Chapter 156
As Brian's awareness of the area that surrounded him returned he found that he was once again back in his bunker, his base, whatever they wanted to call it. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. That had been close. The three women could have noticed him.
They hadn't sounded threatening, if anything they sounded angry at the man that had attacked the dog more than anything else. Still, Brian had no desire to find out the hard way if their anger would transfer over to him as well. Brian realized he was still holding the comms module and set it on the table.
He walked in to his storage room and deposited his finds.
He placed the items he had found on the shelf. A green gem, two more strips of fuzzy pink material, a golden shotglass with a leaf on it, a silver mug with gold accents, a small blue pouch filled with round shot, and a second knife that was no better than the one he had found originally. It all went on to the shelves.
He went back to the main room and took off his coat which he folded over a table. His knife he rested on top of the coat.
Picking up the large six inch cube module he looked around for the panel with all of the sockets. His first module was still installed, the lighting module. As he stared at the panel one of the sockets glowed blue. Brian shrugged and inserted the featureless cube in to the socket and it settled in until it was flush with the panel itself.
There was a loud ding and what sounded to Brian like moving furniture. When he turned around he found that there was now a hallway running off of the main room.
He now had his main room with bed and desk, a storage room for items, a storage room for arms and armor, and a hallway that led to a pleasantly appointed room. The room had the word 'Comms' written over the entrance to the room in black paint.
Inside the room Brian found a comfortable looking red fabric covered padded chair with arm rests that had been placed in front of a wide desk. The desk had a bowl of something thick and oily in a silver color and it was placed towards the rear of the desktop. In front of the bowl rested a paddle with a number of sockets placed so that it was easily reachable when seated. One of the sockets was already taken up by a crystal the size of his thumb with a tiny label on it that read '3.'
To the left of the paddle sat a few rows of trays of crystals numbered zero though nine, although the number 3 crystal was missing from one of them. To the right of the paddle sat a rolodex.
The rolodex was a rolling index made up of notched index cards. The cards attached to an axle at the base of the rolodex using two notches at the bottom of each card. This allowed the cards to flip freely back and forth like the pages of a book held the long way. Cards with raised tabs helped organize the cards in to groups, A for all the names that start with A, then the B section for all the names that start with B and so on. It was an incredibly helpful way of keeping track of people's addresses and phone numbers.
It was also entirely empty.
Brian took a seat in the chair and thought for a moment about what to do. He had a bowl that did something. In order to activate it one would need to use the numbered crystals and place them in to the sockets on the paddle in the correct order. What could possibly be the correct order Brian wondered to himself.
On the desk's edge closest to where he sat was a silver plaque inset in to the desk. It read simply “0198575.”
Brian tried placing the correctly labeled crystals in to the paddle but when he did so nothing happened. So that wasn't it. He returned the crystals all to their original rows.
He got up and looked about the room. There wasn't much else. With metal walls and ceilings just like the rest of the bunker it wasn't the comfiest looking room but the chair was comfortable so that was all that mattered apparently. The room was at least lit with warm toned lighting that was generated by a number of wall lamps that dotted the sides of the room.
After a few minutes of searching Brian was unable to figure out what he was expected to do. He'd already stored his items and now that the comms module was installed he'd run out of things to do in his bunker.
Brian had an idea. He'd log out of VR and hop on to his computer. If he were to log on to the Scavenger forums then he could write a post asking if anyone knew how to use the comms module. He couldn't really have been the first person to find one, could he?
Having made up his mind Brian returned to the bunker's main room and laid down in his bed. Closing his eyes, he waited.
Do you wish to log out? YES|NO
Brian chose YES and everything faded to black.
He woke up back on Earth in his ruby red game bed with the VR helmet still strapped a hundred different ways to his head. Brian began to undo the straps and fasteners without getting up. There was no point in sitting up yet, and Brian was afraid once he did he'd need to use the bathroom right away. Better to undo the straps before sitting up.
Finally removing most of the fasteners Brian sat up and fiddled with the ones that remained which he had been unable to properly reach while laying down. Gently Brian lifted the helmet off of himself and set it aside on it's holding rack.
