PAFS- Post Apocalyptic Fallout Scenario

Making Things That Work

“Yo ZcJay! I thought you got caught by the GCDF since I haven’t heard from you in a while...are you driving Miss Daisy?” I reply via text message.

“Hell yeah! You know I don’t go nowhere without my truck fool!” He messages back.

“For one, that’s a double negative, you don’t go anywhere, or you go nowhere...secondly, come to my location, and use the alleyway, I got a package for delivery...” I respond, then I get to work putting everything except for a black and silver LK24 assault rifle loaded with attachments, a black Tavor X95 assault rifle loaded with attachments, four fragmentation grenades, four flash bangs, four smoke grenades, and extra magazines for each weapon I have. I also find a Black Krysis compound bow archery steel ball hunting slingshot, a Diamond Sapphire compound bow, a White November Predator recurve bow, a LAK Mini 42Z crossbow, a POW 6S hand mounted slingshot, a Stinger ZX4 Mini crossbow, and Aluri brings me a case of mechanical pressure activated titanium broad heads, a case of titanium tranquilizer broad heads, a case of surgical steel needle heads, a case of serrated splicer silver heads, a case of titanium arrows and bolts with feather fletches, a case of carbon fiber arrows and bolts with stainless steel bladed fletches, and two 1000 feet rolls of tungsten carbide cable wire all in a white Rhino Rigs box labeled Silent Hunter. She also provides me with a dark leather duffel tool bag with all of her father’s tools.

“Daddy tools. You see my gun. I like your hair. I like you. You not like other that try to come,” Aluri shows me her phone, then she opens her box to show me the items she picked out earlier along with a white Kriss Vector customized by her with the name Krizpy artfully painted on the body, a baby blue and neon pink painted backpack, and a black leather messenger bag with ALURI embroidered on the main flap.

“Wow, you’ve got quite the setup, but if you want to ride with me we have got to send the box with ZcJay or leave it here,” I laugh helping her organize her box and showing her what would be good to keep, “also, thank you, I like you too, and if you want, we could dye your hair like mine,” I give her a smile and wink, then I walk over to the assault rifles and begin disassembling them.

“My box ready. It go with ZcJay. What you doing? Can I help?” She asks via text message, which I leave my phone out on the table next to me while turning on my working playlist of EDM.

“I’m taking these guns apart, then I’m going to build one that will be suited to how I like my guns to be,” I reply aloud, “I plan to build a select fire assault rifle, a revolver, a bow, and maybe a gauntlet...all of which I have already designed, but how well do you know your tools?” I ask looking at her which she gives me a thumbs up, so I gesture for her to join me as I take my coat and hat off putting them on her, then I go through my designs with her, teach her what I can, and she helps me to build a select fire assault rifle similar to the VMP from Call of Duty that I call the VXR that has a black body, fuchsia accents and accessories, interchangeable black barrel for 5.56 and 7.62, ambidextrous, pink laser, neon fuchsia tracer lights, black flush suppressor, pink dot sight with switch scope, pink digital camo angled folding fore grip, pink digital camo adjustable stock, metallic fuchsia advanced trigger mechanism, and extended magazines. Afterwards, we build a six shot .40 maxim magnum revolver I call the Luna D1 that has a scarred white titanium alloy body and cylinder, EDPM black grip, black tungsten alloy trigger, hammer, and rail, and a purple laser. ZcJay shows up while we are in the middle of building the bow, and we greet him from the window, “ZcJay! Good to see you old buddy!” I shout from the window once he turns his truck off. The truck is a heavily modified Ford Raptor 6.6 V8, dark deep metallic royal blue with a black panther decal on both sides stretching from the front wheel to the tailgate, 12 foot bed with Rhino Liner, 12 inch lift, 32 inch super swampers with black gator tooth rims, a matte black roll cage, a matte black panther mouth grill, a matte black bull bar brush guard, and decked out with more lights than a police suv cruiser. ZcJay is a black man originally from Germany, but moved to the states before the war with his husband and son, who are both alive and safe living in my Tennessee base in Chattanooga. ZcJay is 5 feet 10 inches tall, 200 pounds solid muscle, cherry red cornrowed hair, silver eyes, always wears a black hoodie with a grey tactical vest, black cargo khakis, and tan Timberland boots loose.

