Not So Simple ~Part 4
Not So Simple Part 4
Part 4: Now that's just damn odd
I awoke to a very loud boom. The whole world seemed to be shaking from it. My Colt was in my hand and aimed, but there was nothing in my immediate sight. I sprang up and opened the window. The world outside was very dark, though I knew it had to be midmorning by now. I watched a flash of lightning streak across the sky into the distance. The following explosion of thunder was no less fierce then the first. I slid the window shut and holstered my gun, buckling it back on before heading out the door. With the storm rolling in, everyone would be hurrying to secure the building and make sure nothing was gonna blow away. Since the bombs fell, storms were few and far between, but seemed to make up for it by being four times as violent. While I'd never seen a tornado in the city, I knew it was possible. I'd seen a few massive ones on my trip across the country, and had even been picked up by one and thrown back. I was very glad for my wings then; the twister had chucked me back almost a hundred miles.
By the time I got to the ground floor, the storm doors had been pulled shut and secured, and the vents opened. Storms had a tendency to flood, as we all discovered after the first one. Drainage vents had been cut into the floor leading to the sewers. When it was going to storm, they were opened. Just in case. Kerros was talking to a group who had planned a trip into the city, showing them the drawing of the creature. I shuddered and looked away. I nodded to a few of the anthros still moving around down here. Most would be bedded down in their rooms with whatever kept them occupied when there was no way to leave. This was the closest we got to weekends, I suppose. Granted, any moment any number of things could go wrong and suddenly the building is flooding or falling or on fire.
I walked into the armoury section and hit the light. I'd have to keep this brief, since power would be at a premium with no sun to continue charging the generator. It was probably the largest single purpose space in the building, other than the auditorium in the center. There were plenty of guns, and what I assumed was a decent supply of ammunition, but it was finite. And didn't even take up a forth of the room. Most of the rest was various pieces of equipment, weapon add-ons that were found or made, rope, and damn near anything else that seemed like it should have gone in here. I walked over, grabbed one of the shotguns, loaded it, and took a handful of extra shells, which I stuffed in my pants pockets. There were plenty of shotguns and shells, next to handguns they were the most popular weapon for civilians.
"Planning on going somewhere?" Kerros asked, making me jump.
"Just something I have to do," I replied.
"I'm going with you then."
"No, I don't think so. I should be the only one crazy enough to leave before a storm. Besides, you have furs to educate."
He looked at me for a moment then shrugged. I'd never known him to give up that easily.
"Stay."
He laughed and walked away, waving a hand dismissively behind him. I sighed and ventured back up to my room, the thunder growing more and more frequent. It was probably a very bad idea to go out this close to one of these storms, but something was bothering me. A half-remembered snatch of dream that seemed a tad too real. I was probably just paranoid. I quickly reorganized my pack, stuffing in a week's worth of food and grabbing an extra canteen that needed to be filled. The knife went on my belt and I made sure to get all the extra clips for the Colt. I pulled the shotgun shells out of my pocket and stacked them into a small pyramid. Shirt came on, moving around wings carefully, then coat, then cloak. The shells slid into special tears in the cloak I normally used for shell casings or a few extra sniper rounds if I was running light. Shotgun itself slid into an easy-reach harness on my pack. I picked up my rifle, the canteens and the pack, moving back downstairs.
"Where are you going?" Kippy asked as I walked by.
"Out. Gotta check something. No, you're not coming with me."
"Fine by me, I have no desire to be caught in one of these squalls. And frankly, you're crazy for going out. Just make sure you come back in one piece. I don't know anyone else here."
"You know Kerros and Myla."
"In passing only."
"Good. This'll give you a chance to make friends. Go be a social kitty," I said, starting down the stairs.
I filled my canteens from the reservoir, and unlatched the storm shutters. The water supply had stopped flowing with the pumping stations when the power went out. However, there were aquifers close to the surface. The water wasn't clean though. Someone had figured out how to filter it while pumping it up, and they'd found enough water drums to keep an effective supply. One good thing about the storms was after a while they'd washed away pretty much all of the filth and surface radiation. Not saying I'd drink it straight, but at least they could fill a few drums and filter it. Or just stick them out and let the torrent fill them. Which ever worked at the time. We didn't have to worry about water. Food was a different matter. It always got a little worse after storms, unless we found a stash or something, but never bad enough we had to worry.
