Seems drama has hit my group of friends once again and over something as silly as a party. Seems tivial, but everyone is all up in arms about it.

Last night the fan on my video card was going out and causing my computer to crash... and in our attempts to discern the problem.. we totally destroyed the fan. Later, in a fit of "let's do something crazy that might save David 200 dollars" we went and bought a 2 dollar tube of epoxy.

It can hold 3500 pounds per square inch, it's waterproof and can stand temperatures between -40 and 200 f. We glued a grand 'ol fan onto it. I was always raised with computers being very cut and dry. Everything had a place to plug it in or screw it in and it all fit perfectly. So gluing one broken component to one thing onto the broken component of another, jamming it back into the computer, turning it on and having it work was something of a miracle. It was good. I wouldn't normally do it, but it worked and I'm glad.

So thanks to that... the 80 dollars my dad gave me for christmas to go toward a nintendo DS... got me a nintendo DS this morning. I have been immensely enjoying the Metroid Prime Hunters demo. It's a real first person shooter.. you actually have to aim, unlike the other metroid prime games, which is interesting and fun. I really like it and plan on playing more of it. But I'll also be buying Mario 64x4. I really wish I could play with the picto chat with people though.

I find the regular stylus is best for messing with the options and for picto chat, but... the thumb stylus is the stuff of gaming. Whenever I fire up the actual game, on the thumb stylus goes. I wish the designers would give me an option to use all the buttons in my own personal configuration, i'd actually rather lock on in MP:H since I can't increase the touch screen sensitivity. Actually, heck, I would like the ability to do that too. Either way, it could end up being a very cool game. I'd like to see a real time strategy game on it too though.

Miss Taylor is gone right now, so I don't have anyone to talk to. I'll probably play more Demise. I really owe Miss Taylor a lot of thanks, she reminds me to blog every day, and with her off shopping yesterday, I let the games make me forget. So, to whoever reads this, my appologies for not writing in it yesterday.

BTW, I'm really enjoying the book Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko. Jake let me borrow it, and it's very cool.

Anyway... Off to the party tonight, and, I'll see you all next year. Muah!

Last night was very cool. Dad was particularly thrilled with his christmas present, but, to date, I still can't figure out how to get it running on his computer. Mary Ellen Liked her present too. I may have to find another chess program for dad if this one wont work, even though this one was the best ever, and I was lucky to find it.

They got me a really cool book by the poet Rilke, who, my dad discovered, actually worked as a receptionist for the sculpter Rodin. The book is about his experiences with Rodin and I'm looking forward to reading it, but I have to finish reading the book I borrowed from Jake first, and so Peter and the Starcaqtchers will now be pushed back 2 books on the list instead of just one. Sadly, I've already finished the Far Side collection I got for christmas, not so sadly, I loved it.

Been playing the game Demise constantly... Got stuck in the Sorcerer's guild... so now I'm in the Artisan's guild. Level 16 sorcerer, level 11 or 12 artisan. Very cool game. I've started kicking ass on level four. It's sad, I had some AWESOME monsters fighting with me... 2 Illusionists and a dragette.... but I was going down and I saw a crowd of full fledged magicians and I started a fight with them. They were so powerfull not only did they kill all my companions, they tore me up as well. I managed to get out alive and get back up to the surface, but it wasnt easy. Those guys had done SO much by my side, which is unusual for creatures that join the party like that. I was really angry at myself for losing them, they could have done so much more good.

Well, dad and Mary Ellen didn't make it home last night before I ran off with Mike, Zac, and Emily to see the Aviator. It was pretty good, enjoyable, but I really wouldnt want to watch it again. It ended at one in the morning and I decided as I walked to my car, it really wasn't the time to head back to dad's house. My call this morning corfirmed my feelings, Mary Ellen had gone to sleep at 10:30 at night. 1:15 would have been way too late. In a way, I was relieved that she didn't say 3 am. Then I would have felt silly for not coming over.

So, I'll be on my way there right after work. I have a few last things to pick up there, and some food I'm gonna eat for dinner.

Before the movie I bought a book. It's a prequel to Peter Pan co-written by Dave Barry and some other guy. I love Dave Barry, but I just have trouble imagining literature spouting from him, so I'm skeptical, especially considering how much I love peter pan.

Wow, it's amazing how, with 2 days off... someone can accomplish nothing. The first thing I actually did this long weekend was go to the movies on saturday. I mean.. not counting friday night and saturday morning with my mom and her husband at her house. That stuff doesnt count, I was going to do that anyway, being with family on Christmas is a must. We watched movies and we cooked shrimp... lots and lots and lots of shrimp.

Got a new recipe that I really like...

Take the largest shrimp available, clean and butterfly it, fold it around a sliver of cheese and a sliver of jalapeno, wrap it tight with a slice of bacon, then melt some butter saute some garlic in a frying pan, then put all the shrimp youve made on a flat survace, fill the bottom with the garlic butter sauce so that all the shrimp are soaking in it, then sprinkle with black pepper.

Cook for about 25-30 minutes. It's an awesome recipe. I just about orgasmed eating them, and they let me take about 9 or 10 home with me. None of my friends would try them, even though they were amazing, hehe, oh well.. their loss. I enjoyed eating them all day sunday, a few at a time.

The movie we saw on saturday evening was "the Life Aquatic" with Bill Murray and a whole crew of other cool actors. It was a great movie. I loved every minute of it. Not sure if I'd want to see it again though... it was pretty slow moving. Maybe after it's been a while I will.

Anyway, that sums everything up to date. Will write more tomorrow... will try to do it before I play Demise so that I dont try to write it all in the last 10 minutes before I leave work.

I know what to give to Sophie for Christmas. What dog wouldn't love to chew on her favorite political figure of the century?

Last night was fun. We hung out for a while at Wendy's. Mike, George, Chris and I, and from there we went to Specs. We made some careful New Years Eve selections to accompany the normal mixed drinks that are becomming popular in our circle. Mike will be getting a bottle of Sherry, which will be totally new to me, as I've never tried it before. From there it was off to EB games where we met Kevin and Russel. We had a blast loitering and chatting with the employees who were stuck there. From there, we went to H.E.B. to pick up all the required ingredients for beef jerky; or, as jackson likes to call it, citrus meat.

We use the zest of one naval orange in the marinade, partly because of the strong aeromatic oils in the zest that strongly brings out the flavor of the habanero as well as adding a distinctive flavor deep into the meat without being overpowering. Unless of course, you dont like citrus meats.

After that, we spent a good deal of time at my house, Kevin was invited, but failed to show. Mike was the first to leave when he recieved a call from his ever demanding family, after sampling the new vodka we had selected for the cabinet. After this, Chris, George, and I all watched Cartoon Network and worked dilligently on butchering meat and preparing marinade and mixing and then chilling the beef jerky in the refridgerator. It should be ready for dehydration later this evening.

After all was said and done, we went our seperate ways for the night and this morning I began reading the book that Jake loaned me a few days ago, Rogue Warrior.

That's that I guess. Will write more tomorrow.

Last night was pretty cool. Taqueria Arandas was a nice restaurant, but I was ultimately disapointed, the food wasn't really any cheaper than anyplace else I've eaten. The food was still really good though and I had flan, which is muy delish.

We all played hackey sack and goofed around with Jackson and Marcia in the Benegan's parking lot until it was time to head home. Tonight, we plan on making beef jerky, which should be delicious.

I signed up for Composition and Rhetoric II and Microcomputer Applications as a distance learning course. I then spent a lot of time online studying the interface for the online class and I'm really impress with the way information is presented, and tests and assignments are given and graded. It was a lot of fun to spend the afternoon exploring it all, I had been really nervous about trying something new and it felt really good to have my fears alieviated.

My stepdad's birthday was today, and last night, I was supposed to have a grill for Marcia.. it was her birthday, and she made me promise. But I didn't get reminded, so I didn't get a chance to cook fajitas for everyone. Happy birthday to both of them.

