The world had a mellow appearance as the pair stepped outside. The sun overhead blocked being by a mass of clouds. It was as if Earth was reflecting the uncertainty her residents felt.

The streets were silent, few cars passed by, and fewer people walked the sidewalks. The vibrance of the city was gone. Its residents hiding in their abodes.

The pair paused at the entrance. Michael turned to Alice, "You don't have to join me, you know?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Well duh, I didn't even know you yesterday's morning."

Michael blinked. Fair point. "Next question then, do you have a car or do we need to go get mine?"

"We'll take mine." She took a few purposeful steps down the road, leaving Michael to catch up.

Michael awkwardly bounced after her and caught up with her just as she rounded the corner of the apartment, revealing a contract parking lot. She led them to an old white Yukon and threw her stuff into the back seat. Michael did the same and climbed into the passenger seat.

As he reached out to close the door, he felt sweat bead up on his forehead as the action stretched the skin on his badly scratched arm. The lance of pain made him look down at the scrapes. The skin around the wounds had taken on an angry purplish hue and they looked to be on their way to an infection. With a sigh, he closed the door and buckled his seatbelt.

He turned to look at Alice in the driver seat and found her looking at him with concern in her eyes. She had avoided getting much in the way of injuries during their fights so far. He gave her a wry smile. A moment later the engine turned over and they pulled out of the parking lot.

The streets they drove by remained empty. The people they did see were walking around in groups, armed with baseball bats and other weaponry. The occasional sounds of gunfire told them that other groups had armed themselves firearms. Emergency crews still worked to clear wrecks and abandoned vehicles from the road.

Their route took them past a hospital, the sidewalks packed to the brim with people, applying first aid to numerous injuries. Frantic medical workers bustled to and fro, doing their best to help people in their woefully overburdened state.

Soon they had left that scene behind with Alice merging onto a highway. Traffic was light, but slow. The shoulders of the road were utterly packed with wrecks, cars mangled beyond recognition. Workers had made an effort to push vehicles out of the lanes of traffic, but despite those efforts, only one to two lanes had been made drivable.

Evidence of monsters were also present. Slimes and other monster corpses were strewn about in the occasional pile. Seeing these, Alice turned on the radio hoping to catch an emergency broadcast.

"… do not approach exotic beings. They are hostile. If confronted without proper arms, run. Leave extermination of monsters to guardsmen and emergency services…"

Michael's apprehension continued to rise as the drive continued. After an hour of what was usually a twenty minute drive, they entered Michael's neighborhood.

The neighborhood was a simple cul-de-sac off of a minor side road that cut into a wooded area. Simple two-part townhomes adorned both sides of the road with paved sidewalks and wide driveways. The front yards were large and sparsely populated with trees and greenery beyond the lawn. Significantly, they weren't any monsters present, corpse or otherwise. Michael indicated his house and Alice pulled into the driveway.

Michael's heart was in his throat as he unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped out of the car even before Alice had stopped. He ignored his house and ran to the Rockfords place. His heart skipped a beat as he heard a small dog's yipping from inside. He dashed to the perpetually unlocked door, knocked, and pulled the latch.

"Ms. Rockford?" He called out, Cenna jumping all over his leg.

No voice answered him, which wasn't totally unexpected. She didn't have the best hearing after all.

"Mr. Rockford? It's Michael." He removed his shoes and stepped past the foyer.

He stepped into their laundry room, opening the garage door to find both cars present. Bending over, he picked Cenna up, stoically enduring the pomeranian's excited licking.

He walked through the house to the back door and to his immense relief found the Rockfords lounging on their back porch. A book was open in Mr. Rockford's hands while Ms. Rockford sat sipping on a cool drink.

He knocked on the sliding glass door and pulled it open. Mr. Rockford held up a finger as he finished reading his page while Ms. Rockford turned and gave him a warm smile.

"Oh Michael!" Ms. Rockford set her drink down and stood up. "I'm so glad you made it back safe."

She bustled over and gave Michael a hug. Hug received, Mr. Rockford put his finger down and closed his book.

"It's good to see you, Michael." He set the book down and offered his hand for a handshake.

