Leno's will (chapter 3)

Mara Tombstone was a medic in sector twelve of the burrows. She was commonly known as aunt Mara. This was because being forty-eight years old she was older than most people. There were only a few people in her sector who was older than her and even they sometimes referred to her as aunt Mara. She had gotten used to her new name though; her old name reminded her too much of  her lost past. 

Aunt Mara was chopping some vegetables from her rations when she noticed a middle aged man walking towards her. She smiled warmly and her gesture was returned within seconds. 

"Hey there aunt Mara, how are you doing?" inquired the man. He was tall and well built. His face was hairless and his skin had a slight tan. His face was more toned than his mucular body which could be seen since he wore a ragged shirt which he had unbuttoned. The remains of a burn could just be made out to the left of his stomach. He had black hair that flowed to his shoulders ending in curls. His green eyes gave the impression of a mountain eagle about to swoop down on its prey but his soft facial features made him approachable. He was quite handsome but it was obvious to see that working in the furnaces for eleven years had taken a toll on him. 

"I am fine, thank you for asking. I am curious though, you have just finished your shift in the furnaces and yet you look very energetic, excited even. Is something going on, Ivan?"

"So you haven't heard then, thats fine. Come with me and I will explain on the way" replied Ivan lending an arm out for the little woman.

"Where are we going?" 

"The next wave of biodas have arrived, except it's not a wave. It is just one person, one man. The wardens are running him through a full security check so we may be able to see him if we leave now. He is just outside the slave yard."

"What!" stammered a clearly shocked aunt Mara, "One man, they have never bought in one man on his own before. And they only ever run a full security check for special situations."

"Hard to believe isn't it"

"Well you don't have to ask me again, lead the way Ivan"

With that Ivan sped off towards the slave yard with aunt Mara bustling behind him. 

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Leno and Mika made their way across the series of tunnels running through the burrows. They were slower than usual since Mika could not walk properly and had to rely on Leno for support.

"Sorry about this" said Mika.

"Don't worry, it's no problem" replied Leno as he turned and smiled at Mika. This moment of distraction meant that neither of the boys saw the approaching person. With a thud all three collided and fell to the floor, each in their own way.Mika tumbled helplessly onto the floor and bit his lips to stop himself from screaming from the pain of his wound. Leno fell backwards but luckily managed to use his hands to stop himself before his back hit the floor. The person who had knocked into them, however, was the one most affected. He was a boy who looked to be about the same age as the other two but was shorter and very skinny. His skin was dirty and he was covered in spots. After the collision he fell onto the floor and rolled over twice before being able to stop himself.

Leno recognised him immediately. He was also in sector twelve but he was not an enthusiastic member. He had been the son of a wealthy merchant before his enslavement. It had been three years since he had arrived and yet his ego had never subsided. From the day he arrived he had considered himself superior to the people in sector twelve and he had often shown his contempt towards them. In some ways he was very similiar to Leno in appearance. Both him and Leno had golden hair and sapphire eyes. However whilst Leno was well built he was skinny. Leno had a glowing tan complete with good skin devoid of scars and bruises whereas the boy had dirty skin covered in spots. Leno returned the boys attitude back at him. He hated how the people of sector twelve tolerated him. This spoilt brat constantly had fights with him simply because of their likeness. They were the only two people with blonde hair and the silly boy claimed that only high born people had golden hair and had said that Leno was not worthy.

"You scum, don't you watch where you are going? One would think that with two pairs of eyes you two could at least look in front of you properly but even then you two scum have the range of a dung beetle." the boy shouted. 

"Shut up you scrawny little rat. If you take your head out of your arse you will realise that you are also to blame. I was helping Mika, but what were you doing? Where were you looking?" roared Leno.

Mika stumbled between them and pushed Leno back slightly.

"We are sorry Tyson, we should have been looking ahead of us. Leno calm down, Judi is waiting for us."

"ooh Judi. She isn't waiting for you. She is waiting for that arrogant twit. You are just a tag along" smirked Tyson as he disappeared into the distance.

Mika blushed uncontrollably at this and looked away in embarassment. Leno shook his head and helped Mika up.

"Its not true, you know that, Judi doesn't think of you like that"

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Ivan and aunt Mara made their way across the path leading around the slave yard. They were close to the security units now. Normally biodas wouldn't be able to go anywhere near there but since aunt Mara was a medic she could claim that she was going to get medical supplies from the medical warehouse which was close to the security unit. Ivan could join her saying he was helping her carry the supplies back because she was too old to carry them all by herself.

