Scrappers Part V

The concluding chapter in the Scrappers story. Follow Angie and Ruggy as they make their grand escape from the stalking Harvesters. The two have a hell of a lot of questions for their operator when they get back to base, presuming they make it out of The Lost alive.

Scrappers Part V continues the sci-fi horror universe that is being developed through short stories. Enjoy the story in written word, audio, artwork and soundscape.

Part I

Part
II

Part
III

Part IV

Scrappers Part V









Time Passing

Time became an abstract concept. I wasn’t sure if I stayed
in the abandoned wreckage for hours or days.  I preferred it that way. It would be easy
enough to turn on the time stamp in the chat thread Ruggy and I had open. I
didn’t want to. Watching those numbers go by every minute was discouraging. We
knew that the Harvesters would give up on the hunt, eventually. The challenge
was knowing when.

The two of us could stay in the dark for days if we wanted.
Or we could attempt to return to The Lost, risking our lives, for the
Harvesters could be waiting right outside. I was comfortable waiting longer.
What was the rush? No one would miss two scrappers back at base.

The harsh reality was that Ruggy and I weren’t anyone
special and would never be. Scrappers were disposable, which is hard to believe,
considering the diminishing human population. The higherups don’t care. We
server a purpose in this new world. We gather the remnants of the old for those
deemed better than us.

As the hours – or days – passed, I kept thinking back to the
operator that brought us here, operator 43-S3. I’ve never met him. Ruggy says
he met the man. A typical computer geek. Fast-talking and poor posture. We need
folks like them, though. I just don’t get why they would send us out to a death
trap. Operator 43-S3 knew that he was sending us to a Harvester’s crash sight. Maybe
he was taking orders from the higher-ups. Maybe he thought we were disposable
and only wanted the goods from the crash site to be rewarded. Who knew? We’d
get answers when we got back to base. Eventually.

THINK IT IS SAFE TO GO NOW? I typed with swift eye
movements, controlling my goggle’s interface.

NAH, Ruggy replied. WE’D BEST WAIT ANOTHER DAY
JUST TO BE SURE.

A DAY? HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN IN HERE? I instantly
regretted asking the question. Knowing that an answer would tell me exactly how
long we’ve been sitting in the dark.

A COUPLE OF DAYS. Ruggy typed. I HAVE ENOUGH
CAPSULES TO LAST A WEEK. YOU?

SAME. THE SURVIVAL KIT WAS FULL WHEN I GRABBED IT.

A couple of days. My mind could barely wrap around the fact
that I had been sitting in the same spot for that long. The night vision the
goggles provided made the dark more bearable. Plus, it was warmer down here
than on the surface. I kept staring at the Harvester’s tentacle that I crushed
days ago. I knew it was destroyed, but I couldn’t help and wonder if it would
pop back up and attack me again. Or perhaps it is like a beacon signal for the
Harvesters, and they would come for me. It was nonsense, I knew that wasn’t
going to happen. If it were, the Harvesters would have come for me by now.

IF WE’RE GOING TO STAY HERE ANOTHER DAY, HOW ABOUT WE
MEET UP? I typed.

WE’VE BEEN THROUGH THIS. THE FEWER MOVEMENTS THE BETTER.

IF THEY CAN SCAN THE LANDSCAPE, CAN’T THEY DETECT HEAT
ANYWAYS? THIS IS POINTLESS.

WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TYPE OF TECH THE HARVESTERS HAVE,
Ruggy typed. WE CAN ONLY MAKE EDUCATED GUESSES. THE WHOLE POINT IS TO
SURVIVE THIS ORDEAL.

I WANT TO GIVE THAT OPERATOR A PIECE OF MY MIND. I
replied.

TRUST ME, SO DO I, Ruggy typed. THAT RAT KNEW WHAT
HE WAS DOING WHEN HE SENT US TO THE HARVESTER’S CRASH SITE. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT
WAS IN IT FOR HIM.

