The next few days we spent familiarising ourselves with our abilities and figuring out what kind of teamwork would be best with our current composition. Though we had all agreed that Jye was better at backline damage, the only projectiles we found at the gym were smaller weights, but we’d talk about hitting up a Kmart and pocketing bags of knives.
Though it was accidental, we figured out that Axel’s [Ground Smash] did a decent amount of damage while also stunning people. Jye had ended up in bed for half a day recuperating 12HP and whilst tending to them, we’d watched in horror as their broken foot creaked and cracked to correct itself. They’d been in intense pain too, screaming and writhing upon the gym mat we’d laid on the floor. Perhaps it was witnessing that that made me confident this wasn’t just some delusion. What kind of coma patient imagined healing hurting?
On the third day, electricity flickered out. Axel had thought ahead and filled up the beer bottles with water, so we still had a couple litres left. We started soaking our cup noodles. Honestly, it changed very little about the experience other than having to chew a little more.
I’d finally been able to use [Channel] without a system error. Unfortunately, with my current mana and stamina pool, I could only use Axel’s [Ground Smash] without major detriment. It turned out that I had to use whatever stat was required for the channelled abilities. Though we still couldn’t determine the true name of Jye’s first ability, we discovered that as long as they had enough mana and stamina, they could increase the effect of it without limit. Given that it seemed to increase the weight of an object, we took to calling it Dropping A Load. The first time we ended up in stitches, but it just stuck. But we called it Load for short.
Suffice to say, after multiplying the effect ten times, the dumbbell had sunk through the floor, past the concrete foundation, and into a deep dark hole. After that we didn’t test out Jye’s Load to its fullest capacity since the ramifications of sinking a weight into the Earth’s core probably wouldn’t be good.
Eventually, we came to the party pattern of Axel closing the gap between the target with his [Swift Footed] trait, then using [Ground Smash] to stun them, then backing off, and then Jye would pelt projectiles and layer on their Load on their down arcs. Since I could only use [Ground Smash] with my [Channel], I was delegated to protecting Jye and locking down anyone who approached. If the projectiles didn’t finish the target off, Axel would dash back in, and we’d repeat the process.
On the fifth day we ran out of cup noodles.
It was probably for the better.
“So, Woolies and Kmart?” I asked, closing the gym door behind the three of us.
Axel led the way. “Yeah, though all the groceries are probably gone. We’ll pick up what we can. Kmart, we all need to grab weapons. I’m thinking a bat for me. Knives for Jye. What would work for you?”
I thought for a moment. “I might get a broomstick? Staffs seem cool.”
“Staves,” Axel said.
“That’s what I said, I want a staff.”
“No, you said staffs. The plural of staff is staves.”
I glared at him. “You’re really hard to get along with, you know that, right?”
“I know that only too well.”
Despite food being the more pressing matter, Kmart had simply been easier to get to. Woolies was another block and none of us wanted to risk the trek without being able to properly defend ourselves. Whilst our training allowed us to work together, I don’t think any of us were truly ready to fight anything or anyone. Jye’s brush with the “healing” foot also made us want to err on the side of caution. Regenerating health points was far worse than losing them.
It was weird, but the streets were eerily quiet. Even the sirens and alarms had long since quietened. The looting had lulled too. People had seemingly withdrawn into hideouts or perhaps they had been driven to the Dungeons. I hoped they had left for the bush, to escape all the shit happening around here.
When we arrived, the Kmart store’s front doors had been smashed through, with bricks sitting inside. Avoiding the jagged edges, we squeezed in and weren’t surprised to find a lot of the merchandise had been taken. Large electronics were the most noticeably missing, which was the sad reality of life. Too bad they wouldn’t be able to use them anymore, not with power down. We all went our separate ways to the different sections in Kmart. Axel went to sporting goods, Jye headed to the kitchenware, and I went to the cleaning supplies.
Luckily not many people had use for broomsticks during the end of the world. There was a plethora of options to choose from, ranging from cheap plastic to name brand wood. To test them out, I gave them a thwack against the floor. The plastic was too slippery in my grip. I ended up picking a wooden one. It was surprisingly sturdy and fit nicely in my hand. Guess ergonomics mattered a lot when it was something someone was going to be using on the regular.
“Guys?” I called, wondering if they'd finished their selections too.
Walking through the clothing department, I picked up a few exercise clothes in my size and shoved them into the backpack my mother had bought me for paintball. It had several different compartments, all specifically designed to store different types of ammo or paintball supplies. Honestly, it’d been extremely helpful. I was glad that Axel had remembered it.
