4
Maintenance
Jasla laid Luke on a bench. The color scheme was different but the designs of the furniture and general layout was very familiar to them. Luke couldn't bring himself to care, the pain was intense. Now that they had some more light the hand was visible. Luke wished he couldn’t see it and Jasla wouldn’t look at it. The hand was a deep purple where it wasn’t white from frost and already swelling to twice its normal size.
When the pain eventually faded into memory Luke would probably be glad that it wasn’t the entire hand and instead was mostly the edges and fingers. With some luck he might regain some of his control over the digits. None of that mattered in the moment though.
As Luke grit his teeth to keep from screaming Jasla sat next to him and tried to comfort him, “It hurts, but that’s good, it means your hand isn’t dead. The pain will pass, once it warms up it will be tolerable. Even that pain will fade in time… we made it though, I don’t know where we made it to but we made it.”
As Jasla soothed and distracted Luke they looked around. The English lessons had progressed nicely but a couple weeks was not enough to pick up reading an entirely new language. This meant Jasla needed Luke to help read signs and guide them through the new area. This place hadn’t seen visitors in who knows how long. There could be any number of unknown dangers lurking around every corner.
As Luke was trying to block out the pain a welcome distraction appeared.
Data reconstruction complete
Corrupt file restored
View restored file?
Yes
A video screen popped up in Luke's vision like before, with a quick glance to Jasla Luke confirmed it was only visible to him.
The original Luke entered the screen, “L2… wow it’s eight years now. I haven’t been updating as much as the others but I figured that could make it fun for us both when you wake up… but you won’t be waking up will you? I’m just wasting my time but hey at least if someone does find this they can follow what went wrong. We shouldn’t have sold out. We figured it was just some research, nothing special, and certainly nothing that would bring down the hammer like this… Welp we did sell our research and someone came looking, I don’t know how they figured it out but they managed to show up looking for exactly what we were doing, looking for the Seconds project. They knew everything. What we were doing, where, how, all of it. They showed up, took all the computers and burned the Second’s bodies. Its all over”
End of restored file
Skill advanced: Data restoration
Data restoration: level 2
Further corruption detected in later files
Continue restoring files?
Yes
That explained a few of the videos he had seen when he woke up. Apparently the project the originals had been working on brought some unwanted attention. Obviously the project was still successful enough for this Luke to be walking around but there was more to that story for sure. The short distraction helped but Luke was brought back to the searing pain in his hand all too quickly.
Soon the hunger drove Luke to his feet after only a few hours rest. Food had been scarce when they were part of a community, but now they had nothing. The last thing either of them had eaten came before the Council showed up at their camp, and they hadn’t exactly been taking it easy since then.
With some help from Jasla, Luke wrapped his only real shirt around his very swollen discolored hand and bundled it close to his chest. Neither of them knew how to treat frostbite but it seemed wise to keep it warm and away from anything that might bump it and send Luke to his knees. With that taken care of Luke took a look around.
There was still no sign of a map but according to the reception desk that apparently was standard for emergency exits, this was the Maintenance area.
Luke turned to Jasla, “Hey stay close and don’t touch anything. This place probably has some dangerous tools at least, possibly even more. They would have had to manufacture their own tools and gear. I don’t know if that was here or maybe another sector but there might be some really nasty stuff.”
As dangerous as it might be, this is probably the second best place they could have stumbled into. Obviously the farming or food storage would have been better but tools and gear were a happy consolation prize.
The duo made their way through the corridors. This sector seemed to have even less decoration than the office, the walls were bare concrete and the lights were the same strange recessed ceiling fixtures, nothing else. The rooms to either side of the corridors were usually surprisingly small, and Luke marveled at the contents in each. There seemed to be a theme to each room and a rule that there would be absolutely no crossover. There was a room for batteries to charge, all the same size, a room for saw blades, no saws just the blades, a room with some unidentifiable spare part in a quantity that implied they either broke every time it was used, or they intended to supply their descendants for eternity, no rooms had multiple items, only one item per room. When they found a broom closet with around a hundred brooms they started skipping doors.
As they traveled they were guided by incredibly unhelpful signs painted on the walls. They pointed down corridors and declared such things as “maintenance east wing 1 blue section” They followed the same main corridor toward something called the Central Maintenance Hub for far longer than either of them could stand.
“Are you sure this is the way?” Jasla complained for the umpteenth time
“Still no, I don’t know what is this way, and I don’t know what it is we are looking for anyway" Luke growled impatiently
“Hmm yea… ok"
Luke felt bad for snapping at Jasla, he was getting more and more frustrated as the hunger gnawed, but it seemed Jasla grew more lethargic and passive. They really needed to find something soon or they would end up failing right after finding the only lead they could.
The Central Hub became clear as they approached, it looked like a giant circular room with a strange tower of ports, gadgets, and wires. Surrounding the tower thing were several desks, some of which had laptops and other gear plugged into the tower. Jasla slumped into a chair as Luke chose a desk with more devices on it than the others and started rummaging.
