"What's the charge?" I asked, turning toward the officer who spoke.

"Shut your damned mouth," the officer sneered at me.

"No," I retorted. "If you are legitimate law enforcement, then you'll have no problem citing the laws we have broken."

"A smart-ass, eh?" He then stepped forward, his glare apparently threatening.

I wasn't born yesterday, and wasn't about to be intimidated by this guy. "A young girl was almost raped here, and you're arresting people who were-"

"What people are you talking about?" The officer demanded. "These dogs?"

"Oh," I sighed. "You're one of those guys."

"Do you have a death wish?" The officer demanded.

"I only talk to real cops," I barked. "You're just a glorified thug with a badge."

"Sounds like you do have a death wish," the officer sneered. "You know, around these parts, resisting arrest will get you killed."

"Not having a legitimate reason to arrest someone would be considered-"

"Attacking people is legitimate," the officer growled at me.

I wanted to argue that these guys had attempted to rape the young woman who I defended, but this guy had already outed himself as a racist scumbag, so I realised there was no point.

To my surprise, another of the police officers barked out "Defence of another person is a legitimate argument for attacking someone," he spoke in a clear, authoritative tone. "Anyone else see what happened here?"

Several people among the beast folk stepped forward in support of me. The second officer nodded in acknowledgment to them, then looked to me. "You're not under arrest," he said.

"What the hell?" The first officer scoffed. "Mutiny, is it?"

Both myself and the second officer looked to the first one. "When we agreed to police this town, we did it on the understanding that the law would be equally applied," the second officer told us both, before looking squarely at the first. "Was that not the case?"

"Don't question me," the first sneered.

"This is a matter of civic law in Mingan, and none of us are above the law, here," the second officer told the first. "Just your declaration of mutiny without any corroborating evidence is enough to have an official reprimand on your record back at HQ, and you know this already."

"You're just waiting for a chance to take my job, aren't you?" The first sneered at the second. "Want all the protection payments to yourself?"

I didn't have time for this. "Do you two need time to sort this out?"

The first officer didn't hesitate. He immediately took a swing for me, and I stepped out of swinging range of his punch, dodging and ducking as he swung angrily at me. Almost none of his punches connected with me, except an uppercut that I failed to evade.

That punch was not an ordinary punch; it seemed to be charged with electrical power, shocking me heavily, causing an EMP-like effect in my nanocloud, and knocking me back a significant distance.

Fucking hell... What the shit was that?!

The police all retaliated... Against the thug with the uniform, making quick work of him with what appeared to be bursts of lightning propelled from their palms.

Fucking lightning?! From their palms!

Holy shit.

Two officers immediately approached the one on the floor, dragging him onto his front, forcibly pulling his arms behind his back, and fastening a set of iron-like cuffs that seemed to pulse with electrical energy.

My nanocloud alerted me with a message.

Nanocloud back online.

Interrupt elapsed time was 4.25 seconds.

Cause: EMP.

That explained a lot. That guy's punch was electrically charged.

"Officer Letourneau, you are under arrest for racketeering and extortion, misappropriation of police forces, accepting bribes, and attempted arrest of citizens without suspicion of a crime or warrant. You have the right to remain silent..."

I ignored the rest. That was one long-arsed list of charges already, I thought to myself.

The second officer approached us both. "I need statements from the two of you on what happened here," he said in a gruff manner.

I was more than happy to oblige.

It took a few hours to fulfil these new requirements at the local police station (which was more of a pre-fab box as opposed to a permanent precinct like the old days), but once my statement had been given, I was free to leave.

Coincidentally, I left the station at the same time as both the large canine-man and the smaller canine-girl, both of them looking tired, both very happy to see me off.

"How are you both?" I asked.

"We're better," the man told me. "Thanks for your help. My girl here means everything to me."

That explained the familial relationship, I thought to myself, and the young girl grinned at me before giving her father a lick on the face. She then buried her face in his neck and giggled. "Your fur needs a trim, dad."

I was so relieved, and now I was more than happy to have intervened in this situation. Letting those human monsters rape this woman was unforgiveable, and I don't think I would ever have survived if I'd not intervened, and she had been traumatised for life as a result.

There was already far too much of that in the world.

"Hey!" The man barked suddenly. "Are you alright?"

Huh? I was puzzled for a moment, and then I realised my face was damp, and a lump had formed in my throat. "Sorry," I choked out. "It just hit me how much worse this could have been."

And it had hit me... Like a ton of bricks.

