Aeolus jolted back to conciousness, brought back by a salty smell travelling through the air. He slid his eyes beside him, the sun creeping under a towering wall of rock, though faded and darkened by distance. He looked down at his clothes, the sleek black leather which always kept it shine was finally giving way the dust, a visible tear growing near the bottom.
He peered ahead, shocked at the cracked surface slowly leading into patches of green spread throughout. More than a growth as the meadows in the Outer City, these patches seemed to grow in spite of the rock and sand. Rarely scattered around the area, much larger mounds appeared like short hills, infected by the sands of the neighboring wasteland.
Aeolus shifted his focus to Rhyder. His hands were glued to the wheel, his face flattened to no expression. His eyes snapped to Aeolus for a moment, before he reached over and grabbed the clutch in the center of the dashboard. The car slowly gave way to the rough surface, before calmly stopping. Rhyder still locked his gaze forwards. "Nice nap?" He said, deadpanned still.
Aeolus pushed himself back up sitting properly, then took another look in front of them. Just over some of the mounds, he could see faint light riding up the hills. The rock wall from beside them trailed in front of them, seemingly closing them off. It was a similar wall Aeolus spotted in the distance from the Striders base. Of course, one half of a bowl would imply another half, though the thought was overshadowed in mind by the new application of the bright color's in front of him.
"Can you walk?" Rhyder finally spoke. Aeolus peered over to him, making something of a mumble. Rhyder must have taken this as a positive response, as he shook his head before cracking open the door. Aeolus followed suite. He stepped on the ground, expecting solid force, but met with a pressed in squishing. His face shot back up and he reeled in his foot. He turned around to Rhyder, comfortably walking forward. The strange sounds from each step not seeming to bother him. Aeolus exhaled and shook his head, collecting some reassurance. He stepped out, though still slightly disturbed by the feeling of the green mass.
The lights ahead of them revealed a mix of wood and metal, seen to be suspended on docks and stilts. As they got closer, the spherical buildings and huts covered themselves in green paint, mistaken for one of the other large mounds around the encampment. The lights gave way rhythmic sounds, occasionally getting louder and quieter.
"Oi..." Rhyder flung his hand into Aeolus, they both stopped. Aeolus almost swallowed his tongue, letting out a burst of air. Rhyder turned towards Aeolus. "Just try not to talk to anyone, yeah?" Aeolus nodded his head, letting out some air again, and they continued walking. "Try to keep your head down till I find Leon."
"You mean-" Aeolus stuttered out.
"Yes, that Leon." Rhyder sighed, before chuckling to himself a bit. He turned over the Aeolus. "Don't worry, she's not that strung up all the time."
"What are we here for, exactly? That..." Aeolus struggled to find an appropriate word. "'Thing' from the hologram?"
"Nah, that's already gone. We're here for you."
The docks of the village acted as streets, and you could hardly tell it was suspended, everything was tight together. The occasional villager passed by, either dressed in long blue linen, or a similar style to Rhyder, though in either white or blue. Half of them had an olive complexion, though the others looked more like the desert-worn Striders, just cleaned up a bit, soaked in the color's of their surroundings. The mix of archaic and modern architecture gave mixed signals to the nature of this place, though, some of the smartest minds working against FEA lived in this boggy town.
Rhyder and Aeolus approached a larger building on the west side of the village. It was 3 stories taller than any of the surrounding buildings, but also the most bland. A small garage door shook in the wind in the left corner of the building. The entrance into the building was two loosely hinged scrap doors, the rust creaking against itself as Rhyder pulled one of the doors open. It was a makeshift workshop, machinery and equipment scattered along the walls.
"Leon!" Rhyder shouted out, as Leon spun around in her chair, reclined at the very back of the workshop. "Miss me yet?"
"No. I never do." Leon stated. Rhyder laughed as he and Aeolus walked to the back. Aeolus more nervously squared up.
"Oh come on, I'm the one that brings all the fun."
"What, like him?" Leon nodded her head towards Aeolus. Rhyder turned around to spot his tight appearance.
"He has a name, eh?" Rhyder twisted his head, patting Aeolus on the back.
Leon let out a sigh, running her hand across her eyes. She spun back around towards her desk. On the wall in front of her, a collection of monitors seems to pile up to the ceiling, knobs and keyboards in front of her. She turned a few of the knobs, and 3 monitors in front of her turned on. They only displayed a green line on a black screen. With a few keyboard clicks, they started moving like waves.
Leon slowly spun back towards Rhyder, with an annoyed look on her face. Sounds began to play from the monitors, although very compressed. The familiar desert winds blew , and distant explosions flew out of the speakers. The whirring of choppers and engines overtook it all, before a final, closer explosion led the audio to end in static. Leon reached her hand back and slammed on the keyboard, ending the static.
Rhyder's eye's widened, as he leaned forward slightly. "That is not gonna happen here, Leon-" he calmly said.
