Black Market Merchant

Chapter 116: Moving In
Zane felt dead. Sadie had been working him like a dog for three days straight. His legs burned, arms felt like Jell-O and his torso felt like Lead bricks were squashing him. He didn’t want to move a single fiber of his body, it simply hurt too much.

”Come on Zane, just one more time up the stairs.” Sadie said looking down at Zane as she stood above him with a cheery expression.

Zane was star-fished out at the foot of the stairs as he lay on the cool concrete floor of the powerhouse building. The stairs had now become the object that he loathed. He looked up at the cheery lady above him. Her brown single braid dangled over her right shoulder and pleasant smile was on her face, all this was a lie!

”She’s the devil in disguise.” Zane grumbled in his thoughts. ”I won’t let her charm fool me. She is slowly trying to kill me. I think I would rather get stabbed by Dilly again.”

”Come on Zane. I know you can do it!” Sadie continued prodding.

”Just let me rest for a few minutes.” Zane sighed.

”Fine, just a short break.” Sadie said turning away with a pouty expression. ”Your opponent is out there right now probably fighting or training and all you’ve done is complain. If this keeps up, you’re not going to win. Where’s your motivation?”

”I think I lost my motivation six flights ago.” Zane murmured.

Sadie rolled her eyes and decided to get him some water. While Zane had been doing the training menu, she had instructed him to do, she was trying to clean this place up. The place was a dump. Dirt, leaves, water damage, and trash were everywhere. Every corner had piles of grimy nasty stuff, the floors hadn’t been swept in years and dust was layered thickly on everything.

To get rid of a lot of flammable stuff, and not waste them, Sadie would just toss them into the fire and boil water at the same time. There was lots of rotten wood and trash to keep the fire going nicely, so she didn’t worry about it going out. She couldn’t stand living is such a dirty place. Sadie couldn’t help but wonder why Lisa had chosen this place to live. There were plenty of other buildings in town.

The water pot was still boiling on the fire and she decided to take it off, before returning to Zane with water that was already cooled off. Sadie had just taken the pot off when something caught her attention over by the dam. Looking that way, she was pleased to see that it was Lisa returning. However, Lisa was not alone. There were five young strangers following along with her.

Taking a glance at Zane, Sadie saw that he was still laying on the floor. She rolled her eyes again then started to head towards the group coming her way. They seemed to have stopped near the middle of the dam and were peering over the edge while Lisa was talking to them. Sadie also noticed that Lisa had some small animals in her hand, apparently from the traps in the woods, and this was a good thing to see. There was nearly nothing left to eat. It seemed to Sadie that food was the biggest obstacle to overcome living outside of the Mad Dogs compound.

”As you can see this dam is even higher than the cliff, we all climbed up.” Lisa explained to the five volunteers. ”Its height lets the water fall fast enough to turn the turbines fast enough to generate the electricity in the generators.”

Lisa had been explaining how the dam worked and functioned as they passed through the woods on their way here. If they were going to be helping to work on it, they should at least understand how it works. Once inside she could then explain everything in greater detail.

”I can’t look over the edge. I think I have a fear of heights now.” Ava murmured nervously stepping away. While the other four marveled at the sight of the river splitting the two sides of town.

”I think I see our street from here!” Willis said pointing in their home’s direction.

”This is awesome. I had seen this place from afar, but up close is way more impressive!” Wayne commented.

”If you all look the other way you can see the large lake that has been formed behind the dam. It is just as spectacular. Also, not as terrible to look at Ava and rather relaxing instead.” Lisa said motioning for them to look. The five of them turned to cross over the dam’s road and were in awe of this new sight as well. It was also then that Lisa noticed Sadie coming their way.

”Sadie, I am back.” Lisa called out giving a small wave.

”I see.” Sadie called back and the two met up. ”How did everything go with the ERM and who are these people?”

Lisa broke out into a huge grin. ”Everything went great! I now have my first customers and a legitimate contractual deal. Once the dam is fully operational or even partially working, I will be paid to be powering the buildings for the ERM. Also, there will be three huge Mover Mechs coming here to get charged up. You know what those are right?”

”That’s wonderful! Glad to see things are working out and yes I know what Mover Mechs are.” Sadie replied before giving a sigh. ”Zane’s training has been going, well, moderately ok. He is terribly out of proper shape. Tomorrow you’re going to have to spar with him, because all we’ve done is conditioning.”

”Lisa.” Someone called from behind Lisa. They turned to see the others coming towards them and found it was Wayne speaking. ”This place is pretty cool. Who’s this?”

”Everyone, this is Sadie.” Lisa said throwing an arm over Sadie’s shoulders. Sadie blushed embarrassed by the action, but Lisa continued speaking. ”She is a good friend of mine and my Match Fighter manager. Sadie, these are volunteers sent by the ERM to assist with the dam’s reconstruction. Their names are from right to left, Tayvon, Willis, Henry, Ava, and the Captain of the group is Wayne.”

