"I'm so sick of this dried up fucking rock." Alex spat cutting her arm lifting a piece of metal into the bed of a makeshift van she put together.
"Alright let's go before raiders or junkies get here." Alex told the young boy in the driver's seat as he turned the latch shifting the van on. The engine hummed a dull note a few moments before shaking the whole van with a loud crank, the light shot on the engine began muttering a fine tune before barreling down the road littered with potholes. An uneventful ride back home to place with the windows showing a scene of long abandoned towns and buildings.
The world isn't fair nor should it be. I lived my childhood in an orphanage surrounded by others but I was so alone still. Gut wrenching food served once in a blue moon, and hateful bitches treating us as slaves. I passed the hard part of life though, scavenging for supplies to live while playing our own way off this rock is an easy task. Surviving is actually very easy when you're fueled by pure and perfect hatred of the one who put you in such a predicament.
I sat in the front of the van with a hard look gripping my face while in thought, my hair perfectly straight pulled back in a ponytail, arms littered with small scars and burn marks alike, fingertips caked in oil with my tattered up overalls smeared with the very same. Beside me sat a young boy Gabe, fourteen years old, already seen so much of the dark side of the world that would make most adults even shit their pants. His left arm is already covered in tattoos even at such a young age a murder of crows flows up his arm.
To our rear his younger sister Mia with curly brown hair, and eyes so blue they put the sky to shame. She's fragile still and learning to accept the shit conditions we were left with instead of fighting it.
"We're halfway there so chins up both of you." Breaking the silence and more so trying to convince myself. A slight grin found itself on Mia's face, Gabe remained stern as if the moment he breaks his cool he might break down. "Were just bringing this chunk of metal back home right?" Gabe finally asked.
"Yea, with this we can finish a significant part of the frame." I replied.
"Since humanity forgot its own home here on earth we'll just have to go up and remind them that it's not all garbage down here. I continued trying to encourage the kids with my poorly spoken speech.
The speech did its job though as the smile still graced Mia's soft face. Our little home camp sorta speak was just peaking over the horizon; it was a rich person's home at one point. I'm sure the white columns shimmered in the light when it was taken care of, but now they're barely standing in ruin. It's been twenty years since humanity took to the stars and never looked back down. They were supposed to come back after a year to help fill out future colonists on distant planets. Yet not even a whisper of what happened out there after six months it's been radio silence from them. Using the few functioning satellites around here I was able to get a signal from one of them and they quickly discovered I was listening before anything was said.
I'll be sure to give them their just deserves.
I click a button atop our van to open the gates as we drive in and to alert my sentinels I'm home. The tiny robots I built from spare parts do wonders when we're not home to keep out invaders. They soak up sunlight all day and with that stored power they let out a large beam of energy. It's a great deterrent but I often wonder if it draws too much attention to us because right after a few came online it was almost as if the raiders around here saw it as a challenge to break in. Until they saw a few of their friends gain new holes in their body of course.
We pull into the garage and Gabe parks the van and quickly heads up to the top of our home with his favorite rifle. I've built many drones to help keep us safe but he prefers something warm blooded to watch over us.
Mia helps me unload the metal we recovered to turn it toward the shuttle we're building. She's not very skilled yet when it comes to electricity but as far as framework goes I can trust her to her own devices. With a loud grunt from the two of us we mounted the sheet to the top of the frame. The second it's attached I drop to a knee.
"Fuck my back, it would start to hurt right at the good part." I said grimacing in pain.
Mia turns to look at me in all my shame, a twenty five year old with the back of an eighty year old.
"Enjoying the show?" I said as sarcastically as I could.
"Why yes, yes I am." Mia said with the fakest smile.
Not one second after I make my way back to my feet Gabe is calling me up to look at something, there was a sense of urgency in his voice. I make my way up the spiraling staircase to be greeted by a bright light in the sky as red as blood freshly spilt.
"Shit." The only word that came to my mouth immediately.
"Alex I'm pretty sure that's for us" Gabe said calmly.
