No Longer (Short Story)

Hold up! This is a sequel story! I recommend reading “Cold Steel”, the original story, first. If you’ve already read it, enjoy this sequel!

Carn ducked beneath a hail of bullets behind a stone barricade. He grinned at Hardsteel beside him, blood oozing from his shoulder and staining his tattered white shirt. The cyborg was trying to fit the left side of his face back onto his head but couldn’t get the piston to compress right. Hardsteel gave up, leaving his eye and half of his mouth to dangle.

Even without it, Carn recognized Hardsteel’s attempt at a smile. Carn winced at more gunshots, scooted away from the edge of their wooden barricade, and reached for his ammo bag. “Damn,” he said. “I’m all out.”

Hardsteel’s servos hissed to life, and a little dust puffed from the pistons holding up his arms as he pointed at Carn’s mouth. “Keep that mouth clean. You are not a thief anymore.”

Carn shook his head, but Hardsteel was right. He had to set an example. Even if the woman he should be setting an example for was almost five years older than him. She squatted a few feet back, nursing a bruised cheek, scrambling to unjam her gun.

Carn waved at her to join them, but when she rose to come over, the gunfire started up again. Carn gritted his teeth, nodded at Hardsteel, and they leapt from their barrier just as the bullets stopped. Carn threw his empty gun at the first man he saw—an Enforcer, like Hardsteel, who had been approaching their location from the large building ahead of them—and the weapon pinged off the cyborg’s brass cranium. He turned in a robotic motion toward Carn and pointed his pistol before Hardsteel pumped six bullets into the Enforcer’s central computer.

The Enforcer hitched back then collapsed. “You have failed to follow the second initiative,” said Hardsteel. “May they salvage your hard drive.”

Carn took the opportunity to join the woman, Reya, in the cover of a stone slab. “Here,” he said, grabbing for the gun. “Let me have a go. I’ve repaired Hardsteel over a hundred times.” Maybe more, in the nearly ten years since Hardsteel had saved him and the two of them started on the run.

Reya uncomfortably handed it over, then watched as Carn quickly took the Enforcer-issue pistol apart and cleaned the bits that had been jamming. “Is this really worth it, Carn? Returning all this money? We could run and make a life for ourselves in another city. They say the outer rim offers a relaxed law and plenty of criminals to chase.”

Carn shook his head, shoving a clearing rod down the barrel. “Hardsteel said we’d return it to the Enforcers, so that’s what we’ll do. They’ll give it back to the right people, and we’ll have done the right thing.”

Reya shirked away as Hardsteel and an Enforcer traded blasts. Carn didn’t look up; he couldn’t bear to see another piece of Hardsteel’s armor pry off in the gunfire. They’d find a way to buy more parts. They’d have to. “What’s the ‘right thing’ worth if we die?” Reya spat. “Why do you care?”

Carn looked straight into Reya’s eyes. He could see the black tattoo peeking out from her back, two tips of the swords arching over her shoulders and onto her collarbone. “Reya. You are not a thief anymore. You’re one of us now, which means following the second initiative. That means we do the right thing, no matter what it means for us. You stole from needy people. We can survive. We will survive.” He pressed the gun handle-first into her palm and leaned in. “Even if we die, at least we die right.”

Reya’s face contorted in confusion, but Carn didn’t have time for her. He sprinted from cover, feet throwing up dust, and screamed. One of the Enforcers Hardsteel was fighting saw Carn and pointed, then fired. Carn cried out as he tumbled, bullet lodging deep into his thigh. It didn’t feel like it hit a bone.

He tried to crawl up and saw Hardsteel engaged in a hand-to-hand brawl with a second Enforcer. Hardsteel’s head swiveled to Carn, concern in his mechanical eyes. The first Enforcer, the one who shot Carn, stomped closer. When Hardsteel tried to pull away from his tussle, the brawler pinned him. Carn watched the approaching Enforcer and spat out a dry laugh.

“It’s easy to shoot a still target, isn’t it?” He pulled the sleeve of his shirt down, revealing the worn, stretched tattoo on his wrist. “Well, shoot me then! Once a thief, always a thief, isn’t that right?”

The Enforcer leveled his pistol at Carn’s head.

“No.” Bam! The Enforcer took a staggering step back, looked down, then was hit with a second volley from Reya’s newly repaired pistol. She lifted Carn by his good arm and pulled him behind cover. Then she plucked the bag of money from her hip and tossed it at the collapsing Enforcer.

“People can change. And I think it’s time I do a little right for once.” Reya glared at the Enforcer pinning Hardsteel, then squeezed off two rounds with perfect aim into the police cyborg’s neck, then shoulder. His pistons failed and he released a still functioning Hardsteel.

Hardsteel recovered and joined them. “We will go.” he said, and scooped Carn up from the ground.

“Hell yeah we will,” said Reya, throwing one last look over her shoulder at the Enforcers.

Still bleeding, Carn craned his neck from Hardsteel’s arms and grinned wide. “Keep that mouth clean.”

I’ve really enjoyed playing with the themes of justice and change with these two, and maybe in the future I’ll do a third one. Thanks for reading!