Utterly Mad

The idea was very simple once it had been discussed. As it turned out, super alloy was fantastic for resisting heat, cold, bullets, energy discharge, explosions, and radiation but lousy when it came to abrasion. A hacksaw could do the job. It couldn't be done by hand though, and so the worker suggested something unorthodox. String and grit. "It might take awhile," He explained, "But it's totally doable. Run a thread or something around the base of the spindle, coated in something abrasive, and we could probably do it from a distance. Heck, we could even cut part way through that little peg to speed the process along."

With a little effort, Catnip rigged up a simple motor to move a loose thread coated in toothpaste around the weakened spindle and shut the broken door. If the idea worked and the spindle was cut like the worker said it would, they didn't need it flying out through the door and into the screamer filled abyss. Then, while they waited, they had a real meeting. Catnip volunteered to stay with the cell, along with a couple armed workers, to make sure no one interfered. The cell was a sign of hope, something they could use to get out, but whoever meant them harm probably wouldn't want that. It had to be protected. Besides, Catnip wanted to listen to it.

"I want to go home..." said one of the workers suddenly, "I don't mean, like, out of this place. I mean out of Pricetown. Out of Arizona. I want to go back to Wyoming, back before the Cataclysm..."

Catnip wanted to ask what it was like, she'd never seen the world before the cataclysm. Only it's remnants. Shambling not-people who stank and leaked a disgusting black goo and attacked on sight. Strange creatures that stalked the woods along with more mundane things, only they weren't strange. For Catnip, they'd always been there. She couldn't tell the alien from the native because for her, it was all native. In the end, she only listened. The workers who kept watch with her talked, and she listened. The world before sounded nice, but at the same time there was the feeling that it wasn't exactly fair or even pleasant. There was disparity between people. Whole groups of people fighting and hating each other because of one dumb sounding reason or another. Catnip couldn't imagine some of the reasons people from before fought and died, the ways they lived their lives. The mechanic didn't dare voice the opinion that, despite the decadence of the old world, the post cataclysm was better.

An hour went by, then two, three, four. Some of the workers keeping watch with her rotated out and new ones took their place. Catnip listened to their talk to pass the time. What would happen to them? What would happen to Pricetown? What would happen to the world? They didn't know, and after awhile Catnip began to doze. Then, just before midnight, a loud "ping" was heard and the racket of something crashing around the room. The door was hit and again blown off it's hinges. Catnip was awake instantly and leaping up to see what was going on, shining her flashlight into the room. At first, the workers couldn't find it. The cell had knocked down a shelf and stirred up all the other empty or damaged cells in the room but after a bit of digging around, they found it. One of the workers held up the cell and shook it to make sure it was the right one. It produced a rather heavy clunking noise.

"Fan-fucking-tastic boys and girls," He said, "We are one step closer to home."

That was when Catnip came up with another cell.

"Er... Where did that come from?" The worker asked.

"I think it was stuck behind the shelf..." Catnip said, examining the cell carefully. It's ports were open wider than those of the one that had until recently been bound to the spindle, and it's points of contact were badly worn. "It must have worn through it's pins and bounced back where we couldn't find it..." She added thoughtfully. "I suppose two is better than one, so long as the thing inside is still intact... I hope it's intact."