I stepped out into the dark courtyard and crossed to the gate trench. This, too, had been prepared for storms, with two vents on the sides to drain the water. It didn't drain fast enough, there was always a pool left over, but it helped a lot. I opened the panel and jumped out onto street level. It closed shut behind me, and whoever it was who had followed me quickly ran back inside. No one wanted to be caught out in one of these things. Unless you were insane. Like me. I settled the pack on my shoulders and set off. The lightning flashed and thunder roared every minute, causing the world to be bathed in a surreal air.
I knew where I was going, the path having been followed less then twelve hours previously. I was about halfway back to the skirmish site when the first drop hit me. It felt a bit like a freezing bullet hitting the middle of my forehead, instantly soaking the area. I flipped the hood of my cloak up and pressed on. The rain was light and sparse at first; only really picking up when I finally rounded the corner onto the street the skirmish took place. By the time I got down there, I was soaked and the gutters were flooding. I knew, unfortunately, that my dream was right as soon as I turned the corner. The bodies were gone. All that was left of Talde was a few broken bones and scraps of clothing that were rapidly being washed away. Guess they didn't like leaving their dead behind.
Or were they even dead? How did I know that these things were even killable? Hell, for all I knew all we did was knock them into hibernation so they could heal, and everything we did equaled out to a series of bad scrapes. That would just make these things a nightmare. I laughed at the thought. They already were a nightmare for me. However, it was more than a little disturbing that I'd seen that the creatures were gone and Talde shredded in my few brief hours of sleep, and here they were not, and Talde's remains were slowly being carried off by the water. Yea, just a tad bit disturbing. That was only one of the reasons I'd come out here, though. There were other aspects of the dream that were more disturbing.
I continued walking through the street, sticking to the middle as much as I could to avoid the deeper water in the gutters. Lightning crashed down somewhere in the distance, I recognized the sound of a building being hit. Probably wouldn't burn though, not with the rain as strong as it was. I figured that was why they'd decided to take a mostly destroyed building in the first place though, much less of a lightning rod.
I kept running through the water, by this point I was completely soaked through, but I had to keep going. It was a vague sense of knowing I was going the right way, coming from more snatches of a half-remembered dream state. That really bugged me. But it was like the Itch. And it just felt like I needed to be out here. Which was just really damn odd because I really wanted to be anywhere but here. I hated being wet, and the cold just made it worse. I didn't want to be out here hunting shadows of the night alone, but I knew I had to be. This had better not be some damn mystical journey set to me by a higher power, because I'd have to go find that higher power and introduce it to my rifle. Or maybe I was just a puppet being manipulated in some elaborate play unfolding around me. If that was the case, whoever was in charge had better get a different idea of how this is going to go or they, too, would have a nice chat with my rifle.
I kept my pace as best I could for another hour. I was nearing the edge of the region scouted along this road, so pretty soon I'd have no idea what was coming or what I'd find. The water was up to my calves now, so I really needed to get out of the storm. There was a bolt hole somewhere around the next intersection. I know this for a fact, since I was the one who set it up. As said, I'd always planned on venturing out there to see what was around. I just didn't expect I'd be doing it now. Or because of some evil creatures and a dream. If I wasn't insane before, I'm pretty sure I could say I was now. Wonderful.
I walked through the building's entrance and headed up to the 6th floor. Halfway down the corridor, it looked like the way was blocked with rubble from a collapse. Which was exactly what I wanted anyone to think when they walked in. This was my room, so it wasn't exactly advertized to the anthros, and humans were just too stupid to think to try clearing anything. And for good reason, most of the time there was no way through to the sealed off areas. That hadn't stopped me. I pulled the blocks out of the way until the hole was large enough, pushed them through, then slid my pack and finally slithered through myself. The pieces of rubble were restacked and secured so that it appeared like a solid wall again.
