We rushed back home through the tunnels. We didn’t let down our guard until we reached Zero’s casino, nothing would happen under his watch.

  We took the elevator up to our room, still not saying anything. Mara broke the silence the second the door was closed behind us.

  “Pce is yours. We head out in the morning.”

  “My cut first.” Those were the first words Silver said. They took a step towards our table and leaned against one of the chairs.

  Mara took a step forward and tossed her bag of loot on the table. I added mine next to hers, and pulled it open.

  Silver leaned forward and took a chip between their fingers.

  “What’s the exit pn?” They asked.

  “A contact in Arc City. Paying 80% of the worth.”

  Silver twitched their head to the side, and gave a few nods before tossing it back into the bag.

  “And the gold?”

  “That one’s by ear.” Mara said.

  “I’m around for as long as I get an even split.” Silver said. “Anything less than that and we can restart our dance.”

  “Don’t tempt me.” Mara said with a grin. “An even share. Just pull your weight.”

  Silver just looked at her out of the corner of their eye.

  “I’m getting some sleep.” Mara announced and headed for our room. I stayed out there.

  “Why did you come with us?” I asked. “What’s your pn?”

  “To make money and to make money.” They said. “I’m not needed here. Vegas is settled, boring. I don’t want to grow old.”

  “How did you know we wouldn’t just kill you?”

  “Don’t pretend you didn’t feel that connection. I stopped trying to kill you on day three.” They stole my response straight off my face. “Gd at least one of you pays attention.”

  “Look, I’m going to warn you now. Betray either of us, and I will put you down.”

  “Sure you will. You were the only one trying to kill in that building and you couldn’t do it. Let’s see how that turns out.”

  “Try me then.”

  Silver ughed at that.

  “I don’t need to prove myself to you.”

  They were right for the record. I had no chance at winning that fight, even if I didn’t know it at the time. These days however? I like to think it’d be pretty close. We’ve both slowed down a lot.

  How do you even respond to someone ughing at your threat? Nowadays? Who cares? Back then? I threw a punch.

  I ended up id out on the floor less than a second ter.

  Silver just stared down at me, daring me to try again. I could see the cold threat in their eyes, my own words echoing through my brain. Betray me again, and I will put you down.

  I was seething as I made my way to the bathroom. I rationalized it as the fact that I was just injured and hadn’t slept in four days. The fact that they were in the same shape, with the same exhaustion? I buried that deep for the sake of my pride.

  I peeled off my clothes and armor and dropped it to the ground. Ceramic shards from ptes that we couldn’t repce crunched against the floor. I took a good long look at myself. My chest looked like I painted the whole thing. Bck, blue, red, purple, green, yellow, every nasty color from an injury you can think of. There wasn’t so much as a single square inch of uninjured skin on my torso.

  I stepped into the shower, and the water ran red and brown. Every part of me stung, even through the endless painkillers.

  It must have taken an hour to clean myself up. I didn’t look much better, I didn’t even feel much better, but at least I was clean.

  I made it into Mara’s room and colpsed into bed. I was out like a light.

  The next morning was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. Even moving my eyes hurt. I just sat there and groaned, it was all I could do.

  Mara was about as helpful as you would imagine.

  “Don’t be a little bitch.”

  Something smmed into my chest, pulling a cry out of me. I sat there for a while, blood pumping in my ears, just desperately trying to get air in my lungs.

  I forced my eyes open and looked to my side. A canteen was leaning up against me, and a roll of pills on the nightstand. I forced myself to move, knocked back a handful of the things, and chased it down with water. I just stayed there for a while, suffering until they kicked in.

  Eventually I managed to push myself out of bed. I barely had the presence of mind to throw on some clothes before stepping out.

  Mara and Silver were at the table with a half eaten breakfast spread out in front of them, discussing pns. I walked up and they went silent. I didn’t care, I just grabbed what was avaible and began to eat.

  “Look who’s finally up.” Mara said.

  “I didn’t hit you that hard.” Silver said. I just gred back at them and continued to eat.

  No matter how much pain I was in, that food grounded me. It always had a way of doing that. It forced me to focus on the taste and the texture, to get my mind off things and focus on the here and now. Or the there and then, I suppose.

  I don’t remember that conversation very well. I just got lost in my food.

  We didn’t even need to pack. We weren’t pnning on coming back. Everything we needed was already in our getaway car, and the rest had been sold.

  The elevator system was already in pce. Zero got that squared away not long after he expanded the tunnels into massive throughways.

