"Kaz" I sat on the couch as she woke up.
"Wha- Hello Lee!" Kaz, as she has before, instantly got up and greeted me.
"You're from the future right?"
"Egh, what!?"
"I'm not taking no as an answer, so what happens?"
"Nothing happens, I'm not from the future!"
"But you knew about us, and we've never known a talking cat named Kaz."
"Well."
"You also stick around Sam, who's last name is Calstianos, C, like on your collar"
"Hey, you'd make a good detective Le-"
"Don't change the subject"
"Ewr"
"Cough it up, what's your deal?"
"...ngh...I'm not from the future...just...another time?"
"That's the same thing"
"Is it?"
"Explain"
"Well, yes, it's sworta the future, but...not exactly? It's not exactly a new timeline either, those are too complicated"
"So?"
"Um...we have met before...you just might not remembwer"
"Oh what? I died?"
"...yeah?"
"Huh?"
"A few times..."
"huh?"
"Before you yell at me...you know how you rewiwnd when you die?"
"I guess?"
"You just went...a bwit too far sometimes"
"But I can't control it"
"No...but you don't need to..."
"I guess that's true, Crescent rewound me before...actually...it brought me back farther than the whole bar situation...so...if I'm not the one who does it, I get rewinded back farther, and Crescent is still a part of me...meaning, If I went back this far, someone killed me. But then why do I not have memory of it all and you do?"
"Because I'm connected to you!"
"Ho-...the bonds..."
"Yewp!"
"Hm...but seeing as you're not telling me who killed me...I take it you don't exactly remember"
"No..."
"Or you could just be keeping info from me again"
"I-I'm not..." Kaz got up.
"I'll take your word this time" I got back up. "Tomorrow I'll probably have to take a mission...if it's CSF I might be able to go back to earth more easily with all the weird stuff going on there, but if I go with Bravo Team, we might be able to uncover more stuff..."
"But that's if ywa get a mission there"
"I can't manifest destiny, so I'll just have to hope on it."
"Well, have a good night twhen!" All that was left was to go in my room. Every time I enter it, it's somehow nostalgic, even without a lot of my stuff from back then being here. ...Does the room feels nostalgic because I've been here multiple times before? I may not have asked but it didn't seem like Kaz knew how far in the future we get either. I turned my back to the bed, and let myself fall onto it. "Gue- Tsk, what the...?" I jumped back up after something stabbed my shoulder, I turned to see the cause, only to find a letter laying there. I picked it up and read it
Yallo!
Sam...
I know we have TTS and all that, but it always feels like someone's looking at it...I don't think anyone actually is but
anyways, I just miss writing these, felt like a spy movie right!? :D
Oh, I should probably say why I wrote this huh? I heard Nicholai talk about going back to earth earlier!
When would you have...
When would I have the chance? Don't ask! >:D
You should know me by now, just popping in and out of places.
So!
I was thinking, Nicholai is going on her own search, so how about we go on our own!?
Oh no...Oh no no no...
You have a lead by now don't you? And it'd be nice to get some stuff that was left behind, imagine if we got our instruments back!
We'd probably never actually get a chance to play them...but they're nice to have! Imagine when we're on a long mission, all bored, no radio stations,
We can be the radio music ourselves! Not only that but I-
Interrupting my reading, my HUD popped up from Nicholai
Do not
-Nicholai
How do you know what I'm reading?
-Lee
I don't, I just know how Sam and you are. Do
not
-Nicholai
I...have to, I may have told you her parents
could be alive
-Lee
...
-Nicholai
Are you braindead?
-Nicholai
You didn't see her, it's difficult alright?
-Lee
Goddamnit Lee, Sam could ask you to jump
off a bridge and you'd listen wouldn't you?
-Nicholai
I'm not that persuaded
-Lee
Right...regardless, If you don't wanna see the same Sam
that convinced you to lie about her dead parents turn into misery
Don't
let
her
go
-Nicholai
Got it
-Lee
Do you? Do you fully got it?
-Nicholai
Hang on, why're you going there?
-Lee
I still have stuff in the school, I was also hoping Kenneth could
find what gun the bullet that shot you came from
-Nicholai
Why not ask me?
-Lee
What? Kenneth is the guy who makes stuff
-Nicholai
Yeah but, I'm the gun guy
-Lee
...Right ya weirdo, I'll send it to you then
-Nicholai
I closed my HUD after Nicholai's status symbol changed, the rest of Sam's letter was just Sam being Sam, talking about whatever she felt like at the moment. Guess it's time I get to bed. This time, I actually managed to lay down, and with a snap, I went into casual clothing.
