Chương 16: The First Stream of Water

A sharp hawk cry split the air overhead. Jack froze and looked up. Against the blinding sunlight, a massive shadow came diving down from high above. When the thing spread its wings, the span was easily around ten feet. Its shadow swept across the sand beside the pit, and a blast of wind slammed down from above, whipping up dust that hit Jack full in the face. The second Jack saw those open talons, his entire body locked in place.

"I'm dead." The next instant, a wall of wind tore past right in front of him. But the giant bird ignored him completely. It swept over the edge of the pit, dropped its talons into the blood-soaked sand, and seized the dead Red Sand Badger in one clean grab. The reddish-brown body lifted from the pit as if it weighed almost nothing. Then the bird beat its wings and climbed back into the sky, carrying its prey with it. Jack stood there without moving for a long while.

Only after the shadow disappeared beyond the dunes did the system's voice finally sound.

"Emergency mission completed."

"Mission reward issued: one outdoor faucet." Jack snapped back to himself. And right after that, the heat came pressing in from every direction. The sunlight seemed to grow twice as heavy at once, baking his back until it burned. Even the air he breathed in was dry enough to sting his throat.

"Holy crap!" Jack cursed, turned, and sprinted back toward the convenience store. He stumbled inside, slammed the glass door shut behind him, and sagged against it, gasping for breath. For a moment out there, he had really thought he was dead. It took a while for his breathing to slow. When it finally did, fear gave way to anger. Jack lifted his head and glared at the empty air.

"Loser, why the hell didn't you warn me?" The system went quiet for a moment before replying, "The target was moving too quickly. After entering the effective warning range, there was no longer enough time to generate an actionable warning." Jack almost laughed from sheer anger.

"No time to generate an actionable warning? Just say you were too late!" He pushed himself up from the door, getting angrier the more he thought about it.

"When the Red Sand Badgers were coming, you had enough time to warn me. But that thing came screaming out of the sky, and you only noticed after it was already on top of me? What's the point of a warning system like that? Next time, are you going to wait until I'm halfway into the air before announcing, 'Host has entered high-altitude movement state'?" The system did not answer. Jack still had a lump of anger sitting in his chest, so he kept going.

"And what exactly counts as your effective warning range? The space directly in front of my face? Does it only count once something is already landing on my head? Why don't you just rename yourself the Post-Incident Summary System?" After he finished yelling, Jack stood there for a while. Then he slowly quieted down. Red Sand Badgers were already hard enough to deal with. Now a giant bird had shown up too. Who knew what else might appear later? Something faster? Something bigger?

Something that could smash through glass before he even had time to react? The more Jack thought about it, the more unsettled he felt. Right now, all he had between himself and the outside world were the convenience store's glass doors and windows. If something truly charged at him one day, he might not even know how he died. Thinking of that, Jack slowly let out a breath. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I need to take defense seriously." Jack stayed there for a while longer, until the sweat drying on his skin became too sticky to stand. He finally pushed himself up, went upstairs for a shower, and came back down for a quick meal of bread and canned food. By then, the exhaustion from the day had fully caught up with him. After forcing down the last bite, he returned to the bedroom, dropped onto the bed, and fell asleep almost immediately. That night, he slept surprisingly well.

The next morning, Jack woke to sunlight slipping through the gap in the curtains and lay there for a moment, still groggy, before dragging himself out of bed. After washing up and heading downstairs, he made himself a simple breakfast. He had just taken a bite of bread when the system's voice sounded.

"Current mission countdown reminder."

"Mission objective: improve the surrounding environment of the convenience store."

"Mission time limit: seven days."

"Remaining time: five days and twenty-three hours." Jack swallowed the bite of bread and snapped back irritably, "I know. Can't you let me eat breakfast without ruining my mood?" The system went quiet. After breakfast, Jack stood behind the glass door and studied the pit outside. The trap had worked once, but it looked worse in daylight. The edges had collapsed in several places, the bottom was uneven, and dark stains still marked the sand.

If another pack of Red Sand Badgers showed up, Jack doubted they would fall for the same trick again. And beyond the pit, there was still nothing but dry red sand. If he was supposed to improve the area around the store, water was the obvious place to start. Jack headed for the storage room and dug through the shelves until he found what he needed: a roll of hose, several connectors, and a small box of tools. The outdoor faucet rewarded by the system had already appeared on the exterior wall beside the store.

