SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

twelve ━ on the run

• • •

Had it not been for the light on the dashboard that had lit a while ago, Connor wouldn't have stopped driving only a hundred miles into a journey with no clear destination yet. In his mind, the mission was as clear as ever: get Mia far and away from the town, and therefore also from the possibility of her ending up in jail. Variables such as 'how' or 'to where' were inconsequential, as long as they remained on the move, thus making stopping for gas a truly unfortunate inconvenience to him.

He pulled over to the first gas station he spotted on the side of the road, well away from any form of settlement. Thankfully, around these parts, there was nothing but fields worked by dark machines moving slowly around tall billboards rented by real estates with taglines such as 'Make Your Move' or 'Your Dreams Are A Key Away'.

It had started raining a while ago, and behind the blown through curtains of precipitation everything on the fields surrounding the gas station looked ghostly, lifeless and dark, despite the bright lights around the billboards and the green LEDs stuck around the key joints of the harvesting machines. The gas station itself was no better — a spot of bright neon light amidst the storm, which now had exactly one visitor, them.

Stopping next to the pump, Connor reached to the side instinctively, but stopped himself in time so that his hand did not yet touch the jacket he had draped as blanket over Mia about the same time the rain had started pouring in big drops slapping the roof of the car with noise and coldness alike. She had been soundly asleep for the past five hours, exhaustion getting the best of her as soon as her adrenaline had run out. It had surprised him how she had managed to contort herself on that small seat, making herself comfortable by pulling her knees to her chest and resting her head on the hard armrest between them.

The car's faulty heating system paired with the rain and his certainty on the importance of sleep to humans had prompted Connor to retrieve his jacket from the back and give it this new purpose of acting as her blanket — it was the best he could do to ensure she won't grow cold enough to wake up before she's had a good rest, or worse, get sick. Humans can grow ill from the cold, Connor's data backed up his decision.

Though it felt strange for him to leave behind his jacket, to exit into the world with nothing but his LED as his mandatory android identifier, Connor recognized a sense of illegality was a small sacrifice to ensuring Mia's safety from the cold. While androids had no issue with being exposed to harsh weather conditions, humans were fragile — she needed the cover of his jacket more than he ever would.

Exiting the car, he made eye contact with a security camera on the wall pointed his way and thus, another reason why he should stop feeling bad about not wearing his jacket had been revealed onto Connor: it was probably for the better that his model number did not get spotted anywhere to leave behind a trail for anyone with a brain to follow.

He remotely deactivated the security camera, then calming the flickers of his LED and the blinking of his eyes, Connor focused on refilling the car's tank and resuming a process of thought that has kept him company while driving — why would someone want to target Mia?

There were no previous stains on her record, and she hardly seemed like the sort of person to qualify towards earning the antipathy of people capable of pulling something like this off. Of course, there was the option that the perpetrator was the deviant still on the loose — Rory. It clearly had a reason to be out for revenge against her, but the reason why it would go the distance to try and tarnish her name eluded him still. Did it want Connor off its trail and attacked Mia's reputation as a distraction?