Automation Era: The Battlefield

[2] bro, chill (please)

[2] bro, chill (please)

I woke up next to my phobia.

With the sedative still slowing my senses, I saw it in an ugly haze of wrinkly blue and foamy white, like a wet painting crumpled then flattened again and put in front of my vision. A terrible salty scent crept into my nose.

Of course. Of course Location A would be near a stupid ocean. Which we'd never seen with our own eyes. Ever. (And I'd never wanted to, thanks.) Out of all the weird places we could've started in, all the coordinates in the world Epsilon conquered, he'd chosen this-

My palm was burning.

My palm was burning?

And my front. And my legs. And feet. Everything. Grunting, I shifted and glanced below me; I was lying on my stomach on scorching hot sand. Golden crystals, millions of them. So...a beach. We were on a beach. What the hell was next? A forest? All the animals that'd gone extinct pouncing at us?

"Jake? You okay?"

Scarlett's voice. I propped my torso up on an elbow and looked at her. She was stumbling for balance, still fighting the last traces of the sedative. "I'm alright," I said. I should've gotten up, but the sand distracted me. We'd never seen it either. Never touched it. So I held a fistful and let it sift through my fingers. Hot like fire, soft like silk. I smiled.

"Jake. What're you doing?" Scarlett caught me by the arm and heaved me up; I moved with the force, but I couldn't stop staring at my surroundings like an idiot. As if we'd traveled back in time, before the world coalesced into a sphere of metal. So weirdly fascinating. "Looks like what we saw in videos. In pictures. Before the Automation Era."

I nodded. Scarlett patted sand off my arm, then I cleaned the rest on my own. Subconsciously, I stayed close to her. At the shoreline a wooden bridge led to a small cabin.

Scarlett clutched my wrist. I sensed the urgency through the harsh lock of her fingers. When I looked at her, she was gazing at our left, her shoulders tense. I didn't need to ask. She must've sensed something. Then she stepped back and bumped into me, as if about to spin and run for her life.

"Jake," she said, still looking towards our left where looming trees lined the edge of the beach near the cabin, "we're gonna run now, okay? I think there's something there."

I nodded even though I wanted to check rather than run. She tugged at my wrist and took off and towed me behind. We ran. For, like, 0.48 meters. Not even half. That was when someone seized my arm, forcing me back. Scarlett crashed into me. Then we both stumbled forwards, just about tripping over each other.

"It blows my mind how stupid everyone here is." A young boy's voice. Young and furious. When I recovered from the entire shebang, I looked at Scarlett and found her standing with the boy's double-edged sword pressed onto her neck. My jaw dropped. Either because my sister was in danger, or because holy shit, the dude was holding a sword. An ancient weapon. "Are you two idiots new here? No one's told you that you don't step anywhere near my territory?"

Before I could speak or so much as move a muscle, the boy drew another identical sword (30.2 inches long, by the way) and jabbed me in the chest. I stepped back. He dug the glistening tip deeper. It pushed into my flesh. I froze, petrified. The boy's face was still tilted in Scarlett's direction, making sure she wouldn't pull a stunt, but now he finally looked at me. The sensory overload stunned me.