~ Sanctuary ~

Chapter 1

The atmosphere always has this unspoken toxicity to it. And I'm not just talking about the excess radiation from the experiments. Or the nukes. Sanctuary is the opposite of what a Sanctuary should be. Sanctuary is a place of refuge and safety. Not a toxic wasteland with literal and figurative tumbleweeds scattering the entire land. Animals still live here somehow, but they're not made of anything to live off of.
Hunting may be cool to do and a good skill to master, but here, all you do is lose when you hunt. You lose your ammunition, and pretty much run dry of the shit. The thing that people pay bank for is the agony. A chemical made to keep cyborgs running. And that's all this community is made up of. Cyborgs, with autonomy like robots, but minds and hearts that are pretty near to what a human thinks and feels, twenty four seven, three sixty five.
On the agony, it's a red liquid that's like WD forty for us cyborgs, it takes us about a month to run out of our agony. Usually we always have three cartridges of it in our bags, but sometimes we need to go places to restock when we are on our last one. When we go to the Doctor's office, he normally just asks us for certain parts. Certain parts go for more agony, some go for less, and most teams try to go for the big money, but a lot of the time, a cyborg doesn't just die out.
One of the most brutal things you could witness here at Sanctuary is when a cyborg is obviously down to its last bit of agony. With no proper way to pay for it, they start shutting down. It can happen anywhere, at a bar, store, the doctor's office himself, or just out in the streets. It gets the most gruesome and tension-building place to be in the streets when a cyborg's dying out.
The surrounding cyborgs crowd the animatronic as they're crumbling to their feet, breaking apart piece by piece, and once they don't have any control over their body, the cyborgs all pounce and jump, and come back with a couple scratches, stabs, but left with one to three pieces of cyborg parts.
It's all worth the blood-dripping fights in order to get the parts you need.
There's also a couple thieves in this city, if you'd even call it a city.
The thieves like to sneak among big crowds of cyborgs, and normally steal the agony vials from right underneath them. Normally the amateur cyborgs learn from the first time they're stolen from, but there's sometimes others that don't learn from the first time. They're normally the ones to die out quicker.
A lot of us cyborgs are jealous of some of the older creations, because they weren't created with agony, they were created by using remnant chemicals. That stuff lasts longer, or so it's said, because the cyborgs that run on it are still alive today. But it's only compatible with the models that use remnant. Of course, even if it runs longer, it's harder and less common to get in stocks. So the Doctor has a stash of them, and only has them for the models that use it.
I mean, it'd be kinda useless to sell them to a cyborg that didn't have any reason to use it.
You may be asking, as you're traversing this vast wasteland, where did all these cyborgs come from?
They came from the heart facility of the Sanctuary. Where the big man who created all of us, the Con Man, lives. He lives, eats, breathes, and just exists within that building. And never leaves. But he engineered, experimented with things, and created us. Cyborgs. Living off of agony, stuck within this purgatory.
None of us know why he created us, some of us think he just wanted a semblance of family, and wanted to create beings, and just kept going to make a whole extended family. Some of us say that he just wanted to make experiments and each time, he'd unintentionally give them life, so he'd force them out into the world, making a community of these cyborgs.
I'll tell you about when I first came into the world from him.
I remember waking up on a flat, and white table, strapped and contained by leather restraints. I couldn't move, couldn't do anything. As if I couldn't feel any limbs that could help me move. But my eyes and consciousness stirred. My eyes started to click open, and everything around me was blurred. The lights and textures of everything around me were blurred, and my eyes were still adjusting to the world. I started feeling my body moving, and being handled, as if strange arms were scooping me up and I was bouncing up and down gently in those arms.
I was tossed down harshly, landing on a cold metal surface with a thud, making my world go more blurry, but not out completely. I started to feel wind against me, as if I was traveling through a place very quickly. And as those seconds passed, some more came quickly, and I was slammed down on a more dirty and grainy surface with a hard thump, with more light in my face than once before.
I strained my eyes, as they were still blurred, and my body ached, but it was much lighter than where I was before. My eyes got used to the light and my surroundings, and showed me a vast landscape, of nothing but dirt, sand, stick clusters tumbling through the wind, and some buildings off in the distance.
I looked down to try and survey what was below me, and there was a body of mine. One that I could control. My arms and torso were of skin, so were my legs, but I was equipped with dynamite in a holster on my belt on my left, and a shoulder pad on my right shoulder. I was dressed in a crop top with a cropped leather jacket, and red, cut sweatpants that went up past my knees. There were also some yellow and black diagonal striped accessories decorating my clothes.
