Liv sat staring listlessly over the head of the man sitting opposite her in one of the trucks carrying human volunteers for the scav mission. The metal of her left shoulder struck the metal of the truck’s protective cage, click click clicking repetitively. The mechanic really didn’t mind the sound; it gave her some reassurance that what she was seeing was real, that she had not slipped off into insanity.

Outside, Liv could see the mix of jungle and ruble she had fought through with her family to reach the Refuge, but the distant screams of her sister were silent today as if Liv had relived them so many times the memories were starting to lose their power. She wouldn’t forget though, she wouldn’t let herself. Robin deserved that much.

Under the cover of crossing her arms, Liv placed one of the pointed tool attachments on her bionic arm against the soft, firm flesh of her abdomen and drew a long, thin cut to feel something, anything at all at the sight of the lush wilderness that had witnessed her family’s deaths. The dark color of her tank would hide the blood. [i]Nip it in the bud. Drown it in mud. Let it spill in floods, floods, floods.[/i]

When the trucks stopped for a few moments, Liv was the last off. She stepped off into the soft loam and walked to the edge of the cleared road, staring defiantly into the heart of this tangle of vegetation. Nothing moved, nothing blinked. This place did not acknowledge her or any other human. They had become trespassers on their own planet.

Liv was the first back on the truck. She sat stiffly, waiting for the comforting rumble of engines and click click clicking of her metal arm on the roll cage to resume. Sooner or later, something would break and Liv would be needed to fix it. Perhaps it was bad that she hoped that would be soon. [i]Dark as a new moon. Alone in the gloom, we wait for our doom.[/i]