Iron Will

As we loaded into the truck, I grabbed a decent chunk of steel and filled it with water and loaded it into the truck bed. Next, I went and grabbed Rocko, so he wouldn't be jealous this time and then had Zack drive while Alice and I were in the back.

"I don't really think that's possible." Alice said as I was trying to get her to adjust the temperature of the water. "I can't be sure but how would I even do that?"

"Temperature isn't what you should be thinking about." I replied as I lifted a small piece of metal and placed it in her hand. "Everything is moving at a certain speed so if you slow it down it will be colder and if you speed it up it will get hotter. Watch." As I said that I started to cause the lump in her hand to speed up its vibrations and it warmed up a bit. "I'm not very good at it yet but you felt it warm up right?"

"I don't get it but if you can do it with metal, I guess I should be able to with water." With that she floated some water through the back window into the truck and tried to change temperature. After a while I could see the water shifting strangely and looked at her questioningly. "I think I get the idea, but for some reason it isn't working."

I cupped my hands and said. "Try to put it in my hands and I'll try to help." As the water lowered into my hands, I could feel the water lapping in my hands and realized I misspoke earlier. "I think I said something dumb earlier. It's not trying to move the entire pool of water around. You need to focus on making the entire pool vibrate. It's not about shaking and sloshing it's just little vibrations to heat it and stilling those vibrations to cool it."

She looked at me with a confused look on her face and then nodded. "I feel like if I do this..." she shifted her body and tilted her hands a bit which was kind of funny since it wasn't necessary. It reminded me of kids trying to open combination locks for the first time. "How's that?"

The water felt a bit warmer. "Like that. Can you go any faster?" She nodded and then I felt the water get even warmer. She couldn't make it boil or freeze but I was pretty sure she would be able to in the future. "Great job! I think if you keep working at it you could maybe even freeze or boil the water once you have a better grasp and get a bit stronger." I flung the water out the window behind me and brushed my hands on my shirt. "You might even get to the point where you can make arrows for yourself out of ice." I wanted to instill that idea now, so she could get an image in her head.

"That would make my life much easier. I would already have a stockpile of weapons and why stop at arrows. Maybe a spear or a dagger would be possible too." She was really excited. "I don't know why we met or why you think about such weird stuff, but I definitely want to keep working with you. I think you are going to go a long way in this crazy new world."

"Umm... This is a bit much for just giving you a way to protect yourself. I'm just a nerd. Don't worry about it." I didn't know what was going on, but it was a little creepy.

We pulled into the parking lot and went towards the back where the loading docks were. I could see a few people in the distance, but I wasn't too worried about it yet. Dealing with what's in front of you is the most important. As we climbed out of the vehicle Alice stopped and held her hand out for me. I wasn't sure if this was another side of her admiration or if it was something else, but I decided not to over think it and just accepted her help.

"So, what are we grabbing here." Alice looked at me expectantly.

"Solar panels and batteries that charge off of them. We can store up power and also if need be, we can use the batteries for trade in the long term." I didn't want either of them to go grabbing anything we didn't need. I walked around the side of the building and made sure it was empty before I called Rocko. "Rocko, Idite syuta." His commands were in Russian originally so when I start using them, he pretty much ignores everyone else. As he ran up to me, I squatted down and said "you are scout with Alice. Keep her safe." I looked at Alice and said "Make some noise if anyone goes to enter. If you don't think you can deal on your own his commands are, voz'mi ikh to attack, and pyatka will make him stop."

"That's not quite right but Russian right?" She looked confused.

"He and Lyla are both service dogs that didn't have owners. Lexi's parents trained them, so we took them in, but I don't speak Russian and neither do her parents. It was supposedly a request by the guy that was gonna be working with him." I shook my head. "If the people being attacked can't say the commands, they can't stop him in a bad situation or something like that." I trailed off.

"Oh ok." She smiled brightly. "I know a bit of Russian from my grandparents, but I don't really speak it. I do speak Spanish though." She bragged at the end. "We'll set up over there." She pointed to a commercial car trailer. "Rocko can get up and down easy enough and I'll have the elevated advantage." She pulled the bow from her shoulder and nocked an arrow as she climbed up onto the trailer. Rocko followed after without anyone saying anything and Zack and I repeated the breaking and entering from earlier.

As we entered the main store through the loading dock I immediately went to where the green energy section was and was delighted. "Yes!" I exclaimed. "Way more than we'll need." I grabbed a flat cart over and pointed. "You get that end and we'll grab 2 at a time."

"Alright Rei..." He seemed a bit off. "But should we take more than we need? What if someone else needs them?" He seemed genuinely upset.

"We are taking them all because the 8 of us will be too crammed into just my house. I plan on adding some more once we get a handle on the situation. I want to make a small safe haven for people that aren't looking for glory and just want to live their life. I had the idea when Alice offered to work for us if we saved her brother." I have always been quite greedy, so this was probably a surprise for him.

