Day 4

Evening

This time when Erin awoke she felt the hunger first thing. Her stomach ached, her back was sore from heaving, and her body felt drained. She had flashbacks of the fight while she slept. Flashbacks of what she did, and how she did it. Everything happened so quickly. Her mind couldn’t wrap itself around the idea that she moved so fast, or that she displayed such strength.

Sitting up on the couch, she found a glass of water awaiting her on the coffee table. She gulped it down, giving her stomach a brief reprieve as it decided if what she consumed was solid enough to qualify as food. Moments later, it was back to aching for food.

Erin got off the couch, ignoring the aches and pains, and headed for the kitchen. Sitting on the table and wrapped to keep it fresh was another plate with two chicken breasts, without the red sauce this time. Her mom probably figured the sauce would be too much for her stomach right now.

Removing the wrapping and sticking the plate of chicken in the microwave, she refilled her glass of water, then grabbed the chicken when the microwave beeped. Foregoing the utensils, Erin started picking at one of the chicken breasts with her fingers. She was hungry, but decided to acclimate her stomach to food a bit at a time. It gurgled a little, and had a gentle roil, but decided the food was edible and settled by the time she was halfway through the first breast. The pain was even starting to subside, which she answered by saying, “Thanks stomach.”

It was at that same moment that Noah walked into the kitchen, an empty glass in his own hand. “Oh, sorry, I…uhh…didn’t know you were awake.” He was still nervous with her, but she got the feeling this was his natural state with people. “Are you…umm…feeling better?”

“Yes, I am, thank you for asking.” She gestured at the chair across from her, “Sit Noah, I’d like to talk.”

“Umm…okay.” Setting his empty glass on the table and sitting.

Erin took a second to gather her thoughts, “How did you find our street, let alone our house?”

“Oh, you’ll see that in the chat.” Noah seemed more confident when he answered this question, the surety of truth perhaps, “They were talking in local chat, and even…gave your address.”

“Hmm,” Erin nibbled on a bite of chicken, “Why did you race across town to my house?”

Noah fidgeted for a second, “You…umm…you seemed nice and…I didn’t…uhh…I didn’t want them to hurt you.”

“You barely know me, why do you care?”

“I…umm…I kind of know you…from Gumiho…”

“I don’t remember you from the Dojang, and I’ve helped train a lot of the students there.”

Noah seemed to get more nervous, “You…uhh…well…when my mom…she wanted me to try martial arts. Umm…she thought…she thought it would help…”

Erin suspected where this was going right away, and she decided not to make things harder for him by interrupting.

“I…get bullied…at school…” His fidgeting stopped and instead his hands clenched into fists. “Mom…she wanted me to toughen up…to defend myself…”

Just as she thought, this kid wasn’t a stalker. Just an unfortunate victim of other kids with self-esteem issues taking it out on a peer.

“She…she signed me up for Gumiho Dojang…you…you taught me my first lesson…”

That she didn’t expect. She was often asked to work with potential students, and while she was friendly and encouraging with them, few actually signed up for regular classes.

“You…were really nice…but…I didn’t want to learn to fight…” She could see him holding back tears “I don’t like to fight…I like to build things…fix things…”

Erin decided now was the time to speak up, “Hey, Noah, look at me for a moment please.”

Tentatively, he raised his eyes to hers.

“I’ve been bullied before too. Fighting isn’t always the answer, even if some people think it feels good in the moment.” She made her voice soft, but confident and supportive at the same time.

She got an appreciative but weak smile from Noah before his gaze drifted down again.

“I…I didn’t know it was you for sure…when we started talking” Noah seemed to predict this next question. “But when I tried to add you to friends…in the popup menu…it showed your full name…”

Erin was a bit surprised, but not angry or disappointed. She had made an impression on him, and the information was publicly available in the local chat, “I didn’t know that. Is there any way to hide that information?”

“No, not that I’ve found.”

“Thank you for coming to save my mom and I, Noah.”

