Lilijoy ignored the conversation going on over her head and continued to take an index of her injuries. The swelling in her mouth and jaw was a bit better, but she wouldn’t be speaking or eating any time soon. Drinking might be possible, if she could somehow get the water over her face. Once, when one of the Bros shattered his face on another’s fist, she had seen Grabby bring water in his mouth and give it to the injured Bro, dribbling it down into his mouth.

Lilijoy became aware of a vast thirst in her body and began to think of a way to communicate this possibility to the two voices. Mo and Andy looked over as the little Gob began to pantomime, moving his clenched fist toward his mouth and back several times. The two men exchanged looks. Mo began shaking his head, while Anda started to speak, but soon both men were overcome with laughter, as the incongruous suggestive gesture added the final surreal twist to the roller coaster of their emotions over the last few minutes.

“Sheeit,” Mo said, shaking his head again and chuckling. “I needed that. This day is so fucked I can’t even believe it. I’ll almost feel bad about killing it.”

Anda looked at Mo skeptically.

“You like to talk tough,” he said, “but we both know you don’t have it in you. Besides, odds are, that wouldn’t help the situation, just give you heartburn later. This little person stumbled over some top of the line med bugs or something similar. You need the right codes and tools to get those out. We need a specialist.”

“Ah shit,” Mo said. “That guy? He’ll probably adopt the fucker or something.”

“Well my friend, unless you know any other engineers with a hobby in legacy bugs, we are out of luck. If Marcus can’t help, we might as well just turn her over to the Corp and wash our hands of it.”

Desperate thirst momentarily forgotten. Lilijoy listened to the voices as they discussed her fate. When they had laughed at her request for a drink, she accepted that they would likely kill her.

She wondered why they needed so many words to get to it.

Their deep, muffled voices twisted and stretched the few words she recognized. She was used to the scavenger way of speaking, clean and quick; fewer words was always better.

She wished her eyes worked. Sometimes she would catch a partial outline of a figure, so she knew they were people shaped, and big, at least as big as Mooster and Grabby. A wave of thirst and dizziness swept over her, and she felt her body lying down as a few distant words drifted by.

“We got a tarp or something?”

***

A shaking, buzzing wave of vibration crested and receded, crested and receded. The pulsation thrummed through Lilijoy’s bones over and over, slamming her eardrums at each peak. Her skull bounced up and down on the hard surface under her. She opened her eyes to the familiar white scratches, backlit by dim red light.

If she had more teeth, she was sure they would be chattering together with each mighty surge.

The air carried an unfamiliar metallic scent, with just a hint of the Pile’s familiar reek. With her good arm, she felt around for any clues to where she was, trying to breathe slowly to stave off the panic that had been her faithful companion recently. Her tongue was thick and swollen, and as she breathed, she felt fluid crackling in her lungs. Her jaw was still very stiff, but she could open her mouth a bit.

She still couldn’t feel the injured arm at all, and for a moment wondered if it had fallen off altogether. Reaching over with her good arm, she verified its presence. As she sat in the dark, amid the intense sound and vibration, she felt an odd sense of well being come over her, a peaceful and secure feeling of safety and belonging.

Taking her new mental fortitude in stride, she struggled upright, realizing as she did that her feet were still very much a part of her, and that they were none too happy with the multitude of cuts and punctures sustained during her adventure in the Piles. She waddled forward, rolling her feet on their sides to avoid pain, and after several strides found a wall with her outstretched hand. The red light was very dim in the direction she was facing, so she began to make her way, following the wall to the area where the light was stronger.

She was pretty sure she was in some kind of room, perhaps ten strides to a side. The light source was above her head on the third wall she reached, and below it was a large, slightly inset rectangle with some kind of recessed handle at about eye level. The process of moving her body around the room exhausted the little energy she had, and she sunk down to sit against the wall.

Without warning the wall behind her slid away, and she sprawled onto her back, head smacking the floor as she tried to catch herself with a non-functional arm. The ambient light was suddenly much brighter, and she heard a voice between the crests of the sound.

“…thrum.not dead yet..thrum..are we going..thrum..with you?”

***

Before Lilijoy could react, not that she could have done anything more than twitch and drool, she was wrapped in a soft cloth and scooped up by two strong arms. She was moved at a quick pace and in less than a minute, placed on a soft surface several feet off the ground, her body still wrapped in cloth.

The sound and vibrations receded to a tiny fraction of their previous power, and Lilijoy felt as if an oppressive weight had lifted. The relative silence felt so good, a single tear of relief trickled down her cheek. The lighting stayed the same, a bright blue tinted light that hurt her eyes even through the scratches.

“Well my little friend, it looks like you’ve had quite the adventure!” said a creaking, nasal voice. “On top of that, I think you ruined my shirt! Well never mind that; I bet that’s one more shirt than you’ve had in your life. We’re going to need to find you something to wear. I’d order something through the system, but...hmm...”

The voice paused for a moment, and Lilijoy opened her mouth to try to speak, but was only able to emit a dry rasping noise.

“Those bastards didn’t even give you water, am I right?”

Before she knew it, a thin trickle of water was running between her swollen lips. She tried to swallow, but most of the water escaped her mouth. Nonetheless, just a bit went down her parched throat. She gave a moan of relief.

“Just a bit at a time now. You could probably use an IV, but I don’t want to bring medical into this just yet. Those morons said you had a medical bug in you, but if you have a medical bug then I belong in the seventh circle of the sword, and that’s a fact!”

Lilijoy, at this point well accustomed to these voices saying things that made no sense, simply concentrated on getting a few more drops of water into herself.

“Well, there’s nothing else to do about it before you get hydrated... I know! Let’s get some basics out of the way. My name is Marcus. Can you understand what I am saying?”

Lilijoy shook his head, causing Marcus to snort. “Silly girl, how could you know to answer the question if you can’t understand it?”

Lilijoy forced air through swollen throat to gasp “What...is...girl?”