Kyle woke to gentle sunlight coming through the hole in the ceiling, and while he felt incredibly rested, he also felt incredibly hungry. Other than the newly cooked beetle meat, the only food they found that was still likely safe to eat was a package of roasted nuts. He reached for the canister, set aside next to a couple of knives and a length of rope they’d also scavenged. Popping a handful into his mouth, only then did he notice that C.H.A.D.D. wasn’t in the room.
A moment of panic hit him as his thoughts immediately went to the worst – but he forced himself to calm down as he gathered the goods and left the house. He didn’t see anything at first and the panic began to build in his chest as he looked around more and more frantically. It wasn’t until he noticed the glint following him that he realized that it was sunlight reflecting off of a metallic hull – specifically C.H.A.D.D.’s – that he felt a wash of relief, quickly followed by annoyance.
He watched the drone float back down to a more reasonable elevation before calling out to it. “A little far afield there, don’t you think? If a big dragonfly came by and scooped you up there’s not much I could do for you.”
[DR. MAYHEW, BE ASSURED I WOULD HAVE LED IT RIGHT TO YOU, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE MISSED IT.] Ordinarily C.H.A.D.D.’s sass would have made Kyle chuckle, but in this case he couldn’t bring himself to find the quip funny.
“C.H.A.D.D., I’m serious. You running off like that had me worried, and if something had happened I wouldn’t have known what to do or even where to start. We’re a team, and we’re all we have right now.” The drone floated, seeming almost contemplative to Kyle before responding.
[TECHNICALLY, DR. MAYHEW, I DIDN’T RUN OFF. I HOVERED.]
That ridiculous comment was what it took to break Kyle, who couldn’t hide his chortle of laughter.
[AND IF I MAY, DR. MAYHEW, I COMPLETED A SURVEY OF THE AREA THROUGH THE EVENING. I BELIEVE I’VE LOCATED THE HIDEAWAY MENTIONED BY MR. GLEASON AND MR. PAULSON – AND HAVE ALSO DETECTED SEVERAL GROUPS OF BEETLES IN THE AREA.]
That took Kyle by surprise – he hadn’t expected that the drone would have taken that level of initiative, much less coming back with information that was so immediately helpful. He paused a moment to consider the next steps – while hunting some beetles would provide him with food, shelter still had to be the first priority.
“Thanks, C.H.A.D.D. Let’s get to our friends’ old home, and we’ll take it from there.”
As they made their way through the gently winding streets, Kyle’s appreciation for C.H.A.D.D.’s work grew. With the pace they were making before, he seriously doubted that they would have made it to this part of Albaum before the day was done. It was on the far side of the city from where they’d entered, and even without stopping to salvage it took the better part of the morning for them to cross over.
It was a little sad to Kyle to see what had once clearly been a beautiful town reduced to such ruin. They crossed into what Kyle assumed was a more affluent part of town, given the relative size of the homes. At the end of one such neighborhood they came upon what had no doubt been a quaint downtown, at the center of which were the ruins of a restaurant co-op. The building looked like a large warehouse, the brick work now showing cracks and damage.
Gleason had told him that this was a large commercial kitchen that many chefs would travel to use for large orders before transporting them to their final destinations. The group they’d met was doing this exact kind of work for DeRosa – mass baking pastries and confections for a social event before the cataclysm. Had he not booked the space for his own use, there likely would have been quite a few more people making use of the commercial kitchen, and quite possibly more survivors.
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They’d been warned that the group covered their tracks before they left, but the pile of rubble barely obstructing the door was more than obvious. Still, Kyle wasn’t about to complain about an easier entrance. As he moved to clear a path, he spoke to C.H.A.D.D.
“Would you please run a scan of the area again? I don’t want to have any surprises when we get inside.” C.H.A.D.D. hummed for a moment before giving the all clear, and Kyle finished removing the debris. Very little light made it inside the kitchen from the doorway, and Kyle couldn’t make out the corners of the room very well. Fortunately for him, he found a solution to this problem.
He activated HASTE, causing a gentle blue glow to emanate from his eyes and skin. That bathed the room in soft light, allowing him to see more clearly. There were over a dozen cooking stations set up, six on each side with the pantries and refrigeration units along the back wall. As he’d been told, most of the useable supplies had been taken away, with only the worst of the pots, pans, and utensils remaining to be used. The appliances were another story though – with all of them seeming to be in reasonably good condition. That is, if he could figure out how to use them.
Kyle wasn’t a talented chef before the world ended, and a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen was well above his pay grade. Most of the equipment he was used to ran on ambient mana and likely wouldn’t be functional by this point even if it had survived the blasts. These were different, but for the life of him Kyle couldn’t figure out how to make any of this stuff work.
He turned knobs, pressed buttons, and twisted dials to no avail. The whole time he was doing this, C.H.A.D.D. floated in silence near the entrance.
“You know, you’re more than welcome to help figure this out.” Kyle complained, shooting a look over at his robotic companion.
C.H.A.D.D. floated in silence a moment longer, when suddenly a loud thrum resonated through the kitchens. Mana-powered overhead lights sprang to life, and each of the inert appliances had small displays pop into view. As quickly as it had happened, the lights turned off and the displays disappeared.
“What did you do, C.H.A.D.D.?”
[NOTHING OF NOTE, DR. MAYHEW. I ATTEMPTED TO CONNECT TO THE MANA NETWORK, WHICH IN TURN CREATED A LINK FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR PANEL FOR THIS FACILITY TO ATTEMPT A CONNECTION AS WELL. THESE DEVICES MANAGED A CONNECTION BUT WENT DORMANT PER INSTRUCTIONS AT THE ADMINISTRATOR PANEL.]
If there was something Kyle knew even less than cooking, it was mana connectivity theory. But what he did understand was that it was possible to get this thing powered back on.
“Is that administrator panel a physical device in the area?”
[I BELIEVE SO, DR. MAYHEW.]
It took the better part of an hour, but after ransacking the entirety of the commercial kitchen Kyle found the panel near the back of the building near some damaged dock doors. Kyle had seen this type of panel before – it was typically used in common areas like the lobby of his apartment to allow access to the higher floors via a quick scan of a person’s Central Authority identity.
Of course, in emergency situations there were overrides to allow awakened police and medical services to gain access quickly and efficiently. That’s what Kyle was banking on here, as he raised his right hand and pressed it against the base of the panel. At first it felt like nothing was happening, but as he focused he felt what he could only describe as a weak suction coming through the solid metal of the panel. It wasn’t physical, but it was almost as if it was reacting to the mana coursing through his hand.
With a thought, he pushed some of his mana through his palm and into the panel, similar to how he would start the process of using his HEAL skill, but without actually following through to engage the ability. The panel hummed to life, and a series of holographic displays projected out from its surface. Looking through the various options, Kyle finally located what he wanted.
He selected two options – the first was to power on the facility, the second was to shift from drawing energy from the Mana Network to drawing on ambient mana. He knew that the constant deterioration from the chaotic energy would put his stay here on a timer, but that was preferable to the Central Authority in Nierburg shutting off his Mana Network access and sending a party to flush him out.
With lights on and equipment operational, Kyle emptied the refrigeration units that Paulson’s group had been using as bedrooms as they began to cool. After combining the piles of ragged burlap, he’d made a makeshift sleeping mat in the back corner. It wasn’t a bed, it wasn’t comfortable, but right now he was just thankful to have a place to rest his head. What the grumbling of his stomach did tell him was that it was time to get some meat to stock the newly operational refrigerator. “C.H.A.D.D., let’s go find some beetles.”