"If you plan on making a town or whatever..." He looked into the distance. "I guess that's fine as long as you're not trying to build up some harem." He laughed as he finished that sentence. "You couldn't even control one girl more or less a whole harem." He stopped moving the panels because he was bent over laughing.

"Is something funny Papa... What could be happening that's so funny to my dear old daddy..." I changed my voice to sound childish and when I said Papa he stopped laughing and his body stiffened.

"Yeah," he scratched the back of his head. "About that, is now a good time for this?"

"Whether it's a good time or not is irrelevant." I said firmly. "We aren't in any position to decide on this since there's probably not a lot of clinics open in this new world. We just get through today and then tomorrow. One day at a time. Now hurry up." He pushed a button for me since I couldn't have kids, naturally I'd get a bit jealous.

"Sorry, I am just scared. I probably would have said something similar even without everything that's going on."

We loaded up the panels onto the trailer and I sealed them in with metal, so no one could see them. Next, I loaded in battery after battery. They were about half the size of a generic car battery and had a small slot that the panels could clip into. With the right allocation of resources, we had enough for easily 30 times what I actually needed. The batteries would be useful in the fall since the sun refused to come out in October around these parts. I looked around the store one last time and decided I would come back in a week for some other things, nodded, and then jumped into the truck. As we pulled out, I whistled and Alice and Rocko both peeked out from the car on the trailer and then climbed down.

We pulled up to the pharmacy and I looked at everyone. "We grab as much as possible. I'm gonna make some carts that hold a lot and are light, so you guys just grab drugs. Antibiotics are the most important but I'm gonna make sure to grab anything I can for Delilah, so you two get everything useful. Even if it doesn't seem useful grab it. Vitamins too. We don't know what kind of diet we are going to be looking at 6 months from now."

"OK"

"You got it!"

They both shouted and after seeing that Rocko barked.

"Feeling left out bud?" I said as I scratched behind his ears. "let's go."

As we walked into the pharmacy, I grabbed some carts that were there and filled in the gaps and made them reach from just over the wheels to right under each of our chins. I had unlocked the door so hopefully no one was in here but that didn't seem to be the case. As we walked towards the back, I saw a young boy hiding from us through a security mirror in the corner. He looked to be a newer elementary school student, 5 or 6, and he had a small branch in his hand. I signaled everyone because a child is the last person I wanted to hurt.

"Hey kid? I saw you when we came in." I was talking louder than I needed to, so he didn't realize I knew right where he was. "We are here for antibiotics and medicine for my brother's wife because she's pregnant. We aren't gonna hurt you and if you come out, we might help you." I watched the mirror indirectly, so he wouldn't get a surprise attack in and saw him throw the branch into the aisle in front of me.

"Don't get mad at me." He was whimpering, and I could see tears in his face when he stepped into the aisle. "my mom has a cut and I don't know where to get the white paper for her." He was shaking from how upset he was. "Will you help me?"

"OK, but don't try any funny business." I looked him straight in the eye the whole time and he never tried to break eye contact. "I actually know a bit about helping hurt people so where is your mom?" I looked to Alice and Zack and nodded. "You 2 get looting and I'll take Rocko as my back up." I pushed my cart towards Alice and gave Zack the list that Kara gave me earlier. "let's go bud." I walked over and grabbed a generic first aid kit and after making sure what was in it, I grabbed a bottle of iodine to be safe and followed after the boy.

As we walked out the back off the store, I could see the broken window the boy must have come through. "Did you hurt yourself coming in here?" I couldn't see anything wrong, but I wanted to make sure."

"No, I made sure to not touch the glass." He responded without turning and just kept leading.

"How far are we going?" I wanted to get him to be comfortable around me, so he didn't do anything if I caused his mom to yell out when I was working on her.

"Just a ways. We live in that blue house and she is in the living room." He pointed at the house and kept walking.

When we entered the house, I smelled copper and rushed into the living room. Luckily it was a superficial wound on her right calf. "Oh, thank god it smelled like it was worse than this." I said quietly as I knelt down. "I'm Reika. Your son said you needed help." I opened the first aid kit and started cleaning the wound.

"I'm Leah and you've met my son Jacob." She said as she tried to smile. "We were attacked, and I won. It's not my blood you're smelling mostly." She pointed to the other room and I saw a pool of blood forming at the crack of the door.

"Oh, that explains a lot." I wasn't going to console her, and I wasn't worried about her opinion of me either. "Let's get you patched up to start. And then you can worry about that." I said as I nodded towards the door.

"Where did he find you?" she asked me as I was finishing up with her leg.

