John caught up to Byron and me midway down the concourse. “I don’t want to be insulting, but… did y’all pay for all the food and drink you got?”

“I left all my cash and gave the cashier my credit card to cover the difference.”

“Her machines were working?!”

“Uh, no. I left it with her.”

“You left your credit card?”

I met John’s eyes and lied with perfect sincerity. “She seemed trustworthy to me. I have faith in her.”

We’d already passed the Sky Market, and I’d seen that the cashier had abandoned the store, whose shelves were barren of food and drink. My credit card was probably collecting dust on the floor somewhere like the useless slab of plastic it was. As I expected, though, John was pacified. “Sorry for doubting you, son.”

“It’s alright.”

We moved down the concourse as a group. John’s pace was a little slow, but I didn’t mind. It gave me a chance to scan our surroundings for weapons.

I wasn’t seeing much. Maybe I would have had more luck in the 90s, but decades of concerns about terror attacks had made it really difficult to find anything that could be weaponized. The chairs were either combined into massive benches with no easy options for disassembly, or were rounded-edge constructions completely coated in cushions. I detoured to the side to pick up one of the stanchions used to guide a line of people, but had to set it down. I was able to slide off the ropes connecting it to other stanchions easily enough, but the disc at the bottom made up the majority of the weight and was affixed with some kind of bolt I couldn’t move by hand. The metal pipe would have made a solid weapon if I could have gotten it free, but the disc made it far too imbalanced.

“No good?” Byron asked.

I shook my head. “If we could find a toolbox, it might work out.”

He grimaced. “Don’t know where we’d get something like that.”

We kept moving, not finding anything of use, until we got to the now-still escalator for the Concourse B train station. The concourse had been thick with skylights and massive windows, and it had dimmed only slightly when the lights went out. The trains, on the other hand, ran underground. There was no natural light to cut the gloom, and as soon as the stairs fell into shadow they practically disappeared.

“We’ll break our necks going down there,” Kurtis said.

“I didn’t think about how dark it would be,” I admitted. “Maybe we could use an Ability to light it up, but that seems kind of… wasteful. Since John took healing, we only have four choices left.”

“Wait! I got this!” Davi dropped her bags near our feet and dashed off the way we’d come.

She returned after barely a minute carrying a large tote bag. “Okay, so… More like I kinda got this.” She set the bag on the ground and started pulling out clear glass cups emblazoned with little sayings encouraging kindness toward others. Within each was the white wax of a jar candle. Davi looked up at us apologetically. “I cleaned out their shelves of candles, but I couldn’t find matches.”

“Did you leave money?” John asked.

Davi looked like a deer in the headlights. “Uh…”

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“You should know better,” he chided. “We can’t abandon our morals the moment things get a little messy. I’ll go leave some cash.”

As he marched away, Davi snuck us a guilty look. “I don’t even carry cash.”

“Don’t worry about it. John’s just… being John. Glad you remembered the candles, even if you couldn’t find matches,” said Byron. “If I just need to light them, I bet I can take a fire ability that’ll work for that and fighting too. ”

It wasn’t that straightforward. Byron grabbed the recommended Fire Bolt, but decided to fire off a test before attempting to use it to light a candle, which ended up being a good idea. Judging by the impact on the cushioned chair he’d fired at, he likely would have shattered one of the little jar candles. Predictably, the chair was flame-retardant and the fire petered out before we could light a candle. We did manage it, eventually. I raided a nearby restaurant’s napkin dispenser and we used some to catch the blaze while others were rolled into tapers to light the candles. With only slightly-singed fingers, we got a candle lit for each of us.

“I’m still opposed to this,” Kurtis told me. “Going through dark tunnels with only candlelight? Do you even watch horror movies?”

“Well, hang back by yourself then. That always goes well.”

Kurtis hastened to put himself in the middle of the pack.

The train station was eerie in the flickering light of our candles, but empty of both monsters and people. There was a train present, but it looked like the power had been cut when the doors were open, and everyone inside had already vanished upstairs, seeking the distant light of the concourse above.

Davi walked over to the train, sticking a hand between its wall and the open doors of the station. “Kind of a tight squeeze. I don’t know if we can make it through here. Anyone know which way the main terminal is, anyway?”

Orange candlelight revealed a circle of uncertain faces, but John’s looked thoughtful. Almost excited.

“What are you thinking, John?” I asked.

“Well, these ain’t the only tunnels under the airport. Airport even admits they’ve got more tunnels for running baggage to and fro. If we can find a way into those, we can probably find an employee trapped down here who can tell us which way to go.”

It wasn’t a bad suggestion and the pack of us trailed along the walls, looking for a way into the employee-only tunnels. We found one, but it didn’t budge when I tried to open it. Belatedly, I noticed a badge reader nearby.

“Locked,” I said. “I don’t know if we can force it open.”

Kurtis sighed noisily. “Hopeless, the lot of you. We should just go back upstairs-”

“To our certain slow death? No thank you,” interrupted Byron.

“But since certain idiots want to press on, it’s a good thing you have my genius to carry you forward.”

Kurtis laid a hand on the door, and it lit up with an odd blue glow. He pushed, swinging it open as the glow faded.

“So… you took an ability, I’m guessing. Is it going to help you fight?” I tried to hide my irritation. I don’t think I quite succeeded.

Kurtis rolled his eyes. “I’m not really the fighting type, Vince. I’m management.”

“Tell that to the monsters,” Byron muttered.

“I don’t intend to,” said Kurtis. “The idea of us fighting those things is asinine. But we live in a world with countless machines; my ability will open doors for us.” He waggled his eyebrows and Davi groaned at the bad pun. "And more than that. It's called 'Animate Machine.' It's going to be gold. You'll see!"

I glanced at Davi, ignoring Kurtis. “I think you and I are the only ones with abilities not chosen. Maybe we should take them before we head into the tunnels. Just in case, you know?”

Davi frowned. “I was thinking maybe Force Shield? It sounds like I can use it on one of you guys or myself.”

“That’s reasonable,” I said. “We’re going to need to actually kill these monsters though, and I doubt Byron’s Fire Bolt is going to do it quickly enough. I guess I’ll take that Powerful Blow. I need to find some kind of weapon though.”

“We’ll help you keep an eye out,” Kurtis said, clapping me on the shoulder. I winced and shot him a glare: my shoulders were already aching from the weight of my carry-on and backpack. “After you, my fine melee-oriented friend.”

Candle held aloft, I led the way into the darkness.