Thanks to Sam fixing up a car, we reach the facility just before sundown.
And ironically, it's a castle. Built right into the side of the western wall of the Utopia. A tributary of the the Pishon river bends southward just before the hillside, creating a moat that surrounds the castle's perimeter. And to top off the whole thing, thunder grumbles in the distance. We all stand by the river, looking across at the creepy structure.
"What do you see Nijah?"
Nijah closes her eyes, and cocks her head to the side. "It's hollow. It might've been a museum at some point, but most of the walls have been torn down to make space for two main spaces. The bottom is humming with machinery, so the servers are probably there. But the top isn't getting any power. So if the console is upstairs, someone's gonna have to crawl around the outside and turn on the generators on the roof."
We all look at one another.
"Not it!"
"Not it!"
"Not it!"
"Not it! Dangit!" Sam groans. She points across the water. "How are we even going to get over there?"
Nijah answers her question, not by responding, but by expertly shrugging off her bow, knocking back an arrow, and firing it at the castle. We watch it disappear, then hear a loud snapping sound on the other side. Nothing happens for a few seconds, then a groaning sound that I could feel in my chest permeates the air. Something large slowly falls towards our side of the river, seeming like it's going to squish us, then lands less than five feet in front of us, the air it displaces knocking us back a step.
It's a drawbridge.
* * *
The storm arrives just when I found a manageable way up the castle.
The others already made their way inside, but of course old Sam has to do all the heavy lifting, again. I swear these guys couldn't survive without me.
Part of the castle wall had collapsed years ago, leaving a nice pile of rubble up to a second story window. Each window on the upper floors seemed to have small sills sticking out a few inches on the smooth stone wall. That should work.
I managed to climb the rubble to the window, but as soon as I put my foot on the outcropping, the pile of debris shifted, and with the added rain, it all crumbled down to the ground, putting it way out of reach. Well, there's no going back now.
I squint through the downpour, estimating the next window was maybe 10 feet up and to my right. No way I could make that jump, but I could go halfway if I made my own handhold.
Ignoring the fear, I pushed off with both legs across the side of the castle. Quickly getting past the feeling of being in open air, I waited until I reached the peak of my jump, then dug my fingers into the brick above me. My metal fingers broke through it like cardboard, carving out a large chunk of stone. And it held.
The rainwater began to pool into the new crevice, which proceeded to pour directly into my face. I pulled myself up, my bionic arm holding me effortlessly, and looked up for the next window.
The thick stormclouds blocked out whatever light there was from the sunset, so everything looked black. My clothes were fully soaked now, but at least it wasn't cold.
"Increase exterior lights to 100% brightness." I said.
The castle wall turned green as my arm became a glowing beacon. I blocked the light from my face and tilted my head to the side to get a good look. I could just barely make out the next outcropping. Lightning tore across the sky, followed less than a second later by a thunderous bellow.
Using my arm to power my jump, I kicked off in the direction of the window, and reached out for it. To my horror, my bionic arm tore half the outcropping right off the face of the castle, and I went sliding towards the earth. I screamed so loud, scratching at the wall until my fingers got a hold. My arrested fall pulled something in my shoulder, getting another yell out of me.
I swung back and forth, the auto locking mechanism in my hand the only thing keeping me on. After a moment to get my breath back, I look up and see that I'm almost level with the first window again. Dang it.
The adrenaline coursing through me got me back on track. Instead of jumping from window to window, I dug my own handhold, switched hands, reached up and dug another, pulled myself up, and repeated the process. It was much slower, but safer. I reached the top of the castle a few minutes later.
"Well, at least the view was worth it." I sighed, leaning against the small wall along the edge of the castle's roof.
I could see for miles. I could see the shadows the storm clouds cast over the landscape, and where the rain stopped. Old highways stretched across all over, connecting abandoned towns and neighborhoods to each other. I followed the Pishon river with my eyes, all the way back east to where we came from, and far in the distance I could see the grey tinges of the fallout area left by the nuke. I still couldn't forget the bodies.
"Back to it, I guess." I pushed off and gazed across the roof.
It was empty and flat, just like the walls. I walked over to the center and found a small wooden hatch, plated with metallic designs. A tug at the handle proved fruitless. "Of course it's locked." I powered down the lights on my arm and smashed my fist through the aged wood, grabbed the inside and yanked the entire thing out, tossing the hatch like a frisbee over the side of the castle. Moments later I hear it splash into the river. "And now it's not."
I jumped down and found a small room filled with a giant piece of machinery, clearly a generator. Through the dark I saw a small stairwell leading down deeper into the castle. I checked out the generator and quickly discovered that it worked similarly to a car, with a battery providing electricity to the spark plugs that ignited the fuel in the engine, which got it running. There was plenty of gas, but the battery had been sitting there awhile, and needed a jump start. I should've brought Circe with me.
Lightning spider webbed across the sky, and it gave me an idea.
I found a pile of copper cables in a box behind the generator and clipped them together, connecting one end to the battery and the other to my arm. I climbed back onto the roof, snaking the cables behind me.
A typical lightning bolt has roughly 10 billion volts, and if you got hit, it could cause a slew of permanent health problems. The most popular being death. This should be fun.
I walked over to the edge of the roof and stood on the tiny wall. I stared at the hulking black masses above, their edges glowing from the energy they held within. I lifted my arm out and pointed towards the sky, as if I were accusing it of something.
"Lock it up and shut it down." I whispered.
The green lights dimmed, then blinked out. I felt the joints locking into place, and any parts whirring within ceased. My bionic arm was now the world's most expensive lightning rod.
I stood out there, bracing against the wind and rain for a full ten minutes, watching uselessly as the God's played with me, casting their lightning between each other. I was about to say screw it and go find Circe when the God's lashed out, striking my arm with what seemed like all the energy in the universe.
Time slowed down.
The air around me vibrated, warping my vision, but I saw what seemed like the Sun touch the tip of my finger, then melt along my arm. The electricity went down the copper wire as time sped up.
The concussive blast threw me back across the roof, and over the castle's edge. I flipped and came face to face with the edge as I fell past it. I reached out and somehow grabbed the wet brick wall with my left hand, suspending my imminent doom. But my relief left as soon as it came when I realized the lightning bolt fried my bionic arm.
Circe's electricity felt alive, controlled. It seemed to know what to power and what to leave alone. A bolt of lightning was raw energy, raw power. It didn't care about complicated circuits and motherboards.
My Optical Interface wouldn't turn on, and I knew I was screwed. My grip on the edge was becoming weaker and weaker, the rain not helping at all. I tried pulling myself up and knew immediately that I couldn't. Kicking just loosened my hold further.
I watched, terrified, as my fingers slipped off the brick inch by inch. Lightning flashed overhead, as if to see it's prey in it's final moments before collecting the body.
I closed my eyes, and gasped as my hand slid off and gravity took me. I knew what awaited me, ten stories below. I welcomed it, embraced it. But something caught me.
I looked up and saw a hand wrapped around my wrist, then looked higher and gasped.
It wasn't Jason. It wasn't Circe or Nijah. But another familiar face.