The next day was a Monday. Typically a day that Victor would despise but he no longer had any responsibility to it. He did miss some coworkers though. Had even tried to call them up once he was on his way with Amadeus, but no cigar.

It was on this day that he laid out all the weaponry of Angel Heights, which amounted to some twenty guns. They were placed without their bullets. Victor wouldn’t be needing those for what came next.

He placed his finger on the first of the weapons and felt the drain once more. But it was lessened. Like the river of stamina that he bled was reduced in width. Some day he’d hoped to turn it into a trickle, but for now the power only provided moderate results.

“How long is it going to take you for all of them?” Lillie asked from the side. She was sitting on a plastic chair and enjoying a romantic novel. Or at least what she called one. Victor had read a few pages while she was away and it seemed a bit… steamier than your typical romcom. But if it passed the time, who was he to judge?

“A few hours. And that’s if I can hold out,” Victor said.

“Is it… draining?” she asked.

“Not as much as it was before. I think that’s a good sign,” he flexed his fingers. A part of him told him that it wouldn’t be enough, that the growth was too slow. He supposed it was the same part of him that had accepted the end of the world long ago.

So, he made sure to stifle it whenever it came up. It’ll have to be enough. He finished with the first gun faster than he would’ve thought, but then again he had been locked in a conversation with Lillie.

“It’s romantasy,” she snapped.

“He’s stark naked!” Victor complained. He almost let his hand off of the pistol. It was good the armoury was deeper in the building, or else their bickering would’ve brough the Vintarics upon them.

“Then don’t read it! Why were you even looking!”

“You want a have a go at this? Because boy, is it fun!” Victor replied sarcastically. “I saw, I read, I hated.”

“Then pick another book!” She said, stuffing her face in between the pages again.

“There aren’t any other books! I asked! The shelves are packed with this stuff!”

He’d had one of the kids bring him one of the books. Big mistake. The further he got, the more his face drooped.

“Then I guess I’ll just read somewhere else,” she said with a huff.

“Wait, Lillie!” he said just as she reached the door.

“What?”

“Can you bring back a capri sun? Feels like I’m donating blood, but slower,” Victor told her.

She huffed again before slamming the door of the armoury in his face. Despite her grievances with his behaviour, however, she still brought him the goods. Then she promptly sat back down on her chair and continued reading.

It was an awkward few hours where Victor wished that his Basic Strengthening would work better. By the time he was done, he felt like a man free from prison. And one that got out with a shiny new trinket.

[Ability Unlocked: Structural Sense Boost]

“All done here,” Victor told her.

“You enhanced all of them?” Lillie asked.

“It’s not much, but it should give you an edge,” Victor said as he tried to hide a deep breath. He was exhausted and soaked through in his shirt with sweat. He didn’t show that to Lillie, however, just turned to wipe the rest off his forehead.

“Want to go grab a bite?” she asked.

“Really? You’d give little old me a chance after all that?”

“Mother Teresa wasn’t as giving as me, buster,” she said as she flicked his nose.

Lillie led him out of the room. The two of them made it to the rations, just in time to watch Ashley and her brother arrive. They looked beaten up and bruised, and Leo looked especially to be in a bad mood. Dirt covered their jackets and Leo was holding his side.

“Where were you two?” Lillie asked.

“Looking for some more food. We found some seeds, now we just need a farmer,” Ashley told them.

“After all that, Audrey better give me a week-long vacation before putting me to that,” Leo grumbled.

“Ignore him. One visit to the doctor’s and he’ll go back to being chipper,” Ashley told them.

“Wasn’t there any other Wielder she could’ve sent?” Victor asked.

Ashley shook her head. “She wants us to get the experience. Said she might even organize a second venture herself to get some more Seeds for the kids.”

“That’s… we barely made it out with the six of us. Didn’t you warn her?” Victor said, miffed.

“We did! But we really do need it…” Leo admitted.

“More firepower won’t do anything for the building. Why would she want to get it?” Lillie added.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Not in it for the firepower,” Ashley said. And that’s when it clicked for Victor. Amadeus was using his own powers to charge people’s phones around the building. Sure, he could throw around lightning bolts, but a power that could restore infrastructure just like that? That was way more valuable.

After all, even Victor needed a juice box from time to time.

“Is she looking for something like a ‘Plant’ Seed?” Victor asked.

“Seems to be it. She gets that and we never have to worry about food ever again,” Ashley said.

Smart of her, thought Victor. He probably would’ve done the same, had he not bigger matters to attend to.

Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, Lillie had separated herself. She was probably grabbing the rations for the both of them.

“What about you, Vic? Want to join in on the next mission?” Leo asked.

Ashley shot him a dirty look before turning back to Victor.

“You don’t need to if you don’t want to,” she said.

“Heh, hella tired now, but I’ll take you up on that some other day,” Victor told them.

“I thought you were planning on moving on?” Ashley asked.

“Moving on?” Lillie chose that moment to return.

Life wasn’t playing a prank on him. No, life had chosen to dress Victor up as a clown today without his knowing.

“What did you get from the rations?” he asked a question, hoping to force her to move on.

“Oh, it’s just- Wait, what was that Ashley said about moving on?” Lillie said, ruining his plans entirely.

“Sorry, Vic, you’re caught,” Leo told him.

Victor sighed. He grabbed the little biscuits and milk that she’d brought out and gestured towards the stairs.

“Can we at least talk about it somewhere else? If the kids are around, I don’t want them hearing this,” Victor told her. Lillie nodded, though it was a sad nod. Almost broke his heart seeing it.

