Iridescent: Chapter Six

Iridescent

Chapter Six

~A Girl and her Dog~

After the Fall

Zara woke up feeling exhausted. She sat up slowly and leaned against the wall. Her whole body was sore; every movement she made sent pangs of pain through her body. Zara sighed as she sat there. She didn’t move for several minutes. She just didn’t feel the energy to move.

She turned her head toward her pack and just stared at it. Zara shook her head and started to move to get to her feet.

“That’s enough,” she said aloud, “Can’t sit around and feel bad about yourself for too long or you might never get back up.”

“An excellent statement,” a voice said.

Zara looked up ahead of her. She saw the faint outline of a cloaked object. Zara grabbed the gun on her belt and fired at the object. It ran across the room and jumped onto some fallen cement from the floor above. She spent three bullets and didn’t want to use too many more than she had too. Zara grabbed one of her katana and charged at the nearly invisible figure.

“No, no! Don’t kill me! Please I’m too young to die!” the figure declared itself, “Please! I have so many practical jokes to pull still!”

Zara scowled at the sight of the figure before her, “Miwa! What the heck!? You scared the crap out of me!”

Miwa shuffled his feet on top of his perch. He was still in his dog form. His thin segmented tail waved low with shame.

“Sorry,” Miwa said, “I really am. I thought you would kill me if you saw me.”

Zara turned her back on him, “There aren’t an overwhelming amount of K-nine units walking around.”

Miwa looked down at his massive and sharp paws, “Sorry.”

Zara gathered her things, “What are you doing here?”

Miwa stood up on his four legs and jumped down from his perch, “My sensor picked up a familiar vital signature. So I went to check it out!”

“Naturally,” Zara muttered.

“When I found you unconscious I wasn’t sure what to do!” Miwa stated, “If you woke up and saw me you might freak out and shoot at me!”

“And cloaking yourself was naturally a better option,” Zara continued muttering.

“I was planning to keep myself cloaked and when you woke up, crawl out of the room and come in uncloaked through the front door!” Miwa said, “It didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped.”

“No, really?” Zara’s muttering continued, “You spoke while you were cloaked. I think it’s a little counterproductive.”

Miwa walked around her, “I’m sorry!”

“You made me waste three bullets!” Zara said loudly.

“I’ll make it up to you!” Miwa sat at the door, blocking Zara from leaving.

Zara put her hands on her hips, “And how do you plan to do that?”

“I know where we can get supplies! And…and…and I might even know a way of the Island if you let me come with you!” he stated.

Zara shifted her weight, “A way off the Island? How?”

“The north east part of the—” Miwa stopped, “Oh, I wasn’t supposed to…”

“You weren’t supposed to what?” Zara leaned in closer, “What is it a big secret or something?”

“Kinda…” Miwa looked nervous.

Zara crossed her arms, “Fine. I’ll let you tag along if you promise you’ll take me to this way of the Island.”

Miwa’s ears perked up, “Fine! Do you want to go get the supplies now? I swear no one’s touched a thing! It’s full of great supplies!”

“Lead the way,” Zara motioned, “but I swear if you get in my way, I’ll cut off your tail.”

“You aren’t very nice,” Miwa muttered.

Zara walked after him, “I’m still mad at you.”

“Hey! I said I was sorry!” Miwa said loudly.

Miwa’s height was just around her waist. He walked alongside her through the streets. His bladed tail waved back and forth as he walked on all fours. He turned his head frequently as he would scan the surroundings. Zara looked up at the broken windows and buildings trying to find out where the android was taking her. It was hard to tell exactly in the city she was as everything looked the same, broken and tattered. But there were a few distinct landmarks that she recognized.

The duo came to a road block. Rubble blocked the road ahead of them. Miwa scanned the rubble and looked back at Zara.

“Follow me,” he said.

Zara rolled her eyes, “What have I been doing up to this point?”

Miwa shook his head and said quietly, “I do not see what Chaud sees in you?”

Zara narrowed her eyes, “What did you say?”

Miwa jumped on to a bolder, “Nothing. I just said you were great company.”

He jumped to another bolder higher up the rubble and waited for Zara to get on the first. Zara grabbed a metal rod and pulled herself upon to the bolder. When she had a firm footing, Miwa scanned again and jumped onto what looked like the hood of a car. Zara followed behind him making sure to step where he stepped. One wrong move and the whole mound could collapse.

Soon they made it to the apex of the mound. Zara looked out and shook her head.

“The Tower storage facility?” Zara breathed heavily.

“The main system may be down but the defense system is still running on generators,” Miwa explained.

“How much longer with the generators run?” Zara asked.

“Oh, until it gets flattened by a nuke,” Miwa stated, “or any other explosive really.”

Zara looked at Miwa, “You carrying any extra nukes?”

“I’ve got a few small missiles but sorry, fresh out of nukes,” Miwa jumped down to the next rock.

Zara followed, “I guess I could use my access code.”

“No, good,” Miwa answered, “The system went down with the Tower. The facility won’t let anyone in at this point.”

Zara thought to herself. Right when Miwa said that, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy getting in and out in one piece. She would make sure to bring up the issue of downed systems when the Tower fixed itself.

“Do you know what they have in there?” Zara asked to assess if it was worth going through with it in the first place.

“The last inventory check reveals surplus medical supplies for the hospital, foods stuff, small inventory of weapons and ammo, oh and a few cases of that Blue Gold stuff,” Miwa started the downward journey.

Zara sighed; looked like it was going to be well worth risking her life for. She followed Miwa back to ground level. The massive heap of rubble towered behind them. Miwa continued onward and they reached the gated fence.

There were we’re turrets visible on the outside wall designed to fire upon any unauthorized personnel meaning at this point it would fire at anyone. Flat robots patrolled the perimeter and were programed to detonate when it spotted an intruder. The roof was equipped with missiles to attack anyone who broke in. On the inside there was more. Lasers were scattered around and if they weren’t turned off by a certain code it would detonate a small explosive. Then the items themselves were monitored on pressure plates. If they were removed before a code could be entered the room would lock down. Zara often wondered how it was possible that no one working here had accidentally killed themselves.

Zara looked down at Miwa, “Do you have any ideas on how we’re getting those items?”

Miwa looked up, “Um, that’s why I brought you here.”