The Retribution Initiative

Beautiful Home

-Lucas-

Tendrils of yellow grass painted my vision. Broken stems pricked at the soft skin on my neck. My entire body hurt.

I blinked through the ache in my skull, trying to clear the blurriness swimming in my sight. The hum of the highway whined high above me, the golden current slicing across the stormy sky. I squinted at it. Where did my car go? The flying vehicles were indistinguishable from the ground, just dark pebbles in a gurgling creek. After a moment, I gave up. Hopefully the drones shot each other to oblivion and crashed.

I was suddenly aware of how uncomfortable I was. Beyond the aches in my body, there were sharp things poking me everywhere. The dry grass scratched across my skin. Something jagged was jabbing my spine with every breath. I rolled over wth a groan and a chorus of crunches from the shattered mail drone. Broken propellers and metal shrapnel stabbed my arms and legs.

"Ahhhh," I hissed through my teeth, trying to find a clean patch of dirt to place my hands. "That hurts." A small pebble embedded itself in my palm as I pushed myself up. It left a dent in my skin when I brushed it away. I stood, running my fingers over the dent mindlessly. Yellow was everywhere. The earth painted itself upwards in grassy strokes, waving delicately in the wind. The grass cut into the horizon in a sharp line, yellow on blue-grey. Large, boulder-strewn hills rolled on my left. To my right, a small building rose out of the expanse. Thunder throbbed in the distance. I had to get out of the open.

I decided to take my chances with the building. I took a final glance at the little mail carrier that had saved my life. It was shattered pitifully, scattered like ashes amongst the grass stalks.
"Thanks, um..." I felt stupid for talking to a bunch of metal. I waved my hand vaguely towards the sky. "Yeah. Anyways."

I turned and waded into the grass. My thighs were sore and my knees felt like overstretched rubber bands. My sprint through the city earlier had entirely fatigued my body. I wasn't used to exertion like that. I tried to ignore the heaviness in my limbs, keeping my eyes focused on the building in the distance.

This meadow must be part of the Reparation Zone, I had decided. The openness of the landscape was foreign to me. I'd never been somewhere so... big. I missed the safe shadows of my skyscrapers. Out here, it seemed like anything was possible. What was hiding in the grass?

Maybe there were real spiders here. I tried to remember my island history classes. I knew that the Reparation Zone was an area of the island that had been set aside for rehabilitation back in sixties. For decades, most of Hayl's natural resources had been destroyed by the ferricon mining industry. All of our rivers had been severely polluted. Much of the wildlife had died. Pretty much everyone just put up with it. But then in the fifties, we got a leader who actually cared to do something about the island. Luverne Jarrell, champion of Hayl. From what I remember in my history class, everyone loved her, both Cretians and Endars. She organized several large initiatives to start restoring the natural elements of Hayl. The Reparation Zone was her biggest effort. It was a massive swathe of old mining ground that had been purchased from the mines. She had a bunch of scientists come out and replant native plants that had been cultivated in labs. They dug a handful of waterways to simulate the old rivers. I think they even tried to reintroduce a few wildlife species, although I'm not sure how well they did. We've always had acid rainstorms on the island, despite Luverne's efforts. Not many insects or animals probably enjoy those. I sure don't.

I was starting to get sick of this meadow. The grass was only about shin-height, but it was a pain to walk through, literally. Each stalk of grass drooped with a pendulous grain head. The heads were covered in sharp barbs that pricked me with each step. Now that I looked closer, I realized that the barbs had clung to my work uniform. From knees down, my work pants were spotted with nasty yellow spikes that prickled my skin. I tried to brush them off. They refused to budge.