"Oh really?" She barely interrupted, yelling out at him. "So what, you brought the human tracking device here for, what was it, fun!?"
"The tracking is gone, Leon, calm down." Rhyder retorted back firmly, but matching her volume. They both stared at each other silently, Rhyder slowly breaking from his firm stance. Aeolus stood there awkwardly, and took a deep breath, shooting the air out. Leon glanced over at him.
"Sorry..." She quietly apologized.
"No, don't be." Rhyder spun around, walking back towards the doors. "It was probably my fault" He ran his hands up to his hair, pacing around the exit doors and he continued whispering to himself. . Aeolus turned to follow him out the door.
"Ah ah..." Leon slid in her chair towards Aeolus, grabbing his left wrist, placing her thumb on his veins. "I've got to see if you're safe, bud." She ran her thumb across the veins in his hand, as they swelled up more and more. "I'm surprised you're doing as well as you are." Leon said, her eyes still focused on his hand. Rhyder walked out the doors, creaking the workshop closed.
Aeolus leaned back onto a long table, looking as if it was on a rail. The table slid into the middle of a giant plastic-looking machine. It was also very cold. "So, am I 'safe'?" Aeolus said, as the table slid into the machine.
"Just try to be still." Leon said, as she walked over to the machine's console just a few feet away. 100's of wires shot out from a small terminal, connecting all over the machine. "This is like an Xray, but for techno signatures. It let's us see if you got any fancy implants." A few keyboard clicks, and the machine started whirring. Aeolus felt the tab on his head tighten up, and it felt as if it was being tugged on. The machine died down after a few seconds, and Leon pulled the table out from the machine. Aeolus stood up, scratching his head.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
"Implants?" Aeolus asked.
"Something like that chip. Tech that's been installed in your body. Tracking, Enhancing, Control... I'm sure there's an implant for everything these days."
A few more keyboard clicks, and the console sang out a short jingle. Leon detached the screen from the console, turning it into a tablet. She walked over to Aeolus, and sat on the metal stretcher with him. On the tablet was an image of a body, the same layout as on Rhyder's Programmer. Leon began going over different parts of the body with him, explaining what they all were. Chip? Did she mean...
"And this..." She pointed to the top of the body. "That's your brain."
"I'm still having a hard time with that one." Aeolus rubbed his head, sarcastically knocking on his skull a few times, chuckling as he did.
Leon laughed along, before they both stared at each other in silence.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Leon leaned in.
"I..." Aeolus stuttered out, a smile forming. "You know, I'm not sure." He said through nervous laughter.
"Well..." Leon sighed, leaning back and swinging her feet forward to stand up. "At least we know you're not gonna kill us." She gave him a pat on the back, and returned to her tower of monitors. She quickly leaned over and slid her tablet back into its console. Aeolus slowly got up, taking a look at the console and the scan of his body. He began pointing at the body parts Leon showed him, and sounding out the names.
As she was typing, she asked: "So how old are you, Aeolus?" Aeolus froze. Somehow, she had never thought of that. After some silence, she spun around her chair and looked up at him. "Your body scans are very strange, to say the least." Aeolus browed his eyes, nodding off in thought. Leon let off a weak smile, before turning back around to her monitors. "You should go find Rhyder, let him know you're all good to stick around."
Aeolus shook his head, regaining his focus, then headed out of the Workshop.
Why couldn't I remember my age? He thought to himself. It wasn't that hard of a question. He was born in Vol. I was born on... He couldn't think of an answer. Well, I was there for... He couldn't recall how long he lived in Vol. He couldn't picture his parents. In fact, he could seldom remember anything before the incident at A0L.
The crew sat around the workshop, some worrying and some simply impatiently fidgeting. Aeolus paced around the now dim lab, walking back and forth between the various machineries and equipment that lit the room in place of the Sun. Rhyder has pulled up a swiveling chair to the center of the room, kicking his leg round and around. Leon sat on the floor, fiddling with the circuit board connected to her stack of monitors. Her mother sitting at the table, typing in into the massive system, speaking into a microphone built into the bottom of one of the screens. Very little if any response could be heard back through the static.
"Well shit." Rhyder sighed. He stomped both his feet down and stopped his spinning, bringing his hands up behind his head.
"What?" Leon said, focused on the circuit board.
Rhyder clicked his tongue, then resumed spinning in his chair. "This is my fault, isn't it?"
Leon chortled, as she grabbed a small blowtorch on the ground next to her. She shot sparks at the board, the voices from the comms growing in and out of clarity as they flew.
"What?" Rhyder laughed, the position of question asker flipped just as easily as that.
"Rhyder..." Leon placed the circuit board at her lap, then looked up towards him. "Vol was your fault. This isn't anyone's fault."
"How was I supposed to know they'd-" Rhyder stopped, glancing over towards Aeolus, who was staring up at the comms screens, darting around at each new sound and image. He occasionally tapped Leon's mother on the shoulder, asking her questions about the system. Though, she mostly ignored these, only giving a quick explanation. Rhyder cleared his throat, moving on from his thought, then glared back and Leon.
