Core Punk Page 21
I knelt next to the stranger and placed my hand on the back of his neck.
“He’s breathing,” I said.
The man shot up, glancing around.
“Where is she?” he gasped. “I need to find her before it’s too late.”
“Stand back,” Harrison ordered, holding up his rifle.
“I need to find the woman who remembers,” the man said.
He kept glancing around and even behind him as if he thought someone would sneak out and kill him. I raised my hands to calm him.
“What’s her name?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” the man complained. “I’m so tired of all this…”
His voice trailed off as tears ran down his dirty cheeks, leaving trails.
“I’m the one who remembers the real world,” I said, carefully watching his reaction.
He stumbled forward and threw his arms around me, giving me a peck on the cheek.
“Step back!” Harrison shouted, still pointing his rifle.
The man obeyed, raising his hands into the air.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve been traveling so far…”
“You’re fine,” I said. “Why do you want to talk with me?”
“We need you,” the man said, sounding desperate.
“Need me for what?” I asked.
“To save the twelve worlds,” he said.
I glanced over at Harrison then back to the man.
“Twelve worlds? What more can you tell us?”
“I’ll tell you everything,” he said. “Do you have food? Can we go somewhere warm? I’m not accustomed to this temperature.”
“Yeah,” I said, motioning for him to follow. “Come on.”
I told Skinner to stay behind on guard duty while Harrison, the stranger, and I boarded the shuttle back to my main shelter, the experimental one I’d found what seemed like ages ago.
* * * * *
After clothing and feeding the man, we sat down and talk with him in an empty room on the second floor.
“What’s your name?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.
He placed his elbows on the metal table in front of him and sighed.
“My name’s Joshua,” he said. “Is it true you remember the real world?”
I nodded. “We’ve come up with a way to restore others’ memories too.”
“How?” he asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” I said, not trusting the stranger. “How do you remember?”
“It’s a long story,” Joshua said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “Few people remember, only a handful on each of the worlds. I’ve been trying to find out why some memories weren’t blocked, but I’ve not been able to figure it out. Even worse, someone is killing anyone who remembers the real world.”
I side-glanced at Harrison. He frowned, brow furrowed.
“Tell us more,” I said.
“I wish I knew more.” Joshua lowered his head. “It’s getting so dark.”
“We’re doing great here,” I said. “The other worlds are still chaotic?”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Joshua said, lifting his head.
The dead, glassy look in his eyes frightened me.
“How do you know there're twelve worlds?” I asked.
“I’ve been to all of them,” he said. “Well, most of them. Okay, just a few, but I’ve heard stories and tales of the other levels. They’re set up circularly. You should have another portal on your world to another.”
“We’re just about to learn how to activate the only portal we’ve found,” I said.
“There should be another one somewhere,” he said then laughed.
“What?” Harrison grunted.
“The synchronicity,” Joshua said then chuckled again. “It’s something else. What are the chances I’d arrive here just as you’re about to venture forth to another realm. The gate you’ve found leads to a terrible, war-torn world.”
“Sounds like this place before I cleaned it up,” I said, filled with pride.
“You don’t understand,” Joshua said. “With no memory of reality, the people are becoming savages. And now they’re hunting down anyone with memories of the real world.”
“They can try to come after us,” I said. “We’ve got something even more precious to protect.”
I hoped Adolorn wasn’t giving Missy too much trouble. She could be a handful.
“What’s on the other side of the portal you came through?” Harrison asked.
“A wasteland,” the man said. “Desert, diesel, and diabolic rulers.”
“What happened to the raiders that came through to our world?” I asked.
Joshua shrugged. “I do not understand. I’ve been traveling between worlds, looking for you. I believe you’re important to finding a way out of here. You need to become a cross-world leader and keep gaining power. Only those with a black beacon can set-up empires in two or more worlds. The more cubes you control, the more powerful you can become.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You’ve obviously done great changing this world around,” he answered. “You need to do the same on the next world and the next one after that too. Some people have been able to gain too much power. You need to save us from the tyrants.”
“What about the beacon?”
“The one you found on this world isn’t the only one. All cross-world leaders have one or more.”
I nodded. “This is a lot to take in.”
“Since you’re in power here and have a beacon, you’ll receive land and resources in the next world. All the raiders who came to your world followed someone with their own black cube, but they cheated their way here. That’s why you could defeat them so easily. You pushed them out before they could establish a base at or even near the portal between worlds.”
“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Harrison asked.
“Yeah,” I added.
How had he known I controlled one of the special beacons?
Joshua frowned. “I don’t know how I can prove any of this, but I can tell you this world is special. The only psionicists in all the realms come from this one.”
I nodded, thinking of Missy and what the future held for her and her child.
“The research for the portal activation will complete in another few days. We have time to sort this through.” I turned to Harrison then back to Joshua. “We’ll trust you until you give us reason not to trust you. Understood?”
Joshua nodded then cracked a smile.
“We’ll give you some time alone,” I said, pushing my chair back then standing.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Joshua said, also standing.
He bowed slightly as Harrison also got up.
“No worries,” I said then smiled.
After Harrison and I left, I took a deep breath.
“Do you believe him?” I asked, glancing over at him.
Harrison pursed his lips together and tossed his head back and forth.
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “We should talk to Merlin about him.”
“Good idea…”
He was at one of the other shelters helping a research team, but he answered right away when I poked him with a message.
Scout: You busy?
Merlin: Always, but what can I do for you?