Well, till tomorrow... ciao.

Well, for once, it was a very nice slow weekend. On friday night I started off with diner with my Dad, and Mary Ellen at Hasta La Pasta, it was delicious. I love roasted peppers, and the sauce was awesome. Also the wine my dad picked to go with dinner was excellent, a little strong. Didn't bother me much though, I never have more than one glass with dinner.

After that I went home, planning to get just a few things and then go to dad's house. But the phone call to Mike led me to discover that everyone was going to the 10:50 showing of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was 10:40 when I found out. I got there after the first two previews and got to enjoy a really fun and cool movie. I especially loved the end credits. Didn't get home till very very late though. Stopped by IHOP and spent some time chatting afterward. From there I went to my house, Jackson and Marcia came with and spent the night. I didn't find out till just now but Chuck kicked them out at 6:30. I woke up and left my room around one in the afternoon, so I thought they had just left without saying goodbye.

I spent most of saturday lounging around, playing KotOR II, taking extra naps, etc. Eventually, around about 12:30 I went and drove to my dad's house to begin my house sitting duties. It felt pretty empty and dark without puppy, who I love, but who I could not guarantee 10 days of care for. I would have felt bad leaving her outside as much as I would have had to. Especially the weather we were having a week ago.

She was always so sweet the way she'd sleep on the foot of the bed or on the floor in the same room.

Sunday, I went to eat lunch with Mike and did some Christmas shopping. In fact, I did most of my Christmas shopping. After that I was pretty tired and didnt feel like spending money on anything else so I canceled plans to make beef jerky with Chris. He didn't take it well, but I really couldn't do much about it, I couldn't just hang out with him at my dad's house, because it was my dad's house, and he got mad. Said he was planning to pay for the beef jerky, but that he wasnt now since I was cancelling plans. Don't really know what that was about. Felt bad. Anyway, going to diner with everyone tonight at a new place in the humble area... Taqueria Arandas. I've heard they have a lot of really awesome food for cheap.

Anyway, that's the news for the day. Weekend. Whatever.

KotOR II is an awesome game. I am really loving every minute of it. I got my truck back and it drives fine, but the clutch feels uncomfy. Later tonight I will be meeting my dad. After that I'd like to see A Series of Unfortunate Events. It looks like a really cute movie and I have loved Jim Carey ever since he did the Truman Show, and the Cable Guy.

Last movie I saw was a few nights ago, I saw Ocean's 12, which surprised me. It started out feeling like a cheap excuse for a sequel to a good movie, but then it got really good and explained everything in a way that was most agreeable. Yesterday, when I left for work my Xbox cable got left at home. I think Chris disconnected it from my Xbox so that I wouldnt take it to work with me so that I could play KotOR II yesterday. I dont know why he would do that. Anyway, I found out later that night when he and George came over and we watched Flight of the Pheonix, the original from way back when. Anyway, I'm not going to deny Chris from coming with us places if he asks, but I'm tired of his fits when I ask him to go home when he tries to stay the night and the next day without asking. Especially since Chuck doesn't like people spending time there without me. It imposes on my friendship with Chuck in ways that I can't let happen, because it's important that both Chuck and I are happy since we both rely on each other for half the rent.

Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not going to tell Chris no when he asks to hang out with us, but I really don't feel like inviting him anywhere after the way he's been acting. I feel really guilty about this decision since he bought me a really cool shirt the other day. Well, maybe I will invite him places. I dont know what to feel. I dont know how to deal with a friend doing the things Chris has done recently. I'll think of something.

Anyway, it's a lot to think about.

Thanks for reading, anyone who does.

The trouble with being legendary:

It's impossible to find real information about someone who has become a myth or a legend in one way or another. There is, quite simply, too much to sift through. Some myths and legends are tougher. The more people who believe false things, the tougher it is to find true things. Take, for instance, Adam Weishaupt. I have come to believe that he was, in fact, an incredible man who is partly responsible for the ideals of enlightenment that have spread through the world today.

Only once have I ever found his teachings and they were quite beautiful to read. They will be quite difficult for anyone to ever find again, as the page no longer exists. It's tragic, really. So, last time I found it, I went through the trouble of making a copy for my own personal uses. Maybe someday I'll find other, similar, teachings, and maybe I never will. Maybe it will be up to me to teach the things I found. Today, I have only found accusations that he was a demon worshiping spreader of lies throughout the world. A lot of people feel the free masons are evil, I for one don't know. The illuminati certainly isnt what a lot of people believe it is. In a way, it is more simple than I could have ever dreamed, and yet it escapes the grasp of all who seek it wherever they go.

Sometimes a legend can become even more real than the truth that birthed it. It lives and breathes and propogates itself, become a new sort of reality.

Well, I am buying my truck today. My boss is paying for repairs and then I wiill pay him back as payment for the truck. Then it will really be mine. THat's pretty cool.

It also makes all the things I've been afraid of for the last few days better. I may have the truck back by the end of the week. And that is really cool. THank you to everyone who told me that everything would be okay.

Other than that, I would write much more, but KotOR II becons... A beconing that I must answer. I love you all... good night.

Last night started out incredibly awesome. Left Chris at my house during the day to play KotOR II all day long while I was at work, and then I went straight over to my mom's house and from there to the Toyota center with her husband and his daughter, and we all watched the Trans Siberian Orchestra show... It was AWESOME. Literally, the best concert I have ever been to in my life. The lights were amazing, the fog, the pyrotechnics.... some of the scenes were mindblowing. During the beginning of the fifth symphony, the fires they sent up for each of the first notes sent enough heat for me to feel from the top of the nose bleed section.

My nephew is adorable, and he never ever cries and he sat through the whole concert and smiled and drooled. He's really cool. He'll grow up to be a good guy.

After that I went back to moms house and then started the long drive home and had my transmission die about 3 miles away from home, so I stopped at an auto shop. In the morning I went to them and they charged me 40 to tell me that it wasnt my clutch, and then 350 to tell me that the transmission would be 2100. So, 390 to tell me that my car is junk. 2100 is more than the car is worth, so my boss says it's not happening, so now I am trying to find a new car, and I think my boss is looking for one too. There are gonna be people praying for me and helping me out. It feels good to know that people love me.

Well, didnt make it to exercise this morning. Stayed up way too late last night playing KotOR II and Vampire the Masquerade. Awesome games. Vampire will be much more fun to play when I get my new ram in the mail in a few days.

It was a great weekend. I did really well on my final art project, which I put a TON of thought into as it was very difficult subject. Myself. I've always been very iffy on the subject of me. As far as I'm concerned, the Jury is still out and there isn't much to say on the topic till more is known. So, 3 weeks of thinking about the project, then a few short hours pumping it out. It was very nice to have it done by 2 am on friday night. 5 hours to sleep, then school, then working for Chuck till 5 in the afternoon. The balloon gig on saturday that I did for chuck went bad. Too many people working the booth, price of balloons was too high to sell them, and Chuck couldnt be there. There were a LOT of things that were pretty clear that Chuck could do better if he ever did this again, and it does get his name out. I think he should do it again, and make some improvements to his business model.

After that I went to dinner with friends, and then off to see Blade Trinity together, which was much better than I thought it would be. Bad, but tons of fun.

On sunday I spent all day with mom, visiting the Merry Christmas Tree Farm and then eating dinner with them and getting home by 9:45 to spend time with George, a friend of his who's name I cannot spell, and Chris. George and his friend left at 1 am, but Chris and I stayed up playing games all night, so no exercising this morning. We'll see about wednesday.

well, looks like I totally forgot to fill this up the past 2 days. That's pretty negligent of me. If I'm going to keep this up I need to make sure I'm more regular so that I don't just end up abandoning it for months and months at a time like I did at the end of 2003.

Past two days I've spent a lot of time hanging out with Chris and George. Can't hang out with anyone tonight, because I have to do my final for art class tomorrow morning. Also, Chuck is hiring me to help him out with his balloon work tomorrow for 20 dollars an hour for a table at some type of gathering in Kingwood. Should be pretty cool.

