The Weak Shall Inherit

[Wookey]

A cliffhanger

[Wookey]

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[El_Roy_1999]

Literally.



They looked around and found themselves in a large room that probably stretched all over the surface of the house. There was a certain pitch to the ceiling because of the roof. The room was completely filled with bookshelves. There were so many of them ... Books upon books, all neatly arranged in their cases, ready to be read. A layer of dust had spread over everything, which was to be expected due to the long time this place hadn't been disturbed. The couple looked around, surprised by this finding.
Almost to herself, Linda said:
"I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this ..."
"Yes ... This is so strange."
Cameron walked along the shelves, looking at the books' titles. There was a logic to all of this. A lot of books dealt with biology, chemistry and other natural sciences, but there was also a lot of philosophy, history and religion.
Then he found a large section on art theory.
Linda found a collection of humor and satire and took one of the books out of its case.
"Okay ... I think I get what Sam was trying to do here ..."
"Then you are way ahead of me."
"I may be wrong, of course, but could it be that this is something of a Renaissance Man's library? The kind of knowledge a person would have if they were trying to be a true scholar?"
"That does make sense ... It's just ... why not keep the books downstairs for easy access? Hiding them up here doesn't make sense. And it's not as if Sam was making himself look like an idiot meathead. He was acting all superman like."
She shrugged.
"There's probably some weird philosophical reason for all of this."
She smiled at one of the cartoons. It was funny ... Then she put the book back on the shelf. She grinned:
"Getting Mary up here to clean this place is going to be tough."
Cameron chuckled:
"Yeah, I think this place is going to be just for us to take care of."
He continued his exploration. Then he found a separate area within the attic. Here, there were folders instead of books. He called his wife and said:
"Okay, maybe this is what it's all about?"
They examined the documents. Some parts were handwritten, others were written on a typewriter. They did find the machine that Samuel had used close-by. This was the man's former office ...
They did immediately recognize Samuel's handwriting, so this was clearly his stuff. Some of the older notes were written by another person, which neither of them seemed to know. The information in the files was extremely complicated.
Leafing through the folders, Linda asked:
"Maybe it's some kind of code? I can't make heads or tails of this. It looks like something of a lab report? But it's all written in some weird style. These squiggles look like letters, but I don't know which ones. Do you have any idea what those could be?"
Cameron walked over to her, putting his hands on the sides of her muscular arms, and looked over her buff shoulder. Now that the initial surprise of this place had passed, he realized just how incredible their climb had been. They had actually done it, and it had been so dangerous ... She had actually just saved his life, and only now, he realized it.
In this moment, he didn't really care about those papers.
He kissed her gently on the cheek and said:
"I haven't even said thank you yet ..."
She turned a bit to face him.
"For what?"
He cocked his head, raised an eyebrow, and said:
"Weeell ... you held tight a moment ago, and we both didn't fall down and break our necks."
"Oh. Oh yes."
That's when the shock hit her. The elation of getting through the climb and the surprise of what they found up here had pushed away what just happened. The folder dropped to the ground, some of the papers falling out, and she felt her legs give out under her. Cameron held her in his strong arms and gently guided her to the swivel chair by the desk with the typewriter.
She sat down, and a moment later, he had to at least lean against the desk for a bit. His legs suddenly felt wobbly.
They both rested for a moment, trying to recover enough to deal with what they just went through. Their muscles felt as if they just turned to rubber, and they found themselves to be completely exhausted.
Then, slowly, Linda said:
"That was really bad. We were lucky."
"No. We weren't lucky. It was your toughness that carried us through this. If you had given up ..."
"Okay, then we weren't lucky ... but we were way in over our heads. I don't know about you, but this whole situation was way beyond our control. We got through this, but it could have gone the other way too. It's just like Pete said: We were in way over our heads."
"Yeah. Fuck. But what could we do? We had to ..."
Linda shook her head slowly.
"No. We didn't have to. Yes, we might lose our chance on some millions, but ... seriously, millions are nice, but a broken neck ... And besides, who knows what other craziness Sam has prepared for us. This was the most dangerous bit yet, but what if he comes up with even worse things? How far will you go? Will you really risk your life?"
"Will you?"
She hesitated. Now that the climb was behind them and the shock was slowly subsiding, she was starting to feel confident again. Yes, it had been dangerous, but they had succeeded. That made it worthwhile, didn't it?
The struggle wasn't all that easy to resolve.
Then, with a sigh, she said:
"No. No. I'm not going to give that man the satisfaction. Besides, he's dead. I'm going to stick to this program of his ... but I'm not going to risk my life or dignity for it. We have both shown in the last year that we can do anything we set our minds to. This way, we can just do something else and succeed. I'm confident."
Cameron nodded.
"You're right. We'll only do what feels right. Enough with the games."
He held out his hand, and Linda took it. They clasped. It felt a bit odd for a moment, but sensing each other's power was great.
She got up slowly and sighed:
"Okay, let's finish checking this place out, and then, we should go back down. I'm pretty sure they're already getting a bit worried down there."
Cameron shrugged:
"I wouldn't mind if Ms. MacArthur has to wait a bit. That woman really rubs me the wrong way ..."
"Yeah. She's kinda harsh, don't you think?"
"That's an understatement."

They looked around a bit more, deciding to figure out all that coded material another time, and just poked at the folders and everything.
That's when Linda discovered more of the previous supplements. Tubs of cream, both of the skin and the hand cream, more protein powder, more shampoo. They were set for a while with this, not that they were actually running low yet. Samuel had clearly expected them to use way more of the stuff. As she went through the stock, she found two bottles of pills. One had a male symbol on it, one a female, and they had a one-a-day sticker right next to that.
She shook the female bottle, heard the pills clacker and said:
"Okay, I have an idea what those might do ..."
Cameron was a bit confused for a moment, then he got what she meant.
"Wow. Samuel really thought of everything."
They packed everything up and returned to the trapdoor. Below them, the two others were still waiting for them. Pete asked:
"Everything alright up there?"
"Yes, we're fine. We just had to check this place out. We're coming down right now."
"How?"
They looked around, and then, to their relief, they found a winch suspended above the hole in a case. There was a small remote, and this way, they could roll and unroll the cable on it. Soon enough, the couple was back on solid ground. They attached the cover to the cable and it went all the way up, aligning itself with the hole through some groves installed into its back.
They could see a look of relief on Pete's face, while Ms. MacArthur was as cold as ever. She handed them another envelope, and set out to leave, having spent enough time here already.
Linda held her back for a moment and gave her one of the protein powder containers and one of the skin cream containers.
"Enjoy."
The stern woman didn't react, she just said a vague "thank you", then she was gone.
Pete looked after her, sighed and said:
"Okay. So that went well."
"It did. Thank you, Pete." Linda was all smiles. "You really saved our butts. If you want, you can also have one of the boxes ..."
"Nah. If that stuff is what I think it is, it's not going to be helpful. But I wouldn't mind coming over for a nice dinner ..."
The couple nodded eagerly.
"Anytime. Just tell us what you like, and we'll have it ready."
The one-legged man just shrugged.
"Oh, just do what you like. I think I can enjoy it!"
Cameron shook his head:
"No, come on, you have to wish for something ..."
Pete just grinned:
"I wish for a surprise." Then he headed out. "See you soon."
Then, without warning, he was hugged. It was tight and a bit squeezy, but ... it felt nice.

[Wookey]

It keeps on getting better. Well done. Can't wait for the next chapter