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

Die down here?

The diggers mumbled to the soldier who played with his Dust Viper. He fumbled around the firearm like a bored child messing with its toy. A toy with enough firepower to splatter our heads wide open.

Something in the distance trickled, maybe an open pipe.

Going plop, plop.

The dusty air reeked of concrete and filled my lungs.

Probably annoying at some point, but I spent my attention on Ann-Lyze, and on Ann-Lyze alone.

The darkness hid my glance from her, otherwise I would have looked like a stalker. When Nathan sounded asleep, I crawled from my position and neared Ann-Lyze in slow steps. Knelt next to her and watched her father's silent face.

"How's it looking?"

She wiped his sweat-ridden forehead with a piece of the cloth.

"He's very weak. I think he might have some fractures, or at least fissures. Thank tech I disinfected the wound and injected a quickheal. Let's hope for the best."

"Yes."

That's the only word I could add.

For a while, I just watched Ann-Lyze fostering her father, but when the silence became awkward, my mouth opened.

"You work in the Bulwark's R&D section, right?"

"Yes."

"What exactly are you working on?"

She spied around, possibly looking for eavesdroppers. The soldier was engaged with the diggers and sat at least ten meters away from us. They'd never hear us, until they wore some kind of hearing aid.

"Don't worry, there's no security cam, and certainly no Konforma around."

It was delivered tongue-in-cheek, but Ann-Lyze wasn't in the mood for jokes.

"Bulwark will take away my rights if I tell you."

That was possible. Heck, they took away my rations just because I was slipping out some sarcasm.

"Truth is, we might never see the Bulwark again. They're probably not looking for us, and without the APC, we don't stand a chance traversing the desert of the Lost Lands."

A horrendous statement that made Ann-Lyze swallow hard.

But it also meant she didn't have much to fear.

The cluster was hundreds of kilometers away.

Ann-Lyze pushed herself closer to me and said,

"I was studying the tech rubble and artifacts the Bulwark recon teams had accumulated over the years."

Tech artifacts here was that word again.

Only this time, I had the liberty to follow up.

"What exactly are these artifacts?"

She lowered her volume but I could still hear every single word.

"They're remnants from the Great Collision. Precious technology that lies buried in the Lost Lands. Everyone tries to find operative parts that can be used to gain a technological advantage over the enemy."

"Everyone?"

"The Bulwarks, the Technoids, the scavengers. And countless other factions. With so few resources around, everything becomes precious. Especially the artifacts."

I nodded and listened to her voice with care.

"You have seen the Technoid's armor and their weapons, right?" Ann-Lyze said.