Awakening, Pt 9

The man's pained screams echo up and down the shopping center with unmuted intensity. You fear they travel all the way to the other end, and could call even more bugs, or people, or whatever to your location. Then again, the screams themselves could just as easily deter any other undesirables in your direction.

There's a crushing and snapping as the psionic Crag slowly tightens its Telekinetic Pincers. Clearly, the man's bones splinter and break under the unyielding energies. Every snap, crackle, and pop comes with grunts and groans on top of his unwavering shrieking and screaming.

With a wet POP, the man goes limp. His upper body slumps over the invisible Pincers, dead.

You sense the Pincers part, which causes the corpse to fall unceremoniously down onto the floor. It comes with a sharp smacking sound as his face hits the stone.

His partner next to him is absolutely frozen at the sight. In fact, he hasn't made a single move or peep ever since the psionic Crag lifted up his partner. Endless waves of paralytic fear emanate from him. You sense a hint of alarm underneath it all, demanding that he run as fast as he can. But that voice is so deeply muted by his terror that even you can hardly hear it.

The psionic Crag snaps its Telekinetic Pincers right in front of his face, as though to literally snap him out of his stupor.

It takes two of them to take effect.

A highly alarmed sense of danger floods the man, and he runs off leaving everything behind. He dashes past your hiding spot with such blind terror that he doesn't even notice you there. Though you're sure that if he even does see you, he wouldn't even care.

You note that the psionic Crag is still well within range, but does not kill him. Instead, it simply tracks the man until he's gone, far from its sensory range. You sense the man literally leaping down the stairs as fast as he can, then out towards the nearest exit.

It dawns on you that the Crag has killed one of them to serve as a warning, perhaps to tell them to never return. You attempt to read their surface thoughts, but you still don't know enough to fully translate and understand.

The psionic Crag's emotions seem to be that of relief, and of mild congratulations - a bit like 'job well done'. As all three Crags relax to some degree, you sense the Pincers dissipate into nothingness.

You relax greatly as well, not just because you've made it out alive in this encounter, but also because you made a friend. At least, you think so anyway. You're not sure if the Crags even know the concept of what a friend is, considering they're a hive mind and all.

Seeing as you're still alive though, at the very least they understand something akin to an ally.

You step out of hiding and walk over to the dead man. You find his corpse a somewhat contorted mass of bone, muscle, and skin. His lower arms have clearly been shattered halfway as everything beneath his elbows are twisted and bent at odd angles. Not only that, but his lower ribs have completely caved in, and parts of his shattered ribs pierce through his skin and clothing.

His body looks a bit stretched out to some degree, and you realize that's because his spine has been severed at the waist.

But you're not too interested in his wounds. Rather, you look at his outfit in an attempt to figure out where he comes from.

His outfit is, in your mind, completely stupid. He's wearing what many consider 'tacticool'. Thick black pants, knee pads, camo shirt, stab-proof padded vest with tons of pockets but literally no molle. And worst of all, a black leather jacket on top of it all.

All you can think of is how idiotic this person must have been, to wear black leather out in the heat.

At least you're certain that no-one in the Settlement would wear an outfit like this, so that rules them out as the perpetrators. In any case, you push past your distaste for the man's fashion choices and instead try to find something that would help you identify where he's from. But you find no such luck - there aren't any logos or patches to signify if he's part of any kind of group. Then again, maybe the outfit itself is a signifier.

You then go through his gear in search of anything of use, and find quite a lot you can loot. Those knee pads, for example. You don't have a pair of your own, and you're certain that they'll come in handy later on.

You undo the straps and place them over your own knees. They're a bit large for you, but that's fine. You can always swap them out later, should you find a better pair. For now, these are fine.

His AK-M rifle has been twisted up and crushed along with his body, as it had also been caught in the Crag's pincers. But you're able to slip its magazine out and stow it away. You're sure that someone will want it, along with the ammunition.

You want to empty the gun's chamber, but the breech appears to be bent and inaccessible. So you decide to leave the bullet in there.

Of course he also has a loaded .45 sidearm with extra magazines. You don't really like that caliber - it's too heavy, noisy, and unwieldy. Still, you take the weapon and its ammunition with the hopes of trading them down the line.

His backpack off to the side has more things in it, such as protein bars, water bottles, and a partially used IFAK. You pack all those things away into your messenger bag happily.

One other thing you spot is a laminated topographic map of the city and the surrounding area. When you unfold it, you note that it has numerous areas circled in blue or red. The marks are scattered all over the city and surrounding suburbs, one of which is marked with a red star.

The shopping center you're in is marked with a large blue circle, which you guess means that there's something of value in here. Which would certainly make some sense. You wonder if this person made this map, or if someone made this map for him. A part of you wishes you could go through his partner's things, but that ship has long since sailed.

