...Chapter 15, Settlement Blues...

 

 

The second Mrs Clarkson sees my face, her anger seems to fade, the barrel of the shotgun lowering with it. "Darren? What're you doing here? Where's my husband?"

As I stare at Mrs Clarkson, I can't help but glance over her shoulder to where we left Mr Clarkson. For a second, I'm worried one of the raptors got him. Then I see the body of the armored raptor shift slightly. Instead of answering, I point past her shoulder. She turns and stares at where the body is slowly being pushed off the porch. And then Mr Clarkson is standing there, clearly framed in the doorway.

She drops the shotgun, in a clear violation of everything I know about gun safety, and dashes toward the front door.

Bethany scoops the gun off the floor, and we follow Mrs Clarkson to her husband. The second he sees her, he smiles, dropping the raptor and stepping forward to lift her into a hug, spinning her around. Then he turns to us. "You kids best be out of here. Though if you don't mind, I'd like to send my kids with you still."

"What? We're not sending our kids away," Mrs Clarkson objects, hitting Mr Clarkson's shoulder. Then she turns to me. "But thank you for looking after my husband. Once this mess is cleaned up, you should come back and I'll make you all some delicious raptor casserole. I've gotten rather good at it."

I nod, deciding I'd rather not risk Mrs Clarkson's ire. Bethany hands the shotgun to Mrs Clarkson, who at least has the sense to seem embarrassed about leaving it behind. Sawyer mutters something about not even turning the safety off and I elbow her lightly.

Then we vacate, even as the sounds of more people waking up spreads from inside.

We've barely made it back to our yard when there's another notification. I glance over it while I grab the front door and look inside.

"Settlement Control Method Selected: Upper Council. Elections will be held in ERROR #22-0201, REBOOT SETTLEMENT ELECTION PROCESS."

"Settlement votes: ERROR #01-201 DATA MISSING. RESTORING FROM BACKUP ERROR #01-303, BACKUP CORRUPTED, SYSTEM ADJUSTING. Settlement Elections Completed. Councilors Chosen."

As I check the error messages, a different style of message pops up. This one is bolder, almost painful in its presentation forcing me to look at it even as I continue heading towards the backyard.

"Congratulations. By the will of the people, you have been chosen as a Councilor for settlement: Token’s Lost District."

I barely have time to read it before it's replaced by a regular message.

"Your elected representatives include:"

As I watch, several names scroll by. All of my Sisters. My mom. And three other names I don't recognize.

"Your first meeting will be held in ERROR #19-0023, TIMETABLE INVALID. Meeting beginning in NOW minutes at Settlement Control Node."

"Insufficient councilors. Late councilors shall have points deducted from their score for every minute they are late. A councilor with no points will lose their position."

I don't know what the message is trying to tell me, but I don't let reading them slow me down as I charge towards the back of the house, looking for the rest of our family. Sawyer, Bethany and I come out to find the others gathered around the obsidian tree growing out of our tool shed. All of them appearing safe, to my relief.

Kaylie spots us, waving us over. Once we jog closer, I see an interface similar to the one we'd found in the Solar Array's outbuilding, except this one is a table rather than the small control panel. The second we're within touching distance, everything around us seems to slow down. The gentle tinkling of the obsidian tree stops and a leaf blowing by in the wind halts in its path just outside our circle. When I look back to my sisters, they're still moving too. Then another notification interrupts my thoughts.

"Sufficient councilors are present. Penalized points have been deducted from late councilors and given to those present at the beginning of the meeting. Meeting has been called to order. Disruptions to the ERROR #01-202 FILE NOT FOUND meeting will not be tolerated. Any settlement citizen attempting to interfere with the rightfully elected councilors will be subject to a 9,999 point score penalty and DEATH."

"Okay, what the hell is with this System?" I can't stop myself from asking. "Death? For interrupting a meeting? A meeting we didn't even decide to hold?"

Mom steps forward, her hands brushing against the table. And a new display pops up. It shows our Settlement's status. Most of it's green. But there are some areas with glowing red bars. And one that is pink.

For some reason, the pink worries me the most. Maybe it's because I've never seen pink used as part of a status screen back on Earth. Or maybe it's because it's the exact same pink as my personal interface.

Before I get too far into it, Sawyer slides under my arm and squeezes me against her. Then she looks at the others, before turning to look at the leaf suspended in the air above us. "It's still my day, right?"

At this, all my sisters laugh. I do too, after half a second. Then I kiss the top of Sawyer's head.

"So... that's a yes, then?" Sawyer asks. I can't see her face, but I can practically hear her smirk. "Good. You guys take care of the boring stuff. Darren and I are gonna snuggle."

"Much as I want to, I think I need to address... whatever that is," I say, pointing at the pink part of the display, though I don't push her away.

"Damnit. Stupid game stuff getting in the way," Sawyer grumps. Then I feel her tense against me. "None of you heard me say that."

"Not a word," Kaylie replies, with a grin that says Sawyer's going to be teased about her anti-game comment every day for the next week, at least.

While Sawyer groans, I lean forward to better see the critical red and unknown pink alerts better. Mom seems to have already figured out how to handle the interface, cause the green bars disappear, to be replaced by only the red and pink.

