“Ah now, what did you bring me here for?” Dean asked Victor.

They were in a large open room on the fourth floor. It was the only empty space Victor found away from the prying gazes of the children and other residents of Angel Heights. He’d only been here a day or two and they still treated him with a sense of reverence.

“The kids’ll do that for a while yet, lad. They think we look cool,” Dean told him with a slight smile. A door closed shut at the end of the room, where Victor knew they’d been looking from.

“Now, are you here to give sparrin’ a lash or what?” Dean asked him.

“No, no. I just want to know… if you can see the screens,” Victor asked.

“You dragged me up and away from the clinic for this?” Dean said.

“Come on. Amadeus and Izzy can’t see it like I can. Someone here can, and… you’re the only one with a Seed that I know.”

Dean sighed.

“Thought it was just seeing things at first. Stress and what not. But I can still see them right as day. Some of the words make me think someone’s on the other side lookin’ in,” Dean told him. He looked a bit afraid as he spoke.

“The entire thing? Status screen, Strength, Speed, Recovery and all that?”

Dean looked at him with a new sense of confusion.

“No? The yoke shows me other things. Fierce number of numbers on it. Calorie count, Vitamin count, Muscle Atrophy and what have you. Haven’t had to get a checkup since. But I couldn’t really if I wanted to now, I suppose,” Dean said with a realization.

Why all that? Why couldn’t Victor see those things? The only answer that came to Victor was the simplest. Dean was a doctor; he wasn’t. He’d only graduated community college and ended up in a blank job that barely needed his attention.

“Maybe it looks different for everyone…” Victor said out loud.

“Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, lad.”

“Whatever. It’s hella confusing so tell me about something else. Have you ever fought a Vintaric Adolescent?” Victor asked.

“So specific. But I have.”

“Read out the entry to me.”

And Dean did. Victor matched him word for word with the one he had, which confused the doctor the more he continued on.

“What’s wrong with ye? Got some precognitive powers you’re flauntin’?”

“Just checking something, Mr. Wilson. It’s the same as mine.”

“Hmm. Must be some siren that’s got us trapped,” Dean said nonchalantly.

Victor and Dean considered a few more tests like that, before the old man had to shuffle off and go tend to his clinical duties. Victor headed to the armoury guarded by the other residents.

There he identified the ammo for his weapons and stocked up on each kind.

[ 9mm cartridge catalogued]

[5.56 cartridge catalogued]

He shouldn’t have been surprised since the text said so, but he could store a larger amount of the ammo. And good too, since his original amount didn’t really give him much to work with.

I should keep myself stocked at all times, he told himself. In the same instance, another box popped in his vision.

[Ability Unlocked: Strength Boost]

Another increase to his stats, and one that Victor could actually feel. He clenched his hand and could tighten it further than normal. He boxed the air and his swings felt harder, heavier to him. The others looked at him a bit weird but they ushered him out regardless.

He was ready now, if only he could figure out where the other two were.

“Hey, Victor, how are you doing?” Lillie asked as he exited the armoury.

She was wearing a tank-top and a baseball hat that had an Angels logo.

“Stocking up. Have you seen Amadeus around?” He asked the girl.

“Oh, nope. Want to look together?” she replied in a sweet tone.

So of course Victor was unable to resist. He and Lillie searched around the whole complex for Amadeus, but the other man was nowhere to be found.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Might be in the building down the street. His powers loud so I sent him there to practice instead,” Audrey told the two of them.

Sure enough, as they approached the dilapidated office, they heard a distant crack of thunder. Victor walked through the front door and found Amadeus breathing heavily. At the tip of his fingers was smoke and away from him were a range of cans he was using as practice.

“You’ll end up getting chewed by Vintarics if you practice so much,” Victor reprimanded him. Amadeus just shot back a gap-toothed smile.

“I’ll be better ready. Check this out,” he held out his hands again in a different formation.

“What’s with the hand signals?” Victor asked.

“They help me focus.”

In a second, two of the metal cans smashed together in the air and fell to the ground.

“Woah, that was impressive!” Lillie told him.

“You’re turning the cans into magnets?” Victor asked.

“Think I am?” Amadeus replied.

“And how’d you figure something that hella impressive out anyways?” And could he unlock more of his abilities that way too?

“It just… came to me,” Amadeus told him.

So helpful… Victor thought to himself.

“Are you done yet?” Isabelle asked. She was sat on a rotating chair in one of the office cubicles, bouncing off of the walls bored. The threads on her pants unwound to help her push off. It looked so unconscious that Victor grew a bit jealous.

“Yeah. You’re up, Izzy. Let me set the cans first,” Amadeus offered.

