Hey guys welcome back.
Sorry for taking a long time to update the story. How long has it been, I think almost a month probably. I was busy doing other things to try and freshen up my idea generator for the story. If grinding counted as freshening up my idea generator.
Also long chapter ahead, the longest one I made so far.
Anyway, enough chit chat, and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. :)
Dawn break. Aloy opened her eyes, got up, and stretched. She looked behind her, and saw that Jack was still dead asleep. Aloy grinned evilly, and thought of a wake up call for him.
1 minute later.
Jack was still sleeping, he was currently enjoying the best dream he's had in awhile. That was cut short when cold water was poured over him. He swiftly got up, and looked around, he saw Aloy already up, fully geared, and holding an empty bucket.
"Good morning Jack, how was your sleep?" She asked with a smile.
"Was good until you ruined it," He replied, "what the hell was that for?"
"Oh Jack, you have no idea how fun it is just to mess with you," she said with an evil grin, "now come on, get up, we still have a lot of work to do."
Jack sighed, "Alright give me a minute," Jack got up, put on his gear, and went out.
The village people offered them breakfast before they left which they took, they needed the energy. After that they discussed their plan. They originally planned on using the VTOL, but Jack discovered that the damage it took against the corrupted stormbird attack was to critical; the VTOL's on board computer failed to read it due to damage over time inside that hardened aircraft shelter over the years. Jack could repair it, but that means burning time they don't decided to leave the VTOL at the village and just go on foot, besides they could see things better, and they could be stealthier. They also confronted Erin to help them since he knows what's going on in the ruins.
"It's a bad idea to go through the surface because it's crawling with machines that'll tear you guys apart, but there are a bunch of tunnels you could use to get past them," Erin said. "There's an entrance to the tunnels across the river; I've got some friends who can help you across. Follow me."
The two followed him until the reached the river banks. There was a pier with a boat docked to it with a guy inside. They went over to the boat, and the guy stood and greeted them.
"These two are friendly, they need to get across the river," Erin told him.
"Ok, hello my name is Jon, and i'm the boatman," He greeted the the two.
"Hi," Aloy replied.
"Hey," Jack replied.
"Alright then, everybody hop in, and lets go," Erin said.
They all boarded the boat, and they were on their way. After that Erin realized something.
"Oh um, I forgot to tell you guys something," He said.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
Erin grabbed a small bag he had, and gave it to them. Inside were a bunch of flares, and a flare gun with seven extra shots.
"What are these for?" Jack asked, confused.
"Remember the things I told you about last night, the ones that go out of the ruins?"
"Yeah."
"Well those things are called shadow stalkers, and they only operate in the dark, and they hate bright lights. They stay in the ruins during day time, and wait until nighttime when it's dark to go hunting. And in this case, those tunnels you will go through will be filled with them. A few years back we went on an expedition to check those tunnels, no one wanted to check it out before, said they saw some weird things just looking through the entrance. So some guys and me decided to investigate especially with our new weapons. We also used to have a machine gunner with us, his name was Danny he was just a kid. At the time of course we didn't know about the shadow stalkers. They rounded us up, and tried to pin us down, danny held them off while we ran for it, we tried to get him, but the shadow stalkers were already overwhelming us. Now make sure you use those flares correctly, I don't want what happened to danny happen to you guys," Erin explained. He spent the rest of the time describing the shadow stalker before Jack and Aloy ended the conversation. They reached the other side of the river, and Jon docked the boat on the pier
"C'mon follow me," Erin said. They followed him off the boat, and into the ruins. They were only at the small parts of the ruins not the big parts. Erin led them to an entrance of the old subway system in DC.
"Alright this is my stop, now remember, the shadow stalkers have some sort of night vision, but they can only track moving objects, so if you see one or think one is near you stop moving and don't make a sound until you think it's gone, and if there's one shadow stalkers there may be a lot nearby and it may not like bright light, but once you shine the light it will call more of its friends to hunt you down once the light dies, and don't even try to kill one cause - as I said - it will just call more of its friends" Erin explained.
"Okay, thanks for the help Erin, we'll make sure to be careful down there," Jack said.
"You better, I gotta go now, bye," Erin said, and walked away while Jack and Aloy waved him goodbye.
