The drive was killing him. His seat had never felt more uncomfortable, the wheel too large for his hands. His heart pumped with every second, and counting down seemed pointless, this was a long drive. He had assumed it would be short, that he’d be taken to some local facility. But no, he was now driving behind Leon on some mountain path. He was just lucky he had no one to take care of at home.

  His brow had stopped glistening with sweat, now it simply dripped onto his head. He couldn’t stand the new conditions they were living in. These mountain paths used to be nice and cool to drive down, but now, now it felt just as awful as everywhere else.

  Another hour had gone by. The peaks all began to blend together. He was getting bored, and it seemed this would last a while longer before they entered any form of civilization. But as if on cue with his thoughts, Leon’s car began to slow. Reed saw, in the distance, a small cabin, and in front of it, forking off from the road, a path that led to it. It was just like those stories he’d read as a child, the unassuming cabin in the woods.

  Leon’s car finally turned onto the path and began to make its way down. They slowly rolled past the house. An elderly couple walked out onto the porch. Their smiles were crooked, small cracks appeared around their eyes. They simply waved three times and went back inside. Leon did the same. Reed kept following him, even as the road disappeared and dust was kicked up. He could hear small pebbles hitting the underside of his car, rattling, he knew he’d have to fix that later. Always something to fix. The thought briefly calmed Reed down.

  All until Leon began driving into the mountain. At first, he wondered if he was going crazy from the heat. But no, there was a small opening. His car barely fit inside, just two inches on either side. Reed held his breath for what felt like days. Small scratches began to build up, how could they not? Leon’s car seemed to fare better. The man had clearly done this before.

  Arriving at some form of end, the tunnel opened up greatly into a wide-open room, a maze, a laboratory, no, he thought, this was a yard. Just another yard. The yard didn’t gleam metal. It wasn’t outside, baking in the sun, nor did it have rust building up to the point where there was more rust than metal. But he could see old machines lying on the ground, scrap pieces being picked up, messed with, then tossed back. It embodied the spirit.

  “Is your front entrance a yard?” This was the first Reed had spoken in hours since they began driving.

  Leon shook his head as he got out of the car. “No, I just took you through our supply entrance. Thought you’d enjoy the sight of this place.”

  Taking it all in, Reed did enjoy it. He could make out parts just from looking at them, but others, others were anomalies to him. He saw some that he remembered were used to extend Leon’s muscles and contract them at extreme speeds.

  “This place is indeed... exciting. Everything of course that—” His eyes lingered on a section of engines with hooks in them.

  “Ah yes, the engines, the lifeblood of this operation.”

  Reed turned to Leon this time to ask his question. “Why must the engines hook into the body? Why can’t we simply wear them, without modifying ourselves? Why must we defile ourselves like this? We are losing battles against ourselves, to win against an opponent.”

  Leon paused, thinking about what was just said. “Let’s clarify something. It _is_ possible to not hook into an engine. But they’ll end up much smaller and weaker, and worst of all, much heavier. They’re made with technology I can’t yet reveal. But to put it simply, I couldn’t lift my engine until it hooked into me. After that point, it’s like it’s not even there. Until, of course, I have to put on a shirt and a random cylinder’s in the way of my goals. And to further my point, I just want you to know we wouldn’t have made it a month without these engines.” He pointed to his back.

  This argument finally seemed to slightly appease Reed’s distaste. He still never wanted to put one on. The way it seemed alive, clamping onto you, it truly disgusted him.

  “Wait!” Reed suddenly came to a realization. “You made us travel up that awful tunnel just to show me this? Are you telling me there was an easier way?”

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  “Yes. In fact, the main entrance is a nice, wide tunnel,” Leon said, emphasizing the scale with his hands. “Perfectly suitable for the average vehicle.” He seemed to take some joy in the joke. “Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of time, and lots of tools here, to fix it.”

  Despite the repairs Reed saw ahead of him, the joke did lift his mood. As the two walked down one of the corridors, he began to feel a small sense of excitement build inside him. He would yet again have the chance to work on this complex machinery.

