“Who’s idea was it to give people powers again?!”

Zed ducked behind the truck as the ground shook from another boom. Oliver was laughing beside him, standing freely in the open with Jason’s gun trained on the fight ahead of them.

Another boom shook the ground as Jason dodged an attacked and tossed a ball of light at the monster. It struck its head leaving a charred mark as it burst into a small explosion. Zed turned to Ash, hiding beside him. Unlike him, she showed none of the frantic worry a person was supposed to have when a man and a monster engaged in a battle strong enough to shake the ground.

“Why is no one worried about the car?” he asked.

“Because its already been warded,” Chris answered. Her bat rested on her shoulder and like Oliver she stood out in the open, her eyes watching their surroundings.

Zed turned back to Ash and whispered, “What does that mean?”

“It means it has enough wards to stop a small missile.”

“Yes, I get that.” He lowered his voice as the earth shook again. “Well maybe not that much, but I meant wards. What are those?”

Ash gave him a curious look. “You know very little for a Beta mage.”

Zed flashed her a smile. “It’s part of my appeal.”

“You don’t have an appeal, Red.”

Ahead of them Jason battled the beast. He stepped to the side, avoiding a downward strike that dug a small crater in the road. He shook one of his hands free and the orb of light that enclosed it slipped off to hover in front of it. He swung his arm down casually and the orb flashed forward to strike the monster in the face. There was another boom and a small shockwave. An explosion followed and another charred mark marred the monster.

Jason rushed forward as the monster staggered back from the blow and Zed leaned around the corner to get a glimpse of what was happening.

Jason brushed the leg of the beast out from under it with a vicious kick and to Zed’s surprise the monster staggered forward, tipping downward. Jason muttered words Zed didn’t catch as he shook out the second burning orb and tossed it with far less energy than the last one at the monster. It struck it in the side, forcing its unstable footing and the monster fell. Unlike the last one that had left just a physical blow before shattering, this one actually left a burning effect that continued to spread across its side. Flames igniting all over the creature.

Jason’s muttering ended and something wobbled in the air above the monster. It gathered, growing in form. Staring at it was like watching a perfectly clear bubble of water big enough to swallow their truck whole.

Jason held out a dramatic hand and gestured down.

The monster was struggling back to its feet, the fire spread almost all over its body when the bubble dropped. It hit the monster with a shockwave that actually pushed the truck back and the monster crumpled under its weight.

Zed expected it to make some kind of sound but it didn’t. It twisted at odd angles as the orb slowly engulfed its head, writhing and twitching. Behind it Jason watched with a small glow in his left hand, curious anticipation in his eyes.

Then the monster’s head popped.

The entire fight had taken less than three minutes, and the monster had been silent till the end. Zed wasn’t certain which terrified him more. Jason’s strength or the fact that a living thing could take so much beating without a sound.

“What was that?” he asked, before realizing he’d even spoken.

Beside the truck, Oliver lowered his aim, then hoisted the gun over his shoulder. “That,” he said, “was a category three Rukh bullying a category one Rukh monster.”

Zed looked down at his tomahawk and felt smaller. He had a better idea of why they’d become so calm after learning his rank. He’d gone through hell just to beat a category one Beta monster. Could he even have taken something that big?

There was a part of him that tried to create a logic out of it, that insisted the fight would’ve been different if the monster had attacked more. But did it really matter? Wasn’t the ability to prevent it from having much of a fighting chance part of the whole thing?

The truth, he accepted reluctantly, was that he would’ve lost. What Jason had just done was something he couldn’t do. At least, not with a tomahawk.

Yup, he thought walking around the car as Jason started cutting into the beast for its core. I definitely need to learn magic.

…………………………………………

There was a touch of grumbling from Chris, and a high five from Oliver when Jason came back to them.

“That last bit was uncalled for,” Chris frowned at him, tapping her bat against the bonnet of the car. “The runes on this thing make it durable not invincible.”

Jason shrugged and patted the car with his hand. “It’s still running, though, isn’t it?”

Chris frowned for a moment longer before turning away with a sigh and climbing into the front passenger seat.

“My gun,” Jason told Oliver, holding out a hand.

The exchange was quick and seamless.

