“Alright,” Zed stared at the empty store in front of them. “This might be a problem.”

The store wasn’t locked. The door was open and the display was still there. Everything was just gone, from the slippers made of rubber to the slippers made of leather to the old man and four people he’d basically instructed to wait.

Ronda stepped up to him. “What’s the problem?”

The market was technically empty now. It was almost as if only the four of them were here. There was the occasional sound of gunshots, one every few minutes that they followed to track whoever was being pursued, but it was nothing big.

Most of the other shop owners, those who hadn’t had the confidence to go running around because they were afraid of making friends with a stray bullet, were still locked in their stores, silent as the first time they’d felt terror.

“The others were meant to be here,” Zed answered finally. “It seemed like the safest place at the time.”

Another gunshot rend the air. Zed turned his head in its general direction. It was closer. Maybe a few sections away. Was the assailant catching up or was the pursued leading them?

He didn’t need to see the discomfort and impatience on Kid and Ronda’s face to make a decision.

“Well, no use waiting things out here,” he said. “We’ve got a corgi chasing a skittle so I suggest we get there as quickly as we can.”

Ronda checked on the gun she’d taken from one of their previous assailants and nodded. “I’d say they’re just a few stalls over, so we better be—”

Zed ran off in the direction of the gunshot, screaming.

Ronda looked from Eitri to Kid. “What the hell?”

Zed crossed the first section, arms flailing in the air like someone too terrified in a cartoon or someone trying to get another person’s attention. He was hoping he looked like the latter rather than the former.

He popped out into the first intersection and found nobody. He didn’t stop, thought. Running and screaming was the strategy and he was determined to keep to it. So he darted to the side, and onto another road, arms flailing and mouth screaming.

It took him all of two minutes of running to find what he was looking for. The thunderous boom of a gunshot filled the air and pain filled his head in symbols as something struck him in the back and he went down.

He threw himself into a turn as he fell so that he faced up. When he hit the ground, another burst of pain filled him. Again, he saw it as symbols.

“Is this going to be a thing now?” he groaned.

He heard the sound of footsteps as someone walked up to him. A moment later, he was staring up at a bearded face. The man had a rifle in hand.

The man looked down at him, then off to the side.

“They said one of them had red hair, right?” he called out to someone Zed couldn’t see.

“Yeah,” someone called back. “Boss wants that one alive.”

The bearded man frowned. “He trying to collect the VHF reward?”

Another sound of footsteps approached them.

“Yeah.” The person wasn’t close enough, and Zed didn’t want to turn to look at him. “Everyone’s got their eyes on the VHF reward.”

Aren’t I just special. Zed groaned. What are the chances it’s not about the red head?

At first, he’d thought there was something special about read heads now that there was a lot of mana in the world. Then he’d considered the minute possibility that he was the one the VHF was looking for. After all, he had been a part of an experimental program in the Institute.

And if the Institute was now the VHF, or a part of it, judging from how similar their badges were, what were the chances that they were actually looking for him.

“You think he’s dying, Tate?” the voice asked. It was close enough for Zed to put a face to it now.

The man wasn’t bad to look at.

Tate, the bearded man, looked down at Zed. “He’s been staring at me ever since I shot him. Not sure.”

“Might be his life flashing before his eyes,” the other man said.

Tate scoffed. “That shit ain’t real.”

“Oh it’s real,” Zed said, startling them.

Tate jumped back. “Balls of Nebucadnezzar you scared the shit out of me.”

His gun was pointed straight at Zed’s chest, and Zed was happy the man hadn’t pulled the trigger.

“Don’t just suddenly start talking like that,” Tate added, lowering his gun. “We’r gon’ try and get you to a medic or something. John still got that medpack back at home, Dan?”

The second man nodded.

Zed could already feel his skin pushing the bullet out of his shoulder. The healing process hurt, but not so much.

“Are you telling me you’ve never had your life eyes flash before your life?” he asked.

“Life flash before your eyes,” Dan corrected.

“That’s what I said.”

Dan shook his head. “No, you said something different.”

Tate perked up suddenly, as if remembering something. “Where’s the girl?”

Dan turned, alert. “Shit! I think we lost her.”

“We? What the hell you mean by we?”

“We were the ones chasing her.”

“Well, I made a detour to bring this guy down.” Tate pointed his gun at Zed. “I got the red head so you could get the girl.”

Dan frowned but said nothing at that.

“If you’re looking for the girl, I’ll be more than happy to help,” Zed said. The bullet was out of his back and his injury was almost completely closed.

“You’ll sell your own out?” Dan asked.

Zed scoffed. “Why do you think I was running around like a madman? She was the one that put me in this mess. Just give me a moment and try not to shoot me.”

“Why—Jesus Christ!”

