Chapter 73 - Home

  I took a step back and shot Alex a mock glare. “Alex, I’ve got to know. Ever since you took up residence in this building, whenever I come around, you've been here waiting for me on the roof when I arrived."

  "I have," Alex replied. "What's the question?"

  I could tell from his grin that he knew what I was asking already. He just wanted to stretch it out.

  "How?” I asked, "How do you know when I'm on my way? What, did you find a way to magically geo-tag me?”

  Alex laughed. “Nothing so complicated. It's the Domain. One of the cooler functions of owning a Domain is I have a general sense of what's going on within my lands all the time. I can't tell every time a bug crosses my borders or anything like that, but if an armed party of Karabos hit our shores, I would sense it almost immediately."

  "Wow," I said. "That's is pretty cool. We could use some more of those control stones, at that rate. Get one into each of the communities people are starting up, and they could defend themselves a lot more easily."

  Alex nodded. "They can rank up too. If I get a second control stone, it'll rank my Domain to tier two. I don't have all the information yet, but from what I can tell, two more after that ranks it to tier three, same as with the crystals."

  "That makes finding more of the things even more vital," I said. "I don't suppose it gave you any clues about where we can get them from, did it?"

  "Sadly, no," Alex replied. "I've spent hours doing a deep dive through the ‘memories’ the Control Stone grants. It's way more complicated than anything I've seen from the crystals. There's a lot of stuff in here." He tapped the side of his skull.

  "I bet," I replied. "So you can sense me when I cross over into your Domain?”

  Alex nodded. "Yep."

  "But I thought you said you couldn't detect individuals?" I asked.

  Alex chuckled before he replied. "Cameron, you're tier eight. That makes you the biggest, baddest threat in the area. There's nothing higher ranked than you in my Domain, and probably nothing higher ranked than you in a twenty or thirty mile radius either. You are the strongest being in Boston right now. It doesn't surprise me at all that my Domain lets me know whenever you're coming by to pay a visit. I come up to meet you because it’s always good to have you visit.”

  I paused, shocked into silence by what he was saying. I mean, I knew I was strong. I had reached tier eight for Strength, Stamina, Agility, and Natural Armor. While I hadn't punched through into tier nine for any of those things yet, I was well on my way for a couple of them. I guess it just hadn't occurred to me that as strong as I was, I was the most powerful person in the area.

  "What, there's no tier ten monsters lurking around?" I asked, trying to make a joke of it.

  Alex shook his head. "Not yet, anyway. I have to tell you, I'm not looking forward to when that changes."

  "You assume it will change, though," I said.

  He nodded. "Yeah, that much feels certain. I expect we'll see a gradual increase in the power level of things appearing. Although one thing I've noticed was that the spawn rate dropped dramatically as soon as I claimed the area around City Hall as my Domain, and there hasn't been a single monster appearing inside City Hall since then, either."

  "You think claiming an area as a Domain has a protective nature?” I said.

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  Alex nodded again. That was good information to have. I made a mental note to share it with the other leaders as soon as I could. While we didn't yet know how to get them their own control stones, I was sure once everyone knew what they could do, they'd all want some of their own.

  "Hey, how are you doing anyway?" Alex asked.

  "So far, so good," I quipped, forcing a smile.

  The truth? I was exhausted and wrung out. After Amanda died, I’d been forced into action to save the kids. There hadn’t been any downtime until they were safely home. Then I’d gone back for her body, run into Alex, fought pill bugs, goblins, rocs, Karabos, skeletons, and more. The invasion hit, and we were all doing everything we could just to stay alive.

  It made for a terrific distraction.

  Since the invasion ended and the Karabos retreated into the sea, I’d been finding it harder to distract myself from the grief. Visions of Amanda dying kept cropping up at odd moments, and my sleep was full of nothing but nightmares.

  "Okay. I just wanted to reiterate my offer. If you want a place to stay here, it's yours," Alex said.

  "Thanks," I replied. "I appreciate it. I'm just moving around so much, trying to help all the settlements get themselves started. It didn't make sense to claim a home at any one spot, not when I'm moving around so much."

  "Everyone in Boston appreciates the hard work you're doing for them," Alex said. "You went and flew in pallets of food for MIT yesterday. Based on the bits of blood you couldn't quite get washed out of your clothing, I'm guessing you had a showdown with the zombie horde from Somerville earlier today, right?" Alex asked.

  "You're remarkably well-informed," I said.

  "Comes with the job," Alex replied. “If I’m going to lead these people effectively, I need to know what’s going on out there. So, while you've been doing all this work, where have you been resting? Where are you sleeping?"

  I laughed. "With my stamina as high as it is, I only need an hour or two of sleep a day. I've been catching quick catnaps when I need them.”

  What I didn't say was I'd barely been sleeping at all, the past few days. Since the Karabos invasion ended, I'd managed two short naps, both of them riddled with the worst possible dreams. That certainly didn’t make me want to sleep more.

  One nap was by accident. I fell asleep trying to read Emmy's bedtime story. She and Maggie had been kind enough to let me rest for two hours before waking me up, but the nightmares had been so bad I almost wished they hadn’t.

  "Even your superhuman stamina doesn't eliminate the need for rest, Cameron. You get too tired, you're going to start making mistakes. You make mistakes, and with powers like yours, it could cost lives. I know that's not what you want.” Alex sighed, then continued. “Come stay here. I won't stop you from going to help others. Far from it. I want you to be out there in the world, making life better for everyone in the area. But you can't do that if you're not taking care of yourself. And you can't take care of yourself if you don't have people to back you up."

  I wasn't sure what to say. He had a good point. I could probably be more help to other people if I had more support myself. Besides, Alex was a friend. He and I had had each other's backs a dozen times each, easily, since meeting in that stairwell.

  Part of me wanted to tell him no, that I wanted to keep to myself. If I got close to other people, they might die, and that could hurt. I recognized how messed up that was. Before the Event, I’d have gone to find a therapist or something. Now, I had no idea how to fix myself. Hopefully time would help.

  But friendship might, too.

  "All right," I told him. "I accept."

  "Just like that?" Alex asked. "I was expecting more resistance."

  "No, it just makes sense," I told him. "You're right. I could do more good for other people if I have more backup and support myself. Having a quiet place to lay my head down and get some actual sleep will only make me a better defender."

  "Excellent! I’m all for it when someone tells me I’m right, as you know well enough by now! Well, then, if you'll come with me, I've already had a room prepared for you," Alex said.

  "You did?" I asked.

  "Yeah, I had a feeling I could twist your arm into sticking around. Metaphorically at least. I don’t know if there’s anyone alive who can still do it literally,” Alex said. "Come take a look. I think you'll like it. I’ve got you set up in a suite with a window that opens and everything, so you can fly out and rush off to do your heroic deeds without having to find your way out of the building. Which is a real problem, believe it or not. This place is huge, and it's like a maze inside."

  We laughed together as we set off toward the stairs. It felt good to know I had people willing to stick up for me, and look out for me. Alex's Domain wasn't the safest place in the city, not positioned against the coast like it was. The Karabos could return at any time. If they did, when they did—because I was fairly sure they would eventually—Alex's people would be on the front lines of that fight. But I wasn't afraid to face that sort of danger. When they came, we'd deal with them the same way we had the last time.

  Together.