TANGO Heavy - Chapter 15

Pen isn’t sure what exactly the noise is that she makes, even as she becomes aware of it leaving her mouth. It’s like a sigh, but higher pitched, as she stares at the little empty sachet. Her body feels warm. Her insides feel so warm. The water that felt as if it were burning her, was now simply hot, but comfortably so. The air above is still freezing however and she does her best to keep her shoulders beneath the surface. The heavy jacket is soaked through and it weighs down on her body, but she leaves it on nonetheless and simply stares. What is this feeling? It is as if she is asleep, but she is awake. Yet no thoughts come to her mind. No anxieties. The water is hot. Her legs hurt. Her hands hurt. But the water is hot. She feels calm.

Her fingers press down on the little empty sachet and it crinkles satisfyingly loud beneath her hands. She isn’t sure why, but she lets out a small laugh at the sound and squeezes again. It crinkles again.

“Feel better now?” asks a voice from the side. Quickly her face turns to stone, the smile vanishes, as she looks over her shoulder, sliding the empty sachet a little to the side so that it can’t be taken from her. She stares at Tango and then looks away again, meekly.

“Yes,” is all she says and lowers her head beneath the hot water, letting it gently stream around herself as it flows off, vanishing into some nook of the pool where it sinks down deeper into the mountain. She exhales out the deep breath that was held in her lungs and simply floats there beneath the water for a time, her eyes open, staring at the empty sachet held in her hands. It was so warm, it feels so peaceful here. It reminds her of a feeling, an old feeling. But then her lungs burn and she rises back up again, inhaling in a fresh gasp of steamy air. Looking downward, she saw a red trickle still leaving her leg. In fact there was a little more now than when she was out of the water. But she could see her foot again.

All of the caked blood and dirt and gunk had been washed away by the hot water, only the filthy rag bandage was still wrapped around her painfully aching leg. She was thankful that it didn’t break. She would have been dead a long time ago if it had. Fallen to the bottom of the pit. Just like her first crystal. Bubbles left her mouth, as she blew in agitation just beneath the water.

“You need to check that,” says Tango.

“Huh?” She looks over to the giant standing next to her, knelt down and facing towards her again.

“There weren’t any medical supplies left there, right? Then you at least need to take that ‘bandage’ off and take out any dirt or crap that's in there.” Pen glares at him. That would hurt. She didn’t want it to hurt anymore. “If it gets infected, I can’t help you. You’ll die out here for sure,” explains the man. She hates that he has a point, though she isn’t quite too sure how it would become infected. She had covered it with a piece of her dress, wasn’t that enough? Apparently not. She still had a lot to learn. Her ears twitch.

What else did he know? He was strong, fast. But did he know things? She could sell things that he knew. She never had had any before, but she knew that medicine sold for a lot of money. Maybe if he knew how to make some… some medicine from the first people… The gears in her mind spin. But she needed to be alive to sell it, or else he’d take her cut. Her eyes narrow in suspicion at the giant who stares back idly.

Pulling herself to the side, there is a rock that is higher than the rest of them here. It was still beneath the hot water, but high enough that she could sit on it and look at her leg. Gently touching the soaked bandage, she begins to undo the knot. It comes apart easily and she unwinds the thing. It was stained deeply, not even the hot water here could remove this anymore. She flinches, it stings. Removing the last layer, she pulls the cloth off of her leg and looks at the front of her shin.

“Ahhhh!” says a troubled voice from next to her. Huh? She looks over to him. “Sorry, that’s pretty gnarly,” says the giant man. She scratches her face and looks down at the front of her foot, just above the ankle where the metal had sliced in to meet the bone. There was a deep, red cut along the front of her leg, a bit of white was visible beneath the thin layer of shredded skin. “I mean, I’m fine with blood and stuff. But that’s nasty.” He turns his head to the side to look away.

Huh?

She cocks her head. Bones? Looking back down, she stares at the spot where the water constantly washed away the little trickle of blood. It was crusted shut well enough to hold in place. But she was sure that if she ran a hand over the wet scabbing, that it would all slide off in an instant. She opted not to do that. Sure. There was a little white down there to see, in-between. But… Everyone saw bones? Didn’t they? She had seen a lot of bones. Bones that were visible in far wilder ways than this. Jagged, broken shards that stuck out of their small bodies. That never happened to her. She listened.

But maybe that was just a thing that happened to them. Maybe other people didn’t see bones? Hmm. Maybe medicine wasn’t his strong spot after all.

Wincing, she bends her toes; thankful that they still move, even if only painfully. The soles of her small feet are shredded, riddled with cuts and bruises and missing large patches of skin, basically all the way around both of them. She wiggles her other foot. It responds too. The cold hadn’t taken either of them. It could have. But she got lucky this time. Apart from that, there seemed to be nothing in the wound however and she rinses the bandage out beneath the wet, before gently putting the soaked thing over her leg again. It was better than leaving it uncovered, right? She looks unsure, but Tango is still looking away, a hand before his face. What an odd sight. Could bots get squeamish? Did they have stomachs?

Whatever. She yawns. The air is cold, but the water is so hot that her body feels like it is glowing. The jacket feels disgusting now though and she takes it off and swings it to the side. It flops against Tango’s arm and he looks back at the girl, who is now floating on her back, arms and legs spread, as she stares at the dark ceiling above them, one of her hands clutching the wall to her side. He follows her gaze, but there’s nothing up there to see, she was just staring. He picks up the jacket and looks at it.

“Huh, will you look at that. This stuff was terrible for the environment, you know? I guess that wasn’t really an issue in the end. Sturdy as all hell though. Guess that’s why it’s still here. Still. A jacket is better than nothing. Some pants would have been good though.”

