Tales From The Wastes

I shot my vision across the hallway, taking in every pulsing light and the cold metal walls “Empty” I muttered to myself, confirming my suspicion. *tap tap tap tap tap* I slithered across the hall with the prudence of a mouse...no, A rat. Genesis thought it could keep it down, tie me down and do the dirty work. Not gunna happen. I’m not working in a Xeosus mines, even if I’d have to swallow a friggin’ grenade to end it all. I’m fine with that, I dug this bed and I’m gonna lay in it. No wussing out now.

I casually stepped across the hallway, each footstep was lighter than the last, but the sway of the ship wasn’t exactly helping my balance. The silence was dark and frozen solid, the only sound was that of the thoughts of my mother. “Betterment of society” she tries to tell me, as she sends me and all the other kids away...PFFT! It’s BS. Sending...kids, sending me away to work on another planet? Because what? To keep this Utopia we live in functioning!? Why not have robots do it! We have robots!

I began rapidly searching for things to find in the rooms where they keep all the confiscated possessions, searching though the inventory of things, useless trash. Family photos and stuffed animals mostly. When I noticed a pistol, powered by Plesium, yeah, the rare one. Must be pretty old to be powered by such prehistoric ammunition. It worked though, so I snatched it, and I grabbed a Comm-Watc, quickly latching it to my wrist. Hopefully it would be functional in The Wastes. Everything else was useless garbage, but these things will go nicely in my Mining Satchel when I make a great escape, and wow, I felt like a master class thief. In reality, I was probably bumbling around just making it with all the grace and bearing as a lawnmower on rubble.

“Docking at: The Wastes in two minutes” announce a monotone speaker over PA system. Aw crap, okay...okay they’re going to be checking the dorms now and If I down get in it really really soon God knows what they’ll do to me. Just, dash away like you got a great big dump in your pants. They won’t catch me, and if they do, They likely will not set me on fire. Right? Right.

“Guest 187B, You’re biosignature is not detected in your dormitory. You did not register a designated leave at this period. Please return to your dormitory immediately” announced the voice.

Great. Friggin...great, might as well have just said “Edien, we have the guillotine ready” because I’m already detected as absent. I just...left for about three minutes. Three fricken’ minutes and they’ve already noticed I was gone. I just went to grab my satchel. None of this would be worth it without my satchel. I know I’m not technically supposed to, but since when has following the rules ever made you out to be something? Don’t answer that.

The contents of my satchel jumble around when, just out of my peripheral vision, I see my door, next to the infinite hallway of identical doors. Mine was special though, because it has the string 187B stamped on it. It also had a little bit of vomit on it...okay? those lift-offs are not okay.

I pressed my finger to the scanner at the door, not even a second passed before it gave me the approving *Ding* noise and I slid in and shut the door, stuffing my satchel under my bunk. It wasn’t even 10 seconds of sitting my ass down on the bunk that a large suit came in here, standard issue guard suit, a pitch black visor blocking out any form of humanity.

I clasped my hands together and squeezed as the guard looked around the room, and at me. “187B, you were not detected in your designated area for upwards of 120 seconds. I was dispatched to check on you, but you seem to be doing fine. Please report to use when you decide to leave” said the person, with its voice distorted, as usual.

I tried to say something, but my tongue retreated into my mouth. The guard backed out of my room and the door closed again, I pulled the satchel out from under my bed. “You’re my ticket outta here” I said, rubbing it, when a short yellow beam shot out and left a burn mark on the wall. “Oh my God!” I said. Must be messed up somehow, hypersensitivity or something, I don’t know, or life just has a vendetta against me. I lay back down in my bed.

“Now Docking…” announced the voice, followed by a rumble, and looking out my small window, a titanous mass of dust was kicked up from the ship landing. Finally, my chance has arisen to escape. I grabbed the satchel and glued it to my side.

My Dorm’s door opened, revealing a long string of teens and kids, waiting to get the tracking bracelets. Great, the bane to my plans, modern technology. I casually sidled up into the line, as it seemed to govern itself, no one minded me cutting. The clicking sound of the bracelets locking grew louder as I approached the man behind the desk. I didn’t know what they did when they discovered that you’ve fled, but I wasn’t going to ask straight up. I’ll play dumb.

“What are these?” I ask, as the man attached the cold steel to my ankle, and a soft green light begins to pulse. “Tracking, obviously. A few other things.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well...they’ll administer a small shock if the uh...wearer attempts to leave the designated zone.” he said, looking down towards my ankle and inspecting it. “Can’t say I agree with it, but I don’t make the rules. I just enforce them”. I nodded.

“Hanna, Please enter the Captain’s Office” announced the voice, which I found strange, they don’t usually address us by name. It’s more of a number, or a string of letters and numbers. I smirked when she was called. Not that I know a Hanna, but there is some catharsis in seeing someone else get their ass handed to them.

All of us shuffled out of the ship, like Noah’s little animal collection, and it hit me like a steaming pipe to the face. I inhaled the dust, smelled the electrical fires and felt the sand lash my face in a show of dominance. It was perfect.

We were all outside, following the suits, we went out of the dusty plains and into a dark mine, illuminated by only the brilliance of the sun and a few hovering Power Cores. “See this?” announced a voice from the suit, holding a small purple rock in his hands “This is Xeosus, it’s vital to keeping our society running the way it is, you must help. Pick up these rocks and place them in your Mining Satchels. If you aren’t sure something is Xeosus or not, it’ll have a pretty purple luster and emit a bit of heat when it comes in contact with your skin. You don’t need to know anything more, once your satchels are full, return and place your findings in the mineral escort unit, and go back to diggings”.

“What a dick...” I muttered. The suit went to the side of the mine and crossed his arms.

“Don’t worry” muttered a voice behind me, I swiftly turned and saw a little boy, couldn’t be more than 10 years old. “This happens to everyone on Genesis when they’re young and able...how old are you, by any chance?”

“16” I answered, putting my back to him. An ear piercing siren sounded, alerting us to begin mining, and all the kids began putting Xeosus in their bag, me having to be extra careful to make sure this pistol doesn’t shoot, considering it went off when I just kicked it before, it has it out for me.

So I just had to wait, slowly putting rock after rock of Xeosus in my bag, waiting for the perfect moment to hit...and it did hit me, well, it hit us actually.

Some kind of makeshift vehicle roared into the mines, kicking up sand with every spin of the tire, releasing a screeching honk from its horn, and bullets flew from the vehicle like popcorn kernels.

“Oh my God...Jesus Christ. I was pushing over by fleeing kids, and a suit trying to rangle them up. I wasn’t having that. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead as the metal beast roared and spat bullets from its maw, in a decision that was more instinct than thought, I took off arms first into the dust cloud that was kicked up. I think I heard someone say “Hey!” but that could have just been my brain kicking the inside of my skull for doing something so stupid.

