Chapter 5 - Allies, Friends, Food

Day 4

Mid-Morning

Erin awoke on something with a cushion. Her left arm bouncing off another cushioned surface before she realized it was a couch. A couch she didn’t recognize. Jumping to her feet, Erin tried to spin her head in every direction at once, stumbling from a bit of dizziness caused by standing too quickly.

Once she regained her balance, Erin scanned the room more carefully, noticing a young Black kid passed out in a chair. The kid was early or mid-teens, and someone she didn’t recognize. Thinking on it, she didn’t recognize the house she was in either.

Cocking her head to the side, Erin thought she could hear talking somewhere in the house. She moved around the coffee table towards the archway into what appeared to be a dining room, seeing a partially opened door into a kitchen. She approached the door just as someone on the other side pulled on it, startling at the sight of her.

“Oh Jesus, Mary, and Joseph child. My heart can’t take your little ninja sneaking. Make some bloody noise next time.” Erin recognized the owner of the voice, and the face of, Mrs. McGibbons, her neighbour from a few houses down. Behind her was Erin’s mother, Eun-ha, doing something at the counter.

Eun-ha spoke up in a light and friendly chastising tone, “Is that a race thing, Mary?”

“Pfft,” Mrs. McGibbons waved the idea away with a hand, “Old people aren’t racist dear, we just don’t have enough time left to coddle everyone’s feelings.”

Eun-ha laughed at that, “I’ll remember that for when I’m old and crotchety.”

Erin just stared at the two women seemingly getting along like old friends. For as long as she could remember, Mrs. McGibbons and her mom had seemed at odds every time they met. Their neighbour couldn’t even get her mom’s name right, called her Yune-hah.

“Mom? What’s going on? What happened?”

“Come sit down dear, you’re probably starving and my home is your home now.” Mrs. McGibbons was surprisingly friendly.

“Yes, Ttarai, sit and I’ll fix you a plate.” Erin’s mom added.

Erin moved to a seat at the table, and her mom brought her a plate of food. She subconsciously registered it as something with chicken and a red sauce. Things that would expire if the power went out with all other technology at the end of the assessment week. Best before alien invasion.

Eun-ha and Mrs. McGibbons joined Erin at the table and gave her a minute to get some food down before they started.

“I just realized I’m starving. Why do I feel like I haven’t eaten in a week?” Erin had to force herself not to stuff her face after she got the first bite in her mouth. She was ravenous.

“Two days, hon,” Mrs McGibbons said. “You were out for nearly two days.”

Erin looked at the older woman, then to her mom, silently asking for confirmation.

Her mom just nodded.

“After…” Eun-ha paled a little at the memory, “After you fought those thugs, you passed out.”

“Okay, I think I remember that…kinda…what happened after I passed out?”

Eun-ha looked down at her hands clasped on the table, “I came around the side of the house near the end of the fight. You passed out. I ran to your side, yelling for help as the fire spread through our home.” Eun-ha was fighting tears, but one still broke free and forged a path down her cheek.

Mrs. McGibbons, seeing Eun-ha needed a minute to lament the loss of the last memories she had of her husband, took up the conversation “Our useless neighbours stood back, terrified of the thugs, terrified of you, too cowardly to help a neighbour. Luckily I’m made of tougher stock than those yellow-bellies.” Her face scrunched up in disapproval and looked towards a wall as if she could stare daggers at the entire neighbourhood.

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“Even with the two of us though, you have a firm frame, and we had trouble even getting you off the ground.” Mrs. McGibbons chuckled to herself, “No wonder you kicked their asses. Serves them right.”

“That’s when the boy, Noah, came running up to help.” Eun-ha added.

“The boy in the other room?” Erin asked, “Wait…did you say Noah?”

Eun-ha nodded. “Yes, he said he had talked to you on the alien chat system.”

Well…yeah, but I never told him where we lived. I vaguely told him we were on the other side of town from him.” Erin started to feel concern building in her stomach.

“He mentioned that, dear.” Mrs. McGibbons said, “He didn’t want anyone thinking he was some creepy stalker.”

Eun-ha nodded once more. “He showed us how to view the chat, so we saw what he was saying was the truth. The thugs are why he found you.” Erin could see the stress signs on her mother, and reached out to squeeze her hand reassuringly. Eun-ha smiled at her daughter and continued, “They were talking in the open, asking if anyone wanted to earn street credit with them. No one accepted, but a couple had questions before they were shouted down.”

