Chapter 32: Filling the Gap

Benny was looking over the damaged doors and crumbling rocks in bewilderment. "How are we going to fix this mess?"

The hole in the top of the left metal door had been completely dented inwards by at least three meters, as if a giant hand had peeled the door inwards. If it weren’t for the expertly crafted hinges, both doors would have surely been busted down. Smaller rocks, shale, and sand had been flung inside the tunnel, as well as blocking up most of the hole and it looked like at any moment more of them might tumble inside.

"I'm not sure." John replied sounding just as unsure as Benny. "But at least we know where the Twisted creature came in from."

"It's good that it was by itself when it came in." Lisa said eyeing the hole. "I don't think I could have handled the fight as well as I did if there was more than one."

"It's strange though." John said rubbing his chin. "Twisted like that type usually travel in packs. But this one was alone. Could it have gotten lost or stranded?"

"Not sure, perhaps we need to go outside these doors to get a better understanding of what happened." Richard suggested.

"Are you kidding?" Benny replied shaking his head. "There's probably more of them hiding out there. If I recall, it's a mountain forest on this side of the dam. We have no reason to go up there."

Lisa gave a laugh. "I was just over there yesterday setting up rabbit snares and I didn't see anything like a Twisted, as you call it. Is that really what it's called?"

"You mean you don't know about the Twisted?" Benny said surprised. "Where have you been all your life? Under a rock?"

"You could say that." Lisa answered while giving a shrug. Being asleep for two hundred years surely has its drawbacks when it comes to knowledge of the current world affairs. "I think it will be fine for us to cross over the dam. Besides, I nearly forgot to check on the traps I set up over there. I got to eat somehow."

"I'm still unsure about the risks for doing this, but let’s go back for now and double check the dam's rooms again, just to be sure that there really isn’t any more Twisted inside." John offered and the others readily agreed.

They had no other choice but to go back anyways. The damaged back entrance was beyond their capabilities and after seeing the dead Twisted, not one of them wanted to be caught off guard. The rooms they had to check were mostly empty and it made for an easy search. After double checking these rooms thoroughly, they once again found no signs of any other creature.

After determining that the tunnel was safe, Lisa still wanted her question answered. "So, what is a Twisted anyway? And where did they come from?"

John cleared his throat to explain first. "Well, from what I know is that Twisted are not naturally found in this world. There are all kinds of mutated beasts, like the one you killed, that have been created through mainly mutations due to radiation in the Nuclear Wastelands that are found all over the world. They have many shapes and features that are all crazy in appearance. In many cases the Twisted creatures look just like a children’s drawing of monsters and hardly resemble what they once were. While others still resemble and retained some features of the animals they once were."

Then Benny chimed in. "The Twisted you fought probably would have been born as a coyote or wolf. Not too many other Twisted creatures look as deformed as that type though, and most still retain some features of their predecessors. Though even if they do have some similar features, all most all Twisted are carnivorous."

"You mean that even herbivores could be mutated into Twisted and then eat meat?" Lisa asked not hiding her curiosity one bit. She had only heard people vaguely mention the Twisted in Salt Lake City and other areas of the countryside, but never thought of it as anything important.

"Yes. Many creatures that had been living in the Nuclear Wastelands had undergone mutations and after years of breeding they had taken on unimaginable appearances compared to what their species once was." Benny replied enthusiastically. He then rubbed his chin as if fondly recalling the past, "I used to study them as my minor course, back in the day, when I was going to college. Twisted Sociology, I think that is what it was called back then. Not sure if it's still being called that now."

"Anyway," Richard cut in before Benny could ramble on, "What we’re getting at is the Twisted are still very much unknown and very dangerous."

"Ah, were back at the creature’s corpse. Let me take a quick look at it." Benny said eagerly approaching the Twisted body. With his boot, Benny gingerly flipped over one of its hind paws. "Yep, definitely a type of canine. You can see it's paw pad still resemble a wolf’s pad and the claws, though now longer, are still the same width as a wolfs. If we could examine this specimen just a bit more I could…"

Richard interrupted Benny by placing a giant gentle hand on his shoulder. "Benny, we can't stay here all day. It's still not safe to take the time to study. We need to plug up that hole."

Benny sighed heavily. "It's times like these I wish I'd not been a police officer. The mutant creatures are so much more interesting." Benny knew Richard was right though and reluctantly got up to follow the other three back out from the tunnel.

