Work Text:
Rain pounded down on the dump, the sharp taptaptaptaptap of the fat drops hitting the dead workers echoing through the recesses of the pile. Tessa carefully navigated the landscape, her favorite umbrella in hand to protect against the terrible weather.
Although, if she had it her way, she wouldn’t be out here right now.
It was 4:30 AM on a Tuesday, hours before anyone would be out here shoveling corpses with the gigantic machines that stood like statues in the distance. She never went out on a day the dump was active (that was a great way to get her grounded for the next 5 years), but this time had no choice.
During the night’s recharge, something happened with N’s plug. Her parents had forbidden her from letting her drones charge with the others. She guessed it was a backhanded way of trying to get her to give up and get rid of them, but Tessa was no quitter, and when she wanted to, she could get creative . To her parents’ horror, she put a hole in the wall and rewired everything. She diverted extra power from the third downstairs kitchen to her bedroom, building in extendable power cords to plug in her friends. And while it did get her chained to her bed for a week, it was worth it.
Although, since it was a homemade charging station that followed exactly 0 rules or regulations (it actually broke about 3 state laws, Tessa would come to find out), she knew it would be prone to issues. Whatever had happened that night fried N’s battery, and the drone could barely stand from the severe depletion and errors plastering his screen. If N missed one day’s worth of tasks, it wouldn’t be a big deal as J could cover for him. But if she didn’t get the problem sorted out as soon as possible, her parents would start to realize something was wrong.
It was bound to happen eventually , she told herself with an internal sigh.
So, the plan was simple. Get in, find a new battery, get out.
But of course, nothing could ever be simple for Tessa. She had combed over the surface of the dump, checking every corpse for an intact battery back, but found nothing . The crows had clearly come to peck at the drones they could reach, and had ruined dozens of perfectly good batteries by doing so.
She had to travel deeper into the dump than she had expected, walking a mile or two more than she ever had. She skirted around a crane that she had often watched move compacting equipment to new areas of the dump, the shadow it cast in the early light making the hundreds of FATAL ERROR messages it fell over all the more ominous.
She walked over to a couple corpses and knelt down, pulling the umbrella down to create what was almost a small shelter so she could inspect them. It was easy opening up their back hatches. The drones were designed to be able to open them up on their own and plug themselves in when it came time to charge, so no tool was required. They opened the hatch and began to dig around, and a smile quickly grew across her face.
This drone had an intact battery.
She quickly disconnected the wires connecting the green, glowing cylinder to the rest of the drone and gently pulled it out. She double checked it for any cracks or damages and carefully slid it into her massive coat’s pockets.
“Thank you, mate,” she said to the worker, closing the hatch and giving it a small pat of appreciation. Her smile fell, imagining the life lost with this drone’s deactivation. Even though her parents told her drones aren’t actually sentient and only a simulation of consciousness, she knew they were wrong. She had to resist looking at the name on the disassembly band, knowing that if she did it would only make her sadder.
She stood again, tearing her eyes from the drone and turning to leave.
“….. h e l p ….”
Her brow furrowed and turned around. Wwwwwhat was that? She paused and listened, the sound of the rain drowning out much of anything. After a moment of waiting, she shrugged and began to leave. Likely just the crane in the wind.
“….. h e l p …..!”
The sound came again, clearer and more frantic. Yup. That was definitely a voice.
She trotted in the direction she thought it came from, her ears straining to hear anything over the storm.
When no sound came, she paused and called, “ Heeeeeellllllloooooo ?” She stood still, desperately listening.
After a moment, came, “…. help ….!” It was clearer now. She was close!
“Where are you! Keep making sounds! I’ll find you!” Tessa shouted with as much force as her lungs could muster.
A scraping sound came from her right, about 30 feet away near the mouth of a compactor. The girl dashed over with reckless abandon, her rubber boots doing a decently good job of giving her grip on the slick metal. As she neared, she spotted the drone.
It wasn’t near the compactor. It was inside the compactor. It dangled halfway out of the compactor, its body mostly limp and soaked from the rain. It looked as if the worker caught inside was the one right after the last drone to be crushed before the dump closed for the day.
“I see you, I see you!” she shouted. That is a horrifyingly close call….. she silently muttered.
