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"Ready? Three, two, one…" Melissa jumps off of the building.
Zack takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and jumps after her. He has done this a few times now, and it is just as scary every time. How Melissa is so comfortable doing it is a mystery to him. Fear jolts through him when he thinks he won’t make it, but he manages to grab onto the edge. He thuds against it, scraping his skin, but he made it. Melissa is already standing impatiently on the rooftop waiting for him, arms folded. "Any time this century!"
"Give me five seconds." He grumbles, pulling himself up. His arms hurt, but he manages. He stands and brushes himself down. "What now?"
She pulls his stick out of her ever present backpack and throws it to him. He fumbles, but manages to grab it. "Now we’re going in through the window. Try not to get stuck. If you slow me down-"
"-you ditch me, I know." Zack finishes, hurrying after her. She leans down and fiddles with the window. After a few seconds she grins in triumph and pulls the window open. She drops onto the ledge and clambers through with the ease of someone who spends a great deal of time climbing in through windows she should definitely not be climbing through. For legal reasons and heath reasons.
Zack does not have that experience. He puts the stick through first, then very carefully lowers himself onto the ledge. The city swims beneath him, grey and dull like the sky on a cold day. At least there are no robots. Yet. So he should probably hurry up.
Gulping, he looks away from the ledge and slowly, cautiously, climbs in through the window. Melissa is already searching the room they are in, which just seems to be storage. "Nothing in here." She reports. "Let’s split up. I’ll take the rooms on the left, you take the rooms on the right. Yell if you get into trouble."
She turns and walks out, feet silent on the hard floors despite her speed. Zack has to be more careful to avoid making noise, but he manages. He hurries out and tries the first room on the right. Nothing but old uniforms. The second has a table and a projector. The third has old robot parts.
That looks more promising. He heads in and begins searching, wincing every time metal hits off of metal with a loud clang. Not for the first time since he agreed to help Melissa, he wonders what the hell he is doing. He really should just get away from her and report her, but there has never been a good time.
Ok, that’s not all it is. Call it morality, call it friendship, he finds that the more he gets to know Melissa the less he wants to go through with the plan. She is prickly and tough, with a hard outer shell like one of the robots they fight. And she sure as hell doesn’t care about him, that’s obvious. She has a mission and he is useful, that’s it. But giving her up to be re-educated, or killed… he can’t. But he has to, if he wants that money so he can get out of this place. That was always the plan, why is it so much harder now? Why is he digging himself deeper and deeper into this hole, risking himself when he should be handing her in and staying out of trouble?
He shakes his head and focuses on the mission. Either way, getting captured or killed is not in the plan, and he does not intend for it to happen. He just needs to find that part and get out, easy.
"Restricted area. Show me your authorisation."
Crap. He spins around to see a Normbot standing in the doorway looking at him. Blocking his exit. Pointing it’s arm at him.
"Hey, I’m just… going…" Zack raises his arms, mind whirring quickly like the machinery of the robot. Whirring so much it feels like it could overheat and explode. Ok, he has fought Normbots before. Not alone, and not in a cramped space like this, but he can do this.
First he needs to warn Melissa. He opens his mouth to yell the code word, but her battle cry and the sound of explosions tells him that it is unnecessary.
And if Melissa is in a fight already, he can’t call for help. He needs to handle this by himself.
"Remove your facial covering and present your ID." The robot repeats. Zack responds by swinging his stick at it. It glances off. Wrong spot. That was a stupid mistake.
He dives out of the way just in time to avoid a laser. The back of his Dooferalls are smoking lightly as he crawls around past a bin of old, broken weapons. He jumps out and stabs at the robot.
It is sparking from the neck now, but is still moving. Right at him. He scrambles up, but when he turns to run he finds that he has a choice between the wall, a different wall, a heavy shelf and the Normbot.
Luckily, his decision is made for him when the robot fires. He throws himself out of the way. Too late.
He falls to the floor, clutching his side as he screams. It feels like he is on fire, like a fire started on his side but has spread over him. He clatters into the shelf and something falls on him, but he doesn’t even notice. Pained tears prick at his eyes.
"Oi, Zack!" He hears Melissa yelling and looks up to see her dodging a laser to hit the robot with her stick. As it falls to the ground, she jumps over it to look down at him. In her hand is the part they came for. "Did it get you?"
