"Fuck, Vanesa, this is not what I expected!" Dorio shouted from behind a concrete barrier that kept her from becoming a bloody sieve, returning fire as best she could with a handheld light machine gun. "Where the hell did all these people come from?!"
She was not happy—not at all. Her emotional state could be accurately described as... super pissed off.
She'd had quite a scare when she ran into that guy while going to "clean out" the Scav hideout, but it was worth it for the loot she found in the warehouse crates. Add in some expensive implants that tempted her, and it was a full-on jackpot.
Vanesa used her contacts to rush a truck in with techies to load the crates directly, so they could catalog them somewhere else—preferably somewhere safe from retaliation.
Everything was going great.
Until it wasn't.
Maybe the truck was too conspicuous, or maybe her fixer had a leak somewhere—Dorio didn't know or care—but the Animals and the 6th Street gang seemed to smell the prize and ambushed the transport halfway through the route, with at least fifteen people on each side.
And on Dorio's side?
The driver was fried, the six techies weren't getting back up, and as for the rest of the survivors... yeah, it was just her.
That only meant one thing: ditch everything as bait and live to fight another day.
Hell, she'd only lasted this long because the other two sides were more focused on killing each other than the "rat" that was left behind!
But there was a small problem—if she moved out of her current cover, she was dead. But staying put meant no escape route.
"If I get out of this, I'm finding someone else to team up with in the field!" she thought angrily, annoyed at Vanesa's total uselessness in this situation. "Someone big, tall, dark-skinned..."
Bang!
A warm shiver splashed across her face. She looked down—two meters away.
Yep. That was the top half of her left ear.
Correction: find a ripperdoc first, then look for backup.
How many bullets did she have left?
Kachak!
…Of course. The magazine was empty. And she hadn't even noticed.
[Vanesa?]
The odds were slim, but she hoped Vanesa could do something to help.
[I got nothing. Still don't know how they found out about the shipment.]
Dorio's hand froze.
[…You're still looking into that?! Find a way to get me out of here—now!]
Maybe Vanesa was lounging in a comfy chair, but she was one bullet away from being a forgotten memory!
[Give me a minute.]
Dorio laughed bitterly.
[You've got twenty seconds! Those guys are nearly done with each other and with their ammo—I don't have much longer!]
She wasn't kidding. 6th Street looked like they were coming out on top, and she needed a way out NOW.
[…]
Sweat dripped down her skin as the seconds ticked by like a war drum.
[Call ended.]
Dorio's eyes widened in disbelief, staring at the notification projected onto her digital corneas. The signal hadn't dropped—the alert clearly said the other party had voluntarily disconnected.
Vanesa... had just hung up on her? Given up?
But...
She'd been working for her for months!
She was her best merc, hands down!
And now that things went south, the bitch wanted to throw her away like a used tissue?
"I'll remember this, Vanesa!" Dorio growled, clenching her teeth. "Don't think I'll die here like you expect—I'll get out, find you, and send you to hell!"
Now… how the hell was she supposed to get out of here alive?
[Incoming call.]
Dorio froze at the coincidence. Who was calling her right now?
[Dorio, how are you?]
She definitely didn't expect that voice.
["Aunt Galina?!"]
["Who else? Wait, are those gunshots I hear?"]
["You're catching me at a really bad time."]
["Need help?"]
["Don't you dare come! The Animals and 6th Street are fighting over a truck shipment, and I'm caught in the crossfire. One person won't change a thing."]
Dorio could never forgive herself if Sasha lost her mom because of her.
["What about your fixer?"]
She grimaced. The wound was still fresh and already someone was poking it.
["She just hung up on me..."]
["Oh, that's… fantastic!"]
Neon question marks practically blinked above Dorio's head.
["Auntie, are you drunk?"]
["Don't slander me! I've barely touched a bottle since Sasha was born. I've been such a model mother I scare myself."]
["You always scared people..."]
["What was that?"]
["Nothing! But seriously, I don't think I'm making it out of this. You don't happen to have any old work friends nearby, do you?"]
["Hmm... nope, don't have any."]
Dorio's shoulders slumped—of course it wouldn't be that easy.
["But I do have someone better. It's just..."]
She perked up—finally, a chance at survival.
["Is it expensive? I've got some savings! If that's not enough and the person's decent, I can pay the rest... in other ways. I—"]
["Not another word! If I let you do that, how would I face your parents later?"]
