FLARE

Lyre had just woken up so of course there was no plan yet or anything but she already thought maybe it would be hard all over today.

She knew this because she just woke up and there was stuff to do so she tried to stand up but it was hard for some reason and she fell over. Then she tried to do it again but it was still hard and she was on her feet but then she fell over again even though she was standing this time. Also then when she looked at her arms there was something different about them because they were a different colour which was red and a little bit yellow but she didn’t know what it meant at all.

So even before she stood up to walk she decided to ask about danger. She wasn’t making a plan yet or anything because she wasn’t sure what was happening but because she was really confused she wanted to know if the confusing parts were danger or not. Is there danger?

There were actually two parts to the danger and one of them was smaller than the other or maybe it was farther away but anyway Lyre didn’t bother looking at that one yet. The bigger one was the arms like she wondered and it turned out that the red part was blood and she was bleeding but not anymore which was okay and the yellow part was infection which was not good at all. The danger was the infection which was urgent but not really really urgent so she would die right away so Lyre thought it was okay to make a plan about it because the other danger was small. How can I get rid of the infection?

Anyway now she felt better because there was a plan and she was not confused like when she woke up. Basically the plan had two parts and the first part was not super hard at all but a little annoying and the second part was really really easy but it went on for a long time. There was antibiotics that she needed to get rid of the infection and then after that there was soap and washing and then the infection would be gone forever. Then that was the first danger gone.

Then the plan was one food one water place for sleep but also antibiotic and also soap or sanitizer or something which was okay. Then with a plan it was time to go so Lyre stood up again and everything was spinning around and she almost fell over but the plan let her know how to put her foot out so she didn’t. Since she was okay then she left.

Her plans were very good because they worked and there were a couple reasons why they worked. The one reason which was very obvious was that they always did what she asked them to do even if it was hard which was really super difficult or maybe not even possible without a plan. But also sometimes when things were invisible her plans could guess where they would be. Not all the time and actually it didn’t work a lot but when things were invisible there would be some places that were better for them to be and then her plan would tell her what to do if they were in those places and sometimes they actually were in those places and things would be okay. So when she walked a lot of the time she would trip or fall but her plan knew that maybe that would happen it just didn’t know when or where and it had an okay idea what she should do.

It was really good for her but not perfect and she still fell over a lot. Most people but not Lyre could see the invisible things but because she couldn’t then occasionally it would be somewhere she never would have guessed and then the plan didn’t help at all. But even if things were invisible and Lyre got confused she knew she made good plans and she could always make new ones once she could see what was happening.

And that was actually some of why she was putting off the other smaller danger was because a lot of it was invisible so it was really hard to make a plan for it. There was a thing that wanted to get her and she didn’t know why and also it didn’t matter where it was going because she would always meet it so that part of the plan was impossible. Luckily though it was a whole lot easier to make a plan once it got there. Even though it was invisible there weren’t too many places for the invisible stuff to be so her plan could guess where it would be and that was not perfect but still a pretty good plan so she was okay with it.

Now her plan was done so it was just walking. It was a whole lot of desert like before and not anything very interesting but of course it would be interesting in a few hours when the plan happened so it was fine. But there wasn’t very much to think about which was unfortunate because Lyre was so excited that she could see backwards and there wasn’t really anything to look at yet. But Spike was almost there now so then things would happen and she would very much like looking back when she was in front of where she was standing now.

The first part of her plan appeared and it was a big pile of stuff and it had a bunch of drones around that were picking through everything and taking the things they liked which was most of it. There were also things Lyre liked that were part of the plan and the plan told her where it was but she would have to be fast. There wasn’t actually a whole lot to do before this time so she ran right away.

She didn’t move very fast like how she usually did. Also all the drones looked at her and they started beeping and pointing cold guns at her but all of this was fine because the plan said it was. One of them shot at her but she fell over right before it happened so it froze the next one to shoot instead and then she was really close to the pile already.

Her plan actually told her not to put her arms in this time like she did last time which made things more complicated but there were lots of things on the surface that would work. First another drone tried shooting so Lyre grabbed one of the first things she could find which was hard and not very big or heavy and chucked it behind her and then the ray froze it instead of her and it crashed into the drone who was shooting. Then a bunch more of them were grabbing instead but she swept one way then the other and they missed. Then the third time she got the second thing she wanted from the pile which was a big metal bar which made a bunch of stuff slide down and when they grabbed that she twisted it and two of the drones’ arms came off.

