Zed and the others made their way down the hill and into the city below.

The city looked below as it did above. Tightly packed and somehow overcrowded. The first thing Zed noticed as they strolled into the city was the smell.

“That’s horrid,” Shanine said, almost gagging. “How this place smell so bad?”

“Too many people and not enough baths,” Zed said.

The streets were small and people had erected tents and canopies between buildings. There were caravans with holes cut into them that served as small stall or even houses.

The clothing situation was also a right mess with more people wearing tattered clothes than people wearing clean clothes.

Most of them looked like they’d taken their clothes from bomb victims. There was a boy, barely seventeen who kept on eyeing Shanine with what they were certain the boy considered a sexy grin.

Zed had a feeling the boy was fine under all the dirt and grime and brownish teeth.

“I thought you said this was a town,” Ash whispered.

Chris was quick to answer in place of any of the Olympians. “This is more like a wasteland than a town. I saw a guy shitting on the side of the road just now.”

“Can you really call it a road,” Oliver commented.

Eitri was busy looking around at the mess of a place. “Was it like this the last time you guys were here?”

“Basically,” Ronda answered.

“And no one thought maybe we should’ve put o clothes that looked closer to these guys?”

“That would not have been smart,” Daniel said. “What happens when we leave and run into a more civilized place?”

“Well we stand out too much here.” Eitri tugged at his shirt as if to make the point.

“With all the blood, Bloodbath fits in just right,” Chris said.

She wasn’t wrong. With his bloodied clothes that were still in tatters, he really did fit in just right.

But he’d been hoping to find a change of clothes somehow when they’d been heading for civilization. All his hopes were comfortably dashed now.

“Can we focus on what’s important?” Jennifer said.

“And what’s that, anyway?” Chris asked.

“That’s true,” Oliver said. “Why are we even here? There’s enough gas in the car to take us another mile or more.”

Daniel’s voice was flat. “We need a map. And batteries.”

Ash paused. “I thought you had a map.”

“The batteries are dying out.”

“You’re joking.”

“I am not. It runs on electricity, and we got hit with an EMP. It’s out of juice.”

They took a turn down one of the tight ‘streets’. It was so small that they couldn’t walk side by side. So they walked three by three and were still cramped. When people had to pass them by when coming in the opposite direction they had to squeeze to make the fit.

The next turn they took led into what was supposed to be a market.

It looked like a market during a zombie apocalypse. Most of the vegetables and fruits on display were half rotten and simply unclean. The sellers still peddled their wares and announced their prices.

For such displeasing sights, their prices were still high.

Subject to demand and supply, Zed thought.

From the flickers of aura he caught here and there, most of the mages he could feel around were mostly not even Beta yet.

They had awakened and stayed there.

When Zed had woken up and found out that the world had experienced an apocalyptic event, this was what he had expected to see when they’d taken him to Heimdall’s. Something chaotic and destitute.

Hillview had met the description well enough. But this? This embodied it in all is capabilities.

This was post apocalyptic.

And they survive however they can.

“Hey! Fine boy!” a lady called out. She was elderly and wore her hair down in a ragged mess. “Come buy some watermelon. It’s today’s watermelon. Fresh from uptown.”

Zed took one look at the watermelons and couldn’t have disagreed with her more. For one, they were dry, like they’d been left out in the desert sun for too long, shriveled up.

They looked like they’d let out a lot of crunching sounds if he bit into any of them.

He gave her a weak smile and moved along.

“Must be tough being handsome, honey,” Jennifer said. “Don’t worry, though. While we’re here, you have my permission to cheat on me with any of the locals.”

“Ha ha. You’ve got jokes.”

“You don’t have to worry about this,” Daniel said, still leading them down the path and through the market. “This isn’t where we’re going.”

“Then where are we going?” Chris asked.

“Uptown.”

“Isn’t that where she got the crunchy watermelon?” Zed asked.

Ash was quick to support. “Yea, I clearly heard the old lady say uptown.”

Kid was more focused on something else. “Crunchy watermelon?”

“Yea. They looked so dry I’d bet my last rune dollar they’ll make a crunchy sound if I bit into them.”

“How about we go back and buy one, see if they crunch. I’m kinda broke so we’ll bet—ow!”

Ronda pulled Kid by the ear and kept walking. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop betting.”

“It’s just a friendly wager,” Kid protested.

“And how many times do I have to tell you that friendly wagers don’t involve money?”

They walked for a little longer and saw scenes that displayed what some parts of the world had truly become in the absence of civilization and just authorities.

Surprisingly, Shanine didn’t look like the sights bothered her. If anything, she handled it like a resident of a simple place out on a simple stroll. There was a point a man had tried to grab her and she hadn’t even flinched.

She’d started out nice, then he’d tried to get touchy and she’d cracked him across the cheek with a slap.

When everyone looked at her, she simply shrugged.

“I don’t have to put up with it again.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Uptown was a different place from the rest of the town. It wasn’t different by a large scale, but it was different. Anyone with two functioning eyes could tell that it was still a part of the same town. It was simply less unkempt.

