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

by Daniel Pierce

  “Are there robotic weapons in place?” I asked, knowing that if there were, the chances of them surviving were almost nil.

  “No, but there are hidden emplacements, as well as shooting platforms. We have weapons here, but we’ll need to install them. The first order of business should be getting a bird up to find out where this Rowan is, and how much time we’ve got,” Andi said.

  “Agreed. What weapons? Are they mobile?” I asked.

  “Larger versions of what the drones use. Thirty thousand rounds, self-cooling, and small enough that one person can carry them in. It’s a cartridge unit, weighs about forty kilos. They’re absolute hell on wheels for anything under the size of an APC, and even then, they can shred tires and blow an engine block. For tanks, it would have to be a lucky shot. For everything else, it’s lights out,” Andi said.

  “APC?” Mira asked.

  “Armored personnel carrier. Think of a heavy truck with armor and attitude,” Andi said.

  “Where are they?” I asked. “The dart throwers? You guide, I’ll carry. We go as a team, but I want them up in the hour, if the sites are close enough and clear of debris.”

  “Then I have good news for you. The armory is at the end of level 1, and the sites are recessed so debris isn’t an issue. I can send the command from here for them to elevate. Should I do it now?” Andi asked.

  “Do it. I have decent night vision. Do you, by the way?” I asked.

  “I do too. Close to full daylight, if a bit shifted in spectrum. My ‘bots are three generations or more past yours, so I’ve got a few tweaks you could use. I’m not combat-centric, though. I have augmentations, but not the systemic improvements you do. My specialty is elsewhere,” Andi said, her fingers flying over the tablet.

  “Tech is your field, not killing?” I asked.

  “Oh, I can kill. I’m just better at killing with tech,” Andi answered, smiling broadly in the last of the day’s light.

  “Fair enough. I still don’t know what my body can do, but it hasn’t really been tested yet. I’m sure that drought of experience ends soon. Rowan and his crew have ‘bots, however primitive, and their delivery vector sucks compared to mine. And yours. But as far as numbers go, even a horde of mice can take down a super soldier, given enough of an advantage and a willingness to die in the fight,” I said.

  “Or rats, if they’re big enough,” Silk added.

  “Or rats,” I agreed.

  “Let’s get inside. I assume the lights will only hold the creatures at bay for so long, and they have access to the open by that hunting tunnel?” Andi asked.

  “They do. We’ll have to move fast and quiet, but those dart stations are our friends. Once they’re up, can they be trained on anything?” I asked.

  “Sure. You mean thin the rats and scorps before Rowan comes?” Andi asked, her feet ringing on the metal steps. We were descending in single file, guns at the ready in case the predators showed up for dinner ahead of schedule.

  “Exactly that,” I said.

  “I’m fine with you killing every last one of the fuckers,” Mira said. I couldn’t disagree but knew that ammunition would be at an absolute premium.

  “We can face two guns out, and two in. they have about 120 degrees as their field of fire, so overlapping is out of the question. There are two platforms that would be safe to use as inward facing stations.” Andi pointed to the east and south, indicating locations outside the facility.

  “That works. Quiet, now. We don’t want to ring the dinner bell early,” I cautioned. We stalked down into level 1, and in the distance, I heard the first stirrings of rats. A low churring sound echoed off the stairwell, far too deep to be any rodent I’d ever heard before. Andi nodded, and Chloe clutched her gun with white-knuckled fury. Silk was calm as ever, strolling along with a look that was alert but steady.

  We arrived at the armory double doors, where Andi passed her thumb over a small security panel. After a pained moment of waiting, the internal mechanism clicked, and the door slid open a fraction as lights flickered into brilliance beyond.

  I pushed the door open and whistled. “Is anyone else as turned on as I am right now?”

  “I have a ladyboner every time I walk in here,” Andi said.

  Chloe gasped, Mira groaned in pleasure, and even Silk drew in a sharp breath at the expanse of weapons and gear.