"No." Zack lies, reaching up to pull himself up using the shelf. His side is in agony, pain pulsing through his entire body from there like a loud, annoying alarm, but he’ll manage. He won’t manage if she leaves him behind, so he speaks through the pain. "Fell into the wall, bruised my side. Any more?"
"Reinforcements on their way. Too many in the streets, so we’re going back over the rooftops." She reports, distracted immediately from his condition. "Come on, before we get cornered again. I do not want to fight any more bots in an corridor."
Zack hurries after her, screwing up his face. He has to lean against the wall to walk, he is too slow as every time he takes a step pain rushes through him like a raging river.
"Hurry up, slowpoke!" Melissa calls out. She doesn’t turn around, so she doesn’t see him struggling. There is a grin in her voice, triumph at completing their objective. The teasing, light and friendly as it is, really pisses Zack off.
"I’m hurrying." He mutters, taking his hand off of the wall so he can walk faster. Spots dance in his eyes and he stumbles, but he keeps going. He can rest once they get back to the hideout.
The window is going to be a problem. The thought of climbing with this injury (which he hasn’t looked at yet, he gets the idea that seeing it will probably be the final draw in him passing out) makes him nauseous. But it isn’t like he has any other choice.
He winces at the horrible pain as he reaches up, like he is being torn in half. His hands wobble, he can’t pull himself up, he’s going to fall…
"We’ve not got time to be scared of heights, they’re on their way!" Melissa calls. He scowls. It would be so much easier if he could just ask Melissa to help him up, but he can’t. Won’t. So he grits his teeth and, despite the pain, pulls himself up.
By the time he gets there, the robots are already there. Melissa is darting around skilfully, fighting them. She still hasn’t noticed Zack’s condition.
The world swims in front of him. He wants to get up and help Melissa, but his legs feel like lead and everything is blurry. Pain pulses through him as the world darkens. “Mel-“
Her turning around is the last thing he sees before he gives in.
———
“Zack!” Melissa exclaims as his head hits the ground. She dodges a laser as she rushes towards him. “Zack, you idiot!”
He looks bad, even without seeing the wound. Now she looks properly she can see the burnt hole in his Dooferalls. And through it, the injury. She retches. That looks bad. She knows how to deal with injuries from the lasers, obviously she does, but they’re on a rooftop being advanced on by robots and why didn’t he tell her before she dragged him up here?
A near miss reminds her that if she isn’t careful, they’ll both be passed out on the roof. She jumps up and stands in front of Zack in an attempt to shield him. The robots are closing in. She would be able to beat them normally, but with Zack to protect, and when she doesn’t know how serious his condition is…
She swings out at the robot in front of her, then dashes back to Zack. Muttering an apology, she hauls him up and puts his arm around her neck. It’s definitely not the safest way to carry him, but she doesn’t really have time to do anything safer. She barely avoids the robots as she hurries to the edge of the roof. Jumping just isn’t an option, she needs to lower him through the window, which is precarious and dangerous and probably makes something worse. She barely gets through herself in time.
After that is the slow way home. She knows shortcuts and fast ways, she knows how to avoid the Normbots, but with an unconscious boy at her side she has no choice but to be slow and careful, to take as few risks as possible and avoid any fights. She is so relieved when she reaches her hideout she could collapse.
She can’t quite yet. She takes Zack inside, and lays him on the bed. She can see how he screws up his face as he is jostled, she murmurs another apology. She looks at the injury and finds that while it looks bad, it is very unlikely to kill him. It is going to hurt though, and she shudders in sympathy because it’s really going to hurt.
She wipes it and bandages it, then tidies up and walks away, taking deep breaths. He should wake up soon. He should be ok.
———
The world spins around Zack when he wakes up. He is reminded of the carnival rides from his childhood, before they came here, those rides that spun you around and around until you were laughing or crying or screaming or all three at once.
He grunts with pain as he tries to move. He remembers getting hurt, he remembers making it to the roof, but after that it’s a total blank. What happened? And where is he now?
He lifts an arm to rub his bleary eyes and pain screeches through him. He quickly lowers his arm. He breathes shallowly, staying as still as possible. Even the tiniest movement makes the pain flare up until tears fight to leave his eyes.