It had a gate that people moved in and out of quite freely. However, there was a man stepping on a woman at one side of it. He had colorful words for each step, loud enough to announce what actions had caused his violence.

“She’s with the boss now!” he spat with each kick. “What gives you the right to complain? Do you think you can continue surviving if the boss stops helping us out? Do you want to man the perimeters and keep the monsters out? You got some little cute rune tucked inside your gown somewhere we knows nothing about?”

He kicked her in the rib for good measure. Her face was swollen and purpled in bruises. She was sobbing on the ground but wouldn’t let the man’s leg go.

“Give her back,” she sobbed. “She’s too young. Take me instead.”

“What the hell would the boss want with your old face?”

He had a partner who was manning the other side of their make shift gate with a rifle in hand. The gate was a funny thing to look at, like someone had taken a broken old gate and dropped it smack in the middle of the road. It was black but had browned from rust and age.

Shanine fisted her hands at the sight.

“Leave it,” Zed told her, his voice coming out hard.

She didn’t seem inclined to listen. “They’ll kill her.”

Zed didn’t think so. There was a higher chance of her suffering a different fate. He could see the way the violent man’s partner kept watching the woman on the ground. It irked him to know that he understood the look.

“She won’t die. At least not here.”

Daniel paused their procession and turned to Zed. “Will this be a problem?” he asked.

Zed looked from the oppressed woman and her oppressors to Daniel.

“You just saw me ask that she be left alone,” he said, trying to chip away some of the hardness from his voice.

“Only because you sound like you want to deal with it yourself.”

Zed didn’t need to think about the accusation. “You’ll have no public worries from me.”

He’d left [Titan’s Axe] back at the car, along with their most powerful member. The decision hadn’t been one he’d been happy with, but he’d understood it.

All of them were unarmed and walking through what was now beginning to look like it would end up being enemy territory.

Festus had stayed behind because they ‘came in peace’. And his level of power would make that peace seem false. It would make it seem like pretense.

Right now, though, Zed wasn’t feeling very peaceful.

There was a part of him that was praying they stopped them at the gate, made a scene.

“Zed,” Oliver said, worried. “What’s that look on your face.”

“There’s no look on my face.”

“You’ve got a look,” Jennifer disagreed. “And it doesn’t look like a good look.”

To their side, the kicking was subsiding. The oppressor was slowly becoming contemplative.

“I just watched a woman get beat up, I’m sure I’m not the only one with a look.”

They were at the gate now. It wasn’t so wide that someone couldn’t walk around it, but the man standing at it seemed to serve as a symbolic deterrent that determined everyone was meant to walk through it.

When they arrived at the gate, the man stopped them with a raised hand.

“Haven’t seen your lot around here before,” he said, struggling to keep his eyes off the woman on the ground. “State your business.”

“Just passing through and thought we’d stop by to get some batteries,” Daniel said.

The man looked up to meet Daniel’s eyes. Then he looked all of them over. While they were neater than everybody they’d come across so far, they still had their downs. Their clothes were torn at some places from their fights with the anti-mages not too long ago.

Zed was the only real mess, and a bloody one at that.

The gateman nodded at him. “Is your friend good?”

“Yea,” Daniel said.

“That’s a lot of blood for someone who’s supposed to be good.” The man’s eyes narrowed. “And why does he look like that?”

“It’s not his blood,” Ronda said.

It was the wrong choice of words because the gateman suddenly grew very alert. “Oi, Boston! I might need you over here.”

Good, Zed thought. Make a scene. Give me a reason.

His own thoughts held him in place.

A reason to what? Kill them? Beat them to a pulp? Then what?

There was a reason he’d told Shanine to leave it alone when she’d looked like she wanted to interfere. And it wasn’t because he thought she was weak. All the way from here he could tell only one of both men was anything above an Awakened, and he was barely a category 2 Beta mage.

Zed had no doubt he could take them with a hand tied behind his back.

Confident much?

Well I’ll need one hand free to cast the runes.

Chances were he wouldn’t need runes. He’d beat them bloody with his bare hands. Oddly, he wasn’t sure whose thoughts these were. He would’ve loved to blame them on the Berserker, but he had a strong feeling they were his as well.

“Why does he look like that?” the gateman repeated, voice harsher. His gun was slightly raised now.

Zed knew the gesture almost immediately, and his hand twitched to move. It was the gesture of a man quite accustomed to threatening people with a weapon.

Daniel didn’t seem very bothered.

“What my friend meant is that we just got back from hunting down some awakened beast down south, just over the hill, and he had the task of rooting out the beast core.”

The gateman lowered his rifle just a little bit. Zed wasn’t sure if it was because of the explanation or the sense of safety that came with Boston’s arrival.

“You guy’s hunters?” Boston asked.

Where his partner was a slim brunette with average height and a small bucktooth, Boston was on the taller side and had a face that looked like it had been in a few fights, and not the ones you’d think he won.

“What’s with redhead’s face over there?” he asked, standing beside his partner.