"Do you know how to use this?" Jack asked Aloy showing her the flare gun.
"No," She replied.
"It's simple, just point and pull the trigger, to reload just pull this up, the spent shell will eject, you load another shell, and you're good to go," Jack explained.
"Okay, thanks," Aloy said, and took the flare gun.
"Right, now this is whats gonna happen: Erin said that those things doesn't like light, but I have a feeling that they might try to come near us even though we have lights all around us, but luckily I have something with me that'll help me see in the dark but I only have one though," Jack said.
"So what are we gonna do?"
"I don't know just hold my arm or something; just stay close to me."
"Ok got it."
"Another thing, i'm gonna tap on you to signal you if I see something," Jack said. He spent the next two minutes explaining to Aloy the signals he's gonna give her like if they have to stop or turn around.
"Got it," She said.
"Alright let's go."
They descended down into the old subway entrance. Once they got down at the bottom, there was light coming down from the entrance but it only illuminated some parts of the area. Jack saw the train tracks which led to the tunnels.
"Hey, shoot a flare down the tunnel," Jack told Aloy.
Aloy shot a flare down the tunnel as told, and it illuminated it a little bit which gave Jack his bearings. He opened his bag and took out an old night vision sight that only has one eye, the battery wasn't full so Jack has to maximize it as much as possible. He put it on,and signaled Aloy to grab his hand.
"Alright let's go," Jack said, and took Aloys wrist and off they go into the darkness.
They felt like they've been walking for hours but in reality it's only been half an hour. They encountered dead ends as they went, and still no way out.
Jack has been to DC before, and he's used the subway, but just like everyone else he never paid attention to the turns and stops of the subway. And he doesn't have a map.
They continued walking still not finding a way out, and thankfully -for now- not encountering a shadow stalker. Jack could see, but everything was in the shade of green and black, and it didn't make him see very far. While Aloy can't see anything at all.
They walked slowly but efficiently not to waste time, and to not make a sound.
As they continued walking in the dark Jack saw something in the distance. When they got closer he discovered that it was a human skeleton with clothes on, and next to it was a lewis gun. The hands were still attached to the grip of the gun. This was what's left of Danny.
They must be close, Jack thought. He gave Aloy a series of taps warning her that the shadow stalkers must be close. He knelt down, picked up the lewis gun, and slung it to his backpack before they continued.
A few more minutes of walking later Jack heard something, so did Aloy. They stopped, and listened. They heard footsteps coming towards them, but it wasn't like rushing towards them only coming closer and closer. After what seemed like forever they discovered what it was, it was a shadow stalker. It looked like an ordinary stalker, but without the machine that makes it invisible, and it's slightly smaller. Another thing is that it only has one eye which glows a dark red colour, and large sharp teeth in its mouth area.
It moved closer to them, and Jack and Aloy froze completely while remaining dead silent. Aloy couldn't see it due to the dark which scared her. She wouldn't have gotten scared if she could see it, but an enemy she couldn't see was a different story. Just think about it: an enemy that wants to kill you, and you can't see it. Worse their in a tunnel underground so no one would hear them die a slow and horrible death, and Aloy was more used to big open spaces so she can maneuver to her opponent's weak spots and take them out from there. The regular stalker was bad enough, but this stalker while they are underground in a small space, it was not a pleasant experience.
Aloy held onto Jack's arm, doing her best not to freak out, while Jack gripped his rifle tighter and tighter as the shadow stalker came closer.
It approached until it stopped right next to them and turn its head to look at them. It kept its head directly focused onto them like it was scanning them before making a sound, and continuing to its present course.
Jack waited until he couldn't see it, and couldn't hear its footsteps anymore. He signaled to Aloy that the coast was clear, and they continued.
After another half hour later they finally reached the exit. They both ran out of the tunnels, and up to the surface to see the sun again. They felt like they've been down there for days even though it's only been a few hours. The sun shining down onto them felt really good. They wanted to just relax there at that very spot, but if they don't get to where they have to go then they were better off back down those tunnels, so they kept moving.
