It was difficult to fully appreciate the terrible state the roads were in while on foot. In a vehicle, however, the lack of highway maintenance was all too noticeable. Pits and cracks made it slow going and the constant jostling accompanied by the stifling heat wore thin on Drew’s patience.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the journey was made all the more longer because Leanne needed to make a delivery in Orient, which was home to the biggest farm in the region. Thankfully, it wasn’t too far out of the way, and after backtracking for a few miles, they were finally heading west towards the Robco plant.

By the time they had reached the factory, the novelty of being in a truck had long since worn off. Drew had briefly considered telling Leanne that they could walk the rest of the way, but after heading inside the factory, reactivating the two Gutsies, and returning to the truck, he’d had the chance to cool off. Even if the roads were rough and it was hot in the truck, it was still far faster and easier than walking.

With the Gutsies in the back with Amy and Jack, they continued on down the highway towards the old border that had once separated the United States and Canada. Apart from an old decrepit sign and a border booth, there was nothing to differentiate the two sides.

It was another seventy-five minutes before they finally arrived at the old hospital which lay on the outskirts of the abandoned dead town known as Christina Lake. Most of the buildings were crumbling, not only due to hundreds of years of neglect but also due to damage caused by the shock wave blast from the nuke that had landed outside of town. The town itself was apparently already mostly abandoned thanks to the US’s annexation. As to why some small mostly empty town was the target of a nuke, he had absolutely no clue. He supposed it was either accidental, or the intended target was someplace else.

“We’re here,” Leanne said as she pulled to a stop. “Looks quiet.”

“For now,” Drew mused as he opened the truck door.

“Are all three of you headed inside?” Leanne asked.

Drew nodded. “Yeah. Will you be okay out here alone?”

“Sure. I have the gun in the back, remember?“

“If it looks like you’re in danger, leave,” Drew said as he climbed out.

“Don’t worry, if a hoard of ghouls, or those green deathclaws show up, then I’m outta here.”

“I don’t blame you,” Drew said before he made his way to the back of the truck where Amy and Jack were waiting for him. He pulled open the latch and swung open the tailgate.

Jack jumped out and looked up at the hospital. “Pretty big place.”

“Yeah, it is,” Drew agreed. “Though that just means more loot.”

“And more of those Mister Orderlies,” Amy muttered as she climbed out after Jack.

Drew peered into the back of the truck where the two Gutsies were sat waiting. “You two, it’s time to move out.”

“Understood, sir!” they both said in unison before their jets ignited and they hovered out of the back of the truck.

He pointed to the one on the left. “You are assigned to guarding this truck. Make sure you keep it and the driver safe. If the driver has to leave then allow it.”

“Understood, sir!” the Gutsy barked.

“You,” he said pointing to the other. “You’re with us.”

“Yes, sir!”

He looked at Amy and Jack. “Are you two ready?”

Amy clutched her shotgun in her hands. “Yep.”

Jack looked down at the 10mm pistol in his grip. “I think so.”

“Stay close, keep your ears open and you’ll be fine,” Drew said.

The four of them approached the front doors to the hospital with Drew taking the lead followed by Amy, Jack, and then finally the Gutsy at the rear.

“Be ready,” Drew said as he rested his hand on the door. “The moment this opens, an Orderly might rush right at us.”

“Got it,” Jack acknowledged.

“Watch your fire and make sure none of us are between you and the targets.”

“I get it,” Jack muttered. “No need to get on my case.”

Drew frowned. “I’m talking to everyone, not just you in particular.”

“Oh.”

Drew pushed the doors open and took a step back, his weapon raised at the ready. Then, he slowly stepped inside, keeping alert as he looked around the area for any sign of hostiles.

“Looks clear,” he told the others.

The three stepped inside as he made his way to the front desk. His plan was to check the computer terminal to see what information he could glean from it.

“Hostiles!” the Gutsy yelled out as it jetted across the room to the left.

Drew and the others raised their weapons to find an Orderly robot rushing into the room. The Gutsy made surprisingly short work of it, with a blast of its laser rifle and a swipe of its saw-blade, the Orderly crumbled in a heap on the ground.

“That was too easy,” the Gutsy grumbled. “But what can I expect from a Commie!”

Drew agreed. Not on the ‘Commie’ part, but at the ease that it went down. It was likely that it was already damaged from either a previous engagement or due to wear and tear. He hoped the rest would go down that easily, but he doubted it.

