3 To God

Wading through the Fields sucked. It was easy to get a foot caught in a fragile piece of scrap, and feeling jagged metal scrape against your leg everytime it happened was not a pleasant experience. On top of that, some pieces of junk were actually dangerous. Among the sea of discarded pieces of vehicles, appliances, and other objects, there were mines and explosives, some of which were still active.

The further you got into the fields, the likelier it was that you'd see these mines, and Golden Peak was over ten miles in. Kai didn't like venturing outside the "safe zone" of five miles because of the mines, but Leeva had no issues.

She darted across the uneven ground of blocky junk with a gymnast's grace, and her long ears would twitch whenever she sensed danger – a little tic that most elves had. Following behind her as best as he could, Kai made it to the base of Golden Peak right when the sun was at its highest and strongest.

Kai felt stuffy under his several layers, but he didn't take them off. Once he went up the peak, he knew it'd get much colder. He tried looking up, but boy was it hard. With the sun showing off, the cap of the peak – all made up with gold and jewels – put off a sparkle that hit his eyes hard like a flashbang.

"It's gonna take a long ass time to get up there," Kai remarked.

Leeva proceeded to take the first step up the base. "For you, maybe."

Golden Peak didn't have much to it once you started climbing up. It wasn't made up of good loot – just a ton of chunks of rusted metal piled on top of each other – but at least it was easy to scale. Screws had mapped most of the trash mountains, and Golden Peak was no exception.

There were trails carved up the peak, made by Screws using heat rayguns to melt paths into the metal. Every so often, probably when the Screws had to recharge their guns, there were poles stuck into the ground with colorful flags of tattered cloth attached to signal the way.

When they'd been climbing for about an hour, Kai spotted another flag and asked, "Why do you think the Screws mapped this place? It has nothing useful on it. Bunch of metal, but you can find that basically anywhere else. The gold at the top has no worth either – seems like a hell of a waste of time."

"It has a certain charm to it." Leeva jumped up and climbed atop the edge of a refrigerator, using it like a rock ledge. "It looks so special. The way all the gold just collects at the top isn't natural – no Screws have ever figured out how it works – so I guess they're curious about that."

"Crazy bastards, those screws. Curiosity is an easy way to waste energy and get killed out here."

"At least they have something to live and die for. Can't say the same for most."

Kai followed Leeva. He was strong enough to just jump on top of the refrigerator. "Not much to live for out here, let alone die for. You hear the Don and his marauders are expanding their territory? Burning down all those smaller villages and selling the survivors off as slaves."

"I expected as much from the Don." Leeva had a tight-lipped expression, and she unconsciously rubbed her neck, where the collar marks were. "We're halfway there. Look."

Leeva pointed forwards and Kai followed her finger. There was a huge hole carved into the mass of metals – the equivalent of a cave in a mountain. Inside, it was dark, but Kai's night vision let him know that the cave went in real deep – there wasn't an end he could make out.

"We gotta go through here? Why not just go up?" said Kai.

Leeva stepped into the cave, shadow enveloping her figure. "Skritters live here."

Kai did not follow her. "Yeah, even more reason not to go."

"Don't be such a baby, and listen to what I have to say. Skritters sleep here and they hunt outside. We'll see a lot of them, but they'll be docile and won't attack. Just don't make any sudden movements or loud noises."

"Thought I could just rely on your danger sense."

"For me, that's possible, since I can run and evade much better than you. But since you're here, this is the safest way up."

Kai said nothing and nodded in defeat.

The cave led into a cavern of tunnels, and Kai realized that the Skritters had made this complex network of holes inside the peak, using their powerful mandibles to tear chunks through the metal. Every footstep inside was soft and sticky – the webbing the Skritters used to keep the place from falling apart.

It was dark here, and Kai had to take the lead since Leeva didn't have night vision. The atmosphere inside was somewhat oppressive with a dank mustiness that settled deep in the lungs.

Kai tip toed beside a sleeping Skritter, glancing at its enormous black form. It was like a cockroach except as large as a man, spiked, clawed, and armored on every inch of its body.

"This is scary as hell, I'm not gonna lie," whispered Kai. He felt Leeva's arm on his back – she had to do this to not get lost with how dark it was – and he found some comfort in the company.

"Relax. The last time I came here, they didn't wake even when I pointed a flashlight at them."

Their voices, even as whispers, echoed in the caverns in faint peals. Kai glanced around nervously, at the masses of black forms that lay still. They were in the main cavern right in the heart of the peak, and here the whole colony of Skritters slept, some lying beside bulbous green eggs.

"And why didn't you bring one today?" asked Kai. He wanted to take his mind off the tense situation.

"Well, I thought I could rely on you."

They reached a tunnel on the other side of the cavern, one that sloped upwards. From here, as long as they kept going up, they'd find an out. Knowing this, Kai felt a little more confident.

"Aw, I'm so touched."

"Be quiet."