["By telling them you saved their daughter and maybe even found her a cute boyfriend? I think that's good news."]
["Nice try. But no. Listen, this is serious."]
Dorio peeked over the concrete. Okay, they weren't paying attention to her—too busy dividing loot from the corpses...
It was fucking humiliating to be seen as a total non-threat, but it made sense. From their point of view, she had no escape and death was inevitable. She looked down again at the bit of ear on the ground.
["I'm all ears."]
["I might be able to convince someone to get you out of wherever the hell you are—guaranteed. But given the, uh… special circumstances around this person, you'd basically have to join their group."]
Well, she was thinking of doing just that—finding a reliable crew and all.
["That doesn't sound so bad. If you know them, they can't be some extremist creeps or toxic cult or anything, so… what's the catch?"]
If even Aunt Galina was hesitating, there was definitely a catch. A big one.
["When I say join the group, I mean permanent membership. You know, the kind you can't leave. Also, you need to be open-minded… and know when to keep your mouth shut."]
["Are you sure this isn't a cult?"]
["Look, all I can tell you is: follow the rules, and you'll live better than you ever have. My current job and situation? All thanks to them. You've seen how I'm doing."]
After hearing that, Dorio stopped hesitating. Even if she had to change later, first she had to survive.
["Fine! I'm in, whatever it is. How long will it take? Seriously—I don't have much time."]
["Send me your exact location."]
The lights in Dorio's eyes flickered as she sent the info and looked around, trying to guess where help might come from. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long.
["Got it! This is gonna sound weird, but on the count of five, take a deep breath and hold it no matter what. Got it?"]
Gas grenade? Something like that?
Still, Dorio followed instructions, inhaling on the count of four. And on five...
…
"Hey," a 6th Street guy with shaved sides tapped the chest of his buddy, his optics scanning the surroundings. "Where'd the chick guarding the truck go?"
"How should I know? She probably ran off while we were fighting the Animals."
"But she was trapped—there was no way out," he scratched his head. "I'm sure she was just there."
His buddy frowned and checked the area. Not seeing anything, he pointed to the first guy's eyes.
"Go get your optics checked by a ripperdoc. You've been hacked."
"Oh..." the guy nodded. "I hate when that happens!"
"Be glad it was just a prank and not a system fry."
The man shuddered.
Honestly, he much preferred a prank over death.
Minutes later, in Galina's basement…
"Blergh!"
Dorio was vomiting up her breakfast (and probably last night's dinner) into a trash can, trying to process what had just happened.
She had followed Galina's instructions, held her breath, and just as she finished, a bunch of roots shot up from the concrete floor, wrapped around her like a cocoon, and dragged her underground at such speed that she was horribly disoriented.
The sudden motion and constriction scared her so much she nearly lost her breath!
After what felt like way too long, Dorio was "spat out" in Galina's basement, where the older woman—apparently expecting this reaction—handed her the trash can.
Dorio didn't hesitate to use it as soon as her brain caught up with the fact that she was safe.
"What the hell was that?!" Dorio asked in disbelief once she was done emptying her stomach.
"I told you to keep an open mind." Galina shrugged with apparent calm as she handed her a bottle of water to rinse her mouth, though internally she was more than a little shaken by what she had seen.
When she learned that the fixer was no longer going to be a problem, she immediately asked Faelan for help, hoping she would use her holograms, contacts, or whatever it took to get Dorio out of there.
It was a relief when she finally agreed with a tired sigh, but she certainly hadn't expected to see Dorio spat out of a hole of living roots in her basement.
The only positive part was that now she knew how Faelan got those product boxes into her basement—though at this point, she almost wished she didn't. Just seeing those roots brought back some deeply repressed memories...
Wait, the food she sold and those roots…?
"Open mind, right." Dorio rinsed her mouth with the bottle's water. "So, you gonna tell me what group I signed up for now?"
"About that..." Galina looked to her side, where no one seemed to be.
Dorio glanced that way, confused, but her eyes went wide as she saw hundreds of emerald green butterflies enter through the ventilation grate, converging to form a figure she had gotten far too close to for her liking recently.
Dorio wanted to say something, but her eyes rolled back and she collapsed as the tension drained from her body and she relaxed—only to spring back up even faster the moment she recognized the figure.
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If you like ATLA, keep an eye out for the new FF I just released!