The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Opening The Crate

Lisa tightened her grip on Reid, as if afraid that letting go would pull her back into that endless nightmare. Even as her heartbeat gradually slowed, the phantom sensation of the dagger in her chest lingered.

The memories were still fresh—Line’s hollow eyes, his mocking voice, the way he refused to die no matter how much power she unleashed.

She had never felt so powerless before.

But now, she was awake. She was safe.

The warmth of Reid’s presence, the steady rise and fall of his breathing, assured her of that.

“It’s okay,” Reid whispered again, in a gentle voice. “You’re back.”

He knew that his team would need time to recover—not just physically, but mentally.

Whatever Owen had put them through in his domain wasn’t something they could just shake off.

Lisa, especially, looked shaken, though she was doing her best to hide it.

Lisa took a deep breath, forcing herself to pull away, though her hands hesitated before finally releasing him. She met his gaze—his real gaze, not the empty one from her nightmare—and gave a small nod.

“I’m fine,” she said, though her voice lacked conviction.

Reid didn’t call her out on the lie, but he also didn’t believe her.

Instead, he turned his attention to the others, checking on them one by one. Lisa followed his movements, watching as Ethan and Marcus stirred, slowly regaining consciousness.

Clara was the last to wake, letting out a groggy groan as she blinked up at them.

“That was f*cking terrifying” she groaned out as soon as her vision cleared “let’s not do that again”.

Although she said that in a light tone, the team could see that her usual bubbly attitude had severely dimmed but the same could be said for the entire team.

“You know,” Reid said, turning to Owen, who had already made himself comfortable on the ground, “you didn’t have to put us through all those nightmares.”

Owen slowly sat up and looked at him as if he had just said something stupid.

“Firstly, even without your team, you still won” he started which surprised the others, if anything Reid was the one who lost with all the bruises on his face.

Owen on the other hand, only had cuts here and there.

“Secondly, Pixel’s domain forces you to experience your worst fear or nightmare, so I don’t control what you see,” he finished.

Reid just sighed and turned to Ethan and Marcus. They were better at hiding their emotions, as they didn’t appear too shaken even though Reid was sure they also went through nightmares.

“You two okay?” Reid asked.

“Yeah, just a little shaken” Marcus said, his face keeping his usual kind smile.

“Yeah” Ethan whispered.

~Yawn~

Owen let out an unintentional yawn causing the team to look at him.

“You might want to start moving since your location would be revealed again in a few minutes” he said and went back to relaxing.

“Let’s see what’s in this crate first” Reid said.

They hadn’t had the chance to open the crate yet since they were attacked by Owen before they had the chance to.

Owen simply summoned Pixel again, apparently it had recovered from the backlash.

“Do whatever you want” He said as both him and his forged-beasts disappeared.

“See you around kid” he left behind before completely vanishing.

Ethan walked towards the crate and tapped the screen a couple of times, which caused it to let out a beep and with a click, the crate opened.

Since the crate was in the center and the five surrounded it, all of them could see its contents.

The first thing that caught their attention was a tablet that lay at the very top. Reid picked it up and turned it on.

It displayed what looked like a map with several red and green dots on it.

“I think this is the map of the entire simulation” Clara said “the dots might indicate the people in the simulation”.

Reid’s eyes scanned the map, noting the clusters of red and green dots scattered across the terrain. Clara was right, this tablet was a tracking device.

“Red for enemies, green for the cadets?” Ethan guessed, peering over Reid’s shoulder.

“That would make the most sense,” Lisa said, her tone still laced with exhaustion. “But why would this be in a supply crate? Feels too… useful.”

Reid frowned. She had a point. A tool like this could change the game entirely.

“Unless there’s a catch,” Marcus mused, folding his arms.

Reid tapped the screen, zooming in on their location. The map responded smoothly, confirming their position and the movement of other dots.

Their group was marked in green, while three red dots were approaching together from the west.

“Yeah, we don’t have time to debate this,” Reid said. “We’ve got incoming.”

Lisa clenched her fists, the gauntlets she had picked up crackling faintly in response. “How many?”

“Three. They’re moving fast.”

