I exited the basement and held up the core for Helen to take. It would be the second core she’d absorbed. I examined her core, the small amount of energy in it a reminder of how much death I had to wade through to get to where I was.

Was that what the world had come to? To get stronger, you had to kill and take the energy from others. This meant the unscrupulous would be the strongest, taking the power from other people. The alternative was to become stronger by wading through the blood and battle of mana-twisted creatures. At what point would those creatures be hunted to extinction? Would humans be able to survive, if some species simply disappeared?

I realized that I’d frozen while I was looking down at the girl, and her expression had taken on a note of nervousness.

“It’s okay, little one,” I said. “I was thinking about something else. Here you go.” I handed her the core. As soon as she touched it, the mana flowed into her, dispersing through her body and healing her fresh wound.

“What happened to the nice man?”

“Paul?”

“Yes, sir.”

“He’s gone.”

“But he was going to show me a safe place, so I could take my family there.”

“That’s what I’m doing, little one,” I said. I knelt, so I was on eye level with her. “I’m going to take you back to your mother, then I’m going to take you where you will be safe.”

“Mr. Paul said it wasn’t safe at that place.”

“Well, Mr. Paul didn’t know everything,” I said. “Why don’t we head back and find your mother. She’s worried sick over you.”

“Can we find Mr. Paul?”

“I tell you what,” I said carefully. “Mr. Paul can take care of himself for a while. I’ll take you back, and if I see Mr. Paul again, I will take care of him.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Follow me, okay?” She nodded in response.

Ten-year-olds don’t exactly move quickly. In fact, they move quite slowly. Her legs weren’t as long as mine, and she couldn’t keep up with the brisk walking pace I wanted. Additionally, she wouldn’t stop talking. Her mouth was like a motorboat, the words spilling out at a rapid pace and narrating everything that we did. And the questions just wouldn’t stop. Why was I carrying a sword? Why didn’t I have a gun? How did I know the way back? Where was everyone else? How did I scare away the bad guys? By the time we made it back to the house with the rest of the civilians, I felt like pushing her in front of a group of attacking mana-corrupted creatures myself.

I missed my daughter.

We went past the shotgun house. I called out, but there was no response, despite the obvious presence of the people still inside. I thanked them anyway and let them know that they helped me save the girl, and we moved on.

“Helen!” Her mother rushed down the street as soon as we were in sight of the house, scooping the girl up into her arms.

“Mom!” Helen protested. “I’m okay.”

“If we didn’t have a home right now, you would be grounded for a month. Don’t you ever leave without telling me first!”

“Mr. Paul was taking care of me,” Helen said. “Some of those creatures attacked us. Mr. Sword saved me, but we don’t know what happened to Mr. Paul.”

“Well, if Mr. Paul comes back, I have some questions for him,” the mother said. Then she turned on me. “And you, don’t you dare do that to me again!”

“I won’t apologize for savi–“

She cut me off with a hug, which was not exactly what I was expecting. “Thank you for saving my baby.”

“It was nothing.”

“We don’t have anything, but if there’s ever anything I can do for you, just let me know.”

“Thank you for the offer,” I said. “But nothing comes to mind.”

Of course, something came to mind. I missed my wife.

“Bragg, I thought I told you to barricade the door when I left.” I turned on the marksman.

“She saw you coming down the road with Helen,” he said, “and there was nothing I could do. I would have had to shoot her to stop her. It was all the rest of the civvies could do to keep her from running outside and starting her own search.”

“Okay, good work anyways. Everyone is still in one piece.”

“What happened with Paul?” he asked.

My eyes flicked over to Helen for a brief moment before returning to Bragg. I jerked my head to the side, and we took a few steps away from the freshly-reunited family.

“Paul had her. Seems she had no idea what he was doing. She thought he was taking her somewhere safe.”

“Was he?” Bragg asked, seriously.

“Not a chance.” I shook my head. “The moment they were attacked, right before I got there, he threw her to the corrupted humans and ran. He had no intention of keeping her safe.”

“What did you do?”

“Saved the girl. Killed Paul.”

“Shit, didn’t she see you?”

“Bastard was hiding in a basement. She stayed upstairs.”

“His gun?”

“In my bag,” I said. “He was out of rounds though.”

“Useful to have another spare, though.”

I grinned. “Way more ammo in this country than we can use at this point, I’m pretty sure.”

“Guns will only get us so far,” Bragg said more quietly. “The monsters are getting stronger.”

“From what Corey said,” I said, “there’s going to be some kind of limit on how strong the monsters – and us – will become. He mentioned something about ambient mana or something like that.”

“Yeah, sure.” He nodded. “But what if the weakest monsters don’t go down from a bullet?”

“Then we find another way to kill them,” I said.

“Doesn’t this seem pointless to you though?” He looked at me for a long moment. “Seriously, what’s the point?”

“I’m not sure I know,” I said. “Everyone is going to have to come up with their own reason to take a step forward. Some people might say there’s a God who wants them to take each step. Some might say that enlightenment is at the end of the path. Humanity has always been pretty good about coming up with a wide variety of reasons to continue going.”

“What’s your reason?”

“My family,” I said simply. I didn’t even have to think about it. “I want to see them again and keep them safe.”

“Even if you have to walk over a pile of corpses to do it?”

“Depends on who I have to make a corpse,” I said. Andy had reminded me about this right after this shit-pocalpyse had begun. “I just hope I come home close to the same as when I left.”