I didn't understand. What was I? Who am I? I touched my head and felt a cold surface, but one with slight fur, but mostly just a hard, metal exterior with fur accents. I didn't try to take it off, because it was there for a reason. I heard three thuds nearby me, and I spun around to see three other beings on the ground, just like I was a bit ago.
One was more lean, and had a bunny mask on that was purple. His shirt just had ABC blocks on it, and there was a huge hammer next to him, nearly the same height as him. Next to him was a creature that had a bit more muscle on him, and had a bear mask. There was this type of scythe that was laying next to him, with a short range shooter at the other end. The scythe had a unique blade, it was straight but harshly curved from the other side, and it was extremely sharp. Then there was the third being, and he was the most muscular out of the three. He had a fox head, two swords stashed in his backpack that was strapped on his back, and a hook wrapped with special wrapping for where his right hand should've been.
I walked over to them, and they seemed just as dazed and confused as I was.
The rabbit looked up at me, and I saw his eyes, they were a vibrant plum color. His pupils were heavily dilated, but I held out my arm and he blindly took it. They all started stirring more as time went on, and I held the rabbit steady. The rabbit seemed to look around like I had done before, in pure confusion, but then he met eyes with me again, and I think he realized I was actually a person.
He gently squeezed my arms that were holding him upright, and with his hands, pushed himself gently away. He looked to the others where they had fallen, and they seemed to be inspecting themselves, like I had done.
"Where are we," the fox grunted. I could tell he felt a little bit of pain, and annoyance at where we were. That fall was pretty gruesome and world-rocking. If I didn't know better, we probably fell for a good while. Good to know we didn't suffer too much damage from it.
"I don't know, but we just ended up here. I got here a little before you all did," I said, groggily. I was shocked at how my voice sounded, so much so I clutched my throat in confusion. That's what I sound like? Me?
"Well, do any of us have any names that we know of?" The rabbit asked. Most of us shook our heads, so we all just shrugged. "Well, what if we come up with our own names?" the rabbit asked again suggestively. All of us nodded, including me, because it's something we just thought to do. Names are important to establish, that way we actually had a way to address each other.
"I mean if we're going to be around each other exploring this, whatever this is, we might as well be on a first name basis," the bear said. His voice was the deepest, while the rabbit's was a bit more of a feminine tone, and the fox had more of a gravelly voice. Of course, comparatively, mine was the most feminine. There's no way I have the same anatomy as them, by far.
"Well, I'll go by Flynn," the fox said, shrugging. All of us nodded, and repeated his name back to him.
"I'll go by Blake," the rabbit said, picking up his hammer that was still laying on the ground. All of us repeated his name as well. "What about you, bear?" Blake asked the tall figure with the bear head.
"I guess Felix will do fine," he stated, picking up his scythe. "Now the chicken," Felix said with a bit of a chuckle. The other two turned to me, and I was confused.
"What do you mean, I'm the chicken??" I asked, laughing a bit to myself.
"You have a chicken head, m'dear," Flynn said. I pondered that, but if I'm supposed to have this head, then that it shall be.
"I'll go by Charlie then," I say, not giving much thought to it at all. All of them nodded and repeated my name, and I turned around to look across the landscape, and then we heard one more thump from behind us. I turned to where it had come from, and it had made Blake jump. Which, not gonna lie, got a chuckle out of me. But I shoved the chuckle down so as not to alarm the newcomer of a random presence such as ourselves.
"What was that," Felix said calmly, as he went over to inspect it. Not too far away, another being had been dumped out onto the dirty ground. Felix and Blake walked over, stumbling here and there, and they reached the brightly colored thing slumped on the ground. I made my way over with Flynn on my right, his hand on my hip.
"Flynn, I'm fine, I got here before you," I told him, chuckling.
"I know, but if we're gonna be facing something we need to fight, you don't need to be in the direct line of it," he said. I could tell there was a small bit of a smirk beneath that mask, and I chuckled and pushed his head, making him almost stumble backwards.
Me and him crept up on the other two, and as I looked over Felix's shoulder to see a really pale girl with a fox head, except it's in white and pink, whereas Flynn's was in maroon red. She also had a couple detailed tattoos scattered on her body, making her pale skin even more pale since it was in extreme black. She didn't stir for a hot minute, until Felix touched her. Felix had reached out and grazed her lower leg, to see if she was cold to the touch, but she lightly flinched at the unknown contact.
