[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Benedict Carrey]
[Level: 2]
There was rubber in the waters, as she was quick to find.
Collecting it was harder when you were going in blind, reaching out cautious hands and sorting through fronds of seaweed for the worn-down treasures. It was flimsy stuff, no doubt the water had done a great job in breaking down the stuff, but a few pieces she got were good and thick, unbending under her grip.
After only a handful or so of the stuff had been gathered, she decided to turn back, following the hose back up to the cove where they had made their base.
Lucky was quick to lift her up when she finally made it to the entrance, dragging her to solidly sit on the ground beside the entrance, “I trust that you found the rubber?” She asked.
Ben nodded, pulling off the helmet and squinting against the overwhelming lights of the cave, “It’s… not much.” She said in way of explanation as she shoved the silicon scraps, along with what she now realized was half of a tire that could easily fit an eighteen-wheeler.
“That’s… a large tire.” Asadullah noted, shamelessly butting into the conversation, “What could fit it, do you think?”
“Bet we can find out if we go down deeper.” Jared suggested.
“What ‘we’?” Terry asked, his voice back to a soft whisper, “You’re not going that deep.”
“Good point, good point.” Jared nodded along, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him, “Guess you’ll just have to do it for me. Tell me what you find, alright?”
“No one’s going into the deep.” Ben told them all exasperatedly, “Can any of you even swim?”
Silence followed as everyone looked at each other. Asadullah was out, because he didn’t have any water bodies that weren’t rivers going two hundred miles per hour where he was from. She knew Tench could swim, but he was terrible whenever the wave machine was turned on. Terry was… plausible, if his incredibly unhealthy two years hadn’t taken a toll on his muscles. But the biggest hope she had was for Michael and Verity.
It seemed everyone seemed to have reached that conclusion at the same time, as they all turned to the conscious member of the pair. Michael gulped, the same look of guilt crossing over him that always came when he felt like he was letting someone down.
“I can’t swim.” He confessed, “But Verity can. She was a natural. Of course, a lot of the lakes and stuff couldn’t be swum in because they were perpetually on fire, but she gave it her best shot. Said she was searching for food.”
Ben pinched the bridge of her nose. She wasn’t even surprised at this point. That girl had too little regard for her own safety. They were having a talk when she woke up.
“Here’s the plan. We’re going to teach you all how to swim.” She decided, “Any guesses as to how long this’ll take?”
“A… couple weeks?” Terry asked, sounding not exactly hopeful.
“We’re looking at most a couple months. But if you’re good at it, sure, a couple weeks.” She agreed, “And look at that, we’re surrounded by water in every direction. Plenty of room to practice.”
“But its not deep water.” Jared pointed out, “All the deep water is underneath the islets. What if someone gets stuck under there?”
“We’ll… be there to help them.” Tench decided.
“And maybe you need to do a couple refresher laps to make sure you can handle it too.” Ben teased. He returned a brilliant smile to her, and Ben quickly forced the conversation ahead, “I’m going to be helping Lucky with her wheelchair. And all the other projects. Foraging team, I need you going further afield. See if you can map out this place some. Discover where the crows and the ravens are hiding, because our Mister Feathertooth has been strangely unwilling to give up information.”
Jared, Asad, and Michael saluted, already whispering amongst themselves about this decision. Feathertooth sulked in the corner, still confined in the small cage.
“You know I could easily pull it out of him if I had my Compulsion Card?” Jared asked, another bid to have the Item released into his care again.
As always whenever he tried this, Lucky simply leveled a glare at him, a Category Three Not-Impressed glare, even, and said, “No.” Jared wilted, but offered no more pushback. It was strange to see how much more willing he was to go with other people’s plans when he wasn’t able to convince them through unnatural means. Ben was planning to have a talk about that with him, but she wasn’t exactly a therapist.
“Also, you guys. What do we do about the squid?” Terry asked, interjecting at just the right time, “It’s still there, and it’s looking in… pretty rough shape.”
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“I stand by my suggestion to eat it.” Jared insisted, “Do you guys know if anything in a giant squid is poisonous?” He looked around, as if expecting an expert in marine biology to pop out of the ground. Oh, wait. He was looking towards Ben. She was the purported expert.
“I don’t even know if this species of squid exists back in my world.” She said, seriously considering the idea, “But most of this type of creature don’t produce toxic chemicals. The ink is their only defense mechanism, and it can’t hurt. Only startle. You should be able to eat it.”
“One person has to eat it first, then we see if they die or get sick.” Jared suggested, cheerily.
“You realize that that means you, right?” Michael pointed out to him, “Because you’re the one so gung ho about eating the squid, you’re going to be put in as the test subject.”
Jared screwed his face up, “And that’s a risk I’m willing to take.” He said, “For the betterment of our survival. But one of you had better clean that squid good before I take even a bite.”
