part one, day one, 2243

  first impressions

In this world there are designated safe zones, most of the bars, to stay for a while if you're a traveler. This one in particular, “last stop”, was run by a friendly boy named Mark who allowed anyone into the bar. First drink of the week is free. 

The bar had a few boozers in it as usual. Mark was busy putting up bounties on a cork board with pins for people to look through and take one to collect. Mark had wanted to leave the bar since he was a kid and explore the destroyed cities and radioactive forests. 

The first robots were highly volatile and radioactive but they suddenly stopped appearing, people think  that they were too expensive to make so the automated facilities stopped They would go to populated or important areas and explode like a dirty bomb coating it in radiation. 

He was only 20 and couldnt legally drink, but it's an apocalypse so who cares. He poured himself a shot of jack daniels and behind him he heard the hiss of the decontamination chamber and the doors opened. He knew who it was. It was a mercenary who didn't go by a name. He came in with his collie by his side as usual and put a bounty on the counter and said “gimme the usual '' . He usually just had a blueberry vodka mixed with sprite, personally Mark didn't like how that tasted so that's what he poured. The collie hopped onto a bar stool and started panting. 

The merc got up after taking the drink and walked over to the bounty board reading them out loud. “Surveillance, food gathering, farm work?!” he giggled at that last one. Then he saw it, in bold writing that looked like it was made with coal it said “explore ground zero and bring back the heart of the forest and information'' this piqued his interest and he took the paper. He sat down next to his dog and read it in more detail, he put it on the bars counter and said to mark “what's the reward” mark looked up from the other side of the bar and said” i don’t know the crazy bastard who wrote it said anyone taking it to meet at her bunker she has something to help, cords are on the paper” 

The merc was quiet for a minute. “i'll take it” he shoved the paper in his pocket, finished his drink and sat there for a minute letting the homemade vodka go down his throat. “Careful, I've heard stories of what happens out there. It's gonna be a long journey”. Mark wanted to ask if he could go along so he could get out of the bar but he knew his dad would never let him; not that he could do anything. His dad was sick and his mother went out to ground zero and never came back. He wanted to go to find out what happened to her and he was well aware that he probably wouldn't come back. 

He fiddled with a bottle cap of an amber ale thinking about how he could ask him, but he didn't need to. The merc stood up and said to the nearly empty bar “I need someone to come along with me, who's up for it” no one answered. Finally after minutes of silence and the mercenary looking like a fool for asking boozers, Mark said “I could go, I know how to prepare food and make drinks.” The little noise in the bar stopped, the merc looked at him and laughed. When he stopped laughing he said “You're good enough for a distraction” and then snickered. 

Then he heard his dad coughing upstairs. Mark ran up the stairs to his dad coughing up blood into a bowl. “Dad? Are you ok?!” his dad didn't answer and just slumped over his face landing in the bowl. Mark ran over and picked him up, his dad had been sick for nearly a year now, also about how long his mother had been missing. Mark knew as soon as he saw his dad slump he was dead but he tried to wake him up. Shaking him violently and checking for a pulse constantly, tears dripping from his eyes. He let him go and sat there for a minute just crying with his fathers body on his lap

When he recovered picked up the body and a note fell out of its hand. He picked up the note as well and brought the body outside, the merc stood up, his mood changing to a respectful one rapidly, when he dragged it down the stairs. He took a shovel that was in an outhouse turned toolshed  and began to dig, a tear fell and hit the ground with every thrust. The merc came out with his dog and saluted out of respect, good to know he had honor, and the dog tried to help dig. When the hole was deep enough for the body, Mark laid the body down and filled it in, wiping tears from his eyes every couple minutes. He fashioned a gravestone out of some nearby stick like he had done for his mother and sat there quietly. The merc patted him on the back and said “sorry for your loss but if we wanna move we have to before dark” Mark just grunted and went back inside through the back door he really didn't like this guy but he was his only way out a minute ago. Now he can just leave, it was uncanny to him. 

He sat down in his dad's bedroom and read the note out loud   “I'm so sorry for leaving you but I can feel this sickness is finally getting to me. I've been sick for too long and can't live with it anymore. I'm going to stop fighting it. I know that you've always wanted to go explore so take my gun. I've left it in the bottom drawer of my dresser with a box and a half of ammunition. Be safe out there son. Love, your father”

He began to cry again. Standing up and walking to the dresser he opened it and took out the break action single barrel rifle, chambered in 7.62x39mm. He opened the breech and loaded a round into the chamber and went downstairs. 

