Three days into the trip and Midas was already sick of the soylent foam bricks they had for meals. Sure they lasted practically forever, and could be stored at most environmental temperatures, so they were easy to rely on for long trips. But they tasted like nothing and had the consistency of soggy stuffing. Somehow the people in the slums managed to somewhat cook the garbage into something slightly more palatable, but it was an effort to eat it straight from the foil packaging.
According to Whip they would reach Mortenheim by nightfall that day, so at least they were already halfway through their terrible meals and one step closer to returning to the bland but edible stuff back home. So long as they found what they were looking for that night and didn’t have to spend too long scrounging around for it. If they did then Midas would start to seriously consider eating something, anything else that he could find that wouldn’t kill him. He couldn’t count on them running into another caravan. Maybe if they were closer to Eutoli he may have gotten his hopes up. But that was on the opposite side of the deserted bowl the three cities and multitude of ruins rested in. There was no way they would find one anywhere near Mortenheim since it was mainly an abandoned city full of nothing but monsters and the occasional ruffian holed up in it. The prime reason there was a pretty high chance things were left untouched. The average human could never survive there for long without rare and expensive technology.
Midas’ mental complaining about their food resources ended up derailed before they could even see hints of Mortenheim on the horizon as an alarm started quietly beeping on his motorcycle. His eyes briefly glanced down at the minimal monitors, and he heaved a sigh before turning his head slightly towards Whip behind him.
“We’ve got company!”
The shout over the rushing wind got the others’ attention easily enough; Whip sitting up a bit more and drawing his blade while Ian glanced over.
“How many?” Whip asked, turning his gaze to scan the surroundings for hints on where their visitor was.
“Just one so far! On the right,” Midas called back, adjusting his grip on the motorcycle controls just in case.
“Just one? That’s not much of a challenge,” Whip repeated with an additional unimpressed scoff, focusing his eyes where Midas directed and momentarily switching one eye to infrared vision just long enough to get a lock on the massive creature. “Oh well. I was getting bored anyway. Remember to get it to follow us so Ian can set up.”
“Yeah yeah,” Midas shot back in a hum, not needing the reminder about the plan that they had discussed days ago.
Putting plans into practice still proved to be a completely different skill though, and Midas found himself still having to jerk the motorcycle to the side in mild startle when the massive beast burrowing under the ground beneath them chose now to erupt onto the surface. Whip gave an amused laugh at the maneuver, and Midas could only grumble bitterly at the presence of this particular kind of burrowing hazard.
Molrillos.
Midas was not a fan of these creatures. They liked to dig around deep under the surface of the wastelands, creating huge potholes and ambushing people from below to eat them. The poor run in with a juvenile that got him adopted by the people of the slums was still fuzzy in his mind, but the teasing he got because of it seemed endless.
“Hey look. Your friend got bigger,” Whip commented with a laugh, hanging onto the back seat and once again passing a teasing jab at Midas. “Hang left.”
“Don’t backseat drive!” Midas snapped back, ignoring the tease like he always did since it wasn’t worth his time to react. Instead of following Whip’s direction he swung the bike to the right, coasting just under the creature’s elbow. His tone betrayed his annoyance, but the action wasn’t one of belligerence. He just preferred not to risk getting squashed by the massive beast, and it had the benefit of allowing Whip to take a slice at the molrillo’s belly.
“Nice move,” Whip complimented easily, maintaining a rather lazy demeanor since he knew he wasn’t able to do much damage at once to these things. If it were just him and Midas he knew they would have to play a long game of slowly cutting away at the animal until it decided to leave. But since they had Ian with them they were just the distraction. The cuts were just to annoy it enough to keep following them instead of Ian, who had already pulled far enough away to stop his own bike and use its front as support for his sniper rifle. And a quick glance towards their companion told Whip all they had to do was wait for the molrillo to surface again.
