Chapter Text
Tall trees and thick bushes grow wild within the overgrown ruins of a town whose story is long lost, but still bares the bold scars of battle from ages past. Innumerable tall buildings made of concrete, brick and steel now cracked, crumbling, rusty and twisted beyond repair. Car, truck and bus wrecks clog the roadways tightly packed together reduced to rusted out shells, any useful material stripped long ago and now covered in a blanket of tall weeds.
On the edge of town sits a large stone tower. Old age and decay clear on its surface, yet the tower still stood tall and strong after numerous year's. The upper half of the tower is completely missing looking sheared clean in half with laser precision and only chipped and rough from age. Within the top floor of the tower sits a teenage girl relaxing by one of the windows.
Luz sat by the window her crossbow in hand. The mismatched parts and visible welds a testament to the scrap yard nature of this weapon. Adjusting the knobs on the scope ever so slightly, She fired a test shot into the empty field she chose for the ambush. Luz wanted to be absolutely sure the scope was zeroed correctly.
'No surprises. No mistakes.' echoed through her head.
Nervously she flicked the toggle switch for the main battery on and off a few times until she was confident the battery was charged and the wire connections were secure. Luz pulled the trigger to her crossbow and the electric cocking mechanism came to life. With the hum of a electric motor the string of the crossbow was slowly pulled back until it locked into place. With the weapon ready she took out a sharpened rebar bolt from the quiver on her hip and loaded the crossbow. Finger hovering over the power toggle for the main battery right next to the trigger.
'Time to set the bait.' Luz thought.
She pulled out a small electronic relic from one of the many pockets on her jacket. It was made from a hard plastic, any colors long rubbed off. It's screen was made of glass, heavily scratched with a small crack in the corner. Beneath the screen was large amount of rubber buttons, a keyboard whose letters and numbers have been wiped clean with age and use. With the push of a button, strange electronic dog like barking replaces the peaceful ambiance of nature.
Within the field we see a strange device, a Sci-Fi looking security camera with a speaker crudely wired in and duct taped to the side emitting the robotic dog-like barking sound.
Luz didn't have to wait long before she could hear similar robotic dog barking off in the distance, and It was closing in quick. She brought her scope towards the tree line and could just barely make out flashes of yellow LED light. Before Luz knew it five Metal hound's had ripped through the tree line barreling out and into the field.
Dog like in behavior and appearance Metal hounds have a hunched midsection with four canine like legs supporting its main body. On top of its back rests its primary weapon and fuel cells. The highly advanced security camera like head shining a sickening yellow light from large singular optic.
' I wonder what keeps these things maintained? I mean what's charging its batteries? What's giving it more fuel? And lubricant? Other hounds? How does that work they don't have hands? Why are they called hounds if they don't have tails? Mayb-stop, Focus. Now's not the time.' Luz mentally reprimanded herself. Refocusing she started analyzing the situation fully.
'One sniper Hound. Biggest threat. Could actually score a hit on me from this range. Two shotgun Hounds. If the shotgun Hounds get to the tower they'll camp the bottom until I come down and I'm not dealing with that today. Two gunner Hounds, wildly inaccurate even from a close range so it's probably best to focus on those two last' Luz thought to herself.
With a deep breath to steady herself Luz took aim at the fuel tank on the back of the sniper hound. With the flick of a switch she turned on the main battery for her crossbow. An electric zap was heard as a small shower of sparks came to life from the crossbow. With power running through the crossbow the sharpened steel rebar bolt superheated to the dull red glow of around 900° degrees.
She fired right into the pressurized fuel tank on the Sniper Hounds back. As soon as the bolt pierced through the layers of metal a spray of pressurized fuel met hot steel. A jet of flame spewed from the back of the Metal Hound as its tank ruptured and exploded, blowing out a large portion of the Metal Hounds spine. Half a second later deeper within the chest of the mechanical beast a secondary explosion erupted with a shower of electricity and more fire before it collapsed in a flaming scrap heap.
With a horrible shrill buzzing noise the remaining Hounds surged into action, their sickening yellow lights replaced by a baleful red glare. The group split, two dashing off across the field towards her position while the other two drop into a lower stance with their front arms spread wide for stability.
