Galedron

THE AFTERNOON WAS FRIGID. It was always cold, ever since the Metal Fathers threw the world out of balance. The sun was a soft glow above the thin white clouds that crawled across the sky. Snow fell almost constantly. Trees, reduced to branches with twigs, stuck out of the white, like bone fingers across the expanse. Further on there was a forest of evergreens, that still held onto their needles. They offered some color to the ever-present white.

I trudged through the snow. It came up to my knees. My snowshoes broke. So I had to step into the fluffy white, hoping for purchase underneath before taking my next step. Skiff rested easily upon my shoulder. Every once in a while the marten would switch positions, but for the most part the creature slept. He was there in case I got lost or hurt. He was trained to return to the village and get help. No one was stupid enough to go out into the wilderness without a homing marten.

Of course I had a spear with me, and I wore my net as a scarf, though it didn’t protect much from the cold. I used the spear butt to tap the ground, hoping for permafrost and not ice. There were too many gnarled trees nearby to be walking across a lake or river. But one could never be too sure. Some of the lakes and rivers around here had been frozen solid since the Metal Fathers were here.

Books say this area used to be a great city. There were no great cities anymore. Cities needed to be mobile. There was no telling when the weather would change and make a place inhabitable. I guess the capitol city was the most semi-permanent city. It was far to the south, but far enough from the equator to be out of the volcanic zone. At least here we only had the snow and cold to contend with. Imagine adding volcanos to the mix. I heard there are terrible storms near the equator because of the heat and gases from the volcanos mixing with the snow clouds and chill. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been. I don’t know anyone that’s been. Just read this stuff in books.

Skiff chittered in my ear, “What do you sense?” I asked. Martens weren’t as good as a dog at alarming for impending danger, but I’d been training Skiff on how. I stopped dead in my tracks. I was out in the open! Whoever was approaching had probably already seen me. And they had the advantage, because I couldn’t spot them.

I tried to run towards the nearest decrepit tree. It wouldn’t hide me completely, but at least if I clung close to it, it would be harder for whoever Skiff sensed to get a good grip on where I was. There were too many dangers in the wild. Most dangerous of all were other people.

I hid as best I could behind the skinny tree and tried to spy out into the whiteness for any signs of what might be approaching. Skiff’s tail was fluffed out. The white marten, comfortable in the trees, quickly clambered up the trunk and looked from the highest point. He couldn’t communicate with me like the animals that the Metal Fathers used to keep, but I could tell that his hackles were still raised. He kept sniffing the air. I watched the expanse from where the wind was blowing. They had to be coming from upwind if Skiff could still smell them.

When I recognized the white moving mounds, it was too late! They were on us. With my snowshoes broken, I couldn’t skate across the top of the snow fast enough. I still tried. The snow was so deep — and only getting deeper in the direction I chose to go. Skiff was slinking in the snow over his head behind me. The marten was trying to hop in my footsteps. The men were too close. I turned and bared my spear, screaming, “Ya, ya!” I jabbed the spear.

I knew instantly that they weren’t my people. They had white hair and skin and baby blue eyes. They were people from the far north, further even than I was. They were from lands where it was night for most of the day. They lived in caves or homes made of ice. Why had they come so far south? Was there a food shortage? Had the weather shifted again? They held the edge of craze in their eyes. These were the most dangerous kind of men. Men who had been trudging unknown wilderness for days, hungry — desperate. The people from the far north were survivors — and not ashamed how they did it.

“Stay back!” I hissed. Skiff was back on my shoulder. Judging by the looks on the mens’ faces, they didn’t understand what I was saying. A lot of land could fall between the villages of my people based on weather and game, but we all spoke the same language. These people of the far north often lived in small familial groups, often inbred — and they usually didn’t speak at all. Their language was more often grunts and hisses and body gestures. Like now, one of the men gestured as if he were putting on a jacket. They both stood before me, emaciated, shivering, and shirtless. Their ribs were poking through.

One moved to grab at me and hissed. The other made the gesture again, of putting his arm through a sleeve. Well, they definitely weren’t mutants. They were freezing. They couldn’t handle the cold and there was no telling how much time they had. They were so cold that they seemed more concerned with getting warm than getting food. I stared at them. When they didn’t move they almost blended in with the snow around us.

