It's Not Easy Making Money in the Apocalypse

With my eyes on the entire school, I was able to quickly map out where all the Grunts were hiding as well as Riker's crew. As for Daft and Scope, they were still trapped on the lower levels. I couldn't get a visual on them, so their current state was an unknown variable.

I crawled through the vent Cecelia indicated while trying to keep the noise level to a minimum. Once I was through, I crept to the door. Listening carefully, I could hear grunts in the hallway. They were likely waiting to ambush Riker and his group as soon as they made their move for the nurse's station. It was almost like they knew why we were there.

"Already, there are three by the door," I whispered. "Let's try a distraction."

My digital inventory contained a small bag of essentials. Should I end up trapped somewhere like when I got locked up by the raiders, there was food and water for a week, lockpicks, a lighter, a compact portable welder, and various other things that could fit in a backpack. Among them were some firecrackers we had sitting around from a previous holiday. I opened the door just a crack, and then I lit the firecrackers and tossed them down the hall.

It erupted with a pop and then some smoke. I watched quietly as the three grunts moved to investigate. Their blips moved down my Perco screen, and then I could barely make out their shapes pass in front of the crack in my door. Taking a deep breath, I lifted Darin's Pistol and shot the first grunt. Pushing open the door, I took two more shots. Each grunt collapsed to the ground with a single bullet. They were rather weak. They certainly weren't like the beasts.

"Be careful," Cecelia warned. "Two of them still have life signs. They're playing dead."

I nodded, summoning Anwil's blade and then taking a few steps forward. I raised the gun to the first one and shot his head. No sooner did I do that than one of the two others jumped at me. I used my other hand and slammed the blade into its jaw. There was a sizzle as it looked up at me stunned before its eyes closed. I pulled out the knife, letting it fall to the ground lifeless.

"You got them."

I let out a breath. They were too close together to know which two were still alive. If I had shot the wrong one, I would have had two grunts jumping at me. These guys were slippery and smart. I left them where they lay and walked down the hallway as quietly as possible. No sooner had I reached the door with Riker's crew when it opened and an armed man came out.

"Oi!" I back up.

"Shit!" he cursed when he saw me there. "New guy?"

"Yeah…" I confirmed.

Riker pushed past the one leading. "Why are you here alone?"

"I… uh… got separated from the rest of the group." I laughed sheepishly.

"The alarm went off, you nearly fucked us!" The other guy cursed.

"Yeah… I was trying to get some information and the alarm went off. That's how I got cut off from the others. Sorry."

The men all blinked. They were a bit surprised when I admitted it was my fault from the beginning. They were thinking if I had nefarious purposes, I definitely wouldn't admit to triggering the alarm.

"Where is Daft?" Riker asked.

"Safe…" I responded. "The last I saw. When I triggered the alarm, the emergency doors closed. I barely managed to get on the other side of one. I think they're still trapped down there. It's no problem though. The stairs let out near the nurse's station. I should be able to let them out from this side."

"You left them down there?" The one who had first appeared declared.

"I barely made it out myself!" I protested. "If I didn't get out, I wouldn't be able to get them out."

"You're so altruistic, is it?" He sneered.

"No, I was saving my ass. I think he thought I betrayed him too cause they took a potshot at me. Bastard almost shot me!"

"Alright!" Riker cut in before he could respond. "What happened has happened. At least, we're all alive for the moment. Was that you shooting before? We assumed it was Daft coming to rescue us. We've been locked down for a while. Whenever we poke our heads out, someone attempts to shoot us.

"I killed the ones locking you down," I admitted. "The rest are waiting in an ambush. They're waiting for you to hit the stairway. They've locked it up below, and once you go in, they plan to come out of the adjacent classrooms and corner you."

"Shit!" The girl that was with them cursed. "I told you it was a trap."

"What should we do, boss?" The guy was asking Riker.

"Set it off," I responded.

"No one asked you, new guy."

Riker held up his hand. "You have a plan?"