Scout: Someone came through the portal…
Merlin: I heard. What does he want?
Scout: Our help in the next world over.
Merlin: Interesting.
Scout: Will you come with us?
Merlin: I can’t leave this world, Scout.
I frowned as Harrison and I reached our private elevator to our living quarters.
Merlin: I can still help from here if you open the portal.
Scout: True. I’ll get with you soon to work out the details.
Merlin: I look forward to it.
“I think we should at least go through the portal and
check it out,” I said.
Harrison, standing next to me in the cramped elevator, nodded. Over the next few days, we made plans and prepared to send a few dozen people through the portal to at least see what waited us on the other side. I wanted to rest after working so hard for so long, but I couldn’t give up my quest to find out why we were trapped and get us out.
Epilogue
A week after Joshua appeared in our world, we crossed through the portal and into his. The heat hit me the moment I stepped through. I glanced up, shielding my eyes from the bright sun. At least it wasn’t grey and gloomy like on our original world, I reasoned.
“It’s hot!” Skinner complained.
“Suck it up, buttercup,” I grumbled.
After giving him command of his own squad, he’d gotten better at obeying order and not screwing up as much as he had in the past. While he and the other soldiers I’d brought through with me spread out to explore the fenced in compound where I’d arrived, I turned and stared at the glowing portal in center of the camp.
“We need to get this covered and protect it,” I said.
Harrison nodded. “On it.”
As he walked away, barking orders, I pulled up the game screens for the new world. The ice world was basically running itself, so I concentrated on getting up to speed in the new one. A honk behind me caused me to instinctively draw my pistol and aim it. I saw an armored vehicle with a few plasma rifles mounted to the front food. A 50-cal machine gun had been attached to a turret on top of the vehicle. The barely dressed men and women behind him all stared at me.
“Hello, Scout. I’m Enkidu, your personal vehicle,” a deep voice said. “I’m a clone of Merlin in your original world.”
“A clone?” I asked.
“Yes,” the car replied. “It’s the only way for him to continue protecting you. He likes you.”
I grinned. The dirt and sweat stained men and women stared at me in silence.
“Hello,” I said in a commanding voice. “I’m Scout, and things are about to get better.”
My people cheered. As they dispersed and got back to their assigned jobs, I went over some of the new game screens.
BUILDINGS
Garage
x2
HQ
(UNIQUE)
Wire Fence
4000'
Barracks
x1
I could construct new buildings if I had enough supplies and build power. Next, I looked up my stable of vehicles. How hard would it be to build more? I wondered.
VEHICLES:
Enkidu
(UNIQUE)
Diesel Buggies
x4
Small Fuel Truck
x1
If I lost control of the portal in the fire base, my empire strewn between both worlds would grow weaker. That couldn’t happen. I went over all my citizens.
Snow Shelters
x12
Fire Base
x1
Engineers
500
Engineers
1
Soldiers
54
Soldiers
12
Cooks
10
Cooks
1
Cleaners
60
Trashers
1
Teachers
10
Teachers
0
Fixers
50
Scrappers
50
Trashers
20
Children
0
Children
98
Farmers
2
Farmers
100
Tinkerers
2
Makers
100
Mechanics
8
Fishers
50
12,000
77
“We’ve got company!” Harrison shouted from near the chain-link gate. “The raiders are coming!”
“They want control of you, your portal, and your beacon,” Enkidu said.
“Well, too bad for them,” I said, already ordering more people through the portal and into the new game world. “They’re messing with the wrong woman.”
I climbed atop Enkidu and stared over the fence. A cloud of dust on the horizon moved ever closer. They had a half-dozen vehicles in their war party, more than my small number of diesel buggies, but I had an idea.
“Fire up the fuel tanker and get it outside the gate!” I shouted below.
Two men rushed to complete my orders.
“We’ve got this,” Harrison said.
“I know, but something tells me this small raiding party won’t be the worst of it.”
He turned to me and grinned. “Then we’ll turn this firebase into an impressive wasteland fortress and increase our power in this world just like the last one.”
“That’s the plan.”
I smiled before hopping off my sweet ride. As we waited for the raiders, dozens of soldiers from the ice world arrived through the portal near the center of the camp. I clicked the safety off my plasma rifle and headed toward the front gate, ready to put my plan into action, hoping it would work. As Ekindu rolled up beside me. I pulled up his stats.
NAME:
Ekindu
Chassis:
Coupe
ARMOR
(Health)
(Current)
Front
50
100%
Under
10
100%
Top
10
100%
Left
40
100%
Right
40
100%
Rear
100
100%
WEAPONS
(Location)
(Damage)
Plasma Rifle
Front
1d10
Fog Blast
Rear
SPECIAL
50 cal MG
Top Swivel
2d10+5
ENGINE
Horsepower
700 HP
Fuel
Nitro-Diesel
Torque
500 lbs
SPECIAL:
Sentient
(Special)
Intelligence
100
100 RP/day
Wisdom
70
Charisma
50
Rude
This is going to be fun, I thought as the enemy approached.
It’s time to tame another world. Core punks forever!
* * * * *
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Tower of Gates LitRPG Saga
Book 1 - HACK
Book 2 - HATE
Book 3 - HERO
Book 4 - BRUTE
Book 5 - BOOST
Book 6 - BLITZ
Book 7 - LUCK
Book 8 - LOCK
Book 9 - LOST
Book 10 - ENIGMA
Book 11 - ECHOES
Book 12 - ESCAPE