Then

“Hey, so, um… there’s a problem with the grocery stores,” Gene said from the other side of the gate.

Cal stared at the teen and the three other members of the self-proclaimed adventuring party, Johnny, Bastien, and Olo. They were mostly annoying, but he couldn’t deny that they worked hard and took risks to pitch in to the greater community around them. Plus they managed to survive and grow stronger thanks to or maybe not thanks to the war with the gremlins.

“They’ve turned into Spawn Points!” Olo blurted.

“Dude! Shut up!” Bastien slapped the tall, broad shouldered teen on the back of his head. “You told us we needed to be chill!”

Gene frowned at both of his friends. “The council’s been getting reports that people have seen and or been chased out of the grocery stores by monsters. Descriptions fit the little gremlins.”

Cal sighed. “You wouldn’t happen to know when this started?”

Johnny hurriedly took a notebook out from his day pack. “Earliest report was five days ago, err, technically four if you don’t count today.”

Cal recognized the date, it was roughly one year since the stupid apocalypse started. He was dreading something happening after one of the tutorial guides he purchased from the spire mentioned the existence of several landmark dates that would bring changes to how their current reality functioned. It seemed that their easy access to food and other necessary supplies wasn’t going to be spared.

“Why is the council bringing this to me? The watch should be able to handle this,” Cal said.

“We’d take care of it ourselves, but they don’t want to risk another MLK High School situation breaking out,” Gene said.

“Right, too soon,” Cal said. “So, what’re they doing about it and what do they want from me?”

“They’ve closed the stores for now with the watch maintaining a perimeter. Until you’ve had a look and given them your ah… advisement, no one gets to go grocery shopping.”

“People won’t like that.”

Gene shrugged. “Everyone’s supposed to have enough supplies to last for at least two weeks. Council has an emergency stash for the lazy people.”

“Do you have the times when these sightings and attacks occurred?”

“Seems random. They happened during both day and night,” Johnny said.

“Did the people who reported these sightings and attacks get any notifications? Quests? Or anything else?”

“They didn’t say anything about that.”

“Fine, I’ll take a look. Which stores? Safeways? Trader Joes? Nugget? The Co-op?”

“All of them,” Gene said.

Cal raised his brows. “Any reports on the other stores?”

“They didn’t mention anything.”

“Alright, this is what we’ll do. You boys go and tell your watch commander that each store, no matter how small needs to get checked out. I’ll check out the big grocery stores. We’ll also need to start checking all other commercial structures, office buildings and the like.”

“Um… Mr. Cruces,” Olo raised his hand.

“I’ve forgotten how many times I told you that you don’t have to call me that or raised your hand.”

“Uh, sorry… but, do you know what’s going on?”

“Nothing concrete, Olo. Just a hunch that there might be some changes happening or about to happen. Tell the council I’ll check into it tonight and I’ll let them know in the morning. Be careful tonight. Caution is the word, no risks,” Cal said as he waved and walked back towards the makeshift gym building that he called home.

The windows shook at the same time there was a loud booming thud from outside. Eron was back.

“Do you really have to do the hulk jumping thing?”

“Got to practice that landing. I’m having a hard time getting the one knee down to look natural,” Eron said as he came into the gym’s break room. “What’s up? You’ve got that vibe going on.”

Cal didn’t look up from where he was writing notes into a notepad. “What’re you talking about?”

“The ‘something serious and terrible is going to happen’ vibe.”

“Team F.C.W.R. dropped by with a request from the city council.”

“Wait, what?”

“Something weird is going on with the grocery stores and they want me to check it out,” Cal sighed.

“Not that. Are they really calling themselves that? I thought they were just messing around.”

Cal took his eyes off his notes to glare at Eron.

“I’m just saying it’s dumb just to name your team after your roles. Plus it just telegraphs what you’re capable of, you want misdirection. Might us well hand the baddies an index card with all your strengths and weaknesses,” Eron scoffed before noticing Cal’s gaze. “Alright, fine, what’s this about the groceries?”

“Long and short of it is that there are reports of monsters appearing in the stores.”

“Hmm, interesting, which stores?”

“All of them,” Cal said. “At least the big ones.”

Eron nodded. “You know what’s interesting?”

“What?”

“I discovered something at the spire today.” Eron stopped suddenly to go to the fridge and grab a chocolate stout before returning to the table.

“And did you intend to elaborate or do you want to enjoy your beer first. Seriously, it’s not even noon.”

“First of all, I drink for the taste. I can’t even get drunk anymore,” Eron said glumly. “And secondly, yes. I intend to graciously share the new, earth-shattering information I obtained at great personal cost.” He paused to take a long pull of his stout. “Right, so we can buy food and drink from the spire directly. Seems a bit too coincidental that this feature gets revealed at the same time that grocery shopping just got dangerous.”