The rest of the journey was done in comfortable silence. Jason drove them along a bumpy road, broken and cracked so badly he had to navigate breaks too horrible to simply drive over. He hummed simple tunes as he drove and Chris joined him every now and then. Sometimes her silence implied she only had it because she didn’t know the tune being hummed. Ash, however, hummed along to every tune with the relaxed ease of a veteran, but she hummed to herself like a child pariah who didn’t want the world to know the extent of her talent.

So while Zed heard her very clearly, he said nothing of it. He listened to their wordless songs trying to pick them out as they hovered on the edge of familiarity, distant echoes in his mind of experiences he still couldn’t remember.

Soon, they came to a junction and Jason made an easy turn. He pushed the gear, turned the steering wheel, and they turned onto a flat road of sand. The trip from there was smooth and undisturbed. It was also fast as Jason forgot the existence of brakes.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It wasn’t long before Zed began seeing signs of human life. There were no actual humans at first, just the simple things. An overactive dog with a clean harness around its torso. A length of lines with clothes hung out to dry. Houses stuck somewhere between dilapidated and reconstruction. The houses stood side by side, simple suburban structures surrounded by grasses. It was easy to imagine picket fences around each one and children riding small bicycles with their training wheels attached. If he focused well enough, strained his eyes, he could almost see where the grass had grown too much to outstrip desire paths.

Jason drove slowly now, navigating the length of grassy road between the rows of houses. He took another turn at a junction, taking a corner around a headless statue with both hands held out to the sky in supplication now green with moss and what he suspected was verdigris.

The trail got better as they followed it. It got wider with less grass intrusions though it remained sandy with little stones that cracked and broke under the weight of the moving vehicle. Signs of human occupancy increased rapidly and Jason’s speed took a nose dive until it was no more than a crawl. There was the soft hint of murmuring voices and a touch of laughter flitted through the air.

Zed was still wondering where it had come from when they pulled to a stop in front of one of the houses. Its roof was nowhere to be found and half of it remained crumbled to nothingness. Jason smacked the side of his door loudly.

“Bruce!” he called out. “I know you’re in there. We’re back.”

“Already?” a man asked, coming out of the rundown building. He was on the corpulent side but his clothes held him together so that he looked more like a heavy set man than a corpulent one.

He stepped out, adjusting the buckle of his belt and came down the stairs of the front porch. Zed fought against the question of how they still remained intact when most of the house was missing.

“You lot are early,” Bruce said. “Thought you’d be gone at least three weeks looking for the surge. Found it already?”

“Yea,” Chris leaned towards Jason’s window. “Found it behind where you keep your fat—”

Jason shot her a look that silenced her. She frowned, returning to her side of the car with a mute grumble.

“Still feisty, that one,” Bruce chuckled.

Jason made a noncommittal grunt in response before pushing the conversation along. “Two weeks was long enough. Anything happen while we were gone?”

“Well, we got a new kid. Basically stumbled in here with nothing but the clothes on his…” his words trailed off as he caught sight of Zed. His face took on a confused expression and Zed waved amiably.

The man shuddered before turning his attention back to Jason. “What was I saying? Oh, yes. Came in with nothing but the clothes on his back and a broken arm.”

“A new mage?” Jason asked, hopeful.

“Nah. Too young. But he’s respectful so that’s a plus.”

“Alright then,” Jason pushed the car back into drive and the car rolled forward. “Give Heimdall a heads up for me, let him know I’m back.”

“Should I let him know about the new guy,” Bruce shouted after them, “or do you want to surprise him?”

Jason said nothing as the man slowly became a bleep in the rearview mirror.

“That was odd,” Zed said. “I’m beginning to think miss grumpy over here isn’t the only one with a lack of people skills.”

“How so?” Oliver asked.

“I greeted the guy and he just ignored me.”

“You’re a dude with red hair and covered in dried blood. I’d ignore you if I saw you on the road.”

“Ash pointed a gun at you when she first saw you,” Chris said, “and she’s the nicest in the group.”

“I thought I was the nicest,” Oliver protested.

“Nope, you’re just childish. There’s a difference.”

They were no longer the only ones on the road, but they remained the only vehicle. People walked around, treading their way to whatever destination awaited them. Mothers walked with children and men walked with tools. Every now and again one person or the other waved them as they drove by.

