Kenichi stirred slowly from his dreamy slumber. Even in the future sunrise was a beautiful sight to behold. As if brushed lightly with diluted yellow paint, the mist-covered post-apocalyptic landscape of broken buildings and charred spires resembled a Bob Ross painting of a pine meadow. Kenichi’s arm instinctively reached for his companion. She’d slept silently next to him. She always did this. She protected him, but needed him to protect her as well.

She wasn’t there! Kenichi was on his feet in 3 milliseconds, his body in an aggressive yet guarded stance. An adrenaline surge automatically activated his cybernetic vision enhancement system. In his eyes, the misty yellow haze evaporated revealing jagged objects and uneven ground. The closer an object was the more it had a blue halo. Faraway things were outlined in red. A green-tinged object was dead-ahead, six or seven meters off. Kenichi parsed its shape instantly, but the untrained eyes might have required a few seconds to process it’s meaning — a few seconds that could have meant life or death.

Kenichi turned his back to the green object. He scanned the land around him from the hill he’d chosen for last night’s campsite. Satisfied that he and the green object were alone for several kilometers, he relaxed, stood up straight, and turned back to face the green object.

It was a creature. He’d seen that much already, but with his adrenaline ebbing he could now see it without the green tinge. He could see how old the thing was…or rather how young. It had big black deer eyes, gray downy fur, four nubby proto-antlers on its forehead, and it wore Spongebob Squarepants Under-roos.

“You need to put that down, son,” Kenichi said in an even tone.

The boy didn’t look up, he kept staring at the unsheathed blade in his hands. Kenichi took a careful, determined step forward.

“I mean it kid.”

“Precious,” the mutant said. “Is this your Precious?”

“Something like that. She’s dangerous. Put her down. Please.” It never hurt to be polite.

(To be continued…)