“Don’t worry so much!” Asadullah wound an arm over Terry’s shoulders, “Terry knows how to prepare anything. Right?” He turned to look at the boy.
Terry nodded, tugging at his hair, which had now become almost completely brown and bleached blond, “It’s mostly meat preservation that I’m familiar with. But that comes with knowing how to safely ingest it too. There was a seafood section in that supermarket, and it came with textbooks on how to prepare anything. The squid section had been empty then, but… I know how to. Theoretically.”
“Theoretically.” Jared repeated, looking much less sure of his decision, now, “That’s comforting.”
Terry gave him a shy smile, “Glad you think so.”
So, they all followed Terry up as he directed the cutting and the smoking and the salting of various bits of the squid. Each part was wrapped up in seaweed, and buried in the sands of the islet, except for one bit of heavily dried, smoked tentacle, speared on a stick, that he presented to Jared.
Jared took it reluctantly, and bit into it. There was a squelching sound as his teeth ripped into supple flesh, the entire tentacle shaking as he tried to pull off a bite, chewed at it ferociously, and then swallowed.
“Hey, that’s pretty good, actually!” He grinned, once it had gone down.
“Let’s see if you’re still thinking that once this is over.” Michael said ominously.
They split off after that, Lucky and Ben on their own, working on what little projects were available without the use of fire. They at first tried to salvage the rubber, but it was obvious that without any heat, reshaping them would be impossible.
“I had been hoping to melt it down, fit it into molds, and have it be shaped that way.” Lucky explained, between hammering the sheet of what might have once been a silicon cookie tray, “But that will call for an excessive amount of heat. Not only that we can’t make inside the cove, but also that is impossible with just wood fuel.”
Above them, Feathertooth the raven cawed its mockery, “Fire… so ridiculous and inefficient. Why must you humans insist on sticking to it?”
This wasn’t the first time it had mentioned such a thing. Lucky and Ben exchanged glances, clearly thinking of other comments the bird had made. It was a prideful thing. No way it would hesitate to gloat about the advancements of birdkind in humanity’s absence. Now, they had to think like Jared and play their cards right.
“You say that a lot, you know?” Ben said, trying to not come off too coy, “Birds have done better than this. Birds can do better than that. But you never say what you can do.”
“Because they are above the understanding a human has about the workings of the world.” It huffed. Ben was certain that their Party had seen a lot more about the truth of the worlds and the Games they were beholden to than this arrogant little creature did, but she didn’t point that out.
Instead, she went for the jugular of its ego, “I think you’re lying.” She announced, clear as day. The angle they were at was perfect to see its pupils shrink with outrage. She just needed to aggravate further, “You’re making it up to mock us when you haven’t even mastered fire with those claws. Sour grapes.”
Maybe that was a childish parting shot, but it was worth it to see the raven swell up indignantly. It snapped, “I am not. In fact, I shall have you know that the corvid society, headed by the ravens, have developed a way to create claw-operated bulbs, capable of generating a sensation of heat that can far outmatch the intensity of the sun.”
Beside her, Lucky was excitedly scribbling down all the details, as Feathertooth proudly described how menacing the lightbulbs looked, and what power they gave off. He was smart, never giving out exact specifications, but with the swell of the monologue, he let little details slip, like vague descriptions of the mines where the materials for them was found. And the fuel sources which powered them. And the way they looked like several orange lanterns when being carried by a flock of birds. Also, there was a critical bit of context that made it all click into place, once it had finished with its explanation.
“So, these are just UV bulbs like they used in tanning beds.” She told Lucky, “But turned up to a hundred.”
Lucky looked at her, head tilted to the side, “Another thing unique to the time period of your dimension, I believe.” She said, “For I have never heard of such things.”
Ben took a moment to explain the idea of bulbs which mimicked the sensation of the sun to Lucky, who nodded along in understanding. Feathertooth fumed angrily with every note that aligned with his own wondrous invention. Lucky wrapped up the lesson with a sigh, “I don’t know how it replaced every other instance of fire, though, since these things are pretty carcinogenic.”
“What?”
“Carcinogenic.” Ben repeated, “They cause cancer. Because the radiation is breaking down your genes and turning them rotten, so to speak.”
Lucky flipped to another page and wrote more things down, “That will be helpful to avoid.” She agreed, “You are very knowledgeable, Ben.”
Ben flushed, “It’s- it’s nothing. Just… went to animal med school. Came out like this.”
“And this is very inspiring.” Lucky winked at her, making her flush worse. Maybe Tench was onto something about her feelings being returned. A thought to be followed up on, once they dealt with another worrying fact. Feathertooth hadn’t said anything in a while.
Ben turned to look at it warily, “What’re you cooking up now, bird?”
It opened its mouth, letting out pathetic screeches for a second, before it turned to actual English words, “You said. It causes cancer? Well… that may explain somethings that have been going wrong with our society.”
[Player Log End!]