"My brother and I, and a... Friend? Of ours were getting supplies. We were trying to make sure we didn't have to deal with stuff like this. If you're interested, we are building up a small group of people, and both my sister and I are capable of treating the wounded like yourself. And I have a niece and nephew that are about the same age as Jacob there." I wasn't sure if she would be trustworthy, but she had been extremely calm since I got here and had killed someone. It may not be a great quality, but it would definitely be useful if we had any scumbags show up ever.

"That's not a bad idea. It's been just Jacob and I since before he was born so with everyone being able to make weapons almost out of thin air, I don't think it would be wise to stay that way." She stood up and started to limp a bit towards the bloodied door. "I really don't want to see my ex like this. He was always a bit crazy but now that he's dead I don't think I could use the clothes here." She looked like she was about to cry.

"Why don't you come with us right now? We can pick up clothes for you later and until then you can borrow mine and Jacob is about the same size as Jason. We can do a clothing run in a few days once things calm down a bit." If she was coming with us, I didn't want to let us be separated until she was back at my house.

"OK, if you're OK with having us." As she nodded her head her red hair stood out by the windowlight and I noticed the freckles on her face.

"Well first." I walked to the back door and pulled the metal screen door out. I turned it into a crutch for her to help with mobility. "You're an earth manipulator, right? And Jacob's Plant?"

"Umm... Manipulator?" She was trying to get used to the crutch and didn't understand what I was saying.

"You can move Rocks and dirt?"

"Oh yeah, but how did you know?" she seemed nervous now.

There were holes all over the floor from where I assumed, she had pulled the rocks she used to defend herself. I knelt back down and pointed.

"Oh!" She exclaimed. "It's so obvious and I didn't even realize."

As we made our way back to the pharmacy, I learned that the man Leah had killed was Jacob's father, but she hadn't had anything to do with him since he walked out when she got pregnant. He had shown up today to take Jacob and when things got heated, he attacked with a sword he made out of metal. I couldn't understand why every other metal user was so focused on making metal weapons when I just planned on launching metal spears or daggers at anyone that threatened my friends and myself. Anyways, Jacob knew nothing about his father, so he and Leah fended him off together and when he died Jacob immediately went looking for help. As we approached the back door, I heard Alice and Zack talking inside, so I called out as quietly as possible to prevent any kind of accident. They had loaded up a lot of bottles and boxes into the bed of the truck and they had found a tarp to cover everything with.

"More lost puppies?" Zack said with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up. She was attacked, and I didn't want her to have to deal with the body. Plus, Jacob is like Jason and she is an earth mover like you." I was getting exhausted from all the running around, so my temper was running thin.

At this Jason leaned towards Alice and said "She's cranky. If you tell her she'll like you more." He had a smile on his face and I didn't know what it was for.

I looked at Alice and raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"I'm not sure how you'll feel about it, but we found a box of kittens. It was stuck back by the dumpster and the mewing was pretty bad. I'm guessing they're getting to be about 7 or 8 weeks old.

If you're against it, I understand but I would like to take them back with us." She had a pleading look on her face.

"I guess Zack didn't tell you." I decided to play it out to tease her a bit. "The dogs were both adopted by Lexi." I paused at that and then when I thought she was gonna start tearing up I finished with, "I have always had a weak spot for cats. Especially kittens." I smiled as I walked towards the box.

"Where are they?"

"Right here!" She cheered happily. "You scared me for a bit there." She grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the truck.

As I looked into the back of the truck there were 3 kittens eating from a can of cat food and I couldn't help myself. "Oh my gosh they're so little. How could anyone be so mean to you?" I asked as I scooped up a black and white spotted kitten. As I looked at its face, I could tell it needed a bit of medicine but otherwise it was fine. "You said you were studying to be a vet, right? Do you think you could get the dosage right if I got the medicine for these guys?"

At that Alice smiled and replied. "I found the right medicine here, so we don't have to worry about that. Plus, I definitely can handle the dosage. Even if I get a few scratches from these guys." She was happy and excited.

After piling into the truck and having to really cram in with 5 people and 3 kittens we finally managed to figure out how to seat everyone. Rocko hopped into the back of the truck and laid down on the tarp. Alice and I sat in the back again this time with Jacob sitting next to me and Zack drove with Leah up front. While we drove back, I told everyone about my idea for housing since it was going to get crowded here soon. I had a decent amount of property because Lexi and I were going to try to make an animal sanctuary once we had gotten settled down. 20 acres should be easy to build a few houses and I was going to make a decent sized plot for crops and a large water reservoir for each home. First, I wanted to wall up the property, so I had to make sure we could get a decent flow of metal and stone piled up. I wanted to steal a dump truck of some kind for the stone and I wanted to get a flatbed for the metal but any large truck I could modify and make work. As we made our way back, I kept seeing people out on the streets. Nobody was trying to take control of anything yet but there were many people fighting. When we got to about 1 mile from my house, I saw two girls about Alice's age running from a group of men. The fact that their clothes were ripped gave me an idea as to why they were running.