She skidded to a halt and dang near tossed herself into the compactor beside the drone, though still careful not to damage N’s new battery. She immediately got to unscrewing the drone’s mangled foot using the screwdriver she always carried with her, undoing the little pieces of metal and throwing them aside. Once all the screws were removed, she carefully pulled it out of the socket, disconnecting the wires and tubing as she did so. She left the extremity where it was caught, and began to help the drone out of the compactor.
She swung herself down from the maw of death, saying, “Whew, sorry! I didn’t want to risk that thing turning back on while you were caught in it. Rescue first, names second, ya know?”
The drone didn’t laugh, and now that Tessa thought about it, hadn’t cried out again since the third call for help.
That’s not a good sign…..
“Ah….. you alright, mate?”
Tessa bent to look at the drone’s visor for any signs of ‘life’, but paled when she realized that it was nearly completely smashed in. The wound looked like a botched deactivation job, the captive bolt gun having missed its intended mark and instead veered to one side of the drone’s visor. And to make matters worse, it was full of water. The worker must have been dangling halfway out of the compactor for nearly a day now, and it had been pouring rain for the last week. (Seriously, who builds a dump in a marsh, anyways?)
“Ohhhhhh, no, you’re very much not alright.” Tessa tipped the drone’s head so the accumulated water poured out, the functioning fraction of the worker’s screen glitching wildly with colors and errors as she did so. That was a good sign at least. Once all the water was poured out, its screen ran some lines of broken text, reading:
REBOO----NG . . .
RU---NG SYSTEM DIAG---IS. PLE--E WAIT . . .
ER--R CODE: 44872 — OPTIC SENS-RS OFF---E
ERROR CODE: 98201 — UN-----TIFIED LIQUID PRES-NT. PLE---E LOCATE THE NEA--ST JC JENSEN TE----CIAN AS SOON AS PO---BLE
RE--OTING . . .
STA-D BY . . .
A dozen more error messages flashed across the drone’s screen, and in a burst of vocalsynth, it screamed . The girl jumped back as it clamored out of the chute and nearly dropped to the ground, only to be grabbed a moment before it fell. She clutched the terrified drone to her chest as it frantically tried to get away.
“Help, help, please, I can’t see I can’t see—”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, you’re safe. I’m not gonna hurt you, it’s okay,” Tessa soothed, the drone’s thrashing slowing. “My name’s Tessa,” she explained, not letting go of the drone.
The drone ignored her, its feminine voice muffled, but the choked sobs coming through as clear as day. “I can’t see I-I can’t see I can’t see what’s happening to me where am I what’s wrong with my eyes I can’t see I can’t see I CAN’T SEE —!”
“Shhhh, shhhh. It’s alright, it’s alright. I’m going to take you home and fix you up, okay? Everything is going to be just fine, I promise.”
The drone sobbed harder, pushing her smashed face into Tessa’s chest and gripping the back of her raincoat as she heaved and shook. As she held the terrified drone, she gently lifted her arm to get a look at her disassembly band. She read the last line of text on the waterlogged piece of neon yellow fabric. S/N: V-X00100000.
“Do you remember your name, little one?” Tessa asked gently, hoping talking would distract the worker from her anguish.
“N-n-no…..” she sniffled, turning her head down a bit, shards of glass digging into Tessa’s chest.
“Your band says V. Can I call you V?”
The drone merely shrugged.
Tessa pursed her lips, but continued, “Alright ,V, how long you’ve been here?”
The drone was silent, thinking. After a moment, she mumbled out, “I-I dunno. B-but I’ve been s-stuck in a b-b-bootloop for a while. M-maybe gone th-through it eight or n-nine t-t-times?”
That would explain why she went silent and woke up so suddenly…..
“That’s right miserable ,” Tessa replied, “I betcha it’s because of the rain. You gotta nasty looking injury, there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was your processor trying to come back online but getting stopped by the water stuck in ya….. You were starting to look like a drone-shaped fish tank when I found you,” she joked, hoping to lighten the mood.
The drone didn’t laugh, so she awkwardly continued over the failed attempt at a chuckle, “I-it’s a miracle you’re still online, really. Someone up there must really like ya.”