"Yea I have zero doubts it is, unlucky for them I'm in a piss poor mood today." I said holding the railing going back down.
Lucky for us after most of civilization went to space, what they left were the unlucky and the idiots thankfully it's mostly idiots. For starters they're barbaric; they come at you with blades and small firearms. Worst of all they let you know they're coming with giant red flares.
I get down to my main operating room and grab hold of an old microphone I have attached to a few speakers around the entire perimeter of the property.
"Attention Scumbags this is your one and only warning go the fuck away or cease to exist." That never works but it's always worth a shot to save me time, Raiders are far more a nuisance than they are a threat. I flip a switch to activate the little robot drones I have, the very same second I hear Gabe's rifle shot out into the distance. I suppose that means they didn't listen very well to my warning.
In the year that we've lived here I've only had to dirty my hands once getting involved, just because of the sheer number of them that came running at us.
More shots whistling out from atop our home, hopefully he finishes this off fast so we can get some rest. At the rate of these raiders I won't be surprised if this boy is downing a bottle just to sleep at night. Walking past Mia to get back on the roof I pass her, she has headphones in acting as if nothing is a problem just another night in paradise.
"Hey Gabe, how's it going?"
"Same old, same old. Your drones go in, they get quiet just like clock work." He replied nonchalantly. His ruffled black hair was the only thing moving on his body as it danced from the slight breeze being up this high. The rest of his body lay still focused on the task at hand.
A beeping began ringing from my old watch, the drone's status was set to unresponsive.
"Hey Bitch, I believe this fucker belong to you." A man with an old mega phone began shouting in the open field adjacent to our home.
"You got a few of us ya cunt but…" His voice was cut short by a blast.
It was Gabe's rifle, it pierced the man's skull as soon as I realized what was happening, the man was already on the floor blood pooling around him as he was apparently their leader the rest scattered like roaches.
"I'll grab the drones in a bit, but you have to wash the blood from them." Gabe said calmly as he walked away.
That boy might be the most soulless person I've ever met unfortunately that's all this fucked up rock seems to create anymore. Just as I'm beginning to relax, and finally getting refocused on the new parts for the ship. We had just gotten there, some shouting from below caught my attention.
"Mia how many times have I told you? Hide in the bunker when we're under attack, I don't care how small of a chance it is you shouldn't be here you might get hurt."
"I'm not afraid to die like you." Mia said as cold hearted as her porcelain skin portrayed her.
"I don't care if you're not afraid to die, I'm scared of you dying!" He said turning away and walking past me back up to the rooftop.
"I'm not sure how I upset him." Mia said, walking up to me.
"Unfortunately, Mia, when it comes to those close to you, sometimes you have to consider their feelings as well and deal with things you'd rather not."
It's as if the words didn't register in her brain for even a second because she still looked very confused. That's going to be one fucked up girl when she's older if she's already that disassociated with life and her surroundings.
"Mia, words of advice when it comes to your brother, deal with him gently. He's one of the only ones in this world looking out for you, life goes by slowly but it ends in the blink of an eye. Just because you're not scared to die doesn't mean you should embrace it."
I say that trying to convince myself of the very same thing. For some reason I start walking up the stairway to go talk to Gabe.
"Hey, bud you okay?" I ask only to find him looking down his barrel into the field again.
"Yup." He muttered barely audible.
"You know you shouldn't let her get to you like that, you know her better than anyone you have a head start when trying to deal with her."
His jaw tenses up a few moments before releasing. "I know but if something happens to her I wouldn't know what to do. I wouldn't forgive her. Fuck I wouldn't forgive god for letting it happen." Finally breaking his cool guy act.
"Gabe, you're the only one that can protect her besides herself god is a bastard who will try and make you go through hell nothing is promised except a challenge especially with the road we're on."
Gabe let out a deep breath and sighed he put his rifle down and said "thanks." and went back inside. Finally I'm off to bed. I head down to my room, the open room with nothing but a king sized mattress in it and glow in the dark stars to the ceiling. I stared at them as I usually do until the black of the night took over my sight and I passed out.