Soon after, the duo pulled through a makeshift walling, they pulled into the lot of the hospital. It was a large multi-building campus, with a small police station contained within the walls. Most of the lot was free of debris, and the building itself still retained most of its windows, several wooden planks boarding up broken ones. A large satellite dish was propped on the very top of the building. There were several people walking happily around the lot, chatting or working on various chores. Ferra smiled at the sight as Scott turned off the engine. The people around stared for a few moments at the newcomers before resuming their works.

The inside of the hospital was surprisingly well-kept considering the surrounding buildings. There was still proper lighting, and even some people working to clean the halls. Scott asked one of them about the guard job, and they told him to head near the top floor where the mayor was. Walking through the building, Ferra noticed that many of the rooms had been converted to small living spaces where small groups of two or three people lived together. Even more interestingly was how large spaces were cleared out for hydroponics farms as well. She could only imagine how this place once looked before it was converted into a town. Near the top floor, the mayor’s office was easy to find. Most of the rooms were set up like churches, with three large archstones all placed at different ends of the room. One bearing the sigil of the Caduceus, another bearing the sigil of the Divine Judge, and the last bearing the sigil of the Guardian Angel.

“Gods even reach out here, huh?” Scott thought out loud.

Ferra cocked her head. “Gods?”

He turned to her. “You never seen an archstone before? Long story short, they’re basically how gods communicate with us and get new followers and all that. I’m just more surprised followers managed to transport them out to this hellhole.”

The office itself was just as frugal as the rest of the building, the only special device of note a computer. The mayor sat in a chair behind his desk, and he smiled as them both.

“Thank you for coming all the way out here mister…”

“I’m Scott. What are the details for the job?”

“RIght to the point now, hm?” He leaned back in his chair. “We’ve been having quite a few issues as of late. Normally we can keep out most of the trouble, but a small yet powerful group of cultists come back nightly to perform raids. They kidnap-”

“So you just need us to shoot a few dirty cultists, right? Sounds simple enough. What’s the pay?”

Ferra grimaced at him, before pushing him back. “Let me handle this, you’re being too rude!”

He scoffed. “I don’t need no bot to lecture me on manners…” he muttered under his breath.

“I’m an expert in dealing with cultists and even killed a demon or two in my time, and my partner here is a crack shot too. I promise, we can keep your town safe.”

He sighed. “Thank the gods! I had made several requests to the crusaders, and I thought they’d never respond!”

She rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, uh, I don’t know who they are. I’ve just killed them in my time.”

His joyous expression turned stern. “Ah, yes then. Still, it’s good to know you have experience. Do you have anything in particular you want as payment? I’m sure we can find something.”

Scott pushed Ferra aside. “We need cash. Is that simple enough?”

He tapped his chin. “I suppose so. Does one grand sound fine?”

“We’ll take it.”

He held up his finger. “Not just yet. My only terms are that for the next three nights, you make sure no citizen is kidnapped or killed. Then you will be payed.”

Scott crossed his arms. “Sounds reasonable enough. Come on Ferra, let’s get set up.”

He left the office, and Ferra waved with a smile to the mayor.

The moon began to rise as Scott and Ferra sat atop the roof of the hospital. Off in the distance, several small lights were dotted among the wastes, the hospital’s lights shining the brightest. Scott had grabbed a chair from down below and sat with a rifle and radio in his lap, and Ferra was staring over the edge of the building. Thanks to her robotic eyesight, she could still see through the darkness, watching with literal machine-like focus. Though even still, hours into her watch, she spoke up.

“What exactly happened here Scott?”

He lurched forward from the chair, shaking the sleep from his eyes.

“What?”

“The cities. Why did the cities end up like this?”

She still stared over the edge as she spoke.

“Guess it wouldn’t hurt to kill some time. As long as you’re focused. You know where demons come from?”

“No?”

“They’re birthed from Hell. If you join some fucked up cult, you can learn how to summon them through sacrifice, but end up being hated by everyone.”

“Yeah I know that, what does that have to do? Did somebody summon a bunch of demons and ruin the place?”

“Worse actually. Remember that army of demons I mentioned? Historians say some cultists actually found a ritual to create a portal directly to hell. They flooded the place and well… You’re looking at the result.”

“That one that I fought before took quite a beating… I don’t think I want to imagine what it’d be like with so many more roaming freely.”

He leaned back. “That’s right. Humanity was nearly wiped out, and so was android-kind as well.”

She lost her focus on searching for a few moments. “Excuse me, you let what happen?”

“Perhaps you don’t understand this, but demons get stronger after every human they eat. So androids were drafted en masse as our vanguard.”

“It makes sense that they’d want to leave humans then.”

He laughed. “Well, too bad you all had a terrible lack of foresight in establishing your own dictator.”

“I’m still going to fix that mistake, I swear!”

He chuckled and let out a yawn. “Yeah yeah, let’s just make the money first, all right?”

“Why do people even live out here anyways? There’s gotta be better way to make money in Romitum, right?”

“I can tell you this from experience: Sometimes, it’s worth giving up that security for a feeling of independence. You saw how slowly they run customs. How slow do you think they run the rest of things in the city?”

“Well those trains are pretty fast…”

“If I knew how to repair you, I wouldn’t be out here looking for bounties you know.”

“Hold on-” She drew her pistol. “Those things don’t look natural at all. I got around five… no ten! Ten armed men with 4 strange looking beasts alongside them!”

Scott shot up from his seat, grabbing the radio. “We’ve spotted them. Flood the place with light!”