part 21

(continuing from A scolding iku in hungarian.)

As A predicted, the last one was in the badlands, the northern border of the city, a huge empty wasteland filled with sand. When the U.S. broke up internal civil wars morphed into full blown territory wars. A lot of cities were destroyed.

iku finds the last guy dragging his feet at the edge of the city. He got injured on the way here, clearly he can’t escape the city. Seeing the man in pain, iku decides to mercy kill him. No witty dialogue no nothing, just eternal rest for the man. She buries the man in the sand after.

She comes back to A.

A: (“Did you finish your job?”)

iku: “hungarian” (“It’s done.“)

A: (“See, should’ve come here like that and I would’ve have shouted at you. Siddown.”)

iku sits down infront of A on a leather chair.

A: “hungarian” (“Sorry for shouting at you, really, I feel bad. But please next time own up to your mistakes. That bothered me way more than your ego.“)

A: “hungarian” (“Ugh, I hate talking like this, it brings the mood down. Anyways you’re probs curious about me.“)

A: “hungarian” (“I am a CS major and was also into politics, I really did try to be a good person you know. I had some favors pulled in and i got a try out in cybersecurity. I saw the dire state things were in and tried to you know… fix it. I’m from Pest, lived there my whole life.“)

A: “hungarian” (“Ughh. I really don’t like talking about the past, I get you. Anyways, things were going fine, I even got to set up my own little test system that would alert people in the building if there was any trouble, I was on track to become a respected person there.“)

A: “hungarian” (“But one night… … One night, I got awoken by a call. It was from my higher-up, he was furious with me, saying that my work was useless and that I need to come in and fix it or I’m fucked. He was always a dick with me because of his friend… Not important… I made my way into the building, it must’ve been like 2AM, i was really tired.“)

A: “hungarian” (“But my higher up was right, nothing worked. I was confused so I took out my laptop and plugged in one of the console cables, even tough everything worked, it refused to run any of the services that I made. My higher up, he was screaming at me the whole time… I was really fed up and I wanted to scream to shut him up but then… The bombs hit.“)

A: “hungarian” (“I was standing to a full body pane of glass. The shockwaves blasted the shards into my body, Hence the scars… And the blind eye… My higher up died on the spot. The building started crumbling and I couldn’t move, not in the pain I was in. So the only thing i was able to do was scream. Scream for help that maybe someone was nearby and was able to get me help… I was loosing so much blood.“)

A: “hungarian” (“I really thought I was going to die there, soaked in my own blood and tears. The shard in my left eye started to hurt really bad. All I could do scream and whimper…“)

A: “hungarian” (“Although I guess I must’ve screamed loud enough, I got rescued. He got me out of the building and took me to a safe place, started treating me immediately. He didn’t have anything to make the pain manageable, so half the time he was caring for me I was in pure agony. He let me rest after he took some of the shards out. He had to take out every single one out of my body and disinfect it. But when we were resting, he talked a lot. He really was feeling guilty and mentioned how he could’ve made things work if only he hadn’t been forced to play along. He was your Caretaker.“)

Veronika’s eyes light up.