At Amelia’s words, Elina couldn’t help but think back to a child standing on a table, shouting in defiance at the staff of Gladkid Orphanage, shouting about sick kids needing medicine and the lack of blankets in beds. It was one of Elina’s most prominent memories of Lucian. He had been the most tenacious and unwavering figure in her life back then. Her emotions became turbulent as she thought of how Lucian had defended her from bullies and how he had taken up some of her workload in the sweatshop when she could not bear it any longer.

“You look like you miss him,” Marcus commented, having gone around Elina to stare into her face that had been drawn with the look of longing.

Elina suddenly snapped out of her reminiscing, her expression twisted into a scowl, and she said in a low tone, “I will never live in the Broken Ring again—that hellhole—just for some civ.”

Marcus tossed his head back and let out a cackle that rang through the slimy cavern. The so-called “hot childhood friend” was a poor nobody. He couldn’t believe he had become jealous of such a person.

He spread his hands out toward the MHS workers huddled over snail corpses, laughing and saying, “What Anointed in their right mind would want to wallow in such a place? We’re demigods to these lesser beings. The only reason we keep them around is to do filthy work like this.”

The surrounding workers grimaced and their hands tightened in anger around their tools hearing the obnoxious Anointed talk down on them. However, they never showed their fury outwardly. It wasn’t uncommon for Anointed to get away with murder, especially a Mid-Tier Anointed like Marcus. He could do whatever he wanted to them without repercussions.

“Would you shut up, Marcus,” Amelia sighed with disdain, “If you weren’t Anointed, you’d be starving in the streets because you wouldn’t be skilled enough to do this kind of work.” The workers suddenly brightened at her words and thanked her inwardly.

Marcus stared at Amelia with hatred, a vein pulsing angrily atop his forehead.

“If you didn’t have your status,” Marcus uttered under his breath, “I would’ve made you my bitch by now…”

“What was that?” Amelia challenged, seeing his mouth move inaudibly. Marcus remained silent. “That’s what I thought.”

Seeing the tension between them grow, Elina shoved lightly and began guiding Amelia away, backing her up like a car in reverse.

“Alright, Amelia. You made your point,” Elina reassured and looked over her shoulder at Marcus. “Amelia and I are going to tex-mex. I’ll get you some enchiladas!”

Marcus remained where he stood, his eyes burning with hatred, glaring at Amelia who smirked at him while Elina pushed her away. She finally turned, flipped her hair and began to strut out of there. Marcus’ eyes fell to her plump posterior. Though her chest couldn’t compare to Elina’s, her shapely backside made him crazy with lust.

“One day, I’ll get a taste…” he promised, licking his lips.

***

Lucian pushed into the spinning vortex that was the Monster Gate to come out the other side and saw Gabriel already in his truck with his cowboy hat over his eyes.

“Hard day on the ranch, partner?” Lucian asked with a country accent, walking up to Gabriel’s open window.

“Huh?” Gabriel responded, tipping up his hat. “Lucian? You guys are already done?”

“It was just a bit of snail sludge. No biggie.”

Lucian hopped into the truck, and Gabriel, with a roar of the engine, whisked them away from the scrapyard. The yellow Monster Gate soon shrank into nothing in the rear view mirror.

“I hear there is an Anointed that can grant abilities to normal people like us,” Gabriel mentioned during their drive home.

“Only the Master System can do that,” Lucian denied, side eyeing Gabriel, “Who told you that an Anointed can make other Anointed?”

“Jeff from the Miners group.”

“Jeff also says that Monster Gates are part of a cosmic video game being played by godlike beings.” Gabriel shrugged as if he didn’t wholly disagree with that point, prompting Lucian to respond, “Come on, Gabe. You’re saying there’s a bunch of child gods playing us as pawns in some dungeons and dragons game?”

Gabriel’s eyebrows raised and tilted his head, saying, “They say the Master System looks like it came out of a video game. So, there’s that.”

Lucian leaned his head back against the seat headrest, unable to believe he had been bested in logic by Gabriel and Jeff’s conspiracies, knowing from his own personal research that the Master System indeed looked like it came out of a video game. It was said that the Master System was an omnipotent AI system that transformed into a video game type of system to help humans adapt better to becoming monster slayers.

