July twenty-fourth, 2030

It was a sunny day, we’d gone to the beach with my parents the day before. I was a whiny ten year old back then, so I was complaining about how much I wanted to go again.

And although it was a long time ago, and my memories probably made it all seem so much better than it was, I remembered that my dad loved the summer more than anything in the world. He’d go fishing, sometimes taking me with him. And while that was fun, it was the times we went swimming that I enjoyed most. Mom was with us as well, and she would complain sometimes, but she always enjoyed those trips.

Not for the sea, only rarely did she ever go in. Dad and I were the swimmers of the family. She’d enjoy the shade of the trees when we went to more remote, less marketised areas, and the beach’s comforts in the organized ones, always with a smile on her face.

On some days, I could still feel the warmth of those times. Even now, years later.

How sentimental. But you don’t have that now, do you? How long has it been since then? Since everything became covered in ash and snow.

Too long. An entire lifetime, I replied, looking at the flask on my hands. So many differing forms of alcohol were mixed in there, it was a wonder I still lived and breathed. A quiet chuckle escaped my lips as I took my sip. I wouldn’t die even if I truly wanted to. I couldn’t die, not until I completed my mission.

That was my punishment.

You were great once, you know. If not for pure idiocy, you still would be.

I’d been stupid. I knew that. My stupidity was the main reason I was where I was. But I couldn’t help it. Actually I could, but I was too stubborn and headstrong to recognize my mistakes. Either way, it was too late now. As I sat in this room, waiting, and drinking this whatever-it-was, I found myself touching my glasses. They were, ironically enough, the most tangible thing I had from before. From the world as it was then.

I’d take care of them, clean them, make sure they wouldn’t break. Sometimes, when I was wearing a face mask, they’d fog up and I’d have to remove them. Even then I would place them neatly in their case to make sure they’d be alright.

And I could see clearly even without them. That was the one thing that still remained after all this time. These glasses, they were pointless.

Yet, I kept wearing them. Even after the doctor told me that I no longer needed to. I kept wearing them even when that actually made my head hurt after a few hours.

Every day you make less and less sense, you know that?

I was never a great man. A good man, now that I had been. A bad one as well, more than I probably should. I have my fair share of accomplishments as well. They were with me throughout. And yet, as I grew, I needed them less and less. I was never good at letting go.

And that still held true if I were to be honest.

So what? Putting on those glasses is supposed to be some kind of accomplishment?

It was snowing outside. Being underground I couldn’t know for sure of course, but it always was ever since that day.

July twenty-fourth, 2030. It was a happy day.

But it was also the day the world ended and we saw what was after the apocalypse.

The day this endless winter began and a new cycle of war began.

I felt like an old man, so much so that I sometimes forgot I was just thirty five years old. I’d seen much, lived much so I liked to reminisce. Especially during this day among all of them. I needed to keep myself grounded.

Grounded? You’re surrounded by a staff of one hundred and fifty three people. Triple that amount if you want to include everyone not in the same room as you. And you are talking to me? I’m-

A voice in my head. Not real. Not anymore at least. You were once someone I held dear. My wife, my friends, my parents. You’d been one of them. Maybe even my son, although he was still alive. Of course that was one of maybe three whole things I knew about him. And one of them was his name. Not that I tried to know much more.

I wasn’t exactly in the running for father of the year award.

There were one hundred and fifty-three people in this room other than me and yet I only communicated with the voice in my head. Granted, I was on an elevated platform behind most of them, and one hundred and fifty-two of them were looking at their computer screens, talking to each other by using what I could only describe as scientific nonsense, coordinating the machine’s activation.

“Professor? Is anything wrong? Do you need me to get you anything?” came a voice from behind me.

It belonged to Henry Meier. He was a rather short, but well built man, his piercing blue eyes almost staring through me. The one person other than myself not to be glued to a screen. Instead, he was glued to me. Assigned to watch me actually. He was here because the powers that be wanted someone to watch me due to my importance and circumstance.