Another red hot bolt shot through the air, striking one of the running hounds in the head ripping it from it's mechanical neck and pinning it to the ground. The mechanical body missing its main sensors and processors continued to follow the last data input it had received. The Hound continued running for a few paces before slightly uneven terrain caused it to slip and crash, now flailing uselessly on its side unable to perceive the world around it.
Luz ducked back from the window reloading as she repositioned towards a large hole in the wall still facing the field. She was half way to her new spot before bullets sprayed wildly and around the window she was firing from earlier.
Luz peaked out around the crumbling wall, the last Shotgun Hound was still running straight towards her position. She brought the crossbow up to her shoulder and with a few seconds to adjust her aim for a moving target She fired.
With a harsh whistle the bolt tore through the air and straight into the back of the running Hound. The metal monster staggered for a moment from the force of the impact but continued running. Nothing critical had been damaged, so the Hound continued to advance on it its target while the 900° degree metal bolt burned deep in its chest. Unaware that it's fate was already sealed.
Plastic, rubber, grease and wires caught fire and burned. The Hound had finally made it across the field but by that point it's internal components were red hot and reduced to slag. It was at that moment that something critical was breached and with a fiery explosion the Metal Hound collapsed into a pile of useless metal.
The two Gunner Hounds had just finished their onslaught of suppressing fire, before either Hound could move from their firing stance a superheated bolt pierced the fuel tank on the back of the leftmost Hound. The resulting explosion and fireball almost guaranteed the piece of shrapnel that struck the fuel tank of the rightmost Hound causing chain reaction of explosions. Now both reduced to smoldering metal husks.
Luz let out a sigh.
'That went better than I could have wished for.' With a smirk she stood up and depowered her crossbow to sling it over her shoulder.
'I can probably get just as much from the salvage as I'm getting from the bounty, maybe even more if I find the right sucker's to buy the loot off me.' She thought while moving down the stairs.
At the bottom of the tower Luz hovered by the doorway, still concealed by the interior shadows of the tower. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths in through her nose.
'No new scents on the wind, but something has to have heard all those gunshots and explosions. Better move quick just to be safe.'
Confident in her nose that nothing new was in the area, she moved to each of the Metal Hounds. Armed with a screwdriver in one hand and a multi-tool in the other, Luz started stripping anything of value from the mechanical corpses.
Luz wiped the sweat from her forehead as she finished putting the last of her tools away back into her rough leather backpack.
'Half full fuel tank, two power cells, gun's were mostly undamaged along with the ammo, some computer parts, and a few brightly colored fistfuls of wire. All in all not a bad haul.'
She checked the area around her to make sure she wasn't accidentally leaving anything behind, it was a bad habit of hers.
She was at the other end of the field now and as Luz looked back towards the tower the tall grass started to dance in the wind of a fresh mid-summer breeze. Like a wave of water the grassy field flowed and moved to the invisible power of the winds as it rolled towards her. She stood still and let the breeze flow through her, arms spread wide and head tilted to let a cool breeze flow under her helmet and through her reinforced jacket. Luz closed her eyes and took a deep relaxing breath in through her nose and out-.
Her eyes flew open in a panic. The changing wind brought a new heavy scent that reeked of blood and gunpowder, and it was way to close.
Immediately she dropped to a crouch tensing her leg muscles and prepared to jump, not for height but distance. It was a desperate dive for cover, her target the cracked overgrown roadway 30ft feet away.
Automatic gunfire erupted from the blown out buildings peppering the spot she stood not moments before.
Luz flew through the air fast and low as her shoulder collided with the asphalt of the ancient roadway, she used her momentum from the jump to continued rolling until she was behind a large rusted tank that sat in the middle of a dilapidated and overgrown intersection, it's enormous tracks rusted stuck ages ago it's broken barrel unable to spew death and destruction for centuries. Now it was used as cover from whoever was trying to kill her today.
Every few seconds a bullet or two would ping off the side of the tank Luz was hidden behind. Whoever was shooting at her was trying to keep her pinned down, those shots weren't meant to hit just keep her in place. Which most likely meant whoever was shooting at her had friends. She had to move.
