Fantasy Kaizoic: Earth Reborn

[Chai_T3a]

“Yeah.” He answered.

There was a slight pause as Kairo thought about what to say. Rufus had gotten the jyst of it, but there seemed to be so much more that happened in that small amount of time.

“I don’t know if I told you before. But I don’t think he wants to hurt anyone. Probably sounds crazy, but there’s no way he’d spend the effort to go to camp just to take the critters if he was looking to cause some havoc.” He said, before looking over at Rufus. “You knew he took them. Right?”

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus glanced at him, and even with his face hidden by the helmet, it was clear he bore a look of confusion.
"He went for the critters? And just them?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

“Just them. Apparently the critters are with him.” There was a slight stumble in his step, thankfully he managed to catch himself before looking stupid. “He had every opportunity to off me, and yet I’m still here.”

 

[Da Doofus]

"I'm still suspicious of him." Rufus replied gruffly, hopping off to land on a mostly decayed road through the buried metropolis.
"Least we're not still in the Cricket though. God knows how long until those things wake up."

 

[Chai_T3a]

“Hopefully not for a while.” He answered. He wasn’t entirely sure how long he’d been asleep for, but judging from the light from outside. It was most likely night. The tyravi were nocturnal creatures, which didn’t work out in there favours. The two were lucky to have gotten out of there as soon as they did, any later and it could have spelled their end.
“Don’t think they can get to us in here though.” He said, joining Rufus on the road.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Doesn't seem like it." He nodded, scanning the darkened cavernous cityscape.
"Still . . ." In a swift motion, he drew his pistol and flipped the safety off. The Pulse Magnum whirred into function.
"I am a bit paranoid." The smuggler shrugged innocently, taking the first steps into the ruins.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo cocked an eyebrow, impressed by Rufus’s swiftness with the weapon. Almost as if the man had come straight out of an action movie.

The scenery definitely gave a moody backdrop as well. As he walked alongside Rufus, He has a clear view of the crumbling, decrepit, buildings, he understood why Rufus was feeling paranoid. It was one thing to look at this from afar, being right in it was a completely different story.

“Think Anyone else knows about this?” He asks, head still turned up to the building.

 

[Da Doofus]

The two had just passed under a long-decayed frame of what was once a highway sign.

"Well given the 10,000 year time frame and the fact that we're probably a mile underground . . ." Rufus looked between the stone-molded skyscraper ruins.
"I think it's quite doubtful."

 

[Chai_T3a]

"No. I didn't mean any of us." Kairo stated as he turned to look at Rufus
"I meant something like the Guest. If they've been here all while we were gone, then maybe we aren't the first ones to find this place"

 

[Da Doofus]

The gunman fell silent, only their footsteps on cracked stone kept the air from entering a quiet void in the dim light of Rufus's drone.

"Didn't think about that." He mumbled quietly, the scale of possibilities now flooding his mind.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo originally didn’t expect his point to bring up so much confliction. But after giving it another thought, he seemed to realize what the presence of others could have meant. Most of those possibilities didn’t mean anything good for them. He sighed to himself, turning to look down at the floor. It was a tough realization to deal with, the awe he felt originally from the sight seemingly being replaced with unease.

Still, he couldn’t let it ruin the mood. They needed to stay focussed, what they would find here could happen to be of upmost importance. The last thing kairo needed was to be hindered by his own overthinking.

“Sorry for bringing it up.” He raised his head to continue looking forward. “It wouldn’t matter either way. Doesn’t change what we have to do.” He added on, it was half directed at himself.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Well it is something to think about. We don't know what all happened all this time." Rufus glanced at Kairo. "But you are also right about right now though." He kept taking glances at the hollowed building husks wreathed in shadow on the inside.
Humming, he reached into his satchel and pulled out a handful of flares. Five to be precise, and all were offered to Kairo.
"Here." Rufus said, still glancing at the ruins walling them both to the narrow street. "You got any way to protect yourself? This place is giving me some vibes."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo seemed to be a bit alarmed by the offering.
“I’ve still got the rifle.” He looked down at the flares he was handed, before looking back at Rufus.
“You planning on splitting up?” He asked, clearly concerned

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus's armored head turned to stare at him. It was stagnant air between them but an intense focus was on Kairo from Rufus.

"You realize splitting up is only in movies where teenagers get diced up, right?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo seemed relieved for a second, before his expression shifted to one of embarrassment. He really wished he could have a helmet like Rufus did right now. If even just to hide his expression just for a second. He kept his gaze away from Rufus.
“I. Mean why else are you giving me these?” He looked down at the flares, shaking them slightly in his hand.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Because it's dark in here, and that drone only covers so much ground." He pointed at the robotic light bearer as it turned a corner ahead.
"You don't want em?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

“Oh.”
That definitely made sense. Kairo felt massively stupid for not figuring that out earlier. Then again, he wasn’t very used to these kind of situations either.
“No no, it’s fine.” He secured the flares between his belt, keeping one in his hand.
“I just thought these were the things you launch into the sky, you know?” He added with a nervous chuckle.

