Robotics and Necrotics (Book 1): As Nations Fall

by Vale, Silas

  And then it was over, and he could breathe again.

  His breath came in ragged gasps, but the wound was much cleaner. The debris had been cleared away, revealing many small holes that oozed tiny bits of blood.

  A chemical based, debris-spraying bomb.

  That was a terrorist’s weapon.

  "Shhhh, you're okay." She reached around and placed a hand on the back of his head, leaning forwards and gently touching her forehead to his. "You're okay, alright?" She furrowed her brows, studying his face quietly and chewing on the inside of her lip nervously. "Take a deep breath. In and out, five seconds each." She sighed and tossed the empty bottle to the side.

  "I'm going to have to do it again to make sure I got everything, but it's probably not going to hurt as bad as it did just now. And then I'll bandage it and we're not even going to worry about it until we get you proper medical attention at that settlement." Her hand drifted from the back of his head to his cheek, and she took a breath to steady her voice. "You're going to be fine, I promise."

  Her words, even though they were the promises of a worried friend, soothed him. He knew she was telling him the truth, even though he felt like he was dying on that tile floor.

  "I know a few things about cars… If we can find one…" He seemed to be shivering now, as the cold seeped into his damaged skin. The heat of the place didn't do too much, as it was still only ten or fifteen degrees above freezing. His body needed to stay at its normal temperature, but it was losing heat through the damaged skin cells.

  He would be fine. She had told him he would be fine.

  He laid back down, taking a strip of the sleeping bag and biting down on it. He knew he would scream this time.

  "Rrrddy" He said, his voice muffled past the strip of cloth. This would be fun.

  "Don't worry about the car, I know how to do all of that shit. You just need to save your energy." She shook her head and cracked open another bottle of water. "Okay. Here, let's try this." She took his hand, and clasped it tightly. "You can squeeze as hard as you want, I’ve got pretty strong hands." She hovered the bottle of water over his chest. "On three."

  "One."

  "Two."

  With that, she poured the water. A bit of a dick move, but it was sort of the same as giving someone a shot. Better to surprise them and get it over with.

  "FFFCK." The shout was muffled by the cloth, but barely.

  Eventually, after the torrent of liquid fire she poured on him had passed, he settled back down into the floor. He shivered, violently, and bit down hard on the cloth to stop his teeth from chattering. He clenched her hand, but held back, because he didn't want to hurt her. She said she had tough hands, but he felt no calluses; his own hands were large and rough, and he knew it would hurt her.

  He found it strange, worrying about her as he laid there, nearly dying.

  He couldn't seem to get his thoughts straight; who was what, where was how. Why were they here? He looked up to her, confusion lacing his irises. "Why does this hurt so much?"

  "Because it's a chemical burn." She sighed. "That's enough, it's clean. You're good to go." She reached up to run her fingers through his hair and pull it back away from his face. "I'm going to quickly see if they have a first aid kit or any gauze around here. I'll wrap you up and then we can get you bundled up and not as cold." She gave his hand a squeeze before releasing it and standing up, darting off into the rest of the store.

  She came back a moment later and threw down a first-aid kit beside him. "Okay, okay, okay… What do we have here…?" She mumbled, mostly to herself as she pried it open and peered inside. "Oh fuck. Thank God." She pulled out a roll of gauze, holding it up to the light and grinning. She unpinned it and gave it a brief look over to make sure none of it was dirty, before turning her attention back towards Shaun. "Alright, you're going to have to sit up again, okay?" She held a hand out to help him up.

  Shaun nodded his head and tried his best to sit up. He managed to pull himself into an upright position, though it was through a great amount of strain. He still held onto the strip of cloth in his mouth, even though it wasn't really necessary any longer.

  "Wrap me up." He said it lightly, though there was pain behind the voice. He didn't want to leave the station; to do that meant he would have to go out into the cold. He didn't think he'd make it out there.

  With that, he left himself to her mercy.

