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A rumbling noise filled the air, its grating noise adjacent to a nail on a chalkboard. The sound wasn’t great. The cold, tundra atmosphere turned tense from the lack of voices. The only noise that could be heard was the bus’ motor, and no camper even dared to mutter a word. Well— “campers”. As in, V and Lizzy, the only attendees.
Everyone else had left. V didn’t get to see it first hand, but she did see the purple and yellow reflective lights slowly disappear, and before she knew it, the lights of other people’s optics faded away as one by one, everyone left. That’s what she wanted, right? To be left alone?
Well, that was what she wanted everyone else to think, but truly? She wasn’t so sure. The whole day was a mess, a mess that in her eyes was dangerous. V’s facade was nearly broken but she couldn’t allow it to happen. Everything that happened during camp pushed her buttons, sure, but most terrifyingly it made her think.
She did not like to think.
All her memories came back up again like a tidal wave that washed over any sense of stability they had. It was all N’s fault—or did she just want someone to blame?—he was the one who brought up the past. Living in that old, pretentious manor where all she knew how to be was a people pleaser. To submit and obey her authorities. To be put down, to be nothing but a mindless maid machine. A worker drone. V shuddered at the thought. Did she truly know who she was before? Why was she forsaken to be—well—V? Was her past going to come back and haunt her, dig out all the skeletons in her closet?
V looked away from the bus window. She really did not need to dig up every old, repressed memory again. She knew that if she did, there was no stopping. She will keep on doing it until she utterly breaks, and she can’t have that facade break in front of everyone, especially not N or Uzi. She was V, the big, scary, murder drone that everyone fears. The big, scary murder drone that always felt safe.
“You look like shit.”
A pair of pink, glowing optics suddenly faced her and they both locked eyes. The taller drone’s eyes hollowed and looked away in embarrassment, not liking the intimacy of the action. She didn’t even notice the presence of the preppy worker drone right alongside her, sitting in the same row of bus seats. V kind of did look bad, though. Her hair was probably a messy clump, the outfit she was wearing was getting itchy and unbearable, her outfit nearly in tatters from Uzi’s siege upon her. She surely didn’t look good right now, but she was hoping that it wasn’t too obvious.
“I could say the same about you.” V replied, coldly. She didn’t really mean it, but she couldn’t think of a better snarky remark.
The other drone pushed her dyed, pink locs away from her face and slouched down, almost escaping the grasp of the seatbelt. She had an aloof demeanor, getting antsy at the bus’ movement. A loud sigh erupted, breaking up the noise of the bus’ grumbling motor.
“Hey, don’t be a prick, I was only joking,” She tried to look at V again but their eyes didn’t meet. “Do you know where this bus is going?”
V’s eyes filled with light again, but only because she was in thought again, “No, I have no clue. Are we going home?”
Lizzy couldn’t help but to let out a small chuckle that both irritated and confused V. “Your definition of home is way different than mine’s, V.”
V cocked an eyebrow, “Care to elaborate?”
“You live in a big, gross tower made up of worker drone corpses,” Lizzy retorted, “I live in an actual house. With walls. And a bed. And no dead bodies. Can’t say the same thing about Doll, though.”
The other drone turned her head over again, and finally stared at Lizzy, eyes half lidded at the weak attempt to jab at her. Lizzy looked back at her, smiling at her success to gain her attention back.
“So funny, Lizzy.” V sarcastically remarked.
Lizzy lifted her hand up and rested it upon her cold, metallic cheek. But instead of being smug, she offered a more serious tone, really thinking about what she just said to V.
“Yeah, okay, but seriously though,” She responded, “How do you even live like that?”
“I spend most of my time outside the spire.”
“How do you even invite friends over?”
“Well—“ V looked away momentarily, not knowing how to answer the question effectively, “It’s not like I have that many ‘friends’ to go out with.”
“Are you bitter that the purple freak can get better kills than you?” Lizzy accused, smugly.
