"The Others"
Chapter 2 "Home of the Scientist"
"11! We're back!" 12 shouted in the distance. 11, without moving a mechanical muscle, reached over with his right arm and gave a thumbs-up. He had finished the scavenging a long time ago so he thought he deserved a well need break. 11 started to drift off into a dream again.
11 was back at the Safe-Haven before it was burned to the ground. It was during one of the winter storms, they usually blocked them in or broke through their windows. Everyone else was asleep on the desktop, 11 was on watch. He wore a cloak to keep his internals warm, his bow was at the ready with the quiver full.
He stepped up to a broken window, he watched the raging storm outside. In the distance, almost completely hidden by the storm, he saw a faintly lit light. He zoomed his vision to try and uncover what he saw. As he leaned out the window, something grabbed him by the neck and threw him out.
He went crashing into the snow, he thrashed around at the snow as he got up. 11 searched for his attacker frantically. The figure was camouflaged by the storm. "You've gotten sloppy," they told them. 11 drew his bow along with an arrow ready, he fired at the figure. His attacker grabbed the arrow and broke it under his knee. "You're weak, you can't protect them all, you'll fall eventually and they will all die." The figure walked over to him and raised their foot, then stomped on him.
11 woke up gasping for air, he tried to look around but it was pure darkness. "12!" he shouted in the pure darkness, "19! Where are you!?" The hissing of the wind filled the air, 11 was alone. In the darkness, he could just barely make out the silhouette of a large being slowly making its way to him. He jumped off the machine and crashed into the dirt ground.
The figure continued moving towards him, closer and closer. 11 reached behind his back for his bow but he felt only thin air. He checked his belt for any weapon, he felt only his small carving knife. He yanked it out and held it to the figure, "Stay back!" he yelled. The figure didn't stop.
"Stay BACK!" he yelled again and swung the knife around a little bit. The figure looked deeply at 11, its head tilted slightly. There was something in the middle of its chest. It was small and shaped like a diamond, it gleamed an orange vibrant color. The object sparked a little, slowly growing in size.
11 grinned angrily.
"Bring it!"
…
After 13 climbed the old wooden stairwell, she found herself in an attic filled with books, papers, and a body covered in papers. 13 slowly walked closer to them and took a long look at them.
Most of them were blueprints but she couldn't read them in the dark room. But she could make out the roughly made silhouette of a ragdoll sketch. "W-what?" she stammered then took a few quite steps forward. She grasped at the paper, she held it close. From what she could see from the little light she had, the paper read:
I am alone, consumed by the ringing in my ears. It's so quiet out there. My body is cold and fatigued, vision blurry.
*Blurry words masked by the darkness*
We had so much potential… so much promise. But we squandered our gifts.
*More Blurry words*
Our world is ending, but life must go on.
"We are not alone," she whispered then let go of the paper. The wind carried it away, 13 watched as it went up in the air then fell straight down onto something.
She slowly walked over to the page, then pealed it off and saw something horrible. She jumped back, falling on her butt. It was the cold, dead face of the scientist who wrote the note. His eyes were slightly open, revealing old hazel eyes forever staring at a music box.
She slowly crept forward, not making a single sound, and closed his eyes.
13 continued exploring the attic, she climbed up a bookshelf filled with all sorts of wonders. "81 and 24 would have seen this and lost it," she said cheerfully but it quickly died. "But they're gone."
She leaped from the top of the bookshelf onto the attic's desk. Upon her landing, she lost her footing and tumbled. Her light body crashed into a wooden object.
13 laid there on her back, waiting for her lungs and reflexes to relax. Once everything returned to a normal pace, she slowly turned over on her stomach then pushed herself up. When she got to her feet, 13 observed her surroundings:
A tall copper device directly to her right, shutters leading to a view of the outside, and finally a music box with a tag that read "9" in front of the Scientist.
She decided to investigate the farthest one, having seen the consequences of her last endeavor of going to something that was closer. She slowly walked over to the shutters. They were booming back and forth violently. She managed to get a hold of the right shutter and held it firm. On the outside, the storm outside had calmed down but was still blocking her only way of getting in and out of the city.
Her optics couldn't see through the dust fog, no way to get home. The ruins were barely visible under the fog, the only thing she could see were the flags below. She looked to her left and right, looking for silhouettes of hopefully more intact buildings. To her left, in the distance she saw the rear half of an old plane sticking out of a short brick building.
To her right, in the far away distance was the silhouette of a sturdier looking building with cast iron gates. 13, satisfied with her observation, closed the shutters and hopped back over to the desktop. As she walked along the edge of the desk, she noticed that the objects on the desk didn't have as much dust as everything else.
She looked up at the copper device. In the middle, extending out was a small circular placeholder for a piece to fit. 13 had an idea, she ran across the desk to objects to put into place. She climbed them and hopped to one of the copper extensions. She struggled to keep herself on it, the thin piece was too small for her to balance on.
She scurried over to the holder for whatever was supposed to be place in the circular placeholder. When she got close enough she reached out to the circular placeholder, and when one of her fingers just barely touched it she swore she heard a voice.
"Life must go on."
When she heard that phrase, she fell into a dream.
*BOOM* An explosion in front of her threw her against debris. She looked around frantically, the city was engulfed in raging fires. Soldiers and Rebels ran from cover to cover, street to house, house to ruins. She donned her cloak once again, her body wasn't as way worn like it normally was. It reminded her of when she first woke in the world.
Towering above them all were the machines. Their singular red eyes peered deep into the souls of their victims. Three towering machines walked down the streets, gunning down anything that moves. They seemed to avoid 13 entirely, focusing on the Rebels bombarding them with firebombs, as they continued down the streets slowly.
She looked at the ruins across from her, it was quite a long distance but not too far for her, she saw a figure her size waving at her. They wore a black cloak, modeled like 13's old cloak but this one had a facemask, their legs were made of corduroy but it looked to have been through a lot.
"Over here!" the figure shouted quietly and gestured for her to run over to him. 13 looked around to make sure nothing was nearby. Once she was clear of danger, she bolted towards the figure as fast as she could.
She climbed up some stone debris and leaped next to the figure, rolling straight into the old wall of a bombarded house. The figure crouched down next to her, "Are you alright? What's your name?"
The figure's voice was one that belonged to someone who's seen horrible things, he wasn't fresh like 13. "I-I'm 13," she told him and covered herself with the cloak. "Hey," the figure said smoothly and calmly, "There's no need to be afraid, I'll keep you safe." He held out his hand to her, "Come on, let's find a safe place," he told her.
She took it and he pulled her to her feet. She was able to get a good look at the figure.
Their cloak was in tatters, they've been too close to explosions since war sprung out in the city. Their face mask almost covered most of their face along with the hood of the cloak.
"Who are you?" she asked him. She could tell he was smiling underneath the mask. Before he could speak all, she heard was *BOOM*!
And the dream ended.