Feeling Mid-Mountain Déjà Vu

When Hugo wakes just after daybreak, he expects the day to be filled with farm work – repairing the damage to the solar panel top priority. He exits his room, already dressed in farming gear, to see Maria cooking breakfast in the kitchen. It’s unusual to see people cook in this traditional manner, Hugo coming from the Capital.

“Hugo!” Maria says, having noticed him. “Great to see you up so early.”

Hugo leans on the door frame, stretching as a yawn overcomes him. “Unfortunately, the training program fixed my body clock. You’re cooking again?”

“Alright, I may be a scientist, but I do have other hobbies as well.”

“Oh, I meant–”

“Can you help me cut some fruit?” Maria nods her head in the direction of the fruit bowl. Her brain works at 100 miles per hour, as always.

On top of the kitchen table, a wooden bowl holds an assortment of fruit. As Hugo approaches, blue gauges appear in the air to the side of the bowl, sensors estimating that the fruit are well within their best before dates. He picks an orange out of the bowl and heads over to a chopping board Maria’s prepared for him.

Hugo finishes handcrafting a fruit platter just before the rest of the breakfast is ready. They head outside to prepare the table – with the help of the helper drones buzzing around them, of course. As Hugo exists, he instantly freezes in the doorway.

Emily stands by the table, locking eyes with a robot towering over her. She turns to face Hugo, a look of apprehension on her face. Like she isn’t sure what she should do.

Then, Maria appears behind Hugo. “Oh, sorry, Emily!” she says. “He has a habit of powering on when I don’t want him to.”

As Maria approaches, the robot turns slowly to face her. It has a gentle demeanor, despite its intimidating appearance.

Standing on her tiptoes, Maria pats it on the head. The robot’s an amalgamation of many different parts of material, including the black metal from the attacking robots and bombers.

“He’s one of my projects,” she continues.

Emily retreats a few steps. “Why is its head made of…?”

“Don’t worry – he’s perfectly harmless. Even though his brain’s mostly from those new robots you found. You wouldn’t believe the tech inside them…!” Maria gets a dreamy look in her eyes. “So brutish, but so complicated.”

The robot watches them eat. Halfway through breakfast, a bird lands on its head. It lifts its arm in an attempt to grab it – as if it’s discovering something for the first time – but the bird flies off long before it has a chance.

After breakfast, Maria takes the robot back to the greenhouse to put it to sleep. Apparently, it doesn’t have enough power to stay on for a long time. If something that heavy runs out of charge, it’ll be a difficult task getting it back on charge.

While she’s doing this, Hugo and Emily check out the orchard on Maria’s request. Emily pulls out a tablet, opening up an application for a fruit picker. Along the side of the app, a detailed list indicates which trees have fruit ready for picking.

They find a small shed, walking inside to find a machine made of white stainless steel, with wheels and numerous claws. Hugo didn’t even know machines like this existed, and it seems like Emily didn’t either.

Maria soon joins them, instructing them how to use the app to control the machine. They follow it through the lines of trees, supervising as it swiftly picks the fruit and places them in a storage compartment.

The dew on the grass and the fruit hasn’t yet evaporated when Emily receives a phone call. She excuses herself for a minute, leaving Maria and Hugo together.

“This isn’t quite as bad as you thought, is it?” Maria chuckles.

“Not at all,” Hugo replies, easier to admit if it’s said half-jokingly.

“I designed this fruit picker myself, you know,” Maria continues. “But don’t worry – I haven’t used this design elsewhere.”

Hearing this seemingly harmless sentence, Hugo turns to Maria in shock. It’s the first time she’s mentioned anything even remotely related to their first meeting, many years ago now. He doesn’t get a chance to respond, however, as Emily returns.

“Hugo,” she says with a stern look on her face. “Looks like your community service is ending early.”

“Huh?” he replies.

“There’s something important the military wants us to check out.”

Hugo was only beginning to digest the idea of staying here for three months, forgetting the problems that plagued him since the attack. But now he’d be going back into the thick of it, even harder than before.