  “It’s like Christmas and my birthday and the fucking fourth of July all in one,” I said as my hungry gaze roamed over the immense arsenal.

  “I don’t know what those are, but I feel the same way,” Mira said. “Other than the birthday, of course.”

  “Glad to know not everything was lost,” I said, referring to both birthdays and guns.

  The entire room smelled of cosmoline and a chemical I couldn’t identify. “If we have to clean these guns, we’re going to run out of time.”

  “We won’t. The cosmo isn’t on the robotics, just the spare pistols. We put some vintage arms in here due to the uncertainty of what might be left over when the shit dropped in the pot. We picked what we had that was stable, packed enough ammo and reloads for years, and then went to work on the ready system,” Andi said.

  “Ready system? Solvents?” I asked. I didn’t see anything like that around the enormous room, but then there wasn’t a clear viewpoint. Shelve went floor to ceiling, and the walls were festooned with hanging weapons of types I couldn’t identify. They were blocky, gray, and sealed in thick material that shimmered under the lights. “The robotics?” I asked.

  “The very same. Grab two, we’ll get three. We can take five for now. The ammo is in a sealed unit. It’s a click and forget, but we’ll retrieve them for reload,” Andi said.

  “We can reload robotic weapons? How?” I asked, hefting two units down from their brackets. They were less than forty kilos, and small enough that I could hang them over my shoulders with a strap. As a weapon, they resembled an angry box, with two snub barrels emerging from the uninspiring core. A small dome on top was the only deviation in the smooth exterior, other than the barrels and a bracket with a cable hookup.

  “We have power. All we need is material to make the darts. Do you have access to a forge?” Andi asked.

  “Funny you mention it, we do now,” I said, thankful yet again for Derin and Scoot. Their skills were beyond critical for our reclamation of the world.

  “Then we save the cartridges and pray for the best until your metal workers can produce ingots. That’s the beauty of ‘bots. They don’t rest, and they can convert anything into anything, given enough power and materials,” Andi said.

  “What else for now?” Silk asked, looking around the room with awed interest. Her calm demeanor faded when she saw the enormous punch of our new armory. Silk understood the use of force, and knew that Andi’s addition would give us a chance at things we’d never thought possible. Like real safety.

  “You good on handguns? There’s a rack of modded .40 cals over there. Depleted rounds, heluva punch,” Andi said.

  “Cosmoline on them?” I asked.

  “Right. Not time. Okay, work with what we have, and come back if we have time after the exterior ring is set up,” Andi said.

  “We all go outside now. You’ve sent the command to the sites?” I asked, a new wrinkle forming in my plan.

  “They’re all up,” Andi confirmed.

  “Then we go to the closest one. Mira, look at the tablet and memorize the locations. After Andi shows me how to ready the first position, I want Silk and Chloe with her, back inside. You two act as lookouts while she readies the bird. We need eyes up, and Mira can cover me while I lock and load on these robotics,” I said.

  “Sounds good. Up and out to the left. First position is a stopgap measure, close to the ground but with a killing field that should buy us time in the event any number of Rowan’s people get too close,” Andi said.

  Moments later, we stood in the night breeze, stars winking overhead as the Milky Way began its march across the sky.

 
; “Right here,” Andi said after only a few steps. The position was a black panel, rimed with dirt but elevated some three meters from the ground on a thick column of waffled concrete. Without saying a word, I jumped up to the platform with the gun on my back, landing lightly and looking back down at the women’s faces, illuminated by my augmented sight.

  “Help me up. Bit high for me,” Andi said, extending a hand. “Look at this while I’m up here. Blue triangles are your go points.” She handed the tablet to Mira, who began scanning it with the practiced ease of someone who knew map reading as a matter of life or death.

  I pulled Andi up, letting her settle for a second before pulling my knife to cut at the protective covering over the gun. “Tough stuff,” I said. The knife was razor sharp, but the material didn’t part without a fight.

