I should probably name these shouldn’t I?

A.K.A Chapter 7

Jeck woke him up early in the morning. The sweeping branches of the willow keeping them nice and sheltered, barely allowing flashes of light to pierce its leafy shield. He yawned as he blinked away the spots in his eyes. Was he dreaming about anything? He couldn’t remember. As per their routine, Jeck had went off foraging in the night and returned with a bunch of fruits and berries.

“Eat quickly. We’re not too far from the settlement now.” Jeck ordered.

Quake nodded and started doing his best impression of an industrial shredder. Jeck leaned out of the way juice and bits of fruit that missed Quakes stomach.

“Definitely going to have to teach that boy some table manners.” Jeck muttered to himself.

“Hmphf?”

“Nothing. Hurry up, we’re burning daylight here.” Quake nodded fiercely and started to cram the rest of the fruit into his maw. His teeth, Jeck noticed, had turned into drills and were practically liquefying anything that made it past his lips. He idly wondered if he could eat stone. He wouldn’t bet against it.

“Hey, you eat steel and stuff, can you eat stone?”

Quake looked up and attempted to speak. “Mmphm-“

Jeck cut him off sharply. “What have I told you about eating with your mouth full?”

Quake sheepishly took a large gulp. “…Not to?”

“Good. Now answer the question.”

“Well, I can eat stone, it’s just that steel provides so much more nutritional value and is generally more appealing to my palate.” He explained eloquently

Jeck gave him an unimpressed look. “You’ve had me foraging every night when you have food all around because it tastes like garbage?”

Quake looked up to the sky and forced a laugh. “Oh well would you look at that, we’re burning daylight.” He ran forward and took a hurried leap through the green veil. Jeck just shook his head and smiled. Cheeky brat.

They hurried up the side of the mountain. Bouncing from rocky outcrops, off trees and clawing their way up cliff faces. They reached the top a moment later, a dead end off a cliff and gazed out into the distance. Jeck let out a low whistle.

“Wow.” Quake murmured. He’d never seen anything like it before.

Flat, wide open, grassy plains lay stretched out before them for thousands of miles. If he squinted he could just about make out the shape of two small black dots on the horizon. The real surprise was the wall of rock that spread out and covered most of the horizon. He started at its base and followed it up. Higher and higher until it pierced the clouds. He suspected that the mountain didn’t even come close to stopping there. The sheer size of it was mindboggling.

Jeck disregarded it for the moment and held up two fingers, concentrating. He focused his senses and stretched them out further and further until they reached black dot on the horizon. His sense reached out and traced it. Large walls reaching around enveloping small buildings.

The second dot was a little further. He raised an eyebrow when he made contact with it. It was large, rectangular in shape with machinery and something else inside, something big and weird. Most importantly, they were both teeming with life, Human life to be exact. Sure, there were others but Humans? This was fantastic!

He turned to Quake with a huge grin on his face and pointed at the horizon. “Jackpot!”

The two turned and jumped off, hitting the ground and racing towards their finish line.

***

Ten minutes later a very excitable Jeck skidded to a stop outside the walls. Now that he was up close he could see that they were pretty tall, about fifteen meters and seventy six centimeters but that was just a guesstimate. The wall had a pretty big gate in front of it. Quake flopped out of his grip from where he had gotten impatient and grabbed him so he could speed up. He shook his head dizzily.

‘Jeck will pay for this.’

The world lurched beneath him.

‘As soon as everything stops spinning.’

Sadly Quakes fantasy of strapping Jeck to his drill and rotating it as hard as he could would have to be delayed. A voice just rang out from the top of the wall.

“Stranger, identify yourselves!” Barked a rough voice from the top of the wall. They looked up. A woman looked down from the top. She was covered from neck to toe in a dark business suit and wearing a scowl on her face. Even her hands were covered in dark velvet gloves. Quake looked up curiously at her dark skin.

“Hi, my name is Jeck, this is Quake and we’re looking for a city or any semblance of civilization. I don’t suppose you guys have room for two more in there do you?” Jeck asked politely.

