Wicked Wasteland by Nick Noble

Author:Nick Noble [Noble, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-10-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

With the crawler loaded down with canned food, ammo, and raw materials, I finally headed over to the scrapyard.

Dirk’s Second Hand Gadget. The best (and only) parts store in Dry Lake.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite customer!” Crowed the owner–whose name wasn’t Dirk but actually Frank. As he told me often, nobody else around Dry Lake had the same knack for mechanisms that I did.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was because where I came from, a lot of this stuff was about as sophisticated as the toys I played with as a kid. I knew every inch of that motorcycle I’d been driving the night I died. Compared to that thing, these motor steeds were nothing. Very cool, don’t get me wrong, and wildly different in some ways. But once I’d gotten used to a few of the key differences in this place’s tech versus Earth’s it was child’s play. Nowadays this stuff was just fun for me. Like replaying an old video game you’d mastered a long time ago. I found it soothing.

“Come, come, I have a few items in the back just for you!”

Frank ushered me further into his shop, claiming he had a few things he wanted to show me. Gadgets he thought I’d like. He was right, of course. No surprise there. He knew me pretty well. A lot of the stuff he showed me was pretty cool.

For instance there was this little clockwork orrery that displayed a solar system with about fifteen planets. Perfectly sized to sit on a desk and it moved to mimic the supposed orbit of these planets. I was no astronomer but I had a hunch that a few of these ‘planets’ would probably end up just being reclassified moons or large asteroids in another century or two of stargazing and scientific discovery.

But only one item was a must-have. Something I’d been on the hunt for for a long, long time. A gramophone.

“Holy shit, Frank, where’d you find this?”

Frank was grinning from ear to ear. “Oh, I didn’t. My assistant did. You have little Josephine to thank for this. Shall I let her know you are pleased?”

Josie did this? That girl. “Yes, please. How much for it?”

Frank named a price that was less than a third what he could have asked for it. I doubled it and refused to accept his effort to talk me out of it. We both walked away happy.

As I was carrying the gramophone back to the crawler, I spotted Josephine through the racks. Dressed up in a very lacy victorian getup, replete with a corset that made her slight breasts appear a bit perkier than they may have truly been (I did not mind this mild deception) and a pair of goggles that made her eyes appear a bit larger than normal as well. The effect was that of an adorable, well-dressed, and nerdy little thing with a shy smile. She was cute as a damn button.

I pointed at my prize and mouthed ‘thank you; and she smiled broadly.

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