Each and every step they took was filled with the fear of being caught by the Reclaimer. Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours. Their chase had no end.
Every voice amplified in the darkness: the sound of their breathing, the snap of a twig, the rustle of leaves, the pounding of their own hearts. They dared not speak, for even a whisper could alert the Reclaimer, revealing their location. They ventured so deep into the city, which made them lose their path, if there ever was one in the first place. Crooked branches tore through their clothes, and broken glass shards rubbed on their feet. They didn't feel these pains, but the horrors of the Reclaimer catching them.
They finally stumbled into an alley, which led them to a narrow street. A fallen overpass blocked their path like a grave marker. Concrete and pillars piled up, leaving no room to walk through.
Old Pete walked around first. Lyle was scared. Alisa's eyes turned towards Rocky; in that single glance, he knew she was having her thoughts, whether to run, to fight, or to sacrifice him.
The Reclaimers emerged from the shadows; behind them there were two red eyes, then four, now ten. They walked forward, bladed arms dragging sparks from the ground.
Alisa gripped her fists. Her voice broke the silence like a blade.
Rocky!"
But Rocky was already moving; suddenly something old stirred in his bones, older than fear, older than pain. He stepped forward, pushing Alisa and Lyle behind him.
"Stay back." He had felt it before, and now he saw it.
The Reclaimer lunged at him, a blade slashing down. Rocky's arms came up in an instinct. The spear in his hand broke; metal then met his flesh. Pain exploded as the steel split his hand open. The world around him started spinning.
He didn't fall. He shoved himself forward instead, ramming his shoulder into the machine's chest. Sparks busted. The Reclaimer screeched, stumbling backwards, but another blade came. This time it sliced onto his back. He felt his bones getting cracked. The feeling of heat and cold arose in him all at once.
Alisa screamed his name. While Lyle dragged Pete behind the wreckage of a broken car.
Rocky hit the ground so hard. His vision blurred in a static way.
Suddenly, a flicker of green text appeared in the darkness behind his eyes.
|=====SYSTEM ALERT=====|
Vital Signs Critical.
Primary Task at Risk.
New Update Available:
GENESIS PROTOCOL Install? [Y/N]
Rocky gasped. His breath tasting like iron, Then, one of the Reclaimers lifted his blade; he felt that this was the end for him, the end of his sorrow.
He whispered,
"Yes."
Then the blade came down.
But it fell slowly, as if time were slowed down.
Darkness soon swallowed him whole.
Inside Rocky's Mind
Complete darkness—there were no walls. No sky. Just a void that pulsated like fragments of broken code. Rocky's breath formed clouds in the empty black space.
The System's voice now becomes clear; it was no longer distant, no longer cold. It spoke in a familiar, alien, human, or machine way, depending on his preference.
|=====SYSTEM ALERT=====|
Host integrity: failing.
Organic form: unsustainable.
Genesis Core: unlocked.
A light flicked, then a ghostly white silhouette of Rocky appeared in the dark. His wounds glowed like molten cracks of magma.
"You were made for this," the voice murmured; it was none other than the ghost of Dr. Val, which echoed from the past.
Ensure humanity's survival.
"I'm not a savior," Rocky spoke. His own voice was all that held him together.
"I'm just—"
Correction. You are not just human anymore.
The void now started spinning; new memories passed through: the burning lab, Val's final words, and Mira's desperate tears. Then new visions, fractured possibilities.
The Metal fused with his flesh, nanites repairing torn muscle, bones wrapped in alloy veins.
The System's final message burned in his mind:
|===== GENESIS PROTOCOL: REBIRTH =====|
Accept full integration?
A Reclaimer's roar echoed inside the void, which dragged Rocky's mind back to the living world, the monsters still closing in on those three.
Rocky's voice spoke through the dark
"Do it."
Back in the Reality
Rocky began to violently shake; the broken spear dropped. For a moment, it looked like he would have simply collapsed, but then a pulse of searing white light arose from his wounds.
Metallic substances started covering his veins through torn skin. Fractured bones were starting to get knitted by carbon filaments. His ruined eye flared bright like a blazing sun. Liquid silver spilled from his wounds, where blood once flowed.
The Reclaimers paused for a moment; it seemed they were confused. Something in Rocky's heat signature was changing; it was no longer detecting him as prey. In simple terms, he was no longer simply just a being of flesh.
He rose, dragging himself up. Then he spoke; though the words were his, they carried the System's resonance.
"Get behind me. Now."
Alisa stared at him, her eyes wide open. She felt terror and awe when she saw Rocky, then shoved Lyle and Pete behind a wall.