I made my way to the electronics, hoping to find the only other items I thought would be necessary in this post-electricity world. Batteries. It wasn’t surprising to find the shelves empty of the better lithium brands with only a few spare homebrand AA and AAA left. A couple of Ds too. Better than nothing. I packed them into one of the smaller compartments of my backpack, hoping they wouldn’t be damaged by anything.
Taking one more quick scan of the electronics section, I looked for anything else that would be useful to us. On the smaller knickknack shelves were several thin watches, more closely resembling bracelets than timepieces. Without phones, it would be hard to keep track of time… I grabbed the lot of them and headed back to the entrance. Hopefully Axel and Jye would be there too soon enough.
“How’s your staff?” Jye asked, approaching me with an armful of glinting knives.
I gave it an experimental twirl but fumbled and it slipped out of my fingers. It clacked against the ground. “Ah, fuck. Well, let’s pray I get better at that.” I stepped forward to pick it off the ground, but my toe caught the edge of it, kicking it into a roll. Ears now hot, I shuffled after it before plucking in from the ground. This time I held it firmly in my grasp.
“You sure you’re gonna be okay with that?” said a familiar grating voice.
Fucking Axel. “I’m sure it’s just a steep learning curve.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
Axel too had apparently taken the time to check out the clothing section and had changed. He was now wearing black jeans that had hanging chains and a white tee with metallic fangs in the centre accompanied by the words “Bite me.” The shirt was probably two sizes too small and clung to his chest and midsection in a way I’m sure was appealing to others. Aesthetically, it was the type of thing I expected a teenage k-pop boy to wear, to be honest. It was also ridiculously impractical. I was about to make a comment and joke with Jye, but the slight blush and their inability to meet Axel’s eyes made me rethink my words.
Despite the hatred Jye harboured for him, I guess it was difficult for others to forgo their attraction to Axel. For a moment I wondered if the name of our party would end up being a lie. Maybe Jye and Axel would hook up. Maybe hatefuck? Though I wasn’t sure if Jye was Axel’s type. Historically, Axel tended to prefer people shorter than him with soft eyes and easy smiles. Most of the party-goers that came and went from his room were like that.
In Axel’s left hand he held a metal baseball bat. “You sure you don’t want one of these too?”
Statistically, left-handed people die earlier than right-handers. I wondered if that was a promise. In response to his question, I shook my head. “I’m not melee enough to be comfortable that close range. I’ll stick with my stick, thanks.”
He shrugged and the shirt rode up to reveal part of his abdomen. Jye physically turned to walk to the entrance. I could imagine the expression on their face. I’d seen it on many a passerby’s features before. Judgmentally, I frowned at the six-pack that was now peaking out.
Noticing my silent words, Axel tugged his shirt back down. “Suit yourself.”
Axel and I followed Jye to the exit. Just before we stepped outside, I remembered the watches. “Oh, yeah, I got these for us too.”
Already wearing my watch, I handed out one each to Jye and Axel. Axel ran his thumb over the cheap metal accessory, deeply examining it. Then his gaze flicked up with a mocking smile. “Matching bracelets? How very kindergarten of you.”
Again, I resisted the sigh and said, “They’re practical. Just wear yours.”
Jye had already wordlessly slipped theirs onto their right wrist. It was the first time I noticed the whole tattoo sleeve they sported on that arm. The small glimpse of it I’d seen was hard to make out, but I was very sure I saw at least one snake. From what I knew about Jye, it was probably some sort of fandom reference. Axel clipped the watch on their left wrist.
In the broken windows of Kmart, I saw our reflection. With the matching watches we genuinely looked like a team. It was weirdly warm. The last time I could remember feeling like this, like I belonged to something, was probably when Chrissie was still alive.
I cleared my throat. “To Woolies with our weapons?”
Axel pointed to the east. “To Woolies!”
The place was absolutely ransacked. If Kmart had been robbed, Woolworths had been absolutely trashed. Any fresh food that hadn’t been taken was beginning to rot on the shelves, filling the entire building with the stench of decay. Jye, who apparently didn’t have a functioning nose, didn’t seem to care and walked in without a thought.
Breathing through my mouth, Axel and I trailed in after them. Entire aisles had been tipped on their sides, resulting in a barely navigable area. The place was practically bare. The only things left were health foods that needed extra processing or preparation. I watched in horror as Jye shoved several protein containers into their gym bag. Maintaining eye contact with me, Jye bent their arm in front of them, tensing their bicep into a sizeable lump before kissing it. My own lips curled down in disgust. Jye was the kind of buff that scared me. If I met them in a dark alley, I’d run away screaming.
