"Bull-fucking-shit!"

Alan put into words what Clay was thinking, more or less.

There's no way something like that could exist.

On the other hand, a month ago he'd have never believed that things like other worlds and real-life game systems were anything other than works of fiction. It would be best to keep an open mind.

Not too open, though. Radman had every reason to say whatever would buy him their protection from the sounds of it.

But what was that protection even worth? Clay certainly wasn't at a level where he wouldn't be scared of Jumpers, and it also sounded like this other player had the numbers advantage.

"Believe what you want to believe. That's my offer." Radman returned to his chair. "I'm not going to even risk being disposed of by you after divulging the bulk of my findings."

"You think we're like that? You think I'm like that?" Alan snapped.

Radman observed his clenched fist. "The motive is definitely there. However, I can also sweeten the deal in ways you'll find more believable. Before I was put onto the Crowder Deflection Program, CDP for short, I cut my teeth on a few smaller quality of life things that I could definitely recreate if you got me a few materials."

"What kind of quality of life things?" Clay asked before Alan could outright refuse him.

"Before everything went tits-up, I had been working on plans for more efficient solar panels and equally efficient external batteries." He excitedly gesticulated as he spoke. "Are you aware the energy efficiency of commercial-grade solar panels only reaches an absolute maximum of 25%? Even the stuff they use in satellites only gets as high as 45%! A lot of valuable energy is either reflected or lost as heat…"

He started explaining the specifics of how solar panels worked, which Clay couldn't really keep up with.

Clay had a cousin like this who could go on and on about these sorts of things and seemed to always be looking for an opportunity to shift the conversation in that direction. They didn't have the social awareness to realize that they were being annoying.

This cousin was also crazy smart. There was some give-and-take when it came to genius, he supposed.

"Anyways," Radman said, which prompted Clay to stop spacing out, "the important thing is that I've revolutionized solar energy! My panels can reach an efficiency of 75%!"

That is definitely a bigger number.

"I don't really know what that means," Clay admitted.

"And if you plan on explaining, could you put it in words people who had sex in high school can understand?" Alan quickly added.

Radman wasn't deterred by Alan's rudeness.

"Depending on the number of panels we set up, it's not impossible for us to provide power to the entire apartment complex. I could build in a system for rationing energy to specific parts of the building, but we could also just wait until the system can properly support everyone. Well, if the complex is as empty as I remember, then we probably won't be waiting very long."

"If you think you can just worm your way back in--" Alan began.

So caught up in his train of thought, Radman continued without seeming aware that he was interrupting Alan, "It's also not impossible for us to have AC again!"

"I think we should at least discuss it." Clay had a stoic look on his face to hopefully offset how shameless that statement was. He figured Alan had to be conflicted as well when he didn't immediately jump down either of their throats.

However, Alan wasn’t the type to often be at a complete loss for things to say.

"If you were so good with all this shit, how come you ain't ever throw these ideas by me back in the day?"

Radman's hands and shoulders relaxed. He was still smiling, but Clay could have sworn he saw one of his eyebrows twitch.

"Are…Are you serious? I tried to get you to listen to me all the time. I had to wake up early just to catch you in the morning and let you know how great it would be if you could somehow scavenge me some inverters. Even a pile of calculators would have helped a little."

"Tons of people in the building were constantly requesting shit! I had to keep my eye on the ball and prioritize!" Alan shot back.

"I understood that. That's why I never complained. However, you never got me anything I asked for even once! What happened back then was bad, but I was only ever thinking about what was best for everyone! Even near the end when you were just sitting in your room all day!"

"You son of a bi--!" Alan took a step forward.

"Do you even remember my name, Alan!?" Radman stood up again. "My actual fucking name!?"

Clay attempted to interject, "Guys, don't let this devolve into--"

"Your name ain't worth fuck to me, cocksucker!" Alan continued like he wasn't there.

It turned into a shouting match after that, leaving Clay unable to do anything except allow things to take their natural course.

Neither of them revealed any new information. They just angrily reiterated the same points because yelling at the other person felt good.