I kept running, until I was surrounded by dust. I look back, but there was dust there to, my footprints were immediately swept away and my sense of the cardinal directions were tossed out the nearest window.

At first, it was nothing.

Then it was something.

A horrible pain that scorched the skin of my leg, and it stiffened up like a steel beam. The anklet was shocking me, I collapsed to the ground, and my leg, once a useful appendage, now a lump of skin and flesh I was forced to crawl with. The pain was numbing, and awful, it shot across my leg like a bullet skimming my flesh and leaving a red streak, except there was no evidence.

A steady and powerful pump of adrenaline kept my body from collapsing as the shock got increasingly painful. Not that I could tell which was more agonizing , it just blended into a terrible spiral of horrendous electrical torment. I couldn’t even tell if I’ve traveled 15 inches or 15 feet, all of my senses shut down simultaneously and I was left with sand in my face and the feeling of a never ending taser sticking out from my leg. I was numbed to the pain, but I could still feel its presence. I could still feel the cold sweat and my stomach tightening, and I could feel my legs stiffening and slowly dying.

A particularly swift jet of dust slammed my spine into the ground, and I collapsed into paroxysms of misery and torture, and all I could think was a stream of tourette’s induced cursing.

Bits of metal flew across my face and the pain slowly melted from a spiking torment to a slow burn. I looked down at my leg and wiped away the copious amounts of sweat, tears and dust from my face, there bracelet was no longer there.

My ears were completely shot, but I could feel the rumble of a car next to me, I looked up into it and a woman was looking down at me, gun pointed towards my leg.

She had shot the bracelet off

And she wasn’t looking down in pity, she was looking down in a way that almost...filled me with determination. The car revved and more dust got kicked up into my lungs but I didn’t care because the pain toned itself down, thanks to some random woman. Perhaps it was this gesture that made me realize that not everyone in The Wastes was a bandit looking to slow-roast me over an open car fire.

After the dust settled, I stood up on my own two feet, if only for a second just to collapse again. My ankle was a disgusting shade of red. It was plump like a tomato but it was racked with open sores and small trickle of blood that flowed out of them like crimson lightning bolts.

Walking for a few minutes and stopping to writhe in the pain seemed to be the general pattern of things, and it continued until the sun went down and the chills tickled my spine. The freezing temperatures numbed the pain a bit, which led me to keep going, looking behind me were footsteps imprinted in the dust with small pools of blood following them. With every step I felt like I was squeezing my ankle until it’d burst. It’s slightly easier at night though...when you’re not getting scorched.

Time passed. I don’t know how much, but time passed like normal, and the satchel I was carrying was starting to irritate my shoulder, which was probably already sunburnt. It was peeling.

I collapsed to the ground, dust was swept up and gently lowered back onto my body, in a soft covering. I looked up at the sky and saw stars. I saw ships flying into and out of the atmosphere, with a fiery glow upon entry, I saw what was left of the moon. I heard tales of the moon being a full sphere. A nuclear experiment gone wrong blew off a huge chunk of the moon, at least, the the story anyway. The lunar marvel was beautiful tonight…

This was a big mistake. I’m going to die out here...and I know I said before that I was willing to die, but I think you could tell I was just bein’ a hardass….and now I’m gonna be fossilized. A gust of wind swept up and more dust and sand frosted over me...and the wind was making a weird screeching sound…was I heading north, south, east or...what the hell is that noise. The wind was howling in a way that made it sound like it was whistling through a metal...thing? What?

I lifted my head up, it was as pitch black, and only a sea of sand surrounded me...what is that noise. Can my death bed at least be quiet, dammit! I stood up and endured the pain, out of pure frustration. I squinted my eyes towards the source of the sound and saw some sort of dark shape.

Instinctively, I headed towards it.

Each step I took it feems to take shape, a shack, as far as I could tell. More like a box of rusted metal, and a faint glow was pulsing from the inside. Someone alive? Someone...another human. It felt like my life depending on how the occupant was feeling when I’d knock on the door, which it did.

My legs felt like frozen chopsticks by the time I got to the shack, with only slight hesitation I knocked, and the sound echoed as the shack buckled under the wind.

“Hello?” I asked, pounding on the door

“Can you please open up? I’m not here to hurt you” I continued into a coughing fit. I lurched over and leant on the door, cracking off its rusty hinges as the door collapsed into a cloud of dust, of which another round of dust shot into my lungs and another round of coughing began.

I lumbered into the shack, if only to escape from the wind.

I didn’t think, I just sat down against the wall, breathing in and out the same dust, and my eyes slammed shut. I didn’t know how long I slept, but I remember waking up several times just to fall back asleep again, the sun in varying positions each time I awoke.

I snapped awake, for real this time. I couldn’t tell how long i’d been asleep, but it must have been at least a day, considering the decent amount of eye crust I had. My vision was blurry but I was affixed to a strange light I hadn’t noticed. which after a few moments of head clearing I noticed it was the chassis of some kind of Xeosus powered rifle. Xeosus was exponentially more powerful than Plesium, and the whole reason why Genesis is sticking kids in The Wastes in the first place. Once my tunnel vision cleared I stepped back, making sure not to lean against any walls and noticed a slumped over figure. My hand wandered towards the figure and upon touching it, it was ice cold and felt leathery and callus. Once my eyes adjusted I noticed what it was.

A dead man, and I was just sleeping for an indeterminate amount of time next to it.

A dead...thing! It’s dead it’s not even living its heart stopped and now it’s here to rot. Holy hell. Oh my God. I saw it fully now and jerked my hand away, inadvertently knocking it over. Its skin was nearly gone and its bone were firmly in place, bottlecaps spilled from his pockets. Tons and tons of bottle caps. Now that I noticed it, there’s a lot of bottle caps and memorabilia from an ancient time.

It doesn’t matter now. He’s dead. The human who onced lived in this shack is dead. Now that I noticed it, it smells like death in here. Holy crap.

There was one benefit to being here, it was slightly warmer, and the wind, while still howling, wasn’t very strong in here. But look at me, scared out of my skin in The Wastes. I asked for this, and I think it’s time I grow some brass balls and lay in the bed I made for myself. I noticed some kind of weapon. A gun, obviously, but I’m not well schooled enough in weaponry to identify it. The pistol I had now was just a failsafe. It was a near fossil and I don’t know if its beams could penetrate even the lowest grade bio-armor. I needed this new gun, as it glowed with a soft and satisfying purple light, denoting that it was powered by Xeosus, an incredibly powerful plasma.

In a single swift motion I swept my hands across the gun the dead man was clutching and grabbed hold of it. But that was all I did.

My effort to make the least contact with the dead person as possible was in vain, as his cold and calloused hands refused to let go of the precious gun; The dead man lurched forward, the bed he was sitting on squeaked, alerting the local cockroaches to go beserk.