“Im ready” the merc says nothing in response and they walk out the back door. they look towards the thick forest that's supposedly heavily irritated. It was massive, the epicenter of the explosion had a giant tree that people say moves sometimes; its vines like worms and leaves like insect wings. They both began to walk to the trees in silence. It was a multi-day trip. One day and night to get to the forest and a few days to the heart. After the heart, The hard part was to find the starting point of this war. The collie sniffed around happily wagging its tail like a broom.

“So what are your names?” Mark asked. “The dog is Sydney and mine… isn't important” Mark rolled his eyes. They had only been walking through dead trees, tumbleweeds and bushes. It was odd that the trees at the epicenter hadn't died. for about an hour  when they saw a bunker door on the side of a small mountain. It took them another 47 minutes to reach the bunker. 

When they got there the merc clicked the intercom “hey i took you job let us- wait hold on” he clicked off the intercom “you hear that?, it sounded like clicking” mark shook his head and pulled the gun up and looked around. the merc flicked his thermal on his sight and looked around. “Nothing and this was the sight the military has sight” he was about to turn away when they both heard the clicking from a tree. It was a slender feminine figure with a wooden bow. I had a quiver of arrows on its back. The arrows had a green pulsating mass on the end. They didn't get a good look at it before it jumped away. 

The merc clicked the intercom again and said “ok let us in now” he turned his back to the door as it opened loudly and he backed into a machine. It looked like a tiger with a blade and a conister on its tail. He flicked around and fired a couple rounds into its head destroying it. He noticed its lights were darker than usual but paid no attention to it. A thin older woman walked up the bunker stairs and saw the machine. She ran to it and looked at the once intact head. She pulled a chip out of the motherboard  and put it in her overalls pocket. 

“That machine wasn't going to hurt you trigger happy moron”. The merc kneeled down and picked up the blade then he took the canister afterwards. It smelled like bitter almonds. “Potassium cyanide” said the merc after putting some in an analyzer on his wrist. “It's a poison alright… just not the best you could use” he took the vial and put it in his bag as well as the blade in a bag Sydney had on. “Come come i will give you the details inside” They followed the woman into the bunker, Inside machines were fastened above the ground with chains. Some powered on, some not. Scrappers were in abundance; they looked like dogs but with two drill-like blades on their mouths some wandered around ignoring the four of them and others avoided them. 

“I've reprogrammed them and now they’re working for me! they have somewhat of a personality but I'm working on it.” They all sat around a glass table and the woman started with “I need two things to make a code changing EMP device. It's quite simple. Go into the forest and get the heart of it from that tree and download the file of the government's installation there onto this drive” she said “whats the heart for?” the merc asked. “Well i need an unlimited power source if we wanna build a permanent generator now there are dangers in there so i'm offering you a companion it's the same model as what you killed earlier just a different poison in the canister this one has a glyphosate compound instead of cyanide” she finished and a similar model to the tiger robot came out that was  jet black with white lights. Its tail flicked carefully around as it awaited orders. “Why do we need glyphosate?” asked the merc “uh… don't worry about it just for an emergency.” The robot happily made strange sounds. They all collected their stuff and left the bunker. 

The large doors slamming and locking closed behind them. Mark looked at the robot they had been given “I think the robot needs a name!” Mark said “how about….B3AR” “sure why not, that's what it's labeled anyway. Kind of doesn't make any sense though a tiger named bear” they continued on. The foliage seemed to have died and it was simple tumbleweeds rolling across the dead and dry landscape. Bear didn't seem  bothered keeping its regal posture and protective movements. Then they heard it. The noise of drones They all looked up and saw the drones each carrying in a pod with something in it, robots. The drones flew overhead dripping the pods. They hit the ground quickly and everyone looked over weapons ready. And watched as the pods uncurled into robots. White with blue lights hold plasma throwers. they only had one eye but it's all they needed. It was at a standoff. Both sides' guns readied in a stalemate B3AR clacking his tail in a threatening way and Sydney got low to the ground. 

Everyone was waiting for the first move to be made. Then, the merc  took the first shots taking out one bot it 6-7 shots and the other two put down a particle barrier that blocked the mercs shots but not marks. His weapon was primitive compared to everything else made over 200 years before the fall. It went right through the wall and hit a bot in the hand, putting a hole in it. It only held one shot though. He pulled open the breach and the hot cartridge nearly hit his hand. And he took another bullet from his pocket and slid it in the chamber and closed the breech, firing another shot into the bot's eye making it lose its vision and collapse. The last one fired its plasma thrower, hitting B3AR in the leg. It was so hot it melted some of the leg away. B3AR stabbed it in the chest making it drop its weapon then pinned it and ripped it apart with his claws. 

