9: A New Hope Ch. 11

It took them both up until early afternoon to get to the area close to ruins of the factory. Their trek would've taken only little shorter if the bridge that used to be at the chasm hadn't been destroyed. 9 stood in front of the gramophone that laid untouched along with the box of records next to it. He remembered the last great moment he had with everyone after they destroyed the Factory; 3 and 4 riding on the crank and spinning on the record together, 6 making him and 7 laugh by talking into the gramophone, and 5...

His smile disappeared when he suddenly remembered 5 dying in front of him and the others. The fear and horror he imagined on his best friend's face before his soul was claimed, he couldn't stop imaging. Even after his friend was freed from the Talisman after he destroyed the Fabrication Machine, he still couldn't forgive himself for letting 5 die like that.

"9!"

He heard 7 calling to him from close by. He came over to where she was, and he stood over the lifeless body of 5. The deceased medic he loved as an older brother laid wide-eyed on the ground with a hole burnt through his eye patch where his missing eye would have been. When the Fabrication Machine was trying to get to everyone else and followed them through the oil fields near the bridge, it must have also unknowingly avoided crushing 5 and miraculously kept his body in one piece.

9 didn't even care. He just knelt down to his fallen friend and picked him up in his arms, and he held him close.

"5, I'm so sorry." he cried, trying to hide his sorrow in front of 7.

But she knew how 9 was feeling. Like him, she loved 5 like an older brother, despite him being a timid and shy medic and engineer and her being a fierce and independent warrior. She still remembered the day 5 lost his eye during humanity's war against the Machines and she and 2 saved him from the slaughter.

She put her hand on 9's shoulder and said to him softly, "He'll be back home soon 9."

"I know." 9 nodded sadly. But 7 knew more of this talking was going to make him feel worse, so she stopped talking for a bit while they looked around for something they could use to bring 5 back to the Library. 7 spotted a lone piece of shattered wood and some thin pieces of rope. Thinking of an idea, she went over to the objects and grabbed them along with a stray nail. Then she started pounding the nail into the rope on the wood, using a rock as big as her hand as a hammer to nail it in.

Before 9 could ask her what she was doing, 7 said to him as if she was reading his mind, "I remember the times I scouted the battlefield during the war. When the humans got shot or badly injured, others would come over to get them with these things and use them to pull them to safety so they could recover." She had 9 help her get 5 onto the wood and he crossed 5's arms over his chest. He looked peaceful the way he rested now.

Before they left, 9 spotted something next to the gramophone. He came over and it was 5's bag of weapons. It looked a little worn out now since the last time he saw 5 wearing it, but everything was still in there except for his trusted crossbow. He thought, When 5 comes home, I think I'll make him a new one. A gift from a friend.

Picking up the backpack, he put the strap over his shoulder and took it with him. He heard 7 say to him, "It looks good on you." He looked at 7 and she laughed, "In fact, you and 5 would look like twins if he had both of his eyes." 9 laughed, imagining him and 5 being twins, with the same buttons or zipper and the both of them having two eyes each. He said to her, adjusting the strap on the backpack, "Let's get going before it get's dark. If we take the old battlefield, it would save us half a day." He went over to 7 and 5's body, and he took the ropes in his hands and was about to drag him on the wood, but he stopped for a second and looked at the ruins of the Factory.

"What's wrong 9?" 7 asked him. 9 answered, "We can't go back home yet. There's still more I need to do." He looked back at the Factory ruins, and 7 knew what he was talking about.

8.

She shook her head in disbelief, "But, 9. I don't think he made it in the explosion. It won't work." 9 said to her, "I know it sounds crazy. But I have to try and find him. There may be hope he's still in one piece." He came over to her and took her hands, then he looked into her eyes and said to her, "Trust me."

He was about to rush down the hill towards the factory, but he stopped and went back to take 5 with him, and he took 7's hand too. Before 7 could ask him what he was doing, he said to her, "I need you with me. I can't do it alone." 7 began to smile. She knew he wasn't going to do this without her. They went down the hill together, but they were going down slowly to prevent 5 from sliding off the makeshift gurney. They reached the ruins a few minutes later.

Being back there made 9 feel a bit scared and sad. That place brought back horrible memories, from him awakening the Fabrication Machine and getting 2 killed to watching 8 die after being handed to the Machine by the Seamstress and almost 7 until he saved her in time. He pushed those terrible memories aside and he and 7 started searching the rubble for 8's body. They couldn't find a single trace of fabric or a part of the body anywhere, but they still kept looking around the large landscape of shattered rubble.

Several hours later, they were about to give up their search. 9 sat down on a slab of concrete and said to 7, "Let's make camp for now. We'll continue in the morning."

"But 9, we've looked everywhere and there's still no sign of 8." 7 said. "What if he really is gone?" 9 began to think that what if it was true; 8's body had been destroyed in the explosion and he would never live again.

