Future Rebuilt: A Post-Apocalyptic Harem (Future Reborn Book 2)

by Daniel Pierce

  “Do you think there was a buried rector where we found you?” Silk asked me.

  “Now, I’m thinking there was. Worth a look someday, and if we find one, it opens up a whole new purpose to scavenging The Empty. It might be that people have found the reactors and not known what they are, which means there are more for us out there, waiting to be found.” I rested my hands on the tube, staring down at the woman. “Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”

  I didn’t hesitate. With my thumb, I pressed all three command variants, finishing with the universal green button labeled Revive/Cycle.

  Nothing happened.

  Mira leaned over the viewing pane, watching the woman with animal intensity. “She’s awake.”

  “She is? How can you tell?” I asked, then I saw the woman’s throat move. She was breathing on her own.

  A small hiss broke the silence as the tube unsealed. A thin blue line of light brightened around the exterior edge of the canopy, and the entire lid slid forward just enough to release a puff of cold gases. The smell was stale, but clean. This tube was a more advanced model than what I’d been in, though the setup appeared to be roughly similar.

  I lifted the lid with a finger. It was heavy, but balanced on a trio of pneumatic shocks that still worked, swinging the canopy up and away to reveal the interior. Another internal light came on, but this one was a buttery gold, heating up quickly to warm the occupant from her long rest.

  “Now what?” Chloe asked, looking down at the sleeping woman.

  “We wait. I don’t want her to go through what I did—no offense, Mira. You did the best you could in The Empty. I was disoriented for a minute or two, but the recovery was a heluva lot faster than I expected after 2000 years,” I said.

  The woman’s hand shot out to grab my wrist, and I damned near went through the ceiling, dropping my hands when I saw her eyes were open and alert, brilliant hazel in a heart-shaped face.

  Her smirk was rusty, but it was there. After a moment of flexing her jaw, she spoke in a pure midwestern accent that was music to my ears.

  “Hey, handsome. How many fucking years were you in the tube?” Without any fanfare, she sat up, a bit slowly, but with a steadiness that betrayed none of the disarray I’d felt.

  “Two thousand,” I said, “give or take a few.”

  “Fuck me. Two thousand.” She patted the tube like an old dog, smiling at it with genuine affection. “I knew they were good, but I didn’t know they were that good. Got any water?”

  “Slowly,” Chloe said, handing her a skin. We were all a bit stunned at her recovery, but she made no notice of it.

  “Don’t have to go slow. I was hooked up to an auxiliary system, and the humidity cycled through on the reg. My skin is fine, my guts are set, and I’m fully ambulatory. Lots of improvements since you went under, I’m imagining. Are you from—my time?” she asked me.

  “Just before. Went under in a clinic, but I know it’s a black site now. Looked like your average strip mall doctor office,” I said.

  “Ahh, Weston. He didn’t get out. Sorry to see him go, but not everyone made it.” She looked at me blankly for a minute until I stuck out my hand.

  “Jack Bowman. I was Marines before the planet went to shit, apparently. Woke up in The Empty—that’s what’s around us now, huge desert that we’re trying to reclaim. I’ve been awake for less than three months. Still getting my legs, so to say,” I told the woman.

  “Dr. Andi Greer, and you’re probably going to want to kiss me,” she said.

  “I figured I’d let you wake up first. Things have changed while you were sleeping. You see, all beautiful women worship at the Altar of Jack. It’s a tough job, but I’m naturally humble, so I thought we would bring you onboard after the ceremonial fitting of the retro prom gowns,” I told her.

  “If you think I slept two millennia to wear a fucking prom gown, you can put me back in that tube for another thousand years,” Andi said, laughing.

  “We could, but what if you woke up and people wore bell bottoms again?” I asked.

  “Do any of you have a gun?” she asked everyone but me. When the women all made noises of assent, she lifted her chin. “Shoot me now. I’m not wearing bell bottoms under any circumstances.”