“Alright salvage what we can!” Mark picked up a plasma thrower and the merc shouted “no point we can't use em trigger is locked” then he saw the robot mark shot squirming. He picked up his radio and said into it “hey you crazy bunker hag we got a still powered almost intact humanoid bot here its eye is gone and its left hand is damaged. Leaving it here and i'll send cords” he clicked off and fiddled with his wrist monitor. They picked up their stuff after taking the eyes and power cells out of the bots to sell at the next bar or stronghold. “These cells will power out lights. we don't know what's in there. I'm worried about the glyphosate Bear has which kills plants down to the roots. 

We still have around 30 minutes of light. Well walk for 20 and set up camp after. We’re getting up early to move'' bear stomped towards the merc and pointed its tail at the power cell and opened a compartment on its back. It had two out of three power cells. He thought for a second and slid it in. a holo screen came out its faceplate and had energy diversion options. The merc diverted from mobility to energy shields and added the extra power they have now to glyphosate  compound production.  The third option already was labeled DO NOT DIVERT. The pressed confirm and the joint’s clinked and Bear started glowing blue. A green light appeared on the bottom of the compound canister and it filled completely up. After the light went yellow. “interesting” the merc said out loud and stood up reloading his rifle 

“Let's move!” Everyone piled into a group. They heard another drone behind them and flicked around. It had scrap metal spikes on it. They knew it belonged to  the bunker hags so there was nothing to worry about it latched onto the damaged bot and flew off. After about 18 minutes they stopped to set up camp. The merc pulled a sleeping bag out of his backpack and set it up. “I hope you brought one kid cause I've only got a dog bed in here and Sydney sleeps with me. 

Bear beeped and brought up the energy panel highlighting two options “compound production and fabricator” mark said out loud. He diverted the power from CP to the fabricator. Another menu popped up on the side and Mark selected the bed option. It created a tiny gray cube with an orange button on top. Mark pressed the button and the cude said “place on ground carefully” he placed it on the ground and backed up and it unfolded into a bed.  The bed  got bigger and bigger until It eventually was a full formed bed. It was black with a blue hexagon design comforter. He soon found out it was see through but kept him very warm. Bear curled up next to the bed and went into rest mode. Mark could hear the below of the mercs snoring through his gas mask. Mark hadn't even realized the gas mask in the first place. He couldn't see his face. The only light was the blue glow from the nano blanket. Soon enough Mark had fallen asleep.

part two, day two, 2243

      Out of the frying pan into the fire

The sun had barely risen when Mark awoke to Sydney howling. He hit Bear on the side twice and its screen booted up. The merc was up right away and Bear stretched and made deep rumbling beeping to match Sydney's howl. After Mark had gotten up, Bear began to eat the bed like a chocolate bar to regain the material used. 

“Bear divert power from fab to mobility.” The joints clinked and the fabricator door closed. Bear's needle tail flicked around like a real cat. “It must be that personality module that bunker woman installed” Mark thought to himself after noticing the tail. The merc picked up his stuff and pointed. “Nearly there it's about a mile to walk '' the edge of the forest was close now. 

Bears screen went from two dots for eyes to an exclamation point. He ran ahead and began to dig. Mark caught up with him and looked at what Bear was digging up. He was digging up some sort of crate. The handle was uncovered and most of the top. “Hold on buddy move” Bear stopped and moved out of the way. Mark struggled for a minute to open the crate but eventually the dirt shifted off the top and he got the crate open. Inside was an identical version of Bears needle and canister with a different labeled H2SO4, a highly acidic compound. “This will come in handy!'' Mark said and let Bear look at it. He heard the locking mechanism unlock on bears tail. And he knew what to do, he took off the glyphosate canister and needle and attached the acid one. It's locked and acid dripped out. “Reroute glyphosate production to acid production and arm the weapon.” the needle began to leak. A drop hissed when it hit the ground, then Mark realized the mercenary had stayed back. 

He heard rustling and Bear went on alert. Mark climbed out of the hole and looked around readying his rifle, then a machine crawled out of the bushes. In the blink of an eye Bear stabbed its head and it quickly dissolved and bear made a happy beeping noise. “You're in a machine graveyard, kid get out!” the merc shouted as bear stabbed another  one in the chest quickly melting it away revealing the core, which Mark shot. They bolted back towards the merc, but something gripped Mark's leg. It was cold like death's grip and metallic, nearly crushing his leg like it was in a hydraulic press. 

