I use the mouse to click on the guard room to see if it will give me more info.

  “Those goblins really trashed the place.”

  I move and click on the door controls.

  I guess I have to fix the controls before I can upgrade them. I move the cursor and click on "Repair," which gives me a list of necessary items.

  I look over the necessary items and realize I have most of them except the hydraulic hose line. I begin preparing to fix the control panel, so I open it up for a good look inside. Some cables have been chewed through by a rat, and the small motor powering the cooling fan has short-circuited and burned slightly.

  I take the fan from my backpack and think, I guess that guy needed a part from it as well. I still don’t feel right about killing him, but what’s done is done. He would have killed us if he had the chance.

  The fan comes apart easily enough, the cheap plastic breaking around the screws as I pry it open with little effort. I extract the small motor and use it to replace the burnt fan motor. It's a little bigger, so I use some duct tape to secure it where the old one used to be.

  Following the wires back, I find them soldered to a small frequency regulator. I don’t have a soldering iron, so I have to improvise. I take a small screwdriver from the generator room and heat its tip until I can use it to melt the tin holding the wire in place. After removing the damaged wires, I use new ones to reconnect the fan. Without tin, I can't solder them back, so I twist them around the connector and use tape to prevent short circuits.

  Next, I search for the switch that needs replacing. There are nearly 50 switches for various functions, but most look undamaged. The ones that are broken don’t matter much—things like the warning door-opening announcement or the blinking yellow lights. I let those be and keep looking until I find the switch that opens the doors.

  It’s a key-operated switch, broken because the key snapped off inside. Luckily, its only function is to activate the "Open" and "Close" door buttons, so I don’t actually need the switch to repair it. I unscrew it, use the screwdriver to melt the solder on the wires, and then twist them together with pliers while the tin is still molten.

  Now, the only thing left is a replacement hydraulic hose. I check around the door to estimate its length—it doesn’t need to be too long, so I just need to find one. The best place to look is the half-disassembled military truck in the bunker. Crawling underneath, I find several hydraulic lines connected to the brakes. They seem to be about the right size.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The hose fits almost perfectly. The connection near the hydraulic piston is solid, but the other end leaks slightly. Using a heavy chain and my crowbar, I make a temporary chain wrench to tighten it.

  With the repairs done, I head deeper into the bunker to find Monty. I enter the atrium and see him with a shovel, filling a large trash can with the mess the goblins left behind.

  I ask, “What are you going to do with that?”

  Monty looks up. “I’m dumping it in the recycler. It’s been running nonstop, turning trash back into usable materials.”

  Curious, I go to see this recycler for myself. It’s the first clean room in the bunker—Monty must have started here. I watch as the large machine crushes the trash he throws in, and after about ten minutes, a few metal bars and rolls of plastic emerge from the other end. Right now, metal bars aren’t that useful, but I might be able to turn one of the empty rooms into a workshop to make parts.

  After staring at the machine for a while, I remember why I needed Monty’s help. I turn to him.

  “Hey, could you help me? I need you to wait at the bottom of the stairs. When I shout, turn on the power in the generator room.”

  He agrees. I go to the top of the stairs and call out for him to turn it on. Then, I head back to the guard room and wait for the control panel to come back to life.

  I stand there, waiting. Maybe Monty doesn’t know where the breaker for the guard room is. Just as I step out of the room, the lights flicker on. I quickly head back in to check my repairs—but something else is waiting for me, floating above the control panel.

  I look at the screen and think, Did I just need the components, and the base system would fix it itself?

  No, it would have told me when I had all the components, right?

  Monty comes upstairs, wondering why I didn’t answer him. He looks over my shoulder at the floating message.

  “Did it work?” he asks.

  “I think so,” I reply, “but now we have to wait for this to finish.”

  Monty nods, waiting with me as the loading bar progresses.

  We watch in shock as the console repairs itself before our eyes. The hole where I removed the broken switch seals shut. The tape I used disappears, replaced by proper repairs. When it’s done, the entire panel looks brand new—no goblin graffiti, no scratches or dents. It even looks polished.