At five-thirty a.m., I was rooting through the fridge looking for supplies.

I hadn’t felt sleepy for even a second. I’d kept an eye on the clock and checked the quest FIND ANNE’S FATHER a half dozen times; no change.

So I decided to make breakfast.

There was bread. There was jam. There were eggs. There were onions.

I could make us omelettes.

As soon as I put the pan on the stove, a new quest appeared:

QUEST ALERT: MAKE A GOOD BREAKFAST FOR YOURSELF AND ANNE.

REWARDS: INCREASED RELATIONSHIP WITH ANNE DRAKE, SKILL ‘COOKING’ UNLOCKED.

So Cooking was a skill, too? Excellent.

I fried up a couple of omelettes, toasted and buttered bread, and had two plates ready before Anne stumbled down the stairs.

“What time is it?” she mumbled, half-asleep.

“Five forty-five. You can get ready; I already checked on the car, it should be fully charged in fifteen minutes.”

“You made breakfast!” Anne exclaimed. “Oh, thank you! I was thinking we’d just get a bunch of biscuits….”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Now get ready and we’ll go find your dad.”

As Anne wolfed down the last of her toast, I got a notification.

QUEST COMPLETED: MAKE A GOOD BREAKFAST!

INCREASED RELATIONSHIP WITH ANNE DRAKE.

RELATIONSHIP: TRUSTED FRIEND.

SKILL UNLOCKED: COOKING

COOKING: THE ART OF MAKING FOOD TASTE GOOD.

LEVEL 4: YOU CAN COOK AN ACCEPTABLE, NUTRITIOUS MEAL. MIGHT WANT TO WORK ON THE TASTE, THOUGH.

Well, that was a first. A skill that was at a level other than 1. Maybe because I already knew how to cook?

I had 'borrowed', with Anne's permission, some of her dad's old clothes. Mainly because the ones I'd been wearing had started to smell.

"It seems weird to be going looking for your dad in his old clothes," I muttered as I got into the car.

"Probably not the weirdest thing to happen this week," Anne replied as she fiddled with the controls. "I'm setting it to take us to St. Mary's first. After that we'll check out Tanisport General."

My first ride in an autocar was pretty uneventful. The streets were fairly deserted, with only a few emergency vehicles and rushing to and fro.

"Most people are sheltering in place,” Anne commented. “There’s a lot of stuff about what to do immediately after an alien attack.”

“They teach you that in school?”

“Yeah. Along with the history of the alien attacks on Earth. Most of what that friendly Mr. Ryman told you is stuff we learnt in school.”

“Oh. We’re lucky he didn’t get suspicious.”

“He just thought you were dumb. Hey, don’t you have a luck stat?”

“I have a luck attribute, yes.”

“So can you increase your luck attribute? We could use some right now, while looking for Dad.”

“If I get a chance, I will.” It seemed sensible, especially since my Luck number was - relatively speaking - a bit low. And I’d need it for Prophet’s Roulette.

It seemed that I gained Wisdom by making wise decisions. How could I increase my Luck points? By being lucky? Was that a chicken-and-egg game?

As the autocar turned left, Anne gasped. “Oh hell.”

I turned to look. A group of men were standing by the side of the road, brandishing weapons. Mostly knives and baseball bats, but there were a couple with handguns. They wore a sort of mishmash mix of black-and-grey coats and T-shirts.

What was strangest was that every single one of them wore a black stovepipe hat.

“The Blackhats,” Anne murmured.

"Who are they?"

"They're a gang. Like the Grunters. Usually they fight over stuff."

"Can we avoid them?"

"Hopefully." Anne tapped a series of commands into the console.

Tessie reversed direction,. moving away from the gang.

The gang members watched us go with disinterest. One of them - a taller fellow with a gun in his belt - gave us the finger.

Observe, I thought.

My skill kicked in.

ANTON 'BUTCHER' CRUZ

CLASS: THUG

FACTION: BLACKHATS

LEVEL 4

HP 140/140

HANDGUN (GLOCK 21) +40 DAMAGE/HIT

RELATIONSHIP: DISLIKED

Huh. Now I had the thug's name. The Class description seemed particularly apt.

And the hit points - and weapon description - seemed useful. In theory I could take up to three bullets from that gun. Not that I had any intention of doing so.

