They made their way downstairs as Jess watched from the balcony window. First, they had to stop and retrieve the backpack. Matt buckled it on and they stepped outside. Drew scanned the area, but saw no threats. The Humvee was still parked in front of the building, but they walked past it.

Better to leave it intact in case we need to make an escape.

A row of cars in the lot sat undisturbed. Drew was sure some of these vehicles’ owners were still alive, holed up in their apartment above, but it was not like they could use them anymore.

They first stopped at an older Honda Civic. It was modified to appear sportier, with an air spoiler on the back and flames along the side. However, once Drew forced the hood open he saw that the four-cylinder engine remained unchanged.

Drew shook his head. He never understood why people would do that to a car. Sure, he went through a period when he was young where he wanted a fast car, but that was different. Drew wanted to feel the acceleration from a five liter engine in a light weight car, he wanted to feel the wind in his hair in a convertible. This car would give him neither.

He quickly yanked the battery cables off the post and lifted the battery out of the car. Matt turned around so he could drop the battery in his pack. He carefully placed it inside the large opening and removed his hands.

“How does that feel?” Drew asked.

Matt moved back and forth to test out the load. “Nice! I can barely feel it back there. Let’s get another!”

Drew nodded. The vehicle next to the Civic was a passenger van.

Hmm, we should probably leave this one alone too. It could be useful. You never know when you might need to haul a bunch of crap around.

The next vehicle over was a shiny new, black Lexus. It was a very pretty car and Drew was sure the interior was luxurious, however its greatest use in an apocalypse was its battery. Drew ripped open the hood with a wince at the damage to the immaculate vehicle and found the battery.

Once again he ripped away the cables and unscrewed the wingnut which held it down. Drew lifted it out of the luxury car and placed it gently on top of the other battery in Matt’s backpack. The straps over Matt’s shoulders strained with the almost one hundred pounds of weight in the pack, but held firm.

Drew inspected the pack as a whole and then told Matt, “I think that’s all it can hold. We’re going to need a sturdier pack if you want to add more.”

“Yeah, that’s a shame. Where do we get some wires now?” Matt asked.

“Well, I was thinking we could ge…”

“Dilo!” Matt pointed to his right.

The beast’s approach was hidden by vehicles and it was now only thirty feet away. Before Drew could form a strategy and coordinate with Matt, the beast’s momentum suddenly stopped as if it hit a brick wall.

Nice one Matt. Good use of force field.

The larger than normal dilo compressed against the invisible field and Drew heard bones snap. Once it came to a complete stop, he realized it was at least fifty percent larger than a normal dilo.

Did it get bigger from eating beast cores?

Drew’s thought was interrupted by a scream from Matt.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Matt on his side. Blood trailed down his leg from a long, deep gash.

What happened?

Drew frantically searched for the cause, but was himself surprised by an attack from behind. He fell forward to the ground but was able to catch himself with his hands. His right leg burned in agony, so he dampened the pain and searched for his attacker.

Crouched over the corpse of the dilo was a large beast that Drew had never seen before. It had scales similar to the dilo, but stood on only two legs. Its weight was counterbalanced with a long tail as it bent down to rip the dilo’s scales away with its three inch long claws. Saliva dripped from its alligator-like jaws as it focused on the beast in front of it.

Why did it ignore us after attacking?

With a sudden triumphant roar, it retracted its claws from the inside of the beast. Held between sharp claws was a golf ball sized beast core. The beast then stood to its full height of eight feet and glanced over his way. Its vision only focused on him for a split second before it trained its gaze on Matt. It titled its head to the side and paused as it stared.

Is it thinking?

“Yo fam, I used all my chi to heal my leg. Unless you think you can take it, we gotta bail.”

Drew glanced down at the tiny knife in his hands and grunted in disgust. He slowly backed away from the six hundred pound beast and watched as it delicately placed the core inside its mouth. After twenty feet, Drew saw that Matt had risen to his feet and also backed away.

Once they reached fifty feet, Drew said, “Run!”

They spun around and fled toward the safety of the apartment building. After another thirty feet, he looked over his shoulder, but the cunning monster did not follow. Instead, its gaze followed their flight with a cocked head.

