Black Market Merchant

Lisa got up to leave at the break of dawn. Having not slept well all night, she felt terrible. Not to mention she hadn't even been able to wash herself off yet from the fight with that Thing. Specks of foul black blood were still on her shoes, pants and sword handle.

Going through her extra clothes in the coffin, Lisa picked out a wrinkled, but fresh, red T-shirt and jeans. Then grabbing some soap, Lisa decided to go down to the river and wash before going to speak with the others.

Opening the door to her office room carefully, Lisa looked about just to be sure there wasn't any more of those creatures around. She was nearly in full soldier mode now and every bit of her being was on high alert. Even though her noise traps didn't go off, it never hurt to be extra cautious. Especially with something as scary and unknown as that Thing.

Yet again everything was in order and there were no signs of any monsters creeping about. Still the whole time she walked down towards the river; Lisa clutched her folded sword hilt tightly.

The sun hadn't risen very high yet and only the tips of the distant mountains glowed in its glory. The placid river, held back by the dam, was as smooth as glass and a light fog floated over the water's surface uninterrupted by the lack of any breeze. Slowly the sunshine on the mountains dripped from the peaks down into the forests clinging on steep cliffs and slopes. A total contrast to last night's turmoil.

Seeing this beautiful scenery calmed Lisa's nerves greatly. Now that she was standing by the water's edge and seeing that no one was around, she started to undress. That is when she noticed she had a problem.

When she went to take off her shirt, her shoulder wouldn't lift up high enough. Apparently, the spot where the creature had hit her had been moderately damaged. She didn't feel any pain because the area damaged was just below where her prosthetic arm met with her real arm. A lack of pain was one of the perks of not being fully human. The only place’s she could actually “feel” anything was her fingertips and palms, but it more of a sense than feeling as the technology wasn’t fully mastered yet.

"Well, this is just great." Lisa grumbled aloud while taking off her shirt.

Gently touching the damaged area, Lisa pried up the metal armor plating with her hand strength alone and exposed the intricate wiring inside. After a few moments she determined that there was only minor damage and that her limited mobility was only due to the bent platting. Doing as best as she could with her other hand to straighten the bent plate back to normal, she managed to fix the issue temporarily.

Now that that mobility problem was basically fixed, she could finish bathing. The water was very chilly, and she didn't dare stay in there for long at all. Lisa only stayed in long enough to wash her hair and soak herself once before she started to shiver. She quickly got dressed and headed back to her makeshift base to get her leather jacket back on to try and warm up.

After getting her jacket, Lisa rekindled the fire pit out in the parking lot. Lisa soon warmed up nicely as she cooked a few of the last carrots Mary and Joan had given to her. Finally, after eating, was she ready to leave.

The walk back to her friend’s cul-de-sac was a quiet and nearly uneventful one. The old stores and rusting buildings lining the streets stood solemn and rotting away, giving a lonely air to the already desolate area. If she hadn't known that there was a whole group of people still living not far away in this town, she might have thought this was a ghost town.

As she looked at these empty buildings Lisa wondered, "What treasures and secrets do you buildings hold? If only I could search you all, I could probably make some decent money off your hidden contents."

The street turned a sharp corner and she finally spotted someone else from the town. Walking closer to her destination, she soon started to see more and more people going about their daily tasks to scrape a living together or just to survive. Some tended to yard gardens, others carried materials towards the market area or river, while others seemed only to sit around their homes with nothing else to do.

The town had very little to offer in the terms of a job. It was undoubtedly the last stop for many of the river traveling merchants, as there wasn’t much to trade for here to begin with. The locals could barely farm enough to feed themselves much less trade. As far as she knew only the hunters could make decent money trading meat, furs and hides. However, for the others as a member in the Mad Dogs they would at least provide food and something for the locals to do. That was one possible reason that the townspeople still tolerated them.

Finally, Lisa made it back to the better kept cul-de-sac of the former police officers. The first to see her arrive was Benny. He was sitting on his porch drinking something from a coffee mug. Seeing her approach, he waved cheerfully, and she returned the gesture.

"Hey Benny." Lisa called out. "How are you doing?"

"Well enough, I suppose." Benny replied as he got up from his chair to meet her in the road.

"Where are the others? I have something urgent to talk about." Lisa said as they met in the middle of the road.

"Well…" Benny said scratching his chin in thought. "Mary, Joan and Hanna went to buy food not too long ago. I think both Richard and John are back there in the garden together." He said while pointing towards the area behind Lisa.

"Ok thanks. You might want to hear this too, so let us go get them." Lisa said turning towards the area where he had pointed. Benny didn't say anything, but quickly followed Lisa; curious as to what she had to say.