I shrieked and fell back, bugs were now scurrying across the floor of the shack and the dead man bent in a strange way, like I had just broken one of his bones as if it were made of styrofoam.

I watched as the body settled into his new position. His jaw came loose and a dry and shriveled tongue fell out of his now agate maw completely. Brown and black teeth came loose and fell out one by one like balls in a pachinko machine. But he was still holding the gun firmly.

I’m such an idiot, my efforts to try and make the least commotion in fact made the most commotion...and if I wanted to actually get the gun. I would need to get a bit more physical. Something I’m not completely interested in.

I was dreading the fact, actually. That I would have to move each finger out of the way to grab the gun now. I would have to touch it even more.

“Shit.”

Slowly and carefully...I approached the man once again. Placing my hand firmly on the barrel of the gun...I quickly jerked the gun to try my luck. He was still firm. I crawled my fingers up towards his and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I touched the tip of his dead finger to get a feel of it, it was grainy...cold, and dry. I shot my hand away immediately…okay. Time for a redo.

I touched the tip of his finger again, and It felt like I was holding hands with death. Ideas kept pulsing through my head, like

Do it quick, like ripping off a bandage.

Don’t touch it at all. flee. FLEE!

Slow and steady wins the race...no...fast and steady wins the race you idiot.

I couldn’t think straight, and hell if I could put any of these thoughts into motion. What ended up happening was a slow crippling crawl across the fingers of the man. I moved a finger off the gun and it’s muscles relaxed, I moved to another finger and did the same thing. Sliding slowly across his hands. Skin flakes fell off, I touched a fingernail and it just slipped off like a water droplet sliding down an umbrella.

I took every finger off and every single time it was like a dead weight was lifted off my chest, and the gun fell unto the dust floor with a nauseating thump. I grabbed the gun quickly and scuttled to the other side of the shack, putting my back against the wall like maybe the corpse will suddenly spring to life and attack me.

*Crunch*

Something made a crunching noise. I immediately looked the corpse in the eyes, which spurred another wave of nausea.

*Crunch*

My breathing slowed. It was...footsteps. From outside the shack. Someone was there. The walls were rusted and had a few small holes in it, I peeked through and saw a figure blocking out the sunset. I’m not taking any chances. Not here. Not after I got this. This person probably got word there was some good loot in this shack and came here to shake me down. It’s not going to go that way, unfortunately for them. I held the barrel of the Xeosus rifle up to the side of the shack where I saw the figure and fired two rounds.

The gun made a strange noise and got heated for a moment.

Everything fell silent. I didn’t even hear the thump of the person landing on the ground. The person that I killed. I killed someone. My eyes began to water as I thought of the person who’d I’d just killed. But...I’ll take solace in the fact that they were a bandit. A murderer and a thief. But...then again...so was I.

Oh my God, I’m disgusting. A sicko. Less than a day in the wastes and look what I’ve done. Look at me. I looked down at my hands knowing that someone died due to my rash judgemen-

*Crunch*

...Wait...what? Footsteps...still? Okay...oh my God. God. I pointed the gun towards the sound and, for a brief moment, remembered the grief I had felt when I thought I killed this person. Maybe try talking first. Diplomacy. Even if it doesn’t work I can feel less like a scumbag dickwad for killing somebody knowing that I at least tried to talk to them. Okay...diplomacy...I got this.

“Who the hell are you, you creep! Back away or I’ll send your ass back to whence it came!”

Oh...that didn’t sound that good. Words just kind of spill out my mouth, you know so I don’t quite have a full grasp on th-

My thoughts were interrupted by a hearty laugh. It wasn’t quite the evil cackle I expected. It was man however, and he stepped closer to the shack

“May I come in, little lady?” he asked

Okay...let’s...retry diplomacy. Last time I kind of flubbed it

“Not unless you want both of your legs turned into little red stumps!”

Crap.

“Listen” said the voice, a lot smoother and calmer than mine

“You sound young, I can hear your voice cracking. You don’t sound quite committed to murder...so I’ll ask again...may I come in?”

Think before you start your word vomit, Edien. You got this. Just a simple answer.

“Yes.”

The shack door creaked open, and I put the gun to my side, and a brown-skinned man stepped in. I couldn’t tell if he was black or just tanned by the sun. He was taller than me, but not by much. Wearing a tan leather jacket, unbuttoned. and white undershirt. Unremarkable pants. He had nice brown work boots though, and a simple hat that looks like it was ripped right from an old movie. However, what stood out to me the most was a shining badge attached to the right side of his jacket. He didn’t even have a gun.

He burst out laughing all of sudden

“Wh….what...what is it?”

“You’re new here aren’t you? Look atca, you’re redder than a raw steak.”

I didn’t reply

“That gun you’re holding too, where’d you get that exactly? Looks a little bit more advanced than the stuff we’ve got back in town”

“....town?” I muttered

“Yessir, town. East of here. Lookie here” he said, showing me his badge. “I’m the mayor. Town’s called New Brento”

“Oh…”

“Whaddya doin’ here? A young girl like yourself, on Earth?”

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, yeah. Suppose’ I shoulda said that first. I usually come here every day. This place is kinda important to me”

“Whys that?”

He laughed again. “If I went around tellin’ everybody everythin’ I got, I would be dead by now. However, that doesn’t change the fact that you look pretty spooked. It’s obviously your first time here, and leaving a little girl out here would just weigh down my conscience further. Why dont’cha come with me? Back to town?”

All of my stranger danger lessons in school had led up to this moment. However I doubt they foresaw this exact scenario. He doesn’t even have an unmarked van. What the hell am I supposed to do at this point?

I would have started weighing my pros and cons of the situation, but he walked away and I just naturally followed him. Like my brain was cutting out the middleman and doing me a favor.

We both walked towards the horizon.

“Oh” said the man, cutting the silence. “I forgot to tell you my name. It’s Granite”

“Edien” I replied back

...

“What are you doing here on Earth anyway?” asked Granite

“Running” I replied

“From what?”

“What do you mean, from what. One Ex. Genesis. The whole shebang”

“Now why would you do that?” he asked “Seems like running away from the good life if you ask me”

“Oh? Well it’s not quite as good as you think. You know they make kids and able-bodied citizens into miners for their little Xeosus operation? It’s unethical. Some riots broke out. The utopia is sinking, and I jumped the shark. Words going around that they’re running out of resources and looking for other stuff. That’s why they’re getting their mitts in the Xeosus mines on Earth.”

Granite didn’t comment.

We approached was seemed to be a large metal wall encircling something, Granite approached the structure yelled “It’s me! Open the damn gate!” and a large chunk of the wall began to lift like a garage door, slowly but surely revealing…

Garbage.