Clay got the feeling that they were both still holding something back despite their anger. There was a lot of yelling like all was bared, but they danced around the heart of the problem. There wouldn't be any proper resolution like this.

Pointless screaming. Pointless fights. Why even bother?

Even if Clay wanted to try and pretend he was detached from the situation, he couldn't help how anxious he was becoming. Alan was getting really heated, creating a serious concern he might hurt Radman. However, trying to pacify Alan might give him the wrong idea now that Radman was getting just as loud.

'Why the fuck are you taking his side!?'

Something like that could easily happen.

So the only in he had was…

Alan took another aggressive step forward. Clay stepped closer and placed a hand on his arm. He didn't have the strength to stop Alan if he decided to take things down that road, but he at least got his attention enough to finally say something he could hear.

"Alan, I know you're angry, but there's no reason to take things beyond this. He called us here so we can talk, so let's just do that, alright?"

Alan grit his teeth, conflicted.

That was a sign his plan had worked. Waiting to intervene until now wouldn't cause any misunderstandings because Alan, even in this mindset, could see Clay was just trying to help him. Radman would also probably appreciate not having to throw down with someone twice his size.

Alan relented, stomping his way towards the gap in the bookcases. "Fine! I'm just gonna get the hell out of here! All's I gotta do is wait for a stiff breeze to kill this asshole, anyways!"

"Try not to collapse a lung squeezing your way out, fatass!"

After some huffing and Clay pulling the lever again to let Alan leave more easily, he was alone with Radman.

"We'll talk it over," Clay calmly told him.

The color in Radman's face gradually worked down from its red hue as he let out a chuckle. The juxtaposition between Alan's high-energy exit and Clay's subdued demeanor almost made Clay laugh as well.

"You do that. I can offer more as time goes on as well, but maybe something I could give you right after we're in agreement is information about your rival player. It's valuable intel, I assure you!"

"I don't really plan on taking the fight to anyone, so I'm gonna be honest and tell you that I'm not exactly enticed by that." Clay started making his way towards the bookcases as well, not wanting to risk Alan leaving him behind. "I'm more intrigued by the devices you used to find me."

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If this other player was evil, or even just amoral, Clay didn't want anything to do with him. Best case scenario, they never meet.

On the other hand, if there was a way for him to get into contact with players that were as conflict-averse as him...

"I don't want to say too much about it while we're in the low-trust stage, but it's as good as it sounds." He smiled politely. "I'll be here every day from sun-up until sun-down. If you bring anyone here I don't recognize, you're never gonna see me again."

Clay stopped at the gap. "One more thing. Why are you so sure that you're gonna have to deal with these guys at some point? The world's a big place."

"I don't know the specifics, but I'm certain that my gracious leader has something that lets him track me. He's disguised it in the past as just having super good intuition, but he's always been able to guess the rough location when an important prisoner escapes."

The [Tagging] Skill?

"Why don't you just stay on the move, then? If it only gives them rough information, you could just move from place to place."

Radman let out a breathy laugh, "Are you kidding? How would I get any work done if I had to pick up and leave all the time? I can't carry everything I need with me. No, I'm the only one at the forefront of fixing this world and I'm not going to let them ruin everything I've worked for."

The man looked closer to his actual age when he gazed at the pile of parts in the corner.

"I just want things to settle down."

Clay said nothing else as he left.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The walk home hadn't been filled with as much discussion as he'd expected. Alan hardly spoke at all, despite Clay's best efforts.

"I know that this guy rubs you the wrong way, but I think we need to seriously consider this offer."

"Yeah, we'll talk about it later."

They didn't talk about it later.

Alan went straight to his and Milly's room when they got back. He even skipped dinner.

It was Clay that had to give a rundown of the day's events to Milly.

"I get that it's a sensitive topic," he said while helping her collect clothes off of a clothesline, "but now that it's come to this, I can't just not ask about it. What exactly happened during the huge exodus two years ago?"

"It was a hard time for all of us, Clay. Can't you wait until Al is feeling better and ask him?"

