Scavengers

Tatsuya

Red highlighted figures stood in circles around the building, guns drawn. Tatsuya exhaled nervously, standing with his back against Rei's. He gripped his sword, knuckles white as he looked around in vain for something to help. The tense silence was cut by the sound of shattering glass and something plunking across the floor. Before he could react, the room was engulfed in a roaring explosion. The last thing he saw before they both fell were the shapes standing outside the windows, watching.

A couple hours before...

Tatsuya let out a yawn, rubbing his eyes as he sat himself down on the edge of the roof. Roads spread out beneath him like traces on a circuit board, winding in between the buildings that, like the one he sat on, towered over them. Thick vines and foliage lay tangled over everything, and the streets themselves were blanketed by a canopy of green from the oaks, birches, aspens and cedars that grew out from cracks in the old, bleached asphalt.
The Sun had just peaked above the horizon, bathing the forested ruins in a faint yellow glow. The dilapidated skyscrapers cast long shadows on the woods below them, leaving large swathes of trees in chilled darkness. Tatsuya stood up from his perch and stretched, before he turned and made his way to the roof access.

"Look, ALL I'm saying is that you can use water or milk for oatmeal, yet people only use milk for cereal without even acknowledging the thought of 'Hey, maybe if I run out of milk, I can just use water!'" a voice said, followed by a huff.
"Rei, it's 5:42 in the morning," another voice responded.
"And?"
"It's too early for these weird ass takes on cereal!"
"Science doesn't care about the time of day, it's a train with no stops! Here, I'll go up and ask Tatsu what he thinks." Tatsuya heard footsteps coming up towards him, and the source of the cereal discourse rounded the corner. "Oh, hi Tatsu!"
"Rei, do you seriously think water with cereal is a good idea?" he asked.
"I take back my hello!" she replied, giving him a hurt look with her hazel gaze.
    "Hey, maybe she has a point," another voice called from around the corner. Rei turned, whacking Tatsuya in the face with the ponytail she had her messy tangle of brown hair tied up in.
    "Kai gets it! He's the only one I trust in this group, and this is why," she said, walking back into the main room with Tatsuya in tow.
    They had set up their camp in an old office penthouse, with old destitute desks and chairs laying destroyed from age and looters on the floor. The group had cleared out a small area inside of the debris, and laid their four sleeping bags out in a small huddle. A small gas burner sat next to the pile, with a pot placed on top of it.
    His and Rei's bags were already empty, yet Kai and Mako still sat in theirs. Mako held a small thermos in her hands, giving Tatsuya a tired look as he walked into view. He met her grey eyes with a sympathetic look, before sitting down next to her.
    "Somebody has to play devil's advocate, y'know. At least for this discussion," Kai said, leaning forward to turn up the heat on the burner. Mako let out a sigh, dropping down the hood of her sleeping bag to run her fingers through her pixie cut auburn hair.
    "Is this the hill you want to die on, Kai? Water with cereal?" Mako asked.
    "Bold of you to assume I can die."
    "Uhuh. Anyways, what's the plan for today? More searching?"
    "I mean, we haven't found them yet, so I'd assume so," Tatsuya said, stretching.
    "Man, you'd think they'd just assign us to something else by now. I'm not even sure the servers exist; we've searched almost every major City-Forest in the Old Midwest and we have nothing to show for it," Mako muttered, sighing.
    "They wouldn't just send us out to find something that isn't real. Main Base has its reasons," Rei piped in.
    "Main Base DID assign us to run around and spring traps on purpose. We got caught up in like, what, seven ambushes?" Kai added, combing his short blonde hair.
    "It was only five. But Tatsu did trigger three explosives," Rei said, laughing.
    "Oh yea! I remember now. Honestly, I'm surprised at how we survived that one."
    "Agreed. Blowing up three times in a row was a terrible experience," Tatsuya said, wincing at the memory. "Well, as much as I like recounting joyous past missions, I think we should probably head out soon."
    "Alright, the water is close to boiling anyways," Mako said.

Ten minutes before...

    "We haven't searched this building yet, have we?" Tatsuya asked. There was no answer, and he looked around to find himself standing alone in front of the squat two story concrete apartment building. He grabbed the hilt of his sword, which he had strapped to his waist before they had left. "Rei?"
    "Sorry!" Rei called out from a set of garages off to the right of it. "But I just found something GREAT!" She ran out of one of the units and skidded to a stop right in front of him, holding a large box in her arms.
    "It's not server related, is it."
    "Well, no. BUT, it's still great on its own! It's a toaster oven, unboxed!" Rei patted the box, sending off waves of dust.
    "We have stuff capable of doing the same exact thing at Main Base though!"
    "Yea, but nothing at Main Base has the good old early 2000s aesthetic! Anywhoo, let's test this thing out. I want to make sure the box actually did its job," she said, grinning as she hurried into the apartments. Tatsuya blinked, before quickly following in behind her.

    "You know, thinking back on it, I feel like I should've expected this." They both stood, staring at the unpacked toaster oven sitting on the floor. They had entered the lobby of the building, which consisted of four short sets of stairs; two in the front and the back; one led to the floor above and the other led a few steps downwards to a level with two doors on each side of the room and a hallway to the laundry room on the right. The two, mostly Rei, had decided to break through one of the doors into an abandoned apartment, rip open the packaging, and plug the oven into the wall.
    "What, that old ruins wouldn't have electricity?" Tatsuya mused.
    "I mean, it makes sense when you say it out loud, but I was holding out hope!" Rei knelt down to start unplugging it, before pausing. The panel had lit up on the side, and the oven let out a pleasant ding! Both Rei and Tatsuya jumped in surprise, and immediately they ripped their swords from their sheathes.
    "This isn't a good sign, Tatsu!" Rei hissed.
    "There's two doors. I haven't picked up anything yet; should we try the back?"
    "Good a plan as any!" The two started to slowly move towards the back door, before he heard a sharp alert sound. He stopped, and so did Rei, through the shared channel that their earpieces were connected to.
    "Advance parties said that the Twin Forests were clear!" Tatsuya whispered. He pulled the trigger on his sword beneath the guard, and immediately the edge of the blade lit up with a bright blue glow. Small arcs of electricity crackled off of the surface as it hummed in his hand.
    "The scouts either fucked up, or these guys have tricks up their sleeves," she muttered. They stood back to back, and the figures came to a stop around the building.
    He waited with anxious breath, the two of them turning in slow circles. Tatsuya gripped the handle of his sword, knuckles white. A small object crashed through the glass of the front door and skittered across the floor, and before they could react, it exploded with a deafening BOOM!