Of course that was just the official version. I was sure that he would off me as soon as I stepped out of line. Thankfully I was too important for the powers that be to actually order my death for petty reasons. Although how long that would continue to be the case for, I did not know.

“I was simply reminiscing. I feel it is necessary in the world we will live in to take time and appreciate life, considering we may lose it any moment.” I gripped the handles of my wheelchair in a white knuckled grip, cursing it for allowing them to sneak that mole next to me.

“Progression Series: Mark Nine. Activation test number ten.” said a monotone voice from somewhere below him.

This wasn’t going to end well. I could see it, feel it in my bones.

“Mr Lekkas, are you ready to witness a marvel of engineering?” asked another person below me in German. Based on his arrogant tone of voice I assumed he was the head of this activation test and that he was inexperienced enough to think that it was going to work.

“That’s Professor Lekkas to you. And I am ready to witness the catastrophic failure that this test is going to be.” I said, years of speaking the language made it easy for me. The younger man muttered something I couldn’t make out, but I honestly couldn’t care less about whatever response the young man gave.

“I think you are being too hard on him.” smiled Henry as he spoke in my native greek almost flawlessly.

“And I think I didn’t ask for your opinion.” I said in Greek as well.

It was infuriating really. Henry was the one man I had built a good rapport with, and I hated that fact. The closest thing I had to a friend was a man who was there to make sure I didn’t step out of line.

“Begin the activation.” said the arrogant man from earlier.

The lights in the room next to our own activated, allowing all of us in the room to see the monstrosity in it through the glass wall.

A twenty meter, dull gray monstrosity stared back at me on the other side. A few decades back, such a thing would seem ridiculous. But now, as I looked at its face that consisted of three dotted vertical lines, I felt my whole body shake. Most people, including most of the operators in this room, probably thought that it was a mere robot. I knew better.

Perhaps that was the reason I was so terrified of it.

“Stop.” I said without taking my eyes off the thing. “I’m giving you the chance to step back. I don’t know what strings you pulled to lead this operation, but you’ve failed enough. What you are about to do is going to cost the life of the poor man or woman you dragged into this and potentially of everyone else in this room.”

“You hold no authority here. Activate Mark Nine. Now.”

Damn that overzealous german fool. The inhuman face lit up in blue, as well as a V shape in the chest and triangles on the back of its hands. It moved slightly, its elbows, shoulders and knees creeking through the protective pads on them. It looked at its left hand as the colour switched to green.

“Compatibility just jumped to eighty percent.” said the head scientist, turning to look at me smugly. I smacked my hands down at the armests of my wheelchair. I needed to be calm. With such high percentages I could still salvage this.

My hands shaked as I removed my glasses. “I don’t know who you are. If you’re a man or a woman. If you have friends or family. But if you care about preserving your life, or the lives of anyone here, then fight it.”

As if on cue, the monster’s whole body began to shake, and he heard the pilot’s voice cry out in anguish as the monstrosity grabbed its head. I felt Henry grab the handles on the back of my wheelchair.

I assumed it was to get us both out of there, so I simply raised my hand to stop him. It was most likely just another mistake in a long line of mistakes, but as I took another sip out of my flask I knew I’d make it. The robot’s lights turned red. The pilot, whoever he or she was, couldn’t fight it. I put my glasses back on and sighed.

I’d seen this happen too many times.

“W̵h̵a̵t̶ ̵h̶a̷v̷e̵ ̶y̷o̵u̶ ̸d̵o̶n̴e̵ ̸t̸o̴ ̴m̴e̸?̷” came a muffled, broken voice from within the machine as it seemingly attempted to scratch its metal chest out.

“What-What is this thing?” said the head, looking at the results of his work horrified.

“Compatibility just went to two hundred percent! Brain patterns are erratic!” came a female voice. “We’re losing the pilot. Initiating emergency deactivation sequence.”

“No! Whatever you do, don’t deactivate it! We can’t afford another delay!” said the head scientist.