Preventing this young girl from being attacked had brought it to the forefront of my mind that there were many others who had not been so fortunate to have someone to protect them when they needed it. Frankly, it was heart-breaking, and the thoughts just spiralled from there.

Those poor kids at the breeding facilities...

Before I knew it, the canine-girl propelled out of her father's arms and wrapped me in a fierce hug, almost pulling me to the ground, a whine escaping her throat. "Hey! come on!"

This was getting out of control.

ALERT: Mental Health Directive trigger - Deploying mood stabilisers.

As the notification triggered, I began to feel a wave of calm pass through me, and I could feel a sense of control returning. I was thankful for my nanocloud for this intervention, as I really didn't need to be blubbering my eyes out all over these strangers, the two innocent people who were not privy to my problems or my state of mind.

I thought I heard an anguished but muffled cry from a great distance, and looked about nervously. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, other than these two people looking at me in concern.

I took a deep breath, and gave a quick hug to the canine-girl. "I'm okay," I told her, wiping my eyes. "It's a long story, but I'm glad I got to help you guys."

In a welcome gesture of camaraderie, the canine-man gave me a grip on the shoulder, nodding sombrely at me, then wrapped his daughter in a hug as she stepped back to his side.

"Thanks," she told me, giving me a shy smile. "The world needs more people like you!"

I couldn't help the grin that was plastered all over my face at that point. She literally made me feel like I could take on the world with that one comment.

"Anyway," I told them both. "I need to get back on the road. Need to be in Quebec City as soon as I can get there."

The canine nodded to me, hugging his daughter in his arms, the smile never leaving her face. "Thank you, sir," he told me.

"Any time," I replied earnestly. "You guys have a great life, and if I'm ever in the area again and you spot me in a crowd, feel free to wave me over and say hello."

I soon found myself back on the road, having decided I would not be staying at the Comfort Inn, after all. If the humans of this town saw fit to treat the beast folk there so poorly, then they could do so without my providing them an income in the process.

Instead, I walked on until it got too dark to continue, at which point, I stopped and set up camp. I also still had some energy left after my walk, so I decided to look at my nanocloud again, to see what needed doing in order to upgrade it further.

My nanocloud prompted me again with the upgrade for each unit's chassis.

Nanocloud chassis upgrade Carbon nanotubes are substituted for previous aluminium and bioplastic polymer in nanocloud unit provisioning and construction. Baseline Initial upgrade pathway provides superstructure is made of carbon nanotube lattice, to provide structural integrity improvements.

This time, I decided to just go with it.

Enable this upgrade.

Affirmative. In-place upgrade of all nanocloud units. Time to completion, 72 hours.

The upgrade timer then sat in my awareness, just enough for me to know it was there, but not enough for me to be distracted by it. I suspected that there would be a few other upgrades I'd need before I could start with cybernetic enhancement of various parts of my body. Just the thought of it was enough to make me cringe, but I realised that I would need to make at least some changes if I were to survive in this world I now find myself living in.

I then thought of the electrical discharge phenomena I'd seen in those cops back in Sept Iles, and decided to ask my nanocloud about it.

Can you speculate how to produce electrical discharge like that which I saw in law enforcement back in the last town we visited?

Affirmative.

A nanocloud function can be activated that gives you control over this ability.

Along with this notification, I received a function alert.

Electrical discharge Provides burst-discharge capability to nanocloud units. Requires Level 3 nanocloud unit hardware and nanocloud electrical storage capacity. Additional power storage upgrades provide increased electrical discharge rates. Baseline Basic discharge. Upgrading power to nanocloud units confers no additional advantage other than re-use options for baseline level ability. Low-level burst capability allows wireless data transit between systems without a nanocloud present, if there is a wireless or wired data channel present.

Realising that my nanocloud would need to be upgraded heavily for this, I decided to pursue that route of inquiry.

Once my nanocloud has been upgraded to Level 1, how soon can I upgrade to the two subsequent levels?

Taking into account all known factors at present, you will require at least three weeks for a full Level 3 nanocloud unit upgrade.

This does not take into account unforeseen factors such as loss of nanocloud units, or other pending hardware upgrades or cybernetic processes.

Three weeks was a long time in the world, but the change in ability that these upgrades would all give me made it worth considering. Still, the first upgrade level needed to be completed, so I had a few days to consider my next decision.

At that point, I decided it was time to catch up on sleep.

I woke up with a start. I had no idea what I'd dreamed, but it left me in something of a terror-induced sweat.

