The bright light from the sky began seeping through the thin layer of eyelids that covered my eyes. They fluttered as I struggled to open up my eyes as the sight of the light prevented me. Turning to the side with my half-opened eyes, I tried to look around me to check on my surroundings.
At first, it felt like any other rest stops I had taken before during my other journeys, alone under something you could barely call shelter. That's when I realised that something was... off. Something, or someone, was missing. Correction, everything was missing.
With my elbows, I pushed myself up to get a better view, not really sure what to expect. Lo and behold, everything that is not mine is now gone. The bike, the bed, even the heater were nowhere to be seen, leaving a solid round mark of dead grass where it used to be. I found myself sitting on my blanket, still slightly groggy and disorientated from waking up just a second ago. She must have placed this under me, but why would she be away right after?
The fresh tire marks on the grass indicate that she had left early to continue the journey. A logical decision that even I can understand, seeing that all I have done is slow her down.
There were... several thoughts trying to traverse through my mind, to say the least. However, I still had a job to take care of, and the absence of the Speedcycle meant that my time of rest was more limited than it already was. With a slow inhale and an even slower exhale, I push those thoughts away for now, saving them for when I embark.
Without any further distraction, I immediately got up from the blanket. Lowering myself for a bit, I picked up the blanket off the grass and folded it into a compact enough size to fit into my pocket. With that dealt with, the only thing left was my cargo.
With my back against them, I pulled the straps and tabs of the carrying equipment, securing the cargo onto myself. With a grunty exhale, I lifted myself and the heavy shipments with my legs alongside the help of the exoskeleton. Wasting no time at all, I continued my walk in the North East direction to Saviyas.
If I were to eat while on the move, I might be lucky enough to reach there before any disaster struck.
.
.
.
It was an unfamiliar sensation, like a foreign language I had yet to decipher. I had grown accustomed to the solitude of my nomadic existence, a solitary figure drifting through the desolate landscape. I've felt emptiness before, but now, it's completely null. Did I really already get used to not being all by myself already?
The practical part of me reminded me that attachment was a luxury I couldn't afford... a liability in this unforgiving world. Relations of any kind are risky in many ways, considering the dangers I face during my tasks will not only affect me, but affect the ones who knows of me. A lone operator navigating the bleak reality without any attachments would be ideal for all, adding the fact that emotions were a hindrance as well.
Even she was aware of that, attachment with her husband and kids was more than enough, any more was just going to drag her down. It was just ever so irritating that the imprint of her absence kept running through my mind. Was it possible the reason why I easily grown attached was because of my lifelong isolation, when I had expected it to do the opposite?
For that, who could I even blame? Even my parents who birth me, the memories I have of them is the palms of their hands constantly raised to strike me even though I couldn't have known any better. They were my creators, yet they seemed more like shadows... figments of a past that held nothing but pain. I was too young to comprehend fear, let alone their cruelty, and yet the memory of their violence was etched into me.
One day, they were gone without a trace for me to follow while I was still not old enough to even walk. A child who hasn't even 'gained consciousness', abandoned in some way. Whether it was intentional or not, I never had a reason to find out.
As I grew older, I came to an age where I was expected to speak and listen, especially to others. Without any developmental help that was crucial, I was too stupid to even form and understand words. I was falling behind everyone, no one was there to help me. It was like that for a while, until I started learning things on my own, figuring things out by what people were saying. Once I figured out the basics, I started reading and catching up again.
Despite all that, by the time I had taught myself, I had already become a stranger to human connection. It was all already too late. The world seemed to pass me by, my existence reduced to a solitary figure navigating the periphery of society. Perhaps, that's why Clockworks reached out.
Before I could continue my train of thought... there was a smell that was pulling on my attention. Before the hair on my body could even rise, I began sprinting for shelter. The sky darkened, a maelstrom of swirling colours descending upon the landscape.
My legs carried me as fast as they could, every stride a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of The Epoch. I cast a glance over my shoulder, I saw the storm drawing nearer as the grass it rained on shrunk and grew, messing up the growth cycle as it goes.
By the time the first drop of water hit my head, I had already known that I won't be so lucky this time. As my futile escape proceeded, another cold droplet touched my scalp, then 2, then 6, and suddenly it was rapidly raining down on me.
Before I knew it, the storm had completely swallowed everything in its path, one of them being a worthless Nomad Courier.
.
.
.
My eyes shot open to the sensation of a heavy storm raining down on me. Finding myself still lying under the Custocedar Tree, I quickly try to get up just to see the woman in black had also just woken up to the storm.