Now that he was upright Brian could feel the pressure building in his bladder. He climbed carefully out of the game bed and waddled to the bathroom where he did what he had to before washing up. He had given some thought to getting dressed when he caught a whiff of something foul smelling. It was him.
Brian apparently worked up a bit of a sweat even while in VR. That was an easy enough fix. Brian stripped out of his underwear and hopped in to the shower. The shower was a glass enclosed space roughly six feet by six feet and felt quite roomy. He fiddled with the controls before he managed to turn on the shower.
Sudden blasts of warm water struck him from all directions. Brian coughed and sputtered water for a moment before he squeezed his body in to one of the shower's corners where there wasn't quite as much water. Now that he wasn't in the middle of it Brian could see that the water had jets placed above and all around. Anyone standing in the center of the shower would be entirely covered by jets of water.
Brian grinned, the shower was incredible. Moving back to the center of the shower he was blasted by water jets and enjoyed the sensation for a moment before reaching out and grabbing a bar of soap that had been thoughtfully left there just for him.
Brian tried to soap himself up but found it impossible due to the mass of water that he was constantly enveloped by. He moved to the corner of the shower just long enough to soap up before standing in the center of the room again to have the soap blasted off of his body by jets of water.
Brian realized that he probably should have started with his hair and then washed his body but order probably didn't count when you had this much water coming at you. He replaced the soap and inspected the shampoo bottle. It was a pump bottle and rather than try and read it through the cascade of water he instead pushed the pump and caught the shampoo that it dispensed in one hand.
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It took three tries as the first two times the water jets blasted the shampoo off of his hand before it made it to his hair. Third time was the charm though and he finally was able to suds up his hair before having it scoured clean by blasts of water.
He used a facecloth and some face soap to finish up and scrubbed his face clean. Rinsing his face off took a bit of doing as the water pressure was quite high and the last thing he wanted to do was take one of those jets to the face. He ended up using his hands to splash some of the water and redirect it towards his face. It worked well enough and he quickly turned the water off once he was done.
Brian got out of the shower and felt better than he had ever before after taking a shower. He was tired from the day, a little bit hungry, and was looking forward to bed.
First though he'd post on the Scavenger forums using his computer.
Leaving the bathroom he walked to his dresser wrapped in a towel and got dressed. Fresh underwear, socks, jeans, and a t-shirt completed his outfit. As he finished the panel next to the front door lit up and made a ringing sound. Brian dutifully went over to the panel and pressed the answer button.
“Hello Brian! We were unable to reach you after your session, is everything alright?” a voice asked before Brian could say anything.
“Everything is fine, I just needed a shower,” Brian answered honestly.
“Wonderful. And how are you feeling right now?” the voice, it may have been female but Brian was having trouble placing it.
“I feel a little tired and hungry, but I'm good otherwise. No weird side effects or anything.” Brian insisted.
“Great to hear! Again please let us know if you do – also should you need help at any time merely say the word help out loud and medics will be dispatched to your room. Would you like something to eat before bed?” the voice asked kindly and Brian's stomach rumbled loudly at the mention of getting something to eat.
“Yes, please. I'm pretty hungry.” Brian answered with a shy smile.
“Not a problem. Chicken cutlets with Italian spiced breading and topped with mozzarella cheese. Served with salted crispy hash brown. They use russets for their starchiness, they make the crispiest hash browns. A serving of lemon peas round out the meal. Beverages are a choice of water, cranberry juice, or white wine. Will that be acceptable?” the somewhat female voice asked sweetly. It was well aware that it was acceptable by the way Brian's stomach continued to growl.
“I can't wait! Can I get mine with cranberry juice? Thanks.” Brian asked politely.
“Of course! And should you need anything else just press the call button. Good night Brian.” the voice said cheerfully before the call button went dark.
Brian grinned. Food was on the way!
Now that he was clean, dressed, and had food on the way he moved on to his next task. The computer.
He sat down at the desk in front of the monitor and wiggled the mouse. As he did the screensaver disappeared and was replaced by his desktop screen. He double clicked on the link for Scavenger Forums.
