“I suppose being able to rebuild stuff would be the first step toward getting humanity back on its feet,” Karrel said.
“Unfortunately,” Johnny said, his voice reflecting the complications he was dreading to admit, “These monstrous demons tend to stay in their own world, until they want to incite their wrath. They only appear on Earth for short periods of time. I have been working on a way to travel to their plane more consistently, so that we can take the fight to them. I almost have everything I need, but I’m missing some necessary components.”
“Wait a second,” Karrel intervened, “what do you mean by ‘more consistently?’”
Angel was showing a hint of pride in his stature. “Thanks to Johnny, we’ve been to the demons’ world. If you play your cards right, maybe he’ll give you a visit.”
Karrel’s mouth dropped as he looked at Johnny. “How the hell did you get there?”
The three of them approached an average looking door at the end of the hall. They had been walking for quite a while now and were in a portion of the hideout that Karrel had never been to. An unusual humming sound could be heard coming from inside the next room over. Johnny put his hand on the door-handle. “Let me show you,” he said as he swung the door open.
Karrel walked into a massive room. It wasn’t as long as the gigantic warehouse that Karrel had first been introduced to, but it was just as tall. Wiring and electronics painted the walls, and the floor itself seemed to light up from the reflection of numerous fluorescent panels. Computers and generators were bolted down across the ground, and if one could smell electricity, the air in the room would be thick with it.
In the middle of the room, a tall structure towered over everything, almost brushing the ceiling with its height. It looked like a steel ellipse, which was mostly hollow in the middle, had been attached to a thick rectangular base. A ramp, leading up to the empty middle of the contraption, gave away the device’s purpose to Karrel. He put his hands on his head.
“A friggin’ portal!?” he shouted. “An actual portal! No way! I had heard that the UWP was developing the technology, but I had never heard about them finishing it.”
“Yep!” Johnny said, the single word revealing more pride than Karrel had ever seen the man previously show. “This is how we get around. I’m not going to waste the energy needed to show you how it works right now, but in a few days’ time, you’ll get to experience one of my favorite inventions.”
“You built this?” Karrel said, astonished.
“If it’s in this facility, there is a good chance that I was the one who put it together,” Johnny beamed. “Except for the liquid stuff… That’s Puck’s area of expertise.”
Karrel could not hold his excitement back. He had no clue that this group was capable of such a feat. He was now seeing the extent of their resolve. If they could build something like this, surely they could win against those monsters.
“So, what’s the plan now?” Karrel asked.
“In a couple of days,” Angel replied, “we had planned to grab some supplies from the Survivor’s Guild. We need to stock up on a few things before going on our next mission. Until then, I suggest we kick back, relax, and convince Puck to cook us a nice dinner.”
Karrel listened to Angel but could not take his eyes off the portal device that was in front of him. Excitement, and a bit of adrenaline, was fueling him now. For the first time in years, the last thing that he wanted to do was relax.
Chapter 10
Click the Boot Heels
For Karrel, the past few days had been overshadowed by a piercing sense of anticipation. He had taken the time to settle in to his quarters at the underground hideout. His room had been filled with his survival gear in the same way that his closet was now filled with his spare clothes. He had to admit, not carrying around a backpack everywhere was weird, but it was literally weight off his shoulders, so he decided it was a feeling he must get used to.
To kill time, Karrel was introduced to the several hobbies of the group. Jessica had been the first to take him aside, dominating Karrel in her favorite salvaged board game. He now understood Angel and Johnny’s advice that, in their experience, it was never smart to play Jessica without having a partner.
Prisca seemed only interested in telling stories about the groups previous adventures, however Karrel did not mind. The way Prisca expressed even the most mundane of endeavors enthralled him. It was a great way to learn the history of the group, and he always was left wanting to hear another tale.
He had tried to make small talk with Alice, but the task proved much too difficult for him. Her responses were always a few short words, and she seemed too interested in her books to be bothered. Though when she wasn’t reading, he could feel that she was trying her best to maintain a conversation with him. Angel assured Karrel that she would get used to him in time, he just needed to be patient.
