《Chaos Sequence》Chapter 22: The Hole in the Wall
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Engie searched all over the gym but Paul was nowhere to be found, she felt too nervous to ask anyone else so she continued to stumble around the gym in hopes that he would show up.
Someone took notice of this and approached her.
"Are you looking for something?" The soft voice caused Engie to jump back. It came from a young woman who wore the same outfit that everyone else in that group had, after eyeing the figure for a few more seconds, Engie realized that she wasn't a threat.
"Hello... yeah, yes I'm looking for Saint Paul, do you know where he is?"
The woman paused for a bit, like she was trying to remember something, and then she snapped her fingers. "He's currently using the toilet!"
"O-okay... do you know when he'll be back?"
"Nope, not sure at all."
"Can you... make a guess when he'll be back?"
"How long does it usually take people to pee?"
"I'm, uh, not sure..."
"Do androids pee?"
Engie tried to process what was said, to an outsider it looked like she had glitched out and froze in place.
"N-no."
"Woah that's neat, I saw some androids eating back in the city and I wondered where all that stuff goes."
"We use it all up as energy." Engie explained.
"Really? How does that work?" The girl got up close to Engie, it was like she had no idea what personal space is. "Oh by the way, the name's Mary."
As the strange girl waited for an answer, Engie went through multiple scenarios in her head on how to proceed. Pushing her away might be too aggressive, asking her to move back might be seen as rude, the best thing to do is move back a little and hope she doesn't follow.
It was just a few steps back but she managed to regain some breathing room. Mary tilted her head wondering what was wrong.
"I can't really explain right now but can I see Bill? Or Samantha at least?" Engie said.
Those were the only members of this group that she was comfortable talking too, she'd hope that they would tell everyone that it was time to help out. Now that she thought about it some more, maybe having Samantha do that wasn't a good idea.
"Bill? Don't know where he is. Same with Sammy, she's probably hanging out with Haven." Mary leaned in closer to Engie. "She has a huge crush on him, did you know that?"
"No..." Engie had lost her space again and she didn't particularly want to intrude on human love.
"Yeah, her and Haven joined at the same time. She would always wander off on her own and return a few days after and talk to Haven about it. You think they're star crossed lovers trying to escape the influence of their parents?"
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"I see... I'm not sur-"
Before she could finish that sentence, the door from one side of the gym opened and Paul walked through it.
A group clamored around him asking all sorts of questions, when will they depart or how long will it take them to reach the Holy Light were just some that were flung at the Saint.
Seeing the disorder caused Engie's anxiety to rise up as she became too afraid to approach the man. It was not like she would be able to get a word in with all the people there she thought to herself as she slowly backed away.
Seeing this, Mary grabbed her hand. "You wanted to talk with Saint Paul right? C'mon!"
The android was mercilessly dragged towards the writhing mass of cloth, flesh and faith. Engie tried her best not to scream as she was brought closer and closer while at the same time tried to not make it hard for Mary, since if she actually fought back she would have broken the girl's arms with minimal effort.
The crowd made way for the two as they knew better than to get in Mary's way when she had that look of determination on her face.
"Mary, it looks like you've made a new friend." Paul said once he noticed her cutting through the crowd.
"Yep! And she wants to ask you something." The girl pushed Engie ahead of her towards the Saint.
The man looked at her with calming eyes but that did not help Engie at all as she started stammering her words. All eyes in the room were on her, being in this sort of enviroment wasn't what Engie signed up for, she much preferred to be alone in a lab putting things together.
"Huh, androids can sweat." Mary whispered as she stared at the side of Engie's face.
"Guh..."
"Guh?" Paul looked at her confused.
"Good day."
"Ahem, why yes it is a fine day."
"Miley asked me, I mean Silver, to get you to do the thing which you said you'd do yesterday today since it's morning and she was wondering if you'd do it." Engie gave the best smile she could muster up under the circumstances.
Paul took a small breath and almost said something but he paused, he started piecing together what Engie wanted to say.
"Oh yes, help with the repairs. Of course we will, for those that were kind enough to let us take shelter in their home." Paul elegantly said.
"Y-y-y-y-yes thank kyu." Engie robotically turned around and headed for the exit.
"I'll see you there buddy!" Mary shouted.
As Engie reached the door she could hear that they started their communion or whatever religious thing they do, she didn't really care she just wanted to head to her workshop. It was suppose to be a workshop for every soldier here but since no one wants to use it, except for Engie, it became her place of respite from the goings-on of the rest of the base.