The women scowled harder, if that was possible and opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by a shout from behind her.

“Am I late? Did I miss them? Did you make them lea- oh hello there.”

A pale, bespectacled man in a white lab coat, panting and wheezing, leaned over the rampart.

Jeck smiled innocently. “Hello there, you mind letting us inside?”

The man opened his mouth but was cut off by the woman grabbing him and pulling him down behind the rampart.

“Are you serious?! You’re just letting strangers waltz right in?” She hissed.

The man whispered back. “Of course I am, We are here to study this continent and I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to study a new creature just because you’re paranoid.”

“You are letting a complete stranger and his pet into our facility. You don’t even know if they’re here to cause trouble or not!”

The man poked his head over the rampart. “Do you promise to not cause trouble?”

“Sure.”

“Goo-“ A gloved hand grabbed him and he disappeared beneath the ramparts again. The two resumed their hushed conversation again. Jeck and Quake, who could both hear them clearly shared a glance. Finally, the man whisper yelled. “I am the overseer of this facility, not you, and I say that we let them in.”

“In charge of this facility? Fine then, let them in. But if they go rogue, it’s on you.”

He stood up and readjusted his glasses. “Of course. I take responsibilities for my actions.”

She rolled her eyes and walked away.

The man sighed and turned back to the ledge. “Sorry about that.” He yelled down apologetically. “We’ll have you in in just a moment.”

“No worries, it’s fine.” Jeck said, very amused by the whole affair. The man disappeared down off the wall. A few moments passed and the gates slowly started to sink down into the ground. The man now stood in the middle of the opening with two guards, wielding guns and a sword, flanking him.

“Welcome travelers, to Outpost 76!”

***

The man, who introduced himself as James Hughes, Chief Overseer of Outpost 76, lead them through the large, black gates. They made a quiet rumbling sound as they closed behind them. The two walked into the main section of the outpost. It was bigger than he’d previously thought, Jeck noted. Concentrated on the left side of the wall were a bunch of rectangular, long buildings. None of them reached more than one floor tall.

Over to the left side was room for various recreational activities. Shooting ranges, archery targets, a large wide-open area that looked like it could be used for spars. What really caught Jecks eye was the basketball court behind a chain link fence.

Oh how he missed playing basketball dearly. If he played for college as he was now? Forget Michael Jordan, Kobe or Lebron. Every kid would be wearing jerseys with his name on the back.

While Jeck was off in fantasizing about going pro, Quake was actually paying attention to the man who was giving them the tour of the facilities.

“Now that building over there in the corner is our research facility.” He pointed to a building that looked no different from the rest of the buildings in the area. “It’s one of the most important buildings here.” Quake couldn’t see anything that would denote its significance from the rest of the buildings here. Maybe it was blockier, or more rectangular than the others? Regardless they walked inside it, arriving at a small office. Whatever, humans were weird.

Or at least he thought they were humans, they looked pretty similar. Except the female, or at least he thought it was female.

“Jeck, these guys are all human right?”

Jeck flicked his head around at the mention of his name. “Yeah, why?”

“Then why was the female on the wall brown?” He asked innocently.

Every head in the vicinity swung around to stare at him. Jeck bit his lip to suppress a snort. He shrank back. “What?” He demanded.

Jeck leaned down. “Humans have a range of biodiversity, it depends on a number of factors but the differences between colors are negligible.” He murmured.

“Ahh, so it’s like different colored fur or something?”

Jeck thought for a second. “Yeah something like that.” Turning to the rest of the people around them he tried to defuse the situation. “Sorry, I’m the only human he’s seen so far.”

James laughed and even the guards flanking him seemed amused, going by their relaxed body language. “Don’t worry about it. I think most humans have gotten that question from some other species at some point or another.”

He paused as a thought occurred to him. Turning back to Jeck he raised an eyebrow. “Wait you’re human? Then what’s with the…” He gestured to white material that comprised all of Jecks lower jaw. “..white stuff?

Quake interjected. “I thought you said you were a Wraith?”

