Capítulo 8: Journey to the Vault (1)
Tim, who was still stuck in his position, felt left out.
"Come on guys. Help me out please?" Tim said.
"Yes, sir, do you mind if I slash your airbag?"
"I don't mind, I doubt any repair shops are open for business at the moment though." Tim joked around with the man who pulled a pocket knife from, well, his pocket.
Tim who was a veteran reacted upon seeing the knife but he didn't do anything, more like he couldn't do anything. He did his best to keep calm.
"So, it's knife to meet you." The man said.
"....." Tim couldn't say anything.
The man said a very bad joke. He was put in an awkward position. Tim just staring at him with cold eyes wasn't helping either. So he just dropped his head and cut a hole in the airbag that was holding Tim down.
"Nice to meet you too sir." Tim said out of nowhere.
The drooping shoulders of the man rose, his joke was accepted!
"Yes. My name is Ivan. What's your name sir?"
"It's Tim." Tim replied.
"Damn, how I wish we could talk over a couple of drinks Ivan." He continued.
The airbag slowly deflated and soon Tim was able to freely move his arms. His left arm was still sprained but with the free space the deflated airbag gave him, he could slowly wriggle himself out of his chair.
Seeing his struggle, Ivan offered his hand to help.
"Let's get you out now sir. Though I think the interior of this jeep is better to look at than what you'll see outside." Ivan said with an awkward smile as he kept the pocket knife in his pocket.
Ivan slowly dragged Tim to make sure he didn't pull Tim who may have been pierced in the leg by metallic debris.
"Ouch." Tim said.
"Sorry, is there something wrong with your leg?" Ivan was concerned.
"No." Tim replied.
"I bit my tongue."
It was Ivan's turn to be silent.
Ivan continued to drag Tim out but this time he had no care for Tim's wounds. And thus, pulled on Tim's sprained left arm.
"Ow ow ow owo."
Once Tim was out of his predicament, he was up and about. Though his arm was still hurting due to him joking around, he was doing fine.
"Wow. The world changed so much in a matter of a few minutes." Tim exclaimed as he saw how things were.
"The red sky looks very cool though." He continued.
"That's just, nyom, the sunset." Adam said while eating.
To confirm this, Tim looked at his watch. 16:12. It was nowhere near time for sunset.
'The sun was moving quicker, no, the Earth is rotating faster.' Tim thought.
"We have to run. Quickly!" Tim said to everyone around him.
Tim readily picked up his stuff and put his AR-15's straps on his shoulders. He does not know what would happen if the world spun faster, neither did he want to know. But all he knows is that if such a significant difference exists, then there's bound to be a change in the world for better or for worse.
Due to the rampaging winds, plenty of people were out scrambling about. They saw how quickly the sun had left for night. To these miserable people, it felt like they were abandoned by the light.
"Wait. Where are you heading Sir Tim?" Ivan asked the hurrying Tim.
"You. You should also get moving quickly." Tim said instead of replying.
"We don't want to be left in the open at night. We need to find shelter"
Ivan nodded at his statement and went back to his car. He got some of his stuff and he also brought a woman with him.
"You had someone else in your car this whole time?" Tim asked.
"Yea. My wife, she doesn't speak much. She doesn't speak English." Ivan replied.
The woman just nodded at their conversation. She didn't understand, but Ivan showed her that-
Ivan waved his hand on his front and did hand symbols. The woman nodded and also waved and formed signs with her hands.
"Yea right, she doesn't speak English." Tim said.
"Because she doesn't speak at all!"
Ivan just scoffed at his statement. He did more hand signs and then nodded at himself. He pat his wife's back and led her by the hand.
They soon started walking. Tim tried using his watch to call someone but to no avail. The time sync of the satellites and the signal towers were all over the place due to the sudden acceleration of the rotation of the Earth.
Long distance communication is down for good. Tim had no way to contact his father. The only functioning communication device he had was a walkie-talkie but the range of this relic of the past is only utilized in short range.
The walkie-talkie was a 5-watt variant with an effective range of about 5 kilometers.
'This is gonna be a problem.' Tim was troubled.
He wanted to contact his father, who owned a vault, an underground facility that could support the life of around a thousand people for hundreds of years in case nuclear fire were to drown the world.
'Shit. I know where it is, but I don't know how to get there.'
In an age where physical maps were obsolete, and electrical gadgets taking a huge portion of work. With the sudden collapse of the convenience of GPS and unserviceable network, getting lost which was a thing of the past suddenly became a major problem.