Zed turned to Shanine. “Does my face really look that bad?”

Shanine nodded. ‘You look like you didn’t know better and ended up buying the crunchy watermelon. So… yea.”

“That bad.”

Boston was looking at Shanine now. “Aren’t you a little too young to be walking with a crew this old?”

“And aren’t you a little too ugly to be talking to a girl this young?”

Zed paused.

Okay, that confidence has to be coming from becoming a mage.

The Shanine he knew was more liable to step behind him than take a step forward when she was confronted.

Like she’d just done.

“Now, now,” he said, jovially, taking her by the shoulders and pulling her back. “I know you haven’t had anything all day, but let’s dial down on the cranky, shall we? No reason to dial it up in front of this fine old man.”

Boston spat on the dirty road. “Who the hell you calling old, redhead?”

“Uhh…”

Zed wasn’t sure what the proper response was supposed to be. With all the wrinkles on his face and the crooked nose, he’d looked a bit on the older side.

Daniel bowed slightly. “Forgive our rudeness. We did not mean to offend.”

Boston barked a derisive laugh, then turned to his partner. “Why’s he going all fancy on us, Toby? What’s with all them’s fancy English? You think you’s better than us, big guy?”

Zed could feel a small smile creeping onto his lips.

Boston moved the rifle that had been hanging behind him and held it in both hands now.

“Get testy with us and I’ll blow you up to next Tuesday. C’mon, gimme a reason.”

Daniel’s composure never shattered, but the other Olympians were beginning to grow tense.

“You’s know what?” Boston smirked. “Just for that, you’s all are paying an entry fee.”

“There’s no entry fee,” Ronda challenged, stepping forward. “And we didn’t do anything.”

Toby raised his gun and shoved the barrel against her shoulder, shoving her back. “You trying to start a fight, girl? Maybe we let the men in, and keep the ladies for a fine.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Boston said. “You’s guys can come pick them up on your way out.”

Zed’s smile ended up falling flat. He ran a hand down his face. I swear it’s like I’m in a poorly written novel.

He let out a tired sigh and stepped forward.

“What you want, bloodshed?” Boston asked, turning his gun on him.

Zed wondered what it said about his knew life that he wasn’t phased by the idea of being shot.

“Sorry to intrude,” he said. “But you fine folks remind me of some nice side character in some there novels I been reading as a wee lad.”

The others looked at him in confusion.

“You’s mocking me?” Boston asked.

“No mockery here, friend.” Zed raised his arms in innocence. “Just saying you fine men be reminding me of some story I been reading where the guy the book be all about be running into trouble all the times. Always heres or theres. Strange fellow, the author. Had to drop the book seventy-three chapters in just cause some randos decided to start a fight just because they’s could. Reckon the author was just looking for a spit of violence to please the readers.”

Toby cocked his rifle for emphasis and aimed it at Zed’s head. “The readers get their spit of violence, reddy?”

Zed never understood why people cocked their guns a lot. A cartridge popped out of Toby’s chamber when he cocked the weapon. It distracted him slightly as he swore under his breath.

A sad waste of bullet. Maybe it’s the intimidating factor, Zed thought.

He was still thinking when Boston spoke.

“My friend’s talking to you, reddy.”

“Reddy. Bloodshed.” Zed shook his head in disappointment. “Reckon you’s folks never seen an auburn hair before.”

Both men exchanged a look.

“Alright!” Boston shoved the barrel of his rifle against Daniel’s chest while Toby stepped back so he could aim at all of them. “Y’all get down on your knees with your hands behind your back.”

Of to the side, the lady they’d been beating up had gathered enough strength to crawl her way through the gates. There were other passersby spectating on the events, none willing to help the lady out or intercede for Zed and his group.

“I said on the floor!” Boston bellowed, not looking up at Daniel.

It made sense that he had his aim on Daniel. Daniel was the most intimidating of all of them just by his size.

Daniel lowered himself, slowly getting to one knee when Jennifer grabbed him by the arm.

“It’s not worth it, boss,” she said, her voice tired.

Daniel looked up at her. “We need the batteries, and a map.”

“We can just take it.”

“It’ll start a fight.”

“Not our first fight.”

Boston stepped up to Jennifer and jammed the butt of his rifle into her face. “I told y’alls to get on your fucking knees!”

“Remember that book I was telling y’alls about with the author and the shoddy side characters, two dimensional, all of thems?”

Zed had their attention again. And not the good kind.

“I swears I’ll blow your head off if you don’t stop your yapping.” Toby had his rifle aimed at his head.

Zed wasn’t fazed.

One shot wouldn’t be enough to kill him, and one shot was all he needed.

“Well,” he continued. “I dropped off at chapters seventy-three. But the shoddy characters happen at chapter fifty-six. Want to know if the readers get their violence?”

Toby’s finger was one squeeze away from a gunshot.

Zed smiled impishly. “Don’t you want your answer?”

Chris sighed. “Just kill him already.”

She rushed forward.

Boston turned his gun on her and pulled the trigger.