The rest of the corridor was pitch black. I could still hear the rain, the steady beat echoing through the empty building. It was almost hard to imagine that hundreds of people used to fill the rooms here every day, coming and going and doing whatever it was they needed to be doing. Now, it was just a husk, empty and lifeless and having no purpose. At least, it wouldn't when I left. I shouldered my pack and picked my way down with practiced ease. There shouldn't be anything along here; I'd cleaned it out so I wouldn't have to worry about tripping over anything. Even with my eyesight or the rifle scope, in pure darkness, there wasn't anything to see. I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds moving around me. I could hear the very faint echo of my footsteps, and knew I was coming close to the door. I reached my hand out and felt for the handle until my fingertips brushed it. Open, rifle sweeping in, then close again. There was a little light in the room coming from two floors up. It was marginal, but enough for my eyes to latch onto and let me see the room. Everything looked exactly as it should have, but I wouldn't know for sure until I got more light. I reached to the left and picked up one of the glow-sticks. A souvenir from a military base after the war. It was one of the big ones that lasted for close to a day. I cracked it one handed and shook it to life, the chemical light bathing the room in an orange glow. It was clear, as I expected it to be. Still, never could be too careful, especially not with how paranoid I was at the moment.
I set my rifle against the table in the middle of the room and gently set my pack down. I was very glad for the water-proofing I'd added. Off the table, I took a lighter and lit an oil lamp. The light filled the small room with a warm glow. The storm would probably rage for three or four days, and it'd take about a day for the water level to drop enough for it to be safe to move again. This was only the tenth thunderstorm I could recall in the almost 5 years I'd been in the city. Snow was more frequent than and generally not as harsh as these. If this was really bad it'd get cold enough to start turning the surface into ice. Had that happen once. There was a thigh-high sheet of ice about an inch thick once. The surface froze, and the rest of the water drained away. It made getting around just a little difficult.
I pulled my cloak off and wrung it out in a corner. It wasn't completely soaked, since I had attempted to water-proof it. I hung it on a nail. The coat followed; I swear it had to have weighted at least ten pounds with all the water. My body armour I stacked at the end of the mattress and I peeled off my shirt. Boots were very squishy, and I couldn't really hang them up. I knew what to do with them though. My pants were also rung out and hung up. It was cold in the room, and being wet didn't help any either. I had prepared this to be a staging ground for a few days. Going out alone after being in a group for so long tended to be a shock, so this was my way to fall back into my old routines without having to worry about dying a horrible bloody death. As such, it was prepared with a week's worth of food and water, enough oil for the lamp, the bed, and I'd crafted a fire pit in the middle of the floor using pieces of concrete. The fuel largely came from pieces of furniture. There was a hole in the ceiling, naturally made, that led up two floors. Two floors up, which the only way of getting there was through that hole, surprisingly, one of the walls had collapsed to make a channel to the outside via windows. Smoke wasn't a problem, which was one of the reasons I chose this room. I put a few pieces of furniture in the pit and lit them. It took a minute for the flames to really catch on, but once they did, the warmth was heavenly. I turned the lamp down a little bit to conserve the fuel and put my back to the fire first to dry it. I wondered if my tail would finally lose its flawless record and become matted from being soaked and stuffed under a coat, but I doubted it. Somehow, some way, it always stayed nice and fluffy.
After I was dry enough, I set my boots where I had been sitting, took the lamp and settled on the mattress with my rifle and shotgun. Just wanted to make sure nothing was broken or loose. Water tended to do that, just to piss me off. And it gave me something to do for a little bit. Didn't have much else to do until the rain stopped and the water went away. Besides, my guns always got tender loving care. What else was going to keep me alive? I certainly don't think the humans were going to just suddenly like me, and I knew those creatures weren't going to become friendly with some rain. After an hour with the guns, I went to the only other piece of furniture in the room: a large wooden trunk.
The contents of said trunk were pretty basic. Three jugs of water, a pile of MREs and other types of quick food, and a blanket. Taped to the lid of the trunk was another four clips of sniper ammo. Box clip, each having ten rounds. Should be enough to last me a while. There were also two spare clips of ammo for my Colt. Once these were gone, and the rounds I had with me, I was pretty fucked. I didn't know any hand-to-hand styles other then basic beat-you-bloody-fu, and I doubted I'd find anything like a sword, and further doubted it would be of any use if I did. I grabbed an MRE pouch, Lemon Pepper Tuna it proudly announced, and the blanket, letting the chest fall shut. I ate quickly, stoked the fire a bit, then curled up on the mattress, snuggling with my ever-fluffy tail under the blanket. Yep, it was gonna be a boring couple of days. Hopefully I wouldn't get anymore mystical guiding dreams that told me the winning lotto numbers in 400 years, or predicted I would have a bad fur day tomorrow.