He blinks until he can see, and looks around. So he is in the hideout. In Melissa’s bed, the metal creaking under him. He tries to shift to see if she is here, but that movement hurts so much that he whimpers, despite his best efforts to bite it down.
Footsteps answer the lingering question. “Zack? You’re awake?” He hears Melissa say as she approaches.
“Yeah.” He says, and thankfully that doesn’t make the pain any worse. Which doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt anymore. The pain is constant, pulsing through him like a strobe light. Tears are pricking at his eyes again and while he blinks them away, more come.
Melissa doesn’t say anything about that. “I’ve got painkillers and water, you can take them. Luckily the laser just grazed you. You should be ok soon, it’s just gonna hurt a lot for a while. And you’re gonna have a nasty scar.” She explains.
“Painkillers would be good.” He says. His throat is dry and croaky.
“Ok, you need to sit up.” Melissa comes closer to offer a hand to help. He tries to do it himself anyway.
He regrets it when the strobe light breaks, pain shattering through him. This time he screams. He doesn’t want to, he tries not to, but it just hurts so much. He can’t hear anything, can’t see anything, can’t feel anything except a sharp spike of agony, like he was stabbed and they are wiggling the knife around.
“- ack, Zack!” He hears Melissa’s voice and focuses on it. He takes shallow breaths, breathing through the pain.
“I’m alright, I’m alright.” He says, his voice hoarse. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise, you big idiot.” She says, and there is something unfamiliar to her tone. Concern? Sure, but something more. And even concern feels like a lot from Melissa. This time he lets her help him up, which still hurts but not as much. She is gentle and careful but firm.
After he takes the painkillers, he rests his head back and sighs. He is exhausted, he feels like he could sleep for a century. But until the painkillers kick in, he definitely won’t be able to. The pain, rather like a strobe light, is somewhat difficult to ignore while trying to sleep.
“You should’ve told me.” Melissa speaks very suddenly, startling him. He winces at the pain that flinch sends through him. “It would’ve been easier to get you out safely if I had known.”
Zack looks up at the damaged ceiling. “Thought I could work through it.”
“You passed out from it. What if that had happened when you were climbing out? You could’ve died, Zack.” Melissa sounds angry, yes, but also concerned. He feels guilty for some strange reason. “Why on earth didn’t you tell me? I asked if it got you!”
“Didn’t want to slow you down.” He explains briefly. “Didn’t really want to get ditched in the middle of that whole mess.”
“What? Why would you… oh.”
The silence that stretches between them is thick and tense. He glances at her, to see an expression that is out of place on her face. Uncertainty. Regret, maybe. And when she speaks, those same emotions are thick in her voice. “I wouldn’t do that. And I shouldn’t have said that I would.”
She takes a deep breath and then looks at him, right in the eye. “I’m sorry, Zack. We’re supposed to be allies, and I haven’t been a very good one.” She snorts humorously. “As you may have noticed, I don’t have many friends. But I’m trying. I’m sorry.”
That shocks him. He is so stunned, he can’t think of anything to say other than, “Two apologies in one conversation? You’re slipping, Chase.”, and then he curses himself because Melissa was being almost open and he was rude in response. “Sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not the one who just got a laser to the side.” She replies. “Listen, I’m going to try and be better, alright? So tell me when you’re struggling, and please tell me when you’re hurt. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He makes a small noise of assent, not sure what else to say. “I can go now, if you want.” Melissa offers.
“Can you stay?” Zack asks, because everything still hurts and he needs a distraction. He expects Melissa to say no. What he doesn’t expect is for her to nod, and shuffle a little closer on the bed. But that is what she does, and when she smiles at him he can’t help but smile back.
After a few more moments of awkward silence, Melissa starts a story about an old friend of hers, who was always getting into trouble. And she isn’t entirely open, isn’t entirely honest, there are still an unknown and certainly large number of walls between them. But she is friendly and comforting and trying. Zack can see that. He can see her more clearly, because at least one of the walls is gone after today.
After a while, the throbbing has faded to a duller pain and he yawns. God, he is exhausted. He just wants to sleep. And normally he would never let himself sleep until he was away from all of this rebellion stuff and safely back at home, in a normal, law abiding life, but today he lets his eyes slide shut and sleep take him while hidden in Melissa’s hideout. While Melissa watches.