Attuned future an apocal.., p.1
Attuned Future: An Apocalyptic LitRPG Adventure (The Metier Apocalypse Book 3), page 1
ATTUNED FUTURE
THE METIER APOCALYPSE
BOOK 3
FRANK G. ALBELO
Copyright © 2023 by Frank G. Albelo
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Newsletter
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Epilogue
Afterword
About Frank G. Albelo
About Mountaindale Press
Mountaindale Press Titles
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank everyone who's made it this far into the story with me. Your presence here is what is letting me continue to live the dream of getting the tales living in my head out into the world. Thank you.
And, I hope all of you have a wonderful time delving deeper into the world of Metier!
NEWSLETTER
Don’t miss out on future releases! Sign up for the Mountaindale Press newsletter to stay up to date. And as always, thank you for your support! You are the reason we’re able to bring these stories to life.
PROLOGUE
“How can they keep us here?” Marcus yelled, doing his best to reel in his voice as he realized his mother was but two feet from him. Instead, he slammed his heel into the door detaining the two remaining Metiers. The impact reverberated off the concrete walls. Marcus gripped his head, fingers digging into his skull as he took deep breaths. Ingrid watched him as tears silently fell from her face.
“It’s going to be okay, Marcus. Your father wouldn’t have done this if he had any other choice,” she eked out.
“After all you two have sacrificed, the least those government D-bags could have done is saved him a spot! But noooo!” Marcus pantomimed with his hands and marched to an uneven beat. “They just had to get their little military men all lined up in a row!”
“That’s enough!” Ingrid’s voice cut through Marcus’ tirade like a knife. The man was reeling, tears streaming from his own face as he looked at his mother, wounded. “Those people you are talking about had lives before the crystals fell. They probably lost just as much if not more. You cannot think one life is more valuable than another.”
Ingrid was still crying, but her expression hardened. It hardened more than the cancer, more than the sky falling, had ever hardened it. The person who’d pulled her through both of those things was gone, and it was up to her to make it count. She embraced Marcus, holding him as he sobbed and cooled his anger. Unfortunately, she knew it only lay simmering. She just hoped it would be cold enough for them to make it through any other engagements with General Starden.
— + —
Elias led the two Metiers down to the bottom floor of the Bunker. They passed the greenhouse floor, which looked more like the dirt house floor to Marcus, and the medical level. The water treatment plant and the primary generator sputtered in the center of the room. A man with jet black hair and a strained smile worked the console, reading out pressures and filtration rates while a woman attempted to rein him in. Marcus did a double take as the brunette looked over her shoulder to the approaching trio.
“Ah! Mr. Elias. Please, I’m trying to get my brother to take a break but he appears to have duct taped himself to this machine!” the woman said gently, while still nudging her brother.
“Clara, you don’t get it. The tape is for those pipes over there!”He gestured to one of the test drip pipes that was doing a little more than just dripping. “They turned this damn thing on without even checking the welds!”
“As you can see, we are having some issues. Mr. Elias, unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend utilizing the kitchen or even seventy percent of the restrooms. The top floor has already been providing a greater volume than we anticipated,” Clara said.
“I understand. Please, no need to be so formal. This is Ingrid and Marcus. Ingrid, Marcus, these two siblings are Dale and Clara Terrigan. I am hoping you all will get us sorted out here,” Elias said, barely keeping the frown from his face. The man was practically glaring at the machinery.
“I will look at the field around the generator. The radiation might be stronger than predicted against the electromagnetic shielding,” Ingrid said after shaking Clara’s hand. Dale was thoroughly covered in gunk, shooting a meek smile her way instead.
“I know a thing or two about duct tape,” Marcus added awkwardly.
“Snag a roll!” Dale said, already turned back to the control panel. Clara tossed Marcus some tape and he couldn’t keep the corners of his mouth from twitching up slightly. It was the first hint of a smile that had crossed the man’s face since he’d woken up in the Bunker over a week ago.
— + —
“Absolutely not.” Ingrid crossed her arms. The scowl she kept out of her expression in front of Marcus returned in full force.
“We understand that you have an…apprentice of sorts. A protégé, if you will. It would be such a shame if something were to happen to him,” Starden said evenly.
