“What is Lost can be Found again.”

~First Rule of the Lost & Found

With too much on his mind, Devin mindlessly followed the sluggish foot traffic that drifted towards the center of town. The strip that used to be downtown was even more packed than the outskirts, most of which was concentrated around the Mayor’s Office.

That man looks like he’s about to drop dead. Devin thought as he spotted the old balding, pale soldier leaned on a podium that sat on a shoddy, wooden platform, as if the silver leaf on his hat weighed more than a ton. I guess being in charge during the apocalypse will do that to you.

“I hear your concerns.” The soldier said as he addressed the crowd. “We, the 33rd Cavalry Battalion, are doing our best to solve the situations.”

“What the hell are you even doing?” “My whole family’s dead ‘cause of you!” “Why are you stealing all of our shards?”

Voices surged over one another, many doubting the Army’s ability to defend them, a few going as far as to accuse them.

A gavel slammed into the wood, the smack silencing the dissidents. “Again, I hear your concerns, but have some compassion. We lost brothers and sisters last night as well.” The old soldier let a moment of silence pass, bowing his head as he paid respects to the fallen.

“But please know that we are enacting plans and systems in place as we speak. We are taking the majority of the shards from the horde, as it was our manpower and bullets that held them back, but know that everyone who contributed to the defense will be rewarded.”

Devin’s eyes widened seeing Gerald amongst the group of people that separated themselves from the crowd, joining the speaker on stage. “I salute these brave men and women who greatly risked their lives to save another. Each one here will receive enough shards to awaken, whether they are already a superhuman or not.”

You can’t even tell he drank a whole case of beer. Devin grinned.

The old soldier turned to the group on stage, snapped to the position of attention, and executed a perfect 45 degree salute. “I, Lieutenant Colonel Jones, thank you for your commitment. Keep working for the good of our community, and I’ll keep supporting you.”

Mixed reactions rang out. A few clapped and cheered, some complained about nepotism, but most were mumbling amongst themselves.

Satisfied, Jones turned back to the crowd. “Although we are enacting plans, we have a severe lack of manpower that is crippling to not only us, but this town as well. So, we have decided to institute an awakening program.

“We will gather teams of like minded individuals, teaching them survival and hunting skills to allow them to gather the shards they need to awaken themselves.”

An uproar followed the announcement, almost everyone throwing themselves forward, all to be one of the first to register. The Lieutenant Colonel banged his gavel again and again, but order never came. The crowd started to surge forward when an ear splitting yell cut through the noise, and made everyone stop in their tracks.

“SHUT UP!” A tan, middle-aged man with a scar across his eyes screamed from his position in front of the stage.

Despite the loud yell, the man hadn’t moved an inch. He scanned the crowd, glaring at one person at a time until he was satisfied. He nodded at the officer, relinquishing control back to him.

“Thank you, Sergeant Major Francis.” Jones nodded back. “As I was saying before, there will be multiple tables where you can register. First come is first served, but don’t let that discourage you. From now on, we will officially use shards as a currency, and we will set up a job board where you can not only find work, but post jobs and requests yourselves—so long as you have the shards to give as payment.”

“How can we trust you? How do we know you people won’t use this chance to oppress us more.” Someone yelled at the officer. More than a few people whispered in agreement.

“We at the 33rd Cav do NOT oppress the people, we are here to protect.” The old man seemed to regain a little bit of youthfulness, his tired eyes shifting to a hard glare. ”If there is even a hint of it. Let me, or Sergeant Major Francis know. We have an open door policy, and zero tolerance.”

I hope he really meant it. Devin thought to himself.

The world was already messed up, they didn’t need to add dictator militia on top of it.

With that, the address was over. The Lieutenant Colonel shook the hands of the men and women on stage, then quickly departed with an entourage of soldiers. The group was waved off stage, while ten or so tables were pulled out of the town hall.

It didn’t take long for lines that wrapped around the block as conversations filled with excitement spreading through the streets. Devin noticed that the enthusiasm even extended past the immediate area as he left the center of town.

The gloomy mood that had a chokehold over everyone earlier this morning changed into resolution and motivation. Of course there were a lot of people still stricken by grief and trauma, but now more often than not, people were starting to look more hopeful.

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About time the military got off their asses and actually did something. Devin shook his head. It only took a massacre for it to happen.

Bainbridge has been under martial law for almost an entire month now. The military should've implemented systems to become supers long ago. They were probably too busy guzzling as many shards as they could.

Caught up in his thoughts, Devin failed to notice the pair of footsteps stomping towards him until a set of arms wrapped around him.

“Devin!” Ken’s voice was muffled as he pressed his face into Devin’s back. “What happened last night? We lost you in the mob.”

“Ken.” Devin growled, resisting the instinct to throw him to the ground. “Are you a freaking monkey? That’s not how you greet people.”

“Hehe, my bad?” Ken apologized, only for Devin to slam a fist on the top of his head. “Ow! Why the hell did you do that?”

“I felt like you weren’t being sincere.” Devin said. He shook his head at the teen’s antics, then kept walking. The twins wordlessly followed. “I was helping the soldiers. Moving sandbags and bullets.”

“Oh, really?” Ken asked. “Those guns were pretty cool; I’ve never seen bullets light up in the air before.”

“Have you ever even fired a gun?” Devin scoffed.

“And if I haven’t.” Ken said cheekily.

“He hasn’t.” Ben added.

“What the hell, Ben? Stop snitching!” Ken yelled back.

The trio walked in the opposite direction of traffic, heading to the edge of the safe zone where the soldiers tensely guarded the entrance of the fence line.

“Halt!” the female soldier yelled before they could get close. “Why are you here?”

“I need to check on my house outside the safe zone.”