“I had a feeling something like this was eventually going to happen,” Cal said. “How’d the purchasing work? Did you go through the marketplace feature? What kind of food? Raw ingredients? Fully-cooked dishes?”

“Whoa!” Eron held up his hands. “You can check it out for yourself. But the answer to your questions is yes. There’s a food section in the marketplace. You can get the raw ingredients or you can get the dishes. I skimmed through it and it looks like its got anything and everything you could think of.”

“Did you try it?” Cal’s interest was piqued.

“I got crispy pata and white rice!” The smile on Eron’s face grew wide. “It tasted like the best thing I’ve ever tasted! Even the lechon sauce was perfect! I hate to admit this, but the spire can cook.”

Cal shot up from his seat before sitting down with a sigh. “I can’t go yet. So, how much did it cost?”

“That’s the only bad thing,” Eron grimaced. “500 Universal Points.”

“Not good, not very many people can afford that.”

Eron nodded. “I’ve talked with some people on the watch. They get around a hundred points a week from their patrols. The gremlin war was terrible, but you can’t argue that it was good for gaining points.”

“Basically we’re the only ones who can afford this luxury,” Cal said. “And that’s only because we have the power to go to different Encounter Challenges and do them without triggering a Spawn Point.”

“How long do you think it’ll take for the city council to start pestering us about sharing points or doing lowbie runs?”

“Won’t take long. I’ve heard from Remy that they’re talking about a tax on Universal Points.”

“Huh… we’ve become the one percent,” Eron said. “I don’t know how to feel about that. I should feel bad. Right?”

“I wouldn’t mind giving up some of my points, but there’s still so much we don’t know about the spires and I need the points to find out.”

“Spoken like a true fat cat,” Eron nodded sagely. “Well, I suppose you can comfort yourself in the fact that like the one percent there isn’t anything the common man can do to redistribute your wealth. In this case we are literally, too powerful. Is it wrong that I think that?”

“Yes,” Cal said flatly. “Yes it is.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“I’m going to check the stores tonight. The witnesses didn’t say anything about getting notifications before they ran for it. I’m going to see if killing a monster triggers something.”

Eron took another long pull. “You think the stores are turning into Encounter Challenges?”

“Fits our theory on commercial buildings versus residential buildings.”

“Do you think we should start checking out the empty homes?”

“Probably should add that to the list,” Cal said. “We don’t know what constitutes a residence or rather what the spires determine is a residence. Does an empty house retain residential status? Is there a time limit? Is there a difference if a resident is killed or abandons it willingly? What happens to a neighborhood tract with a mixed amount of occupied homes and empty homes?”

“I wish the tutorials weren’t so vague and lacking in information,” Eron said. “It’s like the spires are trying to outdo the video game industry. Nickel and dime us users for everything.”

“Worse,” Cal said. “This is like if they hid the control scheme behind a loot box. Win and find out what the R2 button does.”

Eron chuckled. “Real life turned into the worst game ever.”

“We’re luckier than literally ninety-nine percent of the people,” Cal said. “Anyways, I’ll find out if the grocery stores are turning into Encounter Challenges. If they are, then we’ll clear them and hopefully turn them back to normal… well normal for a store that magically restocks its shelves over time.”

“Maybe we leave the clearing to the watch and anyone else interested,” Eron said. “Give them a chance at more points.”

“It’s too risky. It might create another high school crisis.”

“Then we’ll be right there waiting to crush it right away. Cal, we can’t always be around to handle the biggest dangers. I say we need to let the people have opportunities to grain strength in their own right. This way they can’t complain and say that we’re hogging all the points.”

“People will always find something to complain about. Besides, they fought against the gremlins, proved their bravery. A lot of people didn’t make it.”

“I’m not taking that away from them, but we were front and center for the worst of it. I don’t want to be a jerk, but without us those gremlins would’ve swept right through. I just want them to get stronger, so that their lives don’t hinge on our presence. I can’t hang around here forever.”

Cal took in the look on Eron’s face. His youngest brother was legitimately bothered. There was the temptation to peak into his thoughts, just on the surface, to find out what, but he ignored it easily. He knew the answer already. “Still worried about them?”

“Aren’t you?” Eron shot back before he caught himself. “Sorry, I know you are. But it’s been six months since we’ve talked with mom, dad, and Rayna. We’ve been able to maintain some semblance of telecommunications here, but…”

“Maybe once you figure out how to fly, we can build a satellite or maybe even buy one from the spire and have you put it into orbit. If our communications grid is dying or dead, then we create a new one that works within this new paradigm.”