Then another one grabbed the bar and it had a really good grip so Lyre just dropped it and then the drone dropped it also. While that happened right on top there was a gun so she picked it up and shot the drone before the bar even hit the ground. Then the gun was frozen but she threw it away first so she didn’t also get frozen and there was one more thing she needed but it wasn’t there.

Actually all the stuff was invisible that she didn’t expect for some reason which was really bad because she didn’t have time to make a new plan. There was one more drone left and it was going to shoot her with the freeze gun and she didn’t know what to do about it at all. The plan said she needed the last thing to throw at the drone so because she couldn’t find it she did the closest thing and grabbed whatever was in her hand and threw that.

It didn’t actually go very far at all because when Lyre threw it she expected it to be lighter than it was so it fell on the drone’s leg. It fell over a little but not totally and recalibrated the gun on her. Now she was really confused but the best thing to do was always follow the plan so she picked up another thing and threw it too.

This time it went a lot farther and hit the drone and it fell over completely and it wasn’t going to shoot her anymore so Lyre had a second or two to make part of a new plan. She didn’t make a whole plan of course, only to get rid of the drone. Then with her new plan she picked up the gun at her feet and shot it and then everything was okay and she had time.

But she had to make a totally new plan now because she didn’t know where the stuff she needed was and that would take a while. The rest of the plan was mostly the same already because most of it was already invisible but also because it was invisible she didn’t know how close it was. It would take a few minutes to make her new plan and that overlapped with the old plan then maybe there would be problems. So first she checked that.

Luckily for her even though it was invisible the plan wasn’t very close and she had enough time for her new plan but not that much after that. So Lyre spent a whole lot deciding where everything was in the pile and then finally she knew and she picked out the food water antibiotics soap she needed. Then the second part of the plan needed the gun too so she picked that up even though it was a whole lot of stuff and she had trouble carrying it.

She was dropping things a lot and her muscles were not working super well so she didn’t make it very far before there was a thing in the distance and she knew it was the next part of her plan. It moved towards her much faster than she could outpace so she put everything down except the gun and stood and waited.

It was able to shoot from farther than her so it shot first but she knew it was coming and leaned out of the way. She almost toppled but the dart whizzed right by her. Then she was close enough to shoot so she did and it hit the sentry right in the chest but it didn’t do a whole lot which was expected by the plan.

Then they traded more shots and the same thing happened and Lyre was fine but her bullet did even less this time. But now the sentry covered the spot with one appendage and rushed in which wasn’t a part of the plan she thought about too much but it wasn’t totally unaccounted for so she had one thing to do about it. She stood very very still and it got closer and closer and reached out to snatch her but she shot one of the appendages at the last second and then dove.

The appendage didn’t break off or dent or anything but it careened away from her and the rest went right over her head. Then she was on her hands and knees and her arms trembled at the elbows but she still pushed herself back up and didn’t fall. The sentry was turning around very fast and she had a very very small amount of time to aim and then when it was looking right at her she shot it in the spot again before it could do anything.

This time the plate buckled a little bit and the sentry fell onto the ground front first and spasmed there. It was holding the site with two arms at this point and it was trying to aim the gun at her but it wasn’t very good at it at all so it didn’t bother shooting. Its other arms reached out to her in a very slow way and it wasn’t holding any guns anymore but instead one of them was holding some kind of tool of some sort and another one was gesturing to her like it wanted her to come closer.

Lyre’s plan didn’t tell her to do that though so she didn’t. Actually her plan didn’t say a whole lot about the sentry anymore in the first place so she was free to go and so she picked up all her stuff in her arms except the gun because it was big and heavy and hard to hold and then she walked away. She found the end of the plan and it wasn’t far from the sentry but it was fine because the plan said it wouldn’t be here as far as she could see.

Then finally she could put down all her stuff and stop dropping it so it all went on the floor except the antibiotics because she was holding that in her hand. She took one of them out and put it in her mouth and swallowed it like the plan wanted her to and then it wanted her to put the soap on so she got some of the water and the soap she got and rubbed it all over her arms which made them shake really hard but it was okay because the plan was good. Then it was the same as before. Eat drink phone sleep.

Phone was interesting now actually because now everyone (Kiki Gaunt Lyre) were all asking questions but it was even more interesting because unlike before they were a whole bunch of questions Lyre couldn’t even answer. In fact actually they were all questions Lyre wanted answers to. Which was very interesting and good and bad because then maybe it would be hard to see the answers but if everyone tried their best maybe they would all see it soon.

It made Lyre remember how much she wanted to know. The far far forwards and the before. Maybe if her plans were really super perfect and she was super extra lucky she might learn.

Even though she didn’t know what it was, she missed the things behind her.