Downtime and Death (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 5)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  There was a knock on the door while he was drying his hair off. Setting the towel aside, Alvin summoned his comfy base clothes, since half of his armor was still being repaired. Looking through the peephole, Alvin chuckled and opened the door.

  “Running on military time, Bill?”

  “It’s nine in the morning,” Bill replied with a raised eyebrow.

  “Guess I did get to sleep in,” Alvin grinned.

  “No armor?” Bill asked when Alvin let him into the room.

  “It’s being fixed,” Alvin replied, “which reminds me, I need to tell Susan what I found last night.”

  “Do that after some testing?” Bill said. “Oh, Susan wanted me to give you these.” Bill held out two knives in sheaths. “She said they came in last night with a shipment from Night.”

  “My K-bars,” Alvin grinned, taking the knives and checking them over.

  K-bar (Rare)

  Increased base damage and durability (craftsmanship).

  Damage: 2+Brawn

  Durability: 20,000/20,000

  Metal type: Nirium

  Runes: 0/6

  “Nice job, Istel,” he muttered, putting both of them into his bag. “I’ll have to add runes to these later. I think we have some rare ones hanging around still.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if you do,” Bill said.

  “Let me get a quick bite to eat,” Alvin said, walking toward the portal. “Care to join me?”

  “Fine,” Bill said grudgingly as he shut the door to the room.

  Alvin chuckled when he saw Jarvis already cooking as he and Bill came into the base. “Thank you, Jarvis.”

  “The ladies should be out shortly, sir,” Jarvis replied absently as he focused on the meal.

  “Got enough for another?” Bill asked.

  “I can,” Jarvis replied. “There is coffee if you’d like to sit and wait.”

  Taking the coffee, Alvin was heading back to the table when the door to the bedroom opened. Kuro and Becky were both in their casual clothes, but switched to armor before Bill turned around. “Morning. Coffee?”

  “Yes. Thank you, Hero,” Becky replied as she took her seat at the table. “We were going to come and wake you up.”

  “We were... delayed,” Kuro added with a glance at Becky.

  “Yeah, that happens,” Alvin chuckled. “I took a shower in the inn room, and it’s got nothing on our shower. I should have just used ours.”

  “Yes, you should have,” Becky said, pouring creamer into the cup Alvin gave her.

  “We wouldn’t be having a guest if you had,” Jarvis pointed out, bringing food to the table.

  “Biscuits, gravy, and eggs,” Bill said when Jarvis removed the covers. “A good solid breakfast. Thanks.”

  “It has a buff to help mitigate mental influences,” Jarvis said. “I thought it might help with the testing you want to do.”

  “Nice. Thanks, buddy,” Alvin said, taking his first bite.

  Bill was the first one done, his plate scraped clean. Bill sat back with a belch and grinned, “Damn fine food.”

  “Thank you, Bill,” Jarvis said. “I wasn’t sure you would be coming for breakfast, but I figured you would enjoy it if you did.”

  Becky stared Alvin directly in the eyes as she wiped up a drop of gravy from her chest and licked it off her finger. “Good and filling.”

  Rolling his eyes, Alvin pushed his empty plate away. “Looks like we’re good to go.”

  “Are we all participating?” Kuro asked.

  “Only if you want to,” Alvin told her. “We’ll be dealing with fish-demon. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to sit it out.”

  “I’ll go,” Kuro said. “It is training, and I might see something you miss.”

  “Let’s do this,” Becky said, getting to her feet. “Your armor still being worked on?”

  “Until tomorrow. I’m going to set my boots up after that, and you should, too,” Alvin told her. “I could use the leathers from Olmera, but those are geared for dragon fighting.”

  “Good point. Let me know if you have room for my stuff once your first set is done. I’ll bogart it the day after tomorrow.”

  “Fair enough,” Alvin chuckled as he led them to the training room.

  “Have you told Bill yet?” Becky asked.

  “Told me what?” Bill asked.

  “Nope,” Alvin grinned. “He can wait until after we’re done with this.”

  Bill frowned, but decided not to ask again, knowing that Alvin would just be a dick about it. “I want to set up half a mile away with some fifties... see if they do anything worth a fuck against it.”

  “Cool. I’ll have the simulation put it in an enclosed ravine so it can’t close the distance,” Alvin said.

  When they were in position with the rifles, Alvin had the simulation spawn in the fish-demon. It was obvious that the creature was intelligent from the way it moved before they opened fire, but it became even more apparent after the first few rounds hit it. The three stacked glowing red eyes looked directly at them right before it used its tentacles to start climbing the wall.

  “Fucking shit,” Alvin muttered. “Simulation, smooth the walls of the ravine.”

