[ Data Decryption: 97.48% complete ]

Sleep was bliss, a break from a terrifying new world, new responsibilities and the fear of what the data files would reveal. His subconscious mind rejected all of that nonsense and instead embraced sleep. He dreamt of the past, of family and friends, and exploring the “what could have been” that only an unconscious mind can pursue.

Well it tried to at least, at first, but then his new friendships, forged in adversity kept poking through the hazy defenses of his dreams. Glimpses of a furred figure kept drawing his mind back to the present, and just as his subconscious had made peace with the presence of Delvik, and the two were setting out on an epic road trip, harsh lights flicked on in the medical bay, driving spikes of pain through his closed eyelids and straight into the dried out pickle that his brain currently was imitating.

Thomas recoiled painfully, twisting his head from side to side, and letting out a moan of discomfort, Thomas suddenly learned that his mount and tongue had turned to sandpaper. He tried to move, to pull a blanket or anything over his head to block out that painful, hateful and possibly malevolent light, and found that his wrists were restrained in padded straps to the sides of the bed.

Thomas swore eternal vengeance right then and there on overly bright light bulbs, promising himself to replace them all with the lowest wattage bulbs he could make, before his brain finally caught up to the fact that he was in restraints. Panic briefly filled him as he tried to force his eyes open in the harsh light, forcing him to rapidly blink to clear the gunk and adjust to the brightness. Finally, through slitted eyes, he could take in his surroundings to discover…

Home, the bunker and specifically the med bay.

He did not know how he got here, why he was strapped to the bed or why it felt like someone had taken a sandblaster to his mouth and throat.

His thoughts were slow, jumbled and hurt to have. He began muttering oaths against traitorous organs when he felt a small, rough hand gently touch his arm.

Through slitted eyes, Thomas could make out a small blurry figure. As the shape began to resolve and details started appearing he croaked out, “Delvik? Wha.. what happened?”

A wet towel slapped across his face, covering it from the bridge of his nose to his forehead was the first sign he had that he had mistaken who the blurry figure was. The voice of the grumpy healer, M’ria was the second and most obvious hint, and rather than compound his mistakes, Thomas simply let his head sink back into the pillow and relax.

After a few minutes, a satisfied huff could be heard off to his left. “A slow learner, but still able to learn. That is good for you” M’ria stated, followed by a the sound of glass clinking from nearby.

“Open mouth” she commanded, and Thomas felt a straw poke him in the cheek gently. It took a few tries, but he eventually got the straw where it needed to go, and cool, wet bliss began to flow into his parched mouth.

M’ria watched as the Human slowly drank the water, only having to chide him twice to slow down. She shook her head at the state of her patient, greatly improved in obedience and compliance after sleeping off the heavy drinking he had apparently been doing the night before. She had seen this before, with older warriors who turned to the salp to forget painful memories, and over consumed it. She knew that the human produced and served his peoples version of it, a much more potent and in her opinion, dangerous one, with his miracle machine. The Human ahd never shown signs of overindulging, and had in fact cautioned limited use at the bar upstairs.

She made a note to have some of the others keep an eye on him in the future, he was valuable to her people in ways that many of the others and even Thomas himself hadn't realized or thought about. WIth a clicking noise of disapproval, M’ria made some notes and went to check on her other foolish patients, leaving Thomas to slip back into blissful slumber.

***************************************************

Whispers slowly roused Thomas once again to wakefulness. He could feel a mostly dried towel covering his eyes and forehead, and slowly sat up and letting the towel fall down to land on his blanket covered lap.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Whatever M’ria had used to treat his hangover had worked like magic, and for that he would be forever thankful. Thomas remembered why he didn't drink heavily often, he would suffer terrible hangovers that left him feeling dead and miserable for days afterwards, but now. Now he felt refreshed and fully energized

Thomas slowly looked towards where the whispering was coming from and saw M’ria standing in the doorway, staring, practically glaring at two figures towering over her, a sight that made Thomas snort out a laugh.

“Oh, funny he thinks this is, after working my paws raw to clean up after him and nurse his salp soaked head back to wellness”, M’ria grumbled loudly, turning to glare at Thomas, who had the good sense to dip his head and mutter an apology.

Tutting loudly, she stepped out of the door and waved the two figures in, “since he is awake now, you might as well collect him and go, I have actual sick and injured to treat and have no room for idiot cubs to just lay about in my healing hall.” She then turned and disappeared behind a curtained off section as the two figures looked down on Thomas.

Smothering down another laugh, “well that's a new look” he said as he looked up, taking in the open vest and wide brimmed hat that had been folded up and pinned back to the front of the hat that Delvik was wearing while standing atop the shoulders of Saav.

The Rakus smiled, taking the comment as the compliment Thomas surely meant it as, “Thank you Thomas, and while I cannot take credit for it, this look, as you call it, proved quite useful for the other scouts who partnered with the Arvo to search for you, while you drank yourself silly out in the ruins last night”

Thomas’s smile faltered a bit at that, “Im sorry guys, my memory is a bit spotty. I remember everything just hitting me all at once, like the reality of this whole situations, this whole new world and all of the new responsibilities im finding that i now have, and i just… well i made a poor decision” he said sadly, “ill apologize to the others later at the bar and wait.. You said other scouts partnered up with Arvo to search for me?”

Both Saav and Delvik nodded, caught each other doing it and then laughed.

“Yes”, Saav rumbled out, “it seems that our working together to find you helped spur some of our peoples to try working together”

Delvik nodded along as Saav spoke and then added, pointing to the curtained off area, “the real stars are those two. Jelm is one of my fellow scouts and Narrg is one of Saav’s warriors. They were one of the first to partner up and go searching for you.”

Thomas paled and looked over at the curtained off section of the medbay, “what happened?” he asked.

“Found monster's nest,” Saav said with pride in his voice, “they fought together against whole nest of Lurkers and survived. Many of my tribe are now seeking Rakus partners.”

Delvik noted that this seemed ot be distressing Thomas and quickly added, “and my people saw that an Arvo, and one of our scouts fought side by side against something that is a threat to both of us and survived. Other groups heard Jelms scout horn sounding an alert and rushed over to find them nearly buried under a pile of dead Lurkers, with the Arvo Narrg protecting his Rakus partner.”

“It is a good thing Human Thomas, that our people can find benefit in working together.” Saav stated, “while they were hurt, they both survived and are an example to our people. The Omega was right about you”. He made to continue, but was interrupted by the lights suddenly dimming, a powerful humming sound and a bright green grid of lights passing through the room, and everyone within before dissipating at the far wall.

Shouts of alarm and fright could be heard echoing from the hallway outside the door and Thomas quickly swung his legs out over the side and slid off the bed, the blanket falling to the floor. It was at that moment that he realized he had two important questions, well three actually, as the cool air of the medbay his his skin.

Thomas quickly looked around for his clothes as Saav moved over to the door so he and Delvik could poke their heads into the hallway. He found them all neatly folded and cleaned on a small table at the foot of the bed and dressed quickly before joining the others at the door.

He looked at Delvik and Saav, “we should get to the command center, we might be able to figure out what is going on.” The two nodded and he pushed past them and began to run for the heart of the base, Saavs heavy footsteps following.

Thomas remembered his third question as they ran and asked in a half shout to be heard, “what exactly is a Lurker?”

Delvik grinned and told him exactly what it was, “Mutant Spiders.”

“This world is going to drive me into a bottle, I just know it is” Thomas said as a shiver of disgust ran down his back.

[ Data Decryption: 100% complete ]

Beginning Folder Extraction …