Isabelle was next to the door of the beetle, trying to pry it open. Victor and Amadeus were running for the vehicle. The Vintarics didn’t give them a chance to even get close.
The bugs dropped onto the station with a thud. They screeched a horrid scream that made Victor run even faster.
“Let go of the car, Izzy!” Amadeus shouted at her. She peeled away from it as the two of them approached. The bugs were moving slowly, observing the trio as they tried to open the doors of the beetle.
“Izzy, listen to me…” Victor whispered to her under the gaze of the Vintarics. “That Seed of yours, it lets you do things that me and Amadeus can’t. Use it,” he ordered and the girl frantically nodded.
The first of the Vintarics lunged at them from the top of the shop. Isabelle’s sleeve pulled open into a dozen threads and grabbed the Vintaric out of the air. The bug-like creature struggled like a wild animal held down, and Isabelle struggled to hold it in place. Victor still had his knife with him and he plunged it deep into the chest of the monster. Fluids covered him but he backed away from the writhing body.
A second Vintaric, enraged at the death of the first took flight as well. Isabelle screamed and threw the first’s corpse at him, knocking him aside. A third Vintaric lunged as well and Victor tried to shield Isabelle from its assault. He needn’t have bothered, as it was shot out of the sky by a deafening blast of lightning.
A burn mark appeared over its chest as it crashed into a dumpster.
“It’s open!” Amadeus shouted for them.
Victor rushed inside and grabbed the first of the weapons that he could find. He burst out into the battle and shot bullets wildly at the enemy. His aim was terrible and the recoil made it only worse so. But he got a few lucky shots off, hitting the enemy and sending them limp.
Only that seemed to aggravate them further. Another swarm of the creatures appeared on the horizon and dived for their location.
“Stick close!” Victor shouted for them. they formed a threefold barrier around the car. Victor took one side while Amadeus and Isabelle took the other two. Victor was busy enough blasting away the Vintarics, even with his ammo running dangerously low. He cursed as the gun stopped firing and beat the monster in front of him with the butt of his gun. A notification appeared in his periphery afterwards.
[Ability Unlocked: Structural Sense Boost]
He ignored the voice of the woman that notification came with and continued beating the Vintarics down. He had to reload several times, and the three of them began to get pushed closer and closer to the vehicle.
Victor chanced a glance backwards at his allies, and found them worse for wear. Amadeus and Isabelle were breathing heavy and struggling to fight against the enemy. Every blast of lightning, every manipulation of thread ate further away at their stamina until they were sluggish beyond recovery.
Victor tried to formulate a plan. The car still had enough fuel to at least get them away from here. All they needed to do was get a distraction. But as the bugs came closing in, Victor panicked. He couldn’t grab a single thought except blasting them away. Luckily for him, he didn’t need to.
A bug tried to rush him down but stopped in its path. Claws appeared from its back before the creature was ripped apart in front of him. Guts spilled down to the concrete floor and Victor looked at the perpetrator. It was a middle-aged man with claws six times the size of a finger. Thick and rock-like, he slashed at the nearest Vintarics with them.
More people appeared out of the woodworks to assist them and Victor relented. He kept firing his enhanced guns to provide support while the newcomers came and cleaned shop. In but a few minutes the rest of the Vintarics died. Victor breathed a sigh of relief. He chanced a glance at his ammo counter before returning to the group that had saved his life.
They were cleaning up the green blood of the Vintarics off of their weapons and hands. Isabelle and Amadeus were collapsed on the ground beside the beetle so it fell upon Victor to confront them.
“Who are you?” he asked them first, trying to establish confidence. The twitching of his hands detracted from any intimidation he could’ve mustered in the situation. They’d saved him, so why did he feel so uneasy?
At the helm of the armed militia was an old woman with stark black hair and the frame of a farmer or other kind of worker. She had a straw hat and loose blouse over her chest. Slight wrinkles covered her face and hands and she gave off the aura of a woman dependable.
“You’ve taken quite a beating haven’t you, young man? How are the other boy and girl holding up?” the old woman spoke with true confidence.
“They’re tired from…”
“From using their Seeds, I suppose,” The old woman nodded to herself. She knows what they’re called?
“But that is neither here nor there. I’m Audrey Wilson. We can continue this back at Angel Heights, unless you want for more of the Vintarics to show up,” Audrey told him.
Victor reluctantly holstered his gun and helped Amadeus up from the floor.
“My name is Victor Amadi,” he stated.
Audrey helped Isabelle and the group walked while they talked.
“T…the beetle,” Amadeus complained.
“Plenty of cars around the city to take, young man. You needn’t worry about that one,” Audrey told him. Amadeus tried to muster up some resistance but fell limp in Victor’s arms.
“What is Angel Heights?” Victor asked.