Michael shook his hand and breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Here have a seat, Michael." She gestured to the seat she had just vacated. "I'll go get you some coffee and a rhubarb bar."

At this moment, Alice stepped outside, drawing both Rockford's gazes.

"This is Alice by the way, she's one of my classmates." He gestured at her. "We've been sticking together since the visions struck."

Ms. Rockford bustled about getting the two of them situated with coffee and rhubarb bars. Michael felt a great weight lift off his chest as her ministrations reminded him that not everything had changed.

When all four of them were situated at the table, Michael and Alice told the Rockford's about the past twenty four hours. The atmosphere grew unusually serious as both Rockford's focused intently on what was being said. Tale finished, Mr. Rockford spoke first.

"You've been doing good work, you two." He turned his gaze towards the woods.

Ms. Rockford spoke next. "Those visions gave us quite a scare, you know?"

Michael nodded and leaned in.

She continued after a sip of her drink. "We were lucky we were sitting right here when they struck."

Mr. Rockford nodded. "We were out for half an hour, I'd wager."

"When we woke up," Ms. Rockford gestured at a wooden figure amongst the trees. "We went to check on the neighbors and called a meeting."

Michael followed her gesture and felt his blood run cold, Ms. Rockford having casually pointed out a monster slowly approaching them. He made to stand, but Mr. Rockford rested a hand on his shoulder.

"No need, my boy. We'll get there." Mr. Rockford gave him a reassuring smile.

Michael glanced over at Alice and found her slowly returning to her seat, eyeing the monster warily.

"Susan fell and hurt her hip while Ross hit his head." Ms. Rockford shook her head. "An ambulance arrived this morning for Ross, but Susan is doing well. She's only sixty-three after all."

Michael let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Only two people hurt from the visions. They'd been lucky. "And Ross?"

"Sherry will give us an update when she knows more."

At this moment the wooden form had reached the fence in the backyard and had begun pressing itself up against a barrier. As the creature exerted more force on the wall, they noticed the air take on a bluish tint near the monster as a kind of membrane became apparent.

"We set that up at the meeting." Mr. Rockford had a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

The youngins looked at each other in disbelief as Ms. Rockford continued her story.

"You see, those visions, they connected all these dots in our heads." She rested her hand on Michael's arm and immediately he felt warmth spreading out from her touch. He looked down in amazement and found his scrapes scabbing over, then moments later losing their scabs, revealing puffy pink skin in their stead.

"Miss Lynn pointed out our mental realms at the meeting and when I looked inside, I felt I understood compassion and how to use it with the energy that's surrounding us now." She smiled. "I'm glad I could fix those scrapes, I couldn't help Ross at all."

Michael turned to Mr. Rockford.

He gave Michael a sly grin. "Serve and Protect was our motto." He pointed at the wooden figure, which had given up and was now slowly ambling away. "It's satisfying being able to communicate the understanding that a life in the force has given me."

Michael leaned back in his chair, speechless. Maybe his worry had been misplaced.

"So that's why the energy is almost gone in this space." Alice commented.

All three people turned towards Alice.

Their question apparent, she continued, "You guys are draining the ambient energy with your abilities. That barrier costs a ton of power." She bit her lip. "The energy levels are rising elsewhere, but I'd bet with the limited energy to draw from to form the barrier, it won't be long before a monster strong enough to break the barrier appears nearby."

"Really?" Mr. Rockford gave her an intense look before he settled back in his seat with a sigh. "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."

"So what, it's an arms race or something?" Michael studied the Rockfords. They still looked every bit as fragile as they had been two days prior. He looked down at his own body and noticed clearly defined muscle where he had once been lean.

"Could you make a stronger barrier with more energy, Mr. Rockford?" Alice asked.

He pursed his lips and nodded. "I believe so." He stood up from his chair. "I also think I can make something that will maintain the barrier for me."

Alice nodded. "We'll have to figure out both of those then. Before the energy levels grow too high."

Michael turned towards Ms. Rockford, "Do we have any other pressing matters that I could help with?" Michael asked.

She gave him a pleasant smile and a pat on the cheek. "I do have a lightbulb for you to change."

Michael blinked, then broke into a laugh. He helped clear the table and followed her inside.