Jack checked his map, and saw that they were closing in on the white house. A few minutes later they reached it. They entered the ruins of what 'was' the residence of the president of the United States of America; when there was a United States of America. They searched the ruins and found the elevator, which was the only way down to the bunker. There was an access panel which required codes so that it could call the elevator. Jack took out his gear, and began the long process of hacking it. Over time most of the layers of defence may have been corrupted or destroyed so it would be easier to hack. While Jack was doing that Aloy decided to explore the ruins a little bit.
Aloy was looking around the oval office, searching the desk, drawers, and bookshelves and examining the paintings, and surroundings. She examined an old painting at side of the room. It was a painting of a city street with the american flag hanging from building walls. Despite being damaged over the centuries it was still in good shape. Aloy gently put her hand on the painting to further examine it when it snapped off the wall, and fall to the ground. Behind the painting was what appeared to be a safe. Aloy quickly figured out what it was, and tried to open it. She took her spear, and jammed the pointed end onto the small spaces on the side of the safe, then tugged it to the side. The safe door flew open, and Aloy looked inside. She found a notebook which was in good shape, and a keycard. Aloy realized what it was, grabbed them, and ran over to Jack.
Speaking Jack he feels like blowing up something at the moment. The past ten minutes he was sitting there trying to crack the access panel all ended up in failure, he knew that it was going to be a huge pain in the ass but he still can't help getting angry. If he kept this going then he'll lose it, and try to blast open the door instead and he won't care if it means nuking everything.
While Jack was on the verge of losing his shit, Aloy came back with the notebook, and keycard. She ran up to Jack, and stopped next to him.
"Jack," She said.
"What is it?" He asked, frustrated.
"Maybe this'll work," She said holding out the keycard, and notebook. Jack looked up at Aloy and took the items, and examined them.
"Oh, um, yeah this'll work," Jack awkwardly said. He put the keycard in, and flipped the pages for the elevator access codes. He also flipped through the pages to make sure that the nuclear override codes weren't in there so that they don't waste time. Damnit it's not in here, He thought. He found the elevator codes though, it was good enough. He inputted the codes, and the elevator came, and the doors opened.
The two entered the elevator, and Jack pressed the button going to the bunker and the doors closed and they were on their way down.
The elevator slowly went down, and the two stood there facing the elevator door. There was an ambient elevator music playing as they descended.
The elevator stopped and pinged indicating that they have made it to the bottom level. The door opened, and it wasn't a pleasant sight. It was pitch black again from the exit to down the hallway. Jack put on his night vision sight, but as soon as he turned it on the battery died. He cussed, and removed the sight from his head. Fortunately he still has a bag of flares that he could put into good use. He took one flare out, and lit it up before they started to navigate through the hallways.
They burned through half of the flares in the bag before they got to the last hallway they have to navigate through. Jack expected for the presidential bunker to be only a huge square room twenty storeys underground, not a maze of rooms and hallways. Well it wasn't going to matter because they were already closing in on the target.
They reached the end of the hallway, and Jack opened the door, and at the other side was a huge dark room.
"The computer must be in here let's go," Jack said, before continuing only to be stopped by Aloy.
"Wait," She whispered.
"What is it?"
Aloy feels like they aren't alone down here. She leaned forward to get a better view, she could see the light coming from the flare reflecting off of something. They looked like eyes, and a lot of them. She knew exactly what they were, she was going to inform Jack but he already found out.
"Shadow stalkers," Jack said.
"A lot of them," Aloy said.
They must've gone through the old tunnels that connect from the surface to the bunker.
Jack shone his light onto one, and it appeared to be laying on the ground, sleeping or deactivated, but not dead. The rest may have been in the same state too. Jack lit another flare, and threw it across the room. It didn't make a loud noise when it landed. He could see the computer, it's only a few meters away, but they have a to cross a minefield of sleeping shadow stalkers.
"Okay, this is what gonna happen, we're gonna cross to get to the computer, but we're gonna have to be really quiet," Jack told Aloy.
"Alright," She replied.
Before they crossed Jack carefully put a C4 charge onto the doorway entrance; incase they wake up the shadow stalkers the C4 will slow the down before they ran for it.
They quietly, and carefully made slow-light steps to the computer. As they walked Jack stepped on a piece of broken glass which made a cracking a noise, one of the shadow stalkers started making grunting noises but didn't wake up, so they continued. After what seemed like an eternity of crossing a minefield of deadly sleeping machines they made it to the computer. Jack knelt down, and scanned the computer, and found the codes were still there.
