"Hello?" Alice answered her phone.

"Alice dear, is that you?" a worried voice asked.

"Mom? Are you fine? Where are you?" Alice asked question after question.

"Good. This is good. At least I can reach you."

"What do you mean, at least?"

"I can't reach Pete. That boy probably forgot to charge his phone again," the woman confirmed Alice's worries.

"That is... I'm with Ava right now. We are currently collecting some basics before we collect her little brother. Where are you right now?"

"It's a relief that you aren't on your own in all of this. I'm currently at Golden Glades. Do you remember it?"

"The elderly home?"

"Yes, the one where you helped out with renovations," her mother answered, "Right, did you already listen to what they said on the radio?"

"No, I didn't. Why, what is it about? And on which frequency?"

"It's on all frequencies. Do you have access to a radio right now?”

Alice looked around for a moment, finally finding one standing on the kitchen counter, “Yes. There is one. We are at the bike shop right now.”

“Okay, it's quite a lot, so just listen to it yourself. Also, I still need to try and reach a few more people while it's still possible. Do you think you two can get here on your own? If I ask, maybe some of the others here could come and get you two."

"It's okay, we are fine for now. Though, do you know if there are still people at the hospital? Or even better, do you have someone with a healing Skill on your end?"

"You mean all this supernatural stuff that people can suddenly do? Wait, did you get injured? Are you really okay? Or is it Ava?"

"I'm fine, for now. I got a little injured, and I have a kind of healing Skill of my own. But I don't think it does anything about infections, so I just want to make sure," Alice told a white lie she really hoped wouldn't bite her in the ass. But she didn't want to worry her mother even more than she already was.

"That's good. That's good... Come here if you can. I’m not sure yet if this place is as safe as I think, but it is at least better than being out there with just the two of you."

"Sure, mom. We will come as soon as we can."

"Right, what about Ava's parents?"

"In Hawaii, apparently."

"That's... Let's hope she gets to see them again. Oh, and we do have people who can treat wounds here. Three of the nurses, actually. Right, there is actually someone here who wants to talk with you when you get here."

"Hmm? Who?"

"You don't know him, at least according to what he said. His name is Albert, he was here to visit his grandfather. He says he is some kind of prophet, and it's mostly thanks to him that everyone is still fine. He told me to tell you to come here as quickly as possible."

"Okay... That's a lot. Yes, I will try to get there as quickly as we can. Until later."

"Good luck," her mother answered before she hung up.

Ava was looking at her expectantly. While Alice was on the phone, she had already tried to call someone herself several times, presumably her parents and brother. But she hadn't been able to reach anyone so far.

Alice pressed the palms of hands into her eyes as she thought for a moment.

"Okay... Good news, interesting news, or slightly concerning news. What do you want first?"

"No bad news? That's surprisingly good considering the situation. Start with the good one, I guess?"

"My mother is fine. She is at the Golden Glades, and they have people with healing Skills there."

"That is good news indeed. Then, the concerning news?"

"Apparently, they also have someone with a Prophet Class. And that guy told my mother to tell me to get there as quickly as possible because he wants to talk with me."

Ava looked at her, lost for words.

"Concerning was definitely a good choice of words. Any ideas what this is about?"

"Not in the least. What does your questionable experience tell you about such a scenario?"

"No idea. It could be anything from you losing the chance to meet the love of your life to a dragon is going to drop on our heads in the next five minutes."

"Then we still have time. I doubt the first one will happen, and even if it did, I have more sense than to start dating on the same day of getting told 99,9% of the population is going to die. And a dragon, don't we already have one on our front lawn? What's a second one going to do?"

"Quite a lot. Attack us, for example," Ava answered, already a bit more humor in her voice again. "Anyway, what's the interesting one about?"

"Turn on the radio. I don't know what it is about, but my mother told me to listen to it."

"Right, here," Ava said, throwing Alice a sandwich and a bottle of apple juice in the lap which she had found in the fridge.

While Alice was already taking her first bite, Ava was turning on the small radio before plopping down next to her.

A short jingle played before a voice she had never heard on any Radioshow before started playing. The sound crackled, as if the recording had been made fifty years ago.

"This recording is to be broadcasted on all frequencies in case of a nationwide natural or manmade disaster. Please stay calm and listen to this recording in its entirety.

In the case that this recording is played, please assume that the United states of America declared a state of emergency, and military or logistical help are unlikely to be able to reach you within the next twenty-four hours.

The following list contains the main resources of modern society which might not be available anymore in the near future, as well as an estimate of how long they might still be available."

This report was already starting off nice. It was definitely information that was nice to have, but just the fact that this kind of message was played had Alice extremely worried about the state of the rest of the country, if not the entire world. At least, it was good to know that the country seemed to have some kind of emergency plan, although she very much doubted it considered the possibility of an invasion by hostile magical fauna.

