Scrappers Part III

Relief

We split from the hangar bay. I made a quick stop to the storage closet, snagging a small towel before entering the cockpit. Wiping my face of the blood and sweat, I sat down in the driver's seat and flicked the machine on. I felt a wave of relief removing that grunge from my skin. Harvester baby fluid – disgusting.

The cruiser roared to life as I gripped the steering wheel with my gloves. Now we could go home. I pressed the acceleration pedal while turning the wheel, moving the large vehicle around. The dashboard directly below the windshield lit up with a locally saved map. It was the familiar system that the goggles used that got us to the crash site.

The system said it was about halfway through the night. Thankfully for us, the dark offered some shielding from the Harvesters' spacecraft. Sure, they had night vision like we did, but every little bit helped when it came to survival.

Ruggy came into the cockpit and sat down in the shotgun seat. He pulled out a small box from his pant pocket and flicked it open, revealing small white sticks.

"Are those?" I asked, glancing at him.

"Yeah, smokes. Want one?"

"Give me one," I said, extending my hand.

Ruggy put one in my palm as he flicked a lighter. He lit my smoke and his. I took a puff of the cigarette and let out a small cough. It had been a while. The taste of nicotine soothed my nerves. I needed that and a good bottle of whiskey to shrug today off.

"Where'd you get these?" I asked while puffing on the smoke.

"I know some folks at the base," Ruggy said, putting his feet up on the dashboard.

"Tobacco is hard to come by," I said, eyes on the road.

"I know, trust me. You did well today, kid. You earned it."

"Thanks," I brushed my hair aside, exposing my ear. "That wasn't easy."

"I know," Ruggy said. "That's why I said you did well."

"What do you think the operator will have to say about this?"

"Not much. They never do. Operators just run it up the pipeline, and it will be delegated to the right department. That's how these things work."

"Truthfully, I am a little pissed that they had us go all the way out here."

"Get over it. It will happen again. We're replaceable."

I tightened my one hand on the steering wheel. Ruggy's bluntness annoyed me. He didn't seem to mind that we were just numbers when it came to the higherups. We had more value than that. I know we did. If it weren't for us, humanity wouldn't have any raw materials to work with.