QuaranTeam: Cauldron of Coal Ch. 01-03
This story takes place in Germany in the Ruhr Area (or "Kohlenpott", how it is lovingly nicknamed by its inhabitants, and which roughly translates, you guessed it, to
Cauldron of Coal
) which contains among others the cities Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund.
It is set in the QuaranTeam universe by
CorruptingPower
and published with his permission.
As I was advised to combine my (admittedly short) chapters, this is a new upload containing the (already published) first chapter, which I will try to take down in due time.
This is also a linguistic experiment: to prove Samuel Langhorne Clemens right, I'll sometimes add German expressions directly (and give an explanation at the end of the text) either if they are so common they'll pop up constantly, or if there is some (hopefully) interesting concept behind it, and sometimes I'll just use a literal translation, which I'll underline so you'll recognise them.
Yields sense
?
---#=#---
Chapter 1
Montag, 10. August 2020
"So, Omma Else," Karl told the fragile looking woman on the other side of the clear plastic barrier, trying to show his smile despite the two masks over his mouth, "now you can call the nurse again without getting electrocuted."
"Electrocuted" was a bit of an exaggeration, but getting a little shock from touching the device wasn't something that should happen, so Karl had swapped it out, taking every precaution possible to prevent the inhabitant of the senior residence catching the pandemic virus that was going around. He had topped his FFP3 mask with one of several community masks he'd made from an old mining shirt, this one decorated with a patch that showed the boundaries of the Ruhr Area. As always it had an additional filter, and his grey eyes were covered with safety goggles. The rest of his clothing consisted of jeans, a jumper and loafers. His short brown hair looked like it would need a cut soon.
The room was dominated by the medical bed where the call button was installed, but framed pictures on the walls, some wooden pieces of furniture and a comfy looking armchair gave the white painted room bit of a heimelige atmosphere.
"Many thanks, Karl," she answered, looking at him with her bright eyes that sparkled with intelligence. Her white hair, that, according to the wedding photo with her Albert, once had been chestnut brown, framed her rosy face. She wore a white blouse with a pink knitted jacket and a dark skirt under which some slippers were barely visible. If she was standing, she would have been up to his height at about 1 meter 80. "I suppose I can't show you my gratitude other than in words?"
The man had begun to stow his tools in his toolbox. "Hey, that's what I'm here for. Well, and to keep the women happy by crawling under their tables when they call me." Else giggled. "You know, to fix their computers." Else's laughter was melodic.
Indeed, he had originally just been hired to keep an eye on the computers of the senior residence that had become Else's home. And when the pandemic hit and some of the janitorial staff had fallen ill, he was happy to support them by applying the practical talents that he had developed under the watchful eyes of his grandfather, Josef "Jupp" Schablonski, who sadly had died from black lung before Karl had finished school. But,
learned is learned
, and he still proudly held to that small Swiss army knife on which he had replaced the plastic grips with wooden ones.
"Can I ask you how old you are?" Else interrupted his thoughts, "and why you don't have a girlfriend or a wife?"
"Uhm, I'm going towards 40," Karl admitted while he folded the Paravent made from transparent plastic with which he had barred off his worksite, "and I guess I never had the luck to attract the right one? Ich muß!" He took his gear and fled through the door before the inquisition went further.
While Karl had no problem keeping a conversation going,
starting
one was one of his weaknesses - especially if it was with a female. And it became more difficult, the more attractive she was. The tendency to overthink his words didn't help. With
a few kilos too much on his ribs
he thought that his chances in winning the lottery twice would be higher than a woman falling for him. And he didn't want to confuse the old dame with his newfound vocabulary, especially that he identified as demisexual - he needed some sort of romantic connection before even thinking about intimacy. The things you find out about yourself and your quirks when you suddenly have too much time on your hands; because gatherings like choir practice or visiting the Eckkneipe for a beer or two to
philosophise over god and the world
, let alone visiting the stadium for a football match forbid themselves because they equalled suicide - would they still be happening anyway.
Humming the Steigerlied he went to the reception to report that Else Meyer's house call button had been fixed. The tired, sturdy looking woman there thanked him and let him view the list of open tasks. He poured her a coffee before he left.
---#=#---
After his workday Karl mounted his motorbike - that he used because he didn't want to rent a parking spot for a car, and the running costs were lower - and rode home. He remembered that his reserve of bread was getting low and took a small detour to his favourite bakery. While he stowed his helmet and masked up again, he was approached by a person in black jeans and a hoodie. "Hasse ma 'nen Euro?" The voice gave away that it was a female, and her dialect was widely associated with Berlin, but could also be from Brandenburg. Karl also thought he saw her shivering, but wasn't sure due to her bulky clothing.
Knowing he only had fifty Euro bills on him, he asked her to wait while he quickly hopped into the bakery. Inside he added to his purchase a coffee to go and a Brötchen with cheese, which he handed to the girl together with a twenty Euro bill.
"Scheiße, thank you," she said, "now I feel like I should blow you so we're even."
