“Emma, sweetie... who are your friends?” Mom's grin didn't reach her eyes. I wasn't used to seeing her like that, but then, I wasn't used to watching her drop-kick a guy to death on purpose, either.

“Chloe and Nicole.”

“Ahem!”

“And Percy the Dragon.”

“Woof.”

“And Archie.”

“Come on,” Mom said, “Let's get inside.”

I helped the girls down once Archie knelt.

“Can Archie guard the door?” I asked.

Nicole pointed at the front stoop and Archie laid down there once we were in the door.

It was nice to be out of the sun. As soon as I was back in my own living room, I took my spot on the couch, setting my helmet on the ground and propping one foot on it. The girls piled on next to me, but thankfully they had the sense to leave enough space not to burn themselves on my sun-baked armor.

Mom joined us a minute later carrying a pitcher and a stack of glasses. The water was bathwater warm, but we were all so grateful for it nobody cared. I sipped slowly and made sure the girls did the same.

“So where'd you find these two?” Mom asked.

“A to Z Daycare, down by the highway,” I said.

“Sir Emma rescued our teacher,” Nicole added, “And she's helping us protect ourselves!”

“Sir Emma?” Mom grinned.

“They didn't realize I was a girl at first, since I had your armor on.”

“But a Knight has to be a Sir, right?” Nicole said.

“Girl knights are called Dames, usually,” Mom said, “Although some people are pushing for everybody to be called the same, so, it works.”

We all sipped in silence for a few minutes before Mom spoke up again. “What all have you been doing to help them protect themselves?”

“We went to the orange store and got a bunch of stuff, and I showed a couple of their teachers how to size people for shields. It's slow going with just hand tools, but... Well, Chloe and Nicole brought the ones we made for them, so you can see for yourself.

“They're not exactly up to SCA rules, but they're strong enough to stop a leaf-hound and big enough to buy you some room if you get grabbed by a ground-mimic. Not enough to save you by itself, but enough that you have some wiggle-room to save yourself if you have a way to.”

“Have you shown them how to use them?”

I shook my head. “That was gonna be next. We gotta get enough shields made for people to start practicing with or there's no point.”

“What about weapons?”

I was sipping when she asked so I wiggled my hand like 'so-so.' “A lot of the kids are just too little to fight for real. We're gonna have to farm for them. Of the kids who are big enough to fight, almost half of them are mages like us.

“Nicole's a Summoner, Chloe's kind of a budding information-mancer build. And I'm going...”

“Jean Grey?”

I stuck my tongue out at her and Mom grinned. “I knew it.”

“Only cuz you're a nerd!” I said.

“Yep! And I made you a nerd, too. Nerd!”

I rolled my eyes and leaned back against the couch. “Anyway. We do have some weapons. The girls here have a baseball bat and some axes. I have a can of lag screws. Todd straight up has a shotgun-arm. It's the coolest thing ever.”

“Except when he almost got us eaten by leaf-hounds,” Chloe said.

“He saved my butt though!” Nicole countered.

“Yeeeah... I guess I can forgive him for that.” It took Nicole a moment to see what Chloe did there, and the two of them turned to making faces at each other while Mom and I talked.

“Todd and Chloe made some chemical grenades but we used 'em all.”

“And Miss Renee still has her shovel,” Chloe added.

“That's it so far. We're still pretty stone-age but I had to start somewhere.”

“And this all started when you rescued their teacher?”

I nodded. “I found Miss Renee sneaking around on her own... when I was coming back from Price Right.”

I must've gotten too quiet after that because Chloe grabbed my hand. I hadn't told her that part of my story but kids recognize when somebody's scared.

I swallowed hard, and went on. “She, um. She looked really scared, like even the leaf-hounds were just too much for her. Too weird, too dangerous, maybe both. So I... y'know, escort mission. I took her where she was going, and that was the daycare where these two were.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I peered sidelong at them. “Where they're supposed to still be.”

“Sir Emma came out here all by herself!” Nicole said, not quite whining, but not quite... not whining, either. “We were worried about her.”

“So you sneaked out?” I said.

“We didn't sneak!” Nicole objected.

Still holding my hand, Chloe facepalmed with her other one. “We kinda threatened the boys and bullied them into letting us out.”

“Do I have to tell you this was a terrible idea?” I said.

“No, Sir Emma,” they chorused in that obnoxious sing-song voice kids reserved for teachers and other unloved authority figures.

“Oh gods please never do that again,” I said, “I'm too young to get that voice.”

I looked to Mom for help but she looked like she was trying not to laugh. “Don't look at me,” she said, “They followed you home. If you wanna keep them they're your responsibility.”

The twins both fixed me with their most unfair, most absolutely-dirty-rotten-cheating puppy-dog eyes.

I leaned over and plunked my head against the top of Chloe's.

“I have to get these two back to A-to-Z,” I said, “But what about you, Mom? You had a plan, right?”

“Our emergency plan was always to head for your grandparents' place out by Scranton. But that was a plan for war or another terrorist attack on the City or something. Not... whatever this is. This is a whole 'nother level than I ever planned for. Those plans are out the window, now. It's over a hundred miles to Scranton, through gods-know-what conditions.