  "Alright. Hold still. This'll sting, but it'll dull away after a bit." She carefully held one end of the gauze up to his chest, lightly pinning it there with her finger as she wrapped the rest around his torso to hold itself in place. Once it was secure, she continued looping the gauze around his chest, moving downwards to cover as much of the burn as she possibly could.

  Luckily, there was enough to cover his chest, and once she deemed it satisfactory, she took the pin that held the gauze in the roll and pinned the end of it in place so it wouldn't slip or unravel.

  With that, she looked back up at him. "Where else does it hurt?" It wasn’t over yet.

  "Fuck that." He said, spitting the strip of sleeping bag out of his mouth. He pressed one knee against the ground, where the pain blinded him for a second. He then pressed his opposite foot against the ground, and was able to stand.

  He was wobbly, but he was standing.

  "We need to get out of here. I bet those kids… Weren't really his kids. That was a terrorist bomb." He had heard the stories. Terrorists using kids in order to bait someone, while someone else went around back to set up a trap. It was a dirty move, but it usually worked.

  It had on him, after all.

  "That means they'll probably be back." He didn't want to be there when anyone connected with that man got to the station. He wanted to be in the settlement, completely warm and cared for and with hot soup in his stomach.

  "Let's go."

  She glared at him for a moment, apparently angry that he wouldn't let her fix him. It ebbed away after a moment or two, and she shut the first-aid kit with a sigh. "Don't strain yourself. If you start feeling woozy or anything weird, tell me right away, okay?" She picked up both of their bags, staggering a little bit before righting herself, and took a deep breath.

  She walked over to him and zipped up what she could of his jacket, bundling him up as much as possible. "Okay, let's take a look around here first, alright?" She raised an eyebrow and looked up at him. "I'll bundle you up more if we find a working car. But for now you've gotta stay mobile."

  He nodded his head. He understood.

  Shaun hated feeling useless; it was one of the feelings he hated most in life. He did, however, appreciate the time to recuperate. As they looked about the store, gathering what they thought they might need, he thought about what would have happened if he hadn’t responded to her advertisement about needing a roommate.

  He would probably be dead.

  Shaun had pretty much picked the place clean of what he wanted, with a majority of it in his pockets and otherwise stuffed into various parts of the backpack. He looked to the cold, white world outside, somewhere he desperately didn't want to go, and sighed.

  "This is gonna be a bitch."

  "I know." She sighed and reached up to adjust the beanie on his head before looking out into the great white beyond. "But we're tough. Besides, think of how fucking good it's gonna be when we have warm food in our stomachs and metal walls around us." She smiled a little bit and leaned down to pick up one of the cans of gas. "Do you want me to go out first and look for a car?"

  She pushed the front doors open, and looked around outside. "Yeah, it's fucking cold." She clenched her jaw and turned back towards him. "I'll take a look around and then I'll come back and get you. Because then we don't waste time ambling you around when you really shouldn't be."

  Shaun sighed. He was being useless, as he had feared, and he hated that. But he couldn't quite bring himself to argue with her. Instead, he nodded resolutely, intent on enjoying his last few moments of heat.

  While she was
busy, he decided to make the coffee that the power outage had so rudely interrupted earlier. He grabbed six thermoses, three for each of them, and set to work. He recalled she had wanted mocha, and so he got to practice the one area he had expertise in; coffee crafting.

  By the end of his little run, he had used eight different filters. But he had created six masterpieces within thermoses, and as he began to drink the first one, he probably could have flown without wings.

  God, coffee was a hell of a thing to miss.

  Aisling came back a couple minutes later, her cheeks flushed red from the wind. She took a moment to relax in the heat difference between the outside and what heat remained in the store, before she looked up at Shaun. "You have no idea how lucky we are." She grinned. "There's a truck out there, a little ways away. It's old and a beater, but it looks like it'll run. I took a look under the hood and it looks like the engine was completely empty anyways, so that's not a problem since we have gas. Nothing looks broken and I think it’s our best bet." She pressed her palms to her cheeks to warm them.

