Out of Cryo | A Horizon: Zero Dawn Fanfiction

Chapter 6: HEPHAESTUS

"...so we apply the logic from earlier, but we come up with a different result. Can anyone tell me why?"

Silence. Of course, no one fucking volunteers. Classic.

Professor Wilkins stared at us impatiently. She was a short, petite woman but damn did she have presence when she wanted to. The last time she gave the class a challenging problem and no one answered she started picking victims at random to try to figure it out. Most would bullshit their way through it or stumble along until she finally helped them. She claimed it was a tactic to help us dive into the problem without overthinking it. I think she just enjoyed watching students squirm.

I sighed and turned to look out the window. The rain had still not let up, in fact, the water was coming down so heavily that the sidewalks were beginning to flood. Perfect. Now I can get soaked on my way to the train station while I freak out about impossible homework problems. Just what I was missing in my life.

There was a faint ringing in my ear. It was easily ignored at first, but then it grew louder and more grating. Soon it was deafening, and by the looks of the frightened faces in the room I realized that I was not the only one who could hear it. My stomach lurched at the sight of a classmate sitting toward the front of the room who was screaming in terror and agony as his skin turned dark grey and began disintegrating. A siren blared from outside and people began shouting at me and pointing at the window.

I barely had enough time to see the massive mechanical death claw coming at me before it crashed through the glass...

*********************************

I yelled. Sat up, panting. My heart was racing a million miles per hour and I could barely control my breathing to the point where I was not getting enough air. Gasping, I tried to crawl away from where I had been laying, though I'm not sure why. Natural reaction – move away from the threat? Except there was no threat. I just couldn't catch my breath.

I let out a cry of fear when my arm was grabbed and I was swiftly pulled backwards so that I was sitting up. I tried to struggle, but my assailant was much stronger than me. What was going on? Where the hell was the Horus?

"Easy, there, easy!" The voice was familiar but in my panic, it still took me a few seconds to register who it belonged to. I turned and found myself face to face with Aloy. She was holding my arms with an iron grip and repeating breathing instructions to me that I only heard bits of in my post-nightmare haze.

"You're okay," she said. "You're okay, Becks. Whatever it was is gone."

I tried inhaling as deep as I could and was finally able to calm down enough to breathe somewhat normally again, though my breaths came out more like short wheezes than anything else.

"I...Aloy?" I asked, staring at her blankly.

She nodded. "You had another nightmare, I think."

I looked around and shivered as though on cue. It was night, possibly very early in the morning. It was also fucking cold. We were outside, in the wilderness, in the relative safety of the camp. "Y-yeah," I said, taking note of how warm her hands were against my arms.

"Do you want to talk about it? Was it...like the others?"

I nodded.

"I'm sorry, Becks," she said and released me. I knew she meant it, and that the frustrated expression she had was at herself for not being able to help more, but that didn't make me feel any less guilty.