Chapter 75 - Space to Heal

  I woke with a start, surprised to see sunlight dappling the bed covers. I'd slept through the night. I shook my head, trying to clear it. For a moment, I couldn't remember the last time I had slept all the way through the night.

  Then, as it always did, all the memories of the past week came rushing back—the victories, yeah, but also the pain, loss, and suffering. Something was different, though. This time, I’d managed to get a good night's sleep and it felt so much better. It was funny, because I had thought I was beyond needing sleep. I figured that a tier eight stamina meant that I needed to maybe nap for an hour or two a day.

  But there I was, up with the dawn, after about six or seven hours in bed, sound asleep. More to the point, I felt refreshed in a way I hadn't since the whole Event kicked off.

  “Learn something new every day, I guess,” I mumbled to myself as I clambered out of bed.

  I walked over to the window and looked out onto the city below. Alex had been as good as his word. The room was magnificent. Before the Event, it must have been some important official's corner office, because the area was huge compared to most of the City Hall rooms. When he showed it to me the day before, I'd protested, saying the space was too big for just one person. The room was almost as large as my entire apartment had been with Amanda. Alex assured me that his stateroom was even larger and I should take it and stop complaining.

  So, I did.

  I reached out and touched the window, undoing the latches holding a hastily welded grill in place over the front. The glass was still there, covering the window itself, but Alex had his people reinforce the inside of every window in the building, just to make sure that no monsters slipped in in the middle of the night. How they’d managed the welding, I had no idea. Maybe he had someone with high-tier fire powers?

  However he managed the deed, it was a much-appreciated security measure. But once I undid the steel cage, I could open the window and fly off to wherever I wanted. This morning, though, I didn't need to go anywhere. For the first time in days, there were no pressing crises clamoring for my attention. Sure, the city was still a mess, and a lot of people were in trouble. But the invasion was over, I'd crushed the zombie horde the day before, and it felt like maybe things were finally beginning to settle into a new routine.

  I hoped so. I had a feeling that was too much to ask and that things wouldn't remain stable for long. But I did have hope.

  Instead of flying out, I closed the window and latched the steel cage shut again. I spotted a fresh set of clothes laid out on a table near the door. Somebody had snuck in here while I was sleeping and laid them there. I checked out the outfit, which looked like it might have been a police officer's uniform back in the times before, but Alex's people had stripped all of the patches and insignia from the thing. Now, it was just a plain black shirt and pants. Pretty much exactly what I needed, given that I'd once again shredded the uniform I had been wearing.

  I was incredibly hard on my clothes. I blamed Natural Armor for that. The power protected me, but not anything I was wearing, which was incredibly frustrating. If I wasn't careful, I could end up running around in tattered rags—or worse yet, wearing nothing at all if I got caught in the wrong spell attack. It was a problem that needed solving, but not today.

  I slid into the new outfit, slipped on my boots, and headed out the door, down the stairs, toward the central area of the building. Boston's City Hall was a massive pile of concrete riddled with a maze of passages and stairs. But much of the interior was open space. Alex had designated the large open spots as common areas. Some of them he'd set up as temporary housing for refugees. The floor in those rooms were lined with rows of simple cots, each with a single blanket laid atop it. It wasn't much, but it was a lot better than sleeping outside. People who came to him had safety, food, and water. With the three major priorities out of the way, they could begin settling in and figuring out how they were going to move forward.

  The other common areas were set aside for preparing food and as a general dining and meeting area. I descended the stairs toward that cafe-like space with a smile on my face, already looking forward to whatever they were serving from the kitchen. It smelled good. There wasn't even much of a line yet. Most people weren't up and about yet, so I didn't have long to wait before I reached the front of the line. I grabbed a tray and walked across to the first station, where a gray-haired man plopped a large spoonful of scrambled eggs onto my plate.

  "Eggs?" I asked. "How did you guys manage eggs with no refrigeration?"

  "Don't get too excited. They're just powdered," he replied. "But they're still nutritious, and they'll fill your belly."

  "Oh, trust me. I am absolutely thrilled," I told him. "I've been eating whatever I could scrounge up for days now. Some real food is amazing. I don't care if the eggs are powdered or fresh."

  "Well, you enjoy, then," the man replied.

  I went down the row picking up an apple, a biscuit, and a bottle of water as I made my way through the rest of the stations. After picking up some silverware, I turned back toward the tables and made my way to an empty one. I didn't want to disturb the few of Alex's people who were already up and eating. I figured they probably had work they were heading off to soon enough.

  But to my surprise, the next two people in line took their meals and then immediately joined me at my table.

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  "You mind if we join you?” one asked.

  "No, that's fine," I replied. I was a little surprised, but didn't mind the company. "My name's Cameron."

  "Yeah, we know who you are," the man replied with a chuckle and glanced at his friend. "I'm Jerome, this is Tom, and we were both out there with you fighting those lobster guys when they attacked."

  Without hesitating a beat, I stood and reached out a hand to shake his. He accepted the hand clasp warmly.

  "Thanks for your help, then," I said. "It's an honor to meet you formally, but I sure was glad to have you at my back during the fighting the other day. Without you all holding the line and rushing in to save my ass, I would have died at least twice that day."

  "Three times, by my count," Jerome replied with a little snark, "but who's counting, right?"

  We all had a chuckle at that. As we sat back down and enjoyed the rest of our breakfast, I quizzed the two men, getting myself caught up on what Alex's people had been up to since he launched the domain. From what Tom and Jerome said, Alex had proved himself an excellent leader so far.

