the wanderer and his womb

also backwards, sorry i got to get them all straightened out later

persistent moments of of minimal pride

Nature finds ways to prevail, the plant that builds new shoots after a forest fire, a struggling soldier among a sea of dark ash and blackened stumps, a herd of elk that run with the fading summer, a silent need to stay far from the hungry winter. God, or Instinct it exists in all of the creatures of the world. A need to continue after all things are fallen.

These thoughts are at the forefront of my mind as the tank vibrates around me, a slow rumbling that is as natural as my heartbeat. The round cage that surrounds my leather seat holds me still no matter the direction the massive turret spins. Me and my titan rolling over the Waste.

With a flick of my hand I call up the opaque screen that shows the many controls of the A.I. With a movement of my fingers I bring music through the speakers that hang about my cage. A strong female voice begins to sing about the love she holds for the man who went to war. Trombones and strings accentuate her smoky voice, a harmony of sadness and resolve, I hum along and bring the helmet down from it's perch. Darkness engulfs me and silence persists for a few disconnecting moments, and then the music returns and my vision is brought to the outside by myriad cameras and sensors.

The sun is high and radioactive, the ground is lifeless and brown, things live here but looking across the plains with my panoramic eyes I can scarcely believe. The radar that hovers just off my main vision assures me of life in this barren place. Slithering snakes and scrabbling crabs, mutated by the radiation that sinks into every unprotected being, horrors beyond imagination and beautiful persistent plant life.

The hard sun warms the solar panels that sit atop my back like a massive blue hibiscus, my tracks ground rock and bone into fine powder, it's so relaxing I almost forget that I have a mission. A calling that began a few weeks ago after a bout of heavy crystal use. Civilization, as perverse as that word sounds from this place, had need of me and my charge, the sleeping A.I. that lived inside the tank and by extension inside me. Sleeping now, but feeding on the rays that warmed my segmented back.