Morning, Michelle!
Ugh.
She feels dizzy and her body is filled with a burning sensation.
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.
I'm gonna ... need a moment.
Water?
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.
Just let me sit here for a while.
A few minutes later, she lifts up her head again:
What year is it? ... and what's our
mission?
Twenty-one-oh-six. There is no explicit
mission, uplink's dead.
You're kidding.
Nope.
How'd you get woken up then?
Technical failure. My preservation chamber
died.
You survived that?
That was the least of my challenges.
He chuckles and briefly tells her how he found himself trapped inside,
that one of the computer's hard drives is broken, and how he turned
to the dome city for help.
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.
So? What now? Any plans?
I guess, for now, taking a look at the uplink.
I wanna see if we can fix it.
Michelle thinks for a moment.
Sounds good – but I don't feel
quite ready for a hike like that.
Take your time, you just woke up.
She pulls back one of the chairs and sits down. Jack picks up her glass
and sets it down on the table.
Thanks.
She takes another sip.
The people who helped you, do you think
they'd help us with the uplink too?
Don't know, but they can't.
They're stuck inside the dome city and need our help.
How? Even if the tunnels have collapsed,
I can think of quite a few other ways to break out.
From what I know, they aren't physically
trapped inside, the people in charge just don't want anyone to
leave.
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.
How have you been dealing with food?
I imagine the stockpile was already pretty low?
Actually not, the others seem to have mostly
hunted and foraged for themselves.
I wonder what they found to still be
edible...
Speaking of food, I got leftover baked
potatoes. Want some?
Now that you ask, I'm slowly getting
hungry. Did you make your usual spicy dip?
Yup.
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.
I had to improvise a little because of
a distinct lack of fresh ingredients but I think it still turned out
pretty good.
Oh wow, that looks almost kinda scary.
The flakes they left us just aren't
the same as fresh peppers. I had to add a lot to get even close
to the usual spiciness.
He grabs the Backblech? with potatoes
and puts it back in the oven to re-heat them.
After the meal, they step outside and Michelle gets her first look
around.
Oddly familiar, and yet so different.
the scene where Jack opens the door should
have a short description of the lay of the lands
The two decide to walk up to a crest? ridge?
not far from them on the other side of the valley. Beyond it is Ivydale,
once a large city housing just over a million people – only one of
who? whom? which? remains to behold its
overgrown ruins.
Michelle says: I mean I knew it already but
seeing it like this just hits differently.
ToDo: tie this back together
Following what remains of an old path, the two start making their way up
the mountain above the bunker. The path is narrow and winded, overgrown,
and has partially disappeared. Jack walks ahead, only half following it,
half making it up as he goes. Michelle struggles to follow, slowly
falling behind. After a while, he stops abruptly, looking down at
something, then up, then down again. Then, he turns to Michelle who is
just catching up and says:
Well, that could be a reason why
the uplink is down – it literally is down....
Michelle reaches the edge and and sees what Jack had stopped for:
A large ravine? wash? 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.
Copyright © 2023 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) – All rights reserved.