“Ugh password protected of course, why cant anything be easy?”
Giving up on the computer, Luke looked through the work bag next to the table and found something that had been oddly missing from the offices, a keycard. He was going to gladly pose as José the electrician if they ran into any functional card readers. It was a serious blow but Luke decided they didn’t have the energy to spare to carry around the tools in the bag and left it there. While looking over the station once more he tried his luck with a PDA type device.
Luke almost discarded the device when it asked for identification, thinking it was another in a long line of password protected nonsense, but stopped himself.
“ID? Why yes Mr. computer I AM José, I’ve had enough of a break these last centuries, its time I get back to work, wouldn’t you say?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Luke almost cried when the login screen turned to a dashboard of icons. Timesheets, material safety sheets, manuals, work orders, maps, camera, dat… wait MAPS
Luke did cry at that, a single manly tear. He didn’t sob once, and definitely didn’t dance or cheer. Pulling up the map allowed him to get a rundown of all the different rooms in Maintenance and what they held, as well as search for specific tools or parts. More importantly the map application allowed him to get an overview of the research base's entire layout.
“JASLA! This is just what we need, I can see a path to the hydroponics section, we just need to go down this… no this hallway for… ugh two miles, then cross through the tram tunnels one station down. Hopefully they aren’t collapsed this far down… Jasla?”
Luke turned to see Jasla slumped over.
“Hey Jasla? Wait, don’t give up now we are almost there, if you sleep now you wont have the energy to get up and keep moving.”
Jasla groaned as Luke tried to shake them awake, “Stop I’m not sleeping, I’m… just… “
“NOPE" get up! Food! Jasla, FOOD! Its only… call it an hour away. Just a little further comon"
He heaved up on Jasla who grumbled the whole way up, but supported themselves once they were up.
“Hey Jasla, we’ve slacked off on our lessons, you need to tell me more about your people… lets see… how about your past? How did you all come to be here, how long have you been down here?”
Jasla continued grumbling and dragging their feet for a minute before finally selecting a topic and educating Luke on more of the Tribe's history.
It felt like they had been marching and struggling and suffering for days. They HAD been very short on food, only having enough to just survive but just yesterday they had been laughing and joking over their inability to open a single door. Now it felt like they had been marching toward their death for much longer than that.
Finally the tram station came into view. Luke held his breath, and Jasla’s talk drifted off. They only had to travel one station up the line, but if the tunnel had collapsed… It was possible to make their way around, but Jasla was well past empty with Luke not far behind. When they peeked through the door and down the tunnel the wave of relief had Luke's knees shaking.
Not only was the tunnel intact, but they could see the light from the next station down the tracks, the Hydroponics station. Somehow they both found enough motivation and energy to… lightly jog down they tracks. Adrenaline was an impressive thing but it only went so far. Like everything else in this nightmare the tunnel was entirely concrete save for the recessed lighting and the tracks.
With a sudden spike of fear Luke froze, “WAIT!"
“What?”
“Mmm I’m not sure what sort of train this is meant to be but everything down here has electricity still… one of these rails might be hot.”
“It’s warm down here, not hot. Quit playing around the food is…”
Luke interrupted “NO don’t move! That’s not what I meant by hot. I meant, ehhh… dangerous. One of the rails might be dangerous. Shit I wish I paid more attention and knew how to tell.”
“I don’t know how the rails can be dangerous… it should be fine if we don’t touch them right?” Jasla said as she eyed the ground
“uhhh… maybe? I don’t know, just be careful and don’t step on anything metal.”
What followed was the world’s most ridiculous round of the floor is lava that anyone had seen, but no one was electrocuted.
Luke sighed with relief, “Hoooo ok, next time we need a better plan, we either almost died for nothing, or just spent fifteen minutes dancing down a tunnel for nothing.”
Jasla glared at the tracks, “If you say so… but we are here now, yes? Lets find some damn food.”
The lethargic Jasla was a thing of the past as Luke tried to keep up with their blind charging through the doors. Luke did catch up quickly though and had to shuffle past Jasla as they were frozen just inside the Hydroponics sector. The sight froze Luke as well.
He had seen it on the map of course, but seeing it in person was something different. Apart from a few columns keeping the ceiling from collapsing down on them, there was nothing but farmland. If you ignored the ceiling with sprinklers and specialized lights, it looked just like a farm from out in the country from before. There was a small farmhouse, a barn, a couple tractors, everything you could need to run a farm. Everything had so many years of overgrowth, rust, and rot that you couldn’t use anything, but it was there. On top of that, according to the map there were several rooms just like this one.
What’s more, they weren’t alone. Some sort of feathered cows about as big as large dogs were wandering about chewing on whatever was growing out there. Jasla didn't hesitate and ran after one.
Luke cried after them, “Wait, what if they… fuck it, get two, I’m hungry!”