There were a lot of new posts. One in particular had a lot of replies and had been posted originally in all capitals. Brian sighed when he read it. Not again.
“STOP STEALING MY MODULES! I'LL FIND YOU!” was one of the top comments written by a player named Percy. Other players had taken to calling him dog-killer instead of Percy though.
Brian clicked the link and began reading. The player wrote about how he had fought off a dog that had attacked him after he had looted a comms module. Then, to make matters worse, someone had murdered him when he tried to extract with it!
The player was beginning to suspect that someone was out to get him. Brian paused for a moment, he didn't feel like he was out to get anyone. When he thought about it logically though he had hunted the player down, followed him, and then waited until the player was busy with their back turned. Then he had killed him.
But he had deserved it! The player had attacked a friendly dog! Brian got a bit upset as he recalled the hopeful dog with its wagging tail approach the player only to be attacked.
The thread had broken down in to people who sided with the player and those who did not.
“Get your own loot!” insisted one player.
“STOP ATTACKING DOGS!” responded another player in all caps.
Brian could just leave it be but thought it'd be interesting to join in. It was just a game. It wasn't as if the player even knew who he was. All people could post with was their usernames which were their first name and a random number.
Brian typed up his post. “I didn't kill you for the module, I killed you for attacking a friendly dog! The module was a bonus.” He explained to others that this was not the player's first abuse of a virtual dog.
He signed the post with a snarky, “See you in game!” and chuckled to himself.
Brian had planned on eating and then going to bed. A few minutes after he posted on the forums the door began to beep and Brian remembered that the sound meant someone or something was at the door. He went to the door and opened it to find a little delivery robot with Brian's food on top of it. Brian took his tray and the robot beeped a cheerful series of beeps before it turned and left down the hallway.
Brian brought the tray inside and set it on his desk. He chose to eat while perusing the forums to try and see if he could learn how to use the comms room.
He ate as he read, and the chicken cutlets were delicious. Tender and juicy they practically melted in his mouth and the tender meat was a great counterpoint to the crispy breading that encrusted the cutlet. The reast of the meal was just as tasty as the cutlets and Brian momentarily forgot about reading as he focused on eating.
Brian went to pierce another bit of cutlet with his fork but hit only plate instead. He was done. There was no more food. He wasn't sure he was full quite yet but that was fine. He was going to bed soon anyway.
A ding on his computer made him look up. He had a private message on the forums board!
He used the mouse to click on the messages icon on the forums page. He had 1 message, unread.
“Hey Brian! Great job with Percy! He's been such a hot head on the forums, its nice to see someone take him down a peg! Also, see you in game? That was hilarious. Very passive-aggressive! Since I know for a fact now that you have a comms room let me know if you'd like to pair up for the next session! You can reach me at 927835. I should be on tomorrow at noon on the dot. If not, no worries! -Bettie”
Brian finished reading and grinned. So that is how the comms room worked. Like a telephone all he had needed was a phone number for the person he wanted to call. Now he had one! Also, the plaque with the numbers on the desk in his comms room must be his own phone number. He'd have to remember it, what was it? 0198...575? He thought that was right. He'd have to remember and double check before logging out next time so he could write it down as soon as he woke up.
Brian wrote Bettie's number on a pad of paper next to the computer and wrote her name next to it. That way he could memorize it before he next logged in.
Nodding to himself he cleaned up his tray and set it outside for the delivery bot to pick up. Or perhaps some other bot did that? The pickup bot maybe? Brian shrugged. As long as it wasn't Brian's responsibility to clean it up he was happy.
He yawned widely and checked the time on his computer. It was after nine, not that it mattered. Brian was ready for bed no matter what time it was and he got undressed and turned off the lights before he got in to bed. Lights shown dimly from under the bed which was enough light to walk by even in the dark. The lights faded and then turned off as he lay in bed and was surrounded by the darkness.
Brian thought about tomorrow and what it might bring. He wasn't sure where all of this was leading to but it was much more fun than his usual life. He closed his eyes and soon his breathing became steady as he fell asleep.