- Füd B?r Extreme Fiesta Flavor Packet
***
After I dump the remains of the Model ones into the big Füd B?r box, which means I have to dump the rest of the Füd B?rs onto the roof, I carry the box back to the window and shove it in.
If those Antithesis corpses aren’t destroyed, they’ll eventually sprout into Hives.
“Yeah, well. I’ll deal with them in a minute.”
I head over to the pile of Füd B?r display boxes and yeet them over the side of the roof, trying to spread them out a little along the front of the cafeteria window. That gives me an idea, but I’ve got to deal with the bodies first, I guess.
A Class I Resonator Mark I-D will deal with all of the remains if you pile them up.
“How much would that cost?”
Only five points.
“Five points? That’s half a day’s food. How many charges does that resonator have?”
Chyrl sighs. One.
“Yeah, no. I got an idea.”
I head back to the window, roll my dolly back up into the room, then hop up and pull myself in. I could probably jump down to the ground, but I’m not sure any of the exterior doors are unlocked at the moment. Once I’m inside, Chyrl makes a throat clearing noise.
Might I suggest you at least reload your pistol?
“With what bullets?”
I can procure two cases of five hundred nine millimeter rounds for one point.
“So a thousand bullets for one point? Okay, that sounds like a deal.”
New Purchase: 9x19mm Parabellum Rounds x1000
Points reduced to... 36
Another big twin spatula box pops into being in the classroom next to my box of bungee cords as I slide the window shut. I pop the top, pull out a little box of bullets, and after a minute of fumbling my borrowed pistol is reloaded and back in my pocket. I slip my gloves off and slip them back into my pockets as well.
After adding the one extra Model one to my box of dead plant birds, I jog down the hall and pick up the final one from the breezeway, then head back downstairs to the old music room. I open the door, which is latched but not locked, and look in to see Dirk and Teachbot both giving quiet lessons in different parts of the room. Willy stands just inside the door, mostly watching the kids.
“Why didn’t you lock it?”
He shrugs. “Lock’s busted, or so Miss Williams said. If you lock it, it takes somebody with a crowbar to get it open again. Besides, the plants don’t seem too good with doorknobs.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Okay, yeah, but why didn’t you block it with something?”
“Door opens outward, Miss Jackie.”
“Yeah.” I hand him back his gun. “Thanks. I got your guys some more ammo” He reaches for my box. “Not this. This is a bunch of dead plants.” I shake my head, realizing that I really ought to get shit organized if I’m gonna put my idea in motion.. “Okay, I need Dirk and your boys. Let Miss Williams know everybody else can get back to class, but make sure they’re in the classrooms next to the courtyard, and keep the windows closed.”
Willy nods then heads off to speak quietly first with Dirk, then with one of the female teachers. While he does that, Dirk creaks his way over to me. He’s got really old replacement hips, the kind with barely anything to them other than just the joint. No electronics even. When he gets to me, he smiles and says, “what did you need me for, Miss Samurai?”
I roll my eyes. “Aw, c’mon, Dirk. I’m still just Jackie, the lunch lady. But I need you to,” I pause. “Do you have anything that can make Antithesis burn?”
He grimaces. “I wish. I don’t have anything you could use as a weapon.”
I shake my head. “Not thinking about weapons. Thinking about corpse disposal.” I tip the box over to let him look inside, and the fake avocado smell wafts out.
He gets a mean looking grin. “Oh. Oh, yeah, I can do that. Courtyard?” I nod, and he turns to the students. “Carmen? Ariana? Need you ladies to help me with something. When the two girls walk over, he has me hand them the box. “We’ve got this from here. Any more you need burned?”
I nod. “Yep. I’ll have Willy’s guys haul them in. They’re bigger.”
With that he toddles off, his two students in tow. Willy returns, four younger gangers following him. “I left DeJuan to help… hey, is there anything you can do for Derek or Tony?”
“Sugar honey iced tea.” I look to where both of the men I’d fought the first batch of Antithesis with sit. Well, Derek sits, staring at nothing, and Tony lies there, asleep I think. “Chyrl?”
A simple Mark I Nano-Regenerative Suite will fix most injuries, assuming not too much time has passed and all the body parts are still attached.
“So, yeah. Take DeJuan, go reload all the pistols we’ve got, and then haul all the Antithesis corpses lying around into the courtyard for Dirk to burn.” I wince a little at the loss of points as I say. “Gimme two of those Nano-things please, Chyrl.”
New Purchase: Class I Nano-Regenerative Suite
Points reduced to... 16
Hmm… I don’t believe I’ve ever credited you for something.
