Orion and the Clockwork (The Carmsborough Vigilantes #2)

Chapter 8

Orion was the first to wake up, head groggy. He rubbed his eye as his brain slowly booted up to full speed, and realized one of his arms was draped over Rami, who was still asleep. A clock across the room read that it was almost a quarter past eight.

They were late.

He lightly shook Rami, who stirred slightly, until he, too, looked at the clock.

"We're gonna be in deep trouble," he said, throwing his nightshirt on and bursting out the door. Orion, still wearing a shirt, did the same, and went down the stairs. From there, he found the Clockwork still hovering behind the couch, and they made eye contact.

Rami, however, was staring out the window. "They aren't here yet. If we get moving fast, we can catch up on our work so that we're not behind whenever they get here."

He ran back upstairs, and Orion once again followed. They threw clothes on and headed out the front door, where Rami led the way to the fields, and warmed up the tractor.

Orion had the Clockwork moved to the next section of the field, to which the Clockwork immediately got to work, mowing down large swathes of the crops. The other two loaded it up in the tractor and took it to its new home, then repeated that process long after the Clockwork had finished its section.

In its eagerness—or inability to process they were only doing one section—the machine continued, moving into the next and getting a third of the way through on that before Rami and Orion had made it back to stop it.

"Might as well finish this one off, but that's it," Rami said, trying to talk to the machine. It seemed to have listened, because when it reached the end of that section, it simply stood there, scythe at its side.

"Are you able to help us load up the wheat in the silo?" Orion asked, pointing to the structure in the distance. It looked down at the harvested wheat, extended its arms out, grabbed a massive bunch, and lifted off towards the silo, dumping the entire load in.

"Well, that's insanely convenient," Rami said, "aside from the amount it dropped on the way there."

"I'll make sure it gets it all cleaned up. Either that, or we can do that."

A chore which usually took half a day without the Clockwork's help was done in two hours, and with the same quality. There was an excitement in Rami's eyes that he found hard to hide.

"This is a total game-changer," Rami said, staring at the field. "If we really wanted, we could do... four times the amount of work in one day?"

"Or we could take a break," Orion said, leaning on his own scythe.

The sound of a vehicle approaching cut that idea short. Rami's parents were back, slowly taking the winding gravel path up to the house, before stepping out of the car. Rami went running up, and Orion followed behind, moving slightly slower.

"How is she?"

"She'll be alright," his dad said. "It'll take a while for her leg to be back in good condition, but they were able to get it pretty fixed up."

Max opened her door, and Rami and her dad helped her out of the truck and into the house. Their mom followed, carrying paperwork and medication.

Ever a fly on the wall, Orion followed them back inside.

"I see the field is already done for the day," their dad said, setting Max down on the couch.

"Double, actually. We were on a roll this morning."

"Were? What happened?"

"You three came back."

"Well, we're back. Now it's time to get back to work. Did you take care of the animals last night?"