Which didn’t take long. Soon enough the beast burst from the sandy dunes just slightly to the right again, maw open wide to try once more to catch its meal. A meal that wouldn’t even be its last as the almost inaudible blast from Ian’s rifle signaled the end of the beast’s life. A dull thump going unheard as the illegal metal bullet slammed through its chest. The growl rumbling from the beast’s lungs petered off into a rather pathetic whine that died off as it slumped into the sandy dirt. Midas had to swerve the motorcycle out of the way of the initial burst, and pulled into a skidding stop when the molrillo stilled. They watched with bated breath, Whip easily picking out the slowing heartbeat of the creature while Midas strained to hear over his own adrenaline pumped heart. But after a few moments a single beep from the bike confirmed the death, no longer picking up on the molrillo’s lifeless presence.
They remained where they were just long enough for Ian to rejoin them, coasting in to pause and make sure they were alright while no one brought up the fact Midas had the fastest heart rate of them all. He wasn’t as used to these kinds of situations as the other two, and they weren’t going to fault him for that.
He still tried to brush it off with a mild joke. “Man… that was a little more anticlimactic than expected.”
Whip and Ian gave sympathetic chuckles, though none of them found any real joy out of the situation. “That’s why we brought Ian along,” Whip snickered, raising a hand in a brief wave to him. “Nice shot. I don’t remember them going down in one blow.”
Ian could only snort in mild sheepishness, still not used to breaking the laws. “It’s a little easier to punch through the skin when there’s a physical bullet again instead of just plasma,” he explained, raising his hand with finger pointed and thumb raised, mimicking a gunshot. “I only have to hit it once instead of repeatedly shooting the same spot a few times.”
“Again?” Midas latched onto the word, looking over in mild confusion. “I thought physical bullets were outlawed like a hundred years ago.” He distinctly remembered Ian putting up a fuss before about using physical bullets again since they were illegal. With how much of an effort it had been to convince Ian to use the contraband Midas couldn’t imagine him having used the bullets before. But apparently he had?
“They were,” Ian confirmed with a little bit of knowing mirth in his smile. He didn’t elaborate though, simply revving his bike to prompt them to get moving before they had another molrillo to deal with this soon.
Luckily Midas ended up fully distracted by Whip’s absent comment as they started to pull forward again. “Too bad we can’t eat that, huh? These soylent packs are getting boring.”
“Isn’t it super poisonous?” Midas sputtered slightly, amazing that Whip was also sick of their food enough to think about eating a random wild animal.
“Yeahhhh,” Whip sighed wistfully. “We could survive it, being cyborgs and all. But it ain’t worth the stomachache.” Otherwise there would probably be a lot more active hunting of the creatures instead of people fighting them just to fend them off. Something out there could eat them though, for there weren’t that many bone piles left in the open fields. Perhaps they ate each other. Either way, with one having shown up they knew there would be a few more before they reached their destination. So instead of sheathing his sword again, Whip just laid it across his lap as he made himself comfortable while Midas drove. They should reach Mortenheim by nightfall.
–
The sun had dropped below the horizon about an hour before they were officially within the ruined city’s borders. Piles of concrete and shattered glass making the once clear streets packed with immoble debris instead of honking cars.
“We should be safer now that we’re in the city, but keep your senses open for anything that might pop up,” Whip commented once they were on solid ground. They had only run into two more molrillos on their way, and despite the fact the beasts didn’t like to burrow in the dense stone below – the only reason the city was still somewhat standing – the travelers were still tense.
“This place certainly fits the name given it,” Midas commented, a bit quiet in the eerily smothering silence broken uncomfortably by the roar of their engines. It was a little annoying to have to weave through all the rubble, and sometimes backtrack because of dead ends. But it was better than walking. “Doesn’t ‘morten’ mean ‘death’? This place feels haunted. And it looks like a giant monster raised it.”
Whip ended up chuckling quietly at the comments, but it sounded a bit uncomfortable and distant. “Oh no, it was something much worse,” he admitted, head raised to stare at the large chunk of debris embedded into the side of a skyscraper. As though something had thrown it there.
“What could be worse than a god beast?” Midas huffed, skeptical until an immediate following thought caused him to fall quiet.
“Humans,” Whip answered needlessly, voicing the thought Midas had been hoping was just a result of horror story paranoia. “Welcome to Lola. This is ground zero of the first berserk cyborgs.”