The next few days dragged on longer than usual, but I nonetheless pushed myself again with another hundred-and-sixty-kilometre walk each day, setting up camp sites and getting rest as soon as they were up. Occasionally, I would be disturbed by dreams of Lena stabbing me in the back, or Ralf dying in front of me.

More than once, I could have sworn I dreamt of Eveline getting angry at me for abandoning her in Mary's Harbour.

On the fourth day since leaving Sept Iles, I walked along the route my nanocloud provided me, consulting with it about any possible function changes I could make.

One of the more interesting things I'd seen on my travels was when I was in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The attack that had punched the hole in the wall at the northern edge of the city had been a combined ice and sonic attack, and I wondered what hardware would be needed for that. I put the question to my nanocloud.

Can you tell me what functions I would need, what hardware, to be able to perform the kind of attacks I witnessed in Rheda-Wiedenbrück when the wall was assaulted?

Processing.

It took a few moments for the nanocloud to give me any further response.

Two additional functions can be developed that will allow this kind of attack. Their basic composition is known me, but the functions themselves are not present to be activated.

Great, I thought to myself. It meant I would either have to seek them out, or try to code my own versions.

I decided to shelve that idea for the time being, and kept walking.

Eventually, I reached the geofence that surrounded the GPS Coordinates I'd been given. This entire region looked like it had been abandoned, which I supposed was hardly a surprise. After all, with less than a tenth of a percent of the population I was used to, some towns had to be abandoned as more people chose to consolidate in larger districts and towns.

I suspected that most of the people in this region had migrated further in, toward Quebec City itself.

Still, given the circumstances, I needed to remain cautious.

I had no idea what the house looked like, but I suspected that if these people were smart, it would look just as abandoned as everything else around here.

Before I approached the house, I re-organised my pack, clipping it on so that I could quickly drop it if things got dicey. The combat blades were strapped in holsters within easy reach, and I'd recently re-hydrated myself so that I wouldn't have to worry about overheating or dehydration if I got into a protracted fight.

Then I continued to look around, as I closed in on the centre of the GPS coordinates I'd been given. It was difficult this time. Despite the fact that I could see the structural rigidity and soundness of most buildings (including all the smaller ones here), I discovered that while only inhabited buildings in most English cities had been structurally maintained, out here in the Canadian suburbs, a lot of the surrounding buildings also appeared to be structurally sound, if weathered and abandoned.

It made finding the occupied building I was looking for a lot more difficult. Still, I persevered, and then I saw what I needed from nearby.

One house was occupied, by two people.

I couldn't make them out, because they were indoors, but I heard some indistinct chatter from one of them, with the other apparently humming a tune I couldn't identify.

But that was all I needed.

The house itself was relatively well-maintained. The paint looked new, the wood panelling looked freshly-cut, and whether this was true or not, the entire frame and the outer panels of the house were saturated with nanomachines.

The front door was closed, and I suspected that this is where I would need to start, so I approached, making sure to stride confidently to the front door, just in case I was being watched.

It wouldn't do to give anyone the impression I was sneaking around.

Once standing by the door, I gave a solid series of knuckle-raps, the sound echoing louder than I'd intended.

"It's alright, I got it," a slightly-accented female voice called out from within.

Then the door opened, and I was presented with a rather lethal-looking woman who looked like she was a dedicated Army Ranger. As expected, she looked in her early twenties, toned and fit, but she also had an intensity about her eyes that screamed disciplined and lethal, and her clothing looked entirely practical, crop-top, cargo trousers, rugged boots, all strapped down to prevent trip hazards or accidental tangles. She also had a combat blade holstered on her hip.

I've also no doubt she gave me a far more in-depth appraisal. "Yes?" she asked, her tone wary.

"Apologies, I've been sent to the house at these coordinates by a mutual colleague of ours," I began, and then waited to see if there was any understanding, but the woman continued to glare. "Laurent Cuisset, of the Cuisset family."

Still, the woman continued to stare at me, her expression uncompromising.

"Who is it?" Another voice called out from behind the door, causing an irritated hiss to sound from the one watching me.

That was nothing compared to the reaction I was having. That voice was familiar, and my heart gave a painful thump as I processed who the voice belonged to.

The door opened. Standing there, looking as young as I always remembered, was a face I thought I'd never see again, a short, slim woman wearing a crop-top, a utility jacket and a pair of cargo shorts. She wore sturdy leather utility boots, which were a stark contrast to the sneakers I always remembered, her dark hair was tied up in a pony-tail at the back of her head, like I remembered, and as she saw me, her jaw dropped, her expression as shocked as I felt.