Yeah, the whole town looks like it was constructed using old paper clips and tape. I mean, I didn’t know what to expect from these...people. But they really did live like savages. I guess...if I squint my eyes it has a sort of rustic charm to it, in that “War-Drenched Apocalypse” sense.

“Well...whaddya think?” that Granite, moving his hand around as if to showcase his garbage collection. Less than a dozen people were walking around in it, some looking at me as if I was a murderer. I’m not, by the way.

“It’s uh...a town. Pretty good?” … He saw right through that, and gave me a tired look

“It’s not what you have at Genesis. Not even close. We live here, however. Just...lemme show you around.” he grabbed my shoulder like my dad or something; and I winced at the sharp hot pain that flooded across my back, the sunburn was peeling now. We walked around town, which seemed to be built in a crater of some sort. All the buildings looked like they were built by kids who had an excess of metal sheets on their hands.

Granite pointed towards a building with a flickering neon sign on it. “That’s The Fritz, local tavern, only tavern. You know whatever, We’re not really a stickler for legal drinking age so feel free to do whatever you want. Ask Griff for the Atomic Fireball sometime.”

“I don’t...drink...” I replied solemnly.

Granite laughed, and pointed towards a building that had a sign unusually neatly hung on it, a red cross with a white background. A local hospital?

“You can probably tell by that sign that the building over there is our hospital. We try to keep the sign clean to its obvious to people come here for safety and for fixin’ up. Inside there is Natasha, our one doctor. She’s a biomechanical engineer. One of a kind, she works with scrapped drone and ’bot parts to fix the real people.

Granite knocked on his arm “I think I might have more artificial bones in my body than real ones! Hahaha!”

He grimaced, I guess the face I was giving him wasn’t the expected response.

“Well...anyway, down to business. You look like a babe lost in the woods, when you’re here on Earth. However you’ve got yourself some advanced technology with that gun you’ve got strapped to your back.”

Oh. I almost forgot about the Xeosus rifle, I hooked it around my shoulder and it’s resting comfortably on my back.

“One wonders how you managed to procure yourself one of those...I’ve searched that shack you were in before and didn’t see it”

I just nodded

“This town kind of works off the honor system, ya know? Carry your own weight and the town just sort of works. That’s why you’re getting the eagle eye, people don’t know you.”

I didn’t even notice before, but I was getting glared at strangely. “My suggestion is that you take that wild weapon on your back to the outside and kick some ass and come back respected”

“I’m...uh...not an ass...kicker…” I replied

“You’re gonna have to be, if you wanna survive. Honestly, you think the town’s gonna carry your weight? Carry it yourself.”

“Thats sort of...dangerous” I retorted, as my entire body retracted back into its shell.

“Well isn’t that the damn truth. Lemme spell a few things out for you. We got a small bandit camp to the north of here giving us some trouble. I want you to do something about it. I don’t expect you to go alone. I’ve actually got a hired gun to take care of it. But if you tagged along, I’d consider that good experience points”

I remained silent

“I just want what’s best for you” he continued “Honestly if you wanna live here you gotta learn that sometimes you need to kill some scum, you might make a friend or two in town if you’re respected enough and likeable, and you seem pretty likeable.”

The corner of my mouth tugged down, Granite sighed

“Look...im not gonna force this on you right this minute. Rest up, stay the night. Tomorrow we can talk about this more”

I just nodded and accepted the brief moment of relief from this horrible tension. Granite walked me to a guest…”house”...area and showed me the inside. Surprise surprise it looks like crap. But whatever. A bed. A table.

“It is almost dinner time, I’d come getcha in an hour or two and we’ll gather at the dinner hall with the rest of the townsfolk an’ have a good time. How’s that sound?”

I just nodded again

Granite made some strange noise, then said “That hired gun I was talking about? he’ll be here tomorrow...uh..you’ll get to meet him.”

More nodding.

“Okay...I’ll see you in a bit” and Granite slid the door close, and I was alone in this metal box. A layed down on the mattress, which I expected to feel awful on my back but somehow it fell below expectations

…

A hired gun...hm? I don’t do that. I’m not a killer. I almost vomited looking at that dead guy earlier today. But is weaseling out of this an option? Mom said I was good at weaseling out of stuff. Do I even have the authority to choose what I’m going to do? I mean...I could leave...and die.

God damn it. Nothing’s working out the way I wanted, and I had really low goals to begin with.

Granite came in and let me know about dinner. I denied. I couldn’t stomach anything quite yet. He still brought me a plate of...mystery meat. Ugh. this wasn’t quite worth it was it? Why did I even leave everything behind. Because it sucked? This sucks more. What a juvenile mistake. Idiot. Freaking Idiot. I bet every teen wants to “run away” to a better life. The dirt is always browner on the other side...or something.

I gave my life away. There’s no going back. I’m running with the hunted now. The way I see it is, go back and definitely get killed, or stay here and maybe not get killed. I don’t even think I can go back. Ugh.

I shook my head, and my hair swung around my head and it was dirty and greasy.

Get these thoughts out of your head, Edien. You’ve got this. These kind of thoughts are the kind that get people killed. Focus on what you can do, not what you didn’t do.

I looked at the pale, sickly looking mystery meat. like, God did it look disgusting. But it also looked...good? Like my body was magnetizing itself towards the protein in the food, and sort of just ignoring its looks.

So I did eat it, and it tasted bland, and gamey. In ate the potatoes on the dish slowly. Like all that time I wasn’t eating caught up to me all in one instant and I starting shoveling down the food like it was holy mana. The aftertaste was quite...earthy, as well. Granite brought me water too, which was gone in an instant.

I collapsed onto the bed, and my stomach was full. My hands looked brownish, and stained with dirt splotches. I smelled like I just went dumpster diving, and I knew this was it, and I fell asleep to that smell.

Let me tell you something about sleeping in a metal box in the middle of nowhere. It’s cold, and wind blows through the holes in a specific way that causes a high-pitched whistle that could make a murderer out of the purest of good samaritans. But I did make it though, and I guess it was the first day in civilization.

I wish I could say I awoke by the warmth of the golden sun caressing my tanned skin, but I actually woke up because of that friggin’ whistling again. Except everyone was up and about. I stepped outside and the unrelenting heat of the sun beat down on my top of my head, heating my hair up to more than uncomfortable levels.

I scanned the few people walking around for Granite, who I saw just coming out of a door that seemed to grow my a building built underground, he looked sweaty. I waddled up to him.

“Hey!” He said, enthusiastically. Before I could even say anything

I noticed he seemed to be dripping wet with sweat, like he’d just got out of a sauna or something.

“What….why are you so….what were you doing down there? What is it?”

