Downtime and Death (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 5)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Knew I should have asked before,” Terry shrugged. “Fine. Off you go.”

  Outside, Alvin looked but did not see any signs of Joshua, Eric, or any of their team. “Pity,” he muttered as he headed for the auto shop. “Justin, how are you?” he asked when he went inside.

  Stepping back from the car he was working on with dent remover in hand, Justin smiled. “Al, I’m okay. Yesterday was intense, but I’m okay now. You’re coming to dinner tonight, right?”

  “That’s the plan. Where is dinner, though?”

  “Here. The second floor is where I live,” Justin said. “All the crafters have a place to live added to their shops. Makes it easier for us and anyone who needs to find us. Well, I’ve got to get this done today. See you tonight?”

  “We’ll be here,” Alvin said, leaving the shop. I need to track down James, Bill, and Susan and say goodbye to them… I’ll head on back after. Got most of my required time in by sleeping. Just waiting for them to hot fix that. Shaking his head, Alvin walked across the yard.

  Saying goodbye to James had been easy, and the former police officer wished them luck. Going further into the bunker, he found Bill in the armory, where Bill was showing a teen how to break apart an M1 Garand.

  “Bill,” Alvin called out, knowing it would bring the vet out of his crafting fugue.

  Looking up, Bill grunted and set the rifle down. “What do you need?”

  “Wanted to let you know I’ll park your truck next to the auto shop tomorrow.”

  “So you are leaving tomorrow?” Bill asked.

  “We’ve had enough downtime, and if I stay much longer, I’ll have to do something about the annoyances.”

  “Who is it this time?” Bill asked.

  Alvin gave a brief recap of his latest run in with Eric and Joshua. “They were lucky Gran stopped me.”

  “Sounds like it’s time to go,” Bill nodded. “I’ll pull them aside after you leave. It might be time to break their egos down.”

  “From some of the muttering in the inn, I’d say it’s past time,” Alvin shrugged. “I’m going to talk to Susan, then go home. The less I’m around, the less chance of me killing someone.”

  “We hope to see you back at some point. At least give us a bit of warning next time, if you can. No one here can match Jarvis’ cooking, but a few of the cooks want to try.”

  “No promises,” Alvin chuckled as he headed for the door. “Later.”

  Susan’s office was not far from the armory, and he could hear her and another voice inside. Knocking, he waited, but no one answered so he walked in. Susan was using a stylus to trace out something onto a piece of paper, with the girl across from her paying close attention.

  “Susan?”

  “Al?” Susan said, pulled from her crafting fugue. “Why didn’t you knock?”

  “Did,” Alvin replied. “There is a major issue with crafting, it looks like. Maybe they’ll look at fixing it… hint, Sammi, hint…”

  “What did you need?” Susan asked, looking perplexed by his random aside.

  “Telling you we’re leaving tomorrow for certain. Also, Dumb and Dumber tried to start shit again over at the inn.”

  “Dumb and Dumber?” her apprentice asked with an amused expression.

  “Eric and Joshua,” Alvin told her.

  “Hehehe, I’m totally going to spread that.”

  “Don’t,” Susan sighed. “I’ll look into it, Al. Was there anything else?”

  “I was thinking about it and I think the training room— if it can be upgraded as far as my base— isn’t going to be a catch all like it is for me.”

  “Why?”

  “Too much utility for a settlement.”

  Frowning, Susan nodded slowly, “I was afraid of that. I’m still hoping, though.”

  “I’d say check each crafting building. They might have something tacked onto them for experimenting, maybe? If the gun range can be upgraded more, it would likely only be for combat training.”

  “I’ll look into it. Was there anything you needed from us before you go?”

  “I’m going to see about buying some of David’s explosives to have them on hand,” Alvin said. “I should go back and check on him as it is. You have a good day.”

  “Make sure to come back again, but maybe warn us first next time.”

  “Heh, Bill said the same thing. See you.”

  “He’s not that bad,” the teen said.

  “Al has been behaving—” Susan was replying as he closed the door.

  “Not for much longer,” Alvin grunted as he headed down the hall.

  When he walked into the training room, Alvin had less than a second of warning before he was blown across the lab. Shards of glass and metal were scattered all through the room from the explosion. Shaking himself as he got to his feet, Alvin went over to David, who was on the ground and not moving.

  “Simulation end,” Alvin coughed. Everything around them vanished, leaving the two men in the empty room. “Looks like I got here at the wrong time.”

  “That’s the fifth time,” David said as he sat up. “Not having a lot of luck with it today.”

  “Before you get around to self-demolition again, I wanted to talk with you.”

  “What do you need?”

  “Some of your explosives, the new ones. We’re leaving tomorrow and I want to have some on hand. I want to set up to get more from you later, too.”