V hummed in reply, but after a minute, asked gently, “D-do you know where we are?”
Tessa’s heart stopped. This drone didn’t know where she was? She didn’t know she was hours away from being crushed to death in the compactor? How much does she know? Do I tell her? What is it N says all the time? Honesty is the best policy? No, that’s a horrible idea……
“Don’t worry about that, it isn’t very important right now,” Tessa assured, “How about we head home? It’s nice and dry there, much better than this awful place. I’ll get you patched up and working just fine again.”
“O-okay. I-I, um—” the drone broke off, her voice trembling with tears that were about to break through, “I-I c-can’t see where I’m going. S-something’s wrong with my optic sensors, I th-think.”
“That’s alright. I’ll guide you.” Tessa took V’s hand and held the umbrella over her, not caring that she was getting soaked. Though the two didn’t even make it a single step before V buckled. She took Tessa down with her, the two falling to the uneven ground of jagged metal and oil. The girl caught her hand on the shattered glass of a dead worker’s visor whilst trying to stop her fall. She hissed in pain, and rubbed the welling blood off on her dress. She shoved the sharp agony down and turned to the worker, helping her up.
“I-I’m sorry. You should probably just go without me,” she mumbled. She looked so miserable and terrified, if her visor were functioning there would no doubt be little tear icons building under her eyes.
“No, I am not leaving you here. That wasn’t your fault, V. I suppose I forgot to tell you, but, uh….. you’re sorta missing a foot.”
Errors and colors flashed over her broken visor as the drone opened her mouth, likely to panic, but Tessa stopped her.
“N-nothing to fret about, though! I’ll get you a replacement, easy as pie.”
“O-okay…… but how are we going to get out of here now? I can’t see, I can’t walk and—”
“Shh. Don’t worry about it. We just have to get a little….. creative .”
Tessa began to think, glancing around the dump for options. Nothing around here would be of any use to her for transport….. but maybe her raincoat would. She gently pushed her umbrella into V’s hand, the drone accepting it, and she quickly began to take off her oversized coat.
If V couldn’t walk home, maybe she could carry her.
Tessa usually just wore whatever she could find in a spare closet. Her parents refused to buy her a raincoat of her own (she guessed it was because they didn’t want to encourage her to go out to the dump more often), so that left her to scrounge around for whatever she could find. The raincoat she took today was two sizes bigger than what fit her, and had a stylish belt to tie around the middle.
“V, do you think you’d be able to hold onto my back?” Tessa asked.
She thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Great. Drop the umbrella and hop on. This girl’s got a plan.”
She helped V onto her back, and once she had a good grip, she hunched over and tied the arms of the coat over her shoulders and the belt around her waist, creating a little sling-like backpack out of the coat for the drone. She bent over and grabbed the umbrella, holding it over the two in hopes that the pouring rain wouldn’t cause any further damage to the drone. V’s rain-slicked body pressing up against hers wasn’t a very pleasant feeling, but she didn’t mind.
Her main priority was getting V back home.
“How’s that feel? Comfortable?” Tessa asked, glancing back at the worker.
She mumbled an “m-hm” in reply, wrapping her arms around Tessa a little tighter.
“Good. Just try to relax, okay? We’ll be there in no time.”
A while later, Tessa and V arrived back at Elliot manor. And just in time too, as the cranes were beginning to move right as the two slipped through the fence. The walk back to the manor was a pleasant one, really, even on a rainy day. All Tessa had to do was follow the canal that ran alongside the forest, and keep an eye out for the iron gates that enclosed her family’s property.
As she walked, V fell into sleep mode. Tessa had been worried she was caught in another bootloop, but thankfully the drone was merely resting.
The time alone gave her a good while to think. Think about zombie drones, think about how to fix her new friend…. just think .
Her mind wandered to V’s lack of memories, and how it was a common thread between N and J back at the manor.
Neither of them had any memories of their past jobs before disassembly. Maybe the reactivation is only for the hardware. But then why would the personality matrix be preserved? Is it random? Maybe I’ll find a drone who remembers what happened to them before they came to the dump someday…..
Before she knew it, she had arrived at the back gate of the manor. She glanced through the metal bars. The lights were on, but her parents didn’t usually wake up until 7 AM.
