PAFS- Post Apocalyptic Fallout Scenario

Making New Friends

Aluri holds up five fingers insinuating that her car is on the fifth floor, so I decide to take the stairs and possibly drive it down, but then I think about how to also get the bike, “do you think you could drive my bike without wrecking it?” I ask as I stop in front of the stairwell, dismount the bike, and signal her to stay on the bike, then she shrugs before looking down at the HUD screen, “it’s really not that difficult,” I smile at her putting my hand on her buttocks and push her forward, “put your feet where mine were, put your hands on the handlebars, and do as I was doing,” I explain guiding her while noticing her blushing, “the right handle is the throttle, the right hand lever is the right front wheel brake, the right foot pedal is the rear wheel brake, the left hand lever is the left front wheel brake, the left foot pedal is the emergency brake which is why it is further up, don’t mess with any buttons or switches, make sure to lean with your turns, and I’ve set it to only go 15 miles per hour, so you shouldn’t have any problems,” I explain in one deep breath showing her each item, “but just to be safe, take a lap around the ground floor here,” I say feeling slightly worried that she might get scared, or feel overwhelmed and crash my baby. She nervously pulls the throttle back causing the Voltex to roll forward slowly, and once she begins to feel comfortable I notice the dimples in her cheeks which means she must be having fun, then she cranks it up to 15 miles per hour as she reaches the halfway point between here and the back wall. She starts slowing down as she approaches the first left turn and takes it at around 8 miles per hour, then it seems she has started gaining more confidence taking the next turn at 15 miles per hour. Seeing her with so much joy in her eyes makes me smile and even laugh watching her slalom before she returns to me coming to a full stop just before hitting me, “good job, now put your feet on the ground and hold the bike still,” I order her changing the maximum speed to 30 miles per hour and turning the gyroscopic autobalance function off, “I changed the speed and turned the automatic balancer off, so you will actually have to hold it up yourself, feel the weight of it, find the balance, and modulate your speed,” I explain hoping she is as quick a learner as she seems to be, then she takes off a little wobbly, but gains her composure after a moment. She adapts fairly quickly making me feel proud of her and at ease, and when she returns, she is wearing a smile that would be impossible to take away, “I’m impressed, you’re a natural, which makes me think we should get you a bike instead of a car, although cars are actually much safer,” I give her a wink and a smile as I turn the balancer on.

“I love bike! I want bike! Please I can have bike?!” She signs to me.

“I’ll tell you what, let’s make a deal,” I say trying to think about a design for building her a good bike that she would love, “the main reason I wanted you to learn to ride was so you could drive the Voltex up to where your car is, while I took the stairs to check for unwanted company,” I explain walking to the back of the bike and pulling the four way trailer hitch, which has a tow hook, down and lock it, “but seeing how much fun you were having just riding around the garage, it made me think you would enjoy having one of your own to ride,” I admit grabbing her phone out of one of the pouches on her belt, “So here’s the deal, drive up to the top floor while looking out for a bike or something that really sticks out and that you would really like to have and ride every day. I mean don’t just go for the very first one you see, make sure that you really truly couldn’t do without, then come down to the fifth floor and show me which car is yours,” I activate the camera function of her phone and take a selfie with her, then I show her how to access the camera realizing I must have forgotten to show it to her, “if you find one, take a picture of it and show it to me. If I approve of it, I will make sure you get it, but if it’s the other way around, and I approve of your car, then we will take it instead...deal?” I offer extending my hand out to her and she smiles nodding and shaking my hand while mouthing the word deal, “cool, now get going,” I gesture for her to take off after taking the Shadow and karambit out, then I head into the stairwell and make my way up to the fifth floor. Although I am trying my best to move through the stairwell silently, it has more acoustics than I initially presumed, and I eventually find that it is counterproductive, so I abandon my plan to be sneaky and climb the stairs normally, and hastily. Once I reach the fourth floor, I hear a door open and close from below followed by the sound of metal hitting the floor, but I cannot discern which floor it originates from, then I hear what sounds like high heeled shoes equipped with riding spurs walking up the steps. My instincts tell me that the person is not bad at all, but my muscle memory kicks in, overriding the instincts, as I immediately get in my stance being careful to only take a step the same moment I hear the high heels clack against the concrete walking backwards up the stairs. I am sure at the pace of the footsteps that I would not see the person before reaching the fifth floor door, and once I reach the fifth floor platform, I kneel down next to the wall so I can see them, that is if they are following us. Five minutes later, the footsteps are loud enough to be on the stairs just under me and I prepare myself thinking I can handle any outcome, then not even a minute later, a very attractive female figure turns the corner and flinches in surprise when she looks up noticing me. She is five feet eleven and fifteen sixteenths inches tall, roughly 160 pounds with an hourglass type body, glossy jet black undercut hair with deep zaffre highlights that reaches her neck and swept to the left, bright magenta eyes that have black circles around the irises, dark tan skin, 38 DD bust, 27 waist, and 38 hip. She is wearing an aquamarine headband tied in the back and the ears reach to her hips, a black and neon azure fading handmade piece of cloth that appears to be a hooded cowl snood scarf shawl, a half sleeve white leather open cropped jacket with Egyptian blue accents, a black sleeveless backless crop top with a connecting collar, a white leather cuff watch that is eerily similar to mine, a black beaded rosary with an aquamarine string, a pair of white denim cutoff shorts with Egyptian blue extended pockets, a black leather western double holster gun belt with a solid black Colt .45 SAA revolver in the right holster and a solid white LeMat revolver in the left holster, a white thigh high sock and black six inch closed toe stiletto high heel boot on the right leg, a black thigh high sock and white six inch closed toe stiletto high heel boot on the left leg, both boots have neon blue metal spurs with cyan motion activated lights, and a handmade messenger bag made from black and white leather and denim with a unique symbol embroidered on the front flap.

