Zero Divine

Chapter 7: Fragments and Firsts

The road didn’t feel like a road. Not the way Cael imagined one should, anyway. It was fractured in long, uneven slabs, the once-solid concrete now split by veins of creeping ash and buried cables that still hummed faintly if you stepped just right. The sky remained a constant shade of gray, soft and sunless, stretching like a ceiling too high to reach.

Cael kept close to the group though he didn’t speak much. Arlen filled the silence with the occasional muttered instruction or offhand remark, pointing out signs Cael wouldn’t have noticed on his own; markers scratched into collapsed pillars, a trail of scorch marks, a broken satellite dish bent in a strange, deliberate angle.

They meant something. All of it did. He filed all of them away. Memorizing patterns came easily. Understanding people didn’t.

The girl with the circuit belt, her name was Malie, seemed to watch him more than the others. She had been the next to introduce herself to him, but she didn’t speak often either, though when she did, it was direct.

“You don’t talk like someone from the outer grid,” she said while they passed the shattered shell of a transport van.

Cael glanced at her. “How do people from the outer grid talk?”

“Like they’ve been hit in the head one too many times. Or like they’re waiting to be.”

He didn’t quite know how to respond to that, so he didn’t.

They moved on. Dust clung to their boots and the inside of Cael’s throat. He hadn’t had water in hours. None of them had. Arlen said the transport site wasn’t far, and it was the best chance they had of finding anything worth trading or boiling down.

“You remember anything from before you came out of that place?” Arlen asked as they climbed over a rusted barricade.

“I remember facts, and a few details about things. Nothing about people or places though.”

“That sounds really rough.”

Cael wasn’t sure it was. Not remembering meant no anchors or emotions to drag him down.

“Then how do you know how to talk? How to fight?” Malie added.

Cael tapped his temple lightly. “I think it’s part of the tech inside me.”

[Confirmed,] Nyx said. [Knowledge is programmed. Intuition is learned.]

“I know things without knowing why,” Cael said. “It’s like my body remembers, but I don’t.”

The group didn’t seem sure what to make of that. Arlen shrugged it off. “So you have neural implants. That's fine, as long as you’re not planning to go Hollow on us, you can be as weird as you want.”

“Hollow?”

“People who lose themselves. Who keep their tech but not their mind.”

Cael tried to picture what that looked like. The idea disturbed him more than he wanted to admit.

They found the transport just past midday. Or at least what was left of it. The cargo container had been split down the side, its walls peeled open like a tin. Scorch marks riddled the frame, and old blood stained one corner of the rear gate.

They approached carefully. Malie swept the interior first while Arlen checked the perimeter. Cael waited at the edge, watching the skyline in case anything moved.

“You expecting something?” Arlen asked without turning.

“Not sure,” Cael said. “But things have gotten far too quiet around here.”

That was the first sign. Then he heard the rhythmic click of something approaching across glass and metal. The others heard it soon enough. Arlen gestured for them to fall back, drawing a blade that looked welded from two kitchen knives while Malie pulled a compact blaster from her belt.

From behind a nearby structure, a shape emerged. It was human-shaped, mostly. Its limbs moved too smoothly, and its face was half-covered by a mask of polished chrome. Thin veins of blue light pulsed across its skin. Its movements were efficient and almost predatory.

“Reclaimer,” Arlen said, his voice low.

“What’s that?” Cael asked, raising his spear.

"It's leftover Synod enforcement. Don't take it lightly though, that thing is exceedingly dangerous even as a mindless drone.”

The Reclaimer tilted its head. “Unauthorized technology detected. Subject must be submitted for collection.”

Its voice was synthetic, but the edge in it was sharp.

Cael stepped forward instinctively in response to its declaration.

“Stay back,” Arlen warned.

But Cael didn’t. This thing was clearly after him, but it would not hesitate to destroy the people with him. Even though he did not know them, he had no intention of letting it harm any of them if he could help it.