A Shooting Star

A flurry of projectiles descended from the heavens and Nitya leaped into the truck as they hit the ground, dragging Kanami with her. She yelped as scalding hot broth splashed against her cheek. People screamed and bombs crashed into one another. More drones zipped past as palm sized automatons crawled across the burning, cracking asphalt. Holograms flickered and the ground trembled.

Kanami pried Nitya’s fingers from her wrist. She threw herself over the truck’s counter, gasping as Nitya pulled her back. “Let me go-!

“Do you have a death wish?”

“No, but I have to help Nee-”

“-You go out there and you’re dead. You hear me? Dead.” She forced Kanami against the wall. The truck rocked.

Pulling down the canopy, Nitya flicked up her wrist to open a mini-HUD. There had to be somewhere safer. It greeted her softly as she bullied her way into the district’s security and pulled up a broken map. She zoomed in on a section labeled as inaccessible to the public. A decommissioned subway tunnel. Bingo.

“Kanami,” She unlatched the hook securing the door that separated the kitchen from the cabin. The district map attempted a route, an error message softly blinking over it. “There used to be a subway here. Do you know how to get into any of the tunnels?”

“Should be an entrance about two miles from here, but it was boarded up a year or two ago. Why?”

“Safer than here. Come on, let’s go.”

Nitya slid into the driver’s seat. Her eyes watered from the heat and overbearing vanilla smell. She shoved her hand into every nook and cranny, grinning to herself as she spun a keyring around her finger. Ah, bless those with spare keys.

A pop song from the 2090s blasted as the engine grumbled. She swatted the cheap fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror out of the way and stomped on the gas pedal. The truck barreled down the street and Kanami yelped, clinging to Nitya with one hand and her seat with the other. The truck bounced as Nitya drove over debris and automatons and skidded to a half-stop. “Which way?”

“Left!” Screeched Kanami. “Left!”

A Hemera ad blared. Automatons crawled over the windshield and their beams flared wildly when they were flicked off. Several drones swarmed them, humming as their fans spun and another barrage of projectiles rained down from the skies.

Nitya pulled against the wheel and it seized. The truck fell as a bomb crashed and a fire roared, spinning until it lodged itself into a building’s side.

Her head spun when she opened her eyes. The smell of gasoline covered her like a sheet. She lifted her arm. Blood ran down it and the mini-HUD’s holoscreen flickered, the error message over the map still blinking. Glass crunched as she sat up and brushed dust off of her clothes. Nitya crawled from under the truck and ignored the sting of the cuts the glass left. Now, where was that technician…?

She found her curled into herself against the truck’s side. Kanami’s palms lay flush against her face, still on the ground except for breathy crying.

“What are you doing?” Nitya asked, crouching when Kanami muttered something unintelligible. “Get up.”

“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t do anything.”

She pulled the other woman up with her and fell as she sagged against her. Nitya pushed her against the truck, holding her up with her fists. “Wherever you think you are, you’re not there. Get up.”

“But I-”

“I said, ‘get up.’”

Kanami stared at Nitya with wide eyes as she was slapped, cupping her cheek. Nitya dropped her hands and looked away. She couldn’t stand people who looked like that; people who looked like a wounded puppy. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, but we need to go.”

“Jus’ leave me here.”

Nitya considered it. In any other circumstance, it wouldn’t even be something to consider. That was her normal protocol, but there were more positives than negatives to be had by winning this borderline-idiotic woman’s trust. After all, who would know her shop best other than the mechanic herself?

“No,” She dragged Kanami to her feet and halfway hoisted her over the shoulder. “I don’t care what you say; you’re coming with me.”

After a few minutes of dragging her, Kanami finally stood. Her gait was slow at first but she walked, holding onto Nitya like a lifeline. She gave Nitya a tired smile. “Thank you for not leaving me.”

“Of course.” Replied Nitya, the soft smile she gave not quite reaching her eyes.

“And carrying me, too! You really are a multitalented cutie! You can't really be real~”

“Haha, unfortunately for us all, I am.”