"D-Dani?" I gasped.

"Rick?" Daniella Reyes, my sister, who I thought was dead, who I hadn't seen since before the outbreak, was standing there in front of us, her hand to her mouth, tears streaming down her face as she began to shake. "Rick, is that you?"

"Dani?" I asked, utterly stupefied by what I saw, such that I was rooted to the spot, unable to move.

In an instant, Dani leapt straight at me, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug, burying her face in my neck, sobbing loudly. My own eyes burned fiercely as I held her tightly in turn, feeling my own throat tighten, as I let out a choked exhale.

"I never thought I'd see you again!" She cried out, squeezing me tighter.

We remained in each other's arms for some minutes, holding each other tight, as we both expressed our relief at seeing each other after so long. While I had barely seen Dani before the Synergy programme started, we always believed we would have some time left, and this whole experience going into the new world taught me that such complacency had no place any longer. What was worse, was that while I had felt for weeks, that I might not ever see Dani again, she must have felt my absence for much longer.

Forty-three years longer.

Eventually, we both got a grip over our emotional outpouring, stood apart and looked at each other, both of us wiping our eyes and laughing, and I felt sheer joy at having my baby sister back in my life once more.

It was only at that moment, that I remembered we had company, and I stood back, looking at the woman apologetically. "Sorry about that," I began.

"No need," she replied. "I'm Rosalie..."

It was weird that she had stopped at that point, but Dani quickly recovered, leaving my side and going straight to hers, holding her side and looking at her with obvious adoration. "She's my wife."

With a glad thump in my heart, I approached both women, opening my arms to them. "Anyone who can capture my sister's heart is welcome!" I said happily, apparently surprising Rosalie, who only stood with her jaw slightly slackened. It gave me pause. "Too much?"

My question seemed to snap her out of it, and she waved me toward her. "No, sorry! It's just a lot to take in today is all."

We hugged, her arms giving me a reassuringly-strong squeeze, before letting me go. "So, we have a lot of catching up to do," I said, meaning all three of us. "I take it you've heard of me?"

Rosalie nodded. "Dani talked about you often."

I looked sidelong at Dani, as if annoyed with her. She held a twinkle in her eye, and I just knew she saw what was coming. "You didn't tell her about the time I went sailing at Grafham Water, when I fell in, did you?"

Dani gave me a shove, which ended up being surprisingly strong. Almost absently, I had my nanocloud read her, confirming that she had her own densely-concentrated nanocloud, as did Rosalie. I suspected being alive for forty-three years past the initial outbreak had something to do with that. "You should have seen this klutz," she laughed. "Never get him in a sailing boat! He'll capsize the thing and drown us all!"

We spent hours talking and catching up on everything that had happened over the last forty-three years. Most of what my sister told me was centred around the Canadian government's collapse and subsequent devolvement into regional city-states, all of which coped with varying degrees of success, and all of which had to make a lot of changes. Like Europe, most cities in Quebec had to adapt to a population that had been greatly reduced (in Canada, a lot of people survived compared to the rest of the world, with about three percent of the population making it through the outbreak and the subsequent killings that followed). Unlike Europe, most smaller towns never bothered with walls or fortresses, checkpoints or outposts. Quebec City had a massive wall erected to repel invaders, but the biggest surprise was that none ever attempted to breach them.

In fact, as I went back outside to look, I then recalled seeing a massive concrete wall surrounding the city to the west. My nanocloud extrapolated the distance from where I stood, and gave me an estimate that the wall was at least thirty metres tall and seemed to have an interior that was populated.

In other words, it seemed impenetrable.

We all went back inside to talk some more, and that's when Dani told me her own story.

"You remember when we didn't speak for a few months before you went to do those medical trials?" She asked me, and I nodded. To my surprise, she stretched a hand to Rosalie, who took it and squeezed, giving her a look of encouragement "Well... I was just diagnosed with early-stage late-onset Alzheimer's."

I felt a thump in my chest at that news, immediately replaced with relief. "How long did it affect you?" I asked, knowing it would be impossible for her to be speaking to me like this now, if she didn't make it through.

"If I had to guess?" She shrugged, not looking bothered by the fact at all. "Three years? When did the outbreak happen?"

Rosalie had the answer to that one. "Twenty-twenty-eight," she said quietly. "They pulled me out of retirement to try and mitigate it's effects."

