Waking From a Terrible Nap

Seeing all these people trapped in here gave me a new perspective I never thought I’d have. So many of them were probably scavengers, just like me. The most seemingly free occupation the world had to offer at the moment, and yet it led them to a fate like this. I thought I was trapped in a city full of ingrates and medical bills? These people were far more strapped down than I ever could be.

If only there were a button to lift all our burdens, all at once, I’d have pressed it. I’d have done it for the world, letting it find peace again like it should have had after such a long and terrible apocalypse. But the power in me was so limited that I could only just barely support my only remaining family and our little shop.

We didn’t ask for this, we were just making the best of the worst, and the government still found a way to screw us over.

“You’ve been busy…” Yuri said, noting all the pods I’d sprayed over with unique designs.

“Generic sci fi space pods were out of style… I felt like personalizing these rigs.”

I couldn't get them all. There were way too many here for me to paint up alone. But the ones I got to do really helped vent a lot of my anger. Vent might have been the wrong word. Focus was a better one. If only I knew who to blame for this. Could it have been that iron works guy who owned this place? I’d have loved to give him a piece of my mind.

“Well, I was able to figure out how to safely get people out of these things.” he pointed to Ben’s pod, which I’d appropriately painted an American flag over. “He’ll be waking up any second. When he does, the door will open and he’ll be free.”

Just like he said, Ben’s door unlatched and swung open to the side, revealing the patriot man under it.

I expected him to be groggy, but that man went into a full fury and ripped everything off his body that wasn’t part of him.

“Where is that bastard?!” he shouted, lifting his naked ass out of there and leaping onto the floor.

“Take it easy!” I tried to reason with that barbarian, but he was fueled on pure adrenaline and grabbed Yuri by the collar.

His breath was hot enough to be visible here, smoking in Yuri’s face like an angry demon. He had the eyes of a killer, ready to slay anything in his way.

Yuri stayed calm, likely using his experience of having a gun to his head as a means to cope. I kept my rifle ready to fire in case things got ugly.

“Ben, calm down…” I ordered. “You know me. I’m Vanessa Walker from back home. He’s a friend.”

We never talked much, but he knew who I was. All I needed right now was to bring him down from his aggressive high.

Slowly his eyes glazed over toward me, his heavy breath stabilized as the murderous intent left his expression.

“Vanessa…”

“Ben, what happened here?” I asked him. “Who are you after?”

“The bastard who lives here… He lured us in and took Sadie away. I’m gonna’ kill him if he hurts her!”

“We can deal with him after you explain the situation a little more,” I said, lowering my rifle as he dropped Yuri back to the ground. “How’d he lure you guys in?”

The two of them got a call not long ago that Sadie’s father was here. He even claimed that she talked to him over the phone. I wasn’t shocked that they dropped everything to go and find him. It wasn't just a big deal for her, but for everyone if he wasn’t MIA.

“Her father was one of the First Wave, right?” Yuri asked me.

“Yeah, right alongside my dad,” I nodded. “If he was really here, we’d maybe be able to find out what happened to the other vets.”

Why did that make me hopeful? It wasn’t just because we could have used their help pushing back the Feds once and for all out of the state, but the tiniest bit of desire to see my own dad again flared up like a little spark.

“You can guess he wasn't here,” Ben said. “It was a trap. Someone wanted to lure us in so he could take Sadie for himself.”

“Why would he want a little scavenger girl?” asked Yuri.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” Ben growled. “I just want that bastard dead.”

I tossed Ben some spare clothes. “First get dressed, Tarzan. I came for both of you. And if Mr. Iron Bucks is standing in the way, we’ll put him down together.”

“Good.” He looked around the room, noting all the pods full of people. “Damn it… What the hell is going on here?”

We gave him a brief rundown of the situation, explaining that a computer was feeding off info in their dreams. Yuri asked him if he remembered anything while he was sleeping. Oddly he did. His dreams were mostly about when he was in boot camp, learning combat skills he still used to this day.

Needless to say, our soldier boy wasn’t happy about that and took point. I lent him a handgun and he didn’t hesitate to walk right into the hallway without a hint of stealth in his step.

Orb bots were patrolling around on high alert now, a few spiders along with them.

“-Targets sighted!-” announced the bots, moments before gunfire popped them.

The orb bots were easy for Ben to shoot out, but those spiders weren’t easy targets for his groggy rage to dispatch. I instead pulled up my yuzi and shot a few rounds into them, clearing the path until we ran into a real threat.

“Juggernaut!” I shouted, taking cover behind a metal crate.

The Juggernaut unloaded laser fire on us from his heavy repeater. This was normally a death sentence, but we stayed optimistic for the sake of those we needed to protect.

“Any ideas?” I asked Ben. “Rumor has it you’ve taken these guys down before.”

“Once you know their weakness, it’s easy.” he claimed. “There is a small hole in their backs that vent heat from the cell powering their weapon. Hit that, and that bucket of bolts goes up in flames.”

The catch was that the hole was just wide enough for a single bullet, and only open when the juggernaut actually needed to vent its heat, so it definitely wasn’t as easy as he was making it sound.

“Alright, think you can take care of it now?” I asked.

He needed two things. A long ranged precision weapon, and a distraction that would piss it off. I loaned him my rifle, and decided to send out a mouse to get its attention.

“Squeak squeak!”

Moukia was ready and revving for another go, so I released him and he scampered down the hall with the phone on him sending out a powerful screech.

The Juggernaut immediately took notice and started tracking him. This bot wasn't going to be fooled forever, so we had to get him turned around quickly before he got wise to our games.

Thanks to its non stop suppressive fire, the juggernaut bot was running real hot on the inside and needed to vent. That little slot on its back opened up and steam came billowing.

Ben raised up my rifle and took aim. He was the best sniper shot I knew, so I put faith in his skills.

One bullet ripped, but was cast off by the bots heavy armor.

“Damn it…” he cursed at his miss. “I’m still out of it… I can’t focus…”

The bot didn’t seem to notice the shot he took, still distracted by Moukia. His lasers kept going, scoring the floor with supercharged bolts of gas.

Moukia was scampering as best he could. His little wheels were burning rubber as they rolled quickly across the metal floor.

“Squeak!”

A groove in the ground caused Moukia to bounce and land on his side. One single laser bolt was all it took to torch him.

“Moukia!” I shouted in grief. “Damn you!”

With the loss of my heroic mouse toy came a violent resolve. I yanked my rifle back and charged at the Juggernaut.

“What are you thinking?!” Yuri shouted as he made a grab for me, but Ben stopped him.

“She needs to get around it!” Ben argued. 

It began to slowly twist our way, but I bolted in and kept in its blind spot, making sure at least one of us would stay behind him.

Once I was behind that bot I took aim and fired off all the remaining shots left in my clip. One of them finally struck the hole and started the firework show.

The juggernaut began to glow a hot orange color as its insides turned molten. Within seconds it began melting, and a few seconds more allowed us to see its dazzling explosion.

“That was for Moukia, jackass!” I shouted, kicking its metal remains.

Moukia was blown to bits. I collected his remnants and piled them safely in my backpack. That brave little Yu-Yu pet really went above and beyond the call of service, and now he was avenged.

“You have a death wish, you know that?” Yuri said to me. “There’s more coming. We need to hurry and get upstairs to Sadie.”