The Future

Chapter 1: All's Well That Ends Well

He woke with a startled shout and the radio. He rolled out of bed to hear Percy's rambling. He always said that with such a deep and solid voice like Percy's, the man could talk to anyone no matter the distance. What made this so funny was that Percy was a disc jockey orbiting the earth, playing his own style of music from a satellite. "And that was I Gotcha by the very great Joe Tex! Also, very... very... late" Percy laughed. "Here's one from Chicago Transit Authority! This one goes out to all you bad mothas, to all you cool cats. This tune's named I'm A Man. I'd like to dedicate this song to a friend of mine, come up and see me sometime, Legend." Percy laughed, and Tobias could almost see him for that moment, smiling broadly, gesturing a peace sign.

An explosion sounded above him. The roof let out its dust, as it always seemed to do in third world countries. Tobias laughed, and wondered just how in the Hell he could sleep through that. He brushed his mangy, black hair from his face while he remained on the floor, and crawled toward his gun. Slowly, but surely, he inched his way toward Harry.

Another explosion, more dust. The familiar roar of jets, the sound of the wind being chopped in half by helicrafts. Tobias thought that time could change any way it wanted, but war would always be war.

The door burst open, two men were fighting over a knife. Tobias grabbed Harry (his gun. He'd installed artificial intelligence in it he'd scavenged from helping the Benevolence, which were the good robots), and used him to trip the two men on to his bed.

The man whom fell first was stabbed, he grit his teeth to try and fight the pain. Tobias shot the man on the top, his back exploded and the shot went into the man on the bottom. They were dead immediately. "Good one" Harry said. Tobias chuckled. "Thanks." He kicked the door the rest of the way apart. He was looking down a long, dark, hot, musty hallway. Explosions everywhere, gunfire, threatening the hall's construction. Tobias smiled. "Just another day." He clipped Harry onto the magnet on his belt, and snapped Harry's leash to his belt loop.

Thermobaric technology had taken over the market, as far as things that explode go. Rockets, grenades of all kinds, and missiles. Incendiary grenades had been perfected, and were Tobias' most favourite in his arsenal. That being said, the oxygen surrounding the door at the end of the hall was sucked up, and exploded. Tobias' ears rang, he'd grown quite used to it over the years.

A guerilla fighter (one of many he was assigned to help), pointed inside. More of the rag-tag team ascended the hill, and into the house. Tobias thought he should say the key word to them, but he fought with his conscience about the probability that several of the armed, conservative rebel groups were attempting to overthrow their government, instead of just one. "Soy tu hermano" Tobias spoke in Spanish, I am your brother.

Either they didn't hear him, or they didn't care, maybe both. Two rebels lined the doorway, and aimed their cheap spray guns at him. The leader, he must've been, ran inside and pointed his grenade launcher toward the end of the hallway. Tobias hung his head and chuckled. "Just another day." He said to himself.

The leader pulled the trigger, and a grenade whizzed its way by Tobias' face, as he quickly crouched. He pulled Harry from his belt and threw him. Harry had a fifty-foot lead, Tobias used it well. Harry hit the leader's face, and the grenade sucked the oxygen from the back wall so quickly, it ruffled Tobias' hair. It exploded, and Harry retracted into Tobias' hand.

Tobias pulled the trigger and the shot spread into the two guerilla's. Other fighters surrounding the house shouted in Spanish and waved their hands toward the decrepit (soon to be razed) house. "Harry, switch to AR" Tobias quickly demanded. As soon as he said that, Harry calibrated his bores from 12 gauge to 7.62x39 millimeter caliber, via polyalloy and liquid metal. He redirected his ammunition feed to match the caliber, and loaded himself.