Spook
My third story, I feel like with everything I write I'm improving. My inspiration for the Ravagers came from the Metal Band Voivod, a very cool band with a sci-fi theme that I recommend checking out.
Jason's RadSuit made him look demonic. Granted, everyone who wore a RadSuit looked demonic. But Jason especially. His vibrant blue feathers were now covered by a deep black metal. His wings now looked like a collection of knives. His beak now ended with a wicked hook like that of a falcon. But Theo knew that underneath his intimidating RadSuit the kid was still extremely nervous.
Theo went back through the calibrations on his own suit again. Double checking the suits and equipment was of course normal for Outreach Parties, but Theo was particularly obsessive about it. Air, check. Geiger counter, check. Temp control, check. Down the list he went. Once he reached the bottom, he stood up from the small metal bench he and Jason had been sitting on. The small airlock was always a tight squeeze when it was just him inside, but having the avian inside with him made it even harder to navigate. Thankfully, no one in Outreach would ever have to deal with claustrophobia, because if they did, they wouldn't be in Outreach.
The blue jay reached for the ladder, but Theo smacked his hand away. The jay somehow shied back from the wolf, despite his back being basically against the wall already. "Senior member of the party always goes first, especially with someone as low rank as you, Jason." The jay replied with a curt affirmative. This was a small comfort, at least he was trying to be professional and serious. Avana hadn't been. She had played around with equipment, made jokes about Ravagers, had rushed ahead of the party, and had generally broken every rule possible.
He was always surprised that the ladder held the weight of the RadSuit. But hold it did. He interfaced with the hatch, and climbed up into another small airlock, as confining as the previous he had just left. Jason climbed up after them. The jays' wicked talons clicked and clacked on the metal floor. Once Jason was trained, woe upon whoever thought his party was a good target. And Theo intended to make absolutely sure Jason would never walk into a situation without at least some preparation, no matter how unexpected.
The airlock filtered, and then opened. It was snowing outside. Winter was definitely the worst season. Fortunately for the two party members, the snow in front of the airlock had already been cleared by the rest of their party. Despite being hidden around the bend of a cave, snow still built up in front of the airlock door during the winter. A hidden location was vital for a good Subterranean Bunker, or "SubBunk." Mankind's children, uplifted from animals to sentient beings, had not learned from their parents' suicide by atomic weapons. Just five years ago, their SubBunk's main trading partner, Lorryville, had been put under siege by Ravagers. The Ravagers had demanded hundreds of blankets, shirts, and the like, Lorryville's main export being textiles. Somehow, the Ravagers had gotten their head on a tactical nuclear warhead. The Ravagers ran out of food before Lorryville, and to spite the defiant SubBunk, they had pried open the airlocks and dropped the TacNuke inside. It went without saying that there were no survivors.
Even though he knew his RadSuit was perfectly regulating the temperature, the snow and wind whipped around Theo with such ferocity that he imagined it was cooler. The two of them made their way down to the rest of the Outreach Party. Ivanova was waiting for them. The grizzled shark had been Party leader for the past ten years, and had gotten them out of some sticky situation in the past. There was no one Theo would rather have in command, not even himself. "Hey kid," the jay jerked his head towards her, surprised at being mentioned, "can you help load up the HoverSkiff?" Jason stood up straighter and responded, "Yes Ma'am." He immediately walked over to help the other two members of their party, a fox named Asim, and a Jaguar named Sonia.
A moment of silence passed between Theo and Ivanova. The topic of Avana hung above them, near unmentionable. "He'll make it," she told him. Theo nodded, "He will." Having loaded up the HoverSkiff, the team set off.
-
The Party had driven for the majority of the day. The landscape never changed. The world was all snow covered hills and trees. At one point the geiger counter significantly increased, Theo of course was used to sudden changes in radiation, however Jason nearly fell out of his chair in surprise. Eventually, they reached the first safehouse.
Safehouse Johnson had had an original purpose at some point, but no one really knew what it was. The small brick building was only one story tall, and had five rooms. By the time they reached it, it was nearly totally buried in snow. "Jason," Theo said, "I'm going to give you my DeathWhip, and you're going to clear out the snow for us." Jason accepted the tool with a, "Yes Sir," and immediately used the DeathWhip to clear the snow. The plasma easily melted through the snow, making a big cloud of steam. "We need to get him out of his shell, make him say something other than 'Yes Ma'am' and 'Yes Sir,'" Ivanova whispered to him. "Socialization can come after we're sure he won't accidentally drop a building on himself with a Plasma Grenade," Theo countered. "If he's socialized, he'll work better with the Party," she shot back. Theo said nothing. The snow was cleared, and the rest of the team got out of the HoverSkiff.
