August's voice trembled. "A-anyone? Anyone out there?" The slimy, thick mud squelching under her feet made her anxious with every word she said. Her eyes darted around, side to side, up and down. No sign of anyone. Just endless nature. After wandering around for what felt like hours on end, she found a small car covered in greenery. August felt the rusty metal as she stroked the bare parts gently. Then, she remembered.

Her first solo mission. Her fallen mech suit.

August looked down at her hands, catching a reflection in a puddle below. She looked older now, lines beginning to adorn her cheeks like battle-scars.

She had come here when she was nineteen.
Now, she had no clue where she was, or how long it had been.

***

August Gilyna had never liked her father’s military job. They moved around too much, learning new languages and customs, Auggie never holding down a group of friends for more than a couple months, let alone a partner. She hated it.

Her mother and brother, however, loved it. When she was fourteen, her mother tried to get her into the idea of being an army wife; August couldn’t stand it, the flag waving, the group meetups, the gossip. At least in the military, rules were barked at you and not whispered behind your back until you got the message.

Her younger brother, Martin, had bought into the whole thing by the time he was eight. He had every type of toy gun he could squeeze out of their parent’s birthday budget, and saluted everyone he walked past. By the time he was sixteen, the world had fallen into a drought that forced the world underground, and August and him both could not stand bunker life.

Martin enlisted when he was seventeen, off to fight the ‘non-state actors’ who had seemingly seen the collapse of society, and decided to live for themselves. He died four months later, went MIA, and his corpse was found dried up in an abandoned outpost among ten others.

August had begrudgingly joined the family business—what she didn’t expect was how much she would love engineering work. She had always been one for tinkering, crafting elaborate cardboard spaceships, or hacking her MP3 player in her school years. So, when the army announced a new initiative, a new and expanded method for military enforcement, August jumped at the opportunity.

For months leading up to her nineteenth birthday, she had slaved away at her mech suit, or, as the army had called them, Mechanically Engineered Captain Helms, and she had pioneered the very first one. They boasted enhanced offense and stronger defense, with the ability to keep a human wearer alive and healthy for decades, enhancing their typical manpower and strength tenfold.

On the 18th September, 2070, she embarked on a mission to ‘The Amazon’, a stretch of land beyond American jurisdiction, where August had been sent on a mission to ‘eradicate any threats to the new society’

***

August kicked the rusty metal at her feet. ‘September, 2095’ the screen flickered violently. She stared around her.

It had been twenty-five years since August had taken her last breath. It had been even longer since she had seen greenery. Now, she was doing both.