"Bingo," He whispered. He plugged in a flash drive to a USB port, and began downloading it. After a few minutes the download finished, and Jack grabbed the USB.
"Okay let's get out of here," Jack whispered to Aloy. As he got up, he didn't notice that something was behind him, and he knocked it over. It landed with a loud thud that echoed throughout the room. And at that very moment their flares died, and they were back in the darkness. The then saw the room fill with red glowing lights pointing straight towards them.
Jack took an incendiary grenade from his belt, he pulled the pin, and threw it to the side of the room. The grenade detonated, and made a giant bright ball of flames. The shadow stalkers rushed to the other side of the room, and Jack and Aloy ran for it.
"Come on let's go!" Jack helped Aloy up, and they ran for it.
The shadow stalkers tried to follow them, but Jack detonated the C4. They kept running, and didn't stop. More shadow stalkers started following them from the rooms. Jack dropped another incendiary grenade to stop one horde only for another one to go for them.
Jack tripped, and Aloy helped him up.
"You alright?" She asked, but she also saw a shadow stalker heading straight for them. She grabbed the lewis gun from Jack's backpack, and began to shoot the machines.
"Wow," Jack said. "We gotta go."
They made it back to the elevator, and Jack pressed the button. They held them off until the elevator came back. Aloy kept the lewis gun firing until she ran out of ammo.
"I'm out," She said, dropped the lewis gun, and switched to her bow, and kept firing.
Jack's rifle was close to overheating before the elevator doors opened. Aloy went in first, and
Jack picked up the lewis gun, and went inside the elevator.
"You still have the RPG right?" Jack asked.
"Yeah," Aloy replied.
"Well shoot them!"
Aloy unslung the RPG, got out of cover, and fired it down the hallway. The recoil sent her back, but only a little. The blast made the elevator door automatically close, and they were heading back up the surface.
The two relaxed, while taking deep breaths due to exhaustion. Jack took out his canteen of water, and drank from it.
"Nice work on that lewis gun," Jack complemented Aloy.
"Thanks," She replied.
"Want a drink?"
Aloy took the canteen from Jack, and took two huge gulps.
"Well this has been a hell of a morning, don't you think?" Aloy asked Jack.
Jack chuckled, "Damn right," He replied. "That bunker we just been in, is only the first one, there's another one we have to get to."
"Is it going to be filled with shadow stalkers too?" Aloy asked.
"Nah, I don't think so, there aren't any tunnels for them to crawl through."
"What makes you so sure?"
"I'm not, I just don't think there aren't any down there," Jack clarified.
"Well that's a relief," Aloy said sarcastically.
The elevator door opened, and they were back on the surface. They got out of the white house, and Jack checked his map.
"So, where now?" Aloy asked.
"Hmm, this way," Jack said, and they were on their way.
Back at sunfall Sylens was watching from his satellite currently 1000 miles above the two.
"Hmm, looks likes the duo survived the stormbird and glinthawk swarm, but let's see if they survive what I have planned for them," He said evilly.
An hour later they were already closing in on the ruins of the pentagon. Jack checked the time till the launch, and saw that they only eighty-five minutes left.
They entered the ruins, and began to look for the elevator. They found shortly after entering, and Jack pressed the call button. The elevator doors opened, but the elevator wasn't there. Jack looked up the shaft, and saw that the elevator was stuck at the upper floors.
"Well, looks like we're going to have to rappel down," Jack said. They tied their rappelling ropes onto a pillar, and dropped the ropes down into the shaft. They grabbed on, and began to descend down the shaft.
As they were going down, whatever was holding the elevator in place deactivated, and began to rapidly descend.
"Hey do you hear that?" Aloy asked.
Jack listened in closely, and knew exactly what it was.
"Come on, we gotta get down now!" Jack said.
They picked up the pace in descending down the shaft.
"What is it?" Aloy asked.
"Elevator!" Jack pointed up, and Aloy it. She then started to pick up the pace too.
Jack was the first one to get down to the floor they have to get to, he opened the door, and got in.
