Scrap dragged himself up.
Using his severed leg as a crutch, he began hobbling towards the hovertrain as it quickly gathered speed.
“Paige! Gnat! Hang -zk- on, I’m -zk- coming!” he cried, pushing past the shocked shovel-bots. “Out of my -zk- way, you -zk- gubs!”
Don’t shut down, he told himself. Not yet.
By now, the train was a fast-moving wall of silver a few metres in front of him. Scrap glanced towards the station. The back end of the train was coming up fast. He remembered the ladder on the rear carriage that his grappling claw had found when he’d smuggled himself aboard previously.
He knew it was his only chance.
Scrap sped up, limping toward the hovertrain as quickly as his remaining servos would carry him. By now it was a blur of movement less than a metre from his face. The back of the train would pass him in seconds. Scrap had no choice. He flung his severed leg to the ground, closed his eyes and lurched forwards, reaching out for the ladder. He felt his hand clamp around it, and his arm all but wrench out of its socket, in the instant before he was lifted off his remaining leg.
“UrrRR-zk-zk-ungh-OwOwO-zk-zk-WW-zk-Wow-forcogs-UFF!” Scrap grunted as he felt the familiar agony of being dragged helplessly behind a hovertrain. He ricocheted off the ground and flew into the air, only to plummet to the tracks and repeat the process over again. By the time he managed to drag himself up on to the top of the case-packed carriage, he was in a sorry state – grey with dust and covered in a dozen new dents and dings. Between the punishment his case had endured over the past days and Highshine blasting off his leg, time was running out. He knew his systems could shut down at any moment, and all he wanted to do was to lie down and let darkness engulf him.
But Scrap had made a promise.
He stared out across the carriage in front of him. It overflowed with cases, piled high on top of each other. Digging around, he found something new to use as a crutch – a long, lime-green arm that was mercifully separated from the rest of its case. Then he began to clamber across case after case. It reminded him of his home on the Pile, the mountains of cases left to rot, chests open and core cavities empty. Any of the cases he traversed would have served him better than his own, but for the first time he wanted none of them. He wanted Paige and Gnat to see him, to recognize him, to know that help was on its way.
Keep goin’, he told himself as he felt himself drift in and out of shut down. When it’s over you can shut down. For now, keep goin’.
By the time he spotted Harmony Highshine, Scrap was minutes away from total systems failure. Paige and Gnat were still hooked under her arms as she reached the front of the first carriage.
She had nowhere else to go.
As he hobbled across the cases, Scrap decided he would have given his right arm for a proper plan – if he’d had an arm to spare. The hovertrain was on autopilot – there was no way to slow it down, no way of getting to the controls.
His only chance was to fight.
“High -zk- shine!” Scrap roared, before ducking behind a nearby case. “You forgot -zk- to say -zk- goodbye!”
In an instant, Harmony Highshine dropped the humans and spun round, her eye cannon glowing.
“King?” she cried in disbelief. “I’ve got to give it to you, you’re one mulish mechanoid! Don’t you know when to lie down in the dust?”
“You -zk- first!” Scrap cried.
“Scrap!” Gnat hollered as Paige held her tightly. “Help us!”
“Please don’t encourage him,” insisted the mayor. She peered down the length of the carriage and saw Scrap throw himself behind the cover of another case. The beam from her eye cannon sliced through a dozen cases at once.
“Mi -zk- issed!” he cried, trying to tempt the mayor away from Paige and Gnat. Another blast streaked past him and cut through the bottom of the carriage itself. The hovertrain shook with the impact.
If I’m not careful, she’ll derail the train, Scrap thought. He knew that if that happened, the humans couldn’t possibly survive. In frustration, he brought his tiny fist down on a nearby case. A clang echoed through the air. He peered into the case’s empty chest cavity.
Suddenly Scrap had as close as he would get to a plan.
“Highshine! I’m -zk- right -zk- here!” he cried, his voice rattling. “Come an’ -zk- get me!”
He hoisted a loose head from the mass of cases and flung it across the length of the carriage. Highshine fired again, blasting the head out of the air.
“She’s coming!” Paige yelled as Highshine began making her way across the cases towards him.
“There’s nowhere to run, King!” Highshine bellowed.
“I’m -zk- done -zk- runnin’,” Scrap growled. He stumbled out from his hiding place and hobbled towards the mayor as fast as he could. Her third shot missed his head by a centimetre as Scrap threw himself at the mayor, knocking her off her feet. He did his best to pin her down, swinging the arm he’d employed as a crutch. “Come -zk- on -zk- then! Shoot -zk- me!” he grunted. He struck her on the side of the head as the mayor fired. The beam melted through more cases and exited the other side of the carriage. The train juddered again. Scrap lost his balance and Highshine struck his crutch, sending it flying out of his hand. She grabbed his arm and held it firm. Her next blast seared through it at the elbow.
Don’t shut down, Scrap thought, pleading with his own systems. Keep fighting.
“Pai -zk- aige!” he cried, weak and wheezing. “Ca -zk- ase! Get in -zk- case!”
Highshine pushed him off her and he fell back on to the cases. The mayor got to her feet. Scrap was too weak to stop her from pressing her foot against his chest and pinning him to the case beneath him.
“Another fine mess you’re in, King,” said the mayor, her eye aglow. “Why? Why risk it all over again, for your human masters?”
“They’re -zk- not my -zk- masters,” he coughed. “They’re my -zk- family.”
“Tell it to the Piles,” tutted Highshine. “You’re scrap.”
The beam from her eye cannon was bright and blinding. Scrap gasped as it tore into his torso, cutting through him in an instant. Sudden cold followed searing pain. He opened his mouth, but no sound came.
Still, Scrap smiled.
His plan, such as it was, had worked.
The hovertrain began to lurch and tilt as it sped along the track, sparks flying from the side of the train, and blue-grey smoke billowing up into the air.
“W-what?” Highshine gasped as the train began to jerk. ‘What is that…?”
A sudden realization stopped her in her tracks – in her bid to destroy him, she had sent her beam through Scrap, and then blasted the hovertrain’s suspensors.
“Oh,” uttered Highshine, “no.”
With the last of his strength, Scrap turned his head and saw Paige bundling Gnat into the open chest cavity of a discarded case. As the hovertrain listed again, she quickly clambered in next to her sister and, with a twist of her shift-widget, sealed them both inside.
At last, Scrap recalled his first memory – of being brought online, of opening his eyes for the very first time, to see Dandelion Brightside looking back at him.
Then, as his systems failed completely, the train buckled and flew from the tracks.