  The feeling didn’t subside as they walked. It felt almost like anxiety, the same feeling he’d had the first time he was deployed. So full of life after training with his friends, all of them ready on a boat, antsy to give those Nazis hell.

  They walked into a control room. Leon removed his cap and saluted. His salute was different, the classic Canadian salute, with one hand up on his brow, but the other hand, rather than resting at his side, clutched a switch. Two fingers were locked into it, very tense, seemingly almost ready to pull the trigger at a moment’s notice.

  The commander on the other end did the same. Her hand was just as tense. They didn’t miss a beat. Both held the pose for only a second, but the tension in the air was thick. This time, Reed barely noticed she was a woman. He had heard stories that women were a large part of the military force assisting in the war. But now, seeing it in person, it felt real. She had the look in her eye that he knew, a cold glint that shone a little more when she held her trigger.

  “What’s the word? I’ve brought the new mechanic, just like you asked,” Leon said, returning to his usual smile. He seemed to drop his air of intensity quite quickly after that second.

  “It’s good he’s here. We’re going to have to get him suited up and ready quite quickly. The number of calls has increased even more lately. The mountain regions seem to be a new favorite entrance point, due to their lack of patrol.” She paused. “It seems the enemy is now learning our structure. They know where to strike, and where not to. The top brass has decided this is no longer a mindless invasion, but a calculated attack on our front.”

  “That’s awful news, Kara. This was meant to be one where we had the upper hand in terrain. If we lose that, we’re going to lose more people.”

  Leon had grown somber yet again. It was beginning to feel jarring, seeing him switch like that, as if it were simply an on-off. But remembering what he’d said earlier, about his friends dying, it seemed some people dealt with things differently.

  Reed let out a little cough, not one to be super polite, even in extreme scenarios, and gave Leon a look. Leon seemed to register it and proceeded to introduce them.

  “Kara, this is Reed, our new mechanic and kind of, not really, Iron Heart.

  Reed, this is Kara, chief of mountain operations in the Canadian southeast, and secret chief of the Canadian Research Institute of Inkwell Engines, War Boilers, and Fuel Priests. Only one of those is an engine, by the way. The latter two are denominations of engine classes.”

  The speech introducing his friend seemed to lift his mood, and he even managed a wink at the end to Reed. Kara shook Reed’s hand but quickly brought up what had just been said.

  “What do you mean, ‘kind of, not really’ Iron Heart? Wasn’t the plan to get you to put an engine on so you could assist everyone and help them stay in working condition on the field? Because if I’m being honest, we’re sort of relying on you. We’re already down to just three mechanics for the field here. Plus, you’ve already proven your blood works for this, you have sundered blood!”

  Reed took that in. He could feel the weight of it all on him. No longer just a simple scrapyard keeper, no, now he had people whose lives were going to sit on his shoulders. But he still forced out the obligatory, “I’m sorry, it’s against my beliefs to put one of those on.”

  It was at that moment he took a look at Kara’s engine, the faint deep-blue light coming from it.

  His attention quickly snapped back to her as she sighed. “We, of course, can’t force you to wear one. But incursion battlefields are dangerous. I know you’ve seen combat, but this is different. Those creatures aren’t human, and you can’t count on your human knowledge to always assist you.”

  Reed decided to move past the fact that they somehow already had knowledge about him, forgetting that Leon had found his workplace in less than a day.

  Before Reed could argue back, Leon raised a hand. “I’ve already agreed to these terms on behalf of the army, and will take on whatever may come my way from this.”

  Reed could tell Leon didn’t want to keep fighting this point and was hoping it could be resolved quickly. With tense hands again, he gave the open-palm salute, two fingers on his trigger. Reed hadn’t yet understood what trigger they were holding, but Kara gave the same salute back, this time with less intensity and just a sigh.

  “Take him to his chambers, then let him acclimatize himself to the technology. His first class on it starts tonight.”

  Reed felt strange not needing to go through the usual military protocol, just being let into the army like this. Leon nudged him and gave another salute, signaling Reed to do the same. Reed quickly adopted the trigger finger, though his held nothing, and gave his usual open-palm salute.

  “Ma’am!”

  They both then walked away to Reed’s new barracks.