Sarah7

Ch19

A bead of sweat fell from Sarah’s eyebrow into her eye, causing her to pause in her hiking and wipe her forehead. Max was pacing along beside her and paused to look at her.

“Are you...ok ...Sarah ? I detect an elevated heart rate and a high body temperature. You are also slightly dehydrated.”

Sarah smiled tiredly and glanced up at the cloudless sky. The sun was beating down without mercy, and there was hardly a breeze to be found.

They had proceeded through the night after Sarah met up with Max at the river. Energy born of terror had carried her through the morning hours. They walked directly south due to Max’s built in navigation sensors, but the direction was arbitrary.

Sarah just wanted to get as far away from that Thing as possible. They walked silently through the sparse forest, and Sarah began to cherish each brief moment of shade that the next twisted thin tree would provide.

Finally, exhaustion caught up with her and she fell to her knees on the dusty ground. Her hair was a snarled mess, she was only wearing the light clothes she had been sleeping in, over her body suit of course, and her bare feet were bleeding.

All the aches and pains of the past few days, along with the frantic March overnight finally swept over her and she let out a gasping sob. Her head in her hands, she stared at the dry crusty ground and weeped freely.

“Sarah? Are you injured?” Max took a tentative step toward her. His metallic footpad moving with surprising grace and with only the sound of his metal servos moving his leg to counterpoint Sarah7′s weeping.

Sarah sniffled loudly. “No Max. At least not in a way you would understand. I didn’t ask to be here. It’s not my fault. Everyone either thinks I’m a monster, expects me to save the world, or wants me dead! I - I don’t even know who I am! Am I some reanimated corpse of some long dead girl? Or some kind of genetically engineered super soldier?”

Her voice cracked as she yelled the words out louder and louder.

“Sarah. Sarah, listen to me.” Max’s normally machine monotone voice took on an almost human timbre.

“In some ways, I understand how you feel. The person who...donated his memories and brain engrams, his thoughts are part of me. But I do not know if I am merely the expression of his memories, with no identity of my own, or if am am really he, just existing with this machine.”

Sarah turned and looked at the 2 and a half meter tall machine in front of her, all angles and steel and claws. He still had scratches on his torso armor where he had saved her life in the mines.

She realized that she had been treating Max just like she didn’t want to be treated herself. As something different, and certainly not a person. She sniffed again. Slowly she stood up on unsteadily legs and walked over to the mech.

Max froze, uncertain of what she was doing. Deftly, even though she was exhausted, she climbed up to his shoulder and embraced his shiny teardrop shaped head.

“Thank you Max, for staying with me. I think you do understand. And I’m sorry if I’ve treated you as anything other than a friend. Right now, you’re all I’ve got.” A single tear ran down her cheek.

Max’s clawlike arm rose slowly to steady her on his shoulder. A moment later she was asleep.

With inhuman smoothness, Max began to move again, still south, with carefully placed steps that did not disturb his sleeping passenger.

---

Sarah...

Where are you, Sarah?

Please come back .

Sarah!

She woke with a sharp intake of breath. She was lying on a soft collection of leaves and bushes. It was nighttime and she could hear all around her the sounds of night crickets, birds, and other animals. Her memories from the original Sarah welled up within her. Memories of weekends camping with her family, campfires, music, and good times. She smiled inwardly, before remembering these were not Her memories. Sighing, she placed a hand on her stomach and felt the hunger of a whole day without food catching up to her. She cast around and found the backpack that Amil had given her. She found some carefully wrapped pieces of bread and strips of dried beef. She devoured the food as fast as she could before realizing she was alone in the middle of a forest, at night.

Touching her hand to her ear she felt the earpiece still there and touched the speaker button.

“Max, are you there? Where are you?”

“Yes, Sarah . I carried you another 30 kilometers south, and then found a location for you to rest. I am approximately 200 meters away from your location on patrol. I have not detected any further signs of alien life forms, nor other humans in the vicinity. Shall I return?”

“Yes, please do” Sarah breathed out a sigh of relief.

A moment later Max stomped into her view. He was outlined in the darkness, and she shivered a moment thinking that if he was not on her side she would not last a moment.

“Listen Max, it’s pretty cold, do you know how to make a fire?” She asked.

Max made an odd sound, like a whirring.

“Yes, one moment”

Max reached for a fairly moderate sized tree and grasped it firmly with his metallic claws. Sarah saw his legs dig into the ground as he uprooted the tree and lay it flat on the ground. His claws began tearing away at the tree and within a few moments there was a pile of shredded wood. Max’s strong arms had ripped the tree apart.

A small laser appeared from a panel on Max’s shoulder. With a blast of energy from the weapon, the pile of wood burst into flame.

“Wow, Max, I’m taking you camping with me all the time.” She said wryly as she sat next to the fire, warming her cold arms and legs.

“Camping?” Max asked as he turned his head toward Sarah.

“Never mind. Max, what are we going to do now? We can’t just keep going in some random direction, and I need clothing , and water. And there’s something else. I keep having these dreams. I keep hearing someone calling for me. It’s like I’ve left someone behind. Every time I fall asleep, I hear this voice calling me. I don’t know if it’s some memory from the original Sarah or what. I hope I’m not going crazy.”

Max was silent.

Sarah began rooting through the backpack, hoping to find something to help her on her journey. She smiled at how thoughtful Amil had been to take the time to fetch the backpack even though they had been running basically for their lives. She hoped he was ok. The thought of something happening to him, because of her made her suddenly feel cold and very sad.

There were many handy items in the bag, including bandages, a flash light, and a bottle of pills that included instructions on how to use them to purify water. She used the bandages to wrap her feet, and pocketed a small knife.

Sarah felt very overwhelmed. The familiar feelings of stress were returning once again. What was she going to do? At least she had Max. Somehow, they were going to survive. She silently thanked whomever had created her as they had given her a healthy sense of survival, no matter what, and Sarah’s memories told her that this girl was a fighter. That She was a fighter.

“Oh Max. What are we - ”

She was interrupted by an explosion of dirt thrown up by Max going from standing at rest beside her to running full tilt down the hillside they were camped upon.

“Sarah, find a place to hide. There are a large number of humans coming to this area with great speed. They seem to be travelling with animals called horses. I am detecting signs of metal that may indicate weapons.” Max spoke through the earpiece with remarkable calm.

“Could they be from the village?” She asked as she put on the pack and began moving up the hill.

“No, they are coming from the southwest. I conjecture they have travelled from one of the Old Cities.”

“Old Cities?” She asked, starting into a low run.

“Creed informed me that all of the original cities of this world were destroyed by the Vixen, but remnants of humans remained in some, as scavengers. He said they were brutal and dangerous. One such city exists approximately 100 kilometers southwest of here, called Chicago.”

“Max, what are you going to do? They might be friendly.” Sarah asked, worried.

“I will make that determination.”

“And if they aren’t?” Sarah asked and bit her lip as she found a large area of scrub and low trees that could hide her, her visor helping with a night vision overlay.

“I will stop them.” Max replied.

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