"Electricity: Please expect the power grid to fail within the next few hours as most facilities will go into emergency shut-down if they aren't regularly checked on by humans.

Cellphone service: Cellphone towers will continue working as long as the power grid is still online. Afterward, it is going to last for up to twenty-four additional hours, thanks to internal power generators. This, however, might be different depending on the area.

Water: The water system should continue working for four to six days. However, please be aware that without regular maintenance, there is a certain chance of the clean water getting contaminated by sewage after a certain time, making it undrinkable. This time will depend heavily on your place of residence.

Gas: The gas will continue working as long as there is pressure on the line. This might be maintained for a long time, but every kind of leak, or gas explosion in the worst case, will cause this to rapidly decline.

Fuel: Fluid and solid fuels will continue to work for several years before degrading. However, please be aware that these are limited resources.

Satellites: Most satellites orbiting our planet will continue working without human supervision for at least five years. This affects satellite phones as well as the GPS system. However, please be aware that the GPS system is liable to grow increasingly inaccurate without manual adjustments.

Next is a list of actions that are suggested to be taken if the current situation was caused by a meteor shower: ..."

Alice tuned out at this point. She highly doubted that that list had suggestions for their current situation in it.

"So, do you happen to have a satellite phone?"

"Do you have one?" Ava threw her question right back.

"Right. Let's hope we can find some of those in the shopping center."

"But they won't work. Not without a contract. There might be no one to deactivate it or even care if you don't pay the phone bill, but I doubt they are going to work without an already active contract," Ava made a point.

"Fuck, you are right. Maybe they work with a normal SIM-card, and the only thing different is the phone?"

"Let's hope so. Now, what do we need from this place?" Ava got them back on track.

"Mountain Bikes, most of all. Let's try to find ones that have pumps attached. In that vein, I would suggest a few inner-tubes and some of those fancy, new, foldable mantles. Also, replacement spokes and a nipple tightener for each of us."

"I didn't know bicycle shops sell sex toys nowadays," Ava commented with a stupid grin.

"Har har har. Very funny. The little screw-like things that are used to attach spokes to the wheel are called nipples, and a nipple tightener is used to, surprise surprise, tighten them. Anyway."

"You don't even own a bike, lazyass. How do you know more about them than me?"

"Worked in a repair shop in the past. ANYWAY, helmets, let's try to find some we are comfortable wearing the entire day, should be a bit of extra protection during a fight."

"Let's get two each. Helmets are generally designed to save your life exactly once. After that, they stop giving the same amount of protection."

"Good point. Right, let's hope we can find bigger backpacks, or backpacks at all, here as well. Alright, let's get started then."

It took them another ten minutes, one more round of raiding the fridge, and a visit to the lav each, before they finally got started.

It turned out their luck still hadn't left them yet. The oversized lizard in front of the building was still sleeping, although they did their best to stay out of sight of the glass-front regardless. Not just that, but probably owed to the bigger monster's presence, the building was completely free of both human, and more importantly, monster presence.

This fact made their job considerably easier, and only about half an hour passed before they had most of the stuff they needed gathered up. Alice was currently busy trying to find replacement spokes for each of their new rides. The radical difference in size between the two girls meant an equal size difference in their new bikes, which in turn meant they needed different replacement parts.

It was at that point that Ava suddenly came running with an excited look on her face. That on its own wasn't something new, although Alice could clearly tell that the redhead had something to show her.

She quickly put the right parts on the growing pile before Ava finally managed to drag her away.

Quickly, she got brought into a small corner in the back of the second floor they had apparently missed when checking for monsters, which was a little concerning by itself.

The small section labeled as "Mountain Bike safety gear", greeted her with a wall full of treasures in the form of gloves, elbow and knee protectors, full-enclosure helmets, and most of all: body armor.

Sure, Alice doubted that the black hard-plastic shells that would make them look like some kind of sci-fi soldiers could measure up to a kevlar-vest. However, that was just a matter of perspective. Where a bullet-proof vest was designed to protect you from overwhelming penetration, these sleek black armors were designed to prevent the blunt impacts following a fall of a bike going at high speeds.

"If you were in any way responsible for these things being here, I would call you a bloody genius. But good job finding this."

"Can't you just praise me like a normal person?" Ava asked, sticking her tongue out.

"Now, let's just hope they have our sizes."

"Tsk," the redhead clicked her tongue.

It was the eternal struggle of those on either extreme end of the size spectrum. But it turned out, while not exactly perfect, they actually found something for each of them.

Ava found something fitting from the children's section, eliciting an annoyed groan from her, and some laughs from Alice. Alice, in turn, got annoyed when she found some supporting the size of her body, but not the size of her chest, and got stuck halfway in barely able to breathe. She needed Ava's help to get back out.

