I walked out of the chamber groggy, fatigued, pissed, but mostly in pain. I’m fine with being gassed. Hell, I was gassed twice during my Bootcamp days as a private. But this? This was some old bullshit. They could’ve at least warned me. The bastards…both of them.

Gas waft around me, fluttering into my nose and mouth. Thankfully, I assimilated with the pungent scent quickly, or was that its intention all along?

I know now wasn’t a time for me to be frustrated, but shit.

Just. Couldn’t. Stop. Being. Angry.

The corridor outside the chamber was dark, blue and cold. The metallic feel of the ground was reminiscent of the lab where I received my cybernetic enhancements. Just like there, here was littered with steel floors and conduits stapled across the walls.

It was a stark contrast to The Waste, but I welcomed one. Ahh, I thought, the refreshing scent of steel. Who would’ve thought I’d missed it. Even though it’d been only three hours.

I followed the corridor, which slowly curved to the left and went down a small flight of stairs. It led me to a silver door, that slashed open via the blinking red motion sensor which sat above the door.

As I entered the room, noticed how small and uncleanly it was. Cables, conduits, papers and even rocks were scattered around the room. It had a desk and a tray, filled with towels on the left of the room.

On the right, had a man standing in a white lab coat. He didn’t face me, nor did he acknowledge my existence. I shifted to my left, heading towards a tray full of towels to cover myself.

In the corner of my eye, the man held a pad writing something on a piece of paper. Wow, I thought, such an archaic form of notation. I stopped midstep, noticing that he just wasn’t making a note, but writing reading from off a pressure gauge for three capsule pods, which were part of the wall.

“Glad to hear you’re alive Cypher.” The man said.

“Do you know me?” I asked confused.

“I don’t…but I heard of your valour in a battle against the Ravagers.”

“No valour, just doing what needs to be done to survive.”

“Right.” He answered coldly

The man stepped towards one of the capsules, typing something on the glass. IT began to glow, then pulsed open, leaving steam to waft from its doors.

“In.” He said,

“In… were, there?”

“Yes, we need to get your scrubbed before ushering you through the settlement.”

“Why?”

“We don’t know what diseases you carry Cypher. The last time we allowed someone from the Federation to roam freely. Three hundred died. I get it…we’re ‘Scavengers’ in your eyes, but here. In our golden city, each life is precious. Disease, or not. Now make a decision, you’re either get in the pod or the body bag.” He said, pointing towards a black bag next to his desk.

The man then pulled a pistol from beneath his notepad, waving in front of me, ensuring that I saw that safety was off. I seem to be running into a lot of assholes lately, I mused.

I gave a dry laugh, nodded, then stalked my way into the capsule pod. The inside of the pod was covered in white metal with small circular incisions embedded into the casing. I tried touching one, but my hand just glossed over it.

At the back of the pod was a chair grafted in, unlike the gas chamber, which I took advantage of. All the fatigue I had built up over the last few hours, felt as if it had been relieved by just sitting on the cold surface.

As tired as I was, the man in the white lab coat was moving back and forth outside, then mouthed response to me through the glass, indicating he’ll be starting soon. I gave him a thumbs up and let my mind wander.

A silver fluid came pouring through the circular incisions. The liquid began to pool at bottom of the pod. I thought it would’ve sent a shiver up my spine, but instead, the warmth from it was reminiscent of a campfire, warming my body in its entirety. Weird I thought, isn’t liquid naturally cool?

The silver liquid slowly filled up the pod. The warmth I felt as it slowly began to smother me whole, was polarising. I didn’t know what to think, but I was satisfied with the soothing sensation it left me in.

Then, the warmth descended into a stinging sensation, leaving me feeling as if I had been stung by a centipede, hundreds of times.

The annoying thing about it was, it started at my feet, then slowly crept up around my body, stopping by the neck, wear the liquid stopped.

