The Iron Forest: Ancestor's Legacy

Winter’s first snow blanketed the village in a sparkling gown of ice. Its cold grip on the mountain kept people in their homes to warm in front of fires that sent thin smoke columns skyward. Sana enjoyed the silence of the season, save for the crunching sound of her footsteps. It was as if the world slept, to wake fresh and anew.

“Are you cold?” Victor asked in her language through clouds of frozen breath. He still spoke slow, working through any unfamiliar words.

Hearing him speak her language felt odd. But after weeks of Anshu’s tutorship, his speech became more natural and fluid. Everyone in the village pitched in to help build his vocabulary. She was surprised how he soaked up the words in such a short time, although he still needed a translator during meetings in the great hall.

Sana smiled at his concern. “No. I’m fine.” Her bearskin coat kept her warm, and she tucked her hair underneath a wolf-skin cap.

The villagers called him Sky-Man since arriving at Dirasha. He embraced their culture and their music and laughter. With little memory of the past, he studied their history to augment it as his own.

Sana looked back at Victor who also kept warm beneath a bear-skin coat. His brown hair started to grow out to a small ponytail, with a short-cropped beard. She admitted he was handsome, but in a different way than other Shankur men. The gentleness of his voice and his compassion for her pain, gave her comfort she could find nowhere else. He understood her suffering after hearing about her time as a slave and losing all she loved.

She remembered him thanking her for saving his life, but he was wrong. He saved her life. Through his kindness, he rescued her from a dark place within and rekindled that light she thought would never shine again.

Victor blew into his hands. “There’s a fresh fire in the cabin if you get cold.”

“Thank you, but I want to stay out here for a while.”

“Should I leave you alone?”

“No, I would prefer the company. Walk with me.” She interlocked one arm around his while the other held her spear.

They strolled through snow covered houses to the road along an icy creek. Shankur guards waved as they departed from the village toward the overlooking mountain. It was their habit, to walk together, talk, and enjoy each other’s company.

“Have your memories returned yet?” Sana asked.

Victor shook his head. “Some. I’m not expecting much. After all, I was asleep for a long time.”

“You’ll get them back soon. The Ancestors brought you to us for a reason. When they feel the time is right, your memories will return.”

He chuckled. “It’ll take more than the Ancestors for me to remember. I can’t help thinking how strange it is that I can remember most of my life, but not know how I got here.”

“My world may seem strange to you,” Sana said, gesturing to the world around her, “but this is normal to my people.”

“Have you ever wondered what happened to the…”

“The Ancients?” she supplied.

“Yes, the Ancients. Ever wondered where they went and what life was like for them?”

Sana nodded. “Since I was young, I tried to imagine the ruins and what purpose they served.” She stopped and pointed down the valley at a large pile of bricks in a clearing. A square column still stood and formed a gradual peak. “Like that structure there. What was it for?”

“That was a church,” he said, squinting through the glare of snow.

“Church?”

“Yes. A holy place for the Ancients. That’s where we used to pray.”

“To whom? The Ancestors?”

“Not really,” Victor said, diverting his focus. He looked uneasy. “It doesn’t matter anymore since no one is left to carry on with the traditions. I guess gods die with their followers.”

Sana turned toward Victor. She didn’t care much about gods. All they caused was suffering and death. Unlike the Ancestors who once walked the Earth and understood what it meant to be alive. “What do you believe in?”

He paused in thought before grabbing her hands. The corners of his mouth turned up as he leaned in closer. “Fate.”

She closed the gap, one inch at a time. A kiss would express everything she felt, but that portion of her heart died with Ikesh… Sana backed away. Her feelings for Victor grew for weeks, but memories of love and death still echoed in her mind. She wasn’t ready.

“I-I want to show you something.”

She led him up and around a hill to a grove of Douglas fir and juniper. Branches piled thick between the trees, making entry between the trunks a challenge. The steel-gray sky left dark shadows where light filtered into tiny points. The center of the grove housed an overgrown pile of vines. Sana used her spear to pry the flora.

Victor gasped, and Sana hid a smile.

Within the overgrowth stood a creature made from steel and composite. About the size of a bison, it sat on its haunches. Pistons and polished metal bones filled with wires and fiber-mesh muscles peeked behind a skin of white-coated steel. The beast had claws and teeth the size of a man’s hand, making it appear somewhat cat-like.

Victor looked upon the creature with awe and fear. “What is it?”

“A Guardian. One of many throughout the land. The elders tell of a legend that these are what defeated the machines that destroyed your people. They protected us for centuries, but one day, they stopped. Since then, the Guardians have been asleep, awaiting the Ancestors’ return.”

Victor rested his hands on the beast’s shoulder. Something was wrong. His face scrunched with pain as he buried his face in his hands and fell to his knees.

“Victor?!” Sana cried out, holding his shoulders steady. His eyes rolled in the back of his head as he slumped forward into the snow.

*****

Victor stood at a computer monitor, leaning against it with one hand. Through the screen, there were no trees or grass, but a toxic dusty land, void of sun. He stood, scared, watching the machines marching toward him beyond a wall of steel and concrete. There were thousands… tens of thousands, snarling with glowing red eyes.

“Victor, it’s time,” Teresa, a soft voiced lieutenant, said from behind, wrapping her arms around him. She was a dark-skinned girl with a short-cropped afro and a pretty smile that melted his heart.

They were the last ones left in the facility buried within a mountain. Most of the other engineers and scientists evacuated, leaving the place in an eerie silence. Only Victor, Teresa, and a few brave soldiers remained with hopes the machines would stop; far-fetched dreams.

