Logan rushed back to Eleanor’s property and burst through the door. Jack was in the living room in front of the large screen TV, his back facing away from Logan. He was still in his plaid sweatpants, his hair a complete wreck.
“Jack, did you receive a message—”
“Quiet,” Jack said, his eyes on the screen. “They’re talking about it now.”
On the TV, a male and female news anchor looked into the camera with solemn expressions. “We come to you on this grave day to confirm that the message you received was legitimate. All passenger, military, and small engine planes, including helicopters, are now gone. We regret to inform you that the military had been using helicopters to transport civilians to emergency care. At this time, we believe the casualty message sent to everyone is accurate.”
The female anchor paused, listening to something off screen, and then looked back into camera. “This just in. We’ve received an exclusive video that shows a passenger plane right before the terrorist known as the System sent everyone its latest message. There are no words to describe this. The video speaks for itself.” The newscaster looked shaken before they cut to a shaky clip.
The chyron read: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO. TERRORIST KNOWN AS THE SYSTEM BELIEVED RESPONSIBLE.
In the clip, there was nothing but blue skies, not a cloud in sight. Whoever was filming zoomed in on a dot in the sky, magnifying a large plane. Everything appeared normal for ten seconds, and then with a BOOM, the plane exploded into a fireball. Pieces of debris and smoke scattered, falling to the ground with trailing smoke when something… happened.
It was as if there was a rift in space, a rectangle of blackness opening in the sky.
In less than five seconds, the rift sucked the fire, debris, and smoking jet fuel through the hole, like a hoover sucking up a pile of dirt. Then, with a thunderous clap, the rift closed on itself, collapsing until there was nothing left but blue sky, as if the plane hadn’t existed in the first place.
They showed the clip one more time and then switched to the shaken anchors. “I hate to speculate, Jessica,” the male said to the other anchor, “you know I’m a man of hard facts, but that doesn’t look like something…” He swallowed. “I know of no technology on Earth that can do that.”
Shit. This just got worse. First cars, now planes? Was the System trying to strand everyone? There was going to be a complete collapse of commerce. Resources would grow scarce; food would be depleted. At least they still had trains and ships, but fuck, this was bad.
Logan looked at Jack. Tears and red eyes. He was barely holding it together. “Jack, I know you’re grieving right now, and I can’t imagine what you’re feeling or going through. Words can’t say how sorry I am, but right now…? After seeing that? Things are going to go to shit, and fast. I need you, man. We need to go across the lake and grab what food we can before there’s nothing left.”
“…What?”
Shit. Either Jack would help, or he would be swallowed up by his grief. Logan didn’t blame him, but if they were going to survive and have the place ready for his sister and the kids, they needed to act. “Your mom.” Logan cleared his throat. “I found a nice place. A peaceful place. I think she would have liked it. I can show you, if you like?”
Jack ran a hand through his hair and then pinched the bridge of his nose. “No,” he said, firm. “Thank you for doing that. I know it must have been hard. You’re saying we need to go across the lake?”
“I hate to ask it of you, but the sooner we act, the better.”
“No. No, you’re right. And to be honest, I could do with a distraction.” Jack glanced down at his sweatpants. “Give me a minute to get dressed and I’ll meet you at the boat.”
***
Logan grabbed his phone and then stopped when he saw a text message from Lara. The screen was still cracked, but messages were coming through.
Lara: Everything okay?
Ok here, he responded. Something happened to….
Logan paused. There was no reason to tell her about Eleanor. There was nothing Lara could do; it would just worry her unnecessarily.
Logan?
Logan backpedaled and sent: We’re going across the lake to the resort. See if we can find food. Might pick up gas. How are things there?
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….not so good. We’re holding up, but the kids are pacing the walls. It’s crazy out there. I never thought we had that many guns in Hope’s End, but they’re going off constantly.
Alarmed, Logan responded: Guns??? Are you safe?
…....
…
…..
Logan could see dots as Lara typed, and then seemingly deleted her message. Finally, she responded: See if you can get enough gas to drive the boat to the downtown waterfront. We could make it there on foot and meet you.
That was Lara sending out an SOS. As his big sister, she felt the need to act as if she had all the answers and never needed help. Most of the time, she was right. Having to sell the cabin was evidence of that. If Lara had been in charge, it never would have come to that point.
Lara would make it through whatever situation she was in through sheer grit and determination, so it had to be desperate if she were asking for his help, especially if she wanted to brave the roads and take the kids on foot to the waterfront.
Filled with new urgency, Logan searched through the kitchen for something to carry their food. Within a kitchen pantry, he found a portable shopping basket on wheels. It reminded him of Eleanor’s quirky personality. He could picture her using it at a grocery store to push past the crowd, putting up an act of a doddering senior to excuse any run-over toes.
