Chapter 1

The Silo

Arthur stood on land, a sticky, many-times used Safety-First suit clung to his body, and he was very unhappy. The monitor he held closely beeped lazily, detecting a hint of life somewhere far away. He glanced around, trying to locate its general direction. Near him, behind a massive glass screen, a team of scrawny and scared men watched, their fists clenched. They stared at him, and he stared anywhere but. The landscape around him was ashy. A pale yellow dust covered the entirety of what he could see, laying finely over the mountain that loomed behind him. A hot sun bubbled overhead, crowded by clouds. Its sharp rays burned even through his suit. He glanced back at the team, at last, and his inner headpiece buzzed.

"See what we mean? The Locator seems to be malfunctioning lately."

"Ever since yesterday?"

"Yes. It seems that something offset it. Ruth went out to look."

"Shouldn't there be two spots then? Or am I searching for the mysterious blink instead of Ruth?"

A buzzing silence. Arthur glanced at them. They huddled in a conversation before the leader pried away and leaned towards the window further, holding his own monitor out. He mumbled something else.

"Where did Ruth go?"

"I'm asking you." Arthur shifted uncomfortably, walking closer to the other blinking dot. "And how do you know this isn't her?"

"It's the same one as yesterday and it's stagnant." The man gulped audibly. Arthur could imagine him picking this wiry moustache. "Ruth would be moving, don't you think? Unless she's…"

"Dead?"

"Well, to put it bluntly, yes."

"And you want me to hunt this behemoth thing?"

"Yes. Please."

A simpering smile was added to that. Arthur sighed, shouldering the bag that had begun to slip off his shoulders. Food supplies and other necessities were packed in there, in case he got lost or worse. Arthur turned off his headpiece and, with a wave, heading out towards the blank nothingness that stretched before him.

The walk proved longer than expected. The blinking dot on his monitor, which he tucked away in front of his chest and hooked up his his face plate, seemed to grow further away the closer he got. No wonder Ruth would have gotten lost. And for a normal human to go out for so long didn't necessarily bode well. Arthur would be lucky to find her in one piece at this rate.

He glanced around, trying to reabsorb his surroundings. He tried to remember the area. A shattered building lay off to one side, surrounding by pale bones that stuck out, long and equine. A crippled silo hobbled near it, now nothing but a rubble of bricks and decayed hay. A farmland. No wonder, it was barren and blank and the perfect amount of space to fit an entire civilisation in an Enviro-Build. Arthur cursed himself. Why would he forget what lay above? He'd been down there only 147 years. A blink in his lifetime. He shouldn't be forgetting so easily.

He continued for what seemed to be two hours, thinking about the wasteland and the work he left undone back in the Enviro-Build. He stopped short, in steps and in thought, when he saw a plume of rising smoke. He checked the map, and he was right on top of the dot. Perfect. He continued warily towards the location, seeing clay building rise from the earth, surrounded by a din of human chatter. Civilisation? This gave Arthur pause. Out here?

He tuned his headpiece out, trying to locate Ruth's. If people lived here, maybe the atmosphere wasn't all that harmful. However, he ended up finding nothing but static. He didn't even care for Ruth that much, why was he here? He grew flustered and increasingly curious. The language he heard sounded like English. Which was a good sign. And there were children racing around the brinks, another good sign. Dangerous folk don't usually keep their kids wandering around.

Sensible dangerous folk didn't, at least.

The tiny village became clear before him. People walked by, giving him curious glances. No one wore a suit. A woman paused before him, wearing a tattered rag with faded blue and red stripes dancing along its sides. She stopped and turned, finding another woman. She pointed and made a gesture with her hand. They both gave him another glance and ran into the centre of their village. Arthur continued to stomp ahead, weary of the weight of his shoes and suit. He felt like an alien intruding on ancient civilisation. Which he was. In a way.

The edge of the town brought upon smells of cooking meat (what kind of meat?) and the sound of more chatter. Arthur paused at the lip of a clay cave that pointed out into the landscape. A man appeared from inside, holding a long spear and a grim expression.

"How'd'ya here?"

"I walked." Arthur said.

"Who?"

"My name is Arthur."

"Come peace for other woman-kind come 'round sun before?"

"Ah… Yes." Arthur felt understanding creep into him. It felt like his brain cells were evolving to match their dialect, which still held a root of English. Enough to make sense of at least. He glanced around the tribe, easily falling into their tone.

"Where?"

"Go hut where other woman-kind stand and stay and look out to bring meat, meat-hut she stay, seem ok. Leader, great one, say it ok."

"Leader? Who?"

"You come peace he find you. I see no weapon of mortal destruction upon you I see no danger but danger ring and I come and I put this," he pointed to the tip of his spear, "through neck flesh." He pointed at Arthur's neck. "But, first, face must see."

