Pre-War Relic

1

"C'mon, bud. Let's get you a warm bath." I say, and he huffs, but follows me toward my room, where I lead him into the bathroom, and turn on the water, making sure its warm enough for my canine companion before ordering him into the tub, helping him when he hesitates. I bathe him quickly, lift him out of the tub, and dry him off with a towel, before turning the shower on, and getting out of the jump suit I designed to protect myself, and my parents, from epidermal damage from the ice in our pods during our stasis, and taking my own warm shower. When I turn the water off, and step out, I look down at Zeus to see him sitting there with a towel hanging out of his mouth, so I take it, and wrap it around my body before scratching his head, thanking him as I go to the sink, and brush my hair. I'd brush my teeth, but the tooth paste I had, expired 94 years ago. Once I've brushed my hair, I leave the bathroom with Zeus following me, laying on his bed at the foot of my bed as I walk into my closet to put on some clothes. When I'm dressed, and I've got Zeus's collar on him, I head back down to the lab, and pull up satellite images of the earth right now, and it's mostly green, except for the deserts that were already there before the war, and the new desert off what used to be the east coast. There's still an ocean on the west coast, so I change the views of the satellite, and instead of showing plain images, it shows heat signatures. There isn't much, except for in the DC area, and in the desert that used to be an ocean. It's mostly in the wooded area about a hundred miles into land, and up into Canada.

"We're alone in the Southwest, bud." I say to Zeus, who was laying on the ground by the stool I was sitting on.

-

After about an hour, I got bored of looking around the dead world via satellites, so I got up, and went to the garage that held more than just the car I came here in. Everything seemed to be fine, but I decided to make sure everything was actually fine with my vehicles, and with the other things that have been stored in here. Just a couple of guns, and swords. I would've had more weaponry, but my folks thought that needing these would be absurd, so I was lucky to get, and keep, what I've got. When I've concluded that things are fine with everything here, I go back to the lab, and get on a different computer than the one I just used, to check the radiation levels top-side. They weren't what they used to be, which was 0.64 rem/year, now it was 1.52 rem/year for the past three years. Which doesn't really matter to me, or to Zeus, because when Becca and I finally came up with the finalized version of Night Blood, Becca put some in me, and then made some adjustments to modify it for Zeus. I told Becca it was ridiculous to make him compatible for an A.I. that there was only one of, but she insisted.

-

"It's not just to accept my new A.I., Y/N, remember why we had to make this for Eligius Mining?" She asks, and I nod.

"To prevent issues with the solar radiation in space." I said, and she grinned, nodding. "Wait, you're making my dog immune to radiation?" I ask, and she nods.

"He's your service dog. You need him." Becca says, turning to her microscope, and I raise a brow at her, chuckling as she gets lost in her work, and scratching Zeus's head as he comes to sit against my leg.

"How are you going to make the night blood work with the canine anatomy?" I ask after a moment, and Becca freezes, looking over at me.

"I may or may not have taken a blood sample of Zeus while you were resting after you took the night blood." She says, and I sigh, putting my hand to my forehead as I shake my head at the shorter female, who sits across from me. "He was a good sport about it. I gave him a steak afterward." Becca says, and I chuckle at my friend. "I've also been working on this for a while, so I just need to make one last adjustment to it, and it'll be pupper ready." She says, and I chuckle at Becca's being Becca.