“Yeah,” Bragg shrugged. “I guess I don’t see that as really an option for any of us anymore.”

“Maybe, but it’s not going to stop me from trying.” As I said it, I turned to look back at the mother and daughter, the two still holding each other tightly.

“We have one more thing planned for tonight,” I said to the group. “Tomorrow, you should be able to join the town, where you can be safer.”

“We can’t go today?” Susan asked, stepping out of the house.

“We’re just dotting I’s and crossing T’s,” I said. “Just to be certain.”

“Oh,” she said. “Of course.”

“Well, I’m off,” I said.

I didn’t wait around for more thanks from Helen’s mom or for more questioning about the meaning of our existence from Bragg. There are just some things people have to figure out for themselves.

I raided the alcohol section of the local Walmart. It’s amazing how much alcohol you can fit into two shopping carts. Of course, there was none of the hard stuff, but one cart was all beer, and the other was wine. I figured it would be enough.

I was greeted with applause when I came into view. The partying had already started, judging by how smashed the lookout who greeted me. The group couldn’t even shift the pile of cars to let me in. I had to vault the entrance, open it from the inside, then push the carts into the enclosure. The group of houses was in an uproar. Someone had lit a propane stove, and there was a line of people for grilled meat. What that meat was, I didn’t rightly know, but it smelled good from where I was. There was only one grill though, and with over a hundred people to serve, not everyone decided to wait for food before they started drinking. Drinking heavily. Despite the extra drinks I had in my carts, I saw dumpsters full of beer cans. There were a few wine bottles as well.

Chavez and Andy were off to the side, sitting with Dominic and a few other familiar faces. They tossed me a can when I came over. Heineken. I popped open the can and took a swig. It was warm; no surprise, given the lack of refrigerators currently operating. I’d had worse, though not many. Beer was just better cold.

“Carter?” I asked, sitting cross-legged next to my two companions, and joining the circle.

Chavez pointed to my left, and I looked over.

Carter, by all appearances, was wasted. Her hair, which was kept short, and she’d always had in a ponytail under her cap, was down. Her BDUs and weapons were nowhere to be seen, replaced by denim shorts and a blouse that was unbuttoned down to her bra line and tied up to reveal her waist. Where before, she was more stocky, Carter had seemed to slim out a bit. No, that wasn’t quite right. After taking a longer look – probably longer than my wife would have liked – I realized she was taller after her increase in rank. Half a foot taller. She still wasn’t close to even Andy’s six-foot height, let alone my own, but where she was slightly shorter than Chavez before, she was a good deal taller now. The high-heel boots she was wearing certainly helped with that too.

“Well, damn,” I muttered turning back to my friends. “That should work.”

“I’ll say,” Andy said, grinning ear to ear at Chavez.

“You don’t think it’s overkill?” Chavez had a glum look on his face for some reason.

“I think it will get the reaction we’re looking for,” I said.

Unsurprisingly, Carter was already surrounded by a group of men, every one of them looking to get her attention. There were even more sitting on the ground, taking sips of their drinks and casting envious looks at the group.

Carter, for her part, seemed to be enjoying herself and the attention, though I caught the occasional glance our way. No, not our way. At one person, specifically.

“So, Lieutenant Ward,” Dominic cut off my inner dialogue, “how did it go? Did you catch up with the rest of your people?”

“Yes,” I said. “And please, just call me Forrest.”

“Very well. Forrest, what about Paul?”

“He tried something, but won’t be a problem anymore.”

“Was that a permanent solution to the problem?”

“Unless he can find a new head, I don’t think we will be seeing him again.”

“You killed him?” one of the other members of our little circle asked. “Isn’t that a little extreme?”

“If he hadn’t done anything, I would have let him go,” I shrugged. “But he took one of the little girls with him. I’m not a fan of kidnapping, personally. I come down pretty hard on anyone who does that.”

“Ah,” the man replied. “That is understandable, then.”

Another man approached our circle, and Dominic signaled him over. The new fellow was Hispanic, his long black hair tied back in an unkempt and unwashed ponytail. His face had kept its round shape, despite the shortage of food and more gaunt frames of others around, but he smiled easily, and I could tell from the wrinkles around his eyes that they would be genuine smiles, though a look of seriousness was on his face. I shook my head. With my improved eyesight, I could pick out these details from twenty feet away in the fading light. Mana truly was a blessing, if a difficult one at times.

The man bent down to speak in a whisper to Dominic, whose smile turned into a frown, and gaze flicked over to where Carter was with the men.

“Forrest, your friend seems to be getting some of our more aggressive men worked up.”

“She has been through a lot the last couple of weeks,” I said. “She can take care of herself.”

“While I’m sure she’s a strong, independent woman,” Dominic said, “I would hate to see her hurt because she chose to interact with the wrong men.”

“Ha!” I laughed. “Dominic, the world is changing.”

“It is a matter of bone density and muscle mass. An average man will have an edge over an average woman, and there are multiple men there.”

“First,” I said with a smile, “I appreciate your concern for our friend. And maybe you’re right, the average man might have an edge over the average woman. But Carter is not average. I would guess that she could toss any of those men twenty feet with her bare hands. If any of them try to lay a hand on her, she might break it, or simply rip their entire arm off.”

“She’s that strong?” One of the others in the circle said.

“The world is changing,” I answered. “I think it’s time we talked about mana.”