Ruggy and I exchanged some messages back and forth a few
times, other than that, we didn’t have much to say to one another. We’ve
scrapped long enough that we know each other well. No point in small talk. Most
of my time was spent evaluating the digital map in my goggle’s interface to try
and make a guess as to where I was. The maps were based on the old world. We didn’t
have any satellites to map out The Lost, so I could only guess roughly where I
was. Based on the map, it was some skyscraper, one point in time, collapsed during
humanity’s split.

Exploration

I was careful not to overuse my goggle’s battery life. I
couldn’t spend days just browsing around the maps and local documents. These
things were high tech for humans but didn’t have otherworldly wonders like the
Harvesters have. So, I eventually did get up from my location and wandered the
halls. Ruggy didn’t need to know. If he wanted us to wait another day, I wanted
to get a better sense of my environment. His reasoning about the scanning tech
that the Harvesters have was stupid anyway.

The night vision goggles let me navigate through the
crooked, uneven hallways. No light was visible, so I had to be underground
still. Some of the halls had doorways that weren’t collapsed, and I could enter
the rooms. I walked into a room, cautiously avoiding the walls and rocks. The
last thing I needed was to make some noise and trigger a Harvester, or
something as simple as a collapsing ceiling.

The room was mostly the same as the hallway. It did have
some snapped planks of wood. Some garbage and I think something that was once
clothing. Anything we find in The Lost is usually a wreck due to past fires, falling
rocks, or deterioration, rendering them useless.

I left the room, there was nothing of value there. The
hallways led further into the unknown, but I didn’t want to go too far from my
location. I shared the coordinates with Ruggy earlier. In case I had to go
back, I didn’t want to hike too far. All I wanted was to get a better sense of
my surroundings. Everywhere here was as dead as the closet I rested in.

Meeting Point

The wait finally ended when Ruggy texted, OKAY, LET’S GET
THE HELL OUT OF HERE. A wave of relief went over me. We’d finally be
getting out of this dungeon.

WHERE SHOULD WE MEET? I asked.

YOU REMEMBER WHERE WE SPLIT? SEE IF WE CAN MEET UP THERE,
Ruggy typed.

IF WE DON’T MEET THERE?

WE’LL FIND EACH OTHER ON THE SURFACE.

Ruggy’s order sealed the deal. We could return to The Lost.
A second thought entered my mind – what if the Harvesters never left? They had
probes. They could be waiting for us to tire out and leave our hideouts. We had
no way of telling. Ruggy must have finally gotten sick of sitting around like
me. Guess we’d face our fate.

I retraced the steps that led me to the dark hideout that I
stayed in. Thank God. The mouldy, musty smell was beginning to irritate me. It
wasn’t difficult to find my previous locations. The collapsed rubble that
separated myself and the Harvester was exactly where I remembered it being. This
time, there was no Harvester. I slid my gun under the slit and then moved under
to the other side. I eyed the opposite side of the hallway in the opposing
rooms, the rooms that Ruggy had taken. He wasn’t anywhere near.

RUGGY, IM BACK WHERE WE SPLIT, I typed.

I COULDN’T FIND HOW I GOT HERE, Ruggy replied. I
THINK I’M GETTING CLOSE TO THE SURFACE THOUGH.

COORDS? I asked.

-22.951470, -43.212165

That was something useful. We’d meet up back on the surface.
With the new plan in mind, I continued backwards from whence Ruggy, and I first
entered the cavern. It was easy enough to retrace, not sure how Ruggy was
having a difficult time. It didn’t matter. We’d get out of here, get back to
the cruiser, and give a piece of our mind back at base.

The light grew brighter, the closer I got to the cavern
entrance. The old world architecture began to be replaced with rocks and rubble
– remnants of conflict. A part of me wanted to go deeper into the cavern to see
what type of artifacts I could find down there, but it didn’t matter. Our
history was partly archived in digital storage. Anything else took up space,
and I didn’t need to haul that around.

