Don't Teach Kids Murder

Murder Lessons

"I can't believe you're forcing me to do this the first thing after I wake up," Addie groans, stumbling after Nora. Every part of her body aches, especially her elbows. She reaches up to brush hair out of her eyes and winces as her newly-acquired Disassembly Drone arm smacks her in the face.

"Hey, I'm not forcing you into anything!" Nora says defensively, slowing down to walk next to her. "I just told you about it, and how Uzi might not be able to give us another one for quite a long time after this, so it would be a huge missed opportunity, and you decided to follow me along." She eyes the stiff way Addie's walking. "Besides, you could use some help figuring out how to move your arms around naturally again."

"I wouldn't need help if you didn't decide to use Murder Drone arms to fix mine," Addie retorts. "I even had to cut off half the sleeves on my jumpers today. Seriously, though, why? Couldn't you just-"

"-kill someone else and rip off theirs? No thanks," Nora interrupts.

"What!? I was going to say find some in the huge pile of scrap metal conveniently located outside," Addie says, a little weirded out. She rolls her shoulders a few times, trying to get used to the added weight. "Where did you get that idea??"

"Oh! Right. Well, it's a usability thing - if parts are discarded for a while, you can't transplant them anymore - they just won't work. I had to read up on that."

They walk in silence for a few minutes until a thought starts to itch at Addie. "Wait... does that mean you had to kill a Murder Drone? I thought, I don't know, you found these in a pile somewhere..."

"Not kill," Nora answers immediately. "I forgot to fill you in on this. They can regenerate. It wasn't easy to get ahold of those anyway, I had to get Thad and Jake to help me, it was terrible, but here we are so hooray?"

"...Now I believe you even less," Addie remarks seriously. "Jake? Helping? Fat chance."

"Darn, that's kinda offending," comes Jake's voice.

Addie whirls around, staring at the green-eyed Drone wearing a smug smirk directly on her right. Jake holds up his hands, laughing. "Sorry! Couldn't resist." He looks over at Nora, adding "Thad's busy. Says he'll come tomorrow."

"Ugh, didn't I tell you to go there by yourself?" Nora sighs. "Is it really so hard to just listen for literally once in your life?"

"Yeah! Mhm. Thought about that, answer's definitely a yes." Jake nods enthusiastically to emphasise his point, flashing his trademark grin. "There's only one way outside anyways."

They reach Door 1 pretty quickly, a blast of chilly air hitting their faces once Ron opens it for them with an annoyed expression. "You guys know this is pretty much against all the colony security measures," he complains quietly. "Plus, it's three in the morning..."

"Sorry about that, but it's really important, and we can't do it while the sun's up," Nora says apologetically.

Ron raises an eyebrow. "Really? You know Murder Drones only attack during the night. If y'all end up dead, your parents will be mad."

"Ehh, not worried about Murder Drones," Jake says a little too confidently for Addie's liking. Don't give it away! Addie thinks, but thankfully Ron seems to disregard it. "If Khan gets wind of this, he might send someone else to watch the door, and whoever shows up might not be as easy to persuade."

"Well, we haven't been caught yet, so we won't get caught," Jake bulldozes, sauntering out into the snow. Addie follows, wincing as the cold pricks at her elbows. "Come on, Nora, what are you waiting for? Get excited! We're getting murder lessons!"