I’m alive, but I feel like death.

My back, arm, and legs felt like mush. Each time I tried to move, my body rejected that idea, by sending droves of pain throughout my body in the form of jolts!

At first, it felt like a boulder had crushed me. Then, the pain felt like a thousand needles burrowing into my hands, neck and back…all at once.

I would’ve welcomed it. If I were home, but here? In the Waste, amongst vermin and god knows what? No. I needed to get out of here and fast.

The bleak coldness of The Carib Waste didn’t help, especially with the attire I wore. A tuxedo and flak-jacket? In the shivering cold? Death was knocking on my door, no questions asked.

After lying on my ass for more than an hour, the pain finally subsided. Allowing me to verify if I had broken anything. Thankfully though, I didn’t break shit…but I had bruises all over, for obvious reasons.

What I originally thought was a Mesa was powdered bones and sand, melded together in the form of a faux-mesa…and thankfully it wasn’t as hard as the sand which meant it cushion my fall, perfectly.

After I gathered my mental faculties, aligning them to survival mode. I looked around, ensuring my location within the desert and took note of how far I was from the Sauters Settlement.

“Ophidian 1, this is Snakeskin 5, do you copy, over,” I said, coughing. No Response. “Ophidian 1, I repeat, this is Snakeskin 5, do you copy, OVER?” Nothing again.

What the hell, are they dead?

I tapped my right and left ear, checking for my earplugs. Shit, they’re gone! I scampered to my feet, stimulating my SMB, feeling the vice-grip of a clutch strangle my brain, sending me to knees in an instance. “WHAT THE HELL?” I snarled, feeling the SMB clutch dwindle on my command.

“What just happened?” I asked, catching my breath, shocked. I dropped to the ground and began unfastening my flak-jacket, then removed I ripped the sleeve off my left arm, I pulled off the synthetic sleeve in one motion and opened up my cybernetic.

I fiddled with the digital keypad, manoeuvring through my settings and doing a manual diagnostic check. The perks of not having NOVA. Perfect. I thought bitterly.

The diagnostic initiation popped up in my cybernetic eye in the form of the yellow words Manual Diagnostic Systems Check and of course, I clicked it.

My cybernetic eye went blank, and my arm went dead. A white dot throbbed in the centre of my cybernetic, then began beating, matching my heart rate. Hundreds of lines of code went up and down my eye sending tons of information to my SMB which roiled across my brain for a full two minutes, then the diagnostic check finally began.

Stancer Cybernetic Eye V3.8 Functioning at 41% Capacity

Stancer Cybernetic Arm V5.97 Functioning at 32% Capacity

Slethe Levels 15% (Slethe Injection suggested)

“DAMN IT! 15%? NO WONDER MY SMB IS REACTING THIS WAY!” I spat.

If there was one place I never wanted to be stranded, it was here. The GOD DAMNED Carib Waste. My history was The Waste wasn’t complex. It was simple. I lost my arm, eye and pieces of my brain here. Thankfully though, the brain parts were replicated.

The years of physical and mental therapy got me where I am today. Yes, I still ventured into the desert despite abandoning The Federation for my family, because bills had to be paid. I had a wife and daughter to feed.

Now look at me, lying in the Waste with barely functioning cybernetics, this was a death sentence at best.

The general feel of the Carib Waste was haunting and creepy, based on the craggy exterior of the Mesa’s and butte’s I passed on my towards the settlement. It never made me shiver in fear, nor felt smothered by its gruesomeness.

I was too angry about that.

Angry? Yes. I was angry as hell. I saved Colonel Levisay’s coveted squad. The Cobra Squad, the least these bastards could’ve done was to search for me. But no, they left me here to rot.

Bastards.

The trailing smoke from the wreckage of the six-wheeler was only a few meters from my locale. I couldn’t help but smile bitterly knowing my attack was successful.

I pushed myself up and stalked my way towards the wreckage. The six-wheeler looked like an imploded tuna can, with tuna bits in the form of pipes, broken metal and shattered glass scattered across the surrounding area.

On the left, a few yards from me the exhaust dangled at the edge of a dune, looking as if it were ready to slide down. Broken axles hung at an angle of 90° angle, with melted tires blowing right off and lay aside.

