“Ummmm Erik,” Derricc says anxiously, what am I even looking at right now.
We’re currently inside of a car right now.
I mean one of those car that is conveniently parked and old enough that no one who take a second look under the hood.
This particular has one of those secret underground bunkers from the 80’s and 90’s movies where the entrance is under the car and leads right to the hood.
Inside is older equipment: computers, drones, guns, keyboards.
Anything someone would’ve used in the late 20th century as a base of operations is here.
“It looks like you were going to use this for more than just a shelter.
Wait, 3 weeks…you said this was made in three weeks.
How?” Derricc is just exasperated which was funny in itself “Technically, the base was already built, I just modified it.” “By going back to the military Stone Age.” “Hey now, this is high quality software.
It still works wonders, even if it’s ancient.
I put a program in that blondie told me about once and these systems are old but have the running speed of more modern equipment.” Derricc at this point has a deadpan face that can’t quite understand what for.
“Anything else I should know about those 3 weeks sir.” Great, now he’s a bit agitated.
I guess it makes sense since I did all this with 1 and a half functioning arms.
I guess Derricc hasn’t gotten over that point.
“Honestly, not at the moment but I’ll be sure to let you know.” Derricc just deadpans so bad I can’t help but laugh.
We move to the meeting room to discuss everything.
But first, it’s snack time.
“Hey bro”, I say to Derrick.
“Let’s take a minute to decompress.
We died, got reborn, got blown up and are currently on the run.
That’s a lot for the last 24 hours we’ve gone through.
Let’s just sit and enjoy some snacks.
I pull out some Dr.
Peppers and some chips for us to munch on as we try to decompress.
“So Erik, what exactly happened after I passed.” So i tell him about everyone dying and the mysterious entity that I talked too.
Derricc ponders for a minute in silence while taking it all in.
“You know Erik, for a deity that has the power to bring up back to life and mess with time, it’s gotta be a big gamer based on its love for dice.
I mean normally nothing about this is believable but it can’t be anything but the truth after actually coming back to life.
“This entity,” I say out loud, I don’t know what it is, what it wants, or why it gave us this chance but I want to make the most of it.
We have a chance to rewrite everything.
Our sisters in arms won’t die in our arms again, and if we’re lucky enough, we can actually help people this time.
“Your right Erik, we have knowledge, the experience, and the determination to do whatever it takes to protect our family and get revenge on the greedy bloodsuckers.
First things first, we gotta get a gameplan going.
“Before we do anything, I have a loose end to tie up.
“You mean Ashley right.
I know she ended killing you but honestly I feel bad for her.
You two were truly in love and I was really happy for you.
It sucks that you weren’t able to be there for her.
“I know, I want to free her this time.
Let her see the world for what it is and let her be the person she needs to be.
She at least deserves that.” “I still can’t believe her parents are that old school though.
We gotta do something about that.” “I’ll think of something on the way.” With that we go to the garage and get into the truck that’s there and take off to Ashley’s house.
“Ummmmm Erik, where did these cars come from.
“What do you mean, I bought them years ago”, i say as a garage door opens from the bunker that leads into the forest behind the car.
“Wait, is that what the $600,000 you had me ask the president for all those years ago went too.
“Ummmm yes.” Derricc is finally exasperated enough to actually smack on the back of the head.
“What was that for.” I say rubbing my head “Why do you always do this random nonsense and act like it’s no big deal.” “I mean it’s working out for us now isn’t it.” “Yeah, now is nice but we could’ve used that money for other things instead of things we never used last life.” Derricc finally starts calming down a little.
“I guess I should be glad it’s useful now.” “So Derricc, what are your thoughts on everything?” I ask as I start the drive towards Nevada where Ashley lives.
“Well, we have this entity we can’t do nothing about and we fully don’t even know if it’s on our side or what the endgame is.
I assume you’ll figure it out as we go forward in this life.” “The biggest issue is Jackson.
We didn’t know who he was in the first life, but I think I saw him quite often in the last life.” I stare out into the distance going through my memories and I realize that Jackson was indeed around more often than i initially thought.
“Derricc you’re right.
Everything we do going forward, we need to account for Jackson’s presence as much as possible.
If he’s actively trying to kill us we need to be armed if we’re going to be near him.” It takes us about 2 days with rests to drive from Nebraska to Nevada as we also took this chance to explore the country a bit now that we were out from under the presidents thumb for a little bit.
Ashley lived in the outskirts of Las Vegas on top of a hill overlooking the city.
It was a log time since i was here but I didn’t fully realize how big Ashley’s mansion was.
It looked exactly like what you’d expect from a family that has old money.
I approach the gates and tell the guard who I am and they looked like they’d see ghosts.