"Where are we heading dad?" Adam asked.
Tim looked down and saw two children who were half-naked. One was wearing very dirty wool pants and the other was wearing a loincloth.
'Who is this kid with Adam?' Tim thought.
"We're going to your Grandpa's Vault. It's an underground city near a mountain." Tim said towards Adam.
"Really?" Adam said with eyes wide open.
"Are there dwarves there dad?" He was excited.
"No." Tim denied Adam's expectation. "But there are scientists walking around."
"Wow. How many?"
"Do you remember the way to get there, honey?" Jenny interjected.
"No. I know where it is on the map." Tim replied.
"But we don't have a map."
All of them lamented for a while. This was never a problem for everyone before. Humanity grew complacent due to the convenience gadgets brought.
"Use GPS then?" Jenny suggested.
"All network services are unavailable. I don't know why." Tim shot down her suggestion.
"Dad! Dad!" Adam shook Tim's hand wildly.
"Eh? What is it Adam?"
"How about those big pictures in the subway?" Adam suggested.
Subways have maps of their routes, but those maps also show the entire rail system. It should be big enough to encompass and show where they should go.
"Okay. Ivan, would you like to come with us?" Tim asked.
They were walking towards nowhere in particular but now they have a destination. Ivan suddenly stopped and so did his wife. Everyone looked back at Ivan as asked why he stopped.
"Why'd you stop Ivan?" Tim continued his questions.
"I can go with you. But if it's a subway you're looking for, you're going the wrong way." Ivan said as he looked back.
"The nearest one subway stop should be that way."
Ivan was pointing towards a direction in the distance. He was pointing to a building that looked to be 5 floors high and was beige in color, it was dirty too.
"Wait a minute, I remember that building to be taller." Ivan said.
He looked towards his wife and started making hand symbols.
"Then let's head there. I expect there to be a lot of rubble that would make it hard to get to that map." Tim declared.
So the party's destination was set towards the nearest subway. It was quickly turning darker and darker and due to the quicker rotation, luckily, everyone also weighed a lot less due to the same reason so traveling was easier on everyone.
'It sure is weird walking being this light. Very weird.'
Everyone had that thought. The travelling went smoothly however the darkness of the night hindered them so the party decided to look for shelter.
They found a building that looked intact within their near vicinity. However once they were inside, they saw a lot of people taking refuge in it as well.
The building was dark and it was untidy. The furnitures have all been turned inside out, butchered and were made appropriate use of. This was a depressing sight compared to a few hours earlier.
As night approached, the temperature dropped by a large margin. Though it was nowhere near sub-zero, it was pretty cold for a child who was not wearing clothes.
"Dad. It's cold." Adam complained to his father.
Hearing this, Tim took his military jacket and gave it to Adam. He could have given it earlier but it was too big to wear for a five-year-old child, it could only be used as a blanket.
They found a corner to stay together in. With most of the luggage being with Ivan and Tim, everyone else sat to take a rest. Ivan and Tim on the other hand had things to prepare.
One thing they needed was fire. Looking around, everyone else in the building was keeping to themselves. Some of them had barrel fire pits to stay warm, while others just wrapped themselves thick clothing. There were even people who were away from the little communities.
These people lost everything. Losing a house is one thing, but a vast majority of these people lost loved ones. Some of them lost their entire family and could only stay here and wallow in despair.
Due to that, they were listless and didn't have the motivation to continue living. Upon seeing this depressing reality, Tim just shook his head. He was lucky his entire family was with him during the cataclysm.
"We should be fine for now." Tim said as he prepared to distribute the MREs.
Ivan went outside and scrapped some of the debris to act as fuel.
'There are no more barrels within the vicinity.' But as Ivan thought of that, he saw one.
'Oh, there are no barrels within the vicinity, at least intact ones.'
The barrel he saw could no longer be used to properly contain important things, however, it was perfect to contain fire.
The cataclysm may have calmed down, however there was another danger looming. The cold night, which you can expect as night approaches, was even worse now. The faster rotation of the Earth is to blame, there was a lot more moisture in the air, causing the temperature to drop even further.
However, that isn't the main problem. The storm caused by Negev earlier, has made way for a natural hurricane to form. And the wind speed it had was beyond any hurricane ever recorded. At the same time, in the equator, the sea water was rising at a visible rate.
In a matter of a few hours. All countries near the equator were turned into Atlantic cities.
Estado de energía semanal
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