When a fiercely independent scavver boy’s walker breaks down deep in a dangerous and ruined city, he’s forced to team up with a glitchy, overprotective nanny-bot — and must decide whether survival is worth the cost of sacrificing the only companion who truly cares for him. I swiped dust off the windshield and brought the light close to the glass—and my stomach nearly did a hard reboot. The driver was still inside. Look, when you do serious scavving, you run into corpses now and then. Most are just skeletons or shriveled-up mummies that don’t even look real anymore. But this guy…at first glance he looked very well preserved. I really didn’t want to do what I had to do next. But I also really didn’t want to spend the night in the Tumbledown. Or hike all the way back to Gatehold and pay for a tow. I jammed my rat-key in the door lock and ratcheted until I heard the bolt disengage. Then I braced myself, held my breath against the potential dead-flesh smell, and yanked the door open. The thing inside flew at me.Forthcoming in Lightspeed
Notes, fragments, and strange signals from the edge of story.
Ladd's Robot Repair (Forthcoming).