Cain found Tom talking to the Red Cross manager as expected, although he did just realize he never caught the man’s name. It must have been a lull in the conversation, because Tom turned to address Cain as soon as he was close enough.

“Something wrong? It ain’t close to dusk quite yet,” Tom observed.

“Yeah, I was hoping I could borrow Bart and possibly Lisa to go and check out how Post Falls is doing. I don’t really want to just sit around until you need me for something,” Cain explained his plan and reasoning.

“Tim, what do you think? Can you spare someone to go with them, see if Red Cross is doing alright over there?” Tim and Tom. There was a sort of poetry in that.

“Yeah, yeah I think I can do that,” Tim said, and turned around and shouted at a volunteer lounging around next to a lamp. “Jeet, get over here!” The seedy Indian man picked himself up and joined the group, picking at something in his fingernails.

“This is Banjeet, or just Jeet. He will go with you to Post Falls and make sure the town is getting the help they need, won’t you Jeet?” Tim pointedly asked Jeet. The man just gave a shrug in response, and Tim sighed.

“Sorry, but we’re short-staffed as is and can’t spare any of the more...enthusiastic volunteers.”

“No problem Tim, Cain here will make do. You best get goin’ now, checkin’ on the other town is important, but I’d rather you be here than there by night time,” Tom said, and Cain and Jeet made the short walk to round up Lisa and Bart, and they were off heading West on the I-90. Cain paid close attention to the left side of the road, or the South part of Coeur d’Alene, but he couldn’t spot any activity at all. The Independent Men were keeping themselves scarce.

The only interesting thing of note as the four of them travelled to Post Falls were some farms to their right. If logistics in the form of car transportation could be brought back en masse, then farms and the food grown on them would be essential to feeding the people in the greater Spokane area. If people could farm in the past without electricity, they could do it again if needed.

The drive entering Post Falls was filled with far more activity than the one into Coeur d’Alene. And it wasn’t the good kind of activity. In broad daylight, there were people breaking into businesses and homes, walking out carrying useless electronics, or more useful clothes and food. The government and volunteer organization here was clearly on a nonexistent scale, with no police officers visible trying to stop the looters. No fires had broken out yet, but it was only a matter of time, especially with Cain now knowing the general populace knew about their Numerals.

Cain took them to a Walmart where a large group of people had gathered, and most of them looked at Bart, who had been visibly allowing the car to run this whole time, with varying degrees of...greed? Theirs was probably the first car that they had seen moving since the Ruin, and any chance to escape the lawlessness of Post Falls was a chance worth taking. Perhaps it was a mistake to let swathes of random people know about Cardinals so obviously, but Cain had bigger things to worry about. He let Bart know to stick close to him, and the four of them made their way over to the front of the store, where an argument was taking place.

“And now some shmucks from who the fuck knows where come strolling in on a fucking Chevy of all the god damn things acting like they own the place! I won’t, we won’t stand for this shit any more. Let us the fuck in the store so we can figure this shit out, or we’ll force our way in,” a man in a black leather jacket was shouting, cursing almost every other word.

“Like I’ve told you before, this is a private business, and we reserve the right to serve you as customers. Right now, we are exercising that right,” a balding man spoke back in a nasally tone. His nose was thrust into the air, like he was trying to mimic some kind of bird mating pose.

“I’m about to exercise my boot so far up your-” the jacket man said, stepping closer to the balding one, but Cain chose to intervene.

“Gentlemen, what seems to be the problem here?” Cain asked, politeness and responsibility oozing off of him. He was doing his best Frank impression, as if trying to calm down a couple quarelling construction workers.

“This piece of shit isn’t letting anybody in the store, citing some bullshit about serving the customer. Well guess who fucking pays for your salary?” The man addressed the last part to the manager of the store. Talon? What kind of a name was that on a manager? The man in question pointed at his name tag, as if it gave him a measure of power.

