Metalized Dusk

Two days have passed since the last attack, and the Playground quickly returned to normal status, with the nightly and daily people returning to their usuals; farming, building, and selling. Except for the peculiar, Melina noticed while doing her shadowing job Savan. Beforehand, her attention was fixated on finding a way out from here; now, though, she started to pay more attention to her surroundings.

Melina saw an uptake in people walking much slower, much calmer, and without any speedup drugs sticking out, injected in a forearm, to make up for the lost time. “ That’s it”, the prisoner then realized. “ Everyone here is so placid with wasting…losing time. “ Today’s schedule was filled with mostly classes and activities that didn’t include working. Lots of group activities. The girl made no snarky remarks or the like, though, which was the first Savan felt any kind of concern for her. “ Nothing to say about this?”

Melina shrugged. “ Usual tactics of group bondings, we do them in the family as well. So what’s your rules and what’s the punishment?”, she asked casually, but then, disappointingly, realized that it was probably less brutal than what she was used with. Even more so though when she saw a measly group of five people from a settlement filled with at least four hundred people.

-” Hmmm, not the largest number of volunteers but it works.” Savan then approached a stand and thanked everyone present. “ Hi. From what I can see, there are some returning faces”, they said, pointing towards a couple and winking at them. “ Thanks for volunteering to this day’s cleanup action-”

-” What…?”, Melina asked, abandoning her slouchy position to straighten her back like a board.

-”... for any newcomers, you’ll be partnered with an experienced person, but the job is quite easy. Today we’ll gather all the garbage recipients from this village. This will take 4 to 5 hours. Any questions?”

-” WHAT?” Melina reacted, but once on the field, she started to feel a bit ignored. Savan didn’t force her to help them, but they also didn’t ask if she wanted to. “ Is this asshole trying to coerce me into giving a hand?”, thought the girl after an hour of doing and saying nothing.

Her boredom and indignation won after a while, especially when only she and Savan split from their team to cover more ground.

-” You really aren't gonna say something?”, she asked, twiddling her thumbs behind her back. To her surprise, the clopy gave her a tired sigh and a blank stare. She expected a forced smile and some witty retort, but at the same she knew Savan’s schedule. Her first instinct was to forcefully ask them to give her the tools; “ No, then they’ll probably use that forced grin to say something like- “Oh, don’t worry, I’ve got this” or the like. Tsz…but I am bored though…”

-” Hey, Savan-”

The clopy turned once more, this time with a plastered smile- “ Oh, don’t worry-”

-” Oh, shut the hell up, and let’s switch. You can take over on the next street and so on.”

…

Noon was announced by a notification on the wrist devices used in the Commune, which for most meant lunchtime. After five minutes of sitting still at the table, Melina started to get a bit restless. While they were kept in their rooms, she and her father requested to be fed the standard tablets and injectables. But this was just…weird for her. The cutlery was weird, and having a bowl to eat from was weird…the solid food was weird. Savan glanced at her from time to time to check up and see how she felt. They understood that the idea of sharing a meal like that was still new for her and tried to give her some time to adjust.

-” How is the food?”, they asked, trying to gauge her reaction after Melina tried to eat

-” Yummy”, she winced ”…But a bit hard to munch on, you know? “

-” Yeah, understandable. The first time we shared a meal, most of us could barely gnaw on it. Except for Chirani and Priya, if I remember correctly. But it was much more…difficult for the rest of us.”

-” Did you do something or did you adjust through perseverance? Just trying to figure out if it’s worth putting the effort-”

-” That depends on what’s bothering you about it. I kept on trying until it became something normal; Syna had an easier time adjusting by eating by herself, away from the “eyes”, as she put it.” The clopy then took her bowl and the prisoner to a bench, sheltered from the artificial sun and the eyes by an old tree. Savan then handed Melina her food and patted the bench for her to take a seat.

-” If you need anything, I’ll be at the table, ok?”

-” Wait, is this fine? Shouldn’t I be sticking with you all the time?”

-” Nah; and I understand that we all kinda need some alone time. Besides, I kinda want you to enjoy this place, however, I can help on that matter. Now, bon appetit…”

Melina looked at the chunks of peas in her mashed potato for a while. She then took a bite and the green sphere easily smashed in her mouth. It was fine.

…

For the first time since they got imprisoned in the Playground, Melina wasn’t allowed to know where they were going or how long it took. The black cube she, Savan, and Vivar were traveling in had no windows, was insulated from outside noises and the girl was even asked to sit in a Faraday cage the whole road.

-” Hope you make false stops and modify the running time as well”, she said before willingly entering the new cage. Vivar snapped his fingers, realizing what she meant.