NEW FACTION IDENTIFIED: BLACKHATS

I watched as the gang receded into the distance.

"Why'd we end up in front of the Blackhats, anyway?"

Anne shrugged. "The navigation algorithm looks for the best route based on the maps. You can't exactly tag locations as having a bunch of gang members gathered. You can tag a road to avoid, which is what I did just now."

"So autocar navigation has its limits."

"Like all computers, it's not a solution you can trust blindly."

The rest of the drive to St. Mary's took only a few minutes. The autocar slid carefully into the parking lot, which had at least a hundred other vehicles.

"Pretty busy," I remarked.

"Mostly doctors' cars," remarked Anne, pointing at one with a medical cross in one corner.

We walked into the reception, where dozens of people were waiting, most with cuts, scrapes, bruises or burns. A few nurses were trying to get everyone's help.

A sullen-faced receptionist took our names, then directed us to the first floor, where the unconscious patients were.

As soon as we walked into the ward, I got a notification:

TEST OF LUCK: FAILED.

We went bed to bed to see each of the seven patients. None of them was Paul Drake.

"Tanisport General it is," I told Anne.

It took us almost two hours to reach Tanisport General.

If there had been little traffic on the road to St. Mary's, the same could not be said of the rest of the city. Dozens of roads were clogged with trucks, damaged or destroyed cars, and emergency vehicles. Several buildings wore a gutted out look.

Three times, we had to avoid roads because of the Blackhats or the Grunters.

I failed six more luck tests on the way. Each time that happened, we had to change route to avoid traffic, a blocked road, or a gang. I resolved to boost my Luck at the next level up.

If St. Mary's had been busy, Tanisport General was chaotic. The foyer was clogged with people, many on stretchers. Many were suffering from burn wounds.

As we waited in a line at the reception, I watched a nurse bandaging the arm of an old man.

A quick Observe showed me the nurse was Level 3. Still not much information, and this time it didn't show her name or HP.

TEST OF INTELLIGENCE: PASSED

TEST OF PERCEPTION: PASSED

UNLOCK SKILL: FIRST AID?

That was a nice surprise. I clicked 'Yes'.

FIRST AID

YOU CAN RENDER IMMEDIATE MEDICAL HELP TO A WOUNDED COLLEAGUE.

LEVEL 1: REMOVES STATUS EFFECTS: BLEEDING, SHOCK. +2 HP TO TARGET.

COST: 20 MP.

REQUIREMENTS: TARGET RELATIONSHIP MUST BE FRIEND OR BETTER.

…. I could actually restore someone else's HP? Nice.

Although the Relationship being Friend or better….. I assumed it meant I could only use it on people I actually knew.

Also, it seemed I could learn some skills just by observing others…. With an Intelligence and Perception check.

…. Well, that sort of made sense.

The reception nurse told us to go to the ward on the eleventh floor.

As soon as I entered the ward, I got another notification:

TEST OF LUCK: PASSED.

The ward looked exactly like I'd seen in my vision. Same walls. Same decor.

And, to my surprise, the same nurse as I'd seen in my vision.

I made a beeline towards her. "Excuse me, Nurse Hinnet?"

She gave me a frazzled look. "Yes?"

"My sister and I are looking for our dad. Paul Drake?"

"We don't have anyone by that name. Can you describe him?"

"Black hair, brown eyes, beard. He may be unconscious."

"Come with me," she replied.

We walked to the corner, where a doctor and a nurse were arguing over a bed.

"... there has to be some response. No other symptoms?"

"Nothing, doctor. Still unconscious."

"... it makes no sense…." The doctor became aware of our approach. "Hinnet! What are these two doing in my ward?"

"They're here to identify a patient."

"Well, go ahead."

Anne and I approached the bed.

Sure enough, it was Paul Drake. Exactly as I'd seen him.

QUEST COMPLETED: FIND ANNE'S FATHER. +100 XP.

XP: 570/2000.

QUEST ALERT: GET PAUL DRAKE HOME SAFELY. REWARD: +100 XP, INCREASED RELATIONSHIP WITH ANNE DRAKE.

"Doctor, " I asked, "why isn't he awake?"

“Are you family?” asked the doctor.

“Yes, that’s our dad,” I replied.