“See this right here? I manage this store, and I choose who gets let in, and who doesn’t. And right now, none of you are being let in, so beat it.”

That was absolutely the wrong amount of weight to be throwing around in front of an angry mob. Someone threw their shoe at Talon, and even though it missed, the man looked absolutely offended at someone daring such a thing. Before he could speak in outrage about how it was improper to throw footwear in front of his store, the jacket man took action. Before Cain could stop him, his fist was coated in what looked like brass, and slammed into Talon’s face. The man dropped to the sidewalk with a sickening crack.

One of the Walmart employees standing next to Talon screamed, and another tried to attack his murderer, thoughts of killing plainly written on his face. One of the men standing next to jacket man, Cain really needed to find out his name, tackled the employee and started wailing on his face. He had a similar jacket, so perhaps it was a gang of bikers trying to find a way to fix their bikes? It was a deduction reached based on a stereotype, but stereotypes existed for a reason. The leader twirled a finger and whistled, not a trace of regret on his face from killing someone in the middle of a crowd.

“Let’s go boys, we have spare parts to find. Leave this trash out here to rot,” he said, spitting on Talon’s corpse and walking towards the building. Most of the crowd started dispersing after the murder, and Cain noticed Lisa almost twitching to go and stop the man for his crime. He signalled to Bart to get Jeet out of here, and thankfully the man understood his message. He nodded to Lisa, and then ran to block the entrance of the Walmart from the bikers.

He used force to propel himself forward, and almost tripped, but managed to get in front of the doors before anyone entered. They were now looking forward instead of behind them, where Lisa was slowly building up her water currents. All Cain had to do was buy some time.

“World might have gone to shit, but that isn’t an excuse to go around killing who you like,” Cain said, addressing the leader.

“And what would you know of the world, boy? A little shitstain like you must have broke down crying when mommy wasn’t around to fix your broken fridge and buy you ice cream, huh?” The man was quite off the mark, but Cain didn’t feel like correcting him.

“I’m not just gonna stand by and watch you walk away after killing someone. You’ll have to come with me to a station, and the officers will sort you out.”

“Station? What fucking station, I haven’t seen a cop in days, and me and my boys are getting the hell out of dodge. Don’t end up like the bald fuck too, boy. Just step aside.”

“Not gonna happen,” Cain said, steel in his voice.

The leader waved a hand, and a couple of his lackeys started walking toward Cain, cracking their knuckles. Cain didn’t want to hurt them, but he wasn’t going to stand around and let himself be punched to death. He willed them to stop moving, resistance halting their movements altogether. Manipulating the ground with solid like Cain did against Brian, and the two bikers started falling into the ground, only stopping when their shoulders disappeared under the sidewalk.

The rest of the bikers including the leader stared unbelievably at their friends being swallowed up to their neck in what was just solid rock.

“How in the hell did you do that,” the leader asked, and Cain shook his head.

“You don’t get to know something like that. Now come quietly with me to whatever police are left, or you’ll all be spending the night like that,” Cain threatened. The leader clearly knew about the Numeral, able to coat his hand in metal, but hadn’t tested his Cardinals much more than that. The display of force was enough to get the men to stop moving towards Cain, but not quite enough to get them to give themselves up. The leader kept on walking though.

“Names Jack, and I like your spirit boy, but I won’t let anyone stop me from helping my boys get back on their bikes.” That gave Cain an idea for a diplomatic resolution.

“Well you won’t be able to do that yourselves. You saw how I drove here, right? We have some people in Coeur d’Alene, the town to the East of us that figured out how to get the cars running. I’ll get them to teach your friends how to work their bikes again, but you are going to have to answer for the murder,” Cain said, presenting Jack with a choice. The man thought for a moment, and some of the bikers gave him encouragement to not take the deal.

“Don’t do it Jack.”

“He’s tricking you Jack.”

“Dirty pig lover, don’t listen to him Jack.”

