In her dreams Jessica was tortured by the appearance of her sister, of how she failed to save her. The words survive tormented her, nightmares of the things from that facility crawling up and smothering her deep within the black goo. When one horrible dream ended another started.

Thankfully Jessica was shaken awake some time later. Opening her eye’s, she saw Skye prodding her with a tendril. Sitting up straight she took a look out the windshield and found they had stopped in front of a rundown factory that was rusting away.

The area around them looked like it had once had more buildings but most of them had rotted away or were torn apart by the explosions in the war. Looking back she asked Melissa “Where are we? Are we close to that city you wanted us to go to?"

"No, apparently the energy cells in the car are nearly dead. The blobs are putting out some solar panels to help charge it up. To help charge it up faster we should go take a look around for some energy packs." Melissa said and opened the back door and stepped out.

Jessica took a look around the area and found that it was littered with rusty metal, and some shells of old vehicles. Crooked burnt trees lined the ancient roadway. To the side of the car she saw Glass setting up a series of solar panels with Daisy helping it.

"Where did they get the solar panels from?" Jessica said, opening her door.

"They pulled them from some hidden compartment in the back." Melissa said, stretching her body.

Stepping outside, she found her body incredibly sore. Turning to the blue blob, she asked it "Hey do you think you could give me that drink you gave me the other day?" Skye nodded and pulled open a compartment and handed her a cup filled with that clear liquid.

"What is that?" Melissa asked.

Drinking it down, Jessica said "When I was injured Skye produced this for me to drink. It helped heal me. Do you want some?"

Melissa shook her head. "I'm good thanks for the offer. I'm guessing it's some sort of nanomachines to help your body heal."

Blaze rolled out from behind the vehicle and handed each of them a small laser pistol. "While you were sleeping the red one was messing around in the back." Melissa took the gun and examined it.

“Thank you Blaze. Good work.” Jessica reached into her pack and handed it a piece of ration bar. She did the same with the other blobs. Then she took a look at the factory. “This place looks pretty sketchy. Would they even have energy packs within?”

"Who knows? It doesn't look like anyone has scavenged this area recently so we might get lucky and find some supplies. There are some building over there we can check out as well." Melissa pointed to some run down buildings a distance away.

"Lets start at this factory then. We might have to stay inside it during the night if we can't charge up the vehicle." Jessica said walking towards the old rotting building, with Melissa and Blaze following them. Climbing over the rusting remains of a fence, Jessica glanced into the building through a broken window.

Inside lit by the afternoon sun, she could make out several rotting conveyor belts. Deciding it was not a good idea to crawl through broken glass, Jessica walked around the building looking for a door. Finding a large rusty door, she carefully moved it aside and entered within.

Her gun at the ready position, Jessica slowly entered. There was some debris littering the floor, and a rank smell of rot filled Jessica's nose. No signs of other people having been in here recently. However Jessica could see evidence of a mutant creature living here. Several mounds of what appeared to be shit littered the floor here and there.

Jessica whispered "Looks like somethings been living here. Keep your eyes open."

Melissa nodded and whispered back "Looks like this place made canned food." She picked up an old tin off the conveyor belt. The label had long since rotted away, leaving no way to tell what was inside.

Alongside one of the walls was a set of stairs. It led to the second floor where some offices for the factory were. "I'm going to check the second floor. Blaze can you take the lead and make sure I don't fall through?" Blaze nodded and carefully inspected each step.

Following the red blob carefully up the rusting stairs, they soon reached the second floor. Avoiding the holes in the walkway, she opened the door to one of the offices. It fell off its hinges with a loud boom causing both the women to be startled.

With her heart pounding, Jessica went silent and listened for any movement to see if the noise had alerted whatever lived in this factory. Several strained seconds went by and she didn't hear anything. Maybe the thing was out looking for food.

Stepping inside she found it was an old room. On a seat sat an old skeleton with a massive hole in it's skull. In it's lap was a large gun. Melissa examined the skeleton and said "Poor sod took his own life."

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

On the desk in front of him was an upturned frame. Inside Jessica could make out what looked like a happy family. "Must have lost his family in the war."

Melissa pushed him aside and searched through the desk. "Not seeing any energy packs in here."

Opening a folder, Jessica found an inventory set. Looking through it, she found a listing for energy packs. They were listed to be stored in storage room three. "Looks like they keep spare energy packs in a storage room. We just need to find that storage room."

"Hey take a look at this." Melissa said pointing to a wall. On it was a faded old map of the facility. It appeared that the third storage room was down in the basement.

"Great looks like we need to head underground again." Jessica said pointing at the map.

"Before we take a look down there we should check out the other office. We might get lucky." Melissa said.

