The alarm clock buzzed at 6:00 AM in a world that had not yet forgotten the color green. Arthur reached out and silenced the noise with a practiced slap. He rose from his bed and moved through a routine that millions shared. The shower was hot. The coffee was black. His suit was a crisp navy blue, pressed the night before in anticipation of the meeting that would secure his promotion.
He stepped out of his apartment building and adjusted his tie in the reflection of a shop window. The city bustled with life. Cars honked, and pedestrians hurried toward subway stations. Arthur felt invincible. He felt like a man on the precipice of greatness.
Then the sky turned a bruised, sickly purple.
The wind did not howl; it screamed. It carried a scent that tasted of copper and old blood.
Plip.
A single drop of heavy, oily rain struck Arthur's cheek. He wiped it away, but the gray smear remained. It burned.
People around him stopped. They looked up.
The downpour began in earnest. It was not water. It was an accelerant for a dormant plague.
Panic erupted. Men and women ran for cover, but the Rust was faster. It seized Arthur mid-stride. His joints stiffened. His flesh turned gray, then a flaky reddish-brown. He tried to scream, but his jaw fused shut. He fell to the pavement with a heavy, metallic clang.
He lay there for days. The rain fell. The city died around him. The rust accumulated on his form until he was indistinguishable from the scrap of the collapsing infrastructure.
Decades passed. Or perhaps only moments. Time meant nothing to the mineral.
Then, a spark ignited deep within his calcified chest. A core formed. It pulsed with a hunger that replaced his soul.
Crack.
Arthur rose. He was no longer a man in a navy suit. He was a Decomposer. He shambled forward to serve the hive, as a drone in the age of oxidation.
…
Presently
Two weeks had passed since the annihilation of the Papaya Biome.
Deep within the bowels of a Class A Rust Bucket, darkness reigned. The air was thick with the dust of decay. In a forgotten corner, amidst piles of twisted rebar and sheet metal, a small, irregular shape was fused to the floor.
It was a cocoon of rust. It looked like a cancerous growth that had claimed a human victim entire, much like Arthur from the old world.
Crrrr-ack.
A fissure appeared on the surface of the shell.
Crrrr-ack.
The sound echoed in the silence. A brilliant blue light bled through the fracture. It pierced the gloom like a laser. The shell could not contain the pressure within.
KRAKOOM.
The cocoon shattered. Shards of rusted metal exploded outward.
A small figure collapsed onto the dusty floor. It was a human child. Her hair was a chaotic mess of yellow and blue strands that matted against her forehead. She lay still while the dust settled around her.
Skitter-scritch.
The noise attracted attention.
Class 1 Rotters emerged from the shadows. They were small, lizard-shaped parasites made of jagged scrap and fluid. They swarmed toward the girl. Their sensor pits glowed with dull curiosity. Usually, they would burrow into soft flesh and consume the victim alive, but today they hesitated. They circled her. They chattered their mandibles but kept a respectful distance.
One Rotter, slightly larger than the others, grew bold. It crept forward. Its metallic claws clicked on the floor as it reached for the girl's limp hand.
Kah-kah!
The girl coughed violently.
The sound hit the creatures like a physical blow. The swarm scattered instantly. Some burrowed beneath the loose dirt with frantic digging motions. Others merged into the surrounding walls and vanished into the iron.
Sophie groaned. The sound was low and guttural. Her consciousness returned in fragmented waves. Her head felt heavy, as if it were filled with wet sand. She shifted her weight and pushed herself into a sitting position.
She opened her eyes.
They were no longer the eyes of a normal human. The irises were a resplendent silver, rimmed with a sharp, electric blue tint.
The world assaulted her. The darkness of the dungeon appeared impossibly bright to her new vision. Every grain of dust, every scratch on the metal walls, stood out in high definition. She blinked rapidly until the intensity became manageable.
She looked around.
"Where..."
She didn't recognize this place. Rusted metal framing loomed over her. Scrap piles reached for the ceiling like jagged mountains.
She thought she was back in the safety of the Biome, perhaps in a storage closet.
Then the headache struck.
THUMP.
It was a sledgehammer to her temples. Memories flooded in, not as vague recollections, but as vivid, real-time hallucinations.