-” Darn, forgot about that. Right, traveling time is also a clue for finding the destination. That was very nice of you miss prisoner.” The cyborg then turned to Savan and gave them a thumbs up, approving their choice for a bodyguard/ assistant. After which, to the clopy’s disdain, he switched into parenting mode, asking them the usual concerned questions.

After the barrage of “ how are you?” and “ are you eating well?”Vivar crouched in front of Savan and told them that- “ You do have some “metaphorical” color back in your cheeks, you know?” The clopy ‘s tired eyes stared at him blankly, but their body felt a chill traveling up and down at the remark. Did they honestly look that bad before?

At the destination, Melina was surprised to see empty fields on one side of a ravine, while a vast forest bordered it on the other. As she guessed, they still had some ways to go, deeper into the rift in the ground. Usually, they would have to climb it down, but this time they had a C.T.D with them. Vivar picked both of them in his arms, after which he jumped from one ledge to another, a path the cyborg seemed to have taken dozens of times before.

To Melina’s surprise, at the bottom, another group was waiting for them. Another C.T.D., a bit bigger than Vivar, with a clopy and a boy with very thin prosthetics. Savan leaped first from the palm and giddily ran towards the trio, a side which the prisoner has never seen from the clopy.

-'' Billy!”Savan screamed with joy, embracing the C.T.D.’s cold, metallic leg in a tight hug. Melina recognized it as the former champion of the R.O.C games, the more fearsome candidate that kept the former number 1 Brand in their golden position for decades. And here he was, crouching like a little child in front of this small clone for headpats and both joyfully tearing up about how much they missed each other.

-” What in the holy fuck is going on in this place?!”, she asked out loud willingly, which attracted the attention of both Four-Two and Semil, who glanced at the prisoner with curiosity and annoyance.

-” I don’t get it Savan; If you wanted someone to join ya daily, why not ask Billy or us?”, Four-Two rolled their eyes, biting their lower lip, while in their mind throwing tons of insults at Melina.

-” It’s a quid pro quo, or at least that’s how I see it. It’s a forced one, yeah, but I didn’t know how else to approach hers or the other’s prisoner situation. We couldn’t keep them locked in forever, and returning them to the Commune…is a last resort. “

-” That’s not what Four-Two meant though”, replied Billy. “ We know how much you guys overwork yourself. The others accepted to form groups to help them out, except for you-”

-” And I have my reasons”, snipped Savan like they never did before, which they caught on immediately. “ Oh jeez, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…” but Billy said nothing and just asked the group to follow him.

-” Hey, Savan- catch”, called out Melina after wondering what that was all about and threw a can of tea. “ It’s been a long trip, drink something.”

After half an hour of silently walking, the group finally found themselves at the entrance of a camp filled with cubical wooden huts and tunnels that went into the ravines. To Melina’s surprise, she saw a mass of pale-skinned, skinny, and bald people. A village populated only by clopies; and scared ones, as she found out when they saw her. Neither wanted to approach her, even asked if Melina shouldn’t enter if possible; to her surprise, Savan refused and persuaded them that she wasn’t a threat.

-” If you say so. Come, follow us, we’ll take you to the new patients.”

As they moved, Melina looked around and could have sworn that she saw something moving inside the tunnels. Something large.

-” Here we are- Their kin are keeping them under observation and they haven’t made a move. We can begin whenever you are, Guide.”

Savan took their coat off, while Four-Two and the other two clopies followed Savan’s every move. They studied their process, and how they strengthened their mental fortitude and prepared for the dive.

-” Alright you three, connect only with the extension and follow my every step. We don’t know what we’ll find in there, so clear your mind, take a deep breath, " which all four did at the same time, “ and focus on an image of the present. Keep yourself bound here.”

Melina didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t this. She wanted to know what they were doing, but at this point wasn’t sure what to ask and what not. She took a step back, feeling like she didn’t belong there, but bumped into Vivar.

-” Confused?”, he asked. “ They are preparing to remove the C.T.D alterations done to those two”, he nodded his head toward two inactive cyborgs, the same two who got captured in the previous raid. “It was Savan’s special skill, but now we are also trying to teach others to use it. Unfortunately, the device needed for that works with clopies only”, he finished, without giving other crucial information.

Melina looked at Billy and something clicked. Same with Vivar. It felt bizarre that they had personalities, that they seemed so human. And then something else dropped into place. “ Savan…they mentioned my aunt. Is this connected to that? What happened to aunty?”

-” It would be better to wait for Savan to tell you the whole story.” Billy replied, putting a shushing finger next to his imaginary mouth.

The clopies laid on the ground, all connected by cables to one of the captured C.T.D’s-

-” Good luck everyone…and follow my Guidance.”