The Thing 3: Assimilation✔️

Chapter 06: Communications

At first, MacReady was pissed. The second Blake started trying to talk to him on the radio once he and the other Special Forces survivors got back underground, MacReady began asking him where the fuck he'd been and what the fuck he thought he'd been doing.

Then Blake explained that he'd rescued four certified badasses and they were coming back with a fair amount of loot.

That had really smoothed things over.

After doing the tests and exposing the infected survivor, (Blake grimly lamented that the only engineer had been infected), he'd organized the team and had them scour the facility for supplies. Unfortunately, the Special Forces team had been running low when they had arrived at the abandoned research station, and it seemed that other survivors had already been through the station, so there wasn't much in the way of medical supplies, food reserves or weapons and ammo. Once they'd gotten everything they could, they'd trekked back through the storm to the Way Station. Blake had had them do a cursory scan of the place.

They'd taken the most immediately valuable things they'd found: some medical supplies, a pair of flamethrowers and lots of fuel, a cache of test kits. Once they'd gotten as much as they could comfortably carry, Blake had said that they could come back several times to empty the supplies and return it back to headquarters, since it wasn't all that far away. As soon as he'd gotten down the ladder, cleared the area and made sure the others were down safely as well, he'd contacted MacReady and updated him on the situation.

Once they'd made their way back through the tunnel, having to put down a handful of Scuttlers and a Walker, they had arrived back at the base. MacReady promptly had them all tested, and they all passed. Once they did, he began to bring them into the fold.

"Welcome to Outpost Bravo," he said. "Our new headquarters. I can't imagine that Blake didn't outline this, but I will now for emphasis: everyone pitches in, everyone pulls their own weight. We're fighting a war and we're vastly outnumbered. Now, house rules: we test every two hours, unless you're sleeping, but then you have to be tested as soon as you wake up. We're going to be sending people out for a variety of reasons, be prepared for this. Right now, though, take a few hours to eat, shower, catch some shuteye if you need to."

The men nodded and moved off to investigate the base.

"How are we doing?" Blake asked, finding himself standing alone with MacReady in the entryway to the base.

"Better, but we've still got a ways to go. We're on our feet at least. The generator is back up to one hundred percent and we've got enough fuel to last quite a while. The next big thing we need to do is fix our radio tower. Right now, we're still figuring out the best way to do that," MacReady replied. He looked tired.

"Anything you need me to do right now?" Blake asked. Although he'd been on the go for almost three hours now, he still felt full of energy, ready to take on new challenges.

"Yes, actually. Every minute we don't clear that Way Station of supplies is another minute someone else might show up and do it for us. I'd like you to take North and Weldon and start emptying the base of all the resources you can."

"Got it."

Blake headed deeper into HQ, looking for North and Weldon.

* * * * *

Two hours passed.

Blake led North and Weldon through the tunnel half a dozen times, both ways. Their luck held the whole time. They didn't run into any problems. They cleared the Way Station out, recovering guns, bullets, medical supplies, food, water, test kits, fuel, tools and whatever else they could think of to grab. Blake had kept an eye out for radio parts, but, unfortunately, the communications gear had been shredded in the initial disaster that had overrun the facility. After five trips, he'd taken them back to do one more sweep, found a handful of useful items, then had led them back down to HQ for the final time.