"Stop the truck!" Alice yelled. Right after she shimmied her way to hanging from the back window and drew the bowstring back. "Don't lay a hand on those girls!" She yelled to the pursuers. The girls came running up to the truck and started to plead for help.

"Hop onto the tarp, we don't have much further to go." I said to them.

As the group got closer Alice yelled out again. "If you get any closer, I will fire. I don't care what you can do, can you stop a flurry of arrows aimed at nothing but kill shots?" She loosed the first arrow and nocked another. This one was a serrated tip meant to damage. The arrow the fired had hit a man in the stomach in a nonfatal spot. "That is your only warning!" As she yelled that some of the men stopped while others ran away.

"You'll regret that bitch!" One of the men yelled. He formed a small fireball about the size of a quarter and started running.

"Enough!" Alice yelled and released the arrow. It lodged directly in between his eyes and he fell. I couldn't help but watch because I was curious, but as soon as the arrow hit, the flame didn't go out, but it was out before his body hit the ground. With that the men picked up the man that was wounded and took off leaving the dead man there.

As she climbed into the truck and Zack pulled off, I grabbed Alice and looked her in the eye. "Are you OK?" I asked holding her face and not letting her look away. "I need you to talk to me."

"I-I-I'm good." She said shakily. She had tears in her eyes. It's not easy to kill someone so she probably was hurting right now.

"No. You just killed someone." I whispered into her ear. "If you're OK I'm gonna kick you out of this car right now. Look at me." She kept lowering her head and trying not to look me in the eye. I raised her face with both hands and brushed her hair out of her face. Tears were streaming down, and she was shaking like a leaf. "I've never killed someone, but I've watched people die. If that can screw someone up, then being the cause must be terrible." I kept running my hand through her hair and ended up hugging her as we rode the rest of the way home in silence.

As we pulled into the driveway Zack looked back at me. Alice had fallen asleep in my arms and I didn't want to wake her up yet. "Unload what you can without me. Don't forget the babies and just put them in the garage near the chicken pen. There is a heat lamp in there so hang it over the box for them today."

"Alright." Zack replied. "What should I do with the strays?" He said nodding his head towards the girls in the truck bed.

"Introduce Jacob to Jason, they have the same power and might be able to learn from each other. The girls should be fine but have Kara come out and greet them. They were through hell, so they are gonna take time to get used to guys again." I didn't want to baby them, but they looked barely 20 so I didn't want to push them too hard either. "If you could grab a blanket for us, I'd appreciate it because she is out like a light and I could use a nap." I smirked at the end to show that I was fine. After a little while of sitting there running my hand through Alice's hair Kara came out with Jenny and some blankets. Without a word Jenny climbed into the truck and wrapped the blanket around us careful as to not wake Alice. She smiled and nodded at me and then went into the house with Kara and the girls.

I nodded off for a bit and when I came to a black four door sedan was pulling into the driveway. I readied myself for trouble but had a guess as to who it was. As it parked next to me, I saw Darren getting out and he saw me through the window. He came over and after seeing Alice whispered,

"Long time no see Reika. Thanks for keeping everyone together while I was gone. Who's this?" he nodded towards Alice.

"We met this morning when Lyla saved her. She had to shoot someone with a bow and it took its toll."

"Oh, then I'll leave ya be." He started to turn.

"Before you leave what's your ability?" I asked so I knew for later.

"Wind..." he replied sheepishly and walked off.

With that I ran my hands through Alice's hair and fell asleep.

I woke up again but this time to movement. I felt Alice stirring and looked down at her. Her head was tucked in between my neck and shoulder and it was extremely comfortable. She started to panic so I whispered, "It's OK. I'm right here." I could already feel her pulse and breathing relaxing. "I'm sticking with ya until you're ready to be alone. You've been through a lot." I turned and saw her looking up at me. "Are you hungry? I'm not one to brag but I'm a pretty good cook." I smiled at her and finally realized that I'd been holding her for a few hours.

With a wry grin she lifted herself a bit and then said, "I could eat but I'd be fine staying like this for a bit. I'm really starting to feel a bit better, but that's probably because of what those guys would have done if we weren't there. I definitely never want to do something like that again, but I know if it came down to it I could do it again." As she said that she turned under the blanket so that we weren't facing each other but were side by side. I thought we were going in when she leaned against me and put her head on my shoulder. "Can we stay like this for a bit and just talk. Treat me like a normal girl for a bit."

"I mean normal was never my strong suit. If Lexi and I weren't so drawn to each other as soon as we met, I'd probably never spoken to anyone outside my family aside from necessity." I look at the girl leaning against me and she took my hand under the blanket.