“Jeez the tease!” The girl yelps once she sees me, “you scared the shitcicle pops out of me!” She pants holding her chest with a nervous expression, also, her voice reminds me of Cara Delevingne, but her face resembles Olivia Wilde.

“I apologize,” I say standing up keeping the Shadow pointed at her chest, “I heard the door open and close which caught my attention, then the sound of metal hitting the floor confused me, but after that was your footsteps, so I wanted to ready to defend myself if it came to it,” I explain watching her body very closely, “my instincts told me that you weren’t a threat, but my experience with trusting other humans hasn’t always been good,” I gesture for her to come up the stairs as I back up to the door.

“Look, I didn’t follow you to cause any trouble,” the girl says walking up the stairs, “my name is Sierja, you?” She introduces herself as she reaches the platform.

“V, why were you following us?” I ask getting a strange feeling that I have seen her before.

“I need some help, and I desperately need some water and food, but mostly water,” she laughs nervously.

“Would you be willing to lay all of your weapons down and allow me to search you?” I ask and before I even finish my question, she already starts to put them on the floor, “you don’t have to, I was just checking to see if you would do it, and it’s probably just my hormones talking, but I’m going to trust you hopefully,” I put the karambit away before extending my hand out to her.

“That’s kind of cute actually, I haven’t heard that one before,” she laughs shaking my hand, “but thank you, I have been walking for two days, and my water ran out yesterday around noon,” she explains and I can hear the dryness in her throat, but I also sense that she is about to collapse by the look in her eyes.

“Come with me, my water is with my bike,” I open the door gesturing for her to enter before me, “quid pro quo, if you will,” I propose still keeping Shadow pointed at her chest.

“You beat me by a second,” Sierja laughs looking back me with a smile, “I was just going to say that!”

“Well, ladies first,” I say through a half laugh.

“I was curious as to why you’re out here, most sane survivors cling to the cities that are fortified,” she says in a questioning manner.

“Long short story short, I am traveling around to find survivors, supplies, equipment, novelties, books, and so much more,” I reply as we reach the middle column, “if I find more than I can carry, I try to find a safe and secure place to stockpile, place a tracking beacon on it, and send a group wide encrypted message to my dispatchers that includes location, mass, weight, types of items, and sometimes even details, if I find something on my ‘Grocery List’ that seems to grow faster than I can acquire,” I explain laughing and using the quotation gesture with grocery list, “then they send out a courier specifically fitted for retrieval, for example; a cargo helicopter for rooftop or inaccessible areas, a diesel flatbed truck for large cargo, a big rig transfer truck for vehicles and cargo in trailers...you get the idea,” I continue while taking a small metal cube the size of a six sided die out of my satchel and my phone out of my breast pocket, “I’m sure I’ll regret telling you this, but my main base is in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and it’s built around the aquarium, walking bridge, and music park, that way we can still have some fun even though it isn’t much more than a few buildings with water access from the river,” I show her everything on my phone while explaining it and I sense her excitement as her face lights up seeing my homemade technology.

