Track 013: Haven

100 XP was crazy, but that didn’t compare to a free ability point. That could be a whole new spell or take my ability to the next level. Caught in my musing, I almost didn’t catch the notification blinking on the right side of my HUD. It’s my quest app. Confused, I open it and written there was the quest we were just given by The Minority.

Not Burt hounded us for a few blocks until he stopped suddenly and that wasn’t really any kind of relief. We probably made our way into another stray’s territory. As we made our way to the Voltage Malls, it was the only big mall that still exists in Electric City. While most of those places have all gone downhill, in the rest of America. Voltage was always designed to be a cultural center and the ultimate third space. There are supermarkets, doctor’s offices, a library, a pool, several cafes, a bowling alley, a movie and just about any stores you could think of. It even has a garden on the roof. Seven stories up and a few down. It’s a cylindrical mega-complex that people will absolutely take a shuttle for and spend their whole day out in.

“Holy…shit!” I pant. “I think we got away.”

“I didn’t see anyone following us and I was looking.” Neon says, not winded at all. Probably spent half the time moving in slow motion with us.

Gabrielle didn’t speak for a while, drinking from water from a straw connected to a reservoir built into the backpack she was wearing. She wipes her brow. “That was a rush. I’m just excited to crack this baby open. I want to go through all the tech stores and see if I can’t cannibalize some stuff to upgrade my psydeck.”

I feel some psychic resonance, but it’s weak… maybe a few stray bugs. This isn’t a dungeon.

“That’s great. I’m so close to leveling up!” Neon cheers. “There’s a few in there we beat em up! There are a few abilities that I’ve been eyeing.” Neon’s colors changed to a darker range. “And then when I see that Executioner bastard, I’m gonna peel him out of that suit.” They shadowbox flashing their blades.

“You’re not the only one that wants a look at it.” Gabrielle rubs her chin, pondering. “I want to see if it differs too much from my designs.” She flexes her prosthetic hand. “It’s time for upgrades and finding a safe place to land.”

“I hope this is that.” I gaze up at the giant building. It was the first place I could think of that might have everything without us have to find everything we could need.

“You’re worried?” Gabrielle says.

“Yeah, of course.” I say, squinting my eyes in the sun. “We kept to ourselves, and we still got found out by the trackers.”

“But we’ll have defenses this time.” She says, “Like most of the buildings in EC, it’s hurricane grade and if we can make it into the security room, there’s a chance I can get into the camera system. The alarms and the security system will give us advanced notice if The Sea Witch comes a knocking.

“That’s only if the solar is still working.” Neon chimes in.

“Why wouldn’t it?” She answers most of the solar network is siloed off. “Thank god we don’t have to worry about a power plant.” We all make sounds of relief. “That being said, I don’t know if everything is in working order. I want to get down there.” She mimes getting elbow deep in the systems.

When you’re ready, Mix, you can claim this place for Rebellion. This will allow you access to the Haven app. The name will change as this place becomes more home and then eventually a community. You will have a lot more responsibilities to monitor things like food, materials, and defenses.

Defenses? Gabrielle says over our shared connection

Yes, thinking like turrets, palisades, and even guardians can be built to defend our haven.

Now you’re thinking like a leader. Kohl compliments.

The Map app adds another overlay and the Haven app appears.

Claim this building for Rebellion?

Error!

Non-Rebellion personnel inside Voltage Mall.

Will need to add to the ranks of Rebellion, make an ally, or defeat to claim.

For privacy’s sake and the will of the DreamRunners, we have not alerted unidentified/unaffiliated personnel to your claim.

When I went to accept, say yes and except the error message came up, shutting me out of the Haven system.

“Um, what was that?” I say.

I think that was self explanatory. Mix, someone’s in there. We gotta meet them or defeat them before taking the castle. Kohl says.

We crack open the glass-like T-Metal doors of the Voltage Mall. The moment we could taste the air, it was the heavily recycled air of oxygen scrubbers. It almost smells like a hospital scrubbed and clean in a very… artificial way. Scrubbers aren’t very common in most buildings in ECC or just about anywhere, but if you knew what you’re looking or smelling for, you could pick it out in less than a minute.