All this week I made beef jerky, spicy, and watched the Bourne Supremacy while I ate it, and we watched Joe vs The Volcano... awesome movie by any standard, it's absolutely loaded with all kinds of symbolism. And then last night we mostly watched normal tv after hanging out at EB Games with our friend Kevin. It was plenty of fun. Everyone enjoyed the jerky, and we also found a really great website with recipes for mixing drinks. Mike has been too busy working for class to do anything at all, even eat out with us.

Anyway, more details about last night... around about 11 o'clock, Chris remembered he needed to be home early so that he could get plenty of sleep. He has started to go to the exercise sessions that one of the army recruiter officers runs on monday, wedsnday, and friday every week. He does them just for himself, but because other people show up for them, he sort of runs them like a class almost. It's extremely stressful. Anyway... back to 11 last night. I have this issue, where I want to do everything I possibly can, challenge myself in new ways at every opportunity. So I mispoke and said, " Hey, Chris, that sounds pretty cool, mind if I come too? "

I say I mispoke, because I thought this was an opportunity to better myself and challenge myself. At the time, I was unaware that it was an exercise in pure masochism in its unadultered state of existence. So, Chris says, "Sure, if you're not at my house by 5:48, I'm going to go ahead and have dad drive me though. " THen, I'm all like, cool. So I take Kevin and Chris home and then I go to sleep at midnight and set my alarm for good ol' 5 am so I can be at Chris' by 5:30 all ready to head out.

I should have known it was a bad sign when I got to Chris' house and we were talking and he asked if I'd had anything to eat that morning, and when I said no, he said good. It's never good when you haven't eaten. And if, somehow, you find an activity, such as exercising with an old army officer at 6 in the morning, where not eating is good, that excersise is inherently BAD.

We get there right on time and the festivities kick off with some stretches, then some simple jumping jacks, followed by some other warm up exercises. This was then followed by REAL excercise. Pushups first. I made it almost half way through the 110, maybe I did around 40, but ten of those were "Girl" pushups when I ran out of steam. I dont know what followed the pushups, because I was in the bathroom, after careful navigation to the restroom, vomiting. I considered it a major accomplishment having not vomited on the way to said rest room, as I was sorely tempted to. It was chili, though you wouldnt know to look at it. It was as if the exercise had caused my body to reject all the unhealthy things I had eaten in the past three days. It wasn't very fun. Not very fun at all. So, I finally recover and when I get back, theyre doing sit-ups, and by this time, Chris, who is by all means the healthiest specimen of humanity on the entire earth, not counting the man leading us as he is not human, was looking as though he was ready to spill his chilli too.

Now, as ANY one of my friends can tell you, Chris is a wiry little mof0. He ran track in high school, he climbed up to the very tippy top of trees for fun when he was less than sober. This is the boy who was able to scale a pine tree with no limbs as though he were a tree frog. I've never seen this man PANT, let alone gasp for air, and certainly not go pale, double over and pray to the porcelain goddess. After the situps we went to the restrooms for water, except Chris, who took the time to go and let out the previous day's dinner.

Apparently this isn't a first for him. Last time it was chilli too, only it was brought on by some eggnog he drank before going to exercise.

After this we did a few other aerobic excercises, of which I was able to keep up with. I think I did pretty well, since, I have not exercised in years, literally, and worse, I have NEVER exercised like this. I knew it was bad, I always knew that. Why, oh why, did I let the world tell me I needed to go through this to stay healthy. Anyway... so, after that... Jogging. A mile and a half. I made it three quarters of a mile before I doubled over and crashed and was told it was okay to walk back and meet them. Once there we immediately started stair climbing. Except for Chris, who was headed back inside the mall... I deeply suspect for more vomiting.

Against better judgment, I started this too. Against my judgment of self preservation I LISTENED when the guy who was going VERY slow and encouraging me kept telling me I could do it. When I absolutely could not anymore, I stumbled off to one of the pillars in the parking lot, unable to move. Well, for the most part, I managed to double over and vomit the water I had drunk mid session, a single sip, along with the very last flecs of anything resembling food in there. A few tomato chunks it looked like. Really, it was more like retching and gagging and it was all I could do to keep from getting it on my hands as I let loose on the parking lot.

Eventually I regained my composure and capacity to stand, and then to standing upright was the next achievement. Stumbling to where they were only just finishing the stair climbing was the last step. That was the end of that, they told me I did really good for a first time, and I certainly thought it was nice of them to say so. After that I took Chris home, he was sitting in the car, I would have gone into the mall looking for him except I glanced at my truck first and noticed the passenger door was open and thought that it would be a waste to go into the mall again if there was a chance he was just sitting there waiting for me, and lo and behold, he was. Then, I got some gas, a sandwich, orange soda, and a glass of water for Chris before we got back to his place.

Orang soda makes everything better.

After I took Chris home, who I found out had not slept at all the night before, I went straight back to my house, where I crashed onto my cot. It was a beautiful. I was complete. I dreamed that I was meeting Mike and Chris and George and Kevin in the mall for food and I got some food that kept magically appearing and disapearing from my tray whenever I looked away, and more interestingly, the tray itself with all of it's contents disapeared when I walked away from the counter and forgot about it. Very fun, Chuck went to a funeral for a woman who died at his church day before yesterday, and then I went to work. And that, my friends, is my story for today.

You get to hear a repeat of it when I go exercise again on monday. But.. I dont think I'll be eating anything on sunday evening.

Today I have spent the majority of my time stumbling, reasearching Knights of the Old Republic II, looking for Cthuugle and other such meandering activities of relatively little signifigance. They are of course all related, though I coulndn't or shouldn't say how. As for why, that's getting into philosophy so you might as well make up your own reason.

Last night I started a batch of beef jerky which I seasoned with 5 habaneros. I'll let you know tomorrow how wickedly hot it was.

Last year around this time of year, a little earlier actually, there was a very bad man sniping at people. The good folks at local media stations of course felt the need to sugguest that perhaps it was someone who had played the attrocious game Sniper one too many times. As it was, this thoughtless, base, and totally inacurate accusation assumption lead Gabe of Penny-Arcade fame into a rage. Not the bad sort of rage. The kind that feels that his people have been deeply maligned and that all of us [gamers] as a community should stand up and do something so good that our hearts couldnt even be questioned. And so, Child's Play was born on a whim in a weekend only a month or so before christmas. Last year they raised upwards of 250 thousand dollars to give to the Seattle Children's Hospital in games and cash for the children to play to bring them as much joy as possible during this season.

They're doing it again this year, and it's bigger. They're spreading the love over the country this time, and everyone who can participate, should. Go to their website and give a child something good for christmas, you'll feel good.

I wish people read this blog. It would be cool if someone actually linked there because of this. At least I know one person is reading *wink*

Well, turns out prince of persia is really good, despite Ubisoft's best efforts to screw it up for all the people who thought the original was just fine. I've got homework to do tonight, need to draw some outdoor environments with graphite on the average sized paper. And i really should be farther along in my final project than I am... which is.. i haven't started it at all as of yet.

I really dont know what to say, I should have written this earlier when there was more on my mind... guess I'll leave it at that.

It's a beautiful day, I'm loving the cold weather. This month really is an untold haven for gaming... really truly incredible. Half Life 2, Vampire, Pirates!, Metroid Prime 2, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, etc. Anyway, i'm having a blast, I'm between 1/4 and 1/2 way through the masquerade, and my first pirate is growing old without finding all his family. I dont know if he's going to.. he has managed to save his sister though. THe wind is ALWAYS going west.. so anytime i want to go east it's a nightmare.

Anyway... Watching awesome shows on tv right now and flipping through GURPS planning a campaign. Catch you all later.

HL2 Deathmatch came out... and it is awesome. Tons and tons of fun. I love playing catch with the gravity guns. The computer at work died today mid day and I spent most of the day going just a little bit more insane than I used to be. Talk to you later.

