It is yet another gloomy night in Arcade City, though this night certainly wouldn't be as normal as it usually is-well, as normal as this broken-promise paradise can be.
The usually silent scrapyard is nothing but the violent pelting of rain barraging sheet metal and chunks of forgotten tech.
This wasn't this young girl's first scavenging run by a long stretch, but she would have to be as careful and swift as always; the scrap dogs were patrolling per usual.
"Hey come home quick will ya? Busy here tonight."
She presses her ear activating a small device.
"But I want to go closer to the centre..."
"I mean it Vienna. I need the help."
The girl pouts.
"Fine I'll be fast pa."
"Good. Hope you find us a real treasure this time and not a damn mini fridge."
"Hey, it sold."
The call ends, Vienna sighs and raises her hood; she gets to work sneaking deeper into the landfill.
The usual routine. Crawl through the red car door, wait for the first sentry to pass, continue to the left until you hit the second hole in the broken fence, through the tunnel of scrap-making sure to watch your arm on the shattered pipe to the right.
This is when things start to get difficult. This is when Vienna usually stops heading deeper in and settles for whatever she can find in this area. The scrap dogs were programmed to follow set specific circles around the scrapyard, with the deepest areas swarming with more and more of the metallic beasts and less area for them to wander. Not tonight, this time she was going all in. She knew it was possible, the security here were dangerous but not overly intelligent; their limited programming made it easy to abuse the scrap dogs sightlines, looking for the right moment in their patrol pattern would make it possible to head deeper in, though what lied past this nook was unknown to Vienna.
It was a risk she was willing to take, she was tired of settling for second best. Her desire to discover what lied beyond was far too great. She bide her time and waited.
3 minutes passed. 6. 12. Minutes of watching and waiting, something she had done here for almost years now. This was her moment. The dog to her left almost passing, with the second one to come from the right just 3 seconds later. Her window.
She prepared herself for the speed and composure required to dart through the alley of jagged metal in mere seconds. Her next safe spot in front of her, a dark cranny amongst a sea of scrap, a tunnel leading to what she could only imagine as hidden treasure.
Here it came, the dog on her left. Step after step after step she counted, waiting to make her dash. The cyan lights from its primitive viewport lighting up the path in front of her, it was close enough to kick at this point. It passed, this was finally the moment she'd make her move, months of working herself up to do it, she darted into the crevice, mere milliseconds before the second watch would pass.
Vienna finally did it, what lied beyond was a mystery-but it was time to find out.
The dark passage seemed to continue for miles, seemingly getting longer as she clambered through. She did not feel discouraged for a moment, having spending so much time to find herself here, Vienna pressed on.
It wasn't much longer until she found what she needed. Plants. Flowers. This was the jackpot. Nothing like this was even thought to exist anymore outside of terrariums in the highest corporate towers. What Vienna had before her she couldn't even begin to fathom the value of, possibly even reaching into digits in the millions. She would never have to work another day in her entire lifetime.
Vienna got straight to work climbing into the floral opening, snipping as much of the flowers she could without damaging them.
Under the mass of flowers she found something strange; a hand.
A corpse? No. The body was warm, fresh, and breathing fine. It was a boy with long waist-high black hair. What kind of implants did he have? They weren't even visible. There was a tattoo on his wrist. A number four in numerals.
Was he responsible for this hidden grove? Before Vienna could even think more about this stranger, his eyes slowly shook open.
She fell back, surprised by the stranger awaking. He weakly raised an arm towards her, as if beckoning her to come closer. Before Vienna could act, he fell unconscious again. Her curiosity was tearing her apart from the inside, she had to help him to learn more about this place. About him.
With barely a second thought, she gently scooped him up into her arms, his body slowly dragged out from under layers and layers of what seemed like hundreds of flowers. Dozens of small cuts and pricks covered his naked body, his skin was sensitive enough to be torn by rose thorns, he must of not had a lot of his skin grafted for implants. Looking forward, Vienna noticed something she hadn't before, another entrance into the junk-laden chamber. Only, this entrance led directly to the back of the junkyard, something that she should of very obviously seen months ago. It originally seemed like this stranger was coming and going from here for quite some while now, but that theory just changed.
Her dad would have to wait a little longer tonight, she had to take her new find to a doctor.
