Jack’s POV

‘Today is the best day ever since I came to this world, to be able to see Sam’s face when I wake up is a blessing, though I would much rather see him lying in the same bed with me, nonetheless, seeing him at all is making me happy, not to mention eating breakfast made by him and with him, hopefully, today will be the first of many days that we would spend together.’ I thought while splashing some water at my face and looking at my reflection on the mirror with a smile.

I finished my business in the bathroom quickly and changed my clothes then went downstairs to the kitchen, only to have my hopes crushed when I saw ready-made sandwiches in plastic bags and some coffee on the table.  

I looked at Sam questioningly, so he smiled and said “Oh, I got them from a convenience store at the beginning of the apocalypse, I heated them in the microwave though, as you know I can use my lightening ability as electricity.”   

I nodded my head and said “Thanks for preparing the food.” While thinking to myself ‘I hope your stack of the ready-made food will finish soon.’

Then an idea popped into my head, so I smiled and said “How about we keep this ready-made food for when we are outside? And we can cook when we are at home.”

Sam gazed at the food in front of him then said “Makes sense, since I didn’t eat food for years, I lost all common sense about stuff like this, for me, they all taste the same.”

He finished speaking and took a bite from the sandwich and chewed at it with a face showing a little disgust.

I swallowed all my selfish thoughts with a bite of my sandwich and said “If they taste bad for you, you don’t have to force yourself to eat.”

He laughed and beamed “Yup, it is a win-win situation, I don’t have to eat these things and it can also save more food for you and the others.”

I shook my head with a smile and took another bite, while Sam threw his Sandwich and sipped on his coffee, so I guessed that drinks didn’t taste as bad for him as the food.

As we were eating or more accurately, I was eating, somebody knocked on the door; I put the last bite of my sandwich in my mouth and went to open the door.

A soldier was there leaning against the wall, when he saw me, he stated “Good morning, the general wants to see you.”

He finished talking and walked away, he didn’t even wait for me to reply, I frowned at his attitude and couldn’t help but to think about the original timeline and the difference in treatment, for them in this timeline, at that moment, I was only a useless brat that caused trouble.

I clicked my tongue and went inside; I made my way to Sam and asked him to come with me to see my father.

We left the house and headed to the middle of the town where the command center was located, during the walk, the soldiers glared at me or shook their heads in disapproval, I’m guessing that the incident with Captain Lucas spread between the soldiers, and since he was very popular and infamous for his spotless records, the soldiers were angry at me.

I ignored the soldiers’ glares and kept walking with Sam until we entered the command center and made our way to the living room, which was used as the operation room, and I was face to face with my angry father, as soon as he laid his eyes on me he shouted “I thought I raised you better than to lie and go out without permission.”

I lowered my head and apologized “I’m sorry father, I just wanted to help.”

I knew he is not my original father, but he earned my respect from years of working together in the original timeline, even though we think differently, he did all he could during that time to keep his base safe as much as possible and I knew that he loves his son even though he never showed it.

He sighed and his tone soften as he said “I’m not against you helping but you should help with what you can, and going out in such circumstances without proper training is not helping, for the time being, every civilian in a suitable age and body condition capable of fighting is going under training, you must join the training before you are allowed to go out of the town.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I glanced at Sam who was standing near the entrance of the living room, only to see his lips tightened as he was trying his best not to laugh at me, well, I don’t blame him for laughing though, after I lived in the apocalypse for thirteen years and with all my abilities I was treated like a kid who can’t manage to do anything.

I coughed to get rid of a laugh of my own as I looked at my father and said “What about the people with abilities? Do they train with the others or separately?”

He looked at me questioningly as he answered “They train separately to master their control over their abilities and the extent to them, why do you ask?”

I scratch my cheek and said “Yesterday I have awakened some abilities.”

My father’s eyes lit up as he looked at me surprised since almost everybody has awakened their abilities on the same day, the people who didn’t awake abilities were considered as normal people and nobody expects them to have abilities.

In a way it’s true, if you have an ability the crystal inside your brain will be formed after a week from the start of the apocalypse, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to use the ability directly, some people will not have access to their abilities until they are met with a critical situation that forces them to the edge.

My father looked at me as he rubbed his chin and asked “What ability have you awakened?”

“Actually, I have three abilities, water, fire and space.”

As I finished talking an uproar erupted in the operation room because in the base there was only one person who has two abilities.

It was still unknown for them at that time, but some who have awakened an ability, in fact, have two abilities, but they didn’t know yet, while some of them still didn’t know that they have abilities at all and one of them was my father, he has two abilities but he still didn’t wake any of them yet.

I waited until the uproar quieted down then continued speaking “My friend Sam here” and I pointed at Sam “has two abilities, wind and earth.”

All eyes switched from me to Sam, which made him clearly uncomfortable, as he nodded his head and retreated a couple of steps toward the living room’s door.

My father cleared his throat as he looked at me again and said sternly “Since you and your friend have abilities, you will both join the training starting today, and if you notice anything wrong with your body you must go to the doctor immediately, although it seems that the abilities are not a threat, we still know very little about them, so be careful, dismiss.”

Although my father’s way of speaking seemed nonchalant, I could tell that he was happy and worried at the same time.

“Yes, sir,” I answered as I made my way to the door and dragged Sam with me out of the commanding center.

As we walked out Sam started to laugh at me, I shook my head and whispered “I have to act like this, I can’t tell them that I returned in time, can I?”

He just shook his head and laughed a little more, before looking at me and said seriously “We need to tone the power of our abilities to match the power of the level one ability users, this is going to be a pain in the ass.”

I nodded and said with a frown “Fuck, I forgot about this, it’s going to be a waste of time and efforts in the real fights, not to mention the difficulty to keep it down in crucial situations.”

We both sighed deeply at all the headaches that we were going to have from that.

As we reached the training area we looked around at the people, there were around four hundred people with abilities at that moment (though the number should multiply in the next a few months), and let me tell you something, some of them looked miserable, some of them were covered in water or dirt while others with burned clothes, a guy electrocuted the others around him, a teenage girl with wood ability trapped herself with branches, and was crying and asking for help.

I looked at Sam only to see him looking at them while shaking his head furiously and mumbling “I’m not going near those people, just hearing all their shouting and crying making me angry.”

I tilted my head a little and looked at him confused, then I remembered that he might lose control over his anger and end up killing them, I looked at him and smiled as I said with a voice I tried as much as possible to make it convincing “We are not going near them, we will go to a side away from them and fake training there, if it became harder for you to keep calm, we will leave immediately.”

I put my arm around his shoulder and smirked then continued “Don’t worry; I will keep talking to you so you won’t be able to hear anything else.”  

He raised his eyebrow and frowned at the same time which made his face wrinkled and looked a little funny as he said with twisted lips “Fuck, how loud are you planning to speak to cover all their voices? I guess I should try my luck with them, otherwise, I may end up killing you.”

I just laughed and didn’t answer him; my only answer was dragging him yet again to the edge of the training area where it was nearly empty.

Just as I turned around to look at Sam with a smug smile on my face, I felt an electric current spread through my whole body, which made my face twitch involuntarily and erased the smug from my face, it wasn’t strong enough to hurt me but enough to make me flinch and tremble a little, I looked at Sam only to see him with a smug smile as he said “Now your face looks better.”

I looked at him innocently which made him roll his eyes at me and shrug.

We chatted as we trained, mostly trying to get used to using our abilities at level one all the time, while laughing from time to time at the other people’s misfortune.