"That's fine. Talk to me about our plans for this base. You called it a town earlier but it's gonna be so much more isn't it?" She was staring me in the eye and I could see a slight blush forming on her ears.

"Do you know what's coming exactly?"

She was so sure in me I didn't know how to let her down. I felt her thumb rubbing on the back of my hand she was holding and said. "I have no sure-fire idea as to what's coming but I've read so many books with this kind of scenario and so many games have a start like this in the fantasy or sci-fi sections that I am trying to prepare for them all at once. The scenario I'm most afraid of happening is where the government's freak out and nuke each other. That's not likely if people hole up in their houses with their loved ones like here. Another idea is alien testing but that usually goes unnoticed, so it won't change anything. Another is that these abilities are magic or mana. If that's the case we could see monsters, dungeons, or even new human races like elves or dwarves coming into existence. There are so many different ideas but the first rule," I looked her back in the eye again, "is to stick together. No one goes alone after today. I know I went off earlier, but that was my own stupidity. I'm gonna be relying on you in the future to help me out so don't let me pull that later." After I finished saying that she gave my hand a squeeze and we sat there for a quite a bit in silence.

When the sun started to go down, I heard the gravel crunching under someone's feet. I had fallen asleep again and at some point, Alice and I had gotten entangled with the blanket and each other and we're now laying in the back seat. I gave her hand I was still holding a squeeze and she woke up and rolled her head to look at me. I moved my free hand and signaled her to be quiet while I listened.

"This house doesn't look like much, but they always get deliveries from refrigerated trucks and she doesn't go out much." I could hear a woman's voice and wasn't sure what she was going to try but knew she was watching me in the past.

"Do you think she'll help us?" I heard another woman say. "We don't have food and those assholes basically said they'd only help if we gave ourselves to them." It sounded like 4 women, but the age difference was noticeable just from they're voices.

"How much are you gonna talk about me? I've got feelings ya know." I decided to come off as a bit brash as I sat up but with another girl wrapped around me as I sat up, I couldn't begin to guess what they thought.

"Yeah don't make us beat you up." Alice tried to add but with her just waking up, her voice cracked, and it was much more cute, than intimidating. She got frustrated with herself and buried her face into my chest.

"Sorry miss." An older woman close to 50 looked at me. She had long black hair with ribbons of grey hair pouring down. "We weren't being disrespectful. Just nervous is all." She had an accent I couldn't place but I guessed it was just southern. "We had to leave because the men in our apartment building grouped up and are forcing us to service them if we want to stay. I felt Alice tighten up on me and wrap her hand that wasn't holding onto me around me. "I knew of you from before with your wife and you 2 were always so kind I convinced these girls to come with me."

"Ahh shit. Bringing up Lexi's cheating." I said with a grimace. "But if you're looking for food and shelter, we are planning on building up a small compound here. It won't be a free ride even the elderly and children will be working but you can stay here if you promise not to cause trouble. I don't care who you are or who you were. You cause trouble and you're out." The women looked at me and nodded.

"Thank you so much, my name is Gene." The older woman said. Her face was starting to wrinkle but her body was rather fit for her age. She stood the shortest of the women but had an air about her that made her feel taller.

"I'm Lois. I'm not sure what help I can be but thanks for having me." She was probably in her mid-thirties. Asian, I think Japanese, her bow at the thanks reminded me of when friends go over to each other's houses in anime. Her dark skin and black hair and eyes were all flawless.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Agatha." She was a strong looking woman that seemed like the kind that would never bend to anyone. She had an accent that made me think Russian, but I don't know any Russians, so I couldn't be sure. Her dirty blonde hair and grey/silver eyes were truly beautiful. "I am quite capable so don't be afraid to put me to use. I can also move the earth but I'm still trying to get the hang of it." She took a step back after introducing herself.

The last girl looked maybe 11. Her face was soaked in tears and she was shivering. I saw how upset she was, and my heart broke for her. "M-m-my names Terese. I'm 10 and can shape wood. My m-m-mom c-c-couldn't come because those men..." she trailed off. I looked to Gene and she shook her head and signaled the girl's mother was deceased.

I gave Alice a squeeze since she was still hiding her face in my chest and said, "There's more people and animals in the house and I don't know if they made food yet, but Alice and I were just about to get a bite to eat. Would you like to join us?" I climbed out of the truck as Alice refused to stop clinging to me, and since I promised I'd be here for her I didn't want to peel her off yet and squatted down in front of Terese. "I wanted to check my baby birds and kittens before I made dinner. Could you give Alice and I a hand?"

"Oh?" As I said that Kara must have been coming out to check on us when she saw our new companions. "I don't think I should ever leave that sister of mine alone." She said as she approached the 3 older women. "I'm Kara. Let's get you girls inside." Always the big sister she even doted on the woman 20 years her senior like a little sister.

