Part 6
He opened the door and I rolled inside to a narrow room with stairs leading up on one half of it.
"Their place is on the third floor," Daniel called out.
The stairs looked like something this chair absolutely couldn't traverse. Dan stood calmly next to me, waiting for me to go first. If he wasn't moving to help, then it was probably fine. Hopefully.
I pressed the button to put it into the uneven terrain mode, and told it forward.
Daniel whistled behind me as it started ascending, "Wow! That's some pretty neat thing you've got there. Never seen anything like it before."
"It's fairly simple," Dan stated as my chair slowly climbed.
"Simple?! Says the outsider man who talked all weird," Daniel's retort sounded petty and lifeless. I missed Dan's village way of speaking.
"I am not the same as the person who brought Liv to the Wall." Dan's voice was almost robotic in his response.
"You are still you!" I called out, afraid to turn my head in an attempt to look at them and unbalance this machine as it chugged along jerkily going up the stairs.
"Huh? What is she referring to?" Daniel asked.
"I'm part Wall technology now." Dan's voice was accompanied by the sound of movement.
What were they doing down there?
"Look at this arm of yours! Both arms! Are you all metal skeleton now?" Daniel's words gave me a hint. Dan must be showing off his metal arms.
"No, part Wall tech, part human. The Wall calls abominations like me cyborgs."
His words were glass shards on my conscience. How could he call himself an abomination? "You are not an abomination. You are alive and that's all that matters!" I called again as my chair reached a landing.
This would be the second floor, so one more flight of stairs. I looked down at them as I turned the chair to go up the next set of stairs. They were both staring at me, but then Daniel glanced away and back at Dan.
"She's right. Not many people get to survive what you did. Wall tech or not, we each do whatever we can to survive and move onto the next day." Daniel clapped Dan on the shoulder and then winced and shook out his hand. "Metal shoulders too."
Dan glanced at Daniel, then back at me, and my chair moving up the stair blocked my view of his face.
Dan jogged up the stairs, easily catching up with my chair.
"Were you that eager to join me? I'm not going anywhere fast." Did he look worried? No, I must have been mistaken.
"You were out of my view. What if the chair malfunctioned?" Dan fed my fears about this little chair climbing these old stairs.
Behind him, Daniel slowly thumped up the stairs. I focused on the footsteps instead of Dan's question.
The mood had changed, and no one said a word till we reached the landing at the top of the stairs.
"Only door in the hallway. Knock." Daniel said quietly from behind me. Knock, just like when visiting someone in the village.
I rolled forward to the plain brown door, and knocked.
"Hello?" A woman's tired voice called out.
"Hi Lauren, it's Daniel. I brought some people to meet you." Daniel called out.
VOUS LISEZ
Honored
Science-FictionSequel to Nanowrimo 2013 story Dishonor. When Liv learned she had Tuberculosis she was stunned, horrified, and shocked. She had found a life and honor in her new village. She had found a purpose. She was a weaver. She had the orphan Jade to look af...
