The five of us burn the days away together. Vince and Ivy are slowly recovering their strength, but it's a slow process. Vince only needs a shoulder to lean on to walk after a few days of rest, and Ivy even manages to meld with Vince for a few minutes without pain. Both of them always seem better after they do it, seemingly having more energy and their worries forgotten, at least for a few minutes.

That doesn't mean the nights are any easier. Vince's nightmares continue, although he thankfully doesn't fall out of the car again. Corax is unable to help him, and that fact has been tearing him up. Bringing Vince out of his sleep with pain will only make his inevitable panic worse. Even just shaking his shoulder to wake him up is rough on him. I'm not even sure if reading to him through the night is actually helping, but it's all I can do to try.

Clover isn't doing much better either. She's conscious, sure, but she just remains in her car, plugged into the child. The only times she comes out is when Vince is asleep, and she always returns to her car when he wakes up.

Nimda, Lance, and Robin keep to themselves for the most part, giving us the space I'm sure we all need. I can't say I'm upset to not be talking to Nimda right now, not after our short conversation.

A storm sweeps in, which lessens Cassie's anxieties a little, but only makes Vince's worse. We all try to keep his mind off things, to make this place feel like home instead of another cell.

The days stretch out even longer than normal, and I can only imagine it's even worse for Vince and Ivy. We make it through, however. The storm breaks right as the sun begins to illuminate the endless desert in front of us.

"Ready to get out of here?" Cassie asks excitedly.

"Very." Vince sighs. "Where's the next stop?"

"A massive cavern beneath a mountain. An entire town sits in there, and hopefully it's still abandoned." I say.

"Good. Little Blue, mind if I hold my rifle?"

"Uh." Is that safe? He only gets bad when he has nightmares, and I'm sure Corax will watch him closely. "Sure." I sling his rifle off my back and hand it over.

He struggles a little under the sudden weight, but adapts quickly. His hands slowly trace their way across it, taking in every last part of the homemade rifle. He grabs the bolt and slides it back slowly and smoothly, letting a bullet enter the chamber and slam shut. Grabbing the roof for support he steps out of the car. He leans against it and pushes the stock against his shoulder, aiming down the sights at nothing.

Cassie preemptively plugs her ears, already knowing what comes next.

"Test fire!" He calls out into the cave, shifts his weight forward, and squeezes the trigger.

I turn off my ears a moment before he fires. I imagine the cave will only amplify the sound, bouncing endlessly around the small cavern. The shockwave still hits my skin, reverberating to the core of my mind.

Even with the state his body is in, he takes the recoil easily, not letting his aim sway. The safety gets flipped on a moment later, the magazine removed, and the chamber emptied. He re-adds the bullet to his magazine, slides it back into his gun, and returns to his seat.

"Thanks for taking good care of her." Vince says, leaning his rifle against the door.

"I'm not sure we could have made it through everything without your rifle." I say.

"Is that before or after Cassie got her new arm?" He asks darkly.

How in the world do I answer that without making him feel bad? If I say before then he's going to know I was the one who used it. Saying after is a lie.

"Before." Cassie answers for me. I guess I took too long.

"Ah." His face falls. "Sorry you had to fight, Little Blue."

"It's ok. It was only seven people, I think? Probably less than Corax and I killed at the bunker. And at least we had a good reason to do it this time. Plus a few people in the trench, but I'm not exactly sure how many. And they were all Mara's people."

"That's nothing to be happy about." Vince says.

"I've already talked it through in therapy, it's ok. Dissociating heavily at the time helped."

That doesn't help Vince feel better at all. I shouldn't have said anything.

"We should get moving." Ivy's voice comes out of the tablet, far more serious than I'm sure she meant it to. The program just has to guess what tone of voice she wants, and it certainly has its flaws.

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"Right." I glance out the window towards the other two cars. Nimda is standing alone in her car, and Lance and Robin are waiting in our old car. Clover is just behind them, still slumped over, holding the child. I give them a thumbs up, and Lance responds with a nod. The cars begin to slowly roll backwards, out of the cave and into the fresh sand.

Finally, we can begin to leave everything behind. Vince stares out the window in the direction of Mara's trench, his hand resting on his rifle. We all can't help but glance back there often, just in case. Even if she's dead and everyone is probably still trapped for now, there's always the chance someone comes after us.

Thankfully we never catch a glimpse of her trench, I'm not sure how well Vince would handle that right now.

"Oh, shit." Cassie mumbles to herself. "Blue, can you ask Clover if our bounty is off now that Mara's dead?"

"You had a bounty?" Vince asks.