“Haha! V! You fool! You look like you’ve been working!” ZcJay shouts back to me hanging out of the driver window.

“This is Aluri, she’s mute, but she’s cute, so we are going to lower some boxes down, would you mind taking them with you to Chatty Base?” I ask noticing he already made a trip to his old house to pick up some things.

“Of course fool! Any excuse to go see my loves!” He replies laughing.

“You know that Mr. T act is kinda lame, fool!” I laugh tossing him a MilkyWay.

“I can’t help it, James likes to watch the A-Team and Ben thinks it’s funny,” he laughs jumping into the bed of the truck, then Aluri helps me lower one box at a time while ZcJay and I bicker back and forth playfully.

“Give my nephew James a hug for me when you get there, and tell him uncle V can’t wait to play with him

when I get home!” I yell as we get the last box down to him.

“You know I will brother fool!” He laughs securing everything, “I just hope you finally found a girl worth your time, you can’t get hung up on those other bitches man, they ain’t worth your hassle,” he lectures as he jumps in the driver’s seat, “you just be careful and come home soon!” He waves starting the truck up, then he drives off without a sound until he reaches the archway where he flips a switch and his truck can be heard for miles as he drives off to Tennessee.

“That guy is a crazy one, but we have been through some crazy times these past two years, and I wouldn’t trade him for anything...do you have any friends like that?” I ask while walking back to the work table to continue working on the bow.

“You. All other people want hurt me,” she responds via text message before joining me, and we continue talking while building the hybrid bow that uses six individual drawstrings that connect to the main. I call it the BWS, Black Widow Scorpion, it has the potential to fire with 2000 pounds of force, a black and ultramarine body, a white EPDM grip, white upper and lower limbs, metallic neon ultramarine cams, and the drawstrings are cyan, white, black, neon pink, ultraviolet, and silver. We start working on the gauntlet next, but it is getting dark, and we want to save what power we have, also we do not want the lights to draw in unwanted attention. I can tell she is getting tired as well, so I go downstairs to the Voltex to grab a couple of clean bedrolls and blankets, then I head back up to see she has fallen asleep at the table. I set out the bedrolls around the wall next to the stairs so that I can hear if anything happens, close all but one window pulling down the blinds, close and secure the door to the stairs, turn off all the lights except for the one on the work table, then I grab Aluri up cradling her as I take her to the bedrolls and gently lay her down covering her up noting that she looks better in my hat than I do, but I still take it back putting it on backwards. Once I make another round double checking to be sure we are as safe as we can be, I quietly go back to the table and continue working on the gauntlet. I use the miniature crossbows, the hand mounted slingshot, the metal plates leftover from the guns, some black Dyneema fabric, some durable black straps from unused harnesses, and 200 feet of the tungsten carbide cable wires to build the Viper Strike, a mechanized bolt launcher that uses an extremely powerful crossbow like mechanism which is collapsable to fit into the gauntlet. It features a black slip-on sleeve that covers the forearm from wrist to elbow with three black straps, a connecting harness which is meant to be worn on the upper arm, the metallic neon cyan and iridescent fuchsia upper plate, and the launching mechanism that houses a retractable spool holding the cable wire. I take one of the titanium bolts and one of each of the broad heads to craft a grappling bolt that will have the maximum amount of grip, then I permanently connect it to the cable, load it in the launcher, rig a switch to activate the launcher, and collapse the launcher pushing it down into the gauntlet. I start to feel sleepy the moment I put all the tools away, turn off the light, and look around the workshop to see that we made a huge mess with all the leftover parts and materials, but I feel too exhausted to do anything else, so I decide to wait until the morning to try and clean up. I take off my vest, belt, rig, boots, and hat before laying down between Aluri and the wall, then I close my eyes to try and think about what I should do, where I should go, and when would be the best time to leave. After a few moments staring at the ceiling, Aluri rolls over, snuggles up to me, and grabs my arm putting it around her which causes me to smile unconditionally as I can see her smiling, then I finally drift off to sleep. My sunrise alarm on my Omniwatch wakes me up and I notice that Aluri is comfortably sleeping wrapped around me like a pretzel which causes me to laugh softly. The alarm is set to go off an hour before sunrise so that I can get up to do my morning exercises and give thanks to the sun for another day alive, so I gently wake Aluri causing her to squeeze me even tighter popping several vertebrae which feels great, but at the same time suffocating, “I need to get up and do my morning routine, you can join me if you want, but I don’t suggest going back to sleep because I will be leaving shortly after sunrise,” I offer to her and she releases her grip allowing me to get up, then I grab my bottle of water from the table, walk over to the roof access door, unlock and remove the brace, and head up to the roof drinking the rest of my water. Once I am on the roof, I step over to the roadside ledge and relieve myself, then Aluri joins me walking to a ten gallon bucket that has a toilet seat on it where she pulls her underwear down to her knees and relieves herself. I do not see her at first, but once I finish, I turn around to see her sitting on the bucket smiling and waving at me, then I realize she is using the bathroom, so I wave back while turning around. After a couple of minutes, she claps twice letting me know she is done, so I turn around and walk to the middle of the roof to start my exercises, then she joins me holding her phone up to me.

