A Ferrum Horse
"The Edge, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."
- Hunter S. Thompson
Antigua cast a wary eye across the distant haze of the horizon.
She had been out beyond the Firewall for over a week now and was beginning to suspect that the Northland Elders may have been correct. So far it appeared that nothing in the Southland had survived the purge.
"Well Argee," she said with a sigh, leaning forward to pet the huge robotic horse that had been her only companion for the last eight days, "It's starting to look like the Gateway was a waste of time."
Argentum snorted his disapproval. He was enjoying the excursion so far. The vast steppe land suited his design profile perfectly, and for the first time, it had allowed him to push his performance envelope to the limit.
"We've barely touched a single percentage of our target coverage area, Antigua." Lacking the mechanism for vocalization he 'spoke' to her via a wireless connection from his Comm-link to her visor. When she had been asked to build his personality profile Antigua had selected a soothing baritone for his speech patterns.
"You know Argee, I've just realized that you sound exactly like my father," she said, smiling as she spoke.
Argentum snorted again.
"Now I know why you never listen to a word I say." He replied, nickering softly.
Antigua was taken aback for a moment.
"I never specified a sense of humor when I was selecting character traits for you." She said, leaning forward again to pull affectionately at one of his ears.
The scan-line on her visor HUD flashed amber, alerting her to distant motion. She concentrated on the amber line as it passed up and down over her field of view. When it flashed again she zeroed in on the motion. With a deft flick of her wrist, she adjusted the visors optical unit to zoom in on the spot.
Well now, here's a spot of luck. She thought to herself, tapping her heels against Argentum’s steel flanks.
The horse leaped forward with a soft hum, steam snorting from his nostrils. Antigua adjusted her posture, bringing him into a brisk canter.
Carrion fowl spiraled lazily across her view. The visors optics were strong enough for her to identify them as vultures. She didn't recognize the species. Consulting her database, she confirmed that the species in her view had not been cataloged in any of the ancient databases created prior to the Purge, nor had it been identified by Northland Ornithologists. Life in the Southland had managed to survive 'The Purge,' and here was the proof.
The circular mini-map in the bottom left of her HUD provided real-time feedback of any motion and non-ambient heat sources within a thousand-yard radius. As they cantered into range the mini-map became speckled by a tight knot of motion hits. Vultures weren’t the only life forms out there. The area ahead was crawling with activity. Argentum's powerful stride carried them swiftly across the flat, barren wasteland. As they approached the spot that the vultures were circling, she pulled gently on the reins slowing him to a trot.
A tight knot of hungry scavengers was not something to approach carelessly. Antigua sized up the situation carefully.
The mixed bag of beasts before her was more than she had hoped to find. She had been told to expect a barren wasteland, devoid of complex life, yet here was evidence of a flourishing eco-system way beyond anything she had ever seen in the Northland.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she quickly scanned the throng before her. Her database wasn’t finding any direct matches with animals familiar to a Northlander, but there were obvious similarities to some of the larger order of carnivore.
Suddenly the scan-line on her HUD flashed a notification. There was a match, roughly twenty yards out from the main scrum of activity.
Order: Primate
Family: Hominidae
Status: Unconscious.
“A human?”
The mini-map placed it roughly twenty yards outside the scrum of scavengers. Whatever they were squabbling over was obviously more interesting to them than the mere morsel of a man.
She spurred Argentum back into a canter and circled around the tumult, keeping a wary eye out for anything breaking off to investigate her arrival. If it was a human, then she would have completed the first of her mission directives. She activated the recording function on her visor and let it whir away, capturing and cataloging everything in her field of view.
As she approached the body she realized it hadn’t completely escaped attention. Two large vultures were industriously pecking into the man’s right thigh. Their vicious beaks pulling ribbons of scarlet flesh from the limb.
With a shout she drove Argentum forward at pace, steering him towards the small group. The two vultures ceased their grisly task and flapped lazily out of the path of the approaching war-horse. They took up sentinel positions a few yards out of reach, regarding the pair through cold, malicious eyes.
This flurry of activity had not gone unnoticed.