We got maybe two aisles in before I saw it. In one section three of the shelving units had dominoed upon one another, creating a triangular teepee that was sealed off from the outside. It was probably our best bet to discovering untouched food. Just ahead of me Jye kneeled to pick up a discarded can of anchovies. Let me correct that. Our best bet to find food that I found palatable.
I leaned my staff against a nearby wall and tried to recall best heavy lifting protocols from when I walked part-time in a warehouse. Knees, not back. Knees, not back. I bent at the knees, squatting by one of the fallen aisle’s shelving units. Both my legs and my arms shook as I struggled to stand with it. I could barely imagine what kind of activity had knocked them over in the first place. The place must have been violently rioted.
Noticing my actions, Axel took a position to my right. We breathed in, and then as we exhaled we heaved. With the two of us, the unit began to raise slowly. It was exhilarating seeing it lifting those few millimetres. Before the appearance of the Gates, I don’t think this would’ve been possible with just the two of us. It further confirmed that our bodies had been changed beyond just accelerated healing. And were there more stats that were hidden? Just having health, mana, and stamina weren’t actually stats. Those were just indicators.
“Leave me alone!” said a small voice muffled by the shelves.
Startled, my hands instinctively released their grip. Unable to handle the sudden extra load, Axel fell forward, and the unit slid back down with a thud. He glared daggers at me, flicking his fingers to wave away pain.
I shot him a sorry-for-that smile. “You heard that too, right?”
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He nodded. And was uncharacteristically silent. Was this something else I needed to consider later? No, we’d let that one pass.
“Go away!” the voice repeated.
Attracted by the commotion, and with their bag bursting at the seams with food I almost wouldn’t acknowledge as such, Jye returned. In between licks of a lollipop they had found somewhere, they said, “You got yourselves a bonafide kid in there.”
What the fuck was a child doing in Woolies by themselves? Were they trapped? Had they gotten separated from their guardians?
I pinched the bridge of my nose in thought. We couldn’t just leave a kid alone in an abandoned grocery store. But what if their caretakers were looking for them? For a moment, I remembered Chrissie, but immediately shoved that thought so deep into my thought box that it was swallowed up in my concerns about Axel’s behaviour.
Said flatmate gestured at the shelves, eyebrows raised, inviting me to take control of the situation. Ah, his silence this time figured. He was shit with kids. Didn’t have any patience or empathy for that matter. And children were good at sussing out people who were faking anything. Who knows what they’d pick up from Axel.
“Hello?” I ventured. “We’re just looking for some food.”
“I have none!” yelled the child.
Weirdly enough, I swore I recognised their voice. Maybe they lived in the neighbourhood and I’d seen them around? I circled the shelf teepee, searching for any entrances and discovered two hazel eyes peering out from a slight gap about knee height. “Are you okay in there?”
“Yes, and I’m staying in here.”
“Okay, okay.” I sat down near the gap, and crossed my legs. “I’m Lee. What’s your name?”
There was no response. A different tactic then?
“The three of us are stocking up food before we go into one of those blackholes. You’ve seen those, right?”
The kid said something so quiet that I wasn’t sure they had spoken.
“What?” I asked.
“You shouldn’t go into them.”
The hazel eyes were watery, and I could just barely make out the drying tracks of tears trailing down their cheeks. Oh, yikes. That explained where their caretakers were.
“We have to. Well. I think we do. But we’re waiting for new ones to appear. My friend Axel thinks those titles we’re told about are important. He’s the blond one.”
Their gaze flicked behind me to where Axel stood. He struck a pose. No doubt the kid was considering the sanity of our group. Somehow Axel had also managed to find a chain that wrapped around the upper section of his baseball bat and attached it to his jeans, so it swung by his hips like a makeshift sword in scabbard.
“Who’s the other one?”
“They’re Jye. They’re my friend too, I guess?” We’d just spent the past workweek together, training and preparing for the Dungeons. If we weren’t friends, maybe companion was closer?
Jye shot me a thumbs up with a lazy smile. Okay, nice. We were friends. That was actually nice to know.
“Why go into the blackholes? They… they’re dangerous,” the kid said, pressing their face closer to the gap.
They looked around ten or so. Of course they had to be the same age as Chrissie. Their mouse brown hair was cut short in a pixie style. Under almond hazel eyes, their cherry nose was only just visible. At least mercifully they didn’t look the same.
“You don’t feel it?” I was genuinely curious. Maybe children didn’t have the same draw to the Gates, the strange compulsion that was growing stronger the longer we waited out. It had begun as a vague desire, but was now niggling into my thoughts when I let them wander.
