Chapter 387: Safe Now

Wilson used to be an ordinary man.

Before the apocalypse, he had worked as a mechanic in a small automobile repair shop.

He wasn’t particularly strong, nor was he talented in any special way. He had never dreamed of becoming a powerful awakened fighter or joining one of the major factions.

He simply wanted to live a quiet life.

He had a small apartment, a stable job, and a younger sister who lived in another city.

When the apocalypse began, everything changed.

The machines appeared without warning.

At first, Wilson and several other survivors managed to hide inside the repair shop where he worked. They blocked the doors, turned off all the lights, and stayed completely silent whenever the machines passed nearby.

For several days, they survived on whatever food and water they could find.

Wilson even managed to repair an old vehicle so they could eventually escape the city.

He thought they might make it... Then the machines found them.

The repair shop was surrounded before they could leave.

Wilson remembered the sound of metal footsteps approaching from outside.

He remembered people screaming... He remembered someone begging everyone not to make a sound.

And he remembered the moment the door was ripped apart.

The machines didn’t kill them as he had thought. Instead, they captured them.

Wilson was taken along with several other survivors.

He never saw most of them again.

The machines separated them almost immediately, and he was brought to a strange facility beneath a ruined building.

There were no windows, clocks, or any method to know whether it was day or night.

He was strapped to a metal table while machines examined his body.

Still, he knew that several years or decades must’ve passed. But for some reason, the machines had technology that seemed to have delayed his body from aging fast.

At first, he didn’t understand what they wanted.

Then the experiments began.

They injected strange substances into his bloodstream... They implanted pieces of machinery into his body.

They repeatedly altered his genes and exposed him to different forms of energy.

Every experiment seemed to have the same purpose.

They were trying to make the human body compatible with machine technology.

But Wilson kept failing, and soon, his body changed.

His bones became distorted... His muscles grew in places they shouldn’t have, and his arms became longer.

Still, the machines weren’t done. They continued altering his genes until his organs started collapsing...

Because of that, his organs were modified and replaced to fix him!

Sometimes, he could barely recognize himself when he saw his reflection in the metal surface beside the operating table.

But the machines didn’t care.

Whenever an experiment failed, they simply started another one.

Wilson eventually stopped screaming since he knew that there was no point.

Nobody came to save him, and nobody even knew where he was.

The worst part wasn’t the pain.

It was remembering his sister.

Whenever the machines left him alone, Wilson would close his eyes and imagine sitting with her again.

He remembered the stupid arguments they used to have, her complaining whenever he forgot to call her, and him promising that he would visit her after things became safer.

That promise became the only thing keeping him alive.

"When will this ever end? Please... Just end my life."

But as the experiments continued, Wilson slowly began to wonder whether he was still human enough to keep that promise.

Eventually, the machines stopped treating him as a normal test subject.

They classified him as a failed experiment.

He was no longer useful... Yet they didn’t kill him.

Instead, they kept him alive and transported him between facilities whenever they needed to move their test subjects.

Wilson didn’t know why.

Perhaps they were planning another experiment, or they simply hadn’t decided what to do with him.

By then, he had stopped caring.

He spent most of his time curled up inside the dark transport truck, surrounded by other prisoners who looked just as broken as he was.

Some were missing limbs.

Some had mechanical parts attached to their bodies and others barely looked human anymore.

Wilson rarely spoke to them.

What could he possibly say?

They all knew the same pain...

Then, one day, something changed.

The truck suddenly shook violently.

Boom!

Wilson’s body was thrown against the metal wall and another explosion followed.

Then another...

Boom!

The machines outside began moving frantically.

Through the small ventilation opening, Wilson could hear gunfire and strange energy weapons.

The convoy was under attack!

"Someone’s fighting against these machines again... I hope they get themselves killed instead of getting captured." Wilson muttered as he felt that there was no way the humans could win.

Indeed, he didn’t dare hope, since hope had only brought him pain before.

Then the truck suddenly stopped.

Metal footsteps approached.

Wilson instinctively curled himself into a corner as the doors opened.

Bright sunlight flooded the dark interior and Wilson immediately raised his arm to shield his eyes like the others.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he saw the outside world.

Then he saw her.

A beautiful woman stood outside the truck.

Her long hair moved gently in the wind, and sunlight illuminated her figure from behind.

To Wilson, she looked almost unreal.

Like an angel... She wasn’t wearing the armor of the machines, and without a doubt, she was human.

A real human.

She looked into the truck and froze for a moment.

Wilson immediately lowered his head as he knew what he looked.

He didn’t want her to look at him.

He didn’t want anyone to look at him.

His body was covered in scars, and his skin was no longer completely human.

His arms were unnaturally long, and several strange growths covered parts of his body.

He had spent so long avoiding his own reflection that he couldn’t imagine what he looked like to someone else.

Especially someone like her.

Wilson turned his face away.

"Please..."

His voice was barely audible... he wanted someone to end his miserable life...

However, the woman stepped closer.

"It’s okay."

Wilson shook his head.

"No..."

She crouched down near the truck.

"You’re safe now."