Humans Rescued!
Reward... 80 Points
New Purchase: Class I Nano-Regenerative Suite
Points reduced to... 76
Two boxes pop up in front of me, and I snag them before they can settle, jogging over to Tony and Derek. “Hey, guys. Sorry it took me a little to get these for you.”
I lift the first injector out, roll Tony over, and press it against the spot where his spine doesn’t twist right before injecting it. “That feels a little…” then he starts howling, not screams of pain, but the kind of weird exclamations somebody makes when things are alternating between hurting, feeling nice, and feeling just too much too fast to acclimate.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“D… Don’t be. I can… Hoo, that’s… I can feel my legs… tingly.”
I pull the other injector and move to Derek. “Okay, Derek, you’re next.”
“Nope, not with what’s goin’ on with Tony.” At just that moment, Tony’s whole body twists, a crunching sound filling the air before he settles a little. "That sounds nasty.”
“Chyrl, what was that?”
The Nano-Regenerative Suite is capable of stimulating muscle fibers; I directed them to do so in order to realign some things, allowing the Suite to focus on fixing microstructures rather than realigning macrostructures.
“Oh. Cool, thanks.” Derek puts his hands up to block me. Fortunately, his one remaining eye stares blankly at where I’m not, so I plant the injector right under his ear.
“Gah! That’s col…” He stutters into an ear searing chain of profanity, clutching at his eye.
“Teachbot, hold his hands away from his eye, please.”
Moving faster than I’ve ever seen her do so before, Teachbot snags Derek’s hands and holds them over his head.
I took the liberty to move your teaching drone; its programming might not have allowed it to immobilize the young man.
“Thanks again, Chyrl.”
De nada.
“Teachbot, hold Derek still until Tony says it’s okay to let him go.” I look around the room and realize that other than Teachbot and the two recuperating gangers, there’s nobody left but me. “Tony?”
“Yeah, Miss Jackie?”
“Don’t let Derek go until the nano-suite is done with him, okay?”
He nods without getting up, which is still awesome since when I got here I wasn’t sure he could nod. “How do I know when it’s done?”
I shrug. “His eyeball will stop itching, I guess. Hopefully he’ll be able to see, too.” Before I can get bogged down answering questions, I jog out of the room, closing the door firmly behind me. Willy wasn’t wrong, the plants don’t seem to be big on door handles. If they had been, the Model threes might have realized that the cafeteria doors weren’t locked.
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Speaking of, I jog to the cafeteria and out through the south door to find Willy and two of his guys each grabbing a Model three corpse. The smell of mock avocado is strong, even with the Extreme Fiesta flavoring smell nearly overpowering it. I look at the scattered display boxes and realize something. “Hey, Willy?”
“Yeah, Miss Jackie?”
“When you get those in, can you send one of your guys to bring the rest of the Füd B?rs out of my room?” He nods and looks at my waist, where my keys would normally hang. “I left it unlocked.”
“Will do. Marcus, you know where her room is, right?” The bigger of the two guys with Willy nods, his dark curly hair bobbing. “Okay. Use that dolly from the ROTC room.”
Marcus heads off, jogging back to the door, while I grab the partially empty display pack of Extreme Fiesta Füd B?rs and get to work. Before I can, Chyrl coughs and quietly says, gloves?
I slip my gloves on, then get to work pulling out one Füd B?r at a time, unwrapping it, mushing the flavor packet into it, then breaking off bite sized pieces and scattering them parallel to the fence, about five feet past it. I’m not sure whether it will work or not, but worst case, I’m getting rid of the Extreme Fiesta I’ve been shoving to the back of the pile so long that I don’t have much of anything else left.
I come around the end of the main building debating with myself whether to run my Füd B?r fence around the back buildings or not as I spread the flavor packet contents over the next Füd B?r. That’s when I hear nails scratching on the pavement and look up to see a Model three bearing down on me. I’d forgotten about something banging on the outside door.
Not knowing what else to do, I fling the Füd B?r at the thing and grab my hammers. It snaps it out of the air, then slides to a stop as it spits the B?r back out, then tries to scrape its own jaw off like the other one had. It almost looks grateful when I bring my hammer down on its head. “Sorry, but Extreme Fiesta do be like that.”
Did you just apologize to the Model three for killing it?
“Nah. Seemed kinda mean to make it taste Extreme Fiesta before that though.”
I am ever more grateful my lack of taste buds precludes me ever experiencing Extreme Fiesta.
