It was a tense fifteen minutes while Arthur waited for Theobold to return from the basement.
He waited while leaning on the counter, his legs twitching as he watched the others. Augustus paced back and forth in front of the door. His weapon was ready, as though he expected whatever had attacked Theobold to return.
Nyssa was on her feet as well. Her gaze turned towards the basement as she waited.
“Do you think everyone else is okay?” she asked.
Arthur nodded.
“I do.” To his surprise, he meant it. “You really think Theobold would have come back without his mother?”
“Fair point.” Nyssa shrugged and settled down on the floor.
As the room fell quiet, Arthur stared out the window. His concentration on the empty streets outside broke when he heard a squeaking from below. With a quick check, he saw Theobold approaching the ladder. The security guard looked as good as new.
When he was back up top, he moved around the counter and then snapped off a salute.
“I have a report.”
“Sure, what happened? Is everyone safe?”
Theobold nodded and gestured to his arm. “Yes boss. I actually got the worst injury of the lot. One of the cat monsters clawed at me while another one jumped at my face. Vicious things. Everyone else made it through unscathed, thanks to Knight Charleston and Knight Tilly being present.”
“They made that big of a difference?” Nyssa asked.
“Yes. The farmers have a system of their own. But it’s not great. They mostly clump around Farmer Jeremy’s house and let the beasts come to them. Mom, Knight Charleston, and Knight Tilly helped change their defence somewhat.”
A gleam appeared in his eye, and he smiled as excitement crept into his voice. “The battle was glorious, Arthur. I’ll need to tell Rab. He’ll be mad he missed it.”
“Oh?” Arthur leaned forward. “Was it a big one?”
Theobold shrugged. “Large. The SEM that was on the farm helped. You should have seen it. Two chainsaws, and it cut through some of the monsters with ease.”
Arthur couldn’t help but see the teen Theobold had once been as he gestured to show off the SEM’s actions. He also noticed Nyssa’s reaction to that name. She looked over, curious, but Theobold was in the middle of describing his fight with the creature he carried in.
When that story ended, Arthur jumped in.
“What’s a SEM?”
“Robot,” Theobold said.
“Self-Aware Employment Machine,” Nyssa said at the same time.
“Nyssa?” Arthur asked, and she shrugged and looked away.
“Frank brought a magazine into the hospital, and I read up on them. They were going to be the next big thing. I remember the article saying that the hospital and some farms got them. It didn’t go into that much detail.”
“So, you fought alongside a farming robot?”
As he spoke, he imagined a decked-out Mad Max tractor with limited AI mowing down anything that stood in its path while Theobold swung from a tractor on the back.
“Yes, though wealthy businesses used them as well.” She shuddered. “I remember them being incredibly uncanny valley in the photos.”
He paused his imagination there and turned to her. “Androids? You developed androids?”
“What’s an android?” Theobold asked, his confusion showing on his face.
“A machine designed to look human.”
Theobold snorted. “Oh. I wouldn’t call them Androids then. At least not this one.”
“How so?”
The longer Theobold explained, the more he wished he hadn’t asked.
From what he understood, Jeremy’s SEM was more of a robotic spider-like centaur than anything else. A human upper torso with mechanical legs that jutted out of the bottom. Both of its arms were replaceable, and for the battle, they had borne chainsaws.
Nyssa picked up her paintbrush and started working once again as he talked.
“It yelled a lot, though,” Theobold said. “Something about Genomian Inc. property? It was strange.”
At the mention of that name, Arthur heard a crack. He looked over to see Nyssa standing up, the paintbrush in her hand nearly split in half.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice came out as a whisper, and Arthur could see she was trembling. Behind her, he noticed her tail flicking. “What did you say?”
“Genomian Inc?” Theobold repeated.
The paintbrush flew to the other side of the room as Nyssa let out a rodent-like squeal. “Bastards!”
***
Arthur was glad he remembered to duplicate his tea reserve every so often.
Dr. Muriler had arrived with haste at the sound of his daughter’s shout. He now sat beside her, both of them drinking tea while huddled up near the counter. Theobold had made himself scarce. Now both he and Augustus stood outside, discussing the battle.
As he sipped from a cup of his own, he tried to think about what to say. After a minute, he shrugged and asked the obvious question.
“So, I take it you have a history with them?”
Nyssa remained staring at her cup, and, by extension, the floor. It was Dr. Muriler who nodded and pointed at himself with a squeak.
“Someone you knew?”
At the nod, Arthur continued.
“Before the collapse, I assume?”
Another nod and Nyssa broke her silence.
“Yes, they wanted to hire my father. He turned them down, and they didn’t take it well.”
“Ahh.” He took another sip of tea. It wasn’t much of a statement, but it seemed to be enough for her to continue.
“Threats, financial bullying. The works. They really wanted his research.”
Dr. Muriler squeaked, and his tail wrapped around her. He shook his head and patted her shoulder.
“No, you shouldn’t have! You were working on things to help people,” Nyasa said.
The words sounded rehearsed to Arthur, and he wondered how many times they’d had this argument. From the way Dr. Muriler rolled his eyes, he assumed a lot.
He squeaked, and Nyssa frowned, putting down her cup.
“It wasn’t fair. You’re right, though, it’s over. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten mad.”
With another pat, Dr. Muriler let out another squeak.
“Sorry Dad. Sorry Arthur.”
Arthur shrugged. “It’s fine. Want to talk about it?”
“No. Do you think the box will fix my brush?”
With a turn of his head, he peeked over to stare at the instrument laying against the wall. It sat in two pieces, splotches of blue paint dripping onto the floor.
