A Winter Wasteland (Robotics and Necrotics Book 2) Read online

  She crossed her arms and looked down at her son with a fond smile. "Wanna make ramen? We have a stove now, kid."

  Saythe was about to reply when the front door opened.

  Erile immediately pulled away from Aisling, pulling his gun from his bag and leaving it in its weaker state. Whoever this was, he wasn't sure if he wanted to kill them yet. If they were dangerous… Things would have to be done.

  "Richard?" A woman's voice called through the house as she made her way to the kitchen. Something was off about it though. Her voice… It sounded like a mixture of hope, sadness, and denial. As if… She wanted to believe he was gone, but couldn't let that be known.

  And then a little girl, about Saythe's age, ran into the room. The smile that had graced her face melted immediately, and she let out a scream.

  Aisling yelped. Hearing kids scream was never her favorite thing.

  "Wait no no no no-" She squeaked, lifting up her hands defensively and dropping to her knees. "It's okay, it's okay. We're not going to hurt you. Don't worry." She furrowed her brows. She sort of had a soft spot for children, and understandably so. She bit the inside of her lip and sighed. "I'm Aisling." She held her hand out. "What's your name? It was really cold out there, so we had to come in here. I'm so sorry for scaring you."

  She glanced back at Erile. "… Put that down. It's okay."

  The mom had immediately sprinted to her child, and once she saw the room full of strangers, well… It was obvious she felt a little bit overwhelmed. She held a small revolver in her hand, but couldn't decide whether she wanted to keep it trained on Aisling or on Erile. Erile noticed, however, that she never pointed it at Saythe.

  "I'm Erile, that's Aisling, and this…" He said, ruffling Saythe's hair with his hand. "Is Saythe. We wanted a warm spot to say the night, and well… Things have gotten a bit out of hand. So let's start over."

  He slowly, hesitantly, bent down and put his gun away. The woman didn't do the same immediately; she seemed very indecisive, but eventually put hers back into its holster on her waist.

  The little girl shied away from Aisling, but… Saythe walked over to her and looked her in the eyes. "I'm Saythe." He said, extending a hand out to her. The girl… She was covered in bruises. And when he looked, Erile noticed that the woman was too. Fury burned momentarily in his gut before he put it out.

  "I'm… I'm Echo." The little girl said, a quiver in her voice.

  Aisling's eyes softened, and she bit the inside of her lip. She paused, before slowly standing up. "You look like you’re about the same age as Saythe." She smiled down at the little girl, tilting her head to the side as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. She glanced up at the woman in front of them after a second, and she sighed. "… I think we should talk." She pressed her lips into a thin line, leaning to one side. "Away from these two." She gestured down to the kids, and after a second slid her jacket off, lightly setting it on top of the bag that she had set down by the door.

  She had a blue and white T-shirt on. There was a bit of blood spatter, and she had scars on her arms, but nothing bad. And it showed she had no other weapons on her, other than the knife obviously tied to her hip.

  "Aisling Grace." She held her hand out politely to shake.

  The woman eyed her warily, but shook her hand. "Revelie Dellin. Call me Red." She nodded at Erile. "I don't trust him around my kid. He comes too." Erile held his hands up and followed her, with Aisling close behind.

  They stopped in the kitchen, which was far enough from the kids to prevent them from hearing but close enough to hear if something went wrong.

  "Is he dead?"

  Well. It looked like there was no avoiding that question.

  Aisling sighed, pulling her hair from its ponytail and running her fingers through it. "… Yeah. He's dead." She glanced up at her after a moment. "He said some… Choice words about me in front of my kid, and it kinda escalated from there." She lolled her head to the side, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. "… By the looks of you, though, I don't think you really care that he's gone." She eyed her with a sort of vague understanding.