The ever-growing pungent scent of both burning oil and rubber left an acidic taste on my tongue. One, I certainly wasn’t fond of.

As I approached the open-top six-wheeler, the scent of burnt flesh and boiling blood forced themselves into my nose, leaving me queasy. Ash and smoke rose and I fanned them off approaching.

When I took a look inside, my stomach churn from the sight of the ‘Ravagers’. Four men were in the six-wheeler, two in the front and two in the back. They were all burnt alive.

The crookedness of their mouths left a harrowing feel sitting in my stomach. It didn’t help either that their skin looked like pulped ash, flaking, and dwindling at the slightest nudge from the wind. Their mouths were opened wide, crooked. Haunting. They weren’t screaming, but I could hear their wails.

I probably did the same when I lost half my face I said to myself, I probably did the same.

I made my way to Saunters Settlement in two hours. Not because I didn’t have the energy, but because I lacked the strength. With the lack of slethe, bothering my mobility I had to trudge through the sand at an angle that made my spine scream. Luckily though, I made it. The only problem I had now, was the mind field.

I closed my eyes, and bit my lips as firmly as I could without breaking the flesh, then stimulated my SMB, turning on my X-Ray Vision.

The sight of hundreds…no thousands of land mines filled my vision like blips on a radar, glowing subtly. The mines were planted like a net, cast by a fisherman, wide and long, and in rows that I couldn’t count.

I could walk between them, but some of there spaced in a way, that your second step wouldn’t be easy. Shit…I don’t know how I’ll cross it. I said, feeling better. “Least those bastards could do was pick me up!” I spat.

Right now, that didn’t matter, but I still felt angry, so I paced back and forth, before deciding my next action. Not like I didn’t know what the plan was.

I hopped over the first mine, a row of three, perfectly spaced by eleven inches. I hopped to another, landing on my right foot. Then shifted my foot slowly, angling myself before I jumped again.

This was the trick, the spaces between the mines were between two to eleven feet the most. If I didn’t have a cybernetic eye with X-Ray vision, I wouldn’t be able to get this done.

The problem was because my slethe levels were too low, there was a limited time frame before my cybernetics were inoperable, officially. It’s good and dandy to have power, but without any slethe, to help my SMB wouldn’t allow me to manoeuvre my eye and arm at will.

The strain my left calf felt, was overbearing, so I dipped and jumped as far as I could go. I landed perfectly, but felt my knees cave, making me split my weight into both feet.

My right leg was a centimetre off a mine, whilst my left leg was three centimetres off. It wasn’t perfect but I got it done. I sank my weight into my stomach, feeling my abdominals pulse instantly, then jumped over to another clearing.

Made IT! I thought, wiping a bead of sweat from my face.

A beaming light flashed across the surface, aimed directly at my eye. Shit they mean to stop me! I forced my X-Ray vision off, watching as my slethe dropped to 6%. That damned glare!

I forced the dim of my X-Ray and continued my trek through the minefield. The further I got, the more worried I got. The beaming light that flashed in front was nothing but a scare tactic, but I was happy it wasn’t a bullet.

If these Sauter Scavengers shot at me, that would’ve put them in a bad spot. Their safety blanket would go off in a chain reaction, so their best move was to force me into making a mistake.

Well, that’s what I thought anyway. Unless…these weren’t mines and some of them were dummies planted alongside them.

A bullet shot right past my face, hitting hit the sand with a thud. Shit! I said, feeling my knee wobble. I looked up at the pulsing light, and obviously, no one stared back.

“THE NEXT ONE GOES IN YOUR HEAD” A man shouted from up top of the guard wall. “THERE’S NO NEED. SNAKESKIN 5, I’M PART OF THE OPHIDIAN 1 SQUAD.” I answered.

“OPHIDIAN 1? NEVER HEARD.” The man growled, firing another shot that zipped past my leg. “DO ME A FAVOUR, JUST FALL ON ONE OF THE MINES, IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE SOMEONE TRIED CRAWLING PAST THEM.”

“I’M AFRAID…THAT’S SOMETHING I JUST CAN’T DO.”