“Oh! Ha, why am I sweating like a racehorse, you’re probably wondering. It’s not sweat actually. Below the town we have a steady drip of water. We built some mechanisms around it, sciency stuff, to harvest dew from underground. Where we get most of our water. It works. “

“Oh…”

I remembered that I had running water back in Genesis, and we didn’t need to gather moisture to go from day to day. However, it seems that the townsfolk were holding up well enough with the water they have. I’m going to have to callous myself up to their standards.

Granite walked with me to the town hall where I ate breakfast, if you consider potatoes breakfast. No one else was there except me and silence, but even silence left me when the door swung open, revealing an unusually tall slender man. Everything but his figure was blacked out by the sun shining from outside. However he stepped closer in a way I can only describe as methodical, and more of his clothing was revealed.

Boots that go up to his knees, covered in dirt and grime. Baggy shorts that seemed to be tucked in his boots slightly. Long, lanky legs and arms. A dark colored shirt with enough rips in it to be classified as a rag. He was wearing an undershirt with no rips. His arms, while long, were muscular too. It didn’t seem like this guy was playing around.

He walked closer towards me, and that’s when I noticed a few strange things. Below his short brown hair was a rag, dotted with dried blood, completely covering his eyes. Was he...blind? He had a clean-ish maroon rag in his pocket, sticking out, and on his back there was something. Something strange that made a soft humming noise.

He sat next to me.

I gulped. I don’t even know how he found a seat if he can’t see. In fact...how is he doing anything right now? I could hear him breathing, and it sounded like his breaths were being filtered through an autotuner...who is this?

“Uh….Hi.” I said, stammering as he looked at me. He looked forward again. “What’s that uh...what have you got on your back?”

He got up, turned to me and put one of his hands behind his back, grabbing something that made a noise akin to sticking a fork in an electrical outlet, slowly revealing some kind of sword.

“Oh...a sword” I said, I looked at it more, it was pulsing with a blue light and shining circuitry. It seemed to just emanate electricity as small sparks of lightning flew off it. He spun it around in his hand towards his back. I don’t know how he made sheathing his sword look so cool, but it made a noise that would seem painful if it were to come in contact with human flesh.

“In a world of guns...why use a sword?” I asked, more blunt than I intended

He put his finger over his mouth and said “Silence” in a voice that seemed to go through several computers before coming out of his mouth. I don’t know if he wanted me to shut up, or he was mentioning the fact that killing someone with a sword is quieter than killing someone with a gun. Either way, I’m done talking to him now. God only knows how much blood got on that sword of his, and I don’t want to be thrown in the mix.

Now it was me, this guy, and silence. What a trio.

However that soon changed when the door swung open violently and the sound of confident boots stomping on the ground caused me to look up. Granite was approaching with a smile. “Oh hey...Edien. This is Ziaws. You’ve probably met formally?”

The man sitting next to me extended his arm towards me without looking, and I shook his callous and stiff hand. He retracted his arm.

“Yup” said Granite, “That’s Ziaws. Gun for a hire...or...sword for hire. Whatever you wanna call it. You an’ him are gonna do the town a favor today. Stomping out a bandit problem that we have.”

All my muscles tensed up. “Why...again?” I asked

“A few reasons” Granite replied “People here don’t appreciate freeloaders, pull your weight, kill some degenerates, you’ll get along just fine. Also, I took you in partly because you have a valuable gun, from Genesis. Much like Ziaws here, who’s sword comes from Genesis too. Anything that shoots out of that gun can easily plow through whatever defenses the bandits have. It’s that good, and it’s yours. So I’d get to usin’ it”

Well…dammit. I cornered myself with this one didn’t I?

“Look...I brought it for you” said Granite, tossing the gun towards me. It looked sleek and pulsed with a soft purple light.

“Can’t uh...someone else use it?” I squeaked, desperately trying to claw my way out of this scenario.

“Actually, it’s locked to you” replied Granite

“How is that possible!?”

“You seemed to have touched the trigger during an encoding state. It scanned your fingerprint and only works for you.”

“You’re just telling me this now?”

“Well, I just found out, actually. I tried to use it just for a few fun shots...It didn’t work. I asked Natasha, our local doctor and mechanical expert. She explained it. It’s really a “planets aligned” sort of thing that you happened to touch the trigger when it was unlocked and looking for fingerprints”

I paused

“It pretty much means you have to do it.”

I slowly pressed my palm against my forehead in a cold sweat. Granite laughed

“You ain’t gunna die!” he said, still laughing “You got this guy” he pointed to Ziaws.

Granite wrapped one arm around me, and said something. I wasn’t listening though. I was still shivering. I guess in the back of my mind I always thought I didn’t really have to do it, and it just dawned on me that I really have to.

So it happened. Granite opened the gate for us to leave, and I followed Ziaws out into the empty dust. I think he said goodbye. Someone said goodbye. The gate shrieked as it closed, and kicked up a cloud of dirt when it landed back on the ground, as if to say “screw you”.

It was just me and Ziaws walking in the dust. I assumed he knew the way. I kept thinking of ways to break up the droning silence, and I was always on the cusp of saying something, but not speaking. Perhaps out of some fear that he’d become annoyed.

A good 15 minutes passed before I said something

“So...uh...are you uh...Hi.” I muttered. God dammit, messed up again.

“So where’d you get a name like Ziaws?” I continued “That’s kind of...unique?”

This time he awarded me with a glance, albeit behind a bloodied rag.

“Does it sound out of place?” he asked, in his voice that still managed to sound deep and intimidating despite sounding processed.

“Uh...No. No, not at all. Sounds fine. Normal even.” ...are you kidding me. Sounds normal? What the hell, me.

That’s the only verbal exchange we had. Although when I saw the shadow of a structure in the distance, I asked him if that’s where we were headed. He nodded. I got nothing else out of him.

The corpse of a ruined city slowly revealed itself. It was mostly gray and brown punctuated by streaks of red, this is when we passed our first obstacle.

“Holy Shiiiiiiiiiii…” I exclaimed as we passed by a wooden pike topped with a human skull and that same distinct red color. It was completely dry, and the bone seemed to be degrading away.

“Generic” said Ziaws, kicking over the pike, “expect more” he said, with his face towards me.

It wasn’t nearly as graphic as I had expected. It almost looked like a museum display. More pikes appeared and the skulls on them seemed to be bleached white under the harsh rays of the sun.

The ruins of the city drew closer, and I thought I could stomach anything after the pikes became a common sight. The walls were streaked with a nice “Please be red paint” color of red that really shined when combined with the cement and rubble gray.

It was silent however, there was writing and drawings on the walls leading to be believe this place would be crawling with creeps.

“Where are the-” I tried to say, before my mouth was covered my Ziaw’s dusty and sweaty hand. He placed his finger over his mouth and led me behind a wall.

I held my gun, ready to shoot at anything that made a sound, a cold chill shot up my spine, and Ziaws leaned in closer to my ear.

