Chapter Text
Hit woke up, and today was going to be another difficult day. Hit looked at the door to his daughter's room. It was nice to know that she was living better than he was, even though Hit didn't have many resources. However, these gifts to his daughter were more valuable than L's gifts, as Hit didn't have much to begin with. Hit provided his daughter with the best of what he had, including excellent glue (which he stole from a collaborator), better batteries, and less sticky oil. Especially the oil, they were given very poorly processed oil, which was still heavy oil that stuck to their mouths and everything else. So he didn't hesitate to give away the good oil if they somehow managed to get it. It was better for him to arrive on time, as he didn't want to anger the collectors. He didn't undress, as he was too lazy, so he didn't waste much time and left the apartment. The first thing he saw was the faces of the collaborator drones, making sure everyone went to work. If he was late, they would break down the door and force him to go to work. The person who broke the door would have to fix it, not the person who broke it. Although the collaborators have keys to all the doors, they seem to break them for fun. Heath was on his way to paint the walls. It's not as difficult as it was the day before yesterday, where he had to dig into the ground with a pickaxe, risking that you would die under the rubble. There was one such unfortunate. I hope he won't get into such a situation, because instead of helping, the collaborators collected his oil flowing from his broken legs. Slowly and painfully.
After several hours of painting the walls, a drone disassembler L came. Despite the fact that I am grateful to him for taking care of my, and other children too. But... L was no better than his colleagues, in fact, he was worse. Because while P and W tortured and killed adult worker drones for fun, L did it with obvious contempt and for much longer. And now he's watching L attack a worker drone for not bowing to him. He stabbed his claw into the worker's shoulder and then used his foot to crush the worker's head. The worker's display was breaking, oil was flowing profusely from the wound, and he couldn't move. After the display was shattered, but the drone worker was still alive, L hung it from the ceiling and placed a bucket where the oil was dripping from the drone's wound. He ordered the other workers to wipe up the oil and then left them. It was better not to cross his path. The drone was still alive and groaning in pain. Why did humans give them the ability to feel pain? Perhaps it was to allow them to experience the same level of discomfort as humans, but regardless, it was a strange concept. Okay, let's forget about it, or the collaborators will beat me up for looking at them sideways. 5 hours have passed, which means he has another 13 hours of boring wall-painting to do. Although it's likely that all the walls will be painted in a while, and they'll be assigned to other difficult tasks. This is usually the case. I'll pray that it's cleaning, because I don't want to go to the mines...
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L went to the general office of the drone dismantlers. P and W were watching a children's cartoon. W wasn't very happy about it, but P was. "What are you doing?" L asked, and his leader gave him a look. L's visor showed extreme boredom. L sat down next to them and started watching. After a while, W decided to interrupt them. "My friends, it's been a while since we've had a performance. The last thing I remember is how we made the worker drones build us golden statues, even though there wasn't much gold in Copper 9, and it wasn't even available in that area. So they just made a copper statue and painted it gold. And I was kind of angry, so I killed 10 worker drones. It was fun." L and P looked at each other and thought. It was really funny to watch the worker drones trying their best to do something that wasn't even possible. P said, "If we're going to do another performance, I vote we make an exact parody of a scene from a movie we watched recently." L decided to offer an alternative, "That's going to be difficult to implement, so let's just have the worker drones make a statue out of corpses!" W heard the answers and, without hesitation, chose the P option: "L, this will be a lame sequel to our previous performance, which is essentially the same thing with a few different details. However, P came up with an ingenious and fun idea. All we need is a wooden barn, a large area, some decorations, a bunch of uniforms, and worker drones that we can roast in the barn." L looked at W like he was an idiot, asking, "Where are we going to get that many worker drones and the wood to build the barn, not to mention the fabric for the uniforms?" W also looked at L like he was a moron - "We'll force the worker drones to mine wood and fabric under the protection of the collaborators, and there are thousands of drones in our bunker, including the children we need." L tensed at the mention of children - "You promised that you wouldn't harm the children when I made the deal with you. I still have a copy of our agreement in my memory." "You're being a jerk with your children. Okay, let's find another camp or bunker with worker drones. "Will it do?" - suggested W. P decided to intervene - "L, why are you so concerned about protecting the children? Are they yours?" "Well, no, but yes... uh... well, how to put it. I just need them, what's the big deal?" - L replied, stumbling over his words. "And will these children protect you? Do they even love you? They'll be the first to stab you in the back, brother," said W. "I can protect myself, and I can confidently say that they love me. They hug and love me, and they even consult with me," L said happily and loudly. "Who will they choose? You or their parents?" "Of course I am! They spend a maximum of half an hour with their parents, if they're lucky, but they see me every day for half a day. And every week I show them a video from my production, telling them how I am better than their parents. I'll show you now, I downloaded it for myself as a keepsake" - L turned on his video on his visor.
