Not So Simple ~Part 2
Not So Simple
Part 2: Lunae arcana
The compound walls finally came in sight about an hour after midnight. We all breathed a little bit easier knowing we were that close to our objective. This was a night I really did not want to remember, though I knew those creatures would be visiting me several times in my sleep. I was going to be in for an interesting few nights, to say the least.
The walls we'd built were pretty solid. The outer layer was sheet metal we'd scavenged from various parts of the city. There had been enough equipment that was still working that we'd welded the plates together. Directly behind that was concrete. Large concrete slabs had been lifted out of their foundations and carried in. They sat two feet in the ground surrounded by more concrete to hold it stable. Gaps between the slabs had been shored up with more concrete. It was probably the strongest layer of the wall. Behind that was just another layer of welded sheet metal. It'd been set in with the concrete base layer and pounded into the concrete at the top with railway spikes. It was quite an undertaking. Granted I'd only been here for the last little bit.
The wall was a semi-circle, the last half having been pre constructed for us. It was the ruins of one of the many buildings in the area. It was one of them that had fallen over at some point during the war. Collapse a few more levels in on themselves, pile up the ruble around the outer frame and you got a nice interior space, still sheltered and out of the weather, and still didn't have to worry about animals or humans getting in because the outer layer was packed up quite nicely. There was more than enough room inside the building for all of us to live, as well as to keep everything stockpiled.
We stopped well away from the wall. Just walking up to it was a very good way to get shot, and I really didn't feel like having bullets flying at me tonight. I took a small penlight out of my pack and flashed it three times towards the wall. A moment later, two flashes answered, followed by a grating. We hurried forward and dropped into the newly opened trench. We figured this was the easiest solution wasn't to make a gate. It'd take a lot of work, but we'd carved out a short trench, and then covered it with a steel plate. The plate sat in a carved grove and slid back into the ground for entry or exit. When it was closed, there was no way to open it from the outside.
Kerros dropped in first and nodded to the one who'd pulled gate duty for the night. Myla followed and quickly disappeared into the compound. I pushed Kippy in next, but he was stopped by the guard, a thickly muscled dog.
"And you are? I don't recall seeing you head out with that party," he asked.
"His name is Keildpar. We found him out in the ruins. He's clear, Lukas, let him in," I said, dropping into the trench.
Lukas nodded and stepped out of the way. It was nothing against Kippy himself, we just couldn't be too careful.
"Talde didn't make it."
Lukas whined softly. He and Talde had come in at the same time two years back. They'd found each other out in the wasteland after the bombs fell and had stuck together since then. It was gonna be hard for him, I knew.
"How?"
"We were attacked by something. I don't even know what the hell those things were. But they weren't friendly and hard as hell to kill," I said, briefly describing the battle while sealing the trench's opening.
"And you're certain these things were created in the same way we were?"
"No. I am certain, though, that they had the biohazard in their left eye. Like you, and me, and everyone else we've seen. That's not exactly a natural occurrence. Damn things just shrugged off my 7.62s like it was nothing too. I hope those are the only ones, I don't think I could pull off the same accuracy again, and really don't feel like dipping into my heavier rounds. Look," I said, lowering my voice and hugging the dog tightly, "I'm really sorry about Talde."
"Yea, well, sounds like if those things hadn't given you prior warning, none of you would be coming back. I'm just glad you got the bastards," Lukas said, hugging me back. "Now get, you prolly need to thaw your blood."
I nodded and climbed up into the main portion of the compound. It was mostly in shadows, thanks to the surrounding buildings obscuring the moonlight. Small lengths of LED lights had been strung up. Someone had managed to juryrig a solar-powered generator. Charged during the day, ran at night. Granted there wasn't much we could do with it, not yet anyway, but at least we had a little light. If the EMP waves hadn't fried pretty much all circuitry, we could probably get more. But as it was, computers and radios were so much scrap. All I could really see them being used for anymore would be communicating with other groups and to coordinate searches and other stuff over distances. It's not like we'd all decide to sit around on the internet or something.
I walked into the building and headed towards the small room that served as our armoury. There was a drum barrel right outside, about half full, of spent shell casings. I doubted it, but a few of the others believed eventually we'd be able to being crafting our own bullets again, and as such they wanted us to gather up our shell casings and drop them in here. If nothing else, the brass could be melted down and used elsewhere. I dropped my casings in and set the clip on the shelf above it. Someday, I might be able to reload that clip with some nice, fresh, homegrown rounds. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. I turned and saw Kippy standing in the doorway, looking more than a little lost.
"Come on, I'll find you a room. Bet you haven't had decent sleep in years," I said.
"I don't remember what decent sleep means," he replied, falling in behind me.
