Chapter 20

Beware The Guardian

Leo put his cellphone away and looked at Trent from the passenger seat of the man’s brand new pickup truck. “Do you know where Alco Park is?”

“I think so. Why?”

“I met this martial artist yesterday and now she wants to train,” Leo said, giving Trent a very abbreviated account of the day before. “Want to join us?”

“I did more than enough fighting in my youth, and normally I'd say no. But you say the world's going to end? Let's go.” Trent started his pickup truck.

Coming home late again, but I swear I have a good reason. Leo texted his mother while they were driving. I'm doing extracurricular work with Mr. Osmond, our honors science teacher. He included the teacher's phone number.

No response from Mom. Just as well.

***

Alco Park was a large, open, grassy area just starting to turn brown for the winter, next to a sandy area with playground equipment.

Angie was with the guy from the diner, Howie, and a tall, skinny, older boy he'd never seen before. Like Angie, the boy's left arm was missing.

Trent pulled up to the curb. They got out of the truck and approached the other three. A drone hovered nearby, just above the trees. It was silent, colored to blend into the overcast sky, making it difficult to see. Police drones watching over a park were normal, and Leo knew he should ignore it, but he couldn't shake the feeling this drone was watching them.

Howie was holding a pad and the older boy was punching it.

“Come on! My 78-year-old mother can hit harder than you!” Howie was saying. “You only got one arm, so make it count! Drop your right knee and put some weight into it!”

The boy's response was to quit hitting the pad and turn away in disgust, sweat pouring off his face.

“Hey, Leo! And Leo's friend. Welcome.” Angie jogged over to them. She pointed to the large man. “That's Howie, who Leo's already met. And the other guy is Liam. Met him in prison, where he'd taken over the place.”

“Shut up,” Liam said, walking over to join them. “We met in the hospital, where they cut my arm off. Thank God my parents knew a good lawyer.”

“Liam was solid, though. At the hospital he didn't flinch,” Angie said.

Liam looked anything but solid. He was tall, but way too skinny, with short dark hair. His glasses kept sliding down his nose from sweat, and he was breathing hard and shaking from his recent exertion.

Liam glared at Angie. “Yeah, right. Look. I don't do this martial arts thing. I'm a pacifist.”

“You don't have a choice,” Angie responded. “Leo is the one who told me about you-know-what,” she pointed to where her left wrist had been, “and the end of the world.”

“So you know about the aliens?” Liam asked.

“I'm sure they exist,” Leo said. “That's about it.”

“Something creepy is going down on the dark web,” Liam said. “Certain rich, important people received a message. They've all been conversing with one another, trying to figure out what it means.” Liam pulled out his cellphone, punched the screen a few times with his index finger, and showed it to Leo.

Beware The Guardian. 5191

“That's it?” Leo asked.

Liam nodded.

Leo shivered. “Weird.”

“'Guardian' is a character class, right?” Angie asked.

“Supposed to be one of the better ones,” Trent said, having watched silently up to now. “I'm Trent, by the way.”

Leo nodded. “One of the best character classes if you're part of a group. Not as good if you're alone, but decent even then. Do you think that message is from the aliens? And what does 5191 mean?”

“That's the story,” Liam said. “And no idea.”

“I knew of several Guardians,” Leo said. “From what people told me, they were strong. But they got slaughtered, like the rest of us.”

“Right. You see the future,” Liam said, looking skeptical.

“Crap,” Leo said, looking at Angie. “Did you tell them?” Leo looked at Liam and Howie.

“Yeah, I told Liam and Howie everything,” she said. “Don't worry. You can trust them.”

“You can trust us not to say anything,” Liam said, “but I'm not convinced you're sane.”

Leo shrugged. “We'll find out soon, one way or the other.”

Beware The Guardian 5191? That was weird. And what did that number mean? That warning hadn't happened in the previous future. If it had, Leo would have heard something, wouldn't he? What were those aliens up to?

Trent cleared his throat. “I was hoping Leo here would give us some pointers. If the world is ending, it would be nice to know what we're up against.”

Leo nodded. “Okay. Why don't we do that?”

It felt strange to be standing on the grass with four people staring at him, waiting for him to speak. Nervous. He took a deep breath.

“The first thing to know about the Afflicted is they are faster and stronger than you are. Their humanity is gone, they cannot be reasoned with. They have claws and teeth and will kill and eat you without the slightest hesitation.”

“Can they turn you into one of them?” Liam asked.

“Does anyone who takes Bio-Blessed become one of the Afflicted?” Angie asked. “If so, I think a lot of us have problems.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that myself,” Trent said.

