"What in the hell are you doing here?!" Machida growled and tightened his grip on the snake. The snake choked, "I know what you're here to see. I can take you there!"
Kitt walked up behind Machida, "Is that the Chameleon?"
"Yes, and I'm not surprised that those idiots let him out of their sight!" Machida loosened the grip on the snake and let it thud onto the metal floor. The snake then morphed back into a human, Kuro, lying on the ground. He massaged his neck, his voice even more hoarse than usual, "I know you're here to see the engine room. I know where it is."
"This isn't a trap is it, snake?"
"I'd be putting myself in danger too, but you need me to get in there without someone dropping dead." Kuro's dark eyes glared up at him.
Machida sucked his teeth, "Fine, you'll show us the way." He turned and stormed back into the corridor as Kuro got up.
Kitt walked up to Kuro, "The one and only, Chameleon. Didn't know you could turn into a snake, color me impressed."
"Don't call me Chameleon." Kuro walked past him, and Kitt followed. "Oh yeah~, calling you Chameleon doesn't make sense anymore, huh? Well, it sounds better than Snake."
They walked down the maze of corridors of the lower floor with Kuro in front, until they came to a corner. The roar of the engine room grew closer.
"Grab my shoulders, both of you. We need to go invisible past this corner." Kuro demanded in a hushed voice.
"Yooo, we can go invisible like you?" Kitt gasped and gripped Kuro's shoulder, and Machida too.
"Just be quieter around here. This hall has the door to the engine room. What do you want to do in there, Machida?"
"I just want to look inside, there have been rumors about the green smoke from this thing I want to confirm."
"Good, simple. Let's go, and be quiet. I'll take care of the cameras." Kuro's invisibility spread from his body to theirs, and he turned the corner. 2 guards were next to one door. Kuro pulled out three darts and shot them at the cameras. He listened to the deafening pumps of the engine. He revealed his fingers and counted the intervals, 1, 2, 3, 4, pump. He repeated the intervals, confirming the pattern. Retracting the invisibility from his head, he glanced at Machida and nodded.
It's a plan then. Kuro thought as they walked closer to the two guards. Kuro and Machida readied themselves.
1, 2, 3, 4... and when the pump sounded, Kuro's invisibility halted, and the guards were greeted with two fists rocketing into their temples, knocking them out instantly.
"Open the door with the keycard. We have about 5 minutes before they wake up." Kuro opened the door quietly as he whispered, "3 minutes to find what you're looking for, and 1 minute to get out. I'll keep watch." Machida and Kitt ran past the door and into the room, the door closing behind them. "You two don't make a bad-" Kitt started. "Don't you dare, Kitt." Machida glared at him. "Yeesh." The atmosphere changed. The metal-plated walls looked as if veins ran through them. Aside from the clanking of Machida's and Kitt's shoes, it was deathly silent. The two ran to the nearest door they could find, looking up at the sign above it.
"'Playroom'?" This close to an engine?" Kitt gulped. Machida got his keycard out again and tried the door. BEEP. "Shit, the door's above even a guard-grade card." He rubbed the fogged window with his sleeve and looked inside, searching for anything relevant. His body froze in place, his eyes reddened as he stared on through the window. "What? What do you see?!" Kitt went up on his toes to look through the window. "Oh god..."
In the middle of the room was a large, pulsating machine. It expanded in and out like a lung, and it had tubes that spread out to the corners of the room. Six thin children were strapped into chairs and stripped of their tops. Their backs hunched abnormally, connected to tubes of the machine, the source of the pumping sound. Kitt grabbed his throat, trying to contain himself from vomiting. He started glitching from head to toe uncontrollably. The tubes seemed to suck away at the children's backs, like parasites on soft flesh. Machida continued to stare, squinting his eyes through the foggy, tempered glass. He looked at each of the children closely, their eyes were void, and there was a symbol on each of them.
"They're...Omegas." Machida turned away and down at Kitt, who was knelt and vomiting on the floor. His scrunched face was resting against the door. There was a screeching sound of metal, enough to make Machida's ears bleed, "Kitt! We have to go! We'll...we'll figure this out later!" He grabbed his arm and yanked him away from the door, dragging him from the engine room. As he ran towards the door they came from, Kuro appeared in front of them. "No questions yet. We have to go." He picked Kitt up from Machida's hands and threw his fist into his stomach. Kitt perked up and got on his feet, gagging and holding his stomach. "Okay, okay!"
