2
Tribal
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Kevin’s voice played, much harsher this time, “Patch notes version 23.17.2501, software limits have been reached with the latest patch anyone with an active implant should report to South Venga, tell the gate guard your model number and you will be sent to an automated surgeon for your upgrade”
And the window closed
Corrupted data found
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Skill unlocked: Data reconstruction
Data reconstruction: level 1
Beginning data reconstruction
This was too fucking much, Luke's headache was coming back with a vengeance. Whether that was the sedatives wearing off or the mountain of bullshit that was dropped on his head from the top of another much taller mountain he couldn’t quite tell. He didn’t have time to consider as the cube extended a tray from its side along some of the near invisible seams. Looking in the tray Luke found a change of clothes and recognized them as a copy of the outfit he wore when uploading his brain. He could tell it was a copy since it lacked the holes and stains of the real thing. As he got dressed a grinding sound caught his attention and a door that blended into the wall so perfectly as to be seamless, slid open.
Behind the door was a crowd. Luke froze as he gazed at the group of malformed… people. They had to be people. They were almost all standing on two legs, most had between one and three arms and their faces were on their heads. The rest was… odd, they had strange limbs poking out at random locations with just stumps on their ends, tufts of hair in strange places, skin sagging in some spots while far too tight in others, strange lumps and growths riddled their bodies. Their faces were disproportionate and misaligned, sometimes they would be obviously blind even a few missing eyes entirely while Luke could clearly see at least one who had several extra eyes all clearly focusing on different things.
“Ahh hey guys… how’s it goin?” Luke nervously asked, several of them had what looked like some very nasty spears after all.
At his words the crowd lost their minds. Screaming and howling, jumping and… pointing? It was hard to tell with some of their not-really-hands. A few even started fighting each other without any type of provocation. At least none of them were charging him.
After several seconds of madness Luke raised his hand and tried again, “Hey can any of you tell me where we are? I’m a bit lost.”
They went silent, their gazes swiveled from him to each other and back a few times before one stepped forward with their hand raised matching Luke.
“Oh hi, can you understand me?
The man, for he clearly was a man, a few had semi rotten hides covering delicate bits but most of them had no clothes and this guy was among the latter group, spoke.. sort of, “Angh schla… angh schla…”
When he didn’t get whatever response he was looking for he got mad, “ANGH SCHLA!”
“Right ok, ok, ang sslahim, er.. sorry ang slah.”
With a grin the man lowered his body and held a hand behind himself to the group, where one of the others placed a spear for him.
“Ahhh shit, that’s not good. Can I get one?” Luke held a hand out hopefully.
A spear was launched at his chest
The world froze for a moment
Combat detected
Preloaded skill available: Spear Combat
Note: only one preloaded skill may be selected
Accept skill?
Yes! yes! yes!
Skill unlocked: Spear combat
Spear combat: level 1
As time returned to normal speed Luke's body acted on its own, twisting to grab the spear and back to face the tribesman. What the fuck was that? Luke couldn’t snatch a spear from the air like some action hero, but he just did exactly that…
There was no time to think as the tribesman charged at him. At least he tried to, his misshapen legs could only lumber, barely more than a waddle. The emotion was there though as he roared at Luke and raised his spear. Luke very bravely… hid behind the cube and peeked around the edge at the mutated man.
“What the fuck is happening? Can’t I get a moment to think? Shit shit shit”
As the tribesman made it to the cube rage burning in his eyes, Luke ran around to the other side. As he reentered the mutant tribe's line of sight the mob began screaming and grunting. Then his opponent, just around the corner from him grunted as well and started shuffle limping around. Luke peeked around the corner to find the man looking around in confusion, even going so far as to try checking under his own feet.
“Seriously?”
On hearing his voice the tribesman turned and raised his spear.
“Shit shit"
In a panic Luke thrust his spear into the mans gut. The spearhead seemed to tear into the man with far too much ease. It was like bursting a water balloon, blood didn’t spray out but the skin tore free and dumped blood, guts, maggots, and rotting flesh unto the ground.
The crowd went silent for a just a moment before swarming. Luke threw his spear to the ground hoping they would capture rather than kill him. The crowd instead went for the fallen mess that used to be one of their own and began devouring him. Luke tried to vomit but having never had food in his less than an hour long life made that difficult. As he was gagging and retching on all fours one of the less twisted tribespeople thrust his spear back into his hands.
“unch wai, ama nas wai"
“I don’t understand you" Luke responded with exasperation as he took the spear back.