They ran up the stairs and pushed through the broken door. Once Matt was inside, Drew slammed the door and slid the heavy cabinet against it.

I don’t think that will do much to stop it, but it might give us a second or two to react.

“Oh my God, are you both ok?” Jess asked worriedly.

“Yup, I’m all healed up.” Matt assured her.

Now that Drew was safe inside, he looked down at his torn and bloody leg. He ripped off the entire pant leg so he could see his injury. Blood steadily drained out of an eight inch long gash in his thigh. At the center, it was almost an inch deep. Drew growled in frustration at his inability to heal himself.

I need a core!

Jess kneeled before him and began to wrap his leg in white gauze. He barely noticed her. It took all of his willpower to stop himself from swallowing one of the many beast cores in his pockets.

Don’t be stupid. Using another core will kill you.

He closed his eyes and breathed deep to calm himself.

“I thought you could turn off your pain.” Jess stated as she taped the bandage tight.

“I can.” Drew assured her.

“Then what’s up with that look on your face? You looked like you were barely holding it together.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“It’s not my leg, it's the beast cores. It’s getting hard to stop myself from using them.” Drew admitted.

“They’re addictive?” Jess asked in concern.

“Not for me.” Matt assured her.

Drew thought back to when the urge to swallow a core was strongest. Most of the last week he felt nothing, but certain times it took all of his available willpower to stop himself. After a brief consideration, he realized there was a correlation and shared his new theory.

“Ever since I swallowed my first core, I’ve had this urge to use more of them. Once I formed my own core though, it went away and I kind of forgot about it. That urge only came back when my core was out of chi. Now that I don’t have a core, it's always there in the back of my mind, just like my migraine. I think it’s going to stay like this until I form a core again.”

“That’s rough fam.” Matt remarked.

“I’m so sorry!” Jess apologized.

“Sorry? For what?” Drew asked, confused.

“I saw that monster stalking you, but I didn’t yell out a warning.” She looked down in embarrassment. “I froze up.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Drew assured her. “What do you mean stalking though?”

“It hid behind cars and watched you both through the windows. It slowly crept closer and closer while you had your backs turned. Once you killed the other monster, it pounced on Matt and then you. It was so fast, I could barely follow it!”

“Raptor.” Matt announced.

“Huh?” Drew furrowed his eyebrows at the non-sequitur.

“I get to name this one, and I’m calling it a raptor! Ya know, like from Jurassic World.” Matt insisted.

I guess it does kind of look like a velociraptor. Although, its head looks more like an alligator’s…

“Sure, we’ll call it a raptor.” Drew agreed. “I’m worried about how smart it is.”

Matt nodded in agreement.

“What do you mean?” Jess asked.

“All of the monsters out there are pretty dumb.” Drew started.

“Not the dragon!” Matt interrupted.

“Except the dragon.” Drew nodded along. “If a weasel-bear or dilo sees you, it just runs straight at you mindlessly. The only time I’ve seen it do anything else is when a triceratops is there.”

“Such as stupid name.” Matt muttered under his breath.

Drew ignored Matt. “Or when a dragon is nearby. We think the dragon’s can coordinate or control the other beasts like a general. With the Raptor’s ability to prioritize and stalk, I'm worried that if it’s as smart as the dragon, it can control other beasts like the dragon can.”

“I doubt it.” Matt disagreed.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, you saw what it did, it didn’t care about us, all it wanted was the beast core. It waited until we took the dilo out and then ambushed us to steal the core for itself. A general wouldn’t be selfish like that.” Matt argued.

“Yeah, it was weird that it didn’t go after us. We were both on the ground helpless…”

“Think about it fam, my core was mostly empty when it ganked us. You don’t even have a core. It went after the biggest core with the most chi first. By the time it was done with the dilo, I’d already used all my chi to heal myself. It no longer cared about us cause we couldn’t make it stronger.”

“That makes sense…” Drew agreed. “It was strong as hell too, it sliced through my skin easily. I bet I could take it if I had my core though.”

Drew realized his hand was in his pocket and his fingers rubbed along the faceted sides of the gems. With effort, he was able to force himself to extract his hand from his pocket.

Get a grip Drew.

“What’s going on?” Adam asked as he stepped into the room. His eyes were red and puffy, but the expression on his face looked more angry than sad.