“They are all around us” he whispered

Now I wasn’t a religious person, but right now I was praying to whatever higher power would lend me some divine intervention. Interrupting my faux prayer was the electric sound of Ziaw’s sword slowly unsheathing.

“We are being surrounded” he muttered. I scanned the surrounding area and didn’t see anything. I pulled out my gun regardless. Everything stayed dead silent, and I could hear the muted breathing of what seemed like a dozen people. It was uncomfortable to say the least, as my gun shook along with my hands, refusing to hold the trigger, ready to make a break for it at any second.

Even the wind refused to blow, we were backed up on a part of a mostly collapsed wall. The silence was deafening, I was desperate for a sound. It was then when I heard a quiet, rhythmic beeping noise. I turned to Ziaws to see what was the sound, he had his head tilted towards the ground. He look up slowly and grabbed my arm violently and dashed away from the wall. That’s when it clicked.

The beeping was a bomb.

Set behind the wall. I knew this because the wall we were next to was now several cement boulders flying through the sky, and a fiery inferno engulfed were we were just standing seconds ago. At that moment, several people, wearing ripped clothing jumped out from behind the ball of fire. Ziaws pushed me to the ground. My ears were ringing from the blast and my vision was blurry from dust. I heard what sounded like a downed power cable, and shrieking. A lot of shrieking. It was dream-like. It was disturbing. I knew these were the bandits we needed to kill. But they were wearing normal people clothing, just ripped and stained. As if they were ripped out of suburbia and went savage. I tried to focus in my a raging headache stopped me, and dark red began to cloud my vision, I felt a gentle warmth go over my right arm. I looked over and screamed, only for a second. Resting where my arm was, was a cement block from the wall that had just exploded, painted in a mosaic of pus and blood, sticking up from the corners were sharp shards of bone and a hand. I tried to move it, but it didn’t. It was mix of pale white and deep purple. I couldn’t look at the twitching stump of exposed muscle and ripped skin where my arm used to be. You’d think this would hurt like hell, but I didn’t feel anything but warmth. I wanted to be warm.

I closed my eyes and felt a soft gust of wind sweep over me. I was tired at this moment. Incredibly so. I just wanted to rest now. I’d wake up later and this impression of a dream would be over. I’m sure of it.

My face stung and jerked painfully to the left. Standing above me was Ziaws, hand and sword extended. “What?” I asked, casually. He squatted over my right arm stump and pointed to it with his long, tree like finger.

“This has to go” he said

“You’re damn right it has to go, it’s nasty” I replied

He put his sword to the end of stump and my remaining arm hairs stood straight up in the static. He lifted his sword up and down like he was practicing something.

“Fucking no! No! God” I shrieked “What are you doing? Trying to kill me?”

“I must amputate, you won’t survive otherwise”

“Just repair it. Fix it. Bandage it, anything!”

“No. If I don’t remove this you’ll get an infection and likely die.”

“I’ll...I’ll bleed out!”

“The electric heat produced by my sword will cauterize your wound”

“What...what does that mean?”

“It will burn it shut”

“NO! No no no no no! Not a chance! I was happy just for a second! YOU’RE TAKING IT AWAY FROM ME” I shouted, in a sobbing, unfocused rage.

Ziaws raised his sword regardless, and put his hand over my mouth and clenched. This was a desperate time, I bit his hand, but it was rubbery and callous. Tears streamed from my eyes and snot from my nose as I saw the sword fall one final time, this time leaving a shining blue trail and sparks in its wake. I screamed again, but it was muted by his hand, and a waste of breath.

A cold shock went through my body, and I don’t remember anything but pitch black, and a voice speaking to me.

“I’ve been through a similar scenario” it said “You will live”

I did live.

I awoke to horrible back chafing. Laying shirtless on a rusted table, looking up and squinting at a bright light beating down on me. Hovering over me was a silhouette, and I was too exhausted to be embarrassed by my nudity. I simply closed my eyes again and got swept back away into unconsciousness

I heard a door open.

A shrill mechanical sound.

Metal creaking.

Footsteps.

Passing in and out of consciousness in a moments notice. My own heart beat hard in my ears like a parade was right outside my window. I felt sweaty and hot, but somehow spikes of cold shot across my body, this swirl of feeling is what kept me awake. Teetering on the edge of a dream.

The next moment that I was awake enough to look around, I noticed my shirt was back on, and hovering over me was a women with a nametag crudley sewn unto a “white” but horrible stained coat and apron. The nametag read “Natasha”. I tried to vocalize but I felt bile bubbling in the back of my throat, so I remained silent.

“How are you?” asked Natasha. I glared back at her.

“Are you feeling fine?” she continued. I nodded. Outright lying to her face. She

wiped a cold towel across my forehead. “Do you know where you are?” I shook my head calmy

“In case you didn’t notice, my names Natasha.” she swiped her finger across her nametag “You’re in New Brento. The local hospital.”

Sunlight kicked down the door along with Granite, who asked ecstatically “How’s she doing? Her arm?”

“Well…” replied Natasha “I’ve connected the muscle tissue correctly with the biofiber ligaments. Tests on reflexes suggest that it’s functioning properly, and the mismanagement light is a stable green.”

For a while I didn’t really take in exactly what they were talking about. But just listening to the sound of a human voice was comfort enough for me. My brain didn’t really kick in until I heard “Edien” coming from the sharp and secure voice of Natasha. I blinked a few times to reassure myself I was conscience. “Hows your arm” she asked. As soon as I heard the word “arm” directed at me and not in some idle conversation a distinct soreness spread across my right shoulder blade like moss on a stone. Turning my head towards the source of the pain I saw that I was not longer 100% human. But I just lay on my back, staring at my arm, which was now robotic. Mouth agate.

It didn’t look quite like a human arm, rather a crude re-creation using metal beams and rather straightforward technology. Nothing you’d see on Genesis. My forearm was just two parallel metal beams on the end of some kind of ball joint. My shoulder was sore, and a sunset red. My skin was being pinched together where the metal and the flesh converged. It almost looked like what someone from the distant past might imagine as “the future”. A single green pulsing LED was on the back on my hand. I couldn’t look at it anymore, so I turned to Granite, who was looking at me wearily.

“Try movin’ it” he said

“Wait! Actually…” interrupted Natasha. “Let’s just run some quick motor skill tests, hm?” she said.

“I’d rather not look at it” I replied. It seems I was ignored, however. Because before I could process what was going on Natasha had a stuffed animal in her hands. I didn’t recognize what animal. “I want you to hold onto this tightly” she said, slowly dropping it onto my “hand”. However, my metal fingers and palm collapsed under the intense pressure of the stuffed animal and it fell unto the floor. Natasha looked at me with her mouth slanted. “It may take a while for your body to completely recalibrate, your coordination may be off” she looked at her watch “It’s..about 5:30 in the afternoon. I think after a good night’s rest you should be able to use it, at least mostly. You might not get full control for a few days”

I sat up using my left arm and letting my robotic arm fall limp, when suddenly a rush of nausea and dizziness flooded my head. I leaned back a bit. “Relax” said Natasha. “We’ll get you to your bed soon enough”

And so it was. I was sent to my bed. My arm was completely numb. I didn’t expect any artificial nerves or anything but...it’s a disturbing feeling. Like wearing a tourniquet all the time.

