Once again, I lost consciousness.
Time dissolved. I don't know how long I was gone — seconds, hours, days. It was as if I had fallen out of existence altogether.
And then… I woke up.
Faint light reached me through closed eyelids. Slowly, sensation returned — first as cold, then as pain. My skin prickled with the chill. Beneath me, a rough, uneven stone surface jabbed at my back and arms.
I stirred. My body felt alien, unresponsive, like I had been asleep for centuries. As warmth crept into my limbs, I opened my eyes — blurry at first, uncooperative. But the light sharpened, and I blinked it into focus.
A bitter wind howled across the landscape and snapped me fully awake.
What I saw stole the breath from my lungs.
The sky hung heavy and grey, choked with dust. A sick red hue tinged everything — the sun, barely visible, was setting behind a haze of ash. The world around me stretched barren and lifeless. Not a single patch of green, only scorched earth covered in soot. What remained of the trees were skeletal, leafless husks reaching like dying fingers into the sky.
Ash and dust swirled in the wind. It coated everything, even the air I breathed. My lungs felt tight.
It was like waking into a nightmare — a dead world.
I lay still, numb from shock. Where was I? Was this another planet? Or… was it still Earth?
I pushed myself up from the ground, gritting my teeth. But pain shot through my leg, sharp and immediate. I cried out and nearly collapsed again.
Then —
Footsteps.
Heavy. Rhythmic. Metallic.
I froze. My body refused to turn, but instinct kicked in. I forced myself upright — and saw them.
Two figures. Humanoid in shape. Towering. Made of black shiny metal with sharp, angular joints. Each held a submachine gun. Instead of faces, glowing red screens displayed eerily cheerful grinning emoticons.
The robots advanced slowly, menacingly, with casual precision.
Panic surged. I turned to run — but pain seared through my leg.
"Fuck!" I hissed, staggering forward in a half-limp.
I looked back. The machines broke into a sprint.
"Free human detected. Initiating scan to determine judgement."
The voice was mechanical, cold, devoid of empathy.
I scrambled forward, saw a ledge ahead, and threw myself over it. The ground disappeared beneath me and I tumbled down a short slope, the jagged earth tearing at my side. My injured leg screamed, but I clenched my teeth and kept moving.
But they were fast. Too fast.
Thk.
Something hit me.
A sharp impact to my back. I fell. I turned, gasping — and saw a long, black dart embedded in my shoulder.
"Target injected with paralytic agent."
Shit.
My limbs began to tremble. I could feel the drug working — slowing me, freezing me. I tried to crawl, to scream, to do anything. But nothing responded.
The machines were closing in.
This was it.
I truly thought… this was the end.
But then — crack.
One of the robots' heads exploded in a burst of light.
The other one didn't react. It just kept walking toward me, as if its mission was hard-coded to ignore any threat except me.
Crack. Another shot.
The second robot collapsed, twitching once before going still.
Two figures emerged from over the ridge. They wore mismatched military gear — thick coats, breathing masks, old-fashioned goggles. Not like high-tech soldiers. They looked like survivors from a war long past.
They carried weapons — but crude ones. Bolt-action rifles, almost antique. They looked more like relics from World War I than anything futuristic.
"Both DREADoids eliminated, Aimi," the man said with a note of satisfaction.
"Good," the woman — Aimi — replied. "Let's check the survivor. Can't believe people in Alpha-Omega still go out in the high ash zones."
They reached me quickly. I still couldn't move or speak — my body was heavy, my mind foggy.
"Hope he's not infected," the man muttered. "Should we play it safe?"
"Yeah."
The woman pulled out a small vial, uncorked it, and let a few drops fall into my mouth.
I couldn't resist. The taste was bitter, but my senses were already leaving me again.
Darkness returned.
And just like that —
I fell unconscious once more.