155 lines
8.8 KiB
HTML
155 lines
8.8 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title> Erosion </title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="html_resources/style.css"></head><body><svg class="hidden_filter"><filter id="crunchy_blur" x="0" y="0"><feFlood x="4" y="4" height="2" width="2"/><feComposite width="6" height="6" in2="SourceGraphic"/><feTile result="a"/><feComposite in="SourceGraphic" in2="a" operator="in"/><feMorphology operator="dilate" radius="1.4"/><feGaussianBlur stdDeviation="2.2"></feGaussianBlur></filter></svg><div class="back"><a href="index.html"><</a></div>
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<h1>Erosion</h1>
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<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
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on the floor in front of it, putting her arms over her knees to rest
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her head.
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<br />
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<span class="quote speech">I'm gonna ... need a moment.</span><br />
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<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
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sips, she sets it down, unsure whether it helps or makes it worse, and
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rests her head again.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Just let me sit here for a while.</span><br />
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He sits down a bit to the right, facing her.
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</p>
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<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 the
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mission?</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Twenty-one-oh-six. There is no explicit
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mission, uplink's dead.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">You're kidding.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Nope.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">How'd you get woken up then?</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Technical failure in my preservation
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chamber.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">You survived that?</span><br />
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He chuckles. <span class="quote speech">That was the least of my
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challenges. The failsafe worked.</span><br />
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He briefly tells her that he found himself trapped inside and turned
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to the dome city for help.
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</p>
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<p>
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Michelle's dizziness starts to go away and the burning sensation
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in her body begins to fade. She slowly gets up, takes a few cautious
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steps forward to the table, and leans on it.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">So? What now? Any plans?</span><br />
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Jack gets up as well and picks up the glass.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">I guess, for now, taking a look at the
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uplink. I wanna see if we can get it going again. After that, we need
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to return a favor to the dome city people.</span><br />
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He sets the glass on the table.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Thanks.</span><br />
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She thinks for a moment.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Assuming we can fix it... Then what?</span>
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<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Honestly, I don't know. Maybe the moon
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base has something to do for us, maybe they don't.
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I'm just curious about the state of things up there.</span>
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<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Sounds good. Though give me a bit longer,
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I don't feel quite ready for a hike like that.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Take your time, you just woke up.</span><br />
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She pulls back one of the chairs, sits down, and takes another sip.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">So what's that favor for the dome
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city?</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">They're stuck inside as well and want
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our help.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">How? Even if the tunnels are collapsed,
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I can think of a few other ways to get out.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">From what I know, they aren't physically
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trapped inside, the people in charge just don't want anyone to
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leave.</span><br />
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Jack sits down across from her and retells everything that had happened,
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starting with his preservaton chamber breaking down. It takes him about
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half an hour, including answering Michelles questions.
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</p>
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<p>
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<span class="quote speech">How have you been dealing with food?
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I imagine the stockpile was already pretty low?</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Actually not, the others seem to have mostly
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hunted and foraged for themselves.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">I wonder what they found to still be
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edible...</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Speaking of food, I got leftover baked
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potatoes. Want some?</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Now that you ask, I'm slowly getting
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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
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with a dark red-ish paste, and sets it on the table.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">I had to improvise a little due to
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a distinct lack of fresh ingredients but I think it still turned out
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pretty good.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Oh wow, that looks almost kinda scary.</span>
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<br />
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<span class="quote speech">The flakes they left us just aren't
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the same as fresh peppers. I had to add <i>a lot</i> to get even close
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to the usual spiciness.</span><br />
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He grabs the <span class="comment">Backblech?</span> with potatoes
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and puts it back in the oven to re-heat.
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</p>
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<p>
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After the meal, they go to the bunker entrance and Jack opens the door
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by touching a thick cable to one of the lugs on the motor. Sparks fly
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and the door moves up into the ceiling. Michelle gets her first look
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outside. The sky is a clear blue and the sun hits the other side of
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the valley.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Oddly familiar, and yet so different.</span>
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<br />
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She hesitates for a moment before stepping onto the cracked pavement
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in front of the bunker.<br />
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<span class="comment">the scene where Jack opens the door should
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have a short description of the lay of the lands</span><br />
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The two decide to walk up to a <span class="comment">crest? ridge?</span>
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not far from them on the other side of the valley. Beyond it is Ivydale,
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once a large city housing just over a million people – only one of
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<span class="comment">who? whom? which?</span> remains to behold its
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overgrown ruins.
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<br />
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<span class="comment">Jack is from Sentinel Shores.</span><br />
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Michelle says: <span class="quote speech">I mean I knew it already but
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seeing it like this just hits differently.</span><br />
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They sit down on a large rock in the shade of a small, lone tree and
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take in the view. Michelle takes some time to fully process her new
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reality.
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</p>
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<p>
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After a long while, she says: <span class="quote speech">Okay,
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let's go take a look at that uplink.</span><br />
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The two get up and walk back towards the bunker, looking for a path
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somewhere to the left of it.<br />
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Jack points to a structure a decent bit up the mountain and says:
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<span class="quote speech">I think that's it.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Oh wow, there isn't much left.</span>
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<br />
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Jack points at a few other things below it.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">I think these are also part of it.</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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They make their way over and, following what remains of the path, the two
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start making their way up. The path is narrow and winded, and overgrown
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where it hasn't disappeared entirely. Jack walks ahead, only half
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following it, half making it up as he goes. Michelle struggles to follow,
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slowly falling behind. After a while, he stops abruptly, looking down at
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something, then up, then down again. Then, he turns to Michelle who is
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just catching up and says:<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Well, that could be a reason why
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the uplink is down – it literally ...<i>is down</i>...</span>
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<br />
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Michelle reaches the edge and and sees what Jack had stopped for:
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A large <span class="comment">wash?</span> extends downwards
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from the top of the mountain where a landslide had left nothing but
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a cliff and a huge pile of rubble. At the top of the mountain, teetering
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on the edge, are two buildings – all that's left of the ground
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station. The rest of the buildings and the dish lay strewn around
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in pieces down below.
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</p>
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<p class="copyright">Copyright © 2023-2025 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) – All rights reserved.</p><script>let spans = ["<span class=\"paper green\">", "<span>"]; let pre_texts = document.getElementsByTagName("pre"); for (let i = 0; i < pre_texts.length; i++) {if (pre_texts[i].className != "paper") continue; let lines = pre_texts[i].innerHTML.split("\n"); let result = ""; for (let j = 0; j < lines.length; j++) {if (lines[j].length >= 80) result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + "</span>\n"; else result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + " ".repeat(80-lines[j].length) + "</span>\n";} pre_texts[i].innerHTML = result;}</script></body></html>
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