The Aethernet Falls

Chapter 14 - Solid - Part 2

Boros had seen it all before so he immediately went to the computer he had managed to move. He booted it up and sat, cross-legged on the ground, leaving Greco and Clarissa to marvel over the destruction. Strings of data poured down the screen while it activated, displaying the home screen for the master servers. He began syphoning through information that could be even remotely relevant to the situation and became lost in his little world, the need to save the world driving his database queries.

Clarissa eyed the rubble, mouth wide. Greco cursed loudly. Coming out of her stupor before Greco had, Clarissa moved to the pile of supplies they had accumulated. Stole from the men they had killed was more accurate. She picked up one of the rifles and tested the weight of it. It was heavy, but it came with a strap that she slung over her shoulder and tried it again, leveling it out on the horizon where a wall used to be. She wasn’t certain she could use it.

“You use one of these before?” She had asked Greco. The man ignored her, or didn’t hear the question so she rifled through the duffle that they had brought, pulling out a few pouches and tubes. She gave a bottle of water and a carbohydrate cake to her brother. He ignored them, engrossed in his activity. Then she gave some vitamin slurry and a tube of fungal protein paste along with a bottle of water to Greco. He took them and began greedily pealing at the disposable packaging. She sat atop a clear part of a work top, partially covered by debris from what used to be the ceiling.

“So,” She asked the politician again, “You ever use one of these things?” She gestured at the rifle hanging from her shoulders so it sat on her lap.

Greco took a moment to look up from his meal. “No.” And went back to slurping, loudly at the contents of a pouch. He was debating whether or not to tell them exactly how Corporal Harding felt about him. How he’d likely be sending more men if he found out his first team was killed in action. It was a personal vendetta, Greco knew. He had prevented the man’s promotion a few years back and the military man made no secret about how he felt about the politician.

If Corporal Harding really was using the confusion to kill him. He wondered what lengths the man would go to. Greco denied the man before because of his attitude towards more questionable methods of getting jobs done. He was an avid fan of torture and receiving information under duress. He was relentless and brutally violent. Greco always felt that allowing Harding to progress so far down the officer’s career track was a massive oversight. The man was a liability at best, and a warmongering fanatic at worst. Now he had his war. His battlefield.

He’s going to kill me. Greco thought while Clarissa said something in the background. He couldn’t rightly hear, wasn’t even sure she was talking to him, but when he turned to see where she was, she was sat there, just behind him, looking quizzical.

“What?” He asked. He sounded confused, dazed even. He was sure the others would write it off as shock, either from murdering two people, or from narrowly surviving the lift.

Clarissa’s face turned down as a frown creased her mouth. “You gonna grab one of these?” She asked again, gesturing to the rifle sitting across her lap, “No telling if that Militia is going to show up again.”

“Oh. Yea.” He dropped the remainder of his food and moved to the pile of supplies. He picked up one of the rifles and got the intrusive idea to gun down everyone here, take his car and whatever he could carry and leave. He dismissed it as quickly as it came.

Looking over at the computer Boros was working on he could see a string of queries, he leaned in to read some of them. They were all questions about more information on The Aethernet. He was currently skimming an article about the foundation of The Aethernet and the idea that sparked it. The man’s food sat next to him, forgotten.

“You should eat.” Greco said to him.

“Not yet.”

The telescope mount groaned again, this time something that sounded like a snap and proceeded it. Greco looked over at the massive piece of technology. It seemed stable enough, wedged into place by a large portion of the dome above that had collapsed down on it. It seemed to Greco that it shuddered, but he put it down to his imagination.

“Should we figure these out?” He asked Clarissa, now it was her turn to be distracted. She was looking out, past where a part of the wall had cracked and came down. He could spot a few of the solar panels out in the distance, but the terrain was treacherous. Switchback paths carved in the stone of the hill designed and cut out where the least amount of work was required. If it took longer to get there after they were built, that was somebody else’s problem.

He moved to the woman’s side and asked the question again, this time garnering a response.

“Yea, look. They’re pretty well labelled.” She was examining the side of the rifle now, point at various switches and levers. This one said safety, that one had some lines they couldn’t figure the meaning of, but one setting said auto so they kept it set to that. One button was unlabelled, but pressing it released the magazine, so it was easy enough to figure out. One had various magnification ratings and, when Greco put it up to his eye and thumbed it, the magnification of the small scope attached intensified.

He could see the solar panels in the distance, reflecting very little light themselves, but the mounts gleamed in the waning sunlight.

Clarissa pressed something and a flashlight came on. The two of them suddenly became acutely aware of how late it was. “Look, I’m going to get Boros to eat. We need to get some sleep.”

“I know a place with some couches.” Greco acknowledged that he, too, was getting tired.

He looked out in the distance while the siblings talked behind him. They might as well have been a million miles away. He was in his own head again. When Clarissa had said it he became certain. Corporal Harding would know his first squad had failed and would be sending more men after him. After all, the man had a score to settle and this was how he did business. He put the rifle’s scope back up to his eye and scanned the horizon. Thick, unnatural clouds were moving outwards from the city, dust and debris scattered into the stratosphere by the immensity of the explosion before. He thought briefly about the people he had known in the city that was now nothing more than a pockmark on the face of the earth.

He thought of Corporal Harding off in whatever military base he had managed to take over. Thought about the man, himself coming, just to kill him. He dismissed the idea and went to check on the other two.

They were ready, it had seemed. Armed and packed they all walked down the long hallway of the office wing in search of a place to settle for the night.