Sarah7

Ch9

When the sun rose the next day, its rays fell upon a sleeping Sarah, bundled up in blankets provided by Creed and a full stomach as well.

----

Sarah was at first revolted by the idea of eating when she discovered what the process meant, but after Creed had a bowl of stew going over a carefully prepared campfire the smell had overpowered her reluctance with surprising ease. She had gulped down the hearty stew quickly before Creed had cautioned her to eat slowly, especially since she was so “new” at the process.

After eating, Sarah had yawned loudly and Creed wordlessly led her to a spot at his camp that contained several threadbare but clean blankets and she had fallen immediately asleep.

“Is this girl really telling the truth, Max?” Creed had asked while poking idly at the campfire with a stick.

The battle robot had parked itself just outside the clearing that Creed had set up for his camp, and looked eerie in the darkness with twin glowing points of light where eyes might have been, if a person was ten feet tall and made of metal.

“Yes.” was all Max would say. Even after several more questions, the giant battle robot would not speak to Creed, and after many attempts at questioning the mech, Creed sighed in disgust and turned in to sleep himself. “Good night, Max. Keep an eye out for Wargs.” he had said before wrapping himself in blankets and tried hard to sleep.

----

Sarah yawned and thought to herself ‘So that is sleep. It’s wonderful.’ She rubbed her eyes and glanced around herself. She was lying out in the open in a clearing surrounded by tall trees. The air was cool but already warming in the morning sun. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light and she stared in wonder at the deep blue cloudless sky. Memories drifted in and out of her awareness like small fish in a pond. Everything she saw, everything she smelled or touched was a trigger for some vague impression. It was frustrating to her to know that somehow she had seen all this before, had some kind of life before - this. Waking up to find herself in a 100 year old derelict ship. She shuddered, and not from the cold of the morning.

“Max? Are you up?” she said, turning to look around the camp. There was no sign of him, but soon she heard the ground thumping sound of Max’s walking and he appeared at the edge of the clearing.

In the daylight she was now fully able to appreciate how formidable this mech was. Standing at ten feet tall, all gleaming metal and angles. His powerful feet tore tufts out of the soft ground as he paced into the clearing.

“Good morning, Sarah. I was never ‘asleep’. I do not require rest. After you and Creed became unconscious, I scouted the perimeter of the camp and kept watch for anything unfriendly. “ Max almost sounded like he was somehow seeking her approval. Could this robot have emotions? He had told her that the engrams of his personality were from a real person, could something like emotions have carried over as well?

Max seemed to switch “modes” as he approached Sarah more closely. His steps became very slow and methodical, as if he was stepping in a minefield. She was surprised at how quiet he could be when he wanted to be. There was something in his metal claw. He very slowly extended his arm to her. She was surprised to see it was the ear and eyepiece that she had worn in the ship.

“Oh Max, this is great! Where did you find it?” she exclaimed as she very carefully extracted it from his hand. Seeing him up close like this brought back some of the nervousness of yesterday. The last machine that had been this close to her had tried to kill her.

“I stored it away before I carried you from the ship, Sarah. It is advantageous to maintain contact with you from remote distances.” Max said.

At that moment, Creed appeared from another direction, holding two small furry animals - the fruits of his morning hunt for food.

“Good morning Sarah, Max. How was your first sleep under the stars?” he seemed relaxed and cheerful, but still sent a nervous glance or two at the giant mech.

Sarah smiled, and Creed marvelled at the ability for this girl to bounce back from what must have been an incredibly traumatic and harrowing experience.

“I don’t know what I like better, sleeping or eating.” she said with a grin.

Creed laughed, a hearty loud sound that caused Max’s head to snap to his direction. “

“You know, I can’t say I know either!” he replied.

“What are you doing out here, Creed human?” Max’s question caught him off guard. He must have been wanting to ask that all along, but why did he wait until Sarah was awake to grill him? The machine could have had all the answers he wanted in the night before. Creed eyed the mech warily and wondered just how canny this giant machine really was. He realized that Max was trying to cast some suspicion on him in front of Sarah, but to what end?

“Wow, Max, you certainly are direct. If you must know, I’m a hunter by trade. I wander the Wilds, hunting and trapping some of the more exotic creatures out here. Then I take what I find and sell it to the villages in the Eastlands. Those folks are mostly farmers and gatherers, since the Vixen prevent them from having any sort of technology.”

Sarah felt her heart leap into her throat. She had somehow heard that name before.

“The - Vixen? What is that?” she asked while watching Creed stoke up the campfire and warm up the remains of the stew from last night.

“Well, “ he said, staring at Sarah with a deep frown “you surely have heard of the Vixen if you were on that ship. They are the race that you were fighting when they blasted that ship from the sky. They are the devils that have taken over this planet. They are the creatures that have almost wiped out all humans from the face of the earth…”

Sarah closed her eyes, remembering the creature from her dream. The thin, grey body. The face out of a nightmare with glowing red eyes. She shook her head.

“Hey, you ok there, Sarah?” Creed asked. His strong features were full of concern as he handed her a bowl of stew. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. The Vixen have long since stopped their campaign to eradicate humans. It’s no longer worth it for them. They’re too busy ripping this planet apart for it’s natural resources. We’re just ants to them now that we lost the War.”

“You speak lies. The War is not over.” Max said suddenly. “And you do not look like a hunter, with a weapon like that. “ Max gestured to the large sword strapped to Creed’s back.

Creed’s face turned red with anger. “What do you know, you stupid machine? You’ve been collecting dust in a derelict ship for a hundred years while the human race was all but completely eradicated until the Vixen decided it wasn’t worth the effort to wipe away the last remnants of human civilization! If they knew you were here and active right now, they’d have a scout ship over our heads in minutes and fry everything within a square kilometer of here! All technology has been completely banned! “

Creed bunched his fists and took a step toward the mech.

Quickly, Sarah jumped up and pressed a hand to his chest. The other she extended outward to Max. “Hold on! Please! Don’t fight. You two are the only people - the only friends I have! I don’t know anything about these Vixen, or the War, or even if my name is really Sarah! It’s just some name I saw above my stasis chamber. Please! Don’t fight!” Sarah exclamed, as a tear fell from her eye.

Max lowered his arms, while Creed followed suit.

“I’m sorry Sarah. I did not mean to make you upset. But I find it difficult to believe that the humans lost the war with the Vixen.”

“You know about them, too?” Sarah asked, turning to the mech.

“Yes, they are the Enemy. I may be a personality in a machine, but my programming is very clear. I am to do whatever is necessary to destroy the Vixen.”

“Hah!” Creed said in disgust. “Fat lot that will do when they bomb you from the upper atmosphere. The human race has been a defeated species for almost 4 generations. The. War. Is. Over!”

Creed threw down his own bowl of stew and stomped off into the forest.

Sarah turned to follow him, but Max raised his arm. “Stop Sarah. He may be dangerous in this angered state.”

Her own anger flared. “Max! You may know how to blast your enemies, or run reconnaissance or whatever you call it, but you apparently don’t know anything about being a human.” She turned to stomp off in the direction Creed had left.

She stopped short for a moment when she heard Max say “Do you?”

Biting her lip, she ran into the forest to find Creed.

---