Caleb dumped the duffle bag onto the hotel room floor and crossed his arms. “You are not seriously considering going with them?”
Jeremy scratched his forehead, “Well…”
“Why shouldn’t he?” Zanie asked. “It’s a good opportunity to learn about magic. Isn’t that what we are out here doing? Being on a recon team is about as good as it's going to get when it comes to trying to understand what’s going on.”
Jeremy nodded and pointed at her, “She’s right. It’s not like they will ever tell us anything they find out, so if I can go along with them…”
“Into the portal?” Caleb interrupted. He threw himself down on the bed and propped himself up on his arms to frown at them.
“Aren’t you the one who came up with this entire idea?” Jeremy sat beside Caleb and frowned right back.
The conversation in the command tent had quickly turned from an argument that Jeremy and the gang should not have been there for, to a bunch of red tape and apologies about confidentiality. Jeremy could practically see the thick black lines being drawn over their words to purge them from the records as they were falling out of their mouths. The woman, Captain Byrne, was ready to toss them out of the tent and stamp a big red ‘top secret’ onto the whole affair when Caleb threw out his hands.
“He can see magic!” He’d waved his arms at Jeremy like they were on a late-night game show, and Jeremy was the grand prize. “If you are going into the portal for recon, wouldn’t it make sense to take someone who can actually see what the fuck is going on?”
Jeremy pinched the bridge of his nose as Captain Byrne and the few assistants left in the tent appraised him with interest. That led to an explanation of his ability to see overlays and spells, which in turn opened up the opportunity for him to go along with the team of volunteers being put together to go into the portal. Jeremy would pay a lot to see exactly how they were going to write this up on paper. He would be designated as a technical consultant or something equally ridiculous. Long story short, he agreed, and so they were given a hotel room and strict orders to report in the morning.
“I wish I could go into the portal.” Zanie unzipped her bag and rifled around for a granola bar. There was a temporary mess hall set up in the breakfast nook of the hotel lobby, where meals were served to the soldiers and snacks like protein bars and apples were constantly available. Zanie had taken it upon herself to sneak as many snacks into her bag as logistically possible while Jeremy sorted out their room with the concierge.
“Why on earth do you want to go?” Caleb pushed a stray lock of hair out of his face to glare at her.
“It seems exciting!” Zanie ripped open the granola bar and bit off a huge chunk. She held her hand over her mouth as she continued, “Like…maybe Jeremy is about to go somewhere no other human has ever been before.”
Caleb gawped at her. “She’s crazier than Moria.”
Jeremy kept a completely straight face and started wiggling his fingers in Caleb’s direction. “One small step for man…”
“Aw, fuck off, dude.” Caleb smacked his hands away. Jeremy dropped them into his lap and chuckled.
“Seriously, Caleb,” he asked. “What’s got you so upset about this? I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know that.” Caleb yanked his hair tie out of his hair and started running his fingers through it, pulling it back like he was going to twist it up, but then letting it fall around his shoulders again. “I just don’t really like the idea of us all being separated. I didn’t realize they would only let you go and not us.”
“Aw, you’re worried about me,” Jeremy teased.
“This whole thing is sketchy. I mean, it seems like this Captain is kinda going off and doing her own thing.” Caleb hedged, dodging Jeremy’s accusation and shifting to the subject.
“Yeah, she does seem to be taking the reins,” Jeremy agreed, then held his hands out before Caleb could take this as fuel and keep chugging along. “But! I’m sure upper command is swamped right now, and isn’t it better for her to do something than sit around and do nothing? If she were some whacko pontificating about the fluoride in the water and aiming nukes at us, maybe I’d have an issue. But everything she’s doing seems thought over and rational.”
“Plus, she kind of needs to move quickly since there is a possibility of an outbreak since some of the imps are diseased.” Zanie chimed in, using the label that the National Guard members had referred to the mini goblins with. Jeremy gave Caleb a look, and Caleb rolled his eyes in defeat. With that all figured out and everybody satisfied, he turned his attention toward settling into the hotel room. Atticus tumbled off the duffle bag when he shoved her away so he could paw through it to look for his shaving cream and razor. She leaped off the bed and found a better spot on the chair by the windows.
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“Well, what are we supposed to do while you go off with them?” Caleb pouted.
“Practice your aim?” Jeremy shrugged. “You’ll both get firearms tomorrow. Zanie, do you know how to shoot?”
She shook her head, and Jeremy gave Caleb a pointed look, “Teach her to shoot. Keep practicing spells together like we did on our way here. Do you really need me to tell you what to do?”
Caleb pouted even harder, actually turning away. Jeremy rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom to start shaving. He was halfway through his face, shaving cream still clinging to one cheek, when Caleb burst into the room.