Luke climbed back to his feet and got a look at the one talking to him. The tribal was tall, far taller than seemed natural. They were mostly covered in some kind of rotting white hide so that only the arms and head were visible. One arm was about twice as long as the other, perhaps missing everything beyond the elbow, but both arms had nearly human hands with four fingers on the short arm and eight fingers on the long one. Their face was too small for their head but mostly in the right place and they had a lazy eye.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Compared to the others this tribesperson was relatively normal.
Their face scrunched up in concentration as they tried speaking again, “yo arr… yo arr leek da bocs?”
That… that almost sounded like words
“Wait, can you understand me? Do you speak English?"
That seemed to piss them off, “ACGH, nof nat, nof nat"
“Right ok I’m sorry" Luke said as he raised his hands in surrender forgetting he had a spear in one
The tribal snarled and shouted, “ANGH SLAH?!”
“No, no, shit, I'm sorry. No angh slah that’s what had Mr. puddle trying to kill me"
Luke dropped the spear again and lowered his hands which confused the entire mob, most of which stopped their feast to watch the show. The tall one looked him up and down clearly confused. Then looked to the group and seemed startled they were still there.
In a rush the tribesperson handed Luke back his spear as if the mob was about to jump them.
Luke shook his head and handed it back, “You take it, I cant use this thing, I just got lucky before.”
Every mutant's eyes went wide at that. Luke had a feeling he had done something wrong but the marginally more friendly one accepted the spear carefully and handed Luke their own, Luke sighed and took it.
Suddenly they grabbed Luke’s arm and pulled him through the door. The whole way the mob was hooting and hollering as they passed.
As he was pulled along Luke got a look at the area. They were in some sort of office. There were a couple dozen structures made from what looked like salvaged junk from a trash dump. Old desks, broken tables, dented smashed appliances, and anything else you might see in an office. Filing cabinets seemed to be prime building material and there was even a fist fight over what looked like a chair from a cafeteria.
The deeper they went the clearer it became that this was indeed a office of some sort, but far larger than any he had seen before. The floor was littered with smashed computer towers and monitors, and there was a small shrine off to the side where one man seemed to be worshiping a coffeepot. For some reason though there were no windows. It seemed to be getting colder as they traveled and Luke began to wonder how the mutants with no hides kept from freezing.
Eventually luke was pulled into something that looked like a conference room and made to sit on an overturned watercooler.
“ama sel, nof nat" his captor insisted
After they were sure he wouldn’t run off, and go where exactly Luke wasn't sure, they turned and very carefully pulled a laptop computer from under a table. The thing looked intact! Excited Luke stood and made to reach out for it. That turned out to be a mistake.
While still carefully holding the computer like it was their child, the tall tribal whipped around and snarled at Luke, “SEL"
Suddenly Luke was struck in the chest, the move was so fast he could only tell he had been kicked by the way the tribal shifted their feet afterward. Luke stumbled backward and fell over the water cooler smacking his head on the wall. It took several long seconds but when Luke was able to breathe again he rolled to his feet. His captor loomed over him with a look of barely restrained fury on their face and pointed back at his seat. Taking the hint Luke sat back down and waited.
Keeping an eye on Luke the tribesperson opened the laptop and turned it on. As it powered up a look of pure joy crossed their face. By the time the startup sounds played they had completely forgotten Luke. It didn’t seem to be password protected as they went right into the desktop. Fortunately it also seemed to be touchscreen and they pressed an icon Luke couldn’t see from his seat a dozen feet from the table the computer was perched on.
A video opened on screen and Luke was shocked by what was playing.
“Video log, the date is December 18, 2237” Janet said
2237? That didn’t make sense, their project started in 2030 two hundred years couldn’t have passed just like that.
Janet didn’t stop for Luke to have a crisis though, “I’ve finished moving into the new facility. Soon ill bring in some of the survivors and we can start making a new civilization. Not many of the bombs fell here apparently, and the radiation levels are fairly low. We should have plenty of time to work out better radiation cleanses before people get too sick. At some point I will have to decide what to do about Rick but for now its nice to be able to rest and rebuild. Anyway I’ll be keeping these logs to document the process. There’s always a chance I will die and someone else will have to take over. Signing off.”
The video stopped playing and Luke realized the Tribal was staring at him, “ama nat wai?”
“Look I seriously don’t under…”
Skill unlocked: unknown tribal language
Unknown tribal language: level 1
“stand… what… hey, say that again?”
They just blinked at Luke.
“No really try saying some stuff again"
“nof talk"
“Talk! You said… talk… no, no you said ‘nof nat' nat means talk but I could understand you… keep going, say some more”
The tribesperson furrowed their brow… probably, only half actually furrowed the rest seemed to not respond properly.
“You talk hal?”
