Quantum shift, p.6
Quantum Shift, page 6
part #1 of Phase Shift Series
“Fantastic?” Troias repeated. “You mean, like dragons?”
Troias sighed. “I’m not even going to ask what a hodag is, especially if you say I might be seeing them soon, anyway. What you’re saying, then, is if I make the cabin a fortification, those things can’t just appear here, right?”
Troias shook his head and looked back at the notification, thinking ‘Yes’. The text flashed and disappeared, although a new block popped up almost immediately.
You have designated this location as a fortification.
Doing so earns you 20 Build Points that you can use
to upgrade items or secure locations.
Troias focused on the term ‘build points’, and a second block of text appeared to explain.
Build Points can be used for two purposes: to upgrade
defensive structures and safe areas, or to make obsolete
items compatible with the new reality. To upgrade a zone
or structure, simply think about upgrading it, and a list of
possible upgrades and their associated costs will appear.
In addition, objects built before the Phase Shift can be updated using Build Points to be compatible with the new reality. Any object or structure constructed before the Phase Shift will gradually decay and collapse unless updated or rebuilt using materials crafted after the Phase Shift. To do this, simply touch the item in question and think of updating it; a list of update options and costs will appear.
“Is that why my truck wouldn’t start?” Troias asked, stunned. “Did the Phase Shift kill it?”
Troias glanced at his supplies: except for the food, everything he had was manmade, which meant that his toilet paper was slowly decaying even now. If skyscrapers were going to be collapsed in a couple years, how long would it be until the world was out of TP? Days? Maybe weeks? He shuddered at the concept.
“Wait, what about my weapons?” he asked. “They’ll rust away, too, won’t they?”
Troias hefted his glaive and focused on making it compatible with the new energies surrounding them. A simple notification appeared, and he read it through carefully.
Your glaive-gusiarme is a simple, martial weapon
and can be updated for 1 Build Point. You can
also choose any of the following upgrades:
Extending Weapon: 3 Points
You can command your weapon to extend up to
20’ in length or return to normal size freely.
Lignum Vitae: 1 Point
The shaft of the weapon will become special lignum
vitae, a type of wood that is nearly unbreakable.
Mithril Blade: 2 Points
The metal sections of your glaive will become
nearly indestructible but lightweight mithril,
improving the weapon’s damage and speed.
For the moment, Troias decided to just update the glaive and ignored the upgrades. He figured he’d probably get the last two at some point, but he couldn’t see a valid reason to have what was basically a ‘Go-go Gadget’ polearm. The glaive seemed to shimmer for a moment in his hands, and he swore that the oak haft became a shade darker even as the blade gained a wavelike pattern to the metal.
He shrugged and picked up the first Ulfberht sword, concentrating on updating it, as well. The list of upgrades appeared, including the mithril blade – which cost 3 points instead of 2 – and one called ‘Perpetual Edge’ that cost 1 point and would make it so he never needed to sharpen the blade again. Again, he stuck with just updating the sword and its twin; who knew what else he might need the build points for? At the very least, he hoped he could use them to make his truck work, or it would take him weeks to get back to Chicago.
Before he could consider that, though, he had a much grislier task ahead: he needed to see if there was anyone else still alive.
Chapter 5
The Lodge
His trek back to the truck took a bit longer than it might have normally, since he’d decided that just in case he found anyone, he’d probably need to have a few things handy. He brought a first aid kit, some food and bottles of water, blankets, and of course his weapons. He’d almost forgotten about his compound bow for hunting, but he’d grabbed it just in case and used a build point to update it. He set the bow to the max draw weight and length, 70 lbs. at 30 inches, and grabbed a quiver full of mechanical broadhead arrows – he knew that some hunters swore by fixed-blade arrows, but he’d always felt that the mechanical ones flew better, and at the end of the day, accuracy was everything when bow-hunting. He’d brought mostly lighter-weight arrows, suitable for deer, but he had a dozen or so 350-grain arrows that would, with his bow, probably let him take down a black bear if he needed to.
He sat inside the truck and took a deep breath; if this didn’t work, it was going to be a long hike back home. He concentrated on updating the truck to work in the new reality, and to his relief, a wall of text popped up in front of him.
