The rumbling grew and the vibration strung through me. Whatever beast it was, it was large and powerful. I was crazy. A fool to charge at the unknown. Yet my feet carried me forward as I made my way toward another large mound.

Here, I could hear chattering of people in the distance. Small woven tents strung along the outskirts. It blended in like dark rocks. Terra was here. So too were the metal beasts. I caught sight of a yellow metal claw crashing into the earth and scooping up dirt and rocks. Shoveling it away. Burrowing indeed. Another cut deeper into Gaia.

Enough. Enough!

I jolted down the rock incline near the beast. Passion burned through my veins. I was ready to rip it apart... yet as I landed, my legs gave out and my mouth hung open. Its long arm outstretched past its lengthy body, made of complete steel. It was fast and mobile as it craned its arm to and fro with a grating metal whine. The earth vibrated under its monstrous weight and power. It was enormous, far larger than me.

Stupid!

I couldn't defeat it. I was no better than shaking my fist at the binding tree's hole. Worse yet, I lunged toward the ground it dug at. Its metal claws hung above me.

Move, move, move!

I lifted myself up. My legs felt numb, but I wasn't going to die here—

"Get out the way!"

A hand latched onto me and yanked me hard to the side. I hit the ground as the claw slammed where I was. Solid earth and rocks buckled shattered under the weight and pressure. I would've been flattened.

I gulped.

"WHAT are you thinking?" A woman yelled at me.

"I..." I lost my voice as I turned to her. Her skin was a dark-bronze like brown. It contrasted starkly against my nearly white tungsten skin. Just like everyone else in Gaia. No matter how much I was told that Terra was filled with diversity, even in appearance, I still stared.

"Hmph." She sighed and shook her head. "Another damn activist trying to save the day by nearly killing herself." She scoffed loudly. "Why me. Why do I have to deal with idiots all the time." She shook her head again as the metal beast stopped.

Not a moment later a metal door unlatches, and...

A man? There's a man in the machine!

My heart nearly gave. How was that possible.

His face was darker than hers, more like obsidian with silver hues running through his hair. A scowl formed on his lips and his brows furrowed deeply as he stared at me. "You looking to get yourself killed, girl?"

"I don't think she understands us, Chavez." The woman interjected and scowled as well. "She looks like another one of those activists."

Activist?

He shook his head and his brown eyes fixed on mine. Even his eyes yelled at me as they grew with his sigh. "Why here of all places. It's not like they ever stop anything. Last thing I need is a death on my conscious. Can't they go somewhere else?"

Death? " Are you going to kill me?" Not even five minutes in and the horrors of Terra were true, but I was not going to give up so easily. Now that I knew the beast contained men, I could stop him, I could stop anyone if I had to. I raised my fists and planted my feet on the ground. I wasn't going to go so easily.

He paused for a moment, even his deadly glare froze for a moment before a small smirk cracked. "You got some spunk kid." The man grunted and turned to the woman. "Which means she's worse of a problem than I thought."

"Hmm... with how fluent she sounds, perhaps not."

Fluent? There were so many new words for me to learn. However, whatever danger they posed originally seized for now as neither raised their fist. With how nonchalantly they talked, there was no point for me either.

"Well, if you want to take care of her, she's your problem." He shrugged his shoulders and opened the metal beast's body. "I'm going to get back to work before Ronaldo finds us idly sitting by."

"Right." She nodded and stared back at me. "So, now the question becomes, what are you willing to do to survive."

My heart dropped as the beast roared back alive. I lost my footing and my knee hit the dry ground. Fortunately, she held my arm before I made more of a fool of myself.

"Hey, don't worry," she smiled, "Chavez isn't going to kill you, and I'm not going to harm you either."

The warmth of her hand around my shoulder calmed me. There was a sincerity to her. Surely if all Terrans wanted death, they themselves would cease to exist. Another foolish judgment, I'm sure, but even false hope was better than nothing. As the old saying goes, pyrite is just as beautiful as gold, until it's found out otherwise.

Her eyes drifted to the sun in the sky and her smile faded. "We won't harm you, but Ronaldo might. We don't have much time. He hates outsiders, especially activists."

Activist. That word again. Is that what they called us Gaians? I knew they had to know about us like we knew of them but to say it so openly.... Did I really stick out that poorly? "It's that noticeable?"

She cracked a grin. "Heavens yes. Your skin is so pale it looks like you hardly did an honest's days work. If Rolando found you, he'd either kill you take you as his."

I gasped. More unspoken legends stirred in my mind. A taste of this foul world churned my stomach.

"Don't worry," she smiled, "I found you first. So, we got two ways of going about this. We can confront Rolando on our own terms... which might be your best bet. Or point you in the right direction to get out of here undetected. Not likely, but it's best to do it before anyone else notices you." Her eyes widened. "Wait, is there anyone else with you, or know where you are? Maybe they can help you."

Sherwin and the Elders knew where I was, but they were so far away, and I wasn't planning on leaving. "No, I'm on my own."

"Figures." She scoffed. "Chavez was right, you got spunk traveling out here by yourself. Well, I don't know what you intended to achieve today, but I won't sugar coat it. You threw your life away."

Our eyes locked as her words settled on me like heavy rocks.

She sighed. "If you want to stay alive, there's really only one option. We'll speak with Rolando, perhaps we can work something out till you get a better opportunity to leave Think you're up to hard labor?"

Hard labor? Was that what this monstrous act called? This whole thing got out of hand. I didn't sign up for this. What did she expect me to do? Wrangle a metal beast like Chavez? Even if it appeared easy to control as he moved away from us, it didn't settle well with me to tear into Terra soil like that. I'd be no better than them... Yet, why did they do this? What was their objective? Why kill the earth we live on?

"Look, I know you came here hoping to stop things and joining is the last thing you'd want to do, but let's face it. Life sucks. You can hold onto that idle hope till you die, or you can get down and dirty and survive till you find a way out. It's up to you."

She stole my breath for a moment. Was I that readable? Certainly, the idea of hurting Terra soured my stomach, but the way she dissected my thoughts.... It gave more meaning to her words. Sage ideas didn't have to come from just elders.

There was another tidbit too that stirred. She and Chavez appeared to answer to Rolando. Perhaps he had the answers of what they were after. If not, first-hand knowledge could come in handy. Either way, it was a win to some degree.

"I'll do it."

"Great." The woman smiled. "Let's get going then."