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She is alone in the dark. The silence is infuriating.
Root turns her head slighted to the left side. She could hear the shooting and shouts coming from one of the rooms now, trying her best to not stumble her feet on any of the many bodies that are laying there. She did not need the Machine’s help to know which direction to go; she could feel she was getting closer as the body count got higher. She remembered how many she herself left behind in that journey that was almost getting at its end.
When two doors appear on her path and a choice must be made, the Machine tries to avert her that there is no cameras in the next corridor to the right. Despite the AI's protests, she takes it. In moments like this, she actually miss her sight, she could actually ignore her God, she could walk with no guide. She could just walk away.
It had been six months of this, six months since she proved herself to the Machine, since she proved how far she would go for a lead, twenty-six weeks since the Machine stopped playing and draining her soul, one hundred eighty-two days since Root got blind.
Everything was silent now and a cloud of pain made its way through her body, she made sure to keep it out of her mind, it hurt but she could not slow down now. Pain would not help her there; nothing would help her but herself. She learned it the hard way.
The bullet on her left side from the encounter with one of the first guards made It hard to breath and run. All she could do was walk and pray to get there before the bleeding, which could not be stopped, decided it was better to stop her. She had made it all for this moment, this was it, and this was the end station.
Her left hand was above the wound, she could feel the hot wetness from the crimson fluid coming from the bullet hole. The right hand was too busy carrying the gun and tracing the wall to help her keep the balance, an asymmetric line of blood was being left behind in that wall.
At the end of the corridor, the walls got closer and a small slip of the hand on the blood stained wall made her fall. The ground was cold just like the world around her, she falls hard against it, the pain now spins its way to her head and her face rests against the cold surface. She forces her way up with both hands despite the blood making her left hand slither on the cold ground.
Whispers echo on her mind.
“Are. You. Fine?”
Root tries to laugh but just scowls. The pain gets worse. The strong taste of rust on her mouth. Sharp shards ache on her left side, she has no time to answer or pay attention to the Machine’s fast talk about blood loss and ways to turn on her back and exit the facility; she is too focused trying to listen her way into the darkness.
She coughs. Blood. Time is getting short.
Suddenly a last scream is heard and the shooting stops in the empty space ahead of her. Once again, it was hard to walk on her own in the middle of that labyrinth of walls and cables. She remembers now of bright days, the ones where she could find her way in the middle of servers with no stumbling or falling, without needing help of the Machine, without even needing it to walk in the wall of lights of server boxes, before she knew it. She wonders now if those lights were still on or if the explosions made those shut down as well.
As the Machine tells her to take another turn, her mind goes to the day she gambled with God, the day she gave her eyes to get the Machine's full attention on her cause, her crusade. That day was not the day she lost the ability to control herself; she lost it long before all of this. She lost it when it was someone else on the ground and all she could do was scream and hold an elevator cage. Sameen left her that day, the Machine left her that day, part of herself left her that day.
She remembered all of it. She had remembered the strong pressure coming out of her own hands into her eyes. The sound of screams coming both from her own throat and from the Machine's on her ear. She would try use it, sounds, against her God, her other ear. The thought of losing her hearing once again was strong on her plans, but the lack of hope made it clear that it was not like she was ever going to see Sameen again would she do it or not. Therefore, she did it. She took her own eyesight. She showed how far she would go. Root jumped the edge and proved herself.
She did fall after all, but didn't hit ground.
Now the Machine was focused on the game, as was she. And when the AI gave her the address of what would be Samaritan last hideout she came willingly.
Heavy footfalls echoed in the frozen, fragile silence, Root tightened the grip of the gun on her hand. She can feel eyes stared up at her and she stares back at the direction, unflinching.
Root was ready to take the shot on the shadows in front of her but The Machine is silent now. No direction to shot, she wonders why when a voice stops her.
“Root...” Sameen breathed on her way, a whisper. A pledge of help.
Root did not knew where it came from, but she knew the voice. She knew the owner of such rhythmic voice. She knew Sameen had no more time than she did and she hurried to find the source of the sound in the middle of the brume.
It was all too quiet. Root never liked the noise, she always appreciated the quiet, she learned how to survive on it, but now all she wanted was to hear Sameen's heartbeat until the whole world felt dark just like her mind at the thought of losing Sameen again.
When she finally made her way to the wall Shaw was resting against in the far corner of the cold room, she leveled herself with Sameen on the ground, the gun slipping off as she put both hands to reach out and finally touch Sameen after all that time.
She did not need her sight to feel the bruises and scars Shaw carried as reward from her path to escape that place and meet her once again.
Root could feel Sameen’s warm skin under her fingertips as her hand made its way to Shaw's neck. She could feel Sameen’s breathing getting heavier as the tide in a full moon. Full moon, just the way she remembered Sameen’s eyes. The eyes she would give everything to be able to lock with her own right now.
A lonely tear came down on her cheek clear as her mind when she felt Sameen’s face moving to accommodate a smile in response to her touch.
Sameen touches her. Her hands are cold and soft. It feels good to be touched, she missed it. She missed being touched more than she misses the light and colors.
“Root...” - Her voice is deep and now her breathing is weak as the wind, her breath just a brush against Root lips, - “You need to go. There will be more...” - She coughs too and Root wonders if she can also feel the hot rust taste on her mouth as well, - “...you're not supposed to be here.”
“Can't get myself away from you, sweetie.” - she softly says resting her forehead on Sameen's own.
Shaw did not protest when she stayed. Too much pain to talk Root down now, too much time apart to send her away. Her body was too torpid to feel the room temperature, but she knew it was cold, cold as Root face against her hands. The cold was good; it made her remember where she was. This was not the desert; Root was not a tricky of her mind, the woman holding her was not a mirage.
Minutes had passed and Root did not moved, she was starting to think neither of them would anymore. She could hear Sameen’s breathing getting slower and slower as the time was passing.
A thought struck her mind. She starts to laugh even as the tears fall and she veers dangerously near to make Sameen, now resting against her chest, to fall.
“Sameen. Sweetie?” Her voice is low almost a whisper, but she knows Shaw can hear when her body stiffens once again from the pain waves.
Shaw rises her head weakly and tries to answer with an even weaker humming on Root's direction.
“Just one last time.” Root sighs before she leans in and place her lips on Sameen’s soft skin.
Sameen does not move, she just reciprocates it softly, not going deeper just keeping it where Root start.
Just one last time.
Root’s mind was calm now, the thoughts have ended and the pain was starting to go away as her body got numb.
Silence stretched.
When Shaw’s warm body finally felt limp on her arms she wondered if all Sameen could see now was darkness just like herself.
She tightened her hold on Sameen.
Then right back to the start.
Root was alone. In the dark.