“L̸e̸t̸ ̵m̶e̸ ̸o̶u̷t̶!̶ ̶W̷̻̔h̸̃͜a̶͙͋t̷̟̍ ̸̣̆ĥ̸͈a̶̪͂v̴͔̅e̴͕̓ ̶̳͋ÿ̶̫ö̵̥ũ̵̡ ̶̲̽d̶̼̈́o̶͚̓n̵̬͑e̶͉̎ ̷̹̒t̸́ͅo̶̬̓ ̵̘̊ṃ̷̒e̶̜̐?̷̢̍”

The thing punched the doubly reinforced glass wall, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. Then, it did something that even surprised me.

It jumped. Backwards. For a moment, as I saw the monstrosity ten times his size cling to the wall and ceiling while staring at us ominously, I lost all sense of control over myself and was filled with an unimaginable dread and desire to flee. Suddenly I felt a giant metal hand almost identical to the one of this robot demolishing me so much that I thought I would die. A moment later, the red lights flickered before finally going out and letting it fall down.

“H̸̠̬̹̺͐͆̇ȩ̶̝̰̥̹͌ĺ̷̘̻̲́̀͝p̷̧̫̦̈͒̈ ̸̹̿̈m̷̊͋̈́͜e̴̛͔͖̱̟̽̆̅̂!̸̝̹̲̆͌͜ͅ H̸̠̬̹̺͐͆̇ȩ̶̝̰̥̹͌ĺ̷̘̻̲́̀͝p̷̧̫̦̈͒̈ ̸̹̿̈m̷̊͋̈́͜e̴̛͔͖̱̟̽̆̅̂!̸̝̹̲̆͌͜ͅ H̸̠̬̹̺͐͆̇ȩ̶̝̰̥̹͌ĺ̷̘̻̲́̀͝p̷̧̫̦̈͒̈ ̸̹̿̈-” it cried from the ground, eventually shutting off completely with no power sources to keep it going.

“No! no! no!” I heard the panicked voice of the younger man below me. “I can’t afford to fail. I can’t!”

“And yet, you did. The Progression Series needs to operate on a dual-piloted system.” I said, composing myself and making my voice as cold as possible. “Mark Nine will be out of commission until a suitable pilot is found. By my office. Effective now, the position of head of this operation is filled by me. Move its debut date to be alongside the next generation.”

“Two pilots? I tried that. I tried that. We only found one! And we have been training him since he was a child! And the higher ups have given us until next week for the next batch. So unless you can find two ten year old children and convince their parents to bring them here in a week, you can get out and shove your condescending tone up your ass!”

One week? He wasn’t wrong. The organization’s higher ups were more than a little demanding and it was highly unlikely that any candidate would be found. Not that I’d admit that out loud. Of course what he didn’t know was that I did have a selection of pilot candidates ready. One that I was completely certain was compatible enough with these behemoths, and yet not to the point where their brains would fry itself like what happened.

The timeframe complicated things, but I could make it work. Even if it meant I was going to have to dig an even deeper pit in hell for myself.

“Henry.” I said trying to keep emotion from my voice. There was only one other thing I knew about my son other than the fact he was alive. Even if I kept it as far out of my thoughts as possible. Still, it looked like I had no other choice.

You really are a piece of shit, you know that?

“I think it’s time I had a reunion with my son.” I said to my companion in greek.

“Sir?”

“What did you say?” asked the foolish scientist.

“I am going to fix your mess.” I said to him in german. “Show your thankfulness by doing us all a favor and getting your ass as far away from here. Now!”

As he left I looked at all the other workers in the room, hopefully managing to get my message across. I wouldn’t tolerate failure, not on this scale.

As I took out my drink and took another sip, I smiled at myself. I’d be lying if I claimed that, in spite of how wrong the test went, this wasn’t some of the most fun I’d had in a while.

You rat bastard. I’m willing to bet you could have found better ways to make your point. You really are a lunatic.

We were in a war of unprecedented destruction and I’d dug myself in a hole so deep I couldn’t see the sky from its bottom. I couldn’t afford to be anything else.