He nodded, enjoying her touch. “I just want one last look of the world before it’s gone.”

“It’s not going anywhere. We are.”

He turned to face her. “True, but for how long?”

“Who cares? Once we rendezvous to the Trident, this planet will become a forgotten nightmare. We’ll have the rest of our lives to spend together.”

He smiled at that, but they weren’t there yet. “I know. I was just hoping…”

“You did all you could. It’s up to Gaia now, not us,” Teresa said, handing Victor a small data spike.

“I thought you uploaded that code to the Trident yesterday.”

“I did. This is a copy.”

The lights flickered with walls, shuttering like an earthquake. Klaxons blared down the halls with red light spinning in alert. A soldier in composite armor burst through the door. His rifle tucked tight under his arm. “Sir. We have a breech. I’m pulling my men back to the upper levels.”

Victor jerked back to the monitor, gritting his teeth. The wall, protecting the mountain, had a gap with machines pouring in. “How much time?” he asked, wondering when the compound would be overrun.

“Little. Minutes at most.” The soldier pressed his headset to his ear. “We gotta go! Now!”

More thuds shook the walls, sending bits of concrete and dust from the ceiling. They bolted through hallways and up stairwells with as much speed their lungs could manage. Gunfire echoed through the corridors with shouts and screams.

Victor knew the compound better than any, but the route they took seemed unfamiliar. “Where are we going, Sergeant?”

“There’s a utility access door on the second level that’ll get us to the Trident.”

“Why not take the south tunnel? It’s faster,” Teresa said.

The soldier shook his head, glancing back. “No-can-do, Ma’am. That area is compromised. This is the only way.”

Victor’s lungs heaved at the climb. Metal clanked against concrete from behind. The machines were closing in fast.

They entered a short hall, through an open blast door, with a steel vault entry on the opposite side. “Is that the exit?” Victor asked, raising his voice above the chaos behind them. He flinched at the soldier, firing his weapon.

“Shut the blast door! That will buy us time!” the sergeant shouted.

Victor placed his palm on the emergency switch to cycle the door closed. He and Teresa were on one side, the soldier, on the other. The sergeant ran backwards, sending rounds down where they came. Light flashed from his barrel, revealing machines charging toward them in showers of sparks.

“Come on!” Teresa screamed at the soldier, but it was too late.

Green bolts of plasma ripped through the man, sending out sprays of blood and pieces. Victor and Teresa dodged the through-fire, slamming their hands on the emergency switch. He cursed the massive door’s slow movement, seeing the machine’s approach with glowing red eyes through lingering gun smoke.

The door slammed shut, metal on metal banged from the other side. The soldier was right. It bought them some time, but for how long Victor didn’t know. He took a deep breath and started toward the exit; one more door to freedom.

Victor keyed the code to open the utility door. One try, then another, ended in an angry beep. His shaking fingers struggled to hit the right key.

“Let me try,” Teresa said. The first attempt resulted in a successful chime. “Bingo!” She celebrated as the door shifted open.

A single blast sent Teresa flying against Victor. He caught her in his arms. “Teresa! No!”

Outside, there was no ship, only a machine with a smoking barrel, strutting toward him on a pair of steel legs. Frantic, he scurried backwards, tugging Teresa’s limp body that left behind a crimson trail. Nightmares burst through the blast door and more entered from the exit ahead. There was nowhere to run; nowhere to hide. He had little choice but held on tight to the woman he loved and waited to die.

*****

Victor’s eyes blinked to see Sana, looking down with a worried face. He stood, rubbing the pain from his temples on shaky legs.

“What happened?” she asked, rubbing his back.

“I don’t know.” He looked back at Sana. “How long was I gone?”

She stared, confused. “You never left. You were only out for a few minutes.”

He rubbed his temple. “I was back in my time. When the machines attacked… It felt so real.”

“A memory?”

“I think so.” He glanced at the Guardian. “There were none of these. The ones I saw were different, older.”

He raised his hand to touch the Guardian again.

“Victor, don’t!” Sana held back his arm, but he jerked it away.

“It’s okay. I’m fine now.”

Victor laid his hand on the beast’s shoulder and felt nothing like he did before. Instead, he felt the smooth steel armor against his palm. “It’s warm.”

Sana nodded. “Like I said, they sleep.”

“Are there any other machines out there?”

“Only two. You’ve seen the Reapers that walk among the Outlands. The other one is called a Destroyer.” She gazed up at the Guardian that stared outward toward nothing. “I’ve seen them before during my time as a slave, and my mother told me terrible stories she heard from the elders. They are three times bigger than this one and can chop a man to pieces without a single touch.”

The last part reminded him of the soldier and Teresa. What she described sounded like the same weapons the machines from his time used. They destroyed almost all human existence when man had similar weapons to fight back with. He shivered at the thought of what they could do if unleashed against people armed only with swords and spears.

He rubbed one of the Guardian’s teeth and pressed his finger to test the sharpness of the tip. Whoever made this knew what they were doing. Quadruple redundant systems, titanium alloy plating, and nano-elastic steel, this beast can take a beating before any failure could occur. He peeked between the gaps in the armor skin. This machine was designed to destroy other machines.

Sana walked away, leaving Victor to study the Guardian. The increasing wind made the fur on his shoulders flutter. Ice and snow shifted from a slow downward dance to a horizontal rush.

Sana sighed. “We should head back. A storm is coming.”