Chapter 10

Thomas sat with his back against the wall of the small room he rented for the night. It only had a bed and a small desk but it was enough for him. Right now he had thoughts running through his mind unfiltered and never ending. He would often end up like this especially when he was reminded of things from the past.

Eating away at him endlessly, he knew he was going to have another sleepless night. He stood up and pushed all the thoughts out of his head, grabbed his jacket and left the room.

He made his way down the street with his hands in his pockets. normally one would think that the settlement would be empty considering the late hour but it was the exact opposite. In this settlement the streets and stalls are more packed full of people at night then they are during the day.

He took a few turns here and there and approached a heavy iron door with a slit. He knocked a couple of times and waited patiently. Several seconds later someone pulled open the slit and Thomas could see a pair of brown eyes looking him up and down.

"You need something?" A raspy voice asked.

"I'm here to see the doc."

The figure grunted and slammed the slit closed. A few moments later the rusty door grinded open and Thomas entered. He followed the figure down a dark hall way and down some stairs. The hall way opened up to reveal a large man in the middle of what could only be described as a dungeon or laboratory or both.

The man was tinkering with various odd looking tech. He looked up when he heard the man and Thomas approach.

"Look what we have here. Come in, come in." He waved Thomas over to a chair that looked like it was stolen from a dentistry. "What have you brought me?"

Thomas pulled out the small augment chip he found before and handed it over to the doc. "This."

"Hmm, interesting. Its been a while since iv seen tech like this. Only the super rich or those willing to use the black market got there hands on chips like these. Anyways I take payment up front."

Thomas took all the credits he currently had and handed them over. He then sat down in the chair and waited for the procedure.

"A small warning since this looks like your first time getting an implant. The process can be dangerous and your body could reject the implant yadda yadda. You ready kid?"

"Yeah." The words barely escaped his lips before the Doc reached over and jammed a large syringe in Thomas shoulder. Not three seconds passed by before he was out cold and the Doc got to work.

A couple of hours later Thomas woke up with a strange headache and tried to open his eyes.

"Take it slow, installing chips like yours is a delicate process. You feel alright? Besides the earthquake of a headache your feeling I mean?"

It had only been around three hours according to the clock on one of the many screens floating around the room held up by mechanical arms.

"I feel like someone took a jackhammer to my skull." Thomas said while trying to rub the blurriness out of his eyes.

"Well that's not too far from what happened honestly. I made a small incision in the back of your nape and attached that implant directly to your spinal cord."

While the doc was explaining Thomas felt the back of his neck and found the wound that was now stitched up and barely bleeding. He felt a deep ache in his head and got motion sick just from sitting upright.

"I probably should have asked this before but what does this implant do exactly?"

"From what I gather the chip controls the flow of chemicals to and from your brain. if used correctly it can be an extremely powerful tool. It can keep you awake longer by increasing the activity in your brain and nervous system, it can block out certain emotions or increase them too."

"And how would I control this chip?"

"Hold out your arm."

Thomas held out his arm and the doc attached a watch looking device to his wrist with multiple different meters and dials.

"Use this to control the different chemicals in your brain. A small warning though, it can be dangerous to change something too much or too many things at once."

"Got it, thanks doc."

"Sure thing kid."

Thomas was having a bit of trouble walking without knocking things over or using the wall for support. Eventually though he made it back to his room to get some much needed rest and to get used to the implant. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light.

When he awoke the next day he no longer had that horrible pain in the back of his head. he actually felt better than normal. He didn't even have morning grogginess. He checked the new watch on his wrist and saw all the meters were at about the same level.

"Now to give this thing a test drive."

Thomas left his room and started walking towards the tavern to see if anyone posted any interesting jobs. He put his hands in his pockets and entered the tavern. With a quick glance around the place he saw multiple groups of people drinking and talking loudly. He walked past all these people and went straight up to the board.

Thomas got the occasional look here and there but went mostly unnoticed. The first pin on the board he saw was someone asking to get rid of a troublesome group of mutants that was roaming closer and closer to their encampment. He kept looking.

One was for the bodies of mutated animals in the nearby wilderness. Most likely for their hides and claws and such that can be used to craft tools and weapons. Another was asking for an escort from their settlement to another one in the east.

He was thinking it might be good to travel to another settlement and see the sights. It's been a little over six months since the world changed and he spent most of it in the area around this settlement. Thomas continued checking out each of the posts on the board. He didn't know it but a ways behind him were Anne and Max both sitting at a table drinking beers and debating which job Thomas would take.

"Which one do you think he'll take?" Max asked.

"I hope he takes one far away from here." She replied.

They were planning on following Thomas and grouping up again but for now they didn't want to let him know. It was more fun this way.

Max gulped down the rest of his beer and said, "You actually think he'll team up with us again. It was hard enough to convince him the first time you know."

"Then we wont give him a choice. I mean he cant make it far alone anyway. He'll need the backup."

Max just nodded his head.

"Come on it looks like he picked one." Anne grabbed Max's arm and lead him over to the front desk where Thomas was giving the post to the clerk.

"Hey bro." Max threw his arm over Thomas shoulder. "Been a while huh.

Thomas took a deep breathe. "What are you guys doing here."

"We thought you could use the company on your next mission." Anne interjected.

"Yeah man, I promise we wont slow you down."

"That's not really the problem." Thomas mumbled to himself.

"What was that?" Max asked.

"Nothing."

"Anyways I guess if you guys are going then lets hit the road. This job is pretty far away." Thomas informed them.

Anne and max both high fived with smiles while following behind Thomas. Mission accomplished.

They set out pretty early in the day making sure to take the most direct route through the ruins of the city. Meanwhile Thomas was testing his new implant by increasing his adrenaline and his brain activity. This allowed him to move much faster than normal and made sure his brain could process all the information just as quickly.

Just up ahead of them was a group of mutated individuals. Not doing much but roaming from here to there, occasionally lashing out wildly at old broken cars or anything nearby.

Thomas turned up his adrenaline and charged forward with a burst of speed. Even Max was surprised when he saw how fast he was. They had only separated for a few days and there was already a huge difference.

Thomas appeared in front of the first mutant he saw in an instant and with his right arm he punched the mutant across the jaw knocking out a few yellow teeth. In quick succession he struck the mutant left and right until the things jaw was dislocated. The mutant swung both arms to try and grab Thomas but he quickly ducked down and slammed his fist into the mutants knee bending it backwards.

It fell backwards into a vulnerable position so Thomas ended the fight with a strong kick to the skull crushing it into mush.

In his hyper focused state Thomas didn't see the approaching mutated and got tackled to the ground. This mutant must have been a body builder or something before he mutated. Its arms were tightly wrapped around Thomas waist and continued to squeeze almost ripping him in half.

He tried prying the big guys arms off but they didn't budge.