The Storm / Breathe

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The desert howled sideways. Calling it a desert was an understatement. A whirlwind of tiny razor-sand tried, molecule for atom, to grind down Adriaan's exo-skeleton armor. It was covered in composite armored cloth, to relieve some of the stress, but he knew it would tear away sooner or later. The range tracker on his helmet interface stood at 374 miles north of the location beacon he had left in Sabulum, but it had been stuck there for at least a week, and he had been steady in his stride. His breath was steady and deep, echoing through the helmet which did its best to mute the sounds of the environment. Exploration and discovery had long been a part of his life, after he had decided to seek out solitude. Away from the corporation, away from stress, away from people. Standing in an uncontrollable storm, inches away from certain agonizing, flesh-ripping death was much better. He continued northward, or what the helmet interface assumed was north. The suns and stars hadn't been visible for days because of the storm.

“Keep moving, soldier!” said a gruff voice behind him, and he turned his head over his shoulder just in time to hear the grunt of a women and see her being kicked in the gut.”Get up! Everyone's waiting on you! What if we were being shot at? You would be dead!” She got kicked again while she tried to push herself up on her hands and knees, with a large pack on her back, and armor surrounding her features. Timing herself with the next kick coming under her, she used the force from it to get herself up on her knees, and wobbled to her feet. “Good job! You can stand! Now walk!” The soldier gave her a smack on her behind, though she probably just registered it, and didn't feel it through the armor. Adriaan turned, they were moving again.

Adriaan huddled down behind a rock, trying to get some reprieve. The wind still blew, around the rock and to him, but this was better than leaning into the wind, taking a step at a time. The ripped parts of his cloth flapped about, and he began work to tie it down using other strips he brought. Still 374 miles. He would have to fix the signal, sadly that would mean going into civilization again, and get an engineer or fixer to look at it. He pulled up his knees and embraced them, becoming a part of the rock, to get some sleep. Maybe an hour, lucky if he could get two. The helmet's visor came down, surrounding him in darkness and howls.

“She won't last long.” The short opifex said with a smirk in his tone of voice, walking next to Adriaan. They were armored up fully in Recruit-Issue Omni-Tek Armed Forces Desert Scout. A sick orange-brown combination. Thinking it would camouflage them was a ridiculous idea, but it was always style-over-matter with Omni-Tek. Adriaan glanced over his shoulder, watching the woman a few rows back, huffing and shuffling her feet, but still somehow keeping up. Sheer force of will. He turned his head to the short opifex next to him, then looked ahead. There was no need to comment. He was probably right.

Beep … Beep.
Adriaan raised his head, his visor moved up. He was buried in sand. Only one shoulder and half his head was above them. The storm had dwindled down, but it still wasn't something that would be comfortable to walk in. He shifted and moved, sand rolled down the dune until he could stand and look around. The suns glared, it was hot on his cooled body and armor. His interface wanted his attention, beeping soft beeps. “Distance updated! 995 miles from beacon.” Adriaan made the signal to confirm the update and turned his head south. Almost 1000 miles. That was pretty far. Far from everything. Far enough though? He took a breath and took a hold of his helmet. It hissed as it loosened and he pulled it off. His long, black hair was tied down, and his brow was sweaty. He let out a long exhale before he drew in air again, and coughed, scrabbling to get the helmet back on. The air wasn't clean. He breathed quickly and deeply once his helmet was on, the interface beeped warnings, but the percentage meter of contaminated air quickly lowered, and he was fine.

“No... Please...” Adriaan lay awake, listening. “Shut up, bitch.” The words were whispered, the next tent over. The woman, and the soldier leading them. “Please, not again... I need rest...” Sounds of struggle, but not desperate. Panting, moaning and grunting. It was over quickly. Shuffling of clothes and the tent cloth being pulled aside. Then silent sniffling, crying. Adriaan took a breath, frowning. “Man... You awake, DeeGee?” A whisper next to him. Adriaan lay still, not in the mood to talk. Shuffling next to him, tent flap moving. He closed his eyes, and listened. “What..? No... Please... Not you too...” Slapping, crying, a struggle a bit more desperate, then the pants and moans of submission. Tent flaps opening, shuffling next to him. “DeeGee? You should get a piece of that...” Adriaan frowned harder but didn't stir, just focused on trying to sleep.