"Yeah," Dani sighed. "Well, in a way, I'm glad they failed."

"Dani-" Rosalie started to speak sharply, as if she were angered by this, and they were having an argument they'd already hashed out before.

"Rosie, please," Dani stopped her with a squeeze of her hand. "Rick, the truth was, the outbreak was horrific. When more than ninety-nine percent of the population of the planet is wiped out, it's never going to be anything other than terrible... And terrifying."

This somewhat mollified Rosalie, though her expression still remained troubled.

"You were most directly involved in a lot of the clean-up, weren't you?" I asked Rosalie.

She didn't speak, and her face expressed pain for a moment, before it went blank. "Sorry, I don't wanna talk about it."

"Understood," I told her gently. "Dani, you had Alzheimer's?"

Dani let out a sigh which seemed to embody frustration, fear, sadness, and eventually relief. "It's not something I want for anyone," she said quietly. "And I'm glad it's no longer possible for it to develop."

I didn't even need to ask for an explanation on that one. My nanocloud's medical directives would no doubt correct for any brain abnormalities that occurred, so I expected the same would occur in anyone else who possessed one.

"So, three years, and then you must have come into contact with some nanites?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "No-one knew how, and Rosie had her own problems to deal with, so when I became... Infected, if you will... That's when things started to change. My memory was the first to go when I started suffering, then my personality started to get strange. I understand that my cognitive faculties were soon to go, then more basic stuff like my motor control skills, and eventually, things like my heart and lungs would no longer function without a brain to drive them." She took a breath, squeezing the hand that she still held. "Rosie took care of me the whole time. I wouldn't be here if not for her."

Rosalie looked away, her expression momentarily tremulous, her eyes watering, as she took her free hand and held it against her face.

"We'd do anything for the people we love," I said gently into the silence that followed, and Rosalie let out a whimper, as the tears fell, and she buried her face in her hands. "And clearly, you came through the ordeal."

"Yeah," Dani said quietly, looking over at Rosalie. Standing slowly, she stepped over to Rosalie and hugged into her from behind. "It's alright, Rosie. We got through it."

I stood, ready to leave the room. Dani looked at me questioningly. "Rick?"

"This is a private moment," I told her. "I don't want to intrude."

"Bullshit," Rosalie called out, standing up and walking toward me, letting out a sob as she did, wrapping her arms around me. "I can see why she respects you so much."

"And I can see why she loves you as much as she does," I told her quietly, squeezing her and stroking her back. "I couldn't think of a better person for my sister to spend her life with."

Some moments after, we all sat back down once Rosalie was feeling less overwhelmed, and we carried on talking. Dani told me about how her new nanocloud had started by repairing the damage to the brain cells caused by Tau and Amyloid plaques, removing them by breaking the molecules down into basic elements like Oxygen and Hydrogen, depositing them into the blood stream. After that, the nanocloud would have had to restore the damaged brain cells, or replace them with equivalents of some kind.

The first thing Dani noticed was an improvement in her moods, almost at the same time as she noticed that it was easier to remember new things. Soon after that, she no longer lost memories, nor lost any situational awareness of her environment. Not long after that, old memories began to return, and gradually, though not everything she had lost did come back, she remembered enough to know who she used to be.

She also told me that it was around the same time as her memory had started working more effectively, she noticed the first signs that she was no longer getting older, but was in fact, getting younger. As I remembered from Laurent's own story, Dani ended up de-ageing over the course of about two years, until she reached her current physical age of twenty-five just as the end of the big outbreak war had concluded.

We never spoke of it in any detail. Rosalie was clearly scarred by what had happened, and I knew enough of the story from what I'd learned from Phil back in England.

"So my nanocloud's repair work on my brain came with a few side effects," Dani concluded, and leaned forward. "I can read the memories of any person I come into contact with, as well as show those memories to anyone else I choose to touch," she began. "Thankfully, I have complete control of it, and I don't have to carry those memories around either, if I don't want to. It would get pretty crowded in my head, otherwise."

"Interesting," I replied, and it was. The ability to read and access another person's memories was a powerful one, and saved a lot of miscommunication at times, especially if... "Can you also read people's emotional states at any given time in their past?"

Dani nodded. "If they remember them, sure."

"That's a major advantage when dealing with people," I told her. "At least I assume it has been."

Dani contented herself with a snort. "So Rick, what's your story?"