“I’m Dr. Mendez. I’m sorry to inform you that your dad is in a coma.”

“Do you know what’s causing it?”

“We think he injected himself with something. Do you know if he has a history of taking drugs?”

“My dad doesn’t do drugs,” protested Anne.

“Well, we’ve had him on glucose and he hasn’t woken up for the last three days. I’ll ask someone to come and take a look at him…” A beep interrupted him. “Excuse me.” With that, the doctor strode off.

"That was abrupt," I remarked. "He could have told us what was going on."

"Dr. Mendez has been on shift for the last eighteen hours," interjected Nurse Hinnet, "and he got word this morning that his wife and two boys were killed in the attack. He hasn't stopped working even then. Now that you are done judging our doctors, would you like to take a look at your dad?"

Paul Drake seemed to be out of it, for sure.

The nurse showed us his arm - and the needle marks.

"He's been injecting himself with something," she explained, "and recently, too. A couple of weeks, at most. But he must have gotten the dose wrong, or taken more than he's used to. We couldn't find anything in his bloodwork."

"A drug overdose shouldn't result in him being unconscious for this long."

"And how would you know? Got a medical degree tucked in somewhere? From Google University, maybe?"

"No…"

She shrugged. "You’re next of kin. Wait while we get the neurologist."

I glanced over Paul with a quick Observe.

PAUL DRAKE

CLASS: WORKING MAN

LEVEL 3

HP 120/120

STATUS EFFECTS: UNCONSCIOUS, STUNNED, DIABETIC, COMA, Q-PHASE BLAST EFFECT

Uh…. I had no idea what Q-phase blast effect was.

But diabetes. That I knew. And I’d heard about hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic comas.

"Nurse Hinnet?" I asked. "Have you given him glucose?"

She stared at me. "Yes, we’ve had him hooked up to glucose since he came in. It’s how we feed patients in a coma."

"He's diabetic. His blood sugar might be low."

"Damnit," swore the nurse, "you could have mentioned that first."

"Can we do something to check for low blood sugar? And the Q-phase effect?"

"The what?"

".... Never mind, can we just get someone?"

Hinnet strode across to an intercom and started barking instructions into it. Anne looked at me strangely. "Dad doesn't have diabetes."

"Are you sure? My power says he is. Sometimes diabetes patients get hypoglycaemic."

"What's that mean?"

"Low blood sugar. Can send people into a coma."

"Isn't diabetes high blood sugar?"

"If he's been overdosing his insulin, it could trigger low sugar. Or if he didn't eat on time after taking insulin."

Anne paled. "He's been very careful about his food the last couple of weeks. Switched out all the sugary snacks in the house and got us a bunch of healthy vegetables."

"Did he say why?"

"He gave me a long talk about how we need to eat healthy and all the sugar would rot my teeth. I …. I just told him whatever. Crap. I should have listened, shouldn't I?"

"It's not your fault. Although if he did it less than a month ago….. I'd say he was recently diagnosed. And prescribed insulin." I pointed at the needle marks. "Which sometimes has to be injected."

"Oh. Oh! That's why the needle marks! Why didn't he tell me?"

"Maybe he just didn't have time."

"That could be it. Now what?"

"Well, diabetes and diabetic comas are …. manageable. What worries me is the Q-phase blast effect. I have no idea what that is."

The next few minutes involved a bunch of additional medical equipment, and a new doctor appearing.

Dr. Gomez was a white-haired gentleman. "I'm a neurologist here," he explained. “We were able to get your dad's medical records, now that we have his name. He'd been diagnosed three weeks ago and put on insulin."

“Why didn’t the hospital spot the diabetes in the blood test?”

“Your dad’s in an automated bed. It’s designed to take care of coma patients, and handles feeding and nutrition through injecting nutrients. The system keeps feeding him until his blood sugar reaches normal levels. The blood test was taken after he was already strapped in… which meant his glucose levels registered as normal.”

“But then he should have woken up.”

"If it were a diabetes-induced coma, yes. As to why he’s still unconscious - I’m afraid we can't be sure. If he had any head injury, I’d attribute it to that, but his skull is intact and there’s no sign of any other cause. Not hormonal, nothing on the CT scan….”

“Can we take him home?”

“... Normally I’d advise against it."

"Normally?"

