Chapter 13
April 2-3 0350 ATG (After The Gate)
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It wasn’t the fact that there was movement that irritated him so. He’d blown his nerves and joints. It was possible that those were real people out there, but it was also possible that this too was a side effect of his over enhancement. Eyes were connected by nerves and the brain was in essence a mega cluster of nerves that constantly fired signals throughout the body. So, it was entirely possible that these were hallucinations. However, that notion was brought to a screaming halt, because while Shit could have been growling at anything, sound was controlled by the ears, which were connected by nerves that were far less susceptible to the abuse Jonas had put his body through.
It meant that Jonas could trust his ears, and the puppy was warning him of something. Jonas noticed a line of dog kennels lining the walls. They were sizable, which was good. They could be used to block the hole, and then Jonas could set something heavy behind it. It would allow him to be able to shoot back if he needed to and it would bar the only way in. Jonas set to work, and got the hole plugged up. Dragging a heavy-duty shelf over had reset his nerves and joints ablaze, reminding the older man of his ability related injury, but the archeologist grit his teeth through the pain. Jonas pressed his back against the wall to the side of the barricaded hole with his revolver in hand and his relic in the other.
Jonas knew that enhancement and electrically charging himself was off the table, but could he charge his relic with his ability. The answer was yes and no. Jonas started the test by using electricity. “Fucking shit!” Jonas cursed, as his nerves and joints immediately protested. He also immediately cut the charge. It would seem relic or no relic, it would be another 20 hours before Jonas could even use his electricity again, but the situation demanded caution, so the relic was that precaution. He immediately switched elements, and started charging the relic with fire. As Jonas expected, there was no pain, and his relic was charging.
Jonas wouldn’t just start shooting fire into the forest. At least, not unless he had to. Thankfully, Jonas had options. But, before any of that, he had to confirm what was out there. Shit was carrying on and throwing a fit, and that was a sign something was still very off. “Identify yourself, stranger. It isn’t polite to sneak up on a fellow.” Jonas called out to the humanoid shadows, but there was no answer. Silence wasn’t the thing that answered the archeologist, however. There was a bone chilling scream like roar, as Jonas felt claws sink into his arm, and try to drag him through the cage.
“Well, fuck you too.” Jonas spat as he aimed his revolver in the direction, he believed the cougar to be. They weren’t common around these parts, but they did exist. Unfortunately for it, Jonas was the wrong type of prey. He quickly thrust the gun forward, pulled the trigger, and heard a loud bang from his revolver. The clawed limb trying to drag Jonas through the cage covered hole let him go and bolted off. Jonas didn’t doubt that he missed, but even so, the cougar’s face was very near the discharge of the barrel, and that could be just as deadly, but even if the big cat lived, it wouldn’t be wanting to deal with having its eardrums blown out and its head rattled for a second time. Then again, it wouldn’t survive an encounter with a fully functional Jonas.
Jonas saw the puppy cowering from the discharge of the archeologist’s revolver. Jonas was sure of this because of the whimpering. “Come here.” Jonas said, feeling bad about scaring Shit and hurting its ears. Jonas grabbed at the wrong wolf pup and when he felt no fluff ball, he grabbed at the only other one. He held the puppy until it calmed down. It was only when Shit started licking Jonas’ wounded arm that he remembered his bag. He winced as he grabbed it. Not because of his wound or the over use of his ability. No. It was because the rabbit he’d stuffed in there had died. “Well, shit.” Jonas said, dumping the training prop turned straight dinner onto the floor. The rabbit’s eyes were stuck wide open in fear.