They didn’t reply, but they sank further from the gap, the shadows swallowing their face.
“Well, nice knowing you, kid,” Axel said and turned to walk away. I caught his eye, but he winked. That wink had set many a person giggling in its time, it was so practised. Wondering what he was playing out, I stood and began following. If he thought he knew how to handle this, I’d let him give it a try.
“Oh, we’re just gonna leave them here?” Jye asked, only vaguely concerned. They crunched down on the lollipop, decimating the sweet.
Trying to play it cool, I shrugged and the three of us began to walk.
“Wait!” yelled the kid.
Looking back, I could see their face pressed up to the gap, eyes wide. “You’re definitely going into those black holes? What about the one in the CBD?”
“Maybe eventually,” Axel said, wobbling their hand in that semi yes-no motion.
There was a beat.
“Can I come?”
I wasn’t able to fight the smile. “Of course.”
A kerfuffle followed from behind the shelving unit, and from beneath a carefully displaced box, the kid emerged. Sporting pink overalls over a plain white shirt and black converses dirtied by probably a few days of wear, she approached our group carefully. If it were for how dishevelled she was, she was the picture of a picket fence kid. On her back was a small backpack in the shape of a Pikachu. Her and Jye would get along just fine.
The girl’s thin brows were furrowed in concern. “I’m only coming with you for now. Okay?”
“That’s fine with me,” I said.
“Same,” said Jye. This time they weren’t eating anything. For once.
“Well, I’m not okay with it, but majority rules I guess,” Axel grumbled.
It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps Axel had truly intended to just leave the girl here when he originally had started to walk away. The dude was so cold. How could he be like that when he had known Chrissie too? Swallowing back anger, I waited for the kid to catch up. The speed of our party noticeably slowed as we kept pace with her. Well, it was what it was.
After walking in silence for a short time, she said, “I’m Wren.”
“Oh, like those little birds?” Jye asked.
Axel shook his head. “You’re thinking of sparrows.”
Holding their hands out in front of them, they gestured a very small spherical shape and said, “No, they’re like puffy and brown. You know, friend shaped.”
“Mmm, that sounds like a finch,” I replied.
Axel scoffed. “No, now they’re describing a dunnock.”
“What in the fuck is a dunnock?” asked Jye.
“Language!” I shouted, outrage written across my face. I glanced down at Wren, hoping we hadn’t scarred her.
Instead, she chuckled. It was good to see her smiling. Who knows what she had been through in the past couple of days? And if she didn’t feel the same need to enter the Gates, why had she been so interested in them? Not only that, she appeared a little too calm. Then again, I didn’t know too many kids these days. Some of my online friends had them, but it’s not like we ever needed to speak to each other.
She said, “Wrens are small brown puffy birds.”
“See?!” Jye shouted. “I’m a bird savant!”
“That title is all yours,” Axel flatly said.
I asked, “Speaking of titles, Wren, do you have any, or traits, or abilities?” I thought for a second, and then added, “Oh, and what’s your class?”
The smile faded from her face. Oh, I’d stepped on some sort of emotional landmine. Several different responses ran through my mind, but I settled on remaining silent. Sometimes it was better to let others fill the quiet than asking questions. It’s how I managed to get through my sessions with my child therapist.
Jye, unable to read the room, confidently said, “I can’t read anything on my menu screen, so as long as you can read yours, they can’t be all that bad.”
Swearing under his breath, Axel whispered to Jye, “Ixnay on the itchglay.”
Jye frowned, and then replied in full volume, “I don’t speak French, man.”
“You can’t read your menu screen?” Wren asked, voice surprisingly timid.
Ignoring Axel to my pleasure, I answered for Jye. “Not a lick of it.” And hoping to assuage her of any concerns continued with, “And it doesn’t really matter to us that much. We can learn to work with anything. But only if you want to work with us.”
She thought for a second and then nodded. “My class is [Scourge]. I can use [Imperil] and [Death Mark].”
Scourge? That really wasn’t a class I was familiar with. Based on the name of her abilities, it seemed like a support class that focused on debuffs. I didn’t want to admit it, but having someone else in the backlines was just further unevening the balance of our party composition. It was already too heavily based on range with only Axel in the front. What we really needed was either a tank or someone who was frontline critical damage, like an assassin or rogue.
The disappointment must’ve been written on my face because Axel, of all people, nudged me on the shoulder and shot me a pointed look. Wren’s face was downcast. God, I was a shit person. The poor kid had shared information with us that they felt should be secret and here I was thinking about how useless it was.
Trying to correct the failing trajectory of our conversation, I asked, “Do you want to join our party?”