I found the cavern entrance and hiked out into The Lost.
Despite the clouded atmosphere, some light made it through to the planet’s
surface. It was daytime. I shut off the night vision of my goggles and scanned
the terrain. There were no signs of the Harvesters ground troops and no sign of
their ship.

IT’S ALL CLEAR HERE RUGGY, I typed while walking
towards the coordinates he provided.

GOOD, SEEMS CLEAR HERE TOO. Ruggy replied. I’M
ALMOST AT RENDEZVOUS.

Cattle

A sense of relief went over me. We beat the Harvesters at
their own game. Sure, we may have wrecked our cruiser in the process from that
beast, but we survived. No one survives a Harvester.

WE HAVE SOME BRAGGING RIGHTS HERE WHEN WE GET BACK TO
BASE, I typed.

The coordinates Ruggy supplied weren’t far, and I reached
the location. It was an open patch of rubble. Nearby rocks and collapsed towers
were a good several dozen paces away, this had to be some sort of park, based
on the goggle’s old world map.

RUGGY? I typed, looking around the area. The wind
blew past me, blowing some of the dust in my face. No one. There didn’t seem to
be any cavern entrances nearby either.

RUGGY, DID YOU MESS UP THE COORDINATES? I’M OUT IN THE
OPEN.

No reply. Something wasn’t right, and my instincts told me to
get the hell out, yet Ruggy ordered me to come here.

RUGGY, I’M MOVING. I typed.

ANGIE STAY, Ruggie typed.

WHERE ARE YOU? I replied.

Still alarmed, I took my first step back as a humanoid
morphed into view. The large being’s form rippled from transparency and into
full view. The gunmetal armour shined in the daylight as high-pitched clicking
began to project from the being.

“Shit! Ruggy!” I called out, pulling my rifle’s trigger. The
gun clacked, firing at the Harvester as it began to walk towards me.

ANGIE, COME HERE, Ruggy typed.

Then, as I continued to fire at the approaching Harvester, I
realized that I hadn’t been talking to Ruggy at all. Maybe at one point, I was.
I don’t know. The Harvesters hacked out communication port. It was supposed to
be a closed-off network, clearly not.

The bullets pinged off the Harvester’s suite as it marched.
The sound clicked in a wave motion, moving at faster and slower tempos. I
continued to back up in the open space. Glancing back, I saw I could make a run
for it. I had to try. Guns were pointless. I sprinted from my battle stance, dashing
as fast as I could.

Footsteps thudded behind me. The Harvester picked up its
pace. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.

RUGGY, ANSWER ME. I typed. I wasn’t sure if he’d get
the message. The Harvesters were one step ahead of us. I had to try, though.
There was no other way of communicating with him.

ANGIE COME HERE, The Harvester typed.

“Ruggy!” I cried out as a large hand snagged my arm,
spinning me around.

I pulled the trigger of my rifle, trying to do anything to
save my skin. The bullets pinged off the armour. The Harvester swatted the
weapon clean from my hand, knocking it to the ground. It snatched my neck as a
spear erected from a small opening in the Harvester’s palm. The weapon expanded
into its full form as it sparked to life – humming. An electro-spear.

The Harvester plunged the weapon into my gut, causing my
whole body to tense up. The shock erupted through my chest and to every limb in
my body. The pulsation hit my head and travelled through the goggles – frying
them. The interface was gone. My head spun. I had lost all control of my being.
I could see…no. My vision was blurry. I could hear… a little. I felt… nothing.
Numbness.

My captor chucked me to the ground as two more Harvesters
came into view. The high-frequency clicking multiplied as the beings stared at
each other. I tried to fight the electrical current that numbed my body. I had
to. No one else was going to get me out of this. I couldn’t.

I felt fear in my mind. My muscles didn’t respond to the stress of the situation. It provided an odd sense of calmness as my captor dumped my body into a large steel crate. Holes horizontally lined the container walls. Airholes to let me breathe. I could hear groans other than my own. The smell of sweat and dirt filled the space. Other humans were in the cage with me. We were cattle, harvested.

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