She saw the evacuation. She felt the lurch of the truck. She saw the Oxidizer bathing in the lightning on the Banana Bridge. She saw Elark's back split open and the swarm burst forth. She felt the Spider-Ruster strike her chest.
And then the final image seared itself into her mind.
Leik. Her mother. Broken in the mud. Standing on pulverized legs. The mutts lunging. The blood.
"Mom!"
Sophie screamed. The anguish was raw and absolute.
"Mommy!"
She saw it happening again in the empty air before her. She saw the teeth tearing into the only safety she had ever known.
A fire ignited in her gut. It was not sadness; it was a white-hot rage.
WHAM.
She punched the ground.
The impact was disproportionate to her size. The dusty floor cracked. A shockwave rippled through the dirt and disturbed the hiding spots of the Rotters.
Hiss!
The lizards surfaced in a panic.
Sophie gasped. She scrambled backward on her heels and waved her hands frantically.
"Get away! Get away!"
She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the bite. She waited for the pain of a thousand needles.
Seconds ticked by.
Nothing happened.
She cracked one eye open. The immediate area was empty. The Rotters had retreated to the perimeter.
'Where are they? Why didn't they bite me?'
She remained frozen against a metal beam. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
Slowly, heads began to pop up from behind the scrap piles. The Rotters peeked at her. They stared with the same intensity she directed at them.
One Rotter, the brave one with a bulbous, fluid-filled belly, perched on a piece of framing. It watched her without twitching.
Sophie stared back. Confusion warred with fear. These were the monsters that ate Elark. These were the things that chased them. Yet here they were, acting like frightened stray dogs.
Several minutes passed in a silent standoff.
Sophie's curiosity began to override her terror. She extended a trembling hand toward the brave lizard.
"Nice... nice lizard?"
The creature did not run. It leaned forward.
Sophie's finger brushed its metallic snout.
ZZZ-ZAP.
A spark of blue energy jumped from her fingertip to the Rotter.
The creature stiffened. It convulsed violently and fell off the frame onto its back. Its legs kicked in the air as the energy coursed through its system.
The other Rotters squealed and scrambled further back into the shadows.
Sophie snatched her hand away and stared at her finger.
'Did I do that? Did my finger just spark?'
She looked at the convulsing lizard. The seizure stopped. It flipped onto its feet with unnatural agility.
It did not run away. It ran at her.
Skitter-skitter.
"No!"
Sophie screamed. She slapped at her clothes as the creature dashed up her leg and disappeared inside her sleeve.
"Get it off! Get it off!"
She tore the sleeve of her tunic in a frenzy. The fabric ripped away, but the lizard was not there. She stood up and frantically pulled off her shirt. She checked her skin, her armpits, her back.
The Ruster was nowhere to be seen. It had vanished into thin air.
But something else caught her eye.
She looked down at her chest.
A soft, rhythmic glow pulsed beneath her skin. Blue veins spiderwebbed outward from her sternum and pulsed like a second circulatory system.
The remaining Rotters in the shadows hissed and shielded their eyes as if the light threatened to incinerate them.
Sophie touched the glowing patterns. Her skin felt feverishly hot.
Then she remembered.
The fall. The orb. The Adamantine sphere she had shoved into her mouth to save her brother.
"I swallowed it."
She gagged. She shoved a finger down her throat and heaved.
Hup. Hup.
Nothing came up but bile. The sphere was gone. The Adamantine had dissolved into her blood.
"How is that possible?"
She stared at her glowing chest. Panic began to rise again.
Grrrrrrr.
Her stomach betrayed her. A hunger unlike anything she had ever felt cramped her insides. It wasn't a desire for food; it was a craving for iron, for rust, for the very metal that surrounded her.
Her eyes drifted to the Rotters peeking from the dark.
They looked... delicious.
"No."
She slapped her own face.
"I am a human! I don't eat bugs! I am not a monster!"
But the saliva pooled in her mouth. The scent of the oxidized metal was intoxicating.
"Stop it! Stop it!"
She grabbed her hair and pulled until the roots screamed. She backed away toward the edge of the platform she had woken up on.
"Get away from me!"
She yelled at the darkness. Her foot found empty air.
Whoops.
She slipped.
Sophie plummeted into the dark.
