“He left us.”
As the hovertrain sped up, Gnat stared out of the carriage. Scrap stood on the tracks, swiftly becoming a speck in the distance.
“I told you,” Paige said, yanking her sister back inside. She growled in frustration and pulled off her helmet. “I told you we were wasting our time with him. Now we’ve lost the flight-cycle and we’re heading who-knows-where. Next time, listen to me, Gnat. I’m trying to keep us safe. No one’s going to help us. Do you understand?”
“But—”
“Do you understand?”
Gnat blinked away tears and gave a sniff.
“Yep.”
“Good, ’cause you and me, we’re on our own, and that’s just the way it—”
SHHUNK!
At the sound, Paige and Gnat peered over the top of the carriage again. A three-pronged claw had clamped itself around the ladder, a long metallic cable stretching out behind it. In the distance, trailing behind the train, they could just make out Scrap’s small, spindly body being dragged along the ground. From his new left arm stretched the thin cable that attached to his claw.
“Uff-OwWW-UGH-forcog’s-oOoWOoo-UFF!” he groaned. As the train gained speed, his cable began swiftly retracting, yanking him forwards. In moments, he was hauled up the ladder as arm and clawed hand clamped back together.
“Paige, grabbim!” Gnat yelped. Paige took hold of one of Scrap’s legs and pulled his limp body inside.
“Oww-zk-WW-zk-www…” Scrap groaned, rolling on to his back. New dings, dents and scratches covered his already battered case.
“You didn’t left us, Scrap! I knew you didn’t!” Gnat declared, squeezing the robot in a grateful hug. Also, your new arm is the best new arm ever.”
“Stop -zk- that,” Scrap grunted, pushing the human away. “I was just … tryin’ to get away from the robots, that’s all. D’you – oww – know what could happen to me if I got caught fraternisin’ with humans?”
“Nope, what?” Gnat asked.
“…I don’t know either,” admitted Scrap. “But nothin’ good.”
“Will they follow us?” Paige’s tone was focused but fearful. “Those robots – will they follow us?”
“Not unless they’ve got a grapplin’ hook for a hand and no sense of their own personal -zk- safety,” said Scrap, dusting himself off and sending flakes of rust cascading to the floor. Paige huffed, not in the least reassured. “Look, let’s not panic till we need to,” Scrap added. “Maybe they’ll decide they were just -zk- seeing things.”
He glanced around. The carriage was empty but for a few nuts and bolts. Its cargo had been dumped not long ago – it smelled like oil and rust and rejection.
It smelled like the Pile.
“I want to go home,” Gnat said, ruffling the nest of dirty-reddish hair on top of her head. “Is this going to take us back to Mum?”
“I don’t know where it’s taking us, cub,” said Paige, putting her arm around her sister.
“That doctor said they send old cases from the city out to all those Piles,” said Scrap, checking his claw was secure in its socket. “This train is on its way back to New Hull.”
“What’s in New Hull?” asked Paige, tucking her sister against the carriage wall.
“Robots,” replied Scrap with a shake of his head. “Lots of robots.”
“Nifty!” declared Gnat.
“A city of robots? Not nifty, not nifty at all,” Paige countered. “How do we get off this train?”
“You -zk- don’t,” grunted Scrap, pointing to a deep new dent on the side of his head. “Unless you want to be a -zk- smear on the side of the tracks, you’ll wait till it stops and sneak off.”
“We’re not getting caught,” Paige hissed, her hand on her satchel. “I’ll blow us to pieces before I’ll let us get caught.”
“We don’t have to blowed ourselves to bits, Scrap will help us,” said Gnat. “That’s why he got on the train. Isn’t it, Scrap?”
“I don’t—” Scrap began, but the words caught in his throat. He honestly wasn’t sure what had compelled him to grapple aboard. Perhaps, he thought, it was because he was the one robot on Somewhere 513 who lacked the imagination to exert enough FreeWill™ to overcome his programming. Was that why he was doomed to find himself in the company of humans? Was that why he was doomed to fail, and fail again?
He banged his clawed hand against the wall.
“I was finally -zk- happy,” he growled in frustration.
“I knew you’d help us – Mum said you would,” Gnat asserted, and stifled a yawn. Paige sighed and took what looked like a small green ball out of her satchel and handed it to her sister.
“Eat this, little cub,” she said.
“I’m not hungry,” Gnat insisted.
“Eat it,” Paige instructed, “or you’ll be grumpy when you wake up.”
“I’m not sleepy either,” added Gnat, reluctantly chomping on the green ball.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Paige, handing Gnat her disguise. “And put your head back on when you’ve finished, just in case.”
“Have we been away four days or three days?” asked Gnat, squeezing her helmet back on as Paige sat down next to her. “I can’t remember.”
“Three … I think,” said Paige, crossing her legs and patting a thigh. “Now settle down. I’ll wake you when we get there.”
“And I told you, I’m not sleepy,” said Gnat with a second yawn. As she laid her head on her sister’s lap, Paige stared up into the vast, overwhelming expanse of sky above them. She had no idea what waited for them when the hovertrain reached the city, but she was already sure of one thing.
They were never going to see their mum again.