Chris Huisjen

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C6: Heirs of a Cold War

By the time morning came—or what felt like morning based on the fifty-six hours we had left, anyway—I was as ready as I’d ever be. We’d stuffed my backpack full of battery bombs, each wrapped in paper screw bags filled with bits of hardware. I had twenty or thirty of them; we hadn’t bothered counting since half ended up getting ripped apart and rebuilt. Calvin was many things, but precise under pressure wasn’t one of them.

Still, I’d had time to build a couple of other wea...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C5: Dropouts Who Make Their Own Rules

I wanted to check out the Tunnel Lord’s lair right away, but I’d been pushing all day, and my gear wasn’t ready for it, so I couldn’t exactly commit to a tough fight. Besides, I was Level Three. That was a lot for fighting a Rat Man, but if the Redline Wyrm was Level Twenty, the Tunnel Lord could be almost as powerful.

So, once I’d finished shoveling beans into my mouth with my bare hands, I walked out of the storefront and took a long look at the cavern across the tracks. My ...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C4: Inheriting Troubles

The next station south was Grand.

I rarely went farther south on the Red Line than Chicago Station. There wasn’t much need to since everything I needed was in Andersonville, and my job was a station north of here, but Grand was one of the larger stations, and I figured that if I was going to find something that might help Tori and me, I’d find it either there or at Lake.

My money was on Lake, but Grand was on the way, and I needed to get off the rails before the Redline Wyrm r...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C3: You Gotta Listen To My Words

The subway station-turned cave ended in two tunnels where the bathrooms had been, just beyond the turnstileagmites. If I remembered right, there wasn’t much space in the men’s room, so there shouldn’t be much danger in checking it out first.

As I got closer to the two cave entrances, I slowed down. The stone floor leading into what had once been the men’s room was worn smooth. That meant traffic—was it a leftover from when this had been the Chicago station, or was this a sign ...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C2: Things Are Going Wrong For Me

As I looked around, I realized that I wasn’t standing in a subway tunnel. The walls weren’t tile or concrete, for one thing. They looked like they’d been hacked out of the stone around them with a pickaxe—or scraped clean by a giant armored snake. For another, the light was way too uniform, and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. After looking for an answer, I decided the light was coming from everywhere and nowhere. That explained my missing shadow, at least.

My h...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C1: Going Off the Rails

My headlamp panned around the guts of an old Ford Explorer. My sore, oil-soaked fingers worked across the half-disassembled transmission---everything else under the hood was pitch black. I’d been working on it for almost ten hours over two days. This was my third time taking it apart. And it just. Wouldn’t. Work.

The other bay’s lights were all out, and my boss, Cindy, wouldn’t stop tapping her foot at me, but I had her on ignore. I could only hear the pulsing beat of classic ro...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Sixteen

My last Parent/Teacher Conference was in sixth grade. At least, the last one Dad went to.

He didn’t pay much attention. I’m not sure he was even sober. But that didn’t matter, because Alice came with us. The teachers at Lansdowne gave her a few funny looks; she was a freshman in high school, and she should have been doing whatever high school girls do.

Don’t ask what that is. I don’t know.

But the teachers’ minds changed when Alice started asking all the ‘Momâ€...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Fifteen

Alexander is a broken man.

He sits in his cell, and I watch him, searching his hopeless eyes for the truth I need to understand. Who he is. But a broken man isn’t the answer. That’s who this Alexander is. I want to know who the one I’m fighting right now is and what he wants with the black zone hidden in SHOCKS Olympia.

And for that, I have to watch a man sit in his own waste and stare at a door that’s welded shut. For hours and hours.

Nothing happens. ...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Fourteen

Almost every knight is one of a few roles in Knights of the Apocalypse.

They all have different names and movesets, but almost every one of them is a tank, healer, or DPS. Occasionally, there’s a non-healing support class, but they’re not very common, and people usually figure out how to do damage with them. But there’s one—Tarra Deadfall—that’s unique.

She operates traps. Only traps. It’s almost impossible to play her with a full group because no one knows how to wo...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Thirteen

The most frustrating part of Knights of the Apocalypse is when my teammates disconnect.

When I disconnect, that’s fine. The game’s done—unless I want to try soloing max difficulty runs with a Tank Knight and no healers or damage dealers. I can reconnect if I hurry, or I can wait and try to catch another lobby in a couple of minutes.

But when a teammate disconnects, the other players all sit around for a while. We wait for the dropped Knight to come back. They don’t. Then s...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Twelve

SHOCKS Olympia Administrative Wing: Tram Platform, Washington, USA - June 19, 2043, 2:53 PM

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Sora did her best to swallow the anger welling inside her chest.

