literature

lost in a scrap jungle. Part 1

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Harrow was lost.
He’d been walking for over three hours, and he was well and truly lost, in some sort of giant scrap yard, and he could swear that something was following him.
“…I could have sworn I’d passed that robot head three times already…and where the hell is everybody?” Harrow decided to take his frustration out on the head, by kicking it as hard as he could. The head flew into the air like a macabre rugby ball, before landing on the side of a trash hill, and rolling back down.
“Ouch!” Harrow stopped, and looked around. Next to him was the top half of a robot, including a very human looking head. He looked at it curiously
“Did you say that?”
“Greetings sir.” A cheerful computerized voice said. Harrow blinked at the head.
“You said that without moving your lips.” Something tapped his back. “hmm?” Turning around, Harrow saw a small robot. It had caterpillar treads, a squarish torso, a head with one large glowing red eye and one small blue one, and two arms that looked like they could probably rip a car door in half. Harrow had to look down at it, as it only came up to his chest.
“Greetings sir!” it chirped at him. Harrow winced. This thing was far too happy. “I’m sorry for not greeting you when you arrived, but it seems that you can traverse the roots and fallen scrap with more ease than I.” Harrow raised an eyebrow.
“Uhhuh…so are you the first thing I’ve got to kill?” the robot backed up, waving its hands in a defensive way.
“No-no-no!” Harrow tilted his head, trying to work out where the hell the robots voice was coming from. “hem hem.” Harrow blinked at this. Why the hell would a robot with no mouth need to clear its throat? “Greetings competitor! I am here to inform you of your instructions, and give you this!” a compartment suddenly slid open, revealing what looked like a folded up piece of paper. The robot reached in and handed it over to Harrow with a flourish.
“Err…thanks…”Harrow tentatively took the paper and unfolded it, revealing a map. His eyes quickly scanned it, taking note of the names each section had. He was in the scrapyard, and was very glad he wasn’t in the vents. He’d crawled through vents before now, and there wasn’t much room in them to fight…especially if the other guy is bigger than you..
“Now, please listen carefully.” Harrow glanced up from the map, and looked at the robot expectantly. A deeper male voice suddenly emerged from the robot.
“Hello whomever it is I'm speaking with. I'd like to inform you of, well, your situation. Besides for the fact of your significant other being taken,” Harrow ground his teeth dangerously “you are part of well our game so to speak. Think of yourself in a board game as one of the monopoly pieces. Your goal? Well that's simple. Advance your way to the centre to claim your prize. Your location has been placed on the map with a list of key hazards you need know for the time. I might even include some helpful hints for you. Now, Tarah is there anything else you would like to add my dear...”
A cold female voice was heard next. “No, I think you just covered all that needed to be said...at the present time.” Harrow’s mind pieced together the identity of the two voices. They belonged to the people who’d taken Fea. Mindsweep’s voice returned.
“Good now follow this sweeps unit for the time being and, best of luck to you.” The recording cut out. Harrow glanced at his map again, and noticed that there was a dot with his name on it in the scrap heap. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
“…sweeps unit?” The robot jumped slightly.
“Yes! Sweeps unit! I am a messenger and guide bot, programmed to serve, wait upon, entertain, energise, protect, and spy!”
“Oooh, I get it…S.W.E.E.P.S unit.” He patted the robot on the head. “Well, lead on MacDuff!”
“MacDuff? Who’s MacDuff? I am Sweeps unit #6295” Harrow sighed.
“Just start leading!” The robot saluted, turned around, and took off at high speed. “Hey! Wait up!!!” Harrow dashed off after 6295.
Harrow quickly caught up to the little bot, having the ability to jump over things that 6295 had to trundle around helped. “You know, I’ve noticed something. You’re really giving those pink things a wide berth…why?” Harrow walked past one, while the tiny robot was almost climbing a scrap hill to get away from it.
“They’re dangerous, very dangerous. Many have lost their lives just by touching them.” Harrow froze, his finger poised to poke one of the orbs. He backed up and almost tripped over a root that poked out of the ground.
“Waah!” He landed with a thud. “Why the hell are there trees and things in a bloody scrap yard!” 6295 looked at him.
“They grew over many years. This is a scrap jungle yard! There are many lovely sights, such as the Tortured robot mountain and the giant tree of rust, but it is a bit hard to see ahead of us through the trees, dead robots and various scrap heaps.” Harrow sighed, and got up.  This meant that if something did ambush them, hiding would be relatively easy, while fighting would become harder. While they couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see them. There could also be all sorts of hazards hidden in the heaps and piles. His mind started to race with possibilities, most of which ended up with him ambushing the enemy, although one did involve a legion of undead robots suddenly clawing their way to the surface. His train of thought was interrupted by a metallic scream.
Harrow ran towards where it came from, ignoring any self-preservation instincts that were screaming at him. Turning a corner, he saw 6259 mere inches away from an orb that had, if Harrow were to guess, landed in front of it. “Just back away slowly…back away…” the little robot was talking to itself as it trundled backwards. A rock moved. The orb rolled into 6259. The robot yelped and then fell silent.