"Crescent, things aren't gonna get easier are they?" I don't know if it was from me spending more time with Crescent, but I didn't have to even look at them to know they said 'no' anymore. "Figured."
Once again, there were no visions, and I was stuck questioning if It was due to the rewinds, perhaps I was no longer on the path the visions wanted me to take, or maybe they had decided I no longer needed a guide and knew the path to take.
Also unlike the other nights, I woke up to my HUD blaring a ringtone, with Sam's Rose Pfp smack dab in the middle of it.
"uuugghhh..." I sat up before answering the call.
"Gooooood Morning!"-Sam
"Why so early?"-Lee
I stood and snapped again, returning to my CSF uniform, it was weird setting aside my clothes into a casual section after already fighting with it, but the CSF outfit just felt so much nicer to fight in (Probably because that's its purpose).
"Sorry...I didn't want to, but Nicholai usually wakes up an hour later than now, so we gotta go before that!"-Sam
"About that"-Lee
"Hm? What's up?"-Sam
"I was hoping to wait for a mission to be set on earth before we go there, that way everyone can go and there's less suspicion"-Lee
"True, that is a good idea, but we won't be able to search as much if we're also on a mission"-Sam
"But we can't search at all if Nicholai catches us."-Lee
"...Alright, now you owe me a search and a dance"-Sam
"You still remember that?"-Lee
"Course I do, anyways, I'll be off now! Got plants to tend to"-Sam
With that the call came to an end.
"I need another bed..." My back cracked as I stretched. "Come on Crescent" I won't deny, I was always paranoid Crescent would just miss the sheathe and stab me, but the fear did dwindle after some time, never went away fully, just pushed back into my mind. Contrary to my fear, Crescent didn't miss its home, and clipped in like every other time. Leaving the room was just like normal, no tripping, no knocking on the door. I'm getting a mission sooner or later...the question is when?
"Yallo!" From the living room I could see Sam waving to me. Like she said she was going to, she was tending to any plant...they all looked the same state to me, but it was clear some needed more attention than others. "Oh! By the way" Sam quieted down as I got closer to the room. "Complain about being woken up early all you want, but Raymond would've woken you up sooner."
"Huh?"
"He came by earlier, but I told him to come back in like...30 minutes?"
"And when was that?"
"20 minutes...19? 21? I dunno, I just know he'll be back in less than 10 minutes...unless it was 19 minutes ago."
"I see..."
"Did...you want him to wake you up?" Indicated from Sam's quieting voice, she felt guilty.
"Oh no, if I got mad at you for waking me up early I would've to anyone."
"True that!" With nothing further to say, she fully focused back on her plants. She never once looked bored tending to them. Guess I better get searching for Raymond. Wonder why he wanted me...a mission or a talk, it could be either or really. With Nicholai and Kenneth still sleeping, I left the base and wandered the sector.
"One time offer!"
"Sale is coming to an end tonight"
Lot of merchants...the same as before. It was probably from all the years Eaxura has existed, people got into a pattern, a habit, if anything I was the strange one for being so inconsistent. Eaxura has its faults, the streets were crowded a majority of the time, it was hard to get anywhere, and places were confusing to traverse, but something about this world had a place in my heart, it felt warming to be here, or maybe it was because I got used to the hellish world that became of earth.
During my wandering, my HUD had popped up like I was waiting for.
To my office, now
-Raymond
Raymond immediately went offline after that. I don't recall doing anything that bad...or anything at all the past two days. I didn't have much of a choice but to make my way over to his office, past the crowd and all that. This was the third...or fourth time I've been in the stadium, first time being when we were starting the whole trial thing. The same wood-colored walls and floors, if it had more twists and turns I'd have thought It was a maze.
I grabbed onto the office doorknob and twisted it, but it didn't budge at all.
"To my office, yet here it is, locked" I wanted to mock his voice even though I hadn't heard it, but whatever it was, made me decide against it.
Hello agaaaain!
-Sam
Something wrong?
-Lee
Uh, figured while you were out you could fetch me something
-Sam
Guess I could, what is it?
-Lee
So, you know how some lights help plants grow?
-Sam
...No?
