Dust - An Apocalyptic Romance Ch. 01

Sic wasn't sure when she had forgotten just how depraved the world was since the bombs fell. So many of them fell actually that the unimaginable happened.

The Earth started cracking open and things crawled up out of it. Maybe it was the end of the world and no one had realized it yet. No one that was still alive anyhow. Mankind was always determined to keep hanging on even when Hell itself seemed to manifest all across the fucking planet.

Not to mention the fallout and the inevitable mutations that came with it. The healthier humans were the only ones allowed to breed and given shelter below ground from the harsh inheritance their ancestors had left them.

Rumors even said there were some so pure that they had never seen the surface. Sic thought that was probably bullshit.

Even with unbreathable surface air, radiation, and countless other dangers Sic wouldn't have chosen to be a breeder bitch trapped in a steel tomb until she could no longer pop out children.

She could almost be thankful she was 'defective' and sent to do manual labor in the exclusion zone. As a sixth generation defective or 'S.G.D' as the government had so lovingly called her and others like her. She was of a unique class that had a natural resistance to radiation. It allowed her to go where most humans couldn't with minimal protection.

Sic still needed a rebreather filtration device to protect her from the fires that still burned deep below the ground, the smoke thick and choking hot.

Her natural defenses hadn't came without a price however. She was required to wear a half mask to cover the scarring on the right side of her face that showed she was a defective. The government didn't want to upset the normal folk with the truth should she need to venture into one of the walled cities. She had seen the propaganda claiming that the clean up was going well. There was nothing to worry about, really. Very few were even aware of how many defectives like her were forced into slave labor or maybe they just didn't care.

Sic's job was to contain the waste that covered the area for miles, part of the cleanup effort that would take years of backbreaking labor. Even then it wouldn't be safe for the pures for years still.

Sic believed the inbreeding would kill them off long before the Earth would be safe for them to occupy, personally.

She rested on top of the remains of a tank watching a six-legged dog struggle to drag it's bloated abdomen across the scorched soil, the legs on one side of it's body shorter than the other.

She couldn't tell if it was gravid or part of it's mutation. One of the limbs started spasming frantically when it saw her and she realized that she'd mistaken it's tail for another leg. Sic clicked her tongue and threw a small piece of her bread ration to the creature which it happily slurped up.

An ear splitting bang resounded and the dog thing fell over dead, the remains of it's meal falling from it's open jaws. Sic's stomach fell in shock as she turned to face the guard she hadn't noticed until now, a wisp of smoke trailing from the barrel of his rifle.

"Back to work, defective," he said, his electronically filtered voice completely devoid of emotion filled her with rage. He was dressed in the usual gear, a gas mask with twin filters and thermal lenses that made him seem even more alien.

Sic very rarely saw another human that wasn't entirely wrapped in tactical clothing without a single inch of skin on display. That's why the man lingers a little longer than necessary clearly staring at her exposed thigh and most of her buttock where she'd cut off her old pants a little too short. If there were any other women around these parts they were wrapped up tighter than sausages on the twelve hour patrol days the officers usually had.

It's so damnably hot she almost wishes she could be provided the luxury of one of those air conditioned suits the pures got. She gave him the finger and lifted her mask and she saw him visibly startle in surprise taking a half step back. Served him right for killing the dog.

She may not get the comfortable life the pures did but she did get the assurance that she could be rude with her captors and not be dumped in a hole to rot for it. She was a rare breed they couldn't afford to lose, capable of going places they couldn't.

Doing the dirty jobs they wouldn't dare.

Sadly, this also meant Sic was just property more than a living thinking human. Today was the day she would have to report to the office and get her microchip examined. A small device that told them where she was at all times as well other data about her physical state. If she tried to tamper with it, it would release a powerful neurotoxin before she could cut it from her skin, paralyzing her instantly.

Sic finished her bread ration and breezed past the guard, readjusting her mask on the way. She had never liked the thing, it was porcelain, made to look like one of those creepy old pre-war dolls. Years of harsh living had left it dulled with grime and covered in a spiderweb of tiny cracks.

It was made to look beautiful and not real.

Not scary.

Not like Sic.