Pen’s eyes shoot open wide and she dives down beneath the water. She just realized. Did he see? She reaches behind herself, touching the tail that is still tucked in upwards against her back. He didn’t. He couldn’t have. She shoots up out of the water, grabbing fistfuls of it, only for it to escape between her fingers and throws what little she can manage towards the bot.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING WATCHING ME?!” she yells. Tango instinctively raises his arm and blocks the water that she is splashing out from hitting his face.

“Ah, sorry. I guess this counts as a bath, doesn’t it?” The bot turns around again and now lowers himself down, as if sitting on the edge of the pool with his back towards her. She splashes another fistful of water at him and watches as it trickles down his large metal shoulders. “Awkward,” says the man.

“Shut up!” Pen dives beneath the water again, disappearing from this world for as long as she can hope to do. It was perfect beneath the water. She wishes she could stay here forever. But it can’t last much longer. Her head was beginning to feel a little light. Light. Light? Light is yellow. Yellow? Her eyes shoot open wide again beneath the wet. YELLOW!

She launches herself upward a second time and grabs the stones next to her, reaching for the little yellow box that was in sachet, which is now drifting just next to her. “Hey!” she shouts. “What’s this?”

“What’s wh-?” asks the man, beginning to turn his head around again.

“DON’T LOOK!” yells Pen.

“Oh, uh, right,” he scratches his face with a finger. “Uh, that’s probably some electrolyte powder or something dehydrated carb-gel or something.”

“What?”

“It’s a drink. Just put in some water, like before.”

A drink? Her eyes are wide and unblinking. Like water? She is surrounded by water, why did she need to put water into a drink? She doesn’t understand, but opens the package and does as he instructed. There is a yellow powder inside, that was pale and coarse. She sniffs it, it smells sweet. Taking a cupped hand of water, she mixes it in and shakes it gently and then sniffs it again, before taking a sip.

“PLACH!” she shouts, her face scrunched tightly together in horrified disgust, her eyes barely open, as her facial muscles react to the violently tangy, sourness, as she spits it back out. Tango turns around to look at the noise.

“Oh, looks like you got the lemonade. Lucky, everyone always wanted that o-“

She hurls the yellow thing at him and it smashes square in his face. “STOP LOOKING!” she yells, frustrated.

The juice box slides down the visor of his eyes and plops to the stones next to him.

“Rude,” says the man. “But fair, I guess. Sorry. I keep forgetting. Privacy is weird for me like this.” He turns back around. Pen had enough, she wanted to get out. Pulling herself towards him, she grabs the hatch.

“I’m getting in.”

“Uh, not like that you’re not,” says the man, waving the back of his hand at her. Though not turning around this time.

“Huh?” she asks, somewhat confused.

“You’re soaked, you’re either gonna electrocute me or yourself if you get inside and touch any of the wires.”

“Electrahque? What’s that?”

“You need to dry off before you come in,” explains the man plainly.

“Huh?” Pen looks around the empty cave. “With what?”

“Good question,” responds the giant. “A little water is fine, it’s not like I’m not full of old blood anyways now. But too much might short-circuit something important,” explains Tango, placing her jacket on his shoulder to dry off.

“Short-circus?” she asks, still not understanding. Was he abandoning her here? Was he planning on selling her to a circus?! She steps back.

“Short- ah, it’s bad if I get too wet inside, okay? A little is fine, but if you’re dripping wet, then it’s dangerous.”

Pen understands his explanation on a surface level and believes it, though she still doesn’t get exactly how or why it is dangerous. But this would be an odd thing to lie about, wouldn’t it be? Her eyes narrow and her ears twitch. She looks at the silver foil in her hand that she took with her, trying to come up with an idea.

“Maybe you can just open the hatch and sit outside, the warmth from the rad-frag should dry you off fast enough,” suggests Tango. That sounded reasonable enough. But it bothered her that he said it. It was another idea of his. What about her ideas? Her ear twitches as she comes up with a plan.

She climbs up out of the water and quickly grabs the hatch to pull it back open. A wave of heat rushes against her, different from that of the steamy heat of the water. This was a dry, sterile heat, that also felt oddly nice, as it rushes past her meager body, only to be enveloped and swallowed by the arctic chill that permeates all around them.

The little bauble turns to face her, as she is crawling inside.

“Ah, no! Stop! Don’t come in!” yells Tango at Pen, who is doing exactly that. Pen reaches upwards and wraps the silver foil around the eye. It crumples, as she presses it down firmly against the glass bauble, but it sticks there on its own, blocking his sight of her. “Hey!” protests Tango, now turning his head around, but not moving for fear of crushing the girl behind him.

“STOP LOOKING!” yells Pen, one final time, as the soggy dress hits him in the face and slides downward, to fall onto his other shoulder. With an up-nosed ‘hmpf’ she shakes as much of the water out of her wet hair and tail as she can before closing the hatch behind herself. Tango turns his head back forward to look at the clothes hanging off of his body, as if he were a laundry line and then looks downward, his visor looking at the sealed compartment of his own chest, where she was nesting herself inside of.

“Man. It’s a good thing the psyche-eval team isn't around anymore. They’d have a field day with this.”

Pen has no idea what he is talking about. She sits there inside of the warm cabin and lets the radiating heat dry her aching body, as she leans back against the seat, her eyes fall heavy almost immediately, now that she is warm, fed and sheltered for the first time in a long time.

Darkness comes to her within seconds, as she mumbles a last thing to the man; her fading words asking him to leave the lights on.