I told her, catching her up to date as far as my trip to Eindhoven went, the volunteers I bumped into, and what they had given me. I deliberately skipped over certain details. She didn't need to know about Lena, she only needed to know some of the conversational highlights I had with Laurent, I was never going to tell her about the carnage that Suzie had wrought on two of the men I needed to speak to, and as for Eveline...

"Rick, what's wrong?" Dani asked me.

I suddenly didn't want to talk to anyone any longer today. "Sorry, excuse me," I told them both, standing up. "I-" I couldn't say any more, so I headed to the nearest door, so I could step outside and hopefully get some fresh air.

My nanocloud immediately flooded my mind with calming compounds and tried to eliminate noradrenaline from my brain chemistry. It took a few moments, but I started to feel less overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of heartbreak and anger that was building up in me while I was inside. Being reminded of what happened between her and I was a bitter pill to swallow, and I wasn't sure I'd ever really be alright with what happened.

I'd spent the last few weeks refusing to even consider what had happened, or to think about the implications, causes, possible reasons, or any of that. As far as I was concerned-

"Rick," Dani was at my side, speaking softly. For some reason, her sudden appearance didn't startle me. "Rick, what happened?"

I took a breath and held it for a moment, lifting my head in to the air as I felt my eyes burning. While my nanocloud was dealing with the feelings of anger, I was still left feeling broken inside, and it was that loss of trust, the loss of dependability which had ultimately left me feeling like I'd been cast adrift. "I don't know where to start," I told her, my voice shaking. "And I'm worried if I start talking about it, I'll lose it," and my voice broke on the last word, as I felt the dam burst.

Dani took me in her arms and held me tight as I poured my grief out, the muted anger at the betrayal of my trust, the overwhelming feeling of loss that things between Eveline and I had now irrevocably changed in a way that I had no idea how to deal with, and the fact that despite what she had done, I actually missed her. It took a few minutes to get a grip on myself.

"Rick," Dani spoke, her own voice choked up. "I need to know what happened."

I let out a shaky breath. "I don't know if I can talk about it."

"Then don't," she said, taking a breath herself. "Let me read it from your memories."

I was so wrapped up in feeling lost, that the idea of being able to read other people at that moment didn't excite me at all. "Sure," I breathed, still shaking, my breathing ragged.

My nanocloud handled the whole thing, performing the handshake with Dani's own nanocloud, and then I felt the same low-current electrical feeling that I had the last time I had a data transfer through touch with someone. This time, it took several minutes, during which time, Dani held me close, never letting go of either my hand or the hug she held me in. I also knew the exact moment that the transfer had finished, because while I felt no different, my nanocloud had informed me that the connection had been terminated, and at that precise moment, Dani pushed me fiercely away from her with a look of ferocity and pain, almost enraged.

I was horrified.

But the look collapsed the same moment, and a look of horror appeared on her own face as she ran to my side to help me up. "Rick, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

I was confused. "What was that?"

"Side effect of the memory transfer," she said, sniffling as she pulled me to my feet. "Strong emotions associated with what I retrieve from someone tend to stay with me for a few seconds. I felt your fury and heartbreak. Rick, I'm so fucking sorry you had to go through that!" And with that, she pulled me into another hug, dissolving into some of the most torturous sobs I'd ever heard from her in my life.

It took a while for us to clean up after all of that, and by the time we did, the sun was already setting in Quebec. I took another walk outside, hoping to appreciate the sight for a few moments, something I hadn't done since I'd woken up in the new world.

Finally, as the last of the red and golden highlights disappeared over the horizon, and the skyline became a yellow hue of light pollution from Quebec City itself, I stepped back indoors to re-join Dani and Rosalie. As I did, I overheard their conversation.

"You know they're going to come after him here, don't you?" Rosalie was saying.

"I know," Dani spoke in resignation. "Do you have any idea what to do next?"

"Yeah," Rosalie told her. "There's a place north of here. Only a few miles, and it was once abandoned after the outbreak. It used to be the site of a gas station, and-"

"You mean the Tim Hortons' place?"

"Yeah, that one."

"There's a tall wooden tower on top of it now," Dani said, her voice becoming strained with a whisper. "It's not abandoned anymore!"

"I know," Rosalie told her. "Jacob Marcelle lives over there with his wife and kids. I'll talk to him later about us staying there for a while."

Dani let out a sigh. "What about Rick?"

"What about him, Dani?" Rosalie started, then the tone of her voice became more strained. "You said it yourself. He's on a mission of some kind, and there's a good chance he's gonna want to get back to it asap."