Somehow, even at the end of the world the need for superficial things was still present. Sic heard a low screech coming from the barracks and ignored it, putting up her shawl and keeping her head down to avoid drawing as much attention as possible.

The outpost was filled with around forty humans or so and Sic only knew of one other woman; an elderly scientist that went by the name of Kate. One of the few that showed sympathy towards Sic instead of treating her like a piece of meat.

The officer responsible for her microchip for the week was Carter, a man perpetually in a foul mood, the vein in his temple had took up a permanent residence there and pulsed harder when he saw her coming.

"You're late," he said.

She wasn't.

"Sorry," she said anyway, keeping her eyes respectfully downcast to avoid upsetting him any worse. Once, she had angered him and he'd taken out her chip without disabling it first, leaving her unable to move for almost forty-eight hours.

When she was finally finished vomiting up her withdrawal but after washing the piss out of her clothes she'd learned the hard way he was one not to be fucked with.

"Sit."

She did as she was told, presenting her forearm without being asked. The white scar above the microchip stood out against her tanned skin.

The screeching she'd heard from before was getting louder now. Closer too.

Carter noticed her interest, "Those idiot fuckin' mercenaries brought a wyrm here. S'posed to be a bounty on the things for somethin' or other. This is a scavenger outpost and they expect to get paid here. Honestly, don't know where these assholes crawl out of."

Sic listened with interest as this was the most the officer had said to her since she was stationed there six months ago.

Wyrms were elusive creatures, mostly nocturnal and very little data on them existed since they lived underground near the thermal vents. A place where no human, not even ones like Sic, could venture safely.

"What does it look like?" she blurted out, not really expecting an answer.

Carter snorted, "The hell should I know. Go see for yerself. Seems they're causin' all kinds'a trouble demanding payment. Sounds to me like they're high off their asses on somethin'. Probably that new shit that's goin' around made from the Black Death. I thought it was all bullshit 'til I saw the track marks on one of the drifter corpses that got hauled in a while back. Rotted out to the bone. Most awful shit I've seen in a minute. The things people'll do for a high these days. My lord."

The Black Death was a new form of mutated shrooms that grew exclusively in the exclusion zones known for causing intense hallucinations, paranoia, heightened senses, and a multitude of wildly conflicting experiences. The only thing that was consistent was how the injections rotted out the user's flesh causing a 'Black Death' over time.

"Don't move," Carter said.

The scalpel slipped through her skin silky smooth, parting the flesh and lightly scraping against the metal beneath. Now exposed, Carter brought out a gun shaped device and scanned the chip. With a resigned beep it shut off and Carter removed it with a pair of forceps, dropping it into a petri dish of cleaning solution.

He brought down two more lenses of magnification on his glasses, studying the device as red ribbons of Sic's blood floated to the surface.

Once satisfied, Carter removed it and dried it on a dirty towel before plugging it into a rusty console on his desk. A flood of symbols rolled across the screen, completely incomprehensible to Sic as she'd never learned how to read.

"Remove your mask."

The ribbons holding it in place were tattered and one had nearly torn all the way through as Sic untied it as delicately as possible.

If Sic's mutations disgusted the officer he did well at not outwardly showing it, probing at her here and there with a metal rod then taking down notes in his notebook.

"Any pain?"

Sic shook her head.

"What about here?"

She shook her head again, no.

The screeching outside the exam room had turned to roars of anger or pain Sic couldn't guess. She caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the small, dirty mirror above the wash basin not looking away fast enough to avoid catching a glimpse of an eye that was inky black and the glitter of scales.

The bizarre truth of the S.G.D.'s was how they had been born with creature-like appendages.

Some of the others that Sic knew had it far worse, unable to hide their defective nature. Tails, claws, extra fingers, and one had even started developing wings.

It was a young boy named Laddy with friendly green eyes whom Sic had been friends with for a time before he was taken away to one of the facilities and she never saw him again.

Sic could only assume he was dissected and put into jars for study somewhere a mile underground. It was the same for all the more unusual defectives while the lesser affected like Sic were worked until they died.

Or were killed which was far more likely.

"Say ah."

Sic did as she was told, sticking out her tongue while the officer checked the back of her throat with a pen light.

That was when the wall next to them exploded into dust and time seemed to slow down. Of course, it was only like this for Sic, one of her abilities was time dilation. She was able to assess a situation much faster than a normal human and it had saved her life many times over.

