Chapter 4

I turned off my projection, slipping into a quicker, less conspicuous form. The drone floated silently through the shadows, weaving between flickering lights and cracked walls, carefully avoiding the footsteps of patrols echoing through the corridors.

As it moved, it mapped its surroundings, recording every hallway, door, and dead end, until it returned to the room where it had first awakened.
Where do I go now?
The drone spun slowly in place, scanning its surroundings. Then it stopped. A staircase led upward in the corner of the room.

It rose, ascending the stairs with a low hum, and came to a heavy, dark gray metal door. I flickered back into view, my form illuminating the dim space. I turned toward a control panel set into the wall.
This layout… I don’t recognize it.

I grunted in frustration and pressed a button. The lights in the room blinked out.
“Great,” I muttered, quickly pressing it again. The lights snapped back on.
“I hope nobody noticed that.”
I tapped another button, and to my relief, the door groaned open.

I stepped through cautiously.

Towering gray buildings loomed above me, skeletal and jagged against a churning sky. The stars were drowned beneath clouds of smoke and pollution. Neon lights buzzed softly from shop signs and high-rise windows, casting eerie colors across empty streets.

“I have to get out of here before someone realizes I’m gone.”

I scanned the buildings. A cable stretched between two towers, sagging slightly under its own weight. That would work.

Grabbing the drone, I leapt, catching hold of the cable. I pulled myself up and balanced on it carefully, the wind tugging at my form.
Up. That was the only way.

I began scaling the wall, using anything I could find, windowsills, cracked piping, rusted veins. My movements were quick but cautious. One slip and I was done for.

My foot gave out.

“Aghhh!” I shouted as I slipped from the ledge, grabbing a windowsill with my free hand just in time. I dangled for a moment, then pulled myself back up, panting.

Below, the streets remained still; no sign I had been noticed.

I climbed again, pushing through the ache, until finally, I hauled myself over the edge and onto the rooftop.

The city sprawled out beneath me, a jungle of steel and smoke. The tallest towers pierced the haze like blades, their flickering lights dancing through the darkness.

And beyond it all, a vast sea of sand stretched into the horizon.

“What has happened to my home?”
I knelt down and brushed the dust beside me, letting the fine grit fall between my fingers.
“I know this city all too well, but somehow…”

Gunshots rang out from deep within the city, followed by the distant echo of shouting and the clatter of machinery.

“This isn’t the city I once knew.”

I stood and placed a hand on the drone.

“It seems the survivors cared more about surviving than about living.”

I looked out over the broken skyline.
“I have to fix this.”

So I stood there, watching, as the haze drifted over the ruins of a world I barely recognized, and the night slowly gave way to morning.