"Right now there’s nothing we can do for him - until we have more information.” Dr. Gomez frowned. “We’d need to do some long-term monitoring - several days of data, at least. However, his immediate condition is stable and he can be looked after.”

“I don’t suppose we can take him home.”

“Actually, you can, if you hook him up to a home monitoring bed."

"A what?"

"It's an automated bed for monitoring and treating patients who are immobile. Exactly like the beds in the hospital. Can be set up in a home, requires minimal maintenance, and alerts the nearest hospital if anything serious happens so you can have him picked up in minutes. What's your nearest hospital?"

"St. Mary's…. I think."

"No, it's Medivent," interrupted Anne. "They're closer."

"Well, you can take him home and have him set up in the bed. It'll track his vitals and alert the hospital if anything urgent is needed."

"What about food and water?"

"He'll need to be plugged into a feeding tube and a home ventilator. All of that can be handled by the bed. Do you have a room in your home where you can set up a bed?"

“I… think so.”

“Good, then that’s settled. I’ll arrange to have Medivent send a bed to your home. Write down your address.”

“But he’s in a coma. Doesn’t he need constant care?”

“The bed does most of that. If you need more, you can hire a part-time nurse.”

“Won’t that cost us a lot?”

“Your dad’s insurance should take care of it. You can call his office and they’ll set it up. Most insurance firms cover these expenses. Also, people generally come out of a coma pretty fast. Maybe a few days. That’s all you need to handle.”

“How do we get him to the house?”

“We’ll set up a travel chair. Do you have a car?”

“We have an autocar.”

“That’ll work. I’ll ask the medics to show you how to set one up.”

After the doctor left, the medics took close to an hour to arrive. Two burly men, who disconnected Mr. Drake, carried him to the autocar, and set up a complex set of tubing and piping.

“He can breathe on his own,” explained one, “so he’s not completely out of it. But he’s not waking up, which is the only issue. Mostly you can manage with a feeding tube and a bag.”

“A bag?”

“Urinary bag. You’ll have to be careful with it, shake it too much and the catheter could rip. Since he’s out of it he won’t notice but there could be bleeding. So be careful.”

“Understood.”

“Here’s an instruction manual for using the travel chair. Here’s one for a home monitoring bed - though you may not get the same model. Once he’s home, get him into the bed and set it up.”

“Wait! How do we move him from the car to the bed?”

The two men exchanged glances. “Uh, I think the Medivent guys will be sending someone to move him.”

“And if we get home before they do?”

“He can sit in the car for a while. It doesn’t hurt.”

I had deep misgivings about the entire thing. I quickly Observed the two:

FRANK DUNN

CLASS: MEDICAL TECHNICIAN

FACTION: TANISPORT CITY

LEVEL 3

RELATIONSHIP: NEUTRAL

FRANK IS GENERALLY A SOCIABLE, HONEST INDIVIDUAL DEDICATED TO SAVING LIVES. RIGHT NOW, THOUGH, HE IS EXHAUSTED, DEMORALIZED AND STRUGGLING TO KEEP GOING.

DOMINIC PEARSON

CLASS: MEDICAL TECHNICIAN

FACTION: TANISPORT CITY

LEVEL 3

RELATIONSHIP: NEUTRAL

DOMINIC IS GENERALLY A POLISHED, SUAVE INDIVIDUAL WITH A DEEP COMMITMENT TO DOING THE RIGHT THING BY HIS PATIENTS. RIGHT NOW, THOUGH, HE IS EXHAUSTED, DEMORALIZED, AND VERY VERY SLEEPY. MAY BE PRONE TO ERRORS IN JUDGMENT.

… Okay, neither of them seemed to be trying to screw us over. At least not intentionally.

Given the chaos the hospital is in at the moment, they’re probably doing the best they can.

The ride back home was fairly quiet. Paul seemed quite peaceful in the back - almost like he was asleep.

A truck was waiting when we reached, with a man in coveralls. "I'm here to hand over the bed," he explained. "Sign here."

Anne signed and the man started unloading boxes.

"Where's the bed?" Anne asked.

"You have to assemble it," replied the man. "Here's the instructions."

"Instructions?" Anne exclaimed. "He's in a coma! This thing is supposed to keep him alive! Why can't you fix it?"

