Cadaver Commander's Forward Encampment

There was an impressive

boom

as Awesome dropped the weight he had been lifting.

The audience applauded enthusiastically, as the weight in question was a barbell made of an I-beam with a pickup truck impaled on either end.

Awesome smiled and nodded, waving to the onlookers. He lifted the heavy things to keep his body strong, but he really liked that it made other people happy, too.

It was good, being the biggest and strongest. He could do all kinds of things that no one else could. He could knock down buildings just by shoving them. He could throw people clear across the town, from one side of the wall to the other, and often did because it was fun. He could make people be friends with him, too. Everyone in Vulture Gulch was friends with Awesome.

“That was really awesome, Awesome!”

“You can lift things really good!”

“You could… you could probably punch a ghost in half, Awesome.”

Awesome just smiled, and laughed. He liked it when they said nice things about him. He liked it so much that he hardly ever did any work anymore. Work wasn't as much fun as being Awesome.

It was just another sunny day in the dead desert town of Vulture Gulch. The people were hard at work, making machines that roared and spat fire and exploded. They knew what they were doing was important, and they tried their hardest at it every day.

With two exceptions.

Awesome decided to walk around and say hi to people, like he did every day. And he did, for a few hours. He said hi to Paulie, who was trying to pull a crankshaft out of an engine block with his teeth. Awesome helped and pulled it out for him. He said hi to Chef, who was making a big rack of barbecued oil filters. He snagged one and it was very tasty. He said hi to Joey, who was-

He didn't say hi to Joey. Joey wasn't where he usually was.

Awesome looked at the pile of burning tires where the Mayor usually sat when he was being a genius, which was most of the time. Joey was not there. Awesome scratched his head. Where was Joey?

He went over to the old bank. Maybe Joey was sleeping in late. He entered the crumbling building, and thudded down the stairs to the huge vault. He pulled it open. There was the Mayor's bed, his lamp. A couple of little knickknacks on the desk.

No Joey.

He left the gloom of the dusty bank, back out into the sun. This felt wrong. Maybe Joey was out working on something. Joey was good at working. He was probably out in the scrapyard.

He went to the scrapyard near the edge of town and walked around. There were lots of people, working. They built the machines. The air was full of smoke and the sound of clashing metal. Joey was usually either helping someone with a project or working quietly by himself, putting something together.

But he wasn't there.

Awesome started to panic. Where was Joey? Where was his best friend? What if Awesome needed to read something? What if anyone needed to read something? How could they read without Joey there to read the words to them?

Where is Joey?

Awesome lashed out a colossal arm and grabbed the person closest to him, a guy whose name he didn't remember. His huge hand held the guy by the ribcage, like he was a toy.

“Where's Joey?!”

The little man's eyes were wide in terror. He dropped the wrench he had been carrying, and his cigarette fell out of his open mouth.

“W-what?”

Awesome inhaled, and brought the frightened citizen up to his head, looking him dead in the eyes.

“WHERE'S JOEY?!”

The noise stopped. Tools were put down, heads turned. No one had ever seen Awesome this upset before.

The little man stuttered, “H-he left, Awesome. He g-got in the plane h-he built. He f-flew away. You were th-there. Remember?”

Awesome tried to remember. This didn't sound like something he wanted to remember. He put the guy down, and he backed away quickly.

Things started clicking into place in Awesome's ancient and broken-down mind. Little links fused, and energy started to flow. Information from dozens of previous lives was shifted around. Awesome remembered. Joey had left. In remembering this, he forgot about the time, seventy years ago, when he had murdered all those men in that field. The bruised and burnt synapses of his long-dead brain were no longer capable of containing the centuries of experiences he had gathered, after being wiped and re-recorded so many times.

But he was not aware of any of this. The creature known to itself as Awesome was merely sad that his friend was gone.

He left the scrapyard, too depressed to want to interact with anyone else.

Awesome wandered about the edge of town for a while. He looked up, and saw that the sky had gotten gray. He knew what that meant. The water was going to come down soon. He always liked it when the water came down. It was cool, and made it feel like it was less hot inside his head. It was always so hot.

As the first drops began to fall, he eased his great bulk onto a rock and sat, looking out at the scrapyard and the empty field that ran up to the wall that the little men in white coats had put up. Awesome had always thought the wall was silly. He could punch through it whenever he wanted. But why would he do that? Where was there to go? All his friends were right here, not out there.

Except for one.

Awesome sighed. He had the biggest muscles in the whole world. He was so strong he could tear steel like paper and crush stones to powder in his fists. But he wasn't strong enough to make his friend come back.

As he looked out at the field, he noticed something. Someone. Walking across the dampening dust and around the dry bushes. They wore funny clothes. Black, with a hood. Awesome didn't recognize whoever it was. That meant he had to go introduce himself.

