Quest For Adventure: Attack of The Beast

Chapter 4.1: Desperation, Depression

A ran to the door, and knocked on it frantically. Amy and Abbott followed behind him, quickly. the door slit opened, and two eyes stared at them. A pulled his mask off, and looked back at them. The door became whole again, locks clinked and clacked, and the door opened, allowing them to enter the door.

It had been about a month since the barn was destroyed, and the disappearance of about six people, as well as Theodore. A few people had even run off to go attempt to join Leon's forces, with little resistance. The entirety of the disaster had whittled down their numbers, greatly. Only around 10 people remained.

Together they'd scavenged through the farm, and managed to rebuild a small shack from what was left. But everyone knew it wouldn't last. Leon was on to them now, and could easily track them down and finish them off if he pleased. So, they had put together all their remaining resources, and planned to infiltrate Leon's headquarters, for The Beast's agenda. With it, they'd know when  it would ambush them, and they could prepare for it.

"But Leon's aware  dat ya' stole it, isn' he? Wha's stoppin' 'em from just retoolin' it?" Roy had asked when they showed it to him.

"Because he can't." Amy said, before either Abbott or A could respond. "The Queen is organic. If Leon was able to program it, or force it to follow a set path, then it doesn't make sense that he can just reprogram it whenever he wants."

"Yes... it does!" Abbott replied, out of breath from running so far. "If it's organic... then it should be easier to get it to... to change it's mind then it would to get a machine to!"

Amy shook her head. "Before, you know when I was blind, in Leon's base I overheard a conversation about how The Queen was actually hard-programmed from the beginning. If that's correct, then this chip isn't the actual code... it's an adaptation  of it!"

Abbott shook his head. "Yeah, okay. But that's a big 'if,' you know."

"But if that isn't the case, then why was it so heavily guarded?" A asked.

"Because in both cases it would be very important. True, one would be more important than the other, but they would both need to be guarded."

"Good point, but if it is  hard-programmed, then how would you change it? And what's the point of saying it's one thing, when it isn't ?" Amy replied.

"Probably to throw you off."

"I don't think that would be necessary, given that they didn't know if I could hear, or not. I could have been dead, for all they knew."

Roy shook his head, and glared at both of them. "My only question is, how in da bloody 'ell are we gonna decrypt dis thing? Dat shit was Ned's field."

A laughed. "Luckily, it wasn't encrypted in the first place. I think we got to it before they had the chance. All we really need to read it is a working computer."

Abbott pinched his forehead. "Of course. The one thing that we don't have. God, if we only had Theodore here. His rubble is probably buried fifty feet under, and we can't risk being out in the open for that long." 

Roy sighed, and lowered his voice. "Okay, no guarantees, but... This might do the trick." He said, as he put down his pack, and filed through it.

He pulled out a small, beaten laptop, and carefully placed it on the table. "Dis ding has lil' powa', an prolly a virus or two. I was savin' it for emergencies, only."

Amy's eyes lit up, and she pounced for it, but Roy grabbed her wrist and stared at her. "Make it quick, and be gentle wit' it." He said, dryly.

Abbott chuckled. "He's right. We can't mess around with it."

Amy muttered something under her breath, but gingerly agreed, to which Roy freed her arm.

Abbott walked over, and plugged the chip into it, and powered it on. Cracks and static obscured the logo. Abbott laboriously scrolled through the files, and after about a minute, found The Beast's location file. Double-clicking on it, He found a six-hundred word file, detailing every place It was meant to attack, when, and even how.

"This is it." He said, pointing to a box, labeled '#175: Wednesday.'  "It says that it'll attack these coordinates."

" 'Forty-seven point two nine six four' degrees, North... and 'One hundred and twelve' point Forty, Thirty (?)' degrees, West." Amy read, confused. "Coordinates are weird..."

"I've written it down." Lester, who usually cooked meals now, said, showing everyone his notes.

"That's... about half a mile West of here." A muttered to himself. "That is, if that map in the basement is correct... We could probably make it there in half an hour."

Abbott nodded, excited. "If that's correct, The Beast will actually ambush us..." He paused as he looked up and down the list. "In three days."

The laptop shut off, and sparks flew out of it. Abbott shielded his face with his arms, and fell sideways out of his chair. Roy scratched his head, and apologized for not warning Abbott about the 'whole sparks ding.'

Amy jumped up and down. "Alright, now we have an advantage! Let's make some weapons, and formulate a plan!"

Roy crossed his arms. "One ding a' a time. We'll make da' weapons tonight, and make dat plan tomorrow."

Amy kicked at the ground. "...Yeah, okay."

                                                                 *     *     *

A was sitting still on a bench, outside of the shack. suddenly, he regained his thought, and felt a bit startled. he remembered walking out and sitting on it, meaning to sit for just a minute, but somehow... it felt like much more  time had passed. A knew it didn't have anything to do with the ri-

The door to the front slammed open, and a panicked Abbott looked both left and right before seeing A, and relaxing.

"A! There you are! Do you have any idea how long you've been gone for?!" He yelled.

A shook his head.

Abbott sighed, and sat down next to him, still grumbling.

"What's up with you, lately, huh?" He asked. 

A didn't know how to respond. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"You just... seemed sadder, lately. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just thinking too much about it, but you don't seem to talk as much, and when you do, you just... I don't know."

A leaned forward, and put his head in his hands. Him? Sad? It didn't seem believable. And yet... he didn't really care about it, for some reason.

Abbott sighed. "Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, or anything. I just don't... I don't know. You're just acting weird lately. Spacing out a lot, and not to mention that ribbon."

A just looked at him. His eyes slightly devoid of emotion. 

"A... just... let me know if anything's wrong, okay?" Abbott turned around, and walked back inside.

A sighed. Maybe Abbott was right. Maybe there was something wrong with him. If that's the case, then how? How did he change so much? What was he even thinking about? Maybe he was sick of it. Maybe after everything, he'd gotten sick of this apocalypse, his amnesia, Elements, Leon, The Beast... just... everything that had happened in the last almost six months. 

-Maybe this whole disaster has finally taken it's toll on me.-  He thought.

He felt his eyes get misty. Then a tear run down his face. Then two. Then four. 

-Why...? Why am I...?-

A fell off of the bench, and into the mud, and wept. He didn't know why, only that it was useless to try and stop himself. 

-Everything's pointless, isn't it...?-

                                               End of Part 4, Chapter 1