"How?" the AI asked.
"I'll leave." She knew the spontaneous decision was out of character for her and paused for a moment to second-guess herself. She realized as she thought things through that it wasn’t so spontaneous, after all. Doubts and questions had definitely swirled below her surface consciousness for a very long time.
She recognized now that she had moved toward this point in her life firmly without realizing it and somehow prepared herself for what was an inevitable outcome. A deep inner conviction assured her this was the right decision and she believed that instinct more and more with each passing second. "And I'm taking you with me."
Chapter Eight
Her hands shook alarmingly and a cold sweat began to collect on her arms as if her body disagreed with what her mind had irrevocably decided to do.
It wasn't like she had been given a choice in this, she assured herself. It was in her genes. She was as curious as hell, and when that instinct was stifled, something in her immediately fought back. This was her resistance against the constraints that contradicted her fundamental nature. Jessica13 was not to blame for the fact that they had lied to her—and the entire bunker—and tried to keep her from discovery.
The Great Prophet said people needed to head out to where something was waiting to be discovered. She saw clearly now that she wouldn’t discover anything hiding in a bunker whose leaders tried to keep her in the dark—literally as well as metaphorically.
Even the mud on the ground was less stifling and claustrophobic than this damn place had begun to be. Her little room—the pride of her life thus far despite its lack of space—had begun to feel more cramped, small, and restrictive.
She made her mind up to not remain in Sanctuary for even one more day. No one paid attention to what she was doing so it was the perfect opportunity. There were still people heading in and out of Sanctuary all day thanks to the false alarm about the attack.
If there ever would be a time to leave without anyone noticing her exit, it was now. This was the kind of opportunity she couldn't afford to miss out on.
"No more," she said softly. "No more."
It had been easy to take food from the kitchen. She had done it for months and brought it to her room to attempt to eat while she was reading or watching something. Unfortunately, she always gave up on it because the food was slightly less terrible when it was served hot.
In the back of her mind, she’d made vague plans to get a heater in her room to warm the food, but it was always put off in favor of other projects. The most recent of these was fixing Mini, which demanded all her effort, focus, and resources.
Thankfully, that had resulted in her having several days' worth of food stashed away. Better yet, it was the kind of food that would never go bad. It had been designed that way.
While she knew she’d need to eat at some point, it wasn’t terribly high on her present priority list. She had a pack and proceeded to shove her belongings into it with the door locked securely behind her. There was little enough room as it was but when she began to pack what she needed, the space seemed to grow.
The food was the first to be stowed, followed quickly by her working tools. If she had any hope of maintaining Mini once they were out in the wild, she would need them more than she would need the food.
With those stored, there wasn't much space for personal belongings. Her drawings made with charcoal on scraps of unused paper too small to be used in the recyc level would have to be left behind. As would her books, which had drawings as well. The weak material her pack was made from barely held the necessities as it was.
There was one picture she couldn't bear to leave behind. The only one she had of her mother that her father had given her was of both her parents together in a long-term exposure on a ceramic plate. She was smiling, her hand on his stomach, and he was doubled over. Jessica13 had never been able to tell if she had punched him in the gut as a joke or if she was tickling him. He hadn't been around long enough for her to ask.
It was too big, however. She scowled at it and tried to fight back a few angry tears. No way would she leave it behind. She couldn't.
An idea came to her and she retrieved one of her tools—a small hammer used to knock the smaller bolts inside the mech into place. She laid the picture on the bed and with cautious taps of the hammer, began to break the plate.
"I'm sorry mom," she whispered when a few cracks appeared close to the woman's face. The taps continued until everything was gone except for the two faces. Her mother laughed from the image and her father looked like he was blowing all the air out of his lungs.
The process was finished and all she had left of them were black-and-white faces on the ceramic plate. Despite the rough treatment, they were still visible. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and tucked the piece into her pocket, then brushed the shards off her bed.
The gesture was pointless effort, really. It wasn't like she would sleep on it again, not even if she didn’t escape. If she failed, it was banishment to the lower levels for her—the farming levels if she was lucky and the recyc levels if she wasn't.
No, if she was lucky, she would