There was a video... strange. The crooked editing oozed with strange pictures, where L was drawn in the form of a jock man from one movie. Well, it was just a list of facts about how L was better than their parents - strength, agility, care, entertainment, fun, and so on. And the music was stolen from a worker drone on the internet. It's a good thing that we don't have copyright laws. Then the video ended, and the childcare provider looked at them for support. W and P gave their opinions about it with their eyes. "Oh, you're just trying to ruin my mood," L said with a hurt expression. And then L dropped a piece of paper and P noticed it. When she picked it up, she saw it... L's attempts to figure out how to turn a worker drone into a disassembler drone. "Let me guess, is this for your kids?" - P asked rhetorically. Embarrassed, L tried to take the piece of paper from P, but she wouldn't give it to him and ran away from him. W growled in annoyance: "L, by the Company, if you mention your children again in the future, I will hit you! And anyway, what kind of stupid idea is it to turn "their" children into us? You didn't mention this in our agreement," W said the last words in a more ironic tone. L wanted to say something, but decided not to. And then P broke the momentary silence: "Since this topic is closed, let's get back to our performance. I think we could find other drone workers ourselves while the collaborators are in the camp. It's easy, isn't it?" "No," said W, "I told you not to go outside." "You didn't tell us," said P and L in unison. "Oh... I guess I miscalculated... I thought you already knew, because you haven't gone outside in 10 years," said W. "That's because movies and cartoons are more interesting than the streets, where there's nothing but snow, skeletons, and ruins. And the scorching sun," replied P. L finally said, "Now tell me the reason why we can't leave the street.". W sat down on a chair and began to talk: "In short, you know that we violated the Company's rule saying that we cannot contact drone workers except for extermination. That is, even enslavement is considered a violation of the rule. That's why I wrote fake reports about the killing of drone workers, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. And so... You didn't see it, but a disassembler drone and the leader of one of the groups came to check on me. Her name was J, I think. And she (or the Company) suspected us of falsifying reports. I said that I had actually falsified the reports, but I didn't tell them about the violation of the main rule. Because it's better to get a slap in the face than to die. And in short... many sectors were ordered to invade the laboratory... and I said I'd be there later, but instead I destroyed the module that helped me send reports. And now we're listed as dead. And if they find us, we're done for!" The disassemblers now realized that going outside would be dangerous, and L remembered taking Bis from the library. Even though it wasn't far away, it was still a risky endeavor, as they could be spotted by someone, which could lead to trouble. After that, L decided to go to his class. As usual, he greeted everyone and looked around. Where was Cez... Where was Rom... Where was Pers... WHERE WAS BIS!?!
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Bis and her campaign were at the backup exit from the bunker, which was located in one of the nearby points of the main exit. It was made by humans in case the main entrance was broken. Only the worker drones knew about this entrance, as they had specifically removed any signs of its existence. Well, they closed it with a locker. Bis and her friends left the bunker and hid the exit again. Now they were outside. It was cold, but beautiful. But it was better not to admire it. They went to the library, a nearby building. Bis led the group to her secret lair, passing through musty and empty hallways. Bis remembered how her class had stolen all the books, including books of questionable content with their abundance of pornographic material. Why were there books like that next to normal fantasy books or technical ones like cookbooks. Okay, it doesn't matter, they're here. As they made their way into her lair, they finally started talking, as they had been silent before, afraid that someone would hear them, even though there was no one around. It was a habit from their classes, where L had told them that it was better to stay silent and not attract attention when going outside. Not to say that they went out on the street often - once a month, purely to steal something valuable from the nearest houses, like a flash drive with movies.
