It's Not Easy Making Money in the Apocalypse

Riker gave a nod, holding up his gun. I carefully opened the door, letting him step passed me. His expression was focused as he poked his head through the door and stepped into the hallway. After a few seconds, he gestured for the rest of us to join him. The other two followed him and I followed in the rear. The hallways were surprisingly clean and empty of grunts. Although the ground showed years of dust and grime, there were no shattered windows or broken chunks of ceiling that made navigating difficult.

Although there were no grunts in the hallway, their voices could be heard. Their voices were guttural and difficult to understand, especially muffled through the rooms. As Riker reached the first window, he ducked down, making sure to crouch under it. The others followed, and I joined them. The group of four of us transversed down the hallway, crouching under the doors and windows that opened into the halls.

Thankfully, the way this school had been built split in half, with one side the observational lab and the other side the classrooms. In other words, there was only one side that contained classrooms, and the other side was a solid wall. The group stopped just outside a room with the sign on it, nurse's station. He gestured for us to all group up. Pointing at his eyes, he then pointed at me, and then toward the door opposite of the one we had entered from.

Beyond that door should be stairs also, but that stairway would lead down into the underground path I had traveled with Daft. I knew that Riker was telling me to unlock the door and bring the other guys out of lockdown. I took a breath and then nodded. I was a bit apprehensive as I didn't want to get shot by Daft as soon as he saw me. I was hoping to use Riker to mitigate that. Perhaps, Riker had realized that and sent me on purpose so that I resolved the issues directly.

Whatever his thoughts, I wasn't in a position to argue, so I continued crouch-walking down the rest of the hallway until I reached the door. It had a computer terminal just like the other door, so I plugged it in, pretended I was doing stuff as I counted to twenty, and then loaded the Master code to unlock it with a click. I only opened the door a crack, but then I got a feeling.

"Daft? Scope?" I called out in as innocent and unassuming of a voice as I could.

I waited for an answer.

"Newbie?"

"Shh!"

I let out an audible but quiet sigh. "You guys are safe. Thank god. I almost got trapped in there with you."

"You trapped us in here!"

"That was an accident! An accident. Just like when you shot me, right?" I snapped back and then took a breath. "Come on, we've met up with Riker. We're about to make our move on the Allknowing. Get your ass up here or stay, I don't care."

I was afraid the second I opened the door, I'd get shot, so I just turned, leaving it a crack open. After taking a few steps, I heard the door creak.

"Shhh!" I turned back, pointing at the classrooms while I had my other finger over my lips.

Daft glowered at me, but when he looked on to see Riker and the rest waiting on him, his expression quickly relaxed. The two of them came out of the lockdown carefully. Scope shrugged his shoulders at me helplessly, making a face. I gave him a nod. The two also crouched and began to walk over to me. As Daft passed me, he bumped into me.

"You better watch yourself." He hissed as he walked by.

"Thanks, buddy." Scope whispered behind him. "For not leaving us behind."

Between their two reactions, it was Scope who made me more uncomfortable. I had intended to betray them. If it had suited my needs, I had been ready to leave them under there to starve to death slowly. I told myself that they were just raiders, and no one in the wasteland would miss their deaths. After all, they both had likely killed countless innocent people. In that respect, Daft's behavior at least felt deserved.

Just as I turned to follow them, I caught something in the window out of the corner of my eye. I paused, then moved to the right of the wall and cautiously peeked over. When I didn't follow Scope, my actions immediately became noticed. The rest of the bandits glared my way.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Riker whispered as loudly as he dared.

I wasn't paying attention to the bandits though. My eyes were locked on the classroom. There was a group of grunts in there, and a massive vat. They were throwing ingredients into the vat which appeared to be heated and releasing off steam. Five grunts walked around in circles, turning a crank that mixed the substance. I recognized some of the ingredients from the greenhouse, and I instantly knew what I was looking at.

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At that moment, I felt a tug on my arm. "What are you..? What the hell is that?"

Riker started to ask, but then his eyes landed on the vat as well.

"Their special brand of allknowing," I responded.

"They're making it?" His jumped.

"Boss, over here!" The man who went with Riker gestured to the next room over from the vat.

The pair of us immediately joined him, peeking into the window. Riker couldn't help but suck his teeth in.

"Those are… were… humans," Riker spoke weakly.

Raiders could handle quite a lot of gore. They lived out on the wasteland where there were endless horrors and evil. They had been the source of many of them. Yet, this scene was hard for them to fathom. There were several dozen humans strapped to tables. Their legs and arms had been chopped off and they were strapped to gurneys. Wires were shoved into their bodies, or more specifically, their spines, and a clear liquid was coming out. They looked to be in pain, but their mouths had been sewn shut and their eyes gouged out. A hoarse moaning came as if they were in endless pain.

I turned away, unable to keep myself from wretching. The others looked into the room and then looked away slightly nauseous. There were no grunts, so Riker made a gesture to the man on his side. He opened the door and walked in. With a single knife strike to the throat, he mercy-killed all twelve of them. When he was done, he stepped back out as if this was natural.

Riker stepped into the room, shaking his head. "What the hell were they doing?"

"Collecting cerebral and spinal fluid. It's one of the components of the new allknowing recipe." I explained, following him just so I could stand for a moment.

If I remained crouched, I'd likely throw up again. I just made sure not to look at the bodies.

"Why are they making it?" He demanded.

"At some point, a grunt must have broken into this school and consumed some of the allknowing, and it increased his intelligence," I responded. "Since his intelligence increased, he found himself able to control the other grunts. But it also caused him to have a dependency on it. They continue to consume it to maintain their intelligence."

"Their intelligence?" He frowned. "They only seemed a little smarter to me. Furthermore, there were so few of them. Grunt strength has always been with numbers. If they were intelligent too, they might come to control the entire wasteland."

I shook my head. "If they had numbers, why would they remain here? I didn't even see anything that looked like living quarters. They'd probably just use this place as a factory to produce it while they lived somewhere nearby safely.

Riker grabbed my shirt with one of his hands. "What did you just say?"

My own words clicked in my head. "It's a trap!"

At that moment, there was a cry, and the man on Riker's team lifted his gun. However, a bullet struck him in the head a second later. Everyone else started shooting, trying to get into our room for cover. However, as they piled into the room, there was a clicking sound and then the clatter of cans being tossed down the hallway. One of them rolled in front of our door before smoke started to shoot out of it.

"Smoke bomb?" Daft cried out.

I shook my head. "Knockout gas! They want to capture us."

"What for?" he demanded, but then froze.

The group of us looked back at the tables of now-dead Wastelanders.

"Fuck that!" The girl's voice broke as she said that.

"The smokes coming!" Scope cried out.

It had already filled the hallway and was quickly entering the room. Riker went to grab the door.

"No, the nurse's station!" Cecelia spoke up. "It's an extension of the lab. It should have its air filtration system."

"The nurse's station." I already trusted Cecelia, and so I cried out, taking a deep breath and running out of the room before Riker could close the door.

With the smoke filling the hallway, the grunts couldn't see me. I felt around the side of the walls until I came to the right door, then plugged in my Perco and unlocked it. I stumbled into the room, a bit surprised to find the others had all gone with me.

"It's too late!" Daft cried out. "You've killed us."

There was too much smoke now, and as soon as the nurse's station door was open, a flood of smoke raced in, quickly filling it. Riker slammed the door, but it was already enough to burn the throat.

"Terminal!" Cecelia ordered.

I plugged the Perco in again, and a moment later, fans in the ceiling turned on, and the room quickly cleared of gas.