Hello world.... this is my first post, post NaNoBlogMo. Hope I'm still writing my story, and I'm really having fun. Today is payday, woooooooo, and now i have to decide what to do with it. I'm not going to do anything tonight but play video games... most likely Vampire: the Masquerade- Bloodlines. It will be more fun as i play late into the night. I think I'll get some wendy's on the way home, or maybe some deviled eggs. I love deviled eggs. But i'm also partial to cartoon spokes chicks.... and the hamburgers they sell.

Now that NaNoBlogMo is done i'll be spending more free time on my game, and on my comic with mike, and on various other tasks. I never feel busy, so it really came as a big shock to me when i found out that I am, in fact, always busy.

That's all for today, guess I'll see you all tomorrow.

Well, I'm not going to make 50k words by the end of the month. I gave it a VERY good run. I slacked some, but not just for not doing it. I Was really bummed till a friend pointed out to me that over the course of the month I:

1) Finished Half Life 2
2) Played Vampire the Masquerade, Metroid Prime 2, Castlevannia: SotN, Super Monkey Ball, Pirates!, Everquest II
3) Watched The Incredibles, and The Pollar Express, and National Treasure, all with lots of friends
4) Worked with all my friends to put together a bar in my closet to mix drinks for company
5) did extra jobs for money and got good grades in my art class
6) Visited dallas and spent lots of time with family and eating an awesome thanksgiving dinner.
7) Got to taste and sample 5 awesome cheeses, one of which I baked and served with wine.
8) Wrote 37.5k words, which, by tomorrow will probably be 40k at least

I'd say this has been a VERY good month. I'm proud of myself now that i've thought about it, and I'm not going to stop writing just because I missed an arbitrary release date.

*big smile*

Woohoo.. If i can keep up today's pace, I might make it to 50000 words by the end of the month. It will be a VERY tough struggle. I have 18000 words left to write, but I hit a major milestone today. I wrote 3,000 words and five pages, if i can keep that up, I'll be able to do this in 8 days. It just wont be easy.

Okay, I'm going to start posting again. I've been really bad last week and not good enough this week to make up for it, and worse, I havent been posting. I can play catch up with the novel, but playing catch up here... well, I wont even worry about it. I'll do some talking about how far I am and how I'm feeling about this, and when I'm done, or at least at 50,000 words, I'll post the whole thing to that point one chapter at a time. For now, I'll do stuff like this, update my wordcount and post an excerpt that I like in particular.

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This magazine was from the early part of the war. It was maybe three hundred years old, he guessed. There was strong evidence that the federal government was winning the war, based on the spin by the magazine. It was strongly opposed to the uprising and listed strong offensive victories against the rebellion. There was even an interview with a soldier. There was something wrong with the picture of the soldier that they showed. He looked so very soft. He looked well fed, and he looked mean. But he looked, somehow, like people he’d seen torn apart.

It was a hard look to describe. It was a hard look to understand; he thought that he saw it in the eyes. The more pictures he looked at the more he realized that everyone looked that way to him, no matter what they were doing. One or two looked like they had something in them that didn’t seem so alien to him from the people of the world he lived in. However, they still looked fat. He didn’t know what he was feeling, but he felt like it might be contempt. On reflection it felt more like confusion, more confusion than he had had before he had read the magazine.

He wondered how John would take all of this. Out of all the people he knew, John had the most unique perspective. It would be very interesting to see what he thought of the pictures, or the articles that were in there. He put it away and pulled out another magazine from later on. Six months later, it looked like. He opened it up and was interested by what he saw as he turned to the cover story. The war had taken a turn for the worst. The rebels were protecting their ground and the military seemed more and more like it could not force them back down.

Food was becoming a problem; the disruptions had slowed down the food production throughout the states. People were furious because prices were rising constantly as scarcity began to appear where they had never had to deal with it before in their lives. Their eyes had changed. The soldiers more than anyone else had changed for the better in their eyes. Most of them still looked like people just waiting to die, but some of them looked hard, like they could survive. Ultimately, none of them would. Everyone dies eventually.

No better time to wax morbid than when you’re reading the death tolls for a war that was over three hundred years ago. There was irony that no one survived in the sense that they all died eventually.

Been a half a week since i posted any of my story. here's some more... I really need to step up this week.


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“ Why do libraries always have the oldest technology in the world “, Cady asked to no one in particular as she examined the desks. All the paper in the library seemed to be very well preserved.

“ I never saw enough libraries to notice, is that really the case? “ John replied.

“ The reasoning, was that they didn’t need to do much at all, their entire purpose was to keep track of what books they had and were checked in or out, later on they got much more advanced, but never as advanced as normal current technology. “ William answered, being the oldest and having learned the most over time. He continued, “ People just figured that since they didn’t need it, it was an expense that would always go to other projects that were more important. “

Robbie pulled a book off the shelf in the survival/camping section and began browsing through it with interest. As he flipped to the third or fourth page in the book he started talking, “ I could spend years in here. It’s very nice that we weren’t left unprepared when the colony ships left. Knowledge aside, have you found the periodicals yet, Will? “

William had his halogen lamp browsing the rear of the bunker and he was lost in looking around at various books and other things. He was, in fact, so absorbed that he didn’t hear a word of what Robbie was saying to him. John walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“ Hey, Will? “ He started.

“ Whatchya need? “ William responded amiably enough, his eyes still wandering over the reference shelf.

“ Have you seen the periodicals yet? “

He looked up at John, his mouth a turned in an odd matter as he pondered before leaning around the corner and yelling to Robbie. “ No! I haven’t seen any yet, I’m beginning to think they’re probably downstairs, it makes the most sense “, his voice boomed as he raised it high enough to be heard across the library.

Robbie started heading toward them both, passing up Cady as she rooted through the four desks looking for anything she could find. She had started a nice little pile of trinkets and papers next to her feet that she certainly seemed to feel were of interest, and so very well might be. But there were more important things to look for at that very moment, at least, as far as he was concerned.

“ Hey, Will, I’m going to go ahead and take a look downstairs “, he said as he walked past William and started walking carefully down the staircase. He noticed how the carpet still looked like it was in fairly good condition, aside from the dust that was rising up beneath his feet with each step, leaving footprints as he went. He remembered what had happened in the garage, and he reflected on the disaster it would have been and the great lost they would have endured if there had been a similar leak in here.

About halfway down, the stairs made an about face and continued down in the other direction coming out in another room, which he couldn’t see all of. One thing he could tell, though, was that it was definitely larger. There were various pseudo corridors made out of shelves and file cabinets up to the ceiling, near the far edge of his light, he could see conference and computer desks. He walked carefully, one step at a time down the main isle, examining the signs on the shelves, etc. The first filing cabinets had various forms of paperwork archived for office use, the bookshelves hosted the reference section of the library. As he continued, he walked past the computers into more reference books shelves. Time seemed to go so slow while as he took step by step past the dusty volumes that surrounded him. His walk, which only took a few seconds, felt like an hour.

The far side of the room was occupied by yet one more staircase. This base had to be extremely old. Robbie pondered as he started to take the staircase down. It may have been one of the more recently abandoned such buildings, but it for it to have three story buildings without elevators, it had to be old. He bet, that the information was available somewhere nearby for them to find if they were so inclined. He guessed that one of them might even be so inclined, but his interests were far more general after he’d been thinking for a few days. He knew at least a skeleton crew had manned this base until well after the migration had taken place.

As Robbie stepped down the second set of stairs, he felt the darkness swell around him in a way it hadn’t before. There were no sounds of a room behind him coming to life, only darkness behind, and darkness ahead and walls on either side. Soon he turned around at the about face and saw that the staircase ended at a door with a sign on it that read, “ Periodical Storage, Authorized Personnel Only. “

Earlier that day he had been totally worn out on finding real keys, and his fingers pulled the base master key up without hesitation, moving toward the lock. The key slid in smoothly, and his fingertips applied pressure to the edges of the key and then, nothing happened. Resistance. Robbie pushed harder, and then jiggled the key. Still, there was no give for the efforts that he put into it. He hoped that whoever had left these keys behind had been authorized personnel, because this door didn’t look like it would give way to a mere kicking, or, in fact, anything that would be safe to set off without worrying about damaging the contents of the next room.