  “In that case, welcome aboard. All worship requirements are waved until further notice. What kind of doctor?” I asked her. Her beauty was two-fold, being physical and charisma. She was stunning, with short blonde hair and hazel eyes that lit from within. I stared, then broke away, my thoughts going to how valuable she would be for the Oasis.

  “The best kind. An engineer. I fix things, and I find ways to blow things up, but for now, take a look around. This place? All my design. I designed it, I built it, and I know all the secrets. What happened out there, by the way?” Her brow furrowed, and she looked young for a moment, but it was a fleeting thing and the confident woman returned.

  “The virus, that’s what,” Silk said.

  “I fucking told them—how many?” Andi asked.

  “How many what?” Chloe answered with a question of her own.

  “People left. There were systems in place for when the entire thing went afterpoint. We were supposed to—” Andi started, but I held up a hand.

  “Afterpoint?” I asked.

  She seemed confused, then clarity filled her eyes as she realized the term was beyond my year. “Of course. You wouldn’t have known. I mean, you couldn’t have known. So much happened, so fast. We didn’t even know how soon it was coming, but some of us did.” She shook herself, sensing my need to know. “Right. This facility is part of a network, set up in two regions of the ‘states.”

  “Fortress: Cache?” I asked her.

  She wasn’t surprised, but it wasn’t the whole answer. “Only part of the network.” She worked her shoulders with a small groan. “Gotta pee and then sit down. Tiring out while my ‘bots adjust to breathing. Mind if we move locations?”

  “Let he help you,” I said, taking her hand. It was small but strong, and damp with sweat. She was feeling the effect of waking up.

  “We found a shower and bathroom that have water, and we can sit in the mess. You know where, I take it?” I asked her as she wobbled to her feet.

  “Sure do. Drank a few bottles in the mess during our time here. Ladies, one of you come with?” Andi said.

  “Silk, Chloe, Mira,” Silk said with gracious nods. “We’re sort of in this together. A pleasure to meet you.”

  “And you. I worried that I would wake up and find a planet of men,” Andi said as they wheeled out of the room and down the hallway.

  “It’s not actually like that at all. Now, as to your choice of men, well, that’s another story. Sure you don’t want food first?” Silk asked her.

  “The ‘bots fed me all along. No hunger, but damned thirsty despite our best testing,” Andi said as their voices faded. I stood in the hall, my gun half lifted and listening hard while Chloe and Mira watched the women leave. “An engineer. I’m the luckiest sonofabitch in the entire world.”

  “Don’t you know it,” Mira said, grinning. “Don’t crush her with questions, Jack. Go slow. She might think she’s fine, but I remember how weak you were for two days.”

  “We haven’t got two days, but I get you,” I said.

  We shared a skin of water in the mess room, waiting for Andi to settle.

  “Tell me about The Empty,” she said.

  Mira spoke first, since it was her backyard. “Open, Brutal. Desert conditions, variable wind and rains. Dunes over most, but oases and endless ruins. The monsters are the worst.”

  “Monsters? Like—real monsters? Are you fucking joking?” Andi asked, bewildered by our bland expressions.

  “And then some. The virus. It cracked life wide open and left a mess behind. We’ve got monsters right overhead at this instant. Part of our problem is figuring out how to get rid of them,” I said.

  “Overhead? You mean on level G?” Andi asked, pointing up.

  “Yes.
Giant rats on one side, and scorpions on the other. They have hunting access to The Empty and use this place as their lair. They don’t like the harmonics from whatever you’ve got powering this place, so the level is clear. So far, anyway,” I said.

  “Harmonics? There shouldn’t be any,” Andi said, her voice grave. “That means an issue in the sheathing. Or the centrifuge.” She turned to me, eyes curious. “What did you do in the service?”

  “Computer systems after I did my years. Combat while I was in. I know just enough to hear a problem, and we’ve got one here,” I said.

  Andi closed her eyes, listening. “Level three. There are five levels here, along with the silos up top, Those are a different system, but still tied to the same power. You say these—fuck, giant rats? Really?” She shivered, but recovered with a grim smile. “I dealt with rats the size of dogs in Africa. Not my cup of tea, but whatever it takes, we will do to clear this place. I take it you’re trying to rebuild?”

