Black yield

Mohave desert

I parked my van at an esso in the middle of the Mohave desert after a nameless war broke out. The area i was in was considered a refugee camp for soldiers of the war. I pushed open the gas station door and got blasted with a gust of cold air. It was silent. There was a teenager working at the front and what looked to be a single mother with her baby getting a polar pop. I scurried to the young working and rested my arms on the checkout.
"Sir, can i help you?" He muttered.

"Uh, yes, i was actually wondering if you guys sold transmitters, like the mapping ones."

"Mhm, check in with phil. He works the autoshop nextdoor, " he replied

"Thanks,"

I turned back around and stepped to the  autoshops door. I pushed it open and saw a man working at a table.

"Exuse me, weres Phil?"

The man turned to me with a warm smile.

"Right here, how could i help you today, pal?"

"I was wondering if you guys happen to sell transmitters, the mapping ones with the attena?"

"Maybe, let me have a look."

He began to shuffle through his shelf until he picked up a black box.

"It's a little used. My wife bought it for me on my birthday, I used it for the past 2 months before I was able to buy the vIII model."

"Thanks man, how much for it?"

"It's really cluttering my space, and I been needing to give it to E waste for a while. Take it for free.

I nodded and firmly gripped the transmitter and picked it up from his hands. It was time to hit the road.
You see, transmitters are used to locate areas. It's like a mapping system that displays on a small MATRIX dotted screen. I unscrewed my old broken transmitter from the side of my van and screwed on my new one. I whipped open the trunk and flew it into the back. I clapped my hands to fling away the dust. I had a simple goal, after the fighting passed the US, an exotic substance commonly known as the black yield started to leak from the war machines. For a bag worth of dabloons, I was sent off to the aftermath to pick up samples of the dangerous rare substance. I don't know why they wanted it, but game is game.

I fetched for the hard plastic wire and ran it from the transmitter to the MATRIX display. MATRIX displays were always better than CRT displays when it comes to driving. When you had a CRT, it worked, but the screen gets waves when you go past 30 or hit a speed bump. Also, dotted MATRIX displays sold for A LOT cheaper.
I finally plugged in the transmitter, I was ready to go off into the distance. The dashboard flickered into life. I released from the pedal, and the vehicle started to move. I did a U turn and drove to the gas station exit. The destination was 50 kilometers away, I've traveled further in this van. The barren landscape was slowly becoming more distorted and wretched. I passed a wooden sign that said something about a memorial park. When I passed the sign, I noticed huge plateaus with cruise ship sized drones rotting away. The scene was gorgeous, but I was looking for the average battle machine, the spider things. Further into the park was a car, and a refugee truck crashed and flipped in a ditch. Its orange warning light was still blinking. In the time I had to look at the devastating scene before I drove away, I noticed it was empty other than the rotting dry body of the diver. It was disgusting. I stopped my car in a flash. There was a Indian man standing beside a large wooden barrier. He came to my window and started to yell at me. His muttering voice was indecipherable.
He turned around and looked back at the window of my van. It seemed like he wanted me to roll down my window. I slowly grabbed my handgun in my right hand and began to roll down the window.

"150 dollar to pass," he said in a thick Indian accent.

"Sorry man, i dont have that type of money.

"Then no pass. He replied.

I turned my head back at the window and gripped the wheel.
Fuck it.
I hit the gas, and the vehicle charged at the wood barrier. It shattered to pieces, and I was free to keep moving. My back window shattered. The man was firing rounds at my van. Bullets thwipped past and ricochet off my back window. When I got far enough, I pulled to the side of the barren empty road. I got my black tape and patched the window up before I hit the road again. I climbed back into the drivers seat and turned the key just to be greeted with a tremendous message on the dashboard. A sand storm. So the transmitter doesn't get
Damage. I stood and stretched and unscrewed the box. I unplugged the wire. I tossed it in the trunk and started the engine. I knew the trip was going to be a day or two, so I folded down the backseat and put my inflatable mattress and other sleep essentials on the folded seat.

The sun was gone.

My eyes shut

Goodnight

Dreaming

Wake up

I woke up and rubbed my eyes. I fetched for my glasses and put them on. Sand dunes were taller. I couldn't see far due to the sand particles in the air. Sand was piled up to my tires. The storm was gone but left a narly aftermath. The road was barely visible. In the dust apeared two large drones with spider legs. They treaded past my van. They drifted in a organized path south. Where were they going? The couple past into the haze and I started up my van again. Because a light layer of sand covered the highway I had to resort to my transmitter. I grabbed a mask and the transmitter and attached it to the side as per usual. I hooked the wire to the dashboard. The MATRIX screen flickered into life. Carefully, I followed were it showed me to go. I turned the car right on an intersection. two of the lonely traffic lights were ripped up and collapsed on themselves. On the side of the road the sandy landscape converted into a parking lot with shattered spider drones. Their metal legs were crumpled in like a dead spider. Giant caliber rounds were plastered on there steel shells. Now it was time. I pushed open my door and walked up to my trunk and grabbed my bag and my case. I shut the trunk. I approached the nearest drone. This quote on qoute black yield was a chrome material dripping from one of the snapped tunes. When it dripped in turned into a cubic shapes. I opened my yellow bag to pull on latex gloves and my chisel. I Carefully crouched down to examine it more. It reflected the sun's gleam well. I poked my chisel on the chromatic matter and slowly chiseled it. The black yield fell of and I quickly grabbed it. Just this rare sample was worth thousands. There was only one more drone that had a leaking tube. One of its legs were missing, revealing a greasy goop called neuralgrease. I eventually found the tube and chiseled the sample off. I set down my briefcase and pulled out two sample tubes. Carefully, I placed both samples in there tubes and shit the briefcase. It was finally time to go home.

After countless of hours of driving, I turned on the radio. The only thing that played was the news. Yes I'm a middle aged man, but that doesn't mean I like watching the news, but this article caught my attention. It described a young boy sneaking into one of those CERN facilities and destroying a watchdog. Then it turned to static.

Back in civilization.

The ESSO I was at apparently collapsed. The wreckage was menacing. It looked like a larger drone toppled it over. Outside was phil. He walked up to my car in tears.
"Need a ride?" I said

"Yeah, one of those fucking spider things took out the station."

"Ok, you can sit in the back, just move the boxes to the other seat."

"Thank you!" He said in a teary-eyed voice.

He wobbled into the back and finally figured out how to open the door. He plumped down in the seat.

"Was it two drones?"

"How do you know?!"

"When i was out there i saw two monolithic sized drones crawling south"

We were silent for the rest of the ride. Everything was smooth until something emerged from the dust. Thumping noises caused mini earthquakes. We were at gunpoint by something. Its huge metal barrels sides started to glow blue

"JUMP OUT THE FUCKING CAR!"