“Yeah, but you don’t get to taste steak, either.”
I’ll consider it a fair tradeoff. Oh, also…
Target Eliminated!
Reward... 10 Points
A series of gunshots, just pops at this distance, echo from around the building.
Target Eliminated!
Reward... 5 Points
“What was that?”
One of your impromptu militia just eliminated a Model three.
I kick the Model three’s corpse toward the building, pocket my hammers, pick up the remains of the Füd B?r, and start scattering stuff along the ground between the buildings. We can barricade the breezeways if we have to. As I work I ask, “That means I get points?”
You provided the bullets, and you’re providing leadership and direction for them. So reduced points, but yes, you get points for things they kill using weapons and supplies you give them, especially doing so under your direction.
“Huh.” I work my way along the gap between the buildings until Marcus rolls up to me with my dolly with two big boxes of Füd B?rs on it. “Hey, can you get that Model Three in to Dirk, then gather up those Füd B?rs that scattered outside the cafeteria?” He nods, but before he takes more than a step I get another idea. “Wait, no, don’t gather them. Just unwrap them and do what I’m doing, but all over the place in front of the windows.”
He shrugs. “How far out?”
“Like, in a cone, to the far side of the street if there are enough. So any Antithesis who want to look in our windows have to be standing in Extreme Fiesta.”
He makes a face at the mention of the flavor. “Okay, Miss Jackie. You’re the boss.”
As he hefts the Model three corpse onto his shoulders and jogs off toward the caf doors, I turn back to my Füd B?r fence. “How did I wind up in charge? I’m just the lunch lady.”
Chyrl chuckles in my head. Oh, I think you sell yourself short, but even if that’s all you were, you take your role seriously. You care for these children. At their core, that’s what the gangs are there for too.
I snort as I get to the ground floor breezeway, then turn around to double up on my Füd B?r fence. “You talkin’ about the same gangs?”
They form initially as a form of self-defense. A kind of government and policing in places where the actual government has failed. Many of them turn to illegal means to support themselves, but they still start as ways for the gang members to protect themselves and their families.
“Yeah. You keep thinkin’ that.” I’ve gotten into a kind of rhythm now. Rip open the Füd B?r and bend it into a kind of ‘U’ shape, drop the wrapper, tear the flavor packet, pour Extreme Fiesta into the curve of the ‘U’, drop the packet, then mush the sides of the ‘U’ together until the Extreme Fiesta powder is all stuck to the bar. Then rip off an inch, rip that in half, and drop those two about a foot from the previous pair. It’s not exactly fast, but it’s about as fast as I can go.
At any rate, this group has decided to follow your lead in protecting the school and the children, so when they kill Antithesis… Chyrl’s interrupted by another series of pops, this one a bit more energetic; more than one gun firing at a time. You get points.
Targets Eliminated!
Reward... 19 Points
“Sugar Honey Iced Tea. Are we getting more Antithesis coming or something?”
Chyrl sighs. The recent brief Incursion has dispersed pheromones which cause Antithesis to become more active. In addition, while burning the Antithesis does reduce the effectiveness of the pheromones released by dead Antithesis, they still emit a burst when they die. Finally, she sighs again, they’re attracted to noise.
I make it to where Marcus has started spreading bars out like I told him to. He’s tearing off bigger chunks, and leaving them spaced out a little more, but it’s not like I can do the whole job myself. “Good job. Keep it up!”
“Thanks, Miss Jackie! Want me to come help you with that when I’m done here?”
“Sure thing, Marcus. You got a gun on you?”
He looks a little ashamed. “Uh, just my holdout. It’s only got the one shot.” He still reaches for it.
I wave him back to what he was doing. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not a good shot and I’ve still got my hammers.” As I move on to start my double wide Füd B?r fence on the far side of the big swath he’s filling with Extreme Fiesta chunks, I mutter to Chryl, “is there a cheap gun I can get him?”
There is… Chyrl sounds uncharacteristically hesitant.
“Okay, what’s the catch.”
Based on your actions, you intend to defend the school building.
“The cafeteria.”
You’re putting your perimeter around the building as a whole.
“Okay, fine, yeah. I just didn’t want to be smelling Extreme Fiesta walking in the halls.”
Still, you intend to hold a fixed point. Unless you plan on your militia to be constantly on guard, and thus in danger, automated turrets might be more effective.
“Those sound expensive?” I ask as I turn to cut my Füd B?r fence along the concrete path maybe twenty feet from the front of the school. No point in trying to fence off the lawn; it’s mostly dead anyhow.