That dumbass, Claire, was pushing her buttons, asking her to watch the government scientist, acting like she was in the right to be suspicious of everyone, and then running off to get a head-start at whatever was behind the door. Sora knew—knew—that Director Ramirez h...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Eleven

SHOCKS Olympia Tunnel Network Northwest, Washington, USA - June 19, 2043, 2:41 PM

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That answers most of my questions about the spider. It’s not enough to solve the Inquiry, though, and as much as I’m ready to abandon it, I feel like I’m close. My only question is where the Offspring came from because from what I witnessed, the spiders need to actually do the deed to reproduce. Is there a second massive spider here? Or is there somethin...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Ten

Pizza sticks.

The cafeteria at Lansdowne served them all the time. They had options—the salad bar, pre-packaged sandwiches, and a couple of different hot lunch options. Pizza sticks came up more than they probably should have in the rotation.

I think it was just popular, but the school claimed that the menus were randomly generated.

They were always too hot. Like they’d been microwaved, then put out under a heat lamp for an hour.

But they were still my favorite bec...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Nine

Sora and I met in detention.

Because of course we did. I’ve mentioned that already.

The thing that sucked the most about middle school detention was that Dad was supposed to come get me. That was how you got out. Your parent came and picked you up. So, while Sora and I met in detention, she didn’t stick around too long.

She looked like she was less happy to be picked up than I was to be staying, but still, she left me there. And eventually, Alice managed to convince the ...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Eight

Dad always kept his drinks wherever they were handy.

Under the counter. In the fridge. Where Alice and I could get to them without any trouble. He told us not to take them. He threatened us, and for a while, we listened.

But I had my first beer at nine.

It was also my last one, because even though it felt very mature and adult and stuff, the pale yellow stuff tasted bitter and sour and like the second most disgusting thing I’d ever drank.

...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Seven

The Mindscape

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The first thing Sidney Alexander does in your Mindscape is a surprise, but also not shocking at all. He breaks down crying, right there in the grass and the rosebushes.

While he squats and rocks in place, you watch. He needs the time. For all you know, this is the first time he’s been Sidney in…a long time. But you don’t have a lot of time yourself. After a few seconds, you want to say something. After a m...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Six

Mom always felt like she had eyes in the back of her head.

She noticed things. Like when I hadn’t brushed my hair, or when I hadn’t eaten all my prunes. Even when she wasn’t in the same room, and I threw the nasty things away, she’d track me down with another couple of spoonfuls a half hour later. I had no idea how she did it—really, I didn’t. It was like magic.

Gross, disgusting do-your-chores-and-eat-your-prunes magic.

It was only wh...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Five

James needed a connection.

He had plenty of contact with millions of devices both on Earth and in the space around it. Reality Zero was as well-watched as it could possibly be, and even though it was in danger, he wasn’t losing significant observational capacity there. Sure, a satellite here or a town there went dark, but it didn’t matter in the long run.

Reality One was different.

He’d suspected, from the few merges they’d had with it since the 1970s, ...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Four

Realities stink.

That’s just a fact. But it’s not just roses and oil or daisies and rot. When I Mergewalk, the first few minutes are the worst—except in the diseased body reality. I usually get used to it. Nose blind. It’s a background smell, and even though it’s there, it’s not a big deal after the initial punch to the sinuses.

The part that I didn’t realize at first is that Reality Zero has a smell. Not the rotten fish and sea salt of Victoria or the molde...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Three

The day we moved out of the hotel and into basic living was the day Dad started dying.

It’s been a long death, and it’s only recently—when he’s been forced—that he’s done anything to stop it. He used to be a rock. I’ve said that before. I know I have, but he really did.

He was sick for a long time before he started dying, though. Alice told me when I got older. He’d lost his job before Mom died. Six or seven months before, maybe? Alice wasn’t so sure. And there w...

Halcyon Post Tomorrow, not Today, and a Quick Writing Recap

Hi everyone,

Due to a scheduling issue with my holiday trip, I'm going to delay today's The Halcyon System post until tomorrow morning (approximately 24 hours). I didn't have as much downtime during the holidays as I'd hoped, and the editing process slipped through the cracks. Thanks for your understanding.

On a different note, I had a great holiday. My grandma turned 90, and we had a pretty fun celebration for her. I've got a lot of travel lag, and another day of driving today. 2024-12-30 14:49:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Two

Hey all. The holidays are upon us, and with them are more disruptions to my writing schedule. I have this chapter and one for next Monday written, but I may not have a Friday chapter this week. I'm going to get back on 2/week when January rolls around, but my mom's side of the family is assembling for Christmas and my grandma's 90th birthday, so even with my writing laptop, opportunities to get ahead will be slow for the next week.

Thank you for your understanding. I apprec...