"I'm just the driver," the man shrugged. "I haven't a clue how to assemble these. You can call a handyman."

"A handyman to assemble a medical bed?"

"Anne," I intervened, "he doesn't know. Let it be. We'll figure it out."

We left Paul in the car as we tried to figure out what to do with the bed.

Anne got on the phone to find someone who could install medical equipment.

In the meantime, I started going through the instructions.

About half an hour later, I approached Anne. "I think I might be able to fix this."

Anne put down her phone. "Are you sure?"

"It's strangely easy. The manual explains everything quite clearly. There's also a self-test function which will tell me if I get something wrong."

"Uh…" Anne gestured helplessly. "I haven't been able to find anyone who can help. If you can…. It'll be amazing."

"I'll try. And I think my power might help. I have a Mechanic skill, after all."

QUEST ALERT: ASSEMBLE THE MEDICAL BED FOR PAUL DRAKE.

REWARD: +400 XP, NEW SKILL UNLOCKED.

FAILURE: -50 HP TO PAUL DRAKE.

TIME LIMIT: 12 HOURS.

And now it looked like a challenge….

Assembling the bed was slow going. At half a dozen points, I had to stop and re-check the manual.

In the process, I discovered a few new tricks to my Mechanic skill. A tricky joint to assemble called for the use of 20 AP. Moving around the parts of the bed into place and aligning them? Another 30 AP, specifically for the alignment. Hooking the plugs up to the charging points? A Perception test, which I managed to pass. Reading the manual again and again, to try and make sure I got everything right? Three Intelligence tests; all passed. Powering the bed on and running it through the self-test routine? 5 AP and a Dexterity test.

Finally, about four hours later, I was done.

QUEST COMPLETE: ASSEMBLE THE MEDICAL BED FOR PAUL DRAKE.

YOU HAVE COMPLETED A HIGHLY COMPLEX MEDICO-MECHANICAL ASSEMBLY!

+400 XP.

MECHANIC ADVANCES TO LEVEL 5. YOU CAN NOW ASSEMBLE COMPLEX EQUIPMENT, ONCE YOU HAVE LEARNT HOW TO.

KNOWN BLUEPRINTS: AUTOMATED MEDICAL BED.

40% REDUCTION TO AP COST FOR ASSEMBLY.

+1 TO INTELLIGENCE FOR COMPLETING A HIGHLY ADVANCED TASK IN RECORD TIME.

NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: MEDTECH.

MEDTECH LEVEL 1: YOU KNOW HOW TO USE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT OF ALL TYPES. YOU CAN FIX AN OXYGEN CYLINDER, CONNECT A PATIENT TO A VENTILATOR, RUN AN X-RAY MACHINE OR CAT SCANNER, OR OPERATE A BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF. KEEP LEARNING AND YOU MAY EVEN BE ABLE TO CREATE NEW EQUIPMENT.

REQUIREMENTS: FIRST AID LEVEL 1, MECHANIC LEVEL 3.

My HUD had updated:

HP: 120/120 PP 216/216

MP: 272/272 CP 210/210

AP: 120/120

$0.00 XP: 970/2000 Ethics: +10

“Well, we’ve got it hooked up,” I said, “so we can move your dad here.”

“I made lunch while you were waiting,” Anne said. “Once we’ve moved him, we can eat. …. How do we feed Dad?”

“Feeding tube with glucose bags,” I replied. “I’m not sure how I know this, but I can connect a glucose bag and a feeding tube.”

“You can?”

“Yes. I got a new skill - Medtech. It seems to give me basic knowledge of how to use different types of medical equipment.”

“Uh, okay. As long as your power helps Dad I don’t care how weird it is. Um… sorry. That’s probably not a nice thing to say.”

“Don’t worry. My power doesn’t seem to mind.” I shrugged. “Let’s just get him inside and hook him up.”

“Uh… I’ll help you carry him.”

“No need,” I replied.

As we entered the garage, I tapped into my other Heritage skill:

CAPACITY BOOSTED: 60 KG. TIME: 05:00.

Paul Drake was a healthy man for his age and height of five feet six. He weighed a grand total of sixty-three kilos.

Lifting him was a slight strain, but not much.

YOU ARE SLIGHTLY OVERBURDENED (5% OVER CAPACITY). YOU WILL CONSUME AP AT 1 AP/SEC UNTIL YOU REDUCE THE WEIGHT YOU ARE CARRYING.

