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16
TSCHENKAR
I’d found the jackpot. I didn’t even know what that word meant, but the Hivemind had put it my noggin before it had died. I just knew it meant I’d found something very good. Maybe it was like a honeypot.
It was an underground bunker stocked full of supplies. It hadn’t quite been dumb luck that I found it, but it had been lucky as shite either way.
I’d noticed some trees that didn’t look quite like they were supposed to. Well, it wasn’t the trees themselves, more how they were arranged. We’d been in this bloody forest for what felt like months now—though it had really only been weeks—and I’d seen a lot of fucking trees. There was a way mother nature naturally arranged them as the forest grew, and whoever had planted—or replanted—these trees had tried a little bit too hard to make the configuration look random. I could see the human hand in it, and even though I’d almost been out of time, I took an extra ten or so minutes to comb through the area.
Just when I’d nearly given up is when it had happened. I’d stepped right on a patch of snow that felt different somehow. At first I thought I’d imagined it, but after stomping a few times, I knew I’d been on to something. So I’d dug it out, and I’d found a door covered in foliage. I’d stomped on the door, and it had rung hollow.
With my Khetar strength, I’d gotten the door broken open in short order, and now I was inside.
Surrounded by supplies. Caned food. A small arsenal of guns—both chemical and plasma, with ammo for both. There were several wardrobes worth of clothes, though none of it fit me. It was all human women’s clothes, of course.
There was almost no point in taking stock of everything. It was more than we needed, the only thing it was sparse on was space. There was just enough space that Eve and Midwife could stay inside in the warmth, while Kantus and I would take shelter above, defending our women below.
Whoever had built this shelter probably died before she got here, or maybe she was stuck in the city. Either way, it was better if someone got to use it.
Now I just needed to get back and bring everyone here.
I grabbed as many guns and ammo as I could carry. I didn’t bother bringing any food or clothing. There was no point bringing that out to them when I could simply bring them to the big stockpile. The guns, on the other hand, I needed those right now.
I left the barely functional laser rifle behind. In its place, I now had a fully loaded plasma rifle with four extra power cells stuffed into my jacket pockets. I also had two chemical weapon pistols, which I lashed to my body with some rope I’d found in the shelter, forming makeshift holsters. I climbed the ladder out of the shelter, then spent a minute or two trying to hide the door as best I could.
I’d be back here in a few hours. No one had found the shelter yet, and it was unlikely they would while I was gone. Especially if I covered it up again.
I started to move. I was tired, but Khetar could weather being tired. Tiredness was a vague feeling, a little nagging hassle that sat in the back of my mind and grew day by day. If I pressed myself too hard and too long, it would eventually catch up with me, but I wasn’t there yet. I was a scion, and I simply refused to be tired.
Just when I was almost back to the place I’d had the women and Kantus wait for me, I heard the sound of gunfire. Ancient gunfire.
I started to run. Toward the gunfire, of course.
Fuck. Fuck.Fuck!