  “Most of mine have been earmarked for the Elves, but I’ll pull some aside for you. I have some other stuff that’s not quite as strong, if you want that.”

  “I’ll take the good stuff,” Alvin chuckled. “How much for five?”

  “Five thousand?”

  “David, how much are you going to charge other people?” Alvin asked.

  “Probably five thousand each,” David replied. “You’re family, though—”

  “Yeah, but you still need to make more than cost,” Alvin cut him off.

  “Fine, twelve and a half for five.”

  “Cool. Let’s go transfer some XP and get my explosives. You can come back and blow yourself up more afterward.”

  “I have five on me,” David said as he followed Alvin to the door. “Always be prepared, and all that.”

  “Damned boy scout,” Alvin laughed.

  Chapter Twenty

  Becky and Kuro came into the bathroom shortly after Alvin finished his shower. “I was wondering if you two were going to get cleaned up before dinner,” he said, smiling at them.

  “Sorry for the delay, Hero,” Becky said with a wink as her clothing vanished. “We’ve been helping Megs all day. What did you get up to?”

  Giving her and Kuro a kiss when they stepped past him into the shower, he replied, “Said goodbye to the few people I like here and bought some of David’s new explosives. He tried to give them to me at cost.”

  “That’s my idiot brother,” Becky laughed as the water turned on. “Did you take them?”

  “I took them at half price,” Alvin replied. “Didn’t feel right to take them at cost.”

  “That was very nice of you, Hero.” Becky turned under the water, giving Alvin a show.

  “What are you going to do about Bill’s truck?” Kuro asked.

  “Drive it out tomorrow before we pile into the Turtle. It’s repaired. All of my armor besides the vest is, too. How about you two?”

  “My gear has been repaired,” Kuro replied.

  “My vest still needs love,” Becky told him. “Some of the guns need more time, but it’s good for now. Might want to see about upgrading the weapon repair room next.”

  “That was my idea,” Alvin agreed as he summoned jeans and shirt. “Your Kevlar already going?”

  “I’m going to drop it off after our shower,” Becky said.

  “I’ll go drop mine off now. Don’t take too long.”

  “This will be just a quick rinse,” Becky chuckled. “We’ll do the real scrubbing tonight.”

  “Mousie, I’m leaving a
gift out here for you. I’ve already upgraded it with some of the runes we had on hand.”

  “I’ll have a look when we’re done, Hero.”

  Jarvis greeted him as Alvin walked into the living room. “I hope you have a good evening, sir. I shall be retiring early tonight.”

  “Don’t want to be here when we come back, huh?”

  “That was part of it, sir. Truthfully, my tasks for the day are done, and having some extra time to read is nice.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Tomorrow, I get to go back to having tea and not worrying about who might show up.”

  “Damned Brit.”

  “Blame yourself for that, sir,” Jarvis replied dryly.

  Alvin sat down on the couch while he waited for Becky and Kuro to finish showering. “Any idea if the devs are going to do anything about the minimum hours I need to be in the world?”

  “I do not know, sir. Considering you’ve twice done that by sleeping at the inn, I would expect some reaction in the near future. Honestly, I’m surprised they haven’t done away with the requirement. There is valuable insight to be had by seeing who hunkers down in their base and who does not.”

  “They could hand out quests, too,” Alvin added. “Find two settlements or something like that, and maybe give them an XP reward... or better yet, rare or better runes. That would get people out. Maybe hold those quests back just for the players. It might make us more likely to go out looking for things. Or just give us upgraded quests, and give the hunters lesser versions of them? If I had a quest to step through two Gates and I got something worth a damn for doing it, I’d probably make it a point to do more.”

  “While easier quests— like adding three kiosks to your network— could have lesser rewards,” Jarvis nodded, “above and beyond the typical reward for having the kiosks added to your network.”

  “They wanted to make it more game-like and they have; it would fit the theme. I know it’s a giant sandbox, but even small breadcrumbs would make doing things more compelling. A quest to find and defeat a legendary mob with a reward equal to it might get me to tackle the fish-demon here myself. Instead, I’m just giving them ideas and taking off to go explore more.”

  “Why haven’t I found more crafting reagents, Jarvis?”

  “I believe that is being looked into, sir. Recently, there has been a large amount of crafting materials showing up in the auction house. They are being purchased almost as fast as they appear.”

  “That I believe. Crafting mats won’t do me a lot of good, but I know people who can use them. The hunters would probably be willing to trade them off to crafters for repairs and upgrades, too.”

  “Indeed.”

  “We’re ready, Hero,” Becky said, entering the room.

  Alvin smiled at the two women. “I’m a lucky bastard.” The dresses they were wearing were conservative by Becky’s standards, but still showed quite a lot of leg and cleavage.