Logan pushed back the pang of grief that threatened to overwhelm him, plopping his baseball bat into the cart and wheeling it down to the dock, each wheel thudding against the space between the boards.
Unlike Logan’s cabin, Eleanor had gone all out—wide planks, polished wood, and solar lights on the sides of the dock. The speedboat was even worse—high quality leather, a shining paint job, and a huge motor—and hopefully had the fuel efficiency to match. They needed every bit of fuel they could get to last.
He lifted the shopping cart and placed it at the back of the boat, then rummaged in the cabinets until Jack arrived. They had flares and a first aid kit in one drawer. That would have come in handy yesterday. Logan set it to the side. Other than that, he found a large fishing net. Logan had fished minnows when he was a child, but he’d lost interest when he’d failed to catch anything. He didn’t have a clue how to fish, but if the food situation got desperate, he might have to learn.
Logan straightened as Jack came down the dock, a backpack swung over one shoulder and the shotgun in his hand. The backpack was pink and had a butterfly decoration on the side. “This was my daughter’s,” said Jack, avoiding his eyes. “I figured it might be useful if we have to run in a hurry.”
Logan gave him a gentle smile. “Good thinking.”
Jack put one leg into the boat and then hesitated. “Are you sure we should do this? What if boats are the next thing to go? I don’t want to be in this thing if it blows up.”
Jack had a good point, but they would never get anywhere without taking risks. “I think we’re safe—at least for today. Both the cars and the plane explosions occurred at the same time. The System announcements make me think they’re spacing it out—one big mass explosion each day. We’ve already had today’s.”
Jack unwound the rope keeping the boat anchored to the dock and then jumped into the stern. “That’s a lot of assumptions. And we’re calling it a ‘System’ now? I thought it was an eco-terrorist.”
“For lack of anything else. Although I’d prefer to call it ‘asshole’ based on its sarcastic messages.”
Jack gave him a puzzled glance as he started up the boat. The engine purred as it sliced through the water. Nice. His grandpa’s had chugged as if it was driving through a pot of soup.
“What sarcastic messages?” Jack asked.
Logan blinked. It was hard to believe Logan had to explain it. The System was salty, to say the least. “When you receive level increases. They have a… distinct flavour.”
“They seem pretty run of the mill to me, kind of dry.”
Logan stared at Jack for a full thirty seconds, the wind burning his eyes. If that asshole system had singled him out, he was going to… Logan would curse. There wasn’t much else he could do.
He used [Idiot’s Inspect] on Jack.
[Jack Donson: Level 2]
He must have gotten an extra level after they’d killed the squirrel.
Logan told him about the Settings Mainframe options and had him change his defaults to automatic. “Where did you end up throwing the extra five attribute points?”
Jack gazed into space with a look of concentration as he studied his stat sheet. “Intelligence. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to be smarter. If that’s even how it works. It’s at 15 now.”
Wait a minute. How could he have 15 in one attribute already with only one level increase? Logan had only gotten his constitution to 15 because of the 10 bonus points he’d received from his Eager Beaver title.
“You didn’t start at 5 points in each?”
“No, I have an average of 8… although I started with 10 in intelligence. Why, is that bad?”
That asshole system had screwed him again! No wonder his ranking had been so far behind. He had to act like a mad killing machine to even come close to catching up.
“It’s fine,” Logan said, trying not to come across as sour. Jack had as much control of his stats as Logan did. They were at the mercy of some mysterious overlord intent on taunting everyone before killing them.
It’s what they did with that information that was key. Lay down and die, you died. Learn, game the system…
Logan had to stop himself. After Eleanor, he’d made a solemn vow to not do that and he was already going back to his old habits. There had to be a middle ground. Eleanor was at the heart of it, but he also had his family to consider. He could still be cautious while at the same time taking advantage of whatever shortcuts helped them to survive.
They cut through the blue water like a knife through butter, the wind and water spray a nice break from the hot weather. Logan had rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt to the elbows and he was sweating in the 100-degree weather, but just because they were going to a populated resort didn’t mean that he wasn’t expecting trouble. He’d much rather have a barrier between his skin and whatever came—even if it was only cotton.
Jack slowed the speedboat as they closed in on the resort, angling it towards one of the larger docks. The resort had five separate docks and a large marina with a boat rental and storage section in one corner. There were multiple buildings overlooking the waterfront all surrounding a hotel they’d built into the cliff-face.
Logan grabbed his baseball bat out of the shopping cart and placed it within reach. He needed to be prepared. They could be driving into anything. Either they would encounter a bunch of worried tourists, or… something else.