CLANG.
She struck a metal beam ten feet down.
BANG.
She ricocheted off a rusted pipe.
CRASH.
She fell like a pinball through the labyrinth of the Rust Bucket. She smashed against hard surfaces that should have broken her bones.
KA-THUD.
She crashed through the rusted ceiling of a shipping container and landed hard on her rump.
"Oww..."
Sophie groaned and sat up. She waited for the pain of broken limbs, but it didn't come. She felt only a dull ache.
She looked at her hands.
"Aaaah!"
She scooted back in fright.
Her hands were not flesh. They were coated in a sleek, liquid metal. It wasn't the crusty rust of the infection; it was polished, living chrome. The metal sheathed her arms up to the elbows.
She stared in horror.
"I am a Ruster. I turned into a Ruster."
As her heart rate began to slow, the metal reacted. It receded like a tide. The chrome pulled back into her pores until her skin was pink and soft again.
Sophie stared at her flesh arms. She turned them over.
"Okay."
She let out a shaky breath.
"That didn't happen. I didn't just turn into metal. That is impossible."
A hysterical giggle bubbled up in her throat.
"Hahaha. Of course. This is a dream. I fell off the bridge, and I hit my head, and now I am dreaming."
The logic settled over her like a warm blanket. It explained everything. The silver eyes, the strange environment, the disappearing lizard, the hunger, the fall.
"If this is a dream, then I can do anything. I am the boss of my dream."
She stood up and brushed the dust from her pants.
"I can bring them back. I can bring everyone back."
She squeezed her eyes shut and focused. She pictured her brother's face. His messy hair. His scowl.
She thrust her hands forward.
"Aidro! Appear before me now!"
SHOOOM.
A blast of blue energy erupted from her palms. It struck the metal floor of the container.
"Yes! It works!"
She opened her eyes and rushed to the spot.
"Aidro, I knew I could..."
She stopped.
Lying on the floor was not a boy. It was a lizard. It was a fat-bellied Rotter, but it wasn't rusty. It glowed with a blue, radiant light, and its gut was filled with swirling blue liquid.
Sophie put her hands on her hips.
"You are not my brother. You are that Ruster from before."
She frowned at the creature.
"Why are you so shiny? You were scrap a minute ago. Stupid dream. I can't even control it right."
She turned her back on the creature.
"Go away. I am trying to conjure my real brother."
She thrust her hands out again.
"Aidro! Please appear!"
Nothing happened. No light. No boy.
Skitter.
The blue lizard hopped in front of her. It wagged its metallic tail like a puppy.
"You are not Aidro!"
Sophie stomped her foot.
"Why do you keep showing up? Get out of my dream!"
She grabbed the glowing lizard. It felt warm and vibrating. She hurled it against the wall of the container.
SPLAT.
A loud bang echoed. The creature shattered into a smear of blue liquid that slid down the rusted wall.
"Good riddance."
Sophie dusted off her hands.
"Now, let's try again. Focus, Sophie."
She chanted the spell.
"Aidro! Aidro! Aidro!"
She did not see the liquid on the wall moving. It defied gravity. The blue droplets slithered across the floor and pulled loose scraps of iron into a vortex.
Slurp-clank.
The lizard reformed. It shimmered as the rust fell away, replaced by the silver-blue shine.
Sophie opened her eyes to see if her brother had arrived.
Hop.
The lizard landed on her shoulder.
"Gah!"
She brushed it off frantically.
"Stop pestering me! My brother doesn't look like a bug!"
She glared at the thing. It tilted its head. It looked at her with an expression that was annoyingly familiar. It was the same look Aidro gave her when he put a beetle in her bed.
A thought struck her.
"Wait a minute."
She narrowed her eyes.
"If this is my dream... maybe Aidro is pranking me. Maybe he turned himself into a lizard just to be annoying. That is exactly something he would do."
She decided to test the theory.
"Aidro. Come over here."
The lizard scurried to her feet and sat.
"Aidro, stand up straight."
The lizard rose onto its hind legs and balanced perfectly.
Sophie bit her lip to keep from smiling.
"Aidro... breakdance."
The lizard dropped to its back and spun. It kicked its legs in a rhythmic flare.
"Pfft!"