Drew filled him in on their encounter with the new dangerous beast.

“Let me get this straight Drew, you put all of us in danger to get some useless batteries? What’s wrong with you!” Adam scolded him.

I guess we’re back to Drew instead of dad…

Drew remembered the first time Adam called him Drew rather than Dad. It had been right after Sarah told their son that he intended to leave them. Drew scrambled to assure his son that he had no plans to get a divorce, but Adam remained livid. Ever since that argument, he refused to call him dad. Drew was so happy yesterday, when Adam said dad for the first time in years, but it looked like that was over.

“I need them to recharge.” Matt insisted.

“Who gives a crap about your phone, it’s useless!” Adam insisted.

“Not to recharge my phone, you idiot, it’s to recharge my chi.”

Adam scowled at the insult and stepped toward Matt. Matt however was not intimidated. He had a cocky smirk on his face which only angered Adam more.

The last thing he wanted was a confrontation, so Drew quickly stepped in to explain. “Now that Matt has a way to refill his core, he can actually protect us better now.”

Adam turned. “It sure sounded like you guys ran away. How’d that protection go?”

“I told you, I was out of chi. Once I refill, that beast doesn’t stand a chance.”

Adam did not seem convinced.

“When we get the pack working, you’ll see that it’s worth it.” Drew assured him. “I’ve got an idea of how we can get a hold of some cables. Let’s head downstairs Matt.”

Drew wanted to get Matt away from his volatile son before the conflict could escalate. Once they left the apartment, Matt confronted him.

“What’s his problem?”

“Cut him a little slack, he just found out his mother died.”

“I lost BOTH of my parents and you don’t see me being an asshole.” Matt argued.

Drew sighed. “Yeah, he’s also pissed off at me. I wasn’t there to save Sarah. If I never left, she’d still be alive.” By the end of his admission, his voice had cracked in anguish.

“Bullshit!” Matt swore.

“Huh?”

“That’s bullshit! You have no idea what would've happened if you stayed home. For all you know, you’d have died in your sleep!”

“Keep your voice down.” Drew insisted as he looked around for monsters. The area was clear, so he headed into one of the apartments that did not smell like death. “Well, Rebecca and Tiffany seemed to agree with him.” Drew argued.

In a quieter voice, Matt continued his rant. “Rebecca was a bitch. I stayed out of the argument because I figured it wasn’t my business. I do know one thing though, I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you, so I’m glad you left that ungrateful douchebag.”

“Hey! That’s my son you’re talking about!”

“Exactly! He should act like it. He’s pissed off because you didn’t save your wife, right?”

Drew nodded.

“Well, you were hundreds of miles away while he was practically next door. I didn’t see him risk his life.”

He does have a point.

Drew did not have an answer to Matt’s argument, so he remained silent. He unsheathed his knife and stabbed into the drywall above the lightswitch. Drew removed a large rectangle between the studs and cleared the area of insulation and dust. He cut the electrical wires just above the switch and tugged on the cables. Staples were pulled from the wood as the cable came away from the stud.

He cut the wires into three foot sections and took the car batteries out of Matt’s pack. Drew used the knife to expose the ends of the cables and then wrapped them around the posts. He tugged on the cable to test its connection, but it came loose.

Damnit! I need a terminal connector.

“Hey Matt, go ahead and recharge. This isn’t going to work. We need to go outside and get some cables out of the cars.”

Matt refilled and they again exited the apartment. Their speed was limited due to Drew’s injury. While he was able to turn off the pain, his leg muscles were ripped which limited his range of motion.

They scanned the lot for the raptor, but saw no sign of the intelligent beast. Drew reopened the hood of the Honda Civic while Matt kept watch. As fast as he could, he cut the wires and moved on to the Lexus.

Once Drew was finished, they fled indoors and resumed his project. He tightened the clamp on the battery posts and connected the two batteries together in parallel. That type of connection would keep the voltage the same, but increase the amperage. He then trailed two wires off from the batteries and weaved them through the pack.

When he finished, Matt tried the pack back on and adjusted the wires so they were at his side, ready to grasp.

“It works!” Matt announced after a quick test.

Drew grinned.