Chapter 97
God
“Hey Isabelle,” the tired-looking nurse called out. “It's Leo.”
A second nurse saw Leo and rushed over to join them. “Leo?”
Leo nodded.
“Nice to meet you, Leo,” Isabelle said. “Trent told me about you, and we could use your help. What kind of healing skill do you have? and what's your skill's cooldown time?”
“I can heal twenty people for a bit over two vitality points or thirty percent of their total vitality, whichever is lower. The cooldown time is around half an hour.”
“Is your healing skill cumulative?” she asked. “Meaning if you healed someone once and raised their vitality by two points, could you heal them a second time for a second two vitality points?”
That was a good question.
Leo shook his head. “I think it tapers off quickly. For example, I could heal two vitality points the first time, then next time maybe half of that, and so on. It's good for surface injuries and bruising. I believe the skill was made to get wounded soldiers back into battle. But it won't grow back a leg.” Leo knew this because he'd tried to heal a badly damaged leg yesterday with no success.
“I see.” Isabelle smiled tiredly. “Tell you what. Why don't you use your skill on everyone in the hospital, and we can go from there? A few of us have a stronger heal skill, but it's only good for one patient at a time and has a longer cooldown period. When you're finished I know Trent has been dying to talk to you.”
“You know Trent?” Leo asked.
“I'm his fiancee,” she responded with a laugh. “He's been talking about you for the last month, 'that creepy damn kid predicting the end of the world'.”
“Wish I'd been wrong,” Leo said. “I'd better get started healing people.”
***
After spending the next several hours doing a group heal on everyone in the hospital and a bunch of others with minor injuries, the hospital wasn't empty by any means, but the sick population was down to a more manageable level. He even healed Brick so the large bully could walk without assistance.
“You suck,” Brick grumbled before walking off.
When Leo emerged from the makeshift hospital, Trent was waiting for him.
“Isabelle told me you were here, and I wanted to talk to you,” Trent said, walking beside him. “Mind if I smoke? I keep trying to quit. But since the world has ended...”
“That's fine. Go ahead,” Leo said as they made their way to the stadium's unofficial smoking spot.
Trent took a cigarette out of a mostly empty carton, put it in his mouth, and inhaled, the end of the cigarette glowing red as Trent lit it with his mind. “I owe you one for last month's warning.”
“Glad I could help,” Leo said. “I just met your fiancee, and she seems like a nice lady. Are the kids okay?”
“They're fine. Helping out in the cafeteria. After your warning a month ago, I told my imp to do what she wanted with my Demon Tears. She did, and it's worked out great. My question is, should I keep letting her build up my skills? Or do I take charge of them from here?”
“Well,” Leo said. “If you don't know what you're doing, letting your imp run things is probably for the best. But keep in mind that your imp will choose the most conservative options.”
Trent took another drag on his cigarette. “I see.”
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“From what I've seen, you have a very large power well, a decent ranged attack, and I'd guess a decent shield. If you have some idea what you want to accomplish in the future, you'll want to go on and do your own thing.”
“Good. I need a stronger ranged attack. What happened last night with that High-Level Boss was embarrassing. Oh. And something I wanted to show you. Look down.”
Leo did. Trent was hovering an inch off the ground.
“My flight/levitate skill is still low level, but I can fly. This is amazing.”
“Yeah. It is,” Leo said, momentarily envious. “I'm guessing you're at the tenth level?”
“Eleventh level. I leveled up a second time during yesterday's fighting.”
“Nice,” Leo said, forcing a smile while wanting to cry. “There's something I've wanted to ask you for a while. Do you believe in God?”
Trent laughed. “I'm guessing you're one of those guys. The how-can-a-kind-loving-god-do-so-many-horrible-things-to-people-who-don't-deserve-them guys?”
Leo nodded.
“Gretchen explained it to me. God's goodness and love have little to do with how humans define the terms. God is good the way the weather is good. The hurricane that brings flooding and disease that kills thousands also brings water for plants and crops.”
“Your god seems brutal,” Leo responded.
“I'm not saying I'm happy about it, Leo, but getting upset with God is like getting upset with the weather. It doesn't do you any good. I prayed for God to help me with my alcoholism, and God delivered. Then I met a great woman. Even more amazing, God sent you to me, Leo. God sent a 62-year-old boy to warn me of the world's ending. I did nothing to deserve that. I'm no saint, a lot of the time I'm not even that good a Christian. But God sent you to me, anyway. I need to do what I can to be worthy of that.”
“I see,” Leo said. “Want to join me? Mr. Osmond wants to set up some traps, and I need to stop him from doing anything stupid.”
“Maybe in a bit. I got three people messaging me on my implant screaming for a Pyromage.” Trent grinned. “It's good to be in demand. And I've got to level up my flight skill.”
***
Badger 22: Future Man. Leo? Are you here?
Future Man 10/16: Badger from the agency? Are you okay? Sorry I couldn't help you. But things have been completely insane since the world ended.
Badger 22: We can talk later. Right now, I need you in front. My rescuers are very angry, and they want to kill Desiree.
It took Leo a few seconds to figure out what Badger was talking about.
Future Man 10/16: Oh. You mean Shank. Shit. I'll be right there.
Leo started running.
In front of the stadium, Shank and a small bespectacled, dark-haired man stood in front of fifteen people whose one-armed condition meant they were obviously implant wearers.
“I want to kill that bitch!” shouted a one-armed man, holding a ball of electricity in his remaining hand.
“Easy people. I was just following orders.” Shank had her arms raised with open hands in a placating gesture, while making her implant glow violet, trying to calm down the angry mob. “If I'd said anything, they'd have thrown me in prison too.”
Leo ran over and stood in front of Shank and the other man. “I'm guessing you were stuck in that agency prison, and the end of the world allowed you to escape? Sound right?”
“Yeah.” Electric Man said. “We escaped with that badger guy,” he nodded at Badger. “With no help from you dipshits.”
“I'm Leo. End-of-the-world guy. I'm sorry we couldn't help you earlier. Things have been completely insane around here, with the world ending and all.”
“That's nice. We're here for that bitch,” the man responded. “She tortured people.”
“I don't like her either, but she has useful intel and we need her alive.”
Electric Man's response was to throw a ball of electricity at Leo.
Leo had just enough time to review his skills and find that Time Freeze was still on cooldown, and think oh shit, before the ball of electricity hit him.
His armor protected him, but not enough. Pain shot through Leo. His muscles spasmed, and he fell to the ground, twitching.
“Try that again, and you'll be a head shorter,” Shank said, motioning towards three spinning-bladed weapons floating behind the mob. “Are you okay, Leo?”
With a groan, Leo nodded.
“Please settle down, everyone,” Gretchen said, stepping forward, and applying her voice of influence skill. “We need all the help we can get, but we can't afford to fight among ourselves. I'm Gretchen, the shelter's temporary leader.”
The mob of angry implant wearers calmed down instantly. “That bitch tortured people,” Electric Man said, sounding sulky and defensive.
“We know,” Gretchen said. “And we will deal with that at the appropriate time. Why don't you join us for something to eat?”
With another groan, Leo got to his feet and sighed. If he was going to keep dealing with people, he needed his Shield special skill. If only he had another level and more Demon Tears.