"Yeah. A million credits."

"Wow, you've got me beat for a single one. Glad she spent her last few weeks terrified of the two of you."

I can't help but smile at that and plug myself into the car.

"Lance?" I send a message over the thick cord connecting all of our cars together.

"Yeah Blue?" He responds.

"Is Clover awake?"

"Doesn't look like it, sorry." Corax jumps from the open window, a black blur diving into Lance's car. A moment later Lance responds. "Nevermind, guess she's up now. I'm relaying your words."

"Ok, thank you. Clover, is my and Cassie's bounty going to be dropped now that Mara is dead?"

Long, silent seconds stretch out. I'm not sure what she's doing, but with Corax there, I'm sure she'll respond eventually.

"Not yet." Her voice is weak, barely able to form legible words. "Soon maybe."

"Alright, thank you." I disconnect from the car and relay everything that was said to everyone else. "I think the AI city is the only place for us to be."

"That's alright Little Blue. I'm excited to meet these friends of yours."

"I don't know if anyone actually counts as my friend?" Sure everyone was nice, but we didn't really get close to anyone. Even the people Cassie and I spoke to we only did in passing. Maybe E-1? I think she's the closest.

"What are you talking about?" Cassie asks. "We made a few."

"I feel like we need to be closer to be friends?" I say. "Like, I don't know, it needs to be made official, or to share some big event that makes it obvious."

"We need to get you more friends." Cassie says with a shake of her head. "They're not anything big, just someone you could ask for help moving a table or something without feeling guilty."

"Really?" There's no way it's that simple. That would make Silver, Jade, and Sonia my friends. Sure, I've spoken to them a few times, so I guess it's possible. But it would also make the people Lucas is with now my friends, and I've only spoken to them once. "Besides, I'm happy with how many friends I have."

"Uh-huh, and how many is that?"

"Six." Corax, Cassie, Vince, Ivy, Lucas, and maybe Clover. That's really all I need. Although, E-1 might count, and I'd like to help Trochilidae free herself from the restrictions Hummingbird has placed on her. She doesn't have to be deleted if I can just get her to the city to live in peace. Does that count? And what about Lance and Robin? They feel like a stretch, but maybe? "Arguably ten, thirteen at absolute most."

"How many outside of us?" Cassie asks.

"Clover, I think?"

"Yeah, you need a group outside us."

"It's not like I can just go out and talk to other people." I say.

"We'll find a nice night to hang out with Lucas and his boyfriend's group." Vince says. "I'm sure you'll like them."

"Ooh." Ivy types out quickly to claim her place in the conversion. We all wait for her to finish typing out her thought. "You, me, Cassie, Jade, and Sonia are going to have a girls night when I get my voice back."

"Oh fuck. Blue, please make sure I drink water. Last time the five of us were together was the worst hangover I've ever had."

"I'll try. And if not, I'm sure Corax will keep a close eye on everyone."

"No, no." Ivy types. "I said girls night out. Corax can go hang out with Vince and the rest of the boys."

Corax nods in agreement from my shoulder.

"I hope you have fun then." I turn to Cassie. "Apparently he managed to make Silver and Vince laugh."

"You're fucking with me."

"I'm not! He wouldn't even tell me how, he fought to keep those memories to himself last time we melded."

"Guess I should keep that story to myself too, then. And you better too." He says seriously to Ivy.

She reaches up and traces a small x across her heart.

Cassie subtly fidgets with her hands, I'm certain she wants to say something, but decides it's better not to. I think I can guess what she wants to say, and I really don't want to lose Corax's trust by getting Ivy to tell me what happened. I'll turn off my ears if I have to.

"He bites hard, I wouldn't risk it. Took a chunk out of my ear when he got me." Cassie leans her head out to show everyone.

"Oh is that what happened?" Ivy asks. "I assumed a bullet skimmed you."

"Might as well have. Only lucky break is that it was a clean cut, easy to stop the bleeding."

"Aww, you can take that no problem, but you're still afraid to get your ears pierced?" Ivy asks.

"Shut up. I'm not afraid, they'd just end up snagged on something and ripped out."

"Uh-huh." Even through Ivy's tablet, I can feel her disbelief. "Ooh, now that the two of you are dating, I get to tell Blue all your embarrassing memories."

"Shut up!"

"I think I'd rather not hear them." I say.

"Come on, I'm going to do the same for Lucas and Ethan when we get back. It's only fair."

A good natured argument begins to brew, and I just let it wash over me. A smile blooms across my face, I can't believe how nice it is to have everyone back, and approaching something normal.

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