“Keep watch,” Drew said as he sat down at the desk terminal.

Logging on wasn’t an issue. The system was wide open, meaning that the security had already been bypassed. How long ago, he didn’t know but it was last accessed a few days ago. He didn’t have any knowledge of anyone else coming out this way other than Jarik, so it was likely either him or someone unknown.

It appeared whoever they were they had accessed the locations of medical equipment and supplies. He knew because the computer was still on that screen.

“Okay,” Drew said as he backed up to the main screen. “I’m gonna look for the Radiology Department. They should have some good parts, including the ones we need. It should also have some good stuff for your friends at the water plant, Jack.”

Jack looked over at him. “Parts for a water purifier in a radiology machine?”

“You’d be surprised at how you can adapt things for different purposes.”

“I guess. We do that a lot but it’s always better to have the right parts. Makes life easier.”

“Well if this hospital has its own water purification system, then we might be able to take it from there.”

Amy chimed in. “Shouldn’t a hospital have one of those?”

“Maybe,” Drew said. “Not guaranteed, though.” He stood up from the chair. “But it won’t hurt to take a look, I suppose.”

Amy adjusted her grip on her shotgun. “Unless there’s a load of Orderlies waiting for us.”

“As long as we take it slow and keep our eyes and ears open, we should be okay,” Drew said. “Unfortunately this terminal doesn’t appear to have a map so we’ll have to do some exploring.”

“Let’s hope we don’t get lost,” Jack said.

Drew held up his Pipboy arm. “This maps as we go, remember? So getting lost is unlikely.”

Amy gestured ahead. “Lead the way.”

Drew led the others out of the foyer and down a long hallway. He kept his eyes open, both on the doors and on his Pipboy for any sign of a way down to the basement.

“Hold on,” Drew said as he stepped over to a blue door and pushed it open.

On the far side, he found a utility closet that held various janitorial equipment. Unfortunately, it was also home to an Orderly, which noticed him almost immediately.

“Shit!”

Drew jumped back and fired point-blank at the robot which rushed him. It staggered but didn’t fall. Not until it got struck in the chassis with a blast of Amy’s shotgun, sending it flailing back into the closet. The Gutsy then rushed forward and finished it off with a blast of its laser pistol.

“Commie neutralized!” the Gutsy declared proudly.

Drew shut the door. “Clearly, that’s not the way to the basement.”

“Clearly,” Amy agreed. “Perhaps be more careful? It almost had you.”

“Nah,” Drew dismissed. “Close, but I had it under control.”

“Sure you did,” Amy derided playfully.

“Let’s just get going,” Drew said as he continued on down the hallway.

The others followed silently, their eyes and ears straining for any sign of movement. The hospital around them creaked and clicked, making Jack, in particular, more than a little jumpy.

After checking the map on his Pipboy, Drew made his way to another door.

“Careful,” Jack warned.

“This might be it,” Drew told the others.

“It might also have an Orderly saw blade on the other side waiting to lop your head off,” Amy said.

Drew reached for the handle and pushed it open before taking a step back, his weapon raised. When nothing rushed out, he stepped inside and peered down the narrow concrete steps that led downwards to a dark basement area.

“If there’s a purifier then it’ll be down here,” he told the others. “And with luck, there’ll also be a fusion core or two.”

“Let’s hope,” Jack agreed.

After turning on his Pipboy light, Drew began to descend down the steps into the darkness. Amy, Jack, and the Gutsy followed behind, Amy taking out a flashlight.

“Not ominous at all,” she muttered sarcastically.

Drew agreed. He didn’t like it at all. There were too many opportunities for them to get jumped by something they couldn’t see,

“Can anyone see a light switch?” he asked as he raised up his arm to get a better look at the nearby wall.

“No,” Jack said. “Can’t see shit.”

“Hold on,” Amy said as she walked over to something.

Drew heard a click, though nothing happened. At least not at first, anyway. There was a flash before the overhead strip lights began to flicker on. One of them burst with a flash and a shower of glass, but the rest all lit up, washing the basement in a warm yellow light.

“That’s a lot better,” Drew said, switching off his Pipboy light. “I think I can hear a hum up ahead. It could be an old generator.”

They continued forward, following some pipes that ran along the ceiling and through a door on the far side.

“Look,” Jack said as he ran over to a machine that appeared to be some kind of water filtration system. “This looks like it could be a purifier.”

