Mech

Chapter 1: Apocalypse Please

WARNING!!! This story contains some scenes of violence as well as foul language and other things that may not be appreciated by some audiences throughout the chapters. They become progressively more evident. Read at your own risk!
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Mech, pronounced like the beginning of the word Mechanical, means exactly what you would think. Its short for Mechanic, a description of the city humankind is trapped inside, but its meaning is so much deeper. It symbolizes the hell we're all stuck in, the pain and suffering we go through every day, the struggle to survive in this cage of twisted wires and steel death. I guess in order to explain everything properly, I should start from the beginning.

Professor Alexander Petrocoff, a genius and an inventor, had a "vision". His vision was of a great city, a mechanical, metal city that would shield humankind from the evil of the world. Sickness, earthquakes, volcanic erruptions, wild animals carrying disease, any and all things that could harm a human being would cease to exist inside the 100 story walls. Kind of unbelievable, right? The city would be self sustaining, solar panels and nuclear generators combined with steam power would keep the city running for an eternity. Petrocoff teamed up with a few scientists that figured out how to mix water with this strange powder in a special machine to create these grainy food bars, packed with all the necessary proteins and nutrients needed for the average human to survive, taking away the need for farms and organic matter that could spread disease or other potential threats. Mad men, all of them, but smart as all hell. The 'evapo-bars' were a big hit. Factories sprung up everywhere. The process of making them was improved upon so much that the machines themselves could be mass-produced. Don't ask me how its possible, I'm no scientist, I'm just some kid telling my story. Soon, Petrocoff created robots -well, I say robots- that could run the factories, cutting out the danger of humans injuring themselves while working the more dangerous machines. All we would have to do is to run cash registers and fix any robots that got a tad bit off. These robots, known as Cycoffs, named after the inventor himself, were androids. They were actually part living. I'm serious. Petrocoff took stray dogs and cut their organs out, fusing them with metal parts and creating these obedient bots that would do everything you asked. He used the heart, brain, and muscles, pumped them full of some weird liquid simulating blood, and there they were. They moved just like humans but faster, and they worked a lot better than any robot ever could. Soon he figured out he could take freshly-deceased human parts to make his Cycoffs even better. He was a sick son of a bitch, but it worked. No one even knew that was how he made them until after everything went to hell. It became a common fear that when you died you'd be made into one of his slave-bots.

That mad scientist didn't know what he had done. He formed a group of followers and attracted the attention of several government officials whom pitched into his cause, supplying him with materials, funds, everything to make Utopia real. Their only rule was that they were in charge when he finished it. He delightfully agreed. The city took years to complete. Petrocoff was presumed dead, he wasn't present at the unveiling and no one had seen or heard of him for a long time. Some rumors say he turned himself into one of his Cycoffs, some believe he died during the construction, others say he was secretly a god all along and, once finishing his business on earth, returned to heaven..or hell. I believe the second theory.

All that non-stop working for all that time lead to ridiculous propaganda.

"Greatest city in the world under construction!"

"The human race will be protected from everything!"

"No war, no danger, ultimate peace! Unveiling of the infamous Utopia soon!"

People lined the streets in front of the towering walls, cheering and anticipating the greatest technological feat of all time. Workers lived behind those walls, no one could say a thing. They all became soldiers when the walls were finally lowered and the people were let in, they became the Utopian Guard. They were forced to do whatever the government told them under sworn oath and at risk of their lives. Special Cycoff bots were developed and produced by the thousands to protect the wall and the people. They were weapons, but were considered soldiers. No one knew what would happen, but once it did it seemed so predictable. We were stupid, blind to what we didn't want to see because we wanted to see something great so bad.

The walls, stretching higher than the clouds, lowered at last. A section of the half-mile thick all steel wall slowly came down in on itself in layers, like a series of gates, as it was designed to, and the people were allowed to cross. The whole world came inside, at least that's how it appeared. The people were lead inside and they were looking around all awestruck and amazed, until they began to question what they were really getting into. No grass, no trees, no flowers, no organic matter of any kind besides people were allowed inside the walls, unlike it had been advertised. Air was pumped in through vents and pipes all over the circular city, miles and miles made up of steel, concrete, glass, and metals of every kind. Hard to believe, I know, but its all too real. The massive city, more like an empire, actually, consisted of three levels. The outside level was mostly pipes and residential areas. The second level, about eight stories down, lead to the factories and businesses. Then, the third level, even deeper than the last and heavily guarded, lead to the core. No one's ever been there, its surrounded by machines and flooded with Cycoffs and various areas with deadly gasses and other uninhabitable dangers. The core is a gigantic nuclear reactor, or that's what it is as far as we know, that powers the entire city. This was also the "rich district", like it mattered anymore. There wasn't any system of currency, that fell apart a long time ago. Miles underneath the city there were private bunkers that the government officials took refuge in. If anyone had money it was them, even though it no longer mattered. We didn't learn about these bunkers until far into our future. These officials were present when the walls lowered, but they quickly disappeared.

That's when it started.

A surge of energy from the core blasted across the empire. The Cycoffs gliched out, and all the machines, too. Repair arm machines, transportation bots, everything started acting strange. Then the walls rose. Streching thousands of feet back up into the sky, humankind became trapped inside Utopia and it was obvious that it wasn't good. Before anyone could react, the Cycoffs attacked. The plain white masks that made up their faces broke in half revealing teeth-like shredders, creating a monster-like mouth. They were fast, deadly, and unexpected. Hundreds, thousands, God knows how many people died as the bloodbath began.

That was just the beginning, the beginning of our Mechanical Apocalypse.

Its been 11 years since, I was only 5 when it happened. My mother, along with many other refugees, fled from the scene and hid from the rampaging robots. My parents died when I was 7. I was forced to grow up fast, along with my friends. The Cycoffs retreated to the second and third levels of the city, dragging the bodies with them. We only ever see two or three up here on the first level a day. They're all over the top of the walls, though, guarding it, keeping us in. We've tried to climb the wall, thats how we found that out. The wall's too huge and too dangerous to climb, so we have no choice but to stay and do our best to survive. We're known as the Rebellion, but we're honestly just a group of people trying to scrape by. Our goal is to find a way out of this evil place and restore the human race. We aren't rebelling, we're staying alive and, slowly but surely, finding a way out.

That's all we can do. Survive, search, and pray we see the sunrise the next morning. That brings you up to speed I guess. My name is Micah Hapsbury, I'm a Mech Rebel, and now, my story begins...

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ayyyyyye here we go! Mech chapter one! Gah I've been thinking about writing this for forever, I just never did. I'm so pumped! Its gonna be great, let me tell you. I have a lot in store, so stick around for more chapters!