It wasn't so easy though, the little bastards were fast, and when they were frightened they screeched a sound that grated Luke's spine. They eventually managed to work together and back one into a corner. while Luke held its attention Jasla jumped on it from behind. Unexpectedly the thing completely buckled when it had some weight thrown on its back. There wasn’t even a struggle as it died just from being tackled
Luke considered that they might be overlooking a bit too many potentially lethal issues in the name of food. Then decided he was too hungry to care and moved on.
“I’ll get something to burn, prep it to cook?” Luke needn’t have asked, Jasla already produced a blade from somewhere and was working.
Before long, they had eaten their fill and were asleep in moments, no thought to making anything resembling a camp.
Skill advanced: tissue regeneration
Tissue regeneration: level 2
A sharp pain in his hand woke Luke up some time later. One of the strange creatures had taken a liking to his shirt wrapped around his hand and was trying to eat it. Luke twisted and kicked at the thing but it ran off flapping its strange stumpy wings as it ran. Luke groaned.
“Oi shut up will you?” Jasla tossed a stick from their firewood pile at him and turned over to go back to sleep
“Ow, I’m wounded and sore, leave me to suffer in peace"
It was true, Luke had never felt so wrung out in this life or the original. His head was pounding, his back ached, his legs were cramped up, his hand throbbed, and his stomach churned. But they were alive. They had both made it, and now barring any more ridiculous obstacles, they had the tools and food to survive, thrive and most importantly loot this place in its entirety.
“We should make some plans" Luke offered
Jasla groaned this time
“The map says the Hydroponic section joins up with the Residential section, and we already know the Residential section connects to the Tribe's section.”
Jasla gave up on sleep and sat up, “So what? The door is broken, we need to go back out and find our way back to the Ice Door”
Luke hesitated before answering, “That is an option. But I have the map and between the keycard and…” Luke double checked the map before continuing, “and the hammer drills, acetylene torches, diamond blade cut off saws, jackhammers, and sledge hammers, we can get through whatever door they can throw at us.”
“So you say we go back across the deadly tracks, gather a mountain of tools, come back across the deadly tracks, and go through how many areas with who knows what blocking the way?”
“… Yeah… look we can check the tracks, there is a way to make sure. I just don’t want to go back outside, I only just convinced myself I still have two hands.”
Jasla shook their head “We don’t have time. They threw us out but not without reason. The tribe is dying, we have all this food we need to get it back to them as soon as possible.”
“Ok, what if we continue into the residential area and look to see what we are dealing with. Worst case scenario we can use the emergency exit there, it should be closer to the Office sector.”
“Yes it should be closer, so why haven’t we found it before now? The hatch could be twenty feet under ice. Maybe there isn’t an exit at all.”
Luke considered that, there was definitely an exit, the map showed every sector had an emergency exit, which made sense when the sectors were this large and all underground. It was possible, maybe even likely that some of the exits were buried, destroyed or sealed in some fashion though. He just really, really did NOT want to go back outside. Of course it wouldn’t be the same, and he could find some way to ensure he stayed warm and protected using the things in Maintenance… but what if. Jasla had been his protector and friend since the beginning but even for them, he couldn’t go back out there.
Luke hated himself for it, but offered another option, “what if… we go back to the hatch, and you cross to the Office sector on the surface… while I do the same from down here.”
Jasla looked stunned and stared at Luke for a time before taking on a blank look and nodding.
With the plan set they grabbed a few of the small winged cows, ate their fill and bundled up the rest as a care package for the tribe. The true prize was the knowledge of this place, but a peace offering would open the gates. Luke realized at some point he would need to teach at least some of the tribe to actually farm. They needed more balance in their diet and the farmland could sustain a much larger population with a mix of crops and livestock.
When they had properly restocked and geared up the pair began their trek back. The first hurdle was cleared quickly enough when Luke took a look at the tracks. The night… day? before had been overwhelming and he had panicked when remembering about the third rail on some railways. This track had only two rails, he still played it safe and tossed some scrap metal from around the farm onto the rails to see if it would arc or spark when connecting. This was clearly not that sort of railway.
When Luke tried explaining that Jasla coldly shrugged and hopped onto the tracks aiming for the Maintenance sector. With a sigh Luke followed. The trip to the exit was both much shorter for being less dangerous, and longer for the silence. They made a couple stops in the Maintenance sector, one to get Jasla their own PDA keycard combo, and a few more for general supplies and tools.
By the time they reached the exit they both had bags of tools, coils of rope, spears made from sharpened bar stock, and multiple layers of work clothes and coveralls found in a locker room.
Luke tried once more to make peace, “Well… I ‘ll see you soon, maybe I will get through the door to the Tribe before you get there"
“Yeah maybe" Jasla nodded but didn’t make eye contact.
Luke felt like he had to explain before he lost the chance, “Look I’m sorry, I just… I cant…”
“It’s fine" Jasla interrupted then hoisted their bag onto their should and climbed out into the cold alone.
Luke felt like shit