Hardwood floors, open to a ring of stores with once chic and well-maintained store fronts. The kinds that people would window shop for hours. The inside of the ground level caught the natural light from all the windows surrounding and the massive glass skylight filling in most of the internal cylinder. Each level was a donut with a banister circling around the center. The massive tree growing and living in the middle made it really stand out in a way that brought the oddly organic feeling together. It was a place of suburban dreams. And somehow it was in the middle of a state-of-the-art city. This was truly The Mall of America.

Now it was a shell of its former glory. Trash littered the floor. Cobwebs were in all the corners and while I’m no botanist, the tree looked as if it was dying and the plants hanging from the ceiling’s trelices look as if they were in the middle of planning an escape. The thing that still gave me some kind of hope, though, was the shelves weren’t completely bare.

No, with how Gabrielle explained this particular apocaplyse was that we were slowly carted off just a handful at a time until there was nothing left. There was no panic buying of toilet paper. No one heading to bunkers ready for the end times. Only if they saw what it was and escaped were they likely to find a place to hide away. Group Think, that’s what Kohl had called it. People sleepwalked through life until it was their turn to be taken in by the men in black. Which we still didn’t know what they were. It was more or less exactly as I’d hoped.

“This building has scrubbers?” I ask. We talk in low voices so they don’t carry. Through the cavernous place.

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“When Electric City was designed, there were a few buildings that could sustain life for a long period of time.” Gabrielle said. “These’s havens were made so that if there was every an emergency, people could shelter in place for long periods of time. It’s kind of ingenious and it will help us out. It’s practically a fortress in design if not name. I can’t believe I didn’t think about it.” She punches my shoulder and the extra bit strength from the harness takes me off balance for a bit before I right myself again.

“While in most cases it doesn’t make sense to split up, however I think this might be the one time it makes sense.” I look over our squad, scanning for apprehension. We haven’t been more than a few rooms away from each other since we’ve met and eventually that would have to change. If Rebellion was going to be strong, we’d have to be ablet to handle multiple things at the same time.

“First things first, Neon and Kohl, check the coolers from a few of the restaurants and supermarkets to see if they’re still in working order. If we’re lucky, we have a ton of frozen food to work with. Produce we might grow, but meat is going to be a thing we’ll run out of quickly and I don’t know anything about livestock. Even rotting produce might help us though, for we can get the seeds and plant them in the garden up top.”

The two of them nod at me.

“I know while you don’t have the Power or Durability on your side. You both can move faster than either of us. And with Kohl’s ability to locate Dream fluctuations, you aren’t likely to get ambushed.”

“We’d already said we’d do it!” Neon teases. Their trademark smile on their lips.

Neon’s right, you don’t have to convince us. When should we reconnoiter?

“It’s 3:00 pm. Let’s reconvene here at 4:00 pm,” I say, looking at the time in the corner of my HUD. “While that’s happening, Firewall and I are looking for medical supplies. Nanos, bandages, basic first aid kits, or even some med spray. Camping supplies like rope, pitons, and last of all places for us all to sleep. There’s a mattress store in there so we can all pick the best beds we can find and start finding places for us to sleep.”

Awaken, Tether, Chain Breaker, DreamCrafter

Kohl

Running around with Neon isn’t something new. I’ve gotten fairly used to the sensation. My eyes squint nearly close as they run faster than I can keep track of, even with my new senses. Rocketing around, though, was cool. Neon always keeps me held close, and hearing their heartbeat made me want to purr, but I avoided it.

It’s times like these I still can’t believe I’ve been turned into a cat. I used to have everything. Rich parents, rich friends, parties whenever I want. I even came home last summer during summer break. Graduate school in Oxford was amazing. Private jets taking me all over and now I don’t even have thumbs.