Mark turned and saw a massive hulking robot had fallen out of a tree and grabbed his calf. It was covered in moss and vines and had a flickering face shield. Its power was low and they needed that cell for Bear so they had more combat options. He tried to pull away but its grip bound him to it. He fired a shot at it, but it didn’t care, the shot just bounced off and the machine kept holding. Bear ran over and stabbed its arm. It began to oxidize quickly and fell off. It was still around his ankle though and made it difficult to run, but he still managed to get fairly far. He was nearly at the merc when he shouted “duck!” Mark dropped to the ground and Bear crouched down right as a red beam went over their heads. When the merc got up, he took an offensive stance and fired a shot every step he got closer to the behemoth. In the meantime Bear peeled the hand off of Mark's calf with its claws. The behemoth didn't seem to care it was getting shot, it just charged a beam again. Right before it fired, the merc hit it in the eye. 

The noise of the beam charging stopped and an explosion went off. Mark finally got up and turned around. The entire upper half of the behemoth was destroyed; all that remained were its legs that had locked their joints years before. They were nearly at the edge of the forest. Landscape around them started to become more alive and green. They left the robot parts there; but Sydney picked up a piece of metal off the behemoth's legs and managed to shift it into a bag on her side. 

Soon they reached the edge of the forest and peared in. It was thick but beautiful. Willow trees and ash trees were all over. Bushes of all sorts and new berries they had never seen before. They all stood in awe for a couple minutes until the merc took a step into the trees. Immediately a shriek roared out in the distance making three of them jump and Bear went into attack mode. No one saw anything, “keep moving we've got a job to do just stay alert and watch each other's back” the merc started forward and Sydney joined by his side. Bear crouched down and beep to get Mark's attention. Bear screen said “tired legs?” Mark's legs were now that he thought about it. He jumped up onto Bear's back and they quickly caught up to the merc. 

“So how do we know how to get back?” Mark questioned. “We figure it out” the merc responded. They walked on for about an hour, losing sight of the way they came. All of a sudden a heavenly smell came over them all except Bear. “What is that great smell?” said Mark. “I don't know but it smells good enough to go through my gas mask.” They followed the smell deeper into the woods, coming to a clearing full of flowers with one giant angelic violet snapdragon in the middle.   They all walked towards it. But Bear stayed back and beeped a warning beep. They paid no attention and walked towards the plant. The giant snapdragon turned towards them and opened its leaves. 

The merc was almost at the flower when Bear ran past and picked up the merc and Mark. The snapdragon shut quickly as bear grabbed them. Sydney managed to break the trance; her love for her owner was stronger than that of a flower of the gods and followed Bear to a safe spot where he dumped the two down. Soon the merc woke up and looked around “what happened, how'd I get here?” The merc panicked and bear pulled up a holo-screen videoing what they were doing. 

They had been walking towards a giant red carnivorous plant not a snapdragon. The flowers on the ground were helmets and skulls from past victims. “The plant's pollen had a hypnotic and hallucinogenic property…” the merc stated at Mark awoke. “What the hell happened? The last thing I remember was smelling something beautiful.” Bear showed Mark the same video recording. “I guess we need to be a bit more careful then huh?” Mark said and wiped dirt off his back. The merc just grunted and checked his gasmask filters. “It's a pretty strange pollen to get through these filters” the merc coughed. 

Mark got a look at his mouth for a second. His lips were black and charred, his teeth were in bad condition and his cheek looked scared and had an old blister scar or two on it. “Hey, I just saw some of your face. Are you ok?” the merc flicked his head over and glared at Mark. 

Everyone was silent and as if it was waiting for the perfect moment. The same clicking heard at the bunker played again. They looked around and saw the same slender figure in a tree. This time it shot one of those strange arrows. The initial shot missed everyone. Then as soon as it connected with the ground the sac exploded into a mustard colored cloud and the creature jumped down brandishing a giant thorn as a knife. Mark began to violently cough and jumped out of the cloud nearly landing on Sydney. Bear came out soon after but the merc was still there. His gas mask protected him. Flashes of light came from the cloud. A screech and rustling as the creature ran away. 

The merc emerged from the cloud as it faded and said “its run off keep your ears out and stay spread out” Bear whined and looked at his still damaged leg. “Don't worry buddy we’ll fix that soon” Mark reassured him. They all collected themselves and continued on. 

