It took the bears another two hours to collect enough material to fill the truck. Unfortunately, Sharron decided to use that time in order to try and find something to help me relax, and I found her choices… questionable.
“You shot my radio!” Sharron pouted, as she poked the little disposable device she’d just plopped down on the roof of my truck.
“What the hell was that?” I replied, unwilling to lower my rifle just in case the radio had any life left in it. “It sounded like someone trying to skin a cat with a chainsaw. I thought it was some sort of sonic attack.”
“Neo Metal isn’t that bad,” Sharron retorted. “It has nice percussion and rhythm.”
“I could feel the vibration through my skull. How could you find that relaxing?”
She shrugged, “I grew up listening to it. Guess when you listen to jackhammers and other mining equipment all day you don’t mind the heavy percussion.”
I stared at her for a long minute, completely unsure if she was joking, or being serious, before putting my rifle away. “How about we try and come up with ideas that don’t involve music, or flashing lights, or loud noises.”
“That’s no problem. Since we’ve got a little time to spare, how about a video game we could play together in our augs. The most popular are… Antithesis killer twenty-seven, samurai simulator sixteen, and death dealer: Shoot a man.” She frowned, her eyes flicked for several seconds. “What the hell? Isn’t there a single non-violent option here? How are people supposed to relax with shit like this?”
“Wait, haven’t you played one before? Why did you recommend it then?”
She shrugged, “I wasn’t allowed to use my augs for that when I was an indentured servant for the mining company, and I was kind of busy killing antithesis after that. I’m sure there are some good options in there somewhere, I just need some time to find it.” She then proceeded to spend the next hour and a half trying to find something. Five minutes in I considered reminding her that her AI could probably help, but I also kinda wanted some time to recover from her music. So the remaining time passed in relaxing silence.
Shannon spent so much time in her augs, that I had to poke her to get her attention when it was time to leave. “Every single game I found, that wasn’t super-violent or for adrenaline junkies, was either for someone of Issi's age, or heavily branded. More often than not, it was both,” she hissed, obviously more than a little pissed that she didn’t have anything to show for her efforts.
“Don’t worry about it now,” I replied. “The bears managed to fill the truck, so it’s time to head home.”
She grumbled some obscenities under her breath but, in the end, nodded and started packing her stuff into her RV.
I watched the bears carefully store the new rigs into the collection truck, before I climbed into the cab of my truck. I’d seen the little guys do cleanup enough times to know they didn’t need my supervision. I just waited for Sharron to let me know she was ready, before heading back home.
The area around the shelter was even more crowded than when I left. It seemed like there were new stalls popping up by the hour. “Nyx, are there going to be enough bears to provide security around the shelter?”
It was my understanding that you were going to attempt to find less things to worry about. I can easily monitor the continued development of your forces, and their deployment around the area, without your oversight. Rest assured, there will be no gaps in the coverage.
I blinked at the reply. “Oh, well, that’s good then.” I glanced back down into the street briefly, and caught sight of a couple bears walking around, just before the truck pulled into the shelter.
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The bears were busy organizing things, and a new squad of squirrels just finished printing. I briefly considered checking on everything, until I remembered, once again, I was supposed to be relaxing. With a pout, I jumped out of my truck and waited for Sharron to land. I could faintly hear the horrible screech-thumping noise right up until she turned the RV off, and promised myself I’d never travel with her, unless it was an extreme emergency. The girl jumped out, once again her usual cheerful self, and headed over to where I was waiting.
“So… what’s first? I promised you a barbeque right? And board games? Maybe movies too. So much to do!” She bounced on the balls of her feet, seemingly full of energy.
I needed to use the full extent of my willpower to keep myself from grabbing my forehead and sighing, instead I put on a small smile. “So… where do we start then?”
“Definitely the barbeque. For that we need some quality imitation meat products, and a grill. I can buy a quality grill, and attach it to the back of my RV, if you buy the food.”
I nodded, still unsure exactly what was so exciting, or relaxing, about a BBQ and turned to Spooky. “Nyx, I apparently need some quality meat-like products.”
“Easily done. Would you like a combination of chicken, pork and beef?”
“Yes!” Sharron shouted to me from the back of her RV, where a massive metal box had appeared. She appeared to be inspecting it, fiddling with the dials on the front, and flipping the lid open and closed, when a cooler appeared at her feet. Sharron flipped the lid and dug through the contents happily. “You should let the others know what the plan is. Make sure they don’t fill up on snacks.”
“We don’t really have… you know what? Ok. Be right back.” I walked through the garage, and into the residence. Jane and Alan, who were discussing things at the table, looked up when I walked in.
“Howdy people, what’s happening?” I asked.
Jane just raised her eyebrow. “You’re awfully cheerful… what did you do this time?”
I shrugged, “Apparently I’ve been doing too much lately, so I’m on vacation, starting today. Also Sharron’s in the garage preparing a barbeque, because apparently that’s something people do to relax, followed by bad movies and board games. So that’s a thing.”
“You know you could have called ahead to let us know this was happening, instead of springing it on everyone,” Alan said with a shake of his head.
“Oh yeah… I do have that option don’t I? Well, I figured it wouldn’t be a huge deal, since we rarely have anything nice to eat, and I haven’t had time to sit down with everyone lately.”
Jane just grabbed her forehead. “It’s fine. We didn’t have anything planned for tonight.” After a moment she sat up and pointed in my direction. “I’ll collect the kids, and get some dishes. You really need to remember that you can call us directly, instead of relying on Nyx for everything.”
Jane quickly left the table, leaving to go collect the kids, leaving Alan and I alone. He just looked at me in silence, a disapproving look on his face. “Stop that, or your face will stay that way… if it hasn’t already,” I quipped, before turning on my heels and heading back to the garage. It was half to snub him, half to hide my embarrassment of forgetting I had augs, again.
When I stepped back outside I was surprised by how much the area had changed. Sharron had moved her RV a couple feet from the door and set up her ‘grill’ along with a couple foldable tables and a set of chairs. She’d even run a couple strings of lights from the RV to the wall.
“The hell is this?” I asked, staring at the layout.
“If you’re going to hold a barbeque you need to do it right, setup under the night sky with patio furniture and fairy lights,” she said with a grin.
“We’re not outside. We’re inside a building, under the ground. That’s probably the farthest from outside you can get,” I replied. I knew she was doing this for my benefit, but what she was saying was so crazy it was giving me a headache.
“Well, it’s as close as we’re going to get. I’m sure the kids will enjoy the atmosphere, and all you have to do is sit and relax.” Shannon pushed me into one of the chairs, reached into the cooler, and pulled out some sort of beverage, and pushed it into my hand. “I’ll let the rest of your family out, grill some meat, have some beverages, and have a wonderful time. Relax!” She waggled her finger at me, before running over to the residence to let everyone out. In the back of my head I could already see Eddie, that little troublemaker, trying to sneak away and play with the tech. Or Issi getting distracted by the bears.
I slumped into the chair and started organizing the bears to ensure no-one got hurt. It was a very stressful start to my so-called relaxing night.