  "Don't need to lie to me, my bio dad used to beat me and my mom. I know what's going on when I see it." She sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

  She glanced back towards the room where her son was. "We don't plan on staying long. I'm trying to get to my parents, and the longer I wait the less chance I have of finding them." She looked back towards the woman. "And we'll use our own supplies. We just… Needed a place that wasn't in some tree with Aurans scratching at the bark all night trying to get to us."

  Red seemed to deflate a little bit, and eventually took her hand off the gun she kept holstered at her side.

  "He was an abusive hellhole, but I stayed with him in case we're ever being chased by Aurans. That way we could just use him as well… Bait." Erile shuddered a bit, but he understood her point of view. Kind of.

  "But your daughter." Erile said, emphasizing in her direction. "You'd put yourself, and her, through hell with him, just in case?"

  Red stepped up to him, anger crossing her features. It was obvious she was not a woman to mess with.

  "I don't know what you've been through during this whole thing. But I can nearly promise I've lost more than you."

  "It's not like people can always leave, Erile." Aisling sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "That's the most dangerous part. When my mom kicked Marcus out, we took all sorts of precautions because we were scared he would come back. And he did. He tried to get to her in her own workplace." She lolled her head to the side, walking over to a window and peering outside somewhat curiously. "And in the apocalypse… There aren’t any police to stop him."

  She turned back towards them. "I'm sorry about him. You and your daughter seem like nice people."

  She tucked her hair behind her ears. "… Is it alright if I use your stove? I found some old ramen packs awhile back, and I'd rather use those up now then later. I don't have a pot or anything and they'll be more filling when they're actually cooked."

  The woman pursed her lips, obviously not liking Erile's outburst, but nodded her head.

  Erile turned to go check on the kids, with Red following close behind him. Once he entered the room, he was greeted by the two kids sitting on the floor, playing with some toy cars that Echo owned.

  "Echo is nice, Erile." Saythe said, and Echo nodded frivolously at her mom. "Yeah, Saythe is nice. Can they stay with us?"

  Red sighed, dropping to her knees in front of her daughter. "Sweetie, we don't know these people. And you know we don't have a lot of food…"

  Aisling followed after them and sighed, scooting along the wall over to her bag as she opened it up to pull out the packs of ramen. "Saythe, you know we can't stay. We don't want to exhaust these people's supplies, and we have to find grandma and grandpa." She glanced back at her son with softened eyes. "We're gonna run out of our own food if we stay here long enough. And it's hard to get more right now. We should probably leave sometime tomorrow. This isn't our house. We don't want to overstay our welcome."

  It was nice for Saythe to finally be able to talk to someone his own age, but… She knew they couldn't stay. They had a job to do, and to stay with these people… Well, it would exhaust their supplies. And she didn't want to doom these two to starvation before they could find more food.

  Saythe seemed like he was going to cry for a moment, but he strengthened his resolve. Red and Echo made their way back into the bedrooms, supposedly to clean weapons, sleep, or both.

  "You've got the house to yourself for the night. Please, leave by morning. I don't want my daughter to have any ideas about following you." Red had said, before they retired for the night.

  And then… They had a house with a fire, a firetop stove, and enough protection and space to be comfortable in.

  Erile sat down and began taking apart his helo-gun. It seemed like a very delicate procedure.

  Aisling went to work cooking. It didn
't take long for ramen to cook, and she soon set out three bowls full of the delicious smelling noodles. "Alright. Come eat. We leave at dawn, so after that we should head to bed." She turned, carefully washing the pot out before setting it in the dish rack to dry.

  She turned back towards them and grabbed her bowl to scarf it down. She hadn't had a warm meal like this in a long time, and by God was it delicious.

  She worried somewhat about the two in the other room, but decided they wouldn't be much of a threat. She knew that she didn't seem to like Erile that much, but they were both mothers with children. She'd probably leave them alone. Aisling would stay up a little later than everyone else to make sure.