The Reclaimers howled—all ten lunged at him, all at once.
Rocky stepped forward; he was now a half-man, half-machine.
He met the approaching reclaimers with full fury. The clash lit the dead end like a funeral fire.
The first Reclaimer struck like a spear of iron, but Rocky was able to catch its bladed arm with his bare hand. The metal screeched. Sparks appeared from his palm, but his skin didn't tear; it folded around the blade. Nanites were repairing it under the surface like liquid mercury.
With a roar, he smashed the Reclaimer forward; it spun around before slamming onto the broken overpass wall. The concrete cracked like thin ice. The machine tried to walk at once but then went completely still, its red eyes flickering out like a dying soul.
The other nine Reclaimers circled around him, their metal limbs scraped the ground, and claws came out. For the first time, Rocky didn't feel any fear. He felt clearer. The System's new voice pulsed through his mind, a steady heartbeat of raw power.
|=====SYSTEM ALERT=====|
Adrenal boost: active.
Nanites: stable.
Host's integrity: 87%.
Another Reclaimer lunged; this one had limbs of spinning saws. Rocky ducked and rammed his fist into its torso. The flesh should have shattered, but the alloy-bonded knuckles punched through armor like rotted wood. Gears exploded; a shower of sparks arose.
He tore through the Reclaimer's limb, like metal collided with another metal. A skull-like head then came towards him."
Alisa glanced at him from behind the wall, her eyes wide, breath caught in her throat. She had seen soldiers before fighting these machines and also saw these soldiers die.
She had never seen a man fight like this.
Two more Reclaimers struck at him, blades flashing. Rocky turned, his instinct along with the Genesis Core's calculations. His footwork was now too smooth, too precise.
He sidestepped the first blade and caught the second by the wrist. The limb whirred, and he saw its teeth inches from his face. He stared into the machine's flickering eye and gave a smile.
In a moment, he twisted it. The arm snapped, and he plunged the spinning blade into the Reclaimer's chest. Metal tore, fluids leaked. The machine fell, twitching at his feet, as if begging for mercy.
The remaining six hesitated; for the first time, their hive mind was in terror upon seeing a threat they couldn't kill. Rocky could almost feel the static crackling between their processors.
He stepped forward, limping, bleeding, but still burning with that cold white fire. The mist arose from behind him, like steam, painting him like a half-shadow, half-machine, or half-human.
One of the reclaimers tried to escape, but Rocky, with his senses heightened, saw through it. He then immediately elbow-smashed its head; it then got deep-rooted into the ground from the impact.
Another tried to attack Alisa; it was so desperate, grasping at the only soft target it could see. Rocky screamed, a roar more bestial than any beast, and threw a broken chunk of concrete. It struck the Reclaimer, which was in midair, sending it tumbling over into the ravine's edge. For a moment, the red eye flickered in the fog, then it vanished.
Four were left.
They swarmed him in a final desperate rush. Jaws snapping, claws clenching at the edges of his vision. Sparks flew in every direction; Rocky now could predict the next movement.
One claw came to his side and scratched him; a line of wound was instantly cauterized by the nanite filaments weaving it shut. Another blade buried itself into his shoulder; he twisted with it, snapping the arm at the joint, and crushing it with his feet.
Three were left, but it seemed they were backing away now. A glitching chorus of static pulses flickered through their network: Retreat. Regroup. Report.
Rocky took a step towards them.
"Go on. Tell them. Tell your masters that I'm awake now."
One Reclaimer hissed, then all three turned as one, metal feet screeching as they fled back to the ruined street, disappearing into the broken maze of the city.
Everything was still now.
Only to be broken by the sound of Rocky's breathing. He looked down at his hands, still shaking, half-covered in shifting silver veins that slowly sank beneath his skin, returning him back to human.
Alisa stepped from cover. Her eyes locked onto him. For the first time since she'd met him, she didn't have a plan or a sarcastic joke.
"You…" she whispered. "Who are you now?"
Rocky looked at her, where Lyle clung to Old Pete, both staring at him like he was a ghost. He opened his mouth to answer, but the system's whisper drowned out his thoughts, a soft hum beneath the pulse of his new blood.
|=====SYSTEM ALERT=====|
Genesis Protocol: Phase One Complete
Awaiting further instruction.
Rocky exhaled, a sound between relief and mourning.
"I'm whatever they're afraid of."
He turned his gaze to the horizon.
This were just Reclaimers; there are many other worse things too.
He felt that maybe he shouldn't just run anymore, but face the dangers.
Maybe he was becoming something more than human,
a hybrid of man and machine.
…
[To Be Continued…]