First I used all the training and fleeing for my life I've been doing over the past several years to sprint as fast as possible towards the wall. The distance felt extremely long despite knowing that it's only a few hundred metres or so.
Once I reached the wall I started to do a quick search turning my head but stopped myself. I've done it now even if I get spotted it doesn't really matter if I know or not at this point. So ignoring the niggling feeling that the unknown is absolutely terrifying, I get to work melting the pile of metal in front of me with my knife.
I know this metal has a low melting and boiling point, it was even described as being extremely weak to heat and thus incredibly useful for endeavours that require that trait. I however find the metal to not be melting fast enough. I mean I feel like I've been at this for several dozens of minutes already and it's only just now starting to turn red.
"Come on, Come on, Come on!" I whisper to myself desperately a little louder than I really should but if everything's going to plan no guard is near my location anyway at the moment so it's fine but still. I probably shouldn't be doing this and yet I am doing so regardless.
My fast heartbeat is the only backing track as I slowly watch metal melting in front of me and pray that I can move enough metal out of my way in time to hide the abnormality from the guards. This might be the first time fear is the thing setting my heart aflutter in the most recent years.
Sure I was scared of the junklads when I first met them but that fear quickly faded when they never found me despite being right in front of them for a few weeks. After that the fear effect really faded and it became an efficient process albeit a somewhat exhilarating one. Perhaps a little like a roller-coaster.
You know you are unlikely to be put in danger logically but there is still that emotional spark in the back of your mind telling you that you should be scared for your life doing such dangerous things. That is how hiding from the junklads has become for me. Though if I was thinking logically, I'd notice the danger has not decreased since the first time I hid from them ignoring my increased skill in hiding from them.
My escapist thoughts are suddenly broken when I hear footsteps approaching. 'Well that's not good' I thought to myself as I realise that a guard is coming over a little early. Perhaps they have a detection system? Or a way to see the tiny amount of smoke generated from melting metal? Either way someone has come to investigate early and I am royally screwed.
I look at the progress of the melted metal in front of me and notice that though the metal is now melted it still hasn't moved out of the pile and is still affecting the junk around it. This isn't going to be finished in time for me to get out of trouble with the guard showing up.
Should I just retreat and try again? No that won't work. They'll notice the heat and even if they were somehow blind enough not to they would surely up the security just in case something was up. Smoke is not a common occurrence and in a place like this it is a particularly worrisome one.
In which case it's all or nothing. I either finish this faster somehow or I distract the guard long enough to get away with it. I start looking around for anything I can use to accomplish either of those goals but all I see is wasteland and junk. Not to say that the junk isn't useful in it's own way but it's still junk and incredibly hard to sort through. It would not surprise me in the least if I were to learn that the majority of this junk is no longer usable.
There's a crowbar again. A trusty companion for anything really but utterly useless in this situation. What about the weird metal sheet? Too thin. I don't have time to think about this. In the end I decide to go with my gut above all else. I just hope that those famed beastkin instincts do right by me.
So I grab a nearby shovel that's clearly been dented in the spade part of the shovel. The handle is also mangled beyond repair but it still seems usable enough. Then I use the shovel to dig the still melting metal out. Alongside any parts that my instincts tell me aren't going to collapse the junk pile.
I continue this until I'm certain I can fit in the space which doesn't take long. All the while I hear the thumping of footsteps coming ever closer and I can even hear their voice by this point though what they're saying is indistinct to me for now.
Once the space is big enough I quickly crawl into the hole and immediately notice a problem I probably should've thought of at the start. Ah, yeah this is boiling hot. The melted metal probably didn't help but metal is a very good conductor of heat. I'm surrounded by tons of said metal. Which means I'm in a makeshift oven.
Worse is that I have to seal up the hole I made in the junk piled wall. Lest the guard spot me as he does his rounds. That is going to make this heat unbearable. This is a serious problem. Burn alive inside my makeshift oven or go outside and likely get filled with bullets for trespassing. They're a gang I doubt they're into questioning suspects. If you're suspects you're as good as incriminated.
I could try not sealing up the hole but… Before I can finish my thoughts I hear the voice become more distinct and the footsteps louder. He's basically around the corner already. Yep I don't have time to make a decision like this. So I don't I just continue to melt my way through the junk wall.
It can't be that bad. I've left the hole open. If I get spotted it's just tough luck and if I don't I was meant to get these items. Seriously though, I need a better plan next time because this is ridiculous. Crawling through a hot metal coffin isn't a fun way to spend my day and having to look behind me every few seconds to make sure the guard didn't discover my little burrow isn't very good for my mental health either.