”Hello, everyone.” Sadie said giving a timid wave. The others gave welcoming hello’s and tired but friendly smiles.

”There is one more guy that is staying here.” Lisa continued. ”His name is Zane, a trainee to become a Match Fighter and my only official employee as well. I assume he is still training inside, right Sadie?”

Sadie let out a sigh. ”Yes, he’s lying in the floor complaining that he’s too tired.”

”I hope you didn’t work him too hard.” Lisa replied getting off of Sadie’s shoulder and looking back towards the powerhouse building.

”Not really.” Sadie said giving a shrug.

”Well, in any case, let’s get you all situated and find a place for you all to sleep. There’s not much in terms of sleeping space, but we can fix that eventually.” Lisa said turning to go towards the powerhouse and she waved for them to follow. ”Come on. There is still a lot more to see.”

The seven of them all arrived at the powerhouse and sure enough, Zane was still sprawled out on the floor. He heard them entering and seeing new arrivals he, though still aching, scrambled to get and greet them. When Lisa introduced them too Zane, she purposefully left out the part mentioning that they were with the ERM. Instead, she craftily called them volunteers from their first client.

Lisa was going to have to find out whether or not he could handle working alongside former enemies. Additionally, she watched the five volunteers carefully. They might have recognized Zane as a Black Rat Lieutenant and things would get tense. However, they made no such indication that they knew him. Though they could be hiding it, she just had to keep an eye on them.

”Well Zane, I’m going to have to kick you out of your room and you lose the bed. Ava is going to be with us.” Said Lisa after everyone was finished with their introductions. ”You and the rest of the guys are going to the room across from the one we are in now. There aren’t many areas to sleep on, but you’ll get first pick. We can work on buying more beds for everyone in the near future.”

Zane seemed slightly disappointed but nodded obediently. Lisa then led the way to where the rooms were at. The boss’s office she had left untouched after taking the couch out when she first moved in, so they had to move a lot of stuff for them to be comfortable. After a while everyone had adjusted the areas for them to stay in and settled in by moving the couches from Lisa’s base back to here.

”Alright, now that that’s done time to go down into the tunnel.” Lisa announced. ”I am going to show you all the electricity and what I expect you all to be working on. There’s a lot to cover and explain so pay attention and ask questions when you don’t understand something.”

Everyone agreed, except for Sadie. ”Zane and I will go back to training. I think he’s had a long enough break now.”

Zane let out a grown. ”Do I have too?”

”Yes, now quit complaining and be a man!” Sadie chided.

Everyone else chuckled hearing this and seeing Zane’s unhappiness. Especially Lisa. She hadn’t expected Sadie to have had such a dominant impact onto the former gang member. Sadie seemed so quiet and timid until it came to doing her job. It really opened her up to others.

Lisa first showed the volunteers the control room and explained some of its functionality. Then she briefly explained and showed what the transformers, on the first floor, did in the process of electricity production. When Lisa brought them to the huge green doors of the dam’s tunnel and opened them, they all let out a collective gasp. The sight of electrical lighting was astounding to them. Even more so than a few tiny lights on the control room panels.

”I hadn’t seen lights like these since I was six or seven.” Henry finally said breaking the silence. ”We knew you had electricity, but not already to this extent!”

”It’s still only limited to the tunnel and control room.” Lisa replied with a grin.

She was getting a rather proud satisfaction feeling watching them ogle at the lights. The whole idea that what used to be America now had so many people that hadn’t seen electricity before or in a long time was sad. Bringing it back to them had its own special feeling that was difficult to put in words.

”Now let’s go further in and I will show you the main focus of the work that needs to be done first.” Lisa said walking down the tunnel. The group followed closely, still in wonder.

Lisa proceeded to explain what she had done so far. She had taken apart almost a dozen generators and laid out many of the parts for inspection and inventory purposes. Lisa explained what each part was, used for, and what needed to be taken care of. The whole process lasted for nearly two hours. By the end of the ’brief’ explanation, the five volunteers felt as if their minds were spinning.

”How are we going to remember all of this?” Tayvon asked.

”Ya, we haven’t really had any kind of formal education. Only what are parents taught us and what we found in books.” Ava added.

”Assuming we had read the books.” Willis pointed out. ”I’m really not into reading.”

”Don’t worry. I don’t expect you to remember all of this right away or what the manuals say exactly.” Lisa replied. ”We will have plenty of time for hands on training and experience. I’ll be here working with you the whole time. Besides, each generator is identical, and the job will be repeated over and over. You’ll probably even find things that need fixing on your own too.”

”So, when will we start?” Willis asked.

”After the Mechs are charged and gone to work on the path will we then come back here.” Lisa replied. ”We won’t be able to work on fixing the problems until Mr. Sellers returns with the parts to work with. Until then we will work on finding broken parts and repairing the other facilities around here, in addition to these generators. Not to mention we need to find food and clean water. There is a lot of work to do around here.”