Midas stayed quiet. The revelation gave him an uncomfortable heaviness in his mind and heart as he saw the damage flying by them in a new light. This wasn’t the result of some giant monster thrashing around and smashing skyscrapers with massive claws and lasers like some cheap B rate movie. Being a cyborg himself he’d heard plenty of horror stories about the war from a hundred years ago. Both spoken in hushed fear, and as flourish to nighttime stories around heat sources. Tales of mechanized humans lumbering through the streets with empty expressions, suddenly snapping in somewhat inhuman motions as their enhancements gave them superhuman abilities. Allowing them to overtake most people that ran, fling cars into buildings, and break apart concrete walls like they were only paper screens. People had come to call them mechanical zombies, among other things.
Seeing the ruined city of ground zero, not embellished for story, made Midas realize there was a reason for the general feeling people had towards full body cyborgs. “...This is why people are afraid of us… isn’t it…” he muttered quietly, finding some of his irritation about that fact shifting into some kind of understanding.
Whip ended up humming, just to acknowledge that he’d heard. He was already long used to these facts, and knew Midas didn’t need any confirmation nor elaboration for his comments. And luckily something caught his sight that allowed him to break away from falling into an uncomfortable silence.
“Turn left,” Whip directed quickly, sitting up a little and tapping the back of his fingers against Midas’ shoulder.
“Wha- Why? You see something?” Midas asked, annoyance at the backseat driving getting mixed with mild fear that something was out there. This time he obeyed the direction though, not having any reason to distrust it.
“Yeah. I know this place,” Whip admitted, eyes locking on to other faded landmarks. “Keep going straight until you reach the demolished convenience store. Then turn left again on the third street after it.”
“What- You serious?” Midas repeated, this time incredulous instead of startled. “I thought no one’s been here since the war. Plants won’t grow, monsters are everywhere, only death pervades… that kind of thing making it uninhabitable.”
Whip had to openly laugh at that statement, pointing to the correct street for Midas to turn on when they reached it. “Makes it the perfect place for people to hide then, don’tcha think? The crazy ones that like a thrill. Or perhaps a hermit scientist squatting in an old lab, experimenting on things the governments have outlawed?”
The questions caused Midas to sit up slightly as he realized how much sense they made. He would have stared openly at Whip if he wasn’t driving, suddenly realizing why Whip was familiar with the area, and both he and Ian willing to come here, as the man elaborated.
“Some time ago I ran into a scientist lady that was still willing to study cybernetics and got her to patch me up. It was risky, but she got an old research facility around here rebooted and outfitted to keep her safe. She even figured out how to grow her own food, though in limited supply. A lot of us know about her, and some of us have offered to help her relocate. But she seemed to like it better out here. Afterall, there was no one to bother her, and-”
“No government to tell her no,” Midas finished the sentence, a faint voice in his head saying the same words in a sound he couldn’t quite identify as another person. He’d heard that before, but he wasn’t sure what they actually sounded like. A faint memory of text brushing across his mind. The words under a username. “Crystal….”
Whip stared at the back of Midas’ head in surprise, wondering how this random kid knew the alias of the scientist that used to live in these ruins. Very few people knew she lived here when she had, and fewer still knew what to call her. Otherwise the name Crystal was just a word that bought you remote services in the black market. Once someone could get in contact with her. She was reclusive to the point of being a myth at best. So how did this kid from nowhere also seem to have spoken to her? That phrase only showed up from her in idle chatter, which she didn’t hold with just anyone. Only friends. What a curious little piece of information this blank page of a person had stumbled upon. That, and Midas’ possession of illegal weaponry made Whip extremely curious about Midas’ actual background.
But only for a moment. He knew they weren’t there for a biography, just the fusion core. And it wasn’t like there was any point in trying to ask Midas what had happened. They knew the kid couldn’t remember anything other than some random compilation of textbook data and unrelated home videos and diaries. Like he’d had a public library focused on preserving humanities data along with factual reports had been dumped into his brain. So for now Whip just filed that fact away in his own mind, returning to directing them to the abandoned lab where they should be able to find what they were looking for.
-
After less than thirty minutes of following Whip’s directions, Ian trailing behind them closely, the pair of bikes slowed to a stop in front of a strangely solid looking door that was half hidden by the piles of rubble around it. It looked old, but not quite as old as everything else. The smooth metal being strangely barren of the dents, scratches, scorch marks, dust, or rust the rest of the city sported.
