Sunshine on My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

Chapter 2

Reluctantly Antoinette leaned down and picked up the gun and one box of ammo. She never shot a gun in real life, but this wasn't real life. Still, in most games, guns reloaded themselves. She held the Colt in one hand and the ammo in the other. She waited for the magic to happen, but there was no ping of success. The bullets didn't float from the cardboard box to the chamber of the gun. She brought her hands together and touched the box to the cold steel of the weapon, still nothing. She was going to have to do it old school.

Fuck this game!

Antoinette used her foot to slide the remaining boxes of ammo and the knife off the pulsing circle. She wanted to make sure that there wasn't a time limit before the game took the stuff back. Looking at what the circle produced, she wasn't exactly thrilled with a revolver and a knife, but it was a hell of a lot better than a stick and a rock. She picked up the extra boxes of ammo and put them into the pockets of her cargo shorts. It was a tight fit, but she managed to do it. She left the knife on the floor and walked back to sit on her bed. She was happy that she opted for Weapon smith as she was able to load the revolver quickly.

Once she felt comfortable with the process of loading the SAA Colt, she retrieved the knife from the floor in the other room and brought it to the bed. She looked around for something she might be able to make a sheath from, but there was nothing. Maybe she could cut off part of her boots and use that? She took off a boot and inspected it, determining if the boot would retain any semblance of structure if she cut off strips of leather. After minutes of turning the boot over in her hands, she realized that she was using it as a distraction.

She calmly pushed the butterflies down from where they threatened to put her into a state of panic. She left the knife on the bed and walked to the next room with the metal door. It was only a game, right? She walked until she was standing in front of the metal door and stopped. She carefully slid the revolver down the front of her shorts; the steel was cold through the thin material of her underwear. Not for the last time she wished there had been a choice of weapons. If there would have been a choice, Antoinette was convinced that the Colt would have been the last one chosen.

Cautiously Antoinette reached out and touched the metal door with her palm. A humming sound filled the room, and seconds later the door sunk into the floor. Behind the door was a very primitive hallway that ended in an elevator. It appeared to be made of concrete poured in molds to make it look like blocks. It had the feel of a basement hallway you would find at any high school. Long fluorescent light fixtures decorated the ceiling at approximately ten foot intervals. Some of the fixtures were dark, while others were dim or flickering. The limited light didn't provide her with much confidence that something wasn't waiting to attack her.

It didn’t take her long to reach the elevator and she pressed the button for down while pulling the revolver from her pants. If there was something on the elevator, she wondered what would be the best way to stand and fire her ‘hand-cannon’. She knew it wasn't really a hand-cannon, but she loved the way the words sounded together. In the end she opted for the classic Angie Dickinson stance from Police Woman. She spread her legs shoulder length apart and extended her arms out parallel to the floor. She held the Colt in both hands in a vicelike grip to steady her aim. She remembered that her accuracy was Novice so she was going to have to use an expenditure of ammunition to stop whatever might be busting through those doors.

Antoinette was so nervous that as soon as the door opened, she squeezed off several rounds into the empty elevator car. The sound of the gun firing was almost as surprising as the kick from the gun. Even though it was a small gun, she wasn't ready for the kick from pulling the trigger four times in quick succession; she attributed it to her mediocre strength score. Unless she could find a way to increase her strength, what was going to happen if she found a real gun? She might get one round off and have to recalibrate her whole body to fire another shot without shooting it harmlessly in the air.

While she worked to slow her breathing, she pulled some ammo from a box and made sure the chamber of the gun was full. Satisfied, she replaced the extra ammo back in a pocket. It took her a second to unlock her knees and be able to walk to the waiting elevator car. She was almost there when the doors started to close. She darted forward and was able to slide her arms between the doors to trigger them to open again. Once inside, she put her back to the wall and looked at her choices, expecting to see a tree of options. There was only one choice, she pushed the 'L' button and the door slid closed with a hush.

As the elevator car started its slow descent, gears creaked and squealed above. If the cables snapped, she wondered if she would survive a fall from this height. The interior of the elevator was in tune with the feeling of disrepair of the hallway. One of the ceiling tiles was gone and Antoinette couldn't take her eyes off the darkness above, waiting for something or someone to drop down and attack her. If this was going to be the mode of transportation to her safe zone, she was going to have to find a way to block that off.

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She arrived at the lobby without incident.

