Fotia and Mina walked for miles across the dunes, finally in reach of civilization.
"If we go north, we could try to find a train in one of the Trifecta cities. Let's try that."
Fotia and Mina nodded at each other, walking towards a far visible broken-down path made of several small stones engraved in the sand.
Both reach the end of the road, standing before a fence stretching long right and left. Multiple roads leading into gateways with cars waiting in front of a white wall emerged from the ground. Static black pillars with a scan apparatus besides every car, with hands reaching out putting their palms against the smooth scan surface.
Mina observed the procedure, developing a plan to get in silently.
"We need an ID. I could mask you as a servitude robot, they don't need any kind of ID besides the product number, which is generally not checked. But how do I get one of these chips..." she pounders in her mind, thinking of a solution, leaning her forehead against the fence watching the gas-powered lights, shine in yellow color. Smoke clouds collecting into one big pile in the sky, creating a visible smog blocking the moonlight. Old and young souls, covered in dust and coughing, walking along the bland sidewalks of wide industrial streets, with occasional color only coming from neon signs hanging down from corner shops, buzzing off and on.
Trifecta sector 3, is one of the three logistics and production outposts of Yard LLC. Mainly the city harvests a lot of oil beneath the desert lands and converts it to the more effective equivalent "Hydro-Oil". Although the Trifecta outposts were founded purely for-profit benefits, they all grew each into one prosperous city after the other, though Sector 3 is still in the transitioning stage.
Mina, still in her thoughts, Fotia observes a line of Hover trucks standing in line. Mina backs up Fotia, as its intention is yet unknown, staying in the dark and avoiding the lights of the roads they get to the end of the line. She takes off her mask, binding it to the back of her head, covered by long curly hair, effectively hiding it. Eyeing a lone truck in the distance driving to the end of the line, she stands at the side of the road, waving with her right arm to the driver. The truck driver stops and the window winds down. An unwelcoming face with a bulky red mustache greets her.
"What?" the man asks
"Might I catch a ride?" leaning to the door of the truck, her thumb rubbing against the index and middle finger, gesturing.
"2000." He answers
"1000"
"No way. 1500."
"Deal, can you transport my robot with us?"
"For 1700 I could."
"Deal"
The large trunk door opens, and Fotia barely squeezes in, while Mina sits on the passenger seat besides the man. The truck arrives at the checkpoint, and the trucker's ID gets scanned, while Mina is listed as a trainee of the driver and Fotia as a robot delivery for the Yard company. Lastly, they arrive in a warehouse deep in the city.
"There you go."
"Thanks mam."
She gets out of the truck to an enormous warehouse with a ceiling as high as a mountain. Robots carry crates all around, flying and walking. Mina gets to the back of the truck opening the door and letting Fotia out, even in comparison to other robots its height overshines most of them like a titan.
"Time to get out of this place then." Mina thumbs up to Fotia
Wow, I have never seen such a place! What is this place?
Fotia wanders off, while Mina looks out for the exit, noticing a white cloaked figure in the distance staring at her. It is Koltis, like a blood hound on her trail he found her. He noticed her in the distance, advancing slowly through the crowd of workers and robots and pushing if needed.
"Fotia, follow me quickly. Huh what." She gazes back, not seeing Fotia nowhere around.
Not searching for Fotia, she quickly runs into the titanic labyrinth of warehouse shelves, trying to sway Koltis, yet him being closely behind her.
Goddamn it, how did this occult freak arrive here so fast? And Fotia vanished in seconds, this will be a long day. And the worst part is I cannot make myself known here, or else they might even send a whole militia after me.
Skillfully evading numerous workers carrying crates going off their normal workday, it is fully busy in the warehouse today. Mina's eyes scour for an opportunity to strike Koltis down quietly, which she has found. Koltis being few workers behind her, notices Mina dashing to door leading to a staircase. Multiple stories of Cargo and shipments connect to the official Yard LLC Ware hub, making it effectively the main provider for resources for all cities. She decides to go down a few stories, hearing the door smash against the white concrete wall, as Koltis follows frantically.
"Mina Akwando!." He shouts after her
"Fuck off." echoing up the staircase spiral.
She kicks open an exit to one of the lower layers of the ware hub, a massive crowd of workers with an all-white outfit carrying various E-Pads, small crates or a small chromatic pen, with some of them having robots following them. Mina, trying to blend in with her all-black attire, does not successfully do so. Falling into the eyes of Koltis. He went for his M2911, but she disappeared as soon as he looked down. Standing in the middle of the crowd, his eyes frantically scour through any possible escape, yet he stays clueless. Mina, behind one of the large pillars of the ware hub, barely escaped his grasp. Turning around, Koltis stands in the distance amid the crowd, staring at her, though something seemed with his face. She decides to dash out into the direction of the compound, separated by a large white automatic industrial gate, closing.
Sprinting through the hall, she pushes down workers, robots and any kind of obstacle down. Koltis being close behind her.
Standing on the large compound, Koltis finally catches her outside. She pulls her sidearm from her waist and shoots at the ground before him, and her cover fell with the shot, attracting the attention of multiple workers, her cover fell. Koltis holds Mina at gunpoint.
"Move one inch and you'll not move ever again, Akwando." He warns her, with his right hand above the holster.
"Alright."
Out of nowhere the door exploded into pieces with debris flying everywhere and Fotia sprinting with several robots clung into action.
Oh, there is Fotia. What the-.
"What the-" interrupted midway through his sentence, Fotia's destruction let several debris of metal fly towards Koltis.
Barely dodging all debris, he did not anticipate Mina's chance to strike him this time. Her hook strook with full power against his right cheek, catapulting him onto the ground. Though something seemed weird, after she hit him, she held her stomach tight and fell onto her knees. His left hand slowly brushes over the place where his missing mouth is, and his mouth suddenly appeared after he brushed over.
"Didn't anticipate I was awake, right? I turned your soul upside down." He maniacally laughs at Mina grunting in pain on the muddy ground.
Fuck, my stomach is all over the place, but it feels way deeper. It is like my insides are all over the place.
Her gaze glances up, seeing a familiar face.
"Mina, let me go. It is time," Pyotr says to me.
And the only thing I can do, is to deny it.