Sophie clamped a hand over her mouth, but the laughter escaped.
"Hahaha! Your moves are just as ridiculous as his! You look silly!"
She pointed a finger at the creature.
"You are indeed my brother. You can't fool me."
She scooped the lizard up and hugged it against her cheek.
"Come here, you dummy."
Grrrrrrr.
Her stomach roared again. The hunger pangs were sharp enough to double her over.
"Ugh. I'm starving, Aidro."
She rubbed her belly.
"And I don't want to eat Rusters. I am not a monster. I tried to conjure food, but I think I used all my brain power turning you into a disco lizard."
She looked at the creature in her hands.
"Can you get me something? Please? Real food?"
The lizard seemed to understand. It leaped from her grasp and scurried toward a small, jagged gap in the container's floor. It slipped through and vanished.
"Good boy. You're the best brother, even if you are slimy."
She sat down on an old crate to wait. Her eyes roamed the interior of the container. It was filled with rotting wooden boxes and ancient, unrecognizable machines. She swung her legs and hummed a tune her mother used to sing.
"Close your eyes, the sky is gray,
Sleep until the sun's bright ray.
Though the clouds may weep and cry,
We are safe and we are dry."
Minutes dragged on.
"Is he ever coming back?"
Clank. Scrape.
A noise came from the gap. A blue tail poked through, thrashing wildly. The rest of the body was stuck.
"Are you stuck, Aidro? Did you eat too much?"
Sophie walked over. She grabbed the rusted edges of the hole. The metal felt soft to her touch. She peeled it back like the rind of an orange.
"There."
The lizard scurried in. It dragged a heavy object by the scruff of the neck.
It dropped its prize at Sophie's feet.
It was a cat.
Sophie froze. She recognized the mottled fur. It was Whisk, Elark's cat.
The animal was dead. Its lower half was crystallized with rust, stiff and jagged, but the upper torso was still fleshy.
"Whisk?"
She looked at the lizard.
"Where did you find this? Am I supposed to eat a dead cat?"
The lizard nudged the carcass toward her with its nose.
Sophie grimaced. "Disgusting."
But then the smell hit her. The scent of the iron in the cat's blood mingled with the raw meat. Saliva flooded her mouth. The repulsion vanished, replaced by a ravenous need.
"Okay. Since this is my dream... it shouldn't be a problem. It's not real."
She knelt. Her hands trembled.
She grabbed the cat.
She bit into the flesh.
It tasted divine. It tasted like life.
She tore into the meal with savage speed. She crunched through the rusted bones of the lower half as easily as the meat.
Minutes later, she sat back. Her face was smeared with blood and grit. The cat was gone. sucked dry.
Buuuuurp.
"Excuse me."
She wiped her mouth on her arm.
"I'm thirsty now. All that rusty meat makes you dry."
The lizard climbed up her leg. It tugged at her pocket.
"What is it?"
The lizard crawled into her pocket and dragged out a cylindrical object.
It was the Plastinium can. The W-H2O.
Sophie gasped.
"Mom gave me this. I was saving it to drink with my brother."
She took the can. It felt cool in her hand.
"Who would have thought this would end up in my dream too?"
She looked at the lizard.
"Aidro, since we are together again... let's drink."
She popped the tab.
Hiss.
She tilted her head back and chugged. The liquid was cold fire. It washed away the taste of blood and rust. Her mind sharpened. A surge of pure energy flooded her veins.
She lowered the can. There were a few drops left.
"Here."
She poured the remaining liquid into the lizard's open mouth.
The creature swallowed. It shivered, then glowed brighter than ever. It zoomed around her feet in a circle, high on the purity of the heavenly water.
"Fuhuhu. I knew you would like it."
Sophie stood up. She felt strong. She felt unbreakable.
"Drinking heaven tastes better together."
She walked to a hole in the wall. She looked out into the bright labyrinth of the Rust Bucket.
"Now that I'm energized, let's go explore this dream, Aidro. When my brain power recovers, I'll conjure Mom and Dad. And Grandpa too. One big happy family. Hopefully, they don't turn into a lizard like you. "
She smiled a smile that was too wide, too sharp.
She crawled through the wall with the lizard on her shoulder, stepping into the nightmare she refused to believe was real.