Chapter Text
"I'm.. just gonna take a walk, alright?"
.
.
.
The audio has been playing on loop ever since Lily was walking through the snow, she's been letting it play ever since she went out from the bunker 'Outpost 3'.
She carries herself a metal baseball bat shouldering it against her left side. Taking in the sight of the vast emptiness that the land had to offer, the place seems much more empty than the old home she once was, she thought to herself while walking through the snow storm. In the distance lies a ruined city which she's been walking towards.
The audio loop she's been playing on her visor finally stopped. She looked around taking in the view of the city, some of the buildings intact, some either tilted to the side or crashed into another, and some ruined forever. She's albeit surprised that the state of this city was much more destructive than her old home's abandoned city, she really missed her old home ever since moving here.
"That's enough, let's just walk around me."
Telling herself that she put her baseball bat to the ground and dragged it along her path wandering aimlessly around the city, hoping to find something that would interest her into looking more on it.
Aimlessly wandering would finally pluck something as Lily goes through buildings and such until an interesting spot she found lying behind the corners of a building but instead it was a haunting sight.
Lily's body freezes in silence looking behind the corner of the building, a sight of a massacre of dead drones. A common worker drone would run away in fear or even scream, unfortunately for her it bears no meaning as she walks to the corpses. Scanning around the area of the massacre, it had happened since long ago considering the snow soaked in oil is frozen still now. She was able to identify that there were six drones that were surrounded around a steel barrel with the look of it that seemed to have charred materials, piecing together what she assumed that they once had surrounded here to warm themselves which unfortunately the fire would give away their location and well turn into this bloodshed.
Looking closely through the corpses, two have their innards ripped out, one's beheaded, one's been mutilated beyond recognition, one's half been sliced off and the last one have their chest stabbed a few times with severe piercing that would be considered fatal, the only and ever will be familiar to her is the red flashing error sign on their visor a reminder to any drones daring to journey into this winter hell. All of this work must be Vs, with how N explained her sadistic nature when Lily was in the bunker, she felt a bit of pity for those who were unfortunate to be killed by her.
Suddenly a voice speaks out behind her, reacting quickly Lily readies up her baseball bat then quickly turns around only to ease out.
"H-hell-lo? W-wh-ho a-ar- y-u.?"
Impossible, the drone should have been dead. The piercing was severe enough that the drone would have died from oil loss. Lily slowly walks toward the damaged drone in silence.
"-le-as-se h-he-lp m-m-me.."
Lily couldn't stand watching it suffer, a drone that's beyond repair would be given a mercy kill. It's what she taught herself. Giving a couple seconds of thinking and breathing, second thoughts running through her head until she decides what until she reaches a conclusion. Lily stands in front of the drone then slowly, readies her bat into the air holding it both arms.
"W-wa-t! P-le-ase do-n't!"
Without listening in to its voice, Lily quickly and swiftly bash the head of the drone, visor shatters whole scattering across the snow, its top head section bent against the force of the blunt and oil leaks out from the visor dripping into the sides.
"W-wh-y-y-y.."
Lily, having her eyes closed, stood still waiting till the drone stopped moving. With the deed done she looked into the sky and took a deep breath. She knew it was simply inevitable, moved the drone and the oil that contained inside spills elsewhere, it's the best action she could think of.
Looking down Lily crouches at the dead drone, seeing drops of oil dripping into the snow. Moving her right hand with two fingers putting it into the oil before staring into her fingers coated in oil, she sighed before clenches her right hand.
"Why? I've never asked for this."
Something irritates her mind, the Absolute Solver. She never wanted to be infected by this, yet fate gave her more than that. The Solver she carries was different from the ones in Copper-9. While deep into her thoughts she was reminded how her life was once before arriving into Outpost 3, she was really starting to miss her old outpost. Ever since she dropped out of school after that 'event', she chooses her own way and joined the "Scavenger" part of her outpost exploring and scavenging the remains of what's left. It's a fresh breath of air exploring out, but since the departure of Disassembly Drones around their outpost, a new one joins their hunt. 'Justice', 'Zombies', 'Karma' or whatever her outpost calls it, has been scattered across the land, walking mindlessly in their once living metal, attacking any nearby alive worker drone. It disgust her how they are walking around in her own kind skin, at least killing it again would be considered mercy to whoever was once alive. Being part of the Scavenger team is harsh, she taught herself to never give in to her own emotions and just proceed with the tasks. She would continue to be recognised by her outpost as the most efficient scavenger, but also fearful of her ruthless nature when it comes to scavenging because her team once witnessed Lily having to kill her own teammate, all in the namesake of 'mercy kill'. Ever since her outpost repaired their communication tower and gained communication with other outposts, the only outpost communication available was Outpost 3. Outpost 3 was surprised because they thought her outpost was already long gone, but with the situation explained, both agreed on cooperating with each other even though their distance was very far away. At one point Lily decided to propose the unthinkable and told that she was going to walk herself to Outpost 3, well most disagree with her at the start which slowly changes to agreeing with her, besides she would be the first drone in her to ever move to somewhere new so that's a first. Her journey to the outpost would take weeks or even a month till she arrives, but the true reason behind her proposal was she needed an answer behind the origin of her Solver she was infected with, she found out about information of experimented drones and it all connected to Outpost 3.
Lily shakes her head, jeez she definitely was deep in her own thoughts that she didn't even realize she's been clenching her right fists for… minutes. Getting up tiredly she doesn't feel like doing anything, her mood taking a sudden turn as she stares into the corpse with an
urge
..
to consume..
nono
to hit it.
"oh robo-jesus it's happening again isn't it" she thought, her arrival on Outpost 3 didn't even find any answers but only more questions, and what's worse is that her Solver started acting up ever since the arrival. "Never asked for this,neverneverneverneverne-"
In an escalation, Lily quickly lashes out, smashing the sides of the corpse using her bat before repeatedly hitting it over and over, trying to sway away from her ever tensioned thoughts. "Why does it ever have to be me?!" She could only ask in her thoughts.
With the last swing from her bat to the corpse, its body tumbles down from the force and Lily drops herself into the snow tearing up. "It's been 4 years.." she mustered, 4 years of trying to find an answer, 4 years stuck living with an unknown disease. Doesn't make it better when she lost 2 important figures in her life, in which just so happens when she got the Solver. It's a curse, probably gonna get her next at one point aha. Her life probably already wilted into a meaningless one, is there a point to continue?
Getting up to sit she took a deep breath, moving herself back against the wall of the building to rest herself.
"Maybe.. I should check it back."
Her visor popped up a folder titled [RECORDINGS] , before clicking onto one of the recordings.
[ PLAY RECORDING 'past_simulation_uzi'?]
[NO] >[YES]
[LOADING…]
[PLAYING RECORDING.]
The view around her surroundings disappears in a blink.