Catalyst Ch. 1

The dry heat was something I could never get used to in a life-time. I've tasted the sweet luxury of beautiful weather, I knew what green grass looked like while staring into a vast blue sky. It was one of the perks of being raised in the valley. Unfortunately, it was only a sweet privilege I was able to enjoy up until I was five or six. My memories of those days were now a dreamlike memory, and they were the only thing that drove me to help my companions out on our little recon missions. They weren't safe or smart, definitely not a guarantee that I would be returning home to the others; but thinking about my past always gave me hope that one day I'd see it all again. The dreadful ocean of heated sand will be only an obstacle that I overcame in life. I closed my eyes and envisioned the beautiful sight of many colors bleeding into a large landscape only to open my eyes and have it absorbed by the never ending sight of orange sand. It was an ocean with seemingly no end but it would eventually lead to our destination.

We were flying through the desert in a buggy that I had built out of scraps from previous recon missions. Our party consisted of the usual crowd. There was my brother Russian, the loud one, Leya, the quiet one, Krot, and the youngest of the group, Marxie. We were all dressed in the usual desert attire of layers to protect from the sun. It wasn't anything different from any other time. Russian had discovered a small town with a goods store and we were planning on looting as much as we could without getting discovered. I, unlike everyone else, was not very suited for the job and fell very short on the skills of thievery. I was usually used as a lookout for the buggy. It was my job to keep it running just in case anything went bad. I was OK with this job. I liked to think of myself as the brains of the group, but today Marxie wasn't feeling well and I was asked to walk along with her as Krot stayed behind with the buggy. Everyone thought we could easily sneak in and out since we were the smaller ones in the group, next to Leya. The plan was simply wait for Russians signal to sneak in and start grabbing as much as we can carry, then when given a signal we make our way out and wait for him. Simple! I thought, but as we approached the goods store it was clear to everyone it was going to be harder than we planned.

The Goods store sat on the very edge of a Hybrid Civilization. It had been the only area that I had seen so far that wasn't surrounded by the desert sand, but was covered in thick, slimy, mud. The goods store was bigger than any we had ever dealt with and I was starting to think over my life choices. This Civilization belonged to the worst of all Alter-kind, The Swine-Men. Known for being disgusting in every way imaginable, we took a step back and simultaneously looked at Russian.

"You didn't say anything about hogs you damn know-nothing," Leya couldn't help but be the first to point out the obvious issue at hand.

Russian turned to her and casually stated, "you told me to search for a goods store to the west...I found one. I don't understand what you're complaining about."

"Will we be able to do anything without him noticing?" Marxie asked as she nervously placed her hands in her pockets.

We all stood there quietly waiting for him to respond. He closed his eyes and the opened them as if he was calculating, "Follow my lead and we'll be fine. Just don't carry more than you can handle and wait for my signals."

I took a deep breath as Leya rolled her eyes at the unsure response from my brother. I looked at Marxie who was starting to look like more of a liability than me. She was looking more sickly each passing moment, but she grabbed onto the stomach, took a quiet moment and whispered "OK" to herself. We stood patiently outside of the store for what seemed like minutes, then he signaled.