Despite the warmth of the day, Piper sat wrapped in a knitted shawl. Her old body could barely keep up these days.

  Her son-in-law painstakingly hand pollinated the blossoms of the orange trees that surrounded her. The scent of the blossoms had always been one of her fondest pleasures in life.

  Elsewhere in the garden, a group of children— mostly her own grandchildren, or maybe they were great-grandchildren, Piper was never sure these days, listened intensely to a young woman explain how to grow and care for the plants. Seed packets and little pots of seedlings scattered about them. She didn’t recognize the woman… a teacher from the school maybe, or some distant family member keeping watch on the little ones while Miguel worked with the trees. Sometimes she mistook a grandchild for a child. Forgetting how old they should be— how old she was.

  Piper found it harder these days to keep track of people in the community. When was the last time they’d taken in outsiders? Would anybody bother to tell her if they had? When had she become a thing that needed to be cared for, rather than the one doing the caring?

  A vague itching sensation at the base of her neck prickled. She rubbed at the spot. The false skin there felt odd and rough these days. Once it had blended in seamlessly, hiding the port of the implant she had received when stationed at Rollins, young and full of fire back then. Ready to fight, but not understanding what that really meant yet.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  For years, she barely thought of thing, lately though, it itched and tingled. It couldn’t be the implant itself. It died a long time ago. She couldn’t risk having a live implant after all that happened at Rollins. She should have someone look at the dermal patch, make sure there wasn’t an infection or some sort of rash.

  She winced at a sharper pain spread along the base of her skull.

  “Gram? You ok?”

  Her eldest grandson, a man now. He looked so much like his father. She smiled remembering the past. More pain, electric sparking off her nerves. That was not the patch…

  “What did you say?” Alex asked, worry creasing his brow. He ran to her side.

  Did she say something? The back of her neck still tingled, and a headache spread out from there. “It’s not the patch.”

  “What patch? What are you talking about?”

  He wouldn’t know about the implant, would he? She didn’t talk about the old days. Was there anyone left who knew besides her? All the old secrets zoomed about her brain. Things she hadn’t thought of in years, things best forgotten. She didn’t let them out, not even now.

  No, it can’t be… It couldn’t be the implant. It was dead, ruined.

  Alex looked about wildly. Was he yelling something?

  Piper could hear nothing but the static in her ears. Her last thought drifted away with her consciousness.

  ~~~

  Somewhere in the darkness she heard her name in a voice strange and silky.

  “Hello Piper, I’d like to have a word with you…”