Once I got to Pine Bluff Avenue, luckily I found mom's smashed car was still being held up by its suspension. So at least I could get underneath it to try to pick it up. The problem would be, my arms weren't all that long, neither were my legs. I wasn't going to have very much lift when I did this. Hopefully, that would be a help and not a hindrance. As long as I had some room to lift. No matter how far off the ground I got it, I should be able to pull her… I mean it into my inventory. I couldn’t think about mom… not and get her pulled into my inventory.

Calm, still thoughts. Lift the car, pull it into inventory.

Simple.

Underneath mom's car, my arms and legs wedged up against the lower chassis of the car. I made sure that I was pretty much in the middle of the car, and that there was something I could push on right in front of me.

I pressed upward, pushing with all my might, yet nothing happened. The car didn’t rise even a centimeter. I scooted over, so that I was nearer the middle more, even though I had less purchase on the bottom of the car for the pushing. Again I pushed up with all my might. I heard some groaning of metal, and my terra cotta arms shook from exertion. Yet again, the car didn't budge.

Higher strength or not, I guessed I still wasn't strong enough to lift the car.

Fuck…

I remembered Wood trying to show me how to punch our Junior year. I thought he had been kidding, but he was dead serious that day. Pretty sure that's how I had punched Oz so hard the other day.

Because Wood had shown me how.

I remembered him saying, “Visualize punching straight through the head. Imagine you're punching straight through to behind what you're aiming for.”

Okay, I needed to visualize pushing mom's car up past where I needed it to be. Right?

I shook that off. Yes! I was right. Just fucking do it! I needed to get her—her body—somewhere safe. It was irrational and impractical, given that this was the end of the world, but…

I could do this. I would do this. I already had the file in my inventory for Mom ready.

I stared at the bottom of the car, where my hands and my feet were wedged up against it. I imagined hoisting it up two, three, four inches. I was not going to fail. The car was going to rise.

I pushed, and pushed, and pushed. Nothing was happening, the car was–

Suddenly I felt the car teeter, and I slipped my eyes to the side enough to see that the car was indeed tilting. That meant it was in the air, that I had actually picked it up.

My mind slammed onto the file that said Mom, and suddenly the car was gone. I lay there in the middle of the road, and let my arms and legs fall to the asphalt. I sighed, and though I couldn't cry, not with real tears, I did sob for a moment. I felt relief that my mom wasn't going to be a ghoul’s snack. But knowing that my mom—her body—was now with me…

I couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing. Like so many things now, it was just a thing.

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***

The sun was setting behind an overcast purple sky. I kind of liked the purple, though I wondered what the hell the aliens had done to make our sky change colors so much. I really missed the Sun, too. Seeing the actual Sun, and not just a warm glow where it was stuck behind clouds.

Teddy and I had gone and raided a Meijer store about five miles outside the town limits. Teddy had a couple mountain bikes in his inventory, so the trip was pretty quick, compared to having to hoof it the entire way. We'd run into a few monsters here and there, and killed them all on our way to and from the store. Inside the store, though, it was pristine: no bodies, everything pretty much still on the racks.

Teddy covered his mouth and nose with a bandana, and used some vapor rub he brought out of his inventory. He said the stench coming from the meat, and dairy sections was unbelievable. Again, I was glad I couldn't smell. Though, I still missed it. And breathing. And eating. Even pooping and peeing.

Gross, I know. But still…

We loaded up on dry goods and canned goods, found an aisle full of cooking utensils, and pilfered their plentiful snack aisle and the candies up front.

It was strange that there were no monsters in or near the store. Made me wonder what was different about it. And why I hadn't anyone been there yet?

That could have been because it was outside of town. From the stats box, I saw that the town's population had gone down to 223. I didn't know if that meant people had died, or if they had left town. Probably the first choice.

When Teddy and I got back to the pizzeria, a couple hours later, we found Wood and Ellie talking back by the dish washing machine.

They were talking in hushed tones, but whatever they were talking about was very serious. Automatically I imagined that Wood was talking about me.

Ellie shook her head and started to walk away, but Wood said, loud enough for us to hear, “You know I'm right.”

“I'm sick of this,” Teddy said, his voice cracking with rage.

Wood turned and saw Teddy watching him, and also saw me standing beside him. “It's true though,” Wood said.

“And so it's true about Georgina, the girl with the shadow tentacles?”

“What?” Wood’s entire expression tensed.

“She's different, too,” Teddy told his brother. “Just like Mort, just like Oz… plus she’s already tried to kill us.”

Wood shook his head. “No, she…”

“She tossed a grenade at us. A live grenade. Remember how Mort blew up that giant spider with it?”

Wood’s expression stayed the same.

Teddy shook his head this time. “Either you don't understand, or you just won't.” Teddy turned, and started to walk off. I had nothing to add to what he said. I just felt really… bummed out that my friend still thought I was a traitor, or a monster, or worse. And now it seemed he felt the same way about Oz.

I turned and started to follow Teddy, and we made it our way back into the depths of our little city.

***

About a half hour later we were on the other side of town. Neither Teddy or I had said a thing as we walked. Abruptly Teddy stopped, his shoulders drooping as he looked up at the overcast purple sky.

“He's an asshole.”

I smiled, “That he is.” I waited for Teddy to start walking again. When he did, I followed.

When we came across Pine Bluff Avenue, and Teddy saw that my mom's car was gone, he glanced at me, but didn't say anything.

“I might need your help digging a really big hole… somewhere pretty.”

Teddy nodded. “Surveyor’s Drop has a nice view.”

“Yeah,” I said. “And I think Mom and Dad used to go up there when they were younger.”

“Holy shit!” Teddy said, finally stopping. I looked ahead of us and…

“Holy shit!” I repeated.

Just about twenty yard to our right, sitting on top of a smashed car, was the biggest chicken I’d ever seen.

No, not a chicken. A rooster. And the sucker was as big as a freaking full grown sheep, and just as fluffy.

Suddenly Teddy had his bow up, an arrow pulled back on the string. “Chicken nuggets,” he whispered through a wicked grin.

The arrow flew and… made one hell of a crack as it shattered inches away from hitting its mark.

“What the…” I mumbled.

The rooster’s head flicked around and white glowing eyes stared at us.

“What the…” I said, louder this time.

“Fuck!” Teddy supplied as the rooster rose to its feet, feathers fluffing up even further, as it turned to face us. Those white glowing eyes were locked on us.

Bu-bu-BUCK-AK! It spat, as a bolt of lightning shot out of its beak… and blasted right into me.