Living on Borealis-9: The Story Of A Reincarnated Human

Chapter 5, Part 4: Rest

Luckily, the hole in my head had been patched up. And Luna was seemingly safe, as she was inside the clock tower's alley. Holding something...Uh oh.

"Rise and shine, Matt. I got you a present and debt." Luna said, throwing me the object

"Those are two antonyms." I replied, catching a bucket-sized metal thing. It was the severed head of a Robot, with a metal grate resting over the 'eyes' of it, being two camera lenses with googly eyes on top of them. The 'bucket' comparison was actually fitting, as the main head seemed to be constructed from some kind of blown-out cylindrical tube. Maybe a former mortar shell? I don't know. Wires and oil emerged from the 'neck' of the head, alongside twisted and broken metal.

"Yep. But they're also what you owe me. It was a pain in my ass to catch this guy, and even greater one to disable all of the raiders."

Luna pointed to my right, towards a door. There seemed to be several people looking on in fear towards us, specifically Luna. As well as a large collection of groaning raiders, who seemed to have their hamstrings.

"Jesus, Luna! I asked you to not kill them, not cripple them for life!"

Luna shrugged idly. "They'll live. And now they won't be able to hurt anyone else. That's what matters, right?"

I mean...She had a point, but I still didn't like the idea of permanently disabling them. That's like nuking London because there are a bunch of muggers and crooks in the streets. Overkill, that's what I meant. It's kinda overkill.

"You're a little...crazy, aren't you?" I said as I threw the severed robot head to the side. "At least tell me that the sniper has calmed down..."

"Why don't you ask them yourself?" Luna said, pointing to the robot head. Jesus...

"Alright, what all is left? Or did you just kill everyone and come back?" I asked as I rubbed half of my face.

"I managed to take back this part of town, but all of the raiders are making barricades and firing on sight at anything that moves. We're not going to be able to get any further without some kind of overwhelming force of our own...Or without picking them off a little."

"Too bad we don't have any methods of doing so." I said.

"Yeah. I accidentally broke the rifle when this Defect here slammed me over the head with it." Luna said with enough venom to kill five men. "Alas, poor creature. It will never fire another shot again..."

"It's getting kind of late, isn't it?" I asked, trying to divert the subject matter towards something more comfortable. "Maybe we should bunker down here, then strike at night when the raiders are asleep?"

Luna nodded in agreement. "That's a good plan. We can use the clock tower as our base, and keep an eye on the raiders from up high."

I hadn't realised just how tired-looking she was. Her eyelids were half-closed, and the bottoms of her eyes sagged with exhaustion. Luna...actually didn't seem all too hot at that moment. Maybe she needed to get some sleep.

"I can take the first watch, you get some sleep." I suggested.

"That sounds nice. Don't pass...out...on..." She said, her muscles relaxing. And then, Luna collapsed on the landing, just barely making it past the halfway point. Great...I had to carry her up three flights of ladders...I sighed, then carefully lifted Luna up, making sure not to wake her. As I made my way up the ladders, I couldn't help but think about how we ended up in this mess. I was stupid for not waiting for us to make a battle plan...Stupid. But I don't need battle plans. I could do just fine alone. I shouldn't have dragged Luna into this mess, is what it is. But she would be fine as well, I'll make sure of it.

When I finally reached the top of the clock tower, my legs aching from no-arm ladder climbing, I settled Luna down on a makeshift bed made out of old blankets and pillows. I guess the sniper used it for himself. Things were rather dishevelled inside, with piles of bullets spilled out on one side of the room, the gears above slowly turning and tick-tocking away. The giant stained-glass clock, which opened up and led out onto a wrought-metal balcony, which allowed me a good look at the town. I could see very clearly that the robot had been up here for a long time, as there were scratches into the stone, as well as empty oil cans, spent bullet casings, and several footsteps in the floor from pacing.

Man...This town was a mess. Buildings were crumbling, fires were burning, horns blew in the distance. I could see, along the higher parts built near the cliffs, on some weird semi-mountains, the raiders were getting ready to defend their position. I was, for once, glad I had night vision. Have you ever tried sleeping with everything green and bright as day? It's not easy. Now make that every time you try to get to sleep. And you can't turn it off either. Eish. But now? I can see what they're doing, and get a little bit of a game plan. It looked like we would have to run through a sort of battlement, which crossed over to an island that was covered in houses. There would be a major choke point at another battlement that crossed over to the higher cliffs, with the lower points being dotted by burning, colourful looking cloth. What, was the circus in town, and they got raided also? No, it seemed more like a former market. And up above that, the cliffs were pretty bare, save for a crane, as well as...what I guessed was a keep of sorts, for when things got kinda hectic. If that was taken, then I guess there was no chance at there being any major survivors.

Still though...It couldn't be too bad. If the raiders were all busy getting ready to fend us off at the keep, then they're not going to come after us. Especially if they have orders to 'shoot on sight'. So, I went out into the former stairwell, pulled up the ladders to prevent anyone from climbing up to us, and then settled down myself to try and get some sleep...

I was awakened in the night, however. I felt a warm weight on me.

"Ugh...Luna, it's too damn early...Give me another few hours to sleep..." I said. But the weight just got heavier on me. I opened my eyes, surveying the area around me, but all I saw was black...because there was someone on top of me.

Someone, who was drinking blood from my neck.