“What the hell?” Erin shook her head in disbelief, “Those idiots were talking about burning our house down over an open chat system?”

“Not quite.” A new voice came from the doorway, drawing Erin’s attention. There was the teenage boy she saw sleeping in the chair. Noah. “They wanted a big enough group of people that they could hurt you and your mother without anyone else interfering. They wanted to hurt you really, really badly, and they knew the system would make that hard.”

“I have more questions for you specifically, but for now I want to know why they didn’t just wait until the protection system was lifted at the end of the seven days?” Erin’s voice wasn’t quite accusatory of Noah, despite her mom and Mrs. McGibbons defending Noah she wasn’t ready to trust him yet, but she was currently more concerned about what made those thugs so aggressive and stupid.

Noah dipped his head down, averting his eyes from Erin’s, “They weren’t just a small group of criminals. They’re recruits in a gang called Domus Nostra.”

That name made Erin’s blood run cold. Domus Nostra, Latin for Our House. A gang that embodied the belief they had the right to whatever they wanted. The good news was that they had been prevented from building a sufficient force to enact that belief. The bad news? They murdered her father and her sensei.

Erin was vaguely aware of Eun-ha squeezing her hand, reassuring her this time, but it didn’t help. Erin’s mind, body, heart and soul were quickly filling up with fear, despair, and more importantly rage. She started to feel that tingling on her skin building, until Noah broke her concentration.

“Woah! The air is shimmering around you, just like the other night!”

“What?” Erin felt her control reasserting as her focused shifted to what he said.

“I saw you the other night. I tried to beat those thugs to your house to warn you, but I was too late.” Noah looked ashamed, but a spark of excitement ignited in his eyes. I saw you power up, and then when you appeared in front of their leader, they were all dead.” His voice grew with excitement as he told the story. “You had this shimmer around your body, like heat or energy or something. It was just like that guy in the show, he does that umm…what’s it called…Kaio…”

Noah didn’t get to finish his sentence, because his voice muted and the System AI spoke up at that moment. “Warning! Copyright Infringement Protection System initiated. An attempt to reference intellectual property owned by another has been detected. Referencing another’s IP is limited to meme references only. Further triggers of the CIPS system by Noah Jackson may result in punitive action. Oh, and before you ask, yes her power level was OVER 9000!!!!!!!”

Noah started gesticulating at the ceiling when his voice finally unmuted, “...kidding me! You stole my joke, you stupid alien AI lady!” He sighed, pouted for a second, and then like a switch had been triggered he was back to his demure self, averting his eyes from Erin.

“Umm…did you say I killed them?” Erin swallowed hard, but still felt her stomach heave. She gagged, but her mom was at her side in two strides, leading her through a door off the kitchen. Barely making it to the toilet, the food Erin had just eaten came up in barely digested chunks.

“It’s okay Ttarai, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Eun-ha was rubbing her daughter’s back while handing her some toilet paper to wipe her mouth with.

“She’s right,” Mrs. McGibbons stepped inside the doorway of the bathroom with a glass of water, Noah behind her looking lost for what to do. “Those bastards were going to burn you and your mother alive in your own home. They got off easy.”

“That…” Erin coughed, “That doesn’t make it easier to accept that I killed people.”

Mrs. McGibbons’ voice sounded resigned, “No, no it doesn’t girl, but in time it will. I saw the look on your face when Noah mentioned that gang name. You’re going to want a piece of them in due time, and this world is only going to get harsher. You’ll need to be able to protect your mom. That might mean doing bad things to even worse people.”

“What are you talking about?” Erin coughed, then gagged, and threw up again.

“Dear, when I was younger than you I joined the military. When I was your age I had to slit a man’s throat. Threw up all over his body before he finished gurgling his last breath. A couple years later I was part of a team that did things to people that would give the current you nightmares.” Mrs. McGibbons’ face was one part grim, one part compassion. Not an eerie visage at all. “Current you isn’t yet strong enough to handle the things you will need to. But future you will need to be.” With that, she left the glass of water with Eun-ha and exited the bathroom, dragging Noah with her.

Erin didn’t have enough left in her stomach to throw up again, but she sat there, spent, for a half-hour before climbing back onto the couch and passing out.