Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

10 days 21 hours 49 minutes until nanobot shutdown/death

Gus hissed at the window, irritated by the obnoxious font increase. I get it already! He quickly gathered his things. Walking down the patio he could see the size of the manor, this entry tucked under a large wedge that appeared to be carved completely out of the mountain. Sharp angles and crisp architecture gave a hard, precision look that seemed out of place in contrast to the flowing smoothness of the natural curves of the island, from the soft sandy dunes by the beach to the undulating bulges of trees in the jungle nearby. A quick check showed the door was still secure. He sighed, hoping his nap would have passed enough time for everything to come online.

Off to the left, Gus could see two-hundred feet down another slope that led to the beach again. This area was on the leeward side of the island and waves crashed here with more regularity than his initial landing spot. Tiny figures could be seen moving along the beach, but the systematic pattern of their movement indicated they were not crabs or other small creatures scuttling around. When a wave would splash against the beach, the forms would be caught up in it, be carried to wherever the wave peaked and then they would resume the pattern. Gus would definitely need to check that out.

He longed to sleep in an actual bed. Hell, he’d sleep on the floor if it was dry. And maybe an actual weapon and some real clothes. There had to be a shower in there somewhere too. The storm had left him with a chill that still hadn’t totally left him, and his woven clothes were drafty as hell. Gus closed his eyes and shuddered at the thought of warm water and the simple pleasure of being clean again. That was the first priority; take care of his basic needs, then he could figure out what his next steps would be to level enough to get out from under his ten-day death sentence.

He continued fantasizing about all the possibilities that could be in the manor, and how he had taken so many simple things for granted. His job as a henchman had exposed him to all kinds of bases and super lairs. They were typically ostentatious, but often had very specialized equipment, geared to maximize the super’s strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. The possibilities were endless, and the curiosity was killing him.

“This is taking for-ev-ER,” he muttered, “how long does the manor need to power up?” He fidgeted as he tried to control his impatience.

Unable to take sitting still and waiting any longer, he wandered back toward the lawn and took in the fruit trees. There were various sorts, and they appeared to have been cultivated or managed by the manor somehow, as no rotten fruit had accumulated underneath them, and they appeared pruned and ready for harvest. Gus quickly gathered some oranges and pomegranates and dug in.

The sweet taste was wonderful. He wondered if they were truly that good, or just that he was so hungry that the flavor of things was amplified. He remembered a time he was at a scout camp and he had eaten these generic brand chili beans. They tasted so good! When he got home he had asked his father to get some. When he tried it at home, however, it had the look and taste of what he imagined dog food to be. Nothing like hunger to change how food tastes or looks!

He tossed the peels in a small pile as he ate, and after a couple minutes, a small panel opened up alongside the manor. A basketball sized contraption rolled out and moved toward him. A flap lowered and it scooped up the discarded peels. Reforming into a ball, it rolled back toward the manor. Gus threw another peel on the ground to see what would happen.

The janitor ball vibrated, and returned to scoop up the new peel. This time it waited, anticipating another piece of trash, but Gus was getting full so he gave the little robot a break. After a minute, the robot came back to life, rolled back to its chute, and disappeared.

When he was fully sated, he was basically a sticky mess. Small bugs started to fly around him, attracted to the juice. He decided to check out the beach and wash off as much as he could in the ocean. Maybe scope out some fishing sites. It would be a lot easier with line and a pole, but a lot of islanders used spears to fish, didn’t they? He’d expected he would level swimming a lot by retrieving his spear after many failed attempts.

Gus grabbed Razorback Prime and headed to the beach. Who knew how long it would take for the manor to open? Better to use the time for leveling and to get familiar with the area. As he made his way down the sandy incline, he could see that there were more spherical robots moving around the beach here, cleaning the beach from any detritus that washed in from the ocean. The waves were much shallower on this side of the island, and he kicked off his flip-flops when he was on the sand.

The beach sand, being so soft it felt like flour, reminded him of a trip to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas he had taken when he was very young. He mentally named this beach ‘Atlantis Beach’ as well, smiling. It reminded him of his mom. Whenever they had gone on a family vacation, it was because of Mom. She had loved tropical locales, and since she had grown up in Florida, she had also loved beaches and the ocean. Those were some of Gus’ most happy memories; that they were so long ago made the memories bittersweet. His only clear memories of her seemed to be from when he was really young.

He wasn’t sure