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At the other side of the base Silver and Annie were rushing back and forth dusting, cleaning and throwing rubble out.
"Is Engie back yet?" Silver stretched her back.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Annie looked around for any sign of Engie.
"You don't have to hold the 'h', just say that you don't see her."
"Well that would be lying since I haven't checked everywhere yet... uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nope I don't see her."
"Damn it, back to slaving away... I guess."
Once they cleaned up the place, the next step is to apply a gel layer to cover up the wall. Once that hardens up they would cut a door shaped hole in the new wall, maybe add in some window holes as well. The gel wall won't be as durable as the old wall but that doesn't matter, all it needs to do is stop the draft from coming in and chilling up the place.
"We could paint the wall a nicer looking colour, maybe jungle green or ocean blue." Silver imagined how that would look.
"How about white? It will look like snow or vanilla ice cream." Annie said.
"The gel is already white... now that I think about it, painting it is gonna take extra work... Maybe we should leave it white."
But first things first, they need the gel gun which Engie is suppose to be getting after telling the cult members to get to work. They not only have this room to fix but the lounge room as well, which was still a mess.
"You think those guys would like food?" Annie said as she swept more dust out.
"I would think... but what do we even have here?"
"I saw some potats and cheese. I think we have enough to make poutine! I can make a really good poutine!"
"You know how to make poutine? Like, seriously?"
Annie nodded her head.
"Uh huh, all I know how to make is a piece of toast." Silver said as she tossed another rock out.
"Hm?" Silver looked around, most of the rubble has been cleared out and there was still no sign of Engie and the others. They still needed to plug the hole in the wall as well as clean up the scattered furniture, luckily for them, one of their storage space has replacement chairs and plants.
Noises came from one of the hallways, both Silver and Annie stopped what they were doing and turned to look. It was the members of Those at the Threshold all orderly walking towards them.
"Do you see Engie anywhere?" Silver tried to spot her amongst the crowd but she was nowhere in sight.
"I'm right here..." A quiet voice came from behind the both of them.
Silver quickly turned around to see Engie standing there holding a gel gun.
"Since when?" Silver had her eyes wide open.
"Since you started talking about poutine." She lifted a huge duffel bag up. "I brought some tools that might help."
As soon as she started opening it, a young woman ran up and hugged Engie.
"Heya! Uh, I didn't catch your name before."
"H-hey Mary. I'm Angie, Engie! Engie! My name's Engie."
Suddenly, both of them were lifted into the air as Annie joined in on the hug.
"What are we hugging each other for? Is it a contest?" She looked between the two, Mary was giggling while Engie was trying her best not to faint.
While that was going on, Silver approached Paul.
"Thanks for coming, I need you to split into two groups. One on furniture duty, they grab chairs and whatnot and toss them out while bringing in the new ones which you can find in room... 29, which is the fourth room on the south wing of the building."
"Where should we dispose of the old chairs and tables?" Paul inquired.
"Oh just through that large hole, we'll fill it up later." Silver pointed at the hole. "The second group will handle sweeping duty, which is exactly like it sounds, the brooms are over there." She pointed at the brooms leaning by a wall.
"I see..." Paul turned to his followers and quickly separated them into two groups. "There, that should do, I will be a part of the second group."
"Are okay working in your, uh, robes?" Silver was sure that the hanging bits will be a pain in the ass to deal with.
"Hmm, yes, these robes will slow us down. Helping others is much more important than clinging on stubbornly to what we wear." He removed his robe revealing a plain white shirt.
Oh thank god they're wearing something underneath Silver thought.
"Oh wow I thought you were naked under there." Annie expressed her surprise.
"I sometimes don't wear anything under the robes but, unfortunately, today was a bit chilly so I have this t-shirt." Mary pulled the collar of her shirt to show off the giant robot image on it.
"Oh that's too much information, also what do you mean by unfortunately?" Silver didn't really want an answer to that question.
"Eh, the robes are quite comfortable, like a fuzzy blanket." Bill stepped out of the crowd, he was wearing a very fuzzy sweater underneath his robe. Silver wanted to ask how he wasn't sweating buckets but decided against it, she just wanted the base repaired so she can freely slack off.
With each group set up and almost everyone accounted for, they set out to finally repair Fort Long Road Bravo and bring it back to it's questionably former glory.
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