Steel Hearts

Chapter [1] Runaway

The entire community was on lockdown. I crawled through the small hole in the fence that me and some local kids cut out two nights prior. My hands sunk into the mush of green and brown mud as I slithered like a snake beneath the sharp metal prongs. The muck released an odor that tortured my sense of smell. Fumes from the Gatherers mixed with human decay infected the soil. A smell I had become familiar with ever since earth had begun to die.

Before I stood, the ground rumbled, forcing me back onto my knees and hands. Lying low on my stomach, I waited as three Reconnoiterers zoomed by without noticing me, almost splashing a puddle of mud into my mouth. I pinched my lips into a fine line, allowing my breath to settle inside my throat. Soon as they proceeded on by, I exhaled, pushing myself up onto my feet. The flashing lights of the police force disappeared into the foggy distance. 

You better be there Chase, my words blazed through my mind.

I adjusted the hood of my jacket over my head, gazed around, and started to run. So long the Recons didn’t show up, I would be fine. All I needed was five minutes to get there. I had timed the distance and my running speed the night before. But that was in the dark. Going out in the daylight was a risk, one I was willing to take.

Five minutes, Mila, I reminded myself.

Flashing red lights were ahead, piercing through the cloud of fog.

I dove off the side of the road and into the ditch. My fingers disappeared beneath the mud, engulfed inside a hard object. I inhaled, my breath hitched inside my throat. I tried not to cry out in panic while another Recon drove by, patrolling ahead of a Gatherer. They were going into the community. The massive machine built of steel, settled on twelve gigantic wheels, slowly thundered past me, its sheet plated walls reflecting the Recon’s flashing lights. When the vehicle’s disappeared, I looked down, noticing a human skull surfaced. I pulled my hand free, skittering back onto my feet. With haste, I jumped back onto the road and started to run, never once looking back.

“This is harder… than I thought… it would be,” I muttered between breaths.

Running had come easy to me before the Change happened, when unknown elements seeped from the core of the planet. I had been the fastest girl in my school. Almost matching Chase’s time, but no one, not even I could beat him.

A hand grabbed my wrist, yanking me off the road to hide behind the trunk of a dead tree.

“Chase,” I gasped. “You scared me!”

He flashed his million dollar smile. “You’re too fast, I had to act quickly.” His smile dropped when he noticed me shaking uncontrollably. “What happened?”

“A Gatherer,” I exhaled, trying to catch my breath, “and a skull.”

Chase’s eyes widened. “That’s it?” he teased.

I slapped his arm, and then wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. It was nice, our cool lips against one another. Pulling away from our embrace, I examined him closely. I could never get enough of his handsome face. He had that surfer boy look, the sandy blond hair set in waves, tickling the lobes of his ears and nape of his neck. Cerulean eyes, the color of the prettiest ocean water I’d only remembered from pictures from the past.

“Have you ever touched a human skull before?” I asked him, all joking aside. “The Gatherer was headed to our community. They were collecting.”

“More deaths…”

I nodded. “I can’t help but think of the kids at my foster home, Chase. Even if I hated it there, the others were left behind.”

The Gatherers came more frequently. It was the cremator on wheels. A larger, scarier version of a dump truck, only they weren’t meant for trash, but burning bodies. I knew the smell of burning hair, flesh, and bone all too well.