I Woke Up 120 Years After The Apocalypse-Chapter 41: Epic

Behind the mound that covered his position, Akram glanced once more toward Yashyn. He still hadn’t moved, and the young leader could see no sign of breathing.

He took a deep breath while the Rushers continued to pepper his position with projectiles. Yet Akram noticed something—something insignificant at first glance.

They’re missing every shot since I took cover... Either they’re avoiding killing or wounding me, or they... don’t know how to use their weapons, Akram thought, a new idea crossing his mind.

He pulled a pin on his prosthetic arm, which unfolded into a completely different configuration. A new version of the mini-crossbow he had previously built, this time equipped with an automated reloading system.

He pulled several chestnuts from his pouch and loaded the reservoir almost mechanically.

Another volley followed. The explosions shattered the mound, hurling Akram out of cover. The shockwave rattled him violently, his ears ringing so badly that he struggled to make sense of his surroundings.

A bolt exploding just behind him snapped him back to reality. He armed his prosthetic and fired toward his attackers.

A chestnut struck a Rusher square in the head, blowing it apart in a spray of gore.

The remaining Rushers panicked and scattered, leaving only a handful of men facing the Vulkan leader.

"Hold your fucking positions! We have to take him down, those are the orders!"

"Fuck your orders, man, he’s gonna kill us! It’s the Cursed One, damn it—he took down Koard!!"

Akram kept firing, detonating chestnuts in rapid succession with his improved handheld crossbow.

The mechanism was simple enough. Akram pulled a retractable pin to launch a projectile; each time the pin snapped back into place, another chestnut automatically fed into position.

After firing around ten chestnuts, Akram ceased fire, allowing the dust mixed with blood to settle.

When the cloud cleared, one Rusher still stood before him. It was the same one who had taken Yashyn by surprise. Both of his arms were nearly torn off.

The two men locked eyes in silence until the Rusher finally broke it, his voice barely audible, his throat tight with pain.

"They w-w-will win."

With those final words, the Rusher charged forward, screaming, ready to sell his life dearly.

Then a brief glint of metal, followed by the sound of flesh being cut, ended his charge. Yashyn rose at the same time.

The Rusher’s head separated from his body and fell at Akram’s feet, a pool of blood spilling out beneath it.

"Damn, he was annoying..."

Akram looked up at his friend, completely stunned. Yashyn’s mask was cracked at the level of the right eye lens, crudely patched with a piece of cloth.

"Uh... what happened to you?"

"Huh? Oh yeah... the asshole I just killed blew your crap up right on me. It punched a hole in my lens there... so I fell asleep."

"You did what?"

The more Yashyn explained, the less Akram seemed to understand. Seeing his confusion, the bounty hunter finally clarified.

"That genetics lesson of yours... I’m a reaper. If I breathe air without this mask, I fall asleep instantly."

Akram’s eyes went wide.

"You’re what?! Holy shit, you could’ve mentioned that earlier!"

"Yeah, but I’m not interesting. No positive effects to balance the narcolepsy—wasn’t worth bringing up."

Akram shook his head, clearly disappointed, probably having imagined Yashyn as some marvel of human evolution. Maybe he was hiding something from the young man.

"Anyway, we’ll talk about it later... We need to move."

The two men finally entered the relic, the place where Akram had been born into this new world, where everything started..

"Wow... the memories..."

They descended the stairs, moving underground, guided by Akram’s pocket lantern.

Along the way, they passed several bodies—recent ones, according to Akram: bandits, Rushers, and other scavengers.

They eventually reached the lowest level, the room where everything had begun for Akram: the cryo-room.

Nothing had changed. The corpses of Akram’s former team were still where they had fallen, and Emy’s cryopod remained completely sealed.

Akram entered first and wasted no time. He removed his pack, pulled out his extraction equipment, and approached his old glass coffin.

He dismantled several compartments of the cryopod, beginning the extraction of the medical gel.

Meanwhile, Yashyn circled the room, observing everything.

"So you were locked inside these things? For a hundred and twenty years? Almost makes me cry from boredom."

"You don’t feel time passing inside... I just had a progra— uh, a voice feeding me information about major events and their dates."

"Ah, so you were well informed. And your buddies over there?"

Yashyn nodded toward the empty cryopods and those containing skeletons. Akram glanced back briefly.

"Part of my team... I’m guessing scavengers managed to open their pods somehow—no idea how—and dealt with them."

"And the empty ones?"

"I haven’t heard of any survivors from the past since I woke up, so I assume they’re dead."

"Hmmm..."

Akram finished extracting the gel and stored it in several wooden, makeshift bottles. In total, he recovered a full pack—six bottles, one liter each.

He straightened up with a sigh and moved on to the final step: Emy’s cryopod.

He swapped out his equipment, pulled out several copper cables, and connected them directly to the pod’s power supply.

Yashyn watched with curiosity.

"So, how are you planning to do this?"

"Mhmm... My first hypothesis is to trip the pod’s safety system by causing a short circuit. Cryopods were designed to protect the occupant at all costs, even if that means stopping the process and opening."

"That’s what happened to you, right?"

Akram nodded. He then pulled out a modified battery and connected the copper wires to it. A single switch now stood between him and his goal.

He exchanged a brief look with Yashyn, who answered him with a brief nod, then went for it.

A deep electrical hum echoed throughout the entire complex, and an electric arc burst near the two men, nearly electrocuting them.

Akram was about to find out whether his hypothesis had worked.