Skill advanced: unknown tribal language
Unknown tribal language: level 2
“HAH,” with some concentration Luke mixed the words he had started to pick up on with English trying to bait out more conversation, “You talk… this? Way…?”
Their face brightened and they began rapid fire babbling, the words slowly making more and more sense, “teth! Hara you talk hal? Awo you lash hul? Uhi you lop? You talk like yeal su… how? Stop, ye. Ag. Where you from? How you talk like I sio magic box too?”
Skill advanced: unknown tribal language
Unknown tribal language: level 3
Concentrating on using mostly words he had managed to work out Luke said, “I from… magic box? I talk like.. you… sio? And? Magic box… person?”
The back and forth that followed took some time but it seemed like they managed to pick up on the fact that repeating things in different ways helped speed the process. Once a few key words were made clear the context and repetition made understanding cascade. Fortunately the levels in the language comprehension skill seemed to help significantly.
Skill advanced: unknown tribal language
Unknown tribal language: level 8
“I know the person in the magic box, she was my friend a long time ago. Do you know where she is?”
“No, you are the first person like the one in the box that we have seen. How did you get here? You don’t have fire haloi, or any haloi… how are you alive?”
Haloi was one of a handful of fairly common words that didn’t want to be properly translated
“I still don’t understand what haloi means… but I don’t really have anything, I just woke up here, I’m not even sure where ‘here’ is…”
Jasla, Luke had worked out that was their name, pondered for a moment before moving the conversation along, “Where do you live? It can’t be near by, you must have been taken here or lasntha by someone with a lot of haloi, but maybe we can get you home.”
Luke’s face fell, “I don’t think I have a home anymore… the woman in the magic box, lets call that a laptop by the way, that’s what it’s name is, she is the only one who would know but you said you only ever saw her or anyone like her in the laptop… do you have more laptops? Can I look through… ah use… very carefully… that one?”
Jasla looked at him suspiciously, “No this is mine, I will use it, you can watch… tell me what she is saying, what they all say… teach me how to use it… teach me how to talk like her, like you.”
Luke considered that for a moment, he didn’t really have a plan and the laptop was his only lead. At least now he could communicate with the people here.
Deciding he didn’t have much to lose Luke agreed, with some stipulations, “Ok well I can do that but I will need something to drink and some food… it’s been a while since I had either… also it will probably take a while to teach you English and go through the entire laptop. Is there someplace I can rest… use the bathroom?”
For some reason Jasla had a hard time looking Luke in the eye sometimes. They fished out a dented thermos and handed it to Luke then hesitated holding onto something that looked like leftover grilled meat.
“That’s not… people is it?”
Jasla looked confused for a moment before answering, “No, those were… ahhh… people without a home? They don’t have hunter to provide them food so they eat whatever they can find. This is bear.”
They continued to hesitate for a second before offering the grilled bear and looking away. Luke took it hesitantly and sniffed… it smelled… fine. He had never had bear before but there was a first time for anything, and he was starving, almost starving enough to not have asked about the origin of the meat beforehand.
As Luke ate, Jasla kept their gaze locked on the wall, seemingly determined never to look at Luke again.
Time passed. Jasla left Luke alone now and again, always returning with more water and food, usually grilled meat of one animal or another. Most of their time was spent learning about each others languages and scouring the computer. Janet had left weekly video logs detailing how she had led a group of survivors to build a research facility and work on several different projects. Mostly they researched for survival. Things like cold resistant crops, radiation resistant everything, ways to modify the human body both technological and biological, power sources, defensive constructs, on and on. The video logs covered a good eighty years during which Janet didn’t age at all, she looked just a handful of years older than he had known her.
Throughout this time Jasla had been reluctant to allow him out of the conference room that served as her home. Whenever he was allowed out Jasla went with and always with a spear handy. The office that housed the tribe had a seemingly inexhaustible energy supply, all the lights that weren’t broken, the outlets and even space heaters and a few functional kitchen appliances in a break room worked fine. Luke couldn’t discern the source of the electricity and Jasla didn’t know about it, just claiming haloi was responsible for the lights and heat.
On their outings Luke looked for hard drives and other storage. He explained to Jasla that they might have more videos or other information in them and they also gathered whatever they could find. The intact drives they found were scarce but they did find some. Among those that were intact only a few were not password protected. Jasla refused to let him use the laptop to try breaking into the ones with passwords so they had only a bit more to go off. One drive which belonged to some secretary or another had, among an inordinate number of cat photos that Jasla demanded explanations for, a few letters typed out to someone they had left behind somewhere. In the letters they explained how they would soon have to move location because they had been found by someone dangerous. They had no idea where they would be going but they planned on sending more letters from wherever it was.
Eventually Luke talked Jasla into exploring the facility beyond the offices with him.