The leader looked at Cain, really looked at him for the first time. He noticed the way Cain held himself, ready for a fight. He looked behind him and saw the array of water currents Lisa was controlling, prepared to send them all at once at the bikers. When they turned around and saw the display, most of them paled. One biker even dropped to his knees, and began to mutter a prayer.

“What’s your name, boy?” Jack asked.

“Cain.”

“Alright Cain, I’ll trust you,” Jack agreed, giving his apparent second in command a few instructions. He didn’t know biker gangs had a hierarchy, but Cain didn’t know anything about biker gangs in the first place.

“The Redhounds will be waiting right here, but don’t make them wait too long,” Jack said, and he walked towards the car where Bart and Jeet were waiting. The two were enthralled by Lisa’s water show and didn’t even realize the situation had been defused. The man got in the car, arms folded, staring straight ahead. Cain didn’t want to press him into wearing some kind of handcuffs, and it’s not like it would do any good. He could use any Cardinal to break out of it.

That was also a problem cities were probably having. Prisoners could use Cardinals to break out of prison, which would lead to thieves and murderers and general criminals running amok in town. There was no way to check a database if a person was supposed to be in prison either, with no form of electronic working. Cain doubted prisons kept paper copies these days, but perhaps he’d be surprised.

He told Bart to get the car started, and Cain kept heading West. He hadn’t found any trace of organized activity yet in the city, but he didn’t want to give up this early. People looting were a common sight throughout the city, and the only semblance of government was next to a school. Frederick Post Kindergarten. As good a place as any to set up volunteer stands.

Cain pulled into the school’s parking lot, with a crowd quickly surrounding his car and asking him various questions. Most of them related to food and water or the safety of their children. Although one woman asked if the laundromats were working, and that earned her a weird look. Cain asked and was pointed to the inside of the school, where the teachers had set up food lines for the nearby families, and organized a place for the children to play while the adults tried to figure things out. It was a little messier than the setup the Red Cross and Food Bank had at Coeur d’Alene, but it was good enough for the people here.

“Well met strangers, what brings you to this part of town on this fine afternoon?” A man wearing a turtleneck asked. Cain didn’t even know people still spoke like that, but teachers were an odd bunch.

“We were looking for Red Cross or any other volunteers. Is it just you guys here at the school taking care of the town?” Cain answered, and asked a question of his own.

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“Alas, there was an initial effort by the valiant Cross of Red to orchestrate a relief effort at this very school’s campus, but they were taken away by ne’er-do-wells who demanded they care for them personally,” the man said, gesticulating wildly as if telling some grand tale worthy of an epic. Cain grimaced, cringing slightly at the over the top performance of the man, and resolved to get out of here as soon as possible.

“Do you know where these people took the volunteers?” He asked, hoping for a short response. Alas.

“Those foul villains have stolen away the good folk of the Cross of Red and spirited them away up towards the respectable Post Falls Middle School. Perchance, would you all accept this quest of mine to retrieve the heroic souls of the Cross of Red and punish their vile kidnappers?” Oh yeah, this guy was a real nut.

“We’ll see what we can do,” Cain said, and hurriedly walked out of the school before the man could start talking again. They got directions to the middle school from a stranger, and continued their short journey. Cain didn’t know the Red Cross were so prevalent across the states, but with how many disasters had been occurring as of late, the Palo Verde one just one of the more famous, it made sense to have first responders in as many cities as possible.

Interestingly enough, the road into the school was barricaded, but not by some mash-up of furniture. No, a wall of asphalt was blocking the way. Barely a foot tall, but it prevented the car from just driving into the parking lot. They didn’t need to get as close as they possibly could to the school, possibly driving over some well maintained grass, and so the group got out of the car in the middle of the road.