"No need. Perhaps when we meet again and we're more private," Karl deflected. He just hoped that he had made a difference and didn't expect to meet her again. With what he heard through the
rumor kitchen
, he calculated that she would have offered him sex had he given her fifty, and he never felt the appeal to
stick his tail into
someone's backdoor. And he doubted any condom she would have on her would be safe. Thoughtfully shaking his head he rode his trusty BMW R 1200 R home. Going up to the first floor, after gathering his sparse mail from his box on the ground floor, he keyed open his uniform door and entered his flat. In the Windfang he disposed of the filter layer and the FFP3 mask in the closed garbage bin and his other mask in the small hamper that he'd placed here. Then he peeled out of his bike gear and brought his bread into the kitchen.
After a short meal of Stullen, during which Chancellor Merkel on the news expressed her "profound trust" in the minister of transport (a sure sign that he would be gone sooner rather than later), he went into his living room and logged in on the voluntary fire helper service. The professional firefighters had already been short-staffed before the pandemic due to budget cuts, and with many of them falling victim to the virus... Nobody expected you to do on the whim what they learnt for years after their first job training, but since first aid training was part of getting a drivers permit, help in this regard was gladly accepted. Most of the times nothing happened, but with volunteers everywhere and social gatherings at a minimum, reaction times actually had improved. Karl settled down with a book, something about a
revolver man
that was also a magic user and worked as a private eye. Though the story was good, the translation sometimes was a little confusing, and Karl decided to order the original version and switched to another book.
Halfway through the evening his parents called. "Hallo Kalle!" Through the echoes he could hear that he was on speakerphone.
"Papa, Mama! Wie isset?"
"We have found a small camping site in France, far away from everything, and are parking our RV here." They gave him the telephone number of the site office in case of an emergency. "And you? Could you ramp up your strategic toilet paper reserve, or do we have to send you some?" They were referring to the fact that with the beginning of lockdowns people bought toilet paper like crazy.
"No, I'm fine. Work would have topped us up in an emergency, but I still have enough. And how is it on the wine front?" Karl referred to the fact that the French in contrast emptied the shelves of alcoholic beverages. "Do I have to support you with that or beer?"
"We'll survive. This place was on the planned route of the Tour de France, and since it's canceled... Oh, before we forget, we got a message that the Schrebergarten needs to be tended to, so if you could mow the grass there and see if the hedges need trimming?" They completed each other's sentences like the old couple they were.
Karl rolled his eyes. "Did someone complain that your Parzelle has become a wilderness?"
"You know how some people are.
More papal than the pope
. And if the snails didn't eat everything, harvest some, so we didn't plant
for nothing
."
After some platitudes the call ended.
---#=#---
Karl was about to log out when the emergency call came. Quickly he masked up and took the reflective vest that came with the duty. It was near enough that being on foot would be faster than driving.
When he arrived, slightly out of breath, he saw that apparently a car from a parcel delivery service had rammed into a convoy of police around some olive green trucks with the "Y" numberplate the Bundeswehr uses. The delivery car was under attack by heavy machinery to get to the driver, and one truck lay on its side. Several metallic cases were strewn around and people were being triaged.
Karl was assigned to check the perimeter for more victims - you never know what people under shock will do. He was thoroughly checking between parked cars and in front yards, when he saw bloodied footprints that led to a nearby Hochbunker. Following the prints he entered the heavy metal door, not without giving his coordinator a sign. Halfway in the building, he cautiously stepped through a doorway when something hit him and his world went black.
---#=#---
Chapter 2
Montag, 10. August 2020
When Karl awoke, it was dark. He felt himself lying on hard ground. His legs were raised on something warm and surrounded something on his lap. Feeling around he deduced it had to be a human head. He illuminated his watch and concluded that he had been out for around half an hour. He had a light headache.
Then his hand fell on his torchlight and he lit it. After his eyes had adapted, the hoodie that covered the body, whose shoulders his legs rested on, seemed somehow familiar. But the person was fast asleep and he couldn't shake them awake. And his penis was out and lying beneath their mouth!? Startled he freed himself and stood up. Looking closer he recognized the girl from the bakery earlier. He put her in the recovery position and looked around. Apparently she squatted here, and was the only human around. And the reddish-brown colour of her shoe soles indicated that she was the one whose footprints had led him here.
"Well, wasn't expecting to see you again, but at least you seem to have found some privacy to repay me," he chuckled, finally closing his pants again. He decided to carry her outside and found her rather light.
Outside, he reported back to the coordinator. First his head was checked for injuries by a trained medic in Bundeswehr uniform while the girl was checked by another one. They couldn't rule out a concussion, but it must have been at most a minor one, so he was advised to
let it go on calmly
. He was provided with a handful of swab tests, and asked: "Can we have your address? You'd have to quarantine anyway, since you were in a confined place with her. We would maybe check in on you tomorrow."
"Sure, no problem," he answered and dictated his address in exchange for an attestation of his quarantine. "Wie isset?"
"Oh, the parcel delivery driver must have fallen unconscious and driven into this transport. So far the only fatality. Don't go there, it's a blood bath. Minor injuries amongst the soldats, and as