  The walls smoothed and the fish-demon fell back to the bottom of the ravine, its tentacles slamming into the smooth stone. The creature was obviously angry as they kept up the barrage of gunfire. When they had all gone through several magazines, Alvin called a halt to the simulation.

  “Simulation, pause, but keep the creature as it is. Lower us down to it.”

  The portion of cliff they stood on dropped like an elevator. “What do you think?” Becky asked as they descended.

  “I didn’t see anything in the scope that made me think it was working,” Alvin replied.

  “Me, neither,” Bill grimaced. “If this damned thing is immune to our weapons, that is going to be a major problem.”

  The fish-demon came closer, frozen in mid thrash. Alvin shuddered. “Simulation, cancel the fish-demon’s fear effect.” The revulsion he felt vanished instantly. “Damn, that’s still really bad.”

  When they reached the bottom of the ravine, they examined the beast. All of them were shocked to see the rounds flattened against the thick mucus covering the creature.

  “Well, fuck,” Bill sighed. “That is a major issue.”

  “Hero, there are clumps of mucus where we hit it,” Kuro said. “Maybe the slimy covering is its version of armor?”

  “It took over six hundred points of damage and isn’t bleeding at all,” Alvin grumbled. “I think this fucker is a raid boss.”

  “What does that mean?” Bill asked.

  “Means we’ll need a lot more than just four people to deal with it,” Becky sighed, “which is a problem with its mind fuckery.”

  “We need to check the kiosk and see if there’s anything that can help cancel or mitigate that ability,” Alvin said. “Simulation, take us back up, reload guns, and set twenty explosive charges— based on what David Woodrow can make— at the bottom of the ravine.”

  “See if the American way helps?” Becky asked.

  “It worked on the necromancers,” Alvin shrugged. “I’m curious about that mucus covering... Is the armor it gives an all over effect, or is it more segmented? Will it regenerate, and if so, are there ways to stop it?”

  “Maybe we need to go find other races?” Becky said slowly. “The Elves had glyphs. Maybe one of them will have a new weapon that will affect this thing.”

  “That’s a good point,” Alvin nodded as the cliff rose up into position again.

  “We’re staying away from it, but it’s only about five miles to the river from our walls,” Bill grimaced. “I don’t want to piss this thing off until we can kill it.”

  “Understood,” Alvin nodded.

  Once they were back in position, Alvin exhaled. “Simulation, five seconds after resuming, detonate all explosives. Everyone ready?” Getting nods from the other three, Alvin sighted back in on the
fish-demon. “Resume simulation.”

  They resumed firing, and a few seconds later, the explosion in the ravine made the four wince. They had to stop firing when a cloud of dust suddenly obscured their vision.

  “What the hell did David come up with?” Bill asked with an impressed expression.

  “I want to know that, too,” Alvin said. “Whatever it is, it’s better than dynamite.”

  “Agreed,” Bill grunted.

  “Why are we waiting?” Becky asked after a moment. “Simulation, clear dust.”

  The dust cleared instantly, revealing an even angrier fish-demon, its three remaining tentacles smashing into the stone walls furiously. Small bits of flesh and dark blood were scattered around and on the beast.

  “It can be hurt, but damned if it doesn’t take an artillery strike to do it,” Bill said as he sighted back in on the monster. “Let’s see now…” The round he fired caused a splash of dark blood, and the monster thrashed more. Its tentacles found purchase on the ruined walls and it began to climb up again.

  “Okay, so it takes a lot to do it,” Alvin said. “Simulation, fix walls and place forty of the same explosives on the ravine floor. Detonate three seconds after the beast hits the bottom, and clear dust instantly.”

  The fish-demon fell back to the bottom of the ravine when the walls of the cliffside became smooth again. It glared at them just before the second set of explosives went off. A huge cloud of dust formed and vanished in the same moment. The beast was heavily wounded and barely moving, but it was still thrashing, if weakly.

  “Holy fuck,” Becky whispered. “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

  “And maybe a rail gun,” Alvin agreed with her. “Simulation, end.”

  “Well, this doesn’t look good for us,” Bill exhaled. “I’ll have to talk with Susan and David about stockpiling some explosives. We’ll need them if we want any chance when we deal with that thing.”

  “Make sure to have plenty of barrier glyphs, as well,” Alvin said. A memory tickled his mind, and he turned to Kuro, “Mousie, the walls of some of the cities we passed had markings etched into them. What were they?”

  “There were attempts at putting glyphs onto the walls,” Kuro replied as they headed for the door. “They never worked. I don’t know more than that. I’m sorry, Hero.”

  “It’s fine, Mousie,” Alvin said, putting his arm around her.

  “You all have a good day,” Bill said, starting to walk toward the base exit.

  “Bill, before you go running off,” Alvin said, “I have news that you can tell Susan about, since you’re going to talk with her.”

  Bill paused halfway across the living room. “Okay?”