"They're trying to sneak attack and corner us, so we will sneak attack and corner them," I responded. "I'll go up the stairs and head down. When they come to follow, you jump out and attack them from behind."

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"That'll put you in danger. If they rush you…"

I shook my head. "Don't worry, if your attack is strong enough they'll be so focused on you they'll forget about me."

"And if we don't attack, you'll be doomed."

"Aren't we all on the same side?" I asked.

He looked at me for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, guess so."

Although I kept my face from showing it, I let out a mental sigh of relief. I had been as open as possible, covering all my bases, so that I could regain their trust. Whatever Daft felt, as long as Riker trusted me, I'd be safe. At first, I was planning on betraying them and leaving them for dead. This was mostly because I wanted the supply of allknowing for myself to get that six intelligence. I knew that working with them, they'd never give me enough shots to do that. Now that I had the supply I wanted, I realized that they still had more uses.

"One more thing…" I spoke up as I started heading toward the stairway. "The allknowing in the nurse's station. It might be a bad batch."

"Are you kidding me?" The guy angrily demanded.

I shrugged. "Some of the entries have suggested they tampered with the formula. Just be cautious."

With that, I turned around and raced back down the stairway. I didn't try to move quietly this time. Instead, I head right into their trap, moving down the stairway as quickly as possible. Of course, I wasn't trusting Riker to come to my rescue. Rather, I had other plans. It was true the stairway was locked down, but I had Cecelia. I didn't plan to go that way though. The lab schematics differed from the school schematics slightly. In particular, there was a door hidden behind the stairway.

I could hear rustling above as the grunts began to follow me down the stairway. I didn't wait for them though. I went to the hidden door behind the stairway, plugged in my adapter, and then unlocked the door. I was through it before they even knew what hit them. As soon as I entered the new room, there were five grunts there. I pulled out my gun and started firing. They let out screams as they fled, but they weren't armed. I killed the last one just as he reached the door leading back outside.

"Didn't think there would be so many in here."

"That's what you get for entering a room without scanning first." Cecelia huffed.

As for why I went here, this room was bright and full of life. It was a hidden greenhouse, growing various plants. Those plants were none other than the ingredients needed to make allknowing. When I saw this in the schematics, I was just expecting to find a few stored ingredients, enough for Jeri to play around. I wasn't expecting it to still be active and have grunts in it. Since they were unarmed, they must have been tending to it.

"These guys… are making allknowing?" I predicted.

"In the back." Cecelia directed.

I went to the back of the greenery, bypassing all the green stuff for the moment. It was there that I saw another door. This one was locked as well, so I opened it and stepped in. It was a dusty office, and sitting at the desk was a skeleton in a lab coat. On his coat were the words 'Dr. Darin', and in his hands was a tape recorder and a gun. It was clear that he had recorded a message and then killed himself. I lifted the recorder and then plugged my Perco into it.

"There's a recording. I'll play it."

Entry 1/27/1994.

"That's the day the toxin protocol was released."

They're smarter, smarter than we ever predicted. From the beginning, they realized they were in an experiment. However, I've come to realize that they weren't the lab rats. We were. They were testing us from the very beginning, seeing where our bottom line was. They wanted the allknowing. They wanted to keep getting smarter. However, it only works to an extent. Now, it's just like a drug to them.

I've managed to lock myself in the greenhouse office. They've managed to infiltrate the greenhouse though. I've listened the last few hours as they've systematically killed everyone else. They plan to start making their version of allknowing, and then escaping the building.

I can't allow that to happen. Allco would wipe out the entire city before letting one of their experiments become public knowledge. Even if I did escape, Allco would consider me a witness and eliminate me. The experiment has failed. I'm going to be activating protocol clean slate. The toxins liquify brain matter. I hear the process is extremely horrifying. That's why I'm going to shoot myself first. I wish I had my pistol, but a standard issue will have to do.

"Protocol clean slate active. Toxin releasing." A computer sound buzzed.

I'm sorry. Perhaps, there was a reason the tree of knowledge was forbidden. You can't unbite the apple, but you can burn down the tree so no one else can try.