Harrow watched with macabre interest as the orb seemed to devour the small robot, twisting it up and sucking it in until nothing was left. Harrow felt a small twinge of regret, after all, he’d just lost his guide, but at the same time was glad it hadn’t been him. Shrugging he started to walk off.
There was a cracking noise.
Harrow froze. Cracking noises in creepy forests or scrap yards were never good, so a crack in a jungle scrap yard was twice as bad. Turning slowly, the mercenary saw the pink orb splinter, crack again, and then shatter. Something that was vaguely reminiscent of 6259 sat in its place. It was larger, and looked more dangerous (not very difficult, but still…). Harrow, deciding that discretion was the better part of valour at this time, started backing off. Unfortunately he stood on a twig, snapping it. The robots head, very much the same as 6259’s had been, but larger and with pink glowing eyes, whirred over to him.
“Seriously? A twig?! That’s the most clichéd thing ever!!” Harrow whined. The robot turned towards him and charged. Diving out of the way, Harrow slammed into a tree trunk. He twisted round it, and did the most sensible thing he could think of.
He ran.
Harrow swung around a tree, before scrambling up a scrap heap, using the various roots and robot parts sticking out as leverage. Looking down, he saw the mutated sweeps unit trying to climb, its tracks refusing to allow it up the steep incline. Grinning to himself, he took in his surroundings. He had no idea where he was going, or how long it would take him to get there. There was a grinding sound that caught the merc’s attention. Looking down, he saw the mutated sweeps unit forcing its way up the hill, using claws and sheer determination to scale the slope. Harrow clicked his tongue in frustration, and then grinned. Taking out his scythe, he played about with it, grinning down at the struggling droid of death.
“Now…I could be nice and let you get up here…or I could be a little shit and knock you back down.” Spinning the folded scythe around, unfolding it in his usual showy manner, Harrow chuckled. “you have three guesses.” He twirled the weapon above his head, before slamming it down into the ground, cleaving roots and spare parts. The scrap heap started to shift as the top half became unstable. Harrow wrenched his weapon free, and leapt to the side, rolling to dull the damage the metal would do. As he moved, the scrap fell, acting like a landslide and knocking the droid down. Harrow looked down the hill and swore. the only thing he’d done is make it angry.
The robot fixed it electronic gaze on the mercenary, whirring noises coming from inside it. Its arms grasped the ground, and then pushed, forcing the metallic body back into an upright position. Harrow gulped and waved awkwardly before running along the top of the trash, sliding down a conveniently placed chute.
Pretty soon, he was even more lost.
He found himself in a dead end “clearing”, with all sorts of items poking out. In one place, there was a strange gun that sparked occasionally, next to that was a pipe sticking out, there was also a load of robot limbs and a couple of the strange spheres dotted around the place along with roots, and some flowers.
Harrow knelt down, placing his scythe on the ground next to him, and picked a small white flower, made out of tiny gears and cogs that kept moving, and smiled gently. He placed it in one of his coat pockets, being careful not to break it.
There was a loud snapping  noise from behind him. Turning, Harrow saw the former sweeps unit glaring at a branch it had just driven over. Harrow smiled at the irony, and took his time observing the robot. It was around his height now, the tracks were more like a miniature tank’s than the small things that 6259 had motored about on. The mutated Sweeps unit charged, slashing out with an arm, piston muscles giving it more power than a Human could hope for. The razor sharp talons that were positioned like fingers on a hand missed Harrow’s throat by a few centimetres. Harrow jumped back as 6259 lashed out with its other arm.
“shit.” The merc muttered. “This isn’t gonna be easy, is it?”
“No.” Harrow froze for a moment, not expecting an answer from his enemy. “Not for you to win. But it shall be easy for me to kill you.” As if wanting to demonstrate its point, the large robot lunged slashing with both arms. Harrow hissed in pleasure and pain as red lines blossomed on his chest. He tentatively touched the wound, and grinned when the flesh started sealing itself.
“Harder than you think Mac.” Harrow kicked out with his foot, kicking his scythe away, before jumping to the side after it. The sudden movement seemed to startle the robot, as it took a moment before turning after its prey. Harrow grasped his scythe and swung it up, knocking away the robot’s incoming arm, allowing his scythe to bounce off the arm and start a second attack, where he put a small scratch into the robot’s side. Harrow smirked. “Seems like you don’t heal as well as me. Shame.” Harrow hefted the cumbersome weapon around, intent on doing more damage. He was disappointed when the only evidence of attack was a larger scratch on the robot’s side. Before he could do anymore, he was forced to duck under a swipe. “Missed!” He jumped back from a slash. “Missed again!” A compartment snapped open, and a thin metal spear shot out, catching Harrow in the side and leaving a nasty gash. “Ouch…okay, that one hit.” He grumbled as the wound started to close itself.
the first part of my Broken Dream's round one entry!
:iconbroken-dreams-oct:
I kinda feel a bit bad for what I did to 6259...oh well.
Mindsweep belongs to Megafluffy :iconmegafluffy:
Tarah belongs to EDsnowydragon :iconedsnowydragon:
© 2013 - 2024 Karn-sama
Comments12
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Methusabel's avatar
Great work, excellent incorporation of adjectives and prose and overall presentation is highly pleasing! Keep up the good work!