Charlotte walked, her feet weak and her breath rough. Even so, she felt satisfied, happy as she finally got to that city, the outskirts, but it was the city nonetheless. She could glance some buildings lighted by the still distant heart of the city. Once she was close enough, she saw farms and warehouses surrounded by crops close by.

She wanted to let her body plop on the ground, on the plants that were around and wait until she felt better to continue, but thought it best to get to the city, and then, and then do what?

She entered a zone of crops which reached her shoulders, few went past her head. She went by two well defined plantations before arriving to the first house and what she thought was the warehouse where the food was stored to its right, the city at the background gave it a faint lighting.

She looked at the two buildings and gave up the idea of continuing onwards. There wasn’t much thought to it, her body called for rest and her legs protested against going on. She felt them hard or too soft to even call it a feeling, her shoes wasted on the soles and her pants had little holes all around. Her shirt was better as she put a hoodie on two hours in the road.

She approached the warehouse, it wasn’t as big as she believed at first, around ten meters high, possibly with a second storie, its front gate only big enough for a not too big tractor to go in.

She circled it and found a smaller door at the opposite side, one used by people and not machines. She decided to get in there. But first, she checked what was on the insides, she entered the Crystal’s Space and activated the External Projection, making it stretch in a line. She saw bits of the place, but couldn't make much sense of what she saw, it would take too long to get a clear picture like that.

“Oh, I can make it be like a radar…? Yeah, that could work. Hey Prism, make an image of what it goes through and assemble them, okay?” A sole image appeared before her before fading away.

She did as a scanner would, extending the projection even more and reducing its width. She made it go around fast without looking at it. After sweeping it over place, she looked back at the image. She could roughly see everything that was in there, there were some cuts and missing parts, and lacked movement, it was an image after all, but it was clearer than before, now she could explore the space easily and without worry.

She had a fleeting thought of telling Prism the name of everything she saw later, she could tell her what was around if she knew them.

She went inside, in the middle she saw what looked like an old tractor, near it wasn't much she could see. In one of the corners of the first floor were different kinds of tools for farming: shovels, rakes, hoses and more, she didn’t know the names and wasn’t interested in them to care enough. Two horses were tied at the opposite corner, on the walls between the corners diverse sealed lumps she didn’t know the name of, maybe fertilizers or seeds.

There were two sets of stairs on the walls, one was next to the door she was at and another at the front gate, which led to a second level of the warehouse. It rounded the place, a platform with a width no more than a meter and a half, and a meter high fence. There was nothing else she could see, she nodded at her temporary bedroom.

Before going out, she told Prism to do a better scan to get a fully view of the place. Once ready, she started looking for any electronic devices, specially alarms and cameras. She searched for several minutes and found nothing. In fact, the warehouse had nothing resembling technology, apart from the big guy in the middle of it.

She sighed and put the image away, calling forth the External Projection to the door in front of her. She made her perception grow smaller, or the surrounding go bigger, and unlocked it. She wasn’t nearly as mentally tired as she was physically. She entered once she was certain no one was around her.

*Neighhhh!

As soon as she put a foot in the granary, the horses made a ruckus, Charlotte halted her steps and her brows furrowed. She looked at them with a face ready to protest but paused as she realized it couldn’t be helped, she was the invader, after all. She closed the door without caring for the noise they made and put the lock back together.

She willed her body to climb the stairs and went to a corner where she couldn’t be seen from the stairs. Sitting against the wall, she felt her eyes instantly closing and her consciousness drifting away, her mind simply omitted the noise the horses made. She had on her disguise, so she didn’t bother anymore to fight it.

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An old man woke up after a bad night, his horses had made a ruckus late at night and continued with it until now, it started around two in the morning if he saw right the clock on his nightstand. He had gone to see if something was wrong after the noise had been going on for some minutes, but didn’t find anything out of place, everything was alright around the house, no fire, the barn was closed still and there's no attempt of it being forced open. He tried to calm the noisy animals, all for naught.

After deciding there was nothing wrong, he made earplugs with paper on the kitchen and went back to his room, his wife asked for them and he couldn’t sleep much after that.

Once the sun was peeking on the horizon, he went to the calmer but still loud horses, grumbling at every step. He wanted to teach those damned horses to keep quiet. Inside, his two horses had tried to free themselves, the column they were tied to weary by their force, the soil beneath had been wasted and the walls hurt with their soles on them.

“Thos damn’d horss! I’m gonna teach ‘em how to r’spect ma thins!” The barn trembled with the man's shout.

He approached them and realized they kept on their stupor, not calming down at all, something happening for the first time. He frowned.

He eyed them with anger and looked around his barn, more carefully this time.

He saw that the stairs going to the second floor had some straws on it. He tried to keep things clean and now were some on the stairs. They had been there for some time now but he hadn’t seen or cared for it before.

He took a rake from the corner. Climbing the stairs with difficulty, he started sweeping, he found nothing out of place in the process. He cleared it all. He then went down and decided to make the horses pay for their insolence and uproar.

Once he had calmed down the horses with a horsewhip he had taken from his house, he went to have breakfast before starting the day for good.

