Till the End of the Line

Compromise.

Just as soon as the...thing started charging at them, it stopped. As if worried about hurting them. It still looked like it would attack at the slightest movements.

"You shouldn't be here." It repeats in broken English, its tone eerily quiet. It moves its head slightly as if getting a better look at Becca and Bucky. Becca blinks.

"I wasn't expecting it to speak English." She looks to Bucky for guidance, his body is rigid, and his finger is on the trigger of his gun. 

She decides to address It specifically. 

"Yeah, we're kinda figuring that out now. We're gonna leave. That cool with you?" 

She prays that this will work, although she knows it's a long shot.

The figure stares at her for a few moments, its head turning slowly before it nods its head slightly.

"I could kill you." Tt states in an almost emotionless voice.

Bucky's body tenses at the words, his eyes darting towards hers again.

He looks at her, raising an eyebrow.

"What do we do?" he whispers to her, keeping his voice quiet as he looks back towards the figure in the hallway.

Becca's eyes are darting around, trying to figure out some sort of escape route, but the thing is blocking the exit. She turns to bucky.

"Let me try something."

She turns back to the thing standing in front them, taking a step forward.

She notices Bucky resisting the urge to grab her and pull her to safety.

"Can we strike some kind of compromise? Like...I give you something cool outta my duffel bag in exchange for that knife and us getting to leave?"

The figure is quiet for a moment as it considers this.

Then it speaks once again.

"I will not kill you provided you give me something 'cool' out of that bag."

Bucky glances at her, raising his eyebrows at the figure's words. That actually worked.

Becca looks relieved and surprise.

"Oh. Great! Ok uh...what do you think is cool?"

The figure's mechanical eyes look over her as it thinks for a moment.

"What is in the bag?" It asks, the pitch of its voice slightly higher than before.

She can't read any emotion in the tone, but she notices that the figure is leaning closer towards her as it waits for the response.

"Ummm.... let me see. I kinda went overboard. I've got chocolate, a crowbar, a shovel, hiking boots, my hoodie, MRE's, nail polish, a flashlight, matches..."

Bucky raises an eyebrow as she lists these things off. As a student, she shouldn't have any of those items. Which means she probably stole them. He made a mental note to scold her about it later.

The figure nods slowly as it thinks about the items.

It speaks up once more.

"Hand me the MRE's." It states softly.

It reaches out slowly as it speaks, one of its hands outstretched for the MRE's.

"Oh ok. You hungry?" she asks softly, handing it over the MRE's "here, you can have the chocolate too...and here a bottle of water...hey can I ask you something?"

The figure takes the items and holds them for a moment, studying them briefly.

It nods in thanks before speaking up again, its tone soft as it addresses her question.