[i]Field 9, travelling through districts 8 and 7. Foreign object entered the air space from the southern boundary. Damage to building 4-East, black scorch marks on the roof. Foreigner disappeared.[/i] 

Keith was sat in a gaping empty window pane of a building, whose construction was long abandoned. Places like this were part of the only place in the industrial rim that weren’t populated – looming constructions, asymmetrical in proportion, melted and bend over double by the blazing sun threatened to collapse or break at with the right kind of encouragement. Each one was part of a delicate artificial ecosystem; whether the building leaned on another diagonally for support, or whether it’s recently fallen remains gave shade to a gravelled spot where tough weeds could thrive. In short, it was a mess. But it was places like these that Keith found beautiful. 

There wasn’t much left to do to pass the time these days, except document every single activity that happened within his “territory” from the lookout. Each day was waiting for the next to arrive, then to end again, while somehow trying to stay out of the way of the police and alive. Keith only really left his concrete garden for food every few days. Days like today, but he was worried about the new arrivals and upgrades that the military force were sending into the area. Monsters like Drei, who he has unwittingly assumed was an armoured attack drone at this distance. 

“Nowhere is safe anymore…” he sighed, then lowered himself down to the ground by a tendril of steel beam wrapped around his waist. His joints were getting too old for stairs. “We’ll be forced out of Domino City altogether soon. Then we’ll live the rest of our short lives wonderfully mutated and disfigured. Maybe they’d prefer that. Maybe [i]we’d[/i] prefer that.”

He lumbered over to his car, and slid inside. Rusted to the core and missing all the back windows, it looked like it was too old and beat up to function. Truth be told, it was, but to Keith it didn’t quite matter. As long as it was equipped with four good spoked metal wheels, it would do the job.