Luckily, she actually did end up finding something fitting. It had a separate armor panel in the chest area that could be pushed out thanks to the stretchable netlike material in between. It revealed some pretty large gaps in her armor at the side and under her breasts and made her look like she was wearing boob armor, but it was still better than nothing.

"We look like we are in the wrong genre," Ava finally commented when both of them were fully equipped, even abandoning the helmets they had spent a lot of time picking out painstakingly in favor of ones covering their entire heads, including their chins.

She isn't wrong. Alice thought.

"Come, let's quickly sort out the stuff and then get going. We still have to find your brother."

That comment got the girl to put on a serious expression and get moving. Ten minutes later, the duo had sorted their supplies and divided them up equally between their now two and much larger backpacks. For a moment, Alice had thought about abandoning her laptop. However, she couldn't bring herself to leave it behind in the end, considering its hard drive contained the collected work of her last few years of programming. Even if none of that data had any actual value or use now, she had suffered too much frustration while creating those programs that she could just throw it all away.

For the last time, they checked first their own and then each other's equipment, making sure that they hadn't forgotten anything. When everything was fine, Alice checked if there were any souls outside the back door, and upon finding none, she pushed it open, checking again with her own eyes. She motioned Ava, who quickly pushed out one bike, and then the other.

Taking her own bike, Alice walked over to the fence that stood between the bike shop and the building right behind it. "Let's get to work," she commented as she took out the wirecutter she had taken from the workshop, quickly followed by Ava.

Despite being three meters high, it was easy enough to climb over the chicken wire fences between the different properties. However, lugging over ten kilograms of unwieldy bike over the fence was an entirely different matter, even with their physical capabilities that were enhanced by the system. As such, the two girls quickly got to work cutting a large hole into the fence.

After all, neither of them wanted to drive out the front and risk waking the lizard up. As exciting as a high speed chase might look like on TV, it was something entirely different actually taking part in them. Especially if you are racing a dragon on a bicycle.

It took them almost ten minutes and a short break to cut a hole large enough for their bikes, thanks to the wires being unexpectedly stubborn. Then again, the fence was meant to prevent people from crossing it, so it wasn't too surprising that it wouldn't be too flimsy to do just that.

When they finally got through, their wrists had long since started hurting, but none of them complained. There was no time for that. Both of them saddled up and quickly familiarized themselves with the bicycles, then they started pedaling in silence.

It had only been a bit over an hour since they last came through the residential district and only about two hours since this all began. But despite that, the scenery had changed drastically.

Roaring and screams, gunshots, and the honking and crashing of cars could be heard from all directions, now that people had enough time to find their ways back home.

A group of four men was sitting on a front porch drinking beer. Three of them were constantly unloading their guns on a group of what looked like miniature T-Rex's that were surrounding them, while the fourth was busy reloading their weapons.

Someone drove by on a motorbike with 100 kilometers per hour at minimum, unloading their shotgun at the monkey that came jumping at them from the side. The monkey died, but so did the driver when the dead monster still had enough momentum to barrel them over. The man lay dead while his bike tumbled down the street.

Corpses, both human and monster, but mostly human, littered the streets.

It was chaos.

The girls tried their best to not think too deeply about it. They had a goal and already wasted enough time.

Several times they skipped streets because they were either littered and impossible to pass quickly or because there were too many monsters blocking them.

By now, the variety had increased vastly. Alice didn't have time to take too close of a look at most of them. But just driving by, she noticed some monsters that looked almost like gorillas and another that looked like a horse-sized, feral, and completely naked chihuahua.

And then, there were the birds. Or rather, completely deformed vultures. The already ugly birds that were gleefully picking at the corpses looked like they came from a dystopian future where a nuclear apocalypse had happened. Or at least, they looked like how a film director might imagine them, with additional limbs and strange tumors all over their bodies. Most of them shouldn’t even be capable of flight any more. But then again, Magic.

In the end, only once did they end up unable to avoid taking risks as they were forced to drive through a street with several groups of monkeys in it. One of which then proceeded to chase them for several minutes. It proved that those creatures were incredibly fast thanks to their long, dual-jointed legs propelling them forwards like a pair of organic springs.

One of them even managed to get Alice with its taunt, and despite being prepared for it, the only reason she didn't immediately stop to confront them was that she managed to pull out the shotgun and splatter the offending monkey's head, immediately breaking the Skills effect.

Alice wasn't sure whether it was because they lacked the stamina to continue or just lost interest, but in the end, the monsters left them alone, going off to terrorize someone else instead.

It wasn't much longer that they finally arrived in front of the high school Ava's brother went to, where they were greeted by a group of large, humanoid forms.