It’s Not Easy Making Money In the Apocalypse – V6 - Chapter 19

My shield triggered, blocking the blunt of the explosion. That didn’t mean I wasn’t still tossed and then subsequent slammed into the ground. Yet, I was holding Zara, so her body ended up blunting some of the damage. As soon as the dust cleared and the ringing in my ears was gone, I pulled away from the girl, checking to make sure she was fine. Zara was staring at me with a stunned look as I quickly checked over her body. It wasn’t until my hands happened to touch her butt that she reacted, pushing me off of her.

“What are you doing here?” Zara asked red-faced, seeming just as surprised as I was. “I almost didn’t recognize you in that getup.”

I checked the bandit clothing I was wearing and coughed. “I’m here on a mission. Why are you here?”

“Th-the same…” She looked away, a stubborn expression on her face.

“This place is dangerous. You should leave.” I advised her.

“N-not until I recover the synthesis core.”

“The what?”

“You don’t need to understand.” She shot me a look. “If you didn’t force us to make such a ridiculous deal as to leave our old hunting grounds, we wouldn’t need the synthesis core to survive.”

“You actually left?” I blinked.

“Wasn’t that the agreement?” She asked, touching the collar on her neck. “Or did you already forget what you did to me?”

“That was…” I looked down. “That was the only way to get out of the situation.”

“Hmph, you expect me to believe that now?” She tried to stand up, but I pulled her back down.“Wh-what’s the big idea?”

“Did you forget where we are?” I gestured in disbelief while keeping in a lying situation.

There was still gunfire going all over the place. Thankfully, after the explosion near us, the fighting had moved to the other side, so we were temporarily spared. That didn’t mean if we poked out heads out from the debris we were being covered in, that wouldn’t mean an instant death for either of us.

“We have been running from place to place ever since abandoning the ancestral home.” She spoke, almost like she was talking to herself.

“Cici?”

“A synthesis core is an essential part of a biosynthesizer.” Cici explained. “It allows the replication of biomatter.”

“Biomatter… like blood?”

“Yes, biosynthesizers can be used to generate blood, but they can also be used to generate tissue. They are the top of the line item in bio-research.”

Although Zara couldn’t hear Cici’s side of the conversation, I hadn’t attempted to hide my words. She wore a bitter expression on her face.

“You even know that much.” She sighed. “In that case, I might as well tell you that the job of this convoy was to find and transport the synthesis chip. That’s why I’m here.”

“I take it you have a biosynthesizer with a broken chip?”

She compressed her lips, not answering.

“Any chance you can isolate it?” I asked Cici.

“The chip itself likely wouldn’t be emitting any signal.” Cici confessed. “But if the convoy was protecting this item specifically, then… yes… I see something that looks to be a storage. I’m marking it on your Perco.”

“Gotcha.” I reached out and grabbed Zara’s hand, causing her to jerk.

“Wh-what do you want?” She demanded, although she didn’t pull her hand away.

“We’re going to get you the synthesis chip. Then, you need to get out of here, okay?”

“She stared at me for a moment, her expression looking hard. “Why would you help us?”

“I’m not helping all of you. I’m helping you, because I don’t want you getting hurt. I wish your dad would stop sending you on such reckless missions.”

She looked away. “Why would you help me?”

“I already told you, because you’re mine.” I flicked her collar, causing her to blink.

Before she could say more, I began moving, pulling her with me. I didn’t want to explain my true reasoning. Part of it was because I felt indebted to her from before. I felt a little bad putting a collar on her neck and I wanted to make it up to her and her people. Of course, the side of me tainted by the wasteland new that getting the Revenant on my side might help me in the future. I had an entire world of unirradiated blood. The revenant would be a great species to sell to, if I could ever pull it off. However, our first meeting had gone poorly, so this was a way I was hoping to gain some of their favor.

“I can follow on my own.” She spoke quietly, tugging at her hand.

I let go, reaching down and grabbing a rifle that had been left on the ground. After checking to make sure it had ammo, I looked back at her.

“Good, then watch my back. You have a weapon, right?”

Her face turned red and she quickly scrounged for a weapon too. They weren’t hard to find. The soldiers who initially lead the convoy all had weapons when they died, and then the subsequent attempts to pierce the convoy also left many more armed corpses. That didn’t even include the fresh ones which were being made with every moment.

I was using the Perco once again to avoid enemies. Whenever there was an enemy ahead of us, I navigated around them. Most were thankfully preoccupied with either trying to pick up whatever technology they could find or were actively fighting someone else who was shooting at them. One person I ran past was Pick. He was in the back of a vehicle currently raiding whatever goods he could from it. The temptation to take more and more was strong. After all, only the top scavengers would be let into the Cock and Balls. Yet, the birds would be coming back any moment, and if someone lingered too long, then their chances of returning in one piece dropped exponentially.

Zara was watching me as I used the Perco. I noticed her looking at my wrist and smiled back. She stiffened, looking away.

“Must be nice to have one. I have to depend on my hearing and smell, but with so much happening all I can smell is gunpowder and the sounds are everywhere.”

“It’s saved my life more times than I can count.” I crouched down behind a car and gestured. “That’s the main cargo. Your synthesis chip will be in there.”

Her eyes flashed as she looked at the truck that was a bit larger than the others. The back of it was a large double door which had some complex computer locking system on the back. It would seem impossible for someone else to break into it, but it didn’t make me worried at all. What did give me pause was a large space without cover leading up to it. Anyone who went for the back of the truck would be out in the open.

That’s when Zara let out a low hiss. “Turrets.”

I glanced up to see a turret on top of the truck. “Maybe it’s not active.”

As if to mock me, a person came out on the other side of the clearing. I didn’t recognize him at all from the Cock and Balls, but he was undoubtedly human. He was just another Wastelander close by who was taking advantage of the mad rush. He had greed in his eyes and as soon as he saw the truck, he didn’t hesitate to run toward it. At that moment, the turret roared to life, pointing at him. He held up his hands, dropping the pistol he was holding.

“Oh, shit! Wait!”

The machine didn’t wait, and a moment later it opened fire. A spray of bullets came out, turning the man into swiss cheese. I looked away, clinching my teeth as I thought about what to do.

“We don’t have time to figure something else out. I have to be a distraction.” Zara declared.

“What?”

“I’ll get the turret looking the other way. You deactivate it. I know you can.”

I opened my mouth, and then closed it again. “Fine… but don’t risk your life.”

I was going to argue with her, but I knew she was right. We really didn’t have the time to play around, and although she didn’t know how fast I was at being able to hack stuff, I knew that my Master code was nearly instantaneous.

“And you don’t take your time.” She responded, as she started to work her way along the edge to the opposite side from me.

“Your shield has already been used up.” Cici declared.

“I know.”

“If the turret isn’t on the same computer as the lock, then your hacking will be meaningless.”

“You’re the military AI, are they?”

“These are not a military grade I recognize. This must have been something made after.” Cici admitted.

I shook my head. “Well, I guess I’m just going to have to roll the dice here.”

It wasn’t like I had no options. I could always just return to my world. Yet, if I did so, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to return.