It takes a minute to descend from the mountain, but we move as fast as we safely can. I keep the helmet on, just in case we somehow missed someone. I'm not sure how much it'll still protect me after taking a bullet, but I can't imagine it being worse than not having one at all.

"You five head in. We'll clear the cars and bring them inside." Lance says.

"Alright, thank you." Vince gives him a small nod. "Joseph! We're coming in, nobody fire!"

Corax takes off from my shoulder before we can even reach the entrance, swooping into the dark cave. He returns just a moment later, landing on my shoulder.

"Safe." He reassures us.

"Thank you." I reach up to give him a small scratch on his head, and we all descend.

The people who live here have entirely left their defensive positions. Everyone is either huddled around the woman, or sprinting off to find something, anything to help the blood loss.

"Everyone get back! Give her some space!" Vince's yell fills the cavern, but few people are interested in listening.

Cassie sprints off, as fast as her legs will carry her, towards our cars. The rest of us head forward, trying to move the crowd out of the way to get to the woman.

She's shaking, but if that's from adrenaline or blood loss, I'm not sure. Her hand is wrapped in her shirt, clutching it as tightly as she can. Her eyes are unfocused, staring off into the distance. Joseph is doing what he can to talk to her, but she's barely even able to acknowledge her.

"She's in shock." Vince rushes forward, taking the woman by her shoulders. "I need you to lie down, alright?" He says with as much force as he can.

The woman doesn't respond, but does allow herself to be guided down gently by Vince's hands. Vince lays her against the ground and guides her hand off of her stumps, clamping down on it with his own instead.

Cassie appears just a moment later, pushing through the crowd with the trauma kit from the car in her hands.

"What does she need?" Cassie asks.

"Blood and painkillers. Ivy, stop the bleeding." Vince lets go of her hand for just a moment, and Ivy takes over applying pressure.

Cassie grabs a clear rubber tube with IV needles on either end. She hands one to Vince, and gets to work finding a vein on the woman's arm.

"Her pulse is weak." It only takes a moment to get the IV fitted in her arm, and to inject a small amount of liquid in. She then grabs a tourniquet from the box and gets to work applying it to her other arm.

"Blue, there's epinephrine in the kit. Grab an injector and put it in her thigh." Vince finally gets the needle situated in his own arm, and a small amount of bright red blood begins to make its way over to the woman.

"Ok." In an instant I take in the box and grab what I need. I don't even bother removing her clothes, just inject it straight through her light covering. She needs it now, I'm not going to be the cause of her death because I took a few extra seconds.

"Good, prop up her legs." Vince grabs either side of the woman's face, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes focus a small amount, something we did must be helping. "Hey, you need to stay with me. Do you have a name?"

"Eighty-Three." She says weakly.

"Alright, you're going to be fine, alright? Do you know where you are?"

Her eyes flick off Vince's face, locking onto Joseph's.

"Dad." The word barely escapes her mouth. "I made it."

"You did." Joseph says, tears welling in his eyes. "You didn't make it all this way just to die now, did you? You're a fighter, don't let him be the one who kills you."

"You worry too much." She says quietly.

Cassie finishes applying the tourniquet, and Ivy lets off the pressure. A small gush of blood escapes her hand, but only a trickle comes after that. The two of them quickly get to work applying everything they can to seal up the wounds.

Joseph doesn't respond, and Vince picks up the conversation once again, trying to keep her focused and awake.

"Do you have another name?" He asks. "Eighty-Three doesn't suit you."

"Sapphire." She says.

"That's a better one. Why don't you tell me about yourself, Sapphire? What do you like to do? What got you through the days?" He asks.

"I like to sing." She says.

"That's a good skill. If we can find a guitar I'll give you some music to sing to, alright? What about your dad, tell me about him."

Vince keeps asking her questions, jumping to and from topics randomly to keep her talking, to keep her thinking, to keep her conscious. She's stable enough, I think. Me being here isn't helping anything. Ivy and Cassie are already doing everything they can. I can stand to leave her for just a second.

"We told Daisy to hide, I'm going to go tell her it's safe to get out." I quietly excuse myself.

"Daisy made it?" Sapphire asks.

"Yeah, do you want me to go get her?" I ask.

"The second convoy didn't make it." She says, turning her head to Joseph and entirely forgetting my question.