The further they went up, the narrower the tunnels got and the fewer Skritters they saw.

"Thank god we aren't seeing those damn things anymore," said Kai, not in a whispering voice anymore.

"Thank yourself instead," commented Leeva.

"Aren't you a ray of sunshine," Kai remarked sarcastically. "Are you still mad at me?"

"Not particularly." She paused. "I actually wanted to apologize for being so harsh."

Kai laughed.

"Was that supposed to be funny?" said Leeva.

"Not at all. I was just thinking how you never manage to stay mad at me for more than a day. Every time, you end up saying sorry."

"Oh, is that it?" said Leeva. "If you want, I can try much harder to be angry."

Kai shook his head and kept walking. "I'd rather not. I like you as you are right now."

Kai didn't look back, but he could feel her hand on his back tightening a little. She was a tough cookie, rough around the edges, but he still understood that she valued him as family, something she'd needed sorely.

A few minutes of silent walking passed before Leeva spoke up, "Why do you read those books?"

Kai cocked his head. "The books you hate?

"I don't hate them," she said. "I just don't see the point of them."

"They're special." Kai looked up, at the web wrapped ceiling above and dripped every so often with droplets of murky water. "Back when I was still with my parents, way, way back, I remember stories they told me from the books. We actually had books of our own, passed down apparently, and I loved them. I didn't know how to read, but when my mother or father told me about the beautiful worlds inside those books, I fell in love, and I've never broken up."

"I can respect that. It's good to have something to hold onto."

Kai nodded. "And I think they have value. You know how my horns can sense Scrapwhirls? Well, they sense the books too. When I'm digging around in the Fields, sometimes my horns buzz and I can pick out a book under all the junk and scrap. I don't know how my horns work, but I'm certain there's something special about them."

"Maybe. I know pops thinks the books are special too, but nothing special's come out of them. Like you said, they tell pretty stories, but that's about it."

"Pretty stories, huh." Kai frowned. "I think that's value enough. Sometimes I wonder why there isn't a real market for the books."

Leeva sighed. "People don't like being reminded that their lives are garbage."

Kai couldn't disagree with that. He wanted to say something against it, but he couldn't, so he stayed silent. Leeva fell into the silence too, feeling bad at putting down his passion like that but not knowing how to console him.

Several minutes of going up tunnels later, and the two popped out of the mountain, near the top. Kai remarked at how high up they were. If he stepped out to the edge of the pathway, it was actually hard to make out the bottom.

They'd made an insanely fast pace just walking through the tunnels and not having to trudge through uneven footing. Kai glanced up and squinted – the golden cap was right above him, just a bit of a climb away, and he could make out that the top was flat like a platform.

"We made it, huh," said Kai. He felt a chill wind breeze by him. The air here was lighter, thinner. Unpleasant. "Let's get to the top and find 'god' or whatever."

Leeva strode out beside Kai and instead of staring down, looked out into the vast breadth of the world. Up here, the world looked so simple, splotches of color on a vast canvas. She took off her hoodie and mask, unclasping it and hooking it to her belt. She breathed in the mountain air unhindered, and when she exhaled, a bright smile wreathed her lips.

"Feeling good?" asked Kai. He'd always heard that elves liked to be in places high up, but he didn't know the effect was this strong.

"Great." Leeva breathed in an out again. "I can actually breathe here."

"We could stay around for a while if you want," said Kai.

Leeva shook her head and turned around, away from the ledge and towards the peak.

"No," she said. "We have something to do. And-"

With a start, Leeva grabbed Kai and dragged him back into the tunnel they'd gotten out of. Kai didn't resist, trusting her instincts. They hunkered down under the cover of darkness. Anyone outside the tunnel wouldn't be able to see them, but they could see outside clearly.

Kai strained his eyes as he stared out.

An armored man flashed into view for a second before he passed by. In that moment Kai saw the man, he could. It was a Redband soldier. A member of the main military force of Elsia, so called because on their right forearms, they wore bright red bands.

They were the cream of the crop. Decked out in Skritter web-weave underarmor padded with superalloy titanium, helmets with all vision ranges and even options to see different color spectra, and kinetic rifles capable of punching holes into several meters of raw steel.

There wasn't a single reason for one of them to be out here, in the middle of nowhere, so far away from Elsia, the city itself. Kai felt fear creeping into him, leeching all over his body with pinprick pain. But when he felt the fear, he felt something else.

A calling, as if responding to his fear.

Come, it said.

Come and take me. Up here,

Come and release me.

Leeva tugged at Kai's arm. "We have to leave. They'll shoot Scrappers like us on sight."

But Kai still heard that voice, and he felt an immeasurable curiosity backed by a strange impulse, something like a gut feeling that told him, made him go up. This must be the instinct that pops talked about when he said he believed in magic.

"Stay here where it's safe." Kai creeped towards the tunnel exit again. "I don't like to leave a job half done. Be right back."