* * *

Aiden rides through the abandoned streets of New Kansai’s old world, his bike jolting as it crushes all vegetation in its path. He avoids the warehouse they escaped from only a couple of days earlier, driving towards the edge of the concrete city.

As a DIY project of his, he didn’t have the money to purchase any equipment to silence the bike’s noise. So he’s certain the low rumbling of the engine echoes off every concrete wall in the suburbia.

Even with a sensor drone flying overhead, he pays extra attention to snuffing out any military drones that might be hiding between the buildings. The last thing he wants to do now is attract attention. Not that they’d be on his trail for long if they found him, though.

Once he finds the place he’s looking for, Aiden switches off the engine to his bike and walks down a small set of decaying steps. The metal door is conveniently wedged open, so he waltzes right in.

He takes his black gun from his waist, turning it on so the orange detailings dimly illuminate the space in front of him. Due to the high specs of his lenses – stolen, of course – he doesn’t need much light to see.

He finds the second metal door. This one’s locked. But, while Aiden’s gun might not be able to open the second door in the bunker, his drone can.

Using his earpiece, he calls it in from outside. It enters the bunker, hovering unsteadily while traveling towards him. At his command, it produces a single beam of concentrated red light. Using the tech in his lenses, Aiden controls where it aims, precisely cutting through the lock in the metal door.

When he’s almost through the lock, Aiden’s ears pick up a quiet shuffle from behind. He instantly stops the drone cutting. As it hovers next to him, there’s only the quiet whirr of the drone’s blades.

But Aiden’s no fool. He commands the drone to violently spin around, turning its laser back on in the process. A couple of shouts leap out of the darkness.

Surrounding him, Aiden glimpses of a kind of visual static humans can’t normally see – static created by the military’s exoskeleton suits. If only Aiden could get his hands on this kind of advanced tech.

He backs up towards the door. His drone swings back and forth in front of him, its laser fending off the people in the suits. He hits the door, and he expects to feel its metal on his back.

He doesn’t.

Arms clamp around Aiden’s body, and he instantly tries to jerk them off. Being stronger than the average human, he succeeds. He spins around to see his attacker, but an electric shock cripples him and he crumbles to the ground. He hears the sound of his drone being knocked to the floor a few feet away.

Above Aiden, a man breaks into a cocky smile. Appearing to be in his late twenties, he wears an exoskeleton suit over a military uniform. The man reaches up and tucks his fringe over his left ear. “So nice to finally meet you.”

Aiden tries to snarl, but he’s unable to move. His back begins to prickle in a searing pain – it’s where he was stabbed with the shock gun.

The man loses interest in Aiden and turns to the second bunker door. Solely with his eyes, he examines it for a couple of seconds, before kicking it at full force. The lock snaps and the metal door swings open.

The man looks back at Aiden, feigning a look of sympathetic pity. This time when he speaks, however, Aiden recognises his voice.

“I’m afraid this is where our alliance ends.”

* * *

Hugo and Emily follow Maria to a shed at the edge of the farm. It’s big enough to store a flying wind turbine, so Hugo isn’t sure why Maria’s leading them here. On the way, Emily fills him in:

“We’ve found a signal from an aircraft – one of the remaining enemy forces still within our borders,” she says. “They’re scrambling up a squadron for an offensive but, seeing as we’re the closest in the military, they’ve instructed us to scout.”

“Why don’t they get a drone on it?” Hugo asks.

Emily shakes her head. “We’re the closest.” She points to the mountain, past the ecovillage Hugo visited yesterday. “Because the signal’s literally up there.”

As they walk into the shed, the roof opens. The sun hits machinery and pieces of metal, reflecting into Hugo’s eyes and forcing him to squint. Sitting in the middle of the shed, an ornithopter sits proudly. It looks to be the only working piece of equipment.

“Why did we only get a signal from it now?” Hugo asks.

“Either it’s a mistake on their part, or we’re falling into a trap,” Emily replies, shrugging lightheartedly. “Isn’t it exciting?”