Your Ford Expedition is a complex, combustion-
powered vehicle and requires 13 build points to
restore basic function. The following upgrades
are also available:
Adamantine Frame: 5 points
The frame of the vehicle becomes adamantine
and cannot be bent, cracked, or distorted
Crystalline Windows: 1 point
All glass surfaces become hardened crystal
and are nearly impossible to shatter.
ECM: 1 Point
Requires HUD
Your HUD includes a display of your vehicle’s
current damage or disabled systems.
GPS: 1 Point
Requires HUD
Your HUD also provides real-time GPS,
including driving directions based
on viable road conditions.
HUD: 2 points
The dashboard display is replaced with a
holographic heads-up display that tells
speed, direction, external temperature,
fuel status, and the current local time.
Troias had 16 points left, and he quickly spent 13 to restore the truck, sighing in relief as it started smoothly when he turned the key. He spent his last 3 points on the heads-up display – he figured knowing how much gas was in the tank was a good thing – and the GPS system. The display flashed into view on his dashboard, in perfect, three-dimensional detail, with the GPS filling the center console screen. Honestly, it was way better than the LCD display he’d had before, and he decided that at least one good thing had come out of all this.
He drove slowly back to Road 13 and turned right, heading north. There was a lodge just a couple miles up the road, one that had something like twenty rooms for rent, and he figured that between the guests and staff, it was his best chance to find someone living. He pulled in slowly, his eyes peeled for any signs of movement, but everything was perfectly still. He turned off the truck and sat quietly for a few minutes, waiting to see if anything moved once it was quiet, but despite the dozen cars in the parking lot, the place looked deserted.
He grabbed his glaive and bow, keeping only one of the swords belted around his waist with the quiver strapped to his right hip. Robin Hood movies to the contrary, wearing a quiver on his back didn’t make much sense, since the arrows were harder to reach and draw, and with the length of his arrows, they’d be falling out whenever he had to bend over.
He moved as quietly as he could, freezing when he caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye. He watched for several moments but relaxed when a large dog trotted into view. He didn’t know breeds very well – he wasn’t really a dog person – but the animal looked vaguely wolf-like, with gray-black fur on its back and a white underbelly. It kind of looked like a large, fluffy husky…except for the dried blood crusting its muzzle and eyes.
Troias stopped and stood very still as the dog pattered into view and froze, staring at him. It didn’t look aggressive – its ears weren’t back, and its teeth weren’t bared – but it didn’t really look friendly, either. The dog barked once at him, took a step closer, barked again, and then turned and trotted off.
Troias followed the canine, hoping that perhaps its owner had survived, as well, and stopped when he saw that the door to the main building hung open. That wasn’t a good sign – surely, anyone alive would have closed it – but he took a deep breath and stepped inside.
The lights were all off in the lodge, which he supposed he should have figured would be the case, and he had to remove his sunglasses to be able to see anything. The first thing that hit him was the smell of excrement; the entire room reeked of it, enough to make his eyes water. Beyond that, the space seemed perfectly still and peaceful, but as his eyes adjusted, he saw a pair of feet in high heels jutting out from behind the reception desk. He reluctantly walked forward and leaned over the desk to see the body of a pretty, brunette girl that had probably been in her late teens or early twenties. Her brown eyes were wide and glassy, crusted with thick blood that also spread across her pale cheeks and stained her white blouse. Her limbs were contorted in agony, and it looked like she’d convulsed so violently that she’d broken her neck.
Troias swallowed a sudden surge of bile and stepped around the desk, avoiding the body and glancing into the back room. Two more corpses lay there, unmoving: one, an older woman with graying hair, and the other, a younger man probably in his mid-twenties. Both were obviously dead, and both had obviously died in pain. Troias once again forced down the bile trying to rise into his throat and stepped out of the main office, taking several deep, cleansing breaths as he regained control of his stomach.
He’d seen dead people before – both of his parents had passed years ago, and he’d been old enough to remember when his grandparents had dies – but those were cadavers, prettied up with makeup and paint, looking peaceful and serene. These bodies were covered in blood and feces, contorted in agony and staring at him in endless silence. This wasn’t clean, sterile death, the kind that society approved of. This was Death, the capital-D kind, the horrible reminder that when life ended, it was disgusting, terrifying, and usually painful.