To this day, no one knows much about the Master System or where it had come from. All anyone knew was that humanity would’ve been wiped out long ago without it.

His phone began to ring. Pulling it out, his face immediately became blank staring at the caller ID. The ID showed as “Her.”

The phone remained ringing, causing Gabriel to look over and noticed Lucian’s thousand-yard stare.

“¡No lo puedo creer!” Gabriel said with exasperated breath, “That isn’t the same girl you told me about, is it?” Lucian’s silence told him all he needed to know. “You said you would stop messing around with her because she’s manipulative and possessive.”

The phone stopped ringing, allowing Lucian to breathe more calmly. Gabriel beside him couldn’t stop shaking his head. The phone began to ring again. “Her” appeared on the caller ID. Lucian’s free hand at his side nervously opened and closed. He gritted his teeth, veins appearing in his neck like stabilizing cords trying to keep a tent from blowing away on strong winds.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The ringing finally ended and Lucian did an intake of a gasping breath like he had just been pulled up after dangling precariously from a cliff’s edge.

“There you go,” Gabriel hollered with gusto, pushing his cowboy hat down further in excitement. “¡Ese es mi chico! That’s my boy! You showed that bitch you had enough of her nonsense. Don’t ever answer her calls again!” His calloused hands flipped on the radio and cranked up whatever mariachi music came on. He then floored the gas pedal, sending them careening down the pothole filled streets of the Broken Ring.

Lucian stared warily at his phone’s blank, black screen, his worried expression reflecting back at him in it. He soon sighed with relief. No more calls came. He didn’t want to deal with “Her” right now. He had enough problems on his plate at the moment.

***

“Sorry, kid. I know I said two months, but I can only give you one month now. I’m going to need all the backup rent by then.”

Lucian, crust-eyed from just waking up, stared blankly with disbelief at Porker who had woke him up this morning.

He wiped off sleep slobber, blinked out his eyes to refocus, and said, “Porker, sorry, I mean Horker. I thought we had an agreement?”

Porker responded with hopeless, bagged eyes, replying, “Like I said, kid. I’m sorry.” Lucian noticed Porker didn’t get mad at being called “Porker,” signifying something had gone wrong with him. “You get me the rent in the full amount by the next four weeks. Alright, kid?”

“Is something wrong, Hork?” Lucian asked, too used to giving people nicknames unprompted.

“The wife’s left me, kid, and emptied the piggy bank on her way out.” Horker turned around to begin to go. “Alright. That’s enough sharing feelings, yea? Get me the money or get out. I got shit to do.”

Lucian watched as the portly man trudged down the hallway, his head slumped in sorrow, a hand brushing the wall in case he’d need support if he fell to his feelings.

“Damn,” Lucian cursed, his eyes moving rapidly as his mind spun. He couldn’t think of any way to make enough money to pay the entirety of backed up rent he owed. The thought of Sammy “Bountiful” came to him but he quickly threw the thought away. That loan shark was already becoming too much to deal with. Borrowing more from him would only exasperate the situation.

All day Lucian couldn’t think of any way to make money. Gabriel could only offer something outlandish.

“Jeff said a Scav team is recruiting MHS workers to work a Wild Gate,” Gabriel informed Lucian during their drive to work as the truck stopped at a red light. Rarely did anyone in the slums follow the rules of traffic signals, but Gabriel preferred not to have anyone crash into him and take away his only means of transportation. Besides, the Meager Palace was too far from any form of public transportation.

“Gabe, Wild Gates are unregulated by New DC,” Lucian groaned, rolling his eyes, “And there’s no such thing as Scav teams. That makes them sound too professional. Scavs is short for scavengers, and they’re called that for a reason. They’re Anointed who are greedy or desperate, sometimes both. Anyone willing to travel across the Wasteland in search of Monster Gates is crazy.”

“I’m going.”

“Gabe, don’t be an idiot.”

A desperate light appeared in his eyes as Gabriel responded, “Sorry, amigo. I got a family to feed and the Worker Ant Company doesn’t offer health insurance for nada. I need this, man.”

Lucian paused at the mention of health insurance.

“…Everything alright, Gabe?” Lucian prodded.