“So, are you the one who got it all working again?” She asks reaching in her bag taking out a black iPhone 12 in a black and neon ultra blue rugged lifeproof case.

“You mean the cell service and internet?” I ask looking around for Aluri, “it wasn’t me alone, I have a tech team comprised of genius super nerds from all over the world that help keep everything running smoothly and the satellites up to date, but I did write the algorithm that connects all of the servers from the cellular providers and keeps the unwanted people from using it without permission,” I answer my own question putting the phone and beacon cube away.

“Will you marry me?!” She gushes with a nervous giggle, “kidding, sorry, I’ve just never met another intelligent survivor who is also tech savvy, while out and about,” she admits staring at my watch, “so I have this Auburn Roadster 1930’s model black and silver, convertible, and just absolutely gorgeous,” she says with anticipation, “but something went wrong and it died on me before I could make it here where there used to be an auto-tuner shop that has aftermarket parts...I’m still working on it,” she hangs her head in shame.

“I believe I can help you, but first I have a few other things on my agenda that I want to get done, so if you want...” I begin to say, but my words fade as I see Aluri driving the Voltex down from the top floor.

“If I want what?” Sierja asks sounding triggered from my cliffhanger.

“Sorry, I zoned out, I saw my bike finally returning,” I apologize watching Aluri heading towards the descending ramp while I holster the Shadow.

“What? Where? I don’t hear anything,” Sierja looks around unable to see the Voltex.

“Electric motor, silent as a whisper until around 200 miles per hour where the whirring whine starts as the rail drive system begins to heat up,” I explain as Aluri stops at a 2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, “let’s go, it’s over here,” I point towards the descending ramp, then I grab her hand and begin walking towards Aluri.

“Hey what kind of watch is that?” Sierja asks struggling to keep up with my pace in her high heels, which I notice almost immediately and slow down allowing her to set the pace.

“I call it the Vortex Omniwatch, we can discuss it later, but I made it myself for several reasons,” I reply looking down at her watch, “and if I didn’t know any better, I would say your watch is very similar to mine,” I assume while unknowingly allowing my eyes to wander.

“May I ask how old you are?” She asks before noticing Aluri and letting go of my hand.

“I honestly cannot remember, but I believe I am at least 20,” I answer with intermediate pauses between my words.

“It’s strange, but I haven’t met a good traveling survivor that was older than 30,” she ponders out loud, “not that I’m into older people, I just find it weird...oh and I’ll be 18 on November 2nd,” she says in a ditsy manner, “is that girl your girlfriend or something?”

“She is a girl, and I think we are becoming friends as I have only known her for 17 hours, but I am not currently in a relationship, nor do I intend to be,” I return with a serious tone, “don’t get me wrong, I have my attractions, lusts, and a few friends that I love unconditionally like a lover, but I always push those feelings down,” I confess as we begin to near Aluri.

“Oh, so you met her here then?” She inquires with a hint of jealousy in her voice.

“How about we discuss all of this later, by which I mean you can join us if you want,” I offer as we reach Aluri, “we are first going to a place where we can take a bath and relax, then we hit the clothes stores and other places that are on my list, two of which are automotive stores,” I attempt a poorly thought out sales pitch hoping Sierja will want to stay, that way Aluri will have a better female role model rather than my feminine touch which is not great, but it is not bad either, “Aluri, this is Sierja, I almost killed her on the stairs, Sierja, this is Aluri, she is mute, but I am working on her communication skills...she almost killed me in the gun store,” I introduce them hoping they will click and be good friends.

“She so pretty! I like her style,” Aluri holds her phone up to us, “I want be friends. Please!”

