs have been givin' us lately we's better drive out a little farther, just to check. And boy are we glad we did! Otherwise, we'd never've found this guy!" Bill gave Jake a shake of the shoulder. "Who knows what intel he's been passin' on!"

V wanted to cry. They were wrong, all wrong. Jake wasn't passing any intel. He was a victim of a raid led by Tom and many others. How many of her clanmates were in on it? All? Some? Tom should be the one getting yelled at right now; but Zach was in on it. Jake was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Why, after all this time, on this night of all goddamn nights, did they have to expand their patrol?

Kevin began speaking again, his words rapid and breathless.

"Remember how there was a bunch of supplies missin'? Well guess what we found in the cave!!?" He reached back into the car and pulled out Jake's backpack; the one V had given him. Her body went completely numb.

Oh shit...

"This is Bakker property! And we found empty food wrappers and some of Doc's stuff! This corp must have been watchin' us for a long time; he must have taken all of the shit!"

Gasps and angry cries erupted around the clearing from the Bakkers, along with stream of cursing. No one turned to V in apology or question. She was invisible, even now as they lay blame that was hers onto Jake. She could only stare, torn at what to do. It was all wrong, this couldn't, shouldn't be happening. Jake didn't take those supplies or set up shop in the cave. V had orchestrated all of that. It was all her fault.