She sat up, holding her hands close to her body, and looking around in confusion a bit. She gently raised herself off the ground, stumbling to keep her balance, and Blake came to her aid, holding her arm to keep her up, and she looked down at Blake, seemingly confused, so she became tense. But after a little bit of time, she became less tense, and more comfortable. She looked around at all of us, from Blake, to Felix, to Flynn, to finally me.
Her eyes shone through the dark pits of the masks' eye sockets, and they were pastel purple. They shone like beacons, with no mistake about it. She made her way over to me, and once she got to me, used me as a person to keep her steady. She looked into my eyes for a very long time, until she finally spoke.
"Who are you all?" Her voice was light, and angelic almost. With no gravel in it whatsoever. Not like Flynn's at all. But in a good way. I don't think we need to have any more snarky remarks from foxes, one snarky fox is enough for all of us to handle.
"I'm Charlie," I said calmly. She nodded and muttered my name underneath her breath, before turning to the other three. "That's Felix, the one with the bear head, the one that was holding you up, is Blake, and then the one with the hook for a hand is Flynn."
She slowly muttered each of their names, and turned to me again, staring into my soul. Her eyes showed no ill will, and more just displayed a sort of vulnerability.
"What's my name?" she asked sweetly. She tilted her head, just like a dog, in hopes that I'd have an answer for her. And it purely melted me.
"That's for you to decide, darling," I said sweetly back. She pondered for a minute, looking down at the ground and all around across the landscape. She viewed her surroundings before turning back to me. She took a deep breath in, and closed her eyes while doing so, before opening them again to look at me.
"Madelyn," she said, and a smile in her words came through the mask.
"That's a lovely name," Felix said from behind her.
"I agree," Blake chimed in.
Madelyn looked back at the others and seemed proud for picking a name that best suited her. We sat in a moment of silence as Madelyn got her bearings, and she was beautifully constructed, whoever made her. She had a double edged short sword that was fastened around her waist at her back, and she seemed to realize it was there pretty quickly since she bumped into it once, and then never did it again. She also had two whips with sharp edges along both of them, and they had holsters on her waist holding them as well.
She had a plaid skirt, with black short-shorts, and a plum crop top with puffy sleeves, and then simple shoes to go along with it all. She was styled properly as she should've been. I don't know if that was our creator's style showing through or not, but nonetheless. But still, the question was, why were we here? And who created us anyway?
Our confusion was something we had to get used to, and we managed to handle it as we got used to the new world around us. That brings us back to today, when all five of us are on the same page with one another. We all have a good bond, and we've traversed the land enough to know that we were meant to be here, even if we didn't know the reason. Not a lot of our kind are the same as us, because they either came before or after us. The oldies normally stick with their kind, and same for the younger ones who came after us. All of our generations kind of found their own way of going about the world, so our little legion, also known as the Legion of Hunters, we stick together.
Felix is the only one who is okay with talking to the oldies, at least the professional ones, because he has to. He's the one that goes out and fetches our agony when any of us are running low, but none of the rest of us do that part. The socializing part. We don't like doing it a lot because we found ourselves with each other, not from the help of any others before us. So I guess the only one he's truly okay with communicating with is the Doctor. What a surprise.
Felix goes to the Doctor, as always, and the Doctor doesn't pry too much into other people's lives very much. Him and Felix just make simple conversation about how the day's going, how their jobs have been going, y'know, the works.
Then when Felix leaves, he's assigned an amount of payment, and he comes back the next time, normally, with the amount of payment requested. Mainly because we help Felix get all the parts, we carry them around throughout the months before we go in for our next stocking of agony.
Honestly, us trying to get used to this entire world has been a headache. Dealing with the younger ones pestering for donations, or the younger ones who actually made a name for themselves by starting their own business from their raw natural talents. And then the old ones don't talk much, even though they're pretty much stocked full of wisdom.
The only ones out of our group who have been successful talking to the old ones, despite Felix being our main communicator, have been the foxes, Madelyn and Flynn. Flynn talks to the more rowdy elders, whereas the nicer ones, Madelyn deals with. She also has a natural talent in being able to talk to younger ones easier as well. I think it's mostly because she looks more like them than any of us. We taught her early on to not give in to them asking for donations though. It's always a trap one way or another. Me and Blake are kinda just there though. I talk to elders sometimes but I'm not that good at carrying on conversations. Blake, he doesn't carry conversations at all unless it's with any of us personally.
Now okay, back to the "getting parts for the Doctor", you may ask how do we do all that? Like as a team that is? Funny you ask. Today, there's been a bit of talk about a recent oldie going down, and you know our team has to keep up our payments. It's said that this oldie is going to be worth a lot.