“No,” he answered honestly. “Sorry. Maybe The Explorer can get you another one?”
“Maybe.” Nyssa sounded resigned as she stood up. “I have others. Maybe I can get some detail work completed?”
“Sounds like a plan.” Arthur smiled and raised his voice. “Hey Theobold, do you want to bring that corpse inside?”
“Can do!” Theobold called back.
He placed his half-drunk cup of tea behind the counter as he waited for the corpse to be delivered. Soon enough, Theobold placed it before him, and he stared into its disturbing insectoid eyes.
It reminded Arthur of a grasshopper, though huge and made of bark. Green and blue moss covered parts of it, and the serrated edges of its long back legs were thin but strong. One leg hung over the back of the counter, landing in a small patch of shadow.
When it did, he noticed that the moss on its leg glowed.
“The animals have a glow too?” He asked, thinking back to the trees.
Theobold nodded. “Yes. It makes them easier to see in the dark.”
With one hand, he reached out and touched the corpse, curious to see if he would get anything new from it.
The typical sound played, and soon he was looking at the screen.
“Oh,” Arthur said as he read the list. “Hey Theobold. Did you know the moss is alive?”
“It is?”
“It is.”
A smile grew on his face as he wondered how he could get more of it. He could still remember Jemima talking about how dark the passageway was.
“Could we grow it?” He wondered as he tapped a finger against the table. “If we find there aren’t any lights down there, it might work.”
“How bright was it at night proper?” Arthur asked as he moved across to the box.
Theobold shrugged. “Bright? Like, brighter than during our trip, but not by much.”
“Do you think we can get more?” His hand opened the box, and he pulled out the moss.
Something burned his fingers, and he yelped in surprise. Dr. Muriler looked over and let out an enraged squeak before he charged.
Arthur let out a shrill squeak of surprise as he felt the plant being ripped from his hand. His fingers burned as Dr. Muriler tossed the patch of moss to the floor with an annoyed squeak. The moss didn’t move.
“What?” Arthur asked, but another squeak shut him up and halted Nyssa as she got up from the ground.
He watched in silence as the doctor fished a piece of meat from the box and tossed it towards the moss. When it hit its target, the blue plant life reacted violently. It shifted around, covering the meat as much as it could. Before his eyes, the meat-moss symbiote grew smaller before stopping.
“What?” he repeated.
Dr. Muriler squeaked, his expression angry, as he grabbed his cane and batted the thing outside.
Arthur’s thoughts whirled as he watched the scene. A symbiotic plant, then? If he fed it, could he grow more? He wished more than anything that he had some way to communicate with Dr. Muriler easily.
Theobold cleared his throat. “Do we want to get more?”
“Provided we’re careful?” Arthur said, moving to stop Dr. Muriler from disposing of it. “Yes. I have an idea.”
***
“You want us to put a meat eating plant in the sewers?”
Neither Jemima, George, nor Jeff looked as pleased with his idea as he did. Dr. Muriler was grumpy too, but Arthur thought that was because he hadn’t agreed with him. They’d had an argument of sorts, which he eventually won.
From what he could gather, the plant would be safe, provided they had something meat based to cling to. He could infinitely duplicate meat. So, if someone fed the plants, it should be fine. Foolproof.
“And are you going to be doing this?” Jeff asked, his eyes narrowing. “Plus, do you think Dr. Kunibert is going to see this as a friendly action?”
Arthur smiled. “I’m not putting the stuff up in the first or second levels. This is only for areas too dark to see normally.”
“So level three?” George shook his head.
“Exactly.”
“The level with the more dangerous creatures that we don’t have the resources to fight?” Jemima asked.
“Exactly.”
This time, he said it with less confidence. In his excitement, he’d almost forgotten the Slagsouls. They would be a problem, and one he would need to solve.
“Have they been seen again?”
Jemima shook her head. “Not recently. Though we have been trying to avoid the area.”
“We have enough without needing to go there,” George admitted as Jeff nodded along.
A quick glance at the counter told that story. His gold pile was going to be smaller by the end of the night. Again. He wasn’t looking forward to needing to pay those quest rewards out.
“Well, the good news is I might have a new stock of weaponry coming in,” Arthur said with a smile.
That statement received exclamations of excitement from all sides. Most of the people in the room held makeshift pipe clubs or the occasional knife. Some weren’t even lucky enough to have those. He wondered how they fought the beasts.
“Oh?” Jemima asked. “From where?”
“The Assembly.”
That got him a mix of confused looks and slow nods. Jeff shrugged his shoulders.
“About time they did something useful.”
Chuckles radiated, and a few voices chimed in to agree. With a nod, the trio at the counter left to go talk to some other people. More approached, and Arthur paid out on corpses even as he did his best to hawk food and drink. Behind him, people climbed in and out of the basement.
He doubted healing would ever stop being a moneymaker for him. A part of him wondered if he should have tried to become some sort of clinic.
“I still could,” Arthur thought as he served another customer. “If I can find some medicine somewhere. There would have to be a hospital in the city, right?”
The idea whirled about in his mind as he finished for the day. When he checked his finances, he frowned. Less than nine hundred now.
Another cause for concern was the pile of hides that had appeared around the box. They lay on the floor and got in the way enough that they forced him to push them off to the side. It reminded him of Derrick’s store. Arthur sighed and vowed to find a box or container to hold them.
With a nod towards Nyssa, he moved to turn in for the night when Augustus smashed his cane into the building.
As he looked up, he saw a pink and purple birthday card falling from the sky while a small, fading voice laughed hysterically.194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQhG2jGw11