Someone had been keeping up on the maintenance in the past two years apparently. And were probably relying more on the fact hardly anyone ever came there than being fully hidden considering how oddly it stood out.
“...Is someone living here?” Midas asked, staring at the odd door after powering off his bike.
“Used to,” Whip answered, stretching his arms above his head and then swinging his leg behind to twist off the back seat. “She hasn’t been seen for almost two years now though. Uuugh, that was way too long of a ride. Butt hurts,” he huffed, absently rubbing the offending part of his body and slipping the goggles off his head as he stiffly walked over to the door.
“Think we’ll find something here?” Ian asked, parking his bike next to the other and sliding the safety glasses to the top of his head. Unlike Whip, he didn’t seem to be all that familiar with the site. The way Midas was squinting at the door, one eye more closed than the other, made Ian wonder if there was some sort of recognition amidst all the confusion for him though.
“Hmmm, maybe,” Whip half confirmed, pressing his hands against the door on either side of a panel that had slid open. “Hopefully no one has managed to break in yet.”
“...With the kind of security that’s here, I would be surprised if they had,” Ian admitted.
“Are you hacking a retinal scanner??” Midas asked after moving to stand next to Whip. He was incredibly incredulous that Whip was actually doing that since retinal scanners were so finicky that most professional hackers wouldn’t even bother trying. But the lines of cybernetic pathways spreading across Whip’s hands and onto the door betrayed he was certainly doing something with it.
“You make it sound like a hard thing,” Whip chuckled, keeping one eye level with the camera lens on the door and knowing full well what he was doing was unusual at best.
The faint beam of light from the lens to Whip’s eye kept flickering off and back on, which made Midas unsure if the system was broken or if it was because of what Whip was doing. His response earned a slightly offended snort from Midas though, and he couldn’t help folding his arms. “Well, considering retinas are apparently as unique as fingerprints or something you would think it was a hard thing,” he scoffed, pouting slightly.
“Not really,” Whip shrugged slightly, amused. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s just a little time consuming. I’m just interrupting the declined data before it reaches the central system, and resetting the scan after. Then I just have to temporarily adjust the shape of my retina until it works. If you’re really good you can even see in the data what’s being checked, and which parts of-...”
He broke off for a moment. The retina scanner status light flickered to green, and there was a static noise of an attempt of a recorded greeting as the doors hissed slightly from pneumatic release as they opened. Apparently the mild pressurization system was kept in check, but not the speakers.
“Parts of the retina match, and it goes faster,” Whip finished, grinning just a bit smugly as he held an open palm out towards the opening to allow the other two to enter before him.
“Oh yeah. Super simple. Basic stuff,” Midas mocked lightly, nodding his head back and forth and giving Whip a sideways look with narrowed eyes as he took the offer and stepped into the building. “Show off,” Midas snickered softly, amused and impressed nevertheless.
“It’s what I’m here for,” Whip snickered, then rested his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes a little as Ian motioned for him to go first. That was just how Ian was, and Whip was long used to it and had given up on arguing with him. So he simply obliged and followed after Midas.
Which turned out to be a good thing, since Midas was almost blind for the first stretch of hallways. It took him a while before he was able to figure out how to switch his eyesight to see better in the dark, leading him to reach out and hang on Whip’s arm as soon as he got close. Squinting and allowing Whip to lead him along after the black haired cyborg gave a soft, bemused chuckle. It was an odd situation of being too dim to see, but night vision being useless as well. There were strips of small lights lining the base of the walls, glowing softly and illuminating the floor well enough. But it did little for anything above hip height, and would have been headache inducing if seen in full night vision. Which led to Midas trying to find the sweet spot of forcing his pupils to dilate just a tad more than they wanted to naturally.
Something that Whip and Ian did easily as Whip took the lead at a brisk pace since they didn’t want to be there for very long. At least they didn’t have to worry about Midas stumbling over anything since the hallways were surprisingly clear compared to the outdoors.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Ian had to ask with a chuckle, keeping an easy but watchful pace behind them with his hands lazily laced behind his head.
