It took us hours. Rolling hills and a twisting, relentless path. We spoke little, the guard keeping a steady pace ahead. We saw signs of civilization; the garbage was fenced away from the road, patchwork signs saying 'Welcome to C.C.C.S.' popping up here and there. Old, worn or demolished gates occasionally appeared, and we could see others several hundred feet to the side, all abandoned, all rusted and falling apart.
We finally found the gate the booth-robot had told us about, it was late afternoon. We came up over a hill and there it was, large, green, fortified. A taller tower on the left side, apparently for spotting bedragled, miserable city folk.
We were approached by a young man wearing cobbled together military garb.
"Jesus christ, you look like you fell in the recycling pools!" He shouted jubilantly.
Another, larger man came out.
"What we got?" He shouted.
"We got Tab and two guys who need a drink. Oh, shit, either a' you got any guns?" The first muttered to us.
The guard presented his weapon to the man. He stared at it.
"Uh...okay. You keep that" He said, pushing it away. "We just needed to know you have it."
The larger man made gave a glance at The Altar Boy's backpack and said. "Tab! Get through the security gate. We need to make sure you don't got any bombs inside of that thing."
'Tab' lumbered off. We were led inside by the younger of the two.
"We got a report around Ten last night of gunfire, that you?"
"Yeah." Said the guard.
"What were you shooting at?" His tone shifted, not so light any more.
"We're here looking for a rogue lab robot. The security station had what looked like its corpse outside, I reacted." Continued the guard.
"And was it?"
"No. It was just its chassis. We were supposed to cooperate with with a security station drone, but it went off on its own. Long story short, it's dead, the other scientist that came with us is seriously injured or more likely..." He shot me a look. "dead."
A crackle came over a rotten speaker on the wall.
"Lennox, come to the scanner station immediately. We got a situation."
Lennox nodded at us, and said "Stay here. Right in the room. Lockers have food and water." He was gone.
We sat around for a few minutes. Silent. I drank two bottles of water faster and messier than I'd like to admit.
"It's not your fault that grace is...gone." The guard said, sighing.
"You're fucking right it isn't." I responded, remembering what he said.
"We need to get a handle on this. We've found a resource station, but we need to find that robot, or at least some evidence of it being...offline." He continued.
"Yeah." I halfheartedly muttered.
"My name's Cotton. Eddie Cotton." He said, extending a hand.
I shook it.
I went to the fridge for more water when the sound of a a pair of boots rumbled down the hall.
"Come with me. Now." It was the older man.
We followed, clomping through the small building to what looked like a garage with a radio station built around it. Tab poked out of the top.
"Look at this." Lennox said to us, nodding at a small monitor.
There was a blue tinge to it the screen, but we could see what was undeniably a sealed medical casket.
Eddie shook his head. "What about it?"
"Look closer. Look at the face screen." Lennox said shortly.
We leaned in, focusing on it.
"My god." I said.
"Wha-?" And Eddie's face turned pale.
Eyes shut, breath methodically clouding the small glass window of the casket, was Grace.
__________________
I see you jockin' me.
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