The Safehouse had alcohol, because of course it did. Ivanova poured out a glass of scotch for every member of the team. It was time for "socializing." Theo's least favorite time of the day. "Jason, have you ever heard of Denver?," Ivanova asked. Jason shook his head no. Theo rolled his eyes, he knew this story well. Ivanova launched into her tale, "On the first day of the war, San Francisco was destroyed, as we all know. But, what you probably don't know, and what the East Asian Alliance certainly didn't know, is that San Francisco was never the capital of the Western Republic. The real capital was actually the city of Denver all along. Now, the Western Republic equipped Denver with the best defenses possible, and since the East Asian Alliance didn't consider it a high enough target, the defenses held. This means that Denver is the only city to have survived the war. There are still humans left, and they're out there in Denver, biding their time," now Ivanova added something Theo had not heard from her before, "and I know someone who knows where they are." Theo narrowed his eyes at the shark. "Who is it?" Jason asked her, obviously excited, whether or not the excitement was genuine or a product of all the alcohol, Theo couldn't tell. "There's an otter we will be meeting at the ruins," she explained, "and she has a map that will lead me to Denver. Of course, I'll be needing some help to get there." The jay immediately volunteered. Theo liked him better when he was too nervous to speak.
The drinking and the stories didn't stop with Ivanova. Sonia, the jaguar, launched into a story next. "It was a few years ago, maybe five now I think? We were in what was once a grocery, and we had gotten separated by all the old shelves that used to hold things. I was about to start yelling for the others, when I saw the spook. He was a vibrant yellow and red serpent, his scales clashed with his vibrant blue employee's uniform. He was just standing there in the aisle looking at the empty shelves. He turned to me, and I swear he looked right through me, and he said, 'we need to get this restocked as soon as possible,' and then I blinked and he was gone. And I mean I had always dismissed spooks, but they're real, I saw one." She finished the story by downing yet another glass. "Uh, what exactly is a spook?" Jason asked. Theo jumped in, not wanting his apprentice to worry about what in his opinion were nonexistent threats, "Spooks are just ghosts, ghosts from all the people from before the war who got blown up. Don't worry, Sonia's just trying to scare you, they aren't real." Sonia glared at Theo. "They don't scare me," Jason said, "they sound beautiful."
-
The ruins used to be known as Phoenix. Theo never saw anything but ashes. The Outreach Party began unloading the skiff. The jay's wings provided unexpected help in this task. When someone was next to Jason helping unload, he would put his wing against their back to help hold them up. Theo was grateful for the extra help, unloading was always a pain.
"We will split into two teams," Ivanova explained to them, "Theo, Jason, and Asim, you're one team." Jason and Asim high fived, back at the safehouse Jason had earned the fox's respect by somehow out drinking him. "Me and Sonia will be another team. Theo, your team will head to the old shopping mall, my team will head down to the old bank, and then we can meet up at the stadium." The two teams took their gear, and headed out into the dead city.
Theo's time walked in silence for about two hours. The joviality of the safehouse seemed to have vanished. Jason broke it with whan in Theo's opinion was the worst question possible, "Who is Avana?" Theo stopped dead. The jay didn't notice, and would have kept walking if Asim hadn't grabbed his arm. The jay and fox looked at Theo, waiting. "Avana was my first apprentice before you Jason, and she's dead." The two other members of his team continued staring at him, obviously wanting to know more, but too nervous to ask. "She rushed into a building before it was vetted on her third time out, she fell through the flower and was killed by landing on a piece of metal. There was nothing anyone could have done. We are not going to talk about this ever again, so let's keep moving." The jay and the fox turned back around, and continued their march.
They reached the mall. The buildings had all mostly decayed and collapsed, but some still stood. This area of the ruins hadn't been directly hit by a nuke like the other side of the city had been, so there was much more to salvage. Theo placed the homing beacon on the ground. "Do both of your RadSuit's see the beacon?" he asked. The jay and the fox nodded. "Good," Theo said, "Normally all three of us would go in different directions now, but Jason I want you to come with me, you aren't ready to go off on your own yet." They parted ways with Asim.