Going north still, seeking that moment when turning back was alright. The exo-skeleton armor was still functioning fine. The compass was properly calibrated. Walking to the top of a desert dune, Adriaan dropped down on his stomach and peered over, zooming with his interface. A group of animals. Arachnid in type. Running in flock. Perfect unison, like birds. Not quite scorpiods. Something new. He took pictures, video, watching them. Scorpiods interbred with aliens? Or some new sick experimentation from the ethology and genetics departments? Adriaan crawled up over the top of the dune and sat down, pulled his pistols out from the leg compartments and slid down as silently as he could. The flock had noticed him, they circled away, but didn't flee. They were curious, he could tell.

She was walking in front of him, low on energy, tired. He knew she hadn't had much sleep, judging from the noises she had made. It wasn't his business though. She would have to fend for herself. Dog-eat-dog. “Move faster.” The whisper escaped him. He saw her startle and picked up her pace, holding the rifle to her chest. It wasn't long before he heard her labored breathing. “Don't stop.” He whispered, and she straightened herself, panting until he could hear the tears choking her breath. “To get rest, you got to earn it. Move!” He hissed, stomping his feet behind her. She was scared of him now, and she kept running. An hour passed before their leader called for a halt. She fell over by the nearest tree, struggling with her helmet and got it off just in time to vomit. Adriaan walked by her, like nothing had happened and found himself a spot to sit and rest. The leader was glaring at her. He had no reason to yell at her. No good reason. “Keep that breakfast in, soldier! Still hours till lunch!”

They were circling him, one every now and then taking a jab at him, but he stepped aside perfectly each time. Encouraging the beasts. His arms straight along his body, pistols pointed down. They chittered and whirled up sand, but it didn't bother him. He turned north, and started to walk, jumping aside at each jab as they followed him. This kind of company he could handle. Company with clear intentions. Death, feeding, shared curiosity. Not scheming, backstabbing, falseness. Half an hour, maybe less passed. They were getting more agitated. Perhaps he was near a nest, or getting closer. He tried to look around while constantly moving off their attacks. “Alright. Let me turn back.” He whispered and turned, making his intentions clear by stomping his feet in the other direction, faster than before. They still followed him. For days.

They shared only a gaze before they moved again. She made sure to be right in front of him, letting him push her forward, it made her able to cope, even when her body shook and relieved itself at each stop. That night, she still had visitors, but she was too tired to make a sound. He couldn't hear her complain, or breathe or cry, while the men took their turns. The tent flap moved, and shuffling behind him. “...It's like screwing a corpse... Kind of sick... You awake, DeeGee?” He felt a hand on his arm and shut his eyes, leveled his breathing. “Geez... How do you do it..” The mumble came beside him. The next morning, she was ready, waiting on him, giving him a nod before she pulled on her helmet. Pure white hair, short. Solitus. Big, light-blue eyes. She was thin, but not as thin as the day they started. She had tone now, stronger, faster, harder, better. They ran together, he urged her on, and she managed. Shaking, vomiting, sweat and tears became commonplace.

For every hour he walked, they circled further away, meter by meter. Jabbing, poking, stabbing and biting. Adriaan hadn't stopped walking since he'd found them, and it had been five days now. His pace was slow as he was conserving stamina, just to keep himself awake and moving. He didn't know whether or not they would attack him if he tried to find shelter and sleep, and in some way he was enjoying their company. New and exciting. The pistols were holstered, he did that the first day, just to keep his hands clear, for when he might fall over from one of them tripping him, but they hadn't yet. Still hundred of miles from Sabulum. At this rate, it would take much longer getting back, unless they fell back. He deducted that the area that they roamed around their nests went for miles. Most likely, there would be thousands of them, keeping the perimeter clear of intruders. In such great numbers, they would be a deadly force. Adriaan frowned. "I have to lose them before I reach civilization, any sign of it at all, or they might move their territory too close..." Omni-Tek would hunt them down for research and weaponize them. Others would kill them for fun, sport and experience. Alien scorpiods would return in numbers, and possibly destroy everything, starting with Sabulum, Hope, Newland perhaps. Adriaan took a deep breath and tried to focus on empathy, repeating the danger in his mind and body, asking them to go back. For their own sake.