Fui, sorry little horses, but this lady doesn’t want to be discovered and have unnecessary trouble. I’ll be leaving in the night and leave you alone after that.

She thanked the man for his prompt warning and let the tension fade from her body. She had scrambled around the floor when the man started sweeping it, trying to keep herself out of his vision, which totally worked as he didn't say a word.

The day went on without a hitch after that, she didn’t move at all from her spot and somehow felt her sore, weak muscles were better. She wasn’t that hungry, as she had eaten a lot the day before. What was problematic was regaining her physical strength and so she did with Prism’s help. Once she felt better, mind and body on the same amount, she tried to improve on the internal energy department, so she ate the last of the food she still had. She was a battery now, a battery of this new energy, she told to herself.

While she waited for the day to be over, she talked with White Prism, teaching her the name of the things around her.

She got up and descended the stairs once she was certain the couple were asleep, well deep in the night. She bade her farewell to the horses and went out of the granary, locked it once more and started her trek to the city.

The horses rocked on again, but quieter this time. The man had warned them after all and they didn’t want to suffer once more.

There was still some distance until the habitable zone of the city so she walked for two hours before she saw something different. With every step, she realized it was even bigger than what she thought before. The skyscrapers were higher and wider than what the distance had shown her.

She finally left the countless farms behind, and saw sporadic buildings where people resided and slept at night, some were out at this time, walking on the street she finally got to. She didn’t hide from them, there was no reason to. If someone attacked her, she had a gun to greet them, with bullets to spare. She had taken them all from the vehicle, selecting only those that fit.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Nothing happened, no one attacked her in the outskirts. She tilted her head, wonder in her eyes; she had thought she would definitely be assaulted the moment she got there.

It’s not as bad if they don’t attack every moving soul.

Even if it was the most dangerous city on the world, there stood a society with rules and laws that had to be followed, she thought. She continued without stopping to look around. It was late and she needed a place she could get her bearings and plan her next action.

After another hour, she finally left behind the zone of sporadic buildings and entered the first residential area. The number of people coming and going increased, she could see five or more at any given time. She decided to find a place to sleep then, so she chose a random building and scanned it with Prism’s help. She named the new skill ‘Wide Range Scan’. She sat at the corner of the building, and went inside to search through it. Looking at the rooms in the image, when she saw there was someone in there, she went to the next one. She did it as fast as she could and got an idea for another script.

Looking through it for some minutes, she finally found an apartment without anyone in. She looked through it more carefully to see if no one was living there and saw almost nothing in there.

“This’s my home for the night.” She stood up from her corner and went to the front of the building, where the door stood.

She opened it after closing her eyes for no more than a minute, she went in as if she owned the place, those who saw her said nothing. She climbed the stairs and went to the empty apartment she had found. She entered it without a hitch, and went directly to the only thing that was in there, a sofa, an old one now that she saw it better. The apartment had two rooms, one with the sofa and the other without anything. Between them was a short corridor with a window at the end that divided the two rooms.

She tilted her head and thought for a minute, she chose to go to the room with nothing. Even if there were no signs of anyone living there, someone could still come to sleep, like she. The other room was no bigger than the first, around eight square meters big.

She got in, closed the door and with some difficulty took off her bag and put it beside the door, she rested her back against door’s frame so if anyone came, they would wake her up first. She was tired, she couldn’t get much sleep during the day in fear the man climbed the stairs once again, once she was ready, she closed her eyes and slept without taking anything out, and with the gun just besides her.

Nothing happened, no one came in the apartment and she wasn’t awoken by shouts of people searching for her. She had slept as peacefully as someone could while leaning on a door.

She woke up and moved her gaze around. She closed her eyes after a minute and asked Prism to bring up the previous projection of the apartment and compare it to the current one, it remained the same. Sighing, she started to unpack the things on the bag, to sort them out and see what she could use and what was useless.

She took all her clothing off first, her current ones were messy and ragged. Once on clean clothes, she put on her hoodie again and then took out the laptop and connected it to the outlet. After a minute, she frowned.

There’s no power here?

She remembered there were some lights on last night. Shaking her head, she disconnected it and went to the bullets. There were five packages full of them, fifty on each, and with the ones in her gun, she had a total of 257. She wasn’t able to shot anything before, and now this was her only ally.

The irony…

It was the only thing Gut had given her. Her lips curved upwards but her expression didn’t change, she didn't cry but her eyes wanted to, she just didn't have any more to shed. She put the packages and the black, unornamented gun beside her. It was customized for her, but she wasn’t versed in them so she didn’t see any difference to the ones on the web.

After leaving it, her hands stabilized and she continued to look through things. She took out ten cards, contact and credit ones. She didn’t know if the last ones were useful here, but she was certain she would be tracked once she did, she would use them if there wasn’t anything she could do here. She then read through the names of the contact and memorized the names of the people and the direction it said as best as she could.

She then continued with his disguising kit. There were a lot of brushes and powders, along with face masks and skin ointments. They allowed him to have a full range of skin colors, from white pink to black brown. She thought of various uses they could have, but now wasn’t the time.

