Reboot

Part 1

A bitter wind ripped down the deserted street, picking up debris and hurtling them into the sides of crumbling buildings. Dark clouds overhead promised a storm. Somewhere nearby an animal cry interrupted the desolated cityscape of post apocalyptic Toronto.

Sara skidded down an angled concrete slab that had once been part a four-story parking garage, she paused half way. Grit from the wind stung her eyes, and she raised a hand to block her face from further harm. She waited till the wind died down before looking back at a blue shipping crate a half block away. She had theorized that it had been washed up into downtown Toronto in the last North Atlantic tidal wave, fifteen years ago. It made for a good temporary home now though.

The shipping crate door opened, and Jacob's little white face poked out.

Huffing in frustration, Sara whipped her walkie talkie to her mouth, "Stay there!" she ordered the eight-year-old, then waited to see his response.

Jacob disappeared from the doorway but left it open, Sara hissed and moved to return; he could be so difficult sometimes!

His little figure reappeared, his shock of blond hair standing out in stark contrast to the surrounding area.

"Stay there!" Sara shouted back at him, her voice echoing down the street.

Her walkie talkie blipped, and she paused to listen; Jacob had trouble working the thing.

"Snack!" his little voice whined.

Sara sighed, "Wait till I get back! Then you can have a snack."

He seemed to hesitate, wavering back and forth in the doorway.

Sara knew what he was doing; he did this whenever he wasn't getting his way. He would pretend not to listen, then scream and shout if you tried to touch him.

"Go back inside," Sara said firmly into the walkie talkie, "Shut the door. Wait for me to get back."

She had read in a child development textbook that children can only follow a few directions before forgetting. She wondered which one of the directions she had just given would be forgotten by the blond headed boy.

To her satisfaction, Jacob returned inside the crate and closed the door.

"Two out of three, that's not awful," Sara muttered.

"Snack!" Jacob's voice came again.

"WAIT!" Sara snapped; she took a moment to calm herself; she really wasn't good with kids.

"You can have a snack when I get back."

With that, Sara clipped the walkie talkie back to her belt (it was a wonder it was working so well with her homemade batteries) and continued down the street. Broken glass, fallen debris and garbage littered the way to a skyrise. Unlike the others, this one seemed to have stood up fairly well.

The glass revolving doors had been broken long ago and Sara stepped inside, her boots crunching on broken glass. The interior of the building was dark and stank of mildew. Sara took out her crank powered flashlight and began spinning the handle. The noise the flashlight made reminded her of a giant mosquito. The thought made her nervous; everyone was waiting for the next super virus to pop up and wipe out yet another colony.

The lobby of the skyrise looked barren and unwelcoming. It looked like it had once been a business, back when the world had an economy that supported large corporations that is. Now it was stripped bare by scavengers like Sara, and damaged by tidal waves. Sara didn't expect to find anything on the first floor, and she was too cautious to venture higher; the once sturdy skyscrapers of Toronto had been crumbling for years, more than one scavenger had lost their life by risking the upper floors of a condemned building.

No, Sara thought, she had her sights set on the basement and hopefully an electrical room that had remained untouched by water damage.

Finding the nearest stairwell, Sara nudged the door open and leaned away in disgust; it stank really bad! Stepping away she aimed the weak light from her flashlight further down the hall till she saw what she was looking for; elevator doors!

It took a bit of work to pry open the doors, but Sara was pleased to see that the shaft was empty and didn't smell nearly as bad as the stairs. Ever the cautious one, she scanned the shaft above her till she was certain the elevator wasn't above her, waiting to break free of the cables and crush her. Satisfied at the level of safety (scant though it was) Sara readjusted her backpack, attached her flashlight to her belt and swung herself onto the iron bar ladder of the shaft and began her decent.

Nearing the bottom, Sara paused and spared a hand to aim her light below her to find the elevator waiting at the bottom. Dropping the last few feet, she opened the escape door of the elevator and dropped inside.

Shining her light around, Sara caught her breath in delight; the interior of the elevator was untouched by the ravages of time, and one entire wall of the elevator was a flawless mirror.

"Well you don't see that every day!" Sara said under her breath and strengthened her flashlight with a few more cranks as she took in her reflection. At twenty-two Sara was stocky but fit, her high cheek bones and warm brown skin tone spoke to a strong aboriginal heritage. She wasn't sure what tribe she was from, but that sort of thing hardly mattered to anyone anymore. Her mane of dark brown hair was tangled up in a careless ponytail and even darker eyes stared back at her.

"What are you looking at?" she asked her reflection, then smirked at her own childishness. "Well, this calls for a signature!" she proclaimed and dug out a charcoal pencil from her backpack and proceeded to scrawl her 'signature' at eye level on the mirror.

Every scavenger had their own signature, whether their actual initials or a symbol, that they used to mark what areas they had scavenged. Different people specialized in collecting different resources. Once you were familiar with everyone's signature, you could tell just by looking at the nearest wall whether or not there was anything worth while left to scavenge.

Sara's signature was a star with an S drawn through it. Anyone who knew her would know that the basement had been cleaned out of any useful electrical items.

Turning away from the mirror, Sara began prying open the elevator doors- they were stiffer than the other ones. With a few grunts from Sara and some awful grinding sounds from the doors, Sara got the doors open an inch. Water began pouring in.

Sara gasped and allowed the doors to slam shut, leaving the elevator with a centimetre of water. The basement must have filled up with water from rainstorms and maybe even the last tidal wave. The thought that the water could have been sitting in the elevator shaft for a decade made Sara cringe in disgust. She scribbled the scavenger symbol for water danger next to her signature, then climbed up and out of the elevator.

Sighing in disappointment, she peeked over the side of the elevator to confirm that there was at least a meter of standing water. She silently scolded herself for not paying more attention to her surroundings. A mistake like that could kill her- and Jacob!

Sara was about to climb back up the ladder, when she noticed a dull red light coming from her left. Turning Sara discovered a large vent in the elevator shaft wall at knee level. Lowering herself she frowned; along with the red light there was a faint beeping sound coming from the vent. Her interest was piqued.

Taking out a flat edged screwdriver, Sara worked at prying lose the vent cover, it came off and dropped between the wall and elevator to splash into the water.

"Huh..." Sara breathed; it was a ventilation shaft large enough to crawl through- but what would it lead to? The beeping was louder without the vent cover, and the red light promised working electronics...

Taking off her backpack, Sara shoved it in first, then followed.