To Be A Warrior

Chapter 20: A Castle Full Of Rascals

"Alright, you guys. You should be approaching Blackmoore Valley by now," Sam says, and my heart clenches because I recognize the tone of his voice. The moment I've been dreading since I stepped out of the gates of Abel is almost here. "The high iron content of the rocks is going to block out your coms in a minute, so be careful, okay? I'll be waiting for you when you get back in range. Oh, and Janine, once again, I'm so sorry about storing all those Curly Wurlys in the armory-"

Static drowns his voice out before he can finish, and while I knew this was coming, I can't help but feel a spike of panic in my chest knowing he can't hear us anymore.

"Babe?" I call out, hoping that maybe I'll hear a few more words through the static. "Sam!"

I get no answer, and I turn my headset to a different channel so white noise won't be ringing fruitlessly in my ear. "God, I hate not having coms."

Maxine nods in agreement. "I never realize how much I'm going to miss Sam's voice until it's gone."

Janine hums. "Yes. I admit, I've come to find a strange comfort in Mr. Yao's perplexing digressions."

The taller woman takes a look around, uncertainty twisting her features. "This valley is pretty shadowy. I keep expecting something to jump out behind those big rocks. I'd feel safer if we had more than one gun."

She gestures to the gun in question, which Janine has strapped to her hip. Besides that and the axe I insisted on bringing with me, we're weaponless. If the people in this valley aren't friendly, we may have a problem on our hands. It was already a risk doing this when Janine's been having all of us carry a gun with us for the past two weeks in case the Last Riders tried anything since they saw us near that theater, even though so far there's been nothing.

"Fort Blackmoore's isolated position makes it secure, yet vulnerable, Dr. Meyers," Janine says. "They rarely trade with outsiders. It would be best to appear non-threatening."

"Do you really think they can tell us what we need to know?" I ask.

"This settlement has a large number of young people. Our intel suggests several of them ran with the Last Riders shortly after the apocalypse. We may be able to learn what motivated the atrocity at the rave."

"The Last Riders motives can change a lot in seven years. Also, how old were these people when they joined?"

"I do not know. We shall find out once we get there, and any information is better than none. There is a second part to our mission as well. Miss McShell believes the Ministry gifted Fort Blackmoore a simple administrative AI device on the original A.N.N.I.E. Since this valley is cut off from outside communication, their A.N.N.I.E. has not been in touch with the other parts since before the apocalypse."

"And Veronica thinks analyzing a clean version of A.N.N.I.E. will help her stabilize itself," Maxine adds, and Janine nods curtly in reply.

"Miss McShell may be clutching at straws, but we must try to help her. It was she alone who developed the cure to the original zombie virus, which the Minister then stole form her. She is out best hope for similar assistance against the V-Types. Runner Five was able to obtain a new AI core with Mr. Sissay and Dr. Lobatse, which she can add to her processing power, but-"

"But it's no use if she just installs a corrupted version of herself onto it." Maxine looks at me. "You said she told you her glitches can get pretty bad sometimes, right?"

"Well, I mean," I grasp my backpack strap, ignoring the way Janine's eyes narrow. "It just happens if she overtaxes herself, but depending on how bad it is, then she freezes up from a few seconds to a few minutes, which is a lot in computer time."