"Come on Aloy!" He said.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" Aloy replied.
As she was descending, the falling elevator snapped her line, and she started to fall too. But Jack managed to catch her, and pull her in just in time before the elevator fell to their position, and continue falling down the shaft. Jack got up, and helped Aloy up. He walked up to the shaft, and looked down.
"Well there goes our ride," Jack said. "Let's go, we don't have much time left."
They picked up themselves, and headed down the hallway. The hallways were illuminated this time so they can see, and they didn't have to worry about any shadow stalkers.
They were walking down the hallway, when they found the launch room.
"Alright here we are," Jack said. He saw the computer at the side of the room, and went over to it. He started it up, and the screen came to life showing the the nuclear launch platforms around the world all arming up, and preparing for launch; the top left of the screen showed that only five minutes was left before the launch. Jack brought up the deactivation screen, and flashed the codes. The codes were: WTAZF3399SD25. Jack began to input the codes.
"W-T-A-Z-F-3-3-9-" That's all he could input before the screen went dark. "Looks like the power was cut from the screen, I can fix it, just give me a minute."
Jack went outside to a panel that connected the main power line to the computer. He opened it up, and started to repair it. Aloy was only sitting on a chair watching, once Jack was finished doing his thing they can now go, and get Sylens. Jack finished reconnecting the wires, and closed the panel.
"Is the screen working again?" Jack asked from down the hall. As soon as he said that the screen lit up.
"Yeah, it's good now," Aloy replied.
Jack then started to walk back to the room, but then then emergency system protocol lit up, and the blast doors were closed before Jack could get back in.'
"JACK!" Aloy called out. They both tried prying the doors open with their bare hands, but it was no use. Then suddenly there was a voice that appeared in their focus network.
"Having fun the two of you?" Sylens asked.
"Sylens?" Aloy said.
"Sylens you son of a bitch!" Jack said. "Open this door, I swear to God if you blow the world up, I WILL FIND YOU!"
"Hey, bad language is not going to fix any of this," Sylens said.
"Sylens please, if you do this, you'll kill everything," Aloy said.
"Oh Aloy, weren't you listening to anything I told you before, this is the plan."
Aloy could feel the anger bubbling inside of her.
"You bastard!"
"Why are you calling me that, by keeping you inside that room, I am protecting you."
"What about Jack, what about every innocent person out there?"
"I'm afraid their fate is sealed." Sylens plainly said.
Jack tried hacking the door control panel, but he doesn't have enough time. Time to launch in two minutes.
"Aloy listen to me," Jack said. "Ignore everything he says, just listen to me."
"Okay," She replied.
"You have to input the deactivation codes into the computer or everyone is gonna die," Jack said.
"But I don't know the codes."
"It's okay, I'll tell you the codes you just type them in."
"Alright." Aloy went over to the computer, and put her hands over the keyboard. "I'm at the computer."
"Alright, just type it in ok?"
"Ok."
Jack started to say the first few digits of the code while Aloy typed it down.
"Hey, I'm still talking to the both of you," Sylens said.
"Just keep ignoring him, Aloy. 9-9-S-D-2," Jack said.
"9-9-S-D-2," She repeated, and typed it in.
"You know what, you two have been attached for way too long. Let me separate you two so you can hear me out," Sylens said, and began to jam their focus network.
"A...Aloy!" Jack said, then static.
"Jack? JACK!" She called out.
"Aloy? ALOY? Goddammit," Jack said, removed his focus, and tried to hack open the door.
"Now that the two of you are separated, lets talk. How was your day," Sylens said.
"What did you do to Jack?" Aloy asked.
"Nothing, I just jammed the focus network so you can't talk to each other. He's not dead, well at least not now," Sylens said.
Warning: Nuclear launch in 1 minute. Please seek shelter immediately, The automated voice of the computer said.
"Right," Aloy said to herself.
Aloy removed her focus, to keep Sylens away, and turned to the computer. There was only one blank space left. She doesn't the last digit, so she has to guess. But there were so many buttons with a different symbol on each one. She only has one shot.
"Let's try 5," She typed it in, and pressed enter.
The computer began processing it then…
Codes accepted, deactivating all nuclear launch sites, have a nice day, The automated voice said. Every red dot on earth turned green.