As they walked, Jason noticed a flower. It was impossible, all flowers had died in the war. But there the flower was, sticking up from the ground triumphantly, as if to say that destruction was not the only possibility.
-
Asim scrambled down the hill. He flicked his tail back and forth in contentment. He pulled behind him three large car batteries, very useful for the SubBunk. One of the batteries got stuck on a piece of concrete as he dragged it. He stopped, knowing full well that his RadSuit's extra strength could ruin the battery, and slowly got it unstuck. Satisfied, he turned back around. He came face to face with a woman. She was a coyote, who stood about a head taller than Asim. The first thing he noticed was her left arm. It didn't end in a hand, but instead it ended in a drill, with two metal clamps around it. In fact, she was almost totally glad in pieces of armor. The metal was nothing like the sleek black RadSuit that Asim wore, her metal was a deep gray, and partially rusted. Multiple metal spikes jutted out from her armor. She lifted her gun, made of the same decrepit rusted metal as her armor, and with just as many spikes it seemed. Asim made a mistake. He reached for his DeathWhip instead of firing one of his suit's missiles. His hand touched the weapon just as she shot him in the chest with her plasma rifle.
-
Ivanova had believed she could trust the otter. After all, she was paying quite the hefty sum for the location of Denver. However, when she and Sonia entered the abandoned bank to get the info, they had found themselves immediately surrounded by Ravagers. Ivanova didn't hesitate, even for a moment. The shark activated the self destruct on her suit. They would not ever discover the SubBunk's location. A small nuclear fireball consumed the building.
-
Asim didn't return to the beacon. Jason paced back and forth. "You should calm down," Theo said, "he's probably just running late, if he isn't back by morning we'll go look for him." The jay stopped, and then turned and stared at him. No, not at him. Past him. "What is it?" Theo asked. Jason tackled him. Theo yelped in surprise, and grabbed Jason's wing, leveraging it against the ground to force him off. Before he could stand up, a plasma bolt hit the ground where he had been standing. Theo lifted Jason up, and the two ran.
"I know why you're so silent all the time," Jason said. Theo looked at him. The building they were taking shelter in was pitch black, but Theo still knew where the jay was based on his voice. "And why am I so silent?" the wolf asked. "It's this place," Jason said, "these ruins. We could die at any moment like Avana, it's the real world." Theo looked away, angry, "We are not going to talk about her." The jay stood up, "I don't think it's the real world really, I just think it's a nightmare. The real world is what we think the world is." Theo snorted, "The real world is the real world. Dead is dead."
They left their shelter in the morning, and slowly clawed their way to the stadium, taking care to not draw any attention to themselves. Half of the stadium had collapsed, and so as per his usual visits Theo led them in through the intact side of the building. They climbed the steps up to where the seating was, and looked out. On the field were dozens of Ravagers, sharp metal armor and weapons glinting in the sun. "They were waiting for us," Theo said, dumbfounded. A shout came from their left. Jason, like Asim before him, had a brief moment of confusion before reaching for his DeathWhip. Theo shot the Ravager with a missile, and then grabbed the jay by the arm and pulled him along through the corridors. "Oh god," the jay mumbled, over and over. "We need to keep moving Jason," Theo said as the jay tried to slow down.
They made it down to the main set of doors, and stopped dead. Spooks. An entire world of them. Beyond the doors they drove their cars and talked on the sidewalk. Massive glowing buildings rose into the sky, higher than Theo had ever seen before. Theo turned around. There was nowhere else to run. They would have to fight. "What are you doing?" Jason asked. "Getting ready to defend us from the Ravagers," the wolf responded. "Why," the jay began moving towards the doors. "Spooks aren't real Jason, this is real." The jay stopped at the doors, considering, "No, I can see them. They're just as real as us." Theo swore, and began piling objects to make a barrier he could hide behind. "Come with me," Jason said. Theo looked back, shocked, "Jason, what are you doing? Leave the spooks alone, we need to deal with this." The blue jay laughed, "I am." He stepped through the doors, leaving the nightmare behind. But Theo could not wake up. He took five Ravagers with him.