Jeck turned to James. “I’m both- look, it’s complicated okay? I used to be human and now I’m something more.” He pointed a finger to his chin. “This,… I actually have no idea what it is. Some kind of paste?” Shrugging he turned to James and gestured to Quake. “Can I have a word with him in private?”

James considered the request. Leaving two complete strangers alone inside the walls was pretty unwise, but on the other hand, if he allowed them their moment, they’d be more amenable to further requests, and he really wanted to study them.

In the end he decided a little trust went a long way.

“Alright. Terry, Alicia, with me.” The two guards followed him out of the room, closing the door behind them. He’d be keeping an eye on them through the cameras of course. He was trusting, not stupid.

Jeck waited for the door to close until he started speaking.

“Quake, firstly, I know I’m being pretty friendly with these guys but make sure you keep your guard up.”

Quake raised an eyebrow. “Why? I thought this was what you were looking for? More humans?”

“It is, but just remember to use your judgement. After all, it was humans,“ He said, tapping a finger against his pale chin, “who did this to me. They all aren’t as nice as me.”

Quake nodded. “Okay.”

“Secondly, don’t tell anyone about aspects. If they ask, just send them to me and claim you don’t know. If anyone asks you to fight or what you can do, try to sell yourself short. None of this advice might matter but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Ok..”

“Great. How are you doing, must be weird meeting other humans?”

“Oh yeah, it’s a little”-

Outside, in the security room of the building, James was looking at the screen in confusion. He turned to the security guard sitting in the chair beside him.

“Where’s the human?”

The older man looked confused. “What human? There’s nobody else in that room. You led the drill thing into the outpost, walked him to that room and now he’s talking to himself.”

James turned and strode out of the room.

The guard watched him go then sighed and murmured. “Maybe Gillian is right. Maybe James is a little bit crazy.”

***

“- and you’d definitely want a utility power or two, something that helps outside of combat.”

Quake nodded in agreement and opened his mouth to respond. “Yea-“

“Where’s Jeck?! Put your hands up….”

Only to be interrupted by James and his guards bursting through the door, guns at the ready. They all stared at each other for a moment before Jeck raised his hand.

“I’m right here.”

James narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been here the whole time?”

“I have aye.”

“Really? That’s funny. You didn’t show up on the cameras a second ago.”

Jeck shrugged. “I have a power that lets me go unseen by any sensory powers, I didn’t realize that it worked on cameras. You can have someone go check If you don’t believe me.”

Keeping an eye on the two, James turned to one of the guards, Terry, if Jeck recalled correctly, and told him to watch him like a hawk. He turned and walked out of the room.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes until Jeck sniffed the air and caught a whiff of something delicious.

“….So is there like a cafeteria or something around here? I haven’t eaten in months.”

The two just stared at him.

“Okay…never mind.”

Two minutes later James walked back in the door. “Okay, your story checks out.”

“So we can leave?”

“Yeah, you’re free to wander around, but we will be keeping an eye on you two, got it?”

Internally Jeck snorted at the thought of anyone keeping an eye on him unless he let them but he just nodded.

“Cafeteria, that’s the big building beside this one, opens again in four hours. After dinner, I’ll find you and talk more with you to discuss the terms of your stay. In the mean-time, familiarize yourself with the compound a little. Guards, escort them please.”

They all got up and filed out of the room. A loud rumble echoed through the hallway. Jeck rubbed his stomach sheepishly.

“I don’t suppose there’s a vending machine I could use?”

“There is, you don’t have change do you?”

Jeck shook his head. James reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coins and handed them to Jeck, who handed them over to Quake. He stared at the round piece of metal in his hand. What the hell were these? Jeck gave him a pat on the back.

“Be a bro and go get me something from vending machine would you? A chocolate bar would be nice. I’d like to ask the nice scientist a few questions, if that’s all right?”

James looked at his watch then nodded.

“Great, I’ll meet you outside.”

Ignoring his companions floundering he and James walked off down the hallway. Quake stared helplessly at the ‘coins’ in his hand. What the hell was a vending machine?

/////