Minutes of searching proved fruitless as he continued to try key after key. Each one failing as he tried them. It was too early to be frustrated, but he couldn’t help feelings of mild dismay creeping up his spine as he started trying keys at a faster pace, coming ever closer to the last one. There was still an entire base to search and the key could be anywhere, and worst case scenario they could pick the lock, but the more Robbie thought about it, the more urgent opening the door felt.

The dark felt like it was closing around him as he tried key after key, there were only five left. He imagined all the things he would find behind this door, obituaries, the chronicles of lives, the world moving on a colony ship at a time. The heat was beginning to overwhelm him as he felt sweat beading on his forehead and his hands growing slippery till the keys finally fell from his grasp. There were only two keys left.

He set his lamp down and kneeled down, palming all over the ground till his fingers grasped the keys, he stood up and quickly panicked, he started thumbing through the keys striving to find the two that were left. After only a second he found them between his fingers. He tried the first one and it didn’t budge. He tried the second one, and once again nothing. Irritation and bother surged through him and he jiggled and struggled with the key just as he had the master key. It was the last one, if this wasn’t it, he didn’t have it he thought as he gave the door a solid kick, his attention focused on jiggling the doorknob and looking at that stupid authorized personnel only sign as he finally pulled the last key from the lock.

Robbie let out a disappointed sigh as he slowly pocketed the keys without looking away from the sign. He was hot and irritated, but more disappointed than anything else at the moment that he was standing there. Slowly sinking to his knees, his hands picked up his halogen lamp and then stood back up, made one last sigh, and turned back towards the staircase and let out a terrified scream.

Chapter 7:

Cady almost fell on her ass laughing as Robbie slammed into the wall behind him as he turned and almost walked quite unexpectedly right into her. She reached down and turned her halogen light back on while he was still panting and letting his legs give out beneath him as his back slid down against the wall. Heart attacks were not his thing and this was two in as many days. Adrenaline made his whole body quiver as it coursed through him.

“ A little jumpy? “ Cady giggled as her light flooded the hall doubling the light and making it feel slightly less cramped. At the very least, another human being near him made the air feel more alive and less stale.

“ Good god, I did not need this today. “
She reached out her hand to him as she asked, “ Are you okay? “

“ I’ll live. “

“ Well, I was looking through the desks upstairs and I came across the library keys locked up in one of the drawers. Thought you might need them down here “, she grunted as she used her weight to lever him off the ground, pulling on his hand. After he was up, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a loose set of keys and tossed it into his waiting hands. His eyes were blank for a moment before he handed the other set of keys to her to hold.

“ Thanks, I was really starting to get pretty frustrated. “

“ Just in the nick of time then, huh? “ Cady giggled as she leaned till her shoulder was against the door. “ I’m kinda like super girl like that, always in the nick of time. “

“ Yeah, just in the nick of time “, Robbie’s heart was still thudding audibly to him in his chest, he could feel it in his forehead’s veins.

Cady giggled as she watched him fumbling with the keys. “ It’s really fascinating, the sorts of things that could be behind this door if William is right about how recently this base was abandoned. I can almost smell the history. “

“ Yeah? And what exactly does history smell like? “

“ Kinda like moldy cheese. “

Robbie chuckled at that. He wasn’t in a state of mind to talk much as his fingers checked key after key. He had actually just started to notice how nice the clothes he found in the base felt, even in the heat. He was lost in the thought while Cady watched him when the right key slipped into the knob and turned a full turn giving off a satisfying click. His head snapped up and he looked at her, where her eyes met hers as her own attention was summoned.

“ That was it “, he said, followed by a long pause.

Cady didn’t respond verbally, she just gestured with her head to go ahead and open the door and have a look. The anxiety on her face was palpable and his hand was trembling as he broke the gaze they shared and turned the doorknob, giving the door a quick push. It didn’t budge. He pushed a little harder and felt it give a little before he nudged his shoulder against it and knocked it in, breaking the age-old seal.

Wrote nothing today. Very disapointed in myself.

There were countless cast iron tools that would be more than handy if they could ever get them back to the base. Probably just one or two would be coming along with them when they left after their extended stay. They would certainly need to record the location very carefully and send multiple expeditions with heavier transportation equipment. There was maybe at least a year worth of salvage here, if no one else had the fortune of stumbling on it. The thought that maybe it already should have been discovered had already occurred to William, considering how close it was to the city, and he was a little worried, but not so worried that he would even begin to consider not going into the bunkers.

Probably the most useful thing they found, or to be fairer, had been found by Robbie much earlier, was the key ring. It had a number of keys that helped their search of the other above ground buildings on the base. A master level one building key was on it, which meant, for today, and as long as they were opening doors above ground, there would be no more shoulders bruised against doors that needed to be broken in as the garage had been the only one with a leak problem.

The mess hall was then checked, dark once again, till they cracked open the loading bay for the storage room and that helped quite a bit, though they’d missed the optimal time of day to get the most light inside as they looked around and even found food stores that were still good. The army had once had amazing techniques for preserving food. Meals Ready to Eat, or M.R.E.s, were there in abundance and, were in fact, better than anything else they had eaten in quite some time and later that night served as dinner for the hungry explorers. They were just about the most delicious things they’d had to eat in weeks, and were larger portions than they were used to from their own ration bars.

They took the time to explore the gym locker room and the base administration building before sundown. They found very little in the gym or its locker room, only the occasional trinket that had been dropped long ago. The biggest thing they found was the uniform depot where fatigues, uniforms, boots, and other daily equipment was stored, and both Robbie and Sanders got some nice sturdy new outfits, the boots were the best improvement that they could have imagined. The administration building, on the other hand, was full of information on paper locked away in filing cabinets and stored in memos, as well as containing computers, which almost certainly contained plenty of valid information that they could look through a little bit before they unplugged the hard drives to look at later on at a more permanent station.

That night they slept well, the excitement was still all around them, but the work of the day weighed more than enough on their shoulders to drop them off to sleep without any trouble at all. It was the dreamless sleep that exhaustion provides, but refreshing sleep nonetheless, and it served them well. They woke early the next morning, up and prepared themselves as quickly as they could possibly manage. It was going to be a busy day.

Chapter 6:

John and Cady got within visual range of the Wicker camp by mid-day and went on to approach it cautiously, keeping their senses strained for trouble as they approached it. Fear and stressed coursed through their bodies as they crept up upon the tents that were set up. Cady took the most direct approach and moved slowly while John went around the side and approached from the far side, noting the fence that it was stationed near and how it had been cut away. When it was clear the camp was abandoned for the morning they moved quicker and examined the site as closely as they could.

“ Someone was here last night, and it was probably them “, John stated as he looked up from the campfire ashes.

“ What are these? “

John looked at the object she had pulled from the ground nearby. It looked like trash, which was especially strange that it wasn’t in their waste pack where most waste went for reprocessing later. He reached out and took it slowly from her hand in order to examine it closely. It was a food kit of some sort, it smelled good and it looked like it had been a large meal even.

“ Food. “

“ What sort of food? Would anyone in Wicker have anything like this? “

John shook his head negatively, “ No “, he said. “ They must have picked it up from one of the local ruins. You think they’re in there somewhere? “ John gave his head a nod in the direction of the fence and as they both looked there were some clearly visible buildings visible a good distanced walk inward from the fence.

“ Looks promising “, she replied slowly as a worried look worked its way into her facial features.

