Construct

Construct

We've failed. That much was obvious. Overhead, the sky burned. Smoke filled the air, filled my lungs. Clouds of ash billowed over the tops of corporate buildings, gas spewed forth from the gaping chasms that forked across our streets. How did this happen? How did we come to this?

I am the last.

A piercing, inhuman shriek echoed above the chaos and my breath caught in my throat. The hair on the back of my neck stiffened; goose bumps rose on my arms. I turned to run but it was already too late. Eventually, everything ends. There was movement in the corner of my eye. I dove to the side and a there was a crash where I had been. The creature howled again, throwing back its head and shrieking defiance at the heavens. I backed away, hands raised. Its head swung to the side; its gaze locked with mine. Manic light glimmered there. Blood gushed freely down the creature's skull, matting its hair with mud and gore.

Afflicted...is this my fate as well?

White foam frothed at the corners of the Afflicted's lips as it stepped toward me. My heart froze; I could see in those crazed eyes my doom. My future. To be like this creature, mindless and hungry, a shadow of the human it had once been. I closed my eyes to embrace the inevitable.

There was a sudden concussion and the stone beneath my feet rippled, cracks spinning off in every direction. I fell to the ground, feeble legs unable to keep my balance.

I know that sound.

A massive figure lumbered past me, a complex assemblage of pipes and valves and plates of hard copper that glimmered under the light of the fiery night. It stood well over eight feet, with humanoid arms and legs that creaked when it moved, propelling the machination over the blacktop faster than the Afflicted could react.

Construct.

Its colossal weight slammed into the monster, snapping bones like straw. The Afflicted hurtled through the air to collide with the side of a building, yielding a sickening crunch.

I slowly stood as the entity turned its attention on me. Mechanical eyes studied me imperiously, set in a visor of polished steel. Various sets of tubes and rods connected every limb of the Construct to its central generator, which sent clouds of steam dissipating into the night air with every movement.

I inclined my head, never letting our eyes break contact. Overhead, a skyship drifted by, pumping exhaust fumes into the atmosphere, the roar of engines drowning out all else. Fire burned in its windows and ash spiraled down to gently blanket the city.

After a moment, the Construct mimicked me, lowering its head.

"Thank you," I murmured, stepping forward.

The machine said nothing but it blinked once, the light in its eyes winking out and flashing back on. I ran my fingers along the ridges of its domed headpiece, warm from the intense heat released by the Construct's power source. Every few moments, a jet of steam shot from the back of its neck, dispersing through the murky city air.

You were my greatest work, the pinnacle of human progress.

And now you will outlast us all.

The Construct's eyes, looking past me, widened in alarm. I heard the distinctive shriek of the Afflicted. Sweeping past me with the groan of industrialism, my protector met the tortured creature head on, driving it mercilessly to the ground. The Afflicted tore at the Construct's chest, but to no avail. The machine slammed the zombie into the stone underfoot until it was dangling over a pool of its own blood, broken body hanging limply from the Construct's giant pincers. The corpse thudded to the earth.

The machine's head swiveling to meet my gaze, and its meaning was clear.

Run.

I set off down the streets, guardian lumbering thunderously behind me. Its every footstep shook the stone beneath my feet. Other Afflicted, roaming the darkness of the side alleys, caught sight of us with yellowed eyes. They shrieked with delight, loping after us like a pack of feral animals. Fear lent wings to my feet, but I never could have hoped to outdistance them. They were crazed, their brains crumbled to ash, driven by primal instinct. They would run until their limbs gave way, until their feet were too torn by the jagged earth that they could run no longer. And I was only human.

The only human.

As despair slipped its icy grip around my heart, I heard the Construct skid to a stop. A pair of snarling Afflicted sprung into the street ahead of us, blood dripping from rotten teeth. Behind us, the others screamed with delight. Breath caught in horror, my foot snagged a crack in the pavement as I tried to slow and I hit the ground hard, smearing skin and hair on the stone behind me. The Construct leapt to my side.

It's over...

My head bounced off the stone, jarring my vision. Spots flashed before my eyes. For a moment, I could see them--the eyes, the faces. Everyone I didn't save.

I blinked hazily, warm liquid dripping down my temple. Distant, manic laughter filled my head, hysteria that I knew to be my own. Beside me, the Construct roared.

I pushed myself to my feet knowing we'd lost our chance. Afflicted sprang from the darkness between alleys, eyeing me hungrily. The Construct bared its fearsome weaponry, crouching low like a coiled spring, but there were too many.

There is no escape. Not for me, not for my race.

They leapt to their deaths, and the machine appeased them. He drove the first creature to the ground with a nauseating crunch, whirling about to catch another just below the sternum. Bones snapped, blood spurted, and the Afflicted splattered against the wall of a glass building. One jumped on its back and the Construct ripped it off, wrenching the mangled body in two and hurling it into the torso of another attacker. I watched with horrified awe as my guardian put on a gruesome spectacle, copper and bronze running red with infected blood.