“Yeah,” Whip grinned, flashing a look over his shoulder and allowing Ian a glimpse of his eyes. One of them wasn’t looking quite like the other, and Ian realized he’d enabled either an x-ray or thermal vision in it while the other was oriented towards seeing better in the dim light. It made Ian give an amused huff, and he was curious if Midas would notice the difference and want to try it as well.
But, after looking at Midas more carefully, Ian realized the lad was apparently too distracted by the surroundings to notice. He was still squinting, but since he’d let go of Whip now he seemed to be doing it more because he was confused rather than because he couldn’t see. His gaze lingering on the doorway to another room they passed by, or a dusty sitting area, or even a faux plant in the corner. It wasn’t like the scenery was completely foreign to him, but something about it was nagging on the edge of his mind. A faint familiarity that stretched further than just being aware of the standard appearance of the type of place they were in. And as they passed by one of the smaller, patient oriented rooms he suddenly slowed to a stop, head tilting as he peered inside. “Wait….”
Whip was quick to notice Midas halt, but was too keen on getting to their destination quickly to stop for sight seeing. “Midas, c’mon. There’s nothing there, I already looked,” he called, continuing to walk while Ian stopped next to Midas so he wouldn't be left behind. Whip had expected Midas to just keep moving after, but when he didn’t it caused him to stop and turn around to head back. “Midas… c’mon-” he started to reach out for Midas’ arm to tug him along.
“Wait-! Hang on-,” Midas hushed brokenly, holding his hand up to block Whip after glancing his way before the room drew his attention again. And just in case Whip was going to be insistent, Midas took a few steps into the room, fixated on the oh so familiar yet foreign scene. It looked to be an operating room, possibly. Some sort of medical room. Maybe a general, long term care room, but the equipment seemed too advanced for that. The bed was more of a table with how rigid it looked, and the light overhead was standard for invasive operations. But the monitoring devices, worn pillow and blankets, and fully functioning cooling chest off to one side suggested a long term stay. Obviously nothing was running, but it didn’t seem to be because it was broken. Just turned off.
“I’I…think I know this room…,” Midas admitted, ghosting slowly through the space as he tried to make sense of why it was familiar. As though a certain angle would make it snap in his brain. Or he would recognize something hidden behind something else.
Whip and Ian both tensed at the revelation, giving each other a glance before Whip anxiously had to address whatever this was going to be. They couldn’t stick around for long. Not when scavengers probably had a tracker on this place in case someone managed to open it. They didn’t even know if the fusion core was still here or not. “Midas, not now,” Whip pressed, a little on edge since this place unnerved him more when it wasn’t running. “That’s not what we’re here for, remember?” They couldn't go chasing other, faint leads that didn’t have any substance to them other than an amnesiac’s scattered memory. If he could just distract him for now then they could look into it more later. Once the people back in the slums were safe and they spent more time locking this place down for a longer stay. “Also, it’s just a standard operating room. You’ve probably seen it somewhere before.”
It didn’t work. A faint overlay on Midas’ eyes somewhat obscuring his pupils hinted that he was projecting an image from his head onto the room. “No, wait. I know this room. The crack in the wall, the uneven floor tiles, even the parts that are missing, it all matches up exactly,” he spoke quickly, pointing to each item as he mentioned it while quickly walking around the room to try and line up the image in his view. He didn’t fully realize he’d climbed on top of a table and wedged himself into the corner to get closer to the right angle.
“Maybe you downloaded the image off a database somewhere,” Whip insisted, not liking how this was starting to play out, his own eyes glancing at the equipment behind Midas. “We know you have seemingly random video recordings in your head. This is probably the same thing.”
“Then why am I in it?” Midas almost snapped, a small strain of desperation in his voice as he finally managed to line up the image in his view. “It’s not an empty room, I can see myself in it. I know I was here, everything matches up-”
“From the security camera?” Whip derailed, causing Midas to flinch and look at him in almost offended confusion. Whip could understand the questions, and the want to dig into this matter. Heck even he had a ton of questions bubbling under the surface after what was being revealed. Like just how could Midas see himself in an image from a camera somehow implanted in his head for one. But for now he just gestured to the said camera by Midas’ head.