Just the opposite, relief spread quickly through John’s body as the tension from the majority of the last day overcame him. A fresh site, with a large supply of relics and ripe for exploring would be more than a good enough reason to put in a call for help from the nearest expedition. His muscles relaxed and he even smiled as he looked inside the fence, his grip on his knife loosened and it even flashed and disappeared. John even smiled before he noticed that Cady was looking over stressed and gave her an inquisitive look.

“ Would they go in there without us? Is that safe? “ Cady looked at him.

“ I don’t know for sure, but I trust Will, and if they went in, then I believe it’s safe. “

“ Will? “

“ William Taylor, he taught me most of what I know. You probably never met him; he goes out more than any other journeyman. “ John looked deeper through the fence as he spoke to her. His attention was clearly divided between her and the new place.

Cady worried her lip a little as she looked around and did some more studying of her own over the site. She finally found relief, but it had nothing to do with the assurances that John had given her, because, despite his skills and experience (which was much more than her own, despite the small age difference, she suspected mostly that his expeditions had mostly been of the more traumatic variety), she didn’t think he was above humoring her to make her feel better in a pinch. Such distrust was a healthy attribute for any female to have in a world where no one should work on false information or rely totally on the people around her. However, as she looked around she saw only three sets of footprints. Prints that clearly belonged to the tents’ owners and they headed off into and from the nearby fence.

“ Okay, if you say so, I’ll just have to trust you “, she said, hoping that he had the same good sense to believe her as much as she believed him. Cady, of course, figured that there wasn’t a chance that he would. Guys were always way too trusting. It was almost scary when you thought about all the little things girls could, and did, do with their trust.

If she had been looking up, she might have noticed that he had already strayed into the fence and was heading towards the buildings, and had ceased paying attention to her before he had even finished speaking. Once inside the fence he scanned the nearly plain-like area that was covered in bunkers and buildings and surrounded by hills that were large enough to act as small mountains. The design and placement meant that fences were only needed on two sides of the facility, but it was only visible where the woods thinned out enough to let wandering eyes peek through into the rusty metal fence within the wilderness that may or may not have been there when it was first erected.

Cady set down her things before she noticed he was gone, and by the time she saw him, he was halfway to the buildings, when she yelled for him to stop and ran after him. He did of course stop and turn around for her long enough for her to catch up before he continued on.

“ Why aren’t you leaving your things in the camp? “

“ Don’t know what’s happening yet, not sure I want to camp with Will and his troop “, John answered her. “ And what if they are in trouble that they just got into today? You never, ever know. “

“ Yeah, well, I’m going to have a bit of a look around myself “, she said as she patted him on the back of his pack and went running off spitefully. Cady hated getting anything that even resembled a lecture, and that had been close enough.

John just smiled and let her go. He was in too good a mood to bother caring about whatever he’d done to tick her off today. She’d get over it before sundown anyway, but she had a point about his pack. Mostly he just hadn’t been thinking about it when he walked toward the fence, but he also still didn’t really care, it wasn’t like it weighed eighty pounds or more.

Thinking about it, did make him feel it though and he hefted it to a more comfortable position on his shoulders before promptly forgetting it again as it instantly slid right back to the same spot. He wondered if they would be together or spread out over the complex, as he looked around at all the buildings.

He decided there was only one way to find out and reasoned that in the worst case scenario he would see them at the camp that night as it looked like they were still staying at it. That was his biggest hope, and thinking about it only made the worry that there were indeed problems gnaw at the back of his mind in a way that wouldn’t be put to rest till he was talking to at least one of the Wicker men. He started by walking into the administration building, which was almost the closest to him, but had caught his attention because it was open.

It only took him a moment before he found that it had been pretty thoroughly explored the previous day, but hadn’t been returned to today. The dust in the air was horrible, the Wicker party had been very busy, he guessed based on the evidence presented. As soon as he saw they weren’t there, he stepped out and moved straight to the next building. Checking one building after another, he noticed a pattern in their behavior over the days that they had been here alone. They were clearly only exploring full sized above ground buildings and avoiding the bunkers. He checked the shed, the garage, the gym, and the cafeteria, where he actually stopped for an M.R.E., which he considered an indulgence and found its properties amazing, it was self heating, though he wasn’t sure how. It didn’t matter much considering how good it tasted.

By that time the sun was had moved half past noon and he was still in their tracks even though he felt he was probably getting closer. The next building he checked looked like it might be the mailroom as best as he could tell, but it was so empty there was no real way to be certain. He guessed that no one was getting any mail in the last few days of operation.

He finally found them in the equipment building examining all the equipment, which had been left behind by the previous occupants. Interestingly enough, somehow a pistol had been left behind and they were presently examining it, knowing that even if they ever used it, the ammo they had would be as finite as what they could find in this building here. They almost shot him when he stepped inside. They caught up with each other and shared stories about their previous months before Will brought John up to speed about what they had found so far. Cady found them midway through their gathering and they continued to talk as they traveled back to the camp for the evening where they talked long into night before they all fell asleep.

***

John woke up first the next morning, followed by William, they ate breakfast together and William game John specific information about how the base generator worked so that he could deal with it too. William gave a much more detailed briefing on the number of bunkers they had mapped and which ones they would be entering. They were going to use halogen lamps they found in the equipment building first, he said, he didn’t want to turn the generator on till they were ready to do as much work as possible as they only had maybe a week, give or take a few days of power worth of fuel.

By the time the discussion was in full swing everyone else was up and had eaten their M.R.E. for the day. They had all agreed that while it lasted, they should enjoy the extra food that was ready for them. The morning warmed up and the cool of the night faded away till it was full light out by the time they all hiked to the closest bunker to them, the barracks, according the maps they had taken from the walls of the local buildings.

Robbie did the honors of unlocking the door and Sanders, having the least experience, stayed watch at the door as they trooped in single file, wielding the halogen lights they pulled from the equipment building the day before when John had first found them. Again, it was empty, and more disappointing; it didn’t lead down any lower. They moved on to the next building, the library.

John went in first this time. He moved his halogen lamp inside, and wondered how many of the books would even be in any kind of readable condition. The air was stale, if not slightly rank. William followed and after him Cady, then Robbie stepped into the ample space provided by the room, the door leaving a bright light on the floor and the lamps casting a cool bluish tinted light over everything in the room, about 20 rows of shelves on their left and eighteen on their right, ending at a staircase going down. The center of the room was filled with tables and four desks arranged as an island in the center of the building where most of the work took place, with extremely old looking computers on them.

The reality that they very well might be standing right over real history, right that very second made him feel refreshed and anxious. Expanded data chronicling the great emigration, first hand accounts in journal form, just about anything could potentially be down in those bunkers. The thought sent chills up his spine. They had enough supplies to search through them for weeks if help-

His thoughts were interrupted when they rounded a corner and Will broke into a run, distracting his train of thought as he looked up and followed with his eyes. Dead ahead, Robbie was lying face down on top of the grass and sand next to one of the few real buildings in the area. He broke into a run and pulled out his knife before his brain could even finish thinking about it.

Will was already down by Rob’s side with his hand over his shoulder saying something that Sanders didn’t quite catch as he caught up with him. Robbie groaned and rolled over onto his back, while hank was looking down at him and he heard William talking again.