Nitya pulled them around the corner. Drones and the palm-sized automatons scurried across the streets and skies. Bodies lay crushed by debris. They sprinted around the fires and her mini-HUD flickered with each tremor. She couldn't stand to look at the people who were half-dead-half-alive. Nitya fished out the gun strapped under her skirt and her ears rang as she fired, holding back vomit as she stepped in a pool of blood and machinery.

“What are you doing?” Screamed Kanami. “Those people can be rescued!”

“They'll bleed to death before Fresa is even mentioned in the news cycle. No one who can help will step foot here in the next twenty-four hours. Hemera will make sure of that, trust me.”

“That doesn't make sense.”

“Neither does bombing the entire district, but here we are.”

“But why? Why would Hemera bomb it?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Nitya asked, sliding to a stop underneath a boarded-up archway. A metal sign with faded painting and the phrase Property of Neo-Athens etched into it flapped against the bricks. This was their stop. Metal creaked and groaned and she couldn't think over the explosions. She began to tear off the boards. “They want me. The district just happened to be collateral damage.”

Nitya coughed as they descended into the subway. Though it held up, it trembled with every blast, dust falling to the ground like black snow. She slid on her HUD and turned on its flashlight. There were no signs of human life here-no trash, no clothes, not even crumbling posters with advertisements for bad products-except for the empty space where tracks once were. Their shape has been preserved. Anything valuable had long been removed, whatever holes left behind sealed away. Nitya looked around.

She peeled off her jacket and laid it out in a corner. Stretching, she settled on it, yawning as she reclined against the wall. Her HUD’s screen shut off when she returned it to standby mode and placed one earbud in. Kanami sat next to her with crossed legs. “What are you doing?”

“Sleeping.”

“Right now?”

“I’m exhausted. I haven’t slept in a while,” Nitya started a playlist of a mix between indie songs and nature sounds, tapping the side of her HUD. “Besides, if anyone gets within a two mile radius of us, this’ll let us know. I didn’t get that upgrade just to get it.”

“Are you sure, Nitya? I mean, what about the drones?”

Nitya opened a mini-HUD, sliding a few holoscreens around. Disabling parts of the bots’ navigation system and feeding them faulty information was so easy, but Hemera had attempted to reinforce their numerous firewalls. For most, it would be difficult and frustrating. The sheer patience required would deter even the most determined. Nitya laughed. It was a noble attempt to keep her out, but they'd forgotten one thing in their haste:

This was one of the many systems of her own creation.

“There,” She yawned and pulled her hoodie up before laying on her side. “They shouldn’t give us any problems. I’m going to sleep now.”

“Sleep well, Nitya.” Whispered Kanami.

*

Nitya opened her eyes to the sound of rain. She stretched and sat up, tapping her HUD. Her mouth felt like she’d stuffed it with a cotton ball. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Good afternoon, Reconnaissance. Last recorded use was seventeen hours and thirty minutes ago. It is currently 5:30 pm.” It chirped.

Damn, almost eighteen hours?

She yawned. Her stomach rumbled as she stood and the vitals patch on her jacket's left shoulder began to chirp in the same voice of her HUD. She slammed her palm against it. She didn’t need to hear how she was dehydrated or hungry or whatever it would say right now.

“Heyo, Nitya~Sleep well?” Kanami asked, looking up at her from her seat against the wall. A few wrappers were stuffed into her pocket. She handed one to Nitya. She turned it in her palms-it was a cheap, nutrient-dense meal replacement bar. She bit into it. It tasted somewhere between batteries and fruit salad. “Heard you’re hungry. It doesn’t taste the best, but it’ll be fine ‘til we can get back to my apartment.”

“It tastes like battery acid.”

“How do you know what that tastes like? Is that the preferred snack of choice for wealthy beauties such as yourself?”

Nitya rolled her eyes and helped Kanami to her feet before returning her jacket to her shoulders. She breathed out. She hadn't realized how naked she felt without it. That made sense; it has been his, after all.