NET AP REGEN REDUCED TO +1.2/SEC.

We hooked Paul up to the bed, set up the monitors and leads, connected the glucose bag, connected the catheter, and got the entire system worked and synchronized with the Medivent server.

Then - and only then - did we take a break.

“He’s safe now,” I said. “The bed will keep him stable more or less indefinitely. We just need to change the glucose and drain the urine bag regularly.”

“I called the Medivent people. They said that they’ve got his records on the system now. They’ll have a doctor look at it.” Her voice was soft. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”

“I’m sure he will. Let’s just wait for things to calm down. Then the doctor can take a look at him, maybe in a few days, and treat him. Did he never tell you he had diabetes?”

“No, but you were right. I found this.” She held out a bottle labelled ‘Insulin’. “It was in the mini-fridge.”

“You have a mini-fridge?”

“Dad normally uses it to keep his beer.”

I shrugged, and took a close look at the bottle.

Observe.

INSULIN: REMOVES CONDITION: HYPERGLYCEMIA.

THIS INJECTABLE INSULIN DOSE IS RECOMMENDED FOR PATIENTS WHO CANNOT USE ORAL DRUGS FOR DIABETES.

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: HYPOGLYCEMIA.

“Well, you can’t be faulted for not looking where beer is kept.”

“Uh-huh. What now? Any more quests you have to do?”

“Not as of the moment. I have to pay the store I stole the pants from - I think that’s it.”

Ding!

QUEST ALERT: REVIVE PAUL DRAKE.

PAUL DRAKE IS IN A COMATOSE STATE AND MAY STAY THUS FOR A WHILE, UNLESS YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO CURE HIM.

FIGURE OUT HOW TO REMOVE THE STATUS EFFECTS THAT ARE KEEPING HIM UNCONSCIOUS AND REVIVE HIM.

REWARD: +500 XP, INCREASED RELATIONSHIP WITH PAUL DRAKE, INCREASED RELATIONSHIP WITH ANNE DRAKE, NEW SKILLS UNLOCKED.

“Crap,” I swore. “A quest to revive your father.”

“That’s good, right?” Anne looked hopeful.

“Yeah, it means he can be revived. But it says I have to remove the status effects. Can you look up what a Q-phase blast is?”

“I’ll check.” Anne headed to the computer.

We spent several hours looking up the terms Q-phase blasts, and Q-phase.

There was a musical band called Q-phase, and some strange mathematical terms, but nothing that seemed to be a medical condition - unless Paul was suffering a headache induced by too much trigonometry.

By evening, we’d exhausted our energy researching.

“Let’s make some dinner,” I suggested. “Food will help us focus.”

“Will do,” Anne replied. “I’ll show you where the supplies are. Uh… I need to check whether we need to get groceries.”

After taking stock, we realized a few things:

One, there was enough food - and stocks - in the house for a week.

Two, Anne had no idea how to access her dad’s bank accounts. If we needed anything, we were limited to whatever cash was in the house.

Three….

The Medivent bed wasn’t free.

We discovered this when we called the hospital and were informed that there was a ‘nominal charge’ for use of the bed.

Four hundred dollars a month. Payable at the end of the month, of course.

“I thought Dad’s insurance would cover it,” Anne said as we cooked dinner. “I swear.”

“You did the right thing,” I replied. “We couldn’t very well leave your dad in the hospital. Especially with that doctor wanting him out.”

“I can try to get Dad’s bank accounts,” Anne continued. “I might be able to guess his password.”

“Even I wouldn’t try that. Don’t accounts get locked after three tries? Better we wait a couple of days and go to the bank. The bank manager should be able to give you access.”

Anne gave me a weird look. “Go to the bank?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I’ve never actually seen a physical bank. I mean, we always bank electronically.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure they still exist. Banks always need some humans in them to make sure things don’t go wrong.”

“Okay. Are we okay to the end of the month?”

“I’m guessing you are. We are..... You’re okay with me staying for a bit, aren’t you?”

“I… hope you do stay. There’s really no-one else I can trust.”

“Plus you don’t know how to change the urine bag.”

“Plus I don’t know how to change the urine bag.”