V furrowed her eyes and cold stared at Lizzy. “Don’t even start.”
“Okay, okay!”
The moving bus came to an abrupt stop, causing both V and Lizzy to jerk back at the sudden end of motion. Lizzy sat up straight again, abandoning her slouching position, and looked outside the dirty bus window and saw the falling snowflakes building upon the ground. But, at a closer inspection, her eyes widened as she was completely unfamiliar with the environment she was in. Surely, she was not at Camp 98.7 anymore, but she wasn’t at “home” either. Not even a trace of the school she was just at.
“What the hell?” She questioned. The bus driver rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with the prissy teenager.
“This is the next stop.” He simply muttered.
“I think we waited too long. The stop before this one was ours.” V shot a look at Lizzy. The other drone sighed again, annoyed at the mistake that they both mindlessly made. Before V could speak, the bus driver promptly left, leaving both of the girls alone. It was so fast, that there was no evidence of his departure aside from the sparse footsteps planted on the snowy floor.
“Damn.” V reacted, face blank. “He just left us.”
“I…” Lizzy didn’t finish her sentence. Instead of leaving her seat, she stayed put. She knew it was her cue to leave, as there was really nothing else to do, but a part of her wanted to stay with V. It’s not like she even knew where to go in the first place.
Surprisingly, V didn’t bother to move either. She stayed put in her seat. Though, she seemed completely out of it. She didn’t mean to appear that way, but her eyes were blanking out, her expression stuck in a poker face. At some moments, she even forgot to move. Ironically, she seemed very robotic. Still. Lizzy didn’t like that, it was kind of unsettling.
“Hey, loser,” Lizzy snapped her fingers, “You alright?”
“…” V didn’t respond.
V didn't want to admit it, but she was stuck in her thoughts. She was thinking too much. Every thought that played in her head, the horrors of what happened during camp, the death that surrounded her and she couldn’t control. Whatever was happening to Uzi, she wasn’t being herself. V knew that. V pretended to not care, but her aloof appearance masked the fear that creeped upon her every second.
“Yes,” She lied. “I’m fine.”
“Do you know you’re way out of here?”
“Not at all.”
Lizzy scoffed, but faced V.
“Y’know, V, about what I said earlier…” She started, “You don’t really hang out with anyone?”
“Not unless I have to.” That wasn’t a lie.
“I’m the only person you hang out with?” The usual, snarky expression plastered across Lizzy’s face slowly morphed into a more soft one, even looking kind of concerned. V wasn’t phased by it.
“If you can call it that.”
“Hey!” Lizzy snapped back at V. “I think we hang out a lot. Remember that one time we mugged that kid? Or when I helped you pick out your prom outfit? Or when we both pushed that other kid in the locker and closed it?”
“Sure. But, you kind of betrayed me after all that.”
“Well—,” Lizzy fumbled, “Well, you’re right. But I totally called that off. I kind of regretted it. No more dealing with Doll’s crazy revenge plan, or whatever.” V rolled her eyes in response.
“Whatever.” V retorted.
“Hey, I’ll make it up to you.” Lizzy offered. “This time, just you and me. Everyone else is out of the equation. We can do something fun!”
V stopped staring at the bus window and snapped her head to look at Lizzy, whose expression was nearing nervousness, but still exhibited fake confidence. V stared at her, honestly surprised by the offer.
“Really?”
“Yeah!” Lizzy exclaimed, “Dude, we are all alone in this bus. We can literally go anywhere that we want now. No consequences.”
“And put you in charge of driving?” V smirked.
“Of course, idiot!” Lizzy masked her laughter with annoyance. “But really, I do feel bad for you.”
“You feel bad?”
“Yes, V! For your entire life, you were only taught to, well, kill. Surely that isn’t good for you. For a sadist machine like you, the only enjoyment you get is killing people? What happened to friends? Social life? Y’know, girlhood?”
