Rogue Robot

Stories and Waiting

Mountains were underneath them, passing by quickly, details flying by too quickly to picked out. The impressions eve got was there was a lot of brown, mixed in with the grey of the rocks and the green of treetops. Sometimes the hovercraft would slow down just a bit and for a moment she could spot a waterfall rushing over some cliffs, or a large, silvery-blue river  winding through the mud. It was strangely peaceful, but all pulsing, moving, beating with the life of a forest, of a mountain. Like a heart.

Eve tore her face away from the glass, glancing towards the cockpit door, and to the left of her, where Thea was buckled in. She was only half-conscious. Eve frowned, looking at her. Half of Thea's face was burned,  as well as a large portion of her body. The robot wondered vaguely if the woman would ever really recover, or if she would be forced to become a cyborg as well.  The woman's head lolled left, and due to the way the seats were placed Thea could look at Eve. She winked with her good eye and gave a weak smile, as if encouraging the younger robot that she would be alright. The younger lady highly doubted it.

She glanced out the window again, trying to catch details, but it was useless. Everything was too fast. She looked around the rest of the hovercraft, looking at the people who had accepted her into their group.  Viggo's eyelids seemed oddly heavily, Helen was sleeping heavily, Nigan was playing with an ancient-looking cube puzzle. Oscar was reading a magazine, Vincent sat beside him, poking at the pages with a stylus and chuckling as Oscar attempted to make him stop. His adopted sister, Maria was doodling on a tablet in her lap, and Antonius was filling out paper work for something. The Leader had disappeared into their room.

Eve was left with nothing to do for the remainder of the trip. she sighed heavily, and decided that she'd see if there was a anther tablet. maybe she could find some movie to watch.

"...Evveee." a voice croaked nearby. She glanced over, and looked at Thea, who had been calling her name. Her voice was raspy and and raw, as if her throat had been burned. Thinking about it, it probably had been scorched.

"Yes, Thea?" Eve asked leaning closer.

"Eeve. Telll mee a stoory. Taalkk too mee." Thea pleaded, her good eye bagging her, her voice drawn upwards in a hopeful smile. Her hand fluttered nervously, looking for Eve. The robot moved seats so she was next to injured woman, and held her hand tightly, thinking of a good story to tell. She was no story teller, nor someone who enjoyed telling stories.She didn't have the suspense building skills of a spokesperson, or the passion of someone presenting. However, she did have a great memory.

"Once upon a time, in a faraway land..." Eve began telling a fairy tale from ages ago, "There was a man and his wife. his wife was pregnant with their first born child and had a craving for a sort of lettuce called rapunzel. The witch that lived next door had a large garden and in it was rapunzel. The wife begged her husband to get some, and so he did, but he was caught by the witch. The witch said so long as he gave her his and his wife's first child she would let the husband take the rapunzel. Scared, the man agreed.

"The man soon forgot about the promise. When the child was born the witch was soon at the door, asking for the woman's child. The husband, in a terrified rush explained to his wife the deal he had made long ago. His wife,m in tears handed over the child and the witch took her, grateful for the child.

"The witch raised the child as her own, and called her Rapunzel, after the lettuce that had given her the child. Rapunzel was a happy, optimistic girl. The witch never cut her hair so it grew and grew and grew. When the hair was long enough the witch put Rapunzel in a tower, away from the world, and when she wanted up she would call 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!'

"One day a prince that was passing by heard Rapunzel singing and witnessed the witch calling up. The next day, after the witch left, he called for the rope of golden hair. Soon he was hauled up and into the window, greeted by Rapunzel's beautiful face. It only took them a month to agree for Rapunzel to come with the prince to his kingdom. From that day on the prince brought a bolt of silk to make a rope for to get out of the tower. 

"One day Rapunzel commented to the witch that all of her clothes suddenly seemed to no longer fit." Here Eve paused, as Thea was tapping her arm.

"What is it, Thea?"

"Dooes she hhhave a baaby?" Thea asked.

"Yes. Yes, she does.

"Anyways, when the witch found out she was furious she cut Rapunzel's hair and placed her in the desert, tied to a cactus.  The prince went to the tower as normal, but while climbing the cut hair, the witch cut it again, causing him to fall into thorns and be blinded. The witch however, had no way out of the tower now.

"The prince searched far and wide for Rapunzel until he heard her singing. He found her and Rapunzel cried, both tears of joy and sadness. The tears fell on the prince's blinded eyes and healed them. They lived happily ever after." Eve finished, smiling at Thea. Her brows though, were crinkled in confusion.

"Evve?"

"Yes?"

"Doo yoou knoow any oother stoories?"

"Of course I do." Eve replied smoothly. She spent the rest of the ride telling fairy tales to Thea, who fell asleep part way through the Snow Queen.

Eve stayed next to Thea, her hand overlapping the older woman's. Sometimes she would huff a little in pain, only to have the robot soothe her back into a peaceful lull. 

Eve felt like it was only minutes latter that they landed. They were inside a rusting hanger made of metal. The team began to shuffle out, expect for Helen who was awoken by Nigan. The man with grey eyes and brown hair was back and standing where he had been when the hovercraft picked them up. Eve was second to last to exit- the Leader was right behind her.

"By the way, his name is Micheal. He's mute." The Leader said quietly behind her. The robot nodded in understanding as she stepped out into the hanger and followed the team to a metal door at the end. Vincent was leading- he swung it open to reveal a sort of balcony with other surrounding it. The building itself was a cylinder, with cat walks, platforms, glass elevators, see-through floors and people crisscrossing the open air. Everything that was metal was dirty, covered in mud, paint and soil. Other doorways were scattered about the building and the bottom floor swarmed with activity. 

Eve gasped and took a small step back.

"Impressive, isn't it? This is our base. Our home." The Leader explained in an undertone.

"You...all live here?" Eve was shocked by the idea.

"Of course. Some of us live in various cities, but we all end up here at some point."

"And no one's noticed?"

"They;ve noticed. They just can't catch us. We have ways of hiding. Viggo was actually captured for information, I assume." 

"It's....amazing." Eve replied, and began following the others to a cat walk. The Leader swept after them, and soon was leading them all to a door tucked away in an alcove. They all shuffled into a hallway, through another door and into wider hallway with several doors.

"I've provided some...nicer rooms for each of you. The first door on the right has clothes and such, the first on the left is the washroom, as well as the fifth door on the right. Micheal will be bringing you food soon. I ask of you all to stay here until I come back." The leader paused and added, "There's a common room, last door on the right."

They whisked out of the hallway and left them to choose rooms. The girls decided to take the right hand side while the men took the left. There wasn;t much to do- they placed Thea in the commons room where someone could watch her at all times and took turns changing into work clothes. Eve picked a cream shirt, white leggings and a pair of jean overalls- old fashioned, but so was everything in the huge walk in closet. Soon they had gathered in the commons room.

No one spoke. There was the feel of tension in the air.

They all sat in a awkward, tense silence.