Puck had spent the past few days trying to convince Karrel to help him make an exploding sandwich, which he intended to feed to Angel. After getting turned down multiple times by Karrel, Puck disappointedly stated that he would just do it himself. Johnny and Angel, if they weren’t in the kitchen, could always be found in the warehouse. Angel had set-up a large obstacle course made up of junk and salvage, and Johnny could always be found in his lab working on some new invention. The yellow-eyed engineer never let anyone too close to what he was working on, and Karrel could never catch a glimpse of what he was building.
Killing the few days’ time had been the most fun Karrel had had in years. However, the memory of the portal had stuck with him throughout the days. It was ironic in a way. Karrel had always wanted to find a safe place, where he didn’t always have to be looking over his shoulder in fear of pointed teeth or being bathed in a fiery wave of destruction. Now that he had found such an area, the desire to leave was burning within him. Portal technology was supposed to be only speculative, yet he was going to get to experience a fully functioning device.
Now, as the week was ending, and he stood before the hulking steel contraption, his searing anticipation was about to be fulfilled. Johnny would fire up the portal, they would walk through, and the Survivors Guild would be waiting on the other side.
Standing at the base of the ramp, Angel, Puck, Johnny, and Karrel stood at the ready. Karrel’s attention was focused on Johnny. The short, yellow-eyed companion was fiddling around with his wrist, and as though he was pressing tiny buttons and moving little sliders, he was tapping on his own arm. There was no device attached to his limb, but Karrel could spot a few dim lights reflecting off Johnny’s face.
A low-pitched humming noise filled the room. The computers scattered around the vicinity lit up, and what used to be a dull gray room turned into a myriad of colorful displays. The vibrations coming from the portal itself began to increase in frequency, and the low-pitched hum grew higher and higher. The black wires that wrapped themselves around the gigantic, elliptical structure flowed with blue energy. A console at the base of the ramp shined with sprawling numbers rolling across its screen. Karrel felt the entire facility shake as the enormous portal powered up.
The hollowed-out center of the steel ellipse began to spark from end to end. Johnny nudged Karrel. “You ready?” he said.
Karrel nodded, and Johnny tapped his arm for a final time. The sparks inside of the portal connected, and with a loud crackle and whooshing blare, a spiral of colors emerged in the empty space of the structure. The center of the elliptical portal was now filled with what seemed like a gel covered in rainbows.
Johnny, Puck, and Angel started forward, toward the wriggling gel, and Karrel followed. One by one they walked through the gel, disappearing into the other side. As Karrel approached the portal, his anticipation quickly shifted to apprehension. He decided to be careful. Slowly, he stuck his hand out to make contact with the gel, and instead of feeling the squishy touch he expected, his hand passed right through the substance. There was no pain, no feeling, no sensation at all as it went through
. Confident, Karrel took a deep breath and stepped forward, into the portal.
This time, throughout his whole body, no sensation was perceived. It was as though he was in a vacuum, where there was no air resistance to be felt, and he had simply walked through a door.
Emerging on the other side, the scenery had completely changed. The dull grey mesh of metal and rock and been exchanged with vibrant colors of red and black. The room was enormous, approximately the size of the warehouse at the underground hideout. It was easily able to fit the portal while having a few feet of ceiling space to spare. There was a strange aroma that clouded the area, as it smelled of food and fresh air, yet a hint of gasoline had tainted the atmosphere. At the end of the long stretch of tall walls was a large ramp that lead up into a glare of light shining into the complex. The fact that Karrel could barely see the light coming from the exit solidified his comprehension of how large the Survivor’s Guild’s base was. The place was packed with bustling people and moving vehicles. The ambient noise alone was almost deafening.