-Lee
Well, some do, could you get me a white light? It helps a lot
with flowers
-Sam
Oh, also don't worry about using your own money, it's more of a
pick up if anything
-Sam
Isn't it sent to you?
-Lee
Well...would you want a fragile light bulb to be warped?
-Sam
Fair enough...I'll go after this whole thing with Raymond, funnily enough he locked
the door to his office after telling me to come here
-Lee
That's stupid, hope it doesn't take long!
-Sam
So you can get your bulb faster?
-Lee
Partially, good luck anyways
-Sam
Do I even wait here? I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed after knocking on the door. To my regret, there was no answer...and I continued waiting. My mind is gonna be mush by the time he gets here.
"Sorry for the wait" Thankfully, my mind wasn't mush yet, in fact it was very much still active.
"How do you tell me to get here and you're not even here yourself?"
"For the very same reason I called you here" Raymond opened the door to his office, with both of us entering. He had a stack of papers being held by one hand that at the slightest breeze would fly away. "You recall The Reunion right?" He set down the papers, and soon sat down at the desk himself.
"Yeah?" Unlike Raymond, I didn't sit down, rather I stood near the door.
"I need you to echo something"
"Echo?" He snapped his fingers.
"You know how you were told your rewinding only works in one place?"
"I do"
"You can make it even smaller, and sort of...make it like a video, that way nothing can change what happened."
"So why do you need me?"
"Every other person who has time travel either A, doesn't have the ability to change the range or size, or B, is busy"
"So how do I do it?" Raymond let out a sigh before standing up.
"I'll show you the best way I can." Raymond took out a revolver, loaded one bullet, and shot it at the wall. "Now" He took a step away from where he was, and motioned me to do the same. Once we were both in different areas, he held out his hand, palm down, these small threads slowly drifted up from nowhere, into the center of his palm, once they had all gathered there, he quickly closed his hand, crushing the thread.
It wasn't even a second before I saw another me and Raymond, they were doing the same exact thing that happened, Raymond fired the bullet, he took a step away, and so did I.
"You get a more precise picture when you have the exact time, feeling, and date" Raymond didn't look away from the hole in the wall, the one caused from the bullet. "Otherwise, the video is less clear...Just think about the moment and it'll bring up those threads, crush it once you have a tingling feeling...Oh, and one more thing, you gotta find a sweet spot."
"What?"
"You gotta close your eyes when doing it, you'll see these small dots that have a feeling to them, like voices speaking...the more moments that happened, the more dots. Find the one that gives the right feeling, in this case it'd be tingling, from the bullet firing, and the surprise"
"I wasn't surprised"
"I was, that wall was meant to withstand the bullet." He shrugged it off. "Guess it doesn't always do that." He went back to his desk, and opened a drawer. "One more thing, unlike the knife that you have, this one is a part of you, maybe because your corpse had it...or for some other reason. Why you couldn't summon it? Or even know it existed? Prolly just cause you forgot it even existed"
"How does that-"
"How would it be in your inventory if you forgot it?"
"So I double forgot it?"
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"I may have said the same thing twice but it does mean different things"
"Ahhuh..."
"You're looking for burning on this one, tell me what you see."
"Roger that" Raymond, finally finding it, pulled out a Karambit.
"This is yours now, just like it was before." He walked over, assuming his next action, I opened my hand, Raymond promplty placed it on my palm. I put my thumb through the hole, the feeling of the material, the reflection of the shiny blade.
"Feels like mine." I gave it a spin, my palm open as my thumb circled around.
"Good, your uniform already has a sheath for it, the opposite side where your revolver is." It wasn't hard to find, it looked like a thin, empty pocket, one that the karambit perfectly fit into.
"Neat" It felt like my uniform was more complete, but it felt like something was still missing from completing it.
"Get going Second Lieutenant" I was sent the area through my HUD, the dimension wasn't named which threw me off.
"Be back soon" I summoned Crescent and opened a portal like always. Heading in was the same as well, the only difference was when I got there.
It was a purely open field, sure, there were a few trees here and there, but other than that, nothing.
"Huh...That's...something alright" I held out my hand. "Just follow the feeling..." and close my eyes...right. I slowly closed them and it was as Raymond said. Burning...burning...There weren't many dots, yet I could hear them all. People speaking, crying, arguing...There wasn't burning in any of them. Could I be too far? There was one more, rumbling, cars and vehicles. I decided to hone in on that one, concentrate and hope it worked.
