In a post-apocalyptic life, scavenging is everything. The world is your trashcan, and you are one of many hobos who are looking around for anything that maybe—just maybe—make your miserable existence somewhat better.
Adam walked to the Tanaka family garage where Captain Creed found the miniature set and excitedly started looking around the place.
Everything was trashed and looted long ago. Three months is more than enough for a place like this to be stripped clean by other survivors.
People take everything. In the case of the Tanaka family garage, car wheels were taken, and the engine was stripped for parts. The battery is gone, the charger as well, and most of the wires. Whoever came here knew exactly what he was doing.
Adam suspected it was those people who ambushed him at the shelter, but right now, he may as well look for their hideout and take those things back, but they probably left two or three men behind. He found dog tags on these men, so they were probably ex-military from the ones who left their posts.
Either way, there was still all that he needed in the garage once he took a careful look in the place. There was some duct tape, which he could strip the adhesive off with a blade to replace glue, there were some cutter blades which seemed broken but still sharp, and he could make out some tools by combining them with sticks.
Lastly, he found sanding paper, which put a smile on his face. Usually his tool kit as a miniature builder included more than just that, but he was happy with what he found.
What he needed next was a brush, maybe some needle-nose pliers, but he found cutting pliers instead behind one of the drawers in the workbench at the end of the garage. The cutting pliers were blunt and old, so they were good enough to act as holding pliers if held lightly
Here's another post-apocalyptic tip: the space behind a drawer is a treasure trove; you don't what to expect to find back there. Drawers that were filled to the brim always drop something behind if the space was big enough, so always check them.
What's next was the most important thing of all—brush, paint, and water. For these rare items, Adam had one place in mind that may have those items.
"Holy shit! That smells like shit!"
Kave's cave!
He took his flashlight and went down the rabbit hole, and what he saw scared the living ghost out of him.
Kave seemed to have thrashed the place in his madness phase. The furniture was taken apart, and the many shelves were all broken down and made into barricades. Some sort of two lines of super crude defenses were put together with the crudest skill imaginable. When Adam stepped back and took a look at the whole scene, it resembled two different fortification complexes like the ones they used to make in Wartopia, which made Adam get an understanding of how Kave's madness worked.
The world may have ended, but Kave never stopped playing. However, this war game was between him and the demons in his head. Adam didn't know whether to feel pity or be envious.
Both young men lost their families. In fact, if the survival rate were like rolling a natural 20 on a twenty-sided die, everyone would have lost more than one family member.But if he were to think about it, it is more like rolling a natural 1, the very definition of misfortune, to be left alone in the world.
Adam didn't stop there; he kept going and going across the place he played so many times in. He knows the place well, but walking in it now was so unfamiliar. There were parts of the concrete walls that were broken by something heavy, exposing the reinforced steel beneath, as if Kave gave up on breaking the melt door and tried to dig his way outside.
In other parts, Kave seemed to have turned it into his art gallery. Their precious paint kits were opened and used to draw demons and monsters on the wall, but it was there where luck smiled upon Adam.
It seems the place had gone dark before Kave could complete his cave drawings; the lanterns lying around the place suggested that. This left some paint vials still sealed for now, and there was some great color variety too. Adam could work with all that, mix some to make the required colors, dilute with water, and paint to his heart's content.
But the true luck hadn't peaked its beautiful head yet, as in the far distance at one shelf that somehow remained in its place, and like the most prized game collectible waiting for the game character to collect it, Kave's Pencil Sharpener was waiting there for Adam with three small brushes on top of it.
This brought a smile to his face, instilled warmth in his heart, and likely stirred a sense of excitement within him.
Yes, Adam is happy to see you, pencil sharpener.
As anyone could have guessed by this point, this is no ordinary pencil sharpener; this is an antique, a trophy of days gone by, a prize that Kave won in 2004 at the first Wartopia Real-Time Strategy Convention hosted by the Education Department in the state in calibration with the Wartopia's devs.