Jack finished hacking the door panel, and it opened, and he ran in.
"What happened?" He asked sternly while Aloy had a smile on her face.
"I got, I deactivated the nukes," Aloy said.
Jack looked to the screen, and saw that the red dots were green, and the word 'deactivated' covered most of the screen.
"Oh thank god," Jack said. Not thinking, they then both ran up to each other, and gave each other a hug. The hug lasted for only a few seconds before they realized what they were doing. The two of them blushed simultaneously, and they both pulled away from each other.
There was a brief moment of awkwardness…
"So um, uh, good job in figuring out the last digit of code," Jack said.
"Thanks, and I forgot to mention this earlier, but thanks to you too, for pulling me out of the shaft," Aloy said.
"No problem," Jack said.
"Why did you do it anyway?"
"Well for one thing, I need someone to carry my stuff," Jack sarcastically said, and Aloy playfully punched him on the shoulder.
They were interrupted by Sylens hijacking their focus network again.
"Well it seems that Aloy managed to guess the final digit of code. Well done Aloy," He said.
"Well newsflash asshole, the bombs have been deactivated, you failed," Jack said.
Sylens chuckled. "You really think that was my only plan? This is only the beginning."
"What's your plan then?" Aloy asked.
"The both of you will learn soon enough," Sylens said before patching off.
"What does he mean?" Aloy asked Jack.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling we should get back to the homeland," Jack said.
"Yeah, we should," Aloy said, and they both left.
Once they reached the surface they plotted the route they'll be taking back to the village. There was no way in hell they will try to go through the subway again, so they override a couple of chargers, and went around the city - to avoid the machines - to the village.
They stopped at the outskirts of the village, and dismounted from their mounts, and walked back to the village. When they walked through the gate Erin saw them, and greeted them.
"Welcome back, good to you two are still in one piece," He said. "Did you get to where you needed to go?"
"Yeah," Jack said. "We also found something else along the way."
"What is it?"
Jack grabbed the lewis gun from his back, and gave it to Erin.
"I'm sure Danny would've wanted you to have it," Jack said.
"Yeah, thank you, both of you," Erin said.
"It's no problem."
"Well, are the two of you hungry? We made dinner for you guys."
"In fact we are, it's been a long day, and we haven't eaten anything yet," Aloy said.
"Well c'mon then," Erin waved them to follow him.
They ate in front of a campfire, while they told jokes and stories. After that Jack and Aloy packed up, and got ready to leave. Jack managed to repair the damage on the VTOL, and load their stuff inside.
"Thank you again for helping us out," Jack told Erin.
"Again, no problem," Erin said. "If you guys ever need help again, you can come to me, my men and I will help you."
"Alright, I got you," Jack said.
Erin nodded, and Jack entered the VTOL, and started it up. The engines came back to life, and Jack plotted the course back to homelands. The sun has already set, and the moon started to come up. The VTOL climbed above the clouds, and Aloy could see the moonlight reflecting off of the clouds. It was a hell of a sight.
About an hour later, Jack began to make the VTOL descend. As they descended they could a faint glow of orange thats coming from the ground. Once they got nearer to the ground they could see that it was fire, and a a lot of it. There were building on fire, and people running around. They were over the sacred lands; they were watching a raid by the new world order taking place. There were burning buildings, men fighting, and even corrupted machines supporting the attacking forces.
There were group of braves scattered around the area trying to fight off the attackers.
"I'll steer the aircraft, while you take control of the cannon," Jack said, and gave the cannon controls to Aloy.
"Got it," She replied.
That's all for now folks, and thank you for reading this chapter of my story. It means a lot really.
Also the rate of me uploading a new chapter will be decreased because my summer break is ending, and school is going to start again, and I need to keep my head focused on what is important. Unlike the Americans who are probably at the end point of their school year and is going to start enjoying their summer break (lucky bastards). I think they are on their finals already, and are just wrapping things up. So if you are an american, then I wish you good luck if you're taking your finals; I hope you get a good grade so your parents don't scream at you, and if you're already having your summer break then stay safe out there. Also leave a review down below, your feedback can make this story better.
Anyway that's all for now, and I'll see you all at the next one. :)