You also guess that the red circle with the star could be their home or their base. You try to recall what that location is judging from its outline on the map, but you can't really tell. You've never been to that part of the city's suburbs.

Whatever it is, it's most definitely a compound with multiple buildings. It almost reminds you of a business or industrial park.

A part of you wants to share this information with the Crags below you, but you have no idea how to do any such thing. Even if you could show them the map, it doesn't mean they would understand it.

Although one side of the map is of the city and the surrounding area, the other side shows a much larger view of the countryside - roughly 10k kilometers square. In any case, you fold up the map and stow it away - the large area map will definitely be useful for your travels.

Then you turn your attention to the device the two men had been using to harass the Crags. It reminds you of those rectangular turpentine cans made out of tin. Except instead of a handle and circular opening up top, a small cluster of telescoping antennas protrude upward, along with a few lights and switches.

There's a small LCD readout among the switches, along with what looks to be a USB charging slot.

You slide the entire thing out of its tin housing to find that it's a mad jumble of wires and battery packs connected to each other via what looks to be a small PC motherboard. There's also what you recognize as an SSD connected to it. More critically, there are all kinds of sonic-emitting devices attached to it.

It takes you a second to find the power button and shut the thing down.

Then you disconnect the mobo and SSD from everything else, and pack that away for later. Part of you is curious to know what's in there. But there's nothing you can do about that now.

You pick up the remains of the device, then grab your Crag friend's attention with a friendly Telepathic wave. At the same time, you swing the dead device in your hands, as though to signify that this thing is the cause of their suffering.

Just as the psionic Crag realizes what it is, you simply drop it over the edge. The device careens three floors all the way to the bottom, where it smashes into a thousand pieces.

Another wave of gratitude seems to fill the air around you as the Crags go to inspect the broken device. One of them smashes it further with a pointed bone leg, annihilating it completely. They all then tap the ground lightly, as though in a celebratory dance.

You sense another wave of thanks emanating from the psionic Crag, along with a sense of respect and to some degree, a kind of reverence. You determine that they're waving a proverbial white flag at you in truce, and you get the sense that it's telling you they will leave you alone.

You mirror the sentiments to them, and do your best to add that they can call on you for help should they need it. Though you aren't sure if you're able to completely convey it all properly. You're certainly glad to befriend them, and will certainly try to keep doing this should you run into more Crags in the future.

Or rather, when you run into them. They certainly seem to be everywhere.

The three Crags then move back down to the first floor and continue scouting out the shopping center, towards the Eastern Wing. You on the other hand stay right where you are and instead study the Mall around you.

At the very end is what appears to be a multi-story department store. This floor appears to have all manner of clothes (or what's left of them, anyway), while the floor above appears to have kitchenware. The floor below has beddings and towels and whatnot. All of the floors that you can see have been mostly looted, though there's still plenty enough to sort through.

The shop flanking the department store on the right appears to be a jewelry store. Though it's a shell of what it once was. Every single glass case inside has been broken and shattered. Whatever jewelry inside has long since been taken. From your vantage point, you note that it has been literally picked clean.

A part of you wants to laugh out loud at how ridiculous it seems.

What good would a diamond ring or a pearl necklace have at the end of the world? These things have little value out here, at least in your mind. All they do is shine and sparkle, and don't give any kind of utility. None will help anyone survive. Eating gold won't make one live an extra day, much less forever.

You relent that they might help in certain situations, such as with electronics. Any silver and copper jewelry would be worth the most in that situation. Diamonds could possibly be used as cutting devices, albeit crudely. Thing is, looting an electronics or tool store would be much more fruitful in that regard.

You feel that too many stealing "valuables" in the apocalypse doesn't actually understand the reality of the situation. Or at least, they don't understand what's actually valuable in a time of extreme scarcity. It's the same as whoever had taken the loose cash from that register in the convenience store from yesterday.

Certainly there's likely someone out there who wants the jewelry, and would trade away whatever they have to get them. You imagine them as utterly ridiculous. Or perhaps even crazy.

You can't help but glance over at the mangled corpse near you. The fact that this person was spending time harassing Crags in an outfit unfit for the climate only strengthens this notion within you - some people aren't taking the apocalypse seriously.

Some part of you feels somewhat validated by your choices, that at least you're making intelligent ones compared to others. Perhaps years of games and movies and shows have helped you survive all this. Perhaps it's also due to your analytical mind, which can't seem to shut up about everything it thinks about.

Either way, you move forward, specifically towards the shop flanking the department store on the left. That one is perhaps the most important store in the entire mall. And although it has been looted a great deal, much of its goods are still on the shelves.

It's a sporting goods store, one that appears to have a camping and hiking section. A part of you bubbles up with joy at seeing it, and you can't wait to scavenge it for all its juicy loot.

~~~

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