They soon found the two men chopping vigorously, with some machetes, at a large cluster of rag weed and thorns overgrowing the far side of their garden. Seeing Benny and Lisa coming their way, the two men paused to catch their breath. Even though it was still morning it appeared to Lisa that they had been working for quite some time.

"Hey, you're back." Richard said giving a small wave. "Didn't expect to see you back so soon."

"Neither did I." Lisa replied.

John noticed that she sounded a bit different. "Is everything ok with the dam? Did you run into a problem?" He asked putting down his tool and wiping his hands together.

"Yes, I ran into a major issue." Lisa replied, then she leaned in closer to the three men and spoke in a low tone. "Do you guys know of any giant creatures living around these parts?"

Lisa went on to explain what had happened in the tunnel. How she got the power back on, the fight with that Thing, and asked if they knew of such a creature after describing it as best as she could. The three men were incredibly surprised hearing her adventurous story and didn’t know what to say. In the end it was John that was the first to speak.

"Well, I think we need to see this creature first. I might have an idea as to what it is." He said picking back up his machete. "We need to be careful though. I don't know if I am imagining the right creature, but if I am, then we all need to be armed."

The other two men and Lisa nodded in agreement. The three men quickly got their weapons ready and Richard left a note to the women saying where they were going. After half an hour they all were back at the dam's Powerhouse.

When they entered the men eyed the clutter stacked near the entrances but didn't bother asking about it. Hearing a faint quiet buzzing noise Benny couldn't help but ask, "I know you said you got the power on. But could you show us?"

Lisa hadn't even thought of testing out the lights or turning on the control room yet. The whole purpose being there in the first place was to even see if the electricity still could work in the building. She had just been too preoccupied with worrying about the creature. After Benny pointed this issue out, she felt silly for being so preoccupied with thinking about the monster.

"Sure, I can give it a try. I know it works in the tunnel, but it might be dangerous in there. So, we should just do it in here." Lisa said with a nod towards the control room.

The three men followed her curiously up to the second floor to the control room. Out from her pants pocket she took out two keys that were used to start up the control center. She held out one of the keys to them and pointed at one of the switches.

"Can one of you turn the switch with me? It won't start without both switches being activated at once."

“Sure.” Richard answered.

Richard then took the key and the two of them turned the switches on in unison. At first nothing happened. Then the sound of computer fans in the room starting to whirr and the computers beeped as they turned on. Dials and gages frantically adjusted themselves, portraying that there indeed was electrical power coming from the dam. Benny gave a cheer and the other two couldn't help but smile. The thought of having power back into their lives was now seeming more like a reality.

"Well I'm glad that worked!" Lisa exclaimed with a gleam in her grey eyes. Giving a thankful sigh Lisa continued. "I was worried the wires might have been damaged and that I'd have to replace them." Slowly she walked about the room overlooking the now active controls, dials and flashing buttons. the three men followed curiously behind. "So far everything looks in order."

She spotted the dial for Generator 1 and saw that it was running at normal levels and everything was nominal. The rest of the dials for the other generators were flat. It looked like each one had to be manually turned on. This was a concern, especially since she didn't have the password to the control room computers, yet.

"So, are you guys sure about going into the tunnel?" Lisa finally asked turning to them. "If there are more ‘Things’ in there, I don't want to have you all risk your lives doing this."

"I think we can handle it." Benny said with a shrug. The other two were not so confident looking.

"If there are more and we can't defend ourselves, then I'm afraid it's going to be a lost cause." John said flatly.

Lisa expected this, so she wasn't angry or worried. She kind of had the same idea. If they couldn't beat any more of those creatures, then she might as well try to find another way to earn money. Fighting off hoards of mythical monsters was not something she intended to do.

"That fine." Lisa said. "Let's make sure we are ready and then go into the tunnel quietly. The power should be on in there still, so we won't need torches."

"Sounds good, let’s go!" Benny said enthusiastically.

The four soon stood at the two big metal doors. With guns and machetes at the ready, Lisa pushed open the heavy door. The metal scrapped noisily on the concrete as she did. Stepping inside cautiously, they scanned the area for any movement. Fortunately, they saw nothing.

They came to the area where the creature was and found its lifeless body was still there. Even though the creatures marred body lay contorted in its own coagulated black bloody puddle, it still looked dangerous. The three men were shocked seeing the creature for real now.

"Just as I thought!" John said with a twinge of fear. "This is a Twisted. Come on everyone we need to make sure the area is safe!"

He turned to go further into the tunnel before Lisa could ask any questions. So, she decided to follow for now. They went from room to room in the tunnel, carefully checking for any signs of life. Thankfully, they found none.

Soon they reached the far end of the tunnel only to see two doors like the ones that they had entered in from. Only this time a massive bolder had knocked a huge hole into one of the gates. This had to be how the creature got in here.

John sounded exasperated as he was looking at the gaping hole. "Well this could be an issue!"