Displaced

Chapter 72

"That fucking... can't even rest for a few hours... one day I'll... last thing I do... bury her head three miles beneath the ground..."

Samanta Zemzaris looked on as her captor muttered angrily to himself, so absorbed in the resolution of a battle in some other country that he'd forgotten the reason that he and she were even together. He'd called her in for a lesson—the first in several days—but not even a quarter of the way through, his strange boxy skitter that always followed him around these days had started to scream. It was like she'd disappeared at that moment.

On the one hand, watching Blake have a mental breakdown right in front of her was always enjoyable. On the other, she'd really hoped to get one last lesson in before tonight. She wanted to get as much knowledge as possible while she still could, but that didn't seem possible anymore.

"Why don't you marry her?" she grumbled.

Blake froze for a moment before twisting back to stare at her. "What was that?" he asked, an unhinged glint in his eye.

"She's all you ever talk about anymore," Sam shot back, refusing to back down. "Since you care about her so much, why don't you just marry her and get it over with?"

"What are you, a middle schooler all of a sudden?" Blake snarled at her. "Get the fuck out of here."

"What about-"

"I said go! I have more important shit than you to deal with right now." He impatiently shooed her away and turned back to the screens.

Samanta knew that she wouldn't be getting anything more out of him today, so she did what he said and left, making her way back to her nearby room. With a beep of protest, Alpha unfolded from his curled position and hurried after her.

Once she'd returned to her room, Sam shut the door behind them and sat down on her bed. Leaning down, she gently stroked Alpha's smooth back. The machine rubbed up against her leg while letting out a series of beeps, boops, and clicks. Ever since Blake had upgraded him with the ability to make simple sounds, the robot had become quite vocal in its affection. Samanta sighed. Even though he was nothing more than moving metal, and even though he was a creation of the asshole in the other room, she'd come to really appreciate Alpha's companionship. He would be the one thing she missed about this place.

Lying back onto the soft mattress, Samanta reached into her pillow and pulled out a piece of parchment. Several days ago, when Blake had been unveiling his "train system" or whatever, there'd been an incident. Two children not much younger than herself, too busy chasing each other to realize where they were, had crashed into her in front of a shocked and terrified crowd. Blake had nearly killed the children but had instead let them go since they were just children being children. He hadn't caught the moment when the first one had run into her, nor when a note had been sneakily deposited in her pocket.

"We have watched you. We see how you bristle under his yoke. We know the pain of your suffering. It shows us that you are one of us. You are an important piece in the battle to return Otharia to its former glory. Now the time to strike is upon us. On the fifth night from today, wait on the north wall. When you see the light of the glowfly, jump and we will catch you. Join us, and get your vengeance! —The Resistance"

The fifth night... that was this night. Every time she read those words, she had trouble believing that it was real. She'd hoped and wished for somebody to save her from this man for so long, but never dared to believe that it would ever come. But here it was, proof that somebody was on her side. Tears formed in her eyes, but she blinked them away. It wouldn't do to get the note wet.

With her lesson prematurely ended, there wasn't much she could do until the sun went down, so she pulled out a small ball and threw it against the nearby wall. Alpha ran after it, trying his best to catch it as it caromed around the sparsely furnished room. Watching the tiny robot, smaller front to back than her two hands put one after the other, try to corral a ball half its size with nothing but its four legs was always amusing. For how much practice the thing had, it still wasn't very good at it.