Citadel~The Concordant Sequence by Matthew S. Cox

Author:Matthew S. Cox [Cox, Matthew S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781949174700
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Published: 2018-08-24T05:00:00+00:00

22

Noob Gun

Two days later, Kiera spent a few hours in the afternoon with Teryn at the worktable behind the house going over her finds. All of the items she’d recovered still functioned without requiring repair, so he sorted them in value piles based on what he thought Norven would want. Much to her surprise, he put the dead smartphones in the topmost spot.

She blinked. “But there’s no network left… why would he want those?”

“The Citadel will pay many numbers for things like that, and those folding computers, or bigger ones. They want the information that might be inside, anything that teaches about the world before Cloudfall. Numbers can become food or medicine.”

Kiera grinned. “It’s weird to hear you calling it numbers. It’s like credits or money or something.” Oh.” She pointed. “That’s toilet paper. We are not trading it. It’s for us.”

“Toilet paper?” He blinked.

She explained.

“Huh… they made paper with no other purpose than cleaning your back end?”

“That’s what it’s for,” she sing-songed. “Butt paper. It’s soft. A lot nicer than those old books.”

“Well that explains why all the trees died.” He chuckled. “I can’t believe they’d be so wasteful. Using up paper for that.”

“Maybe. What else would they do? Laser our butts clean?” She giggled.

He chuckled and ruffled her hair.

She picked up the gun, aiming off into the forest. “This thing looks like the noob gun in TCS.”

“It fires noobs?” asked Teryn.

Kiera laughed. “No… I mean it’s the weakest weapon in the game, the one you start with. But in the game, it fired balls of orange light. This is a real laser. You can only see the beam if it goes through like dust or fog or something. I bet it wouldn’t take shooting someone forty times to kill them like the noob gun.”

“You don’t have to shoot someone forty times to kill them… unless your aim is poor.” Teryn rubbed her back.

“In the game. It’s stupid. The gun is weak only because it’s the one you start with.”

Pet glided out the window and floated over. After landing on the table, the glow ceased, so it looked like one more piece of mysterious salvage. “The weapon has a self-regenerating powercell. It can fire about fifty times before it needs to recharge. If all fifty pulses are used rapidly, the capacitor will be ready to fire again in about four minutes. The powercell will last for a total of about 2,500 pulses before it needs to be replaced.”

“Umm, how old is it now?” Kiera looked the pistol over. A small screen above the trigger showed 72% above 100%. “Wait, I think I found it. It’s got all fifty pulses ready, and the main cell is at 72%?”

“Correct,” said Pet. “Kiera, this is not a video game. If you fire that weapon at someone, they will die.”

“I know. I’m eleven, not stupid.” She patted Pet. “I don’t want to shoot anyone… except maybe those buttheads who kidnapped me, but….”

“They’re already gone.” Teryn squeezed her shoulder. “They can’t hurt you anymore.”

“Yeah… How’s your leg?” She glanced over at a huge dark bruise on his thigh.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.