By the ti everyone was awake the apartnt had the specific energy of too many people in not enough space who were all trying to be reasonable about it.
Shin was on the couch doing a very unconvincing impression of soone resting, Maya was at the viewport watching the street below with her table leg across her lap, Sera was in the kitchen eating with her usual economy of motion and Dr. Kang was on the floor reviewing the dical kit supplies with the focus of soone taking inventory.
Michael stood in the middle of all of it and looked at the second bedroom.
"I need that room for about ten minutes," he said to Dr. Kang.
She looked up. "I’ll clear my things."
"You don’t have to clear anything. Just ten minutes."
She gave him the look again but moved to the doorway and stepped out and he went in and placed the barracks blueprint and confird the material deposit and stepped back.
The room assembled itself.
When it was done the second bedroom had four bunk fras along the walls, solid steel construction, each with a proper mattress and enough clearance to sit up in. Clean lines, functional, more space efficient than anything he could have built by hand. It looked like sowhere people could actually sleep properly for the first ti since the world ended.
He stepped out.
Dr. Kang was standing in the doorway looking past him into the room. Maya had appeared behind her. Sera was leaning against the hallway wall with her arms crossed watching his face instead of the room, which was a thing she did that he was trying not to read too much into.
"Four bunks," Maya said. "For four of us."
"You and Dr. Kang and Shin take three. Sera has the other bedroom." He paused. "I’m fine on the floor."
Maya turned and looked at him with an expression that was doing several things simultaneously. "You built us beds."
"The system built them. I just placed the blueprint."
She stared at him for a second and then sothing in her face went soft in a way that she clearly hadn’t intended and she looked back at the room quickly so he wouldn’t see it but he already saw it.
[Bond Event — First Real Safety: Maya. 1 Bond Point. Current BP: 3 — Maya.]
Shin had appeared in the hallway at so point, standing on one leg with her hand on the wall for balance and looking into the room with an expression that was trying very hard to be composed and not entirely succeeding.
"You didn’t have to do that," she said quietly.
"I needed the space anyway," he said. "The Tier 2 base requires a barracks."
She looked at him and he looked back and they both knew that wasn’t the whole reason.
"Thank you Michael," she said simply.
[Bond Event — Shelter Given: Shin. 1 Bond Point. Current BP: 2 — Shin.]
---
The rest of the day was the most productive one since the apocalypse started.
With five people and a cleared floor and a Tier 2 base opening up new possibilities Michael ran through the upgrade list with the focus of soone who had been waiting for exactly this. Sera took Maya on a sweep of the upper floors while Dr. Kang managed Shin’s recovery and Michael sat with the Blueprint Interface and built.
Reinforced windows went on first, proper steel shuttered coverings on every window in the apartnt that could seal completely or open to a narrow viewport on command. Then the power grid foundation, a system built generator unit that humd quietly in the corner of the living room and brought actual electricity back to the apartnt for the first ti in three weeks.
When the lights ca on properly Shin made a sound from the couch that was half laugh and half sothing else entirely and Dr. Kang stood in the kitchen doorway and just looked at the ceiling light for a long mont without saying anything.
Michael understood. He didn’t say anything either.
Sera and Maya ca back from the upper floor sweep with two hundred and ten SP worth of Rotter kills between them and a Crawler that Maya had apparently dealt with herself using the table leg, which she reported with the specific casual tone of soone who was very proud and trying not to show it.
He gave her a look.
"It was already on the ground," she said. "Sera got it off the ceiling. I just finished it."
"With a table leg."
"It’s a good table leg."
Sera, standing behind her, caught his eye and made a very small gesture that ant *she absolutely sprinted at it screaming* and he looked away before he smiled about it.
[Daily total SP: 680.]
[Base Tier 2 — Outpost: 34% complete.]
By evening the apartnt was warm and lit and humming with the quiet energy of people who had sowhere real to be for the first ti in weeks. Dr. Kang made sothing approaching an actual al from the ration pack supplies, nothing impressive but hot and shared around and eaten sitting together which was its own kind of miracle.
Michael sat on the floor with his back against the cabinet, sa spot as always, and watched the four of them and thought about the blueprint list still open in his vision. Greenhouse next probably. Then the watchtower. Then Tier 3 and the clinic and whatever ca after that.
He had a long way to go.
But a week ago he only had a kitchen knife and a can of beans and a floor to sleep on.
Progress was progress.
Reviews
All reviews (0)