Brotherhood of the Last Shelter

Severing the Line

The hound's broken leg scraped across the stairs as it dragged itself toward us. Black fluid leaked from the torn joint, hissing when it touched the concrete.

It was damaged, but it showed no sign of slowing down.

"Donald, fall back!" I shouted.

The creature lunged. Despite having only three working legs, it crossed two steps in a single bound, its metal jaws snapping inches from my face.

I raised my steel pipe with both hands.

Its jaws clamped down with enough force to bend the iron. The impact drove me onto my knees, sending pain through my wrists and shoulders. Its red eyes brightened as its rear claws dug into the stairs.

"James!" Luggard yelled.

"Stay away from its mouth!" I struggled to keep the pipe between its teeth. "Donald, get to its spine!"

Donald moved along the wall, keeping out of reach. His fear had given way to concentration, the same expression he wore whenever he dismantled an engine and refused to let anyone distract him.

The hound sensed him and jerked its head sideways.

My hands slipped.

"Donald, hurry!"

Before the creature could throw me off, Luggard rushed forward with the broken frame of the iron gate. He slammed its jagged edge against the hound's remaining rear leg, pinning it against the concrete step.

The machine screeched and twisted toward him.

"Now!" Luggard shouted.

Donald ignited the cutting torch. A blue flame hissed from the nozzle as he approached the exposed cables along the creature's spine.

He pressed the flame against the damaged insulation.

A cloud of acrid smoke filled the stairwell. The blue cables flickered between pale blue and crimson, and sparks burst from the exposed wiring.

The hound thrashed violently.

Luggard struggled to hold the gate in place while I pushed against the creature's head, keeping its jaws away from Donald.

"How much longer?" I shouted.

"Almost!"

Donald dragged the torch across the bundle of cables. A sharp electrical crack rang through the stairwell, followed by a burst of white light.

The creature's body went rigid.

Its jaws released the bent pipe, and its heavy head struck the concrete. The red glow in its eye sockets flickered twice before disappearing.

For several seconds, none of us moved.

Donald shut off the torch and stepped away from the machine. His hands were trembling, but he kept his eyes on the creature until he was certain it wouldn't rise again.

"The circuit is dead," he said.

Luggard released the gate and stumbled backward. "I thought that thing was going to tear all three of us apart."

"It nearly did," I replied.

Donald glanced at him. "You saved me enough time to finish the job. I couldn't have done it without you."

Luggard looked surprised by the praise, but he nodded and began inspecting the damaged railing.

A chime sounded in my head.

Side Mission Complete: Clear the Upper Access.

Trapped Anomaly Neutralized.

Structural Beacon Cancelled.

Reward Issued: Basic Material Salvage Protocol Unlocked.

New Ability: Extract refined composite alloy from neutralized mechanical entities.

I looked at the dead hound.

"Salvage protocol," I muttered.

I placed my hand against its shoulder plate. The system responded immediately.

Extraction in Progress.

Refined Alloy Acquired: 1 Unit.

Inventory Slot 10 Filled. Weight: 12 lbs.

The armor beneath my palm broke apart into fine gray particles and disappeared. Within seconds, the outer plating across the creature's chest had vanished, exposing its skeletal frame and tangled wiring.

Donald stared at the stripped machine.

"You can harvest materials from them?"

"Apparently."

"Can you do that with every machine we kill?"

"I don't know yet."

He crouched beside the exposed wiring without touching it. "If the alloy is as strong as it looks, this could save us a lot of trouble. We won't have to depend entirely on whatever supplies we can steal."

"Assuming the system doesn't decide to charge us for using the ability," Luggard said.

I glanced at him.

He shrugged. "You keep saying we shouldn't trust it. I'm trying to remember that."

He had a point. The system had given me an inventory, useful rewards, and information that might keep us alive. It had also threatened to expose our shelter if we failed to complete a mission.

I wasn't ready to call the salvage ability a gift.

Donald examined the damaged cables more closely. "These machines have power cores, control circuits, and reinforced joints. If I can study the remains, I might be able to build something that disrupts their electrical systems."

"An EMP?" Luggard asked.

"Maybe, but I can't promise that yet. A pulse strong enough to disable one of these things could damage our own equipment, too. I'd need capacitors, copper coils, relays, and a way to control the discharge."

"We have some electrical supplies in the truck," I said.

"The truck we abandoned?"

"The supplies are in my inventory. Some of them, anyway."

Donald looked at me with renewed interest. "Then we have a starting point."

A low vibration passed through the stairs.

We fell silent.

The sound came again, this time accompanied by the distant rumble of engines.

I moved toward the subway entrance and peered through a gap between the rusted bars.

Three black armored SUVs rolled slowly along the boulevard. The Thorne Security logo was stamped across their doors. A rotating scanner sat on the roof of the lead vehicle, sweeping a narrow green beam across buildings, parked cars, and the entrances to side streets.

They weren't searching randomly.

They were working through the district in an organized pattern.

I ducked back before the scanner reached our entrance.

"Thorne's men," I whispered. "They're searching for the tagged materials."

Donald joined me at the wall. "Can they track the steel all the way down here?"

"They can narrow down the location. I don't know how precise their equipment is."

"Then we remove the plates," Luggard said. "We can replace them with the old gate sections."

"Not yet," Donald replied. "Those plates are the strongest part of our entrance. If we remove them without replacing them properly, we'll weaken the shelter."

"We can argue about construction later," I said. "Right now, we need to stop them from finding us."

The SUVs turned at the next intersection. The lead vehicle paused while its scanner swept across a row of abandoned shops.

I watched until the vehicles moved out of sight.

"We have two hours at most before they search this block," I said. "We need another entrance, a way to hide the shelter's signal, and something to defend ourselves if they come inside."

Donald collected the torch and checked the remaining gas. "I'll work on the electrical trap. Luggard can inspect the tunnels for another exit."

"And you?" Luggard asked.

I looked at the system interface, where the completed mission notification had disappeared.

"I'm going to find out why Thorne is mapping this sector before the apocalypse has even started."

A new message appeared before I could turn away.

Emergency Alert: Hostile Network Detected.

Thorne Security has initiated a remote scan of nearby shelter infrastructure.

Unknown connection request received.

Accept connection to reveal network data and unlock Shelter Level 2?

I stared at the final line.

Thorne wasn't merely searching for the stolen steel anymore.

Someone was trying to connect directly to our shelter, and the system was asking me to let them in.