“Bart, Jeet, watch Jack and keep an eye out for anyone suspicious. If you see anyone except me and Lisa come up to you, leave and take Jack to Tom,” Cain ordered, setting up a barebones plan if the negotiations with the ‘ne’er-do-wells’ went awry. Cain wanted his first option with other people to be the diplomatic one, not really looking forward to trying and fighting them over the volunteers.

There was nobody watching the barricade or standing outside the main entrance of the middle school, so either these people were confident in themselves, or didn’t think of the possibility anyone would try and save the Red Cross volunteers. It was probably safe to go in through the front door. A young man, practically still a teenager, was exiting a classroom and spotted Cain and Lisa.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to be in here. Ray! Raaaaay!” The teenager started yelling, walking down the hallway. Cain decided to follow him.

“Ray will get mad once he finds out you came in here without permission. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Raaaaay!” The teen led Cain and Lisa outside of the middle school, to the track field behind it. Cain saw the Red Cross volunteers standing in the grass, holding plows and bags of fertilizer, as a few dozen people were crowding around them silently. The situation was almost comedic. Almost.

“Rayrayray, these people came inside the school. You said nobody would bother us over here,” the teenager whined to the man who was apparently in charge of the kidnappers. It was a very old man in a wheelchair, one of his legs missing below the knee.

“How many times have I told you one Ray is enough Leon,” Ray said, patting Leon’s head as he did so.

“As for you two strangers, I’ll have to ask you to leave; This is private property, and you are trespassing,” Ray said to Cain.

“My apologies sir. My name is Cain, and we can be out of your hair in no time. We just need to take those Red Cross volunteers with us,” Cain said, getting straight to the point.

“Who, those servants? I can’t let you do that Cain. We caught them trying to spread lies amongst our brothers and sisters at the elementary school. We are stewards of the peace, and arrested them for their crimes. Now they will serve a sentence by planting crops and tending to the very land they tried to desecrate,” the man raved, a wild look in his eyes while he spoke. Why were the people of this town so strange?

“You’ll let them stay here and serve their sentence, won’t you Cain?” The man asked, staring unblinkingly into Cain’s eyes.

Well, they did commit a crime. And he was taking Jack to the police officers in Coeur d’Alene to deal with. Ray must have some authority to arrest these Red Cross volunteers and get them to pay for their wrongdoings. Yeah, it all made sense. He could just leave them here and-

“NO!” Cain shouted, clutching his head in pain. His thoughts weren’t his own for a few seconds, somebody else was controlling them. He was barely retaining his sense of self as it was. A Cardinal was doing this. And Cain could deal with Cardinals.

As he was slipping back into that state of agreement, Cain opened his Numeral with shaking hands. A single Cardinal sang to him, danced in his eyes. He never believed, not really. But the words on his book, the book lost to him and now returned, was all the proof he needed. Tertiary Ordinal, Second Cardinal. Soul.

His name was Cain, he was 22 years old, and worked a construction job in Minneapolis. He had saved the lives of hundreds in the past two days, and would be damned if he let some old man trick his mind into not saving the few people in front of him. The fog around his thoughts lifted, and Ray gasped in surprise, then screamed in anger.

“Heretics! They have come for us! Brothers and sisters, cleanse this land of their stain, and return us to purity!” Ray yelled, spittle flying from his mouth. As one, the couple dozen men, women, and children standing in a loose circle around the volunteers turned towards Cain and Lisa and began running towards them, blank looks on their faces. It escaped his notice that they had been standing strangely still this whole time, almost like puppets. He would have to be more careful, more vigilant in the future.

Cain picked up Lisa, who was apparently still struggling with whatever Ray had done to them, and ran with her inside of the school. Even with the extra weight, the controlled people couldn’t catch up to Cain in time, and he managed to crumple the hinges of the door before they reached it. As one though, they began to pound on the glass of the door, and cracks started appearing instantly. Ray must not have had too much Origin to spend, not if he wasn’t committing murder or slaughtering the wildlife left and right. Which meant this weak soul Cardinal was enough to control dozens of people in this way. It was unnatural. Wrong in a way that Cain couldn’t articulate. Taking away a person’s sense of self and moving them like one would a video game character was innately...unhuman.