Shit was too busy cowering on Jonas’ lap and licking Jonas’ clawed arm to care about the dead animal. To be fair, Jonas didn’t care about the rabbit either. His attention was on a bottle of Old Glory whisky. Unscrewing the cap, he gave it a sniff and jerked his head away. “Damn, that’s strong stuff.” Jonas corralled the puppy’s head out of the way and poured the liquor over his wound, and then took a swig, because, “Shit, that hurts like hell.” Pulling out some bandage wrap, he soaked it in the whiskey and dressed the wound. Jonas kissed the pup affectionately on her head and began making a fire. He wouldn’t be doing much until the morning, anyway. There was no way he could fully trust his eyes, but Jonas could trust them enough to at least cook dinner. After all, he had the fortune to be in the ideal location for it. Jonas sighed wistfully, as he was suddenly reminded of an old stove manual he found. “What I’d give for a working old-world stove right now.”
By now, the fire was blazing and hot enough to cook the rabbit. Jonas kept the skin and fur, because, why let something so warm go to waste. It was colder than a witch’s tit out there, and he could make gloves out of it. It was actually easy to cure a rabbit hide. All Jonas needed was allum, water and salt. Of course, he didn’t have all that in his bag, but his urine did. There was also the hurtle of stitching it all together. That was also solved by the rabbit’s corps. The rabbit had ligaments and sinew that could be dried out by the fire, and then smashed and woven by hand into string. The drying process would take all night, and it wasn’t like his new gloves would be a quick affair, either. It was going to take days,but at least, he could make the bone needle before bed.
The rabbit was tasty. The juices from the meat complimented the meal. The wolf pup must have thought so to, because she thought she needed Jonas’ half. To be fair, Jonas’ half of the rabbit was more that Shit’s half, but the puppy’s stomach was small. He was about to toss a piece to the puppy, but decided to make her earn it instead. “Come here.” Jonas commanded. He followed it up by snapping once. Shit was no longer on her leash. So, there would be no hints this time around. It took three tries before she got it and Jonas gave her a piece of his dinner.
Once the rabbit was picked clean, Jonas placed his spoiled companion back on her leash. He found a good place to tie it and set the trap he had collected, but made sure to place it just close enough to tempt the puppy, but far enough way that when Jonas triggered the thing, that it wouldn’t harm the little shit. Jonas was feeling pretty shitty about this part, but it needed to be done. Otherwise, Shit could lose her leg to a scavenger trap. For the second part of the exercise, Jonas collected a pile of rocks and debris he could use to trigger the sensitive pressure plate. The idea was simple. Jonas was going to traumatize the puppy by setting the trap off if the puppy got to close to it. The leash was a safe guard to ensure Shit never got caught in the contraption.
Jonas was witling the rabbit bone down with his knife not feeling nowhere near as bad as he’d initially anticipated. The Puppy had avoided the trap so far, and Jonas was starting to think the exercise was unnecessary. That was… until the little shit decided to prove Jonas wrong. Jonas had actually gotten the back half of the bone needle done when he detected movement from the wolf pup. She was moving towards the trap. Jonas set his project down, and reluctantly grabbed a piece of debris. He patiently watched as the puppy eyed the thing as it had many times before. The reason for this was because of the piece of rabbit meat he had baited it with. There was no point if the trap wasn’t alluring. After all, the point was to teach her that all traps were bad.
The little wolf pup was getting braver with each step she took. Jonas watched intently as she tested it as with the previous encounter. Nothing happened. The wolf pup seeing this began inching closer. It was when Shit was nearly at the end of her leash that Jonas tossed the small piece of debris. It sailed unnoticed by the puppy, and landed squarely on the plate. The trap viciously snapped closed, and like before, Shit yelp and scrambled away. Jonas really did feel like a shit person, but it had to be done. Building a heathy fear of these things was good for her in the long run.
After the pup had scrambled away, she decided that the opposite side of the room was better. Jonas could tell the puppy still wanted the rabbit meat, which to be fair, he also was tempted to eat it. The only thing stopping Jonas was the knowledge of where that piece of food had been for the last hour. His thoughts of snacking aside, he reset the trap and went back to making his bone needle. Jonas Would look up from time to time to see where the puppy was, and to his delight, he saw that the puppy wanted nothing to do with the trap.