I could feel the thread pressing against my palm, I took a breath, and once no more pressed against me, crushed it while opening my eyes.
Multiple vehicles appeared, Reunion soldiers driving on a path that no longer exists.
"Guess I better follow it." Their speed was rather slow, allowing me to keep up with them even on foot.
"Man..." What I didn't expect, was to hear them speak. "This escort is so goddamn boring"
"Get your foot off my dash"
"Tsk, hell's your problem?"
"My prooooblem, is that I prefer not being six feet under"
"Ooooh, I'm soooorry, didn't know this thing would explode if my feet were on the dash"
"Yes, actually, it very much can"
"Shit, really!?" It was hard to see, the vehicles and the people themselves were like watching a low resolution video, but from what I saw the person quickly took their feet off the dashboard and put it on the ground.
"Such an idiot..." The Echo continued, but no one talked afterwards, all that I could do was follow the trucks until it eventually did end.
"Hm..." I began to look around, I couldn't feel any Echos around, but they did keep going in this direction. There should still be an Echo...unless. My eyes diverted to the ground, there weren't any tracks leading the way I thought they went, instead, it was a sharp turn into the denser portion of trees. Now why would that be the case? I made sure Crescent was on standby while I walked into the treeline, just in case anything happened. For the most part it was just walking, even though I was on the right trail, the Echo still didn't return until I came across ruins. Buildings were burnt down or destroyed. So that's why Raymond said burning.
Stepping into the area was unsettling, it felt like I was being watched constantly.
Burning...burning. I held my hand out while I searched. The thing was, it wasn't difficult to find at all, it was the only thing that felt that way.
With another echo, and another pulse, I looked into the past, the city was far from ruins, and the truck from before had parked...For the most part at least. Whatever was in the truck was banging to get out, it was something that was alive.
"What have you brought here!?" Hearing people talk on the other side of the truck, I walked around, there stood the Reunion from earlier, near the truck, and people who looked like city-folk near the buildings.
"A new power supply" The guy who had his foot on the dashboard tapped his hand on the truck, which only angered whatever was in it even more. "Like we promised of course"
"That isn't a power supply, that's a monstrous being!"
"You asked for a power supply and we gave it, time for you to hold up your end of the bargain." I can already piece it together...The creature must've broken out and burned the place...that or the Reunion di-. A branch snapping, it broke my line of thinking almost instantly. So it's still here. I summoned Crescent to my hand
Dave: "Sir Lee"
Dave talking to me wasn't like TTS, yet...it was close enough.
"Dave?"
Dave: "Yes, as previously mentioned I am acting as the handler, I am thus adding a new portion on your HUD and a new ability"
"How did you do that?"
Dave: "Not important, what is, is that you are now capable of scanning enemies which will allow you to record anything that happens during the fight, including weaknesses, abilities and any other important information. Weaknesses that I can find about them are also uploaded to the bank."
"Thanks?"
Dave: "No problem, if you require Bravo Team's assistance in this fight I will call them for you"
"No, it's alright. I'll manage"
Dave: "Understood sir."
A section of the ruins fell apart. So it's over there. I grabbed onto Crescent with both hands, I could only ready myself. I should have some sort of immunity right? I have fire skills. It probably would've been better if I stopped seeing this world like a video game...though I guess if I fully saw it like a game I would be weak to fire.
...
I waited, for more movement, for another building to fall or shift. Then a second later, another building fell nearby. Gotcha. I cut my hand and sent spears in the general direction, I expected it to miss but I could hear the creature make noise from the pain.
"Alright! Game o...n..." From the ash of a destroyed building, a purple tendril wormed its way out. No way...no way someone would use a corruptor as a power source...yet, why don't I find that surprising? I quickly opened my HUD and called Raymond.
Raymond: Find it?
Lee: More than that, it's a corruptor!
Raymond: Damnit...Alright I'll send people in, just hold on, and don't try opening a portal here, it won't let you
Lee: Understood
I cut the call short and renewed my stance, all the while the Corruptor made itself fully visible. Unlike the other purple ones, this one seemed to be partially red, with small bits of fire popping up every once in a while. The weird thing was...it didn't attack me, it stood there, staring at me.
