The sudden drop in energy levels came mere moments after Hiro, Samuel, and Valeria were told to get to the nearest gate. Hiro knew what it was immediately. The Doom System took away the boosts it had given me in the previous Interim. It—
“Not great,” Samuel said as he lurched forward, trying to catch his balance. The fabric of the trench coat he wore moved to protect him, surrounding the Australian like a cocoon. “Nah, yeah, powers are gone.” He laughed painfully. “I forgot what it was like to feel normal.”
Hiro glanced at the nearest rooftop. He thought about bouncing away but stopped himself. If I jump to the nearest roof without any stat boosts, I could actually break my legs!
“Wait. Wait! What’s happening to Juan?” Valeria asked as the dead Puerto Rican man’s body ignited. The flames quickly subsided, leaving nothing but ash. She dropped to her knees in front of it.
“Bugger,” Samuel said, his eyes bulging.
“The System… no.” Valeria trembled. “No, no, no! It’s getting rid of Survivors that didn’t make it.” She glared at Hiro, her rage clearly meant for Rena, her girlfriend, who had also died when the gate opened and a giant hoarding spider exploded out, killing her. “This is your fault.”
“Now, let’s not do that Val,” Samuel said.
“It was just a suggestion—” Hiro felt the fuzzy pink shield on his arm tighten.
“As much as I love a little Real Housewives of Post-Apoc NYC,” Bianca told him. “We don’t have a lot of time. Let’s go, big bro!”
While Samuel calmed Valeria down, Hiro spoke to the shield: “I’m back to my normal power levels, you know, before the Doom System came. That’s what we’re discussing. That, and the, um, burial situation.”
The shield buzzed again. “And? We can hash that out later when there isn’t a literal timer ticking.””
He let out a short breath as he looked up again. “I can’t just jump to a roof. If I use {Bounce}, I could actually hurt myself. There’s no way I’ll be able to reach the gate.”
“Must I do everything around here?” Bianca surged forward with a set of tentacles, flinging Hiro and herself onto a rooftop where she deposited him lightly. “See?”
Hiro released a quick breath as his heart settled. I was not expecting that, he thought, looking down at Samuel and Valeria. “What about the others?”
“I can’t bring them too,” she said. “Or maybe I can. Sure? I’ll get you to the gate and come back for them. We have, what? Less than four minutes?”
Hiro looked down the street and spotted another gate closer to the East River. That’s it! He cupped his hands around his mouth. “There’s a gate two blocks east,” he called down to the two Survivors. He pointed in the direction and Bianca mirrored him with one of her tendrils. “We’ll meet later!”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Got it, mate!” Samuel said, moving on with Valeria, while Hachi, Hiro’s demonic Shiba Inu, stared up at him. The dog didn’t exactly wag its tail, but it was attentive.
“Get our put and let’s get a move on,” Bianca said.
Hiro whistled and Hachi followed as Bianca carried him from rooftop to rooftop. The city looks even worse than before, he thought as he saw several buildings that had collapsed and much more debris in the streets, from overturned tanks to train cars that had somehow come up from the subway system after the road caved in. I don’t know if everyone had to fight a giant hoarding spider capable of attaching things to its body, but it certainly looks like they did…
“We’re here!” Bianca lowered him in front of the gate near his fallout shelter, where all the bodies from earlier were now gone. Shit.
“You’re going to need to write an apology letter to Valeria.”
“I’ll get right on that,” he said, looking up at the gate.
He knew it was his fault the bodies no longer remained. He had scolded the Doom System for something like this, and it had responded—first by trying to kill him, asking him to use his time-portaling teddy bear underground. When he refused, the Doom System sent an infamous samurai after him.
At least I got Masakado’s odachi for beating him… Still, there’s no sense in confronting the Doom System if I don’t have to.
The hairs on the back of Hiro’s neck stood on end as he heard a voice he was becoming increasingly familiar with—one he both loathed and dreaded:
[Buy low, sell high. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. A penny saved is a penny earned. Cash is king. You’ve got to spend money to make money. Put your money where your mouth is. Never live paycheck to paycheck. Another day, another dollar. Because money talks, and whether you’re in for a penny or in for a pound, a fool and his money are soon parted. Welcome to the Second Interim.]
“What the shit?” Bianca asked.
[You will soon be nickeled and dimed. You might be rolling in it, or you could be made redundant. I was wrong, Survivor, wrong in assuming that humans thrived on competition. No, now I better understand. It is money. Easy come, easy go. Your Companion will explain further. Take your supplies, and manage them correctly. And just so we’re clear: there will be dynamic pricing, but I might just make it rain. I am the master of war, the product of Lakshmi and Fortuna, the mover of markets. Good luck, Survivor.]
A box shot out of the hovering gate, startling Hachi, who had just arrived. The dog barked at the wooden box as Hiro’s phone buzzed. “Let me guess,” he muttered, checking the new timer and a message from his Companion.
02:59
02:58
02:57
“New change with you?” Hiro blinked as his phone screen smoothed out, the crack disappearing.
The black-and-white text and countdown timer minimized as color took shape, revealing a bearded human male in a flannel shirt. Text reappeared on the screen.
Bianca peered over his shoulder. “Yo, what? The Doom System gave you a beardy dude?”
Rather than figure out what was going on with the phone, Hiro shoved it in his pocket, grabbed the box, and took off running. “A little help, please.”
“You got it!” Bianca’s tendrils moved forward like stilts, quickly carrying him to his fallout shelter.
With less than a minute left, Hiro popped open the top and climbed down with the box, aided again by Bianca. He then climbed back up the steps and motioned for Hachi to come to him.
“Come on,” he told the slightly rabid Shiba Inu. “Let’s get to safety.”