ACCUPATION 2 Pilgrims of The Post-Apocalypse

Chapter 4: "Underground"

But while Anthony above was getting his settlement started in the overworld an adventure continued underneath. Deep underground in the deepest depths of the Rust Bucket was Spudnik painting away in the depths of his power plant. He struck the walls with various shades of red, black, and yellow. He would look closely and then walk away repeatedly analyzing his work before continuing to paint again. His work looked like that of a renaissance artist.

Justin, his friend, walked in and saw Spudnik wildly smacking the wall with paint as he laughed like a madman.

Justin: "what are you doing?"

Spidnick suddenly stopped and turned around: "why I'm drifting? What about you? You look distraught as usual?"

Justin looked closer and realized that the painting was a painting of the Rust Bucket being destroyed by the horrors of the black lump armies: "don't you think that's a bit inappropriate to paint right now?"

Spudnik shook the paint off of his arms by wiggling them violently. He then looked back at his painting and took into consideration Justin's words.

"I think it's quite the opposite, how will anyone know what's happened here if no one tells of its story? I'm doing the future a favor, besides... there's a certain energy to all this chaos that just inspires me!"

Justin pushed his words aside. He had come there for a reason.

"So we found a possible sign of habitation on the west side of the underground. And what's strange is that it was found in an undiscovered cave system... kinda freaky to me. "

Spudnik then told his idea saying: "we should take your family! Chances are that the settlement is free of black lump!"

Justin stopped and thought about it... it's true, it could be a safe place. Maybe they could work together to make a cure. So taking a map of the old world, he saw that a laboratory used to be there, it was an old medical research facility under the ocean. It must have had parts of it that crossed over into the underground, allowing them to find it.

Spudnik got excited about this and told Justin: "a facility full of the descendants of bio scientists??!! That's exactly what we need! We need to go over there with a sample of the black lump virus. Maybe they will know how to stop it... that is of course if they haven't descended into anarchy and insanity over the 300 years of being stuck underground."

So Spudnik grabbed a suitcase and took Justin and his family along with some friends, to search out the unexplored cave system. Getting in a vehicle with tank like tires, Justin looked back at the old hydro plant with its lava falls. He had spent most his life building and working in this structure, he only could hope to be able to come back home in one piece.

Daniela had made her way down back underground. It had been a long journey but the day was finally over. She was tired and beaten down, her own father had treated her like a monster, locking her up. Now she was home, the old police station where she worked and lived. Daniela was scared to look in the mirror. The sickness had destroyed her life, leaving her with nothing. Despite this she was proud of herself for leaving it all behind.

Laying down, a puddle of slime from her snail-like body covered her bed, dripping off the sides making everything slippery and uncomfortable. Her blankets were soaked, her clothes had sunk into her own body. Pulling off her shirt, she began looking at the mirror to see how far the infection had gone. To her surprise it seemed to have calmed down, the dark slime was falling away giving way to the white slime underneath. Her thoughts were no longer violent and her hunger had subsided. "I'm getting better?" She thought to herself.

Opening a box, there were pictures of Toby in it. Toby never remembers taking them, but she did. She smiled as the stress melted away. As she stared at the pictures of them together her anxiety melted away, Tired and hopeful she fell asleep. But was awakened to the loud noise of a vehicle approaching. Its lights forced her to get up and check what it was. There Spudnik pointed a flamethrower at her head.

I'm different! "Daniela pleaded" please don't hurt me!

Spudnick smiled, putting his gun down. "Well I've never seen the sick talk, so I'll take your word, but say we need you to come with us? Would you?"

Daniela had her gun in her pocket, but wasn't the type of person to use it. Justin approached from behind though and took her gun anyway.

Justin: "my friend isn't good at human interaction. What he meant to say is that we're all going to a place that might be safe, we need to bring a small sample of your slime so we can see how to cure this illness, understood?"

Daniela realized they probably wanted to experiment on her... but to be fair she didn't see it as a negative. Maybe she really cared about what she could do for those still alive, but Danny went with them, hoping her body would make a cure for the virus. So getting in the car she sat in the trunk with Sputnik, while Justin and his family sat inside the car. Daniela couldn't tell how to feel. Driving through the cement blocks, lights flashed as they drove further away from civilization. Spidnick saw Daniela sad and distracted.

"Why are you humans always sad? You have a lot to be thankful for."

Daniela then told him: "my dad doesn't want me around him anymore, probably because I'm sick."

Spidnik then pulled a stuffed animal out of his backpack and gave it to Daniela saying: "I noticed these make humans happy for some strange reason."

Daniela hugged it tightly and smiled."thank you"

Justin called out while driving asking Daniela: "what do you think of Spidnik so far?"

Daniela replied: "A bit deranged but overall pretty nice"

"Justin laughs" aren't we all?