So I once again chose to ignore my problems as I just charge through melting the wall as I go along. The heat starts to get to me part way through and even I can tell I'm getting a little delirious. I mean how thick is this wall anyway. Come on, I'm melting it pretty quick right? There's gotta be light somewhere.
I continue my agonising and in the moment incredibly long journey through the melting coffin. Oh and if my instincts lead me astray, I'm totally going to be crushed under all the junk too. So that's a lovely time to have my mind only half working.
I heard humans can survive in extreme heat for 60 seconds or so and therefore it stands to reason that a more sturdy species such as mine could last for a little longer but I'm not so sure you can count this kind of delirium as living. It's more like a state of half-awareness. The only thing on my mind right now is melting the parts in front of me that need to be melted and nothing else.
Hard to say whether I'm stupid, stubborn or devoted but either way I carry out my task with one-minded efficiency occasionally having delirious thoughts like I wonder if there'll be an oasis on the other side of all this melting metal.
After what felt like hours I finally melt some of the metal in front of me and see light. I almost instinctively reach out for it before reeling back in pain as I burn my hand on the melted metal right in front of me. See I've been having to wait for the metal to trickle down into holes I dig into the ground underneath the melted area or It'd just melt me.
This however means that I have to use some of the scalding hot nearby junk to make a sort of plank over the pits of molten metal and obviously because of how ridiculously scorching the temperature of the metal is I now have burns on my legs and arms but at least I made it to this point.
So, I once again wait for the metal to drip in the pit as it melts. This is just a waiting process and normally I'd be incredibly bored watching this but right now I can see my destination. At this point I've forgotten what my destination actually entails but I know that getting to destination is good and thus I need to do so.
Yet I can't get there because of this melting metal in front of me blocking my path and I can't do anything about it but wait. It's incredibly annoying to think about and I'm sure most people would agree. Why can't I control anything like this? Not even things of my own design will submit to me. The thought makes me scowl despite me not really knowing why I need to control anything.
Finally all the metal drips into my little pit and I put a nearby crowbar over the scolding hot pit before climbing across it like it's a tight rope. At least I know that this kind of balance and flexibility is my species' speciality so I won't fall or anything. At the same time though my instincts are screaming at me to stop holding on to this metal rod so perhaps that's cancelling out my unique advantages.
Regardless I eventually reach the other side of that flaming coffin and come upon a sight that I did not want to see. More piles of metal. Lots of them. It takes me a moment to realise that I should not be scowling and this is actually the result I wanted. Despite that fact however, I feel betrayed. Couldn't there be an oasis or at least a large bath of cold water. Anything that can cool me down and replace my fluids.
Regardless of my feelings on the matter currently however I remember that I need those parts for my robot and they are here. I scowl a little again after remembering that I'm still in danger here and I have to stay vigilant for junklad patrols inside. But I comfort myself with the thought that at least I won't have to make my way back out through the sweltering metal box. That would've been hell.
So I start wandering around searching for the part I'm looking for. Luckily my tablet is built holographic so it doesn't break in extreme climates so that's still fine which means I can still scan the junk around me. So I get to doing just that.
Laser parts are the ones I'm looking for or more specifically gun laser parts. Not exactly hard to come by here but I need them to be in somewhat working order and I need more than one. Lest I break one or it is impossible for me to fix it and I have to come back here. That is never happening again. Next time I'm coming in through the entrance. I'd rather face a few more junklad guards than I would crawl through that hellhole.
There are surprisingly few guards inside the facility. Sure I hear someone every now and again but there's plenty of space to hide and they usually avoid me on their own. They don't really seem like guards either from what I can hear of their conversations. They seem more like technicians, looking for parts. Why they need parts I don't know or care but they clearly come to get them every so often and I need to avoid them every time.
It's not that often though and eventually I find one of the parts I'm looking for. Not really in good shape but it's good enough that I can probably fix it up. I pick up the part and put it in my hoodie's pocket before marching on looking for more.
A few encounters with these technician's snooping later I also find another part. This one however looks damaged beyond repair. I don't think this is anything other than a scrap of metal but I can use it as spare parts for the less damaged one if I need it. That was my thought process as I picked up the part.
The moment I picked up the part though, my instincts screamed danger and I threw it as far away from me as possible. It didn't get very far however before it exploded into a little bomb of light. I quickly shut my eyes and averted them but because of the way these things are built there was also a loud explosion sound and I didn't have time to cover my ears or shut it up.
A loud ringing sounds in my ears as I stand there dazed for a moment before realising where I am and panicking. In the now silent world I pray my hearing loss is temporary as I run in the direction I believe the entrance to be. As I'm running I trip over myself and almost fall over which is incredibly unusual. I realise that my damaged ears have also affected my balance and I'm walking like a drunk after a party. Wobbling from side to side.