"We're gonna show Terese the chicks and the kittens. Is Jenny in there?" I looked towards Kara and she nodded. As Alice unwrapped herself from me her face was still red, and she took the blanket and started folding it up. I took Terese's hand and Alice grabbed the other as we walked into the garage.

As soon as we entered the Garage Jenny looked up from the box and saw Terese. Her eyes widened, and she stood and ran over. "I'm Jenny, and I'm 5. What's your name?"

"I'm Terese... I'm 10." She tried to reply similarly to Jenny and as soon as she did Jenny grabbed each of her hands and pulled her to the kittens.

"See the babies." She whispered. "The orange one is my favorite, but the gray one is really funny and the black and white one is really cute and gentle." She started pointing at each and talking about them like we've had them for weeks and not hours.

"Oh yeah..." Alice said lightly. "What happened to the drugs?" she looked at me as she asked.

"My Sister was a chemist for a pharmaceutics company, so she probably got them all where they needed to be." I looked over to the girls. "I'm gonna make something to eat can you keep Terese company Jenny?"

"OK." She cheered back quietly. "It's about time to feed the birds so can you help me?" she asked kindly. Terese just nodded her head. At least she had stopped crying for now. As she stepped into the pen she said, "Don't lift your feet to high. The babies don't know to look out for your feet." Already an expert I chuckled quietly and could feel Alice laughing too.

I stepped into the kitchen and Kara, Gene, Agatha and one of the 2 girls from earlier were already cooking up a nice feast. "Wow, I'd figured the 8 of you would have already eaten." I said as I eyed up my sister.

"Like we could eat without the person that brought us together." she said as she came over and pinched my cheek. "Besides both Maya and Tina are like Jason and Jacob, so vegetables will never be a problem."

I looked at the girl from earlier. When she was running from those men, she seemed older, but she was probably only 13. "I'm Maya." She looked at me and then Alice. "Thank you so much for earlier, it couldn't have been easy."

As her hands she had wrapped around mine tightened she said. "It was necessary to keep you and Tina alive. It might stop some of them from being so despicable in the long term as well." Her voice was shaking, and her body was trembling as well. I grabbed a glass and took her up to my room.

"This is a secret so shhh." I sat her down on my bed where Lyla was sleeping with Nigel and went to the closet. I came back out with a bottle of brandy and a small plastic container of ice. After pouring a glass for each of us I sat down and handed her the drink.

As soon as I sat down, she clung onto my arm with her free hand and said "Thanks, do you do this a lot?" I could tell what she was really asking.

"I set this up a long time ago. I used to just drink myself stupid and then repeat the process. After about 6 months I realized it wasn't helping, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to get drunk every once in a while." I tipped back the glass of brandy and looked over at Alice. "I'm not trying to force you to alcoholism, but a bit might help you calm down."

"I'm 23 but I was so focused on my future I've never drank alcohol or done any kind of drugs. It's just finally hitting me that everything I've worked for till now is going up in smoke." She took a sip of the brandy and pulled away. "Ick." Her tongue was still hanging out a bit and she looked adorable.

"Hold on." As I stood. "I didn't realize it was your first drink." I went back into the closet and grabbed a sweeter drink for her. As I grabbed a wine glass for her, she was looking around the room.

"How long have you lived here?" She stood up and was looking at the pictures on the dresser.

"I moved in right after we got married. The property was pretty cheap and with help from our parents we were able to get a really good interest rate. Not that any of that matters anymore. All the work I put into getting this house and it's been just me and the animals for 2 years." I was putting the cork back in the wine when she walked over.

"From what I've seen you're wearing her clothes right now, so you got the left side and she got the right.?" She asked as she peeked around me.

"Yeah. She was left handed so she preferred everything to be on the right for some reason I could never really understand." I handed her the wine glass. "Try this." I poured her glass of brandy into mine and watched her.

"Mmm. Much better." She said with a grin. "This is that stuff that gives hangovers if you drink too much right? I read about it somewhere."

"Drinking leads to hangovers. Sugary stuff just makes it worse." I replied straightly. I wasn't going to give her any bad info on drinking. "If you like that I'll give you another after dinner but with the work we still have tonight you shouldn't have too much."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "What kind of work?" She drank back the rest of the wine, so I finished off my drink and rinsed out the glasses in the bathroom sink.

As I started towards the guest room, I felt her hand slip into mine again. "If we can get your brother outside along with mine, I want to get a water reservoir built. It only takes 3 to 5 days of non-regulation for town and city water to turn toxic. It starts pretty slowly and by the time you realize you're sick it's too late. Next, I want to get some wood stocked up for more houses, well cabins I guess, to be built. And lastly we are going to need walls." I looked at her and she was nodding along to what I said.

"Is this all stuff you think about regularly or are you just this good at reacting to bad situations?" she stared fixedly at me.

