All eyes are pinned to Vince and Ivy, struggling against something pulling on his fishing line. Vince is leaning back as far as possible, nearly falling back onto the ground. The metal pipe he's using as a fishing rod is trapped in the crook of his elbows. Ivy is doing her best, despite her leg, to keep him from falling into the water. Two people are on either side of them, helping to hold the bar. A large bucket of water sits at their side, filled and waiting eagerly for the catch.

Daisy is watching in wide eyed amazement, clutching the sheathed knife to her chest with both hands. Cassie and I head over and sit on either side of her, but she barely even glances at us before locking her eyes back onto Vince.

"Give it some slack!" Vince yells, and both people to either side begin to turn the bar.

"Why are they letting it go?" Daisy asks quietly.

"No idea. I never actually listened to any of his fishing stories." Cassie says and glances at me.

"My dad was limited in how much data he could put in my head. Fishing didn't make the list apparently."

"I thought you said you didn't have a dad?" Daisy asks.

"Well, he's technically not. He made me, he didn't physically give birth to me. He was part of the group that made me, but they were my family. I think. It's complicated."

We sit watching Vince and everyone else work for half an hour. They slowly, but surely pull the fish towards the surface. He tells the people helping him to reel it in and let it back out seemingly at random, but he does make consistent progress. Vince's assistants occasionally swap out, but Vince stays, regardless of how much sweat he's drenched in, or how tired he gets.

A splash ripples across the lake's surface, a large beast fighting against the line and threatening to pull everyone in. Vince stumbles, catches his footing and is held back from the water's edge by Ivy.

The fish fights with the last of its energy, and the group just waits. Eventually it slows down, stops fighting, and simply accepts its fate. The group pulls the fish to the edge of the water, and it takes three people to heft it out. It fights once again the second it's in the air, but it's just too tired to get free.

Vince steps forward to remove the makeshift hook from the fish's mouth before letting himself lay flat on the ground, going limp and staring at the ceiling. A satisfied smile shows on his face, and he heaves deep breaths while he reaches up to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Ivy lays down next to him, her perfect hair plastered against her skin. The two of them glance at each other and share a silent laugh.

The fish is a weird thing. Three feet long, incredibly thick, with a gasping mouth bigger than the rest of its body. Its skin is smooth and rubbery, not scaly like I think it should be.

The people holding the thing place it carefully into the large bucket. There's barely enough space for it to turn around in it. It's ok, it's just temporary. He's not going to be trapped in there forever.

"Fish look weird." Daisy says.

"Yeah, but they taste great." Cassie says. "Alright, listen. We're not going to be here forever, and I didn't teach you even close to everything yet. The most important rule is there are only four reasons you should draw your knife. To practice, to use it as a tool, to take care of it, and to kill someone who's trying to kill you. That's it. If you're not doing one of those, then you keep your knife sheathed, alright?"

"Alright." Daisy nods seriously.

"Good. Let's start with taking care of it then. If your knife fails, nothing else matters. Here." Cassie reaches into her backpack and pulls out a stone that fits well in the palm of her hand. "This is a whetstone, this is what you'll use to sharpen your knife. And you want it sharp. A slightly duller knife might last longer, but you don't need this to last forever. You just need it to last long enough for you to get away and get to safety, which should always be your main goal."

Cassie would make a really good teacher when all this is over. She's incredibly thorough, constantly repeating and reinforcing whatever topic she's covering, always making sure that Daisy completely understands whatever she's discussing before moving on. Even I learn a few things. Sure, military manuals are one of the many things inside my mind, but Cassie goes even further into detail about her knife than those did.

I just sit and watch her, enraptured just as much as Daisy is. I wonder if she knows how cute she is when she's so focused on a singular task? I just really want to kiss her right now, and I can't explain why. I need to get her to teach me more things sometime, just so I can sit and watch her explain things.

"You've got cars coming!" Lance's voice echoes across the cavern, and the entire place goes silent. Vince, Ivy, and Cassie are the first to move. Vince and Ivy scramble to their feet, and immediately head back to our car.

"Fuck, alright come on. You need to hide." Cassie grabs Daisy's hand and pulls her to her feet.

"Wait! That could be my mom!" Daisy yells, pulling against Cassie's hand. Cassie lets her go, and thankfully Daisy doesn't run off.

"It could also not be your mom." Cassie says seriously. "It's safer to assume the worst. If it is her, I'll sneak away and get you so we can surprise her, alright?"

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"Alright." Daisy nods.

"Come on." Cassie leads her quickly to the nearest house and opens the door for Daisy to step inside. "Keep your knife on you. Remember what to run through if someone comes in?"

"Do I recognize them? Are they armed? Are they hostile?" She rattles off quickly.

"Good." Cassie nods. "And if they are?"

"Fight like hell." She whispers, afraid for anyone else to hear it. "And then get away." She adds quickly under Cassie's gaze.