“You’ll understand once you see it.”
****
As it turned out, Angel Heights was a five-floored apartment complex with dingy neon signs outside of it. The signs weren’t lit of course, just like all the other billboards and screens in the city, it had lost power days ago.
Audrey used a keychain to enter inside of the complex. An old Asian man sat near the reception with a gun in his hand. He nodded towards Audrey and went back to reading the copy of Alice in Wonderland he had between his hands.
Victor found that strange enough, but across the ground floor of the building there were several walls that had been knocked down. It formed an open area where he saw clothes hung out to dry and washers lined up with water.
“The clotheslines were my husband’s idea. I think he just hated the smell of us after we came back from a hunt,” Audrey chuckled.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Huh,” Victor took a sniff of his clothes and gagged. Sweat and Vintaric blood mixed into a concoction that he’d rather avoid.
“Elsa over there will help you with your clothes. We’ve got some rations and some bandages as well, if you need them,” Audrey told them. Bandages…
It was then that the ache in his shoulder decided to return. Victor hadn’t thought about it for a while now, not until he’d ripped open the wound again.
“What about a doctor?” Victor asked with a hand on his neck.
“Third floor,” Audrey replied.
“Amadeus, Isabelle. Go along with her. I’ll catch up in a bit,” Victor told them.
He rushed up the steps of the apartment complex until he entered through into the third floor. The hallways stunk of medicine and alcohol, a sign he took positively.
“Hello~?” Victor sounded out only to get a cacophony of groans in response.
“In here!” Someone shouted back from room 301. Victor slowly approached the room.
The stench of pus grew stronger. Beds were setup like a medical ward and a single red-haired Irishman in a doctor’s coat was kneeling over one of them. in the bed lay a man with more bandages than skin showing. Blood covered the bandages in so many spots Victor wasn’t sure if there even was skin between underneath them.
“Hey, doc…” He tried to call out, but the man didn’t look at him. He cut a piece of the gauze off and wrapped it around the man before sighing.
“Painkillers. On the right desk. All ‘is got me manky,” the man said in a thick accent that Victor could barely parse. But he brought the drugs all the same, and watched the man feed it to the patient on the bed.
The doctor hopped up and away from the bed, wiping a sweat from his brow.
“What’s the craic?” he asked Victor.
“Crack?”
The Irishman groaned.
“You’re clutchin’ your arm like it’ll fall off. What’s the damage?”
“Oh! One of those Vintarics. They got me in the shoulder.”
“Can’t be fightin’ ‘em bare-handed now. C’mere,” the Irishman gestured for Victor.
The young man took off his shirt to reveal the scarred surface of his trapezius. The doctor prodded him with gloved fingers before running off to grab more items.
He came back with some more bandages and medicine, before putting Victor down on a bed. Then he went to work on Victor’s shoulders.
“Name’s Dean Wilson. What’s yours, fella?” the doctor asked.
“Victor A-agh!” Victor stopped as the doctor fished out something from his wound. He tried to sneak a look but Dean stopped his head from turning.
“Better ya not look. Now, what you be doing here, Victor?”
“S-stopping for some fuel.”
“Where ya headed?”
“Charleston,” Victor replied.
“Long ways from here. Looking for a Cailin?”
“I don’t know a Cailin?” Victor said confusedly.
“A girl, boy. Lookin’ for a girl,” the doctor muttered some curses under his breath but Victor couldn’t focus on them. Another shock of pain went through his body and he clutched the sheets of the bed.
“No, I’m no- What’re you doing to me?”
“Nothing more. Now we just have to wrap it up. Don’t be lashin’ it around for a while now.”
Victor desisted and let the doctor finish his work. By the time he was done, the ache had dulled and he felt much better.
“That feels much better. How did you-” the question died in his mouth as he saw a green glow fade from Dean’s eyes.
“You’ll be right soon enough.”
Just like that? The Seed seemed immensely useful to Victor.
“You can heal anyone just like that? Hella impressive,” Victor told him.
“Not ‘just like that’, lad. There’s a limit,” Dean squeezed his gloved hand over and over. “I’m findin’ that limit to be further than I thought, but it’s there.”
“Still, I’m jealous. My own Seed… it doesn’t seem that useful,” Victor thought back to only hours earlier, and sighed outwards.
“None of that. I’ve seen many of these wee things already, lad, and let me tell you, not a single one was useless. Now, g’wan and meet with Audrey. She’d be at the fifth,” were the last words the doctor told him.
Victor stood up but chose not to put on his slimy and sweat-covered shirt. Instead, he went up the stairs and towards Audrey with only the wrappings around his chest.
He passed other survivors, some of whom were messing with powers similar to his own. Victor pulled up his own menu and found the only change to be his Structural Sense.