Hang on...The corruptor only starting getting hostile when it was being bothered a few times...or at least I assumed. Will you not attack me unless I hurt you enoug- "Kgh!" I leaned forward as my head started pounding, I let go of Crescent with my left hand to hold onto my head but it didn't help at all, I felt like my brain was numbing with static. "Agh!" The Corruptor wasn't it...Through the pain I saw something...like the echo a sight of the city not before it fully burned down, but just as it was...the Corruptor was there yes, but someone was as well, someone who killed both the Reunion and Civilians. It's...the same guy. I could only see most of their back, but just a fragment of their front was visible. That goddamn gas mask...that damned glowing blue eye. I felt pulled, compelled to give into whatever was giving me this vision. Seeing it as a last resort, I took out my karambit and stabbed myself in the hand, the moment blood even thought of bleeding out, the vision and pain stopped...at least the pain in my head.
"Second Lieutenant!" I heard the voices of CSF behind me...no rather they were right next to me.
I looked up quickly, the corruptor was gone, and a large amount of CSF were looking around for it.
"But it...was just here..."
"Do you have any idea where it went sir?"
"No...at least...not any good idea..."
"Are you alright sir?"
"No...not at all..." I couldn't bluff out of it, though It's bearable enough to say it isn't there like before, it did still feel like something was trying to worm its way into my head. "Hey..."
"Yes sir?"
"How do you warp?"
"What?"
"There was this guy...he threw his weapon and appeared next to it...how do you do that..."
"Uh...well...sir I know it's possible for every DT to do that but, I don't think you should exactly get to learning that now."
"Course..." It took a while, but I was able to stand just fine. "Raymond still in his office?"
"Yeah, we have a portal for you" The soldier stepped aside, revealing a portal just a bit away behind him.
"Appreciate it."
"No problem sir, take care." I waltzed my way out, the portal brought me almost exactly outside his office, where Raymond was sitting down going through more files.
"Lee"
"Raymond" I took a seat this time around, needed a bit of rest.
"Echoing still counts as an ability, as such it'll tire you out"
"I noticed..."
"CSF said that when they got to you, you were holding you head in pain."
"Yeah...I'll ask Nicholai to check it out...but on point"
"Right."
"The Reunion were using a corrupted as a power source...they also mentioned some deal"
"Hm...Anything else?"
"The guy who killed me...me and Sam, he was there too." Raymond seemed to be taken aback.
"I thought he was working with the Reunion:"
"Guess not"
"I'll have to look into it, I doubt he'll just kill you again, no I know he won't. But it's something that needs looking into."
"Ahhuh..." I couldn't be bothered to think about anything, it would most likely end up with my brain feeling numbed again.
"One more thing"
"Yeah?"
"There's another mission I want you to undertake when you can"
"That is?"
"Sadly, we can't make much progress on the Doll Maker at the moment, but there's a group just as bad."
"Fantastic"
"I'd appreciate it if you were less sarcastic"
"I can't exactly do anything else at the moment."
"As I was saying, you have a tolerance to gore"
"and?" I didn't like where this was going at all.
"It's a bit away from New Min, but it's still in the same world. There's these cannibalistic freaks who're causing trouble to humans who support the DTs"
"That implies humans don't naturally support us."
"They don't, if anything they want us dead...sadly fighting them isn't much of an option"
"That sounds like manslaughter considering what we can do." Raymond shook his head.
"Back. On. Point. Before you ask why I'm telling you to investigate it is because they typically go after people in your age range since they're easier to nab."
"You want me as bait."
"They go after humans since they die with a simple hit to the back of the head with a weapon, we don't even if it's bladed...unless of course our HP is already low or it does enough damage...anyways...you can slip in easier thanks to that, only issue is...they do know that DTs exist, so they have MEMPs" I tilted my head in confusion. "Right, you don't recall. MEMPs, are similar to EMPs, the name doesn't make much sense, however we named it that for easier understanding. MEMPs will disable your magic, which includes summoning, bright side is, it can be disabled, and the ranges aren't that large. They also don't take your weapons so you should be good."
"And if they do take my weapons?" There was a pause.
"You got it handled"
"Yeah, tomorrow"
"Heh, alright, that's good enough for me."
"Better be...well if that's all" I stood up from my seat and went out the door. "Oh..." Yeah, Sam asked for something didn't she? White Lights for her plants. I opened my HUD and went to my map, it wasn't too far away, it would only take a few minutes to get there. "Uaaagh!" I interlocked my hands together and stretched once more. Perhaps my slight lean was why my back started hurting so much...Actually...oh I better use it before Nicholai gets mad at me. I turned Crescent into the can again and started walking. Using it felt degrading, relying on something to even walk normally.