“You can see me. I don’t mind. Will you show me how to do?” Her phone reads.

“I just respect your privacy, I didn’t even notice the bucket over there,” I laugh as I turn her around to face east, “these exercises help your body to prepare for the day, I’ll help you out and show you everything I do while also teaching you all the martial arts I know,” I explain moving her body like a puppet only to realize she is already pretty athletic, limber, nimble, and flexible. We go through all of my motions until the sun peaks over the horizon, “now we bow to the sun, closed fist open mind,” I show her the hand gesture and we both bow to the rising sun, “we give respect and thanks to the sun for another day of life, and also a great picture with the archway and bridge,” I explain taking a few pictures with my phone, then I continue teaching her for another 15 minutes, “now that we are done, we bow to each other in the same fashion,” we bow, “and that’s it until 12pm, do you want some coffee?” I ask putting my arm around her shoulders as we go back into the workshop.

“I never had coffee. Is it good?” She shows me her phone.

“It depends honestly, I like my coffee a certain way, but I also have some ginseng chai tea if you don’t like the coffee,” I reply walking with her to the table where my bags are, then I take out two 1 liter bottles of water, two instant coffee packets, two handmade packets of ginseng chai tea, two apple flavored granola bars, and two strawberry flavored granola bars.

“You see Dino sore?” She asks with her phone.

“It’s D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R, and yes in books, movies, and internet...why do you ask?” I replinquire while using the microwaves to heat up the water for the coffee and tea.

“I hear Dinosaur come back,” she answers eating one of the granola bars.

“Where did you hear that?” I ask making two cups of coffee and two cups of ginseng chai tea leaving her cups untouched so she can gather her own opinion.

“I hear when they walk around store. I hear lots,” she replies and takes a sip of coffee cringing in disgust causing me to laugh.

“Here, try mine,” I slide my cup to her and she takes a sip smiling with a soothing sigh, “keep it, I’ll just make this one like mine, now the tea,” I gesture to the normal cup and she takes a sip with an undecided expression, then I slide mine to her just for her to commandeer it taking them to the table our stuff is on.

“Perfect!” She says in sign.

“Glad you like it, and to answer your question, no I haven’t seen any dinosaurs...although it would be cool to have a dino,” I laugh fixing the two cups for my liking before joining her at the table, “I have to ask, has anyone ever hurt you in a s****l or physical manner...other than your father?” I ask with a serious expression.

“No. I don’t think. I still virgin. Why ask?” She returns with her phone.

“I was curious, because I am trying to get a read on you,” I reply pulling my journal out, “since your father owned this store, it would be safe to assume that you lived around here, am I right?” I ask writing down a list of things to do, and she nods in agreement, “we could go to your house if you want, but we don’t have to, I was thinking about going to some clothes stores, pharmacies, and convenient stores to stock up on supplies,” I explain looking at the maps on my phone.