We went up two floors and crossed a rather large crack in the floor. Not many of the anthros made their rooms up here, so there was guaranteed to be free space. I pointed him in one.
"Very basic. Find stuff in the ruins or make stuff to put in it. It's yours. No one's gonna mess with anything, so you don't gotta worry about that. There's a string of lights on the bed, put them up if you want. There're extension cords all along the hall to plug it in. Still not too sure about how much juice we get off a charge, so don't use too much. Uhm . . . need anything I'm last door down the hall. There's no particular rule about not wandering around, so go explore a bit if you want. Sleep. Do whatever it is you do. Just try not to wake everyone else. Really bad idea with some, trust me on that," I said.
He smiled and nodded his thanks, entering the room and pulling the curtain across the door. I walked down to mine and plugged in the ropelight. I'd gotten lucky and found two strands of red ropelights on one of my scouting missions. Even better, they both fully worked. Red was the colour I preferred anyway, it didn't completely destroy night vision. My rifle went on the desk on the corner, biped kicked so it would sit nicely. The desk was covered with various tools for working on it. Micro-screwdrivers for adjusting the scope, or changing it out if I found a better one, various cloths organized by what I needed at what point with the rifle, and a few replacement bits and pieces. I unclipped my pack and gently lowered it to the ground, allowing my wings to flex. Wearing the pack always made them cramp up after a while because of how much it restricted movement. I'd even had one custom created to work around my wings, but it still didn't help much. My cloak followed, the Velcro straps pulling apart easy enough. Trench coat off in the same way, being tossed up against the wall. My body armour had to be designed in a harness style. There were some days I wished I didn't have wings because of how difficult they made everything, but normally I liked them. I pulled the black shirt off and dropped it on the floor before sinking on my mattress and working off my boots.
I flexed my toes. My feet ached a bit from walking so much. 3 day scouting run. Yea, stuff like that was commonplace by now, but my feet never seemed to agree with me. Stupid finicky limbs. My handgun came out to sit next to me. I got lucky with it. It was a Colt M1911. I only had three clips for it, though, excluding the one in the gun. I took my gun belt off and tossed it somewhere. My thigh plates and shinguards went next, and then finally the kneepads I wore. From the front, against most types of attacks, I was pretty set. The back I was wear. Because of my wings. Always the wings. I swear, the humans must have done that on purpose just to piss me off. Wouldn't put it past them.
I stood up and stretched, wearing only my black cargo pants. You could never have too many pockets, in my opinion. My fur looked a very sinister red thanks to the lights. I ran my hand through my tail, still surprised by how it never seemed to get matted or dirty. I picked my pack up and opened it. I kept it carefully divided into segments based on need. At the very bottom was stuff I found and liked. It's almost impossible to go anywhere and not find something of use for someone. For me, this time, it was a few books. I pulled them out and tossed them next to my mattress. Something else fell out though. A black collar with a tag. I'd completely forgotten about the collar. It was just one of those things I found and decided I wanted to keep. It was a little dusty, but I didn't care. The tag was a blank. Ripped it out of the machine and everything. Kerros had laughed at me, saying he was going to make me his little pet and everything. I reorganized my pack, taking out some of the items to store in my room for later and took a small screwdriver off the rifle table. I flopped in the middle of the room, my tail slowly twitching, and started scratching into the metal. I'd barely gotten through the Z when I felt eyes upon me.
"Can I help you?" I asked without looking up.
"I just wanted to talk a little. If you're busy I can come back later," Keildpar said.
"You're fine. What's on your mind?"
"What isn't right now?"
I laughed and motioned him to the bed. He sat on the very edge, looking very much out of place.
"Relax. I'm not gonna kill you and eat your eyes."
"I know. It's just weird. I've been on my own for four years, and before that it was only my squad. I'm not used to something like this. I don't know what to do, or how I could help, or anything."
"Culture shock. Or something like that. Most of us have gone from the facilities, to war, to wandering around. Sometimes there are groups; sometimes it's just one or two. Lukas, the dog at the gate, came here with Lukas. They'd been together for a few years. Few others found this place by chance. Normally it's a case like yours. We find them when we're out on patrol. There's actually another ten or so that aren't even here right now. They're on deep scouting runs. I don't expect to see them again for another few months, if at all. Trying to find out what's out there. It'd just be kinda funny if there happened to be some utopia or something out there and we all were oblivious to it," I realized I was rambling and shut up.
"So what's with the collar?"
"Oh . . . just something I found and decided I wanted. It's like most of what I have. Just, something I found and decided to take. I'm sure you've done the same."
We were quiet for a moment, the only sound coming from my slow, careful scratches into the metal and a few odd noises from the floors below.
