“You could’ve told me we were headed here,” I said coldly.

“and spoil all the fun? Fuck no!” Stryme said with a maniacal laugh.

As I peered through my natural eye, the sight appeared misted. A mesa eight meters tall stood before us, right next to a shattered butte. The butte’s shattered pieces looked as though they came from five giant marbles that’d been shattered on the spot whilst the mesa looked like an upside-down pie. “Mr Black has balls, you know that?”

“The biggest,” Stryme said.

“Active Camouflage in the open like this? Why in the Imbibe would he have it in the middle of the Waste, sitting there…just like that? Isn’t he scared of the tech failing or worst, someone finding it?”

“He isn’t,” Stryme said cooly, which bugged me.

Stryme fished into his pocket the moment we approached the shattered butte. He pressed a button on the datacube again and the Active Camouflage fizzled out of existence.

A brown sheet with multiple folds and crumples flapping in the wind. Stryme walked towards pushing it aside leaving a split for us to enter.

I ducked under it and made my inside. A light pulsed into existence showing me five poles strategically placed, keeping the camouflage sheet up. The poles were a few meters apart from each other and of varying length, in the form of a tent.

On the inside, it was just like the Doasian camp, filled with multiple crates, tables and some radio equipment.

I turned left, heading towards the box then lifted the lid open. A snake opened its maw and jumped towards me. I skipped back flicking my short sword free, slashing it in half before it could meet me.

The snaked wiggled in a dance of the death, which was stopped by me stomping its head into bits of matter with the bottom of my boots. “What the fuck STRYME?” I hissed. “You could’ve told me about the fucking snake!”

I turned right, looking at him and feeling the heat from my lips scorch my lips. He ignored me, prying one of the crates open and pulling the magazine free and sliding it across the table in front of him. “Careful Cypher, There are snakes in there Cypher.” He grunted.

Asshole, I thought bitterly. “That’s it? ‘There’s snakes in there?’ I mocked, using his voice against him. He turned to me, eyes lacking any form of care. He then pried open another crate, pulling an AR7 Assault Rifle and placed that on the table as well. “Yeah..that’s it.”

I ground my teeth in frustration, watching him pull something from another crate. He pulled what seemed to be a sleeping bag out and slid the lid open for one of the crates.

He pulled a pump free, hosed it onto the sleeping bag and began pumping air into the bag, filling the tent with loud puffs. “There’s another sleeping bag?” I asked.

“Yeah…” He said, then plunked himself down and headed off into the land of counting sheep. I walked back over to the box next to the water tank, pulled a cup free, and then tore it upon, freeing one of the purification tablets from its packet.

The faucet sprayed water into the cup, consuming the antibacterial tablet and I plunked myself down. It would’ve been better if I had nanites to eat the bacteria. Now I have to wait thirty minutes for these things to work.

As I sat there, my back pushed up against one of the water tanks beneath the camouflage tent. My eyes traced the tent looking for any form of sustenance whilst I waited for my water to purify.

Stryme and I had enough dry packet food still available, but it would’ve been nice for something that wasn’t a military ration, but hey, I was in the fucking Waste so what could I expect?

I puffed my cheeks, and then pushed myself up. Stones and pebbles crunched beneath my feet as I headed to the crates to my left. The crates weren’t made of wood, but some form of plastic which felt like metal. The lid bent when I slide it off, feeling cool as ice. It didn’t shimmer like metal but made me wonder what the material was. Heat-resistant plastic? I thought as I slid the lid off.

A gust of hot air blew through the tent, roiling inside with heat, which made beads of sweat trickle down my face. I dabbed them away, turning to my water then stimulated my SMB, checking on how much time had passed since I dropped the tablet into the water.

4:58

Perfect, I huffed in disbelief.

My lips and throat felt as though they were on the verge of cracking from dryness, which reminded me. I still had two wolfskin water bottles in my haversack.

I turned left, heading over to it and pushed the empty water bottles free, pulling the two free. I guzzled the water down and then sprayed it all over my head cooling my body and feeling the heat dissipate from my face.

My stomach growled, yearning for some form of sustenance. I took a whiff of wind into my nose and mouth and tasted the metallic blood of the snake at the tip of my lips.

“Of course…” I said aloud. “I do have meat.” My eyes traced to the snack whose head had been smashed, leaving a perfectly able body, enough for me to make food. My lips watered the moment the sizzling sound of the fire snapped from the juice that would’ve run off its body hitting the fire perfect. “Bottoms up.”

◆◆◆

Wildlife within the Carib Waste was close to non-existence. The only animals found within the desert were snakes, desert tortoises, golden eagles and of course vultures.

The apex animal within the waste was known to be a desert wolf, but those were found in the southern hemisphere closer to Latrina.

In the northern hemisphere, the general vicinity in which we were headed didn’t have to worry about such things, thankfully.

If we had to thank someone for the wolves migrating south we would have to thank the Doasians, as they hunted the animals close to extinction.

The oily rubbered texture of the snake meat, deflected my teeth with each bite as if they were a basketball floor. It wasn’t pleasant fighting the meat with my teeth, hell, this was worst than synthetic steak, which was the worst form of meat, compared to everyone else.

The meat from the cloned cows would spoil faster compared naturally born animals used for poultry. That was one of the reasons I stayed away from steak, but that wasn’t enough for other people. I would still eat steak I thought, battling the snake meat in my mouth.

Once the snake meat was battered into tenderness with my teeth, I slid it down my throat, feeling the heat from within my tongue and the back of my throat as it fell into my stomach. “You aren’t gonna share that?” Stryme asked.

I pursed my lips and turned to him. I took a giant bite out of the snake, stretching the skin with my teeth and tearing it completely off, perfectly. “Should I? Weren’t trying to feed it just now?”

“Come on Cypher. I know you had it handled, why bother saying anything? It wasn’t poisonous!”

“What if I’d been scared of snakes?”

“Are you scared of snakes?”

“That’s not the point, I said if.”

Stryme sighed, shaking his head as I lay on his bed. His eyes drifted to the makeshift fire I’d built inside the camouflage sheet.

A loud groan bellowed within the camouflage sheet and Stryme held his stomach in shame. I shook my head and then began sucking the meat from between my teeth free. I’m gonna have to tolerate him a little longer I thought.

I grabbed the kebab and tossed it at him with a flick of my fingers. His eyes gaped, startled by the floating snake. He jumped out of the bed, catching it with one hand then shrieked in pain. “OW! IT’S HOT!”

“Of course it is, It’s cooked!”

Stryme mumbled something under his breath that made me shake my head. I don’t know what his problem was, but it certainly wasn’t mine.

I guzzled a few more bottles of water down my throat, then pressed my back up against the water tank, hoping to catch some shut eye as the inside of the tent was finally cooling down, despite the small fire I’d built.

A loud roving growl of an engine killed the silence of the Waste, forcing me to my feet. Stryme kicked himself off of his makeshift bed, looking at me as confused as ever. “What the fuck was that?” Stryme hissed.