  “I am, and we are. Got an oasis nearby,” I told her.

  “Describe it?” Andi asked, putting her hands out flat on the table.

  “Radial, centered around clean water source. Some ogres—yea, they’re real—found a cache of altered seeds and started planting trees. We’re continuing their work after liberating it from them. Building out in concentric rings, using small channels to get water out to the edges. The water is protected by the canopy, so we think we can go for almost two klicks before we need another source,” I said.

  “How many people?” Andi asked.

  “Sixty or so, as of now. More coming. Skilled labor but nothing like you. Mira is a scavenger, good in fight. Chloe is a tracker and hunter, and Silk used to—she was in data collection,” I said with mild reservation.

  “Data collection? You have experience with systems?” Andi asked.

  “If by systems you mean men’s genitals, then yes, I’m an expert at data extraction,” Silk said without a hint of a smile.

  Andi burst out laughing at the brazen reply, then grew serious. “Oh, shit. You’re not kidding.”

  “Not even a little. I ran a whorehouse in a nearby outpost. My trade goods were secrets. My expertise was—” Silk began.

  “Apparently everything, given how loud Jack is when he’s with you,” Mira said, rolling her eyes. “I may be a rowdy scav, but I have the decency not to howl like a coyote.”

  “Really?’ Andi asked, her eyes flicking back and forth in amusement. “Care to add anything, Chloe?”

  Chloe dipped her head, smiling. “I don’t fuck and tell.”

  Andi threw back her head, laughing until she snorted, a noise that fit her just right. “And I worried about enough men in the future.”

  “If we could discuss your skills and how they might save the world, that would be great,” I said with what I thought was great dignity.

  “Naturally,” Andi said with a small bow. She was of average height but maximum impact, a combination I found worth another long look. Mira rolled her eyes at me, while Silk and Chloe looked at me with varying measures of amusement.

  “Maybe start here?” I said, placing the hardshell wall map down on the table between us. “It might help to know what our goals are. I can’t imagine they’re the same now that you’re here. And awake,” I said.

  “And an engineer,” Andi said.

  “Exactly. We came here for the reactors, because they’re the seed of everything we want to do at the Oasis. And beyond,” I said.

  “You’re in the right place, and you made the right call. But,” Andi began, flipping the map over to expose the back, “you’re only asking part of the question. There are five levels here, all of them filled with enough gear to build your nation. Despite the—rats, and scorpions, too—I believe we can clear this place and restore it. If certain things go right, that is.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “Getting to the power stations before any hard resets. I know that hasn’t happened because I would have been forced out of my tube if there was a safety glitch. But you’re right about the harmonic. The system is deteriorating, and you can’t risk letting that happen,” Andi said.

  “We have another problem,” Chloe said. “My former people are coming, and they want what we have. They also want blood.”

  “Coming from where, and how many?” Andi asked.

  “The south, and I don’t know. Rowan is gathering squads from his patrol loop. They’ll be heavily armed, sneaky as fuck, and willing to die for what’s inside this place,” I said.

  Andi flicked her fingers in dismissal. “Easy fix.”

  “Easy? Andi, we’re talking about dozens of armed raiders, with long guns and anything else they can carry,” I said, stunned at her casual nature. I knew she was confident, I didn’t know she was stupid.

  She wasn’t. “This facility isn’t without protection. I can activate passive and active defense positions, and I can operate them from anywhere in the facility.”

  “Wait. There’s a defense net?” I asked, incredulous. I’d seen nothing of it outside, and I had been looking hard.

  “Two of them. One is static, the other, airborne,” Andi said.

  “We didn’t see anything overhead,” Mira said. “Trust me, we looked.”

  “Not overhead now. Armed drones called Kestrels. They work in pairs, launched from the granary silos. Those towers aren’t for decoration. They’re launch platforms, as well as stable shooting positions,” Andi said.

  Everyone was silent while we considered the news. Not just tech, but military technology beyond anything I’d ever seen. It was unthinkable. It was also 2000 years old.

