New York hadn't been the bastion of civilization Lexa had hoped it would be. Charles had disappeared during their first night, and in the morning a gang had found her and Cassie. She should have known not to trust the old guy, he was a real creep. Which was kind of how a lot of people seemed now. Even Cassandra was weird. When they had first met Charles, Lexa and Cassandra had both been half-naked. Charles hadn't stared more then could be expected, and offered his suit jacket. He had never made any rude remark as they traveled. It didn't change that he looked, and had the vibe, of a creep. His eyes were close together, his glasses were lame. He wasn't just fat, he was bulbous.

  It was a funny story why her and Cassandra had been half-naked. When Lexa's twitter account had tweeted that weird shit, she had tried to delete the message. It hadn't worked, and her phone kept getting hotter, and then she dropped it and it exploded. None of that really mattered to how she ended up half-naked. The important part, was she had gotten ready to go out, and buy a new phone. So she had gotten all dressed up, as she never knew when someone might recognize her. Going outside, she then saw the huge tear in the sky. It had been full of just a lot of tentacles, all moving and gross. It was like an octopus, but didn't look at all tasty. Lexa had felt something she had never felt before, sheer, unabatable, horror. The nuclear explosion hadn't helped.

  So then she woke up in this field of, what she was pretty sure was corn. Although, when they ate some it tasted really bad. She still ate it, as she was starving at that point, but still, it was bitter. It did look like corn, so it was probably that. Maybe they just hadn't put the corn syrup in it yet. That was what made corn sweet after all.

  Anyways, she woke up in some clothes she definitely didn't own, as they were basic as shit. A cardigan was not her style, and the pants were from the nineties. That was a lot better than Cassandra who was totally naked.

  Lexa was a nice person, and didn't really like the clothes, so she gave the cardigan to Cassie. She couldn't have given her bra, as Lexa had an athletic build, and Cassandra was stacked. Cassandra overall was very pretty, not supermodel pretty though. Cassandra just looked good, even though she obviously didn't have any make-up on. It was more girl-next-door. So they split Lexa's clothes. That was why they were half-naked when they ran into Charles.

  He had suggested going to New York, which Lexa though was a good idea. It wasn't LA, but it was better than being out in the country. Looking back she hadn't really thought it through. There had been a lot of people in New York, and there still was a lot, by apocalypse standards. People weren't as nice as they had been. The end times had apparently also ended manners.

  A gang had found them the morning after they arrived. They had gone onto the street to look for Charles, worried he had gotten lost. At gun point they had been brought to a huge, disgusting, pile of slime. Lexa had wanted to refuse, but had no choice except to stick a hand into the ooze. When she pulled it out, a jelly bracelet had been around her wrist. It wasn't the worst looking bracelet. It was inch wide, and clung tightly to her skin. It was slightly transparent, a stream of white flecks running in a stream through it. To be honest, touching the ooze was a lot better than what could have happened to her and Cassie.

  Her, Cassie, and a few other unfortunate people, had been told that their bracelet would eat them in a day. Unless they went out, and brought back sacrifices to feed the ooze. If they did, the wizard who ran the gang would keep the bracelets calm. The ooze was some monster that the leader of the gang had called Pleiades.

  They got stuck in a group with three others, and were laying in wait to capture some people. The hid behind a concrete divider, hoping someone would walk down the street. The gang had given them each a taser, and some zip-ties. They weren't trusted with guns, but another team had assured that they could get promoted. The bracelets wouldn't come off, even the gangs second in command, a biker looking dude, named Mitch, still had one.

  Julia wasn't sure why they hadn't been fed to Pleidias straight out. However, she wasn't going to argue the point. Cassandra seemed to be taking it well, and kept fussing with her bracelet. Julia tried her best to ignore when her own bracelet squirmed, or took a nip at her. The other three kept quiet. One, a young man with an ugly nose, looked like he had gang tattoos. The other two were a middle-aged couple, who kept close to each other.

  “Hey Cassandra,” Lexa whispered.

  “Yeah Lexa?”

  “Are we really doing this? I mean, that slime will kill whoever we bring back. I can't kill someone. I mean, I say I'm so pissed I could kill that person. But that's just saying stuff. I wouldn't actually do it. So are we actually doing this?”

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  “I think we need to go along for now. It's either us or them. The whole city is crazy, anyone with sense would have gotten out by now.”

  “Then why did we come here?” Lexa asked the rhetorical question.

  “Because I had no idea what New York really was. And Charles said he had friends. I guess you're just dumb.”

  Cassandra had amnesia, it was kind of her whole thing. Not to say she wasn't nice and stuff, and was pretty smart, and social. The amnesia took the spotlight though. She didn't even know what cities were. She understood the concept, but had no idea of New York.

