Chapter Thirty-Eight - Basement

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Basement

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Basement

Theres a whole new category of entertainment called simply Samurai Entertainment. Sometimes its shortened to SE, or See, as in the verb to see.

The genre mostly consists of following samurai the way that paparazzi of the past followed celebrities. The big difference is that most samurai dont care for the attention, and most celebrities don't saunter onto battlefields on the regular.

--Modern Stream Entertainment, Genre Guide, 2031

***

Paul clambered down the stairs with all of the attitude and ill mood of a five year old who had just been told off. If I wasnt such a bastion of moral integrity and good spirit, I would have mocked him for it.

Wait...

Who shat in your shorts, Pauly boy? I asked as I followed him down the steps.

He paused so that he could level a glare at me. I dont like you, he said.

Well shit, there goes my mood for the next week, I said.

Cat, maybe less quipping and more walking would be in order? Gomorrah asked.

I shook my head. Sarcasm and snark are the only things I had for a long time, you know? When you dont own anything, you cling onto whatever you have, I explained.

Yes, but youre a samurai now. You can hardly be said to have nothing. You have your equipment, plenty of resources, a girlfriend. Even a home, she said. Perhaps you can finally do away with the snark?

Huh, I said. Does having a home make me a part of the bourgeois?

You dont actually know what that is, do you? Gomorrah asked.

I dont, but something deep inside me still makes me want to blame them for all of my woes.

Paul tsked. Youre exactly the kind of thing we left the city to avoid, he said.

Did he just literally objectify me? Just get us to the basement so that we can do our jobs, I snapped.

And then what? Youll leave us all alone? he asked.

Yeah, thats the idea. We have other hives to break, and other people to save. I still think youd be clever to move back to the city. Theres more of us bougie-types to keep you nice and safe. If you want to use that boomstick of yours, Im sure theres some militia out there thats desperate enough that theyll hire even you.

Fuck off, I want to defend me and mine right here. This is my home. I worked hard for it. Did you ever work hard for anything in your life? he growled.

We started down the tunnel until we came to an intersection. Paul had failed to mention that the basement was basically a rats nest of narrow passages. I had expected it to be more like... a few rooms connected together by some corridors. But it seemed as though the basement was more of an accessway for machines and stuff that wasnt around anymore.

A little ways in we arrived at a large room. There were old crates up against the wall and a loading area at the far end.

I glanced around and dismissed all of that in favour of staring into the floor. We had to go down a couple of steps to get to the ground, steps which disappeared under a layer of black, motionless water.

Bet it smells wonderful down here, I muttered.

Movement, Gomorrah said.

I snapped my head up and looked. I couldnt see anything at first, not until I noticed the ripples in the water.

They came from a stack of crates in the middle of the room. Old wooden boxes with mould growing up their sides. And right there on top of them was what looked like a pile of rags.

Thats a model nine, I said. I could see its little beady eyes between two folds. The little shit was waiting for us.

It is, Gomorrah said. This isnt a stealth mission though. She raised her flamethrower, and I winced back as a jet of high-pressure liquid fire roared out of the gun and onto the model nine and the crates beneath.

The rotting old wood might have been damp, but that didnt save it from Gomorrahs wrath.

The entire room, as big as it was, turned into an oven in the time it took to blink. The water on the surface bubbled and hissed, steam rose into the air, pulled into the gushing flames, then disappeared with a squeal.

The crate and the alien on it didnt exist three seconds after Gomorrah opened up on them. She pulled her finger off the trigger, and a single burning corner of the wooden box--still on fire--flopped into the water with a hissing splash.

Do you see any others? she asked.

Are you going to do that to all of them? I asked. Next time I got a suit, I was getting one with better temperature controls. It was beyond uncomfortable in here. Might as well dry off the floor while youre here.

Gomorrah took that suggestion to heart, and soon the flamethrower was being swept left-to-right across the floor. The water in the room rushed back from the flames but whenever Gomorrah moved the water would pour right back into the void. The air was filled with a foggy steam by the time Gomorrah gave up.

I think the entire basement is filled, she said. I might run out of fuel before it runs out of water.

Then well be getting our ankles wet, I said. Well live. Though Im worried that the antithesis will have invented some sort of ankle-biting fish-thing just to fuck with me.

Arent cats supposed to like fish? Gomorrah asked.

Now whos being snarky, I muttered.

We started splashing our way across the room, on the lookout for the next alien to burn.

***