The man was also clearly unhinged himself. Cain would try and give the people control of their own bodies back, but if that didn’t work, he would have to attack Ray directly in some way. He willed for them to remember who they were. For them to not break down a door according to someone else’s whims. For them to be. It didn’t work. Whereas Cain desiring something out of a Cardinal was enough to get a response, there was nothing with soul. Just like imagining moving a television remote with just his mind. Pre-Ruin, that’s all it would be, imagination.

Lisa was still struggling, a look of concentration on her face. He couldn’t just leave her, but also couldn’t lug her around as he tried to get a good vantage point to do something about Ray. The controlled people made the choice for Cain by finally shattering the glass door, and continuing their charge at him. Cain tripped up the ones in the lead with some resistance, and ran out the front door of the building, bending the hinges the same way. This might actually have worked out. He made some steps in the side of the building, and carefully climbed up, taking care to not lose his balance and drop Lisa.

He made it to the roof by the time the glass shattered again, and he removed the path he took to get up the school. It was a mite crude, but he conjured a rock above Ray’s head, now that he could see him, and dropped it. Hopefully it wouldn’t kill the man, and just knock him unconscious. Leon, who had been cackling this whole time shrieked once he saw Ray slump over in his wheelchair. Cain took a look over the roof and saw consciousness return to the controlled people. It seemed like Ray needed to be awake to exert power over them, which was a good limitation of his power, and the Cardinal.

“Ahem, you can put me down now,” Lisa said, and Cain realized he was still holding her even though she was no longer trying to be controlled. He let her down, and they both saw Leon start running at them.

“I’ll kill you!” Leon howled, throwing rocks he conjured from midair at Cain. So he was the one who put up the barricade around the school. It wasn’t like Ray couldn’t have done it as well, but it just made sense that way. It was simple to use resistance to move the rocks far away from their intended target, and Cain managed to sink Leon into the ground before he realized what was going on in his rage. The teenager was growling and biting the air, squirming in any way he thought could free him from his bondage.

“Leon? Oh Leon what did they do to you,” a woman cried from behind them.

“Mom? Mom! They are evil, they killed Ray and trapped me in the ground! Help me Mom, please!”

“You!” The woman said, pointing a finger at Cain. He couldn’t help but notice her lopsided bangs which really did not frame her face well. “Release my son this instant!”

“Honey, this man saved our son from doing something stupid, he didn’t trap him,” a man in a polo shirt said, putting his hands on his wife’s shoulders.

“Saved him? Did he really?”

“Yes sweety, Leon was about to do something very bad, but now he is safe in his bed of grass. He’ll be alright, won’t he?” The man calmly said, directing the last part at Cain. He understood the situation somewhat, and played along.

“Yes ma’am, no harm will come to your son.”

“You see honey, the man said so himself. Now let’s get you inside and seated down, you’re looking a little tired.”

“Well now that you mention it, my knees are a little stiff…” Cain must have had a strange look on his face, since Lisa chose to comment on what had been going on so far in her opinion.

“With stores probably not accepting money, and people looting in the town, that mother and her son probably haven’t taken their medication. I had a brother who acted just like that when he was off his meds,” she explained.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Cain said, not sure what else to say.

“You don’t have to be, it happened many years ago. It just always saddens me to see others suffer the way he did.”

“Well, my brother didn’t have a mental problem, but he had a rough childhood. Our parents blamed him for something out of his control, and he had to deal with their expectations and wants in a way I never had to. It doesn’t compare, but I understand what you’re talking about,” Cain opened up. Lisa smiled at him sharing, and was about to continue talking, but the husband came out of the school and waved to Cain. Leon had been sitting quietly in the ground ever since his mom went inside the school.

