OGENUS EARTH 🌎 🌊 {Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure}

The Man Who Sold The World

Midge tightened her grip around Arturo's hand, squeezing out the nerves that seemed to spill over in her already full mind.

"Ouch." Arturo laughed, glancing over at Midge's puckered face. "Don't worry my friend, this will all be over soon."

"Where's MAX?" Midge answered, her mind determined to keep going. "Does he need to read your vitals before we go aboard?"

"We've taken care of that." MAX piped up from his place near the stove, where the others had forgotten. In fact, if MAX were to fit itself against the wall, it would most certainly blend in with the other hardware of the ship. "And I will be on hand should Arturo need medical assistance."

"No," Arturo told the bot and the rest of the room. "I need you to stay here. I will have Meg's eyes to watch, but I need your special abilities here."

MAX did not argue but instead rolled towards the back of the ship.

"You hurt his feelings." Big Joe chuckled, his tone darker than anyone, including Harrison, had heard before.

"It's a bot." Olivia reminded Big Joe. "They don't have feelings, or require personal pronouns."

"He seems like one of the crew to me." Big Joe shrugged off Olivia's correction. "I like the little guy!"

MAX chirped a series of happy beeps in response that echoed through the ship.

The Black Marlin coasted easily into the mouth of Arc City Two's shipping bay and floated in place while the massive clawed doors groaned closed behind them. 

Water began draining from the room through hatches in the floor, forced out of the city through pressurized valves. The ship gently came to a rest on the floor with a muted thunk.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Olivia asked when nothing else happened and nobody moved. "Open the door and put down the gangplank so we can get out there."

"No," Harrison answered simply, tossing a look in her direction. "We wait to see who comes in here, first."

As if on cue, the red door at the back of the curved room split along its biased axis and slide back into the wall. There, centered in the doorframe were four women, all of them looking as if they were fresh off a battlefield.

"Mine-God." Big Joe breathed in his Bavarian accent. "What happened to them?"

"Nothing good," Harrison muttered back. "You ready?"

Harrison's last question was for Arturo only, to which the old man nodded stoically. Arturo was anxious to help those women and see to the safety of any survivors, but first, he had to understand what had taken place.

The women walked in formation, moving in time to one another's strides. Their expressions were grim between the streaks of bruises and blood on their necks and faces. Harrison released the hatch to the door and lowered the plank. Everyone, except Meg, listened for the cranking and slotting of metal to stop before getting up.

Midge clung to Arturo's withered arm, fretting over how frail he seemed. Big Joe moved to the front of the team, his way of protecting his friends should the worst occur. Harrison watched Olivia and Meg as he joined Big Joe. Olivia coaxed her friend up carefully from the bench. Almost as if she felt the need to protect Meg from something, Olivia kept the girl positioned behind her.

Outside, Lauren was copying Sarah's actions while Bethany shadowed them both. Gayle strode with certainty her steps reverberating on the still-damp floor. None of them held a weapon now, the need for protection was over.