Shift-- Completed

Shift-- Completed

An annoying Ping sound woke Shay up from a very light and fretful sleep. She immediately jumped out of bed and turned on her skintenna.

“Morning sleepy head.” Came a whispered voice. It seemed to come from right beside her, but Shay knew it was just the skintenna working its magic.

“Morning Tachs.” Shay answered.

“Hey. What am I, a wallscreen?”

“Sorry. Good Morning to you too Ho. And Fausto. Where’s Tally?”

A nervous scilence greeted her. She could hear the three of them breathing quickly. She could also sense their surroundings through the skintenna. The intimacy of the skintenna network was definitely one of the best parts of being a former Cutter. It felt like she was in three different places at once. The other former Cutters must still be asleep. She could see through everyone else’s eyes. It was incredible.

  Fausto was still at the hospital, helping people out and arranging things. At the moment he was in the corner of a room with three beds. All three of them had injured crumblies in them. A nurse buzzed around tending to the patients.

Ho was at Town Hall. At the moment he was moving through a ruined corridor. Dust flew up in huge piles with every step. Broken wires hung from the ceiling, ripped cloth and plastics littering the floor and walls. Up in front of him was a pile of rubble where the upper floor had fallen through. It was so horrible to see all of these things. She could feel that Ho wasn’t enjoying it much either. But he had to do what he could for Diego. And right now that meant going through the ruins of Town Hall to find anything that might have survived the attack. Abandoned interface rings, computer chips, even a water purifier could be useful, even though now that they had a solid home that wouldn’t be needed.

Shay’s breathe caught in her throat when she noticed where Tachs was. In Zane’s room. Zane’s face was still gaunt and deathly looking. All the cords that had been keeping him alive were being slowly ripped off by doctors.

Tally might think she was the center of the world, but it hurt Shay too that Zane was gone. It hurt all of them. And their combined pain was overwhelming. Shay found tears trickling down her cheeks.

That was one thing she could have done without. As a Cutter, you never needed to cry. Blood was tears enough. These tears hurt more than cutting herself ever could.

 She brushed them off her cheek and asked again, “Where’s Tally?”

Another nervous silence. Shay was getting impatient. Tally and her needed to get to Dr. Cable. They needed to end this war. Shay was sick and tired or hiding from all of the bad things with Tally. She was done with that life. She wasn’t going back to where she ditched her friends when they ran to the Smoke. She was done with just watching Tally cause problems and never fix them. She didn’t want to give herself up, but she was doing it for Diego. Doing it for Tally. Tally needed to fix things for once. Shay knew she couldn’t just keep running away.

“Shay...” came a quiet whisper from Fausto. “She...She left without you.”

“What?!” screamed Shay, a lot louder than needed with the skintenna. “And why didn’t you wake me? How long ago did she leave?”

“Cool it Shay-la,” came Ho’s voice, “Fausto sent David to head her off in a chopper. The bubblehead took hoverboards.”

“Uh, Ho. How does that work out with my plan to give myself up? I have to actually be there to give myself up. David is a useless voice to Dr. Cable.”

“Don’t worry Shay-la. We’ve got it all figured out.” Came Tachs’ voice. Shay could hear the strain to keep his voice free of pain and felt another ping of remorse for Zane.

Zane...

“Oh, yeah?” Shay said through gritted teeth, “And how is that?”

“Well, you’re cured right? So Dr. Cable wouldn’t believe you anyways. So we’ll just let Tally tell her herself, and then when she comes back or escapes or whatever it is she’ll need to do David will be there to take her home.”

Shay opened her mouth a few times to argue, but thought better of it. As she ran Tachs’ words through her head the plan seemed to make more and more sense.

She sighed in defeat. “I guess that is a good plan. Thanks you guys. I’m just going to—TACHS NO! STOP THEM!”

Through the skintenna network she had seen a doctor reach to disconnect the oxygen mask from Zane’s face. The last thing keeping him alive. She knew they needed the space, but this wasn’t just an ordinary person. She couldn’t just leave him to die. She refused. Absolutely refused to let Zane die.