“Thanks for that. My wife and son have a...condition, and I haven’t been able to get their medicine to them in time. Ray, her father, did...something, to all of us back at our home, and that was the last thing I remember until I woke up in the school. If you don’t mind, could you let me take care of my family?” The man looked weary, and Cain didn’t doubt it. Trying to care for three people who weren’t in their right minds must have been exhausting. He nodded, shook the man’s hand, and waved at the Red Cross volunteers who had been standing around awkwardly the whole time. They wasted no time in taking the invitation to come along.

They knew the way back to the elementary school, and Cain let them walk on their own there. If they were kidnapped again, then perhaps there would be no hope for Post Falls, but Cain decided to trust in the integrity of humanity. There were too many problems in this town for him to solve all by himself. He had to take Jack to the proper authorities and try to come up with a game plan with Tom on how to help the people here. Bart was more than happy to go back to Coeur d’Alene, and even Jeet looked a little troubled at the sight of mindless people streaming out of a school in sync.

“You can’t save everyone,” was all Jack said once Cain got back in the car, and the man had a point. Cain didn’t have the time or ability to be running around making sure everyone was safe and there were no problems in the town. But he didn’t come to Post Falls on some kind of saintly pilgrimage, he came to check on the volunteers who hadn’t sent word to Coeur d’Alene. And with his task done, he could go back to the more normal side of town.

The looting hadn’t died down while they were returning back East, but Cain noticed it was restricted to the East part of Post Falls. The West might have been filled with looneys like the teacher in the elementary school, or Ray and his family, but at least that part of town had some resemblance of normalcy to it. Whatever normal was these days. The sun was still a ways off from setting by the time Cain and his group returned from Post Falls, and everyone was accounted for.

Jack was handed off to one of the police officers, who also didn’t handcuff him, but instead escorted him to a building where other officers were lounging around. It wasn’t a precinct, but at least they had a gathering spot. Bart found a few of his fellow mechanics and true to Cain’s word, headed right back to Post Falls, intending to teach the Redhounds how to operate their motorcycles. Gasoline would eventually become a problem in the future, but at least they would be happy for now.

Jeet disappeared somewhere, possibly to let Tim know how the Red Cross was doing in the neighboring town, but Cain doubted. He’d let Tim know, just in case. Cain and Lisa went to let Tom know how the trip went, and he paid full attention the entire time. It was somewhat relieving, having someone else to report to. To not have the responsibility of their choices weighing down on their shoulders only.

“The teacher spoke like a geek? Well it couldn’t have been that bad. I once knew a man who ended every sentence he spoke with a ‘wowza.’” Tom interrupted once.

“Alright, that might have been worse,” Cain said, and the three of them laughed. Joy was in short supply recently, and they would take a smile where they could get it. A police officer cut their informal report short by barging in between the three of them, asking that they come with him to their temporary headquarters. The officers and other government officials had been staying at the Coeur d’Alene Town Center, a shopping mall right next to their checkpoint. According to him, they found a little boy sneaking around the mall.

One of the drivers made the short trip down to the Center, and the officer led the group into what was once a liquor store. All of the alcohol had been taken off the shelves, but the labels still remained. A blonde kid with bruises all over his arms was sitting on the bartop, in between the rum and whiskey. No wonder the kid ran away from home, it must have been painful to sleep with that much bruising. It also brought back dark memories for Cain.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok, really,” a female officer said, trying to calm down the crying kid. “I just want to know where your family is, I won’t take you back to them. Can you do that for me, can you let me know?” The kid sniffled once. Then twice.

“6th and L-L-Linden,” the kid managed between sobbing hiccups, and all the officers in the room tensed.

“What’s on 6th and Linden,” Tom asked, but Cain already knew the answer. The female officer looked at Tom, then at Cain and Lisa before speaking.

“That’s right in the center of the Independent Men’s claimed land.”