The Things I've Seen

A Short Sense Of Hope

As Martyn's life dwindled, Osbourne's chance of survival began to rose. A small squadron of survivors had been searching the rubble for the past few hours. By the time Osbourne could hear the squadron, many hours had passed and he had already realized that Martyn was dead. His lifeless body lay on the hardened ground, his blood had began to solidify and was no longer a sticky liquid which was textured like syrup.

Osbourne heard them talking and digging.
"The marketplace must be around here somewhere, that's where the money really is" Osbourne heard a rather high pitched voice say,
"Jackal, not everything is about money, only fools chase the small amounts of value left in this world" a different voice replied, this one was more gruff and husky than the other.
"Well, yes it is. We are scavengers. S-C-A-V-A-N-J-E-R-S" the high-pitched voice objected
"My point exactly" the husky voice said disappointedly.

Osbourne could hear the rocks moving above him, the dust fell into his hair.
"Hey, Captain! The scanner detects a heartbeat over here!" another voice yelled, this one more nasally than the previous two.
"Ready your weapons!" Said a different, more commanding voice. Osbourne was having difficulties keeping up with the amount of different muffled voices bombarding his ears.

A man groaned and roared as the rock above Osbourne was lifted. Lights shined onto Osbourne's face and the cocking of rifles echoed. There was a soft rumble of machinery in the background.
"Is that a...Is that a kid?" The husky voice yelled in surprise. Osbourne was yet to see the faces which these voices belonged to, the flashlights they were pointing at him had rendered most of his vision redundant. A short static noise could be heard, most likely from a handheld radio.
"Rover 473, this is: Captain Rudy Starret, we are 300 meters away from you and we have identified a small child who is alive and an adult who is deceased, over" the commanding voice stated, the voice owned a Scottish accent which made some of the words hard to make out. Although frozen in fear, Osbourne analysed every sentence spoken.
"This is Rover 473. Captain Starret, you must proceed to obtain the child and return him to the rover A.S.A.P, over" an American voice commanded over the radio.
"Roger that Rover 473, obtaining the child now, Captain Rudy Starret over and out" a short static could be heard again as Rudy deactivated his radio.
"Jackal, Frasier, get down the hole and get that kid out of the other guys blood" Rudy commanded.
"He must've been the commanding voice I heard" Osbourne said in his head.

A large hand grabbed Osbourne and dragged him out of the hole created by the collapse. The hand was not human sized and as Osbourne's eyes became used to the change in light, he saw a grey skinned man with an underbite and teeth protruding from his upper lip. The man was holding him high above the ground, the man himself was at least 7 foot tall. Osbourne screamed a scream which was powered by an amount of fear that had never been mustered up inside of Osbourne before.

The high-pitched and slurpy voice of Jackal let out a loud obnoxious laugh.
"Put him down, Frasier. You're scaring the poor kid!" Yelled Jackal, Osbourne glanced over towards Jackal's direction. His back was hunched and half-a-meter long porcupine spines protected from his vertebrae and through the ragged cloth which had been made into a makeshift shirt. His face was elongated and his teeth were sharp and more spine pushed out of his scalp, they were held back by a bandanna which had a metal plate stitched into it. His hands were like shovels and he hand thin pencil fingers with claws replacing his nails.

Frasier dropped Osbourne and he hit the ground with a thud and curled up. They all had cloth and old spec-ops gear on them. Rudy approached Osbourne, he placed his hand on his shoulder.
"It's alright, son. We won't hurt you." He calmly and softly whispered. He attached his flashlight to his breast pocket and picked up Osbourne, he carried him with one arm by throwing him over his shoulder.
"Come on! lets get going!" Rudy screamed, his voice echoing.

Osbourne had only saw Rudy's face for a split second; he had a five o'clock shadow which was developing more into a beard. A metallic eyepatch covered his left eye, it was kept on his face by a metal brace which was bolted into his skull. His long brown hair complimented his one emerald eye. His face was dominated by scars from knives, shrapnel and even bullet wounds.

About half an hour passed before the soft rumbling became an deafening roar. Osbourne peeked around from Rudy's shoulder and saw a humongous drill bit. It was 40 metres long and 10 meters high. Two small windows peered over either side of the large drill, they were connected to long, yellow body which was then attached to tank treads. Four high beam lights sat upon the roof of the vessel near the front.

"Rover 473, this is Captain Rudy Starret, we're approaching you now" radioed in Rudy. A few moments later the torso of a figure appeared at the window on the right-hand side of the drill.
"Roger that Captain Starret, unlocking crew hatch 4, proceed to enter" the American voice commanded once again. The man who was the owner of the husky voice was named: Ilklin, he was a tall and broad man. He was clean shaven with a scar on his upper brow, the sweat was slowly dripping from it due to the long walk. The nasally voice belonged to another man who went by the name of Methodius (Or Method, for short). He had a screen bolted over his mouth, it ready the waves of frequency of his speech. It was connected to a wire which ran down the front of his neck and ended in a metal collar which was placed over his vocal cords.

The five men and Osbourne reached the side of the vessel, giant block capital letters were written on the side of it in black. They read 'Rover-473'. There was a large hatch, which was near the size of Frasier, under those letters. Rudy placed a touchpad which was on his right arm onto a scanner which was located to the left of the hatch itself. The doors creaked and cranked as they painfully rose up. They all climbed inside and the hatch shut behind them.

"Welcome to our home" Jackal told Osbourne in a sarcastic tone. Osbourne was too scared to reply...