Once he finished sorting his well-gotten gains, Scott headed out to perform a little reconnaissance. Other than Shara, he knew that everyone else that he personally cared about was safe. Shara was a concern for reasons he did not want to consider at the moment, but he was certain that she would pop up on her own soon.

As a cloud of darkness, he flowed up into the sky then joined with the clouds. As he flowed through the rain clouds above, he spread himself thin to appear as nothing more than a normal cloud. While doing so, he checked to see the state of the town.

People wandered the streets as normal. Cars drove here or there. Other than a car accident that had drawn the attention of the local police, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Scott slipped down toward the former headquarters of the militia. The hospital and its neighboring environs looked nothing like a war zone. He flowed to a stop atop the hospital roof and scanned the area for specific thoughts.

There was no sign of the militia colonel, but he did pick up the thoughts of the visiting doctor. She seemed fine, and entirely unconcerned. Life was normal. All was good.

The recent world patch had reset the date and with it went the memories of what occurred in the original timeline. There was no reason to become further involved at the moment. As for where the colonel might be? Scott had no clue. It was possible that he was not even in the area and did not arrive until called upon by the mayor.

In many ways, he could not hate the result. People were still tense, and many were frightened. Monsters roamed the streets at night, though they currently did not seem to bother anyone unless they caught the monster’s attention to some degree. It was doubtful that it would remain that way for long, but it was something.

He did despise the fact that it was happening at all. His memories faded in and out, but he was certain that none of it was an accident. Not really. The world, and everyone in it was screwed because a bunch of idiots who thought themselves to be gods just did not care enough to do right by the people they hurt.

Scott gazed thoughtfully out across the city from atop the hospital roof. He could hear them, the thoughts of people going about their day. His range was not much farther than the parking lot, but even that distance held numerous instances of people living their lives while fraught with a sense of foreboding.

He lowered his eyes then sighed. He hated to phrase it that way, but his mind could see it no other way. The gods had done to the world, what that bastard had done to his sister. They kept fiddling and tweaking. They went back and screwed with things that didn’t quite work out. Even the memories of the people were not sacred as they were changed on a whim.

“You assholes… you have the power to shift people to other worlds. Hell. You create worlds.” Scott’s fingers clutched at the concrete rim of the roof and squeezed tight. His knuckles whitened and soon that concrete began to crack.

Teeth clenched, he hissed out, “Why didn’t you just make a copy of the fucking world the way it was before if it’s that easy?”

If the problem was that they had done something to wreck this world, but they could make worlds of their own, it stood to reason that they could have simply evacuated the populace into an identical world! They did it every night in the dream, and it was clear that physical bodies could travel between worlds. He brought Sonja over often enough!

“We wouldn’t have even fucking known about it with all the memory altering that you assholes do,” growled Scott.

Admittedly, he did like the game aspects of the world. They did help to set him free from the person who he used to be. Still, the whole situation could have been handled much more simply. Give people the option to go to an identical world, or to stay in this one and deal with the changes. Done! Simple. Easy. No one suffers unless they choose to stay behind, and the ones who did stay behind would be able to beta test all the reality warping bullshit.

“For that matter, why not just dump us off in the dream world for a few years while all this shit happened? It’s certainly big enough given how many billions of us pop in and out of there at any given time…” The entire thing stank of disinterest. It was like the so-called gods had chosen the worst options on purpose because they could not be bothered to do a little extra work.

Inevitably, the thought that the gods had wrecked the world on purpose lead him down a dark path. His thoughts turned inward, and he recalled his own mistakes of the past. No longer haunted by voices that were not his own, he had strayed away from his early life trauma. He had begun to heal.

Guilt. A deep and intense sense of guilt washed over him. “How long has it been?”

In truth, it had not been that long since last he visited the graves of his sister and father. Yet, in many ways it felt like it had been years prior. “So much has happened.”

A tired smile slipped across his lips. He should go tell them about things.

Scott shifted forms then floated up into the sky. Someone might notice, but even if they did, they would not know that the inky blackness was related to him.

He joined with the clouds then drifted toward the cemetery. No one was around, not even a random neighborhood dog. Glad that he would not be disturbed, he flowed down into the graveyard then walked through the gates.

There was no sign of beer cans or cigarettes this time, a sign that Harry had not been by since the last time he came out that way. Scott’s eyes narrowed slightly at the memory, but then he smiled. It was a happy day. He had good things to speak of for once.