When Lizzy put it that way, yeah, V did kind of feel bad. But it’s not like she was doing anything that she wasn’t programmed to. She was just simply fulfilling her life’s purpose.
But it did seem nice. She thought, to have some sort of life.
“You’re right.” V simply agreed. The atmosphere was tense, but the pink drone did provide some comfort. She almost forgot that they both were entirely lost.
“How about this, V,” Lizzy proposed, “do you want to get our nails done together?”
“What?” V looked confused. Really?
“Yeah! Loser! Do you even know what that means?”
V nervously fidgeted on her seatbelt. No, not really.
“It would be so fun! It’s all the human stuff. You pick out your favorite color and they put little designs and stuff on your fingertips.”
“People do that?” V questioned, genuinely confused.
“Yes!” Lizzy confirmed, astonished by V’s lack of girl knowledge, “Has your feral ass never went to a mall before?”
“No, not really. I’ve really never had a reason to.” She never really cares about her appearance at all, physically anyways.
“You would look really pretty with red nails.” Lizzy suggested, truly genuine with her words.
V gave her a look. It wasn’t a mean look, but she did seem kind of surprised. She honestly didn’t know what to say to that, and it kind of caught her off guard. Her once filled eyes hollowed out, processing the words of her statement. Her visor grew warm as a fainted yellow fellow spread across her cheeks, and her nervousness was shown through the dashed lines that appeared on her screen. She looked away to hide it, but her demeanor was very obvious.
“I… You really mean that?” V asked, wanting to know for sure.
“Of course!” Lizzy replied, proud at her effect towards V.
“Then, well, sure. Why the hell not.”
V mumbled for a minute, feeling the cold atmosphere of the room warm up, suffocating in heat. V was honestly touched by the offer, despite how dumb she initially thought it was before. But there was nothing else to do, and she didn’t want to make Lizzy feel bad. But it was getting harder and harder to counteract her flusteredness, remembering what Lizzy had said.
Nobody really complimented her before. Or even wanted to look at her. It was of course due to the fact that most people she met, she was trying to off them, so they didn’t really have the chance to. Hell, V didn’t even remember the last time she looked in a mirror. She was so worried about how everyone else perceived her personality, but she really didn’t think about how people see her. Not like looks mattered. She must’ve looked like a mess to everyone else, but was that really important? …Whatever! It was dumb!
The beach blonde drone with pink highlights confidently raised her hand up and enclosed it into V’s, with a smile plastered across her face. V flinched back, shocked by the sudden movement, but then she stopped hiding away, slowly meeting face to face with Lizzy again. Her blonde hair covered her eyes, barely, but V was able to look into them. A pretty shade of pink, like a new fresh lipstick.
“Let’s go now, V! The bus is ours, ‘cause that idiot bus driver left. Maybe we can find a way to the mall around town,” Lizzy stated, clearly proud of her plan, “—and I’m driving!”
V couldn’t help but to let out a small laugh, louder than she had anticipated it to be. “Do you even have a driver's license?”
“Of course not!” Lizzy answered. “That’s why it’s fun.”
Lizzy broke her grasp with V and got out of the seat, traveling to the drivers’ seat and starting up the bus. V didn’t move, but only stared at her movement.
Something inside V fluttered like she never felt before. It almost felt sickening. She didn’t know what was bubbling up in her stomach cavity, but it wasn’t pleasant. She almost felt nervous, fidgety, and a bit embarrassed. But the more she looked at her, the more she felt that feeling. It was getting harder to keep her cool as her mind fogged up like a cloudy mirror, and she felt the familiar warm feeling spread across her visor again just like last time. She knew that she really liked being around Lizzy, sure, but it shouldn’t make her feel this way. She didn’t like her, did she? It was fine. At least she was with someone that actually cared about her.
Maybe it’s okay to have some fun once in a while. She thought. As long as she was there.