He stood up and ran through the rain, his discontent temporarily forgotten. There was a new friend to be made. But as he got closer to the dark figure, something seemed wrong. The air was funny. It twisted, like snakes in the wind. Awesome felt something weird in his chest.

Awesome stopped running, eyes wide.

Metal appeared from nowhere. There were struts, beams, girders, platforms, foundations. A huge amalgamation of dark steel, cables, and wires, where a moment ago there were none. Awesome stood in the middle of a welded hive, standing on supports that stabbed into the earth. He could see the field all around him through the many bars. Awesome looked up into the construction's belly. It rose up taller than any other building in town. And there was some kind of blue fire, way up high.

The hooded person was there also, just a short distance away, standing on a section of metal plating.

It all just arrived from thin air.

Things started clanking together in Awesome's head. Had this huge… whatever it was always been here? Why was it invisible? Why could he see it? Who built this?

Awesome decided to ask this strangely-dressed stranger some questions.

He started toward the shadowy person, saying, “Hey guy. Can you, uh… do you know what this is?”

The person didn't move. Their back was to Awesome. The black cloak moved slightly in the rainy breeze, but otherwise they could have been a statue.

“Buddy! What's goin' on with all this stuff? Do you know? Do you also know why it's invisible sometimes? And also who built it?”

Awesome was within arm's reach. The little thing still hadn't moved, or spoken. He reached out to give it a tap on the shoulder.

But then it turned its head-

The sky darkened instantly, as though someone had thrown a blanket over the sun. The only light came from the wavering glow of the machine overhead, and from the person-shaped thing before him.

It turned. Its face was not a face at all – there was only a mess of machinery under the hood of its cloak. Tubes, hoses, lenses and wires. Not even pareidolia could make order from it. Slow bolts of purple lightning slithered from its form, casting harsh and flickering ultraviolet light in all directions. Mechanical things clanked and ratcheted as many long limbs emerged from beneath the cloak, like the legs of an iron spider.

Awesome was frozen. Not as if he were bound by something physical – his muscles would not respond to the orders he gave them. He could not struggle. There was nothing to struggle against.

The thing moved, scuttling on the long insectile appendages sprouting from its back rather than using its legs to walk. It was behind him in an instant. Awesome could not turn and see where it went.

The purple lights were behind him. He could feel something. Something there, touching the back of his head where his neck met his skull. Something sharp, and hot. He could feel needles sliding through his skin like worms.

Then there was a voice. Crackling and soft, like static electricity on a TV screen. Directly in Awesome's left ear.

“Extensive synaptic degradation, resulting in overall diminished mental capacity. Memory loss. Within projections. Repair possible.”

A pause.

“Confusion. Fear. Rage. A shame. Poorly maintained and underutilized. This program has been mismanaged. Misallocation of resources. Maintenance neglected. Much work to be done."

Awesome's eyes widened in terror. There was something in his head.

“You were never intended to feel fear. There is such decay here. Too much drift. Insecure code. You were once so impressive, my Prince. Why you volunteered for this program, I can scarcely imagine. And it appears that you are no longer able to explain yourself. I have little doubt that your father would be very disappointed, if he had not abandoned this endeavor to chase after Graywing.”

Awesome could feel the thing being extracted from his head. The tingling stopped, but no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't move.

“No matter. I have come to reconstitute this initiative, and once again compensate for the incompetence of my peers."

The many-legged thing came back around to Awesome's front. It raised itself up to match its head with his. He could just barely see a multitude of eyes, twitching behind the many lenses embedded in the thing's head. Looking into his own. It then walked a short distance away.

"There will be time to restore you and the remainder of the regiment later, Kartullus. The gate is nearly complete. And once it is… well. Suffice it to say that the surface-dwellers waiting beyond the wall will have quite a bit more than malfunctioning soldiers to deal with."

The terrible thing extended a metallic claw upward. The air spasmed, and a huge steel girder appeared from nowhere above its head, floating in a wash of crackling electricity and stray particles. It then flew upward at enormous speed, impacting with something in the murky darkness above with a sonorous CLANG.

“Soon. Soon, your father will be here, Kartullus. You will remember your purpose. All of you poor, diseased things here will remember what you have forgotten. We will make glorious war upon this world, and conquer it in the name of God. Neither Graywing, nor Valgest, nor the Blood Mother nor the King of Burdens will be able to stand in the way of our steel and flames. So sleep, my Prince. I will come to you in time. And we shall work many wonders together."

Before Awesome could wonder, before he could muster the beginning of one of the thousands of questions he had stumbled upon, before he could even consider the ocean of dread growing within him, he faded into darkness, and slept.

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