Zed flared out his aura. He’d expected them to get startled by it, hence the warning. But he hadn’t expected Dan to completely pass out. They were awakened, weren’t they?

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

A moment later, after learning what he wanted to learn, he retracted his aura. Tate pointed the barrel of a shaky gun at him.

“The hell did you do to Dan?!”

“Dan was weak but he’ll be fine,” Zed answered casually. “But I’ve found the lady you’re looking for. She’s hiding behind that store.”

“And you expect me to take your word for it?” Tate asked in a shaky voice. “After what you just did to Dan?”

“I didn’t do anything to Dan. Dan was weak, that’s why he passed out. But you’re strong. I clearly can’t go anywhere, and the store is just right there. Besides, all I can say is thank God you’re finally here. I was running out of things to say.”

Tate’s brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed. “What the hell are you talking ab—”

Ronda struck him in the back of the head with the butt of her gun and Tate went down hard. But he wasn’t out. He tried to aim with his gun, but seemed too out of sorts to manage it.

Ronda kicked the gun from his hand and hit him again with her gun.

Zed rolled on his side and pushed himself up.

“Is she trying to knock him out or kill him?” he asked Eitri when he got up.

Kid was standing next to Eitri, gun aimed in different directions. He was keeping watch.

“Why are you asking me?” Eitri said as Ronda bashed the man’s face for the third time.

“Because you’re the only other person I’ve seen fail to knock someone out with a gun. Are you two going for a franchise or something?”

Ronda raised her gun one more time but didn’t bring it down. She seemed hesitant. Under her, Tate’s beard was stained in blood, and his nose was broken. He also had a laceration under his left eye that was already beginning to swell.

Zed leaned forward to look down at him.

He looked at Ronda and clicked his tongue. “You did a number on him and he’s still awake. In pain, but awake.”

“It’s not as easy as it looks in the movies,” Ronda defended herself.

She was still looking down at Tate contemplatively.

Zed had a feeling she was wondering if she should whack him again. Maybe she thought she’d almost figured some trick out.

“Aren’t you like some important mage police?” he asked. “A person would think you’ve done a lot of knockouts.”

Kid took a moment to move his head from where his gun was pointed. “We’re soldiers. The police are a different department. Also, no. None of us go around knocking people out. That’s not how it works in the real world.”

Zed shrugged. “Who woulda thunk it.”

“Also,” Eitri interjected. “You shouldn’t be letting out your aura so freely.”

Zed looked at Dan’s unconscious body lying on the ground. “Is it because of that guy? I promise it only happened because he was weak. What kind of awakened can’t withstand a simple aura blast?”

Eitri shook his head. “There was nothing simple about that aura blast, and we should get going if we want to find the others.”

He stepped forward and led the way.

Ronda followed after him. Kid walked backwards, gun still aimed to cover their backs, steps light and cautious.

“Is there something about my aura someone’s not telling me?” Zed asked Kid as he moved past him.

“We told you at the crash site already,” Kid answered absently. “Your aura’s toxic.”

Zed walked with him as they followed Eitri and Ronda.

“You make it sound like my aura’s a bully in some sort of relationship.”

Kid spared him a glance before returning his eyes to the road. “Do you know what a mad man with a knife and hopped up on steroids looks like?”

Zed thought about it. “Yes.”

“Bullshit. No one’s seen a madman with a knife, hopped up on steroids.”

“Are you calling me a liar?”

“Yes.”

They turned a corner at a shop and Kid brought down his aim. He turned, gun still in hand, and started walking normally.

“What I’m trying to say,” he continued. “Is that’s how your aura feels. Like there’s someone around that just wants to get in a fight and kill you. And not just because he’s been driven mad with anger.”

“It’s far worse than that,” Ronda said. “It’s like he wants to kill you because he knows he can, and you know he can. And you both know he intends on doing it in the most violent way possible.”

That sounds a lot like being attacked by the Berserker, Zed thought. At least he thought it was. The Berserker certainly felt that way.

Was [Bloodlust] affecting his aura even when it wasn’t active?

If that was the case, then how would it feel when it was active?

“Try not to think too much about it,” Eitri said from the front. “You aren’t the first mage with an aura with crazy properties.”

Zed had a feeling those words were meant to be comforting, but he wasn’t very comforted. So he checked his timer as they walked passed another store.

----------------------------------------

[00:00:24]

----------------------------------------

“Stop!” he shouted as they turned another corner.

But it was too late. He realized he really should’ve been looking at the timer.

----------------------------------------

[00:00:01].

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……………….

“Was it really a good idea to leave?” Shanine asked Oliver.

The both of them were walking with Chris and Ash ahead of them.

“The old man had portal magic,” Chris answered from the front. “He was too suspicious to remain around.”