He got up and collected the trap. Jonas disarmed it and tried to get close to Shit while holding it. The puppy nearly screeched and took off. While Jonas was happy with the knowledge that Shit would avoid these traps, he was also unhappy at the trauma he’d given the poor thing. Jonas quickly bagged the trap and coaxed the puppy over with the rabbit meat. “You did very well, girl. Now come get your treat.” Jonas spoiled his companion rotten for the rest of the night.
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The next morning Jonas opened his eyes to find his vision had gotten a whole lot better. At the very least, everything was far less confusing. Jonas then tried pouring electricity into his artifact, and found that he still couldn’t use his ability to full potential, but the pain was tolerable. That was a huge improvement. It meant he still wasn’t going to be able to enhance his body yet, but at least he could charge his artifact with it. That reminded Jonas. He had shot a turret with a bolt of lightning. “Did that thing even survive?” Jonas spoke his thought query out loud.
Jonas was sure it had, but then again, he had blown a whole into the side of this ruin. So, maybe? Jonas walked over to the barricaded hole and looked out. The first thing the archeologist found was blood. It was his blood, of course, but outside of the hole was more blood. The blood trailed off to the tree line. He suddenly reminded of the deep gashes on his arm Squinting a bit, Jonas looked around, hoping to catch site of the turret he’d shot at the prior night. It took Jonas a bit, but he found it. The turret was glinting in the morning light and covered in dew.
The moment Jonas saw it; he nearly took cover against the wall. The only reason he hadn’t, was because of the lack of shooting for one thing. Another thing, was the fact that not only was it not moving, but he couldn’t find the other turrets. Jonas let out an incredulous laugh. He actually took it out. True Jonas did little in the way of visual damage, but he took it out. Either way, there were 2 more fully functional turrets out there. So, unless he could get to the magic box, he wouldn’t be going out there any time soon.
Another look around the room told Jonas that the ruin once cared for animals. That was a bit of a surprise, considering most fire departments only had one or two dogs. This one had eight. This made Jonas wonder if this was really a fire department ruin and not the ruin of a joint police and fire fighter facility. That would be preferable, given the service Police departments provided for the old world, and the type of training manual Jonas was hoping to find. Jonas did another once over of the entire room to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, and went back to the long dead fire. He packed up the dried-out ligaments and peed on the rabbit skin to help it cure. Once Jonas cleaned up the area a bit, he collected Shit and set to work setting up a game plan to tackle the ruins.
Jonas was at the door with a hand-crafted lock picking set. He set to work on the door. The lock was stubborn, but like with anything, patience was key. And, like that, Jonas felt the lock give and twist. It felt satisfying. Even more satisfying was seeing what was beyond the door itself. Jonas advanced with caution, fully aware of the possible dangers with the puppy fallowing close behind. The air was musty and stale from the countless years of having little circulation, and the walls and floor of the debris filled hallway were covered in thick layers of dust. Lying face down in middle of it was an old human skeleton garbed in a heavily deteriorated uniform. The skull had a hole in one side and a much larger hole in the other. In one of its hands was a sleek and very rusted revolver sized gun.
The end of the hall looked to be a reception area. Jonas wouldn’t really know until he checked it out, but first things first. The magic box. Jonas stepped over the skeleton, and headed down the hall to a set of doors that mirrored each other’s. Jonas wasn’t picky which one he went into first, and just chose the one on his left. Jonas tested the door, and found it to be unlocked. With the same caution, Jonas entered the room.
The lights began to flicker. As he and Shit fully made their way into the room, Jonas made note that the room looked eerily similar to a classroom. Instead of a chalkboard there was a white metal frame. Instead of wooden desks and chairs, the tabled were made of metal with chairs that looked like they were once comfortable. The walls looked to have once been painted white. This was evident by the remaining white patches that still clung to the cement stone wall, but that’s not all that littered the walls within the room. It wasn’t until Jonas really got a good look around that things became clear.
