[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Terence Glasgow]
[Level: 1, Sub-Level: 4 & 5]
Terry stole glances at Asadullah as they sat down outside the fence of the oxygen tank lake. He’d thought that Asadullah would appreciate seeing him here, where he had expected to do his Objective all alone. But no, he was sulking in the corner, glaring at him when Terry wasn’t looking.
He grimaced, turning around to meet the gaze that was burning into their shoulder.
“You got a problem?” He asked, feeling his throat stretch and vocal chords scream. This was teetering very quickly into a mute episode, but they just had to fight through to it.
“Why’re you here?” Asadullah asked.
“I already told you: didn’t want to wait too much. Had a few free days, and decided to take it.” Terry explained further.
“We were going to wait until me and Ben finished up our Sub-Levels.” Asadullah reminded him, “You weren’t supposed to do this. You don’t take risks like that if you don’t have to, Terry. Why did you?”
His heart rate was picking up. Lungs constricting. His hands were creeping up to his hair to pull as the memory of the scientists and the labs came back in a tidal wave.
“They didn’t want me.” He whispered, the loudest he could manage.
“Bro… you’re the linchpin in this whole society.” Asadullah sighed in disappointment, “That’s just the self-doubt talking.”
It wasn’t. It literally wasn’t. He wasn’t a fool, and he wasn’t deaf either. He heard what they said, hyperaware of the presence of more people than he had been around since years and years. They thought he was young, inexperienced, and simply stumbled onto the miracle fungi through sheer luck.
All of these things were true. And Terry was uncomfortably aware of that. He had done the work, and learnt to cultivate the fungi properly, extract the spores, and manage to get it into a body’s nervous system in the cleanest way. The foundations of the cure were all made by him, and further refined by the suggestions of Tench and Ben, the first medically minded people he had met after the rise of the dead.
But the experts were right. It was all amateur and flawed. More tests needed to be done. Better equipment had to be sourced for the cure to meet its full potential. Equipment that they had readily available, but Terry had no idea how to use. Further cementing how unfit he was for this.
Discovering the fungus was the first useful thing he had ever done, and now he would have to grapple with the fact that it might be the only useful thing he would do for the world. For all the worlds out there. These people had promised him that he would make a difference. Filled his head with fantasies that… might have appealed to him, he begrudgingly admitted.
But he couldn’t verbalize all that. He didn’t have the strength to say it.
“They don’t want me.” He managed out, “I wanted to… try something different. Needed a friendly face to help me.”
Asadullah nodded, his face breaking into a smile that shone through the smog and cleared out his lungs.
“That makes sense.” He agreed, “Work your magic, now.”
“You are a sorcerer, too?” Lucky Paine asked, her voice inquisitive. Terry was reminded of the fact that she hadn’t been told anything about this new situation until now. And she was patient enough to let them both freak out until pressing for more answers.
Terry shook his head profusely, “Michael only does magic. I… do mushrooms.” His fingers went to sign automatically, but he kept going, “Other things too. Jack of all trades. Except with hands. Only theory.”
“And a miracle worker!” Asadullah added in, eyes squeezing shut with the force of his grin. Terry’s stomach curdled at the thought.
“Well then, miracle worker.” Lucky was clearly mocking him when she called him that, “Any idea as to how we are to get past the guards?”
Terry frowned, thinking the conundrum over, and the drumbeat footsteps marching on the other side of the jerry-rigged fence they had made for it, “I have a store of fungi on me.” He revealed, letting the flow of his passion carry him into speech. He pulled open his jacket, showing the lines of plastic test tube samples he had tucked away. One of these was covered on the inside with purple fronds. A lot like its peers, but special in its own way.
This was the one he plucked out and held it out to them all.
“It thrives on air and moisture, and once provided both, it grows in seconds.” Terry explained, “Get them into the people’s mouths and… they’ll choke to death.”
Asadullah gagged, but Lucky looked introspective, “Gruesome. But effective.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“How would we manage to get the spores in?” Asadullah asked.
“Throw it into the muzzle of the rebreathers.” Lucky suggested, “Those clunky things work as hoovers to filter for any available oxygen. Throw it in, and… it will destroy them.”
Asadullah twitched, his hair puffing up in that adorable way that all cats did, but he didn’t argue against this course of action, “Want me to do it, then? Guess I have to contribute somehow to this plan.”
“Do not worry, I can manage it myself.” Lucky assured him, the metal limbs in her mechanical marvel of a chair reaching forward and snatching the test tube out of Terry’s hands. It made them squeak and clutch his hand closer to their chest. Lucky paid no mind, her arms easily pulling the cork out of the test tube.
Once it was open, they turned around and chucked it towards the sentries standing at the gateway they had taken such pains to avoid. Purple specks showered down on them, lost amongst the swirling smoke, but no doubt hitting their target. They need only wait to see it come to fruition.
And, just as Terry had predicted, it didn’t take long. They twitched, once, and then the one on the right reached to grab for his throat. That was his only action before he keeled over.
