Machine God: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Final Draft)

War Secret

Lanterns oozed rainbow-colored lights.

Oddities lurked inside transparent cylinders.

Pierced couches and naked walls with steel-pillars dominated the scene. Add a round bar in the center of the floor and you had one heck of a post-industrial club atmosphere. So far, I couldn't spot a single soldier, but I'm sure they lurked around, just like the omnipresent cams.

Ceedee waved me over to a spot in the corner where steel tables and torn-apart couches awaited me.

"It's our group hangout. You're lucky. You get a seat even though you're not part of the posse."

"What do I need to do to become a member?" I said with half a smile on my face.

"Prove yourself. Cover your comrade's back in the Lost Lands and show that you can be trusted. Out there, it's all about relying on each other."

"You're sounding all doomy and gloomy," Glitch said and turned to me.

"Just hang with us, make yourself useful and you get a chance to join."

"It's not that easy," Hecto said.

I tried to ease the creeping tension. Whenever I showed up, the mood tended to drop below zero, which was never my goal. Maybe it was my newcomer status that pissed people off. In this world, you had to prove your worth, every single day. And the Bulwark citizens doubted mine so far.

My glance fell to the barkeeper mixing wondrous liquids.

"You can get drunk around here?"

Ceedee licked her lips.

"Officially, no. But it's amazing what can happen when you talk to the right people."

"I'm going to order the drinks," Hecto said, "what do you all want?"

"The Burgle Buster," Glitch said.

"Leach Lemonade," Ceedee said.

"Anything that's blue," the new girl said.

"Got it."

He didn't ask me but I didn't mind. When Hecto approached the barkeeper, I rotated my head back to the rest of the round. Without the heavy-weight being present, the atmosphere relaxed. The perfect moment to set things straight.

"So, what exactly happened?"

Ceedee raised her eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"The world. Why are there abandoned cities? Why is everything leveled to the ground and drowned in sand?"

Conversation killer number one.

The silence dropped to subzero and frosted everyone in their tracks.

"We're not supposed to talk about it," the girl to my right said.

It was a wonder she could still hear me with her headphones on.

Ceedee weighed in.

"The Bulwark committee says the past does not equal the future."

"Agreed, but aren't you curious? I mean, all those forsaken ruins and skyscrapers. Someone had to build and live in them, right?"

More silence from the group.

Either no one but me cared, or they were too scared to talk about it. Maybe we were still being put under surveillance.

Glitch pretended to look at some tech gadget, the new girl dove into her headphone world. Only Ceedee held the eye contact with me.

"We've lost the war and have to deal with the consequences now. It isn't pretty, but it's the only reality we got. Many survivors have fled the Lost Lands and regrouped in clusters such as ours."

"Drinks are here," a deep voice said behind me.

Hecto served the liquids that glowed in bombast colors.

A stark contrast to the rest of the cluster.

Especially the long glass with the gleaming blue looked unhealthy. Hecto sat on his ragged recliner and opened himself to the round.

"What were you guys jabbing about?"

Ms. Headphone shared her opinion.

"Your new friend is asking a lot of questions about the past."

Hecto stared holes into my eyes.

"Uh-oh. Asking questions about the past and the future is a no-go around here, buddy. We live in the moment and serve the cluster."

Taken straight from the Bulwark textbook. My next question actually dealt with the cluster's origin, but I guessed I could drop that one. The direct approach seemed to be mute, that's why I tried to come from a different angle.

"So, you're all different classes?"

Hecto answered first.

"I'm a veteran soldier, Ceedee's a regular soldier, Yuki's a nuisance."

Ms. Headphones choked on her blue drink.

"Hey now."

At least the group was capable of making jokes.

"And your roles were assigned by the Bulwark committee?"

Ceedee nodded.

"We all had to take the assessment tests which were evaluated by the committee. Then we got assigned to the classes based on our test results."

Ceedee looked at me.

"We're in desperate need of good soldiers. Most are not up to the job."

"The few that are die like moths during the operations," Glitch said with eyes rolling down.

"It's that bad?" I said.

Hecto nodded.

"Worse. We have come to a level where the committee has to accept folks unfit for the missions. You'll see more and more kids getting butchered in the Lost Lands."

"Sounds terrible."

"It's reality," Hecto said and focused on my face.

"You probably won't survive your first mission."

"Thanks for the pep talk."

"Boy, if you need a pep talk, you're in the wrong place."

"It's not that I had choice."

"You guys," Ceedee said, "let's quit the fire, alright? This is the only place that allows us to relax from the terror. Let's keep it that way."

Word.

Hecto cooled down, at least on the surface. Ceedee pushed her rainbow-colored drink toward me, much to the big guy's dismay.

"What's inside?"

"If I tell you, it will spoil all the fun."

My lips reached the rim of the glass. The liquid flushed down my gamut and caused a riot. I coughed uncontrollably and became the laughing stock of the group.

"Is that gasoline?"

"Not really," Ceedee said in-between the chuckling, "although it does fuel you. At least your loss of decency."

I took another sip and pushed the drink back to her. Whatever was inside, it burned my insides out, and that was the last thing I wanted to happen today. My commcuff told me I had about twenty-two minutes of leisure time left, so I used it wisely. To ease up the round, I revealed my training mistake where I shot the grapple gun and swung into the wall-sized windows. That caused a smile on everyone's face, except on Hecto's.

Apart from the big man's grumpiness, instinct told me to stay with this group. The more I'd warm up to them, the sooner they'd tell me about the secrets of this world.

Including that mysterious war they seemed to have lost.

"Now look at that."

A frosty voice screeched from behind me.