At twenty-nine years old, Sic was probably the oldest S.G.D alive, currently.

So she watched as one of the supports went through the left side of Carter's head with a sickening wet crunch, exiting through his eye socket on the opposite side in an explosion of grey matter and blood, killing him almost instantly.

She doubted he even knew what had happened as he fell over with a frozen expression of shock.

Sic dropped to the floor as a massive leathery wing went over her head in a cloud of dust particles accompanied by a loud bellow that seemed to shake the ground although it could have been chunks of the wall hitting the floor next to her.

Alarms were going off now as the airlock was breached, contaminated air flooded the building, and Sic slammed both hands over her ears.

"Motherfucker! Get the fucking chains back on."

"The chain is broken you retard."

"I can see that. Get another one off the trailer. Get another one of the prods while you're there."

Men's voices from outside shouting above the noise.

Sic tried to get back to her feet but yelped in pain. Some of the debris had landed on her ankle without her noticing. It didn't feel broken but she wouldn't be walking normal for a while.

The sun blinded her as her eye adjusted to the scene outside and she put up a hand to block it.

It was worse outside.

Sic could see at least three dead officers and one mercenary that was injured from the beast. From what Sic could see the officers had been shot by the mercenaries for trying to stop them, their bodies covered in small wounds not left by the wyrm.

Judging from the five pointed pattern of the wound it was inflicted by a fletchette rifle, a banned weapon that used a tracking dart to paint the target then all consecutive rounds would home in after it.

"Fuck this shit!" shouted the injured man. "We don't even need the wyrm for the money. Just it's nut juice."

The wyrm bellowed again absolutely enraged, it's iridescent blue eyes rolling wildly below it's skull plate. An impressive beast with a wingspan of at least thirty feet with bone armor that protected it's chest and back all the way to the tip of it's tail.

It had risen up like a cobra, proud and beautiful in a terrible way, it's skin the color of oil that shimmered in a myriad of colors in the sunlight.

It was as if a human man and a snake had fused, it's upper body was muscular and humanoid while the lower was serpentine. It's head was similar to the way dragons had been described in the past with two massive horns on either side of its skull plate curling forward.

It's hands clenched and unclenched arrhythmically at it's sides flexing it's deadly talons. The mercenaries kept it at bay with long rods that produced thousands of volts of electricity at the push of a button accompanied by the thick chains connected to the collar they'd somehow gotten around it's neck.

Sic couldn't begin to fathom how they'd caught something like this in the first place, let alone drag it through the wastes all the way to the outpost.

One of it's wrist shackles had came undone and lay broken next to it. That explained how it had managed to twist it's body hard enough to break through the wall.

The mercenaries noticed her staring and one of them pointed in her direction, "What do we have here? A S.G.D.? Thought all of 'em were dead."

He was a rangy man with a scraggly beard that only grew on a half his face from what she could see above the ventilator. The rest was burned and melted like candlewax.

"Bring her out here."

Another mercenary Sic hadn't seen around the corner stepped into view blocking the sun and grabbed her arm dragging her upright. She hissed through her teeth in pain as she was hauled outside and thrown into the dust.

"Let's see what we got," the mercenary crowed, ripping off her mask and throwing it aside. He shamelessly dropped to one knee beside her, taking her chin in one gloved hand and twisting her head to get a better look.

"You are a fucking ugly bitch aint'cha. What's your name, darlin'?"

Sic's eyes darted over to the dead officer closest to her and was reminded that being a smartass right now wasn't the best idea.

"Sic," she replied.

"Well, Sic, we gotta problem here. Ya see, we can't collect our bounty from this outpost and we can't drag this big fucker all the way to the walls."

Sic was trembling and clenched her hands together, keeping her eyes on the ground listening to him speak.

The other mercenary was coming back with the chain dragging behind him loudly rattling each time it hit a rock or bump. The wyrm noticed this and rumbled a warning low in it's chest.

"Hey Charlie. Got a new idea," the mercenary called out to him that had been talking to Sic. "Go get the collection unit from the truck."

"For what?"

The mercenary was grinning at Sic and it made her nauseated.

"We're gonna milk this fucker right here."