Thunderjaw Heart - Horizon Zero Dawn Fanfiction

Freeze

The huntresses were able to get in the building with the help of three guards, who helped them to break the wood piece that was placed behind the doors to block them. Kïma thanked them and told them to wait in the street, in case the people living here tried to come back.

"It's too dirty in here. It's been a while since somebody came here, don't you think ?", Aloy noticed as soon as they entered.

"I agree, but I want to be sure we aren't taking quick decisions. I'm going to look upstairs. Can you look around here ? If someone is here and if they look like they want to fight, call me", Whispered the collector, walking slowly towards the stairs.

Fortunately, they were made with stone and wouldn't make cracking noises. The ground was grey, covered in dust, and the windows, really small, weren't even transparent. There was a layer of dirt all over it, making it impossible to see through.
And that smell! It made it hard to breathe, because of its harshness and dryness.
Aloy tried not to think about it too much and entered the room on her left, under the stairs. It looked like a kitchen but there weren't any furniture so it was hard to tell. Some rotten food was just placed on the ground, attracting many insects.

"What was the use of this house?", She murmured, using her focus to find some clues. There weren't any.
She went to the next room, hoping to find something more interesting.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Meanwhile, Kïma was searching the upper floor and was in a room that could have been a bedroom. There were two beds, without any mattresses on it. But she also noticed some chains placed on the wall, on the side of the bed.

"Someone kept people tied here", She thought. "But they could have screamed and people in the streets would have instantly known something was wrong..."

She looked on a shelf and saw many bottles, under a thick dust layer. She wiped it away and read the etiquette. It was a soporific product.

"But why keeping people here?"

Her focus highlighted tracks in dust that led to a door nearby. Carefully, she pushed it. It opened with a long noise, making her grimacing. It was a room containing a machine that was modified: components have been removed, the armor has been enhanced. It looked like a Sawtooth. Kïma went closer, and walked around it. It wasn't alive, the people here must have just done it for fun. She looked on the other side of the room and noticed an impressive stock of ancient items. Chimes, sculptures, glasses...
With horror, she recognized many of Losa's objects. She stepped over some wires placed in circles around it and crouched, to pick as many of his items as she could.
When she heard a metallic growl behind her, she understood that it was probably a trap and that the enhanced Sawtooth was maybe not that dead.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Aloy found a data point hidden under a broken furniture in the other room. She listened to it, while looking around for more clues. It was a man's voice, sounding desperate:

"I can't remember the last time I went home. But I can't go back now. We have to finish the plan. We have to take them in the desert, near that...that Thunderjaw site, as he said. By the Sun, why next to Thunderjaws? A single one of these machines is already death itself. Imagine three of them? Hmpf... I don't even understand why we're doing this, to be honest. I just want the reward. I...I need this reward... If someone is listening to this, you have to know that I'm so sorry for what we did, but I swear, I'm only doing it to have enough shards to feed my kids... I hope the Sun will understand."

"Who is 'them' and 'he'?", Aloy wondered, saving the monologue in her focus. "And what have they done?"

She was going to listen to it again but a loud noise upstairs stopped her. Worried, she went back in the hall to see Kïma thrown down the stairs, with her spear in her hand. She got up quickly, apparently unharmed.