Naturally, Hugo feels uncomfortable letting someone else pilot the ornithopter. But he trusts Emily enough, so he heads for the back seat without being instructed. He wouldn’t be able to convince her to let him pilot anyway. He just knows he’ll regret it if the signal leads to Noah.

As Emily climbs inside, Maria wishes them good luck. “This model’s completely up-to-date. It’s the last version I built before sending off the blueprints to the military a year ago.”

“I just knew you’re hiding things around this place!” Emily says as the cockpit closes. “Please wait for us – we’ll be back soon.”

Emily and Hugo do a quick systems check to confirm that everything’s in working order. Then, Emily starts the engine and the sound like cicadas penetrates the cockpit.

They lift off the ground and through the roof of the shed. As soon as they’re clear, Emily throws the joystick forward.

Hugo’s stomach lurches as the ornithopter soars forward, passing the boundary of the farm within seconds. In less than a minute, they’re flying by the side of the ecovillage. Hugo sees a couple of heads turn to face the sky as they zoom past.

“Stealth mode,” Emily yells forward to him.

Without the military earpieces, communication’s a hell of a lot harder.

Hugo activates stealth mode. The ornithopter shouldn’t be visible now, not to the untrained eye nor to heat sensors. Then, he inputs the exact coordinates of the signal in the tracking system.

They veer slightly, approaching the coordinates in a matter of mere minutes.

But, with less than half a minute to the signal, the engine abruptly shuts off. So does the entire system, and they begin to freefall.

“What did you do?!” Hugo shouts at Emily.

Emily frantically tries pressing buttons and flicking switches. “I don’t know! I don’t know!”

Hugo does the same with the controls in front of him, but it’s clear they’re shut down for good. He steals a glance outside the cockpit – the treetops rapidly come up to meet them.

All of a sudden, a deafening ringing forces him to raise his hands to block his ears. He feels his consciousness start to slip away.

“Hugo, eject!!” Emily shouts at him, and he feels a frightening sense of déjà vu.

Even though he’s clenching his eyes tight, Hugo senses her eject in front of him. He reaches for his own eject handle, but the ringing’s made him lose his bearings. Surely the treetops must have come into contact with the bottom of the ornithopter by now.

By some miracle, Hugo finds a handle and yanks down on it. Immediately, a force pushes him down hard into his seat. His parachute auto-deploys and he’s thankful for that. But the ringing doesn’t lessen now that he’s outside the aircraft, nor does it lessen when he reaches the ground.

The distant rumble of explosions seeps through the ringing in his ears and into his brain. They’re much farther than the ornithopter – perhaps he’s making them up too. Just before he passes the treetops, however, he catches a glimpse of the Capital – white metal, black aircraft, and fiery red blazes.

Both arms wrapped around his head, Hugo opens his eyes to find himself on the forest floor. Emily’s above him, shaking him with fear in her eyes. The ringing stops in the next instant, and the rush of bliss – or perhaps simply the absence of pain – puts Hugo at ease.

But his vision’s still distorted. He slips in and out of consciousness, sometimes in a kind of limbo state – like he’s on an intense medication or drug.

Fighting himself to stay conscious, Hugo catches only glimpses of the minutes that follow. Emily’s face is replaced by Maria’s, followed by his mother’s. An ornithopter parts the trees above them, like a video played in the background of the montage of faces up close.

But that can’t be right – their ornithopter crashed. And both Maria and Lily aren’t here.

The thought of his mother makes him see another visual – an intense fire. She’s in the Capital with the Council, in the middle of a second bombing. But the fire’s surrounding him, burning him, as if he’s there too. Around him, Lily’s nowhere to be found.

Maria enters his vision again, back in the forest. No, now they’re in a concrete room. The sharp scent of cleaning agents assaults Hugo’s nostrils. He watches in terror as Maria lowers a scalpel towards his face.