The first few red bars expand to indicate that the settlement is dangerously low on Essence, Biomass and Computing power. It also indicates that the first two are slowly decreasing. The next patch of red bars shows damaged infrastructure that is increasing the drain of our resources. Or holes in the settlement's defences. Honestly, based on what we're looking at, we have more holes than actual settlement defences. Which makes sense. Our 'settlement' was a typical American suburb a day ago.

As my eyes drift back towards the pink warning, they pass over the notice about computing and a new notification pops up.

"Settlement unable to access greater Tyraneesh network. Local backups at 13%. Compatible computing devices detected within settlement boundaries. Bring computing devices to Primary Settlement Node to begin repairs."

I stop, bringing the notification to everyone's attention.

Mom nods, and opens her mouth to say something when Madison jumps up, "Hold on, I have an-"

Her progress is halted the second she gets to the edge of the meeting space, looking at where everything hangs frozen. She turns back, her cheeks flushed red as she hides behind her hair. I reach out a hand to her and she slumps against my other side, further hiding her face against my chest.

Unperturbed, mom asks, "What was your idea, Maddie?"

Maddie responds with a mumble against my chest. Seeing as I barely heard it, I doubt mom did. So, I repeat it for her. "Mads says that we still have the old gaming computers in the basement. And that we could use those. Which I think is a great idea."

"Agreed. After the meeting, we'll see about scrounging up all our old computers. I'm sure we're not the only ones who neglected to clean out their basements."

"And maybe having more processing power will mean less errors," Bethany says, tapping on the Settlement Defences portion which perfectly highlights her point. Since most of the 'missing defences' are represented by error messages. Sorry, ERROR messages.

Chuckling to myself, my attention is drawn away from the messages by Bethany changing the focus to the one remaining message on screen. The pink one.

"What kind of jibberish is that?" Bethany asks, squinting at the words over the table. Words I can read plain as day.

"Not jibberish," I say, grabbing her hand before she can wave it away. "A hidden message."

"What do-"

"What's it say?" mom interrupts Bethany, stepping next to me and giving me those mom eyes. The ones she only pulls out when shit's gotten real. Like after we were transported to... wherever this is.

"One sec," I tell her, my eyes moving back to the message as I read it out for my family.

"If you're reading this, then at least one of our damn buoys survived. Also, I swear, the company heads will be shot for mismanagement. What did they think... no, that's not important."

Everyone stares at me as I pause. I shrug adding, "That's what it says."

Getting a rather undignified snort from Kaylie, and a lot of chuckles from my other sisters, I continue.

"What is important is that the company has fucked us. Big time. And if you're reading this, they fucked you too. We've got dozens of information nodes hidden under markers just like this. Only people with the right essences can even see them. Deviant essences. Company policy is to exterminate all deviant holders. Well, fuck that. My sister could make twice as much food as the standard kitchen essence and those assholes killed her for it. They deserve what's coming to them. You don't."

"That... sounds bad," Madison says, and we all nod in agreement.

"Basics are like this. Company should implode on itself in... oh, three to thirteen cycles. That's the good news. They won't be there to run you through their games for entertainment. The bad news is you shouldn't be here. That's part of the point. No more innocent people brought into these fucking murder-sex funhalls."

Sawyer squeezes my ass, making me cut out as she mumbles, "One part of that isn't so bad."

Giving her a return squeeze and a kiss on the top of her head, I resume.

"You'd think without the company, you'd be okay, right? Except most of this shit is automated. That means the System's gonna keep trying to fuck you. But hey, like I said. We tried to account for that. When you find pink nodes like this, they should be attached to loopholes. Ways the company fucked up and didn't bother fixing. Cheaper to enslave a sentient to watch over things. Well, how'd that work out for you, you fucktards? That's right, it didn't. Cause you're all dead, aren't you?"

At this, I pause on my own. Cause Bethany and mom are sharing a look.

"What?" I ask them. Mom glances at Bethany before turning to me with a slight shrug. "Just thinking about how many times I wanted to... you know, do the same to some of the people at my company."

At this, Bethany laughs. But there's something to her laugh that gets me to look at her. It's... I want to say it's her nervous, 'I almost got caught' laugh. But... she usually reserves that one for mom almost finding something out. And yet, I feel like mom's in on her secret.

Instead of pressing them on it, I say, "Seems whoever left this message had a lot of anger. And we're not at the end."

Kaylie leans against the table, squinting at the words. She manages to position herself just right for her breasts to frame the next sentence and I end up staring at her instead of the words until mom coughs.

"Right. The rest of the message," I say, adjusting my hold on my other two sisters, who are laughing at me, as I continue.

"This very node carries your first little bonus. A genuine, grade-A Deviant Essence upgrade. Now, it won't do you any good, so don't bother trying to use it on yourself. You can only have one Deviant Essence. But you'll be able to bring someone else in on it. Don't waste it! Only use it on someone you trust!"

At this, my sight flashes with pink again. If I wasn't being held up by my sisters, I'm sure I would have collapsed. As it is, when I return to my senses, I find I've been lowered to the ground, and everyone is crowded around me.

"What?" I start to ask, but then notice a new notification.

"Deviant Upgrade acquired. Unique interaction with existing deviant Essence. Implantation of Deviant upgrade requires impregnation of a sister."

I look at the note, look up to my worried sisters gathered all around me. And at my mom, looking down at all of us.

With all their attention, I realize I need to tell them exactly what just happened. Instead, somehow a completely different sentence slips out.

"The fuck is wrong with my essence?"