NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 14
Chapter 14
About ten minutes later, Jake heard his PDA emit a beeping sound. He took out the device and saw a text message hovering in the middle of the screen. THE PLANE WITH YOUR SUPPLY DROP IS NEARING THE DROP LOCATION. Just after he read the message, he heard a distant rumble coming from the sky. He glanced out the window, but from his current position, he couldn’t see the plane. An aircraft icon was displayed on his PDA’s map, though, and it was gradually approaching the building he was in.
With every passing second, the rumble of the plane’s engines was getting louder. At some point, the sound grew so loud it sent slight vibrations down the walls, and when Jake glanced out the window and looked up again, he indeed saw a military-looking plane drifting across the sky, flying over the high-rise building he was in. The plane looked unlike any other aircraft he had ever seen before. It had a futuristic-looking design, and Jake wondered if the plane was actually manned by a human pilot. For all he knew, it was operated by an AI system.
His PDA beeped with another notification, and he glanced at the screen to read it. SUPPLY DROP INCOMING. On the map, next to the image of the plane appeared another small icon that resembled a box with a simplistic parachute design.
The rumble of the plane faded as the aircraft moved farther away from his position. A few seconds later, the sound of its engines could no longer be heard, and the plane icon vanished from the map. Jake craned his neck out of the window and looked up. He saw a box descending with a parachute from the sky.
He considered leaving the building but opted to remain inside until the supply drop touched down. By the look of it, the box should land not far from the entrance to the building. By his estimation, he wouldn’t have to wait for long. A little later, the shadow of the supply drop became visible on the ground. The box was going to land right in the middle of the road in front of the building. Jake was about to get to his feet and head for the exit when he caught a glimpse of movement outside.
He peered out the window but didn’t see anything suspicious at first. He scanned the road outside the building and then a movement on the other side of the street attracted his attention. He saw a male person hiding in an alleyway formed by two buildings. The stranger stretched his neck out into the open to look up at the box slowly drifting down to the ground. It looked like another survivor had set his sights on Jake’s supply drop.
He wasn’t sure how long the stranger had been hiding in the alley across the street. Probably not too long, otherwise Jake would’ve noticed him earlier. The stranger himself wasn’t aware of Jake’s presence. Jake made sure to keep his body concealed inside the building so it couldn’t be seen from the street. When he needed to take a peek outside, he carefully looked around the edge of the window frame to survey the area before retreating back into hiding.
Jake wondered how the stranger had learned about the supply drop. Had he simply been in the nearby vicinity and heard the sound of the plane flying overhead? Or were other survivors informed when somebody requested a supply drop, showing them the location of the drop zone on the map? Jake glanced at the dead body of the survivor he’d looted a few minutes before. If he could hack into the dead man’s PDA, he would learn the answer to this question. Unfortunately, if there was a way to hack into another person’s PDA, Jake didn’t yet know how to do it.
He returned his attention to the street outside. The wooden box was drifting down and a few seconds later, finally landed in the middle of the road, the deflated parachute dropping next to it. The stranger took a step out of the alley, looking this way, that that. He scanned the street in both directions and studied the buildings lining the other side. Yet he failed to spot Jake. Thinking he was alone, he went out of the alley and strode across the road to the wooden box. Watching him, Jake came to the conclusion that the other survivors weren’t actually notified about supply drops requested by other people. If it had been the case, the stranger would’ve acted way more carefully, anticipating the presence of the person who’d requested the supply drop nearby. So he must just have happened to be in the nearby vicinity when he heard the sound of the incoming plane and stayed long enough to witness the supply drop.
Jake watched the stranger approach the wooden box. The deflated parachute lying on the ground flapped lazily in the breeze as the man slowly walked around the box, trying to figure out how to open it. At some point, he stopped and stared at the box in puzzlement, his back turned to Jake. The stranger was a sitting duck out there in the open, and Jake could kill him easily. However, while Jake wasn’t going to let the stranger take all his supplies, he wasn’t willing to kill a fellow survivor in cold blood for no other reason than to protect his supply drop. In fact, Jake didn't mind sharing with the stranger. While the box wasn’t too big, it appeared large enough to have plenty of supplies for both of them.
The stranger took hold of one of the boards and pulled, seemingly exerting all his strength. A second later, the board came off and fell to the ground, revealing a part of a steel box nestled inside the wooden one. When the stranger began to remove the next board, Jake got to his feet and headed for the exit. He unslung his shotgun and shouldered it. While he wasn’t going to shoot at the stranger unless he absolutely had to, just in case, he wanted to have his weapon ready.
By the time he exited the building and stepped onto the sidewalk, the stranger had removed all the boards from one side of the wooden box. Jake could see that the exposed side of the steel box had a security touchscreen panel attached to it. The stranger stared at it for a second, then pressed his thumb to it. Some red-colored words appeared on the screen, but Jake was still too far away from the supply drop to be able to read them.
His PDA emitted a quiet notification sound, and Jake froze, staring at the stranger’s back. However, the survivor didn’t hear the sound, and Jake quickly took one hand off the shotgun and retrieved the device to read the notification. SOMEBODY IS TRYING TO ACCESS YOUR SUPPLY DROP. He slid the device back into his inner jacket pocket and once again pointed his shotgun at the stranger standing in the middle of the road.
“Hey, it’s mine,” he shouted to be heard over the constant howl of the wind.
The stranger instantly spun around and saw him. He immediately reached for what looked like a submachine gun dangling from its sling around his neck. Pointing the weapon in Jake’s direction, the stranger immediately opened fire.