“So. Let's take an hour or so to loot everything worth carrying from here and then I'll come with you. Training a pocket-size army might not be the best way to spend the apocalypse, but having a community is important. If you don't mind me mooching off yours.”

“I don't mind. Um. Do you... want your armor back?”

“Once we get there, maybe we can work out something to share it if we're not both out at once. Either way, keeping you safe is more important to me, so, keep it for now.”

I took the twins upstairs with me and we started going through my stuff. I had a suitcase in my closet, so I filled it up with all of my underwear and socks, a few changes of clothes, a couple of hoodies... and my winter layers, just in case.

While I was packing my suitcase, the girls went and looked around. Nicole found my guitars, and after some discussion I told her to bring the acoustic, not counting on getting the electric one working again any time soon.

She also found the plushie that lived on my nightstand. It was a kind of ugly-cute baby bug creature in blue swaddling with lots of glow-in-the-dark eyes. I had also pinned a fundraiser metal Pride pin to the fabric.

“What's this?”

“She is Piksis, she's from a game my aunt and I play... well, used to play... together online. And she is just the most adorable hatchling ever. If you're nice to her you can hold her for me.”

She giggled and added Piksis to my suitcase, but in the outside pocket so the plushie's eyes showed.

I sent Chloe to ransack the bathroom. She came back with two cardboard boxes full of toilet paper, a stack of towels, six bars of soap still in shrinkwrap and their own cardboard sleeves, and all the toothpaste she could find. (There were four tubes of it. I... might have re-ordered it when I forgot I still had one in the drawer... a couple of times.)

We brought that stuff down to the living room, then went up for a second trip. I didn't want to add too much, but knowing we would have Ridley to do the heavy lifting, I wanted to grab a couple more things. A family photo or two. My binder of sheet music printouts.

Nicole got into my manga shelf and had to be reminded a couple of times that Sailor Moon was not worth the weight. And that one plushie was enough.

“What about extra blankets?” Chloe said, getting into the hallway closet outside my door.

“Maybe. Hey, grab my sleeping bag from in there.”

“I can't reach it.”

“I'll be right there.”

I sent Nicole downstairs with the binder, my photos tucked in the pocket in the front, then went to help Chloe. My sleeping bag, even rolled up, was practically the size of her, so I sent her with just that, then grabbed some extra blankets like she had suggested.

We met up with Mom in the living room after our second trip, and piled everything up, then she and I went through it.

I explained, “I picked some things that might be a little bulky or big, because Nicole has a Laborer summon that can carry or drag a lot of weight. He's huge and has four arms.

“Nicole insisted on my guitar because I was singing for the kids before, and for that I want my sheet music. I also stashed some family pictures in there.

“Chloe suggested extra blankets. I think it'll be a good idea to share with the other kids. Even in summertime it can get cold at night.

“One suitcase of clothes only. Plus some essentials.”

Mom had added some hygienic products to the pile of soap and toothpaste essentials, one suitcase of her own, and a bunch of stuff from the garage.

“I had a couple of similar ideas, so, there's that.

“Rattan for training weapons,” she said, “Safer than having the kids practice with metal, and I have a bunch left over from a group order I never got to drop off. In a pinch you could hit somebody with it for real; that's what Heavy List combat is, anyway. Against somebody without any armor at all, you could do some damage.

“I wasn't sure about bringing a bunch of canned food, but if we have a Laborer to carry it then that box can come with us. It's not a lot for more than just us but any calories help. Everything in the fridge is spoiled already, or as near as makes no difference.

“I found a couple of circular-saw blades. You can launch those if you have to, or we can turn them into something when we get there.

“My rolling toolbox. Again, I was debating leaving it behind, but there's a lot of handy stuff in there even from before I had power tools. If you're planning on arming and armoring dozens of people, it'll help. It's still gonna suck doing it the actual period way, but there's no helping that.”

I fixed her with a fox-like grin. “When you were looting the kitchen, did you get the coffee?”

“Nah,” she said, “I figured I'd just leave that be... of course I got the coffee. That's in the 'essentials' box.”

We used some plastic wrap from the kitchen to squish all the blankets down real small and keep them squished, and did the same with my sleeping bag, and one Mom had stashed in her room, too.

Nicole summoned Ridley, and we started loading him up. The bundle of rattan sticks went across his shoulders like a yoke, with our suitcases and the bundles of bedding plastic-wrapped to the ends. One arm steadied the yoke, one got the tool box, one got the box of canned food, and the last got the essentials box. Nicole herself seemed content to handle my guitar and sheet-music for me.

The sun was swinging toward setting by the time we got everything outside. The twins insisted on out-riding for us again, and climbed up on Archie to do it, Chloe taking my binder while Nicole handled her Companion.

Mom and I walked behind. I had my shield and a handful of bolts at the ready. She had her knife in a makeshift duct-tape-and-cardboard sheath on her hip and the other guy's metal pipe over her shoulder like a cudgel.

We were as kitted-out as we ever had been, one of my most important objectives was done, and I was feeling better than I had so far about this whole apocalypse thing.