Archimedes

Archimedes snapped awake, his whole upper body bolting up.

“Shhhhhh . . . Shhhhh, go back to sleep,” Lucy said as she rolled to the side, squeezing her pillow tight and turning her back to Archimedes, on whose chest she had been drooling. “It’s still dark out. Go back to bed.”

Archimedes took a moment to look around, trying to get his bearings even if the light that spilled from beneath the room's door ruined his ability to see anything of note. Even though Lucy was pressed against him, squished onto the same military-hospital-style cot, he couldn’t make out more than the outline of her body.

“Over here,” he heard Nguyen’s voice in a hushed whisper next to him and felt a hand on his shoulder. “Put these on and follow me.”

“Where are we going?” Archimedes whispered only for Nguyen to hush him as she handed him some clothes that he quickly put on before following her. Nguyen led him carefully through the dark and past several other cots with snoring people in them until they finally reached the exit of the dark room.

Outside of the room, which turned out to be one of those gigantic makeshift hospital tents that emergency responders set up during natural disasters, Archimedes saw a large open courtyard surrounded by tall, thick metal walls manned by men with guns, bows, and even slings and blowguns. He was able to make out these details because, for the first time since the apocalypse, there was so much electricity. As beautiful as the night sky had been when the lights had gone out, the sight of gigantic floodlights being powered by electricity was ten times prettier.

The bright lights distracted Archimedes for a moment, and it took him a second to realize why the soldiers also looked familiar. They were wearing the same uniforms as the national guard that he had met before the stadium battle.

“Are we . . .”

“Yes, we’re at the nuclear power plant,” Nguyen said. “And yes, it’s the middle of the night.”

“And you’re up because?”

“Same reason you are,” Nguyen laughed. “Cause we got that batman skill!”

“Batman skill . . . Oh, yeah. The mind stat capstone reduces sleep needed and doubles nap efficiency.”

“Yup. Now you’re stuck on night watch with me forever,” Nguyen replied with a laugh. She walked over and sat down on one of the chairs and then held up two pairs of boots and thick socks, tossing one of the pairs of socks to Archimedes before she started to change her shoes.

“What are you doing?” Archimedes asked as he caught the socks.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” She gave him an expression as if he were an idiot. “We marched practically an entire day and went through a hellish water adventure. I’m putting on fresh boots and socks I snagged on the way out so I don’t get some awful case of trench foot or something.”

“You stole these?” Archimedes hated to ask, feeling like just knowing added to his level of complicity in the crime.

“I didn’t steal them; I appropriated them. Apocalypse rules, Archimedes. Apocalypse rules!” Nguyen insisted. “Now use that charisma of yours to clean yourself off, and throw on the new boots.”

“Why am I not surprised that you remember all my stats and skills?” Archimedes sighed as he put on the socks and began lacing up the boots. “And are you going to tell me what’s going on yet?”

“Well, I can tell you what you’ve already figured out by just looking around: We’re in the military base that was erected to protect the nuclear power plant. We got welcomed in, given a nice meal, and they even set us up with cots. Which was nice. I mean, at first they were a little hostile, guns pointed and ready for battle, and you passing out from exhaustion didn’t help that at all, but before they could pull the trigger, someone recognized us. Heroes from the battle of the five factions or something . . . or was it five armies?”

“Well, so we’re safe?” Archimedes asked.

“We are for now,” Nguyen answered. “But we won’t be for long if we don’t get moving.”

“If we’re going off, then shouldn’t we wake the others?”

“You think they’ll even move if we try to wake them? They conked out just as hard as you, but they don’t get two-for-one sleeping efficiency,” Nguyen replied. “It’s going to take twice as long for them to get moving, so if we’re going to get stuff done, it’s just you and me.”

Before they could carry on, the two of them were approached by a fifty-something man with white hair and an awkward pair of glasses with a bent frame and a hard scratch across the left lens. “Excuse me, ma’am, sir. Colonel Joseph Hooker would like to speak to you.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Archimedes couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable being addressed as “sir” by a guy who was two or three decades older, and a sidelong glance at Nguyen told him she seemed to feel the same way.

“I am not old enough to be a ‘ma’am,’” Nguyen grumbled as she stood up.

“Sorry. Habit.” The man smiled warmly at the pair, making it impossible for Archimedes not to feel a little guilty as he stood up as well.

“Still a private?” Archimedes asked, noting the insignia on the man’s uniform as the two of them started following him to the colonel.

“Well, you know how it is.” The man shrugged. “My son had just enlisted when hell broke out. He hadn’t even been sent to training, but he had the uniforms lying around, and . . .”

“Oh no . . .” Archimedes couldn’t help but feel his chest tighten a little bit at the thought of what was to come in the story.