I haven’t talked to most of the others about my life; I know we all miss things about our lives, but I miss my being human. When I awakened and found myself on four legs, I screamed. It was a mistake. Had I not cried out, I probably wouldn’t have been immediately found. When they put me in that fucking hole, it makes me want to rail, to fight back. They didn’t know what they were doing when they caught me. I will be the instrument for their destruction. From rich kid to rebellion.

We found our way to the 3rd level food court. I made sure Neon grabbed a map and uploaded it to the Map app. Neon is excited about using Gabrielle’s skeleton key app. It allows us to get through most low security doors. Just one look and it pops open. Now this doesn’t work for safes or any real security doors, but no one protecting food like Fort Knox. Why did she create this program? I don’t know, she just had it on hand.

One thing about this transformation I enjoy is not needing a psy-link to interface with the psynet. And the intention of reading. Getting surface thoughts and feelings from my DreamRunners allows me to really understand them all better. The knowledge is also so expansive. I just need to see something that reminds me of a little of knowledge and it’s in my brain. Knowledge at the tips of my claws.

We arrive at SGT. Cluck’s Chicken Corps. It’s a military themed chicken spot. Which is probably in bad taste but, it’s really popular, so who’s to say?

“Oh, I want a 10pc Grenade Box and a side of Pepper Box fries!” Neon says, sliding over the counter. Thankfully, the freezer is fully stocked with chicken and fries. Thank gods it was one of those places that made their own biscuits, so they had mountains of flour and water came out clean.

If it continues like this, we’ll be in a good spot. For now, this is more than enough and if we can keep this place protected, we’ll have enough to keep a few people fed. I say.

After we went through the food court and got a roughly 250 Food. If 1 Food is enough for 1 person for 24 hours, then… We’ve got roughly enough food for us for 64 days. We’ll do a sweep of the original restaurants and then we’ll spread out. We haven’t seen bugs even though I’ve been feeling their signatures. I then broke off the report to the others.

“Can we talk?” Neon says. We’ve sat down at a restaurant on the 6th floor. It’s dark. We don’t really need to turn the lights on when Neon just has to glow a little, plus my cat eyes. It’s been quiet for a while. We just sat waiting for the others. I was parsing through the downloaded memories, hoping there’s something in there to help us. Just something to give us the edge, when Neon spoke up. The earring glistens in the low light.

Of course. I look them in the eye.

“Why haven’t you told the others?”

Because you asked me not to. It’s that simple.

“That’s dumb.” They cross their arms and look away. “I could be a liability.”

You’re not.

“How do you fucking know?!” Neon says, raising their voice and looking at me. Pretending to be angry was an odd choice. Almost like they know they should be but, couldn’t quite get themselves there.

I’ve been watching you. I try to soften my voice to allowing them to have the space they need.

“Flirt.” Neon chuckles. Another emotional change. What’s going on in that head? They’re usually mercurial, but this is a lot.

I-I’m not flirting. I stumble through their words. I’m being serious. Can you please be serious with me?

“You’re always serious, Kohl. It’s a drag.”

Someone has to be.

“I just…” Neon gets out of their seat and pets my head. I can’t help but purr. The sound coming from deep within me. “Don’t want to feel like a psycho, just cause I don’t have memories.”

They said it. The thing that’s been hanging over them since we started. I noticed something odd when they first awakened. They didn’t wake from a dream; it was something more of like a coma. There was no information download to walk me through what happens with this happened. My first DreamRunner was and is still an anomaly.

“You can’t tell me what happened and you don’t know who I am. I woke up in a dorm room and I knew the name of a thousand things, before I even knew my own name.”

Neon… I

“No,” Neon cut me off. “Forget it. I’m done talking about it.” They cross their arms, looking down at their sneakers. “We need to keep moving. There’s more to look at. We should check the backrooms. There might be food in the break rooms or something.”

I sigh, which I will say doesn’t have the same weight coming from a cat. Neon won’t budge when they’ve decide to go in a certain direction. Wiggling my butt and crouch, readying the jump into their arms. And in just that moment, the napkin holder beams me in the face and I see stars.