There was a highway ramp further down the road. If she could get there the tall buildings should block the shooters line of sight. From there she can jump off onto the roof of a lower building and disappear into the maze-like ruins of this dead city. She would have to move as fast as possible if she didn't want a bullet in her, that shouldn't be a problem.
The same strangely muscular legs that let her leap great distances also let her run at a frightening speed. The issue was time, she could only keep top speed for around a minute before her legs gave out from the strain. Unfortunately it looks like she really didn't have any better options at the moment.
With a burst of speed Luz took off sprinting from behind the rusted war machine. She could hear a flurry of gunfire from behind as she continued running between wrecked cars and larger chunks of rubble. Whoever was shooting at her clearly hadn't been expecting her to be this fast, while she was still getting shot at the bullets were landing nowhere near her. After a few more seconds of running and dodging gunfire she made her way up the highway ramp. She had been right whoever had been shooting at her before couldn't see her now.
Slowing down from a full sprint to more of a casual run, now all Luz had to do was find a good spot to jump dow- BANG!!
Luz let out a short scream of pain as a large caliber round tore through her upper thigh. She rolled across the ancient highway in an undignified heap of limbs. Quickly she got to her hands and knees and scrambled towards the concrete barrier in the middle of the highway for cover. Just as she made it a loud insect like buzzing noise could be heard coming from the sky.
Above her was a man dressed in ragged and ratty clothing a leather pilots cap on his head with a pair of goggles over his eyes. However the strangest thing about the man was the puke green insect chitin that replaced his normal human skin along with the four large dragonfly-esque wings that emerged from his back. With a heavy thump the bug man landed in front of Luz with a nasty grin, armed with a scrap machete.
As the bug man raise the machete in the air Luz kicked out as hard as she could with her uninjured leg, with a loud crack the bug man's knee pushed in the opposite direction as he fell on top of Luz dropping the scrap metal blade. The insectoid human yells out in pain before recovering inhumanly quick and brought his fist down on her face,
HARD.
Once.
Twice.
Three times before she managed grab his wrist and stop the beat down on her face. Right away it was noticeably harder to breathe through her nose, she could feel her left eye start to swell already and with the amount of blood in her mouth she definitely cut her lips open on her own fangs. Her left hand was wrapped around the bug man's wrist while he had her right arm pinned to the road.
'This Bug guy might have some kind of stinger?! or maybe he could spit acid?! Hell he could even have both based on his other insect mutations!' Luz thought to herself in a panic.
She had to end this and escape before the Bug man's partner's showed up, she was not going to win a three-on-one fight in her condition right now. So she attacked the only way she could. Her lips pulled back in a snarl, unable to stop the tiger like growl that escaped her throat.
As the Bug man looked down at the girl underneath him, it was to late as he finally noticed the deadly weapon's that lined the girls mouth. Two inch long fangs sat along the top of her mouth mirrored by a set half as big on her lower jaw. The teeth on either side of both sets of fangs, while not as long were just as sharp and pointed as her fangs were and her two front and bottom four teeth looked to be serrated like steak knives! All in all it was a mouth designed to do one thing. Rip and tear flesh.
Her head shot forward as she sunk her fangs deep into the shoulder of the Bug man. The chitin holding up for only a moment before her fangs pierced through the armored skin and deep into the flesh of her attacker. Deeper and deeper her fangs dug into the flesh of the insect man's shoulder until she felt her fangs lock around a bone, and then.
SNAP!
She broke the collarbone of the human grasshopper. Blood ran down her chin as she released her bite and pulled back, rewarded with a gush of blood staining her face. The shoulder was mangled, barely holding on by a few threads of flesh pouring thick red blood. Bugman was stunned from the pain, eyes wide giving short shallow gasps of breath but he was still alive. Still a threat that could hurt her. Luz went in for the kill
This time her fangs latched around his throat and with almost no resistance from the armored chitin skin, pierced through and sank deep into the soft flesh of the Bug man's neck. More blood sprayed across her face and chin as she bit deeper and deeper into the neck of this mutated human insect.
Luz felt her teeth Interlock with each other as she pulled her head back, mouth filled with gore and face covered with blood. In a state of shock the bug man's hands flew to his gouged out throat, panic and desperation clear on his face as the gaping wound continued to let out a torrent of blood from his neck, rapidly losing strength as the light left his eyes he collapsed on top of her. Luz swallowed the insectoid flesh that filled her mouth, bugs weren't her favorite thing to eat but she's definitely eaten worse things.