“That is adorable, thank you,” Sierja responds giggling causing Aluri to start giggling too, “I think you’re very pretty too,” she comments before turning her attention to the Voltex, “wow...” she gushes as if she is in slow motion while she perambulates around the bike, “now this is an impressive piece of machinery...and you said you built it yourself, by hand?” She asks inspecting every inch of it.

“I took parts from all kinds of stuff and put them together to build it, my precious Voltex,” I reply while she continues studying the bike and murmuring to herself, “but while I was fishing for the parts I wanted to use, I was driving my VSX, which is a metallic black 20’s model NSX,” I say thinking about how much fun it was to drive. The VSX is heavily modded and has neon fuchsia highlights, accents, accessories, and Tron style LED tracer lights, while the headlights and reverse lights are bright white LEDs, the taillights are ultraviolet LEDs, the emergency lights are cyan strobe LEDs, the HUD and interior ambient lights are LEDs in which the color can be changed to any variety, and the aftermarket rims, whose six spokes are triple helix blades, are black with bright pink accents with twelve hot pink lasers pointed to the middle which gives the wheels a beautiful afterimage effect.

“You have an interesting taste in vehicles,” Sierja laughs turning to Aluri’s Camaro.

“Speaking of taste, I can’t wait to see your roadster,” I admit walking to the driver side of the Camaro, “also, did you find a motorcycle that you want?” I ask while inspecting the car to be sure it is safe to use, then I look up to see her shaking her head no, “don’t feel discouraged, I’m sure we will find one eventually,” I try to comfort her, then I walk over to her, give her my gloves, and lean in to whisper, “since you can drive my bike, you can wear these until we get you some,” I give her a kiss on the side of her neck below her ear before pulling away, “meanwhile, I want you two to take the Voltex down to the street, get about a block away, and wait for me...” I command as I finish my inspection, then I walk over to the Voltex, “Sierja, do you know how to drive a motorcycle?” I ask turning the speed regulator off and taking a one liter bottle of water and a couple of granola bars out.

“Yeah, I learned on a powder blue Vespa scooter,” Sierja replies giving me a confused look.

“Good, then you know how to be a good passenger,” I laugh sarcastically, “Here, take these and go with Aluri,” I hand Sierja the water bottle and granola bars before activate the scanner on my watch to investigate the car. Meanwhile, Aluri and Sierja hop on the Voltex, then they make their way down to the street, and once I see them drive down a block, I begin scanning the Camaro. I programmed the scanner to not only search for radiation, but also heat signatures, electromagnetic anomalies, thermite and other explosive materials, so that I could stay away from traps. After scanning the entire car with no signs of foul play, I come to the conclusion that it is probably safe, so I reach down with my left hand to grab the door handle, but something seems off as I hear a faint steady clicking along with a beep simultaneously once every second. Then a red flashing light catches my eye on the dash which is the theft alarm indicator, and seeing that put my nerves at ease as it flashed in rhythm with the beeping. After a deep breath and a long sigh, I reach down to the handle with my left hand, grab it, and pull it to open the door.