"Since we don't know exactly what's going to happen it's better to plan for the worst. Plus, I wanted to see if fire manipulators and earth manipulators could work together to make glass." She looked confused. "With glass we can make greenhouses to help the plant manipulators and we could also replace or reinforce windows using their abilities with mine or your brothers." She smiled and squeezed my hand.

"No wonder you were already gathering supplies after a few hours of this. I'm glad I ran into you so early." She was smiling ear to ear and swinging our hands as we went into the guest room. "How are you doing Will?" She asked as we approached his bed. Leah was laying in the other bed sound asleep and Jacob was sleeping on top of her blanket.

Will was awake and sat up a bit more in the bed. "I'm up but I am getting restless." He looked like a child pouting about something.

"Well that's good. Maybe I can put you to work then." I responded.

He shifted his body to get out of bed. "What're we doing?" he asked as he went to stand up.

"I want to dig up a well and link it with a reservoir that your sister and my sister-in-law can regulate and maintain. We'll need more once we get some more houses going so this one's allowed to be a bit ugly." I smiled at the end.

He stood up and then looked at his sister holding my hand and said "OK, but what did I miss? Alice has always been pretty cold to anyone not family."

Alice squeezed tighter like she thought he was going to separate us. "Some things happened, and she said I could stay with her till I was ready." She looked down and her voice got quiet. "It's fine isn't it?"

I couldn't tell if she was asking me or her brother, so I rubbed her hand with my thumb. "It's fine. Now let's get something to eat before we get to work." Alice cheered up with that, so we woke Leah and Jacob and headed downstairs.

When we got into the dining room, I felt a bit overwhelmed. There was 17 people all circling the table once we got situated. I had never had more than 9 before today at one table and I hadn't eaten at it aside from this morning in more than 2 years. As I sat down Jenny ran over and sat in my lap.

"This is my seat, right?" she said looking up at me over her shoulder.

"You bet it is." I said as I gave her a squeeze. "I'm glad you remembered." I calmed down a lot from that and then I felt Alice leaning up against me. She moved her chair so that she could lean on me.

If this keeps up it could really cause some problems down the road. I thought to myself. For now, it was fine but when we are working on the reservoir later it could be a problem. I decided for now it would be fine, but I'd talk to her later. Even if she didn't want to. She hadn't smiled since this started but she kept trying to flash grins. She was still thinking about it, so I'll just let it be.

I looked at everyone in front of me and some were happy, some were sad, and others just like me were just overwhelmed. We ate and chatted about the work left to do. I said that if anyone wanted to sleep or needed some time to deal with everything it would be fine, but if they could help, I would really appreciate it. Everyone was really interested in helping and even decided that at first light the 2 metal users were going to go find a bigger truck for hauling supplies to get walls up as soon as possible.

"For tonight I wanted to get some trees from the tree line out back and get a line dug out for water that Delilah and Alice can regulate. After we get that done most people can go to sleep and then the rest of us will keep watch. I have the 2 beds in the guest room and 2 pull out couches in my computer room. Plus, what's in the living room, it might be a squeeze, but I think everyone should manage. And since someone made me sleep 5 or 6 hours..." I glanced at Alice and she shrunk down a little. "I won't need to sleep for quite a while."

After dinner everyone set off to work and we got pretty far along. The 5 plant manipulators helped us get the trees over by the house. It looked like the trees were rolling pretty fast, and the wood would take the shape of boards or whatever else they needed it to be. The hole for the well was faster than expected since Zack just stood where I wanted the well and then slowly parted the dirt under his feet. After he hit water, he made another hole to get back up and then shook off some water.

"You're a fast learner." I smiled and gave him a slap on the back.

"I'll help out." Alice said. She caused the water to come off his skin and clothes and then it moved around a bit and fell into a basin we had started using to start off the water supply. I realized the movement was separating the clean water from the possible toxins.

"You ready Will?" I asked as I stepped towards the hole.

"Sure, sure." He walked over, and we "lifted" the pile of steel. I stepped onto the side and he stood next to me. We lowered ourselves slowly into the hole and were covering the sides all the way to the bottom. Once we reached the bottom, we ran a pipe into the bottom and I hooked up the water pump we brought down. "This should help long term. The rungs were a good idea in case someone has to get down here." His deep voice reverberated in the tunnel.

"You never know when someone will need to check the pump. Plus, it's set to stop when the hose is blocked or can't flow out, so we don't have to worry too much about it. I figured make a manhole cover and call it a day." We started shifting the metal under us almost like a strange escalator.

When we reached the top and I covered the hole Alice grabbed onto me from behind and with her head on my shoulder she said, "good job you two."

I was starting to get used to the clinging by her, so I just said "Thanks. We can start a tank above here like they used to have, and you and Delilah can keep it clean." I looked over at the other people working and Agatha had finished flattening 2 houses worth of ground. We had spent some time deciding the layout so if the building needed to continue it would be easy to keep spreading. "I'd like to continue but I'm almost spent on my ability. What about everyone else?"