Following Whip’s direction, Midas felt like his heart dropped as he saw the slightly older model device wedged into the corner. Lining up exactly how the image in his head was. He knew what Whip was suggesting. That the image may have been fabricated, or otherwise modified. Perhaps it was a setup. He didn’t think C-Tech was still after him, they’d labeled him as dead as far as he knew. But there was the possibility it was someone else. “... W’what if we hack into the computers here? If I got the image from here then there should be other information supporting it, yeah? That it’s not fabricated?”
“Midas, you know it’s not safe to hop into any old system without taking the proper precautions first,” Whip pressed as patiently as he could. “They’re not safe, people plan for cyborgs to break in. You could get all kinds of junk shoved into your brain, harmless or not. And we don’t have time to be safe about it this time. We can’t leave Eleven Nine unprotected for more than a week, something would almost certainly go wrong. Whether it’s C-Tech’s goons, or monsters-”
“But this is the first thing I actually recognize!” Midas blurted, voice vibrating in anxiety as he hopped off the table and approached the others. “Don’t you get it?! All this time- Everything I’ve seen before- In the past year nothing looks like anything I remember. Nothing feels like mine even if I do recognize it. I know what it feels like to see something that’s just a picture in my head and not a memory, but this time it’s different! This time it feels like I was really here- What if I was made here-?”
“Midas, Midas, calm down. Focus,” Whip cut him off again, reaching out to gently rest his hands on Midas’ shoulders. “We’re here for the fusion core, remember? I know this is important to you, I know you want answers now. But we can’t leave the people back in the slums unprotected. So we need to get the fusion core, get it back to them so they can be shielded, and then I promise we’ll come back here and look into what you’re seeing. We can chase this as far as it goes once we take care of the others, okay?”
“How am I supposed to take care of anyone else if I can’t even take care of myself?!” Midas blurted in response, voice cracking slightly as Whip could feel him starting to shake under his hands. The question caught Whip off guard enough that he didn’t answer long enough for Midas to feel the need to continue to break the silence. “I’m a mess! I know I keep causing problems for everyone- I can’t function like you do- I’m always being babysat by someone- even the little kids know more than I do- I can’t tell when I have a fever, I don’t know how to cook, or tell what’s good for me or not. Not like the rest of you. Everything makes sense to you because you don’t have anything in your brains that doesn’t belong to you. You never have to question if what you remember is real or not. I feel like a broken machine that doesn’t even function properly to warrant being alive-”
At that point Ian stepped forward, lips pressed into a thin line as concern caused him to reach forward and place a hand on Midas’ shoulder as well. He didn’t like where Midas’ train of thought was taking him. Had apparently already taken him a few times in the past before. “Just because you’re difficult for some doesn’t make you unwanted,” he pressed firmly, looking Midas in the eye with an iron gaze to hopefully leave no room for debate. “The people know you’ve got some trouble following you, but a lot of them do too. And you’ve also been a big help. Way more than most of the others. All those machines you fixed? Or the ones you modified. Or just created out of garbage? No one else knew how to do that, and people’s lives are so much better for it. Because of you. So just because you’re a little dumb when it comes to things people think are obvious doesn’t make you all dumb, or unwanted.”
He thought being a little more candid would make Midas snicker at least a little, and know he wasn't just saying all this just to be nice. But the poor lad just ended up looking at him with a despondent gaze, a shimmer of tears budding on the rims of his eyes.
The quiet caused Whip to give a hesitant sigh. He was glad Midas seemed to be backing down, but he didn’t like how sullen he was now. He couldn’t help raising a hand to softly pat Midas’ cheek a few times. “Patience, Midas. You’ve gone a whole year – more than a year – without answers. You can survive for another week so we can make sure to do this the right way. We’ll stick to the plan, make sure everyone back in the slums is safe, and then it’s all focused on you and your crazy background, okay? … We’ve got time. We don’t really age after all.”
Whip gave Midas’ cheek a few more nudges, and eventually, after a long moment of thought and hopeless staring Midas eventually sighed and nodded heavily. “Alright,” he huffed quietly, voice thick as he raised a wrist to his damp eye to rub it. “We’ll do it your way for now. I’m okay,” he attempted to assure, giving another nod and pulling away from both of them to head out of the room. The other two exchanged looks before quietly following him, Whip taking the lead once more when Midas uncomfortably paused while obviously looking like he had no idea where he was going.
