A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

~Vroooooommmm~

~Da da da da ~

The sound of the engine almost brought Ryan to tears as he heard the sound of the giant machine parts moving, he looked at his creation with a proud smile on his face.

"It is working", he whispered with a proud smile on his face as he looked up he saw the dark sky with numerous stars on them, but a frown quickly formed on his face as he mused inwardly, 'Those stars, those constellations I do not recognize them.'

He slapped his face to clear his head before he turned a knob which then turned the engine off.

"Brother so you have finished making everything?"

Ryan looked back towards Michalina as a small smile formed on his lips as he replied to her, "Yes sis I have finished creating everything just covering up the engine is all that is left for me to do."

As he spoke he let out a yawn as Michalina spoke, "Brother you have been working hard you should go and rest."

Ryan shook his head as he replied back, "No can do sis, these machines are very delicate even a bit of damage I might have to redo it so until and unless I cover it fully I cannot rest at all."

Michalina sighed as she replied back, "I was afraid you would say something similar, as such I brought you some tea."

Ryan accepted the hot piping tea with a smile on his face as he spoke, "Thank you sis, you are a lifesaver."

Michalina simply smiled before she spoke with a frown, "Brother so many things have changed around us do you think that even the weather has changed."

Ryan frowned as he spoke, "What change do you expect?"

"Well for starters what if it starts to snow."

Ryan frowned as he spoke, "You are right, even if in a normal case during winter snow does not fall in this part of the country but we do not know what will be the result, secondly how do we not know the weather pattern has not changed at all, maybe instead of summer we will have winter and during winter we will have summer.��

Michalina rubbed her head as she spoke, "You are right brother, it could simply flip not to mention we have no way of judging the days, it is all so messed up, do we still have three hundred and sixty-five days in a year."

Ryan rubbed his head before he spoke with a sigh, "Well we can think about it later on, but first let me finish my tea and then I will have to …."

His words came to a halt as another jaw ripping yawn escaped from his lips, seeing him yawning even Michalina could not help out as she yawned as well.

"You should rest brother you are overworking."

"I know but I will rest after everything is over, I hope we could leave before noon, I cannot wait to return home.

"Me too brother, but sacrificing your health is not the answer."

Ryan shook his head as he spoke, "Sorry sister you know how I am, as long as the feeling of unease exists I cannot stop.", seeing Michalina started to frown even harder he quickly spoke, "But, I get where you are coming from as soon as the vehicle begins to move I will be taking some much-needed rest."

Michalina sighed before she spoke, "If you say so brother, but please do not push yourself too much."

Ryan simply puffed his chest as he spoke, "You are underestimating the power of students preparing for their finals and trying to land a good college, for hours on end we toil, and whether it is day or night it does not matter because at the end success with great result is all we want."

"pfft, ha ha ha ha ha ha."

Michalina broke into laughter while clutching her stomach and if it were not for Ryan's quick thinking she would have dropped her cup if it were not for Ryan quickly lending her a hand.

"Sis you were about to drop your tea."

Michalina somehow managed to calm herself as she spoke while wiping out the tear that had appeared in her eyes as she spoke, "Sorry but suddenly I had an image of you standing heroically with a large cape billowing in the wind, with a pen as your sword and book as your shield."

Ryan gained a contemplated look on his face before he spoke, "You know sister you are not wrong anyway, for students the pen and books are our weapons, with that we slay the dangerous questions that those demonic teachers send in order to fail us."

Michalina could not help but facepalm as she spoke, "You know what I give up, brother your imagination is otherworldly."

Ryan scowled at Michalina as he jabbed his cup towards her as he spoke, "Oh that is rich coming from someone who put the idea of a heroic-looking student in my head, as such the culprit here is you."

Michalina huffed as she took her cup from Ryan's hand before they stood there in silence while drinking their tea.

A few minutes later Ryan spoke with a smile, "Well it seems my tea break is over, nice tea though, well getting back to work now."

Michalina sighed as Ryan left to gather parts in order to completely cover the engine that he had put together, she looked towards the engine as she marvelled in amazement, 'This is the largest engine I have seen with my own eyes, much larger than a simple tank engine, in fact, I believe it would give even some ships a run for their money because of their sheer size.'

She took a seat a bit away from the engine as she looked up to the top of the base to see a few torch lights flickering from the patrol standing guard on top of the base.

'Saving as much energy as possible before diverting it towards construction area, otherwise, with the amount of energy this place is using, it could easily support enough lights to make even the night time look as bright as a day.'

Michalina watched as Ryan quickly covered the entire engine area, as the shape of the engine car came to realization Michalina snorted as she saw Ryan installing a snowplough at the front, 'A post-apocalypse vehicle without a snowplough is meaningless.', those words came to her mind though she could not refute as the raven did wonders with that plough it had.

'Wait a minute where would the driver go, inside the entire casings there is no room for the driver, what is he making?'

A few minutes later Ryan stood with a proud smile on his face as Michalina approached him as she spoke, "Um, there is something I would like to point out brother."

"What is it, sis?"

"Where would the driver sit in order to drive this vehicle?"

Ryan had a dumbfounded look on his face before he spoke with a look of embarrassment on his face, "I forgot all about the driver, hehe."

Michalina's brow twitched in anger as she shouted out, "You damn brat, that is why I am telling you to rest now you will…", Michalina's eyes narrowed as she noticed Ryan trying to stifle his laughter before she spoke with barely concealed anger, "You are playing a prank on me, right?"

That was too much for Ryan as he could not help but laugh out loud making her scream in range as she dashed after a now fleeing Ryan.