"So, what's the plan again, I wasn't fully listening," Madelyn chuckled, as she took one of her whips and checked the mechanics on it before putting it back in its holster.
"Blake's always been the one running around the crowded group once the oldie goes down, but either me, you or Flynn will go in and harvest the materials themselves. And Felix stays back to watch. You can stay with him for this if you'd like, so you don't risk ruining your pretty paint," I said jokingly.
Madelyn glared at me before she chuckled at my joke, and kept checking around us as we kept walking, and I turned to Blake. "You still up for running around the group like normal?"
"Yeah I'm up for it," Blake shrugged, "But I think Flynn or Madelyn should come with me and be on my six, if this oldie is really that valuable, then they'll probably know our way of getting all the materials, and once I have them, they'll be on me like bugs on a dead moose," Blake added.
"Alright, Madelyn, you'll stick with Blake, be on his six, there ya go," Madelyn laughed a bit more, and nodded, accepting her task. Blake and her have become a protective team, but in an extremely good way. Madelyn isn't as speedy as Blake, but she can catch up to him or take people off him if people are onto him.
Blake's our speedy one, Felix is the tactical, I'm the physical, Flynn's pretty much just the rage, and at this point, Madelyn both represents the beauty and the brains of the group at the same time, it's kind of funny. She's smart but sometimes a ditz. Because she'll forget the simplest of plans that she came up with. It always gives me and Flynn a good laugh sometimes. And thankfully, she doesn't take too much offense to it anyhow. She always laughs along with us.
We started walking out of the alleyway we were strolling down, and into the more dirty and cyborg-ridden streets. As I looked up across the street, I found an oldie, hunched over and twitching in the middle of the road. I looked around and a bunch of cyborgs were looking at the oldie hunched over. The way they all stared at the poor being was menacing. Nothing we could've done about it though. In a slight way, I felt bad for the poor thing, but all of us are just trying to survive like they are. So no wonder the rest of the cyborgs stared at the dying creature like it was their next meal, and if they were starving.
The Legion of Hunters stopped as a unit, and I reached for my pack of dynamite, making sure it's all there. Flynn held his hook gently, making sure it was fastened on properly, and we looked back towards Madelyn. She had her double edged sword in one hand and a whip in another, while Blake had his hands empty but splayed, with enough room to catch materials.
The oldie continued twitching, and some cyborgs started creeping towards it gently, and so did me and Flynn. Felix stayed back as per usual, and right as the oldie stopped twitching, the streets went quiet. We all waited for a possibility that we would call the death in twenty seconds. And they are the longest seconds that you'll ever experience. It's a twenty second span of time from when the oldie stops twitching, and when it's okay to pounce on the creature. It was kind of a universal rule. If the cyborg doesn't move in any way for twenty seconds, it's fair game. We all stood posted, and looked around at each other.
And right as the twenty seconds went back up, we pounced. I felt two cyborgs on top of me, but I didn't care. I had a hand on the arm of the cyborg. I yanked as hard as I could, bringing the cyborg closer to me as many other alive cyborgs were on top of me, and I had a whole vision of the arm right in front of me. I took a pocket knife from a nearby holster of a cyborg on top of me, and cut the initial wires.
The arm came off the body with ease before the body was yanked in another direction. And whoever yanked it helped me get the arm off all the way after I cut those initial wires. I held onto the arm and placed the knife back where I took it from, and forced everyone off of me. I fell back on my back with a thud, and with trust, I held the arm part in the air. It got whisked out of my hands, and I knew it was Blake's hands. He's gentle with me, but since he's quick, his gentle and swift touch was recognizable.
Madelyn hoisted me up to a standing position with one arm, and looked to Blake who was running circles around the pile.
"Where's Flynn?" Madelyn asked, frantically looking around toward the pile of material-crazed lunatics. "He's in there somewhere, I call five seconds before he comes out with another piece, and Blake will take it from him," I shrugged.
As if my words predicted the future, I saw him jump out from the middle of the group, and waved his hook aggressively, signaling to retreat. He got something good. He leaped from the pile and ran to the alleyway we'd come from before.
We all ran with him down the alleyway we'd come from before, and Blake had a hold on the arm I harvested, and Flynn obviously had something. Flynn and Blake were in first, followed by me and Madelyn, and then finally Felix. I heard some lashing and looked back to see Felix fighting off a couple rogue cyborgs, obviously ones who recognized us. A lot of cyborgs underestimate Felix's skill. They always think when he's by himself, that he can't defend himself, but oh, oh no he can.
