Chapter Text
Barren desert stretched as far as the eye could see, overlooked by the distant amber summit that marked the boundary between civilization and the wild unknown. Sparse vegetation crunched noiselessly under massive black paws, far from the ears of the boy within. The massive metal Wolf loped forward with purpose. It knew where to go, even if the boy did not.
The hot air hissed against the beast’s cool metal surface. Small beads of sweat began to form on the boy’s forehead, despite being shielded from the sun’s harsh rays. I need to remind dad to fix the ac, the boy thought, it’s not like I haven’t been telling him for the past month… His brows knit together as he surveyed the arid wasteland. It was all sand and shrubs, easy rolling dunes and a few rocky outcroppings. He twisted to get a better look at the easternmost screen. Cursing the Wolf’s poor vision, he attempted to zoom in on a suspicious looking knoll. Through squinted eyes, the pixels began to align themselves in the shape of an overturned Gustav partially buried in the sand. While the boy struggled to lock onto the carrier’s position, the Wolf changed its position to follow its trail. The boy shifted to steer the zoid only to find out that it had already turned on its own accord. He sighed. If he was supposed to be bonding with this creature, it could at least let him be in control. He yanked the steering column up, forcing the Wolf to halt. That’s better. The boy smirked as the Wolf let out a groan.
"Easy now", he told it, gently pushing the levers away from himself. The Wolf slowly began to walk, coming to a lopsided lope as the boy struggled to balance the weight of the long-range cannon on its back. The boy fought with the controls, feeling them tear away from his hands with every bound the Wolf took. It felt as if the Wolf was mocking him. He knew that it knew exactly how to balance itself out, and that it was testing him. The stupid hunk of junk is probably laughing at me. The boy scowled, trying to counter the weight. Every step it took felt like his arms would rip off.
After what felt like eons of struggling, he felt that he finally got a hang of it. The Wolf bounded without any inhibitions, and the boy felt, actually felt, free. It was nice to get away from all the hassles living in the city brought, even though he acted like he hated these favors for his father. The city was too loud and too crowded for the boy’s taste, and the smell of tofu permeated every single room in their crappy little two story shack. School was a bore, and even though graduation was just around the corner, it felt never ending. Outside the city, outside the slums, now that’s where life really began. No humans (as human as one can be after millenniums of interspecies relationships with Zoidians), no cars, no zoids. Just you and the blank abyss. There was no one to tell the boy to stop daydreaming, to stop wandering aimlessly. If it wasn’t interdicted to cross the mountains, he would like to explore. Gazing dreamily at the distant peaks, he fantasized at what the world was like beyond. There were without a doubt more cities, somewhere out there was the “new” capital of the old Helic Republic as well as the largest city of the Guylos Empire. That, at least, was something he got out of being in school. If he paid attention for more than a few seconds, he’d know if they still existed or not. At least he knew that he lived in former Republic territory. That was probably one thing going for him, as the cities in old Gylos territory are almost always in disarray. The boy knew from the gossip customers exchanged like bits of their own soul at both his job and at his father’s tofu shop that Neo-Zenebas loyalists still ran amok in little swarms. “Just like the bugs they are,” Iketani had said one day. The boy didn’t know much about them, or the war, so he agreed and joined in with his friend’s virulence. He wondered if there were any Neo-Zenebas gangs hanging around in his city. The city seemed peaceful enough, just loud. It would be interesting, though, if something shook it up… But as luck would have it, it was the boy who ended up being shook up. He bucked forward into the restraints as the Wolf came to a halt.
“What the-” The Wolf angled its nose down, letting the boy see that they were practically on top of the derelict Gustav. “Oh.” He rubbed his temples, the Wolf letting out a low growl at his obliviousness. Not even here am I allowed to think . “Stupid damn thing,” he muttered under his breath as he undid his harness. The Wolf snarled and jerked its head up, sending him headfirst into the glass of its cockpit. While his father was rather lenient, the Wolf would not tolerate him swearing. Silently cursing, the boy rubbed the soon-to-be bruise on his head.
