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Science Fiction Fiction

So, my character is not an android, he is a cyborg. I hope it still counts.


Part 2/3 chapter 2


Early rays of light streamed through the clouds on a sleeping figure, but the moment was ruined when loud crying broke the silence and disrupted the peace. Rune jolted upright. Tycho sat next to him, tears streamed down his face, his hands on his stomach. Rune scrubbed the sleep from his eyes. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, irritable from being suddenly woken. “He’s hungry,” Amarillius’s voice interrupted. “We haven’t eaten since midday meal yesterday.”

Rune groaned and struggled to his feet. His body was cramped and his neck twinged in pain as he stood. “Stay here. I’ll go find something.” Amarillius frowned and crossed her arms, but obeyed.

Rune crept out from the alley, glancing both ways before stepping out. The cars were back, zipping past. The noise hurt Rune’s ears, his ears may look human, but they heard the same as in his original form. From where he stood, he could see a man sitting by a table, a delicious smell wafted over the stench of cars and heating concrete. Rune frowned. How was he supposed to get across?

Rune stepped into the road, a car came at him from a distance, but he judged he could make it. He judged wrong. Before he had made it halfway across the road, the car was only a few feet away from him. Rune froze. All his training vanished and he was stuck, eyes fixed on the speeding car. By pure instinct, he put out his hand in a futile attempt to stop the car. Possibly not so futile. Rune felt the shock ripple up his arm like a burn; the car’s hood crumpled inward and the driver jolted forward, her eyes wide with shock and fear.

The force of the speeding car knocked Rune off his feet and sent him crashing to the concrete. Then Rune realized. He had brought the car to a dead stop with his right arm, his cybernetic arm.

The sarsh shook his head to clear it as he heard something else above his head, there was another car coming. He rolled over, crouched and faced the oncoming car. Before he knew what was happening, he raised his arm, his right arm. Without him wanting it, his morphing failed, but only on his right arm and leg. His gleaming fingers melded together to form a blade, gleaming in the early rays of light. Then the car hit.

Out of pure instinct, Rune lifted his arms in a cross, his flesh arm supporting his cyber arm. His arm/blade sliced effortlessly through the entire span of the vehicle. He felt small slivers of metal cut his face and chest as the vehicle split in half and both halves curved past him. People screamed and jumped out of the way of the flaming vehicle halves.

When the panic faded and his heart slowed, Rune straightened. All the humans were watching him, eyes wide with horror. Flames crackled on the halves of the car Rune had just split, he sucked in a breath and sprinted towards the side with the driver. He ignored the cries of the people nearby and peered into the shattered window. He flinched. The side of the man’s head was bloodied and his eyes were open, unblinking. Tentatively, Rune touched his neck with his now normal metal fingers. He took a step back from the burning car, blinking rapidly. The man was dead.

Time slowed. Rune heard sirens approaching, only half a mile away. The human’s horrified faces watched his own. The woman who had hit Rune stumbled from her crumpled car, her mouth open in a scream, but there was no sound. Rune’s ears rung and his heart pounded. Then he ran. He stumbled past the wreck and other cars that had stopped in the road, the human’s cameras flashed in his face, catching every one of his features. The scars on his neck and cheek had appeared on his light human skin. A single, frightened, sick tear slipped down his cheek.

Rune fled until he reached his siblings again, they jumped to their feet as he bolted into the alley. “Run!” He shouted, waving at them to leave. Amarillius swept Tycho off his feet and into her arms, she grabbed Sharn’s hand and pulled them both down the alley to their right, Rune followed closely on their heels. “What happened?” Amarillius called over her shoulder. Rune shook his head, waving for silence. “Be quiet!”

The four siblings ran behind building after building, their rushing feet splashing into recent puddles. A mouse skittered along the floor to Rune’s right. Suddenly, he got an idea. “Morph to a mouse!” His three younger siblings stopped, turning to the small grey creature skittering across the pavement. Seconds later, there were three small mice bounding into a crack in a building. Rune stood stock-still, his face pained. He couldn’t morph. His mind tripped on the man’s still face, his lifeless eyes. The sheer terror and instinct had set in and his mind hadn’t been his own. Now someone was dead because of him. In all his career, in all his life, he hadn’t killed anyone, on purpose or by accident.

The sirens grew closer.

Rune’s heart pounded. He made up his mind, turned, and ran again. To his siblings, he called; “Stay there, I’ll be back!”

He got his morphing back in order and quickly changed to an Earth dog. He was tempted to change to a vayne, but that would only draw more unwanted attention. His four black paws hit the ground, his pink tongue hung between his teeth as he ran. He turned and bounded down the alley next to him, heading back towards the crash site.