They made their way to a window with its blinds down. They could see outside just fine, but no one would be looking in. There, they saw the slowly worsening streets of Los Angelas. More fires and bugs flew, and the whole place smelled of smoke.

“I thought the apartments would smell worse after all that, but it’s actually smelling better,” Victor said.

“That’d be Amadeus’ fault. He helped find some batteries and air fresheners once we realized the problem. It’ll do for now...”

“You were going to say ‘But after that’, weren’t you?” Victor guessed. She nodded.

“You said you were going after your family?” She asked.

“They’re out there. Both my little brother, sister and parents. If I’m not around, I don’t know what could happen to them,” Victor said with a rueful gaze.

“Victor, how do you know-”

“Stop. Don’t even say it,” he said to her. It was the harshest he’d been, but even entertaining the thought was too much for him.

“Then… could I come along?” Lillie asked.

“What? What about Audrey and the rest? Shouldn’t you stay with them?”

“They can handle it here without me. My Seed isn’t that useful to them. So, why not?”

“Well, first we’d have to convince Audrey to let you go in the first place,” Victor replied.

“Done.”

“Then we’d have to make space in the Beetle for you.”

“I’m tiny. I’ll fit.”

“Then make sure we’ve got enough fuel and a route to Charleston,” Victor said.

“You live in Charleston?”

“Did. Then I moved to Oakland and… I’ll talk about it some other day,” Victor told her.

Lillie nodded along as Victor listed the next steps of their plan. They shared the rations and she even brought out an Ipod that Amadeus had kindly charged for her. They listened to songs with one bud each with their backs against the wall of the building. At some point Victor had stopped talking and just started listening instead.

He felt something there that he knew full well what it was. A little beating every time he glanced in Lillie’s direction, and he hoped the same when she glanced in his. That’s how the evening went.

****

“I never took you for a gamer,” Amadeus said as he scanned over his flashlight towards the rack of games. A hundred titles were lined up on the display case for the rest of them. But besides the new releases, there were also showcases of old consoles. And for Victor in particular, one of those mattered.

“Amadeus, over here. the Gameboys,” he said.

He handed one of the SPs to Amadues and waited for him to charge the device. The orange light on the side of the little console lit up, before finally finishing and revealing the menu. It came with a childishly loud chime, but Victor could work around that.

“We’ll need to grab a few of these. Start loading them up,” Victor told him.

The two of them stuffed a cloth bag with the consoles, along with cartridges and some wires in case they ever found another way to charge it. The boys gathered together whatever else they could find before hauling the cloth bag out of the broken shop.

“Vintaric patrol,” Victor said, placing a hand on Amadeus’ chest.

They paused as the herd flew overhead. Victor gripped and ungripped his pistol before they all finally passed.

Out beside the store there was a Maclaren burning, which provided cover for their escape.

“What about the food sources?” Amadeus asked.

“Audrey just needs a location for the farm. We found more than one. Now the rest is up to her,” Victor told him. the two of them ducked into the nearest alley they could find as another patrol went past.

They would’ve run further than that but some people stood in their way. Silent and with ski masks, they didn’t look the most friendly. And that was before the knives came out.

“Come on now. We don’t have to do this,” Victor told them.

“Sorry, man. Throw the bag,” the man leading them said. He was a rough looking man with tanned skin and blue eyes. The mask hid all features beside those two things.

“We fight here and they’ll come to eat us up. Do you really want that?” Victor asked.

“I wanna eat. Just throw the bag and no one gets hurt,” the man replied.

“It’s not even food,” Victor said, showing it out in the open.

The man looked deeply into it before sighing. He shoved his knife back into his pants and rubbed the bridge of his nose. That’s when Victor noticed just how gaunt he truly was.

“Just go, then. Can’t believe you ran out here for a stupid game,” the man cursed. His boys made their way to the wall where they looked out for more of the patrolling Vintarics.

Victor would’ve passed right through without trouble, but a thought came to him then.

“You just wait here for suckers to pass by or what?” he asked.

“Pretty much. You turned out to be the biggest sucker of them all. Going to harvest the thing for parts?”

“I’ve got a different idea in mind. How have you been avoiding the… monsters?”

“Just running, I guess,” the leader replied.

“No powers?” Victor asked.

“No? You have ‘em?”

Victor nodded.

“Oh… Glad I didn’t go for it, then. I didn’t mean anything by it, understand?” The leader said, taking on a more guarded position.

“Relax, no one’s going to hurt you,” Victor told him, gesturing towards the skies. If they died, Victor and Amadeus died.

“You sound reasonable enough. We’ve got a few people. I could introduce you to them,” Victor offered.

“What for?” The gang leader asked.

“Better to stick in groups, right? And besides, they could kit you out if you wanted to go and get some powers of your own,” Victor told him.

“We can do that?” another of the gang’s members said incredulously.

“Should we really be telling a bunch of gang members this, Vic?” Amadeus asked with a bit of apprehension.

“I know what I’m doing, Am,” he whispered back. And then he spoke in a louder tone.

“Definitely. You’re quick on your feet. What do you say then? Help them, they help you?” Victor said. He hoped the man would agree. Audrey would appreciate any manpower she could get.

The group leader stayed quiet for a moment before nodding his head.

“Where’s this base you’re talking about?” He asked.

“Can’t tell you yet. Got to run it through with the big lady herself,” Victor told them.

“Alright. Keep safe…”

“Victor.”

“Keep safe, Victor,” the leader gave him a nod before slinking down to the ground beside the wall. He even took off his ski mask, seeing as it was getting unbearably hot in the city anyways. The last thing they saw before crossing the corner was him wiping the sweat off of his face with the mask itself.