The Scrounger

He walked through the avenue where the beasts of metropolis dwells, asked around for the directions that lead him through a misty passage. Like a portal he stepped into another realm, like having a mansion which has a backdoor to a junkyard. Dark corners of this street was a habitat for these creeping beggars, like insects forced into hide in their filthy holes. He couldn't even lift his head, tided his collar and accelerated his steps. One must be willing to spare a coin to have a look at such staring eyes, he wondered.

A window cracked open at one of those blocks as he walks by, a shouting voice of a woman burst out. It was a language that he never heard of, but one of those drunks at the corner started to giggle. A shady figure appeared in the window, crawled his worm-like body down the fringe and slided all the way down to the ground from the wall. "Not a quiet night, eh?" the drunkard cackled, who seem familiar with the oddity. Creature past through him grumbling and crawled into one of the open doors in the alley.

"This must be the place." he thinked, while following the creature's slimy tracks. Loathsome odor filled his nose as he walked into some kind of a bar, then he spotted the creature smoking a pipe which surrounds the entire room. In the fog he saw similar figures staring at him without sense, but he began to understand they're making fun out of him as he starts feeling dizzy already. Without making further attention, he cast himself to the stairs which leading to an upper floor. Coughed to the end of the corridor but haven't been noticed by the girl who just past behind him with a few bottles of beer. She was one of the several humans he saw since he came to this moon a few days ago, though she seemed a bit more familiar with the mankind. He was confused about how to react his own kind, just opened his mouth but soon decided to just following her. At the threshold of the door which she went through, he petrified and stumbled. Hided himself instictive, as he saw the room filled with all kinds of junk; a millennia old engine parts, munitions, medicine packs, worn-out communication devices, and among them, several lifeless human bodies.

A tiny creature was standing among the pile, talking to a man sitting behind a showcase full of guns. "You sure she ain't gonna screw up?" the creature asked.

"They work fine." the man said, "Tested by all kinds of maniacs, been cut, beaten... Despite that, they just keep asking for more! Hah ha! There, she's my wife for eight years." he added by pointing the girl just entered the room, " The guy who sold her was a piece of crap too, hard-work keeps them in shape i guess!"

"You picked yourself a pretty one indeed."

"Thank you sweety." the girl smiled as she took the cigarette from ashtray.

"But... How come she smokes?"

"I wish i could. I'm just holding it." the girl interfered, "He thinks it's sexy."

"Like a real prostitute! Hah ha! Anyway, you can go and enjoy a drink while i get your girl ready. I'll send her to your room." man went through a filthy curtain at his back and disappeared. Creature noticed another human being as he walks through the corridor, as long as he's a tall man with a coat long enough to hide a ray gun, creature skipped further examination and went down the stairs.

"Wake up baby." the man muttered, as the naked body lying on the table stirred her finger. Codes in an alien language that he never be able to understand were scrolling down on the monitors surrounding the entire room, as he keeped typing the same combination of symbols which he used countless times. The only thing he could do with these aged computers was turning these bodies back to life or shutting their main circuits off, which was tricky enough for him. "There you go." he took off the polygonal cap on the girl's head, as she opened her eyes.

"This is the police, put your hands where i can see, you are under arrest."

In a flashy second he thought reaching the gun under his belt, but on the monitor he saw the reflection of a plasma pistol pointed directly on his head.

"What's the problem sweetheart?" the girl on the table wrapped herself.

"What are you accusing me? Officer?"

"James Hendley, a.k.a. Scrounger, former Lieutenant in the 294th Squadron. Left military service with health excuses, just to became a member of the Remnants."

"What the-"

"Do not try to deny, we both know what you're providing for these scum, your little store is full of evidence. More than that, as a member of your worthless kind, i'm ashamed that you could make money from selling these prototypes." he stared at the frightened eyes of the girl for a second, "Your propaganda is nothing but a lie. What good can be done by mankind, even to themselves. You are not even seeking freedom, equality, you know that you can't provide more than you have now, as long as you are worthless human beings! Our race's history is full of failure, if you even read, we're nothing but a failure!"

"What they teached you in their academies, you are brain-washed!" he yelled, his nerves was about to explode, "It's been long since they've done with our race, now they're just mocking us. Brother against brother, that's what they want. That's why they send you!"

"Nah, you're wrong." he said, "I volunteered for this mission. Do not compare me with any of my colleagues, you can say that i'm on a personal affair. They're just seeking to replace order in the moon, which is not enough for me. Thanks to their greed for knowledge, thanks to their mercy, mankind survived the destruction of our homeworld. They absorbed all the pathetic knowledge we preserve in our society, but seperated our so-called rights to live. Now you think there're still some work to be done, you have about a thousand survivors to free, or to manipulate. Main human population is on this moon, rest is scattered across the system as pirates, slaves, or in your hideous headquarters. As i'm one of your kind, i'm not worth of anyone's trust, and i'm betraying my employers by letting you to do your work."

The man trembled once more as the presence of a gun on his head gone, then relieved as he saw him moving away. "Why?" he asked.

"To ged rid of us all." he put his hand on the curtain, "Once and for all."