When Jessica came to, she discovered herself looking at a strange blue blob creature. A little startled she sat up straight and experienced a sharp pain in her gut. Looking down she saw she was sitting in a pool of her blood. Pulling up her shirt, she found the wound was now covered in a viscous blue gel and no longer appeared to be leaking blood.

Taking another look at the bizarre creature, she found it was about two feet in height. She could almost see through it and saw nothing inside of it. Having never seen anything like it, Jessica was at a loss for what the blob was. It was currently waving a tendril at her in an amicable manner.

"It looks like you helped me, I guess I owe you my life. Thank you, er, what should I call you?" Jessica asked. It's deep blue color reminded her of the sky, and she said "I will call you Skye."

Skye looked pleased with the name and rolled next to her and picked up her old cup she brought around with her. One of its tendrils extended into the cup and a clear liquid began to pour out. The liquid resembled water, but a pleasant smell began to reach her nose, and her stomach rumbled.

Carefully Skye offered the cup to Jessica. Accepting the cup from the blob, she hesitated for a moment. It was probably not the smartest idea to drink an unknown liquid; Skye however didn't seem dangerous. So she opened her mouth and took a sip. When the liquid touched her tongue she found it tasted amazing, as it went down her throat she felt refreshed.

Consuming the drink quickly, she found she was feeling better. Putting away the cup into her pack she said to Skye, "I need to get going, I'm concerned about my sister."

Jessica shakily stood, feeling a weakness in her legs, most likely from the massive blood loss. Her clothes were now all sticky, and she worried the smell of it would attract some of the savage mutants. Carefully she exited the cave and looked around. Mercifully it seemed the slavers had not discovered her yet.

Before she went further, Skye came around and brought her a large stick. Picking it up, she said "Thank you." Jessica watched as the blob made several motions, and she got the feeling it wanted her to follow it.

Deciding to follow, they went about two hundred feet from the cave, when Jessica spotted a crater in the ground. It was about eight feet big, and a large metal cylinder was in its place. The metal cylinder was partly stuck in the ground and was a bit taller then her and four feet across.

The blue blob climbed down and waved at her to do as well. Carefully she made her way down. She nearly fell on her face when Skye caught her and helped her stand next to the large metal cylinder. Looking down she could observe a hole that looked like it was burned into the cylinder.

Leaning down, she could see a glass tube inside through the hole. Reaching out she found the metal was warm to the touch, "Did you come from here Skye?" Jessica asked looking down at the blob. Skye waved happily at her and then began to ascend the side of the metal tube.

Jessica looked up and wondered where this thing had come from. Did it fall from one of the sky cities? She could observe one of them floating a few miles up nearby. It is possible it came from space, there was a lot of junk up there. Every so often something fell from orbit down onto the world.

Around the metal, Jessica could see symbols engraved in the metal. Tracing them, she didn't recognize the symbols. Perhaps this was one of those long lost secrets of the past. Skye waved at Jessica and indicated a panel on the metal cylinder. Touching it with her hand, she felt a weird tingling sensation in her hand and sucked in a breath as it stung.

Taking her hand back, she heard a clicking sound, and the metal cylinder began to open. Skye fell off the metal tube as it spread open. Jessica looked at the blob making sure it was okay. At that point she looked into the metal cylinder and saw four large glass tubes.

The bottom left one was broken and empty, but the other ones held a red, green and yellow ooze in them. Asking Skye "Are these your friends?"

Skye waved a tendril in an agreeing manner and climbed again. This time it indicated a panel in the middle with an odd glowing purple crystal. "Is this how to free your buddies?" Jessica said and reached out and touched the panel with the crystal.

An extremely acute pain hit her palm, and she gritted her teeth. Jessica attempted to remove her hand and was startled to realize she could not. A screen lit up and several characters similar to the ones on the outside of the pod began to run, and a bar began to fill up.

Heat began to run down her arm, and she was dismayed she had made a mistake. The three tubes began to glow and looking down she saw Skye was glowing as well. At that point in time the bar extended to the end and the tubes opened with a hiss. The other blobs began to crawl out into the open and seemed to greet Skye.

Finally able to withdraw her hand, she examined her palm and found nothing was wrong with it. Looking at the panel again, she found the purple crystal was now gone. The blobs were huddling together, then they seemed to turn and look at Jessica.

"Greetings there. I was just helping out Skye, cause you know it helped me out. Look I need to get back home, my sister is waiting for me." Jessica said and began to climb out of the crater. The blobs took action and helped to haul her out. "Thank you."

Looking at them, she got the sense they wanted to come with her. Sighing she decided that they did not seem to be much trouble at the moment, and at least seemed helpful. "Well if you're going to follow me, I better give you names. Let's see."

The green one reminded her of the bottles of green glass she had seen, so she said "Your name will be Glass." Turning to the red blob, she said "You can be Blaze, and you" She looked at the yellow blob "You remind me of Daisy's so that will be your name."

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The blob's looked excited by their new names, and Jessica set off towards her home. She decided to avoid the road network for the moment, as she didn't want to attract any more slavers to her. As she went she noticed that the blobs would periodically stop and examine things.

Despite being covered in blood, no mutants seemed to approach her for the moment. After a while, she finally reached the edge of her land. Every ten feet or so, a large metal pole was stuck in the ground. Blaze seemed interested in them and examined them closely.

"They are part of a sonic fence system I use to keep out the fiercest mutants. Sadly it does not stop the mutant rabbits from feasting on my garden. But at least the bigger stuff doesn't like it." Jessica explained to Blaze. She wondered if it could comprehend her. So far they have seemed to respond to simple commands.

