Chapters tagged cnf

by bartolimieu07

Chapter 21

Martin's head whips around. "What?" he says, baffled. "What's this bullshit you're saying?" "I...I've completed my task--escorting you here. Tomorrow, Auto will have something else for me to do, probably back at my own polly, maybe somewhere else. I will need to return." "That'...

by bartolimieu07

Chapter 22

Martin finds me in the showers the next morning, just as I finish my rinsing. "Follow me," he says simply, pulling me down the path and across the central yard to a food station. The four eggs Martin took yesterday from the chicken polly have all been cracked open, their contents...

by bartolimieu07

Chapter 23

Valerie steps forward and takes her place on Martin's other side, grasping his free hand in hers. She stares at the mesmerizing sight of the circling stars, saying nothing. I stand on my tiptoes so my mouth is close to Martin's ear. "This is your chance," I whisper as quietly as...

by bartolimieu07

Chapter 24

"Oy there!" I greet Martin from across the central yard, rushing into his embrace. We hug for a moment before moving together towards the line for the food station. The sunstrand is fully waxed, and my task for the day is complete. Thirty days have passed since Martin and I join...

by bartolimieu07

Chapter 25

The blackness is absolute. On normal nights, the sunstrand still emits a faint bluish glow, just enough to see. This is something else entirely, the kind of utter blindness I can only experience by closing my eyes and placing my hands over my face, or--more recently--needing to r...

by bartolimieu07

Chapter 26

I awake to coughing, Martin's and my own. The air is heavier, harder to breathe, suffused with the smell of smoke. When I turn on my flashlight, it pierces through a faint haze, the beam no longer reaching as far as it did. All of those impromptu fires, I realize--they're poisoni...

by bartolimieu07

Chapter 27

The building housing Auto's core is formidable--thick, impenetrable partitions on all sides. A portal on one side leads into a small chamber featuring a massive steel door. Council Gerard leads Martin, Valerie, me, and a half dozen other councilors into this room, gesturing hopel...