“Let’s hope things get better. Maybe Paul will wake up tomorrow.”

Paul Drake didn’t wake up the next day.

Or the day after that.

We got the TV working and were able to tap into news channels. The city was in chaos, with riots and gang attacks in many places.

Between caring for Paul and keeping Anne’s spirits up, I spent some time fixing things around the house. A broken window, a malfunctioning washing machine, some problems with the computers.

Hauling things up and down the stairs was quite interesting, because after several hours of this, I got an interesting notification:

DUE TO HEAVY EXERCISE, YOUR STRENGTH HAS INCREASED. +1 STRENGTH.

Which also resulted in a jump in my Carry capacity.

I decided to take advantage of this with even more lifting and hauling, and some exercises to build up strength.

Anne noticed, of course. “Why are you swinging that garbage bag around?”

I looked at the bag I’d picked. Sure, it was a green plastic bag, and I’d filled it with heavy books - but it hadn’t struck me that it was a garbage bag.

“And why are my encyclopaedias in the garbage bag?”

“Er… I’m trying to do strength exercises.”

Anne gave me a Look. “Dad has some dumbbells in the garage. I suggest you give those a try. And keep your hands off my books.” She marched off upstairs to her bedroom.

“Yes, ma’am,” I muttered sheepishly.

In fairness, the dumbbells paid off. After four days of regular exercise, my strength increased again. However, this boost had taken a lot longer than the first.

Fortunately, I remembered to stretch every day before starting the exercises. Even more fortunately, stretching - and flexibility exercises of any sort - gave me an unexpected bonus after a few days, in the form of a +1 to Dexterity.

Which also pushed my AP up to 132.

That got me thinking about how the different numbers interacted.

A +1 to vitality had increased HP by 10, but a +1 to Dexterity increased AP by 12? Maybe there was another parameter at work here…

My AP regen had also gone up, to 2.3.

Was there another parameter that affected how much HP and/or AP increased?

The next Prophet’s Roulette gave me the answer:

AP = PER X DEX

AP REGEN = (PER + DEX) /10

All nice and mathematical.

Some of my tasks - the more challenging ones - resulted in a boost to my XP. The most interesting was when I cooked dinner one night:

BEEF WELLINGTON IS A COMPLEX DISH, DEVILISHLY TOUGH TO MASTER. YOU HAVE RISEN TO THE CHALLENGE.

FOR COOKING A TRULY CHALLENGING DISH FOR THE FIRST TIME, +5 XP!

ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS AND LEARNING BY COOKING NEW AND MORE COMPLEX DISHES.

I told Anne about it that night. "Maybe I can gain XP through cooking."

"You don't get it from making breakfast? Or lunch?"

".... It did say complex dishes."

"Well, beef Wellington is supposed to be tough to make." Anne chewed her mouthful. "Thankfully, yours isn't tough to eat."

"It should be succulent and melt in the mouth."

"Well, I think you should make it more often."

“I’m glad you like it.”

“It’s okay.”

"Seeing as you've finished your entire plate."

"Well, I wouldn't want to waste food." Anne grinned cheekily.

I picked up the plates and took them to the sink. Anne’s schoolbag sat on the countertop.

“Have they said when schools will open?” I asked.

“I called the school today. No clear idea; not this week at least.”

“You’ll have to do something to study. Can’t miss out on your education.”

“Hey, you don’t have any education.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I mean, when we get around to getting IDs for you, what do we say for your schooling? There’ll be no records of an Andrew Drake in any school anywhere.”

I shrugged. “I’ll have to tell people I’m home schooled.”

“Wish I could be home schooled,” grumbled Anne.

“But then we’d never have met. And you’d never have had this delicious Beef Wellington.”

“Make me some more of it and I might actually go to school.”

Sadly, I didn’t get a skill for washing dishes.

I did, however, do some research on other ultrahumans. There was an entire category in Wikipedia dedicated to it.

Like cognitives, I learnt that there were different classifications of ultrahumans based on their powers.

Flyers could, obviously, fly. The Flying Storm was one such hero, right here in Tanisport. His powers including controlling air currents, which he used both to push himself forward and to create mini-tornadoes.

While we had been hiding for our lives, the Flying Storm had been picking up alien soldiers and dropping them from a height of a few hundred feet. Enough for any alien to go squish.