The late 1990s and the early 2000s were the golden age of RTS games, "Wartopia: Defense on Planet Urd", released in 2003, was a sensation at the time. Adam was young and not initiated in the scene of Wartopia yet, but Kave's uncle, Tanaka Takashi, was a game developer from the studio, and guess who got a free copy for his birthday from dear uncle Takashi.
After winning the convention, Kave was given that pencil sharpener along with other things, and it was made in the image of one of the game's iconic buildings, the Refinery Rig.
From a distance, it looked like a kitchen blender, and it was mostly called the Blender by the fans. You would assign Auxiliary Men-at-Arms to the Rig and let them haul scrap from all over the place with. The Rig simply devours everything thrown in its upper part and produce one of two things: B-Mats, also known as Basic Materials or Building Materials, and Parts, used for creating weapons and other buildings.
The system was simple and straight for an RTS, but an open-world survival craft like "Wartopia: Privateers", the Rig was minimized for personal one-character use. Still, it could make B-Mats, Parts, Fabrics, Blanks, and a whole bunch of other materials. The game description explained it as a super-advanced 3D Printer that breaks all manner of scrap to powder, separates it by basic components, and outputs a refined material ready for crafting and assembly depending on the input given to the terminal.
Adam has always envied Kave for this magnificent trophy. It is from a bygone era when games were games and men were men. It may be the only thing that could cure his loneliness after parting with his Captain Creed's miniature now that its owner wasn't needing it.
Adam held it with happiness and took the brushes from its cup, which was made to hold pencils. Its inner parts were a battery-powered pencil sharpener that played game intro music as its inner blade would sharpen a pencil while the lights glow from all its sides, which is the equivalent of a carnal pleasure for hardcore fans.
That was all he needed: paint, brushes, cutters, pliers, and sanding paper. A surprisingly simple and basic kit to create an army… an actual army.
Adam walked out of the shelter all smiles and found that Kave was back.
"Sup?"
Adam said and sat beside his friend, who was looking at him with a pale face.
"Adam."
"Yes."
"I… I didn't walk far."
"Figures. What's wrong?"
"… I guess… Everything."
Adam turned to Kave and patted his back.
"You know, I don't mean o brag, but I've survived out here for a hundred days. If I did it, you'll do it," Adam said.
"You think… we'll be okay?" Kave asked with a quiet tone.
"Maybe. Who knows? Gobzkins almost killed me this morning, then humans took me hostage. I wasn't a believer, you know. Every time I almost died, I just… feel it."
"It?"
"Yeah. Like I am being watched over. I mean, do you remember Mr. Dorset? He always called me a wuss. What did he call you?"
"… A femboy."
"HAHAHA!"
"He said a feminine she-boy… but there is a term for it… He's just an uncultured oaf."
"Wahahaha!"
Adam couldn't stop laughing, and Kave smiled as he looked at the fire. After calming down, Adam spoke:
"Now, a femboy and a wuss have lived a hundred days in the apocalypse."
"You're no longer a wuss… You survived."
"And you're no longer a femboy. Just some smelly dirty hobo."
Kave couldn't disagree with that; however, the overall conversation started to fill him with reminiscence. His head felt like it was coming back from a rather long bad sleep, his senses were submerged in an suffocating pool of acidic shit, and his soul was held in by so much darkness. If there was hell, he has been through it, and it is no fun being on a highway to that.
For some time, Kave watched Adam do what he does best—a master at work for a craft he never thought would save a life. The Adam of now has long and dirty fingernails, longer hair, dirty clothes, but a grit and willingness to survive like nothing he could ever imagine.
"How did a wuss like you make it?" Kave found himself asking.
"Long answer or short?" Adam looked at him with a smile and bright eyes that gained more color now that he was doing something he utterly loves.
"Whatever one you like more." Kave said, having a feeling that Adam will be telling a story.
Never disappointing his friend, Adam straightened his back and looked into the fire, telling a long-short version of how he made it.