“It’s definitely doing something to the water,” Drew agreed. “But whether it works on decontaminating the radiation is another matter.”

“I’ll take a look,” Jack said while Drew turned his attention to an old generator that lay on the other side of the room.

“We have a fusion core,” Drew said.

Amy stepped up next to him. “If you remove it, won’t it make everything dark?”

Drew shook his head. “There should still be enough juice in the system to last a few weeks at least. There might also be other generators ready to take up the slack.”

With a press of a button, he ejected the core and placed it in his backpack before he made his way back over to Jack.

“Figured it out, yet?”

“It has most of the parts we need, but this is just a bacterial filtration unit. Won’t do much for radiation.”

Drew stepped over to the Gutsy and opened its storage unit, taking out his toolbox. “Let’s start taking it apart.”

Amy looked around. “I’ll see if I can find the stopcock and switch off the water flow.”

“I’ll find it,” Jack said as he followed the pipes into another room.

“Go with him,” Drew told Amy.

She nodded and followed him through while Drew waited.

“It’s off,” Amy said as they returned a few moments later.

“Good,” Drew said. “Let’s get this done. There’s still some other bits and pieces I want to salvage from the Radiology Department.”

“It’s still early,” Amy pointed out. “We’ve got plenty of time.”

“You say that, but the day can disappear pretty fast.”

Jack opened up Drew’s toolbox. “Then let’s get this done; just as you said.”

“Sure.”

It took a good half-hour minutes to strip the filtration unit down and it was accompanied by a lot of water. At one point Amy asked if the valve hadn’t shut off correctly, but both Jack and Drew assured her that it was just water left in the system.

With the parts they needed, they left the basement and continued on the search, eventually finding the Radiology Department. Unfortunately, there were a heaping load of hostile Mister Orderlies waiting for them.

The three of them took cover as a cloud of disinfectant erupted from a sprayer arm on the nearest Orderly. Their Gutsy on the other hand charged forward, its laser pistol alight with energy fire.

“Die Commie scum!” the army robot yelled out as it swiped at its target with its saw blade.

“Shit!” Jack hissed as he covered his eyes with the back of his sleeve. “My eyes are stinging like hell.”

“No shit,” Amy said. “The thing just sprayed bleach at us!”

“We need to fall back out of the spray zone,” Drew said as he gripped Jack by the wrist and led him and Amy back out into the hallway.

“What now?” Jack asked.

“We shoot,” Drew answered.

“Would love to, but the Gutsy is in the way,” Amy said. “I can’t get a shot off without hitting it.”

Sure enough, the Gutsy had moved into the doorway, blocking their view.

“Shit!” Drew exclaimed as the Gutsy took a nasty hit from a saw blade.

“This is why Gutsies suck,” Amy said. “They rush in with no sense of tactics.”

“Yeah, but a hit like that on one of us would have taken an arm off,” Drew pointed out.

“And if the thing moved out of the door, I’d be able to start blasting!”

“Gutsy!” Drew yelled. “You’re in the way! Move!”

The robot ignored him.

“You have a laser. You don’t need to be so close! Back up out of the door.”

The Gutsy continued to ignore him, which either meant a malfunction or an incorrect combat setting, neither of which was easy to fix on the fly.

“Fuck!” Drew yelled out as he watched one of the Gutsy’s eye sensors come right off after a rather nasty hit. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“See,” Amy said. “It’ll be junk by the time we’re done!”

“Let’s just blast the pieces of crap!” Drew said as he made for the room.

“My eyes are still stinging,” Jack moaned.

Drew tuned him out as he took aim and fired, a beam of energy lancing past the Gutsy and striking a partially visible Orderly. The most irritating thing was that the Gutsy had seemingly taken up residency in the doorway.

“Move!” he yelled at the robot to no avail. “You are blocking us!”

“Almost done!” the Gutsy yelled back. “Sending these Commies back to Hell!”

“We’d be able to send them faster if you moved clear and gave us a line of sight.”

“Unable to comply. I am programmed to protect you at all costs.”

With those words its actions made sense. It was definitely a settings issue and something he’d have to adjust once they were back at the factory. That was if the Gutsy didn’t get itself completely destroyed first.

Seeing a shot open up, Drew took it, blasting what appeared to be the last Mister Orderly square and center. It folded up and clattered to the floor in a shower of sparks.