“We’re not allowed to let normies through.” The other soldier said, looking at the trio as if they were idiots worth less than dirt.

“I’m not.” Devin corrected, manifesting his magic circle. Much to his surprise, the twins followed his lead, fumbling a bit before they manifested theirs too.

When the hell did they become Supers? I’m pretty sure they weren’t ones yesterday

The rude soldier came closer and waved his hand through it as if to see if they were real. “Hmm.” He narrowed his eyes on them. “Even I haven’t awakened yet; how did civvies like you end up with enough shards? You still stole some from us last night?”

“What the fuck, Richard?” The other soldier yelled at the rude one. “You're free to go.” She said, elbowing Richard in the kevlar. “Go open the gate for them, you shitbag.”

Richard mumbled under his breath the entire time he unlocked and unwrapped the chains. “Sorry about him, we've been dealing with some thieves and extremists lately.”

“We’re all dealing with a lot of things, ma’am. Make sure to keep your dog on a tighter leash next time; I’m one of the nicer supers out here, and I won't let this happen again.” Devin said the last part louder so the rude bastard heard him.

The soldiers bore holes into his back with their looks, but that hardly phased him. Devin was more unsettled by the numerous bodies and streams of blood at the bottom of the culvert.

Once past the bridge and free of the bloody, rotting air, Devin felt oddly relaxed, even if he was surrounded by blood and the occasional rotting carcass beset with buzzing flies.

I definitely hate crowds, he shuddered. Makes me anxious.

Thankfully, there were only a few teams out, each giving the next one plenty of space. They all either combed the surroundings for any missed shards, or they were getting ready for a hunt while the sun was still up.

“That guy was an asshole.” Ben noted.

“Yeah, for being a normie himself, he had a really big mouth on him.” Ken agreed.

Devin chuckled. “Bigger than yours.”

“Hey!” Ken complained. “And here I was about to give you something for letting us stay with you.”

Devin stopped. “What were you planning on giving me? And who said I was letting you stay with me?” He asked, suddenly interested

Ken pulled a green card out of his pocket to show. “This spell card I found while your sister helped us become arcanists. Supposedly really good.”

“Are you an idiot?!” Devin pushed the card to Ken’s chest to hide it. He looked around to make sure no one saw it. “You can’t be showing that stuff in public.”

“Oh.” Ken held his head down. “I’m sorry. I just got excited. But really, it’s yours if you let us stay with you for a while.”

“Fine.” Devin sighed, taking the card without even looking at it. “So, Bella helped you become arcanists? What’s that?”

“It’s what aliens call Supers.” Ben added. “At least, that’s what your sister said.”

“Oh really, did she say anything else?”

“She said she’s going to wring your neck to shake the stupid out of you.” Ken said cheerily. “That’s when this card dropped from a monster.”

Devin touched his neck, and gulped. “Let’s not talk about her right now.”

“Then, do you have any plans for today?” Ben asked, ignoring his brother.

“I have a few ideas for farming some shards, but I’ll need to go out in the wilderness.” Devin said, thinking about everything he’ll need. “You’re more than welcome to come if you want.

“If we’re going to go out of city limits, then we’re going to need some people. Ooh!” Ken snapped his fingers. “Gerald was up there with those people. I can ask him.”

“Great, since you’re so eager to handle it, go figure it out.” Devin said to Ken, before turning to Ben. “I would really appreciate it if you make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.”

The teen frowned. “He’s my baby brother. I would’ve looked out for him even if you didn’t tell me.”

“Who the hell are you calling a baby, we’re only seven minutes apart. If anything, I’m the big brother since I’m taller than you.”

“Barely. Seven minutes beats a quarter of an inch.” The siblings bickered back, and forth before Decin interrupted them with a clap.

“Great, meet me at my place once y’all got it figured out.”

“You mean what’s left of it.” Ken tried to whisper, but his loud voice still carried pretty far through the empty, stained streets.

Devin sighed. “Just get going, and meet up with me later.” He said, ushering the boys back into town before they could say anything else.

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During the dead of night, the only light that had shone on Devin’s land was from fires and stray explosions. Hardly a sufficient light source, yet even with the low light, the destruction from last night was obvious. The only question was how thorough.

The light of the morning sun gave him an answer.

Torn apart junk vehicles and half burnt piles of trash were scattered all over the property but they were the least of his worries. The walls were scorched while half the roof had caved-in.

The two giant holes in the walls showed Devin just how bad it was. He hadn’t cried in years, but something about walking into the ruin of his home was heartbreaking.

Still he pushed through.

It wasn’t surprising to notice that most of the second floor was now on the first as well, but the damage still made him frown. Channeling Rage, Devin used his increased strength to pull out the lumber and half-melted furniture.

He dutifully cleared out the house, one trip at a time, dusting the ash off the floor and countertops, hoping to find something salvageable. After a while, Devin only found a few things worth keeping—the dishes, a stack of half melted boomboxes, and his mother’s jewelry box.

Devin wiped the dirt off the jewelry box with his dirty shirt, and opened it. Miraculously, the box worked perfectly fine. A ballerina rose from the bottom, twirling as a melancholic tone.

That was all that was left. Everything else, all the clothes, pictures, mementos—gone.

Suddenly, the world spun; Devin fell to his knees. The sadness and guilt that sat in his stomach like a rock crawled up his throat. Before he knew it, he was vomiting all over the floor.

It felt like his family and the memories he had were truly dead. What am I even doing here? Everything is gone, and Bella doesn't even care.

Voices called out from afar, Looking through a crack in one of the boarded windows, Devin saw a group of four tentatively exploring the edge of the property.

Wiping his face on his dirty shirt, Devin quickly walked out to greet them, his mental breakdown quickly forgotten.