The doors opened and she peered out. She tried to get as much information as possible before leaving the safety of the car. It looked like the elevator opened to a very large non-descript room. Maybe room wasn’t correct because the space was the size of a high school gymnasium. Large windows, near the top of the opposite wall, filled the space with sunlight. Antoinette stepped from the elevator with the Colt extended in her right hand. The size of the area made her feel small.

”Hello,” she called, using her inside voice. She wanted to let people know she was there without actually letting people know. When no one responded she knew she was going to have to try again, only louder.

”HELLO!”

This time she used her outside voice and the only answer was the echoing of her greeting. Well fuck, what was the purpose of this area? There wasn’t a vendor or health station or anything useful, unless the area would start to fill the more she explored the city. Hopefully there was a deli and an armorer. Her mind wandered to other shops that would fill her wish list.

Seeing no immediate threat in the area, she started to walk across the concrete floor towards the exit. Her boots made soft taps on the floor with each step. After she was a third of the way to the doors, she lowered the gun. She rolled her shoulders to release some of the tension that built up from the stress of the morning.

The warmth of the sun filtering in through the large windows felt good on her skin. She didn’t feel as lonely walking in the sunlight. Everyone knew sunlight was a symbol of protection from most things evil. There were countless examples in movies and books where sunlight saved the day. She trusted information in books and movies, it was only things on the internet you needed to be wary of.

Antoinette took several more steps forward and she was startled by the sounding of alarms. A loud siren filled the area, reminiscent of the air raid warnings from WWII. With her heart pounding in her chest and sweat forming on her forehead, she gripped her gun and turned in a slow circle. If she saw movement of any kind, she was ready to fill the threat with six slugs of hot death.

A woman’s voice filled the room:

”WARNING! YOU ARE LEAVING THE SAFETY OF THE TREASURY. EXIT AT YOUR OWN RISK!”

“You didn’t have to scare the shit out of me with that stupid warning!” She shouted into the emptiness.

She took a calming breath and wondered if she could turn off that warning in the future. Walking towards the exit of the large vacant space of her safe zone, Antoinette felt pretty good about what was going on. The sun shone through the windows placed high on the wall she was walking towards. She thought the sunlight must be a portent of some sort. The sound of John Denver filled her mind, and she started singing “Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy”.

She thought again of his tragic death. She wondered how many times Mr. Denver had done the exact same process with his fuel tanks, only that fateful day in 1997 things didn't go as planned. He was 53 when he died; too fucking young for John Denver and his fans.

The exit looked like a lot of entrances she had been through in her life. There was a large revolving door centered in the glass wall, with no other access points. If this place was to be her safe zone, she wondered briefly about the strength of the doors. Antoinette remembered people moving outside, and wondered if they were a gang? Was she going to walk into some demented version of West Side Story? If that was the case, was she located in the heart of Jet territory? Maybe she was to be a Shark; one of her favorite movies was 'Jaws'. She wondered how much the game knew about her, not that it really mattered. Her first point of business was to find a real weapon.

She arrived at the door and tried to look through the tinted glass; it reminded her of the glass in bathrooms where you could see through, but not well enough to sneak a peek at who was in the shower. Was the glass like this to keep her from seeing out, or from things seeing in? If it was the latter, what needed to be kept from seeing in? Maybe there was a medusa wandering around and the glass kept people from getting turned to stone. Whatever the reason, she knew she was going to have to exit the building or she was going to go crazy thinking about what was out there.

Antoinette moved into the open pie shaped chamber of the revolving door and her movement triggered a sensor that brought the door to life. It slowly spun counter clockwise and she kept pace until she was able to exit. Once outside she realized that she was in a small vestibule. The walls of this small area were also made of glass, only this time she could easily see what was beyond the safety of the transparent barrier. The only exit from this small area was a sliding glass door activated via motion detection.

She walked to the glass, careful not to trip the sensor and looked out. On the street were a lot of cars, most appearing as if they hadn’t been used for years. Some were overturned while others connected by twisted metal from being slammed together. She couldn't see anything moving other than the random piece of trash blown by an invisible wind. Antoinette continued to look while she considered what she needed the weapon for? She couldn't see an immediate threat, and if there were other humans around, did they also have weapons? If they did, and possessed something better than her Colt, which was pretty much anything, she was going to be D-E-D Dead. Gathering her courage, she tightened her hand around the grip of the Colt and slid in front of the door. The doors separated and slid open; she was free!