A conversation between Ivy and Vince wakes me up in the middle of the night.

“... Mission. Hopefully we’ll be back by the next storm but don’t worry if we’re not. It’s a simple, easy mission.”

“I can go with you.” I can still hear a faint slurring in his words. I swear to god if he has any permanent damage I’m going to stab Seven.

“Sorry, but this is the one time you can’t. Lucas is going to be here with you. If you need anything, ask him.”

“Here, let me show you.” I can hear him shift to try and stand up, only to be pushed back down by Ivy.

“No, Vince. Doctors orders. Let us handle this, ok? We raided the armory and put it on Seven’s tab, we’re very prepared. I promise we’ll both come back safe.”

After a long pause Vince speaks up again.

“Fine. Just don’t lie to me. Is this really simple and easy?”

“I’m going to lie to you and say yes. But we have a plan to do it safely. We’ll be back, I promise.”

“You better.” He says before leaning up to kiss her.

Vince relaxes back in his bed, but I can hear that Ivy stays awake. I’m not sure if she’s slept at all since he got injured. I stand up and walk over to her. It’s my chance to run my fingers through her hair to comfort her. I’ve always wanted to be on this end of things. Her hair is silky smooth. Ugh, she’s so lucky.

“Hey, I’ll watch him. You get some sleep too.”

“Alright. Thanks Cassie.” She hugs Vince tight and settles in.

It doesn't take them long before their breathing slows to a comfortable sleep. I know she has some sort of implant to let her stay up for longer, but even she needs her sleep. Plus the two of them are just so cute when they sleep together. One day I’ll meet a girl as cool as Ivy.

I sit there for a few hours, keeping a close ear on Vince’s breathing. Only when the sun comes up do I get up and head to the canteen. Might as well get everyone breakfast in bed. The floor is already alive when I come out, there’s a small crowd headed to and from the stairs. I figure they know where they’re going and join in the mess of people.

A whole floor has been dedicated to the cafeteria. A man at the beginning of the line is asking every person how many plates they're grabbing and who they’re working for. Good to see I’m still taking from Seven’s wallet. Maybe I should get two plates for everyone?

Each plate already has a single, pre portioned meal on it. Beans and a drink. Why is it always beans? I grab four plates and head upstairs. Normally I’d burst in with a loud ‘good morning!’ but not today.

“Hey, everyone.” I say softly into the room. Everyone has woken up in the small time I was gone. “It’s beans again.”

“Ugh.” Vince is at least feeling good enough to complain.

“How are you feeling today?” I ask him while I pass out breakfast.

“Good enough to join the both of you.”

“Bullshit. How are you really feeling?”

“Better than yesterday, but still really out of it.” He admits reluctantly.

“Just focus on getting better.” I lean down and give him a quick hug which he gives back with unexpected strength.

“Did Ivy tell you what was going on?” I ask Lucas.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Here.” He hands me his backpack. This thing is way heavier than I expected, how much ammo is he carrying?

“Thanks.”

After that breakfast passes mostly in silence. Ivy and Vince are just enjoying each other’s company. Lucas doesn’t say a single word the entire meal. I can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now. Even though they weren’t close, Lucas really liked Blue. Learning about Vince, and having to watch him alone on top of that? How do you even handle that? Once Ivy and I finish eating she stands up.

“We should get going.” She slings her rifle over her back and picks up Vince’s. I take both my and Lucas’ backpacks outside. We drop into one of the chairs just outside the room to prepare away from the other two. “What did you grab?”

“We each get one flashbang and two pipe bombs. I also grabbed a shaped charge and four shotguns for traps.” I hand her the grenades and two of the shotguns.

“Very nice.” Ivy grins. She’s almost as excited as I am to play with these.

I start to move Lucas’ gear over to my backpack. He’s got a lot of the basics that I don’t need to take. String, rope, cable ties, some tools, that kind of thing. His guns are way heavier than what I’m used to, but I’m sure I’ll manage. The extra firepower is going to be far more important than the speed I’m losing.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

His whole weird holster and reload mechanism is way too large to use on me. I’ll just have to tuck his extra magazines into my waistband and pockets.

“Holy shit. Since when is Lucas carrying 500 rounds?” There’s no way I can have all of these available at the same time.

“He sure does like his bullets. What about the rest of your gear?”

“60 rounds for my gun, A week of food and water, my knife, the normal extras. How’s your ammo looking?”

“90 rounds of 5.56. In the big girl I’ve got 15 each of both AP and hollow point, 5 car stoppers, 5 spitfire, and my uranium slug.” As she finishes she fishes out a necklace hidden in her shirt. It looks identical to any old lead bullet, but that’s just a casing. Its core is depleted uranium, the single most powerful weapon we own. She’s never told me where she got it, just that she’s waiting for the right moment to use it. She tucks it back into her shirt and ensures it sits right over her heart.

I drop off Lucas’ bag wordlessly and we head out. We get a few looks on the way down. It’s not unheard of for someone to carry multiple types of weapons, but I can’t imagine Ivy’s combo is very common. I probably look pretty funny too. I’d love to see someone try and use three guns at one.