Clara groaned. “Can we catch a break for like five minutes?”

Everyone in the team shared Clara’s sentiment, since they hadn’t rested for long since the simulation began.

“Ethan, anything else useful in the crate?” Reid asked.

Ethan quickly rifled through the remaining contents. “Some rations, a few energy packs, and—” His fingers wrapped around another device. He pulled out a sleek, silver disk with a faint red glow. His expression darkened. “This… might be bad.”

Reid’s eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

Ethan turned it over, revealing a small emblem etched into the surface—the insignia of the senior cadets.

“It’s a tracker,” Ethan muttered.

Lisa stiffened. “You’re saying they can see us?”

“More like… they could see the crate,” Ethan corrected. “But now that we’ve activated the tablet, I’d bet good money they can track us too.”

Silence settled over the group.

“Well,” Marcus said, exhaling, “that explains why something this useful was just lying around.”

Clara rubbed her temple. “So, in short, we either use the map and stay visible… or ditch it and fly blind?”

Reid considered their options. They couldn’t afford to be reckless, but losing a tactical advantage like this map wasn’t an option either.

“We keep it,” he decided. “But Ethan, see if you can disable whatever’s broadcasting our location.”

Ethan nodded and got to work, he took the tablet and started tinkering with it.

“Give me a minute,” Ethan muttered.

“You have thirty seconds,” Reid countered. “Those seniors are closing in.”

Lisa turned to him. “Fight or flee?”

Reid glanced at the map, in Ethan’s hand, again. The three red dots were spreading out, trying to corner them. They were fast, incredibly so.

“I don’t think we have enough time to escape, unless—” He paused and looked at the crate.

The choice was to either stay and fight, which was not a smart choice since his team was still shaken from facing one of the seniors and he had no idea how they would fare against three.

Or Alternatively, they could make a run for it, but he was sure they would be caught since the speed at which the approaching seniors moved was insane.

“A decoy,” Reid began. “If they can track both the crate and the tablet, we’ll make them chase a ghost instead of us.”

Ethan caught on quickly. “You want to split the signals?”

Reid nodded. “Can you reroute the tracker’s signal to the crate and leave the tablet clean?”

Ethan’s fingers moved rapidly over the screen. “I can try, but if the signal is embedded in both, I might need to manually alter the crate’s transmitter.”

Marcus cracked his knuckles. “Just say the word if you need it busted open.”

Clara looked at the map, watching the three red dots inch closer. “Two of them are circling to cut off our escape. The third’s coming in straight ahead.”

Ethan worked quickly, prying open the tracker device with a small multi-tool he took from his inventory.

His brow furrowed in concentration as he rewired a few connections, then sealed it back up. He tossed it into the crate and shut the lid.

“Done. They’ll think we’re still here—at least until they check,” Ethan said. Whenever tech was involved, his usual quiet self vanished, replaced by a confidence that made him seem like a completely different person.

“Great. Marcus, can you summon your rhino?” Reid turned to the big guy. “I want the crate strapped to it and sent in the opposite direction of where we’re heading.”

“Sure,” Marcus replied and summoned his forged-beast which immediately grew, breaking a hole in the wall of the room they stood in.

Marcus proceeded to strap the crate to his Rhino.

“Nyx, I want you to go with it,” Reid instructed his Forged-Beast. “The moment you’re far enough, teleport yourself and the rhino back to me—leave the crate behind.”

Nyx acknowledge his instruction with a flap of its wing and flew to the head of the rhino.

Marcus secured the crate tightly to his rhino’s reinforced back, making sure it wouldn’t fall off mid-charge. With a firm pat on the beast’s armored hide, he nodded.

“Alright, big guy, time to run.”

The Ironhide Rhino snorted, its hooves grinding into the dirt as it prepared to charge.

Reid turned to Nyx. “Now.”

Nyx fluttered its wings, and in an instant, both it and the rhino and the crate vanished into the darkness of the simulation.

“That should buy us time,” Reid said “let’s just hope it works”.

“Let’s move” he didn’t waste another second as he and the team quickly moved in the opposite direction of the two forged-beasts.