Chapter Eighteen – The Low Down

Chapter Eighteen – The Low Down

“There’s something about the bleak. It just makes you want to wax on about it.

Fucking gorgeous.”

–Bathroom stall poetry, 2057

***

Gomorrah parked the Fury next to the Crop Corp facility headquarters. It was one of the few non-pillar-like buildings around, with a wide parking space next to it currently filled with go-carts and a few employee cars. I winced a bit at the number of cars with broken windshields.

There were also a lot more branches and little pebbles around than had probably been there pre-explosion.

I guessed that shit travelled a ways when propelled by mushroom clouds.

“You get your points yet?” Gomorrah asked. “I’m curious to know if we got the same amount.”

“Uh,” I said. I hadn’t exactly been paying attention to that. “Myalis?”

Do you want a full breakdown of all your earnings, or just the total at the end?

“You know what, give me the full breakdown, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before. Last hive, in Black Bear, you just gave me the big number at the end.”

As you wish!

Targets Eliminated!
Model One… 179 Models
Reward… 179 points
Model Two… 7 Models
Reward… 70 points
Model Three… 19 Models
Reward… 190 points
Model Four… 2 Models
Reward… 30 points
Model Eight… 3 Models
Reward… 15 points
Model Ten… 17 Models
Reward… 17 points
Small Hive Destruction: 500 points

Total Points earned: 1001
Points after partner share: 601

Current Point Total:
2205

“That’s it?” I asked.

It wasn’t a very large hive.

“Wait, I barely have more points than before we started,” I complained. “That’s bullshit.”

“Come on, we hardly broke a sweat here,” Gomorrah said. “Six hundred points isn’t terrible for half a day’s work. Translate it back into credits and it’s more than what anyone but a point-one percenter would make in a week.”

I didn’t want to act like some spoiled brat, but… actually, that wasn’t true at all. I definitely wanted to act like a spoiled brat. I was too mature to cross my arms and pout about it though. “Well, fuck it. The hive’s gone at least, so we did our part in all of this.”

Gomorrah nodded along as she opened the Fury’s door and stepped out. I scrambled after her a moment later.

There was a tall pillar of black smoke rising out into the sky above the spot we’d bombed, but it looked as though the smoke was getting thinner as time passed. I imagined it would dissipate to nothing in the coming minutes. There wasn’t much to burn at ground zero except for some trees and the like. Rocks and dirt didn’t burn well, at least as far as I knew.

Looking down from that, I took in the facility. It was still mostly intact. The crews working on moving the gardens were back at work. A few windows had cracked here or there, and it looked like falling bits of detritus had dented a solar panel or two, but otherwise things looked alright.

The greenhouses didn’t all use glass. I imagined that they had some sort of plastic-y shit that was cheaper to work with on some of them, and those were just fine.

Jake, the manager, ran out of the headquarters, hardhat bobbing until he clamped a hand onto it. “Samurai,” he said.

“Hey,” I replied. “Anyone hurt around here?”

He paused, gulped a few breaths, then shook his head. “No ma’am. A few cuts and bruises, and we had one worker trip and he might have broken his ankle, but he’s part of a partial union, so a percentage of his medical bills will be covered.”

“Uh, alright,” I said. “I was worried things would be worse here.”

“Did you cause that explosion?” he asked. “Should we be worried about radiation?”

“No radiation, don’t worry. Uh, the hive’s… evaporated, so no need to worry about aliens either.”

“Thank you,” he said, and he seemed genuinely relieved. “We’ll be moving the gardens on that end of the facility tonight or tomorrow morning, and I’ve been dreading having to work so close to those aliens.”