I'm not surprised by that revelation, but despite that, a small portion of my mind dies.

"We know." Joseph says. "You don't worry about that though. I'll tell her when the time is right."

"I'll be right back." I stand up and make my way through the still existent crowd.

At least they've given us some space and move out of the way when I approach, but still, giving her even more space would be a good idea. I'm sure we'll move her into a private building when it's safe to do so.

Making my way to the house we stashed Daisy in only takes a minute to reach, and I gently knock on the door.

"Daisy? It's Blue, it's safe. Are you ok if I come in?" The last thing I want to do is rush in and make her panic. I'd feel awful if I made a second person stab me accidentally.

"Really?" Her quiet voice rings out, full of hope and doubt in equal measures.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Really. We even saved Sapphire. Do you know her?"

Sounds of Daisy scrambling to her feet filter through the windows, and the door gets ripped open. Her eyes are shining with forgotten tears, and her knife is clutched close to her chest.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. She's injured though, but don't worry, we're taking care of her. We'll see her as soon as she's better."

"I want to see her." Daisy demands, her doubt entirely vanishing.

Is it ok to let her see what happened? How much blood is too much for a child to see? The last thing I want is to scar her, although, maybe she's already seen worse. I don't have any right to say no, she's capable of making her own decisions.

"Are you sure?" I ask. "There's a lot of blood, but she looks a lot worse than she actually is." I think.

"I'm sure." She stomps her foot against the ground to emphasize.

Corax takes off from my shoulder, undoubtedly to inform everyone else.

"Alright. You should put your knife away first. And why don't we give it a moment so she doesn't see your tears?" And hopefully they can clean her up a bit.

"Oh, right." She slides her knife back into its sheath, but keeps clutching it to her chest.

"While we wait, are you hungry? Or thirsty?"

"I already ate today." She says quietly.

Oh poor baby!

"You can have more than one meal a day." I step back to let her follow me, but she just stays there awkwardly. "Here, come on." I reach out and gently take her hand, walking her towards our car. "Have you ever had cherries before?"

Daisy gives only a small shake of her head.

"They're really good, I think. I still can't taste anything. But Cassie loved them so much that she made herself sick eating them."

"Are you going to get that fixed?" She asks.

"Oh yeah, she's better. She just needed some time to lay down."

"No, I mean…" Her words fade, suddenly unsure. "Your taste." She can barely manage to force the words out.

"Oh! Sorry, that's a good question. Maybe? It'd be nice to know how food tastes when I cook so I could keep track of what everyone likes about each meal, but it's not a big priority."

"Isn't eating nicer if you can taste?" Some of her confidence reappears.

"I'm sure it is! I don't need to eat though."

"Why not?"

"I'm an AI. My body is purely mechanical. The only biological part of me is my brain, and that's a plant, more or less." I slide the skin plates covering my arm to the side, revealing the mechanisms beneath.

Instead of recoiling in surprise, her eyes go wide and her jaw drops open.

"That's so cool!" Aww, I think that's the loudest, most excited I've ever heard her. "Is all of you like that?"

"Yeah!" I can't help but smile as I slide every exposed plate I have to the side, revealing myself in my entirety.

"Woah."

I have to close up my arm for safety as I reach for the trunk to the car. We still have one untouched can of cherries left. Vince and Ivy have been going through them quickly, but they can have as many as they want when they reach the city. Daisy deserves these.

"Here." I pop open the can and hand it to her.

She carefully fishes one out of the jar and quickly shoves it into her mouth. She doesn't even say anything before reaching for a few more, and adding them to the first.

"Slow down, we only have the one jar." I say gently.

"Right." She carefully chews and swallows what's in her mouth before saying anything else. "I want to give some to Sapphire."

"You'll have to ask Vince if that's safe. But we can go see her." The little bit of time I bought has helped a ton to make her look less stressed out. Her eyes are less red and puffy. It's still clear she was crying, but hopefully Sapphire can overlook that?

We head back up the streets just as the crowd begins to part. Cassie, alongside a few other people, are carrying a large, flat plate with Sapphire laying atop it. Vince stays right at her side, the bright red tube still connecting the two of them. I doubt Vince has stopped asking her questions since I left, and he's still doing it now, even as they move.

Daisy freezes as we see them.

"Is she ok?" She asks quietly.