  "… Are you making coffee?" She raised an eyebrow, before a bit of a smile cracked through and she shook her head. "Are you feeling okay? You think you can manage?"

  Shaun laughed, the warm liquid running down his throat. "You kidding? I won't run a marathon or anything, but a few burns never killed anyone."

  He was wrong. A few burns had killed a lot of people. But he didn’t mention that.

  "Really? A truck, just out there for grabs? We are lucky." He smiled, picking up a gas can and a short, see-through hose from the automobile section. "I guess it's time to siphon gas from a generator, then. You ever seen how it’s done? Kind of disgusting, but we'll manage."

  "Yeah, I can do that." She nodded. "You're talking to the girl who builds robots, genius. I've siphoned gas from my mom’s car to fuel my inventions." She snorted. "Do you want to walk over there and I'll meet you, or will you need help? I've got some gas here but it probably won't be enough, so we'll have to siphon that thing either way." She jabbed a finger towards the direction of the back door, where the generator sat just outside.

  "And there's no way you're helping." She pointed another finger at him accusingly. "I am not putting up with your bullshit if you get gas in one of your cuts. No fucking way."

  He laughed a slow, easy laugh. He felt comfortable around her; it was nice. But he would siphon that gas, whether she wanted him to or not.

  He made his way to the back, and then outside where the generator ran, and reluctantly shut it down. The chill of the outside bit into his skin as he pulled off the cap, stuck the hose into the gasoline, and sucked violently on the other end. Once he felt the gasoline begin to flow, he pulled away quickly; but not quickly enough to avoid getting a bit in his mouth.

  Shaun retched violently; he had done that a few times before, and it never ceased to make him vomit. He sighed as he waited for the gas can to fill, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the generator had still contained about five gallons of gasoline. It would hopefully get them about seventy miles in an old truck, if they were lucky.

  He had managed to avoid getting gasoline on his cuts, so Aisling didn't have to worry about that. He smiled. She really was worried about him, and it was kind of sweet. He liked having someone to worry over him.

  "Got it." He said, sitting the gas can down in front of her once he’d gone back inside.

  She crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed at him. "… It's a damn good thing you just got blown up, because if not, I would kick the shit out of you." So caring, so sweet. She sighed and heaved the can up into her arms, staggering a little bit before nodding. "Fuck- okay. Let's get the hell outta here." She staggered off into the snow.

  It was almost funny, as she looked pretty ridiculous carrying everything the way she was. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure he was following her, and stumbled over to a truck that was hidden slightly behind a small grove of trees past the parking lot. "Alright asshole, get in the passenger seat and I'll load this thing up." She dropped the can to the ground and yanked open the back doors to toss all of their shit into the back of the truck.

  Shaun climbed into the passenger seat, already freezing his ass off.

  He hated the snow; he didn't know why he had chosen fucking Canada to get his fine arts degree. There were plenty of good art schools in Massachusetts; he supposed he had just wanted to get away from home.

  "Hurry the hell up." He muttered, shivering already as the wind bit at him. He closed all the doors besides the driver's door and waited for her to get in. He couldn’t wait to have a heating system that they could crank up to boiling, because the meager heat of the store just wouldn't cut it anymore.

  Plus, they had just siphoned the rest of the gas, so if the truck didn't work, they were pretty much fucked.

  She rolled her eyes and unlocked the gas cap, heaving the gas can up into her arms to funnel it into the truck. Once she'd emptied it in its entirety, she tossed it into the back of the truck, closed the gas cap, and climbed into the driver's seat.

  She popped open the console and after a bit of rooting around found the car keys, sticking them into the ignition. She took a deep breath, praying, and turned the key.

  The truck didn't start.

  She cursed under her breath and tried again, and then again, eventually totaling out to five times before the truck's engine finally whirred to life.

  "Thank God." She thumped her forehead against the steering wheel and sighed. "Okay, let’s get the hell out here."

  Jesus fuck, that was terrifying.