Luz pushed The bug man's corpse off her as she took in her surroundings. She didn't know where the shooter who hit her in the leg was, at best she could try and guess where they were from where she got hit earlier. But they easily could have moved during her fight with the Bugman. She had to get out of here quick before the shooter could get her again. No buildings were low enough for her to jump down onto and with the bullet in her thigh she wouldn't be able to jump at her full height or even sprint right now for that matter.
She sat with her back against the concrete barrier. Frustration and desperation building up inside her as today continued to get worse and worse. Taking a deep calming breath, which was difficult because her nose was definitely broken. She saw what might be her only chance at escape. Between two tall dilapidated skyscrapers was a small narrow alley. If she could cross the road and jump over the concrete barrier she would be able to escape. It was her best bet.
Jumping with all the power in her uninjured leg she could summon. She landed a few feet from the barrier, pain shooting up her injured leg from the sloppy landing. She limped as quickly as she could towards the highway barrier. She slapped her hands on the rough concrete and mantled over the barrier. She could feel gravity take hold as she started to fall from the highway.
BANG!!
Her vision went white, All sound replaced with a high-pitched deafening wine. She felt like a feather twisting in the wind. Something was happening? Some kind of internal sense told her she was moving. But she wasn't sure how really? Why was she even in the air to begin with?
Dazed, confused and possibly concussed Luz plummeted from the highway like a ragdoll. A deep gouge along the entire left side of her helmet. In a heap she hit the old ancient sidewalk beneath the highway, Her weight and impact from the fall being the last thing the ground needed to break and give way exposing a black pit to the cities ancient underbelly. Deeper and deeper she fell into the black abyss of the cities vast tunnel network.
Luz awoke with a painful grown that turned into a whimper of pain. Hurt. Everything hurt so much right now. Where was she? What happened? She staggered to her feet to try and gather her bearings. She was seeing double? Oh and everything had an after image whenever she moved her eyes to look at something.
She could barely see straight, as she took a few unsteady steps forward Luz tripped over something in the darkness of the tunnel. Gasping in pain as she collapsed to the ground she began fumbling through the pockets on her jacket. Luz pulled out and switched on a small flashlight so she could see better in this pitch black tunnel.
Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach as she saw what she tripped over.
Train tracks.
She was in the metro tunnels.
She had to get out!
NOW!
Battered, bruised and mind still sluggish from the blow to her head Luz limped deeper into the deadly shadows of the tunnels. Desperately she looked for any sign of escape. Her nose was too clogged with blood to use. She searched along the walls for exit signs or something that might lead her in the right direction.
Eyes scanning hopefully in search of even a glint of sunlight. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she heard what sounded like a mix between a giggle and sob echo from the dark behind her quietly. The dead we're starting to notice her. Spirits looking for new family and friends to spend eternity with.
A fresh wave of panic and dread surge through her already clouded and disoriented thoughts. Limping as fast as she can Luz keeps moving through the darkness of the tunnels afraid to turn around and see what is following. Desperation grows as her hope for escapes slowly starts to die. Tunnel after tunnel, hallway after hallway, utility room after utility room, no signs of exit anyw-THERE!! Light!
There in the darkness of the tunnels along the wall stood a doorway. The outside light so bright it was practically glowing in the blackness of the metro tunnels. Luz limped as fast as her leg would let her, eager to leave the darkness and ghosts of the past in this tunnel behind. The light was almost blinding to her as she approached the doorway. As she limped closer she could see strange colors and patterns, swirl and dance beyond the threshold of the door.
'My head's more scrambled then I thought?'
Luz sluggishly thought to herself as she limped and stumbled through the doorway eager to be back in open air and sunlight.
Only she wasn't? She was in the back of some large tent now? And all kinds of loot and garbage was scattered haphazardly everywhere!?
'It's like someone trashed the New Eden market square and tried to hide it all under one big tent!?'
Before she could examine this absolute pile of loot further she heard something come whooshing through the door behind her with a surprised and loud.
"Hoot!?"
And with the sound of a wooden bat striking a empty coconut, next all Luz knew was darkness...