My second night wasn’t any better. A thick sense of dread was in the musty air, like the calm before the storm. I didn’t sleep. I sat up, with my back against the wall. Tightening my new fist and releasing it, it felt like pressure was relieving itself. Satisfying in a sense. I don’t particularly remember the night, but I remember seeing tiny licks of sunlight breach the walls before passing out.

I dreamt of a sound. I heard somewhere that you dream every night and just don’t remember. Maybe that’s the case here. However I do have a vivid memory of cracking and smashing, with no picture to put it to. I do remember waking up in some kind of pretzel formation. Not good for my back or neck, which both ached like hell. A piercing knock on the door awoke me from my semi-consciousness. Of course, Granite entered with his hat to his chest. “Hi” he said.

I stared at him, rubbing the crust from my eyes. “Would you like to join us with the passing of a good community member?” he asked. I sat up quickly. “S-...someone died?” “Not exactly.” I got out of bed “Careful now” he said, holding my shoulder. I opened the door to find a congregation of townsfolk. Murmurs amongst them. In the center of all the commotion was an old man, sitting down in a chair with arms crossed and eyes closed. For some reason the chair was just out in the middle of town. “What is this?” I asked, instinctively tugging on Granite’s coat with my robotic arm. He gently pushed me to the side, signaling me to wait there. I had a good view of the old man, surrounded by people on one side, behind him was the town hall. “It’s been a good week, eh told timer?” said Granite, shaking the old man’s shoulder like one would to an old friend. The old man refused to open his eyes.

Granite coughed into his hand “So uh...you’re good? Settled? At peace?” The old man nodded slowly. “A moment of silence for Henry. Please.” Granite said, holding up his hat. I heard whispers of prayer and the shuffling of feet. A good minute passed. “Okay” Granite said, putting his hat back on his head. “Henry, you don’t have to do this? You can just speak, it’s honorable”

“Nothing about this is honorable” said Henry, in a raspy voice about to crack. “If this is how you want it to be” replied Granite, as he took a few paces back, and stuffing his hands in his coat pockets to pull out a small revolver, which he proceeded to point directly at Henry’s head.

“What the hell!?” I exclaimed speed-walking up to Granite. “What is this? What the fuck is going on?” “Language please” he said. “I’m sorry I can’t talk to you about it right now. Step back please.” “Is this man a...criminal?” I asked, shifting my hands and shuffling my feet. “N-...just...you’re gunna have to trust me on this. Just step back. Its how it’s gotta be”

I placed my trust in Granite. Remember what he’d done for me. I’m sure what he was doing was just.

Granite straightened his arm and the barrel of the revolver was only feet away from Henry’s forehead. I tried my best to ignore the thoughts in the back of my mind. I’ll just let life sort itself out on this one, and maybe if some deity has a problem some divine intervention would occur...or something? Not my problem...not my problem...not my-

It happened in a second. His head flayed open like a blossoming flower, and his body seized up but quickly slumped over. I was immediately overtaken with nausea and started to heave. I’ve seen the movies too, I’ve seen some bastard get horrifically injured in all sorts of media. Virtual Reality, News, In-Eye Films and classic theatres. I always thought to myself how ridiculous the amount of blood that was in those films, and you don’t really get that body is just a sack of flesh filled with gas, guts and blood until one pops in front of your very eyes.

I don’t remember exactly what happened after, I assume someone carried away the body. It was a blur. But that night I decided that I would not let life “sort itself it”. It’s my job to sort out life.

The wind was chilling that night. Waiting for tomorrow to come and go. I didn’t know exactly what I was waiting for. What the end goal as one might have. I try to visualize what I want to do, but it just seems so...unachievable. A house? Kids?...not die? I fought myself with a rag-tag group of philosophies all fighting to take charge of my life while I just sat. Eyes wide open, because whenever I closed them I could see Henry’s death so clearly. I didn’t know him in life, but I feel like I got all I needed to know in that one instant before his death. He was stoic. Resistant. He seemed pissed off like he wanted to fight or something, but he just...was still. It looked like if he had just lived for one more second he would of exploded out of a seething silent rage.

You know when people’s insides are outside they steam like a pot of boiling water.

I slept eventually. My body just quit. But I was awoken with a hard *crack*

“Shit” I heard someone whisper.

I stayed in my bed, eyes closed and listening to whoever was here. The night sky shone through the cracks in the roof, revealing some shadowy figure. I opened a slit in my eyes just to keep track of where my Xeosus rifle was just incase I had to do something, when I saw a well kept hand slide over it. What looked like smooth skin, no scratches. They touched my rifle and my hand shot out reflexively to stop them.

Cover blown.

I swung up in my bed and looked this person in the eyes. I couldn’t see much, but it was a mature looking lady with short hair. Which is why I didn’t expect her to greet me with “Fucking hell”

Her hand reached out and grabbed my mouth closed, her nails digging into my callous skin. “Say one word and I’ll shoot your Goddamn brains out” she whispered. Her hand slowly lowered.

“I wasn’t here” she continued. Gently gripping the rifle.

You know, sometimes I run these moments through my head. You know, like “if a killer showed up I would blah blah blah”...but you and I both know, neither of us have the balls to actually pull it off. Whatever the retarded scheme was. At that moment, I was shaking. Time to grab hold of life.

In a single instant my human hand gripped itself into a white hot ball and rocketed itself up towards my assailant, crashing into the bottom left side of her jaw with a satisfying crack. You could see her face bend like rubber and she reeled back into the wall, shaking the entire place and causing rust to rain down from the ceiling. She readjusted herself hastily and grabbed hold of my throat, tearing me down to the floor.

“You’ve ruined everything you fucking idiot” she muttered, placing her right boot on my chest. I could see her torso wind back as she curling up a fist and shot it into my face like a bullet. Lifting up the boot on my chest just to stomp it back down harder, air expelled from my mouth and I couldn’t really think. All I knew was I was getting the shit kicked out of me. My ribs cracked and my teeth rattled under her assault.

The door kicked down and moonlight flooded the room revealing the woman, and Granite, with a double barrel shotgun aiming down the sight. With a mighty stomp he tackled the woman and beat her down with the handle of his gun.

That’s all I remember of that night. Passed out on the floor.

The next morning I awoke and keeled into the fetal position. Still on the floor. I could feel the inside of my body toil away trying to fix the bruises and broken bits, I let it work, and fell in and out of consciousness.