“Not my house. I know lots cloth store,” she says finishing her coffee, then we go through several stores in St Louis while I record everything from yesterday like status reports and journal entries in both my journal and phone. Once we finish our drinks and granola bars, I get Aluri to help me clean up the workshop, but when we are close to halfway, I notice that there are enough leftovers to craft a good sturdy quiver that I could use with ease. I sketch a design to use as a basis on a piece of paper I rip from my journal, then I instruct Aluri to help me get up the materials I need, and after collecting the majority of them, I notice that it is going to be visually abstract and possibly ugly. I start building the quiver using some of the leftover metal, fabric, rubber, plastic, and straps, causing the final product to turn out triangular in shape, able to hold 15 arrows comfortably, and is mostly black with traces of white, blue, and pink accenting it with an adjustable white strap giving it versatility in how to wear it, but it can also be attached to the BWS, Black Widow Scorpion. After I finish with the last few details, making it more personalized, I assemble enough arrows of each type to fill the quiver twice, use some of the colored permanent markers to color the nocks hoping to have a labeling system that I can remember, load the quiver with each type of arrow, and put my gear on while Aluri finishes cleaning. I put the CZ Shadow in the huckleberry rig holster, the Luna in the right thigh holster, and the Kimber Sapphire between my belt and pants on my backside, if anything, I’ve got enough firepower on me to go out with a bang.

“I’m going to need my coat back,” I tell Aluri while chuckling, “also, when was the last time you’ve had a real bath...” I ask realizing I could’ve worded my question better, “I’m not saying that you stink, I was just curious, because we are about to go clothes pilfering, and you don’t want to put clean clothes on a dirty body,” I correct myself chuckling while packing and reorganizing my equipment.

“I need bath. Can I have bath soon?” She asks with sign language before packing and reorganizing her equipment as well.

“Yes, I need to take one myself, that’s why I asked,” I answer her grabbing a few of my things and walking downstairs to the Voltex, where I put them in the compartments, then I return to the workshop.

“We take bath at same time?” She holds her phone and my coat up to me.

“I don’t think that would be appropriate, especially since I don’t know your real age, but I was thinking I would help you wash yourself while wearing a blindfold,” I respond chuckling as I take my coat from her and put it on, then I grab the rest of my stuff and lead her downstairs. The moment she sees the Voltex, she freezes in surprise with her jaw dropped, which causes me to turn around, “what’s wrong?” I giggle at her facial expression, “I assumed you had already seen my Voltex, and that was how you knew that I was here?” I say in a questioning manner walking backwards until I reach the bike.

“Wow! I not see bike like yours. We ride?” She asks with her phone while I load the rest of the equipment into the compartments except for the bow, which I attach to the front of the bike, and the quiver, which I secure in the top right front side weapon slot, then I put the KSG in the bottom left front side weapon slot. The four front weapon slots were designed to be open so I can easily access them, and having them both accessible on the road gives me some comfort because guns tend to have recoil that could potentially put me off balance.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, yes, this is the only vehicle I have with me because I didn’t plan on finding any sane healthy survivors when I set out,” I explain locking everything down, “I built this bike from the ground up by hand, and it’s not lacking in power as I’ve gotten up to 342 miles per hour, 0 to 100 in .928 seconds, and as long as I reserve the energy while idling, or pushing it too hard, I never have to charge the battery, plus it can hold up to three 200 pound men while carrying 1500 pounds of weight and still run within a normal standard,” I continue explaining while realizing that I was bragging, “sorry, I’m very proud of her,” I give Aluri a smile before pushing the Voltex to the front door.

“Save time and water. Bath together.” She urges with sign language following me.

“How about this, if I can find a big enough shower, we can bathe together wearing swimsuits, but I honestly would rather find a clean hot tub to bathe and relax in,” I agree to disagree while checking the area out front before working to undo my security handiwork on the door.

“I know where hot tub,” she shows me her phone, “not far,” she adds while I’m reading.

“Cool, can we walk from here?” I ask giving up on the door and start pushing the Voltex to the back door.

“No. But bike can hide,” she replies showing me her phone, “I have car.”

