a Tale Among the Stars

Chapter 5: The Junkyard

The moment his welder touched the cold steel of his machine, sparks flew. He grinned behind the mask then winced as his grin made the mask press against his face.

"Well this is gonna be an interesting day." William muttered as he welded two pieces together, then added them to his machine. It was shaping up nicely, if a bit slowly. Honestly he thought he would be done by now, but he realized that it was quite a bit harder to build something without blueprints. He constantly had to take pieces off of it and place them elsewhere, because they didn't fit or didn't work properly in that area.

"And to top it all off," Willaim muttered, slowly welding another peice onto the machine. "I'm injured." He then pat the peice he had just welded on and the metal clanged to the ground.

"The hell?" William asked, kneeling down to inspect the peice of metal. The edges looked hot, but unwelded. He quickly grabbed his welder and checked the wire supply. It was completely and utterly empty. When he pulled the trigger, the wheels spun to extrude the metal for melting l, but as it was empty, nothing came out.

"Aww fuuuuuuuuu-" he sighed and rubbed the back of his head as he set down the welder. He had searched for days trying to find the right size, and he had just run out.

"Dammit now I have to find more." William grumbled, grabbing his jacket. He winced once again as the medical foam scraped against his wounds again. However he was getting used to it...and it hurt less and less each time. In fact, having the foam there felt somewhat familiar. It reminded him of when he was on Earth.

"Well let's get this over with..." he sighed, rolling his land cruiser out of its hiding niche. He quickly turned it on, waiting for the usual logo glitch before hopping on. He quickly put on speed and peeled out of his home, new cracks etched into the floor. He turned towards the unofficial junkyard and increased his speed.

"Hopefully I can get there before dark..." william mumbled as he approached the gigantic pile of scrap metal.

William stopped his cruiser at the very edge of the junk pile, hiding it under a small awning. He didn't want it stolen, it WAS the junk yard after all. Everything and everything was fair game...including people. So, as he walked deeper into the towering piles of trash and broken machines, he quickly pulled out a large pipe from the pile beside him. While it wouldn't do much against people who had stun guns or better, it would do for now. Weapons were expensive, so this would be his best bet.

"Alright let's get started." William said striding forward purposefully.

He quickly searched through the smaller piles of junk. He found broken processors, chips, bionic parts, and wrappers but no wire. So, he went onto the next pile. And the next. And the next. Most of the afternoon came and went, the sun passing over his head disapprovingly. He had such terrible luck that, even in the center of the junkyard, he still couldn't find any welding wire.

"Damn!" William yelled, kicking a pile indiscriminately. It wobbled, and he quickly jumped to the side.

Sighing, he continued his search. Complaining wouldn't get things done, that's for sure, he thought. So, to get a better view, he began to climb up one of the taller, more sturdy garbage towers. There were lots of footholds and handholds, so the going was easy. However, about halfway up, he made a huge mistake. He grabbed one of the protruding pieces of computer, the thin motherboard. It bent, then snapped, almost resulting in william losing his grip. Hanging by the tips of his fingers, he ever-so-slowly pulled himself up and rested on a radiator embedded into the side of the tower.

William looked down at the ground and let out a low whistle. The fall wouldn't have killed him in any sense, but he still would have broken a few ribs if he had fallen.

"Well," he said, looking above him at the top if the tower, only a few dozen feet above him. "I'm almost there at least."

So, william slowly got to his feet and began to climb again, avoiding the thinner peices protruding from the side of the tower. It was slower, but he managed. The sun set just as he reached the top, casting a warm reddish glow over the whole horizon.

"This is so beautiful...just this view was worth the climb."

However, he still needed that wire. So he quickly scanned the are for any construction junk that might still hold welding wire, beat up or not. Something caught his eye instead, something moving. It was almost like a white shadow as it moved between the junk towers. He couldn't entirely make out its shape, but he could tell that it was a woman at the very least.

"What's she doing here?" He asked himself, kneeling down to get a better look.

Even like this he couldn't tell much, just that she seemed to be wearing something bright white...and that she was being followed. Alarmed, william quickly began climbing down.

"Too slow!" He growled, and jumped off the side of the tower. If he didn't land right at this height he could end up crippled. But he wasn't going to be defeated by a mere fall. So as he hit the ground, he rolled, dispersing most if the force. He still heard a small crack from his leg, but when he stood it didn't seem like anything serious.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road."

He quickly dashed to where his land cruiser was hidden, jerked it out from under the awning and punched the accelerator. There was a screech and a spray of junk as he tore off in the direction he last saw the woman.