"They wouldn't move her if she wasn't stable." Well that's not entirely true. They'd move her if she died, but she and Vince are still speaking. "Let me go see."

They carry Sapphire into a nearby house, and we arrive just a few seconds later. Daisy falls behind as I reach the door, seemingly afraid of stepping forward.

"Hey." I poke my head in. Sapphire has been placed in the center of the room, with Joseph and Vince sitting directly next to her. Cassie and Ivy are both keeping a close eye on her and her injured hand, but aren't actively trying to stop the bleeding anymore. "Is it ok if I bring Daisy in?"

"Ah, maybe give us a chance to clean up the blood a bit." Vince says.

"No, let her in." Sapphire says.

"Are you sure?" Vince asks.

"Yeah." She carefully pulls her injured hand beneath the blanket draped over her.

"As much as we've tried to shelter her, she's seen worse." Joseph explains for her. "I don't think it'll harm anything."

"Alright, if you're sure." Vince says.

I step back from the door and leave space for Daisy to head through. She hesitates, her eyes glancing around.

"What's wrong?" I take a step towards her and crouch down.

"I don't know." Whatever confidence she had has melted away, leaving only anxiety in its place.

"You don't have to go in if you don't want to."

She takes a breath to steel herself, passes by me, and heads inside.

"Daisy, you made it." Sapphire is putting far more effort into sounding ok than she has been. "Oh!"

I head inside, only to find Daisy flopped on the ground, roughly hugging Sapphire. Vince is rushing to his feet, and Cassie is already up, trying to pull Daisy away. She's clutching tightly to Sapphire's clothes, and Cassie can't just rip her away for fear of the IV getting ripped out.

"Calm down!" Cassie yells, and Daisy instantly lets go and freezes, her entire body going stiff. Cassie easily lifts her up and places her on her feet. She sets both of her hands on Daisy's shoulders, trying to look into her face despite the fact that Daisy's eyes are locked onto the floor. "She has a tube in her arm right now. You have to be careful, alright?"

Daisy whispers something that I can't hear, only see the movement of her mouth.

"Don't apologize." Cassie says firmly. "It's alright to be excited to see your friend. You just need to be careful, alright?"

Daisy's mouth moves once again, although she's still too quiet for anyone but Cassie to hear.

"Alright, good. Now, don't feel bad. You didn't hurt her, and you're not in trouble." Cassie subtly glances back at Ivy to check, and she nods. "Now why don't you go say hi to her."

Daisy gives a small nod, picks up her knife from where it's been discarded on the floor, and steps up to Sapphire.

"Hi."

"Hey, come here." She extracts her injured hand from her bed and holds it up for a hug. "Just watch my left arm."

Daisy sets the can of cherries to the side, but keeps her knife in her hand and lays down. Sapphire wraps her arm around her tightly.

I walk up to Vince and take a seat besides him and Joshua.

"She's looking a lot better." I say.

"We put a lot of drugs in her." Cassie says, taking a seat next to me.

"She'll probably crash soon." Vince adds.

"So, I hate to be one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but what are her chances looking like? What complications should we expect?" Joseph asks, hopefully quietly enough for Sapphire and Daisy to not hear.

"Well, unless she has more complications that we can't see, she should be alright. I'm not going to lie and say it'll be easy though. I'm O negative, so her body hopefully won't fully reject my blood. However, it is unfiltered. As far as I understand, the stuff has white blood cells in it. I'm not sure what exactly they do, but her body is going to fight that. It shouldn't be anything dangerous, but expect her to get a fever. That's normal, just keep her cool and hydrated and it'll pass. It's possible she'll have an allergic reaction, so we'll be leaving behind some antihistamines to help make things as pleasant as we can. All that, plus antibiotics to prevent an infection should be all you need. Do you have any doctors?"

"No, we don't. We've all done first aid to try to keep each other alive, but that's it."

"I can leave behind medical books, and I'm sure Nimda has some as well." I say. I'm certain the slavers must have at least one tablet I can dump all my information on.

"We'd appreciate that, thank you. You've done far more than you needed to already."

"Blue?" Daisy interrupts our conversation, wiping the tears out of her eyes. "Can I give her a cherry?"

I look to Vince for an answer.

"You'd better wait." He says. "Some of the meds we gave her can cause nausea. It'd be really bad if she ended up throwing up."

"Ok." She turns back to Sapphire. "I'll save you some."

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