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<!DOCTYPE html> < html > < head > < title > Erosion < / title > < link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "html_resources/style.css" > < / head > < body > < a href = "index.html" > < button class = "back" > < < / button > < / a >
< h1 > Erosion< / h1 >
< p >
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< span class = "quote speech" > Morning, Michelle!< / span > < br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > Ugh.< / span > < br / >
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She feels dizzy and her body is filled with a burning sensation.
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She stumbles forward, out of her preservation chamber, and sits down
on the floor in front of it, putting her arms over her knees to rest
her head.
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< br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > I' m gonna ... need a moment.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Water?< / span > < br / >
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She raises her head and Jack hands her a glass. After taking a couple
sips, she sets it down, unsure whether it helps or makes it worse, and
rests her head again.< br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > Just let me sit here for a while.< / span >
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< / p >
< p >
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A few minutes later, she lifts up her head again:< br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > What year is it? ... and what' s our
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mission?< / span > < br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > Twenty-one-oh-six. There is no explicit
mission, uplink' s dead.< / span > < br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > You' re kidding.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Nope.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > How' d you get woken up then?< / span > < br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > Technical failure. My preservation chamber
died.< / span > < br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > You survived that?< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > That was the least of my challenges.< / span >
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< br / >
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He chuckles and briefly tells her how he found himself trapped inside
and that the people of the dome city helped him repair the door.
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< / p >
< p >
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Michelle' s dizziness starts to go away and the burning sensation
in her body begins to fade. She slowly gets up, takes a few cautious
steps forward to the table, and leans on it.< br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > So? What now? Any plans?< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > I guess, for now, taking a look at the uplink.
I wanna see if we can fix it.< / span > < br / >
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Michelle thinks for a moment.< br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > Sounds good – but I don' t feel
quite ready for a hike like that.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Take your time, you just woke up.< / span > < br / >
She pulls back one of the chairs and sits down. Jack picks up her glass
and sets it down on the table.< br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Thanks.< / span > < br / >
She takes another sip.< br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > The people who helped you, do you think
they' d help us with the uplink too?< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Don' t know, but they can' t.
They' re stuck inside the dome city and need our help.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > How? Even if the tunnels have collapsed,
I can think of quite a few other ways to break out.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > From what I know, they aren' t physically
trapped inside, the people in charge just don' t want anyone to
leave.< / span > < br / >
Jack sits down as well and retells everything that happened in detail,
starting with his preservaton chamber breaking down. It takes him about
an hour, including answering Michelles questions.
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< / p >
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< p class = "comment" > ToDo: tie this together< / p >
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< p >
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< span class = "quote speech" > How have you been dealing with food?
I imagine the stockpile was already pretty low?< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Actually not, the others seem to have mostly
hunted and foraged for themselves.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > I wonder what they found to still be
edible...< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Speaking of food, I got leftover baked
potatoes. Want some?< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Now that you ask, I' m slowly getting
hungry. Did you make your usual spicy dip?< / span > < br / >
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< span class = "quote speech" > Yup.< / span > < br / >
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He gets up and walks over to the kitchen area, grabs a small bowl filled
with a dark red-ish paste, and sets it on the table.< br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > I had to improvise a little because of
a distinct lack of fresh ingredients but I think it still turned out
pretty good.< / span > < br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > Oh wow, that looks almost kinda scary.< / span >
< br / >
< span class = "quote speech" > The flakes they left us just aren' t
the same as fresh peppers. I had to add < i > a lot< / i > to get even close
to the usual spiciness.< / span > < br / >
He grabs the < span class = "comment" > Backblech?< / span > with potatoes
and puts it back in the oven to re-heat them.
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< / p >
< p >
< span class = "comment" > Idk they eat, guess I' ll need to describe that
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in a bit more detail... Michelle might be having a really good and really
bad time at the same time. Jack eats like three of them potatoes with
roughly a ton of the dip. Then they get ready to leave.< / span >
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< / p >
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< p >
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They step outside and, following what remains of the old path, start
walking. It is narrow and winded, overgrown, and has partially
disappeared. Jack walks ahead, only half following the path, half making
it up as he goes. Michelle struggles to follow, slowly falling behind.
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After a while, he stops abruptly, looking down at something, then up,
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then down again. Then, he turns to Michelle who is catching up to him
and says: < span class = "quote speech" > Well, that could be a reason why
the uplink is down – it literally < i > is down< / i > ...< / span > .
Michelle reaches the edge and and sees what Jack had stopped for:
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A large < span class = "comment" > ravine? wash?< / span > extends towards the
top of the mountain where a landslide had left nothing but a cliff and
a huge pile of rubble. At the top of the mountain, teetering on the
edge, are two buildings – all that' s left of the ground
station. The rest of the buildings and the dish lay strewn around
in pieces down below.
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< / p >
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