  “Remember our leatherworking room?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Come look at it now. Oh, and give me a key to your truck so I can bring it into the garage and get the repairs started.”

  After Alvin told him how, Bill handed over a key to his truck while they walked to what had been the leatherworking room. “Okay, what’s so special about… why is your shirt in here? It’s not leather.”

  “It’s a composite armory now,” Becky said before Alvin could. “It’ll repair all of our gear, even our Kevlar.”

  Bill blinked, “Well fucking hell. Okay, what did you do? Maybe that will give Susan a hint how to make it happen for us.”

  Alvin broke down how his base had gotten the function. “It makes me think you need a crafter that can do one type of craft and give them the ability to do similar types.”

  “We’ve been specializing, but yeah, I can see where that makes sense.”

  “I’m going to park the Humvee next to Justin’s shop,” Alvin told him as they started back toward the exit. “That’s where my portal for vehicles is right now, and it should be out of the way.”

  “That’s fine,” Bill nodded. “You going to be here, otherwise?”

  “More than likely,” Alvin replied. “Why?”

  “In case Susan wants to talk to you,” Bill chuckled. “You’ve pulled a bunch of surprises out of your ass since you came back. Don’t be surprised if she wants to grill you.”

  Becky laughed, “On that note, Hero, I’m going to go find Megs.”

  “Traitor,” Alvin chuckled. “Have fun.”

  “Oh, I’m sure we will,” Becky grinned, winking at him as she and Kuro left.

  Bill paused and shook his head, stopping Alvin with him just inside the exit. “She’s a handful, huh?”

  “More than a fucking handful,” Alvin laughed, thinking of Becky’s shirt. “I wouldn’t trade her for anything.”

  “We all know that,” Bill replied. “I just hope you survive.”

  Laughing, the two men finally left the base.

  Chapter Thirteen

  They had to slow when a lifted pickup with half a dozen men in the back passed them in the yard. “That guy compensating?” Alvin chuckled.

  “That’s Joshua’s truck,” Bill replied. “Looks like they just got back.”

  “I was right, then,” Alvin snickered.

  Following Bill, Alvin was led to Susan’s workroom. Bill knocked once and entered, “Got a minute?”

  Looking up, Susan sighed, “Why can’t you…? Of course Alvin is with you. What happened this time?”

  “I’m wounded that you think I would only come to see you if there was a problem,” Alvin said with a straight face.

  “Joshua and his team are back,” Bill said.

  “Did you kill one of them?” Susan asked, glaring at Alvin.

  “None of them are worth the effort,” Alvin shrugged. “Bill, stop fucking with her already.”

  “Dad?”

  “We came to tell you about composite armor repair,” Bill chuckled.

  “Wait. Did Alvin get into a fight with Joshua or not?”

  “No,” Alvin said. “That was your dad fucking with you.”

  Susan’s glare went from Alvin to Bill. “Not funny. You both know that Joshua is a hothead and Alvin… well, he’s Alvin.”

  “Thanks,” Alvin laughed wryly.

  “Now, what’s this about composite armor repair?”

  “I figured out how to do it for my base, so I think I might have a solution for you,” Alvin said, taking a seat, “if you want to hear it.”

  Susan took a deep breath, “Alvin, today has already been a long day. Please don’t make me throw things at you. I already want to throw them at my father.”

  “Well, since you put it that way,” Alvin grinned. Taking a few minutes, he explained to her what he had done. “You see what it might mean for you.”

  “We have both a tailor and a leatherworker,” Susan said. “Lyssa, our tailor, was upset that her job became mostly pointless with the change to clothing. This should make her happier and get her an apprentice, too. She declined taking one the other day, but this will definitely change her mind.”

  “Sounds good. How’s the glyph making going?”

  “I can make common glyphs right now,” Susan said. “To improve, I need to make more of them. My apprentice is making inferior glyphs and is a little disappointed, but she’ll get over it.”

  “I’ll be parking the Humvee near Justin’s shop and taking Bill’s truck for a day or two, so if you hear about the Humvee, don’t be surprised.”

  “No one can take it without the key, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Then there shouldn’t be any problems,” Susan said.

  “I don’t think there will be, either,” Alvin said. “Bill wanted to talk to you about fish-demons and explosives, but I’m not needed for those conversations.”

  “Dad?”

  “I was in Al’s base, using his training room,” Bill started as Alvin left the room.

  “Hero… is Gothy around?” The voice was hesitant, but hopeful.

  “Hello, Nohel. I think Gothy was looking for Megumin. You want to talk to her?”

  “Yes, please!”

  “Come on, then, let’s go find he
r for you,” Alvin said.

  Nohel followed after Alvin, eyes darting around once they left the bunker. Alvin headed toward the auto shop to let Justin know that his vehicle would be parked there.