"So how did this place get set up?"
"I dunno. When I got here, everything was pretty much done. They were finishing the third part of the wall, so I kinda helped them out with that. I guess this was chosen because it was a level area and still had part of the building intact. It worked out because just around the corner was a small park, and that's where we've had some crops. They're not the best, but it's some more food. Enough for us all too. Still, most of what we eat is in the form of scavenged stuff. Cans last for pretty much ever if they're intact. One of the DR teams came back with a few crates of MRE they found in a military base. They were exhausted from hauling them so far, but we were grateful. Still got most of them too. It's a nice place here. This used to be an office, but with a little creativity they gave it individual rooms instead of the massive rooms with cubicles. Just don't beat too hard on the walls. Bathroom is just a toilet that was modified. Runs a pipe down to the sewers. They're basically dry and empty, so every little bit we flush it with water. There's no smell, though. Still not sure how they managed that one. Not sure I really want to," I said, my voice trailing off.
Once more the only sound was the slow scratching as I finished up the R and started the I.
"So . . ."
"Now you're going to ask about what I am and why I am how I look."
"Yea," Kippy replied after a moment.
"You were first gen, I'm willing to bet. They stuck with animals they knew and had DNA for, though the colours kinda came out funky on some of you. I served with a purple squirrel at one point. Second gen they branched out a little bit. Lot of lizards and such, though you don't see too many of them around anymore. Third gen was me. Hybrids, mythological creatures, shit like that. In my case they took a silver fox and added dragon. How or where they got dragon DNA, or if it was completely synthesized, I don't know. But here I am. A fox-dragon hybrid. And again, the colours got kinda weird. I don't have scales under my fur, though there were some moments I wished I did."
"Can you fly?"
"Nah. Can't generate enough lift. Guess they never worked out the air force. Or the navy, from what I've heard. I can kinda glade, and they do help when falling to reduce speed and soften landings, but no flight. Don't think I'd wanna fly either," I shuddered at the thought. "This fox is keeping his boots on the ground."
"It seems a bit lonely up here," Kippy remarked after a moment. "We're the only ones on this floor."
"Well, you, you just got here from wandering. It'll be hard enough for you to get used to having a safe place to sleep as it is, so why make it more difficult and put you around a whole bunch of others? Tried that once, didn't work out so much. As for me," I stood up and crossed to the wall and slid a panel down. "Sniper perch. Commanding view of the courtyard and the two streets leading up to the intersection. If anything were to happen, I have the best field of fire and sight range. Purely a tactical choice. Please exclude the fact that this is more then I've spoken to someone in my life."
"You don't talk much?"
"Mostly? No. I prefer to think and observe. Let someone else do the talking, I'll just watch and see what happens. Maybe drop my two cents worth in, but normally I just watch. It's easier that way."
"Easier how?"
"You ask a lot of questions, you know that?" I laughed. "Don't form emotional attachments, hurts less when someone dies. Talde? I know him, yea. We weren't close, though. It sucks he died, but I'm really not gonna be crying over it. Neither will most of the others, but that's just because death is a constant companion to everything we do, really. Any of these buildings can decide to fall at any time. We could go out on our scouting runs and never come back. Eat something that kills us. You never know. It just becomes an acceptable risk to living now," I slid the plate back up over the window and turned to look at him. "Maybe that makes me cold and cynical. I don't know. I just know that out of everyone who left that facility with me, all the third gens I'd been around for my entire, albeit short, life are dead. I watched most of them die in front of me. We were different. Harder to hide. Yea, the other anthros accepted us, why wouldn't they? We were on the same side as they were. The humans? They just found it was easier to find us and kill us. When I left my unit, I'd seen most die. All the time I've been here, no matter who has come or gone, no one else has ever seen something like me. Maybe there's a hybrid here and neither of us realize they are. Hell if I know. It's just nice knowing that even among your own kind, you're an alien."
Ok, so maybe I was a little harsh. Kippy certainly looked like I'd slapped him. He just nodded and got up, muttering about how he was gonna go try and get some sleep, and thanks for the talk. I knew why he was acting that way. Because I'd snapped at him. I was never good at dealing with people. I guess it was fitting I was a sniper then. Yea, snipers used to be ambush hunters, or recon where they'd watch the enemy for hours, days, or hell maybe weeks before firing at that perfect moment. And they generally worked as a pair, shooter and spotter. Now? Now none of that mattered. You didn't stalk your prey, not like back then. And snipers generally didn't have a spotter anymore either. At least, I didn't. I didn't need one, never had. Because battles never lasted long enough to need to change. Not since the bombs fell, anyway. The only battle that kept going was that for survival.