He steeled himself and went back into the lodge, breathing as shallowly as he could while he searched for something that looked like a set of master keys. It took him several minutes to locate the keys, buried in the pocket of the older woman, and he almost lost his lunch again as his hand squelched against the stained fabric of her slacks.
Keys in hand, he beat a hasty retreat back into fresh air, taking a few moments to calm his quivering stomach. Once he felt settled enough, he walked slowly and heavily toward the row of motel rooms that fronted the property. He fumbled at the first door, searching for the right key, but eventually he found one that fit and cautiously opened the door. He sighed in relief as he saw that the room was empty, with no signs of guests. The second room was the same, but as he opened the door to the third room, the stench of feces overwhelmed him.
Grimacing, he held his breath and stepped inside. A quick glance told him all he needed to know: two bodies lay on the bed, a man and a woman, both obviously dead. He moved through the room quickly, checking the bathroom and closet for signs of life, before retreating out the door and closing it gently behind him.
Each room he checked was the same. Either it was empty, or it held nothing but corpses. The adult bodies were bad enough, but when he opened one door and saw the broken, twisted body of a little girl, maybe five or six years old, he couldn’t take it anymore. He rushed outside as his stomach heaved and dropped to his knees, vomiting uncontrollably as tears streamed down his face.
He sat that way for several minutes as grief and rage washed through him. “Why?” he demanded through clenched teeth. “Why did all this happen? What’s the point?”
Troias shook his head. “I’m already here,” he said hoarsely, his throat raw. “I’ll see it through. Just have to go check the cabins, and I can be done.”
“Yeah, I know,” Troias replied, stifling a sob. “But I need to see it. What if there’s a kid alive in one of those, trapped with his dead family? Or a baby with no one to take care of it? I can’t walk away before I know that’s not the case.”
He took several deep breaths, centering himself. This is just one, tiny lodge, he thought grimly. What does Chicago look like? Or New York, or Tokyo? Those cities are basically mass graveyards, now. Two percent survival rate – that’s one in fifty, right? For every person alive right, forty-nine others are dead. That’s…insane.
He forced his thoughts away from the specter of those deaths and centered himself in the moment. He wasn’t in those cities, right now; he was here, at this lodge. Not that it’s much better, is it? He hefted his weapons and strode briskly toward the closest cabin, noting that the door was hanging open. He slowed and made sure his arrows were loose in the quiver, ready to shoot if he needed to. The Phase Shift had happened at night, so if the door was open, didn’t that mean someone had to open it?
“Hello?” he called to the cabin. “Is anyone there? I’m just here to help.” He moved slowly to the door and nudged it open with his foot, noting that the reek of excrement was fainter in the cabin than it had been elsewhere. He walked inside and saw the body of a man, probably in his thirties, sprawled across the bed. The sheets were rumpled, on the other side of the bed, and blood stained the pillow there, but he was relieved to see that there was no second corpse.
“Hello?” he repeated. “Can you hear me? I’m looking for survivors, seeing if anyone needs help…”
He stopped as he heard a soft noise coming from a closed door. “Are you okay?” he asked. “Are you hurt? Please, I just want to help, I promise.”
The door slowly swung open, and a red-haired woman with a dark blue sweatshirt and black yoga pants stepped slowly out, her hand shaking as she held a slim, black pistol pointed roughly at his chest. “Who the hell are you?” she whispered. “How did you get here? Everyone’s dead…it’s just me. Where did you come from?”
Hey, Ren, can you hear me right now? he sent the thought silently into his mind. If you can, do firearms still work?
What I’m hearing is, she could still shoot me in the chest, Troias interrupted.
Hold on, I’m bulletproof? he demanded, amazed. What the heck?
“Who are you?” the woman repeated, her voice rising as he stood, lost in silent thought. “Answer me!”
“Whoa, calm down,” he said reassuringly, lowering his glaive and bow. “My name’s Troias. I’m staying at the cabin a couple miles down the road. I was just checking for survivors, seeing if anyone needed help. What’s your name?”
