The sound of drones buzzing has been gone for some time now and Arax realized that he had only a few more hours before the afternoon sun became dangerous. He looked up; the remnants of the highway seemed like a good vantage point to look for a shelter and he decided to climb up for a better view.
He took off his backpack, unhinged his robotic arm and set them on the ground. Climbing to start was not too bad, the web of rebar was easy enough to grab on to and then step onto still hinged concrete chunks. Climbing was more comfortable than running since he had good arm strength and could leverage the weight appropriately. Good balance kept pressure off his heel and he was on top with a fair effort.
At the top he kept listening for the drones and was relieved when he heard none. He felt safe enough to stand up tall and pulled monocular over his eye to look around.
“No shelter close enough from the way I came” he mumbled looking to the south. Then looking to the east and west he spotted some dead trees, few crumbled houses but nothing spectacular enough for a shelter. He then looked north and spotted a large shiny object in the distance. Pushing a few buttons on the device made it run a scan and it digitally identified the object as an old airplane wreckage. Near the wreckage was a small concrete building, and with what looked like recent enough improvements. Could be an abandoned shelter. Arax noted that this was the direction which the drones came from, he did not like that but it was not much choice.
The wreckage was fairly far away and Arax had to make a gamble. If there were bandits they would likely see him and he would not be able to outrun them with his foot. Only other option is building a makeshift shelter under the bridge but the chunks of concrete seemed too big to move. He sat for a little while, looked out and made a decision to go for it. No time to lose, he thought and began rapid descent down the rubble.
Climbing down was not as easy as climbing up and he realized his mistake of rushing too late. He stepped on a concrete chunk in the wrong way and as it crumbled he lost his grip falling to his doom still being about 25 feet up. Luckily or unluckily his foot got caught in the rebar and he swung upside down hitting his head on the concrete chunk; miraculously missing the sticking out pieces of rebar. He growled in pain hanging upside down and as he opened his eyes everything began to blur and he passed out.
© M.A.Travis
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