A week ago, the inhabitants of Agona had maintained that their record of holding zero homeless within the city and also that the lowest incomes were far above the poverty line. The dark corners of the city’s alleys weren’t dirty - they were actually designed to have rounded edges and modular utilities so they’d stay that way - and the streets were void of free-floating trash.

That was all according to Theodore, of course.

During her first few days within the city of Agona, Lyssa had experienced none of those pleasantries. Her first night in the city had been spent shivering under a few pieces of newspaper she’d found on the side of the street. She huddled in the space between a dumpster and a tall building, shaking as she listened to the terrifying sounds coming from every direction. Children crying. Ear piercing laughter and howling. Metal on metal, scraping down the street, the ground shaking as it seemed the heavens fell around her. And sounds which she could only assume were those around her using their Commands; whispers of objects whipping past the alley, explosions. Bursts of light which stretched all the way to the firmament above. When she had emerged, still heavy-eyed and tired from the restless night, she stepped into another world.

Craters dappled the once perfect street. Chunks had been rent from buildings, scrapes in the exterior or entire sections missing, few buildings were free from the destruction. She needed food, but as she ambled along the unfamiliar paths, her stomach twisted and ached inside her as she passed the nameless bodies. There were so many dead.

Lyssa avoided the bodies and the destruction as best she could as she meandered down the street, the opposite way she had come to the previous night. She’d had no luck finding the little girl. CheckSelf revealed she still had a single level in Bara.

She had walked a large portion of the first day. She passed others in the city. They were as uninterested in her as she was in them, fortunately. Her solitary trek led her to what she could only assume was a boundary where the northern area of the city began. Buildings began to shrink, trees and shrubberies appeared, and then normal looking houses with lawns and driveways.

There, tending to a small patch of vegetables close to a small house, she had found Theodore, a man in his sixties with a shining bald spot on his head and a gentle smile on his face.

Theodore Kannelis. Kara 0. Bara 0.

“I’m hungry,” she told him, eying a hefty red tomato which was hanging on a green stem just beside him. She half expected he would ignore her. Lyssa was prepared to walk away and continue her journey as well. Her groaning stomach had belched pushed the words out of her. But he had simply smiled at her in response.

“Me too. I’ll be inside in a minute.”

His house was small, a shack of sorts. Besides the bed and bathroom, the house only held one room, which held an oven and a dining table which sat four. There were more plants inside, teas and spices near the several windows of the house.

Lyssa had devoured several servings of soup he ladled into a bowl for her before she felt her body regaining vitality and her mind regaining civility.

“I’m sorry-” she had started.

“No need,” he lifted a hand to stop her words. “I would need a place to stay too, if I was in your shoes. I have a couch and the door doesn’t open after sunset. Got it?”

Her throat beginning to constrict with gratitude, she had nodded her head.

“Good. Now that we have that out of the way,” he’d said, leaning back in his chair with a creak, “Lets talk about this city.”

Theodore had invested in the city and moved in with the first wave of exiles from the outside world. Having spent his pre-retirement years in the technology sectors of business, he had a passion for the future and, in his eyes, the city was a prescient view of what was to come.

He had moved in alone, and assured her he hadn’t been lonely since. There were communities all throughout the city which got together frequently, clubs and guilds which relied on one another. He had taken up pottery since coming to the city, he explained which showing her a few small pots he had spun into shape and fired in the kiln. The contents of the pots - vegetables and herbs - had become his other hobby. He spent most of his time tending to his garden and hanging in the community centers.

As for the survival game currently overtaking the city, he wasn’t too worried. Probably a group of college students fulfilling their hacking dream. It would be over within the week, he told her confidently. His certainty filled her with courage.

“Now,” he had said, looking through the sliver between the two planks which now barred his windows, “I’m not sure what I’ll do.”

He had a lock on his bedroom door, and he closed himself off inside of it after he was done talking. She didn’t want to leave the house, far from it. But she had nothing else to do, save for sit on the couch and wait. Lyssa meandered out onto the street once again.

She walked. Time passed. Not a single word left her mouth while she combed the streets. She saw bodies, human corpses rotting on corners. Some looked as though they could still be alive, maybe just resting, though she never got close enough to find out. Others had a dark stain around them visible for fifty yards. She avoided those just as adamantly.

The sun lowered. She had made clear note of her path and arrived back at the house before it got too dark. Theodore answered her knock on the locked front door. They shared a smile but no words. He locked himself in his room again. A smart man, Theodore.

The next day, as they ate lunch, he finally brought up her Karma.

“It will sound like an excuse,” she said carefully, “but it was one level of Kara when I arrived in the city. Then it switched to one level of Bara.”

“And?” he asked as he munched on a tomato sandwich. “What is your reason?”

A fluttering white dress. A red ribbon. Long blonde hair. A devilish face. “I think someone switched it.”

“So you’re suggesting that someone in the city has a Command to switch the Karma levels of others in the city? That must be a high level Command. Do you know who did it?”

“I don’t know.”

He eyed her. “You don’t know who did it? Or you don’t know if you know?”

“There was one girl...” she began, explaining what had occurred at the trains. The girl who had snatched up Annie’s purse. Who had been mumbling under her breath. Who had acted...strange, to say the least.

And when Checked: Zero. Zero. Zero.

Theodore shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh. “I don’t understand half of what is happening. She may be immune to this cruel game, because of her age. She may be able to hide her HUD somehow. She may have switched your Command from one side to the other.” He gave another shrug. “I’m not bothering to get attached to this system. I’m staying here until I’m sure that it’s safe out there. My friends will come knocking to let me know.” He got to his feet and headed towards his bedroom again.

“Wait,” she called, stopping him. “Aren’t you curious what my Command is? I don’t know if things like this existed before we were trapped. Have you seen a Command before? It’s...pretty amazing.”

He gave a grimace. “Before, there were only HUDs. But I saw more than enough of these new Commands on the streets the first night to whet my appetite. There’s a reason I’m staying in my room.” And then he was locked away once again.

That evening, after they ate leftover soup quietly, the sound returned. It shrieked through the small house, through her entire body. And then it was gone.

Theodore didn’t bother getting to his feet. As the voice spoke out around them, denoting times and places, Theodore crawled his way to his bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him.

Lyssa reclined on the couch, taking in the words delivered to the city as a whole. An arena? In the city park? She thought to Sarah. Someone who she considered her best friend, despite the distance which sometimes crept between them. And Abel. Would they be going?

Does it matter? Will I even be able to find them in the mass of people?

Is it all just a trap?

Lyssa dropped her head into her hands. She sure as hell wasn’t going to fight. But if the voice was at least somewhat honest - and it had proved to have quite a clean track record so far - she could go and watch without getting involved.

And, most appealing of all, was knowing that she would at least be safe from an exotic death if she decided to go. Commands were being disabled for those in attendance, so she would at least be able to think straight while she was there. No worrying that a light from heaven would obliterate her or a shaft of ice would emerge from a dark corner to pierce her.