After covering up against the sun, Jack stepped outside and crouched beside the wall. It took a bit of fiddling with the connector, but he eventually got the hose attached to the faucet. He gave the connection a quick check. No leaks. Then he grabbed the hose and dragged it toward the pit. At first, he meant to drop the hose straight into the pit, but it came up shorter than he expected. Even after pulling it as far as it would go, the end still stopped about three feet from the edge.

"Whatever. This'll do." The sand was too loose to hold water anyway. Letting it soak in near the edge might be better than dumping it straight into the pit. Jack aimed the hose at a shallow dip beside the pit, then went back to the entrance and turned on the faucet. A thin stream of clear water flowed from the hose and darkened the sand beneath it. For a few seconds, the wet patch spread. Then the thirsty ground began swallowing it almost as fast as it fell. No puddle formed.

The water only carved a shallow hollow under the hose before vanishing into the sand. Jack stood by the door and watched for a while. This place was too dry. The water vanished almost as soon as it touched the ground, as if the sand beneath the store had no bottom at all. Still, Jack was not too disappointed. He had mostly expected this. At least water was flowing. That alone made the dead-looking patch of sand beside the pit feel a little different from yesterday.

Jack went back inside, moved a chair beside the glass door, and grabbed a bottle of soda from the freezer. After pulling the tab open, he sat by the door and watched the thin stream of water while drinking. The sound was faint. Almost nothing, compared to the wind outside. But after days of heat, dust, blood, and dry red sand, that quiet trickle somehow felt more comforting than it had any right to be. Watching the water disappear into the sand, Jack could not help thinking about the mission again.

Improve the area around the store. On the surface, it sounded simple enough. Make the place less hostile. Add water. Maybe plant something later if the system ever gave him seeds. But the way the desert swallowed that first stream made him wonder if the mission was aiming at something bigger. Jack thought about it for another minute, then gave up. Whatever. As long as completing the mission came with a reward, that was good enough for now.

Meanwhile, back at the settlement, Cass and the others were not sitting idle either. After the water and bread had been divided the night before, Elias had already said they could go back again today. Jack had made himself clear. If they wanted more supplies next time, they had to bring something to trade. The problem was, what exactly should they bring? Cass rummaged through the pile of odds and ends for a long time. One moment, he picked up a chunk of ore. The next, he grabbed a treated beast bone.

All the while, he kept muttering about whether this would work or whether that would look too cheap. But no matter what he brought out, someone always shook their head. Common things felt too unimpressive. Truly useful things were too valuable to part with. And if their first trade offering looked too poor, they might damage the connection they had only just managed to build. For a while, no one could make up their mind. Then Thomas paused, as if something had just occurred to him. He did not explain right away.

Instead, he turned and ducked into a small shed pieced together from sheets of metal. Soon, the sound of rummaging came from inside, mixed with the noise of something heavy being dragged across the ground. Cass stretched his neck toward the shed.

"What are you looking for?" Thomas did not answer. After a while, he finally came out, carrying something with obvious effort. The moment he set it down in front of everyone, the area went quiet. Cass stared at it for a long while. The expression on his face slowly turned strange. Someone nearby could not hold back a laugh. Even Marg looked like she did not know whether to laugh or sigh.

"Thomas," she said, "we're going there to trade, not to make trouble for him." Thomas shrugged.

"Well, none of you could think of anything better, right?" Cass opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue. Then he looked at the thing again and swallowed the words back down. Unfortunately, Thomas kind of had a point. When Elias saw the thing, he also froze for a moment. After a pause, he asked, "Where did this even come from?" Thomas said, "It was already in the shed when we moved here." Elias nodded, then turned to Cass.

"Can you take it there?" Cass looked at the thing with obvious difficulty.

"That's…" Before he could finish, Reed spoke.

"I can carry it." After hearing that, Elias did not hesitate any longer.

"Then take it. Trade for whatever it can get. Didn't you say he has electricity? Treat it as something to help him pass the time." Cass scratched his head and finally had no choice but to accept it.

"Fine. I just hope Jack actually wants this thing."