  He'd been organizing people into fighting teams and support teams based on their individual choices. Then, he went the extra mile and made sure some of the crystals made their way from the fighting teams to the support teams, so even the people who were working to gather food, cook it, or handle laundry and dishes were still getting ranked up via new crystals. Maybe not as fast as the fighting types were, but they weren't being ignored.

  I thought that showed wisdom. Eventually, stronger monsters were going to start appearing. Alex and I both agreed on that. When it happened, anyone without some sort of crystal-borne power would be incredibly vulnerable. The sooner we got the entire population up to strength, the better for everyone.

  After a bit, Tom and Jerome had to leave. They were due out on patrol. I thanked them again, and they were on their way. But moments after they left, Alex and Marion came in. I waved, and they came over to my table.

  “You’re up bright and early! Did you sleep okay?" Alex asked.

  "I slept amazingly well. I haven't had that good a rest since all of this kicked off," I replied. "Thank you. The room was an excellent idea. I really think I needed that."

  "I'm glad to hear it," Alex replied. "Listen, I want to go over a few things with you. I see you're almost done eating, but do you mind sticking around while Marion and I get our breakfast? I'd love to chat some more."

  "Yeah, of course. No problem. I don't have anything pressing this morning anyway," I said.

  "Excellent. I'll be right back," Alex replied.

  It didn't take long for he and Marion to get through the line, collect their food, and rejoin me. I smiled, seeing the way the two of them stayed close together. That relationship had certainly blossomed quickly. They'd met during the fighting and apparently hit it off really well. Seeing the way Alex beamed at his new girlfriend reminded me of how I looked at Amanda. Those memories still brought a sharp pain with them, but I was also starting to be able to remember the joy that I’d felt in her presence, too.

  I supposed that was a sign of healing. Of a sort, anyway.

  "So what do you think of the breakfast spread?" Alex asked as he sat back down.

  "I think we need to figure out where to get some bacon, but other than that, I'm loving it," I replied.

  "Bacon might be hard. There's not that many pigs in Boston, and what was in the supermarkets was trash days ago, with no power," Alex said laughing. "But I'll see what we can do. Wait until you see what dinner is tonight. We took down a few of those giant birds, and guess what they taste like?”

  "Chicken?” I guessed.

  "You got it," Alex replied, laughing again. "Some of my guys are preparing a big barbecue for this evening. Are you going to be here?"

  "I wouldn't miss it," I replied. "So, you two. I feel like congratulations are in order."

  Marion turned red and Alex looked a little sheepish as well. "We figured when you find a good thing, you ought to grab it," Alex said. He reached out and covered Marion's hand with his own.

  I shrugged. "Guys, I think it's awesome. I'm not knocking it in the slightest. You two make a cute couple. And I think you're spot on. As dangerous as this world is, tomorrow isn't promised. I think it's more important than ever to stay focused on today, you know?"

  "I think you're right," Alex said. "I confess, I was just a little worried how you might feel, because of what happened to you."

  Marion shot him a quizzical look, and Alex went on. "His fiancée was killed just a few minutes after the Event happened."

  "Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Marion said.

  I winced and ducked my head a little bit. This wasn't the sort of attention I wanted.

  "Technically, she wasn't my fiancée yet. I was window shopping for rings when everything went to hell," I said. "A ratkin killed her before I could stop him. But don't let my past mar your future, guys. I love seeing the two of you together. I think it's a good thing and I'm glad to see it."

  Alex shot me a grateful smile. "Well, I'm glad of that. Hey, you know that if you ever do find a special someone again, not that I'm saying you need to right away or anything like that, but if you do, they'll be welcome here, same as you. No matter what."

  "Thanks, Alex. I really appreciate that," I said.

  The conversation shifted at that point. Alex started talking about his plans for the future. He had a good number of people picking up trade skills and crafting powers. It turned out that a lot of creatures would drop brown crystals, which gave skills instead of spells.

  "Things like Weapon Making, Armor Making, Hunting, Fishing, and a wide variety of others,” Alex said.

  “Which creatures have these things?" I asked.

  "The goblins seem like they're one of the best sources," Marion replied. "But we've seen some from ratkin and the Peristera as well."

  "Not that we're fighting the Peristera," Alex was quick to add. "We just noticed that a few of them dropped brown crystals when they died during the big battle."

  I nodded. "So these crystals are the ones that you're handing over to your support personnel."

  "In part, yes," Alex said. "We're also giving them combat crystals as well, if they feel up to it. Most of them want a way to defend themselves, so that's pretty easy to do. Sometimes we just give them some clear crystals that match up well with the brown skills. For example, if somebody gets Armor Making as a skill, giving them a Strength crystal magnifies their ability to make better armor and also gives them some ability to defend themselves if they're attacked."

  Breakfast continued for about half an hour more, with Alex continuing to regale me with stories of what he'd done so far and what he was planning to do in the weeks and months ahead. The good part about having someone as smart and organized as him in charge was Alex's ability to think long term. His Intellect was all the way to tier six, now. And since we'd seen that tier five was usually the equivalent of the maximum for an un-augmented human, that meant Alex was now smarter than anyone who'd ever lived before the Event happened.

  It was a good power for our leader in a time of crisis. By the time we finished speaking, I felt even better than I had when I came down. I returned to my room. All Alex’s talk about his plans had gotten me thinking what I ought to be working toward next.