ACCUPATION 2 Pilgrims of The Post-Apocalypse

Chapter 6: "The Future is Now!"

Anthony stood at the edge of the city looking off at the distance. "I wonder what my wife would do if she saw me now," he said to himself. I watched from afar as he noticed something in the distance, a robot factory, and it was in great condition. Walking into it he beamed with excitement, feeling the rusted pipes and corroded bricks. Calling some builders he had the factory repaired. Painting over the "VL" initials he put his giant " A" in its place. Finally Letting out a smile he exclaimed: "and now it begins..." the gears turned and the pipes whistled as steam came out. Going down below I snuck into the basement where he found 10,000 robots awaiting for a command. This can't be good... He then went to the central command computer and reprogrammed them.

Computer: "Good morning, welcome to Velcore factories, what's today's command?"

Anthony's hands sweated with anticipation: "is there a person in charge?"

Computer: "Deloris is the factory supervisor, she has been absent for 356 years, do you want me to call her over?"

Anthony then ran around the factory looking for Delorises room. There he found the command key around her neck and took it from her. Speaking to her skeleton he said: "I will make sure this never happens to you again..." he then used the command key to reprogram the robots. I wanted to intervene, I just didn't know what he wanted with an army of robots. Nothing made sense. The robots now would listen to his every word. He then spoke his first command: "Build a wall around San Antonio, one of metal, not rusted. Build turrets, as many as you can fit along the top of the walls, they shouldn't need a man to operate them. And build five more robots if one breaks." He left that building with 10,000 robots following from behind. I was starting to see Anthony's full potential. Somehow he was planning this all along.

At the sight of the robots a group of cyclists from the dome, "perhaps messengers" approached Anthony. They told Anthony: "Please take our gifts of clothing, and food, we are from a village in the middle of the city. There is a dome there where we have been living. Now we have been observing you and your people. You are stronger than us, like the armies of the gear wars are your hordes of robots. You are humans, and we are Jettas. You have skin, but we are covered in fur. Is there any chance of an alliance between us?"

Anthony replied: "You see my army and fear me? I'm not somebody to be scared of my friends. Let my armies occupy your city and I will protect it for all time... no taxes taken or gathered, you will no longer dwell in a dome, but you will dwell in the entire city itself! I have come to end the age of silence, this untamed land is soon to submit under my foot. Now my fellow survivors, how many are in your city?"

The cyclist replied: " we are not a city, but we are a village. around 100 people is all we are, and for hundreds of years we have stayed that way. You must not be from Texas, for we have traveled the entirety of Texas and have found only 2 other villages less populated than ours. Where do you come from?"

Anthony replied: " My people come from the land of Deadlight, ruins of Florida. It is a land of eternal darkness. You have seen the old maps haven't you?"

The cyclist answered: "we have seen the maps of old, our ancestors told stories about how your land was a dead one, many lives lost."

Anthony then sent them away with 500 of his robots to help them. The cyclist went back to their city joyfully. "We didn't know at the time, but they were starving, and their houses were in poor condition, covered in black mold." After that I left and went back home. He gained a robot army, and gained the trust of a local settlement... he's trying to get more people to trust him." One minute he's trying to kill his daughter and the next he's a charming leader promoting peace and prosperity? I smell hypocrisy. Exploring the city, I found a local police station. It was an abandoned one, boarded up and sealed in.

It seems this structure was quarantined because of the Rabies virus. So before going in, I put on a protective hazmat suit, not for my safety but the safety of the settlement. Using a crowbar I took the boards off of the door and walked in. The infected had long died off, but the virus itself tends to linger and grow like a fungus on the corpses. it's actually not known how long it takes for it to leave an infected corpse, even skeletons still have the virus eating away at them after all these years. Walking through the police department I found what I was looking for. Spy grade bugs! Grabbing three, I then cleansed them in alcohol, and placed them in Anthony's personal vehicle. My hope was that I would get to hear him write in his diary once again, this time saying what he was planning to do with his robot army.

I now sat down in my house on a collapsed couch. There I listened through the speaker. I thought of putting a camera but it just felt too creepy. As I stood by the radio waiting to hear him talk I fell asleep. Waking up it was the next day, I had missed an entire 9 hours of potential information. But something was different, I could hear loud noises outside like hundreds of hammers and drills being used. Outside I saw the unbelievable. Anthony's robots had almost fully completed a 250  foot wall 500 feet wide. It seemed he had changed his original plans for the wall, as it was made of concrete blocks more than it was made of metal. Red lights blinked on top of each linking section forming a perfect circle around the city, enclosing the city. What looked like giant laser canons lined the wall facing outward towards the wasteland. And the robots weren't stopping there, a giant cube was being built above the city, big enough to cover all of downtown in darkness. 2,000 feet in height, and 2,000 feet in width, made of scrap metal.

I heard of building entire neighborhoods with robots, they would complete it in a couple of hours, an entire wall? In a day? I was in awe of what Anthony had done. Maybe the post apocalypse is really over... maybe this is it, after all these years, will we finally be safe?