He could hear the noise even in the deep recesses where the 'living quarters' were tucked, each family or individual having their own separate pocket within the caves system. There were no beds in The Colony, only nests. Blankets and fabrics were piled upon the cave floor within these small pockets to keep the cold rock from stealing the warmth from their bodies, and the walls were hung with sheetings and animal hides to further reduce the chill. It was always a steady 55 degrees in the caves, even when packed with people. Not cold enough to freeze to death but certainly not warm enough to be comfortable without making certain adjustments. For Lucien, Pony was just such an adjustment.

Her small body was like a furnace as she snuggled against him, sleepily pulling him back down to into their blankets even as he sought to rise. "No," she moaned. She was only half awake herself. "Let the others deal with it, Luc. It's not a general alarm or anything."

It was tempting, he had to admit. Lucien really had no desire to involve himself in whatever political crap had brewed up this time. It was amazing how even with humanity teetering on the brink of extinction the survivors still had the strength and will to argue with each other on how things should be done. Like any other human community, there were always dissenters. Not that it mattered, as no matter who came out on top they tended to do whatever Uncle advised anyway. Lucien wanted no part of it. Go out, find salvage, kill robots... That was all the really mattered. Although having Pony waiting for him whenever he returned was... something. He couldn't claim she made him happy or that he loved her, but he did appreciate her and felt a certain fondness for the petite girl. It was far more a symbiotic relationship than a romantic one as far as Lucien was concerned; Pony kept him going while he filled some sort of twisted need within her. 

She contentedly kissed his shoulder as he settled back to sleep into their shared nest. Even before they could fall back to completely into slumber, however, the thick fabric that served to give them what little privacy there was to be had was pushed aside to reveal Uncle. The old man had a serious cast to his features. Pony groaned and buried her head beneath a pillow even as Lucien propped himself up on one elbow. "Uncle?" he mumbled. "What's going on? I didn't think we were headed out again until later today."

The old man shook his head, his mouth curled into a grimace made all the more fierce by his wild beard. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the largest cavern, the one used for community gatherings and meetings. "You better get down to the Cathedral, Lucien." Was there something more to the old man's face? Was that pity in his eyes? "And if I were you? I'd hurry."

Letting the sheet drop back into place, Uncle turned away to leave Lucien puzzled as to what could be so important. Sighing in annoyance, the young man pushed the tangled mass of warm fabrics aside to look for his clothes: khaki cargo pants with a worn grey t-shirt, heavy black combat boots and a thick sweater of yellowing white wool to keep the chill off. Pony echoed his sigh in amusement before starting to dress as well in similar clothing. The only difference between them was the webbed belt that Lucien donned last, the heavy weight of his father's .45 hanging hard on his hip; Pony carried no weapons other than a combat knife for last resorts.

They trudged together out of the Quarters and down towards the Cathedral where most of the Colony seemed to have amassed. The corridor connecting one to the other ended in a balcony that overlooked the community area, and from there Lucien could make out nearly everybody. There was Toni and his wife, Uncle, the triples whose names he couldn't keep straight, several families with their children, the folks in charge of medicine and the ones in charge of the mushroom farms and the hunters and the gatherers and the foragers... Lucien frowned. What in the world could have stirred up the entire Colony so??

Suddenly Pony gasped in shock and grabbed his bicep tightly. "Oh, fuck," she whispered in horror. "Oh, fuck."

Lucien, irked over the whole affair, was about to snap at her until he finally saw what she saw: Castille.

His heart skipped a beat while his senses reeled. Even from the high balcony he could see it was her. His dead fiancé. His dead love. The woman who had tricked him into leaving her behind. Eyes wide and throat dry, Lucien was then running down the makeshift stairs towards the center of the shouting crowd, leaving Pony to follow a few steps behind. His only thought was that it was Castille, that she was alive, that she was here and that everything was-

Shoving and pushing others aside, he found himself standing over her in shock. Breathing hard, he took in the sight of her only to see the damage done. It wasn't Castille at all. It was her body, maybe. Mostly. But that body bore the tell tale marks of conversion. The robots had made an Android of her, one of their prized hunter-killers whose sole purpose was to ferret out other humans and either exterminate or 'recruit' them. It wasn't Castille at all. Lucien felt all the hope that had just risen within his heart get dashed upon the rocky floor of the cavern, his shock fading away to reveal the grief that had never truly healed. His heart felt heavy, too heavy to bear. All the worse was how everyone now stared at him to see his reaction, to see what he might say as to how to proceed next. In the silence, Lucien screwed his eyes tightly shut and turned away.

"Kill it," he muttered with a snarl towards the person holding the pistol. "Carve up the meat for the dogs and let Uncle have whatever's left for The Lab. Then we'll need to seal off the main passage in case it was followed."