A few hours later the occupants of the base stood in front of the newly christened Alpha Raven 2.0, with Ryan standing on top of it with a large smile on his face.

"Everyone it is time for us to depart, please form a line and enter one by one there is ample room for everyone.", his face then was filled with regret as he spoke, "Though for various reasons I am unable to provide you all with most of the modern comfort that the railways provide, for that I apologize."

One of them shouted out towards him, "Does the road train not have any washrooms or running water."

Ryan looked visibly struck as he spoke, "What kind of being do you think I am, if it lacked those amenities, even I would not step in a place where it lacked those."

A few chuckled at his antics as Jessica shouted out, "Then power it up, we are waiting."

Ryan nodded as he jumped down from the top with a smile on his face, 'If it were previously I would have injured my foot from jumping down from the top of a double-decker wagon, but now it is so easy that I barely felt anything.'

"Well then Michalina please follow after me, I will show you how to drive the road train."

A small group quickly followed after Ryan though others would have followed leaving behind the rest, Ryan led them to the second compartment after the engine as he spoke with a small smile, "I am sorry but the one before us does not have any access like this, also watch your steps."

The door was at least five feet above from the ground level as such with the help of the ladders they climbed into the car, which was then followed by the trip to the second floor and then a trip through the vestibule let them to the carriage in front of them.

As they looked around they were greeted by the sights of numerous seats and screens, and at the other end was a high back wing chair, with what seemed to be a giant screen on his back.

Ryan went towards a chair to the right of the high back wing chair, in front of it was monitor with a key slot by its side, Ryan inserted a key that was hanging from a chain that he was wearing as a necklace, as he turned it a red coloured button glowed, which he then pressed it.

A low gentle hum was heard as the entire carriage lit up from the lights, as the monitors began to display various figures and numbers.

Ryan looked at his companions as he spoke, "This machine requires three people to drive in a sense, except the driver I need two mores, they might not have to stick around too much but keep an eye on two vital monitors, this is one is for the power distribution, you see the numbers, everything is now in green and zero, except this one which is by the letter D, and the Engine by E."

He took a breather as he continued, "Now pay attention to this, all the rooms are glowing green, which is a good sign, if it stops glowing means a major fault has occurred and current is not flowing, a small warning will flash as well, you can use this button to check in about the fault in much greater detail."

With that Ryan began to teach them the workings of power monitoring area as he finished, he spoke with a huff, "Is there any question?"

The others shook their head as Ryan quickly moved towards the left side, before he spoke with a smile, "Like the power monitoring system we have another system that is equally important and that is the fluid intake, this one needs an extremely large engine to move, it needs a good amount of fuel at a constant rate, this one will monitor the intake of the fuel, now see here carefully if this part turns red it would be dangerous, we have to keep it always in yellow and preferably green, but red is a big no-no, a bit of red for a couple of minutes is tolerable but if it goes too much or states in the red for some time it would be dangerous, as the engine might blow."

Ylerias narrowed her eyes as she spoke, "What would happen if the engine blows?"

Ryan looked at her as he replied with a bright smile, "Every people in this room would die."

One of the Elven guards could not help but gasp out in shock, "What?!"

Ryan simply looked at her as he replied while tapping his feet on the metallic floor as he spoke, "Well we are standing on top of liquefied mana, and since the explosion of the engine will definitely start a chain reaction, and I believe we would die."

Ylerias looked around as she spoke barely above a whisper, "Scary, this is incredibly scary."

Ryan simply waved off her concern before he went and took a seat on the driver's seat as Michalina spoke with a smile, "So you put this chair to a good use."

Ryan nodded as he spoke, "I always wanted a chair like this, so I decided why not put it here with some additional benefits, now sis please check if the safety precautions are in place so I can turn this thing on."

Michalina nodded as a quick check of every system later, Ryan used another key followed by a button, deep growl akin to an ancient beast was heard as the engine was turned on.

Meanwhile, on the outside others waited patiently for Ryan to start the vehicle they would have boarded the vehicle but they wanted to watch Ryan start the vehicle when all of a sudden they heard a loud roar of the engine, as many parts of the engines shifted like some beast releasing its kinks after waking up from a nap.

Anndrais whistled with appreciation as he whispered lowly, "Damn this is brat really makes wonder, I wonder how fast it would go."

"I do not know how fast it is, but it definitely looks like a mobile fortress with all those guns on top."

Another nodded in agreement as he spoke with a grin on his face, "Definitely it looks like a fortress from some zombie apocalypse movie.", only for that grin to disappear as he spoke in a defeated tone, "I loved them so much and now I wish every day when I wake up that I was still on the other side of the screen.", his words earned him a reward of a few comforting pats on his backs.

Meanwhile, inside the driver space, the wall of monitors in front of the driver's seat that was occupied by Ryan had shifted to a more concave form as it nearly surrounded Ryan, when all of a sudden they lit up with various numerical data which passed extremely fast for anyone to follow, before the clear view of the front.

Michalina looked at it awestruck as she spoke, "What is this? How can you create something as cool as this, even the floor near your foot is made up of some kind of TV?"

Ryan only offered a smug smile as Jessica could not help but speak with a shake of her head, "I cannot understand how you can create something that would be difficult with the realm and scope of our world's technology within a few hours and cannot create a decent flying vehicle."

Ryan pouted as he spoke, "How should I know I make what my powers allow me to.", his pout then changed to a smirk as he spoke, "But, I believe it is high time for others to board as well right."

As Michalina nodded with a sigh, Ryan spoke with a bright smile, "Well then please make sure everyone is boarded safely and the doors are locked shut, also the car can be loaded through the rear door of the last wagon."