“It's getting dark we should set up camp” the merc said stopping and putting a stake in the ground, he mounted an extra power cell onto it and vines nearby slithered away like leafy snakes. “This forest is more alive than it seems. Also I lied, I do have another sleeping bag.” he tossed the extra sleeping roll at Mark and set his up. Mark threw his sleeping roll on the ground and set it up as well. Eventually they all settled down and Bear went to rest mode. 

Mark woke up to hear heavy feet and sniffing. The merc and Sydney were still asleep but Bear had noticed as well. Mark put a finger to his lips and looked at Bear. he picked up the power cell and walked into the darkness towards the noise. He got close enough that the cell illuminated its feet. They were padded like dogs. whatever it was noticed. Made a ghostly scream that sounded like a human female screaming and a wolf howl. And ran off into the woods. The scream woke the merc up and he ran to Mark; who looked petrified. “What's going on what happened” the merc shouted and then he froze as well “it was eating my mother” Mark said sounding on the verge of tears. The merc looked at the body and gasped, for it wasnt Mark's mother he saw, but his own sister. “That's not your mother, that's my sister. She died before the fall. How is she here?”. The merc's body language showed he was sad and concerned for his sanity.  They both stood there, Bear and Sydney arriving after, 

The duo heard Bear and Sydney shuffle out of the brush and turned around. When they looked back toward the body it wasnt there and in its place dead branches and leaves. Mark sat there deep in thought. “Hey uh…. I remember I heard a story from a stalker passing through someone like you. They said this, 

“be wary when drawn to the forest

 Be careful of the ones who protect the center

 The first a master of stealth and the bow

 The second with powers to make mirages

 And the third and brute who hides in armor 

 To defeat the first you must win at it own game

 the second you must find the difference between the past and            the present

 And the third will be broken by something that from its past”

 Maybe the woman with the bow is one and whatever that was is the second but we haven't seen the third?” 

No one went back to sleep.

Part three, day three, 2243

         Terror and tragedy

They set out as the sun rose going towards the tree in the center. There was a heavy silence in the air that no one felt like breaking they continued on for 45 minutes of silence when the merc said “hold on mother nature is calling”. he walked off

Behind a tree and unzipped his fly, and at this moment he thought of the perfect idea. He came back and said to Mark and said. “Remember the little prophecy you recited? It said we have to beat the woman at her own game right? What if we lay traps tonight for her. We can set up camp early and get that done”. Mark raised an eyebrow and said “you're awfully happy today. I'll try your plan but I thought maybe we would have to ambush it, you know, be stealthy like it is but your idea may work under the right circumstances.” they both thought for a second then Bear’s monitor flashed, diverting their attention to that. It had the fabricator power diversion highlighted so Mark walked over and diverted from mobility.  He looked at the options as Bear scanned the area. With the available material in the immediate environment Bear could build pitfall, net and snare traps and noise traps as well as a single cloak generator and stasis field with the materials from the bed earlier. “It's enough for an ambush. But it won't be too great.”

It was getting dark soon and all four of them sat down to formulate a plan. After setting up a decoy camp they made sleeping bags out of massive leaves they found on bushes. The set snare traps in the trees with the help of Bear and made a pitfall trap at the decoy camp with the help of Sydney and Bear to dig the hole. 

It was a bit disconcerting to Mark that there was no life other than plants in the forest. He sat down on a log wondering where it was. The radiation couldn't have gotten the animals their geiger counters haven't gone off yet. Soon after he sat down, the log started vibrating. He threw himself off the log as fast and as far as he could as two eyes on sticks like crabs poked out from where he was sitting. From both sides of the log crab claws emerged from the holes. Legs seemed to unwrap from the bottom of the log as it scuttled away  through the forest. The merc heard the commotion and ran over and the crab ran through the trees. 

“What the hell happened?” he asked as Mark stood up and wiped the dirt off his back “well were not the only thing alive in this forest that’s all i know, so just i know i don't have to tell you but keep your guard up”

Night soon fell as they laid under the giant leaves. Bear powering off so his lights wouldn’t alert the creature and awaited manual powering. It was about 2 am when the trees started moving around them. They had used giant coconuts and vines to make dolls of Mark and the merc. Soon the slender figure silently dropped from the trees to investigate falling inches away from a punji trap. It took steps forward slowly towards a doll and walked like it was hovering. Above the ground.  It walked right over to a doll and as soon as it pulled out its bow a massive hole burst open with spikes at the bottom.