  “Told you he’d like them, Mousie.”

  “You two always do the contrasting colors well,” Alvin said as he went to them. “Shall we go say goodbye to Megumin and enjoy her dinner?”

  “Yeah. It’ll be sad, but I’m more than ready to go,” Becky said. “It was nice seeing David and the rest, but hanging around here lacks the spark we have when we’re out on our own.”

  Collecting a kiss from both of them, Alvin trailed them to the door. “Have a good night, Jarvis. See you in the morning.”

  “Goodnight, sir.”

  “Thank you for the knife, Hero, but I’m confused why you’d give it to me. I already have my swords.”

  “Sometimes the swords will be too big to do what you need to,” Alvin said. “It was going to be Gothy’s, but the dagger she has is the same as these. If you want to switch, since I’m sure you’re more used to that style of blade, that’s fine, too.”

  “That’s a good point,” Becky nodded, handing her dagger over to Kuro. “I prefer the thicker feel of the K-bar over this one.”

  “As you wish, Gothy,” Kuro said, trading blades.

  “We should get you a decent rifle,” Alvin said, “for when we have a long-range engagement.”

  “Good idea,” Becky nodded. “Not that we’ve had many of those, but it’s still a good idea.”

  “I’ll message Bill and Wynn and see what they can do for us.”

  “Do you think they’ll implement a way to upgrade our current gear?” Becky asked as they passed through the taproom.

  “I doubt it, and if they did, it wouldn’t be easy or cheap. The crafters might get a way to do it at master or grandmaster levels, but they’ll probably just get the option to add extra damage or durability instead of increasing rarity. Increasing the rarity would break a lot of things.”

  “Adding extras to existing gear would still be nice,” Becky said.

  “The material also matters,” Kuro added. “My boots are superior to the boots of this world based solely on their material, and that gives them a bonus.”

  “That is a damned good point,” Alvin agreed. “I’m considering switching over to those for my normal gear for that reason. I’d lose over half my armor doing it, though, which is why I haven’t.”

  “I wouldn’t lose as much,” Becky mused. “I’ll have to think about it. If I use a few of the durability runes we have, I’d actually gain some armor.”

  “Let’s crunch numbers later,” Alvin said as he knocked on the side door of the auto shop.

  “Okay, Hero.”

  “Glad you made it,” Justin greeted them when he opened the door. “Come on in.” Leading them up the stairs next to the door, Justin called out, “Joanna, Amie, Meg, our guests are here.”

  “Coming, dad,” Joanna called back.

  “I’ll have dinner done in a couple of minutes,” Megumin called from the kitchen.

  “Hello,” Amie said as she came down the hall. “Rumor is you’re leaving tomorrow.”

  “It’s true,” Alvin replied.

  “Thank you for helping with the apprenticeships,” Amie said. “I’m not good at hunting, as we found out.”

  “Not everyone will be,” Becky shrugged. “If you can become a mechanic, you’ll still be helping the settlement.”

  “Crafters are important,” Kuro added. “Not everyone can be a guard.”

  “Here I am,” Joanna said as she came into the room. “I have a gift for you.” Presenting a box to Alvin, Joanna smiled.

  “Should I open it now?” Alvin asked when he took it.

  “Yes!” Joanna smiled.

  The box was not wrapped, so Alvin popped the lid off and smiled. “This is to replace the one I used?”

  “Yes. I hope you can use it for someone else like you did for dad,” Joanna said.

  Alvin pulled out the medkit, “I’ll try to make sure that happens.”

  “Where did you get a medkit?” Justin asked Joanna.

  “It was given to me,” Joanna said, not looking at him. “I’ll tell you later, okay?”

  The muscles along Justin’s jaw writhed as he clenched his teeth, but he nodded. “Okay.”

  “Dinner is ready,” Megumin called out from the kitchen.

  “The dining room is over here,” Justin said, leading them through an archway.

  Megumin had prepared steak and potatoes; good, but nothing special. Alvin added steak sauce to his potato, happy that it was available. Conversation was minimal while they ate, and when the dinner was over, Joanna and Amie left the adults at the table.

  “Gothy, I wanted to thank you for helping me talk to Justin,” Megumin said, sipping her mixed drink. “We’re finding our way, and it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t helped nudge me over that hurdle.”

  “I wanted to ask her out, but I was worried about Joanna,” Justin admitted, taking a pull of his beer. “That and thinking that I could have done more…”

  Megumin took his hand, “We will find our way forward.”

  “I’m happy for you both,” Becky grinned. “I
figure Justin is going to be the ‘take it slow’ type.”

  Justin frowned, “Of course, we have to—”

  “Shh, she’s just baiting you,” Megumin said, squeezing his hand.

  “Oh,” Justin said. “I guess I should have known.”