"Might have to rush into Eden all by myself" He swung his leg extra far, spinning three times around before he stopped. Leon let out another chuckle, then picked up her circuit board again.
Leon's mother hacked, smacking her hand down onto the metal table housing the comms system, then turned a big knob on one of the monitors. A male voice whispered out of the speaker. "Got a trace going, definitely him"
Leon shot up, and walked behind her mother, turning a few more dials, as Leon spun around to Rhyder. "I've got a better idea."
Rhyder slammed his feet down again, then daintily rose to his feet and stretched his arms and chest. He loud out a sigh of relief as his muscles loosened. Leon flicked a switch on the large monitor in the center of the jumbled tech. A black and white recording played on the screen, it was a camera on the desert floor. In the distance, a convoy of black vans rode towards them. As they got closer, the camera appeared to be picked up, as the video showed them turning around and running before it cut out and began replaying.
"Where is this?" Rhyder asked, walking over besides Leon.
"Few miles from Nuvyron." Leon replied, tapping the screen as it looped a third time. "A whole convoy, headed in that direction."
"Ok..." Rhyder sarcastically tapped the screen, before leering over in Leons face. "How does that help me?"
Aeolus popped his head over from the corner of the comms table, stuttering to start his speech. "What is Nuvyron?"
"You mean helps us." Leon stated, flicking Rhyder's nose. She pulled back, then crouched under the desk, opening and digging through a filing cabinet just under her mothers legs. Rhyder turned around smiling as Aeolus, who was glancing between the both of them.
"Nuvyron! It's..." Rhyder's eyes wandered the floor. "Well..." He raised his head back up. "Not how you want a city to turn out." He said as he looked back at the video.
Aeolus peered over. He recognized the vehicles as the same ones coming into the valley from earlier. His heart rate increased, as he shot a concerned look at Rhyder, though Rhyder didn't pay much mind. Aeolus turned around, and walked to the corner of the desk again.
Scotty...
Leon jumped up from under the desk, kicking in an open filing cabinet as she did. She walked towards the open middle of the workshop, carrying a large rolled up poster. She kicked Rhyder's chair to the side, and laid out the sheet across the floor. Rhyder scoffed. "I know how to get there."
Leon sarcastically scoffed back, flattening out the edges of the map. "Oh yeah? Well Romilly doesn't."
"Romilly? What?" Rhyder leaned down to question her.
"Well, Romilly..." She said in a mocking tone. "Unlike you, knows how to use the comms" She turned her head, a sassy smile pointed at Rhyder. He simply gave the same sarcastic smile back, with a fake chuckle.
Aeolus slowly approached Rhyder, focusing in on the map below them. Leon remained crouch down, running her finger across the map. The map itself was a satellite image of The Aleutian, though riddled with different colored markings and drawn lines. From a blue circle spun around the northwest end of the map, a brown line travelled out to the east. Leon traced her finger across the line, slowing down as she reached the middle of the paper. She eventually stopped a few inches from a green triangle, drawn just above what looked like a range of mountains. Aeolus approached beside Rhyder, as they both leaned their heads down to see the imaginary mark.
"The trace she sent us, it's right around here.
Aeolus leaned in forward. "So where is it now?
Rhyder laughed, half-sarcastically. He wagged his finger down at the map, tapping the green triangle "Did you forget about a certain danger zone?"
"Oh come on..." Leon said, an annoyance in her voice as she stood up, walking back to the comms station. "They wouldn't take on a convoy. They have deals with FEA."
"That was years ago! You think FEA is keeping quiet now!?"
"No, but Nuvyron a great place to hide" Leon smiled, turning her head. "I mean come on, now they're just stealing our ideas."
"What in the world do they have to hide from." Rhyder leaned back up straight. "Not like I caused a revolution yet." He turned back to the comms, then eyed the darkening window above it. "How far is Rom."
"About an hour out."
"Suns down before that."
"Then we leave tomorrow." Leon got up and walked back to the comms, brushing Rhyder's shoulder. She leaned across her mother, turning back the dial on the large monitor. She reached for a blue button near the tabletop, and the static cut out. "Send sitrep ever hour if you can." Only static responded to her
Rhyder shook his head, then finally retorted. "We?"
Leon turned back around, glancing at Rhyder and Aeolus. "Yes, and? What's the issue?"
Rhyder chuckled, wiping his chin. "You're not gonna bail halfway through?"
"Not this time." Leon said, with surprising conviction. Rhyder's smile faded, as he slowly began to nod his head. "I'll let you know when Romilly is arriving." Leon said, as she turned around, typing as the comms console.
"It's a small village, Leon." Rhyder shouted as he turned to walk about out. This time he waved his finger for Aeolus to follow. "It's not like I won't hear him coming."