"Take care Second Lieutenant" One of the soldiers saluted as I left the area. I'm gonna die before I get back to base... Of course, it was an exaggeration, but at the time it genuinely felt like I was going to. The only thing that signified I was going the right way except for the map, was the bustling city, with people walking and talking about. Should be just around the corner... The store was decorated to hell and back, flowers, signs, lights. I walked inside, the smell was nostalgic...actually almost brought tears to my eyes.
"An amazing place isn't it." The person speaking to me wore a uniform, it nearly blended in with the flowers just behind them. "How may I help you today sir?" I almost winced upon seeing their blue colored hair...No way I'm gonna get flashbacks everytime I see blue...Perhaps I didn't see the flashback because it was more teal colored than blue.
"Just picking some white lights"
"Sorry, can you be specific on who the order is from?"
"Sam Calstianos" Something in their head clicked, they clasped their hands together and spoke.
"Ah! You're the boyfriend!"
"The what?" They paused a bit, thinking...they almost looked like they were shaking after realizing their mistake.
"A-aa..ah, my mistake, I'm used to being human so reading partner made me assume something else" Their shaking only grew worse. "I-i-i...shouldn't have made an assumption like that, it must be awkward hearing that."
"I-it's alright, not the first time I've heard it...just take a breath" Almost instantly they stopped shaking, they took a sharp breath and returned to their previous behavior.
"My apologies regardless! Either way, you're a good friend, not many people take the responsibility of carrying fragile lights."
"Well, the plants help make the base less gloomy, so it helps everyone in the end."
"I'll have to meet this Sam in person some time, it's great to have someone else who values plants."
"She's a character alright."
"Though I am curious why she sent you to get it"
"I was already on the move, and she's probably tending to plants still."
"Makes sense, well, I'll get you those lights, please give me just a moment." They walked into a backroom, I assumed it would take a while, so I leaned against the wall.
"Wonder why it smells so nostalgic" Something poked my leg, I thought it was a petal of a moving flower, yet it poked me again, grabbing my attention, I looked down to see a child holding a sketchbook. They had the same teal colored hair as the flower woman. "Whatcha got there?" They looked younger than 4, but for all I knew they were younger than that. They flipped the sketchbook around, it...was a drawing. Is that meant to be me? Granted, I only knew it was me because of the white hair and the CSF uniform...otherwise I was lost. "Hehe, what'd you draw me for?"
"Because you look cool!" Their speech was much more jumbled than what's written here...but I understood it just fine.
"Eh...?" I heard that before, it itched on my mind...Where did I hear that before?..."Well, thanks for that"
"There you are!" The woman from earlier came back with a box. "Don't nag him"
"It's alright, girl is certainly an artist"
"Heh, that she is. People think we named her on our hair color...we didn't"
"So her name is Teal"
"Yup" She handed me the box with the lights, they were a lot lighter than I expected...I did not intend for a pun to be made..."They shouldn't be too hard to install, these ones can replace any normal light bulb."
"Thanks for the help."
"Take care, and come again!"
"I probably will if Sam needs anything else, keep up with the drawing too Teal!" Teal seemed heavily motivated to continue drawing when I left. "Now to just get these back to base..." The pain in my head had left at this point, along with any stabbing or numb feeling. "Eh...Nicholai shouldn't mind me not walking with the cane...not like I can" Course she can just say 'why're you carrying boxes with that leg?' She probably will honestly. I kept the thinking up until I got home, Sam, not as I expected, was laying on the couch reading something...how'd I know she was reading? Because she had her arms raised as high as they could...if she dropped the book it'd probably land right on her face.
"Whatcha got there?"
"Just some stuff, Nicholai said I should give reading another go."
"Why'd you stop?"
"Reminded me of the hospital"
"Oh...Right I guess that would be the case" Sam closed the book and sat up.
"You got my lights!" Maybe it was some florist instinct I didn't know about, but without even looking my way she knew I had them.
She got off the couch and walked over until she was directly in front of me with her arms out.
"Gimme gimme"
"Right, here you go" I set the box in her arms which sunk before she adjusted to the weight.
"I expected it to be heavier."
"Well it's more of the light bulb ones, not the standing light ones."
"Ah"
"You...did check what you bought right?"
"I did, sorta, it was just a 'if we don't have this, we'll give you this instead which serves the same function' so don't worry about it, it's not too different...though I'll probably need a whole room...don't wanna mess with the bulbs in here Y'know?"