"Good idea." Jessica took the gun off the skeleton's lap and handed it to Blaze. "Take a look at this." Blaze waved a happy tendril and began to look at the gun while they moved to the next office door. Carefully this time, Jessica pushed open the door and laid it against a nearby wall.

This office looked to be unused for the most part. Some filing cabinets lined the walls. Seeing nothing of importance Jessica was about to leave when Melissa stopped her and said "Take a look at that wall."

Stopping Jessica took a closer look where Melissa pointed and noticed a strange discoloration on the wall. Going to it, Jessica felt around the edge and found a hidden catch causing a panel to swing open revealing on old safe. Examining it, she looked over at Blaze and asked "Do you think you can open this?"

The red blob rolled up to the safe and put a tendril up to the dial. It began to spin it carefully and soon a loud click appeared and Blaze swung open the safe revealing a stack of Arcs. There was also a strange rod to the side of the Arcs.

Picking up the Arcs she counted them out and came up with a thousand of them. The old world currency was made out of a strange material that lasted. Gold was embedded within, the higher the value the more gold. Arcs had retained value despite the fall of the world.

"How much do you think a ride will cost up to that sky city?"

"For the both of us most likely half a million. With the blobs it will probably cost six hundred thousand."

Putting the Arcs into her pack, she picked out the rod and examined it. There was a button on the bottom and when Jessica flipped it, the thing began to vibrate. "What do you think this is?" Jessica asked.

"I think you should put that back. I think it's a stimulation device."

"A what?" Jessica said then it dawned on her and she tossed back inside the safe disgusted. "Why the hell would they keep such a thing in a safe?"

"Who knows. Let's head down to that storage room." They left the office and made their way to the floor carefully down the stairs. Searching around the area, they found the way to the basement. Walking down the concrete stairs into the basement, they found stacks of pallets lined up through the area.

Opening one of them, Jessica found they were filled with tins. She was curious as to what was inside, but lacking a way to open it, put it aside for now. They found the storage room door and opened it up with Blaze's help. Inside Jessica found several racks of energy packs.

Melissa began to fill her pack with ones that still had a green indicator. Blaze looked around and pulled out a large charger from the back. Jessica said "That requires an energy source. Maybe we can hook it up to the solar panels and charge up some energy packs."

Nodding the red blob lifted it up and began to carry it. Jessica looked around and said "If we need more we can come back. Let's get out of here."

Loaded down with the heavy packs, they climbed up the stairs and made their way when Jessica heard some laser blasts coming from outside. Alarmed Jessica dropped her pack and rushed to the door and glanced outside. To her surprise, she saw the three blobs outside were currently fighting a large mutant beast.

Skye was rolling around with the beast attempting to swipe at it. Daisy was blasting it with a laser gun and Glass was throwing rocks and things at the beast. The beast looked like a wolf with a body of a bull. Skye dodged to the side as it bit where it was.

Jessica aimed her gun and fired at the beast. It screeched in pain as it was struck. It took off to the east towards the buildings. Heading out she checked on the blobs and asked "Hey are you guy's alright?"

They nodded and Melissa came over and dropped off the energy packs. "Here use these energy packs to get the vehicle charged." Glass opened one pack and attached it to the panel, and Jessica went back into the building and retrieved the bag she dropped.

Returning to the vehicle she asked "How fast can you get it charged? I don't want to stay in the area with that beast. It shrugged off those laser blasts way too easily."

Glass waved a tentacle and she got the sense they would be able to charge it in a few hours. Jessica looked at Blaze who was attaching the charger to the vehicle. "Hey Blaze when you are done can you make something stronger? We need to be prepared if that thing returns, especially if it returns with friends."

Blaze nodded and Jessica sat down to the side on an old stump looking towards where the beast had run off too. "Do you think we can get to the city tonight?"

Melissa went to the vehicle and pulled out the old map and took a look. "No, we are not even halfway there. This is not a suitable place to hole up. We will have to seek a place to rest tonight."

Taking the map from the doctor she examined their options and said "We will have to keep an eye out."

For the next couple hours, she watched over the horizon keeping an eye out for mutants. Glass waved and signaled that the vehicle was now fully charged. Putting away the extra energy packs into the back, Jessica found Blaze waiting for her with a large laser rifle with several packs on it.

"Thanks Blaze." Taking it she looked and found a dial indicating the power level used. A small screen on the gun indicated that the gun had fourteen shots available. Nodding she got into the passenger seat. Skye this time took the position above the pedals.

Glass took the wheel and started the vehicle. The blobs got in and Melissa followed. As the car began to roll forward in the southern direction. Jessica saw the beast start to lope towards the vehicle "Hell no." She rolled the window down and aimed at the mutant.

Pulling the trigger a bright flash ripped from the barrel and slammed into the beast blasting a giant hole through the creature and it fell down dead. As they drove past it's remains, Jessica looked back and said "Good Job Blaze."