“Alright, I get it. Can you let me out now?” The boy asked in the most polite and pitiful tone he could muster while masking his anger. The Wolf shifted from paw to paw, making up its mind. It bowed, and slowly brought itself down so the boy could easily jump out of the cockpit without breaking any bones. The boy slid out from under the steering column and waited for the canopy to open. He shimmied out instead of waiting for it to fully open, sliding down the Wolf’s cheek and hopping onto its waiting paw. He felt all of the grooves and nicks on the still-cool metal, each holding a story from a world the boy would never know.
Once on the ground, he made his way to the Gustav’s half buried form. He drew a sharp breath in, backing away from the snail’s cockpit. It smelled strongly of rot, and the sickly sweet smell of death. He knew exactly what he’d find in there, and it wouldn’t be anything worth his time. Instead of prying in the business of the dead, he crawled onto the top of the Gustav’s trailer. The cover seemed to be completely intact, meaning that the goods inside were pristine and untouched by both man and nature for years. The boy unsheathed a knife and slowly dragged it through the canvas, creating a hole big enough for himself and a box to fit through. He wiggled down the cut, and dropped down to the dusty floor with a hollow thunk. A mushroom cloud of dust curled around him, the little flecks shining gold in the rays of the sun. Inside the trailer, it was eerily quiet. All the boy could hear were grains of sand tapping against the canvas, and the occasional mechanical groan of the Wolf’s joints as it shifted positions. It was fairly empty as well, with only a few crates pushed to the side. The boy shuffled through their contents, pocketing what still looked useful. Most of their contents had dry rotted away, leaving useless scraps of stripped metal behind. He managed to salvage a camshaft, a couple small hydraulic pistons, and some cracked circuitry. The rest of it he left for time to deteriorate. Shoving the circuit boards into the pockets of his jeans, he balanced the pistons in one arm. The Wolf was waiting outside for him, and he quickly hopped into the cockpit to drop off his goods. By the third round, the Wolf began twitching and whining. It impatiently waited for the boy to finish. Halfway out of the trailer, he paused to watch it curiously. It was easy to forget that there was a living being inside of the metal shell. Once out, he jogged a couple of paces away from the Gustav, and signaled to the Wolf that it could do whatever it wanted. Keening like a wild animal, it furiously scrabbled at the cracked shell. Peeling it back and tossing it like it was nothing, the Wolf took no time at all to get to the Gustav’s center. It belted a howl of victory- it had found the Gustav’s core. With a strong tug, it tore out the core. Cables and pipes dangled from the Wolf’s jaws as it set the core in between its paws. The protective lining peeled away from the core like paper from a stick of butter. The Wolf made short, happy barking noises when it reached the semi-liquified contents within. The heavy metallic scent, the gurgling of the flesh and liquid sliding down the Wolf’s throat into some unknown cavern, and the absolute carnage left behind made the boy turn away and cover his face with his shirt. The scent of death, from both biomachine and human alike, brought a deep churning in the boy’s stomach. Tears sprang forth from the corners of his squinched eyes as he convulsed.
He wasn’t sure when it ended, or how exactly he ended up kneeling on the sand, but he was shot back to reality when he felt something hard and slightly damp push him forward. Head still spinning, he slowly turned around. He immediately regretted it. The Wolf’s giant face loomed in front of him, the stark white sickly in contrast with the slimy layer of viscera coating its teeth. It whined at him worriedly. It didn’t see anything wrong with enjoying a meal, and if the boy was sick, it should bring him back to its master immediately. It nervously watched the boy hold a hand to his stomach and cover his mouth, eyes bulging. The Wolf whined again, louder this time, and nudged him again with its bloody snout. His shoulders were shaking and he made strange whimpering noises. The Wolf cocked its head, not knowing what to do. It laid down behind him, nose brushing his back. Thinking that the boy was broken, it frantically attempted to scoop him up into the cockpit. The boy groaned, latching on to the rough spot where the armor meets the interior of the cockpit as the Wolf flipped him up inside. The pointed edges of the monitors dug into his sides, and the triggers on the tops of the steering apparatus dug into his neck. Each screen scraped against him in ways he never wanted to be touched by metal as he contorted through the intricate control panel system. Once safely back in his seat, he shakily brought down the harness and let the Wolf lead him home.