Brotherhood of the Last Shelter

Then throw that thing away!

The red light on the water filter kept blinking.

I turned the device over in my hand, wishing I could rip the tracker out with my bare fingers. Thorne's men were still behind us, and if we led them to our shelter, everything we had done so far would be pointless.

"Donald, we can't go back to the subway," I shouted through the window. "They'll follow us straight to the base."

"Then throw that thing away!"

"And let them find it lying in the street? They'll know we've discovered the tracker."

Donald cursed as the truck swerved around a parked lorry. "Unless you know how to disable it, I suggest you stop giving me problems and start giving me solutions."

Before I could answer, Luggard leaned forward.

"Take the next left."

Donald glanced at him. "Where does that road go?"

"The old rail yard. I studied the abandoned infrastructure around here for my architecture course. Their security vehicles won't get far once we leave the paved road, but this truck should manage."

"You're sure?"

"No, Donald. I'm guessing with our lives at stake. Of course I'm sure!"

I almost smiled despite the situation.

"Take the turn," I said.

Donald swung the truck through a broken chain-link fence. The tires bounced over cracked concrete, and loose metal rattled in the cargo hold. Behind us, the sirens grew fainter as we drove between abandoned warehouses.

He stopped behind a rusted train carriage and jumped out.

"Give me the tracker."

I handed it over. Donald took a screwdriver from his pocket and carefully opened the casing. His fingers moved quickly, even though the approaching sirens had all of us on edge.

A moment later, the red light went out.

"There." He held up the device. "I disconnected the battery without damaging the board. If their system checks the signal, it'll look like the power failed."

"Can they still find us?"

"Not through this thing, unless they've got another way."

That wasn't the reassurance I wanted, but it was better than nothing.

Then the ground shook.

I felt the vibration through the soles of my boots. Dust drifted from the roof of the truck, and a deep metallic thud echoed between the warehouses.

Luggard turned toward the sound.

"What was that?"

Through the fog, something enormous moved beside the city's main power substation.

At first, I mistook it for a building. Then one of its mechanical legs lifted from the ground and came down hard enough to crack the concrete.

The thing stood as tall as a three-story house. Black cables hung from its underside, stretching into the substation. Blue light pulsed through its metal frame as the surrounding power lines began to flicker.

My mouth went dry.

"What is it?" Donald asked.

"I don't know."

The admission tasted bitter. I had survived the apocalypse once, yet I had never seen anything like this. Back then, I had spent the first week hiding underground, too frightened to venture outside.

Whatever these machines were doing before the invasion, I had never witnessed it.

The lights across the industrial district went out one row at a time.

The machine was draining the city's electricity.

Luggard backed away from the truck. "We need to leave. There's a utility tunnel about fifty yards from here. It connects to the subway maintenance lines."

A fresh burst of sirens sounded beyond the fence.

Thorne's men had arrived.

I turned toward our stolen cargo. We had steel plates, water filters, welding equipment, and two generators. Without those supplies, reinforcing our shelter would become much harder.

I opened my inventory.

Ten slots.

I touched a crate of steel plates.

Item stored. One slot used. Capacity limit: 50 pounds per slot.

The crate vanished.

I quickly stored the water filters and welding equipment, then added the remaining steel plates until nine slots were occupied.

Only the generators remained.

I tried to store the first one.

Error. Item exceeds weight limit.

"Of course," I muttered.

The generators were too heavy, and I couldn't split them into smaller pieces. Behind us, headlights swept across the fence as Thorne's men entered the yard.

I looked at the machines, then at my brothers.

We had risked our lives to get these supplies. Without a generator, our shelter would be darker, colder, and harder to defend. But dragging one through an underground tunnel would slow us down, and staying here could get us all killed.

"Leave them," I said.

Donald stared at me. "Both of them?"

"Both."

He looked as though he wanted to argue, but the approaching shouts made the decision for him.

He climbed into the cab, shifted the truck into drive, and wedged his wrench against the accelerator. The vehicle lurched forward and rolled toward the opposite end of the yard.

Thorne's men immediately ran after it.

"Move!" Donald shouted.

We sprinted toward the concrete pipe Luggard had pointed out. Gunshots rang behind us as we slipped into the tunnel, leaving the generators and the empty truck to their fate.

The passage was damp and narrow. Luggard led us through several turns, relying on his memory to keep us from wandering into a dead end.

I was beginning to think we had escaped when a blue screen appeared.

Energy siphon detected nearby. Would you like to synchronize your shelter network with the grid?

I stopped.

The enormous machine outside was draining the city's electricity, and now the system wanted me to connect our shelter to the same network.

Why?

I dismissed the message without answering.

The system had offered us a shelter, an inventory, and quests that repeatedly pushed me toward danger. Now it was inviting me to link our home to a machine that was stealing power from the city.

I couldn't prove what it intended to do, but I wasn't going to give it access to the one place where my brothers might be safe.

"James?" Donald called from ahead. "Are you coming?"

I slipped the tracking device into my pocket and followed them.

For now, I would keep using the system's gifts. I would strengthen our shelter, gather supplies, and prepare for the invasion.

But the next time it asked me to connect to something, I would find out exactly what it wanted first.

Because if that machine and the system were working together, our shelter might be more than a place to hide.

It might be what they were building all of this for.