  “Monofilament sheeting extruded by ‘bots. Can be used for everything from parachutes to fishnets. Damned good stuff. Okay, watch this.” Andi levered up a flat panel with her own knife, exposing an indented square the size of a sheet of paper. Inside was an odd USB port, a power hookup, and three small circular access points that glowed a soft blue. “Power, data, gas cooling. There’s a reactive tank in the column; it pulls air through the waffled surface and forces it up through the gun. Better than water jacketed systems by a long shot because it separates helium and rare gases as it goes.”

  “Fancy. I like it,” I said. “Just push and click?”

  “That’s it. Like I said, these were made for maximum ease of operation. No one cares about fancy fucking tech if it can’t be changed out under fire,” Andi said.

  “No shit,” Chloe muttered, looking at her own gun with a jaundiced eye. She cleaned it constantly, but like any weapon in The Empty, it was susceptible to sand and grit causing jams.

  I depressed the cartridge until I felt it connect. A low hum filled my ears as blue light winked into life on the dome above the barrels. “Good?”

  “Good. That’s it. Unit is live,” Andi said. She eased off the platform to land with a grunt, taking the tablet from Mira and moving her fingers across the surface again. The gun moved back and forth, nudging me to the edge of the platform. “Come on down. I won’t arm the system for auto until we’re all back inside. Then nothing except blind luck can stop someone from being cut apart. The system isn’t very forgiving, I’m afraid.”

  “I’m glad. Fuck Rowan,” Chloe growled.

  I smiled at her fierce tone. Of the party, she had the most reason to hate him, and his coming death would be met without a single tear.

  “Can you lock the others?” Andi asked.

  “If Mira takes me to the sites, yes. We’re good to go,” I said, raising a questioning brow.

  “I have the locations. Thirty minutes and we have all four up and running,” Mira answered.

  “Okay. Be careful in there,” I told Andi, Silk, and Chloe. “If anything goes to shit, run hard and fast for this platform. It’s facing out, so you get to this side of it and scream to the stars. We’ll be here in seconds, no matter what.”

  “Got it,” Chloe said. Silk merely touched my arm, but Andi stopped in front of me, her face drawn with concern. “If we get taken out, find my thumb. You understand? You need it for the security. We’ll override the system later and add all of you to it, but for now, even if you have to gut every predator in this place, do it. You need access to survive, Jack.”

  “I will,” I told her, giving her shoulder a light squeeze. It was hard with ‘bot driven muscle. She would succeed, just as I would. There was no other choice, regardless of what wanted to turn us into dinner.

  13

  Mira waved to the south. “That’s the next one.”

  “The elevated point?” I asked, my feet already moving. I carried three of the five guns without a great strain, thanking my ‘bots for their limitless work. I felt the strength binding what I had been with what I was, and the mixture worked.

  Mira grunted, adjusting the strap on the gun she carried. “Sumbitch is heavy. Yeah, right between where we first entered. I’ll have to go slow because I don’t have your night vision, so please keep it reasonable.”

  “I will. I need to hear as well. Don’t want roaming predators getting a fix on us because I’m crashing through the brush like a hog,” I told her, picking my steps with care as we moved toward the first dim rise. Even in the near dark, I could see the outline of a new feature, two meters high and clearly defined. “I can see the mount. On me, okay? I’ll choose stable footfalls for you.”

  We stalked through the night, moving around brush rather than through it, and in minutes, we ascended to the mount. It was identical to the other, which was a relief, so I put two guns on the ground and jumped. Looking down after my leap, I could see Mira looking up in the night air. “Weapon up while I do this.”

  She said nothing but swung the barrel of her gun around in a slow arc, listening hard. There were animal and insect noises, but nothing that caused me alarm. It took less than a minute to connect and activate the gun, the process rewarding me with a cool blue glow of an activated outpost.

  “Coming down,” I said, doing just that with a soft jump. Hefting the remaining guns, I waited for Mira to point the way.