Crossing the sonic barrier without issue, they soon were getting close to the house. Jessica heard some shouting and snuck up behind a set of rocks with the blobs following. Taking out a scope she examined her farmhouse, and cursed internally.

The car she had observed earlier that day was now parked on top of her garden. The wagon with the slaves was stowed next to the house. She could see several guards patrolling the grounds of the home. Examining the old well, she found it was still sealed, so her sister was still protected in the bunker.

Several men suddenly exited her house, and a man who was limping fell to the ground. A tall man wearing an obnoxious white suit strode out. Jessica made the assumption that this was the Papa Bright those goons were talking about. Two of the men were on their knees apparently imploring him for something.

The man with the wounded foot kept moaning, and a flash of irritation went over Papa Brights face. He pulled out a gun and executed the wounded man in the head. He bellowed an order at two of his henchmen who seized the body and hauled it towards the old well.

Jessica's heart rate spiked as they pushed open the well covering and tossed in the body. When they sealed the well again, she sighed in relief. Papa Bright then went back inside, leaving the two men on their knees looking thankful for being spared.

Counting twelve men she knew that it wasn't feasible to fight them all. Notably if they got to that gun on the back of the car. That alone would chew through any cover she managed to find. Jessica debated on returning to the old rail city. If she did, she might be able to convince the guards to come help get rid of these slavers.

Yet she found that would be an unlikely chance. Unless the slavers threatened the city, they were unlikely to act. Her best option at the moment was to wait them out. They would likely move on seeking more slaves to capture. Yet she hasn't really wanted to leave her sister in the dark.

So she would wait until night and sneak into the bunker. Jessica hated the idea of them inside of their home, but had no other choice. She inspected her old rifle and found she still had four shots left. She sat down and waited with the blobs who were observing her.

Leaning forwards she whispered "we need to be silent, those are extremely bad people. We don't want to alert them." Jessica got the strangest feeling like they understood.

While they were waiting, Jessica pulled out a ration bar and began to chew on it. The disgusting taste of the decades old bar, nearly made her gag. The blobs seemed interested in it, so she broke off a few pieces and gave it to them. She watched in amazement as the pieces went into their translucent bodies and began to disappear as they absorbed it.

She watched in amazement as the pieces went into their translucent bodies and began to disappear as they absorbed it. Jessica barely produced enough food for both her and Nikki, her sister. Maybe she could persuade them to help her out with some of the physical work around the place. Before long the sun began to dip below the horizon, and darkness soon came.

Being out in the dark was a bit scary. She had observed some of the things that liked to roam the dark, and while the sonic barrier would stop most, some still disregarded it. Jessica waited nervously in the dark for several more hours before being sure that the slavers had gone mostly to sleep.

There was still an occasional patrol, but for the most part it was quiet. Jessica carefully snuck behind rocks until making it to the old well. Silent as possible she slid the cover aside and waved the blobs to go down the well. When they did so, she climbed onto a ladder built into the side of the well.

Putting the well cover back above her, Jessica began to climb down into the darkness. With no light the descent was terrifying to her. Blaze began to let out a very soft red glow barely able to light the ladder. In a short time she managed to reach the bottom where she discovered the body of the man who they had thrown down.

Examining his body, she obtained one of those tracking blades, and some power packs. Then she turned her attention to the wall. Pulling aside a dark green blanket, she looked at the vault door. On the side was a comn panel which she entered in a code. Several seconds went by and the comn went on and a voice whispered "sis is that you?"

"Yeah, let me in Nikki."

The bunker door opened a crack, and Jessica saw her sister looking scared. The sixteen year old was wiry, and wearing a set of old glasses they had managed to find that worked for her. Opening the door wider she let Jessica in and stared at the odd blobs that followed her in.

When they were all in, Nikki closed the bunker door and locked it. Then went back and closed a second bunker door and locked that. Jessica went in and sat down in the low-light living area of the bunker and asked her sister "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I was pretty scared when those slavers came to the house. They've been pretty destructive to the home." Nikki waved to the video monitors. "So what are those things?" Nikki pointed at the blobs.

"Don't know. Skye the blue one helped save my life. The others, I found in a metal pod that looked like it fell from the sky. I gave them names."

"So you brought things you don't know back with you?" Nikki looked at Jessica incredulously.

"Hey they seem pretty friendly. Smart too. That's Skye, Blaze, Glass, and Daisy."

"At least you didn't christen them after their colors." Nikki said sarcastically.

Nikki examined each of them in turn, "as long as they don't cause trouble thats fine. You said your life was saved?"

"Yeah, one of those slavers hit me with one of these." She pulled out the tracking blade and showed it to Nikki.

Taking it she examined it "I think I read about these knives in an old war book, it's meant to bleed out an enemy soldier on the battlefield. Has an ability to track a person somewhat when thrown. Wait did you get hit by one of these?"

Jessica pulled up her shirt and showed her sister the cut that was covered by blue ooze. "Yeah, I nearly would have bled out had it not been for Skye."

Nikki ran her fingers over it and said "Amazing, it looks like your cut is healing fast." She stood back up and looked at Skye. "Thank you for saving my sister."

Skye waved its tendrils excitedly, and Jessica said "I'm going to hit the bed. I'm exhausted. We will talk about what we're going to do tomorrow."

Nikki nodded and headed off to the bunks. Jessica said, "I'm going to sleep, please keep quiet, if someone tries to open the doors rouse us up okay?" She told the blobs and went and laid down on her bunk and fell asleep.