Ingrid Metier snorted, then full on laughed as Starden’s face soured. The privates at the door looked between each other, shifting uncomfortably. Eventually the woman was able to get herself together. She ran her hand across the short hairs on her head, feeling the prickly sensation and remembering Raphael. Her expression darkened as she looked at Starden.
“I will work on the power issues for when we return to the surface, but my ‘protégé’ will continue to work on human adaptation to the growing radiation. Elias and that Ava woman have been working hard to pull him out of his shell, and I won’t have you messing that up.” Without further preamble, Ingrid stood and walked past the privates. Before shutting the door behind her, she peeked her head through the door.
“I’m glad you understand that threatening Marcus will only cause you problems. However, if you threaten someone I love again, the Fall will be the last thing on your mind.” The door shut with a quiet click.
Starden let out a breath he and the privates didn’t realize they were holding. “Monsters, all of them…” he mumbled under his breath. The privates could only silently agree as they remembered Ingrid’s face.
CHAPTER ONE
The Weight of Corruption
The light of morning glinted through the newly uncovered windows. I blinked the swimmers out of my eyes as I spotted the drool staining the report I had been reading through. My mind started to boot up. The few blissful seconds of confusion didn’t last long as the fight to rescue the trainees flashed to the very front of my mind. Pain, uncertainty, fear. All the emotions muddled my mind until I firmed my grip on my thoughts.
With a deep breath, I focused on my surroundings, taking in the details of the office around me. It was still bleak, but most of the strange experimental paraphernalia had been moved to another storage area. Samuel was slumped in a beat up couch, similarly half-asleep. At the very center of the room, bound by chains and plates of thick metal was the corrupted Metier Crystal. The Dreg Entity.
>Earth fleshbag is conscious.<
“That thing is the worst alarm clock!” Sam complained, turning over and pulling a blanket to block out the sun.
>Life fleshbag is weak. Should harden body if they seek to survive.<
“We’ve been over this. If you aren’t going to say anything useful, we don’t want to hear it,” I said, cracking my neck and back as I worked out the kinks of falling asleep at a desk.
>Fleshbag has all the information he needs. He merely lacks the conviction to force his will upon others.<
“That’s it. Night-night, Charcoal.” Samuel’s hand rose out of the blankets. A spell chain formed around the metal, surging with life mana as the bush hidden by the metal surged with vital energy. The crystal squealed, a high-pitched whine that set me grinding my teeth. Just as quickly as it had started, the sound quieted. The malevolent purple glow from within the crystal dimmed.
“Man, I’m glad you and the healers figured that out. I was ready to pull my hair out if I had to listen to that pessimistic, conniving piece of rock,” I said, rubbing the last of the sleep from my eyes.
“Yeah, we’ve gotten our fair share of practice. Unfortunately…” Sam drifted off. Snoozing answered after a few minutes of silence.
“Sleep in, big guy,” I said, adjusting the blanket over Samuel as I headed toward the living area on the other side of the floor.
A makeshift fire stove had been installed against the wall, a hole punched straight through the building giving the exhaust a way out. I could see some of the previous owner’s clothes and knick-knacks still scattered around the room, but I pushed past them to the tray set out on the counter. Roasted tomatoes with some cut slices of mystery meat. “Thanks, Danny.”
My whispered thanks went unheard, the woman already out on her rounds. I split the meal in half, leaving the rest for Samuel when he woke up. I gulped down some water and walked up to the armor stands against the staircase. One set of armor, one empty stand, and a final one where a tactical vest and an H-shaped shield hung stood watch over the stairs. With practiced, mechanical movements, I donned my vest, adjusting the rip tape and pulling it snug. I pulled the side strap on my backpack, attaching my shield like a turtle shell and slid the infused pickaxe under it.
I really need to work on some better gear. Plans floated through my head as I went down the stairs, past the practice dojo of the Wild Guard and out onto the training fields. One tall figure already stood in front of a bunch of trainees. With my increased Perception, I could hear the words carrying across the open space.
