Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 29: Freedom

It was dark as always, but what Aphrodite had decided to classify as "morning" for Ava. She was definitely a hurry, she didn't wait for the groggy Ava to wake up properly before she rushed him to one of the giant acid baths. From there she, Locke, and Ava managed to climb on top of one of the giant cranes and waited for it to lift them up through the clouds, up to the upper plates. Locke was just as creepy and stoic as he was the day before, and similarly Aphrodite carried with her a dark expression of deep emotionlessness. It was odd, because this emotionlessness of her was somehow, more emotional than anyone Ava had met before. There was a deep sadness in Aphrodite's eyes that Ava had so easily managed to catch when their eyes first met. Even now, with her googles on and face expressionless, the way she stood, steadfast and with closed fists, showed that she was a girl driven and determined because of something the troubled her deeply.

All three of them stood on the claw and looked out to the scrapyard city, as he rose higher and higher Ava started to gain a greater understanding on how massive the scrapyard was. It was a sprawling pile of junk that went on for miles upon miles, in retrospect the Evo colony was very tiny, no doubt easily hidden among the scraps.

"Hey, does Mother even know about this place?" asked Ava, "the colony of Evos here I mean."

"I don't know. I'm not Mother." Aphrodite was blunt, "This society has been around for years though, so even if she does know, it doesn't seem like she cares." She paused for a moment, "The heretics have only been here two years though, they came a little before I did. Mother knows about them." She bit her lip, "They might draw Mother here."

"Is that another reason why you want to take Mother down? Because you're worried she might come here and attack the Evos here soon?"

"Does it matter? Mother's evil, and now I've get a means to stop her."

Aphrodite's conviction had somehow managed to turn Ava's thinking around a little, he too, started to think about how evil Mother was, his hate, which was usually directed squarely at all Evos, began to focus, and became more targeted to Mother.

Yes.

It was Mother who was pulling the strings, wasn't it? Who knew what stopping her would do, what would happen to the Evos. But at the very least the Servs would stop being antagonised.

The claw started to pass through the dark clouds, Aphrodite instinctively covered her mouth and nose by lifting up the fabric of her body warmer from her lower chin. Ava failed to do so, and hence was greeted with a horrifically pungent smell as they rose through the blackness. Eventually though, they managed to pass through. Ava, once again, failed to prepare himself. Aphrodite touched her goggles and fiddled around with the settings while Ava did nothing at all, so when the crane was finally pulled through the hatch of the giant plate that floated above the clouds, he almost fell off his feet because of the blinding light of the sun.

Which actually wasn't blinding at all. He'd just increased the sensitivity of his eyesight to match the darkness below. I reality the surface of the floating plate was still quite dim, but there was a low light from the sun at the very least. It meant he didn't have to worry about using NVG as much, and could move around without straining himself. Either way all three of the riders had to jump off the crane the moment it exited the hatch... onto a pile of garbage. This was where the crane much have picked up the garbage from, before depositing into the scrapyard below into the acid baths.

It was largely just metal, nothing too gross, but the group then noticed a giant ship cast a shadow upon them. It was hard to make out what it looked like as it cast the shadow, but it was definitely circular, and it definitely had a hatch that was about to open. It didn't even take a moment for Ava to realise what the ship must have contained, without even thinking her leapt on to Aphrodite to shield her as the hatch opened up and piles and piles of metal scrap got dropped on them. He could feel the heavy chunks of garbage pile up on top on him and Locke while Aphrodite hid beneath. The meagre sunlight from before started to disappear as the group were completely pelted by the metal piles. By the time it had all stopped, Ava was certain he had almost a tonne of metal on his back. He was only able to manage carrying a fraction of that, it was only because of Locke, who had started to shield everyone with some large pieces of metal he had found, that everyone survived.