Mechs of the Desert: Gale's Journey

As I am writing this, it has been two weeks since we left the farm. We have made good progress. The mechs are working well, and we have managed to find water at every opportunity.

The Mechs were the easy part; I already had them built before we left. But the journey has been far more difficult than I imagined. We have had many close calls, and I nearly gave up on our fifth day – but they just kept going, and so did I. Despite all the adversity, I am proud to say that we are still together in one piece.

We have lost some of our speed, as the bigger mechs have become too heavy to carry on my back while running. Now we walk together with me carrying a smaller mech while the bigger ones follow behind us at their own pace.

I would never have imagined that such a journey could be so hard, or that such simple creations could be so vital to my survival. Each day it seems like there is something new threatening us - sandstorms, lack of food or water, sunstroke – but somehow we keep managing to get through it all. And as each day passes, I realise just how important these mech’s simple companionship is for me – especially when we do not talk for days on end, but simply march side by side in our small convoy.

Of the three larger mechs that followed us from home, only one is still fully functional: Abra (short for “Abraham”), who was built to look like a camel. He is slow-moving and sluggish but has enough stamina for long treks. He also carries on his head what was originally a plastic bottle filled with water – now it is mostly empty due to heat and evaporation, but he refuses to let go of it and carry it instead in his mouth like he usually does with his other belongings (like my cigarettes). Sometimes he stops in the middle of a march and starts chewing at the bottle – whether out of frustration or thirst I cannot tell. Still, he gets his share of water whenever we find it (the big boys tend to drink first). The other two mechs have since broken down and lie still near where they collapsed: Orla (a cow) and Imre (a horse). Both died suddenly; Imre’s legs simply stopped working after one day and she fell over into the sand, unable to move any more. Orla’s batteries began melting within hours of leaving home, causing both her legs and head to stop moving altogether after a few days of marching – eventually her batteries caught fire and began melting her chassis from inside out. Fortunately, both broke down before we got too far from home, so their remains were easily carried by Abra back to our camp near where we had left them earlier that morning. They are now buried on our farm next to all the other dead farm animals – hopefully they will rest in peace until we can return home again one day.

All things considered though, I think it will be worth it once we get back home again with our findings – especially this huge diamond that Orla found while digging through a dirt patch not far from home; she must have sensed gold or something similar beneath its surface because she wouldn’t leave it alone until she dug out an entire hole around herself while removing the pebble from its place. It took three hours to dig her out again this time! When I finally got her out again, she was covered in sand from head to toe and even gave me quite an annoyed glare before walking away from me into the sunset – maybe she felt bad about having lied about finding gold? She deserved some rest after all that effort.

As for myself... well... Just as before when building these mechs for our adventure ahead of us, there were parts left over after putting them together which I didn't know what else to do with besides throwing them into my backpack for later use – including several metal cables I had in stock which turned out to be very useful for attaching ropes across chasms etcetera when travelling through rugged terrain like this desert – perfect for dragging other mechs along without breaking their legs! During our journey though this cable has been surprisingly useful as well: Not only did I use them as improvised slingshots at times when hunting lizards in order to conserve bullets (which were never plentiful enough during our trip), but also used them to tie up my trousers when they had ripped open during one desperate chase across stones when one of those damnable hyenas went after my unprotected leg! It was pure luck that I had brought along those cables today; otherwise I probably would not be able to sit here writing this now!

The most surprising thing though? That they turned out perfect! Of course they weren't nicely cut like my original designs intended... But this way they ended up looking much older than they really are! And thanks to those extra cables I was able to string up a few makeshift clothesline wires between two large boulders nearby which divides my tent area into two sections: One area is where I sleep during nighttime using three smaller boulders stacked on top of each other as a makeshift pillow (with a sheet draped over them as protection against bugs); while the other area is where most everything else takes place during daytime including sleeping/resting as well as cooking & eating/drinking etcetera - most importantly though with plenty of space available for 'work' if needed... And yes... you guessed it... That work includes assembling parts for more mechs :)