“—ppen again? We all need to pull our weight through difficult times. The Guard needs its trainees now, more than ever. I will be instituting some changes to the squads to accommodate for missing members.” The voice paused for a moment, looking over her shoulder to see me approaching before continuing. “In addition, I will be initiating an infusion course. This will be a mix of free time and research that I hope you all can assist with. More to follow at the evening meal. Now, break and start on your laps. I want even the slowest Geo doing laps on the Flappers. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am!”the trainees called back, the strength of their voices shaking the ground before they scrambled for the starting point of the track around the field. Thanks to Devon’s and Daniela’s instructions, the group had actually started to utilize their skills to help them increase their movement abilities in a number of ways. I watched an elf zip left and right around a downed mermaid. An orc blasted fire out of her feet to leap clear to the front of the column before overcompensating and stumbling. None of her peers jeered at her, all focused on getting faster and using their friends to practice their own skills.
“Should have done this years ago,” the orc woman who’d been instructing the trainees said, sighing. With all of them distracted by the laps, I was able to see the weight of responsibility she held flawlessly take its toll. The deep green bruises under her eyes, and the slight slouch in her posture that hadn’t been there when I’d met her.
“You did always strike me as the drill sergeant type,” I said, trying to lift the mood a bit.
“Ha! I’ve seen you and Daniela running them through accuracy training.” The large orc shivered. “My methods are relaxing in comparison.”
“You should meet Danny’s mom!” We let out a chuckle, relieving some of the constant stress of the last week. The two of us lapsed into silence as we watched the trainees. Many were now starting to flag in their use of their skills. The aftereffects of their magic was taking its pound of flesh. Metaphorically speaking.
“That rock tell you anything new?” Sarah asked, still looking at the trainees.
“Nothing but annoying us. Nothing new from Kirby’s notes other than being able to trace just who he was giving to the Dreg. Your father has taken it upon himself to contact any of the surviving family personally.”
“I saw.” Sarah sighed, breaking eye contact with the trainees and moving to a tent that had been set up on the edge of the field. A scattered array of weapons and infusions laid on a large, rough-made table. Scorch marks and deep scratches marked the whole length of it. “Sorry about the mess.”
“You should have seen my workspace back home,” I said, pulling over one of the nearby chairs and adjusting my gear. “Are we ready to talk about the elephant in the room?”
Sarah stiffened. I could almost hear the internal debate going on in her head, but eventually she relaxed. “The one about turning everyone into Dreg Warriors?”
“That’s the one. I still need to run it by Tec—not sure if he’s got the juice now that he’s our acting prison. Hopefully it can, at the very least, give implants to all the Fallen old enough to fight. Gift or no Gift.”
“Why still call it Gift? We know the crystals call them skills,” Sarah said, deflecting the conversation.
She got one of my eyebrow raises, but she ignored it. I let out a sigh. “As far as I understand, it’s still a Gift. Self-developed skills are more flexible than the ones we acquire from the Entity Clusters, at least at the start. Now can we bring it up to your father?”
“He’s already brought it up himself,” she said with a sigh. “As soon as you told him it was an option, he was practically begging me and the other squads to talk to the crystal for them. But I just don’t…”
“Feel comfortable signing them up for a goal this dangerous?” I finished for her.
“Something like that.”
“The Entities aren’t forcing anything. All they want to do is stabilize the planet, and if we want to thrive on the planet more than just survive, we will need their help. I don’t know how the other larger cities are doing, but it sure looks like this one got the short end of the stick.”
“You’re right. It’s just…this is the first time we’ve even considered pushing back against everything. The creatures, our own growth, and others. Clara’s been arguing to support the other towns where possible for as long as she’s been a squad leader. Looking back on it now, I’m fairly sure the councilman was not happy with the success she was having.”
“Ex-councilman, Sarah.” I added. “Kirby is a criminal. He’s probably one of the biggest ones that didn’t actually run a country pre-Fall. I know it’s recent and I know you’ll want to question every interaction you had with him, but it’s not worth your time. We are making decisions for the now and for the tomorrow.”
The orc woman nodded, falling back into silence. When I spotted a groggy Samuel stumble out of the training building we’d taken over, I stood and said my goodbyes to Sarah. “I’ll be there for the lesson tomorrow. Were the scouts able to snag all the loot?”
“Yeah. Oliver is still working on separating everything. Dodge the center of town if you can. They were riled up this morning.”
A grimace crossed my face, but I walked forward. Samuel spotted me and moved to intercept. “I thought those tomatoes were not that sour,” he said lightly.
“No, they were great. The current situation? Not so much,” I said.
“What do you mean?” the blond asked, rubbing his eyes to clear the last bit of sleep upon hearing my serious tone.