He fought them off and caught back up with us before we came out of the other side of the alleyway, where we knew we were safe. I ran over to Flynn as he was still catching his breath.
"What'd you get?" I asked excitedly. Flynn was silent, but I could feel a soft cunning smirk, before his hook uncovered his other hand, which was holding the cyborg heart. "You got the heart?" I screeched. I jumped up and down, and grabbed the heart, looking at it with very good intent. Madelyn ran over to Flynn and gave him a huge hug, practically wrapping herself around him in a hug. Blake and Felix fist bumped, with Blake still holding the unanimated arm.
"How'd you get your hands on this?? Or more like hand on this," I referenced to his hook instead of a hand, and Flynn was still hugging Madelyn so he set her down gently.
"Simple, literally just jumped as far as I could, and luckily, the swords protected my back while I was hunched over and harvesting the heart as carefully as I could. I didn't wanna go in for seconds, because this is the most valuable part of the cyborg, obviously," he shrugged. I nodded in agreement, and held my hand up for a high five, which he took.
"Good job man," Felix said to Flynn from behind me, and I gave the heart to Blake for him to hold onto. Blake held it very carefully as I passed it to him. That's probably one of the most valuable harvests we've ever accomplished.
"Good harvest you all, any other thing we should know about? Also where are we going to store this?" I asked. The group seemed to ponder, and Felix walked past all of us, so we instinctively followed. He led us to the Doctor's office, even though we didn't need any vials of agony at the moment since we'd just been restocked recently from the Doctor.
"Might as well repay it, that way we get our next order. There's no way the Doctor wouldn't accept that heart or be any less than extremely enthusiastic about us getting our hands on one," he said, as he kept walking. We all silently agreed with him, since he knew the Doctor far better than us. So we just automatically trusted his judgment.
The office came further into view after about a half hour of strolling down the dirty and disease ridden streets, and we started to crowd around the outside, but Felix stopped in his tracks as he walked further than us and turned back around to face us.
He heaved in a big breath before speaking, "C'mon, I know y'all don't like socializing, but you have to do some socializing at some point, the Doctor isn't that scary at all really," he pressed. All of us looked around to one another, before collectively sighing and heading in after Felix. We walked through some hallways of a natural home, and we approached the doorway and door that led to the Doctor's actual office.
When we walked in, there was a simple table greeting us, but Felix just passed by it with no care whatsoever. We followed him with hesitancy, and came around a corner to see a more doctor-looking office. We saw two little creatures running around carrying simple things. One of them bumped into the back of my leg, and she looked up at me. Her mask had no emotion, and her response wasn't anything of concern or anything like that. She just looked up at me, then ahead again, before dashing towards where the Doctor stood.
"I see my little friend JJ found you," a deep soft voice boomed from the other side of the room. I looked up, and there was the Doctor. I'd never seen him in person before, but Felix's descriptions don't do this man justice. He didn't have a mask obscuring all of his face, but he had one on his head.
"Don't you need that mask to survive, partner," Flynn asked him. The Doctor shook his head, and continued working on what was in front of him.
"What's on the table today, Doc?" Felix asked. Felix was obviously very comfortable with the man, to be confident in talking to the Doctor while he was working on whatever he was repairing.
"Just some simple fixups of BB, he needed a couple updates, and he helps me as you know. Here to pay your debt? I heard an oldie passed away in the streets about a half hour down, how'd that go?" he asked with curiosity, but he didn't take his eyes off the cyborg he was working at.
He turned a couple knobs within the control panel of the cyborg he was working on, and the cyborg sprung to life simply afterwards. He jumped up from his sitting down position, and then hopped to the floor. The Doctor put down his tools, and took off his singular glove before tossing it into a nearby trash can. He had one full wiring and cyborg arm and hand, while the other one was human.
"What'd you harvest, friends?" the Doctor asked again, more engaged in conversation when he asked the second time. I could see him smile through the fabric mask that was protecting his face.
"Well shouldn't you get past introductions first?" I ask. I immediately want to retract my statement after it kind of came out slightly judgy.
"Well, then tell me and your friends your all's names, then," he said with a gentle smirk. That calmed me a bit more, thank god I didn't offend him.
"Well I'm Charlie, this is Madelyn, then Flynn, and then you already know Felix," I referenced to him, since he was standing next to the Doctor. The Doctor nodded, and faced back to me. "And then finally this is Blake," I finished. He nodded, and looked to Felix for the answer he'd been searching for ever since he asked the question.
