Journey Into The Aftermath |✔

Chapter eight: Wooden Graveyard

A couple snarky and sarcastic thoughts crossed his mind before he hushed the voices and replied. "This is still experimental but it can create a never-ending nuclear reactions that seem to be able to atomic formation trough the line up of--"

"It?" she cut in, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"An ore."

"May I see it?" she asked in a very demanding tone. Eric nodded over to Joana and even though she looked terrified, she obeyed and went to the suitcase. It was in a safe and she punched in the pin code quickly so no one else could memorize it. A moment later she was holding a yellow-green rock that seemed to be pulsing slowly but vibrantly. "So this is what all the fuss is about, huh?"

"What fuss?" Vault asked curiously. "Who else knows about this?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," she shot at him. She returned her gaze to Eric. "How does it work?"

"Well when you fuse it with a certain amount--"

"Better question: how long until you can make work?" she interrupted.

"If you would listen then you would know that it has the potential to create the energy. It has all the components yes, but in order for it work..." he saw her bored reaction and decided to dumb it down. "Think of it like this: You have all the ingredients to bake a cake, but no oven to actually make it."

"What do you need to finish?" she...offered?

He shot a confused glace at first but continued anyway. "Time"

"Too bad we can't give that to you." she sighed. But the look on her face suggested...

"Is there something you're not telling us?" Joana asked, catching on to her distant tone. Both women took a moment to size each other up, a private war brewing. Eric chalked it up to one answer: 'women' and left it at that. Asher looked back at Eric leaving the war to be continued at later times.

Sarcasm rolled in to her features. "Oh you haven't heard?"

"Give me a break." Eric scoffed.

"Looks like Stein kept his mouth shut for once," She turned and smiled at Stein who has been practically invisible this entire time. "If Stein didn't present something to the board then he would have gotten fired because since he's been the leader of this joint and hasn't done didally squat for this place except rack up bills."

Eric wanted to laugh but then he noticed her Scottish accent slip for just a moment at the last syllable. He didn't let her know that he caught on and she wasn't about to allow him either. He fabricated a smile with his own head tilt.

"But yet I have this feeling that you're not here to shame my boss."

She gave it a moment's thought. "Well I suppose you don't know that due to recent events, if this company doesn't produce something in three months provided, this entire building is being shut down."

"But isn't just Stein's job, that's everyone in this whole complex!" Lance yelled. Lance was kind of skinny and looked a little frail at times and even though he keeps up his exercise, he was too old to be yelling, so Eric took over.

"Recent events?" Eric questioned. "That wouldn't be at the hand of Nexus would it?"

"We have people everywhere."

"Sure you do," Eric jeered. "And you wouldn't have dropped this on us without some sort of alternative now would you?" He crossed his arms. "Unless you just don't really like us much."

"Well aren't you the sharpest pencil in the box?" she jested as her plastic smile transformed something genuinely sinister. "Well that would be the reason we came all the way out here."