Line-up. Early morning. There was something wrong. The Unit Commanders were searching the camp while the Unit Members and Leaders were standing in ranks out in the thick rain in just their underwear. Thirty minutes had gone. It took an additional fourty-five minutes before the Commanders came back and stood before them. Their Squad Commander spoke up, arms behind his back. "We had a person missing this morning, a Unit Leader. We suspected he had left, ran away, defected." He paused, squinting in the rain while he looked at the reactions of his Members and Leaders. "Instead, we've found him dead. Murdered." He added, louder than before. "Before any of you suggest there's been an assassination by any clansmen, we have evidence that this was one of you." He pointed at them all in a wide gesture. "Until the person responsible speaks up, you are all under arrest, and will be brought to Omni-Pol Headquarters for interrogation. There will be torture if necessary." He nodded to his Unit Commanders, who all had their weapons out and were armored up. They gathered around the Unit Members and Unit Leaders, and commanded them to march. "Like this? In our underwear, all the way to Omni-Pol?!" Someone piped up. A couple of Unit Commanders hurried into the mass of half-naked soldiers, and instantly beat the man down with the butts of their rifles. Adriaan glances sideways discreetly, looking over at Sam, the woman he had helped in the last few weeks. She looked straight ahead, confident and strong. Adriaan turned his gaze straight again, a slight frown on his face.

They left him baking in the sun. They wouldn't just step away. They all swarmed him. At first keeping their distance, but as he tried to reach them with empathy, they launched. Razor teeth, needle claws, cheetah speed. Adriaan had crawled for hours, leaving a red path of blood. They had followed him for a while, stabbing at him when he tried to get up, eventually he just stayed as low as he could while moving forward. Maybe they got bored, or saw him as less of a threat. They left in a cloud of sand. The storm blew up again, pieces of his armor was ripped up, the sand got into his wounds. He took shelter behind another rock, and gestured for his nanobots, with the hand that wasn't shaking as much, for healing.
Dusk turned to dawn, dawn turned to day, his left arm had healed up well enough. His right knee wasn't dislocated. He could walk again after using strips of his cloth armor to patch up the holes in his exo-skeleton armor. He walked in tune to the beat of his beacon, slowly increasing its pace, and he tried to keep up without falling over, while keeping his one-whole eye shut, keeping a hand over the other bloodied one, urging nanobots to do their work to it, but they had to clean out a lump of sand first.

The interrogator just stood there, looking at him, leaning her back against the wall, arms folded. Adriaan was cuffed at the wrists behind his back, sitting in the chair, still in his night-clothes. He hadn't said anything, and she hadn't asked. It had been hours. She'd sit down sometimes, watching him, or pacing the small room. No mirrors on the walls. Just mortar walls, a door, two chairs, and the two of them. Adriaan alternated between leaning back and a bit forward. Even closed his eyes to rest them, fell asleep, woke back up and saw her there still, in her uniform, awake. Maybe a day had passed when there was a knock on the door. She stood up tiredly from the chair and stepped outside, locking it after her.
Five thousand, three hundred and forty two seconds later, roughly, the door opened and she stepped through. She didn't say a word. Stepped behind him, unlocked his cuffs, and left the room. Door was open. A couple of guards, armed, stood outside. Adriaan looked them over. They looked well trained. "Follow us." One of them said, the man of the two. Adriaan nodded and shuffled after them. His body ached after just sitting still. Arms felt like they weren't a part of him. They stepped outside. It was night-time. They led him across the yard to the barracks before they turned back to him. "We got the perpetrator. You're now a Unit Leader. Congratulations. Report to the Squad Commander at oh-six-hundred. Which is fifteen minutes from now." He could hear the smirk. "I recommend a shower. Make it short."

Adriaan kept an eye over his shoulder. He couldn't see them. They weren't stalking him. It was safe for him to keep moving. He passed the 50 miles marker on his tracker, and his commlink began to blink and buzz, within range again. He sighed and just ignored it for now. It didn't buzz for long. Just automatic messages, most likely. He was still dragging his leg as he punched in his code to his apartment in Sabulum and stepped inside. Stripped off his clothes and didn't remember falling into his bed to sleep.
Four days later, his nanobots had done a decent job. He could move without too much ache, and had some fancy new scars he could name and date. He was breaking his fast when his helmet buzzed in the corner. He frowned and pulled his commlink to the table and inspected the messages while chewing on some leet-jerky.

[Omni-Reform]: "Dear Mr/Ms Adriaan Blackwind, employee ID Demongun. Our records show you have spent a prolonged period of time outside the regular corporate systems.
Please report to your local Reform office for re-introduction and assessment.
-Remember, Omni-Tek is your friend! Have a good day!"

[Scrambled ID]: "Hey man. I got out. Haven't seen your commlink on in ages. You dead? Get back to me, frequency code IA-@V@, I'll listen in."

[Wavebreak]: "Black? Bloody hell, your signal is on! Where have you been, it's been years, man!"