"Blake has the materials," Felix said. The Doctor turned to Blake, and Blake held out the arm that I'd harvested, and the Doctor took it and studied it.
"Pretty good material, good incision, your work?" he asked, facing towards Flynn. He shook his head and tilted his toward me, and the Doctor nodded silently in appreciation once his gaze switched from Flynn to me respectively. "Is this all the load because this isn't going to pay off how much agony you bought the other day," he assured.
"We know, hence why Flynn got this for you, it maybe could be worth some more agony," Blake said, holding out the heart in his hand, and shrugging. The Doctor's eyes widened as he saw it, and gently cradled the heart within his hands when it was transferred, after he'd set the lifeless arm down on a nearby table.
"How in the world...did you get this?" the Doctor stuttered breathlessly.
"A little bit of luck, frankly, but I tried to make the incisions and cuts easily fixable, so that it's a clean cut," Flynn assured. He seemed genuine about trying to make it salvageable, and I don't blame him. That's a cyborg heart we're talking about. The Doctor looked at him in admiration before paying more attention back to the heart that we harvested.
The Doctor walked around to his separate and smaller operating table, and started using some of his tools to work on the cyborg heart.
"This must've been an old model, normally the Con Man never made creatures like this unless they were made from a long time ago, you got a rare one for sure, and these can go for easy fixes and replacements in any kind of model of cyborg here in Sanctuary," the Doctor ranted.
"What do you mean, the Con Man?" I asked, but Felix shushed me right away.
"Alright, I need to work on this, so I need you all out of my office, you can grab a couple vials of agony on the way out," the Doctor said, waving us off. Felix took his leave and all of us followed swiftly behind, and Flynn lagged behind to see the Doctor work for a slight bit, but Madelyn yanked him back to follow us.
Felix walked into the hallway and turned a corner, and told us to wait. Felix walked back and didn't appear again for a hot minute.
"The Doctor isn't even looking, we could just steal his whole stash," Flynn said. I wish I could say he was somewhat kidding, but he was fully serious.
"Dude, where would we put them, idiot?" I asked him. That shut him up real quick. Of course, it was accompanied by an eye roll, but he still shut up. Good enough for me.
Felix walked back around the corner with about eight vials in his hands, and handed them to Flynn, who stashed them back into his pack.
"We took about eight, is that a good number?" Felix called out to the Doctor.
"Yes, that's plenty, be on your way now," The Doctor called back. Felix nodded to himself, and started walking towards the door. We all made our way out, and he turned to us. We looked at him, and he opened his palm to reveal four more vials.
Our jaws dropped, and our voices silent.
"You really just stole from the Doctor? You two faced liar," Flynn smirked. Felix chuckled to himself, and shook his head as Flynn took the vials and stashed them away in his own bag, to make it look less suspicious that we genuinely stole more agony from the Doctor. We all started strolling to the nearest rest stop, just to chill out for a while while someone stands guard in our team, and also switches out with one another so each of us get rest.
One of our favorite resting places is near the Sanctuary wall. Not a lot of the cyborgs hang out near the wall, they all have some superstitions about the wall, and how it'll shock you if you come close, but of course Felix had to be curious, and a bit of a daredevil for the sake of finding out whether the superstitions were true. He went and leaned against the wall, and nothing happened, but we didn't spread it around that that superstition is just a myth, since we wanted a domain all to ourselves, and it paid off to keep it secret.
We walked for a good fifteen minutes before we reached this little broken down hut, and we circled around it to make sure no one was nearby, and there was nobody. Flynn, Blake, Felix and Madelyn sat their stuff down, leaving me on guard for the first hour. Usually I go for two though, just to let them get some well-needed rest. Good team member chivalry.
These are the times I like to sing to myself. My voice is said to carry over vast distances, but I try to keep it at a low volume on a normal basis. Sometimes my mates can hear me humming small tunes, but it's only slight, and these are really the only times I could let it out if I wanted. I mean, it's not that I get embarrassed of my voice or anything, it's just that I know because of the sheer volume of how I sing, it can get annoying pretty easily. My voice carries, and isn't pitch perfect, but it's my voice. I'm told I'm the best singer Sanctuary has, if they considered that a job I could uptake. But there's not really any pop or rock stars in Sanctuary, because any hobby stays a hobby. Unless you're a stripper in a city pub.
