A bunch of short stories

Until the last gear stops

"Rose."

No response.

"Rose?"

Clarke's voice grew louder, still no response.

"Rose, are you there?"

Clarke rested her hands on Rose's knees, staring into her vacant eyes.

"I."

No further response follows and Clarke backs away, tears welling in her eyes. Not now, she thought, please not now.

"Rose, I don't have time to fix you right now. C'mon, love, come back." Clarke's voice broke as she fought to keep from crying. Later there would be time to cry, but not yet. For now she needed to focus.

"I."

It wasn't the first time Rose had shut down. Sometimes the gears in her head would stick, or a circuit in her lung would pop. Easy fixes, if the needed tools were on hand.

It hadn't always been like that, at one point Rose had been human. Then, almost three years ago someone had broken into her home and sent three bullets into her head. Rose was lucky to be alive. Clarke had been the one to patch her back together. She was sturdy, but not perfect. Even the best machines broke sometimes.

"I'm."

Clarke's head snapped up at the slight change.

"You're what Rosie." She asked quietly. No response.

"Come on Hun, come back. You can do it, you're what Rose?" Clarke begged. Dark green eyes searched hazel, frantic to find even the smallest spark of life. Nothing.

Something inside of Clarke snapped and she reeled away from Rose, shaking as tears began to stream down her face.

"No."

Clarke closed her eyes tight, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. When she opened her eyes again Rose was staring at her.

"No."

Rose repeated. Clarke turned her head away, breaking from the cyborg's dead stare.

"I have to know." Clarke whispered, walking slowly to stand behind Rose and gently removing the cover to the access panel on her neck. What she saw turned her blood to ice.

The gears hadn't gotten stuck, they'd cracked, most likely from the impact of the car that had slammed into her earlier. One of the gears had snapped in half. As she watched the gears struggled through another half turn and another gear began to crack.

"Don't— Don't— Don't cry."

Another gear completely shattered and Rose made a terrible shrieking noise. Clarke started crying harder, she knew now that it was hurting Rose. The gears began to turn erratically as Rose struggled to speak again, only managing a few mangled syllables before beginning to scream again.

Just below the gears there was a small, dark red button. Clarke held it down, and after a few seconds the was a click and Rose stopped screaming. The gears had stopped turning and Rose would be dead in moments.

"Don't worry Rose," Clarke murmured through her tears, "Everything will be okay."

The gentle rise and fall of Rose's chest stopped, her eyes slid closed, and Clarke ran.