Chapter 29: Ch 028

The walk down the stairs was uneventful, even though the light on the midpoint landing was burned out. The decent was poorly lit, but that was all. When he got to the bottom, he saw a bunch of fading posters glued to the wall that were in various states of peeling away. Most had been defaced with graffiti, or torn off the wall in strips leaving only bits and pieces here and there. Some of the remaining notices indicated that this was, at one point, a designated air raid shelter, dating back as far as world war two.

 

There were newer signs as well, indicating that the place had been updated once or twice. It was a designated nuclear shelter as well. Half torn signs indicating the proper way to decontaminate yourself were glued to the wall next to a propaganda poster that had a mustache and glasses drawn on the noble airman. He was was standing in the cockpit of his airplane, sword drawn and pointed at the on-coming enemy.

 

Toshi pulled open the door and stepped out into the hallway. This section was better lit, but still had those annoying, buzzing sodium lamps that cast everything in a yellowing glow. The corridor was long, but the door marked "computer club" was actually only a single door down from the stairwell. The words were spelled out with green motherboards that had been cut into strips to form the words. The door was propped open with an old Mac SE lying on its side as a doorstop.

 

Stepping inside he was greeted with a clearly updated area. This section looked like a rather large warehouse slash storage unit. It was lit by modern florescent lighting. The area was filled with shelving units filled with every possible manner of old technology you could think of. Vacuum cleaners, floor cleaners, leaf blowers, lamps, old TVs, and a near endless cavalcade of bric-a-brac. It was a bit of a maze and did not give the impression it was inhabited, by humans that is. However, you could tell there were people down here. In the far end of the storage area was a section more brightly lit than the others. The light was coming from the ground up, not weakly descending from the flickering tubes above.

 

Toshi weaved his way through the shelves, walking quietly because he was getting more then a little creeped out, ~This is the sort of place you get jumped and they don't find your body for a week.~ More then once he had to back track because he reached a dead end. He figured out the solution was to stick to the wall, not try to head directly to the lit section. He stepped around a shelving unit completely stacked with dusty computers dating from the 90's, and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the change in lighting.

 

The computer club had cleared out an area of this storage unit and pushed all the crap away. In the middle they had set up a whole bunch of lamps, obviously scavenged from the surrounding detritus, and had them all pointed to the ceiling. This actually resulted in the area being well lit without a harsh glare. In the center of the area was several tables, a bunch of kit bashed computers that would give Frankenstein nightmares, and cables.

 

So. Many. Cables.

 

The cables just snaked across the floor in every direction. At first glance it looked like an electrician's nightmare, but somehow it worked because four girls were all clacking away on outdated keyboards. Toshi was watching a good, old-fashioned LAN party. He smiled as this brought back one of the few fond memories he had from high school. Here they were. The ones he had been searching for over a month now.

 

These were his people.

 

As Toshi stood there, soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying the nostalgia, the gamers were occasionally talking to one another in friendly banter. One girl in particular, a bit short, a bit chubby, and possessing a face with just a bit of acne, turned around. She was reaching towards a small mini-fridge she had set up behind her. She had dark hair, dark eyes, pony tails and completely froze when she spotted Toshi. She remained perfectly motionless, her hand outstretched for the fridge. Her eyes slowly grew larger as she took on a 'deer in headlights' look. Toshi raised a hand and wiggled his fingers in greeting.

 

She let out a scream.

 

Toshi jumped backwards at the shriek, briefly looking around in hopes she was scared of something other than him. The other three girls sat up and looked over at their panicking friend, then saw what she was looking at. There was a solid two seconds before everyone else echoed her. Toshi held up his hands in a defensive gesture, expecting to be attacked, but quickly noticed they weren't rushing him, they were far more concerned with their computers. One was furiously typing away, two shut down their computers, and the last one turned around and leapt for the main power strip. Toshi stopped being concerned and had become confused as he tried to figure out what was going on.

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He found that a whole lot harder to do when everything was plunged into darkness.

 

They would figure it out later, but the girl who came up with the bright idea of turning off the power to everything was the cause. The problem was that the computer club was drawing down a ton of amps. While the set up worked, it really didn't have any redundancy. The electrical wiring down here was archaic, to put it mildly. Turning off all that electricity was just a bit too much power changing directions for the system to take.

 

In other words, a circuit breaker flipped.

 

"What The Fuck?", "SHIT!", and a loud shriek were among the more mild exclamations heard in the dark. Given they were in an underground shelter with no access to natural light, when it got dark, it got DARK. There were shuffling sounds as people tried to orientate themselves. Banging, the clatter of falling objects, and other sounds bounced around the echoey expanse.

 

"Who the fuck was that?"

"Was that a guy?"

"What's a guy doing down here?"

"Hello?"

"Someone turn on the lights!"

"Hold on! I-"

 

That last statement was followed by a crash, another shriek and a loud, "OW!"

 

Toshi calmly fished out his smart phone, slid his finger along it, and tapped the flashlight feature. He held up his phone to illuminate the area, causing all four girls to squint at the harsh pinpoint of light. Some shaded their eyes, others thought to check their pockets for their own phones. One girl was on the ground holding her head. Next to her was a toaster that looked like it might have bounced off her head. Toshi gritted his teeth and inwardly cursed.

 

~This is not a good first impression.~

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