It’s Not Easy Making Money In the Apocalypse – V6 - Chapter 17

“Pick.” Jacques hissed, raising an eyebrow at the other man.

He grumbled for a moment, but he still pulled down his backpack. A moment later, he pulled out these little round devices. Jacques snatched them and started handing them to everyone. I looked down at the one he gave me. It was small enough I could wrap my fingers around it, and it had various flashing lights on it. The most noticeable thing was a big button in the middle.

“Do not touch that button!” Jacques gave everyone a sharp look.

I wasn’t going to. I thought irritably, but when I remembered how dumb some people could be I decided the warning probably wasn’t a bad idea after all.

“What is it?” I asked instead.

“It’s a micronuclear detonator.” Pick growled. “These aren’t cheap.”

“Micro? Nuclear!”

“Shhh!” Jacques hissed, handing out the last one before turning to the group. “We need to cause as much damage as possible, but we can’t damage those eggs in the center.”

He pointed to an area I had overlooked before. I had overlooked it because it mostly looked like a grouping of boulders, but now that he pointed them out, I realized they were a bit smoother than a rock. They were Rok eggs? It fits the name.

“You think nuclear bombs won’t damage an egg?” I asked, still feeling like I was missing something.

“Micronuclear… it’s micro.” He huffed. The explosion will destroy their nest, but the range will only take out the sides. That’s why we need so many of them.”

“And destroying their nest will keep them busy long enough for us to raid the Democracy?” One of the cloaked men asked, gazing down at his detonator with doubt.

“They’ll have no choice,” Jacques explained. “The radiation given off acts as nourishment for the Rok babies. By my guess, it’ll be enough to push them to start hatching. The Rok will have to rebuild the nest or put their babies at risk.”

“Hmm, it’s almost like you had this all planned out.” The other cloaked man glared at Jacques suspiciously.

I agreed with him. There was no reason Pick would have just the explosive we needed nor would Jacques be as knowledgeable as he was unless this was all planned. Yet, how was that possible? None of us could have guessed what the initiation would have been. The only way Jacques could be this well prepared is if he worked with Cock and Balls. I knew that’s what the other two men were thinking. Even knowing Jacques, I found myself suspicious of the possibility.

“We all have our secrets.” Jacques shrugged. “I’m always looking for a good haul. I just happened to learn of this one and plan for it independently of my plans here. Conveniently, these things coincide.”

The two men didn’t look convinced, while the woman who had also been handed a bomb was looking back and forth between them. She seemed to have an expression that suggested she’d follow whoever was in charge, as long as she could remain safe.

“We have six bombs, so I take it we set them at each of the six corners?”

Now that I got a better look, I could tell that the former lot had been used as a hexagon, and thus the shape of the hexagon similarly looked like a hexagon.

Jacques nodded. “That’s right. When the button is depressed, you will have thirty minutes before the explosion. At that point, you need to high-tail it toward the convoy. At this point, it will be every one of us for ourselves. What you will be able to obtain will be up to you. I will be traveling on my own, and I expect you all as well. The next time we meet, excuse me if I don’t greet you politely.”

Pick grunted. “Who takes which spot? Those that have to travel farther away get less time to return.”

“I figure we’ll draw straws.” Jacques held up his hand which was already filled with labeled sticks while pointing to each corner. “I, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.”

The 3rd was the far corner, while were sitting between 1 and 6, but closest to 1. Nobody grumbled anymore and we all just silently selected our stick. I ended up selecting 5, while Jacques got the worst one, 3. The others were smug about Jacques getting the worst position, considering this was all his plan, but only I suspected he probably did that on purpose. Since he was going to the far end, he’d have the most chance to pick up any tech lying around.

As soon as everyone got their number, they started to leave in the quickest direction. I took one last look at Jacques and then left as well.

“Cecelia, start a timer.”

It could be any moment that the first person pressed their button. I also considered the possibility that Pick and Jacques lied about how long they would take to go off. I couldn’t assume I had all of the time. Plus, I had to at least show up at the convoy or risk getting sniped. The nest acted as a cover. There was nothing taller than the high walls of the place, so anything I took wouldn’t be seen by this sniper. In a perfect world, I could get some goodies for myself here, and then take what I needed to get into Cock and Balls at the convoy. However, that all depended on moving fast.

