EarthFall

Chap 17. TRUCE

Brianna sprinted over and grew silent as she laid eyes on Abel.

His eyes were closed. He looked like he was getting ready for a meeting with his god. He was breathing heavily. There was no blood... Carson had turned the knife at the last second, striking Abel in the shoulder with his fist.

Gaia spoke first.

"Was that... a bluff? Carson?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." Carson replied. He had wanted to see how far this 'practice of non-intervention' went. Apparently pretty far...

"For fucks sake, Carson." Cornelius warned as Abel opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Seriously. I think I almost had a heart attack. You seemed possessed..." Tucker said.

"Ok. New vote. This one for real. Who wants to uncuff my shitty evil Clone, and who wants to leave him cuffed and feed him by hand."

They all looked at Brianna in unison. She was the one who he had ambushed, drugged, used as leverage. She would need to make the decision in the end. She stared at Abel. Abel looked down in embarrassment. She looked at Carson again.

"Quite the deviation from protocol..."

Maybe the nanites had damaged the deductive reasoning section of his brain? Was Brianna trying to tell him he wasn't thinking correctly? What reason did he have for wanting to release Abel, anyways? Was it simply because he quite literally saw himself in him? But that was partly why he hated him so much, a small part of him acknowledged. Before he started to second guess himself too much, Brianna continued.

"But... I don't think he needs to be cuffed. He's the one who tipped us off to this spot. We looked in the computers and he had put an icon on this location on the maps. I honestly think it's the equivalent of his hideout.

Any horses are gonna have a hell of a time getting through the valley below, I checked. And I've seen no signs of Horse dung, old or otherwise, anywhere in the surrounding area. There's nothing remotely resembling a road around here. And the Cave is ideal defensibly. It's on top of this whole mountain range, and there's even a back entrance. Even if this was a trap, he has no known way of communicating with his buddies. First thing we did was check him for any devices. This would have to be a pre-designated ambush destination and frankly, after saying it out loud... that sounds ridiculous.

Carson looked at Abel.

"Is that true? This your hideout? Did you also make those pots?"

"Yes." He replied simply. Carson looked at Cornelius.

"He's been a good little prisoner so far... and I'm getting sick of watching him. I haven't seen any signs of human activity anywhere on the mountain. It seems we're alone up here." Cornelius said.

It was Tucker who disagreed, hilariously.

"Either he's friend or foe, and a few days won't change that. Meanwhile we're losing sleep, and MRE's watching and feeding him. I get that. I understand, we don't have the resources to properly deal with him. But I do think we should be careful."

"How so?" Carson asked.

"It would be nice if we could keep tabs on him somehow. I don't know... maybe plant a geo chip in the epidermal layer under his shoulder blades? Brianna could stitch the laceration closed..."

Carson spun. Tucker knew as well as he did that without a powered plugin, like an EXO-suit, the geo-chips were useless. Was he pulling Abels leg?

"How are we on anesthetic and antibiotics?" Carson asked Brianna curiously, playing into the bit.