“Really? Do you know how to drive?” I ask looking at her and she shakes her head no, “that’s ok, where is the car?” I inquire turning my attention to the back door to remove the braces and unlock it, but she doesn’t respond, so once I finish with the door, I look back while grabbing the Shadow in my left hand and karambit in my right, to see her playing with her phone.

“Car at big park,” she signs pointing to the back wall.

“Are you talking about a park, or parking garage? And do you mean the building behind this store?” I ask before carefully and quietly opening the door and surveying the back alley to be sure we are not walking out into a trap, then I step back inside to realize the Voltex will not fit through the doorway and face palm myself feeling ultimately stupid.

“Use up and down door,” Aluri signs to me and points to a vertical sliding metal door just behind the stairs, then she returns to messing with her phone.

“Thank you sweetheart,” I say feeling even more stupid that I did not notice the door before when I was securing everything, then I walk over to it, break the padlock with one hand, pull the latch open, and walk back over to the other door, “Aluri, can you open that door? I’m going to be your lookout if you wouldn’t mind helping me,” I request pulling the slide back on the Shadow to be sure there’s one in the chamber, then she sets her phone on the seat of the bike, walks over to the sliding door, and grabs the lift handle nodding to me, “I’ll knock when I think it’s safe to open,” I give her a wink before going out into alleyway holding the knife upside down under my left wrist while I keep the Shadow held out in front of me. I survey the entire alley while listening to the sound of a silent, dead city, then as I feel it is safe to come out, I gently knock on the door and she opens it slowly trying not to make any noise. Once the door is up far enough to get the Voltex through, I signal her to stop, slide the karambit into the slot closest to the bottom of the door, grab her phone and the Voltex pushing it out of the store, and grab the karambit out allowing gravity to shut the door for us. I sheath the karambit and stick her phone in Shadow’s holster as I walk back inside where Aluri is frantically looking all over the back of the store, “what’s wrong?” I ask trying to hold in laughter, to which she just holds out her hand with her thumb and little finger extended as the sign for phone, but she does not look up at me, “did you lose something?” I ask in a peculiar manner causing her to stop and turn to face me with a pouty face, then I clear my throat to get her to look up directly at me as I am holding my coat open to show her I have it and her face lights up with joy and relief, “I grabbed it off the bike so it wouldn’t fall off,” I explain as she hastily runs up to me grabbing her phone, “I am curious as to what you’re doing on it though, it’s just that you have been messing with it for a while,” I say feeling she might have found one of the games on it, but she holds her index finger out to me as to say wait, then she shows me the phone which is on the notebook application where she is writing a lot of stuff down. She does not give me much time to look as if she does not want me to read it, but it looks like she is writing in a diary. I grab both of our backpacks, carry them out to the Voltex, strap mine to the backside behind the first passenger seat pad, and put her Krizpy in the top left side weapon slot so she can reach it if needed, then I finally mount the bike taking the key and my sunglasses out of the breast pocket, put the key in the slot causing the bike to power up, put my sunglasses on while the heads up display loads up, and pull my ponytail underneath my coat before making sure my hat is on tight. Aluri joins me a few minutes later and I help her mount the bike, “listen, I designed this bike to stay balanced no matter what, but the ride is much smoother if the passenger obeys the driver by doing exactly what they do. If you understand, tap my left shoulder twice,” I explain and she taps my shoulder twice, “cool, so whenever you feel me move in any way at all, move with me without hesitation okay?” I continue and she taps my shoulder twice, “it works best if you put your feet on these pegs,” I show and help her with the foot pegs, “now rest your body against my back and wrap your arms around my waist, but if you ever need me for anything, tap my chest twice,” I finish my lecture and she does exactly what I told her to, then I pull out of the alley onto a one way street and Aluri taps my chest, so I stop and she shows me her phone.

“Bike silent?” It reads causing me to laugh.

“It’s electric remember? It doesn’t make any noise, perfect for avoiding unnecessary attention,” I explain grabbing her arms and wrapping them around my waist, then I take off allowing her to guide me to the parking garage, which is directly behind the store, only one block away, and six stories tall. As I pull inside avoiding the security bar, I notice it is almost completely full, and there are quite a few very nice vehicles, even though they are covered in dust.