The Cold Unknown

Chapter 16 - The Cold Unknown

Everybody began to leave the church, either to go with Markus - as most of them did - or to go their own ways - like we did. I noticed Connor start leaving, alone. Before he could get far, I hurried over to him.

"If you've got nowhere to go, you can come with us if you'd like. I'm sure Kara wouldn't mind." Connor smiled down at me. "That's a nice offer, Alice. But, there's something I gotta do to help Markus." He said, and I looked up at him curiously. "What's that?" I asked. "I'm going to attempt to free the thousands of androids that are in CyberLife Tower's assembly plant. We'll be stronger with all of them." He seemed so confident. "You really are a hero, Connor." He bowed his head at the compliment. "I would've enjoyed if you came with us, though." I said, and he smiled softly. "I would too, Alice. But..." He smiled again. "I have this grumpy old friend that I've grown quite fond of... his dog, too."

I giggled at the dog remark. "I like dogs." I said, and Connor seemed to light up as well. "I do, too! They're so cute, and fluffy!" This made me laugh. I never knew a grown android could be so childish. But then again, what's the point of growing up if you can't be childish sometimes? Connor hugged me again. "Well, I guess I'd better go. I have a mission to do, and you have a bus to catch. There may come a time when we cross paths in the future, but until then... Be careful, Alice." He said. "I will" I promised, then walked back over to Kara as he left. 

As I approached Kara, I could tell something was bothering her. "Kara, is there something wrong?" I asked. "Well, Alice, I don't mean for us to be rushed, but I've just found out that the bus leaves earlier than we thought. About 11:10, someone said. It's 10:26 right now, so we've got roughly 45 minutes to get there. We're gonna have to leave now." 

I nodded. "Let's go, then." We quickly left the church, and walked around in the direction of the terminal. The streets were eerily empty, no soldiers, androids, or humans. Not even animals. We walked through the snow-covered roads for what seemed like forever. Kara then spoke. "The last bus leaves in 20 minutes. It doesn't give us much time. We have to move fast..." She looked at me. "Are you alright?" We stopped walking. "I'm really cold." I told her.

She placed two fingers on my right temple where my LED used to be. Suddenly, I didn't feel cold anymore. I was instantly warm, like I was sitting by a fire. "You'll feel better now." Kara said. "Thanks." I told her. Wow. Maybe I should have told her I was an android, she could've done this back when we left Todd's for the first time. I didn't know my cold sensitivity could be turned off... that's cool. (He-he: puns)

We continued walking on the sidewalk, though we were slow, as we heard noise in the distance. The intersection we were coming up upon seemed to be occupied with life. As we approached the corner, a truck drove by. We hid farther back down the walk, and I heard gunshots from some soldiers, probably killing off some androids. "What are we gonna do?" I asked. "We have to keep going if we wanna catch that bus." She said. Kara turned, kneeling in front of me. She adjusted my vest and scarf, even though there wasn't the need to do so. "Stay close to me. We're going to sneak past them without being noticed. We're gonna make it, Alice, I promise you..." She glanced around the corner. "There are soldiers everywhere, we need to be careful."

I nodded, and staying close to Kara as asked, we rounded the corner, hiding behind the side of a parked truck. Kara looked around for people, then we ran a little more and hid behind another parked car. I looked over at the other side of the street, and my eyes widened. Knelt in front of a soldier with hands behind their heads in forced surrender, was Jerry and... Luther.

He's alive! I nudged Kara, and pointed at them. "Look over there," I whispered. "It's Luther!" Kara sighed a guilty breath. "We can't help him, Alice." She whispered back. "It's too dangerous!" But... "We can't just leave him, he'll die!" I argued. He promised that we'd see him again! Kara seemed conflicted. Finally, she spoke. "Okay, let's go." I hid under the car to protect myself, while Kara picked up a fallen brick and crept up behind the soldier. Kara hit him with the brick, knocking the soldier out cold.

Luther and Jerry stood. "Kara! You shouldn't have risked your life to save me!"  Luther said. "Where's Alice?" Kara put the brick down. "She's hiding nearby." Kara told him. Jerry smiled at her. "Kara, you saved us! We don't know how to thank you." I started to come out of my hiding place as Kara spoke. "Go now before they see you." She told Jerry. He left, and Luther saw me. "Alice!" He knelt with his arms out. "Luther!" I exclaimed, running up into his hug. "I thought you were dead!" I told him honestly, thinking back to when I couldn't find him at the church.

"I was afraid I'd never see you again!" Luther said. He let go, and looked at me. "I wanted to meet you at the terminal, but they caught me along the way." We stood up. "Come on, we're close but we don't have much time." Kara said. We continued walking and hiding from soldiers. Eventually, we made it to a clearing. We were about to turn a corner, when Kara spotted more guards down the way. "A checkpoint." she said. "We have passports, it should be okay but you never know." Luther looked over at her. "Maybe we should take the detour, and avoid the risk." Kara shook her head. "We're almost out of time, we could miss the bus."

"Yeah, but it might be safer." Luther remarked. Kara still didn't want to risk missing the bus, so we all turned the corner, walking up to the checkpoint guard. "I don't like humans who carry guns." Luther whispered as we walked. "They make me nervous." As it happened, the guard had a gun on him. 

"Just stay calm. Alright, Luther?" Kara said to him. We reached the guard. "ID, please." He said, and Kara handed him her forged ID. He looked at it. "You do realize there's a curfew? Civilians aren't allowed out unless absolutely necessary. Where are you going?" Kara had to come up with an excuse. "My daughter slept over at a friend's house. We went to pick her up, we're on our way home now." The guard looked at me. "You alright, little girl?.. She's trembling, is there something wrong?" I was trembling to pretend like a child that was cold, as it was probably less than 30 degrees out. "She's sick." Kara lied. "A bad cold. We just need to get her home."

I couldn't tell if he bought it or not, cause his helmet covered his face. "Sorry miss, but we gotta be careful. There are deviants around, and our guys are nervous. You should hurry on home." 

"Thanks." Kara quickly said, and we started to walk past. "Hey, wait a minute!" The guard suddenly said. We slowly turned around. The guard handed me my scarf. I didn't realize it had fallen off. "You dropped this." He said. "Thank you." I quietly replied. "You're welcome." The guard nodded, and walked away back to his post. 

Kara and Luther gave a quiet sigh of relief. And with that, we continued on towards the terminal. Let's catch that bus.