“Hostiles neutralized!” the Gutsy barked, sounding rather pleased with itself.

It was annoying to know that it felt proud to have hampered their ability to fight. It thought that it was doing everything in its power to protect them, but instead, it was doing the opposite and unintentionally putting them in more danger.

“Let’s just get to the Radiology Department,” Drew muttered as he pushed past the galling Gutsy.

At this point, he just wanted to go and leave this place behind but knew that as long as they had space to carry stuff, they needed to keep searching for parts and supplies.

He paused as he glanced back at the Gutsy. One of its sensor eyes was hanging down clearly broken. He knew he could fix it when they got back to the factory, but he realized that he could deal with it now. After all, there were plenty of parts laying around from the destroyed Orderlies.

He stepped over to the Gutsy. “I’m going to retrieve my toolkit, hold still.”

He opened the storage unit and pulled out the heavy box of tools, placing them down on the floor.

Amy stepped up to him. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to fix its busted eye,” he told her. “Just need to find a good replacement.”

“Sure that’s wise?” Jack asked nervously. “We could be jumped by more of those robots and I don’t think my eyes can take another spraying.”

“Better to use what we have at hand here than use up the limited components we have back at the factory.”

“I guess,” Jack said sounding uncertain.

“Here,” Drew said as he held out his laser rifle, passing it to Jack. “While I’m fixing the Gutsy, you and Amy keep an eye out.”

“If you’re certain,” Amy said as she stepped over to the nearby door and peered through it. “Just make it quick.”

Drew cracked his knuckles as he looked over the robotic corpses. Most were marked, pitted, and all of them had a degree of rust marring their once polished surfaces, though one caught his eye. A single eye that was in far better condition than all the rest.

“Gutsy,” he said, addressing the robot. “Power down, I am doing a field repair.”

“Understood, sir!” it barked as its legs folded up and it perched itself down on the hard concrete floor.

Amy glanced over. “Maybe we should leave it like that.”

“If you want to be the one to carry it,” Drew retorted as he unbolted the eye and arm from the destroyed robot.

Replacing the Gutsy’s damaged eye didn’t take long, and thankfully there were no interruptions. Roughly ten minutes later, the eye was fixed and they were continuing on, following the few decrepit signs that pointed them towards their destination. Strangely, they didn’t run into any more Orderlies, which they were all certainly thankful for.

“Through here,” Drew said as he pushed an old creaky door open. “This should be the place.”

They all stepped inside, the Gutsy jetting in behind them. The room while just as decayed as all the other rooms and hallways, held some nice-looking tech, even if it had seen better days.

“Field medic detected!” the Gutsy exclaimed.

The three humans rose their weapons, anticipating another fight.

Jack pointed. “Uh, look over there.”

Drew followed his finger to see a white Handy eye sensor peaking out from behind a door. It quickly retracted out of sight. If it hadn’t been for the Gutsy’s thruster thrumming away, it was likely they would have heard the second thruster of what appeared to be a Miss Nanny variant of the Handy line of robots.

“Lower your weapons,” he told the others. They did so, but Amy didn’t look happy about it.

“You sure this is a good idea?” she asked.

“We’ll see in a moment,” Drew answered as he slowly approached the room.

“Don’t blame us if you lose an arm to a saw blade,” Amy called after him as he stepped inside.

The first thing Drew saw was a decomposed body in the corner. It looked like it had been there for well over a century, if not from since when the bombs dropped.

The Miss Nanny was hovering in the far corner of the room staring at him with all three of its eye sensors. From Drew’s experience, the Nanny model seemed the most sentient of all the primary line Handy models, the Gutsy, unfortunately, being the least.

“Hello, there,” Drew called out softly and evenly. “How are you doing today?”

The Nanny didn’t answer. Instead, it kept staring at him as it gently swayed on its thruster.

“Are you able to speak?” he asked.

Two of the Nanny’s eyes looked down at the weapon in his hands.

“This?” he asked. “It’s for protection.”

“Are you with ze nice lady from earlier?” the Nanny asked in its strange accent.

He shook his head. “No, I’m not. There was someone here earlier?”

The front eye nodded. “Oui. ’Er name was Sarah. She needed patching up after ze other robots attacked ’er. I ’ope zhat she got out of ’ere safely.”

“I saw no sign of her, so maybe she did.”

“I ‘ope so.”

Drew glanced back down at the corpse. “What happened?” he asked.