"I know" overexaggerating her steps, Sam walked over into a room I hadn't seen before.
"And by a whole room! I mean the one I already had made!"
"With what money!?"
"Nicholai gave me some, in return I also grow some medicinal herbs for her."
"That actually is a fair trade...I haven't really checked myself but I assume buying the medication is expensive...so making it herself would be quicker and cheaper...granted she doesn't explode."
"I won't" Something sharp jabbed me, it didn't pierce, but it was uncomfortable enough to make me move and turn around...to where I saw Nicholai with a syringe.
"What'd you inject me with!?"
"Your medication, Raymond told me your head started getting all weird and you saw visions like how corruption was."
"And let me guess, you did it because-
"You/I wouldn't sit still regardless" The two of us spoke at the same time, saying nearly the same thing.
"And also because you keep going somewhere that it's best for me not to follow" Nicholai took out a bag, where she put the syringe in after she inspected it. "On the topic, anything else wrong with you?"
"That phrasing...-
"Was on purpose"
"Figured..." I gave it some thought...anything else that could be wrong with me. "Not anything I can think of."
"Good because I watched you bring a box over here while your leg is still considered recovering."
"It wasn't that heavy" Nicholai glared at me, it felt like every second she was closer to seeing my soul.
"Okay" Her glare went away and returned to a neutral expression. "Just make sure you don't overdo it, I got stuff to do." I moved aside so Nicholai could get past. "How're the herbs doing!"
"I just got started!" The two shouted at each other, with Sam's voice barely being audible from the other room. "Oh Lee! If you're still there! You're welcome in this room anytime!"
"Why's that?" Nicholai turned back around towards me.
"She taught me a bit yesterday, I did a pretty decent job too"
"Huh, okay, guess it's something to keep you busy" She continued back to her room.
What happens next? I scratched my neck while thinking. It's still early, but no way am I doing that mission right now...or should I? It'd be another solo mission, Nicholai is busy, Kenneth is probably working with Neal still, and Sam would come along, but the amount of blood, gore and the general fact of cannibalism might actually kill her. I opened my HUD and looked at a few missions. There was one in New Min, a rather simple one too that paid well. I went over to the new room that Sam made, upon entering, I realized how big it was, it looked like a full on greenhouse, rows of plants just barely starting to grow.
Sam was on the far left side, messing with a tablet.
"Heh, when'd you start getting all techy?" I spoke to her when I got close.
"Well it involves plants and gardening...not to mention I need to see when the bulbs should be replaced...it's not like we're gonna go back to being human anytime soon if at all." She set the tablet down on a stand, where it automatically started charging. "So! need something partner?"
"Just seeing if you were available for a mission...sadly it's not on earth"
"I was just gonna ask that too...Well, I don't mind, or I guess it depends what it is!" I opened up the mission again.
"Seems like a simple recon mission, we just have to overlook a Reunion base while the other team handles stuff."
"Other team?"
"CSF, it's not labled as a CSF mission which is weird, but I guess recon isn't exclusive to CSF."
"That's true, seems easy, should be quick too!"
"You're game then?"
"Sure!" With that, I set the mission as accepted.
"It's a bit early tomorrow, I wanted to have a mission today, but bright and early tomorrow will do."
"Fine by me! Have a good sleep."
"I'll try." Sam got back to her plants, assuming I had nothing left to say, which was true.
Guess that's a night then. For the third time in the past 30 minutes, I opened my HUD, sending a message to Nicholai and Kenneth.
Sam and I are heading on a recon mission, you can come
along if you want-Lee
Roger that-Nicholai
Also, It may be recon, but that doesn't mean you can get away with
doing something stupid, so don't-Nicholai
Neal and I are almost done here, if you guys are still on the recon mission I'll tag
along when I finish-Kenneth
I waltzed my way over to my room, something felt different about it, perhaps my home sickness had passed, even if that place on earth was horrible and cold, It was still with the others.
"Heh" After setting Crescent against the wall I threw myself on my bed. "Maybe I just got used to sleeping in the same room as everyone, hearing them talk, complain...their crying was bad, as was the talking and complaining if a zombie was near the school, but...it let me know they were at least alive and human" Here though, something could happen and I wouldn't know, I could wake up the next day and not know if anything happened...guess that's just me being paranoid. The CSF trying to kill me before made me worried, that if I did anything wrong they'd use the others as leverage. Back then...back...then...