Axel’s glare was boring a hole into my forehead, and Jye’s curious gaze was on my back, but I didn’t meet either of their eyes. I probably should’ve asked them first… But what was done was done. We could talk about it later. Or rather Axel would talk at me about it later.
Wren clearly hesitated in responding.
“You can always leave it. I think. Wait a second, let me just make sure that’s true.”
I focused on the party menu screen and it popped up. Thinking about leaving the party, a small confirmation window appeared: Do you wish to leave Just Friends? Accept | Reject
Selecting “Reject,” I smiled at Wren. “Yep, you can leave whenever you want.”
She nodded. “Okay, I’ll join.”
A few moments after officially inviting Wren, I heard the confirmation of her acceptance. Wren has joined your party. The party information updated, adding her name to the list. It confirmed her class and level. Well, at least she wasn’t lying. That was a relief. After a brief discussion with the others, we agreed to give her one of the smallest knives from Kmart, so she could defend herself if the situation called for it.
After handing it over, now she was safely in our fold, it was time to get into the nitty gritty.
“You don’t need to answer if you don’t want to, but where are your parents?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they go into the Gates, the black hole in the CBD?”
“No.”
“Why do you want to go into the CBD Gate?”
She didn’t answer that question at all. God, some shit must’ve happened to her. All right. It was time to back off. Pivot topic. Let her cool down. She probably didn’t trust us yet. I mean, if I was a kid and a bunch of randos asked me to join them I probably would have run off screaming. So at the very least, Wren had spunk.
“Me and Axel’s parents live in rural. You know where Charleville is?”
She shook her head. Yeah, figures. Most people know of Charleville, but don’t really know where it is. I’d seen a TikTok espousing Charleville as this luxury destination with at least six different biomes including snowy mountains, lush forest, and sandy beaches. Truth be told, Charleville was just another rural town with more than the average amount of derros.
“I thought you said you’re friends?” she asked.
I frowned. “What?”
“You said yours and Axel’s parents. You guys don’t look related.”
Axel and I exchanged a look before exploding out into laughter. It was the kind of belly laugh that wouldn’t stop. My eyes were watering as I tried to calm myself. Every time I went to correct her, the idea of being Axel’s brother was so ridiculous that I devolved into another fit of laughter. Axel too seemed to be laughing uproariously.
Jye said, “Nah, they’re just friends.”
“Oh, like our party name?”
Axel’s laughter stopped immediately and cleared his throat. The tiniest iota of guilt riled around in my gut. For some reason, the name had really hurt him. And now I was going to have to live that for however long this game lasted. That’s life, I guess. You make choices and sometimes they’re wrong.
Flatly, Axel stated, “Our parents are best friends. So we grew up together.”
“Yeah, in fact, this guy used to have stupidly curly hair when he was your age, Wren. Almost like an afro. I kind of miss it.”
“Shut up, Lee,” Alex growled. He’d hated the hair when he was young. One day he’d come to school with it completely shaved off. His mother had told me he had tried to cut it himself, and they couldn’t save any of it, so they’d decided to go with a clean buzz cut. I’ll never know what inspired him to do it. Having dead straight hair except when I slept on it funny, I’d always thought curly hair was really cool.
“Both my parents are retired now, thankfully. They deserve some peace and quiet.” I nodded at Axel, “Yours still freelance sometimes, don’t they?”
He scowled. “Yeah. I’ve told them to stop, but they keep on saying they don’t know what else to do with their spare time.”
“That’s capitalism for you,” Jye commented soberly. “Boomers suffering from zoochosis.”
As if in agreement, we all ignored Jye’s words. “At least there’s no way for them to do remote work now,” I said.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
I smiled at the redheaded giant. “What about your parents, Jye?”
They shrugged. “I’m no contact with them.”
Yikes. I regretted asking. So, half of the party had parents they wanted to talk about, and half of them didn’t. I think I’d probably avoid the topic in the future. It had killed the conversation. We walked in solemn silence. I hoped my parents were okay. The closest Gate was the one in Brisbane, so even if they felt the compulsion it would be difficult for them to get here.
Tsssss.
It was the same static sound I’d recognised whenever someone used their abilities. But as I glanced around, it didn’t look like anyone was using any. I stopped on the spot, worried about someone ambushing us. It’s not something I had been expecting, but it was never far from my mind. Now we basically all had superpowers, there was bound to be people using them to their advantage.
“Guys, wait, I can hear–”
With a comically loud pop, a Gate appeared in front of us.
~Dungeon 9 cleared for the first time by Kimi Kishimoto. New Dungeons Active~
Oh.