“Maybe we should’ve followed him,” Shanine opposed. “Zed said we should stay with him.”

“Bloodbath said we should stay at the store.”

“And keep him company.”

“Then you should’ve gone with him when he started walking towards the gunshots.”

Shanine frowned. She didn’t understand how Zed didn’t hate Chris. She knew he didn’t like her, but she couldn’t see why he didn’t hate her.

The girl had no good qualities. And everything that came out of her mouth was either negative or on a path towards something negative.

“I’m just saying we could’ve found a way.”

“I’m with Chris on this one,” Oliver said.

Of course he was. Shanine had seen the way he looked at her sometimes. If he didn’t genuinely like her, he probably had some kind of crush on her. She could also be misreading it, though. It could just as easily be some friendship loyalty.

Though, she knew for a fact that Chris liked the boy. Hers was unmistakable, evident even from a mile away.

Still, she really wanted to tell Oliver that while he was in support of Chris’ decision, he really needed to ask himself why.

“We knew nothing about the old man except that Zed had technically just met him and wanted us to keep him company,” Oliver said. “What were we supposed to do when he started putting his slippers in a portal?”

Shanine didn’t have an answer for that one. It wasn’t even what her argument was on.

“I understand that,” she said. “But I’m talking of when he started leaving. We could’ve convinced him to stay or followed him.”

“It wouldn’t have been reasonable,” Ash said. “He was running from the chaos.”

“He was actually moving towards the sounds of gunshot, if we’re being honest,” Chris said. “That man wasn’t running.”

“Besides, we have more important worries,” Ash added. “We need to find Zed and get out of here.”

“What of the Olympians?” Shanine asked.

“They’ll be fine. They had the only gun with them.”

Chris held the gun in her hand up. “And we’ve already come across two dead guys. One had a gun and the other didn’t. I’ll bet our side’s winning, for now.”

“What we really need to do is find Zed,” Oliver told Shanine.

“And judging from how crazy he can be, he could be anywhere.” Chris aimed her gun and stepped around a turn quickly.

There was something tactical about the move. It reminded Shanine of a lot of movies she’d watched before the apocalypse.

The feeling reminded her that she wasn’t doing this for any of them. While she was on Zed’s side, she really wanted the Olympians to take her to VHF headquarters.

As much as she tried to, she couldn’t see herself being a mage that hunted the forests and the poor lands killing monsters and getting monster cores.

She just couldn’t picture it being her life.

Chris got to another corner. Instead of duck into it with her gun aimed as she’d done the last time, she raised a hand, signaling them to stop.

She hugged the store wall and peeked out of the corner. She pulled her head back quickly and let out a low, annoyed hiss.

“Fuck,” she swore quietly.

“What’s wrong?” Ash asked, voice equally quiet.

“I’m really considering suggesting that we go back, take a turn, and hightail it out of here,” Chris answered. “And before you say anything, Oliver, I said I’m considering making the suggestion, I’m not actually making it.”

Oliver frowned and hurried up to her. “What’s wrong?”

Chris tilted her head towards the corner.

Oliver had a quick look before coming back with a frown.

“Fuck’s right,” he said. “I guess things just got more complicated.”

Chris rolled her eyes at him. “Of course that’s what you’ll say.”

Shanine was already hurrying over to the edge in worry. “What’s wrong?”

To her surprise, Chris moved to give her space at the edge.

Shanine had half a mind Chris was going to do something to her the moment she peeked out the corner. So she made it quick.

What she saw almost made her cuss. The only reason she didn’t say anything was because her mind was too busy trying to process what she was looking at.

“How many’s that?” she muttered almost to herself.

“I counted ten,” Oliver answered.

The number of men they counted wasn’t the problem. The problem was the people with those men.

Unable to help herself, she took another quick peek and Chris hissed silently.

Her brain reconfirmed what she had seen previously.

Zed was in chains and was being dragged away by ten men. Eitri was with them and so was Kid. But they didn’t look like they could put up a fight. Zed was ranting, though.

She hadn’t heard what he was saying, but from the looks on the faces of the men nearest to her, it was most likely annoying.

“He’s annoying them,” she said, turning to the others. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“Not entirely,” Oliver said. “One of the times Zed talks a lot is when he’s got nothing else to do. So he just goes with the annoyance strategy and hopes it knocks you off kilter so he can get an advantage.”

“Or maybe he’s just rambling,” Chris offered. “Will I be a bad person if I suggest the retreat option?”

Oliver shot her a dark look. “Yes.”

Maybe he didn’t like her the way Shanine thought. The look seemed a little too dark. But judging by how Chris reacted to it, looking down and away, it was a wonder how no one in the group had noticed how she felt.

Shanine cast her mind from the drama to focus on a more important topic.

“How do we get him out of there?”