Granite shook me awake. “We kinda need your help here” he said, extending his arm out to help me up. I denied, and got up myself. He pointed outside and what I saw was a very familiar predicament. The woman, kneeling, bound, surrounded by citizens. “Just say yes, when I ask” he muttered into my ear.

I walked next to the woman, her face was bright red and tears were streaming down her face. “So…” said Granite, loudly. “As the victim of this crime...you stand to let us know, do you want to follow through with the punishment”. He smirked and readied his revolver.

“...What the hell? You wanted me to say yes to this!?” I said, kind of just letting my conscience speak instead of my brain. He squinted at me.

“Why the hell are you so murder happy? Jesus H. Christ, at worse this was petty theft and assault. You want to kill her? What the hell!”

Granite grinded his teeth “You kid, you don’t understand one goddamn thing about this do you? Do you have an inkling of an idea of how hard my father has-...and I have worked on this settlement.” His face got uncomfortably close to mine, where I could feel the pushback of his heavy breathing.

“This town is...okay, let me clue you in, one thread, one fucking thread can unravel the whole goddamn ball, and do you know how hard i’ve work to keep this town “threadless”? Everything vetted by me. If this town falls, If...it won’t be from the outside. We keep a tight ship here, and I’m not going to compromise it just because you have some kind of idea of how to run this town. One thing goes wrong and the whole town collapses? Do you have a clue of what kind of stilts we have settle on to sustain life in this hellscape? We don’t have room for 2nd chances.”

He held his hands up and took a deep breath, ready to spout more at me. “I’m being nice here, I’m adhering to laws and tradition by letting you decide her fate”

“Oh wow” I said, scratching my head. “It wasn’t really my choice was it? You just want to me affirm your murder spree” I said, sweat washed down my face. “What a-...what a big man you are! Adhering to your own laws! Wow!” Okay maybe I took it a bit too far with the sarcasm. I’m...I’m messing with the bull right now...oh Christ.

“I see what you’re trying to do” replied Granite, wheezing. “You’re trying to make me out to be the villain, just doing what has to be done. I’m sorry we can’t all adhere to your personal morals. I can see now that you’re a fool who can’t make the hard decisions.”

“OH! I’m the fool!? Just because I didn’t give you the answer you want, because I didn’t give you the O.K to murder somebody I’m the fool”

“YES!” he shouted

“Hey will everyone...just...just stop?” said the woman, wiping her tears away. “Let me explain myself…” she said.

“Please do” I replied, glaring at Granite

The woman started shaking…”My...my name’s Caitlin. O-okay?...I...I work for One-Ex…”

“I knew it” interrupted Granite, pulling out his gun

“STOP!” she shouted “You kill me and they’ll come for this little...this little town!”

The crowd murmured. I just remembered that we were being watched by dozens of people

“I was sent to inspect settlements...you know, something the uh...planetary scanners can’t quite get...you understand, when I came into a little...uh...altercation. I needed equipment. If I had known who owned it I wouldn’t have taken it-anyway, What I’m saying is that if I die, if my heart stops beating, a chip will go off, sending data to the company. They’ll know I died after entering this town, and they won’t take kindly...I’m sorry. It’s just how it is.

Caitlin’s mouth began to quiver. “Look at her” I said

“She’s scared out of her mind, in over her head” I continued

“If you guys could...maybe help remove this chip...you guys would remain unscanned on the One-Ex map, at least for a little while...I will never show up again”

“How do I know you’re not bullshitting” said Granite

“I guess a-uh, semblance of trust is involved” she said.

Granite looked over at me with furled brows.

“Welp…” he said “We’re going to take the democratic route with this and pull a vote on what we should do, I’ll have to pull some strings and get people in-the-know but the vote should be ready soon;by tomorrow”

He leaned into me “People trust me to lead them, the man who brought this burg into prosperity-choice, by arduous choice. She’ll be staying with you tonight. I’m not wasting a spare room”

You know what, at that point it didn’t matter. I did something. I changed fate. I felt as if I was at the helm of my own life, and I can’t blame Granite at this point.

The sun set, Caitlin and I shared a meal in my little shanty. We hadn’t spoken since the incident, and I wasn’t too excited to break the ice.

“So…” I started

“Shut the fuck up, kid” she immediately said

“Uh-...okay”

…

“I know you” she said.

“Y-you do?”

“Yes, you wretched little leach” she continued “Planning your little rebellion by raiding the cargo bay? I saw that”

“Oh-...well It worked, didn’t it”

“I seem to recall you almost fucking dying in the sand”

“Well-”

“But that’s not what I care about, I’m here for my Comm-watch”

“Your what?”

“My comm-watch that you stole from my duffle bag, did you already forget, you goddamn dolt”

“Uhm…” a memory shot through my skull like a bullet

-searching though the inventory of things, useless trash. Family photos and stuffed animals mostly. When I noticed a pistol, powered by Plesium, yeah, the rare one. Must be pretty old to be powered by such prehistoric ammunition. It worked though, so I snatched it, and I snatched a Comm-Watch. Quickly latching it to my wrist.

I instinctively looked at my wrist, only to notice a distinct lack of arm. I reeled back in morbid realization.

“It’s uhm...it’s on my arm” I muttered

Her eyes shook back and forth. “I don’t see it” she said.

“Well, uh-my arms not here...with me...right now”

Her eyes contracted. “Where is it, then?”

“Few miles north of here, on the ground.”

“Okay, guess who’s going to help me get it?”

“Me?”

“You.”

“I-...okay”

“Interesting turn of events” Caitlin continued “I literally track you all the way here just for what? This is on you. So we’re going to get it. Both of us.”

“I’m dead weight” I replied

“So you die trying” she retorted.

“Don’t you think this is a little excessive just for a Comm-watch?”

“...Don’t tell me what to think. We’re going. Right now.”

“What? Now!?”

“If I have to see this shithole ever again it’ll be too soon”

“Well-Caitlin I don’t think I can just up and g-”

“My names not Caitlin, okay? Do you know how easy it is to weave a string of bullshit and have people just straight up beleive you? Appeal to their “better nature” and emotions. Maybe shed some tears yourself if you really want to up the ante. Works every time.”

“What a sec, so they whole spiel with you crying was...fake?” I asked

“I don’t waste the truth in the service of fucking idiots.”

“Wait so, what’s your real name?”

“Its...its Hanna.”

“That’s a, uhm...a good na-”

“Shut up shh shh shh” said Hanna as she creaked open the door, the moon directly overhead.

“We can’t exactly open the gate” she said “However there is a building whose roof peaks over the brim of the wall. We get to that building it shouldn’t be hard to hoist ourselves up and make a break for it over the wall”

I stood still, grinding my teeth together and wringing my hands. “Lets go- Now” repeated Hanna

I didn’t think, I just left.