The police cars were already there when Rune arrived. There were police officers everywhere, questioning bystanders and assisting people with minor injuries. Everyone ignored the large black dog weaving through their legs and brushing past them, making its way towards the flaming and crumpled cars. Had Rune been in his original form, guilty tears would have appeared in his eyes, instead, he emitted a grieved whine. They had already removed the body of the man; the woman was being attended to by an EMT. Rune watched for a minute, then shook his head before realizing he was still a dog and stopped. He turned and trotted away.

Rune wiggled into a crack in the building's side where his siblings waited. He let out a quiet bark to let them know he was there, then morphed back to himself. “guys?” He whispered. “you can come out.” Three mice skittered out from behind a smashed box in one corner, then morphed into his siblings. Tycho ran to him and threw his arms around his big brother’s neck. Rune let out a shaky breath and laid back on the floor, closing his eyes, Tycho still attached to his neck. “What happened?” Rune’s eyelids cracked open at Sharn’s question. He sat up and pulled Tycho off. He draped his arms over his knees and dropped his head into them. “This happened.” He lifted his arm, it slid smoothly back into the form of the long, gleaming blade. His siblings gasped. Tycho reached out to touch it, but it was back to its original form when his fingers made contact.

“I left before I knew anything about my cybernetic limbs and when instinct takes over, I can’t control it. I have to learn to, or more people are going to get hurt.” Rune reached up and touched the scar on his temple where the cyber chip was put in his head. He sighed. “We have to change our appearances again.” His siblings nodded. As Rune sat, silent, his silver-blond hair darkened and lengthened, he grew taller by a few inches and behind his closed eyes, ice-blue replaced the black.

He finally looked up, his ice-blue eyes fixed on his siblings, filled with guilt and pain. His siblings own appearances changed and a few moments later, four normal humans exited the building. Two police officers rushed past them, ignoring them. Here, the police officers only had authority when sarsh soldiers weren’t around.

A few minutes later, Rune sat silently against the wall in another, darker and dirtier alley, his long black hair hung in his face. His cyber limbs were human again and he vowed to keep them hidden. He couldn’t hurt anyone else.

His siblings sat nearby, watching him with intensely blue eyes filled with worry and fear. They weren’t used to him being so broken, so quiet and still. It was more frightening than when he was angry. Then, in the silence, Tycho’s stomach growled. Sharn laughed. Rune stood up, bracing himself against the wall. His guilt seemed to physically weaken him. His eyes were downcast and his voice quieter than it had ever been before. “We have to wait until nighttime until I can get us something to eat. I am going to have to steal something, we have no human currency.” Usually, during the ejection, the soldier was given a certain amount of human currency, but this ejection wasn’t normal.

So they waited. The day wore on and they did nothing. The burning sun burned Rune’s neck as he sat slumped, frozen by his emotions and he said nothing. Did nothing. He barely even moved. Behind his closed eyes, the man’s unblinking, dull eyes were stuck in his mind. Haunting him.

“rune?” Amarillius whispered to her big brother. He didn’t respond. “Rune!” His head jerked up, his eyes wide. “what?” He grunted, his voice rough and clipped, but there was underlying grief in it. She didn’t answer, but gestured widely to the darkened sky. There were thick clouds overhead, the moon casting a cold light on the slumbering world below. Rune nodded and stumbled to his feet. “I’ll be back.”

The muggy night air choked Rune, drops of sweat dripped down his face. He flipped up the hood that replaced his tunic. It was a dark maroon. The color of human blood. Rune gasped for breath, suffocating in his own thoughts. He turned his hooded head to the black sky. A single star shone through the darkness. A tear slid down his cheek. Just one. Like the star. It gleamed in the streetlights as it fell. A fallen star. Rune walked on, his boot stepped on the tear. The clouds drowned the star. In the stillness of the night, one could hear quiet tears dropping onto the pavement as the dark figure walked on.

February 19, 2021 22:32

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6 comments

Cookie Carla🍪
16:22 Apr 16, 2021

Your character's names are so inventive and unique. I can never even think of a name when I write. I always just think about the first person on my mind and go😂. I really liked your story!! I generally don't read genres like these, but lately I've been finding out that I should really get out more and start exploring. Turns out, I love this story!! It started out a little slow. Of course you started with the problem and them attempted to fix it. Then the climax when he stopped the car was like a sudden jolt of energy and really woke the s...

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Creed .
17:23 Apr 16, 2021

Whoa! That's a big comment! Thank you so much for your kind words! (I cheat by using a name generator or baby name websites I have not heard of John Hancock, but I imagine that is what Rune would do. Thank you again! PS, I will check it out!

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Cookie Carla🍪
18:04 Apr 16, 2021

Yay yay YAY YAAY Y A Y!!!!

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Siobhan Mulalley
16:09 Feb 28, 2021

Great story. Loved the suspense and the drama. Reads like a great sci-fi thriller.

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Creed .
00:31 Mar 01, 2021

Thank you!

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TJ Squared
23:51 Nov 06, 2021

reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee that ending was just....wowza. No words. Too many emotions. Just wow.

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