Two desks were upturned in a defensive manner, as though defending against intruders. There were scorch marks and holes that littered each of the upturned desks. When Jonas looked behind himself, he saw the pockmarks in the wall where the defender’s bullets had impacted the wall. “Kill bots did this, but this is very old.” Jonas remarked, as he traced the rusted burn holes in the desks. He carefully made his way behind the makeshift defensive barrier, and found more skeletons. There were three of them. Like the skeleton in the hallway, the clothing looked similar with the except of the third one. Their outfit was different. The name patch read: Lt. Jinkins. All three were holding weapons.
A flicker of light caught Jonas’ attention. It came from the first skeleton. It was a thin rectangular device that was plugged into the wall. “It’s rare to see one of these still working.” Jonas mumbled as he began to mess with the device. It had a picture of a beautiful blond-haired woman with an odd lowcut v-neck shirt. She was holding two kids. Jonas began tapping the screen. It had no buttons, except for one red circular one that had a symbol, he’d learned to associate with power, and Jonas wasn’t looking to turn the thing off. Hell, he had no idea if it would ever turn on again.
Luckily, touching the screen elicited a response from the thing. There were many small images, and Jonas had no idea what they meant. It wasn’t like the device would lose power right away. The only real constraint was its battery and the buildings power. Well, that, and- Jonas pulled out his pocket watch to check the time and gave the winder a few twists. “Not as much time as I would like.” Jonas grumbled and then sighed with frustration as he put the watch away. It wasn’t like they’d leave without him, even if he wished they would. There was also the fact that he’d kicked the hornets’ nest, and Jonas was not looking to having both Peter and Georgy chewing his ass out.
The archeologist focused his attention back to mastering the device. Once he had, Jonas plumbed its secrets. He pulled out his journal and made a detailed sketch of the device and jotted down everything he could find out about the thing, which was a lot. Apparently, the device was used for long distance communications through a thing called a contact list. However, when Jonas tried calling one of these numbers, he got a robotic message letting him know there was no service. It even had a calendar and time function. He had no idea if it was right or not, but the calendar said January 3. 2558, and the device had been on this whole time. So, why wouldn’t it be? Jonas specially made note of that, because it proved their understanding of the current month and year were wrong.
Jonas had also found the messages. They were… heart breaking. The device belonged to Lt. Jinkins. He was there as part of a joint program with the fire department to teach and give insight into the police force and how it operated for better cooperation. He had switched out with another officer, Detective Jinkins. There was no relation, but the detective’s wife went into labor and wanted to be there for the birth. Lt. Jinkins last message was to his wife. He had been scared in his last moments. He’d even known of the attack. The detective had caught wind that the police department had received orders to work with the national guard to apprehend and turn over a couple of aberrations. The term transcendent was used in the same context. Jonas had no definitive way to determine this, but long story short, Jinkins and the students stuck together and tried to fight back. The officer’s last message read, “I love you. If I don’t survive, tell Kyle and Jennifer their daddy died doing the right thing.”
Jonas turned the device off and placed it and the journal into the bag. He also collected the wire and block like thing plugged into the wall, placing it in his bag as well. “Well Shit, I think we got all were going to get from here.” The puppy barked. They went across the hall to the other room where they found a destroyed death bot next to a pile of bones and clothes. There were dog bones mixed in with human bones. Jonas had no way to know what the story here was besides the obvious, and there was nothing of any real interest in this room, anyway. He and the puppy left and made their way down the hall to the reception area. There were a desk with a terminal on it, but the terminal was destroyed. That’s when Jonas saw it. There, above the door. lay an open hatch with a turret actively scanning the area.
Jonas dove behind the desk and pulled free his artifact. It was still fully charged, and Jonas was right to draw the ancient heirloom too, because the turret had picked up on the movement and swiveled around to bear its payload onto Jonas. Jonas aimed as best he could and shot out a bolt of lightning, thankful he was able to charge it through the pain. There was a crackle fallowed by a boom as the lightning bolt melted the shattered glass and struck the old-world killing machine. Like the other turret, it didn’t show any damage. It just… hung limp and un moving. There was also an acrid stench that was blown into the building, curtesy of good old mother nature. That bitch.