It must be time for the workers’ morning shift.
Tessa quietly unlocked the gate and crept inside, making her way to the back door through the garden of plastic plants. Most of the plants that were ‘growing’ in the garden had gone extinct hundreds of years ago, but her parents were suckers for the ‘vintage’ vibe.
She reached the door and slowly opened it, having left it unlocked when she left earlier. She slunk through and closed it again, the little click it made making her wince. She wiped her feet on the mat and flicked off the water from the umbrella, hanging it on a nearby hat rack. She turned to leave, only to be met with two workers, both butlers, who were staring at her from the doorway.
She jumped, but managed to restrain a shriek. Where did they come from? ! The JC Jensen workers that were issued to the manor never spoke to the humans unless spoken to, so they merely stared at Tessa awkwardly. Are they….. waiting for orders?
She suddenly became aware that she was standing in a growing puddle of water running off her raincoat. Oh. Just waiting to do their jobs.
Tessa cleared her throat and put on her best commanding face. “Hello, gentledrones. I, a human, order you to, uh, wipe this up. And also not tell my parents you saw me or I told you to do this.”
The drones glanced between each other.
“Well, she is a human.”
“That alone is a pretty convincing argument.”
She stepped out of the way and let the two workers begin wiping up the puddle. She quickly scampered away, thankful that V wasn’t too heavy. She scurried up the stairs, her coat leaving drops of water all the way up the stairs and to her room, but she wasn’t worried. The workers would find it eventually and handle it. She arrived at her room and quickly shot inside. She closed the door as gently as she could, and turned around.
—to find J inches away from her face glaring at her.
Tessa jumped back, swearing under her breath.
J didn’t let her get a single word in before she started, her voice a quiet hiss, “ Tessa, where in the Company’s name have you been? I wake up from recharge to find N bugging out like crazy and saying you went to the dump to find a battery?”
“I-I-I-I-I-I-I’m nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnot-t-t-t-t-t-t doing so g-g-g-gooooood!” N stuttered from where he was laying, starfish position, on the floor. His screen was plastered with urgent popups, but he still offered a small thumbs up.
“Are you serious, Tessa? Why didn’t you wake me up? Do you know how worried I’ve been? You— ”
Tessa grabbed J in a hug, effectively silencing her. “I’m sorry, J. I had to leave quickly. Before anyone was up.”
The drone hesitantly hugged back, but recoiled when she realized what was strapped to her back, shrieking a “ Dear robo-God , what did I just touch ?”
“Oh! Right!” Tessa swung around. “This is V! I found her stuck in the compactor after I found N’s battery. She seems mostly blind right now, but I’m sure I’ll be able to fix her up, no problem.”
J began gently, “Tessa….. fixing this one is going to be a big project…..”
“Well, the alternative is leaving her to die and I’m certainly not doing that,” the girl snapped, causing J to purse her lips and glance away. Tessa shrugged, continuing with a more lighthearted tone. “But, hey: With another drone around, you know what that means?”
J’s jaw fell and her optics hollowed, her voice filled with awe-filled realization. “By the Company …. I won’t have to deal with N alone anymore…..!”
“Wh— no! You and N will have a new buddy!”
N’s jovial, bugged-out voice came from the corner, the two turning to him.
“Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yippeeeė̷̞͕̖̬̍e̴̺̬͉̝͔͋ͅe̶̤̹͊̀̑̊e̷̱̣͉͎̯͒́̂̇́͒̕ẹ̸̫͔͐̉͂̾̍͑è̶̜̠͔̲̈́ḛ̷̡̟̼̯̙̮͋͂̿e̷͉͈̝̬̦̒̿ḛ̷̲̗̮͔̖̄͝ͅḛ̶͖̦̞̦̣̯̀e̵̛̤͕̭̼̿̈̓͘ễ̴͖͎̣͆͒̕ẽ̵̢̡̧̩̱̱͔͒̀e̵̼͓̩̭̓͊̐͗̚͝͝ě̶̩̹̮̾͂̈̆̓e̴̛̠̞̖̙̿͐!”
If you liked this fic, you might like my others! Check em out here!
MK's Murder Drones Oneshot Catalogue