He brought out more of the targets from a garbage bag he’d dragged in. Once he was done, Isabelle stood up from her chair and stretched her arms. The threads on her shirt unwound and wound themselves into a point in front of her. She pierced the cans through with that point of thread, raising them up in the air for all of them to see.

Lillie clapped a little at the sight and Isabelle gave a mock bow in return. Afterwards, she wound the threads back but in a simpler way.

“You two prepare enough for tomorrow?” Victor asked.

“Plenty ready,” Amadeus replied with a thumbs up.

“What he said,” Isabelle added.

“Yup,” Lillie said.

Victor nodded and prayed a little prayer to himself. With the apocalypse already happening, he didn’t know whether it was even worth sending one, but better to get whatever he could.

****

He checked his guns over once, twice and then again before putting them back down. Backpacks had been prepared for the entire group yet Victor still felt under equipped. While the others wore them with a look of weariness, it felt light to Victor instead.

Though it was night outside, he could still see the beacon in the middle of Los Angelas bright as day. Yet despite that, there was not a light in any window in the city. How quickly had the people left?

No, not left. Victor thought back to Lake Merritt. Many of them probably hadn’t the chance to leave. He gripped his pistol tighter and wrapped his rifle around his chest.

“There’re enough rations for a few days in there. Come back safely, you six,” Audrey told them. she was saying a prayer of her own, but it didn’t sound like English to him.

Victor moved to the various guns placed on the tables in front of him. He’d had one last precaution to take care of before leaving.

“Are you sure the enhancement will last?” Audrey asked him after finishing her own private moment.

“It should.”

He ran a hand over one of the pistols specifically.

[[GLOCK 17]: STRENGTH: 52 AMMO: 9 mm

I saw many use this on the first day. It was an impressive tool, but no match until the end. At least it will make a nice trinket for the victors.]

The text still unnerved him, but Victor ignored it for now. He was just happy the enhancement had stuck.

“It isn’t much of a help, but it should get the job done,” Victor told her.

“Should I even ask how it works?”

“Sorry, Mrs. Wilson, even I don’t know. It just… hurts more, I suppose?”

Whether it was through a quicker shot, a heavier bullet or some other mechanism he couldn’t understand, Victor couldn’t explain it. But he’d learned enough as an office worker that if a black box works, best not to question it too much.

“Lillie, can you guide them to the Gate?” Audrey asked of the girl.

“Will do, Mrs. Wilson!” she replied. How could she be so cheery after the end of the world?

The six of them left the apartment complex under the cover of the early morning shadow. They strutted across the quiet streets; stopping at every little sound that came from the stores or surroundings.

Thankfully, the Vintarics must’ve left, because they found it easy enough to reach the Gate. From up close it was even more of an eyesore. It burst out of the ground and cracked the pavement around it. An aura of light pulsed out rhythmically from the Gate, while the pillar of light reached far into the sky.

And it looked like they weren’t the only ones who were going to go on a pilgrimage through it. Many other small groups of survivors cluttered around with their own supplies.

“Lillie, you’re going on one of these?” one of the other girls gathered there asked.

“Yeah. Need to make myself useful to the others,” Lillie replied curtly. She looked towards the large pillar with a straight look.

“What’s waiting for us inside?” Victor asked.

“It’s hard to explain. I’ve only heard the stories myself. Major sprawling cave systems. Only person I heard about reaching above ground went mad with what he saw. Came back and curled up singing prayers,” she explained.

“And you still want to go in there?” Amadeus said, baffled. She dropped her gaze low.

“It’s not getting any better. We’ve not heard anything from outside, from the government or the military. I’ve seen what those Seeds can do. We need more of them,” the girl told them.

Not even the military? Guess President Jeffords was all talk, Victor scoffed.

“What about contact with the other states?” Victor asked.

“Phone lines are down. I haven’t been able to dial my uncle either, and he works for the government,” she said. The more he heard, the bleaker it sounded.

“Never mind that, when are you going in?” she asked them.

“Right now,” Victor announced.

“Bold. Godspeed, to all of you,” the girl said before returning to sharpening a knife.

Victor waited for the others to ready themselves. They raised their pistols together and flashlights and took the first footfall through the gate. The feeling of it was warm but disorienting. Like doing a flip from a mountain peak into a desert without any movement.

The second he entered the other world, Victor realized he didn’t need the light at all. They were in a large cave with pathways leading up and down, twisting around each other like the strands of a cloth. Each and everywhere he could see bioluminescence shining through from plants and even some animals.

“What are those?” Amadeus was the first to break out of the stunned silence.

It was a whole ecosystem down here that begged to be explored, but they hadn’t the time. Figures of clay launched themselves down from the ceiling and fell upon them like animals, letting out a scream that scared away everything else.

Victor materialized ammo out of thin air and ground his teeth. Not even a moment of peace after the Fall, was there?