“I'll try to explain. What smart people in the future told me based on their observations is that there's a unit dosage on every product containing Bio-Blessed called BBU's—short for Bio-Blessed-Units. For example, my dad's Bio-Blessed low-grade energy drinks are 10 BBU's apiece, and he drinks at least 10 a day. In addition to that, he and my mom also take pills, also 10 BBU's apiece, and have been known to indulge in Bio-Blessed enriched, high-grade energy drinks that contain 1000 BBU's apiece.”

“You just described every adult with a decent job who's not rich enough to afford the good stuff,” Liam said.

“True,” Leo responded. “Now if you don't take Bio-Blessed, or have taken less than a total of 10,000 BBU's. You're fine. There's not enough in your system to change you. After that, your odds of changing increase steadily up to 100,000 BBU's. If you've taken a total of over 100,000 BBU's, you will Change. It's that simple. If you've taken more than that, then the more Bio-Blessed you take, the stronger an Afflicted you become.”

The four stared at him for a few seconds, digesting what he'd said.

“If that's true, at least half the adults in this country will turn into Afflicted,” Liam said. “Including my parents.”

“More than half,” Angie said.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“What about our military?” Howie asked, looking frightened. “They do get the good stuff. They get million-dollar, ten-million-dollar injections.”

“I don't know if this is true. But a less than reliable source informed me that the weapons contractors in charge of Bio-Blessed distribution kept most of the Bio-Blessed for themselves. The soldiers got maybe a tenth of the claimed dosage so it was bad, but not as bad as people feared. And I'm sorry, Liam, my parents are in the same boat as yours. Before anyone asks, no, there is no known cure. In the next fifty years, nobody I spoke to heard anything about a working cure. But if you guys find one, let me know.”

“Shit,” his four-person audience said at the same time.

***

Over the next few hours, with the others in Alto Park, Leo alternated exercise, workout drills, and telling them everything he knew about the Afflicted and how to kill them.

“Come on, Leo!” Angie shouted. “You have two arms! Let's see some pull-ups already!” She was doing one-armed pull-ups next to him and had done at least fifty.

“I'm trying,” Leo moaned. He'd managed twenty so far. “You're never going to let the fact that I have two arms go, are you?”

“Damn right. Come on. One more. One more.”

Leo fought to do another pull-up. He was making progress, at least. Last time around, before the Change, he'd never done more than two or three. His whole body strained as he somehow got his chin over the bar again.

“Good job. Come on. Another lap around the park.” Angie let go of the bar and dropped to the ground.

As Leo started running, she jogged along next to him. “You know having one arm doesn't hurt your running,” Leo said.

“Yes, it does. My balance is off,” Angie responded.

“Yeah, but you're lighter,” Leo said.

“Not that much lighter.” She turned around to face him, jogging backward. “You weren't kidding when you said you needed to raise your stats. Come on! Pick up the pace!”

“What do you know about Mr. Al?” Leo asked between breaths.

Angie ran beside Leo, not even breathing hard. “I knew a guy who used Mr. Al's products. This guy went from nothing to really strong, practically overnight. Then he dropped dead. Made a great-looking corpse though.”

“Shit,” Leo gasped out, breathing so hard he could barely speak.

“Yeah. No shit. I paid Mr. Al a visit. I was ready to pound him, but it turned out the dead guy was going way past the recommended dosage, taking three or four pills at a time. If Mr. Al says you'll die if you take too many pills, believe him.”

“He doesn't put Bio-Blessed in his pills, does he?” Leo gasped out.

“Not with his clientele. He wouldn't dare,” Angie said. “Your 'plant would tell you. But that doesn't mean it's safe; you couldn't pay me to take that guy's stuff.”

***

“With zombies, everybody knows you're supposed to shoot them in the head,” Leo continued his lecture, once he'd caught his breath enough to talk. “And while a good head shot will kill an Afflicted person, their heads have a heavy skull ridge that deflects bullets. You're much better off shooting their legs. A leg shot will slow them down, making it easier to kill them later on. Anything you can do to slow an Afflicted down is good.”

“What would you do if an Afflicted did this?” Angie rushed him.

Before he could react, she'd grabbed him, picked him up, slammed him into the ground, and wrapped her legs around his neck in a chokehold.

“Come on, Leo! Bite her nose off! Kill her with some leaves and twigs! Show us those apocalyptic survival skills!” Liam shouted, jumping up and down with excitement.

Leo tapped the grass in surrender.

“That would not have worked against a real Afflicted,” Angie said, letting him go.

He got up with a groan. “I'm not biting anyone's nose off.” He looked over at the four. “I know what you're hoping to see, but in those fifty years I survived, I never learned how to defeat a stronger, faster, skilled opponent in a fair fight, and I'd rather not kill anyone. I was great at running away and hiding. I suppose I could give you pointers on that.”