I started whatever song came to mind, coming up with a new simple tune, and the feeling of my vocal chords were seamless, but I felt a slight vibration in the cords that were used for my voice. The notes came out smooth like butter, and I couldn't help but just relish in the feeling. I tried keeping my eyes open so I was aware of my surroundings, but I closed them, for as long as I could unless I heard a disturbance nearby.
I kept my eyes closed for what seemed like hours, but it was only for a couple minutes really, and I just felt myself being carried away in the dusty wind that circled me. But not carried away physically. My voice just carried with the wind, and the way the notes left my throat made my heart soar. I felt calm for the first time. The first time in centuries. Normally these types of relaxations don't happen often, and I'm not always the one on duty. But today, before I can get any sleep, I'm in charge of keeping watch. And being on guard when you're walking through the whole community of cyborgs, it's overwhelming. So getting a moment of calm is a thing I always strive for, so when I get it, I can bathe in it happily.
My senses came to a level of hum, my voice carrying all its worries away. I can't even describe it half the time. The peace I get when I just get to sing, without another care in the world besides guarding my team, and just existing...it's a fortunate time for me.
I heard a bit of machinery churn nearby me, so my eyes flew open and I shut my mouth quickly, but nothing threatening was around me. I turned to my team and realized all of them were asleep, and Madelyn looked like she moved a slight bit. She probably just moved in her sleep, I don't blame her. It isn't the most comfortable place. But it's all we got.
As I looked past her, I saw the wall that was near the little shack we'd found. I didn't see anybody for some good miles, so, why not check it out?
I started my stroll over to the wall, and the wall was reasonably big. I've never seen something so enormous before. It's a colossal subject of manmade objects. I wonder who built it. Cyborgs? Humans? Complete robots?
I went up to the wall and ran my hand across it, and it was hard, like a ship's metal, with deep rivets, but the rivets were hidden underneath more metal that was just simply strapped onto the wall itself to keep the rivets protected. I kept running my hand across the wall, and an idea came to me. The idea made chills go all through my body.
What if I tried to scale it? What then? I ran my hand along it a final time, and then tried to dig my hand into the wall, and thankfully, some metal gave way. These were probably ancient walls that didn't have a lot of impressive technology, at least compared to today's. Because even though it's of impressive size and impressive technology from the time, time can wear material down extremely easily. My hand clung on with ease, and then I started climbing, trying to find spots to lock my fingers into, and it held with security. I kept scaling until I looked down and I was easily one hundred and eighty feet off the ground. A fall from this height would take me out with absolutely no mercy.
I had no choice but to call for one of my members, because I'd gotten stuck. Or maybe...what if I go further...my mind is on the jury of going further. It's not a good life if you don't risk things every now and then. And my curiosity was eating at me.
I kept going, up and up, without stopping or caring. Once I'd made it nearly to the top, I heard some machinery whirr from beneath the surface. Oh shit. Now, it was time to scream. But not like a girl, I just needed simple help. But I won't lie, my blood ran cold, so maybe I was a bit panicked.
"Guys," I shouted, absolutely volume irradiating from my vocal chords. It felt harsh, and for good measure. Once I had, I looked down and saw my team get up immediately. They quickly assembled a stance below me, ready to catch me. I felt my fingers start to slip, and even though I'm made of metal, right then and there, I felt the heartbeat pumping within my chest. Never felt this before. I'm not sure if I like this feeling. But I'm not gonna stick around to find out what happens next if I stay.
As they slipped, I clung on with a second hand and kept climbing.
"I'm gonna try and get to the top, be there to catch me," I holler down. There was silence met with my pleads, and I kept climbing. Nervousness set in when there was no response, but even if I wanted to hear their response, the height alone clouds my hearing ability from that far away. There was only a little left, and right as I was about to breach the arch, spikes came up at the top from underneath the metal wall. Those spikes could cut any human or cyborg to pieces. I looked down, and my team was still at the ready.
I took a deep breath, inhaling the air up high, and exhaled. I closed my eyes, and I then let go, spreading my arms out to generate a bit more of a "parachute" to slow my fall a bit. I felt the wind against my body as I traveled further toward the ground, and I landed with a bounce. I felt Flynn's, Blake's, and Felix's hands around me, and I opened my eyes, and there they were.
"You scared us to death, daredevil," Felix teased, accompanied with eye rolls. I chuckled and hopped up out of their hold, smiling from ear to ear.