When they stepped over the guards, Terry could hear them gurgling, still in the throes of death. He pointedly ignored them.
Lucky used her chair’s giant limbs to nudge the door open, revealing the insides for them to wander. Guess all subtlety was thrown out of the window when she took over. Terry went low, pulling the hood of his jacket over his bright hair to provide some modicum of camouflage as he ducked behind the nearest car. Out of his earshot, he could hear the gunshots of approaching soldiers with disturbing clarity.
A snarl sounded, followed by more gunfire, and seriously, Asadullah, now was not the time for this!
He turned tail and ran deeper into the facility, using the chaos the other two were causing to slip inside unnoticed. No matter if all his instincts were screaming at him to turn around and help him. What was he going to do, anyways? Bet they each had twice as much muscle he did. Actually, that was quite possible when it came to Asadullah… no, don’t think about that, he had things that needed to be done.
The most obvious place to look for plants was near the lake. Artificial or not, life always found a way to spring forth. The lake was huge, perhaps the biggest water body he had encountered as of yet. Discounting the river, of course. He was certain it stretched on for miles.
He found bits of algae, growing thick enough for him to plunge his entire hand into, forming a ring around the edges of the whole pool. His teeth itched at the idea of the clammy, gritty sensation that would have caused and he fought the urge to throw up. Scrubbing his hands to rawness sounded good right about now. It would have to wait until he was done.
There were pipes sticking into the lake and siphoning it away into some unknown place. Terry followed them with his eyes, picking out the tents which they were connected to. One of them was covered with an additional layer of clear plastic, even over the windows, and his eyes immediately latched onto the flash of green through the bleary plastic. Jackpot.
Heat was radiating at his back, and a harsh glow appeared from that direction. They had advanced to setting things ablaze now. He needed to get inside now, because who knew how long this would last?
No one stopped him, no one even noticed him, too intent on stopping their esteemed former-employee from burning the place to the ground. He got to the tent safely, lifted up and the flap with a heavy beating heart and-
Found nothing but dark green metal cylinders, connected to a hellish machine with twists and turns, that sent the collected water spinning around, and passing through a container with two bits of metal connected to a battery.
Electrolysis. They were using electrolysis to get oxygen for the tanks. Not photosynthesis, like he had assumed. This would remove the plant factor from it entirely.
A scientist was in the corner, watching him with uncertain eyes, and Terry asked him if he had any plants on the facility. He only looked at the demiboy in confusion. Right, he’d forgotten that it wasn’t as easy to communicate through sign language as the others made it.
“How…” he began, throat already scratchy, “Where do you keep the plants?”
“There are no plants.” The scientist responded, his breathing short and quick and as panicked as Terry’s, “Please- we, we don’t have the resources, don’t kill me-”
“I won’t.” He never had the intention to. He simply opened the flap and left. Then, thought it over, and went back inside to carry away two tanks under his arms. They were heavy, and unwieldy to hold, but he managed somehow. The scientist certainly made no move to stop him.
Asadullah and Lucky were still raining terror on them all, now having moved into the control tents, which had a radio tower attached to them and everything. There was a strange, swirling, sucking sound when he passed by the lake, and he turned around in amazement to see it all going down the drain built into the bottom. They must have found a way to pull out the plug to the thing. Very quick way to end it.
Given the dead bodies lying around everywhere, he decided to do the sensible thing and wait outside for them to wrap it up. He’d brought lunch with him, in case this dragged on too long, and even with the smoke around, he doubted it would affect the taste of their sandwich too much, so… he sat down and ate with the sound of breaking bones and carnage in the background. He thinks he heard a Wilhelm scream, too. That guy just shows up everywhere to get mauled, doesn’t he?
“Hey that smells good, what’re you eating?” Asadullah asked, bounding up to him as he skipped out of the doors in Terry’s direction.
“Ham on pumpernickel with cheese and ketchup.” Terry offered, holding the foil-wrapped treat out to him, “Want a bite?”
Asadullah fidgeting, “Er, no… I don’t… eat ham.”
“Oh, sorry.” Blood rushed to his cheeks as he tried to salvage the situation, “I have… a smoked chicken and mayo on rye, too?”
He accepted that one with a wide grin, taking a large bite.
“You didn’t, er, kill anyone, did you?” He asked, making the already bad situation worse.
Asadullah didn’t seem too offended, “No, not as far as I know. Mostly shots to the arms and the legs on my part. The few hits to the head were not fatality-inducing.”
“Good.” Terry relaxed.
“Have a pleasant picnic, lads?” Lucky asked, her chair gliding over the sandy terrain, “I have delivered a fittingly ominous transmission to the Board of Directors, so now we must be off.” She turned to look at Terry, “Did you find the flora you were looking for?”
He shrunk in on himself, shaking his head, “They didn’t have plants in there. And the algae is only considered plant-adjacent simple organisms.”
“Well, shit.” She clicked her tongue, “Guess you must roll with us for the time being.”
Terry shrugged, “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“You haven’t traveled with her yet.” Asadullah warned him.
[Player Log End!]