When they came out, Lisa closed and locked the big metal doors just in case a creature happened to go in while they were gone. They, however, were getting hungry now. The sun had already past its zenith and lunchtime was long gone.

"I think we should see if any of my snares caught some food. We can cook them up while we investigate the other side of the tunnel." Lisa suggested.

"Sounds good to me as long as no other Twisted show up." John replied. Then he glanced at the humming transformer nearby in the main room. "I still can't believe you actually got this dam running."

"Me either." Lisa replied giving a proud grin. "I can see so many potential money-making opportunities now that I can provide power to the town. I just need to help Hana out first, then things will really get going."

"I hope so." John responded. "Mary has been telling me every day she's been dying to have air conditioning and heating back on again. I do to. We were so spoiled to have such a luxury that we took it for granted."

"I promise I'll do what I can." Lisa said encouragingly.

When everyone crossed the dam, the three men marveled at the view. Apparently, they had not seen the town from this angle before. The sun was sparkling brightly off the river as boats drifted almost motionless across its murky surface. The grey and blackened areas of the town were very visible, distinguishing the areas affected from bombings of the past. They entered the gloomy forest after looking at this serene scene for what seemed to be only a moment.

Lisa quickly checked her snares while the men warily kept a lookout for dangers. Lisa found two squirrels and a small rabbit in her snares. Just enough for all four of them to split among themselves and feel satisfied afterwards. After resetting the traps, they headed for the collapsed entrance on the opposite side of the dam.

The maintenance path leading down towards the tunnel entrance, from the main road, had become very overgrown with weeds. However, the weeds here were only waist high and no saplings had begun to take over the path, so they still had an easy and clear route to follow. Just as they arrived at the entrance area it was clear as to what had happened.

A large rockslide had torn a large portion off the steep mountain slope and crashed into the doors below. If they hadn't followed the old maintenance path, they might have walked right past the tunnel entrance completely. Looking at the dirt and green leaves of the plants mixed in with the rockslide debris, it was clear that the event had happened maybe only a day or two ago. Seeing that the plant’s leaves were still green meant that this was good news. Despite the damage to the doors, this meant that the Twisted had likely just accidentally found the hole.

"Well, I think that I can still block off the hole." Lisa said overlooking the piles of boulders and rock. "Here. Can you cook these while I see what I can do?" Lisa said holding out the dead animals towards the men.

They gave her a puzzled look as Richard took them and asked, "Don't you want us to help you?"

"You are and have been." Lisa replied taking off her leather jacket. Then she chuckled aloud and said, "You're helping me by keeping a lookout and by cooking. You can leave the rest to me. These rocks look much too heavy for you old guys!"

The men felt awkward hearing the thin looking woman telling them that she would be doing the heavy lifting while they cooked. But it couldn't be helped, they knew she was far stronger than she appeared. Lisa walked over to a large boulder, nearly half her height, and she gripped it low to the ground and lifted just enough to clear the divot it was stuck in. The boulder rocked slowly as Lisa gave it a nudge and sent it tumbling down the rockslide towards the hole. The men were quite flabbergasted upon seeing her monstrous strength in action once more. She made lifting boulders look far too easy.

After an hour of work the smell of cooking meat filled the air. Lisa had nearly blocked up the hole with the boulders and smaller rocks. Only once did she have a close call while working, when moving a knee-high rock. When she yanked it up it caused the rocks above to suddenly shift and started a smaller rockslide. Fortunately, she avoided it easily and no harm was done in the end.

"The food is ready!" Benny called taking the meat off from the fire to cool some.

Richard and John quickly hurried over from where they were keeping lookout for Twisted and got ready to eat. They hadn’t heard a dangerous sound all day and decided to let their guard down.

"Be there in one second." Lisa called back.

She hurriedly put the last rock onto the top of the hole. Then she dragged over several leafy evergreen branches to further cover up her work. Overlooking the plugged-up entrance, she felt satisfied with the outcome and then quickly hurried over to the fire.

Lisa may of have robotic parts, but her stomach was definitely not one of them. The smell of the freshly cook meat was making her very hungry. After all, any meat in general was her second most favorite food.

As they ate, John started up a conversation. "So, what is your next plan? Are you going to start running power to the town right away?"

Lisa swallowed a juicy bite of rabbit thigh and replied. "Nope. I need to first get some workers employed under my control. Then once I get them, I need to make sure that the dam will continue functioning properly and the power lines are all connected into a proper power network. Then I will need to charge the people somehow for the electricity. After all, I'm a businesswoman and making money is my goal.”