I tried moving my body, but that only increased the stinging sensation. I kept checking the readouts on my body, hoping this liquid wouldn’t seep into my cybernetics, and luckily it didn’t

The man in the white lab coat came looking through the glass once more and give an approving nod. A ding chimed off inside the pod from god knows where and a hole opened up by my feet and slowly sucked the silver liquid from within the pod.

The pod slashed open and a draft of cold wind fluttered in, numbing my fingers, arms, chest and legs. Then a shadow cast itself above me. “Let me give you a hand.” A man in a purple hazmat suit, “it’s me.” He added. Then I recognised the voice.

“It’ll be easier if I knew your name,” I said.

“Ionio, Doctor Ionio.”

“No first names?”

“We ain’t friends for you to know that.”

“That’s fair,” I said with a smile.

Ionio outstretched his purple hazmat suit arm and I took it, Barely able to move. “What the hell is that stuff?” I asked. “Component Solvent,” Ionio said.

“Made up of what?”

“You don’t want to know. But it’s part of a three-stage process. The seli gas u inhaled earlier, was the first stage. This is the second stage.”

“…three stages…to what.?

“Viral Cessation. It’s as I told you early. The last visitors we had from The Antillean Federation, killed three hundred of our people.”

“I hear you, but still…”

“Tell me Antillean…if I were to come to your city, unvaccinated, would I be allowed through your Concrete Walls?”

The man has a point I mused. “Probably not,” I answered.

“Good, now let’s go.”

Doctor Ionio led me past the capsule pods, down a flight of stairs. We made a left and walked three meters down a corridor filled with pipes on both my left and right side.

Eventually, it took us to an open shower room, with faucets set up all around it. The doctor put me in the centre of the room. Walked back up, then dragged an orange bucket right next to me.

He snapped the cover open and dipped his hand into a bucket filled with green sludge with black bits woven into it. What the fuck is that? I complained to myself, tasting the green air that filled the room after Doctor Ionio dipped his hand in.

The scent of the sludge was green, with a hint of acidic cinnamon, if that made sense. As much as I tried to keep myself from whiffing the scent, it was futile.

“Arms Up” Ionio said.

I complied.

The doctor began scrubbing the sludge on my neck, arms, legs and feet as if I were some illegal alien. Ensuring that he hadn’t missed a spot. The sludge felt foam that was thickened with gelatin and made the disgusting sound of uncooked macaroni pie each time Doctor Ionio dug into my skin, ensuring I was ‘clean’.

That only crawled my skin down my knees and angered me, as if I wasn’t tired enough as is.

After he finished. He went to the right of the room and turned a red lever, and the water came down from the hose like rain from a burst cloud.

He began circling me, and cleaning off the foam, and the silver liquid. The stinging I felt, finally alleviating and giving my body some reprieve, not that it helped by much.

“Let me know when the burning sensation stops,” Ionio said.

The burning sensation finally retreated after a two-minute washdown. Ionio tossed a towel after shutting off the water and pointed to a door, which I hadn’t noticed behind me.

I eyed the doctor defiantly, gritted my teeth, felt my jawline protrude from annoyance force and walked towards the door, cuddling my cybernetic arm.

The room was empty and had nothing but a chair with clothes flooded on it. I tossed the towel on the ground after drying myself and began dressing.

“Now that you’ve been sterilised of both Antillea and the Carib Waste, you can freely roam around Saunters, understood Mr Cypher?” Doctor Ionio said.

“Loud and clear.”

A hiss of compressed air groaned. Doctor Ionio pushed the door open, and artificial light flooded through the chamber, chasing away what little shadows were left in the room.

My eyes adjusted to the light, and I finally made my way out of this archaic sterilising chamber.

The buzzing sound of crickets and frogs kept the silence away from Saunters. It was a pleasant sound, I had to admit, not one I was used to, but I welcomed it.

The air here smelt cleaner as well, a lot cleaner, which left my lungs feeling refreshed.

“Cypher!” Stelig called out, propping his back up against the wall. “I’m still alive. Don’t worry, they haven’t killed me.” I answered.

“That shit burns hotter than scotch bonnet pepper doesn’t it?” He said, grinning his teeth.