Milly looked uneasy, which made Clay feel bad for asking. She was always so nice to him—he didn't want to sour her view of him by being insistent.

"Yeah, I guess I can…"

The next day, Alan decided he and Clay could both take a day off from scavenging and stay home. He didn't sit in his room like the day before and spent the bulk of the day doing things with Angie. She'd always complained about Alan not having the time to play through the stack of board games he'd previously collected, so it looked like he was making up for lost time.

Not wanting to get into something so obviously personal in front of Angie, Clay waited until he could get a moment alone with him. Apparently that was too much to ask for.

Alan didn't stop hanging out with Angie the whole day. There were a few times where Clay worked up the courage to try and bring him aside, but he always deflected it.

"Alan, can I talk to you?"

"Come outta your cave, kid? Hey, how's about you play a game of Cans and Coasters with us and tell me what's on your mind!"

"Ah, that's okay, it can wait. I think Milly actually wanted me to help her with something."

"Oh, yeah! The ration stuff! Hey, can you hand out Angie's share, too?"

"…Yeah, no problem."

"Thanks, genius!" Angie exclaimed while rolling a pair of dice.

Not only did he not get a moment to speak with Alan, but he also discovered and lost a means to get him alone at the same time. If he'd just waited until Angie had to go hand out rations, that would have been the perfect moment.

Instead, he was stuck giving out food and water to everyone left in the complex. Having only ever taken up half the workload before, he only met half the remaining occupants during that time. Now he was having to waste his time properly introducing himself to more old people who'd only ever heard about 'Alan's new helper'.

There were six floors and four units per floor for a total of twenty-four apartments. Among those, only eight units still had anyone in them, which meant that he only had to deal with four of them during his two-week resting period.

Now that he was introduced to everyone, he quickly realized that Angie had stuck him with all of the units where the person he spoke to was the sole occupant. That meant that the likelihood that they would talk the ear off of the first person they spoke to that day would shoot way up.

One he had to deliver to had two people living there, and one even had three. They were almost all on the older side, with the genial politeness that he was growing accustomed to.

"It's really nice to meet you, Clay. Now that I have this water, maybe I could make you some tea?"

"You're tall!"

"My wife and I need you to settle this debate for us. Which do you think would be the worse way to die--"

Only two people broke this pattern. One was much younger than the rest but was disabled. A middle-aged blind woman who was very pleased to meet someone new. She wasn't quite so old, but she was just as chatty.

The other one wasn't really all that polite. That would be Calvin, the man who'd given Clay the comic books that got him interested in what this world's entertainment had to offer.

"You remind a lot of a guy I used to serve with," Calvin said in a way that sat on the border between insult and nostalgia. "The man was a complete idiot! Would've gotten what little brains he had blown out of his head if I hadn't been there!"

That remark made Clay wonder what the national conflicts of this world looked like. Kyle's helmet in the clothing shop appeared to be WWII-era; did that mean they suffered the same wars?

I don't really feel like asking him, though…

"I set those cookies out for you, you know!" Calvin complained. "You better eat them!"

"Oh, thank you…"

"What!? You gotta speak up if you want me to hear you! My ears have gone stupid!"

"I said thank you," Clay told him again, raising his volume while being careful not to shout at him.

"Hmph! Look at the sorry state of you! They even feedin' you right over there?"

"I've always sort of been like this. I'm usually more thirsty than I am hungry."

Calvin took a cookie from the small plate on the table between them and gave it a hard bite. They probably weren't meant to be so crunchy.

"People ain't plants, son! You eat proper! That's what really makes the difference when you're out in the field!" He pushed the plate closer to Clay. "Ain't your fault you're so damn skinny, though! Government's been putting chemicles in the food to weaken men's bodies for decades now! That's why I only ever ate the stuff I grew on my rooftop garden before I got too old…Now it hardly matters what I eat."

I'll just gloss over most of that.