"I saw over the wall though, or at least a glimpse, it's a vast space of greenery," I said, bending the truth a slight bit. I knew that wasn't fully true, or as true as I was painting it, but it gives them hope that I found something. And it definitely convinced and intrigued them. Even though I truly never saw over the wall. The spikes stopped me before I reached that point. "But I couldn't get over or get to the top very well, because those deadly blades would slice and burn me to pieces," I shrug. Their faces fall, but I can tell within their souls, they're curious at what I'd seen.
"There's probably no way to get over that either, you think?" Madelyn asked, gazing upward from where I'd come from. I shook my head and she hung hers low. Felix went over and inspected the wall, running his hands along it, and he seemed impressed with the type of technology before him, considering it was probably built way before any of us were pushed out of the factory of the Sanctuary.
Occasionally there'll be little baby things that get popped out, but because of the oxygen that's been compromised around us, and they're not of age or size to be able to function properly if they were fed and forcefully circled with the chemicals that we run on. So, there's not been a ton of new inventions as of recent, which a lot of people have noticed, which means not as many parts to salvage and sell.
Felix continued to inspect the wall as the rest of us looked out on the landscape, and I felt a spark in my soul. A flicker of the candle in my heart, and a lightbulb in my brain. And it was a good type of flicker from the candle, that lit the flame that trailed to the lightbulb.
"What if we tried to escape? Like climb over the wall, and escape?" I asked, whipping around to my team, my arms out and open, and my heart too. This caught everyone's attention, including Felix. He whipped around and walked over to be included in the conversation and assumed a proper stance of his, the stance screaming with purpose.
"You just said that it would be dangerous to climb over, and that you'd never make it to the other side, alive," Blake said doubtfully, shaking his head.
"No no no, you don't get it," I started. I felt a fire and steam rise in my chest, and it was about to come out. I don't commonly have a lot of good ideas, but I sensed some sort of potential of success for this, so much so that I have to share it. "Who made us, Felix?" I asked, pointing towards him. My forward attitude seemed to catch him off guard, because I saw his dark brown eyes widen from within his mask. And he knew the answer to my question. So did everyone else.
"A guy called the Con Man, he's the one that builds us by hand, and pumps us out into this world to live a useless and cutthroat life as cyborgs when we could've lived as regular humans. Why?" He asked, crossing his arms, suspicious of how passionate I'm acting.
"That man is the one who's keeping us in confinement, so why not take down the man who invented us? Why not take him down so we can let our species run free?" I ask, a little bit of pleading in my voice. My team didn't seem convinced though. They seemed skeptical, and to me, I didn't understand why. I did an awesome fucking pitch.
"There are regular, non-cyborg humans that are out in the real world. We know this because it's in our programming. We don't know how far we are from civilization of humans, but we know they're out there, and that they exist. For heaven's sake, the Con Man is a human himself in that building right there, he must've come from somewhere," Flynn nearly wailed, pointing to the factory.
"But what if we had a shot? What if we figured out how to get in there, and take him down, therefore releasing us?" I pleaded again. I knew I wanted to try and convince them to try this. It was worth a shot to try. "As far as we know, if we're left here, we're going to eventually die like that unfortunate cyborg did, because of old age. I guarantee you, over time, this Con Man will make more cyborgs as time goes on, therefore carrying this horrible cycle of making a cyborg, seeing how long it runs, until it eventually crumples up on the ground and just passes out, ready to be torn apart by agony-hungry cyborgs," I continued, walking around and pacing as I spoke.
"If we keep living like this, we're going to die a gruesome death, and if we're rejected in the real world by humans for escaping such an ill-minded man, who probably kidnapped many bodies just to experiment on them and bring them back to life through metal and tech, so be it. At least we escaped. And at least we got a chance to try and live a normal life," I finished.
My team looked at me, with shock, but I could tell with my ramble, I convinced them. But I wanted to solidify it. For good. "It's worth a shot to try, and if anything, we could go out and die trying instead of letting our parts go to the part-hungry community we're surrounded in."
"You're right, we are going to die if we don't do something about it," Madelyn gestured, agreeing wholeheartedly with me. Blake nodded, looking between her and I. So he agreed as well. And normally, Felix doesn't need to voice his opinions, because his stance said it all. And Flynn, he just goes with what the team does, as long as it doesn't resort to anything too aggressive and life-threatening. But in this moment, he knew even if it was life-threatening, it'd be worth the threat.
"But how will we go about doing this?" Felix asked, stepping closer to me. If I were anyone else, I'd be intimidated by the standing he chose to take, along with his body language being accusatory.
Then it dawned on me.
How will we even take down the man who's created a literal legion of cyborgs, and probably can control them from a simple panel...
How will we take down such a powerful and controlling man?