But hope had died long before this battle, when the first Afflicted escaped the lab into the city streets, and I'd never found the strength to rekindle it. Our time had passed--that much was clear. The Constructs were our legacy. They would fight in our wake, the last, eternal memories of a race that strove too far and too fast.

I sensed my death coming long before those claws ripped into the skin on my back or those teeth tore through my neck; before the Construct spun with wide, desperate eyes and sent the demon crashing into a wall. I'd sensed death's presence lingering across my shoulders since the day it all began, since that day...

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"Doctor?"

I jerked my head, shaken from the deep trance. My eyes lingered on the reflective glass before me. "I'm here."

"It's so dark..." came a muffled voice. There was the hiss of steam and the generator whirred to life. Amber light illuminated the lab. "How can you st-" There was a startled gasp. "Doctor!"

I raised my hand. "It's all right, dear." Without turning my head, I beckoned her closer to the glass box. It stood about eight feet off the ground, six feet wide in either direction. A dark humanoid shape crouched within, cloaked in shadow.

"You did it," the girl breathed, stepping to my side.

The creature in the box crept hesitantly forward, shying away from the dull light. Saliva dripped from clean teeth and fresh sores opened in a face clear of rot.

"Who was he?" she murmured.

I knelt beside the cage as the man inched closer. "A criminal," I answered. "Set to take the Leap next year. He'd have died either way."

Disconcerting eyes peered from above the man's gaunt cheeks. A strange darkness lingered behind that gaze. Without warning, his eyelids flared and he sprung against the side of the cube, smashing his nose against the glass. Blood showered the transparent wall and the creature shrieked with pain. The hairs on the back of my neck tingled.

"It's terrible," the girl whispered. "Was it worth it?"

I surveyed the monster sadly. It flung itself against the wall again, fingernails scrabbling against the smooth surface. Not long ago, we hadn't been so different.

And now? What have you made him into?

"Yes," I replied softly. "It was worth it. Come, let me show you."

A door in the back of the lab silenced the rabid cries of the man locked in the glass cage. The room beyond had the same off-white walls and amber lighting that lent the whole building a shade of sepia. It was nearly empty, desks and chair pushed into one corner and walls stripped of any decoration.

In the center, connected by hundreds of wires and tubes to the blinking panels at its feet, stood a hulking creature. It towered feet above our heads, plated in sheets of copper armor. Steam dissipated from the tube at the back of its neck and the hum of energy emanated from each limb. Lights bloomed in its faceted eyes as we stepped into the room.

"What...what is it?" the girl asked.

"It's him," I said. She looked at me with wide eyes, glancing back at the door through which we entered. "Or rather, everything about him that made him him."

She frowned. "I don't understand."

The Construct's head swiveled, surveying the room. It shifted its massive shoulders and the creak of its limbs reverberated through the chamber.

"This is it," I said excitedly. "It's the next step. Our next step."

She studied the massive contraption, and I noticed her eyes didn't hold the same fire I felt inside. "But what about...that?" Her gaze drifted back toward the door.

"Forget that," I replied sharply. "It's not human anymore. Not like we are. Not like...he is." I stepped forward, slowly inclining my head. The machine watched me for a moment before doing the same. The light in its eyes flickered as I raised a hand and grazed it down the side of its copper cheek. "This is our future," I whispered.

"Doctor..." the girl began, but she was interrupted by a sudden crash. My head jerked up and I whirled on my heels. Glass shattered across a stone floor in the room beyond. Through the thin walls I could hear a triumphant shriek, eerie and otherworldly.

I took a horrified step back.

What have I done?

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Afflicted screams filled the air. A burning skyship, sailing far too low, impacted with the side of a sky-scraper. A concussive explosion shook the city and fire bloomed from the structure, rippling up through the atmosphere. Stone and metal tumbled to the streets below.

I collapsed to a knee, groping at the gash where the creature's fangs found purchase. The skin writhed, bubbling. Pus oozed out, the blotch spreading across my neck, sinking toward my chest. Pain like I'd never known lanced through my veins.

I met the Construct's eyes and gently shook my head. Those strange lights flashed red for a moment--frustration--but then it was gone. Slowly, it nodded in understanding.

This is your world now. I wished him to hear it. I am all that is left. When I am gone, you will carry on. Was this a benediction? It sounded like a curse.

As the Affliction ate at my skin and the zombies loped forward, the Construct raised a dripping spike skyward and drove it deep into my chest. There was no pain. My eyes focused on a drifting comet beyond the Construct's head, and the city skyline where a high-rise toppled earthward with a deafening roar. The machine cradled me for a moment, lifted my body into the crook of its arm.

Darkness swarmed my vision.