Now he’s in the back of an ornithopter. The stern gazes of Maria and Lily bear down on him, and their mouths open and close rapidly. He hears them talk but can’t register the words. Emily’s nowhere to be seen.

At the same time, both nothing and everything is real. He lets that thought take him into a heavy darkness, wondering if he’ll wake to discover the truth about everything that’s just happened.

* * *

Less than a minute before New Kansai’s defense systems come down, alarms blare in the hovercraft’s cockpit. Noah doesn’t have to run to the cockpit to check it out – his earpiece gives him the information now. The green, holographic radar in Noah’s vision tells him an aircraft rapidly approaches.

Inside the carrier, Noah commands the robots to power on. He opens the carrier, and they march out in formation, boots clanking on the ramp.

Planning to use the hovercraft as a bunker, he closes the carrier and looks across at his father – Simon sits by the other side of the carrier.

Almost unable to stand by himself, Simon had hobbled inside the carrier after Aiden left, not moving since. Refusing to ask for any help from Noah, of course. Aiden had completely snubbed Simon for Noah. It was a surprise to them both.

Noah focuses his attention on a small television monitor, attached to the wall in the carrier. It’s something from the old world, perhaps even years before the old world fell. He turns it on by flicking a power switch on the side, and the monitor flickers on. Text appears on the screen, reading: “Not connected…”

Using his earpiece, he dispatches a small black drone from the outer body of the hovercraft. Aiden had taken one with him as he left, leaving one remaining for Noah to use.

The visual from the drone connects to the monitor, depicting the trees outside in very poor quality. It rises above the treeline, and Noah commands it to face the approaching aircraft.

An ornithopter comes into view, but something’s wrong – its eight wings are stuck in position, and the ornithopter glides down towards the treetops. It’s going to crash before it even makes it to Noah.

Someone ejects from the ornithopter, seat shooting up into the air. After a second, they’re followed by another person.

In the distance, the Capital can be seen. Noah sees black flickers of movement, before there’s an explosion. From this far away, it takes a couple of seconds for the sound to reach him.

New Kansai’s defense systems are down.

But Noah doesn’t focus on the explosions that follow, or on the ornithopter as it disappears beneath the treetops – he recognises the second person to eject from the ornithopter.

Hugo covers his head, screaming for some reason. He sails into the forest and out of view. So he’s come after Noah, after all.

A smirk spreading on his face, Noah calls back the drone. He opens the carrier and the ramp unfolds.

“What are you doing?” Simon’s startled, having heard the explosions. “Close it up. Now.”

Noah overcomes the urge to obey his orders. “Make me.”

Simon stands suddenly, using only his right leg – damaged, at that – to support himself. He hobbles over to Noah and grabs him by the collar. “What do you think you’re–”

But Noah casts him aside with one, easy swipe.

As he crumples to the ground, Noah feels a sense of sympathy for his father. In a futile effort to gain more power, Simon’s had so much of it stripped away from him. Until the point where he’s simply a husk of the malicious man he once was.

Noah’s determined not to become that type of person. “Then what do you want to do?”

Simon looks up at Noah, fear in his eyes. “We’re waiting for reinforcements.” He says it as if he’s asking a question. As if he needs Noah’s approval.

Noah nods. “Then we’ll split up.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ll find us any minute now, but I’m staying here.” Noah walks towards the ramp, turning back to look at his father one last time. “Get them to send me an aircraft.”

“Is that about that boy, Hugo?”

The question makes Noah freeze in his tracks, back to Simon.

“That family’s not what you think it is,” Simon continues. “The whole time before his death, Eugene was working with us.”

Noah’s brain works on overdrive to figure out what he means. But he doesn’t reply. And, as he walks down the ramp, his father doesn’t say another word. Doesn’t call for him to stay. Doesn’t call for Noah to take him with him.

But Noah knows Simon’s feeling some kind of regret. And Noah’s feeling it too.

With a simple command, the robots begin following Noah through the trees. They leave Simon to fend for himself.

Noah will make Hugo leave New Kansai with him. Even if he must take Hugo by force.