Metal continued to screech all over the Gila, and the three of them kept running until a loud bang rang out close to them. Kuro looked around stealthily, "Shit, it really is them. We need to get back to the passenger level."
"Them? You don't mean the pirates do you? Are you-are you running away from them?!" Machida growled.
"I'm not going to have this conversation with you. If you want to sit here and die, then go ahead. I'm not staying." Kuro shrunk down to his snake form and slithered away before Machida could insult him. He glared back at Kitt, whose eyes were still gazing at nothing. "Kitt!" He grabbed Kitt by his collar, "Get it together! We have to stay focused, the people on board are in danger! The Wasteland Pirates are going to work their way up to the passenger level. We are what is in between them and the passengers. We have to defend them!"
Kitt's eyebrows suddenly flared, "No!" His voice wobbled, "You just don't want to go back down there! You're scared, aren't you, General?!" Machida's grip loosened.
"It sounds funny, doesn't it?! A general that runs from something that cruel and doesn't look back!" Kitt grabbed Machida's arm and yanked himself out of his grasp. He stumbled and glitched on the metal floor before getting up and running back, still glitching along the way. Machida watched him go, his hand still in the air.
A light erupted from the corner of Machida's eyes, and as he turned to face it, he felt his mind race as he flew back, his vision turning white.
———
"Hey Eggshell, this is the place, we land here." A voice sounded on the intercom of Machida's plane. He found himself flying a plane in a cloudy, pasty sky. His eyes slowly opened, and his fingers curled around the sweat-covered yoke on the plane and snapped into focus, "Y-yes! This is a survivor rescue, isn't it?" Machida looked around his helicopter and saw one other person inside. "Uh yeah, the general already told us like ten times already."
"General?" Machida whispered to himself as he loosened his grip on the steering sticks.
"Alright, lower us down already!"
Machida's mind raced, but he pulled himself together and landed the helicopter. The clouds hung low, and the city's remains still crumbled in spots, spreading dust and dirt. As Machida stepped out, the silence was louder than the helicopter's whirring blades. Far off in the distance, Machida spotted a bunker, "Hey, uh- I see a bunker over there! Is the ground clear?!".
"It should be, now let's go!" The man jumped out of the helicopter and followed Machida's lead. Dust flew into Machida's eyes, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was just sand or recent ashes. The bunker's door shook and burst open, a woman climbed out.
"Wait! We must wait for the rescue, madam!" An old man followed her. Soon, almost everyone from the bunker had crawled out, covered in dust and grime. "Wait! Don't move from where you are! We have to call for backup!" Machida yelled but watched helplessly as the people surged out of the door. There were dozens: lone adults, lone children, full families, and parted families. Some reacted hopefully to seeing the world again, and to others, the world was as grim as it had always been. "God... is this place cleared of bombs?" Machida turned to his partner, "I think we should call in. You have the phone, don't you?" His partner nodded and dug in his pockets for the phone, "Yeah, they confirmed four hours ago."
As things settled down and the survivors waited outside, some children began playing, staying close to their mothers or fathers. "They're on their way with passenger ships. This is the only bunker in the city, so these people are likely the only survivors." Machida's partner sat down on the sandy ground, a bit away from the survivors.
"It's horrible. How something like this is normal for them. We already used all the food we had, and they're still starving." Machida fiddled with the sand.
"Ishbel's been like this since the age of monarchs, so it only makes sense for them to be used to it by now. I guess it does suck, though."
Machida gulped as he watched a girl play with a small ball.
"It's great to see some of them be happy, though."
He could hear her mother yell, "Nana! Don't run too far-". She was cut off by a blast of light, and an explosion that pierced Machida's eardrums. Fiery clouds blew into his face, fading to black.
———
Machida's heart pumped, and he gasped as he woke up on the metal floor. He felt around with his hands, there was no sand, no ashes. Fire crackled behind him, and a hole in the ship creaked open further.
"Group 1 goes with me to the passengers! Group 2 goes down to the engine room! Now go!". The pirates climbed through the hole and began to split up.
Another stupid memory, I have to snap out of it! Machida thought as he stood up, revealing himself to the pirates. "We got a straggling passenger folks! You two can take care of this raisin, can't ya?!" The leader shoved his way past his group and went ahead to the staircase.
Machida slapped himself out of his hazy state and flexed his arms, "This won't end up like last time."
Machida's right arm transformed into a sub-machine gun, pointing it at the pirates, "You're dead."