A soft wind blew as they stepped out of the subway. The piles of rubble juxtaposed the bright and cloudy sky and the only sound was the sounds of the rest of the city carried over by the breeze. Nitya side-stepped a few smoldering embers, taking a left before something pulled at her sleeve.

“Wait,” Kanami said, her voice so quiet it almost got lost in the breeze, “I need to see if Nia’s…”

An exercise in futility, but if Kanami wanted to do it, so be it.

Nitya walked a few steps ahead, stretching out her arms towards the sky. She whistled along to the song stuck in her head and looked around Fresa with only a slight sense of regret stuck in her chest.

What remained of the night market still burned, broken neon signs sending electricity through puddles of everything from pure water to chili. Kanami blocked the sun with an open palm. “I’ll start from here, you’ll start from the end of the street, and we’ll meet in the middle. Sounds good?”

“Rodger.”

Nitya yawned and shoved her hands in her pockets. She looked around in quick, cursory glances, but almost everything appeared as the same ugly gray in the hot sun-everything but a mop of green hair against what appeared to be an arm. She walked over and pushed a chunk of rubble away.

Though her face had been crushed, this was the chef, ‘Nia.’ Around her neck and on a gold chain was a gem of smoothened rose quartz. Nitya pocketed it. A ring with a small diamond was on her left hand, which quickly joined the necklace. She slid Nia’s eyelids down before moving on to her pockets. Self-disgust prickled in her throat.

Her wallet, bright pink with a cartoon cat sewn to the top, was somewhere between hefty and light, bursting with coins and bills that amounted to around seventy dollars. A few cards. Nitya skimmed over them before stopping on her ID.

Nina Watanabe. Nitya sighed. She hadn’t even known her name, and she died because of her.

A few small photos sat behind Nina’s ID. She pulled out the first one: Nina, sporting an orange haircut, laughing as she held a child in one arm and leaned against a man that looked like them both.

Nitya’s fingers twitched. It would be nothing to take anything and everything of value and tell Kanami she hadn’t seen Nina’s body, but as she thumbed that photo, her resolve wavered. She looked at the wallet, then the photo, and then sighed. She couldn't.

Nitya slipped the photo back and tapped her HUD. “Oi, save this address, will you? 2575 Pinesworth…”

Snapping the wallet shut, she removed the necklace and ring, stringing the ring along the chain. She stood up as footsteps splashed in a puddle behind her.

“Sooooo, Nitya, you've been here a while. See anything interesting?” Kanami hummed, looked over Nitya’s shoulder, and rested her gaze on Nina Watanabe’s corpse. “Oh.”

She ignored Nitya as she tried to hand her Nina's belongings and cradled the body with a sob. “Damnit, Nia! How could you die like that? You promised you wouldn’t die without me. You promised, Nina. We promised we wouldn’t leave the other alone. Goddamnit, Nina. Damnit.”

Kanami cried for a while more, resting her head on Nina’s chest, the contrast between green and bright red making Nitya’s eyes hurt. Nitya crouched beside her. She placed her hand on her shoulder, trying to offer some semblance of comfort. If nothing else, at least Nitya could offer her that.

The first rays of dusk poked out from the horizon when they stood and tinged the bellies of the clouds lazing across the sky. Kanami yawned, pushing away Nitya’s hand when she offered Nina’s things. “Hold on to them for me for a little bit longer, ‘kay? I can’t stomach it right now.”

“Alright.” Nitya whispered in reply. A lump rested in her throat as she placed Nina’s things in a jacket pocket. She wanted to say more.

“So pretty…sundown’s gotta be my favorite time of day. What about you, Nitya? Do you have a favorite?”

“Maybe…right after dusk or right before dawn, if I had to name one.”

Kanami laughed, waving Nitya closer as she began walking. She winked. “It must be fate that our favorite parts of the day are so close together, huh? Ah, hopefully we’ll see both on our way back to my shop~”

“Hopefully.” Nitya echoed. She stared up at the sky with her hands in her pockets, a few steps behind Kanami. If she squinted, maybe she could see the trail of a shooting star amidst the orange and blue sky.