Clay kept the small talk going in the hopes he could wrap this up soon. It was best to get Calvin to prattle on so he could finish the rest of the cookies and excuse himself. "I'm surprised you were allowed to have a rooftop garden. It feels like something landlords could get strict about."

"Heh! Never had any problems, seeing as how I'm the landlord!"

"Really?" Clay genuinely hadn't known that, but he did feign a little extra surprise for Calvin's sake.

"Yup, I own this building, at least in the ways people used to own things. Now it's hard to say anyone really owns anything anymore!"

"It is a thinker…"

That turned into its own tangent until the ball was put back in Clay's court to say something or else suffer an awkward silence. It'd have been a perfect out, but he still had two cookies left.

"Thanks for those comics, by the way," is what Clay settled on. "I would have been bored senseless without them. Are you wanting them back any time soon?"

"Keep 'em! I ain't never been interested in that stuff, and it's not like my grandson is gonna be coming back for them! Have to have an ounce of gratitude in his body for that! So you keep 'em! You're doing me a favor!"

"Alright, I think a part of me was hoping you'd say that…" Clay said uneasily. He didn't want to get Calvin going now that he was close to making an exit.

Wait.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but was your grandson with the group that left the apartments two years ago?"

Calvin nodded. "Yeh! Blood's supposed to be thicker than water, but all it took was a little spit of deception from a goddamn snake to turn my boy against me!"

"Did you ever meet the guy he was speaking with?"

"I ain't ever got to see the leader-boy, no. Only ones I met from that side were the goons Jaden brought with him to pick up some of his shit! What's it to 'ya?"

Clay toyed with the last cookie between his fingers. "The information I've gotten about these guys tells me their leader is pretty dangerous. Just trying to learn everything I can in case something bad happens."

"Peh! No chance of that! They've already gotten what they wanted out of us!"

"Probably not, but unexpected things happen. Doesn't hurt to be prepared, right?"

"Suppose not!" Calvin spat harshly, even as he agreed with him. "The only thing a kid like you ‘oughta be doing when unexpected things happen is turn tail and run! Your generation ain't built for this sort of thing! So weak and so easily controlled…"

Clay couldn't be offended by that. Most people he met around his age were pretty much as Calvin described, especially Clay himself.

"That's usually my first plan of action, yeah." He split the cookie in half. "Do you know anything about what this leader was promising? It had to be pretty good to get so many people on his side."

Calvin usually responded almost as soon as Clay finished speaking, but this time he was a little more hesitant.

"You wouldn't have had to promise all that much back then, but he was saying all sorts of things about community and free food and all that. It was tough going for a little while then, 'specially for Alan. He's the bossman, so when things go downhill for him, we all feel it."

"That sounds about right. Something we saw reminded him of that stuff and now he's acting weird. We have to discuss something serious and I don't know what to say because I'm just so out of the loop, but I don't want to just say whatever and end up seeming insensitive."

"Well, I'll tell 'ya a thing or two about what happened back then, but I can't say I know a ton beyond the broad details. Don't tell nobody you heard this stuff from me, though. My memory might be starting to go a bit too. Gotta be careful of that when you're talking to old folks!"

Clay almost smiled in relief as Calvin started recounting some things he heard around that time.

As he left the older man's apartment, he allowed Kissy to eat the crumbling remains of the last cookie out of his palm.

It might have been a good thing he was being made to interact with all these people, actually.

"Anything you can tell me would really help me out. I'm not trying to pry, but me and him work together and I wouldn't even be discussing it if I didn't think it was important."

The old couple who'd needed his input on a debate they were having earlier in the day ended up being less helpful than Calvin overall, but they filled some holes.

The person he spoke to after that was even more helpful than Calvin and the couple put together.

He couldn't get the ones he hadn't spoken to before today, except for the blind woman, to say anything he hadn't already heard, but they did at least verify some previous statements.

Sorry to take advantage of you chatterboxes, but I've been letting you guys use me as a sounding board for quite a while. All I'm asking you to do is talk about something I'm actually interested in.

He had what he needed now. Something like a full story.

The core of this tragedy was that Alan had a son.