Wasteland tale

The bar was dimly lit, the early hour meaning that there was few people to disturb the few patrons.
The jingle onf a bell interrupted the peace, followed by the rhythmic thumping of boots that didn't quite fit their wearer.

A lithe, diminutive frame sate down on one of the stool.
The barman looked up from his never-ending task of polishing a glass, taking in the newcomer.

A nandroid was sitting at the bar.
They eyed each other for a second. He wouldn't usually offer service to such models, those tended to be prissy, overbearingly optimistic and condescending... Before the harsh environment made them spare parts.
Not this one.
Her rubber face was cracked from exposure, stitches holding together gashes in the material, and her metal skull wss showing through gaps too wide to be mended. Her eyes were unlit, contrasting any other he saw before, wasting power to keep up appearance.

"what'll it be?"

She slapped a few bills and coins on the countertop. Before she pulled her hand back, he spotted the glint of something sharp in the gap where the hand split.

"a pint of coolant and however long this buy on a power outlet."

Quickly sifting through the money, he poured the requested amount in the glass he had in hand.
"that'd get you half an hour, but the accs are full and sun's still up. You got until the panel's voltage drop, I'll tell ya when."

She nodded, downing the murky liquid and hopping off the stool to sit near one of the walls.
Finally seeing her back, he saw a thick cable sneaking out of her pack and into her charging port, or rather spliced directly into what was left of it.

He narrowed his eyes. Anyone having such wounds was either reckless, enslaved or dangerous. Nobody gave up their charging port willingly.
She wasn't either of the first option, her movements like the spring of a cocked hammer, ready to hit the primer.

"what brings you here?"

She paused mid movement, holding a cable coming out from her back mere millimeters from an outlet.
She eyed him in return, her dark eyes unreadable.

"what do you know about the unwrangled?"
She plugged the cord.

The barman jerked, crushing the glass he was holding.
The few other patrons dropped their activities to stare at the weathered nanny.

He brushed aside the shards, leaning on the counter.
"the wreck of a self-driving car, brought back to life by a rogue fabricator that tore itself free from it's factory. It attack caravans and transports, stealing fuel and power. People tried avoiding it's territory but it just goes terrorizing settlements instead. It's feral. Dangerous. *Lethal*." he lean back, silent.

Another patron speak up, breaking the silence.
"I've seen it, once. It doesn't move right. Not like a vehicle. It kick up a cloud of dust and you can only see the headlights when it tear through the militia like a hot iron through solder." he put down the poker cards he was playing with, staring at the table with a cyclopean optic." we had a military model, back then. Big, strong and bulletproof. He wounded the beast. Didn't see it, but it *roared*. The guy went flying out of the dust cloud. Completely destroyed, it was like he was backhanded with a wrecking ball." he turned his one-eyed gaze toward the nandroid. "bartender, a full charge for the lady. Put it on my tab."

"you sure 'bout that?"

"if anyone' s going against this thing, I ain't letting them go without a full battery. Might live a bit longer."

Her eyes lit up, and she gave him a grateful nod.

"don't thank me, lass. You'll wish you ran out."

Her eyes went dark again, and she pulled a hat over her head, hiding the top of her face.
"There's more like this out there." She smirked, dilapidated lips revealing cracked teehplates.
"This isn't my first beast"

Shaking his head, the cyclop went back to his game, and the barman cleaned up the remains of the glass.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She walked.
The she kept her head loosely angled toward the sun, the meager contribution of the old solar panel on it being that much more she wasn't wasting.
Like twin pendulums, her legs moved in a rhythm.
To survive in an overheated environment with no power, you learn tricks.
Dull your mind, turn off an eye. Anything to keep the precious charge.
She kept this up for hours, only dully aware of the passage of time from the shadows and her internal clock.
She knew she was getting close.
She lacked a GPS, but you don't need one when you got the precise time and the sun's position. At least not to navigate emptiness.
That, and there was metallic carcasses sticking out of the sand.
She went back to fully alert, mind snapping back to 100% and using both eyes to survey her surrounding.
Head swiveling, she didn't stop nor change her pace. Any pile of sand or rock could be what she was searching for.

She noticed something she wasn't sure she liked; the carcasses were becoming bigger, more numerous, and more mangled.
She spotted something contrasting harshly against the sun-bleached yellow.
Spots of oils here and there, not completely soaked in the soil yet.
Almost fresh, even. She stopped walking, tensing.

She followed the trail, her gait rigid to limit the squeaking noises from her joints.
It inexplicably stopped against a large boulder, forming an almost straight wall.
Her senses flashed in alarm and she leaped backward, just in time to dodge-
A shadow?

"ah?"
She turned around, and time slowed down.
A car tire was flying high, on a trajectory aimed-
Right where she was before.
It smashed against the boulder, bouncing lamely on the dusty ground, away from her.

Welp. She's there.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


She tensed, getting ready to dodge any direction.
Releasing all locks on her software and hardware, she felt her mind spin up faster, her eyes taking in more details.
The beast was wounded, so to speak. One of the front tire was lopsided, half pulled out of the rim, the exposed engine squirting oil and fuel from a fractured cylinder head.
Everything was covered in dust and sand, the murderous carriage unable to clean itself. Including the sensors. There was the remnants of whipers or other cleaning apparatus on some, but time took them away, leaving behind dangling hoses and broken rods.

The machine heaved, pawing at the dry soil with it's damaged tire like an animal ready to charge.

Her limbs twitched, waiting for her command to unwind one way or another.

The once mighty v8 revved up, limping as a lopsided v7 with a horribly unbalanced noise.

Then suddenly something lashed out from behind the cabin, and only through the sudden overclocking did she manage to catch it in time.
It was a mechanical arm, some kind of heavy construction equipment ending with a huge tractor tire like an attempt at copying a bucket-wheel excavator.

It didn't look like it would reach her, the sudden move making the machine twist against the ground from the backlash, but she didn't survive by underestimating the monsters roaming the wasteland. So she jumped backward.
Just in time, as the arm *extended*, the new distance barely enough to save her as the wedges of the wheel left skid marks on her torso.

The monstrous momentum resulting from the failed attack forced the machine to awkwardly spin on itself, a furious roar coming from a damaged car horn.
Wheels spun suddenly, trying to gain traction against the motion, and it slammed the still-moving limb downward, twisting it so the wheel's rotation would slow it down.