  We took the elevator down and found our spare car. It wasn’t the same car Mara had when she was a kid. That thing gave up the ghost a long time ago. No, it was simir to what we have today. Electric, airless tires, and a rge enclosed body. Even though it didn’t look like it, the sides were armored and the windows made of thick bulletproof gss. And that was the backup car.

  I didn’t trust Silver. I took the back seat so I could keep an eye on them while Mara drove. You remember the camera that came down and followed us through the path? He was already working there.

  “Mara! Silver! Vince!” The camera chased us out. “I heard something went down, but I wasn’t sure if-” That’s all he managed to get out before Mara hit the ramp.

  We weren’t going all the way to Arc City right away of course, even if we could have made it on one charge. No, we still had to pick up everything we had stashed.

  The Grand Canyon was interesting before the ramps got put in pce. You had just a few options, unless you wanted to repel down the walls. Near Vegas there were a few pces you could get into the Colorado River and follow that all the way through. All two hundred and fifty miles of it until it gets shallow enough to get back into the desert. Of course, there are a few old riverbeds that branch off of it that’ll lead you out early. Our pn was the Little Colorado. There was a small town right by the crossroads where we'd wait out the next storm.

  We left Vegas behind. I’ll admit, at the time I was sad to leave that part of my life. It was… I don’t want to say fun, that’s not the right word. It was busy, easy to lose myself in. We never looked back though. There was never time for that.

  “You got friends in Arc City?” Silver broke the silence.

  “We don’t have enemies yet.” Mara shrugged.

  “You deal with Zero for years, and you run straight to the heart of AIs?”

  “I’ll fuck with bios and rips. Both of them are dumb as shit, easy to manipute.”

  “Sorry Little Blue, those were her words, not mine.” Vince says quickly and gnces around, checking if Corax is hiding in the room. He’s not, he’s still with his flock and helping Kolibri. “And if Corax is listening in, tell him sorry too.”

  “I’m not going to take offence from anyone as awful as her.” I promise him. “I literally couldn't care less what she thought.”

  “Good. I just wish I thought the same back then.”

  “And how long before a digital is pulling the strings behind the scenes?” SIlver asked.

  “Same thing as Zero. Show the bastards we’re not worth fucking with.”

  “Sure.” Silver went quiet after that.

  The thing that stood out to me was how rexed the two of them were. Going from enemies to allies that quickly? I couldn’t quite follow it. I was still fully in fight mode, on edge the entire drive. On edge from Silver, and from the possibility of someone following us.

  It took a few hours to get into the riverbed, and a few more to reach the canyon. We descended slowly, the world rising up around us. All it did was make me feel trapped.

  Our original getaway car was stashed in a little crevice. We put up a fake wall to keep it hidden. Mara put the car in park and stepped out.

  “Just stay close.” She ordered.

  I hopped out to support her, and Silver shifted into the driver’s seat. I stepped forward, pulling off the fake wall and discarding it on the ground. Mara stepped through, and into our car. I climbed in next to her.

  “What the hell is happening?” I asked.

  “Are you doubting me?” She gred at me out of the corner of her eye. My blood ran cold and my stomach churned. I knew I screwed up, and I knew I’d pay for it soon. The worst part was that she made me feel like it was my fault, like I deserved it.

  “No.” I answered. I wanted to say more, but couldn’t.

  “Then shut the fuck up.” She put the car in drive and we were on our way again.

  Silver followed close beside us as we made our way through the canyon. The pce was eternally busy. It was the safest route through that part of the desert. Well, safe from the storms, anyway. That whole route was watched by the Rangers back then, but they were spread thin and a water caravan is always a tempting target for dying raiders.

  We passed town after town, vilge after vilge. Pces built into crevices in walls, great caverns bsted out of the rock, entrances to pces deep underground in the rare sections that sand doesn’t pile up. I didn’t know it at the time of course, but we passed right by Cassie’s vilge.

  “Gd you didn’t stop in.” Cassie says. “I can’t imagine what trouble you would have brought with you.”

  “We’ll get to that.”

  We made it to our stopping point after a day of driving. That pce was more of a fortress than a town. Strong walls had been constructed, half a mile wide with closable windows distributed across it. The natural rock formations kept most of the sand out, although they did have a retractible roof if needed.

  Last I heard, the city is a shell of what it used to be these days. It got hit hard during the war, switched hands between humans and AI a few times. And now with the tunnels down into the canyon, not as many people are making their way along that route. Trade has dried up, probably intentionally. An arc spent there is an arc not spent in Vegas.

  It doesn’t matter though. What’s important is that we made it out of Vegas.

  JanePtinum