It was about a few months..., keeping track of time in the situations we were always in were pointless...it felt like it was always winter anyways.
"Could we really not have come up with something better?" Nicholai and I were washing clothes by the river.
"You wanna waste the little power we get from the solar panels on a washing machine?"
"Wish we had a washing machine..."
"If Kenneth manages to make a washing machine run on batteries, be my guest." Brushing our teeth, washing clothes, everything practically resorted to using the river once water was becoming scarcer.
"Out of all the things to break..." Wash, shake, put in a basket...repeating that constantly.
"We overused the poor filter"
"It worked just fine with hundreds of students...why'd it break with ju-
"Lee! Nicholai!" Sam's voice echoed into the forest. We picked up whatever weapons we had and rushed towards her. "Zombie are near the edge" Sam lowered her volume once we got closer, she stood atop a RV we used for travel and scavenging, which let her be our recon.
"Where's Kenneth?"
"He's scrapping a few things."
"Can't shoot them?" Nicholai spoke up before I could ask anything else.
"W..I only have the rifle so I can see through the scope...the recoil would break my shoulder."
"It ain't bad if Lee can do it."
"Oh come on...here"I took out my karambit, remembering this made me realize that my CSF uniform felt incomplete because it helped me get my memories...my weapons, uniform...it all helped. Back to the memory though, I quickly put it back away after realizing this was a good opportunity I climbed to the top of the RV. "It's only one, so how about we practice."
"B-but..."
"Don't worry, it's not killing someone...if they're sentient they'd want this anyways." Sam's hands trembled. "Let me see" I didn't fully take the rifle, instead, I grabbed near her hand to guide where the barrel was pointing. "While you won't need this tip later, you should aim slightly above where you're trying to shoot. Knowing you, you'll accidently pull down both hands slightly when pulling the trigger.
"Okay..."
"Press the stuck more in your shoulder too, it's a bit too high up." Even after she readjusted, the stock was still slightly too high. "It's good for now, just make sure to brace yourself for recoil, but don't brace too much or your shot will change."
"What's the right amount?"
"Tense yourself just a little but, then lower that a bit more."
"Is that all?"
"Well, they're not far enough to have me lecture you about distance, wind, all that."
"I thought that was just a game thing..."
"...no..." I let go of the rifle and stepped back. "Give it a shot, and remember, it's not a person anymore, and it'll kill you if you give it the chance." Sam looked into the scope, after looking into it for a while, she moved her aim accordingly, and with that, fired.
The bullet grazed the zombie in the shoulder, and also got its attention.
"Eugh!" Sam jumped slightly, seeing the miss and how to tore the shoulder and a section of their arm
"Just focus on the head, aim a bit higher and to the left, don't compensate for wind, it's not far enough."
"You noticed?"
"It would have hit the neck if you didn't."
"eh..." Once again she changed her aim. "That good?"
"Does it look good?"
"You're not helping?"
"Well, If I told you your aim was good constantly you'd just start relying on me for your aim."
"Just this once, you said yourself we can't waste ammo."
"...Like a bit higher" She adjusted one more time before firing. It was spot on if not a little of target. From what I could see it dropped the moment the trigger was pulled.
"Got it!"
"There you go!" I patted Sam on the back, it felt wrong at first for encouraging killing what looked like people, but as we grew more into the mindset that it didn't count, and it was more...extermination...like pest extermination, it became a hundred times easier.
"That's great and all, but you fired two really loud bullets." Nicholai yelled up at us, holding both baskets from earlier. "We should probably get going."
"Roger that!" Placing my hand on the roof, I threw my legs forward, and landed on the ground. Sam, being safe and having a rifle, took the ladder on the back.
"What was that about!?" Kenneth came running out of the woods with a full bag.
"Fire practice"
"Made me think you lot were getting shot." Kenneth sprinted over to the RV door and opened it. "Take it we're bailing?"
"Cleaning is done, You got scrap, yeah!" We pooled into the RV, Nicholai leaned near the door, I got in the driver's seat, Kenneth in the passenger, and Sam near one of the windows. "Lee's RV service is heading off!"
"Cheesy bastard" Starting it up, changing the gear, and stepping my foot onto the pedal. The ride was bumpy from being offroad, but so long as nothing broke we didn't care.
As I lay on my bed in the current day, I thought just how much I missed that...or lives were in danger constantly, sure, but we were alive...we were still human.