It's Not Easy Making Money in the Apocalypse

"How did you know to do that?" Daft asked suspiciously once the smoke cleared and we were all able to get a breath.

The gunfire had died down, but there was the sound of movement on the other side of the door. Riker made a gesture and the rest of the team were piling stuff in front of the door, blocking it.

"I guessed." I shrugged as I continued to look through the computer.

"You've made a lot of accurate guesses." Daft glared at me.

"Enough!" Riker spoke up. "We have other problems to worry about than personal bullshit."

"As you said." Raft snorted, looking away from me.

Riker glanced in my direction. "Are there any other guesses that you have to get us out of this situation before they try to break down the door?"

"I'm working on it," I responded while listening to a recording that Cecelia played.

Nurse's Entry 12/2/1994

The kids… I'm sorry, I've been told to call them subjects to create a detachment between us, the subjects have all been checked properly. When they first arrived, they were crass and rude. I can't even count the number of times I was called 'bitch', or 'slut'. Yet, as the experiment continues onward, I almost wish they were their former selves.

I'm told not to get close to the subjects for the sake of the experiment, but I can't help feeling sympathy for them. Many of them came from abusive homes and were never even given a chance. Most of their parents signed off on this for money to fuel their drug habits. Now, they are experiments being tested.

The experimental group has begun to change. Their intelligence numbers are off the charts. After their first injection, one of them asked me "If life is painful, then isn't death a mercy?". Kids this age shouldn't be asking these questions. When I try to warn the heads, they say I'm just getting too close to the experiment. I'm not doing things from an unbiased observer's point of view.

They haven't seen what I have seen. I think… I think they plan to do something awful. Last week, one of the placebo controls bumped into one of the experiments rudely. He disappeared for two days, and when he was found, his brain had been surgically removed. It is still missing. The doctors claim it was a rogue scientist attempting to steal data for a rival company. I'm not convinced.

A young boy from the Original Injection control group told me I should quit. He said he liked me, and while his life was over, I still had a chance. He went missing yesterday. I still think about his words. Perhaps, it's already too late for all of us.

Nurse Rheiner, Signing off.

Her words were filled with scorn and mockery. It was pretty clear that she hated what she was doing, but was also afraid to stop as well. While I was listening, the others were rummaging around, looking for anything of value. We had come here for a reason. They pulled every pill from the pill closet and stripped the place clean.

"Hey, newbie. This should be the lockup. The good shits behind here." Riker hit it with a fist.

I nodded, and a moment later it clicked unlocked. He gave me an appreciative nod and then opened it up.

"Fuck yeah." The girl reached in and pulled out a bottle. "Dret, Krunk, Hive… it's all there"

"Contraband…" Scope laughed. "Got to love fucking teenagers."

The two quickly swept through the locked storage, bagging everything up.

"Here it is!" Riker announced, pulling out a single open box of Allknowing. "They had some after all."

"How much?" Daft asked.

"Seven…" He declared. "A nearly full box."

"Fuck, that's enough for all of us." Daft looked at it with greedy eyes.

Riker shook his head, putting the box up. "We need to get to six intelligence. I single injection won't do that unless you're already a genius. What we got here is only enough to bring one of us to six."

"You're serious?" Daft asked unhappily. "You're going to waste it on one person?"

"Would you rather inject yourself with the shit the grunts are making?" I asked.

"You…" He glared. "I suppose you want one of the Allknowing?"

"Or something of equivalent value," I responded shamelessly.

I had already profited more than anyone else from this journey. My profits were incredible. I had more Allknowing than I knew what to do with. Plus, I had Darin's Pistol, the accelerated growth spell, and the vivarium mod plus everything stored in it. However, if I didn't ask for more, it would look suspicious, like I had already gotten a lot. These were raiders. No one was altruistic.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"We'll talk about this later." He walked past the glaring Daft, coming to my shoulder. "Did you find anything useful?"

"Yeah." I pointed up. "The vents above us. We can crawl along them to get out of this room."

"Of course… good job." He slapped my back, while Daft only gave an unhappy snort. "Help me with this."

He pulled out a desk into the middle of the room with some help and then stood on it. After fiddling with the roof for a while, he managed to pull down a screen. The fan had already been shut off. It was large enough that we should be able to squeeze through. Raiders weren't exactly known for having lots to eat, so everyone was rather light and skinny. The biggest guy who might have had trouble climbing up had already died.

Scope and the girl helped Riker up first, and then Riker helped pull Scope up. I jumped onto the table and helped the girl up and then Daft kneeled, preparing to boost me.

As I stepped on his hand and was pulled up, he spoke quietly. "If you even think of fucking us, I won't hesitate to kill you, newbie."

I didn't respond. He had every right to be suspicious of me. Once I was up in the vent, the girl and I both helped pull him up. The vents were already cleared of gas, so we were able to move without a problem. We then started the crawl along the vents, doing our best not to make any noise. That meant moving extremely slowly. As I was crawling, I ended up looking down. I realized I was over the room where they were making the Allknowing. They were no longer in the room, likely waiting to capture us.

"What is it?" The girl asked, causing the others to look back.

"These… intelligent grunt. They pose a risk to Argos." I whispered back. "Their numbers are what make them dangerous, but if they have numbers and the intelligence to launch attacks, then don't they become a real threat?"

"We're not heroes. We're raiders. This has nothing to do with us!" Daft responded.

The girl shrugged helplessly. "There's nothing we can do, Newbie."

"Wait!" Scope cried out. "I have something."

"Shh!" Riker smacked him, but he still went into his bag and pulled out a vial of powder. "I recognized this item from the contraband. It's not a drug, but a type of poison. It's called Nightdealer."

I looked between the vat below me and his hand and then I nodded, reaching out and taking the offer. Holding my breath, I popped open the cork and then turned the vial over. The powder inside fell out, spreading into a cloud that gradually floated down into the vat. When they tried to inject themselves with this batch, they would die. There was no saying how successful it would be, but it was the best we could do.

We continued crawling, but then Riker stopped, making a noise of shock. He was looking down into another room. Before anyone could ask him what happened, he was opening the vent panel and then jumping down. The rest of us managed to climb over to the vent and peer into the room. When we saw it, we all inhaled a tight breath.

"Conrad." Riker grabbed a man who had been strapped onto one of the tables.

They had already replaced their last victims. Conrad's group which was supposed to be making a distraction outside had been captured. Now, they were hooked up to machines pumping out their spinal and cerebral fluids. He stared at Riker, his mouth flapping a few times, but nothing came out. Riker's expression darkened.

"Boss, we need to go." The girl called down.

He snarled, walking over to a corner. It was there I could see a bunch of backpacks. The supplies Conrad's group had must have been tossed there. He went through one bag and then the next. It was only on the third bag that he pulled out what he had been looking for. It was several blocks with some kind of wires coming from them. While it looked different, it was close enough that I could tell it was an explosive.

"Boss?" Scope asked, his voice a bit worried.

"You all can go," Riker responded. "I'm going to blow this place to hell."