“I already have.” Cecelia sniffed as if it was obvious.

“What was that?”

I jumped back as I heard a voice behind me. It was the girl from before. When she realized she startled me, she flushed slightly.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, realizing I sounded a bit more accusatory than I intended.

“I have… #6.” She admitted, showing her stick.

I let out a breath, realizing I needed to calm down a bit. “I’m 5.”

She nodded. “C-can we travel together? At least, we can… help each other.”

“Help?” I raised an eyebrow, and she blushed slightly more.

“I’m not useless. I can keep an eye out. You helped me before, and your friend gave me a gun. I know how to repay favors.”

I thought about it for a second and then nodded. “Fine, but we need to move quickly.”

The girl nodded and got low, and the two of us started to move more quickly. With Cecelia mapping things out for me, we were able to move quickly. She could determine what things were structurally sound and what might collapse, so I was able to move from structure to structure quickly.

“Your corner is over there.” I gestured to an area.

“C-can you wait for me?” She asked nervously. “I-I’ll help you do yours.”

I hesitated for a second but then nodded. She smiled, reaching out to touch my shoulder. She stopped just short and pulled back, looking sheepish, then turned around and ran off with her detonator. She was just someone looking for safety. As soon as she had her back turned, I moved to the side and looked around. I was following Cecelia’s map until I found some kind of pad with information on it. I picked it up and then put it in my digitizer.

“Tssk… Master with another girl. Not everyone is like the girls you’ve found before.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, searching around for a second object that had a ping.

“Nothing… Master is just… Master is foolish!”

I found a device I couldn’t identify, but it was emitting power so I also stored it. I was just about to ask Cecelia what she meant when I heard someone clearing their voice. I stood up and looked back to see the girl standing there shyly.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“N-nothing, just always looking for stuff to scavenge, you know?” I quickly declared.

“Oh.” She nodded and then smiled. “Let’s hurry.”

We headed to my corner next. I wanted to hunt for more of the signals, but I didn’t want my companion to know about them. Thus, I told her I needed to use the restroom and then went and gather a piece while I was pretending to pee. Sometime later, I told her I was going to get a vantage point to see where the Rok were. She waited patiently through all of it. I found five items in all, although only one of them did I recognize. It was a smart pistol, the smaller equivalent to the smart rifle I had once gotten for Katarina. It was locked to someone else, but that was a simple fix for me when I had time.

“You better go get your corner done.” She pointed as we reached the spot.

I agreed and headed to the corner. When I found a good spot, I depressed the button and stood up. That’s when I heard the click of a hammer being locked. I slowly turned around with my hands up to see the girl holding the gun Jacques had given her at me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I saw you picking up technology using that Perco. Pull the items out and leave them and I’ll let you live.”

“You’re robbing me?” I asked in disbelief. “What happened to repaying favors?”

“I’ve done far worse to survive the wasteland.” She declared with a derisive snort. “You think that idiot was the first boy I tricked into dying for me? I might have played with you a little more, but you seem way too weak. You’re far too trusting and full of openings. Those two others have likely been keeping you alive and giving you the impression you knew what you were doing. Either way, a position in a raider group is wasted on an idiot like you. I need to get into the Cock and Balls. It’s the only way I can protect myself.”

“Yeah… too bad.” I pulled the gun from my digitizer.

She pulled the trigger, but I had my shield able to take a hit, so I knew it’d bounce off. Yet, when she pulled, there was a loud bang, yet no bullet came out. We were both stunned for a second, but she recovered first, chucking the gun at me before diving away. I let her flee. After all, I wasn’t in the habit of murdering people anyway, and she was unarmed now. I picked up the gun she had thrown and looked inside. Blanks. It looked like Jacques hadn’t trusted her from the start. He tricked her. Now, I was wondering how he was going to trick me. I stored the gun away. I just had to be better.