Breaking and Entering

At the pressing down of a spray can nozzle, a mist of wet paint shot across a white brick wall. I swung my arm around, spraying the gaseous stream until an obnoxiously large blue smiley face was prominently displayed. Just under it, I made sure to sign my name, Vanessa Walker, officially taking responsibility for this work of art. 

“Territory marked,” I said, holstering the spray can in a sleeve on my backpack. Then I turned to a row of window panes behind. “Now it's time to break in.”

My boot struck the glass and shattered it to bits. I could never decide what was more enjoyable. Breaking and entering or artistic vandalism. Too bad this factory was abandoned, or it’d all been a great statement when those Fed workers clocked in in the morning.

I tossed in some rope through the broken window, tying it tightly to a secure metal rod on the roof, making sure it wasn't going to budge.

Like an urban hiker, I descended down the rope, diving into the open air of the factory. There was about 500 feet of useful rope here, and it just barely made it to the ground floor. The Feds really liked to compensate with how big these buildings were. Would it have killed them to add a little color? Plain white walls were such a drab.

At what felt like the 200 feet mark down, an unfortunate snapping sound hit my ears. I turned up to notice the rope just above me wasn’t going to last.

“Shit… You’ve gotta’ be kidding!”

My 130 pound ass wasn’t heavy enough to wreck a rope that easily, and it was brand new. If I’d have been a rookie, a damning situation like this would have made me a splatter on the cold hard factory floor within a minute. Even if it would have added some color down there, I didn’t feel like dying today.

Just as the rope gave way, my hands reacted by desperately reaching for a cord on my backpack strap and tugging on it hard. A parachute burst out of my backpack and caught me mid drop, gradually letting me glide down safely.

I wasn’t going to become a corpse that easily. Death was going to have to work harder then that to get me.

Despite the close call, I’d made it to the ground floor of the factory and was more than ready to have some fun. All around me were big machines and conveyor belts. They had so much dust piled up on them, thick as snow. You’d think Santa's workshop left the windows open. I guess twelve years of inactivity would do that.

I followed one of the conveyor belts to where it ended, my mind salivating at the containers they most likely fed into.

Exactly like I’d hoped, a huge box was filled with old tech junk and robot parts.

“Oh yeah.” I started digging through the collection of scrap, pulling out any thorium reactor cores and servo parts. Basically anything small enough to fit in my backpack. “Boys back home are gonna’ go nuts over this stuff.”

I was lucky to get first dibs on this before any other scavenger, but most of these eyesore factories the Feds left behind can get pretty scary when the guard bots are up. Guess I caught them during nap time, since they haven’t come after me yet.

There was enough stuff in my bag at this point that I could call this journey a resounding success. But wouldn’t you know it? I suddenly had the urge to do a little redecorating before I left.

White walls were like blank canvases. You could only keep them clean for so long before someone took up the challenge of painting them. The deeper into Hell you went, the more rewarding the job.

The thing about screwing around in Hell is that you’ve gotta’ watch out for Satan’s guard dogs.

“-Human female detected-”

A robotic voice startled me while I was spraying paint. It came from the other end of the factory floor and was followed by subordinate voices.

“-Searching for target-”

“-Lethal force has been authorized. Entering search and destroy mode-”

I scrambled for cover behind a metal crate, then cautiously used a little mirror on a stick to see around the other side. Red and blue flashing lights caught my attention. Little white spherical bodies with a singular red eye hovered into the room.

“Three targets…” for now.

A H1 Marand rifle was slung at my backside. I flipped it around and held it tightly. This beautiful thing was old as hell, but thanks to some old fogey patriots holding onto their guns, I had a way of defending myself from any new aged tech the Feds came up with.

I pulled out a stick of gum and tossed it in my mouth, chewing it until it wadded up enough to blow one good bubble.

Just as it popped, I stuck my body out and fired the first shot, missing the one leading their little pack. Then I shot a second bullet, hitting his red eye and causing him to blow like a metal balloon.

“-Target sighted!-”

Red laser fire violently discharged out of their eyes. I could smell ozone as the bolts of energy passed me by, missing by meager inches. These little bots weren’t known for their aim. But that wasn’t what they relied on.

Seeing their captain go down, they called for more of the little orbs to fly in and reinforce their numbers. I managed to move up a little bit after taking out the original three, but then another two showed up, then another three, then five…

I fired off a few more shots, hitting those buggers in the eyes until eight rounds had fired from my gun. Once empty, this semi auto beauty rang as it ejected the vacant clip.

Careful not to get my thumb jacked up by the bolt, I held back the charging handle and dropped a fresh clip of ammo in, ready for the next wave of bots to undoubtedly come.

Three more came rushing at me. I fired off another few rounds, popping those bitches like party balloons.

I couldn’t do this all night though. My ammo reserves were running low and this swarm was only going to get worse. Instead I reached for an emergency EMP grenade and tossed it up in the air.

Energy burst out and scattered, shocking the dozen or so little bots and giving me a short window to run past them.

“That grenade wasn’t cheap, losers!” I shouted as escaped, all the while giving them the one finger salute. “Your buddies' body parts should cover the cost!”

I’d been in abandoned Fed facilities like this before, so finding my way out was easy. It took a few more clips of ammo, but if death couldn’t hold me down, neither could lousy robots. I was on top of my game.

Or at least, I thought so. The real threat awaited me once I was outside in the parking lot.

Past a few broken down vehicles was a humanoid figure armored up in thick white metal. He had heavy laser cannons in both his hands and trained them on me.

“Juggernaut…” I blew a nervous bubble.

“-Target sighted!-”

The laser cannons tore up a big door behind me as I dove out of their way. This bot tracked incredibly well, too well. The Feds really made these guys killing machines!

Any of the smaller vehicles I could hide behind were consumed by the unending rapid laser fire. For a moment I wished I hadn’t used up the EMP, but then I remembered these guys were practically impervious to them anyways.

Unlike the little bots, juggernauts could take a few shots to the eyes and still stay standing. And that’s only if you actually got a good shot. Even with all the ammo I had left, it wasn’t going down.

“Crap…” I uttered under my breath, finally reaching a semi truck that the juggernaut didn’t immediately obliterate. “I won’t die here… Not yet…”

It was moments like those that were the most terrifying, but that was a thrill that got my brain going. I needed to get back home. I needed to keep rebelling against death. With all the pressure on me, there had to be a way out.

About the only thing I could do was make a break for it, but trying to get past that thing was a death sentence.

“Can I hotwire a semi?”

I’d done it before on smaller cars, but never something like a truck. These things had enough plating to at least get me past the fence, then I could take cover in the forest.

The longer I waited around, the more the truck got torn to shreds by laser fire. Thanks to my lockpicking skills, I got right inside and messed with the wires under the dashboard. This thing was a lot more complicated than the average car, but I had an idea of what to do.

In all my tinkering, the engine finally let out a fierce growl, meaning that after all these years it was ready to plow on and fight through that fence!

“Come on you metal beast!” I shouted, knowing I had no idea how to drive this thing, but pressed the gas anyways. “Let’s go!"

It slowly built up speed. My hype started climbing by the second. This giant hunk of steel shrugged off some of the laser fire and bulldozed through those puny sedans.

I fought the primal urge to run over the juggernaut and headed straight for the fence, crashing right into it and forcing it down. That was about all the semi could handle before it crapped out on me. I got out of the left hand door and used the semi as cover as I darted for the forest where there were plenty of trees to take the shots for me. Once I was out of range of the juggernaut, I considered myself home free.