Arthur pried off the headpiece. Unlike the Out-Searchers back in the Enviro-Build, he didn't need to keep the suit on for protection. But radiation tended to give him a nasty headache. At least it didn't kill him. The piece slipped off and he shook his head, letting the his grey-blond hair fall into his eyes, curling into the sweat that rung his eyebrows. He felt the wrinkles on the sides of his lips. Agelessness had been a virtue behind the mask.

The protector grunted and pointed out, returning to his cave. Arthur folded the headpiece, the big metal blocks sliding neatly into place so all that remained was the bulletproof glass and a tarpaulin-like back, compacted like a book. He slid it into his bag.

The air around here didn't seem as toxic, for whatever reason. Perhaps something had changed in the past century? Unlikely. The committee predicted the fallout aftermath would last for nearly a thousand years, if not more. They, under one of their suggestions, rigged the Enviro-Build operations to give a message when that time came to go check the outside world. If the people there managed to thrive long enough. They probably would. Key word: probably.

A child ran up to Arthur and tugged at his suit, at the thick material and its puffy insulation. He prodded at it until Arthur shooed him off. The child hissed at him in laughter and rushed away. Arthur checked his bag for anything missing. As he rummaged, another person spoke to him.

"You be thinking he's little thief, huh? He's not, he's innocent and only play like. Small child, rude but kind and you thinking we rotten people, don't you be thinking?"

"I be thinking you to shut up." Arthur scowled.

The young man before him glared back, with one eye. The other eyes wasn't there at all. It gave Arthur a pause. The socket where the left eye should have been seared shut, the bushy eyebrow leaning into the empty space.

"Stop annoying!" Another voice called to him. A woman, the same one from earlier Arthur noted, walked up to the young man, grasping his shoulder. He huffed.

"The stranger."

"I know," she pried him away from Arthur. "You be picking and bugging and next thing bam you incinerate."

Arthur was growing very fed up with their dialect. Perhaps the leader spoke proper English. He asked around for the Leader, Great One, and they directed him with a humble nod. Before approached what seemed to be a reforged barn, sloppily but securely sealed back up, he asked one of the men who crouched before it. They wore robes which flourished around them as they sat. Their heads were bowed. The one he asked looked up, a puckered hole where his mouth should have been. Arthur winced and apologised, going to another one. This man was bald as a rock, no hair anywhere that Arthur could discern, and horridly wrinkled as well. But he had a mouth which was just fine for Arthur.

"Have you seen a woman, dark hair, dark skin, named Ruth?"

"Come long time," his voice croaked out. "But gone fast. Towards Old Place."

"Thank you." Arthur felt the need to bow.

And then it was time to enter the barn. What he would witness in there, he had no idea. He anticipated an old man, hobbling and blind and crooked. Or perhaps a young, smarmy prince who had somehow risen to status of Great One. None of which came close to accurate.

Arthur walked in, asking to see the Great One from one of the other monkish men who stood guard. The man, who was crooked and hobbling and crude, nodded and pulled at the door.

The stench hit Arthur first.

And then the Great One.

Arthur shouldn't have trembled so fiercely, nor should he have felt the awful need to retch in the corner. He'd seen worse things, he told himself over and over, horrible things not even close to this. He'd seen slaughter and pillaging, he'd seen cruelty of all levels of humanity, he'd seen the ancient wars. Shouldn't the evil inflicted on man by man be much worse than simple deformity?

But no. This was not simple deformity. This was far from "simple". This was beyond imagination. The committee expected mutations to come from the eminent radiation, but who could have predicted this?

"You… Fear me?" The voice was neither young nor old. But it was sad, and kind.

"Am I not supposed to?"

"No…" the thing, Arthur thought rudely, shifted towards him. Its sagging eyes focused lamely on him. "My people take pride in me. Those who live are worshipped, for they are the strongest. And you, you're not one of my people. You smell different. Different from the other woman, too." Its shapeless skin turned vaguely to the side.

"You mean Ruth? She came to you?" Of course she would. Arthur grimaced at the sounds the flesh made, oozing around.

"Yes, only to speak. She was searching for something but she was so hungry. And she smelled of death from the inside. She is soft, from somewhere kinder to her skin. She could only barely survive in my Town's atmosphere. I am surprised you've made it so far." A lecherous grin spread across its face, revealing, tooth by jagged, bony tooth, a grin that took up most of its lopsided face.

Arthur shivered. Why had he come here anyway? He began to doubt himself, taking a few steps back. Something felt awful, and it wasn't the air. This building had the purest air he had breathed so far. Not quite like the Enviro-Build, but damn near close. Arthur felt a hand clamp on his shoulder.