“Did you kill a lot of people?” Angie asked.

Leo sighed, suddenly exhausted. “A few. Mostly good people trying to survive.” He sat back down on the grass and put his head in his hands. This was hopeless. Even if he did get a decent character class, he had yet to see a way to change the future. “I should go home. I'm still grounded.”

He made Trent drop him off a few blocks from his house so he wouldn't have to answer any more questions from his parents than he had to.

“Almost forgot.” Trent extended his left wrist. Leo did the same, so their wrists touched.

Pyro Mage 43:2 requesting contact. Yes/No

Leo selected yes. Pyro Mage 43:2 appeared under Mr. Al in his short list of contacts.

Leo did the same. Future Man 10/16 requesting contact.

It was accepted.

Trent handed him a pair of shoes. “Our pastor is a good judge of shoe size. She wanted you to have these.”

“Thanks!” Leo sat on the curb next to the pickup and took off his old shoes, which were in the last stages of falling apart, and put on the new ones. “Wow. These are a good fit. Tell her thanks for me.”

Trent nodded, “Will do.”

Leo shut the passenger door and watched Trent drive away. It still felt strange seeing the man alive again after all this time.

Leo tried not to look, but a drone hovered nearby. The same one? He hoped not. In the previous future, government police had left him alone. But in that future, he'd never trained with two known implant wearers. And he definitely hadn't been trying to warn people of the end of the world.

Every bone and muscle in his body ached as he slowly walked the rest of the way home.

At home, he was greeted with silence.

Uh, oh.

Leo walked by the living room and into the kitchen, where Dad was at the table waiting for him.

“Leo, sit down.” Dad sat with his usual energy drink. Mom was working at the kitchen counter, but it was obvious she was listening in.

Leo sat at the table. “Yeah?”

“Leo. I had a very interesting conversation with Mr. Osmond, the honors science teacher you were supposedly helping with extracurricular activities.” Dad finished his drink, crumpled the first can in his hand and opened a second. “After confirming the number you gave your mom with a school office secretary, I called him. The man, in his words, believes you have ‘vast untapped potential.’” Dad looked over at Leo.

Leo shrugged.

“I told him that, to the best of my knowledge, my son, Leo, who I love dearly, has average potential, which is being tapped. But he insisted, 'Leo has vast untapped potential.' I even made sure we were talking about the same kid.” Dad took another drink. “That was about all I could get from the guy, and he was kind of snotty about it. But what I want to know is what you could have done to convince a man like him that you are anything more than average?”

“Well,” Leo said, thinking fast. “I showed him this science fiction book I've been working on about the end of the world. It isn't finished or anything, but I was wondering if he could help me with it.”

“There's no way you could write a book. You're too stupid!” Lydia shouted from her bedroom.

“Lydia, do your homework and quit eavesdropping,” Mom snapped.

“I've been working on it in my spare time,” Leo said. “Mr. Osmond thought it had potential and agreed to help me with it.”

“Really?” Dad finished off his second Bio-Blessed energy drink. “Could I see this book?”

“Not at the moment. I gave everything to Mr. Osmond. It's about the end of the world. These monsters appear and they all go after Lydia, because she's such a brat!” Leo shouted the last at Lydia's bedroom.

“Shut up!”

“I don't know what to think,” Dad said. “Let us know if this teacher starts acting strange, or stranger. Anyway, I've got to go. My boss died. Nice fellow, but I got a raise and a promotion out of it, so, God bless the poor guy, and may his soul rest in peace.”

“What did he die of?” Leo asked.

“They were really quiet about that. Something to do with an intestinal parasite,” Dad said.

Mom slammed a pan on the counter and cursed under her breath. “Uh, guys, I have some bad news. I got this Ultra-Burger from the store for a good price. I thought we'd have hamburgers, but I didn't realize Ultra-Burger is made from soy products.”

“Mom!” Lydia shouted.

“That's enough, Lydia. I'm not happy about this either. Just eat the damn veggieburgers.”

“Mom!”

Dad left.

With a groan, Leo stood up and went to his room. He took one of Mr. Al's capsules from the bottle and swallowed it while Mom and Lydia argued in the background.

Angie had given him a long list of drills and exercises to improve his stats, but he was too tired to do anything other than lie in bed. Mr. Osmond would certainly be listening to his tapes, hopefully coming up with some idea of how to stop the apocalypse.

He checked his cellphone again.

Angie had texted. Had a great time training. Let's do this again.

That was it for new texts. Nothing from Mr. Osmond. All Leo could do at this point was wait and see. When Mom called him for dinner, he realized he was starving.