In an abandoned and destroyed apartment, in a post-apocalypse city, a featureless being works. Made out of cyan blue calcium biometal, his name, 'Tanner,' is branded on his left thigh. He explores the ruins, scavenging supplies and food for smaller communities, those not touched by the alien radiation after the attempted invasion.

  Tanner comes across an open door to his left and decides to go in. Like any ruined buildings from the war, debris, rubble, and other destroyed furnishings are scattered. Tanner muffled a sigh, despite no longer having a mouth, and thought about taking a small break. With only a survival backpack, modified to carry a portable generator and inventory space to give to surviving communities living far from the poisoned ruined cities or towns, and some gear like a tent and some rope to name a few, he set it on the ground next to the ruined couch and went out the balcony. It has been two years now after they got their victory. It was bittersweet though.

  The featureless bio-metal man remembered, while staring out to the partly ruined landscape how the united nations regained their lost territories. Only to be decimated by alien bombardment that no one ever saw coming. Cities all over the world that were in the process of rebuilding were destroyed, and the population was down to roughly 500 million, according to the news station that remained intact in his country. Tanner lost his family from the bombardment and had little friends that may or may not have survived.

  The aftermath left the remaining population to decide whether to survive and save their planet, or take to the stars and start anew on a habitable planet that scientists found before the invasion. Before the alien invasion, the United Government used ancient colony ships to evacuate most of the planet, mapping out the habitable planets that matches some of the data the scientists found.

  With this knowledge, humanity has a chance to start anew, officially. However, a good handful decided against it as some decided to try and fix their damaged ecosystem, not just to survive, but to rebuild better. Despite the debate of leaving Earth or staying, roughly half of the population went off planet to start anew, while the rest, including Tanner, stayed.

  Tanner went back inside as he started rummaging for canned food and other useful supplies for surviving communities. The featureless man remembered how he became this way from a project from a small group of scientists several months after the decision to split the remaining population to either stay or go. Tanner and a good one hundred volunteered to act as scavengers and researchers in the poisoned cities as society slowly rebuilds. But only thanks to an experiment procedure to let them safely traverse through the poisoned ruins.

  After finding some preserved canned food, some useful things, and mementoes in the room, Tanner sat down on the floor, not minding the small debris and wanted to look through his old pictures before the war and about his family. Including an ID used to recognize these blank explorers on their tablet, which has their face in it. He went to a video file that contained a recording of his transformation along with some tests after it.

  He pressed play as the video enlarged to fit the whole screen of his tablet, showing the back of a metallic room with him in a filling chamber in the middle of the room, naked. His face shows he is nervous, blushing, and covering his exposed genitals but continued on as the audio was playing in the background, the scientist logging in the experiment that is about to begin. The scientists then connect two tubes into his chamber on the sides and a sound of a machine comes to life, filling Tanner’s glass chamber with clear breathable fluid to the brim. Tanner then floats around as he hears another hiss coming from another part of the room, changing the breathable fluid to blue, but still clear for the researchers to watch.

  Tanner floats there, wondering what this clear blue fluid does as he continues to breathe in the breathable fluid. He doesn’t know that his body is slowly changing at first. Becoming blue and metallic, not the ones made out of iron or steel, but like calcium. Tanner is shocked as he raised his hands and watches them become metallic and cyan blue as his fingers start to fuse together and smooth away while his hair dissolves in the transparent blue fluid as the researchers continue to observe.

  Tanner’s body was becoming heavier as his body became more calcium, replacing his innards and flesh. The changing young man finally felt his feet touch the ground as his feet becomes blue and the toes merge too. The changes progresses smoothly as majority of his flesh is now metallic blue calcium as his mouth starts to seal and smooth away. He coughs and struggles to breathe while his nose also becomes nothing but a subtle bump where his nose was. Despite having no mouth, Tanner’s voice can only produce muffled sounds as he panics and his eyes are next to go, as remaining flesh is now turned to metal. With the last of Tanner’s flesh turned to metal, he is now done.

  The scientists then drain the fluid and the blank metal man comes out with a muffled groan. Tanner then falls to his knees and looked at his hand. Featureless mittens as he tries to flex them individually but can’t. He also feels heavy as he struggles to stand. Unable to make words, or any emotion, the calcium man felt a mix of shock and panic at first as the scientists tell him to calm down.

  Looking at the video, he shivers knowing this is what he is now. Acting as a scavenger for the poisoned world, looking for something to fix the broken world ravaged by the aliens they still call home. He looked at the other videos of his experimentations in abilities, and positives and negatives in his tablet before getting back to work as he saw the time.

  Tanner then turns off the tablet and went to check the other rooms with a flashlight for items to bring back to scattered communities. He moves heavy debris out of the way as he can lift heavier objects and debris, as he saw in the video of him testing out his strength, lifting a car with ease or a military tank.

  After looking around for supplies or any valuables that people were forced to leave behind, he stored them into his modified scavenger survival backpack and moves on, room after room, and floor after floor that is accessible before going back down. Carrying the loaded backpack after storing essentials and valuables when he can, is easy for him and was thankful for that otherwise he’d be having broken back 24/7 or worse.

  He then starts making his way down carefully. After going down through ruined stairs and shortcuts, it is already evening as he approached his exploration jeep and placed his backpack in the trunk and pulled his tablet out of it to link to a portable terminal on his jeep dashboard to find the nearest community or mailing outposts outside of the no man zone then drives through the ruined roads of the city to get out.

  Far from the city Tanner’s jeep arrived at what looks like a small delivery outpost and wears a special collar that translates his muffled voice to known languages he speaks to. The people there are used to him and some others that go into the no man’s land as he drops off some of the goods that are loaded into his jeep and into the depot, useful scraps and materials, belongings, and sometimes remains of a loved one to bring closure. He always wanted to help bring things that were lost from the invasion to those that survived, give hope or happiness to the people at least into these No Man’s Land. Some of the salvages he has brought, Tanner was going to bring to a nearby community thirty minutes away. Once done with business at the delivery depot, he then drives off to the nearby community’s mailing post to deliver the last half of his salvage to them personally.

  Hours pass, now almost late at night after dropping off the goods at the medium sized community, Tanner finally makes it back to his house, few miles away from the community. It was a nice small home that was once destroyed from the war, now rebuilt with help from other featureless people like him.

  While some like to live outdoors or in the ruins, Tanner along with others still live in or close to communities, trying to regain some form of social life. For Tanner, despite being an introvert and shy, he wants to live in a nearby community so he doesn’t feel too alone. The cyan man then sits down on the couch and turn on the TV to see the international community news, listening to updates about the poison that the Golems, that is what they’re also called to some like Tanner, that there is a small breakthrough that can end the poison that engulfed the ruined cities, and other small things that was happening.

  Tanner sits there still listening and watching TV before heading out of his house under the night sky. He feels like he needed some fresh air, despite not having any nose to breath in. After exiting his peaceful house, he goes over to the cliff edge to look down at the illuminating community that he was in not too long ago, then sits down. After losing most of his family and friends from the war, something in him wanted to do something right. Hearing the people he helped make amends or accepted what is or was lost to make them move on with at least a smile to their face. Sitting and looking down at the community below, while thinking about it made him also smile internally, knowing that his own sacrifice of his physical identity isn’t in vain as long as he can help people move on with those they lost.