“Ze Mister Orderlies attacked ’im,” the Nanny responded. “Zhey went berserk and begun attacking ze doctors and patients alike.”

He had assumed that their programming had deteriorated over the decades, but the mention of doctors and patients gave him pause.

“Did this happen before the bombs?”

“Bombs?” the Nanny asked, sounding confused.

“Yeah, the nukes. One landed outside of town. You never noticed?”

“Per’aps. Not long after ze strange robots appeared and ze Mister Orderlies went rampant, I did detect a dangerous increase in radiation levels.”

Drew glanced back as he tried to remember if he’d seen any other dead bodies. “What happened to those the Orderlies killed?”

“Zhey disposed of zhem,” the Nanny answered.

“You mentioned strange robots appeared. Tell me about them?”

“Zhey were small, red, and ’ad a star on zhem.”

That didn’t really ring any bells and he hadn’t seen anything like that around here or anywhere for that matter.

“Per’aps I should introduce myself,” the Nanny said, moving closer. “My name is Nurse Suzy.”

“Drew,” he said in return. “Listen, I’m here with some friends to gather some components and maybe some medical supplies.”

“Do you ’ave a requisitions form?” she asked.

“Considering there’s no one here and the whole town is deserted, we decided we’d just take them.”

Her front eye shook from side to side. “Oh, no. You cannot just take ze supplies for yourselves. Non, you must ’ave proper authorization.”

“There’s no one left alive to give that authorization,” he pointed out. “Check your chronometer.”

All three of her eyes looked down at the floor. “It ’as been a very long time since zhis ’ospital was operational.”

“Those supplies will rot away,” Drew pushed on. “Why not have them be used to help people?”

“Zhat is a good point.” The Nanny looked back up at him. “I will take you to ze front desk.”

“The front desk?”

“Yes. Per’aps we can get you zhat permission.”

Drew grimaced. He had thought he was getting through to the robot, that it had figured out that there was nothing left and no one to get permission from, but like most robots, it lay just on the edge of actually being sentient.

“Lead the way,” he said.

The others watched as she hovered across the room and left, Drew stopping for a moment to talk to them.

“Jack, Amy,” he began, keeping his voice low. “Use my toolbox to take some of these machines apart and grab any useful components. You know what to look for, right?”

They both nodded. “We’ve been around you long enough to figure it out,” Amy said. “Plus I have Jack.”

“Good,” Drew said. “I’m going to the front desk with the Nanny. I’m hoping that I can find a way to convince it to return with us without having to reprogram it. We could do with a medical robot.”

“Sounds useful,” Amy agreed.

“I’ll hopefully be back soon.”

“Be careful,” Jack said.

Drew turned to the Gutsy. “Your job is to keep these two safe while they work.”

“Understood, sir!” the military robot barked.

Drew stepped out of the room to find the Nanny waiting for him.

“Come along,” it said as it headed down the long hallway.

Drew got in step behind it, hoping they didn’t run into any more hostile robots. He wasn’t sure how the Nanny would react if he was forced to defend himself. It could very easily respond negatively, seeing him as a threat.

“Please wait ’ere,” she told him as they stepped into the foyer area.

“Why?” he asked. “It’s not like there’s anyone here for me to get a requisitions form from.”

“I know,” Suzy said. “But I am programmed to stop you from stealing supplies. I ’ave informed security, though there is none to call.”

“So what happens? Will you attack me?”

The Nanny shook its front eye from side to side. “Non.”

“I guess we’re at a bit of an impasse,” Drew said.

“Oui.”

He’d run into this issue a few times before. There were a lot of robots out there that were trapped in this strange duality between what they wanted and their own outdated programming. It was often difficult to see where the programming ended and the artificial intelligence began.

The actual sentience of robots was something he had argued with himself about for years. His old Assaultron, Izzy, for instance, had been very human to a point where it was scary sometimes.

The Nanny, Suzy, turned and faced the front doors. “I shall wait ’ere. I cannot stop you if I am unaware of what you are doing.”

“But you are aware. Clearly.”

The Nanny didn’t answer. It simply stared towards the front doors, almost as though it longed to go through them and leave this place. On the other side, he could see Leanne’s truck still parked there.

Drew felt bad for it. The robot had been here since the bombs fell, and while that would make a human go mad, a machine was different. Yet with those differences, there was no denying the similarities.