  Shaun was glad they had crossed the river, because fording it in the old truck would have been nearly impossible. Instead, all they had to do to get the supposed settlement was drive onward; and considering they didn't have to walk, they could most likely get there that day.

  Shaun shivered in anticipation. A warm meal, a good alcoholic drink, and a comfortable bed. Those were all of the things he could ask for at that moment. He looked to Aisling, his eyes no longer registering the extreme pain of the blast, and said, "Hell yeah."

  She looked back up at him and smiled. "Let's hope we get there." She put the truck in reverse and backed out of the spot they were hidden in before pulling out of the gas station and onto the highway. It was by no means maintained, and she had to drive slowly to keep from losing traction, but God it was miles better than walking.

  It was quiet, the gentle hum of the engine and the howling wind outside the only sounds as they puttered down the road. "… We're pretty deep in the mountains." Aisling said after a moment. "I doubt there'll be hordes all the way up here. No way they'd get this far."

  Shaun didn't respond to that immediately.

  He would’ve loved to believe that they had escaped the zombies, but he didn't dare say that. Not when the day had been as unpredictable as theirs had. He had found a place with power, killed a man, found a kid, found out the kid was part of a terrorist cell, and then was subsequently almost blown up.

  Ah, what a wonderful life it was in the zombie apocalypse.

  "You never know. Some of the hikers could have turned, and they would have already been resistant to the cold." It was a thought he hated to think about. Cold-resistant walkers. Made him want to resist the thought at all costs.

  But he couldn't.

  "Shaun, we're in the fucking mountains. These are some pretty experienced trails, I highly doubt there'll be huge hoards like we got in the cities." She snorted and shook her head. "There'll probably still be some, you're right. But nowhere near the scale we're used to."

  A devilish smirk spread across her face. "You called me pretty, by the way." She snickered. "Were you a little loopy back there or something?" She teased gently, looking over at him with a giggle. This was normal for her. At least she wasn't having an anxiety attack anymore, so that was good.

  Shaun nodded at the first fact, and rolled his eyes at the second.

  "Haha, very funny, make fun of the guy who
just got blown up." He said, his voice laced with a strange tone. It was true, he had said it, but he couldn't help but feel weird about it. Krystalynn had just died a few months back, and he couldn't already have moved on from that. Especially not for Aisling, his best friend. He could easily screw up his chances of survival if he made a wrong move like that.

  "I mean, you are, but yeah, I was kind of loopy from all the chemicals."

  Didn't mean he wasn't a flirt, though.

  She giggled and shook her head. "No, I’m not." She said this casually, which was a little surprising considering just what exactly she was saying. "I can make fun of the blown up guy all I want because I’m the one who patched your ass up." She moved a hand from the steering wheel to boop his cheek with one finger, then snickered. "And you’re such a flirt, oh my God." She laughed and put her hand back on the wheel. "Should we play it out like the movies and after the next thing you say I’ll gasp, scandalized, and throw my drink in your face?"

  She had a little extra energy, apparently.

  "Considering I'm the one that made that drink, and it's hot as hell, I think the fuck not." He laughed, and it was an easy sort of unrestricted laugh. He hadn’t felt that way in a long time; like he had nothing to worry about. He was so used to watching behind his shoulder that being in a car felt unnatural.

  He knew that if anyone saw them driving, they might be in trouble; jealousy is a bitch sometimes.

  "Though the drink isn't the hottest thing in this truck."

  Holy fuck did I really just say that?

  Her face went red with a squeak, and she burst out laughing. "You bastard." She shook her head and reached over to flick his cheek. "Don’t you pull this shit right now, I’m driving. You do not want to drag me into this flirting game because I will definitely fucking win." She snickered, blowing a stray strand of orange hair away from her face. "Fuck- hold on." She pulled her headband from her wrist, releasing the steering wheel to drive with her knees as she pulled her hair back away from her face. With all the shit that happened that morning, it was pretty messy.

  Shaun shook his head, grabbing the wheel and holding it steady. "Yeah, you probably would; I haven't flirted in years." He rolled his eyes and passenger-drove until she was done with her hair.