We step outside into the harsh sunlight. Somehow it’s even hotter out here than it was inside. We can see a few people slowly creeping along the side of the skyscrapers. There’s nothing more dangerous than being caught out in a crossroad without cover. A single bullet from any window and that’s it. Just being out here is rolling the dice.

We creep our way to somewhere with a view of the checkpoint all the while trying to minimize the number of windows that have a view of us. We avoid all the open areas we can, but it’s not always possible to completely avoid them.

I always go first across the no man's land that is intersections, just in case some psychopath is bored. All we can do is hope that I’m slow enough that they’ll shoot, but fast enough that they’ll miss. Ivy goes next. She’s a slow and easy target, but we stay lucky.

We pass by a few different scrappers and runners heading to do whatever. Every person we pass is a tense standoff. We don’t know if they’re dangerous, and they don’t know if we are. Especially since it’s just the two of us we must look like an easy mark. We’re sure to keep our weapons drawn and nobody messes with us.

Finally we reach an intersection a half mile from our destination. There’s a large dune we can peek our head over with a view of our target, and I’m sure Ivy can see every detail. Sure enough, there’s a dozen people in a fortified location. Movable barricades and barbed wire prevent both cars and people from passing through, except for a single, small entrance. A few people are making their way through regardless of the danger, but even from this distance we can see them paying the bandits.

The building they’re hiding out in has the windows on the bottom few floors heavily reinforced with metal, wood, and messily poured concrete. How the hell do they have enough wood that they’re using it for barricades? That stuff is expensive.

A single door to the outside sits on every floor. A lot of buildings have that same setup, so they can exit no matter how high or low the sands end up. I’ve seen very few buildings this reinforced though. Only a few windows near the very top are still intact.

The skyscraper that’s our goal sits right next to it. There are a few rooms that both have glass windows remaining, that’s our entrance. There’s only about a 15 foot gap between the two buildings. I can make that jump pretty easily, but Ivy might have a little trouble. We’ll cross that bridge later. We begin to silently move towards our new target.

The walk over is slow going. We dive for cover at every distant gunshot. At the end of the day it’s only by pure luck that none of those shots come for us.

God I hate it here. A few streets down we see a glimpse of a car passing by, only for the sounds of a firefight to break out only an instant after it disappears around the corner. I’ve never realized how thankful I should be that Arc City’s building is on the outskirts.

After a tense hour we arrive. Luckily the entrance is on the opposite side as the bandit’s blockade. Ivy takes a moment to memorize which windows would make for a good entrance point before knocking on the thick, metal door. A small metal slide opens up only enough for two eyes to peer through at us.

“What do ya want?” A gruff voice comes through.

“I’m Ivy, this is Cassie. We’re a couple of wasters looking for work.”

“Fuck off.”

“Wait!” I cry out before he can slam the slide shut. I reach into my pocket and pull out a small wad of cash. This is painful, but if I’m lucky Silver will reimburse me. “We were told by one of your own to meet them here.”

He closes the slide softly and I can hear a few different locks opening on the other side of the door. He opens it and steps aside.

“Be quick.”

I slide the wad into his hand as we head through the door. The stairs are to our right and we head straight up, pretending we know where we’re going. Look confident enough and a lot of guards will just get out of your way.

Most floors in this building are ruined, half collapsed messes, but occasionally we reach a mostly undamaged one. The higher we climb, the less people we see. The upper floors are luckily nearly entirely abandoned, although they've mostly been stripped of everything useful.

Finally we reach an undamaged landing and she turns in. I guess she knows where she’s going. I imagine her legs are hurting from the sixteen story climb we just went up. I can’t help but feel a little smug about my legs right now.

She reaches a door and signals me to check it. I put my ear to the door for any breathing. My ears are another little gift from the explosion. I’d rather have organics, but I can’t pretend they haven’t saved my life.

Only when I’m sure nobody is in there do I quickly get to work popping the lock. Whoever built this building must not have been worried about security, I’d be hard pressed to find an easier lock to open.

We step inside to a fairly large room. Or it would be large if whoever lives here wasn’t a hoarder. Garbage is piled high in every corner, and the smell of rotten food permeates the air. Soiled clothes decorate the few pieces of furniture that aren’t buried. It takes a lot from me not to gag on the air. I sprint to the window only to find it impossible to open.

Fuck it, this room needs to be aired out anyway. I grab a small bit of a broken spark plug from my bag and chuck it at the window. It shatters into a million pieces. Tiny bits gently rain down endlessly. I take a second piece and throw it through the window on the other building. Eh, that’s quiet enough.

15 feet might be nothing for me, but it’s a massive jump for Ivy. The two of us get to work shoveling a small runway for her. We end up having to shove a fair amount of trash out of the broken window, but that’s someone else's problem.

Once we finish I make the jump with ease. I don’t even need to toss my backpack over first. Ivy silently tosses her bag and guns over to me before backing up. I’m ready to catch her if she misses. She takes a running leap and just barely makes it. Not bad for an old lady. She collects her equipment and turns to me.

Ready? She signs to me.

Yes.