"Yeah, but he's got nowhere else to go, and no-one else to depend on-"

"Dani! God dammit!" Rosalie interrupted her. "He's your brother! You think I'm even close to suggesting we abandon him?! Shit, I thought you knew me better than that!"

The silence was awkward, at least from where I stood, so I walked in and made my presence known. Dani was stood with her arms around Rosalie, who looked somewhat offended.

"Guys, I'm sorry," I held my hands up, and both of them looked at me confused, then horrified. "And no, please don't panic. If anything, I should be apologising for bringing this to your doorstep."

"No!" Dani snapped at me, her expression fierce, determined. "Rick, you're my brother. You've been there for me my whole life. Don't even think about blaming yourself for any of this!"

"What she said," Rosalie said with a one-sided smile.

"You are right, though," I said to Rosalie. "I do have a mission to get on with, so I'll be leaving in the morning, just as soon as I get packed up and some sleep.

"No, Rick-"

"Dani, easy," I told her. "Dani it's alright."

"It's not alright, Rick," she protested, her face taking on angry lines. "Seeing you again has been the best thing I could have hoped for, and now you're gonna disappear out of my life again?!"

"No," I told her gently, but forcefully. "Now that I know you're here, I'll be in touch regularly, and I'll visit as often as I can once I've been to New York. Rosalie, do you have access to a landline?"

"Not here," Rosalie told me. "But the cellular network across much of Quebec is mostly intact, and now that the towers are in the direct control of the city-states, they're up and running again. If you can get to a landline yourself, you'll be able to reach us no matter where we are."

"There," I told Dani. "I'll always be able to call you. By the way," I turned to Rosalie. "Is that something your nanocloud provides you?"

"Somewhat," she replied. "My nanocloud can interface with any radio-transmitter within reach of my body. Here, come here!" She took my hand at that moment, and my nanocloud handled everything else, before we released each other. "If you can find a radio-transmitter that can interface with the cellular network in the region, you'll always be able to receive calls."

1 new function available.

This was a bonus. "Thanks, Rosalie. I'll do what I can to get one of those. Are there any limits?"

We spent a few more hours talking over the technical details of interfacing through a nanocloud with any radio transceiver, as well as which regions of North America had cell towers that were functional, as well as the protocols available, and whether or not the towers charged you for their usage. It seemed to depend a lot on the local city states as to whether you had to cough up any credits to connect calls to and from others, and while cellular towers in the various city-states were functional, not all of them worked reliably, and none of them interfaced with satellite communications of any kind. Apparently, the last communication satellites to function fell out of orbit a decade or so back. The only thing left functioning were GPS satellites, and even then, some of them had begun to fail.

Eventually, we all retired to bed, Dani putting me up in a guest room on the upper floors, near a balcony leading out into a view over farmland. She shared a room with Rosalie that was on the other side of the house, which was of course, to be expected.

Despite everything I had felt that day, the gamut of emotions I had experienced and the tension I had felt, for once, I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke up the next morning, having had a bizarre dream, the details of which I couldn't recall. Today, I had to press on to New York and get to the Watson research building before anyone else had a chance to destroy what was there, so I quickly packed my travel gear once again and walked downstairs. Dani and Rosalie were already up and had breakfast prepared. This time, it was pancakes, the fluffy non-English kind.

Hey, this is Canada!

Still, they were great, the stack just perfect, the use of genuine Canadian Maple syrup a bonus, and the coffee was just as I remembered from the days of our local coffee place in Milton Keynes, where Dani used to work when she was younger.

She always did know how to brew coffee.

By the time we were done, the mood had turned sombre. None of us felt like saying our goodbyes, especially as it had been nearly half a century since Dani had seen me (even if from my perspective it had only been six months).

We moved to the front lawn, to part company.

"I want you to have this," Rosalie handed me a watch-like device, along with another baton-shaped unit. "The baton-looking thing can go in your backpack or be fastened to the outside. Your preference, but it's the antenna for long-range signalling. The wrist-strap here is shorter-range, but can reach up to maybe ten metres. It'll link with the baton and allow you to use it as a radio-transmitter of any kind, analogue or digital. That communication function I gave you yesterday will know what to do with the wrist attachment. Wear that at all times no matter where you are, and we'll always be able to contact each other if you're in range of a cellular network or some other radio transmission base."

"Thanks," I told her. "This will be a huge asset to me on the road. Do I need to do anything to get it hooked up to the cellular networks? And how will we know how to call each other?"