[ STRUCTURAL SENSE: 20 ]
He thought back to the first floor. They’d knocked down the non-structural walls only, leaving the ones that held up the upper floors intact. It was still a risky manoeuvre, but at least they had an expert helping them,
A couple of laughing and screaming kids knocked into him and Victor scowled. They were soon stopped by a guard at the top of the stairs. An angry looking woman who wore a sweater and had a gash across her face. The kids quieted immediately in front of the woman and some of them shuffled around to get further away from her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” the woman asked them.
“Ellie found some Hot Wheels in the boxes and we were gonna take them upstairs and we were gonna play with them,” one of the children tattled out.
The woman sighed and held out a hand in front of her. Without prompting, the kids placed their toy cars in there and she took them away.
“You know why we can’t have you playing with these, don’t you?” she asked them, caressing the head of the kid who’d spilled it all. He nodded, but tears were welling up in his eyes.
“Come on, I’ll get you all a bit of chocolate instead,” she promised. That seemed to lift the children’s moods a bit. He thought they might’ve started running down the stairs, but they all kept their steps quiet and slow.
The sight reminded Victor a bit of his home. Charlie and Vivian would be reprimanded much in the same way. Though being the eldest, sometimes that responsibility came upon him.
A smile quirked up the side of Victor’s face but he stifled it. He had work to do.
****
“I can scrounge together some fuel for you. but only if you do something for us first,” Audrey told the lot of them. they were pushing against each other on the couch, Victor taking up most of the space between the three of them. Amadeus and Isabelle had changed out of their clothes as well, which Victor was glad for. He’d just need to rid himself of the pants he was wearing.
Beside the matriarch of the apartment complex stood a group of other survivors. A feisty looking man and two women who couldn’t be more different. One of them looked Vietnamese or Filipino, but Victor didn’t know enough of them to tell the difference. The other woman was plain looking and could’ve been related to the man considering their matching black hair and pale complexion.
“All of you have Seeds from what I can tell. But my people here are lacking in that department. These three are the healthiest and best-suited in my opinion to receive them. Leo and Ashley are siblings. He’s an actor, she’s an eyesore,” Audrey told them.
Ashley glanced at the old woman annoyed for a second before regaining her composure.
“And the last of them is Lillie Aster. She ran a flower shop before everything, but don’t let that confuse you. She’s a strong young lass,” Audrey told him. She stopped herself on saying that final word, like it was distasteful.
“Sorry, bad habit I’ve picked up,” she told the group.
“Even if we were willing, Mrs. Wilson, how would we even get these three their Seeds?” Amadeus asked.
“The Gates,” Audrey pointed outside a window, where a large pillar of light was visible in the horizon. “That’s what we’ve come to call them. They’re where the monsters are coming from.”
“We figured that part out already,” Victor replied.
“Good, then we can skip that. Ever since it opened up a few days ago, some of the crazier kids have gone in and come out with powers.”
“By killing one of the monsters inside?” Amadeus asked.
“Not always. Some have found the Seeds simply lying around. Blooming for lack of a better term,” Audrey told him. “You’re to guide these kids on a trip to whatever that place is and bring them back with Seeds of their own. Understood?” Audrey asked.
Victor could see Amadeus was eager to agree, but he stopped the man.
“How do we know you’ll fulfil your end of the bargain?”
“The world’s already fallen, Victor. A little faith wouldn’t hurt,” the old woman smiled at him. “As a bonus, I’ll let you know whatever we’ve figured out about these Seeds on our own. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
He considered for a moment, but really it was no choice at all. The old woman was offering liquid gold in exchange for some Seeds. Maybe one of those could take him home faster than a vehicle, but he doubted it. Seeds was an apt term for the things, since he could feel that there was much more that his own abilities could grow into. And that each started with only a hint of its true power.
“We’ll need a few days,” Victor told her.
“By all means, stay. Make yourselves comfortable in our spare rooms. But I will need an answer soon, Victor,” she told him, before standing up from the wooden box she’d taken as a seat. She walked out of the room leaving only them and the other group together.
Of the three standing before them, Lillie was the first to move. She offered a hand to Victor specifically.
“Hi! Mrs. Wilson can be a bit sly but she means well. I hope we can work together,” she said with such a sweet smile that Victor had to look away.
“Yeah. Hope so too,” he said.
“I hear you’ve got lightning powers,” The other girl, Ashley, went up to Amadeus and spoke. “How do those work. ‘Cause if you could make real lightning wouldn’t you have gone deaf already?”
“Well, it’s actually not real lightning, I think…”
The six of them broke off into conversation that didn’t seem as hopeless as before. All those days in the Beetle must’ve made him stir-crazy, because a smile even popped onto Victor’s face the more he talked with them.