Ralphie watched the sun set over the western horizon. He enjoyed these moments, which often brought bits of introspection to his otherwise chaotic life.

I should get down before the darkness sets in.

As Ralphie scaled down the decrepit, half-fallen structure, a flash of light caught his eye.

Lightning?

While he was descending the former twenty-story office structure, a mechanical whirring shattered the silence of the night. Ralphie picked up the pace, but he couldn’t risk the one wrong move that would send him to his death. He promised himself that the machines would miss him—not this time!

Where can I hide? This place is too open.

He spotted the ruined hull of a fallen airplane. Careful to keep low, he closed the distance and crawled into the hull of the former U.S. East Airlines plane. He desperately wished that the machines still had a fear of confined areas. Ralphie used to be scared, but not anymore. He would do whatever it took to stay alive, find survivors, and learn the whereabouts of his mother. John Appleton had protected their camp as the drones and walking scrapheaps had taken over. He risked a peek. He had to know what he was dealing with.

A chopper?

The helicopter landed about fifty yards from his current position. He froze as a group of people scrambled out. It was a group of two women and a man, judging from the tones of their voices. He couldn’t tell what they were saying, but they were looking for someone. He leaped out to get a better look with his black hoodie covering his pale face. As the last remnants of day faded into inky blackness, he froze, and a beam of light enveloped him. He turned and ran in the opposite direction, careful not to trip the dozens of potential hazards before him.

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“Ralphie, stop,” a familiar voice said.

Is that his brother?

He turned to see a tall, shadowy figure come closer. Biting his lip, he hoped this wasn’t a trick.

“Nigel?”

“Yes, it’s so good to see you, brother.”

A moment later, a tall man with curly brown hair rushed to his side. He hugged his brother; it had been more than a year since his brother sent him to find his mother. His vision blurred as tears welled in his eyes.

“It’s so good to see you, Ralphie,” Nigel said as he broke the embrace.

“It’s good that you located him;

“Then we must leave. We are at a disadvantage in the dark,” an accented female voice said.

Ralphie didn’t know where she was in front, but she sounded European.

“Let’s go,” Nigel said.

Ralphie followed his brother and his female companions to the helicopter. He could feel the wind that was being generated by the blades. He had a million questions for his brother: Where did he get a helicopter? Who were these women? A series of clanking metal against metal broke him out of his thoughts.

“Stay down,” Nigel said as he removed a retro blaster from his jacket and shot into the air.

Ralphie could see dozens of drones hovering all around the helicopter.

“Shut it down—now!” Nigel said.

The chopper’s blades wound down to a slow drawl a moment later. Then one of the women removed some cylindrical device from the cargo hold and shot something in the air that reminded Ralphie of a Roman candle, a firework that his mother gave them.

“Take cover,” Nigel yelled.

Ralphie jumped into the helicopter as it rained drones.