Noah blushed a little, “I didn’t…I didn’t do anything. I got there too late.”

Erin shook her head, dismissing his lame dismissal, “You came across town to try, meanwhile our neighbours wouldn’t even help carry me inside the house. You’re stronger than you think, kid.”

Noah’s blush deepened.

Changing the topic, Erin asked, “Where’s your mom right now?”

“She’s…umm…at home. I have her on my friends list…we chat…so she knows I’m safe.”

Erin was almost done with her chicken at this point, but before she could ask another question the doorbell rang. She shared a look of surprise and concern with Noah before he averted his nervous gaze again, then she got up to head for the front hallway, which ran alongside the living room.

Erin had just stepped into the front hallway when Mrs. McGibbons came down the stairs ahead of her. “Now who the hell would ring the doorbell in the apocalypse? Who do you think that is, Erin?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Staring at the door, Erin didn’t respond. She didn’t have one of her bad feelings, but she was still nervous.

“Don’t freeze up on me now, dear. If the person on the other side means us harm, you're our secret weapon.” There was a jovial note in Mrs. McGibbons voice, but also a note of warning. She moved to the door, peered through the peephole, then chuckled lasciviously and said “Ooh, it’s the cute one.”

Opening the door, they were greeted with the site of a deputies uniform. A man, mid-twenties, dark hair, kept short. He looked Hispanic, tanned, and wore a day or so worth of facial hair. Probably average height, if Erin had to guess, five foot, ten or eleven inches. The uniform gave away a firm frame suggesting someone who kept in shape for their work, or because of it.

“Evening ma’am.” The officer nodded at Mrs. McGibbons first, then at Erin. May I come in?”

“So formal, I’m guessing this is about the incident the other night. You’re not allowed to arrest anyone in my home, otherwise you can come in.” Mrs. MicGibbons stepped aside and waved him through the door.

Erin’s heart sank. She hadn’t even considered the police. Would they arrest her? Would she go to prison? Would prisons even matter now? Could they hold her if she didn’t want to stay?

“Yes, ma’am, that rule is easy to respect. I’m not here to arrest anyone.” The officer finally said, “I just have some questions.”

“Grab a seat in the living room, Erin. I’ll get your mom.”

Erin moved cautiously to the living room, feeling like a coiled spring, ready to act but not sure which direction she would go. To his credit though, the officer tried to make his body language unthreatening, as non-confrontational as someone with a gun on their hip could be.

When Eun-ha joined them in the living room, she greeted the officer with a handshake and a friendly smile, while Mrs. McGibbons dropped into her well-loved chair, displaying a weary perception in her eyes, and a smile on her face.

“In case anyone has not met me before, I’m Deputy Logan Alvarez. I apologize for taking so long to get here, but we’re…undermanned at the moment.”

“Undermanned?” Eun-ha, “Is everything alright?”

Deputy Alvarez seemed to wage an internal war momentarily as he debated how much to share, “I don’t want people to worry, but several staff have opted to go home and be with their families…including the Sheriff.” Alvarez let that simmer for a second, “Deputy Cade and I have no family in Middleteown, and so we opted to remain on duty and help where we can.”

Mrs. McGibbons snorted at that, Noah paled, and Eun-ha surprised everyone except Erin by asking, “Do you need help?”

“No, Mrs. Moon, not currently. We don’t want to burden anyone with everything going on, but thank you.”

Eun-ha didn’t push further, but Erin could feel the motherly vibes emanating from her. She would find a way to support them, probably with food.

Moving on, Deputy Alvarez said, “So first thing is first, these guys didn’t have a great track record, and I’m aware they were recruits for Domus Nostra. I wouldn’t be looking to jam you guys up even if the situation on Earth were normal.”

Everyone nodded at that, but Erin felt a slight wave of reassurance. It was her ass on the line, afterall.

“Here’s what I’ve heard. Let me get this out, then you guys can fill in the blanks.” Alvarez gave everyone in the room a glance to confirm their acknowledgement. “So these thugs showed up at your door trying to shake you guys down. They got aggressive, you defended yourself with reasonable force. They returned later that night with molotov cocktails and started firebombing your house.