A few people said they were spent while some more were still good to go. I decided to call it since we were getting close to midnight.

"I think we should call it for now and that way there is still some people that can support the rest of us if anything happens "

"That's a smart call Reika." Alice said cheerfully. "My power isn't as useful for what we are doing now but I was using it a bunch, so I feel a bit spent."

When we made it into the house some people set up to make sure they can play defense while the rest of us headed to our pre-decided sleeping areas. I knew Alice wasn't going to be leaving my side for a while and since that nap in the truck was so comfortable, I wasn't opposed. I got an idea on the way up the stairs and when I went into my bedroom I changed in the closet and then headed into the bathroom and poured a glass of water. When I came out Alice was putting on some pajamas, I loaned her, and I saw more of her than I expected. She didn't cover herself, but she did speed up a bit as I crawled in to my bed. As soon as I was situated, she laid down next to me and took my hand under the blanket.

"I wanted to try something, but I want you to do it too. Will you help me out with this?" I had rolled and was looking Alice in the face.

"Sure, what do you need me to do!" She responded instantly, and she looked ready for anything.

"I want to see if running our abilities to zero will do anything. There's a chance you might not be able to use our abilities ever again or even worse physical pain could happen to us." I wasn't sure how to word it, but I figured she would get what I meant.

"Oh, that's why you put water near the bed. I thought you were one of those people that just woke up and drank in the middle of the night." She had moved along the bed closer to me and was basically wrapped around my left arm and leg. "So, you want me to manipulate the water until I can't, anymore right?"

She was so close to me I felt a bit intimidated. I couldn't tell if she was flirting or oblivious and I could feel my cheeks warming as I said "Yeah. I'll do the same with the metal hangars I grabbed from the closet." I couldn't move away since she was latched onto me, so I just turned my head and acted like I was focusing on the metal above me. As I shifted it, I tried stretching as thin as possible. It spread out above me, but I could not get it thinner then about 1 centimeter and when I tried to make shapes I could go with spheres and circles, triangles and pyramids, squares and cubes, and a few more shapes. As long as they weren't too elaborate, I could form them. I started feeling weaker, but I knew I should keep going to properly check. I moved it into a smaller and easier to handle shape and then moved it next to the bed. As I ran out of power, I felt depleted and could feel sweat on my body.

I looked at her and her face was covered in sweat and she was smiling at me. "I feel somehow empty, but fine."

"Yeah." I nodded because I understood. "But I can already feel it coming back. I think when we wake up, we will be fine."

"I feel something growing." Alice said as she slid her hands around mine again. I didn't realize she had stopped but I also didn't realize that I was already so used to it I felt better when she grabbed onto me. "I think you are onto something with this."

"I have no idea, but it might be like stamina. If you don't push yourself it won't really get a chance to grow. I'm gonna call it mental stamina for now." My breathing had calmed down but with Alice this close to me and what I saw before I was having a hard time thinking straight.

"Good idea. I'm really tired even with that nap earlier though so I'm going to go to sleep. She let go of my hand and I started to reach for it but was met by her wrapping herself around me in an embrace. "I hope you don't mind, but I slept so well this afternoon..." She trailed off.

"It's fine. I don't remember the last time I slept that long myself." I said as I reached out to embrace her back.

"I'm so glad." She said back quietly. She leaned forward so her face was almost touching mine and continued. "Even if this is the end of the world, I am so glad I got to meet you." As she said that she gave me a small kiss on the edge of my mouth. "Thank you for saving Will. If it's OK I think I want to spend whatever time we have left by your side."

I was shaken. I knew there was a chance for this, but I kept actively putting it on the back burner. "I can't give you everything you deserve. I am glad I saved your brother, but only because every person I can help with the information I learned after Lexi's death means they were saved because of her. That means you and Jacob should thank her." I never took my eyes off hers and she just looked at me.

"I don't think you grasp what I meant. I know you still love her. Your entire room, closet and every frame in this house has a picture that she is in. Do I want you? Yes. But I don't know if it's because you saved me and Will, or because your beautiful and kind, or just cause you're here and I want someone." She kissed me this time full on. I didn't kiss back at first but since I didn't stop her or pull away, she held the kiss for a few seconds. "When you're ready for even just physical I'll be here as long as you need."

I rested my forehead against hers and said, "If you would have given that speech before we did our workout you might have gotten lucky tonight." I said with a grin. I kissed her back this time. "I can't promise anything but try again tomorrow. Now, let's go to sleep." I could see her puff her cheeks out as I teased her and gave her a quick peck as I wrapped around her for sleep.

"Ugh, stupid, stupid Alice." She mumbled. I couldn't help but chuckle at that.