“ Hey, Rob! Are you okay? What the hell happened? “

After a second of looking around while Robbie stopped moaning, Sanders notice a little bit of faint smoke drifting out of the garage door and the acrid smell of smoldering ash and burning plastics. It was only half a second before Rob opened his eyes and he looked as lucid as someone who was at the top of his game when he answered Williams inquiry, “ Which one of you bastards turned the power on? “

William sat back, more than a little bit relieved when he replied, “ I did, what was it? Bad breaker? “

“ No, the whole building, there’s a water leak inside, has been for quite a while, you wouldn’t believe how rotted everything in that building is “, Robbie started off. “ Falling apart, water seeping into everything. Power came on and the lights started coming on, and then, kaboom, everything was sparking and catching fire till the breakers blew. Not pretty, not expected, just about not anything you want to be inside of. “

“ Well, can’t undo what’s done, at least you’re all right. Find anything interesting in there before she blew? “

“ Not particularly, only had a brief look around, was just about to open up the main doors and let some real light in. If I go in there and do that now, it will probably help vent the smoke out. Personally though, I don’t plan on going inside there until you go back to wherever the hell you were and turn the power off “, Robbie said as he raised himself up onto his elbows. He looked around and saw Sanders standing over him with his knife out looking a little bit nervous. “ You expecting trouble, cowboy? “

Hank startled when Rob spoke to him. He looked down for a second, his brain was stumbling just a tad, trying to figure out what Rob was talking about when he saw the knife in his hand. “ Nah “, he spoke clearly considering the panic he’d just had, “ just saw you down and, well, worst case scenario. “

“ Good man! Well done, hope I have the good sense next time I’m in your shoes to be prepared. “

“ Thank you, sir. “

Robbie laughed, Sanders had to be rattled. That bastard hadn’t been the one with the whole world seemingly exploding around him right after being shut up in the dark feeling just a little bit put off by the dead, and at the same time all too alive atmosphere caused by things growing in the dark. If he didn’t feel like he had about a million volts coursing through every fiber of his being he would have shuddered thinking about it, as it was, he felt like he’d chugged a gallon of coffee, the strong stuff that Martha made back at home. “ Hey, guys? “

William looked at him and said, “ What’s up? “

“ I think I’m going to just lie here for a minute or two. Until I stop shaking, if you don’t mind. I hope you don’t mind “, he slowly let himself back down on then sickly looking grass as he spoke. When his head touched down and felt a firm support behind it he let go and relaxed as much as he could. His fingers were still twitching a little bit, disobeying his brains orders to sit still.

“ That’s fine, I’ll be right back after I shut off the power for the night. You boys are going to love the news I have for you when I get back from the maintenance shed over on that side of the base, “ Will pointed in the direction he was talking about before he continued, “ Sanders, I want you to wait here with Rob till I get back and then we’ll all stick together for the rest of the day. You know, it was pretty stupid to just split up like we did today. “

“ Agreed “, the other two men voiced their thought simultaneously.

***

During the rest of the day, they explored the garage first, almost out of an apology to Robbie for the surprise that Will had popped on him so unexpectedly. There certainly wasn’t anything in there that was in working order. There was one jeep that certainly might have if it hadn’t been soaking in that humid air for a length of time that they couldn’t even guess at. It must have been amazingly well maintained when it had been in use for it to be in the condition that it was in now. The engine was fine, some rust needed to be cleaned off here and there; a new battery was needed, other small parts, new fuses, cables, etc. The list was long, but certainly, Robbie had never seen a remnant car that was so close to being in working condition before. Suddenly, he understood why government facilities were considered such high prizes to the older explorers.

There were countless cast iron tools that would be more than handy if they could ever get them back to the base. Probably just one or two would be coming along with them when they left after their extended stay. They would certainly need to record the location very carefully and send multiple expeditions with heavier transportation equipment.

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Well, I'm writing more per day than I was, I'm really stepping up everything for the sake of getting farther. I really don't think 50000 words will be enough to write everything I'll want to write, by my calculations it will only be about 75 pages or so, and I'm already on page 28. I did very near six pages today and I'm really proud of it. I'm at 18,100 words. If I keep up this pace, I don't really want to keep posting everything I write every day unless I have a way of writing expandable posts. I've done a good bit with this blog and I really can't wait to do more littel things here and there. I really love this thing now and I'm enjoying it a lot. For now though, I guess I'm going to keep posting everythign I write in case there's anyone actually reading it, hehehehe. Well, here goes....

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Rob did some walking around the garage this time in the morning light looking for anything he might have missed in the dark. He tried checking the bay doors first, but sure enough, they were locked. The window on the far side however was sturdy and still in good shape fitted into the metal siding. He wiped at it with his sleeve, but the interior was far dustier and still blocking his view.

At last he pulled out his flashlight and went inside. The interior of the office was bright enough to see and examine everything well enough without too much trouble. He checked the shelves and found a good deal of books that were suffering far more than the average decay due to the unusually high humidity that seemed to permeate every part of this wreck. The air itself felt a little drier. Robbie felt that might perhaps be because of the door being open all night long. His eyes traces over the collapsed desk in the corner, every last support in it had started to simply fall apart. All the drawers had locks embedded in the crumbling wood. He found himself talking out loud to no one there, “ Locks are useless when the container itself is fundamentally broken. “

He ripped them open a drawer at a time, most of them having nothing but black rot inside of them. Almost no white was left in what he guessed had once been paper documents and other various things, there were also pens, and paperclips, and markers, and other little tidbits. Most curiously there was a necklace with a tiny triangle with an eye in its center as decoration and a small gold wedding band. Rob pocketed both of them. In the bottom drawer after fishing through gunk and wood chips he found a key ring with maybe thirty keys on it. He wondered if it would be useful for anything at all, and linked it to his jeans on the chance that it might be.

Robbie then looked up and turned his attention to the door leading into the actual garage bay. He walked over to it and inspected the door. It was even less solid than the one on the exterior. Wherever that leak was, it had been destroying everything in this whole building from the inside out for maybe a year. Maybe it had been even longer than that. That sort of thing wasn’t exactly his area of expertise. He brought up his right hand and pressed his palm into the wood, it was slimy and he felt it accept the print of his hand before he put more force into it and the whole thing slumped down into the next room breaking apart when it hit the floor.

He reached back down for his belt, wiping his hand off on his aging shirt before wrapping his fingers around his flashlight and turning it on before raising it up and looking into the next room. It was full of junk and at least one car. Rob already knew what he wanted to look for first, his light moved slowly over the collapsed desks and rusted sheet metal toolboxes and the car blocking the view over the rest of the garage and then fell on the faint light near the floor where the first sliding door was clamped shut and locked.

The only sound that graced his ears were the tapping of his worn boots on the cement as he moved toward the door and the dripping of that leak, which sounded much more pronounced now that it was in the same room. When he stood in front of the door he let the focus of the light roam back and forth from the top of the door until he found the lock near the middle of its structure. He thought it would be a fair bet that one of the keys on that ring that he had picked up would more than likely turn that lock and let some decent light and warmth into this cold little tomb. His mind was a little reserved over how many keys he might have to try. It struck him that it would be incredibly ironic and a pointless waste of time if he had to try them all and it was the very last one. It would be nice to have a little bit of luck here.

After about ten tries, Robbie was startled into jumping by a loud noise that sounded sort of like clapping echoing through the whole room. He jumped back so hard that he ran into the grill of the jeep behind him, and dropped his flashlight. After looking around for a second he asked out loud, “ Holy mother, what was that? “

***

Will let his finger up off the button. With a full tank of gas, this baby would run seventy-two hours, at least. Even better yet, he guessed that there was at least one refill truck parked somewhere around the base, probably two, but he was only willing to gamble that one would have any fuel. He remembered seeing them around, useless, but with plenty of fuel in the tank he checked. All the same, they had more than enough to flip everything on for a few minutes as a nice little morale perk of accomplishment for the trio.

***

Hank had his blade out from the sheath on his ankle and was gripping it as tight as he possibly could. He wasn’t all that good with it, but god, it was better than nothing after that noise. The pounding of his heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest as fast as it could and bounce back to camp. He shakily got onto his knees with his blade still up and at the ready as he reached for his flashlight, which was now lying still with its beam pointing in his own direction. His breathing started to steady a little when it was comfortably held in his off hand while he started to head back around the countless shelves of crates that were both full and empty. Right before he reached the door he got another shock that made him drop his light again.

***

Will let a wicked smile spread across his face as his eyes wandered over the primary control panel for the generator. It was amazing how much they let this thing run, and it seemed like it was only for the above ground facilities, there had to be something bigger somewhere down below, he hoped, that ran the majority of the base. His eyes wandered from the manual to the now lit buttons on the controls, the loud rumbling of the machine filling the room surrounded him.