Walking down from the ramp, Karrel regrouped with the other three. Johnny was immediately approached by a group of what seemed like armed guards. They were wearing black ballistic vests over their unusually casual clothing and had old military-grade assault rifles at hand. They were not, however, aiming their weapons at the group. They seemed to be investigating Karrel, as though he was an odd man out, and then switching back to Johnny. When they were satisfied that who they were seeing was, in fact, Johnny, one of the guards whistled at a nearby crowd of people.
A young man, pushing his late twenties or early thirties, emerged from the group. He was wearing shorts and a completely unbuttoned Hawaiian t-shirt with nothing underneath. By the look of his abdominal muscles, he was well trained, well fed, and in shape. He wore silver aviator-styled sunglasses with lenses that reflected so much light, it was as if his eyes were almost glowing. He was cradling a clipboard with him as he approached.
Johnny and the approaching man extended their arms out to each other. Karrel was expecting a firm handshake and an official greeting between the two of them, but instead was surprised. The two men grasped each other’s hands and brought one another in for a brotherly one-armed hug.
“Hey!” the man elongated his greeting, “It’s been a while, dude! How ya’ been?”
Johnny, still firmly grasped by the other man, responded, “I’ve been quite good. Solved a few problems and even made a new friend. How about you, Dane?”
Dane pulled away from the hug, glanced at his clipboard for a second, and then returned his attention to Johnny. “Well, per this sheet of paper, my second-in-command’s been railin’ on me to maintain, things are going just about as well as they always have.”
“That bad?”
“Well,” Dane started to smile, “It’s a helluva lot better now that you guys are here. Speaking of which, who’s the new guy?”
Karrel stepped forward to shake hands with Dane. “You can call me Karrel,” he said.
“Karrel, huh?” Dane replied, “Now why does that name ring a bell…?” Karrel shrugged his shoulders, and Dane followed suit. “Oh well! I’m sure it will come back to me if it’s important. Seems like you were unlucky enough to hitch onto these beautiful bastards.” Dane was smiling and so was Johnny, Puck, and Angel. The history between these people was so palpable, Karrel could feel the weight of it in the air.
“Yeah!” Angel confirmed Dane’s suspicions. “It seems like Karrel will be helping us out with any future tasks. He’s pretty handy when it comes to a fight.”
Dane smacked Karrel on the back a few times. “You know, I’ve been to hell and back with these chodes,” he said, “and if you can do stuff that’s even half as weird as what they can– Well, as leader of the Survivor’s Guild, I look forward to the stories I’ll get to tell my men and women.”
Karrel couldn’t help but chuckle. He could see why the others got along with Dane so well, and he was happy that the leader of the Survivor’s Guild was not a total tool.
Dane once again started to address Johnny. “So, I know you aren’t here for some quality time with me,” he joked, “Let’s get to business then, shall we? Your supply cache has been prepared and is waitin’ to be signed off. There are a couple of our outer defenses that need some maintenance. I’ve had a few of my engineers inspect it, but everyone here knows it will go ten times faster if you’re the one doing the repairs.” Dane swiveled his head toward Puck. “And, while Johnny is fixing the guns he built for us, I would appreciate it if you could take a look at my BMA, Puck. I… kinda’ tried to upgrade it, and now it’s acting all funky.”
Puck rolled his eyes and marched behind Dane, investigating the back of the man’s neck and continuing to scan the rest of his body. “Damn it, Dane!” he shouted, “I’ve told you over and over that BMA’s aren’t meant to be modified! Just give it some time to grow on its own.”
Dane gave a guilty laugh. “Yeah, I know…” he muttered. He looked toward Angel. “How ‘bout you show the new guy around back and pick up the supply-order while Johnny and Puck give me a hand?”
Angel agreed. As Johnny departed to the small glare in the distance, and Puck continued to berate Dane, Angel started the tour of the facility for Karrel.