There were nods all around. So far what the Deputy had pieced together matched what they knew.

Alvarez took a deep breath before he said, “The next part is where I’m finding difficulty getting consensus.” He looked straight at Erin, and her heart started beating faster. “Some people say you turned into a demon, some say an angel, others say you’ve been replaced by the aliens. Everyone…well, everyone agrees you showed those guys zero mercy.”

Erin’s tension ratcheted up before Alvarez added, “Again, I’m not blaming you, judging you, or holding you legally accountable. I’m just trying to understand what happened.”

“I don’t…” Erin sighed in frustration. “I don’t really know what happened. Some of it is coming back to me, mostly in my sleep earlier today, but it’s still just flashes.”

Noah raised his hand nervously, “I think…I can..umm...fill in the blanks.”

Everyone looked to Noah,making his face pale at the attention, but Alvarez gave him a nod of encouragement. “Please, tell us what you know son.”

“Well, umm…she manifested energy…around herself, I mean.” Noah said. “It appears to have..increased her speed and strength. Allowing her to cross the…uhh...distance to the thugs and…umm…defeat them…in seconds.”

I can’t believe I’m asking this question, but some people said they saw her…teleport?” Alvarez had trouble getting that word out.

“No,” Noah was firm and surprisingly confident on this, “It was speed. Evidenced not just by her ability to cross those distances in a blink, but by her ability to move faster than the eye could track…sir.” Right at the end, Noah realized his disagreement was confrontational, and his shy personality betrayed him.”

Alvarez rested an almost fatherly hand on Noah’s shoulder as he said, “No need to rest on formalities kid, if you’re confident in what you saw I’ll trust you over a bunch of scared housewives and neighbourhood gossips.”

This perked Noah up a bit, causing him to straighten his back ever so slightly.

“Things are going to get crazy, and I don’t think you’ll be the last to manifest strange powers, Erin.” Alvarez had his full focus on her again, “I need to know if you could teach Deputy Cade or I to do what you did.”

“I...I don’t think that’s how it works, Deputy.” Erin didn’t sound as confident as she wanted, but she believed what she had just said nonetheless.

“What do you mean?” Alvarez asked.

Noah spoke up again, more of his confidence in the topic showing. “She’s right, sir. She manifested powers based on her. If you want powers of your own, they’ll come from your own skills and abilities.”

Alvarez looked confused at this point, “I don’t understand, what skills and abilities?”

“It’s simple. You need to show the System what you can do. Shooting or…beating up bad guys or something. But not just fighting, show it everything.”

“That’s what the voice meant…when it encouraged us to display skills and abilities we’ve developed in life.” Alvarez started to perk up at the revelation.

“Yeah, exactly!” Noah seemed to feed off the newfound energy in the room, “The system notifies you when it registers you as having a skill or ability.”

Erin added her two cents in, “I saw this when I was practicing my martial art forms before the thugs attacked.” Inwardly she still blanched at that, but outwardly she kept her focus, “But the less skilled I was at something, the longer I had to work on it before the system picked it up.”

“That’s something, at least.” Alvarez looked like his mind was working through ideas now, “Noah, how can I communicate with you since phones and radios are down.”

“Oh…umm…we can…umm…add each other to our friends list…and message…”

“Can you walk me through that? I’ll need to teach my partner as well.”

“Yeah…I…yeah, it’s easy.”

It was another two hours before Deputy Alvarez left. Noah went over what he knew about the system so far with everyone, Erin adding things in that she had noticed. The Deputy added the others to his friends list so they could communicate. Eun-ha managed to sneak in questions about food and allergies, which was of zero surprise to Erin. Mrs. McGibbons sat in her chair watching over everyone like a wary matriarch. With the exception of Erin and her mother, it was a somewhat mismatched group, but what they couldn’t know yet is that they were the beginning of something…