“Got a sick baby, man. She’s crying every night and we can’t get her to eat. Something’s very wrong with her, amigo. I can’t stand by as a dad and do nothing, you know? I’m papi, get me? I got to do something, anything.”

“…Alright, Gabe. I get you. Just be careful, will you? If you see anything fishy out there in the Wasteland, man—you run, got it?”

Gabriel nodded as he wiped a tear threatening to drop from his eye.

Lucian wouldn’t go. The Wasteland outside the city walls was crawling with monsters that broke out of their gates. If no one kills the Boss Monster ruling the Monster Gate inside and destroys its Boss Key, that monster would be able to use the key for its own purposes instead and open the gate from its side, into their world. That was how old America was first introduced to the 2030 Monster Invasion—through a Monster Gate break.

Work went by and Lucian finished his shift. However, he did not leave with Gabriel. Instead, he stayed behind to work overtime. By hitchhiking, Lucian went home exhausted afterwards only to repeat the same day the next day. This was the only way he could think of in trying to get money. He would work until he dropped.

A week of endless labor passed and Lucian was paid double what he was normally given but he couldn’t celebrate, being too tired, barely able to keep his eyes open. He hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep for the past five days. He even stopped going home, choosing to remain and pick up as many hours as he could.

Another week passed with Lucian only able to get two hours of sleep in total.

Someone was yelling at him. Lucian tried to focus but couldn’t make sense of the blur the world had become before his lethargic eyes. He felt as if the voice was underwater as it sounded garbled and unclear. Suddenly, a firm finger poke to his chest brought him back to his senses, the voice finally becoming clear.

“…you’re finished, Lucian, you hear me? This is the sixth time you ruined valuable Monster Gate materials.” Jim was yelling at him and his face was completely red with fury. Lucian didn’t know what he did wrong. “You fell asleep on the job again, Lucian!” Jim answered Lucian’s wondering thoughts as if he could hear them. “Just today, you burned a Heaving Ram’s hide then you crack expensive Gargoyle stone with your tools, and now you’ve ruined a Gateshard. Do you know how much money you threw away by breaking that shard?”

Mortified, Lucian finally was able to realize what he had done. He was within a Monster Gate, in a cave lit by blue light. Below him was a cluster of glowing mineral that looked like clear blue glass—Gateshards, the shards that powered the modern day. It was the cleanest and most powerful source of energy, able to power a car for months with a single shard, and Lucian had just ruined one.

In his hands was holding a Gatetech pickaxe, ironically powered by technology derived from Gateshard, one of its sharp ends had pierced the ground with two halves ruined of a Gateshard on either side of it. The shard was dull in color, no longer glowing like the ones around it.

Lucian’s head fell, knowing he had just made the last mistake he would ever make as a MHS worker a part of the Worker Ant Company. To his chagrin, he was right to think that.

“You know what?” Jim said, leaning away like Lucian was a bad smell, “You’re done. Pack up your tools and get the fuck out of my Monster Gate.”

Lucian was soon outside of the gate, in a parking lot at the front of an antique shop, the blue glow of the Monster Gate on the sidewalk reminding him of the Gateshard he ruined. If only he kept the shard glowing like the gate, he wouldn’t be without a job.

Gabriel walked tiredly out of the Monster Gate to his truck to find Lucian sitting inside, looking much like how Gabriel felt with what weighed on him. They both simply sat in Gabriel’s vehicle, neither saying a word— both lost in the suffering life had wrought.

Back at home, Lucian remained awake despite several sleepless days, gazing unfocusedly at his dilapidated apartment wall. In his dingy apartment, he sat on a moldy chair as cockroaches and rats crawled across his feet, seemingly unresponsive. The pests perhaps thinking they could feast on him if he had died.

“Damn,” Lucian mumbled, his firing finally settling in, “That happened.” He looked to his Gatetech tools scattered across his kitchen counter. At least he had his tools and his skills. He would get another MHS job. Regardless, he had no choice but to try.

His tools were gone.

Lucian awoke the next day to a broken window and a counter that held no tools. Someone had broken in and stolen from him. He had nearly fell over seeing a part of his wall had been ripped out, the part of the wall he kept his life savings in a glass jar. They had taken that too, leaving him with absolutely nothing.