It took him a few minutes to get his bearings between the rather obscure schematic and the very real, very poorly labeled thing in front of him. He looked again at it, and decided that it had been labeled, once upon a time. It had been a hell of a long time since the last label fell away or faded till it was illegible to anyone. More than a few minutes passed before he stumbled on exactly what he was looking for and he thought to himself about what a surprise Rob was in for if he was inside any dark rooms as he started to activate subsystems.

***

Robbie was looking rather cautiously around the garage in places that he hadn’t looked before. Not so cautious as that he could give anyone any kind of inventory for what he had seen as his eyes were preoccupied with finding anything that was capable of sending out such a startling noise as he had heard earlier while he was trying out keys on the bay doors. He was almost panicked and he had his knife in his off-hand, which he hoped would serve well enough against anything less than passive that he might find hiding around inside of anything. He found plenty of horrid little roaches and pill bugs in the grime and rot, and his stress rose as he continued to fail to find anything.

Right about this time a new noise started, a softer click than the earlier and a low hum that seemed to fill the air like it was physically there. He looked around, it seemed to be coming from above him and all around him, and then suddenly there was a flicker of light, followed by a flood of lights clicking on so fast that he felt instantly blinded and had to do his best to stand perfectly still to keep from stumbling into anything. After the last of the lights came on and he started to try to open his eyes, he saw sparks coming from a wall in the back of the building. Shit, he though, someone turned on the power and everything in here was permeated with water.

He had stopped breathing, though he wasn’t aware of it, and his vision was still impaired as he started to move towards the exit. The crackling of the rear wall got louder as the lights started to dim and he broke into a run as soon as he saw a clear path out of the room. There was something similar to an explosion as he left the room and all the lights flickered and went out as abruptly as they went on.

Robbie staggered out of the tiny office and out into the near noon sunlight outside, shielding his eyes, but only for a moment before they adjusted and he dropped to his knees on the grass just off the sidewalk. His breathing was ragged and he felt like his heart was ready to just stop ticking as he let the fresh air start to calm him down. Good god, that had him at his wits end and he was finding himself unable to think clearly. At least everything was okay, he bet it was Will, if anyone had done this, it had been William. He was probably found the generator and fired it up without telling anyone about it. Good lord, I almost shit myself, Rob thought.

***

Hank was absolutely stunned when the sound of the lights coming on filled the room. He’d never heard anything like it; the fluorescent lighting only took another second before it started lighting up the entire room a quadrant at a time. He dropped his flashlight one more time but his hand never loosed its very shaken grip on the handle of his blade.

His left hand went up to guard his eyes for a second or two before his pupils acclimated to the light in the room. After that he got a good look at everything that was inside of the building. His jaw dropped open, more at the how all the lights had suddenly come on than anything else. His mind was racing trying to figure out what the hell had happened. Had it been Robbie, or William? Those were easily the best explanations, but they weren’t exactly someplace where he could just rule out the potential that anything else could have happened.

When his flashlight was back up in his hand he turned it off and started heading into the now well-lit kitchen and then into the room beyond. Robbie would have been relieved to know that Sanders knew to find out what was happening in unusual circumstances and meet up with other team members as soon as possible. He knew Rob worried about his capacity to act responsibly and do things right, and it always gave Hank a sense of pride to prove Rob right, more out of an affectionate hope for respect than out of spite.

Before he reached the exit from the mess hall he noticed a laminated and plastic encased paper on the wall, that was obviously old, but decently protected from the years that wore on it. Wow, he thought as he looked closely at it. He put his finger onto the plastic and moved it to different spots as he started to seriously examine it. This was exactly what he needed.

Chapter 5:

William studied the control panel intently, watching as power started running throughout the base. He wished he knew where Sanders and Rob were, he wondered what the effect of having the lights pop on in whatever dark holes they were in would do to them. It would probably be safest if they were together; Will started to seriously reconsider what he had just done.

He’d never gotten to play with anything quite like this before. He had certainly studied quite extensively more advanced technologies like genuine computers and other machines with software controls, but a large piece of hardware like this usually didn’t attract much attention in the towns where only people who knew what they were doing messed with them. This was turning out to be quite and experience, and he was enjoying it a good bit.

After a few seconds he noticed something odd with one of the sections he had activated, a yellow and black strip above the main section was flashing and the power lights went off. He kneeled down and looked closely at it. After a while he flipped through the manual, and eventually, while looking for the index he found some custom diagrams in the back. Maybe these panels weren’t pre-wired to various areas and they had to be carefully labeled to know which panel had been custom routed to which part of the base.

Sure enough, after about half a minute or so he found the corresponding label, it was the garage, there was something wrong with the breakers over there. He set down the manual, there was no need for dealing with something as simple as breakers, and he had worked with those his entire life. Will walked back over to the map on the wall and located the garage; maybe one of the other two would be there. Probably the least shaken of the two if they were separated, he guessed since the power probably hadn’t come on at all after all these years. He mostly expected to find nothing more than a bad breaker rotting in the building’s power box.

He turned right toward the door and-

***

-almost shit his pants when he stepped into the shed and almost slammed right into William, who had been turning to leave. Sanders actually jumped backwards and hit his head on the wall on the other side of the door. He let out a little bit of a yelp and William, the more outspoken of the two actually spat out a profane word or two, or even three.

It was more than a minute before he regained full control of his senses and stuttered, “ Ah-ah-I’m s-s-sorry, holy shit you scared me. “

“ If I’d wanted to kill you right now, it wouldn’t be too hard with your blade sitting on the floor like that “, Will growled at the young man. Doubly bitter about being so startled and extra perturbed at seeing his friend drop his knife at the first sign of what might have been trouble, the second one was extra un-nerving with adrenaline running through every part of his body. Dammit, if Sanders had been in real trouble right now, he would seriously be bleeding out on the floor already, probably all over the knife that he had dropped.

Weakness in a fellow journeyman was the worst kind, especially one who you traveled with and on whom your life could someday rely. He walked out of the door quickly, a sudden desire to find someone competent filled him up as he gave Sanders a pat on the cheek while he stepped out, and said, “ Follow me, there’s something I want to check, and then we should find Rob. “

Hank stopped stuttering and bent down onto the ground leaving his eyes on William’s back. His breathing was starting to steady and he picked up his blade and sheathed it back on his ankle before he started after the leader. He only replied, “ Yes, sir. “

William started walking toward the rear of the base, un-knowingly headed right towards Robbie, and quite knowingly headed towards a dark garage. Hank was wondering why Will had turned on the power without telling them, but he was too afraid to ask and question his authority. Worse, he was afraid that he had already told Robbie and that maybe he had merely been left out as a practical joke that he hadn’t found very funny at all. There was only one way to know though, and it was the one he didn’t feel like asking at the moment.

“ How long did it take you to turn on the power, Will? “ Hank did manage to force this question out of his mouth; it was complimentary enough.

“ Only been working on it today, it was what I found when we split up last night, I got really lucky and found a manual stored with it. I’ve been working on it all morning, there’s a problem with one of the buildings though, that’s where we’re going right now “, he recapped what he had been up to in such a brief way for Sanders. He slowed down a little even after his nerves calmed.

“ Oh, that must be quite a find, is it anything like the ones that power Cherry Wood? “

“ I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen the generators we use at Cherry Wood. Never bothered to look at them, never really expected to find working ones in the field just waiting to be turned on “, Will replied, “ it was unbelievable luck that this one worked, I half expected it to be falling apart. This place was probably abandoned out of lack of funding near the fall of the New United Nations. Maybe even not totally until a few years after the worst of everything. “

Hank got a look of wonder in his eyes. His speech was rather hurried with excitement, and punctuated with wild hand gestures, “ Do you think that maybe just maybe this was a record keeping facility? “

“ There’s only one way to know, and we’re not going to even give it a try till a second party is here to accompany us. “