Taking a deep breath, he said to 7, "We'll rest for the night here, and we'll go back home tomorrow." With that, he and 7 made a small shelter for the both of them, and they kept 5 by their side. They gathered some small bits of shattered wood from the ruins and started a fire to stay warm.

As the hours passed, the fire began to die down, and the sun began to set as the stars illuminated the night sky. 7 had just fallen asleep next to 9, who was still wide awake and watching the sky. He couldn't stop thinking about 5 or 8. While the one-eyed medic was going to have his life restored and able to walk on the earth again, 8 will still remain lonely in the Heavens without being able to protect everyone. He never liked the bodyguard that much since they met, as he had been a bully to him from the start by pushing him around and intimidating him. He even felt angry when 7 told him how 8 once beat her in 3 and 4's place under 1's orders. He had hoped that if he could bring him back, he could turn over a new leaf and start fresh with everyone he picked on, but he knew it would never happen now.

He began to fall asleep next to 7 until he spotted something familiar. He got back up for a second and saw the moth resting on a slab of concrete far away from him and 7. He watched it flutter towards another one and another, as if it was trying to tempt him to follow it. Curiously, he began to wonder where it was wanting to lead him this time. He grabbed his light bulb staff and followed the moth.

He scaled over piles of rubble until he found the moth on the other side of one of the piles. 9 continued to follow it over, but he lost his footing and fell with a yell down the pile. He landed on the solid ground with a grunt. He rubbed his head while getting back up on his feet again and grabbed his lightbulb staff, which coincidentally landed next to him, and used it to support himself back up. He looked around and wondered where he was, and he saw himself in one of the spots he and 7 were looking earlier.

He found the moth resting on some rubble that was sticking out from one of the piles. He said to himself, "How come 7 and I didn't even notice that earlier?" He pushed his thoughts aside and went over to where the moth was and tugged at the rubble with a grunt. After some pulling, the rubble didn't even budge. But he wasn't about to give up. If he couldn't pull it out, he was going to have to pry it off. Using the end of his lightbulb staff, he pried at the rubble with all his might. He worried he could break his mechanical bones from inside from how much he was straining.

Finally, the rubble broke free and he fell to the ground. He looked up and found rubble sliding down the pile and was about to crush him! He quickly got back on his feet and ran to the side just as the rubble came tumbling down towards him. He breathed a sigh of relief, but his relief was cut short when something heavy landed on him and trapped him underneath. Screaming in horror, he frantically scratched at the ground as he tried to get out from underneath and moved his legs to help him. He crawled away from the thing that landed on him, and he would have screamed louder if he was scared at what he found.

He smiled in relief and excitement that the thing that landed on him was really the body of another deceased Stitchpunk; it was 8!

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7 was sleeping with content until she heard the sound of a rockslide from close by, followed by a scream of horror. Recognizing the voice, she gasped, "9!" She grabbed her skullmet and spear and followed the screaming to its source.

"9? 9!" she called for her lover. She worried that a Machine that survived the explosion the day they destroyed the Factory had gotten him. Her worries disappeared when she saw 9 laughing happily in relief. He laughed, "7! I found him! He was buried under all this rubble! And he's still in great shape!"

Looking down, she saw the massive body of 1's deceased bodyguard laying on the rubble. He looked dusty and filthy from the dirt, but 9 was right; he was still in one piece and not one single part of him was missing! She came down to 9 and smiled, "How did you find him? And how did you know he was just buried?"

"I don't know, to be honest." 9 replied. "I don't even know how he survived the explosion. Maybe when those things were chasing us, they must have unknowingly dragged him into a gap before the explosion, and the force must have buried him and protected him from the flames." They kept asking about how one Stitchpunk larger than the others survived an enormous explosion as they both helped each other bring 8 up the slope. But he was too heavy for them to bring him up.

They went the other way around the piles and dragged him with them from his underarms. It took nearly a half hour, but they made it back to their camp with 8. While 9 suggested they'd get some sleep until morning, but 7 suggested that they should go back home right now and they placed him on top of the gurney. They took 5 off the gurney and place 5 on it instead. Then they began to wonder how they would carry 5 back now.

9 volunteered, "Don't worry about 5, 7. I can carry him back to the Library."

"Are you sure about that 9?" 7 asked. She wasn't sure if he could carry him all the way back with no problem. 9 nodded, but he was concerned about 7 having to pull 8 back. He asked her, "What about you?"

7 assured him, "I've pulled heavier in my times in the Emptiness. I think I can carry him back with no problem." They waited until the flames died out before they set back on foot to the Library with the two deceased Stitchpunks in tow. They left the ruins through the tunnel that 9 went through a few times to get to the Library, the first time with 5 to save 2 and the last time when he brought the rest of the Stitchpunks with him to save 7 and 8 before they destroyed the Factory.

He tried his best to stop remembering those past moments of his short life as they continued walking. 9 used his lightbulb staff to light the way through the cave while he carried 5 on his back and 7 pulled 8 with her on the gurney. It took a little while, but they made it out of the tunnel and they made their way across the outskirts of the Emptiness to the Library.