The creature let out a quick scream as it fell but it was cut off. They approached the edge of the hole after powering Bear back on. The creature was impaled in its right knee, its chest, its left forearm, right upper arm, and its head. Its right arm twitched and left leg was limp. The Merc climbed into the pit with the creature and looked at its face or where a face should be. It was just darkness that looked like an ocean. But soon the Merc tilted his head and the darkness spit open revealing the face of a human female.

It took Mark a minute to process what happened and he stared at the face he knew it was familiar but couldn’t place what it was. The merc grabbed its bow and arrows and climbed out of the pit, handing the bow to Mark. “Use it wisely, it's got very limited shots. You have about 4 arrows before we’re out.” Mark simply nodded and slung the bow over his shoulder by the string. It seemed to be made of a simple piece of wood and a large amount of spider silk.  The arrows all had a pulsating sack instead of an arrow head. Mark assumed that that was what exploded in the gas.

As soon as all four of them turned their back, the body in the pit suddenly started to screech. As Mark flicked around the wood V on the head and vines covering digitigrade legs seemed to melt off and then slither up the sides of the pit and past the four adventurers towards the center tree. Suddenly the corpse was visible completely. It had a skeletal exosuit on. Mark looked at the outfit and face again. It had large letters that spelled out “last stop bar” he processed what he saw and then remembered his mothers face pairing it with the corpse. It was almost exactly the same as he remembered. He didn't turn around and as the merc pulled a vine off his bayonet and it slithered away. The merc said “you alright kid?”. no response he just shed a tear and climbed into the pit.

As he approached the body he began to pull off the exosuit, trying to unhook wire and peel open the back to get in off. Just like with his father he shed a tear with every pull or push. Soon lights on the suit turned on and his mother's corpse slid down the punji’s a bit more. Bear peeked into the pit and used his tail to pick up the exosuit and pull it out. Mark's mother's last expression was one of fear.

As he climbed out of the pit the merc asked again “everything okay?” Mark didn’t  respond again he simplety set down the bow and quiver made of hide then stepped into the exosuit he felt the back clamp around him as he slid his hands into metal gloves. The head up display lit up and a map appeared with five blinking dots labeled H-224, T-225, LA-226, LL-228 and RL-229. There was a strange dot labeled 

%TRACK MALF% LAST LOCATION. Mark assumed it meant the tracker had been damaged and that was its last tracked location.

“Hey can we make a detour? There is a piece of the exosuit nearby, about 150 meters northwest” Mark said to the merc who simply nodded and started walking northwest. Soon they reached yet another clearing with a glowing blue light in the middle of it. As they walked towards it they heard the sound of slithering. When they reached the light it was covered in vines with bark that was thick and as hard as steel. Mark reached his gloved hand into the vines and pulled out the armor frame for the right arm. He slid it on and as soon as he did the vines started to slither towards him. He tried to back away but the vines were too fast and quickly began to slither up his arm and form into armor on it. Mark screamed out of fear and tried to shake it off but the vines were on too tight. Then he realized he could still move his entire arm. He turned around but before he did anything he felt a stab at the top of his neck and felt weird. He had memories of the dirty bomb that went off even though he wasnt even born or at least couldnt remeber. Then he heard a voice.

“You have given us mobility and energy for we are in your debt. The most we can do is aid you in combat. All you need to do is think of a weapon and we shall wake that form.” When the voice stopped he touched the back of his neck and felt a small twig going into where the neck connected with his head. He decided to try it out. He thought of a machete and soon enough the vines turned into a razor sharp machete and forced his hand closed around the grip. Then he thought of spikes and his arm became coated in spikes. The last test was he thought of a shield and his forearm turned into a shield his height was surprisingly light. He thought of his hand  and the vines returned all over his arm to form a shape that looked mechanical. He walked back over to the merc and said “well not all plants here are malicious” and he held up his arm. The merc didn't hear at first and fired a shot into his forearm and it bounced off and almost hit Bear. to which Bear responded with aggravated beeps. 

“Fascinating my arm is bulletproof” he laughed and thought of the machete. “But next time don't shoot me

  Part four

                         Psyched up

As the four of them continued through the wood towards the next beacon it seemed the trees grew taller and they found more and more skeletons. Some ripped in half and others completely intact say for a rib or two. Soon enough they reached the location of the left arm; it just ended up being a simple  jackhammer on the wrist used in a construction site. as he slid it on and it connected to the suit he heard the hydraulics hiss and the blade shot out  with lightning speed. Mark simply smiled and clamped his fist making the blade slide back in.