Mensha followed Summer up the stairs. Her shoulder firmed and slumped as she tried to push away all that bothered her. Words swam in his thoughts as her sad light bathed him. He held his tongue and pulled her hand into his. She squeezed, it would have to be enough because he didn’t know what else to do.

By the time they crested the next floor, her steps had regained the confidence he loved so much. She swept into the open office space, casting the mess of dividers, smashed computers, and thrown chairs in stark white light. Her hand warmed burgeoning on uncomfortable and she glared at the wind-swept mess. He didn’t have to guess her thoughts, it was written in her eyes.

He pulled her into the room before anger could sweep her away, and they began their search through the room. The floor was pristine as far as he was concerned.

It wasn’t clean, no, the rotting food spilled from the office fridge disavowed that belief as did the splatter of blood on a computer where it presumably smashed someone before their vanishing. Despite that the lack of corpses let him savor the beauty born of humanity’s violent absence.

Walking through the closed offices and smashed glass in search of somewhere to stay. He choose to see it as an adventure, if a sad one. He glanced at a mug cracked in half beside a coffee maker. The brown fluid caked into the tiles.

He glanced at Summer and noted how her eyes ever fled the scenes that might hint at personal loss, only to be dragged back to a forgotten bag, or sticky note. He brushed past her and pulled her attention away.

Would she ever enjoy the breeze again? He shook the thought and peered through the blown-open door of a dark office, and after a cursory look waved summer over. She illuminated a large window on the room’s far wall and a heavy oak desk in its corner. He checked the room’s door to find it functional. Then walked to the window, the shades ambling below shouldn’t be a problem, as despite being on the floor above reception they were a few meters up.

The glass might be a problem though, seeing as though they hadn’t seen any flying monsters reality had plenty of surprises. Summer wrapped her arms around him the potential surprise lessened by her glow. He leaned back into her chest and added her lights to his mental equation.

“This place good?” she mumbled, looking at him through the window’s reflection. Her glowing brown skin cast him in an odd light, painting his face in deep shadows.

He nodded noting how her clothes messy clothes shone with an inner glow, “Though I am worried about the window,” he added remembering to share his thoughts.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It’ll be fine.” She said, and her embrace tightened, rootless though her convention may be it eased him.

He stepped free of her radiant brace and looked into her eyes that shone between hazel and burnished gold. They were brown days ago. “Thanks,” he said and smiled in that slight way that always eased her as much as it distracted. He’d tell her when there was less to do.

It worked and the expression grew easier as her tension fled. He kissed her cheek and stepped away before she could react. “What will you do, while I’m,” he searched for a word, changing would disturb her, and growing felt inadequate.

“Evolving,” a chuckle froze on her lips, a they curled in unease.

“ Evolving,” he said with all his distaste, and suffered through the allusion to pokemon, he rolled his eyes. The laugh that escaped her was worth it, he soaked her mirth in.

“I think I should also practice,” she said and glanced out the window. He stepped beside her and she took his hand, in her very warm one.

“Okay, the faster we learn, the better equipped we’ll be.” Less likely to die, were the unsaid words that echoed in his head. Help others where the ones he imagined filled hers.

She nodded, and Mensha noted the new intensity in her light and warming of her body. Her touch burgeoning on hot. Something to keep in mind when ‘evolving’.

They closed the door and at his encouragement, the light of his life hoisted the heavy wooden desk and shoved it in front of the small office’s door. He hoped he hid his amusement as he made the request.

Everything he knew probably was or would soon die yes, but all he could do was live and make light as he could. If Summer’s definition of living meant running head first into danger, well he didn’t have better ideas.

They sat in a corner away from the window after a moment he shifted and leaned into wall, no need to be uncomfortable. He glanced at Summer fidgeting between kneeling and some meditative position. He shook his head and closed his eyes.

He sunk into himself, sliding pat skin and muscle to bloom in his nasal cavity. A resplendent cacophony greeted him, less than sound greater than a feeling. It came to him like a hallucinated knowing. A trick of consciousness bringing knowledge.

Much more than it once was, from the impression of muscles to this. A million chemicals rushed through him binding to the surface of as many cells. Which in turn sang to nerves, that fed into his brain and were processed by the incomprehensible static buzz. Building the sensory world he was currently ignoring.

This would be complicated, if he had the time a week or few days, he could try experimenting. Adding or changing a few cells to see what would happen, maybe change the internal structure of his nose to see how airflow changed. He did not have that luxury, which meant he would have to force the issue.

Small was an orchestra, with every cell responding to a single chemical, forming cords as notes were struck together. He could feel the notes of iron mixed with dozens of others into blood. It was miraculous.

Yet it wasn’t enough to find one preferably living person in this city full of corpses. He pulled the shoe from his bag and watched as a litany of signals strengthened.

If he also packed more cells into the already tangled web. A smile grew on his face, as the road to possibility showed itself.

Now he needed to figure out how. Hopefully, there weren’t too many bumps along the way.