Fifty points for a general use turret which will be able to hold and fire any handgun, as well as most long guns.
“Not like we have any of those.”
Lab Jack It, whose catalogs you are using, has access to a variety, and that flexibility would allow you to upgrade the guns as you earn more points.
I sigh. “I really wanted to fix up the kitchen. That one turret would be as much as the catalog I need.” Then something occurs to me. “Wait, wouldn’t a turret gun be just as noisy as the guys firing?”
It would, although it would not fire when startled, nor would it waste ammunition.
“Hey, my guys are solid.”
For militia, remarkably so. But they are not machines. And there are only eight of them.
I’ve made it to the main doors, and I hang my head for a second. “We’re not gonna make it, are we?”
Nonsense. Arm your militia with slightly more reliable weapons, purchase enough turrets to cover all approaches to the building, along with weapons to arm them, and you should be able to hold out as long as you need to.
“Yeah, how long’s that gonna be?”
There are Vanguard who specialize in cleaning up after Incursions. I’m sure one or more of them will be along eventually.
I chuckle at how chipper she seems. “I can tell you didn’t grow up around here. Still, no point in just laying down and dying, right?” Marcus comes up behind me and starts helping me as I round the corner headed down the last side of the building, toward the far side of the wide breezeway I’d stopped at earlier.
I didn’t grow up at all.
“Okay. Marcus? Can you go get the other guys?”
He frowns. “Willie has DeJuan and DeShawn watching the breezeways, and he’s chaining up all the outer doors.”
I frown. “Okay, but I’ll need to get all you guys together when we’re done here. For now…” I pause, then mutter, “I need something better than what my boys are carrying, but I ain’t got a lot of fancy gun money. What can you get me?”
The Foxteeth Model D is an excellent basic firearm, only five points per pistol.
“Nothin’ cheaper than that?” I mutter as I let Marcus get a little further ahead of me.
Nothing I’d want to trust my Vanguard or any of her militia to.
“Okay then, give me one of those, please.”
New Purchase: Foxteeth Model D
Points reduced to... 105
One of Chyrl’s twin spatula boxes drops into the almost empty box of Füd B?rs on my dolly. Without opening it, I scoop it up and hand it to Marcus when he comes back for another display case of Füd B?rs. He pops it open to reveal a boxy looking little gun. Nothing special, nothing fancy, but Marcus notices the same thing I do.
“Is this new?” I nod. “For me?” I nod again. “Thanks, Miss Jackie!” He gives me a side hug, then slips the gun into his jacket pocket and jogs off to extend our little Füd B?r fence.
I sigh and get back to work myself. After I finish my next display case of B?rs, I have a thought. “Can you get silencers for the guns?”
Silencers aren’t as effective as most people think, and they tend to degrade gun performance and…
I pause with my hands full of Füd B?r as Chyrl goes silent. “Chyrl?”
Pardon, I hadn’t realized how… eclectic some of Lab Jack It’s custom catalogs are. I was about to say that with the exception of very specialized, and thus expensive guns, silencers reduce gun effectiveness and lifetime, it appears our resident inventor has come up with a… solution. One which isn’t useful for unaugmented humans, but might work for your turrets. As it’s such a niche item in an almost unused catalog, it’s remarkably inexpensive, too.
“How inexpensive?”
One point for a handgun, two points for a long gun, four points for a larger weapon system.
“Will it work?”
It shouldn’t hurt, and at the price getting one to try seems like a good idea.
I sigh as Marcus makes it back to me, finishing up my Füd B?r fence. “Marcus, please go tell Willie I said to have the guys close the breezeway doors and block them off with those big heavy desks, then meet me on the roof of the main building.”
He drops the rest of his Füd B?rs into the upper box on my dolly, then runs off as I turn and trudge back toward the main doors, the nearest unblocked entrance. I mutter nasty words to myself that I’d never say out loud, because I don’t want to get in the habit of saying them when the kids are around.
What have you decided?
“You’ve seen the whole building now, right?”
I have.
“Okay. Show me where I need to put those turrets to protect the whole building for the least points.”
Catalogs unlocked:
Class I Medical Utilities
Class I Minor Cooking Implements
Gear:
Class 0 Racing Prosthetics
Mark I Omni-Protective Bodysuit
Mark I Experimental Scientific Augmentation Package
Mark I Experimental Medical Scanner
Propane (and propane accessory)
Chyrl’s Cookbook Collection
Class 0 bungee cords, varying sizes
9x19mm Parabellum Rounds x936
Foxteeth Model D
Points: 105