"Your nanocloud will know what to do," Rosalie told me. "Now come on. Bring it in!"

I gave her a tight hug, releasing her a moment later, touched as she wiped her eyes a moment after letting go. "I'd love to catch up with you again, real soon." I told her.

Then I turned to Dani.

No words were needed. She quickly stepped up to me, and wrapped me in a fierce hug that would have broken a few ribs if I hadn't been augmented. A few moments later, she let out a sob, pulled back, wiped her face, and tried for a smile. "Love you, bro!"

I chuckled, feeling glad and saddened at the same time. "Love you too, sis. I'll call you tonight if I'm still in range of the towers."

"You better," she said, but the effect was ruined when her face dropped and she let out a shaky exhale.

I hugged her to me once more, looking to Rosalie. "Better make sure these things work."

Immediately, my nanocloud alerted me to an incoming transmission with a lengthy string identifier. The incoming call stopped, but the notification stayed, so I quickly told my nanocloud to store the communication ID as a contact under Rosalie's name, before returning the call and disconnecting it a moment later.

"We have your contact ID now," Rosalie told me as Dani let go of me, reaching out for Rosalie as she looked on at me.

"Good," I said, taking a deep breath. "Anyway, I better get back on the road."

"Good hunting," Rosalie said, giving me a nod, squeezing Dani's waist as Dani gave a hiccup, burying her face in Rosalie's neck. "We'll speak to you soon."

The first part of the walk out of the Quebec City Area was relatively uneventful. I looked about to see what was left standing, and I thought I recognised the tower that I heard Dani and Rosalie speak about the day before. It was certainly tall, I'd give them that, but it gave any lookout a view over the city and the countryside that was unrivalled.

Seriously, I suspected that a person with adequate enhancements would easily be able to see for at least fifty miles from that height, with no trouble whatsoever.

As I transitioned from farmland to forest, from civilisation to wilderness, I suddenly felt what I thought was a large truck barrel into my side, which left me sprawling on the ground near the tree line. The blow had knocked the wind out of me, and I struggled for a moment to recall what had happened.

Then I saw it.

There was an obsidian-covered panther-looking hybrid standing over me. He was tall, with lots of compact muscle, a body that was not built for anyone's entertainment.

This panther was bred purely as a combatant.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"My employers want your information," the panther said in a deep rumble, his elongated snout making it difficult for him to talk. "They don't care how I get it."

ALERT: Stealth combatant detected. Combat mode engaged.

Yeah, it's a bit fucking late for that, I thought irritably, as my nanocloud made the necessary adjustments to prepare me to do battle.

The panther immediately leapt forward, possibly hoping to catch me off-guard, but my training kicked in, as I pushed the quick-release of my backpack and allowed it to drop to the ground, pulling both blades smoothly from their holsters and flipping them in the air to catch them in the correct orientation.

Eveline would kill me if she saw me pulling off a move like that.

Just as the panther was within reach of me, I ducked, tucked myself into a roll under his feet, and swiped upward with my blade, catching him slightly. The hiss that he let loose told me I'd only scored a minor hit, and now, he knew not to underestimate me.

For some moments, how long I didn't know, I jumped, rolled, leapt aside, back-pedalled and parried the various blows he sent in my direction with his claws, as he jumped, rolled, leapt toward, and otherwise pressed his attacks in my direction. Despite all of my improvements, despite my new skills, I was still too slow, too heavy-footed, and too weak to gain any upper hand.

When I desperately pushed back against the panther, he kicked out with his cat foot, sending me sprawling toward a tree. I bounced off of it and hit the ground, feeling weak, tired, and I felt as though I had several broken ribs. My combat blades fell from my hands as I subconsciously reacted to the searing pain of those compound fractures.

I was done. I was losing this fight... And the panther knew it, as he sauntered over, with all the arrogant assuredness of a middling combatant in the ring with a complete novice, thinking he was a master.

Before I even had a chance to register what I'd seen, an orange and gold blur appeared from behind, as the panther hissed and swiped his claws where it had previously been, before the feline woman it belonged to, landed directly in front of me, her familiar striped pattern covered by her utility jacket and those cargo shorts she always wore, her back to me, tail rapidly swaying in fury, as she faced off my attacker with an angry hiss, her stance a crouch that would see her leap into an attack at any moment.

"Stay down," Eveline hissed in my direction, before launching immediately into an attack at the obsidian panther.