“What? No, no! He’s fine. He just reported in any way, even without the training, and they said there wasn’t an issue, that they’d teach him along the way, and, well, since I drove him, they welcomed me into the service too. I don’t get to do more than push papers, fetch people, and take care of other secretarial stuff since I’m not trained, but you know, it’s not a bad life. It’s nice to be able to be the good guy for once.”

“For once?” Archimedes asked.

“Well, you know, before this, I was an insurance salesman. My pockets were filled with people’s rejected claims,” he explained with a laugh, despite the awful context of the subject matter. “But hey, now I’m fighting zombies and working with my kid, and I got to personally kill that cheating ex-wife of mine. Honestly, being a good guy, doing an honest day’s work . . . highly underrated. Anyway, we’re here. Hope you two have a great night, or morning? Whatever it is for you. Oh, and you might be tired of hearing this, but my son and I were at that stadium, and what you did for us . . . We’ll never forget. Thank you both so much.”

Archimedes was happy his efforts were appreciated, but he felt a little awkward because he didn’t actually know how to respond to the thank-you at all. A “you’re welcome” didn’t feel right, but not acknowledging the man didn’t feel right either. Even downplaying the effort felt wrong.

“If you were fighting there, then you deserve just as many thanks as we do,” Nguyen said, sticking out her hand. “We wouldn’t have been able to do anything without your support.”

Archimedes felt relieved as Nguyen took care of the dialogue for him. He was used to being around the foul-mouthed Lucy, who would have probably made the whole situation even more awkward with a few remarks that, although they would have made Archimedes laugh, would have also made him feel bad about laughing at the same time. He would often jump ahead of these things and make sure he spoke first before she got a chance to throw her verbal barbs out.

After the exchange, Nguyen and Archimedes followed the soldier up to a well-lit tent, where the private knocked three times on the nearest piece of wood, which was a two-by-four leaned against the frame, before a loud grunt from the inside signaled that they could go in. At that point, the soldier gestured for them to enter.

“Sir, here are the requested adventurers, sir!” the former insurance salesman said with a salute that even Archimedes could tell wasn’t quite right.

The heavy man nodded, returned the salute with a weary sigh, and turned toward Nguyen and Archimedes. “You’re the group that made it across the river in response to our call for aid?”

“We didn’t get a quest or anything, but we saw the army heading in this direction and thought we could help out. No point in letting the monsters turn the city into a nuclear wasteland,” Archimedes answered.

“We came to a similar decision after the stadium incident and our unit was dispatched to secure the site and try to get electricity flowing back to the city. We killed the monsters that had been created by whatever this all is and made the site a S.A.N.E. base. We’ve been working on restoring some power to the city, but more and more of these creatures keep disrupting our work. Now there’s a whole army of them across the river, and if we hadn’t destroyed the bridges north and south of us, we’d already be overrun.”

“Why does it feel like there is a giant yellow exclamation mark above his head,” Nguyen quietly whispered to Archimedes as the two approached the table with the projected map that was between them and the colonel. “So much exposition . . .”

“You know, I might be old, but my hearing isn’t that bad,” Colonel Hooker remarked with a hearty laugh. “But don’t worry. If it feels like I’m a quest NPC, that’s because right now, I am. I have a quest, and if you do it, I’m sure you’ll get some EXP in the process, and I’ll toss you a gold coin or two.”

“Gold coins? Are those even worth anything anymore?” Nguyen asked.

Archimedes shrugged. “Only to heroic plumbers.”

“Or bronze skill cards or rations, whatever is worth more to you,” the Colonel said. “So, do I have your attention? Are you going to help?”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Archimedes answered, adding a belated, “sir.”

The colonel waved his hand at the “sir,” dismissing the need for formality. “Glad to hear you’re on board. Here’s what I need from you: I have scouts that haven’t reported back from the southern riverbank. Go see what’s delaying them and help them on their mission. Your rewards will depend on what you find and do.” The colonel tapped something on the table before continuing, “I’ve created the quest in the system menu. Any questions?”

Archimedes brought up his quest system, saw the local quest window appear in front of him, and brought up the mission.

Scout the Scouts [Nuclear Power Plant Location]

Objective: Locate and aid the scouts sent to the southern riverbank.

Description: A group of scouts were sent to investigate unusual enemy activity and have failed to report in. Find them, discover what has caused their delay, and aid them in their mission.

Bring back my troops, I can’t afford the hazard pay if scouts start dying on the job.

Reward: Bronze card for each scout aided.

Bonus reward dependent on mission contribution.

He accepted the mission and saw Nguyen tap the air, accepting her own prompt. The colonel turned back to the table and started to zoom in and out of the map, examining it from multiple angles, clearly dismissing the two of them. Nguyen and Archimedes left the tent, noting that the soldiers that had guided them were standing outside the tent. He was called in a moment later and nodded to the two as they walked away.

“Should we wake the rest of the team for this quest?” Archimedes asked.

Nguyen shook her head. “Nah, it’s just a scouting mission. What’s the worst that could happen?”