  “Well how was I supposed to know everyone had lost it? I figured the cops would have kept things under control. Why would everyone loss their shit just because the sky got torn in two? Most of the day you're inside and can't see it. It had no effect on everyday life. People don't live in the sky, no one should have freaked out. Sure if you fly a plane it might be some concern, but come on.”

  Lexa had gotten louder as she went on, and the gangster guy rudely shushed her. “I hear someone, shut up.”

  They all waited in silence. Lexa glowered at the gangster. That had been uncalled for, shushing her like some yapping dog. If at the end of the day they hadn't gotten anyone, maybe the gang would vote someone off the team. If that happened, she would definitely be voting for that guy. That wouldn't be killing someone, she figured. It would just be democracy, which was a good thing. Lexa looked to the middle-aged couple, hoping to get the wife on her side. The woman was just clutching her man, looking terrified,

  That was romantic, Lexa wished she had a boyfriend to rely on. She hadn't been seeing anyone when the world ended. Her ex's were probably dead, and their numbers had all been in her phone. Rumor was that phones still worked, if you found a working one. They didn't have any internet, so apps didn't function, but it would be nice to have one.

  Thinking of a comfort, she would like to have a man. Was that really a priority now? Lexa giggled, thinking about being on a hunt for a man. She whispered to Cassie. “This is the most literal I've ever been, when hunting for a man.” Cassie, not privy to the thoughts leading up to it, and maybe confused about things because of her amnesia, didn't laugh. Or maybe she was trying to keep quiet, as the footsteps had gotten awfully close.

  The gangster had moved next to Cassie and Lexa. “One of you go out, and distract them,” he ordered.

  “What? You do it,” Lexa argued.

  “The rest of us will sneak up on them. You two will make the best bait.”

  Lexa looked over to the couple, but they nodded in agreement. It wouldn't be fair to make Cassie the bait, considering the amnesia. One day that excuse wouldn't work, after she had seen enough stuff. Right now it would be kind of like sending out a child. “Ugh, fine. But I am totally voting you off the team tonight.”

  Lexa stood up, and walked around the concrete barrier they had been hiding behind. A single man was wandering the street, picking his way between the ruined cars. There was no nice way of saying he looked like a homeless person. He was dirty, vacant eyed, and sad looking.“I guess I'm homeless to now,” Lexa remarked to herself.

  The man cocked his head at that. “Ummf, gold, blue-green fading, red fringe. I-I, no bad,” he mumbled incoherently. They were maybe ten feet apart now, and the man stumbled towards her. He had ragged red lines across his face, it looked like fingernail scratches. His fingers were red with blood, she wasn't sure if it would be better or worse, if he had done it to himself. Lexa backed up, trying to keep the distance. She bumped in the concrete divider, and squealed in surprise. That set the man off, and he lunged towards her, his mouth frothing like a cappicino.

  Lexa toppled backward over the divider, arms windmilling. She landed on someone, a body breaking her fall. By the time she sorted herself out, finding she had landed on top of the woman, it was over. The others had tased the guy as he tried to get over the divider. He was now securely zip-tied, hand and foot. The crazy guy started thrashing about, and screaming. They piled on, keeping him from smashing his head against the concrete, and shoved a gag in his mouth.

  The group waited to see if anyone, or anything, would be attracted by the noise. When the coast seemed clear, Lexa started to panic. It had been one thing to sit around and plan to catch someone for the gang. The reality, that she would be helping feed someone to a pile of evil slime, was stressing her out. The jelly bracelet seemed to know what had happened, and quivered in excitement, pressing hard against her wrist.

  One person was the quota for her team, so the man and gangster guy carried the unfortunate dude, and they made their way back towards the gang's hideout. The gang had taken over a bank. The money wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, apparently. The building still had a vault, secure entrances, plenty of offices to squat in. Lexa didn't really consider any of this.

  She did agree the bank had a nice atmosphere, and went the vibe of the gang's leader. Sariel was apparently an angel, trapped in flesh. For some reason that Lexa didn't know, he was doing all this, ordering people captured and fed to the slime. He also could just be crazy. It was possible he could be both. He didn't really look like an angel, more like a meth-head dressing up as a wizard. He wore a dark robe, and what skin he showed was pocked and scabby. She certainly wouldn't want to be trapped in that flesh.

  Sariel was really magic, that was a fact. When Cassie and her got caught, he had summoned up fiery hands from the ground that grabbed them. The hands had only looked fiery, thankfully. He had been the one to summon the slime, Pleiades. He hadn't done any other magic that Lexa had seen. The marble floor and pillars of the bank matched his booming voice.