  Erile ate in silence, slowly taking small bites of the soup in front of him. Aisling looked up at him, and after a moment frowned. "That wasn’t your fault, you know." She reached out and lightly took his hand in a friendly gesture. "We'll be able to make it alright on our own. Don't worry about me. If I've gotten this far, I can last until they get us that vaccine." She squeezed his hand, a small smile touching at the corners of her lips. "I've gone through a lot. Not much catches me by surprise anymore."

  She didn’t really want to know when the cure would be coming anymore. It would just make her lazy.

  "… So. Who's the God in the other universe, then?" She tilted her head to the side. "What even is the Ea?"

  Erile chuckled a bit. Technically, he wasn’t allowed to tell her. The God of Dark would have his ass if he found out, but… He didn't really pay attention anymore these days. So it would be alright.

  "The Rith is ruled by the God of Dark." He said, elaborating on what he said earlier. "A God who enjoys death, destruction, and chaos, but is usually too lazy to cause anything huge outright. So he walks among you and watches humanity destroy itself."

  He then turned to look her in the eyes.

  "The Goddess of Light rules the Ea. She enjoys life, plenty, and cures. She created the universe and the life within it. The Ea is different because magic is allowed by the Goddess of Light."

  He laughed a bit. "Why do you think your physicists have such a hard time figuring things out? They're missing one of the fundamental forces, because your God decided not to allow it. Magic."

  She nodded vaguely, studying his face as she mulled over his words. "… So neither of them can get into each other's worlds?" She asked. "… They sound like a petty divorced couple." She snorted, shaking her head and lazily resting her head against her hand.

  That was spot on, actually.

  "So then." She hummed. "Is it the same as this world, only with magic, or is it different?" Her eyes lit up after a second. "Are there elves, and dwarves? Like in the Lord of the Rings?" She leaned forwards somewhat. "What kind of magic is there?"

  Erile laughed, reclining against the wall as he stared at her. "There aren't those things, per say, but there are definitely similar beings. Elves and dwarves are most like Olves and Takians, respectively. But… It's pretty much just like you imagined it. The land is the same but the countries are different, with kings ruling over their lands and wars being waged over who wants what."

  He smiled a bit, and looked to her with an expression laced with an unreadable emotion.

  "Magic is a force that permeates anything and everything; if you learn enough about it, and practice with it until you're advanced enough… You can pretty much do anything."

  He didn’t tell her that humans were unable to learn magic. He didn’t want to crush her dream.

  "Huh." She blinked, nodding before she stood up to go and clean their bowls out. The least she could do was leave them with clean dishes. "Fair enough. Wow… That sounds really cool, actually." She glanced back at him over her shoulder, gently setting the bowls in the dish rack. She walked back over and carefully sat down beside him. "… Have you met the gods?" She asked after a moment or two. "Either of them?"

  She hesitated. "If the goddess of light created this whole universe, why doesn't she just take it back from him?" She tilted her head to the side. "Shouldn't she be trying? The Earth is in ruins. She could at least try to help us, I would think."

  That was a very valid point, and was something he had asked her himself.

  "I've met both Gods. I have communication with the Goddess of Light, in fact. She's not as… Well, aloof, as your God." He sounded a bit angry about that. "Your God I've only met a few times, and one of them was to give him a message from his disgruntled ex-wife." He used her analogy so she would understand.

  "But she can't get through the rift between the Vale and the Rith. You see, in order to pass between, you have to denounce your magic. That means forget all memories and abilities of using magic."

  He looked down to his feet with a sigh. "That becomes a problem when the entire being is made of magic."

  She nodded. "… Yeah. I guess that makes sense." She glanced to him with a slight smirk. "Tell the God of dark next time you see him that I think he's a twat for leaving us to die in the apocalypse." That was… A bad idea. But then again, this was Aisling Grace. She was known for being cocky. And having the natural inclination to fight almost everything.

  She leaned her head back against the wall. "So what about you?"

  Oh?

  "Where do you fit in with all of this?" She raised an eyebrow. "What's your job?"

  Erile snorted at that, and then sighed at her question.