The few people that saw Zed looked with wrinkled expressions. He couldn’t blame them. Another thing he noticed was each person that waved addressed Jason by name while the others seemed to get whatever greetings they did by virtue of association.

Zed wanted to ask about it but thought better of it. Jason was handsome from what he could tell. He had the smile and the blue eyes and let out a sense of security. He also had a feeling everyone knew how powerful a mage he was, because his looks couldn’t be the only reason. If it was, Chris and Ash would’ve been getting a good portion of the greetings, at least from the men.

When they came into the camp, Zed noticed it was less of a camp and more of a small town. Since they’d been calling it a camp he’d assumed they’d run out of houses eventually and come up on a conglomeration of army tents and wooden tables. He’d expected the whole grit and hardy, instead he got more rundown buildings and more people with smiles and laughs. The place was alive with activity and looked more like a community in the aftermath of a hurricane that left no casualties in its wake—as if they were accustomed to it and knew getting their homes back was just a matter of time.

It would be easy to forget there were monsters lurking about in the outside world.

Jason turned the car into a roundabout, turned off a long road and eased the truck into a small parking lot beside a length of pickup trucks. Zed counted twelve in all.

I guess it’s really not a no electricity apocalypse, he thought, wondering on a side note why he was so certain it was an apocalypse. I assumed the monsters and the magic were the dead giveaway.

When they got down, Chris popped the bonnet and dug around inside it while the rest made their way towards a house in better condition than the ones they’d been seeing.

Zed thumbed a finger at her as he followed the others. “What’s grumpy doing?”

“Taking out the mana stone,” Oliver explained. “Leave it in for too long and you’d find it dead when you need it.”

“Mana stone,” Zed nodded with no idea what he was talking about. “Yeah, definitely got to take that out.”

Ash gave him a skeptical look. “It’s what keeps the defensive wards we talked about powered.”

That made more sense.

“And since we’re being nice…” Zed smiled expectantly.

“Wards are rune markings that you place on something to activate temporary magical properties. Mostly defensive,” Jason explained, giving him an amused look. “For someone who survived the second awakening and took down a blob with just a hatch—a tomahawk, you really don’t know much about magic. How’ve you been surviving this whole time?”

“Wit, determination, and a charming personality?”

“I’ll give you determination,” Chris said, coming up beside him and tossing Jason a small purple stone, “but you’ve got as much wit as the blob you killed.”

“And my personality?”

“As my sister always says,” Oliver said, his voice took a turn for feminine and stern as he schooled his face to something austere. “Personality’ll get you killed in this world.”

“Wow, Ash.” Zed shook his head. “You’re dark.”

They climbed up the porch and Ash turned to Jason before he knocked on the door.

“Don’t you think Red should get cleaned up before seeing Heimdall?”

“Nope,” Jason knocked on the door. “Bruce would’ve already let him know we brought a new guy, and you know what the rules are. Besides,” he looked back at Zed, “one look at all that blood and he’ll know he’s useful.”

“I take it I'm Red,” Zed said, pointing at himself.

“Well,” Chris reached between them and knocked again, ignoring Zed. Hers was louder. “We better hurry, he’s beginning to smell.”

“Beginning to?” Ash scoffed. “He’s been smelling since before we got in the car. The ride back tested the limits of my lungs.”

Zed said nothing. And here he’d been thinking she and her brother had simply fallen in love with their sides of the car because they didn’t want to get his blood on them.

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* You have received repaired [Pocket memory(incomplete)] 1/5.

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“That was fast?” Zed noted, reading the notification before dismissing it.

Beside him, hands in his jacket pocket, Oliver asked, “What was fast?”

He waved Oliver’s question aside. “Nothing important.”

Jason knocked again and a voice came from behind the door.

“For the last time, you lackwits, it’s open!” it bellowed in a cracked baritone that showed signs of excessive shouting, “let your-effing-selves in.”

Oliver turned to Zed as Jason pushed the door open.

“Ready?” he asked.

“To meet that bundle of joy and beautiful personality? Couldn’t be readier with a suit on.”

Jason gave him a confused look, shook his head, then opened the door. As they walked in, a new notification popped up in front of Zed.

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