Eliza leaned against the wall. It wasn’t comfortable, but that didn’t matter right now. Right now, all that mattered was the Viper making his way down to alley. Probably to take a piss. Not that she cared what he did. Only that he was here. Alone.

A man whose face was carved into her memory. Memories of blood staining the carpet surfaced. A face, his face, standing over her father at the base of the steps. She took a shaky breath. Now was not the time to remember stuff like that. She had a job to do. Sure, it was a self-appointed job, but something that needed to be done.

The man finally reached the end of the alley, far enough from the light that she wouldn’t be seen. Over the course of a minute, she felt the power well up in her. She had no clue what exactly it was, but it let her kill who she needed. Once the power reached a point where she felt she would burst, she took a single step.

A half second of vertigo and her knife drove into the base of the man’s skull. There was no struggle, the man was dead instantly. She mentally crossed a face off of her list. The Vipers had wronged her in the past, but now, she was strong, and with each face, she grew stronger.

Eliza didn’t want to have to be the one who did this, but it was necessary for two reasons. The first was to right the wrongs. The second was because of Callum. That was an even more complicated mess to untangle, so she didn’t even bother. What did was that he had stood up to the Vipers.

Moving on from her prey, Eliza slipped out of the alley and stuck to the shadows. There was more of the city she wanted to see, and more faces to cross off if she found them. Her path took her deep through Viper territory, where they were posted on every corner. Most likely they were running some extortion racket, offering to protect people from the apocalypse. That was the way they normally did business, but now there were no police to stop them from doing so.

She had observed a few clashes between the Vipers and the police early on, but the Vipers had established their territory, and with no guns, the police were forced to consolidate resources toward the center of the city. It was not something that mattered to Eliza, but as she found her new place in the world, it was something that might be worth remembering.

Her path through the Viper’s territory had a purpose, though. As she randomly crossed streets, attempting to stick to the shadows, she was looking for their base. Where their leader Ryman lived. Oh, if she could only get her hands on him. She hadn’t found him yet, but she would. Eventually, she would.

Was she not in Viper land, the city streets might have struck her as pretty, though she had never been a big fan of the city. She had never lived anywhere other than the city, and it was better for her to stay somewhere familiar. The town hall Callum had built was pretty nice, but if she was honest with herself, anywhere with a roof was nice.

As she turned a street corner, she spotted a lone Viper standing on the street. He was a good distance away, further than she had ever used Lethal Strike from, but she had found a new drive to push herself since the apocalypse had started. Cloaked in shadow as she was, she felt safe to start charging her attack.

That familiar building of energy reached its limit, and she struggled for a moment to push it further, build it more. It was only an extra three seconds, but it was progress. Her foot moved almost of its own accord, knowing that it was the catalyst for the skill. There was that half second of falling without falling, and her knife plunged into the base of the man’s skull. Except, it didn’t make it all the way. Not a clean kill.

This had happened before, so she was ready. Her knife whipped out of the back of his head and slit his throat before he could let out a scream. Blood pooled on the sidewalk, but Eliza didn’t notice. She was already slipping back into the shadows.

She didn’t care if they found the body. It was a good thing if they did; she wanted to send a message. The Vipers could bleed. For so long that had dominated a section of the city. Their continued reign was likely due to some dirty cops, but that was not something Eliza cared about.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Glancing at the sun, a natural habit for her to tell what time it was, she saw that it was getting late into the day. Sure, she liked to hunt at night when they weren’t expecting it, but she had to sleep somewhere and a roof was better than no roof.

As she made her way back, she stuck to the shadows. It was amazing what her skills enabled her to do. Only occasionally she had been spotted by Viper lookouts. Those few times had been hard fights, but she had made it out on top. It was a hard lesson to learn, but she had learned. Over the last two days, the number of times she was spotted had decreased. Now it had been several hours since someone saw her when she didn’t want them to.

When there were stretches without shadows, she used another skill that she had been given. Shadow Step. There was still that sense of vertigo, but she was getting used to it. The first time, she had nearly puked from the sensation. Now, it was a slight sense of nausea if she used it multiple times in a row.

It took her a while to make it back out of Viper territory. She had been deep into it, further than she had gone before. Despite the increased number of guards she had seen, her stealth had kept her hidden from almost all eyes. The ones that had seen her were no longer living.

By the time she got back to the town, it was getting very close to sunset. A twinge of panic gripped her for a second when she saw no one around. She relaxed when she saw Callum sitting in front of the town hall, legs crossed with an odd expression on his face.

“What’re you doing?” she said. He would know it was her. She had scared him the first few times she exited stealth, and felt bad for that, but there was no great way of appearing in front of someone who had no clue you were there.

There was a sharp pop, and she flinched. Internally she cursed at her terrible nerves, but she was slowly getting them under control.

“Practicing magic,” he said as he stood. “Where’ve you been?”

There was the dreaded question. He had asked her that the day before, and she couldn’t bring herself to answer what she did during the day. Surely he would hate her for it. He hadn’t when she had killed the ones he chased off, but people were irrational. And he was so strong. What would he do if he hated her?

“Here and there,” she said. It was the truth, but it was also a lie. A lie so that she could preserve herself.

“Anything interesting?” She begged whatever force was listening that he would just stop asking about what she did.

“Not really. Just seeing the sights.” Why was it so hard to lie to him? Should she just tell him the truth?

Thankfully he stopped asking questions and moved on to something else. “Well, I have something for you. Consider it my thanks for helping to fight off the wolves.”

The wolves? She had done that to protect him, but why did he want to thank her? She didn’t deserve his thanks.

“Alright. What is it?” She couldn’t keep the harshness out of her voice. The last time someone had given her a gift. It was too painful to think about.

“You’ll have to follow me.”

What was he going to do? Could she run? She could. It was easy, just blend into the shadows.

No. She managed to get ahold of her thoughts. Callum had been nice to her in the past, and he wasn’t like the other people she had associated with before. He was just a regular person, trying to help someone else.

Her unasked question as the where everyone had gone was answered. They all seemed to have a house now. That made some sense, as Callum had promised to get them somewhere to live. She had no idea how he had built the houses, though.

He directed her away from the smaller houses, and to a row of bigger houses. Eliza assumed that this was where he lived, and probably Ryan as well. She could see movement in a few of the other houses but had no clue who else he would give a house to.

She nearly walked into his back when he stopped. It was unexpected, but she had also been distracted by looking at the other houses.

“This is it,” he said as he gestured to the house. “This is what I wanted to give you.”

She turned and looked at the house. It was a simple thing, made completely out of wood. It had a few windows and a door. To her, it didn’t matter what it looked like. She could hardly believe it was real. He had given her a house.

Standing there stunned, trying to take it all in, she felt tears gather in her eyes. This wasn’t right. People didn’t just give other people houses. Words failed her, not that she spoke much anyway. There were too many things to process all at once. She was berating herself for not saying anything. Finally, she was able to process enough to say something.

“Thank you.”

It was simple, too simple. It didn’t convey all the things she wanted to say, but somehow he took it as enough. Another terrible silence filled with confusion about what she should be feeling.

“You can go in,” he said. Then he smiled. It was a pure smile like he somehow understood what she was feeling. He couldn’t, but it made her feel like he did and that was all that mattered.

He had walked away some time ago, but she still stood there, wanting to chase after him, explaining that she didn’t deserve this. That she didn’t deserve any kindness, but by that point, he was too far gone.

In a stupor, she drifted into the house. She collapsed on the bed, but couldn’t find much sleep. There was simply too much to think about.