A Whole Lot of Nothing! 191
It’s been a very confusing day for Ratchet Haul. A day full of chaos and worry, being dragged through the desert by a force unknown- at least, for most of the experience, it was a force unknown. Ratchet, now, had a vague idea who was in control of the massive machine known by the First Wave as a Sandcrawler. The new problem was getting the two little girls, in the thick of a pvp battle, to try and communicate with said force- and the motley crew of passengers packed within.
Harper was still sound asleep, recovering from her injuries- or rather, being healed from her injuries; She’d be asleep for some time. Hugo, Hamlin, Mr. and Mrs. Lauren, were all stationed about the bridge- each completely powerless to control the runaway vehicle they were on.
The two young girls, Grace and Dicey, were far too busy fighting off the swarm of battle drones to communicate with them.
All Ratchet knew– there was some guy named Chance- and Dicey had an incredibly rich list of names for which to call him. A list she did not hesitate to use.
At least they were headed away from the swarm.
“So, I mean– what’s going on?” Mrs. Lauren asked, clearly confused.
Ratchet threw his hands up, and shook his head. The girls had retreated from him completely. They were currently hiding within Margo’s belly, lid down, mainly to dampen Ratchet’s questioning of what was going on.
Apparently, he was distracting them.
“I don’t know… some kid is driving us around the desert…” Ratchet guessed from what he’d extrapolated from the recent events.
“A kid?” Wilford asked.
“Just, someone in the game they are playing,” Hugo made it more palatable, then explained some more, “They have control of the battle drones … other gamers, hundreds of gamers piloting those things. This one,” Hugo gestured to the Battle drone taking up so much space in the room, “Has control of this sandcawler, somehow.”
“This is crazy,” Mrs. Lauren looked kind of pale, “does that mean children attacked Grady? How is that even possible?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Ratchet answered as he pressed his ear against Margo in the hopes of gaining more information.
“This has to be some kind of joke,” Wilford announced.
“It’s not,” Margo stated confidently. “This Chance guy was talking to them— all those crazy turns were just to razz Dicey and Grace while they were trying to get him to understand. I was there… He thought it was just a game.”
“Well this is just wonderful,” Mrs. Lauren was exasperated.
Ratchet felt like he knew what she meant.
“Is there a way we can join the game?” Hamlin asserted.
Hamlin was there, the strange little bot active, yet the Brain Stealer had fallen silent some time ago. It creepily just hovered in the corner, seemingly completely dormant.
“I don’t know,” Hugo answered the bot, “Maybe… the girls seem to have a connection to the hub- despite everything else being out of our control.”
Ratchet took notice as one of Margo’s cameras was suddenly threaded back through the socket.
“Whoa!” Margo reacted, “You got to start warning me before you do that.”
“What happened now?” Mrs. Lauren asked, more confused.
“Grace?” Ratchet asked into the new hole, “What’s going on?”
“Tell them we got it, don’t worry!”Dicey could be heard within.
“She said…” Margo began to relay the message.
“I heard her,” Ratchet stopped the junkbot from repeating.
“How are we not just taking the controls from the girls?” Wilford asked sternly.
“I wasn’t sure how to play it,” Ratchet confessed, “They started fighting– didn’t seem like a good time to learn.”
“There has to be something more we can do?” Mrs. Lauren pressed.
“The guy knows now… apparently” Ratchet shrugged, then listed, “We’re headed away- we’re not being thrown around the cockpit…”
“We got clear,” Grace suddenly called from within.
“Yeah, we’re clear!” Dicey affirmed.
“They say…” Margo began.
“I can hear them, Margo,” Ratchet stopped her again.
Suddenly there were a couple of loud clangs from above.
“What’s that now?” Mrs. Lauren asked, visibly startled.
“It’s us!” Grace said as she suddenly popped up from within the junkbot- flipping Margo’s lid-like head backward like a garbage can (Margo let out another ‘whoa’), “We landed our drones on the roof!”
“We said we got away!”Dicey added as though it explained it all away.
“Here, you can talk to Chance now,” Grace said as she handed Ratchet the small view-screen she’d been using to control the battle drone.
“Don’t expect much from that dolt,” Dicey said as she pulled the visor from her head and dropped it on the floor, before climbing out of the junkbot.
Grace followed behind. Everyone largely ignored Margo’s protests as they climbed on her like a jungle-gym.
Ratchet, finally, felt like he had some control over the situation! That is, before the Sandcrawler came to a grinding halt, and the handheld screen, Grace had just handed him, suddenly went black. A small message in white letters read, ‘no connection’ across the screen. Ratchet could’ve thrown the view-screen against the wall.
Dicey suddenly announced, “Harper’s awake!”
Ratchet spun about to witness Harper stir; she should not be awake yet.
“Oop- wait, maybe not.” Dicey amended.
Ratchet watched as Harper fell back to sleep.
Discussion ¬