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus shook his head, but a chuckle could be faintly heard from him.
"They really took their time training you guys." He patted Kairo's back before looking at the nearby drone.
"Hansel." He commanded.

The floating device chirped and zoomed above he and Kairo's heads.

"Bread crumb mode: on." Rufus ordered. The baseball-sized robot hummed, and made a pulsing sound similar to a radar.
A tiny pebble dropped from its center onto the rocky ground at their feet.

It was metal with a glass lining. Hansel turned and flew ahead once more, the faint clicking of more metal pebbles growing quieter as the bot flew further away.
Soon, the two men were in darkness. Rufus however, could see fine with his helmet. Only his visor remained bright and visible to Kairo.

"He's leaving a trail I can track on my visor." Kairo would hear him say. "I can see it, but you'd better pop a flare and keep up.
I'll take point, so don't worry." He assured.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo watched as the immediate surrounding slowly plunged into darkness. With only the light from Rufus's visor, Kairo could barely make out his hands, so following Rufus's suggestion became much tougher than it should have been. He fumbled around with the thing for a while, before finally getting it to work. It almost appeared a bit too bright to his eyes after being in total darkness for the small amount of time.

He held the thing like a torch, following closely behind Rufus. Even with the flares light, it still appeared much dimmer than it was with the drone. It made everything just the tiniest bit more nerve-racking. But he trusted Rufus to be alert in his stead.
"Bread crumb mode. I like the name." He stated.
"Did you make it up? Or was it pre-programmed into the drone."

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus chuckled.
"Little of both." He shrugged. "I knew a guy who programmed bots and tech stuff. I had a job in Hawaii during the blockades." He kept following the pebbles in his sight. "He made Hansel and Gretel per my request, and built them to function as cartographers pretty much.

I never had the patience for computers and crap so I was happy to pay for his services."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo subconsciously nodded as he listened to Rufus's explanation.
"That's impressive!" He admitted with astonishment. He'd tried dabbling around with programming, and he knew first hand how difficult that stuff was to learn. At least to him, the thought of being able to pull off something so complex on what he assumed was a tight deadline seemed hard to achieve.
"You're really lucky to know someone like that." He said, eyeing the small pebbles they were following.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Knew." Rufus sighed. "He was in Alaska when the North Apex hit."

His demeanor shifted once he spoke that aloud. "Had a whole crew at that point in my career. All of em were there.
Fucking Republic stationed there shot at the thing and drew him in."

 

[Chai_T3a]

That caught Kairo off guard. This topic seemed to be a field of landmines, which he brought upon himself. Kairo wasn't looking to remind Rufus of something like that, and now that he had, he couldn't help but feel guilty about it. He should have known not to bring up anything that involved people from the past. In most cases, those people would have been long gone. It seemed it wasn't any different for Rufus.

An apology would have suited the situation, a notion that would express that he felt for him, but he knew that it wouldn't change anything. It was alway's everyone's first response after hearing about his losses, and frankly he'd grown annoyed off it. He was pretty sure Rufus would have as well.

"Good people don't deserve to die like that." He mumbled, it was barely more than a whisper, but still audible.
"The republics really good at screwing up at times."

 

[Da Doofus]

"Mmhm." He nodded, keeping his gaze on the path marked for them.

Minutes passed with naught a word uttered from the former treasure hunter.
They had passed a collapsed police station and refugee center, the imagery of the ruins haunting to behold. The implications of what occured here echoed in every empty concrete shell, and within every broken road. Thousands of lives lost in a single event. Such destruction had become horrifically common in the time of the First and Second Emergences. Earthquakes, floods, continents cracking open to swallow unfortunate cities whole and awakening the hibernating giants from prehistoric slumber; disaster had become normality in Kairo and Rufus's life.
Kairo however, had not survived around the echoes of such death like Rufus had. The smuggler had undoubtedly struggled to achieve his current stature, and had to wade through devastation for profit to do so.

To him, this city was a rotting corpse. Similar in ways to many other ghost cities he traveled through.

Finally, he glanced at Kairo.
"I hope you realize that when we get back topside, we're still not anywhere near the camp. Right?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

The moments passed without anything eventful, allowing Kairo's mind to wander. There wasn't anything he thought about in particular. Rather, the surroundings around him would provoke thoughts in his mind. Passing the refugee centre brought back memories of days long gone. He'd volunteered in a building just like that before. The sight of it in it's decrepit form brought chills down his spine. He wondered if anyone he'd met from his refugee centre were on the other Noah's.

Rufus's statement would eventually break him out of thought. He looked over at him, taking a while to process what he had said.
"Yeah. I got that." He sighed.
"Honestly, I'd just be glad to get out of this place. It's freaking me out a bit." He added with a weak laugh.