“Definitely.”

“Follow me, everyone’s waiting.”

“A briefing right?”

“Yeah…”

“Why didn’t you guys start already.”

“Oh, we were waiting on someone.”

“Someone…who?”

“A contact, well versed in The Waste.”

“…and what good is a contact for the waste?”

“Well, we’ve located “The girl”, but because The Warden doesn’t know the area too well, we needed an expert.”

“Warden?”

“Yeah…leader of the settlement.”

“Interesting.”

“Hardly, you’ve met him at the gates.”

“Mr Anal…with the scowling gaze?”

“Yup…that’s him.”

“Noted. Do you know anything about this Contact?”

“Nothing. He and The Colonel go way back. He runs operations in The Waste.”

“Why in the imbibe would someone want to run operations in the waste?”

“How the hell would I know? All I know is, he’s well versed with the lay of the land. We need the help, we don’t want another incident like what happened within the port.”

“You’re right.”

“I’m always right Cypher.” He added.

So am I I thought, but kept it to me.

Stelig led me throughout the Saunters passing chattel houses on both sides of the road. I had to admit, these scavengers were tenacious.

The chattel houses were constructed of fish bones and what looked like some yellow paste, probably sand of some kind. The walls were splashed with multi-coloured powdered dye, giving each house a distinct, but weathered look.

We walked for a while till I realised that no one was on the streets but I could voices all around me.

“Stelig…what’s with deal Stel, the streets are empty, but I can hear voices,” I asked, feeling jaded. “They’re avoiding us Cypher.”

“Who…the scavengers? Why?”

“You care?” he scoffed.

“I don’t”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

As we made a series of turns. He finally broke the silence. “There was an outbreak in the settlement a few years back,” Stelig said. “Yeah. The Ionio told me.”

“I’m sure he told everyone, but it seems someone for Antillea tried to wipe out the village with the virus.”

“Holy shit…a virus?”

“Yeah…luckily The good Doctor caught onto it fast, isolated the infected and ushered them.”

“Ushered them?”

“Yeah…he watched them die.”

“The three hundred that died he spoke about?”

“Yeah…”

“That’s…messed up.”

“Very…that’s how they do it here.”

“What was it?”

“Yellow fever.”

“We have inoculations for that.”

“We do. They don’t…the best they have is the germination Chamber we were in. They built it, and trust it.”

“I see,” I said.

We finally reached the briefing room, which was a chattel house, but far bigger than the remainder of the village. It sat dead centre in the middle of the settlement based on the layout.

On the right, was a conundrum of houses, fused, whilst on the left, houses were separated and spaced neatly. Redevelopment? I pondered.

The door for the chattel house swung open, and Rynord came pummeling through with a cigarette dangling from the side of his lips. “So much for a smoke,” Rynord said, patting my shoulder. “Glad your good Cypher, that was ballsy what you did, but mostly completely insane, you know that.”

“Someone had to try something. I figured it’d be me.”

“Next time, tell us what you’re doing, so we can plan better.”

“I’ll try” I answered, laughing dryly.

I talked myself into the room with a cuddled arm, feeling as though a train had struck me as I entered. In the middle of the room was a holographic projector which had Colonel Levisay beaming in the colour green, hands clasped behind as usual.

On the right, sat Naedon and Tryzer, who had his feet up on this desk. Mr Anal, the warden, was in the left corner, sitting on the edge of his stool, arms folded with a permanently painted scowl flashed across his face.

I guess that’s everyone, I thought.

A groaning drag echoed to my left, then a figure pushed himself up from his chair. The man was wearing a white jacket, matching the white walls camouflaging his existence perfectly.

He turned towards me, flashing a gold tooth smile and broad shoulders. His white coat hung from his broad shoulders, like a hanger. “Mr Cypher.” Mr Black said. “It’s been a while. Good to see you back at what you’re good at. I assume things are well with you.”

“Never better Mr Black” I answered, hiding my bitterness. “Never better.”