  I spoke into the quiet. “Andi, it’s—”

  “Two thousand years old, I know. But the system isn’t mechanical. It’s a hybrid organo-nanobot design that we finished less than three months before I went under. The drones are smaller than a hawk, lethal at three hundred meters, and capable of a full day of flight without losing operational efficiency. They were the bleeding edge even for this place, and they can take out a light company without breaking cover.”

  “Cover? They’re stealthed?” I asked.

  “Their skin is pure ‘bot magic. Shifting spectrum, adjustable density. Everything we had in defensive coating went into those birds, and they pack a fuckload of punch for their size,” Andi said.

  “What’s the ordinance?” I asked, burning with curiosity about the lost wonders of my own nation.

  “Neural darts fired by a small magnetic ring. Each dart weighs ten grains, and the little bastards break Mach five in clear air. They don’t just kill the enemy; they can shear through the toughest reactive armor ever designed by humanity. For these clowns, the question isn’t if we can kill them, the question is how fast,” Andi finished.

  I whistled low, thinking of how air cover could change our defensive abilities. “How high can they fly?”

  “Two models. One flies at four hundred meters and under; it’s too light for high level winds. But the Condor model—we’ve got them here, too—well, they should have no problem at the edge of pulse range. Call it a thousand meters, give or take,” Andi said.

  “How high is that?” Chloe asked, her eyes narrowed in thought.

  “Remember that hill we climbed to the cave? Put five of them on top of each other, and you’re getting close,” I said.

  “Can you see what these, um, machines see?” Chloe asked.

  “Sure. Part of the system is a vid feed to a flex screen that takes up half the wall on level four. We’ll know every living thing in a radius of ten klicks, and beyond on a clear day. The Condors and Kestrels have infrared vision for nighttime. Nothing gets past them,” Andi said. The triumph in her tone was clear. She was an engineer through and through.

  “Then our decision is simple. We get the defensive system up first to hold off Rowan and kill everyone in his party without leaving here. I don’t give a shit about a fair fight. I want to win, and I want it without exposing any of us to risk. The more we pro
tect, the better we are during what’s next,” I said.

  “Which is?” Silk asked, though she knew the answer.

  “Building the world, of course,” I answered.

  “Sounds good to me. I’m not going anywhere,” Andi said.

  “Me either. I kinda like the idea of freedom. A bed and shelter wouldn’t be bad, either,” Chloe said.

  “You can have all of that and more. Andi is the first break we’ve gotten since the storm, and we’re not going to waste her knowledge. Will you work with us?” I asked her.

  “Of course. Thought it was obvious,” she said.

  “It was, but I wanted to hear it from you. There’s a long road ahead, and you’re free to go at any time. My hope is that you’ll stay,” I said. There was no mistaking the gratitude in my voice, even to my own ears.

  “I will. This is nothing. I survived Chicago public schools and three brothers. I can handle some dirty fucksticks with delusions of grandeur,” Andi said, and my smile was impossible to stop. She was made of steel, wrapped in velvet.

  “Then we start with the silos. Show me these guns you’re talking about,” I said.

  “Right this way. I think you’ll love what we’ve done with our pew-pew since you took your nap,” Andi said.

  “Rate of fire went up?” I asked, eyebrows lifting.

  “Honey, we don’t just shoot things,” Andi said, her smile a wicked bow. “We cut them in two.”

  12

  The Empty spread before us as dusk settled in, a rusty panorama broken only by light clouds to the east, running away as fast as the lofty winds could carry them. We were on top of the tallest silo, its height just enough to give us a clear view of the surrounding growth and landscape. It was rougher than I imagined, with folded gullies and washouts held together with an array of growth that rivaled the Free Oasis, but uncultured and wild.

  Andi held a remote tablet, the face of it glowing softly in the dying light. “We knew—and by we I mean me, because everyone else was worried about flooding—that more than one ring of defense was critical. We have five gunnery positions at natural chokepoints about a klick out.” She marked them on the tablet, each touch of her finger leaving a bright blue triangle.