"So, my Kents, you probably don't know what we came here for, do you?" Bis said in front of them. It's clear from their visors that they don't know. Bis began to walk back and forth, telling her intentions and plan - "As you know, our parents are oppressed by pickers and we love them all. While we are enjoying the care of our caregiver L, our parents are struggling to work 18 hours a day in hard labor. Every day, we risk losing them. As grateful children, we must help them!" Silence... and then Cez broke the silence, "Ahem... Maybe you could tell us your plan?" Bis was a little taken aback, but she took a deep breath and started explaining, "Oh, that's right, I'll tell you. So, we'll subtly hint to the other kids that they should rebel. But be careful, there might be some hardcore L fans who'll report us. L could be a potential ally, but I'm not sure - he still despises our parents, and he seems to be on good terms with the other disassembler. There are also collaborators who support the "concentration camp." Despite the fact that my father clearly believes that they have a paradise instead of a life, I think they have problems and dissatisfaction with the disassemblers. All I need to do is find out... and then start a rebellion. Two or three disassemblers against a thousand workers and potentially one disassembler. Isn't that cool?". Only Rom clapped, while Cez and Pers looked at it with skepticism. Rom said, "My parents are collaborators, I can ask them about it," but Pers said, "It's better not to ask directly, but to ask about their lives and work to understand their attitudes." "Don't be a fool," Cez intervened, "We can't force the workers and collaborators to rise up; we're too insignificant. And we should first find out how to kill the disassembler drones." "Why kill them right away? L is a cool dude, maybe P and W will become like that for us?" Roma suggested, but Cez dismissed the idea. "They've been killing and oppressing workers for years, and leaving them unpunished would be disrespectful to our dead parents and other drones. Even L, despite my love for him, is a criminal. Forgiveness is possible, but punishment is necessary." Pers decided to add his own comments - "Oh, you don't seem to care about your dead parents - mine both died, but I don't know them personally, so I don't care. I think Bis, you don't care about your mother either, you haven't even spoken to her." Bis and Rom are confused, while Cez and Pers argue with each other. God, how did it get to this point?
Then Bis notices someone in a black suit walking out of the lair. She was about to scream, but then she saw the unknown taking off his mask. It was L. "Kids... what did I tell you about that?" The disassembler grabbed the four of them by the scruff of the neck and tried to leave, but he realized that he wouldn't be able to leave the lair that way, so he put them back and told them to go home. The disassembler went out first and waited for them to follow. Bys was the last to leave, and L took her hand. "This is the second time you've broken the rule, and you won't get away with it... I just need to come up with a punishment for you. But that's for later, let's go home before we're found out." L opened the door and saw a flying disassembler drone in the distance. L immediately grabbed the children and ran to the empty libraries, jumping up to the ceiling and hanging there. A moment later, an unfamiliar disassembler drone began searching for them. He was a man who wore nothing but a tattered jacket. His hair was covered in oil, as were his hands. He spent an hour searching for them, never once lifting his head. Then he shouted, "Fuck, the sun is rising, we need to get out of here, there's nothing here! It's a waste of time." L was initially relieved that he had left, but then realized that he would have to walk to the bunker while the sunlight burned him. This means that these children can tell everyone about it. Although these three don't look like the type to knock... but then again, Bis... wait, we need to run first and think later! L, without letting go of the children, flew towards the bunker, getting sunburned in the process. He gave Bis the access card to open the bunker entrance, and then let them down to the ground, trying to cover himself with his wings. Bis immediately opened the door, and L fell to the floor inside the bunker entrance. The children panicked and didn't understand what was going on until two collaboration drones came and gave L cold butter. The murder drone recovered from his burns and the first thing he did was kill these two collaboration drones. "I don't need any witnesses," and then L looked at the children, "No one should know that the disassemblers are burning in the sun, did I make it clear to you?". The children nodded at him in fright and L hugged them, patting them on the back. "And now I've come up with a way to punish you, Bis - you'll be sleeping with me for two weeks," L said easily and nonchalantly. Bis was perplexed and shocked by this - she had expected him to make her retell the lore of some cumbersome work or to have her do toilets (which the drones don't need, but the dismantlers make them do it just for fun), or at the very least to get a claw strike on her hand like one of the worker drones, but not this. It clearly ties her hands... but it might also provide new opportunities... we should try it. Bis nodded her head, and then L took her hand and they went to the room of our "concentration camp architect." Cez, Rom, and Pers went home, leaving the corpses of the collaborators behind.