"You got it! We'll be back in a bit, don't come out until someone comes to get you, alright?"

"Ok." Despite her obvious fear, she nods seriously and clutches her knife tightly.

"We'll be back in a bit. I promise." I reach out to tussle her hair.

"How do you know you'll be ok?"

"We're really good at what we do." Cassie says. "Even if it's not your mom, we're not going to let some dumb slavers kill us."

"Ok." Daisy nods more confidently.

I glance at Cassie, and she nods back.

"We'll be right back." I reassure her again, and the both of us leave the room, closing the door behind us.

Cassie sprints off towards our room, leaving me behind but glancing back regularly to check on me. Corax streaks just over my shoulder to let me know he's here before pulling up and circling high above us all.

We pass by Vince and Ivy on our way to the barricade at the entrance to the cavern. They're both rushing as fast as they can, despite their shape and obvious exhaustion.

"Little Blue!" Vince calls out as I pass. "You don't have to fight."

"It's ok! I think I can handle killing slavers." By the time I reach our room, Cassie is already exiting it, gear in hand. She drops my helmet onto my head wordlessly and sprints off for the barricade. I follow behind her, utterly incapable of keeping up.

Lance, Robin, and even Nimda are already in cover at the bottom of the ramp, slightly off to the side of the center. The people who live here are quickly trickling in, but always take cover away from us. Although they're getting many nasty glances, nobody is saying anything.

Cassie slides into cover beside Lance and begins to put on her armor. I take cover beside her a few seconds later.

"How long do we have?" Cassie asks the moment I arrive.

"Fifteen minutes." Nimda answers.

"How the fuck did they get so close?"

"Power generation is on the other side of the mountain. We didn't spot them until we were headed back." Lance says.

"Is there any chance it might be more escaped slaves coming this way?" I ask hopefully.

"No." Nimda says definitively. "They're armored and ready to fight."

"Does everyone else know?" Cassie asks.

"Word is being spread around, yes. I thought it better for Joseph to inform everyone."

"Got it."

Ivy and Vince slide in next to us only a few seconds later, and Cassie brings them up to speed immediately.

"How many cars?" Vince asks, bracing his rifle against his shoulder and peering through a small crack.

"Four." Lance answers. "Front one had a ram on it. We're lucky we got those reinforcements done last night."

"Ivy? Think you can stop it?"

She hands her rifle off to Vince so she can grab her tablet.

"Not sure. I've got two FMJ, not car stoppers. I'll blow through the driver at minimum."

"Do you have a sidearm?" Cassie asks.

"Of course."

"We got her a spare from the car." Vince explains.

"Alright, good." Cassie nods. "It's been a long time since we've done something like this together."

"The fight at the junkyard was only three months ago." That's a long time to me, most of my free life, but all of them have decades of experience living. Three months probably isn't all that long.

"Fuck, really?" Cassie asks. "Alright, nevermind, we've done this way too recently."

"I'm pretty sure that's right. I wasn't keeping track of the date closely when my drives were broken, so I don't have an exact time."

"I'll trust you on that." Vince says.

"Fuck! I completely forgot! Happy birthday!" Cassie adds.

"Wait. When was that?" He asks.

"The day we rescued you!"

"Oh!" Vince says. "I didn't even realize. Thank you."

"How old are you anyway?" I ask.

"I uh, think I'd rather not answer that question. Too old to be doing any of this, let's just say that."

"He's 51." Ivy answers.

"Wait, how old are you?" I ask her. "I only learned Cassie's age a few weeks ago."

"That's not a safe question to ask a lot of women." She responds.

"She's turning forty this year." Vince answers, only to receive a playful shove.

"What about Lucas then?"

"25?" Cassie guesses. "He's two and a half years older than me. Wait, what about Corax?"

"Do you count the time he was off as part of his age? If you do, he's in his late 30's, although neither of us know the exact year. It was during the world ending. Dead trees still existed, but sandstorms were rapidly getting worse, beginning to bury entire buildings."

"That's pretty close to the end of things then." Vince says. "Probably sometime in 2024."

"We in the city don't count off time towards your age." Robin says.

"Right. I don't think it should count either, so he's only a few months old. Actually, if you don't count the forty years I spent alone trapped underground, he's older than I am."

"Ugh, don't say that." Cassie says. "Makes me feel like a creep."

"That's not an uncommon feeling in the city amongst some humans. Age of maturity gets a little murky on account of most, but certainly not all, non mind-rips coming into existence fully formed. If it makes you feel any better, Blue is certainly past it. If she wasn't, Kismet would have had a private conversation with you."

"Still. Ugh."

"Sorry I brought it up. I didn't realize it would be a problem." I say.

"No, you're fine!" Cassie reassures me. "It's not a problem, just a little weird. I'll get used to it."

"I-"

"Shhh." Cassie cuts me off, closing her eyes to focus. "I hear a car."

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