  “East,” she said with confidence. She was good with maps and direction, among other things. Her survival in The Empty was no accident. This was a woman built for her world.

  “How far?” I asked.

  “Three hundred meters. The narrow gulley, north side,” she clarified.

  “Okay. Follow me,” I said, making off with measured steps.

  The night closed in around us as the last rays of light were banged flat by the dark. Ahead, I heard the trills of unseen things, their small voices adding to the chorus of life that was so different from most of The Empty. The facility was an oasis of its own, a fact that made it easy to envision our next settlement here.

  If we could survive the next few days.

  “Here,” I told Mira when we reached the platform. Like the others, it was clear of debris and well placed, giving a clear view of the access from a gulley that would attract Rowan’s people. The gulley floor was low, covered in scrub, and gave an air of undue safety for anyone not aware of the defense net. I was counting on at least some of Rowan’s people taking the easy way in, rather than scaling the rugged turf and rocks around the bulk of the facility.

  Repeating the process, I was up and down in less than a minute, the gun humming to life in the night. Without a sound, I waited for Mira to tag the next location, but she stood still, listening.

  “What is it?” I whispered in her ear.

  “Hear that?” she said, her voice low and calm. Even in the dark, I could see her head tilt to the left, listening hard in the direction we’d come from.

  I heard nothing. Not even the insects.

  “Gun,” I said, but she already had hers up, her burden put down on the gritty soil.

  Together, we scanned the night as time dragged into something like torture, the seconds draining away in tense anticipation.

  “There,” I whispered, and she heard it. Her head turned toward the noise, which was so soft as to be nothing at all. My natural cynicism and ‘bots told me that wasn’t the case, as I heard the sound repeat, even more slowly.

  If my hearing produced the first evidence, my nose confirmed it. On the light breeze, I began to smell something that didn’t belong.

  I smelled death, and judging by Mira’s rigid posture, she did too.

  Without a word, I lifted her up onto the gun platform, jumping to follow a second later. Whatever was coming, we would fight from the high ground. Weapons drawn, we waited, the breeze growing fat with a stench that was neither animal nor vegetable, but something horribly unknown.

  When I tapped Mira on the shoulder and shrugged by the light of the gun, she only frowned, mouthing the words I don’t know either. It was something new, and my life policy as a Marine was based on the idea that surprises are only for birthdays and Christmas. The
y are most certainly not welcome while crouched on a shooting platform 2000 years in the future, hoping a monster doesn’t come howling out of the dark with murder on its mind.

  The brush moved less than ten meters away, and I was presented with two options. Put a round in whatever was moving and try not to alert the horde of scorpions and rats that might be hunting all around us.

  Or I could use the knife.

  “Option B,” I said, sliding a blade from my scabbard with deliberate slowness.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Mira asked.

  “Gotta keep this one quiet. Can’t let the rats know,” I said.

  “Yes, but—fuck, you’re right,” she sighed. “I’ll cover. Do what you have to.”

  “Fire over my head. Don’t need another hole,” I said.

  “No shit. You’ve got enough women in your life,” Mira said, and I swore there was a laugh hidden somewhere in her words.

  “Hey, I—never mind. We can discuss it if I’m not being eaten,” I told her.

  “I was just about to say the same thing,” she said, her teeth a white crescent in the blue light.

  “Wiseass,” I said, jumping down and drawing my second blade. If one was good, two were a party, and I had no idea who my guest was.

  My answer came in the next instant. In that flash, I had an answer as to why the rats and scorpions were in an uneasy truce.

  They weren’t in charge. They were being hunted as well.

  The lizard was four meters long, low slung jaws bared over a mouth that stank of carrion and things best forgotten. It burst forth in an explosion of motion that was almost too fast to follow, but my ‘bots kept me in the game as I rolled hard right, flicking both blades out to score two light hits on the monster’s broad snout.

  I was rewarded with a deep squeal of reptilian anger, the following hiss clouding the air with something even worse than the monster’s breath.