"You go where? You un-done. You need stay, stay and hear." The hand gave him a shove, so Arthur, breathless, stumbled forwards. The one-eyed boy from earlier stared him down. Arthur felt malice unlike anything before. "Perfect." He spat. "You come from legend to destroy." A blow reached Arthur's chin, sending him clambering to the floor. A spot of blood blossomed in his cheek. "PERFECT OMEN!" He kicked Arthur in the ribs, sending a shock of pain racing up his body.

The creature loomed over him, emitting an odour Arthur finally recognised.

Rot.

"My child," the creature rumbled, "You do well, you make me proud. I will reward you once you finish." The mass of flesh shivered in excitement.

Arthur felt ringing in his ears, seeing feet clatter towards him. The sandalled, misshaped toes crossed his path, kicking his face and nose. A burst of blood shot out his nose, splattering against the curled tile. Hands gripped his legs, dragging his face against the stones, enough to black out his vision. His mind still raced. What had he said to offend these people? Another stone hit his temple, sending an ooze of pain that seeped into darkness.

When he woke, he was stricken with a face full of decaying hay. The mulch smeared across his face and up his nose. He pushed himself up, assaulted by the pain in his chest and head. His hands trembled, making him throw up his morning's coffee and dry bread.

Once he finished coughing, another moan escaped, but not from him. He turned towards the source, seeing a clump of clothing shift towards him, a hand following. He winced, fearing more assault.

"He..Help!"

He recognised the voice and crawled over, ignoring the pain flaring all along his body, down to his toes and nerves. His nose still burned. At least he smelled mostly blood and not the compost. He reached the other body, grasping for her hands and raising himself to his trembling knees. He didn't heal like he used to, he cursed. He felt his wounds stitch up, steadily, but his life's blood no longer ran so strong.

"Ruth?" he whispered, focusing his mind from slipping back to unconsciousness. He touched her face, turning her towards him. Her faceplate had cracked, showing a splattering of blood. Her eyes turned towards him, her breath staggered.

"You came…? You're not even part of the… the team…" she laughed weakly.

"No, but I can withstand all of this." He gestured to the air, raising her up slightly. She gave him a broken-toothed grin. They'd beaten bloody. He was fearful to look down, fearing that part of her wasn't there.

"You're the perfect. I knew it. Remember… When we spoke?"

"This isn't the time to be sentimental," Arthur cut her off briskly, pulling her face plate all the way off and trying to find something to use to dab away her injuries. His bag had been stolen, he realised too late. No wonder he could move without its weight. But that also meant that he didn't have any medical supplies. Or food. "Ah… I don't think I can heal that anyway…" he realised her legs were beyond repair. She'd felt so light.

"Arthur." She snapped, clarity ringing into her eyes like a bell. She pulled out a compact drive from her headset, a part that had been mercifully saved. She shoved it in his arms. "There's a reason I left. And it wasn't to search for them." She wheezed, "I need you to hear this. The Committee they vowed to restore the earth."

"We did. Oh god, we did. Has that much time passed?"

"I think so. Something's been wrong with…" she trembled, forcing harder through her sentence, "The time system down there. Look, Arthur, they'll burn this building down, can't you smell the gasoline?"

"What… I…" Arthur looked about, sniffing a hint of it under everything else. Tears stung his eyes.

"You need to leave. Take that. Save us, please." Tears crept out of her eyes. "I knew you'd come. Dear god save me, I knew you would… You promised us so long ago." She slouched out of his arms, not quite dead but mercifully released from her task. Arthur laid her down gently. The smell of gasoline became even more potent. He tucked the drive into an inner pocket of his suit and staggered to his feet. Old strength began to rise up in him. The mercy of having someone believe in him brought his energy back.

It was nostalgic. Before they praised the country where the sun never set and wounds were nothing more than blemishes. Now, of course, he hurt like hell. And he had to get out of the silo. The only ways out were through the shattered front doors or the top of a very unsafe looking staircase. He glanced at Ruth who stared at him. Her crushed legs spilling out like reverse angel wings. She pointed hazily towards the other side, where a slip of yellowed, dusty light spilled through. He crept through, pushing the broken bricks, ending up on the other side of the silo. He heard a chanting on the other side and smelled the smoke. They marched towards him. He felt an eerie sense of nostalgia.

With a bitter thought he realised they'd cremate Ruth. And who was he, not giving her a burial? The guilt gnawed at him. But it was what she wanted. And when she wanted something she meant business.

Arthur broke into a sprint which drained all his energy. He ran and kept running. The Enviro-Build's rocky cliffside melted into the dusty air. He couldn't go back. The time for being there had ended.

Behind him, the silo shot up in tall, dancing flames. The heat emanated off of it, burning bright and fierce.

The heat of the burning silo washed over him.

Nothing around it was left to burn.


Hetalia with a heavy influence from Fallout, but not enough to be crossover.