Mutual protection, part 1

Chapter 1: Alert

“Oh no! Why now?”
The beeping sound and the flashing red light were clear signals. Something had been reported. Something urgent.
If Melvin had learned anything in the past five years as standby emergency crew, it was that urgent was never good news.

There was only one thing worse than an urgent alert. And that was an urgent alert just 30 minutes before the end of Melvin's shift.
Ten more minutes. Ten more quiet minutes was all he had needed. If the alert had been 10 minutes later, he could have ignored it for 5 minutes, faking a restroom break, and then have his release handle it. Now he would have to do it himself.

Melvin tapped the screen to shut down the wailing sound of the alert and get the details on the screen.
A solar panel had reported a malfunction.
Of course it was a solar panel. It always was a solar panel. Those fucking solar panels just never could be arsed to keep working without constant care. Melvin was already convinced what he would find. Sloppy work from the regular maintenance crew. All maintenance staff should be forced to run standby shifts a week per month. That would teach them to do their job properly.

Melvin quickly phoned his house computer.
“Yes, Melvin?” the friendly sounding artificial voice inquired.
“I'll be home later. Delay meal preparation and room preheating for now. I will call again when I know more.”
“Confirmed!” the voice replied.

Melvin knew his house would switch back into energy saving mode. He quickly typed “On it” on the keyboard, and left the alert and that quick note visible on the screen, so that his release would know where he was.
He sighed. Time for the most dreaded part of his work. But also the part that was the sole reason for his excellent pay.
Time to go Outside.

Chapter 2: Outside

Melvin stepped into the exit area. He undressed and put his clothes, neatly folded, in his locker. Undressing was not a strict requirement, but definitely recommended. The chemicals in the decontamination shower were harsh enough on the body already. Clothes simply were ruined. So nobody ever took them. Why bother?
After getting into his protective suit, Melvin took the time to carefully check that it was fully sealed. He closed the helmet and briefly under-pressurized the suit to double-check there were no leaks anywhere. He then stepped into the airlock and waited for the clean air to be pumped out. A hissing sound indicated that Outside air flowed in, and then the door opened.

Melvin stood still for a minute or so, to let his eyes could adjust to the bright sunlight. He was in an enclosed area, not roofed. Even though the protective suit shielded Melvin from all radiation, he always felt uncomfortable there, knowing he was surrounded by Outside air and directly exposed to sunlight. He quickly set foot to the small parking area and stepped into one of the available crawlers.

With the cabin door closed, he felt at least a bit more protected. Nonsense of course, The air in the vehicle was just as contaminated as outside of it. But at least the burning sun didn't shine directly on Melvin. He knew his fear was unwarranted, he knew the sun was probably the least dangerous element Outside, but he had long ago just decided to give in to his irrational feelings.
Being Outside was extremely dangerous, after all. Nobody in their right mind would ever go there, not if they could avoid it at all. Outside was a forbidden place for most people. And those who had to go Outside for their job were allowed their little oddities. How else would they handle the pressure?

Time for the final checks. Battery level was at 100%. The crawler's canon was loaded, with enough spare ammo to shoot his way through at least five mutant raids, if needed. Two rifles and a semi-automatic handgun in the weapon rack, all with plenty of extra bullets, completed the equipment. He was ready to go.
As Melvin started the engine, the outer gate of the parking lot opened. Melvin quickly drove the vehicle out of the gate, so that it could close again. The instruction to leave the gate open as short as possible was drilled into their brains. Every so often, mutants would try to find a way Inside. The shorter the gate was open, the lower the risk.

Melvin looked around him. Apart from the protective walls surrounding Base, right behind him, he saw nothing but barren wasteland. It was hard to imagine that, just a few decades ago, this had been so different. He had seen the pictures of North Carolina before the Disaster, and they looked nothing like the land now.
“Life is as it is,” he said to himself, the mantra that was always repeated when people reminisced the old days. Those days were gone. He lived now and here. And now and here, he had to fix a solar panel. Better get going.

Chapter 3: Crash

Melvin touched the screen to activate the computer. A map of the area lit up, and Melvin quickly tapped the location of the failing solar panel to set the course. The familiar whirring sound of the engine told him that energy was flowing to the circuits and powering the vehicle. Soon it sped up, until it had reached its maximum speed of 50 miles per hour. Melvin sat down on the bench. He knew that the trip would take over three hours. He closed his eyes and tried to doze off.

A loud screeching sound ripped him out of his slumber. A sudden bump and then drop of the crawler thrust him off the bench. As his body was thrown hard against the manual control of the gun, he heard a ripping sound, as he felt a sharp pain on his chest. Then for a short while he seemed to float in midair.

In a short moment that seemed to stretch to infinity, he looked out of the small peeping glass and noticed that the vehicle, allegedly perfectly safe, was falling down a deep canyon. Just a split second later, he saw that the fabric of his suit was ripped. The large gash in his right shoulder, leaking blood, seemed to be his lesser concern. The right arm sleeve of his suit was ripped open, and he realized his arm – no, the entire inside of the suit! – was now exposed to the poisoned atmosphere of the barren Outside.
And then, still in the same fraction of a second, Melvin realized he was about to smash into the rocks below him. Which, given the circumstances, was not even a bad thing. If death was his fate anyway, then a quick splat on unforgiving rock was probably a much better way to go than the slow and painful process caused by radiation and pollution.

“Sad,” he thought, “that I will now never know the winner of this year's Kettleball cup.”
And then he realized that, for someone about to die, that was a terrible last thought. Why didn't he see his life flash by, as all books told him would happen? He should be thinking about his friends, not about Kett…

A loud screeching sound of metal ripping apart on the rocks. Pangs of intense pain in all parts of his body.

…

And then … blissful … nothingness.

Chapter 4: Alive

The first thing Melvin noticed as his consciousness returned to his mind was a numb pain in all of his body, as if he had been on the losing end of ten consecutive boxing matches the day before. And then he felt an intense thirst, as if he hadn't drunk anything for at least a day, perhaps more.
He wanted to open his eyes, but his eyelids didn't obey. He wanted to move, but his muscles refused service. He wanted to speak, ask his house computer what happened, but his throat merely produced a rasping sound.

He felt something cool touch his lips. Water. He only now realized his dehydrated lips had been glued together. As the moisture did its work, he could open his mouth a bit. More water was poured into his mouth.
He heard a voice. The voice of a child.
“Sleep more, mister.”
Melvin relaxed and fell asleep.

Melvin woke up, feeling refreshed. The pain was almost gone, much easier to ignore than his hunger.
He tried to recall what happened. A dream. A dream of a child giving him water and telling him to go to sleep. And before that … what had happened? He remembered going Outside to fix a solar panel. He recalled … and then all of a sudden he remembered the crash.
He should be dead. He should be smashed on the rocks. That alone should have killed him. And if not, then the pollution and radiation should have. Why was he alive? Had a rescue crew been sent? Had they found him in time?
How?

The next surprise came as he opened his eyes. He was not in a hospital bed, nor in his house. He was in a rocky cave, lit by an irregularly flickering reddish light.
He turned his head to the left, where he suspected the source of the light, and he saw that the source was an old fashioned camp fire. And just behind the camp fire was … a girl.
A young girl.
A naked young girl.

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Mutual protection, part 1