Due to his power to control air currents, there was also a view that the Flying Storm should be classified as an Elemental. Elementals were able to mentally control a single type of material, whether air, water, rock, iron, stone or wood. The Wikipedia moderators had decided not to take sides in the matter, but I found page after page dedicated to arguments between ‘the Flying Storm is an elemental’ and ‘no, he’s a flyer’ advocates.

The second famous hero from Tanisport was Lady Lumina, who had the ability to glow in the dark and to punch people really hard. I found a video of her fighting the aliens - she would dodge and weave as they shot at her, evading bullets effortlessly.

And when she punched a Sarnak, they ended up flying across the street.

Halfway through the video, I got some interesting notifications:

SKILL UNLOCKED: DODGE BULLETS. +50 AP / BULLET. ALSO WORKS ON BEAMS, LASER FIRE, AND ANY AIMED WEAPON. REQUIREMENTS: UNARMED COMBAT LEVEL 1, DEXTERITY + WISDOM 28.

SKILL UNLOCKED: DEADLY BLOW. 5 X DAMAGE TO ENEMY ON HIT. 50 AP. REQUIREMENTS: UNARMED COMBAT LEVEL 1, DEXTERITY + WISDOM 25.

SKILL UNLOCKED: EVADE BLOWS: DODGES ALL NORMAL BLOWS IN HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT. 20 AP/SEC. REQUIREMENTS: UNARMED COMBAT LEVEL 1, DEXTERITY 11.

Uhh….

I hoped I didn’t need these skills.

How did the skills unlock, anyway?

First Aid had unlocked by watching a nurse render aid.

These skills unlocked by watching Lady Lumina fight.

Would I gain new skills simply by watching people?

…. Well, children learnt math by watching teachers do it, and then practicing themselves. So it wasn’t … entirely unusual as a concept.

And each of the skills I’d learnt had been Level 1 when I started. Fixing things around the house, however, had pushed Mechanic up to Level 7 now.

MECHANIC LEVEL 7.

YOU CAN NOW ASSEMBLE COMPLEX EQUIPMENT EFFICIENTLY. YOU CAN ALSO ANALYZE SIMPLE MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT AND FIGURE OUT HOW IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED, EVEN WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF A MANUAL. COMPLEX EQUIPMENT MANUALS ARE STILL NEEDED BUT EASY TO UNDERSTAND.

50% REDUCTION TO AP COST FOR ASSEMBLY.

So even if I learnt a skill, not using it would leave it stuck at Level 1. Using it would make it more effective, like in the case of Mechanic - or Cooking, which was now at Level 6, thanks to the beef Wellington.

Which also meant that my cooking was easier and faster. And tastier.

I also learnt that Lady Lumina’s power classified her as a Herculean - a classification given to those who had super-strength.

If I kept getting my STR attribute up, I might actually qualify one day.

The glow that she emitted was not just for show, either. It had the effect of inspiring others to fight harder, removing fear and doubt, and - according to gang members she’d fought and captured - terrifying her enemies.

Which was technically a very weak form of mental influencing. But known - and acknowledged - enough to get some to call for her to be classified as a Master.

The superstrength, though, remained her defining feature.

Other than these two, Tanisport had three other heroes.

Soundwave was an Inventor. Inventors - capital I - specialized in making advanced technology far beyond what was possible with modern-day equipment. Soundwave’s specialty was music-based tools. He was known for his trademark Sonic Cannon, which could knock people unconscious. Only he could make them, but he made - and sold - several hundred each year, mostly to law enforcement departments across the country.

Viking was another Herculean, who wore heavy, Norse-themed armour, the iconic horned helmet, and used a huge axe. Not as strong as Lady Lumina, but quite able to lift and flip a Sarnak, as I saw in a video.

SKILL UNLOCKED: OVERHEAD THROW, 5 AP. +200% DAMAGE. REQUIREMENTS: UNARMED COMBAT LEVEL 1, STR 12.

The last of the heroes was Quintana, whose power was - essentially - to turn invisible. She did a lot of scouting and undercover work for the police. Her costume - when visible - was an all-white suit with a pattern of black-and-red stylized eyes all over it. It looked fairly creepy.

There were no videos of Quintana in ‘action’. Just in her bodysuit, shimmering into invisibility.