“Caleb, man…” He started, but Caleb just held out his phone without a word and showed the ID of the ongoing call. It was Moira. When Jeremy hesitated to take the phone, Caleb plucked the razor out of his hand, replaced it with the phone, and backed out of the bathroom. He took the razor with him as if he were holding it hostage. Jeremy glanced at his half-shaved face in the mirror and sighed.
“Moria?” He asked as he lifted the phone to the side of his face not covered in shaving cream.
“Call your parents.”
“What?”
“Call your mother.” Moira said slowly, her voice coming through tinny and annoyed, “She is worried about you because she has not heard from you in several days.”
“Oh.” Jeremy stared into his eyes in the mirror. He had not called his mom since before the incident with the dryad. That felt like a whole goddamn year ago, not just a few days. “Have you been talking to my mom?”
“She called and asked about you,” Moira said before going silent for a few beats.
“Well, thanks,” Jeremy said. “How have you been?”
Only silence met his question. He held the phone away from his ear and saw the call had ended. Which was fair, given that he had left the city completely without saying goodbye to her. If she wanted to hang up on him, that was fine.
“You look really dumb,” Zanie told him. Caleb sniggered from where he sat on the other bed, twirling Jeremy’s razor around his fingers. Jeremy stalked over and snatched it from him, then slammed the door to the bathroom shut behind himself to finish shaving.
The room had a balcony, so he slid out onto it to call his parents. He got his dad this time and heard all about how they were preparing for the winter now that grocery stores were unreliable. He’d been in contact with some of the local farmers who still dotted the landscape. Their farms had slowly been consumed by the creep of cul-de-sacs and fast-food chains over the past few decades, but a few remained near Jeremy’s childhood home.
Jeremy was glad to have caught his dad instead of his mom because he felt comfortable enough to tell him about joining the recon team to go through the portal. Not that he wouldn’t feel comfortable telling his mom. It was just that she would devolve into a whirlwind of sharp concerns, which would turn the rest of their conversation into an interrogation. Besides, he had, at one point in the last few years, made a promise to her not to mess around with guns anymore. Now, he had to eat his words and did not want to admit that quite yet.
His father guffawed when he told him that. He assured Jeremy that the chaos bubbling in the world right now was as good an excuse as any to use the means necessary to defend yourself. Not that Jeremy was defending himself. He was actively seeking out danger, throwing himself into it, if you will. But his dad just brushed off his concerns, told him to be careful, and asked how Atticus was doing.
By the time Jeremy hung up and wandered back inside, Zanie had given up on scanning the book for the night. She and Caleb sat with their backs against the headboard, absorbed in the evening news. They were covering what was unfortunately becoming the same-old, same-old news.
The only bit that sounded exciting to Jeremy was that trains had begun operations again after finally charting out routes that did not go through disaster zones and creating new timetables based on the longer days and nights. The expanded distances between settled areas also had been a large roadblock for them, but enough of the rails had been okayed to start running a few trains again. This led to a story about the sheer number of abandoned cars clogging roads everywhere and what to do about it.
Jeremy plopped down on the bed and reached for his notebook. “Alright, so I’m going to assign you both homework while I’m gone.”
A bark of laughter exploded out of Zanie, and Caleb rolled his eyes toward the heavens.
“I thought you said you did not want to tell us what to do,” Caleb muttered.
“Well, I don’t want to be worried about you running off and getting into trouble while I’m gone,” Jeremy smirked at Caleb. Zanie drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
“I cannot believe they were unable to spare me my own room,” She sulked. “You two are going to drive me insane with your bickering.”
“Be glad Moira’s not with us then,” Caleb shot at her. “By the way, what did she want?”
Jeremy glared at Caleb. “To tell me to call my parents. Now, stop trying to change the subject. Zanie, I want you to learn how to shoot. I also want you to experiment around with the spells in the book that have this rune in them.”
He turned his notebook around and tapped his finger over the rune he’d copied down from her overlay. “I think that you both have an affinity for a certain type of magic. In your case, Zaine, it has to do with this rune. I have no idea what it represents, so be careful. Caleb, this is the rune that I want you to concentrate on.”
Jeremy moved the notebook to show him the one from his overlay. “Work through the spells in the book that include it. I think that it had something to do with how you can manipulate objects in mid-air, but no one else can.”
“So, you want us to figure out what those runes mean?” Zanie clarified.
“Yes, and I want you to practice your affinities,” Jeremy explained. “If we are trying to level ourselves up to protect ourselves, we should play to our strengths. At least, for now.”
“Okay.” Zanie’s voice rose into a sarcastic lilt. “Any other assignments, Mr…what is your last name?”
“Miller.” Jeremy turned to Caleb. “Teach Zanie to shoot or find someone to help her with that. I shouldn’t be gone for too long, so hopefully, that will keep you both entertained.”
“Sure, sure.” Zanie turned her attention back to the TV, resting her cheek on her knees.