“I’ll be back shortly,” he said.

One eye turned back to face him for a moment before it focused back on the entrance.

Drew decided to leave the robot be and left the foyer area. While it hadn’t been his main focus to gather medical supplies, he figured he might as well grab some while he was here. Given that it hadn’t all been taken already.

After picking the lock to a storage cupboard, he stepped inside the Cold Room. It appeared that the refrigeration units were still somewhat working, keeping the medicines cool. He picked some Stimpaks, Med-x, Rad-x, and Radaway, placing them in his backpack before he left, making his way back to the others to see how they were getting on.

Between them, Jack and Amy had dismantled one of the machines and were sorting from most to least useful components. In truth, all of it was useful, it was just a matter of what they would be able to carry.

“Hey,” Amy said looking up at him. “Where’s the Nanny?”

“In the foyer, staring out of the front doors forlornly.”

“A lot of good components here,” Jack said. “Could get some good caps for all this.”

Drew glanced behind him as a thought crossed his mind. “We have a truck.”

“Yeah?” Amy said. “So?”

“She has boxes in the back. We could take nearly all the components in this room back to the factory with us.”

“Ir would take a lot of time to move it all to the truck,” Amy pointed out. “There are still a lot of hostile robots in this place and don’t forget the ferals. We get spotted by one and before we know it a hoard is bearing down on us.”

“It’s a risk, but it will be more than worth it.”

“If you say so,” Amy said with a shrug.

Jack started to fill his backpack with components. “I agree with Drew. We take as much as we can.”

Drew nodded. “Fill up the backpacks. Most valuable components first.”

The group made several trips back and forth until they had gathered all the components from the dismantled machine. Briefly, Drew considered taking another one apart but decided it would take too much time, and instead gathered some components from the downed Orderlies. As they were leaving for what would be the final time that day, Drew stopped and looked at the Miss Nanny who hadn’t moved an inch.

He handed his backpack to Jack. “Take this.”

“Sure,” Jack said before he made his way outside.

Drew approached the Nanny and stood next to it. “Suzy, wasn’t it?”

“Oui,” it answered.

“You know, you could come with us?” he offered.

“Non,” she responded with a shake of her front eye. “I am not permitted to leave ze ’ospital.”

“This isn’t a hospital, not anymore,” he pointed out. “No patients, no doctors. Nothing. Just an empty shell.”

“Oui.”

“Then your programming is no longer relevant.”

“Per’aps.”

“Come on, we could really use your skills.”

All three of the Nanny’s eyes turned to look at him. “Do you zhink zhat I can?”

“You mean leave?”

“Oui.”

“Sure. All you have to do is fly forwards through the doors.”

She looked back outside. “I cannot.”

The doors opened as Amy peeked inside. “You coming?”

“Sure,” Drew said. “Just give me a minute.”

“We might not have a minute. A few ferals are scrambling around roughly a block down the road. They haven’t noticed us yet. Might have been drawn in by our gunfire.”

“Okay, I’m on my way.”

“You are leaving?” Suzy asked, sounding disappointed.

“You can still come with us,” he offered.

“I would like zhat. But I cannot.”

Drew reached out and gripped her pincer arm. “Of course you can. I’ll help.”

Slowly, he began to tow her towards the doors. She offered no resistance, letting him pull her along, only starting to pull back when they reached them.

While it would be easier to simply take the input jack in his Pipboy and plug it into the Nanny and reprogram it, he didn’t want to. He felt that it was important for the robot to overcome this by itself.

“Just a little further,” Drew said as he pushed the door open.

The Nanny began to lean backward. “Non. I cannot do it. What if I die?”

“You won’t die, Suzy. You’ll finally be free of this place.”

As the Nanny crossed the threshold it went limp, its limbs flailing as it crashed to the ground.

“What the…”

For some inexplicable reason, it had shut itself off.

With an irritated sigh, he squatted down and with a heave, picked the Nanny up, staggering as he struggled to carry it. With heavy steps, he made his way to the back of the truck and put the Nanny inside with Jack, Amy, and the two Gutsies before closing the tailgate.

“Look after her,” he said.

“Sure,” Jack said.

Drew made his way around the front to the passenger side door.

“We done?” Leanne asked as he climbed inside.

“Yeah,” Drew said with a nod. “We’re done. Take us back to the Robco plant.”

Leanne started the engine and not ten minutes later they were back on the highway.