  "Well, when you said that they were pretty much a petty divorced couple… You were exactly right. They were the ones that created love, after all. That was until she created the universe, and well… He felt betrayed."

  He pulled another strange device from his bag, and looked to the girl in front of him with an expression that verged upon sadness. "This machine scans everything from the current year, a hundred years back and a hundred years forward. Everything. Every single movement of atoms and every possibility, and I do the same for the Ea when I travel back. And the reason…"

  He chuckled a bit as he put it away. "They want to know who's doing better in their mission; they want to know if she can create more life than he can destroy. I just happened to get stuck as the messenger. I also get sent to time periods where something happened that they didn’t like. I fix it."

  She studied the machine for a moment, and after a second nodded as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "… Right." She looked up at him and then lowered her eyes to the floor. "… By the sounds of things though, I don't think your life is that simple." She studied him with a strange glint in her eye, and lightly rested her chin on top of her knees. "So tell me about yourself, Erile. You seem to know a lot about me already."

  She met his eyes with her lavender ones. They were beautiful. They were… Kind of a genetic marvel, truth be told.

  She hated them.

  "Where did you grow up?" She raised an eyebrow. "The Rith or the Ea. And where?"

  Erile looked to her, a sadness crossing over his features. "Nobody's ever asked me that."

  He looked away, and began to speak. "I am one of very few humans to grow up in the Ea. The only way humans are born there is if one travels from the Rith and stays there. So I was the child of abusive parents, and well…"

  He chuckled a bit. "The equivalent of elves and dwarves don't exactly take kindly to the only human in their presence."

  It was obvious that these were harsh memories.

  "… I'm sorry." Aisling murmured after a second, frowning as she examined his face. She reached out and lightly took his hand to give it a squeeze. "That sounds awful. You didn't deserve to have something like that happen to you."

  She was awfully kind. And gentle. It was a sharp contrast to what she had been just a day before- cautious, angry, and dangerous. She had been practically poisonous back then, but now that she had warmed up to him… Well, to put it simply, she was kind of a softie.

  "Is it at least any better now?" She asked hesitantly, shifting to turn towards him a little more and give him her full attention. "Growing up in a situation like that s
ucks, trust me, I know. I don't know if my childhood could compare, but… I do understand, to some degree."

  Erile chuckled. "It's a bit better now. There aren't any people to belittle or berate me, and if there are, it only lasts for a week." He seemed to debate whether or not to say the next part, and then apparently decided to. "But that also means that all of the good people don't last more than a week. And that… That hurts sometimes."

  He looked back to Saythe, a slight smile on his face, and then back to Aisling. "You've got a good boy there. I know what he'll grow up to be, if you want me to tell you. But let me just say that usually… Usually it's better to figure it out yourself."

  He'd heard of Saythe Grace, known in the future for some heroic feats. But he was a military man, and usually… That didn't go over too well with parents.

  "… I'm just glad he'll grow up." She glanced to her son, a strange look coming to her eyes. "He reminds me a lot of his father sometimes. He's… He's a good kid. I'm just glad that he'll have the chance to see the world when it's not in such turmoil." She shook her head, tearing her eyes away from her son as she gently rested her head on her knees again. "I'm just hoping I can get him out of it somewhat sound and okay."

  She sighed. That kid had enough trauma to last a lifetime.

  "You have no idea how much of a shit show this has been." She gestured to the cut on her face. "He wouldn't let go of me for a week. Anyone we stumbled across he'd yell at to get away from me. I was kind of surprised that he took a liking to you so quickly."

  Erile smiled. Saythe did seem like an overprotective kid, which was good in this kind of event. He'd take care of his mother, and that was probably the key reason they both survived the Auranis.

  "It's getting late." Erile muttered, putting his gun away and closing up his bag. He held it tight to him, obviously not trusting the people that were only a few rooms away. "We should get some sleep if we're going to be moving out in the morning."