She finally went to the notebooks he had left behind. Reading through them, she realized there wasn’t anything of importance, missions of the past, diaries of his and letters he had received were kept in four different ones, not only from James but from people he knew in Gercy or other places. She decided she would destroy them once she read them carefully and with enough time without worries.

Packing everything once again, she was in the street looking around, she met and greeted some of the residents before she made her way out. She walked again towards the center of the city. Frankly, the city was normal, too normal, everyone minded their own business and did nothing to the others.

There were almost no cars, though. Once every few minutes, she would see a car going around. Trucks were the most common ones, they transported food or other things to stores.

It was a normal looking city for being called the most dangerous of the world.

If only one looked away at the damaged structures on the street and its roads. And its people.

The buildings weren’t destroyed, only lacking attention and repairs, there was the occasional broken window but had a nice vibe overall. After all, on some the walls were paintings and graffities. Most of them were beautiful and the minority simply didn’t make any sense to her. Mermaids, dogs, cats, robots, cars, cartoons and many other things. Letters and messages to others and the governing powers, not only of the city, but of the world. They were on places people could easily reach. The graffities she couldn’t make any sense of were some jumbled words with scratches over them, maybe it had some sinister meaning, she judged.

The road was better, at least there wasn’t much painting on them. Some were for the kids to play on, as some were doing now, jumping and throwing stones, near them their mothers watching over them, she guessed.

Even so, it was in dire need of repair, there were holes every now and then, most of them full of water from the previous day’s rain. Or was it two days? How long since it last rained here? She remembered that the day before didn’t rain, at all. And the previous one, well, she was too far away to say it also rained in the city.

She set her sights in one of the children who were playing. He had glasses on, something she wasn’t used to. Most people on the outside wore them as fashion and not out of necessity. There were implants after all, biological ones and surgeries could help with almost all illness on the eyes. Her friend, Ellen, wore them because she wanted to tell the people of her circle some message or implant some fashion, or to simply give a different impression from the others.

They child, however, cried when the glasses came off, as he fell on the ground. He couldn’t see properly. A lady approached him and calmed him down, probably his mother. He also had some kind of device on his left ear. Again, something she didn’t see on the outside. He wasn’t the only one with mechanical stuff, though.

There weren’t many people on the street with them, but there were some obvious ones. She could see some going around with mechanical parts. Implants. Modified humans.

The current technology could clone the missing parts, save for the brain, obviously. The government outside had prohibited mechanical parts being anchored to the normal folk. There were many arguments. One of them was that it was against God’s will to join with a machine. Another was that humans were perfect as they were, only some ‘minor’ corrections to make a normal living. The body is everything we have, and we have to take care of it without mechanical parts, others said.

Was it really the sole reason?

She remembered the last video she had seen, the confrontation between Gut and those war-robots. He moved fast, too fast she had to slow it down to properly see what was happening, only seeing photograms of his movements. He moved so fast, so precise, the war machines were unable to properly follow him.

She looked down and sucked air hard, trying keep her face from breaking down.

Even if he died at the end, what would have happened if there were two like him against those five? If there were two, maybe they wouldn’t need to die. And if they didn't need to die, then how long would it take them to bring them down. Form what she had seen, he didn't take longer than a minute to finish them up, maybe less than a half.

Fifteen seconds…? Maybe less… Oh, so that’s why… she looked up, and moved her head to look around her.

She saw the mother looking at her child and his friends around them. Her left hand was mechanical. It looked like a normal, metallic hand. But what if there was a weapon, a shotgun inside. She turned to look at a man that was walking at the other side of the street. He had shorts, even in the chilling weather. One of his legs was also mechanized. Charlotte could imagine it having an internal engine which could allow him to run faster, to jump higher or even fly. She looked at the kid with glasses once again. He looked so innocent, he was only playing with his friends, was he not? Maybe, maybe not. She wasn’t sure anymore. Maybe he was studying the people around him, marking their weak spots or something he could exploit so he could win later on in his life. She kept on looking at people around her and continued walking. She saw how some had modified arms, legs, eyes.

A girl ran past her at some moment. She had something Charlotte had never seen before. An extremity that a human would never have. The girl gave Charlotte her back as she ran past with a package in her hands. Her shirt opened on the lower part, just above her hips. Charlotte could see her bared back. On there, on the spine, she had attached a machine. It was moving with her steps, it kept her balanced. It was working as a cat’s tail. It was a mechanical tail.

Charlotte opened her eyes wide and couldn’t help but admire that new form. That new kind of beauty. She had never seen it before.

She walked some more, noticing people with more bizarre parts. Another arm, or arms. More than two eyes. Someone had something resembling wings on his back, though they were too small to allow any flight. When the sun was getting to its highest spot. Charlotte concluded her previous thought. She was already somewhere deep in the city, she didn’t know when she arrived there, she had kept looking around in marvel at the possibilities the modified humans had.

So, maybe, it’s banned because the government is scared of people with that kind of ability… Of people like them going against them, they’re scared of people rising in arms, with power to defy their authority… Heh.

She looked up without closing her eyes, to the clouds in the sky and the sun smiling down at her.

“My new home.”