They made the gesture again, and this time they seemed to get more hostile. If all they wanted was my jacket, I could live without it. I took my jacket off, revealing my brown flesh and the wrap I wore over my chest. The cold didn’t bite me like it did other people. I was a mutant. The far northerners were too dim-witted to understand the implication of me giving them my jacket. Had it been any person with a mind, they would have killed me on sight. Mutants were devils!

Like squirrels that had just been given a nut, the two far northerners grabbed the jacket and raced in the opposite direction to find a safe place to put the jacket on. I stood in the whiteness, feeling a little exposed. Now, if anyone saw me, they would kill me first and ask questions later. No one could live for more than a few minutes out here without being frozen to death. I could only assume that the northerners lost their gear to someone else — and they weren’t that far away.

Skiff and I clung to the tree line. I was so tired from walking through snow, but now I needed to find a new jacket, either in the form of a pelt, or some amazing strike of luck had to hit where I found some old materials in the snow before I returned to the village. They would burn me at the stake if they found out! Skiff ran down my body like the trunk of a tree and started bounding through the snow, leading me.

The dead trees gave way to a coniferous forest of pines. The trees scraped the sky, higher than any trees I’d ever seen. I’ve only been this far from the village one other time. I followed the line of needle-bearing trees, which lead me to a vast open space, which was blue with ice. Somehow, all the cover snow had melted or blown away. The water underneath the ice provided the twinkling cobalt color.

“Skiff, we made it!” I said excitedly. I honestly wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to find the site again. Everything looked nearly the same in the snow. And with the constant weather changing the landscape it was hard to find places so far from home.

Off out in the distance I could see where the blue changed to darker blue, and seemed to have patterns. It was where the ice didn’t freeze, but instead the lake or river was flowing! “Come on!” I called to Skiff, who had been curiously investigating something. We ran out towards where the blue changed shades.

I looked down over the edge and I could see it! Its eye reflected what light filtered through the snowclouds. I began stripping off my clothes. I was too excited to assume anyone was watching me. I was clear out in the open now, in the middle of a half-frozen lake! But I didn’t care. What lay underneath the water would give me the power I needed to fight anyone who wished to kill mutants! Down there, beneath the lapping water, was a product of the pinnacle of the Metal Fathers’ civilization!

Once naked, I dove into the water. Though a relative of the otter, Skiff wasn’t much of a swimmer. I could feel the icy cold of the water, but it didn’t bother me. My mutant flesh was designed much like the seals we hunted in the summer. I kicked and swam down, down, down — further than I’ve ever swam down before. I could feel a hint of my lungs burning, but I ignored it. My goal focused on those glinting eyes, so far beneath me.

It looked like a god, like a giant metal god, resting, just waiting for its first worshipper to bring it back to life. I knew that worshipper was me. I easily found a hatch at the nape of the neck. It was hard to see under here, hidden from the dancing sun. I yanked it open and fell into an airlock. The door slammed behind me automatically and filtered the water out. I kinda felt like a fish when flushed from one hatchery pool to another.

I had to climb towards the other door, as it was above me, with the giant mecha lying down. I pushed the door open, up. I climbed into the command center. I crawled towards a counter that had a handprint indentation in it. I reached and pressed my hand into that indentation. The god-like construction took no time in humming to life! It sat up. The floor was suddenly the floor and not a wall. I stood, pressing my hand onto the other handprint panel I found. Lights turned on, monitors flashed, and tubes slithered out from various ports. Needles snicked erect and began jabbing me all over. I screamed in shock at the first couple. The rest happened so fast. The mecha stood!

We crested the surface. I turned my head — and so did the giant mecha. My eyes blinked, and so windshield wipers flashed from side to side in time with my lids. I could see what the mecha saw. I zoomed, seeing little Skiff sitting impatiently at the edge where ice meets water. I surveyed the white expanse and took the mecha’s first step.

This contraption might have been what caused the fall of the world, but it was the key to freeing my people. I was going to free the mutants. All of the mutants. “Welcome Portia,” the mecha said in a robotic voice. “My name is Galedron.”