章 25: Virgil’s Request for a Favor
We walked upstairs to the third floor as we carried the backpack full of firearms supplies tiredly, before finally got to see the faces of the survivors again. As I just got my foot stepped on the third floor, I immediately noticed that the benches there were already arranged neatly.
There were also three knocked down vending machines lying on the ground not too far from the train cars. We walked closer to the train cars, and Captain Quentin who was going out from the train car greeted us.
"Well, I guess I do not have to look inside those bags before saying you had all done excellently." Captain Quentin said as he smiled at us.
"I wish we could bring more ammunition, sir. But I suppose we should satisfy the numbers of the firearms first..." I responded.
"Yeah no worries, son. I guess we would not use them that often after all." He replied as he patted my shoulder.
When he finished talking, Captain Quentin took a particular interest at the semi-automatic shotgun that Ryan was holding. Ryan then gave the shotgun to him, who proceeded to check all of its features and safety immediately, before confirming that the shotgun was still in perfect condition, despite the fact that it might had been made in the 1910s, more than a century ago.
"Magnificent…" Captain Quentin said.
"Back in my earliest days in the Marines, we would much prefer this kind of weapon when it comes to clearing rooms and indoors combat. Hell, some of us even swapped our assault rifle with old pump shotguns from a few downed mercenaries, before storming their hideouts back in Gaza…"
When he mentioned his earlier days, I remembered reading some information about Captain Quentin on the day before my departure to Chicago military base. Based on what I have read, in his earliest days he was on the Demolition division in the Marines. Although he was originally one of the troops that were sent there as a backup, he was soon sent to the front lines as he and his team could swiftly wipe out most of the mercenaries there who aimed to stir the conflict worse.
As he was still looking at the shotgun thoroughly, I also noticed both Della and Kyle who also went out from the train car, and approached us if we wanted something to eat. When I asked, they told me that they managed to take out all of the food and beverages stored inside the vending machines. It turned out that all of the vending machines had still the contents full inside them, and thus we had a considerably surplus amount of food and drinks for the time being.
The only person that I still had not yet seen again was Virgil, who also did not seem to be inside the train car. Just when I was about to ask where he was, Kyle said that he had just gone to the restroom on the second floor, to wash his face there. She also said that it was not long after Virgil went to the restroom, before the three of us went back. Apparently, we pretty much missed up each other as we walked upstairs earlier.
Captain Quentin also added that Virgil really ended up breaking open some of the train car's electrical compartments, to which he was kind of confused since he thought that one electrical compartment should had provided enough cables to get from. However, Virgil also said that he needed a couple of metallic rods or tubes, as well as a metal plate.
As Captain Quentin was talking, he returned the shotgun back to Ryan. He then continued, stating that Virgil even had to do as far as getting down to the railroad, breaking open the train car's air conditioning compartment box from outside, and that he had no idea why he had done that. When he finished talking, Jonathan suggested that we put all our backpacks on the train car's seat first, so that we would not feel burdened by their heavy weights
Ryan and I followed Jonathan into the train car, putting our backpacks and firearms on the seat as we saw one of the corners of the train car had been broken open. When I approached and opened it, I saw many cables inside connected to several electrical parts, with some of them had been cut away. Therefore I was sure that I had just opened the train car's electrical compartment.
Since there were no traces of electrical parts left on the floor, I assumed that Virgil broke it open carefully, and returned any unnecessary parts neatly inside the compartment before closing it again. I closed the compartment before heading out to the train platform again. Just as I went out from the train car, Virgil was already on the platform, and asked us to do a favor.
"Ah, perfect timing." Virgil said as he approached the three of us.
"Hmm? Is there something wrong?" I asked him.
"No, no. In fact, everything is fine." he answered me, before continued again, "Which is why, I want to ask you guys a favor, Ensign, Cadet, and Lieutenant."
I told him to address all of us just by our names since it was not the right situation to use our military ranks anymore, before I let him continued again. It turned out that he was asking us to help him installed a form of an emergency antenna which was essential for Morse code communications, and not just one but two antennas.
"Why all the trouble just for a Morse code?" Ryan asked to him in confusion.
"It is kind of complicated for me to explain it to you right away, but I can guarantee that you will understand it as soon as we try the Morse code after we installed the antennas." Virgil responded.
I was also as confused as Ryan, since I had never received any training regarding Morse code communications tool assemblies or installations from scraps before. Jonathan however, had a different response.
"Does this have anything to do with a couple of metallic tubes that you had to find earlier?" Jonathan asked him.
"Yes…" Virgil responded.
"So that means that you had to break open the air conditioning box from outside, because the highest chance for you to get them, was only there?" Jonathan asked him again.
"Yes. It was a copper tube. I had to release several other components first before I could get my hands on them, since I only had a folding knife with me." Virgil answered before he continued again.
"But do not get me wrong, I am very grateful for that tool. And do not worry, I managed to release the copper tubes unscratched." he finished while he handed Ryan back the folding knife.
Jonathan then told both Ryan and I to trust Virgil and agreed in assisting him installing the antennas. However, Virgil said that he was still too fatigued to get started right away. Since we had no other tasks on our hands, I suggested that we were to get started in the next three hours. The four of us raised no objections, and thus I decided to rest during the existing time gap.
I headed to the nearest platform bench, sat there, before shortly straighten my legs on the bench, and leaned my head on the bench's other end. As I gazed upon the platform's antique roofing, I looked at my watch which showed the current time was exactly 5 p.m. As I realized that I had to wake up shortly before 8 p.m. later at night, I closed my eyes as my consciousness slowly began to fade.
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