The Industrialist

Three days after the shop opened. Lance increased his investments from the original 10,000 units to 30,000 units.

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[Available Currency] 130,000 units

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He already gave the cost of supplied materials due to the rebel faction of 40,000 units in just three days. That should have put a smile on the faces of the council members.

Joe and George were in the whirlwind of managing the store. While Lance had to participate in the quest for the collection of Quantum Flux in Bay City.

Damian had formed a dozen rebel volunteers in exchange for 2000 units per head. An extravagant reward for the team. Twelve of them had poison-filled QuasarFlare Blasters clad with the Exo-Kinetic armors, designed with multi-colored signature graffiti. The rebels had been practicing graffiti vandalism in the tunnels and had expressed it in their respective armor.

The e-prints were followed to the letter, except for the vandals, of course. The rustic metal armor made from uncommon materials had a hint of aesthetics, with body contours of the chest plate up to their shins and forearms. The armor was heavy individually, however, for the bearer to move, an internal core drive that would supply power in every movement, disregarding the material's weight.

Lance had one too and had a small graffiti paint design on its chest that said 'Industrialist'.

This put a smile on Lance's face.

They expedited this quest to avoid the Demetrian season that would start in over two weeks. At the break of dawn, the convoy drove towards the fallen City. They do not call it Surviving nowadays.

***

BAY CITY, 0600 H.

***

From Felsom prison to the inner state of Bay, it took them five hours to drive. According to their map, the hive had retreated further back outskirts of Bay and they approached on the opposite side. The Quantum Flux Capacitors were located at the center of the City.

Luckily, the dimly lit sun shone upon the convoy. Damian drove the forward truck, Lance on the passenger seat. The cold winds though whipped carried a reminder that the season of death is imminent.

They passed through a national road, six lanes each on both sides. The monolithic structures were now bathed with dust and moss. The gloomy environment had exponentially proliferated the moss, creeping into towering structures.

Below them was a sea of dust, the breeze creating small insignificant whirlwinds. The once glorious city now become a big pile of rubble.

As they pressed on, their vehicles decelerated as the shadows of the structures cast upon them. The winds were getting colder.

"Ready boys," Damian said.

A simultaneous checking and cocking of laser weaponry heaved inside the cabin.

"Kid, how much is one Capacitor?" one rebel asked, tapping Lance's shoulder from behind.

"It's a Masterwork level and we can sell it to CBD for 10,000 units each."

"How much do you need?"

"10 units," Lance responded.

That's 100,000 units worth of quest. The amount barely mattered to Lance. However, he needed to satisfy Mister Leric's demand, and the Quantum Flux Capacitors were vital to the formation of his Beast Bane Railgun.

"Four miles from here, we will arrive at the Central Power Grid. There, we will find the Capacitors," Damian announced.

After a few blocks further deep, Damian floored the brakes and the convoy halted between an intersection. Towering structure on each block, darkening the area. Damian disembarked and took a few careful steps away from the vehicle.

He tugged his Blaster on his side. A few others went out of the vehicles, too, making a perimeter around the convoy. Lance stepped out, too. Curious.

"Don't get far, kid." Damian said. "Huggers, Lance."

"How do you know?" Lance asked.

"These huggers make trails on the sand. I know their tracks, kid. If we don't deal with them now, they will attack our tires. They are attracted to it, for some reason."

"Why do you call them huggers?" Lance asked.

"Because they hug our tires and would blow out into unfortunate proportions. I think they are attracted to heated rubber.

"How do you lure them out?"

"Stun bombs."

Damian gave instructions to the others, informing them about the Huggers.

"Ok, let's do this," Damian said. He clicked one stun bomb and threw it away, reaching about sixty meters from their location.

The stun bombs detonated, creating a sudden deafening blast and shaking the ground.

"Ready!" Damian said.

The ground continued to vibrate but not from the blast. They were from the Abominated crawlers that emerged from the ground to where the bomb was thrown. The crawlers skittled fast on the ground; overgrown dirty white sandy spiders rushed for a hint of human flesh.

The Blasters fired, lasers concentrated on the tidal wave of skin-crawling arachnids as large as human bodies.

The lasers devasted them, limbs were thrown out and a pool of blood and crushed flesh bathed the ground. As the lasers hit, splatters of poison mist were expelled from the blunt force.

The blasters were effective. If the huggers had not been killed by the lasers, the poison mist would have finished them, burning their insides and suffocating them to agonizing but sudden deaths.

Lance fired his blaster too. After a few moments, another horde of huggers emerged on the opposite side which Lance nimbly shifted. The recoil of the blasters made him almost imbalanced. These things were heavy for a non-combatant like him.

As the huggers drew closer to the convoy, they jumped high for an attack. Others fired at them mid-air but a few of them failed and the huggers' fangs found their way to their faces.

With their blasters alone, they could not effectively eliminate the increasing number of the Abominants. Without further thought, Lance threw a poison bomb toward the rabid arachnids, and exploded.

The huggers died immediately; their spineless bodies quickly disintegrated to the ground like clothing sprawled comically on the expanse of the road.

"Good shooting, kid," Damian said as the dust had settled.

One rebel had been injured to foot by the hugger, a part of the body uncovered by their Exo-armors. He killed the eight-legged creature with his knife.

Further back, three rebels hunkered down to a motionless body near the tires of the last truck. Black miasmic blood splattered on his armor.

Sadly, one had fallen as the hugger went straight directly to his face, its fangs found their way to his brain.

Lance fell to his knees upon the sight of the man. His heart pounded hard, and the shirt underneath his armor was drenched in cold sweat.

'I am the reason that this man is killed,' he thought.

"He knew what he signed up for, kid. Don't worry," one rebel tapped his shoulder.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The rebels took his armor and burned the dead body at the curbside.

With heavy hearts, they pressed further on.

"The hive is smart, kid. Something is leading them. I don't know how. But the Abominated humans we encountered, I think they are driven by a higher power. The huggers were placed strategically. We are now entering their territory. Probably, we will encounter scouts on our to the center of the city."

"Damian. You have faced these creatures before, tell me. Can we destroy their hive?" Lance asked.

"I don't know, kid. For years, the military had been fighting the enemy, and we wiped a few of the hives. But they kept on coming. We exhausted our bombs. You know, our military can only manufacture fewer than we need. They are growing like weeds, kid. I don't know if we can revive the world. Your dad is the true here, kid. The walls kept us safe. We had peace for years. The Government had eliminated the threat from the outside, cooking corruption on the inside. We are doomed either way."

"We can kill them all. With our poison," Lance said.

"Maybe it could, kid. I haven't found one this effective ever since."

Driving along the sand-covered streets, they finally arrived at the Central Power Grid. A wide block that was only covered by an interlinked fence, surrounded a four-story concrete establishment. The supposedly concrete parking space became a sea of sand. Luckily, no Abominants around it due to a faint sunlight gleaming through the gaps between tall structures a few blocks away.

The convoy rammed the fence, the steel interlinks dislodged easily by the strong invading force and rust.

"Grab and go, kid. We need to move fast. If the sun sets in the afternoon, the shadows of the building will cover more space. The hive will catch up to us."

Quickly, they disembarked their vehicles. They destroyed the reinforced steel doors by explosive charges.

They went inside the establishment and were greeted with a horrendous odor. The odor of rotten flesh permeated the air.

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Although they had their gas masks on, the odor seeped through.

They activated their torch lamps; beams streaked through the dark room. As they went further in, they found human skeletons comically scattered on the concrete floor among the clearing of humongous dead equipment that comprised the Power Grids.

"Damian, this is wrong." Lance said.