I am now suddenly flying over the Himalayas, but not in some aircraft, rather I am flying by own will to fly, and once I realize this, I gain control of it. I head to Everest where I hover over the peak gazing out over the beautiful scenery and when I feel around my pockets to find my phone, I notice that my left arm is missing, only a small piece of bone, skin, and muscle are hanging from the shoulder. The sight of my arm frightens me so much that it wakes me up, and as I look around I am in a very fancy hotel room lying in a very comfortable bed with Aluri and Sierja both sleeping next to me, but I have severe pain on the left side of my body from my head down to my hip. I reach my left hand up to rub my head, but just like the dream, it is no where to found, instead I have a nub wrapped in blood soaked gauze, as is the left side of my face, torso, and hip. The pain is not as bad as I initially expected, which causes me to believe that whoever dressed my wounds also gave me some sort of pain reliever, and since I feel very fatigued and weak, I assume I must have lost a lot of blood. I look around beginning to feel a wave of depression thinking about how miserable I am going to be without my left arm, and I realize that the girls are not only laying in bed with me, Aluri on my left and Sierja on my right, but they are also almost nude besides their underwear and that they are both clinging to me wrapped like a tangle of headphone wires. I have a strong urge to get up for several reasons, the main one being that I need to urinate, but because they seem so peaceful, I do not want to wake them, so I try to cautiously wiggle towards the end of the bed out of their grasps. I am mostly successful, only partially waking Aluri causing her to readjust herself and cling to Sierja, which in turn makes her cling to Aluri. Once I reach the end of the bed, I stand up precariously, and stumble towards the bathroom while visually searching the room for my equipment, then when I reach the bathroom turning to see myself in the mirror, I see my gear by the closet. My reflection reveals several cuts on my face not covered by the gauze, several cuts and burns on my torso, and a large bruise on my hip. I try to remember what happened, but the last thing I can recall is opening the door on that Camaro, which I am sure that I scanned it, then I relieve myself before walking over to the closet. My gear seems to be present and accounted for, which relieves my worry that I might be missing something. I rummage through my stuff disappointed that they did not take more care to organize it instead of throwing it in a pile on the floor next to the closet door, so I rearrange everything in an orderly fashion while taking my journal, pen, pencil, water, tool bag, watch, phone, candy bars, a bottle of Dilaudid painkillers, and a matte black MacBook Pro, that has a hot pink Apple logo and keyboard backlight, out putting them in my satchel. I take a couple of the painkillers before standing up, walking to the desk in the corner between the bathroom and the front door, sitting down, and laying the items on the desk, then I eat the candy bars while plugging my watch and phone into the MacBook. I spend the next hour scouring through the coding of both the watch and phone trying to understand how I missed the explosive device, but everything seems to be fine, so I give up and start going through my notes, designs, and ideas hoping to find answer, or clue.

“Hey! What are you doing out of bed? You’re still recovering,” Sierja whispers from the bed raising up to sit on the edge of the bed.

“I had to take a piss,” I respond keeping my eyes forward, “I’ve got a few questions; 1, what happened? 2, who dressed my wounds? 3, where are we? 4, how did you get me here? 5, who brought my equipment in and threw it on the floor like a pile of dirty clothes?” I ask opening the notebook on my phone to record her answers.

“1, we don’t know, we just saw the car explode which flung you into the building across from the parking garage, then you fell five stories landing on the roof of a station wagon. 2, we both did, but Aluri did most of the work. 3, we are in a hotel called Oxarks Sparks, Aluri said it was where you were going to go to take a real bath. 4, Aluri helped me hook the tow hitch to the station wagon and we towed it here. 5, sorry, we were in a bit of a rush to help...” Sierja answers my questions joining me at the desk.

“The last one was a joke,” I interrupt laughing softly while gingerly poking her in her ribs causing her to wince showing evidence of being ticklish.

“I actually thought you were serious,” she giggles, “but you still shouldn’t be up moving around, you lost a lot of blood and you’ve been unconscious for nearly 40 hours,” she cautions me sitting on my right thigh to watch me work.

“Damn! I didn’t realize I had been out that long, so what did you two do while waiting for me to wake up?” I inquire putting my arm around her waist to reach the computer.

“We ransacked this place for some real food, medical supplies, and some other stuff we thought were neat,” she replies looking back at Aluri, who is still asleep, “it’s almost hard to believe that you two met a day before we did, because she has the biggest crush on you, but after she told me everything that happened, I can understand why,” she gives me a smile before yawning, “also, I have been helping her with her grammar and teaching her about girl stuff, but we wanted to wait until you got better to take our baths so we can all use the hot tub simultaneously!” She says with ecstatic energy, but keeping her voice low, “oh, I almost forgot, we were looking through your journal and phone when we found a couple of designs and concepts for a robotic prosthesis...are those real ideas, or just something you were goofing around with?” She asks flipping the journal to the bookmark she placed in it.

“A little of both honestly,” I reply, “it started off being a pipe dream piece of fiction, but the more I learned about different types of things, the more it became something that could be done...with the right tools and technology,” I explain pulling up a set of blueprint pdf files on the computer, “these blueprints are not really finished, because what I have is the limit of my knowledge, but if I had the knowledge of a neuroscientist, nanotechnologist, electrical engineer, and a rocket scientist, then I would be able to build it as long as I had the right materials,” I sigh showing her everything I would need.