"So the alarms start ringing and the main gates open. Everyone was shocked. What they expected was a flock of biodas but what they saw was very different. There were five wardens and one man. And get this, the man was completely unharmed. Out of the wardens only two were unharmed. One had lost an arm. The other two had suffered many injuries. Their metal plating was dented in several places and they had holes in their arms. One of them had lost an eye whilst the other one had a speech defect. You knew from just looking that those two were going straight to the furnaces." informed Ivan. Aunt Mara raised her eyebrows. This was very peculiar. 

"By any chance, did the wardens have red banners draped across their left shoulders?"

"Yes aunt Mara"

"Blast, that means they were part of a combat unit," stammered aunt Mara, "But then that means seven of them were destroyed and then why would the remaining ones bring the prisoner to the slave settlement, especially if it was him that destroyed the other seven." 

The race of metal could be classified into four groups. There were third order machines, second order, first order and class X. All third order machines were referred to as wardens. Their jobs were related to security and other labour intensive areas of work. Their most common jobs consisted of running slave settlements. They were the lowest rank of machine and the weakest at that. They were not developed like other machines and did not even have personalities. They consisted of a system which had over a thousand commands which allowed them to function sufficiently. They only had a single core inside them. They were made out of alloys of ancient metal and tin - the weakest alloys used to make machines. Wardens used spears and clubs as weapons and really lucky ones were given spikes on their clubs.

A combat unit consisted of twelve machines that were employed in urgent missions of assasination or capture. In this case a combat unit of twelve wardens had set out and only five had arrived. To make matters worse the ones that remained were in poor condition and after all their trouble they had only one prisoner who was completely unscathed. Whatever had happened, this was a strange and unusual situation.

Aunt Mara and Ivan hurried their pace as they made their way towards the security unit. 

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Leno and Mika arrived at a dead end. Two years ago there had been a construction plan to extend the tunnels but it had stopped short after the tunnels had collapsed. The rubble from the accident still remained. Leno removed a few large pieces of rock and unearthed a small tunnel. He crawled in and Mika followed with difficulty. The two continued forward in the pitch darkness. Although there was no light they knew by memory which way to go. After a series of turns and loops a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Leno and Mika surfaced in a small circular cave.

In the corners were lanterns filled with glow worms. Four such lanterns provided the only source of light available in this place. There were many holes in the ceiling through which fresh air came in. In the centre was a mound of earth piled together. The top of it had been pressed flat and smoothed out to create a table space. On the earth-made table was a cloth with various pieces of food laid out on it. There was a slice of cheese, a loaf of bread and three small bowls filled with soup. On a separate dish was a few biscuits as well as a bowl full of beans. In the centre was a piece of chicken. Next to the table sat a girl of about sixteen years of age.

The girl had long flowing brunnette locks that fell below her chest. Just like Leno she too had a glow tan. Despite being on the skinny side she looked healthy and had small rounded hips. She had a full chest and beautiful brown eyes. To put it simply she was very beautiful despite being in slavery and having been born to a farmer. Mika starred at her in awe. She always took his breath away and it would leave him looking like a fool with his jaws wide open. Leno nudged him back to reality.

"Have you been waiting long Judi?" Leno asked as he took his place beside the table. Mika also sat down.

"No" replied Judi as she slowed scanned Mika's movement. Why was he moving wierdly. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw his wound. Immediately she bounded to his side and helped him down.

"What happened? That looks bad, are you alright Mika?"

Mika blushed. Even though the three of them were close he did not touch Judi many times. Whenever they did make contact he couldn't help but blush. Leno chuckled as he watched Judi fuss over Mika. He waited a while before deciding to rescue Mika. He enjoyed seeing Mika get uncomfortable. Mika always kept his calm but around Judi his wall of confidence broke almost instantly. Leno knew Mika had a crush on Judi. Judi on the other hand was too withdrawn to notice such things from people. She was kind and energetic and always fussed over people. She did this to the extent that she never noticed their feelings but simply got on with what she wanted to achieve. In this case she wanted to help Mika sit down and get him confortable. She would never notice that he was blushing and even if she did she would not guess that it was because of his romantic feelings towards her.

"Leno don't just sit there smirking, help out" snapped Judi.

"huh, what, oh yeah, sure"

"Yeah Leno help out" repeated Mika clearly expecting Leno to register the tone of his urgancy. With that Leno stepped forward and helped Mika become comfortable and got Judi to sit back in her place. 

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Aunt Mara stumbled back in disbelieve. She had been shocked from hearing it but she never expected to be so shocked when she saw him. There in the middle of the security unit was that man. The wardens checking him had just finished and were ushering him away for registration when he looked in aunt Mara's direction. Without a shadow of a doubt aunt Mara recognised him. She fell back onto the floor.

"Aunt Mara what's wrong?" asked Ivan rushing to her aid.

"Oh Ivan, we need to get back to the others, something is about to happen"

"What? what is going to happen"

"I don't know exact details, but I do know this. Something terrible is about to happen"