Everywhere they walked, people were hurriedly performing one task or another. Where there were not people, there were supplies or vehicles, all of which were an armored version of themselves. It was common to pass by a sparking truck, in the midst of its repairs, every few minutes. There were large groups of civilians who were posted near small tent encampments, either tending to their families or helping others establish their cloth-based homes. The people who weren’t in the temporary camps were either helping with repairs or shuffling boxes around the base. Though they were still wearing casual clothes, the guild members could be told apart from the civilians by the single large black band that was being worn on the various body parts of the members. It had a red symbol in the middle of it, and apparently represented membership in the guild. A few band-wearing individuals were helping guide a vehicle through the masses as Karrel and Angel walked by.
“This place is huge!” Karrel exclaimed. “How the hell did they come by a place like this?”
“To this this day,” Angel began, “Dane will not shut up about how amazing the previous leaders of the Survivor’s Guild were. This base, like the others, was established by them.”
“And now Johnny helps maintain it?”
“Yep.” Angel confirmed. “Not only does he help them out with their defenses, but he constructed the portals for them as well. Now, they can cover a lot more area and establish garrisons anywhere they want to around the world. Of course, Johnny’s not completely trusting. The only person that can access our hideout’s portal is Johnny.”
“Impressive.” Karrel remarked, dodging out of the way of a guild member sprinting by him. “By the way, what was Puck getting all huffy and puffy about back there?”
Angel sighed and dropped his head. “Dane’s an idiot. Well, he’s actually really, really smart– but, he’s an idiot. He’s been trying to, against Puck’s consistent advice, modify his BMA.”
“BMA?”
Angel was taken back by Karrel’s lack of knowledge. “Bio-Mechanical Augmentation,” he curiously answered. “It would be better if Puck explained it, but I’ll do my best. It’s a half-biological, half-mechanical substance that gets injected into a human. It amplifies strength, provides shielding, and depending on the genetic structure of the human, allows them to do crazy stuff. Like, almost as crazy as us. However, the BMA is more based in chemistry and biology.” Angel laughed. “Our powers are just friggin’ magical, regardless of what Johnny has been trying to argue.”
“So, why is Puck so interested in it?”
Angel hesitated with his response, and Karrel could see that he was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. “Despite how he acts,” Angel began, “Puck is actually a smart guy. He came from a to
wn known for its incredible breakthroughs in the world of science; in fact, Puck is a goddamn genius when it comes to biology and chemistry, and he has extensive knowledge in the area of BMA’s, which should come as no surprise.”
“What do you mean?” Karrel asked.
“Puck’s parents,” Angel cautiously continued, “are the ones who invented Bio-Mechanical Augmentations. They were the ones who–” Angel stopped short and shook his head. “Man! I shouldn’t be talking about Puck’s past. If he wants you to know, he’ll be the one who tells you. All you need to know is BMA’s have helped level the playing field when fighting against the demons. Unfortunately, the UWP are pretty much the only ones capable of producing them. So, they’re incredibly rare.”
Karrel took the hint that Angel didn’t want to talk about the subject anymore, and the two of them continued toward the area where they were supposed to pick up the supplies.
It took a few more minutes of traversing the base, but they eventually reached their goal. Stacks of cardboard boxes filled the wall, all of them filled to the brim with various objects. A sign that read “Requisitions” hung above a counter. Behind it, a young female, who could not be a day older than eighteen, manned the station. She was wearing beat up cargo shorts, and a shoulderless crop-top that had one too many tears in it. She had short brown hair, and her body was obviously well-trained. There was no attempt to hide that, even though the world was falling apart, she was admittedly maintaining her looks. There was a black band with a red symbol wrapped around her bicep.
Karrel approached the desk, and finally took notice of what the red symbol was of. Still staring at the band on the girl’s arm, he accidentally let slip, “A Hamburger?”
Angel took a step back and grimaced. The girl at the counter flipped around and was immediately in Karrel’s face. She was pointing to the black band on her arm, which had a red symbol resembling a juicy burger on it. Though her face was inches from Karrel and her eyes shot death into his, her voice was very polite. “What’s it to you? You act like you’ve never heard of a piece of meat slipped between two buns before.”
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