Metalized Dusk

An artificial rain-soaked over Chirani day in and day out for the last 48 hours in the marshes. He arrived a bit earlier than the backup to scout out this empty, barely-lived area. After the Playground got an overabundance of people fleeing the pyramidal structure of the County many tried to build their own, separate camps and villages, where only they and those similar could thrive. That’s how in the first three months you can camp filled only with arm prosthetics, enclaves that hold the sanctity of their fleshy parts above everything else, and whatever else they felt made them feel special. Some of them lived in peace with their neighbors, mostly through trades and other small social occasions; a few fought over where they believed the imaginary borders should land on; and most left their original settlements simply because they found the land unfit for survival.

Soil though as a rock as the eye can see; plant life so toxic that no animal dared to brush it; and, as Chirani discovered in the marsh, a place so inhospitable that it was probably designed to hate current humanity.

Chirani- “ I guess it makes sense that they would build a section deemed as the hardcore level. Even the air’s moisture is dangerous to the prosthetics”, he muttered to himself since he had no else to speak to. The area also blocked most of the radio signals, and anything that was registered in the zone was classified as: “white, annoying, noise” by the previous administration.

Still, that gave him some wiggle room. Since there were only a few types of waves that could escape the marshes, he only had to isolate (all 34 of them) and figure out if any of them could be interpreted as a message.

The man snarled at the thought and scratched the back of his head while combing through the lanes of blonde hair that he left growing over the years. Only that now he discovered the power of washing it and actually combing it, which left him with a hairdo coveted by many;

…

Sometime later a platform, constructed from the transportation cubes, landed near Chirani location with a rowdy group riding it. Three lanky humans, one with a bulky prosthetic leg, another with a cosmetic beard that could be camouflaged, and the last had a speaker of sorts instead of a mouth. All of them couldn’t be more different from the other, except for one thing in the commune. They all had the same type of prosthetic eyes; one of the hardest enhancements to implement, as many have discovered that the human body vehemently rejected that type of intrusion.

Simo dragged his bulky left hand around, while in right hand he held a massive rifle, big enough to fire shots that could blast cement walls from 5 kilometers away. He nodded at his captain and started setting up his gear. Zarrin’s glowing beard saluted Chirani with bright signals and a hand slap while he carried all the supplies needed by the team. She then started preparing the soil for her to set up her sniper, a medium-sized weapon that could be carried on the back.

Chirani- “ Oakley!”, he yelled for the last member, who was gawking at the marshes. “Did you bring the score tablet?”

A bit aloof, the girl needed a second to realize that someone called out to her; before she could reply though, the others signaled to her to check and see if her volume was set to minimum.

Oakley- “ What? Oh for heaven’s sake, I do ONE mistake-”

Zarrin- “ Three, but who's counting”

Oakley- “THREE small mistakes and you’ll never let them go, won’t you?” The girl huffed lowering her speaker’s volume with each rising octave in her upset tone. After letting everything out, she threw a small tablet towards Chirani and then boarded the platform and rose halfway between the cliff and the dome, preparing her sniper for scouting. “Ready”, she signaled back at her team.

Chirani looked around, sure that he requested more firepower than what he had. Zarrin shrugged her shoulders, while Simo puffed. “Oakley”, he asked through the communicator, “ do you know anything about the C.T.D. I asked?”

Miffed, the girl replied in monosyllabic words. “ No. Not my job.”

Chirani- “ What? Yeah, I know. I just asked to-”

Oakley- “ Well, why don’t you task Simo or Zarrin with the more complicated jobs if I’m not good enough!...Over”

Chirani- “ What the hell are you talking…” he massaged his nose bridge, pinching harder by the second to calm down. “ Right. Listen. I don’t accuse you of anything. I was just asking because the others knew nothing. “

A bulky hand was raised a moment later, with Simo finishing his thought from earlier. A surprisingly melodious tone apologized to him while clearing the confusion. “ It’s on the way, forgot to say.” A small pebble hit the sniper in his temple, with the perpetrator still unknown to Simo ( Oakley dropped it from above).

Chirani- “ Fine. Because after my time spent here, my intuition says we might need more blasting power than what we have…I saw something crawling around here; a creature, slithering to the settlement and back, throughout the entire day; always leaving the marshes after 3:15 am.”

This detail didn’t appear in their briefing, but the group knew to trust Chirani's hunches; they had a 75% rate of being correct, a number they couldn’t scoff at. “Hunting or shadowing then?”, asked Zarrin, waiting for their orders.

Chirani- “ Me and Oakley will shadow the slitter; You two will follow its track backward after the C.T.D. arrives and see if you can find its hiding place in the marsh.”

Neither complained and all agreed to their roles; it was official, and their mission just started.

…

Four sets of digital clocks lit up simultaneously at 3:00 AM. Neither spoke, or exchanged eye contact, but everyone knew what to do: access their communicator and scan a frequency from the remaining 20. At 3:10 Chirani asked for an update, with everyone declaring a miss.

Chirani- “ Right. We can scratch those off the list. Oakley, what about the slither, any eyes on that?”

Oakley- “ Nooo…” she replied, elongating the word hoping to transform it into a positive reply. “-oooooo….wait, yes?” the girl tucked her head to the side, confused by what she was seeing. “Cap, check west, 9 o’clock…I’m seeing a walking…thing?”

As asked, he set his sights into the direction and after scouting the land for a few moments, his stomach got tight all of the sudden, with a sweat drop sliding down his face.

Chirani- “ I…I can’t believe it. “

Zarrin, concerned, looked confused at their leader; he was a goofy man, a persistent moron at times but this was the first she ever felt like something was wrong with him. “ Are you…what do you see?”

Chirani-” It's Finer”, he replied, as if that explained everything. “It’s Finer”, he repeated.

Simo- “ Your former C.T.D. partner?... He was captured, right?”

Zarrin- “ You know what that means, right Cap? It's working for them now. You understand that, right?”

Their leader took a second to calm twirling thoughts through breath exercises. “ Yes. That possibility is quite clear…and we won’t divert from the roles.” He then signaled Oakley to wait until the C.T.D. passed them and then picked him up.

Chirani- “ Everything remains the same, except for one addition- this has turned into a capture mission as well.”

Zarrin and Simo knew that now wasn’t the moment for retorts, so they just nodded. “ Captain, if it comes to it, though…allow Oakley to take the shot. Just in case”, added Simo, which Chirani ignored but still registered.