“We’d still need to build or place new receivers down south if we want to communicate, which means I’d have to go there anyways,” Eron said.

“Look, I’m not disagreeing with anything you’re saying, but there’s a lot of unknown variables to take into account for a journey down south. My biggest concern is that we have no idea what happened in the wide open spaces and there’s almost five hundred miles of it between here and our family.”

“I can handle monsters.”

“We got mostly human-sized monsters here in the smaller spaces of the city. Does that mean there are giant-sized monsters out there beyond populated areas?”

“Dude, I can run faster than a car. I can leap several city blocks. The only reason I don’t do that around here is that I don’t want to accidentally run into or land on people or their homes. Without any of that I figure it’ll take me an hour and a half to two hours tops to get down there,” Eron said. “It’s kind of bugging me that it seems like I’m the only one worried about the rest of our family.”

“I’m worried too, but then I remember that they’ve got powers on the same level as ours and we’ve done pretty good so far,” Cal said.

“Exactly, we killed the Spawn Point, no more scary monsters, just the little ones and mutant animals, which even the watch can handle easily. Plus you, Remy, and Nila will still be around.”

Cal thought carefully for a long time in the silence that descended on the break room. “Alright, but some conditions. We make sure this thing with the grocery stores doesn’t turn into a crisis. Then we scout the land between here and Stockton. There’s a lot of open wetlands around the river and farm land on the east side of the freeway. It’ll give us a good idea on what, if any, types of dangers might exist on a trip to the south.”

“Okay, that sounds fair,” Eron said.

“One more favor,” Cal said.

“What is it?”

“I totally forgot that I’m supposed to watch the kids tonight. Can you watch them?”

“Same plan as usual.”

“Yup, you’ll front line it. I’ll be right behind you calling out threats.”

“Sounds good,” Nila said, “but you know it’s not very gentlemanly to have the love of your life be the meat shield.”

“Seeing as how you have an actual shield,” Cal pointed to her enormous rectangular shield. It was a bit crude, crafted by Remy with the use of his magnetic powers. It was essentially a two-inch thick sheet of metal made out of scavenged bits, from car frames, engine blocks, and other things melded together with Remy’s improved command of his powers.

Nila shrugged. “Technically you’re a lot stronger than me, so it’d actually be easier for you to lug this thing around.”

“True, but you’ve got your own super strength and I’ve seen you swing that around like it weighed nothing,” Cal said.

“I believe it’s more peak strength, rather than superhuman,” Nila said.

“Says the small-ish woman that can out lift professional power lifters.”

“I weigh a 170 pounds,” Nila said glumly.

“That’s what happens when your body gets denser,” Cal said. “Don’t worry about it. We’re in a new world. The old standards don’t matter anymore.”

“Still doesn’t excuse having me go first,” Nila teased.

“What? I thought we were all about equality?” Cal poked right back.

Nila stuck out her tongue at him. “Whatever, let’s get started.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Cal followed closely behind Nila as they approached the Nugget’s front entrance. The clouds were out on this night. If it wasn’t for the kerosene lantern in his free hand they’d have been in sheer darkness. It kept the things lurking just out of sight from drawing closer. Although, Cal suspected that even without the light the weaker things, small gremlins and mutant animals, might not have attacked him. It didn’t escape his notice that on his recent patrols it was almost as if he was the one that was going on the attack more often than not, otherwise it seemed as if they were content to leave him alone. Had he out leveled the area? It sounded ridiculous, but that was their reality now.

“Wait.” Nila stopped suddenly as they neared the doors.

“What is it?” Cal narrowed his eyes as he scanned the area for threats.

“I want to grab a bottle of their ranch.”

“This isn’t a shopping trip,” Cal sighed.

“It’s one bottle. Just a quick trip to the salad dressing aisle. C’mon, I’ve been craving it.” Nila’s tone was almost a whine.

Cal rolled his eyes. “Fine… but I get a bag, no, make that two bags of dried, chili lime mango.” He was momentarily shocked to realize that he hadn’t had that for a long time. From before the apocalypse. “Ready then?”

Nila gave him a curt nod.

Cal grabbed the doors with his telekinesis and pushed them open with ease. Without electricity the automatic doors didn’t work.

“No power, yet the frozen goods stay frozen and the refrigerated stuff doesn’t spoil.”

“You’re the one that keeps going on about accepting the magic,” Nila said.

“Or super technology.”

“Magic or tech? You need to make up your mind on which.”

“Meh,” Cal shrugged, “same difference.”

“Whatever, just make sure I don’t get ambushed.” Nila strode into the dark interior of the grocery store with her shield in front of her and her baseball bat at the ready.

Cal hurried to keep up with her. His senses, physical and mental stretching out into the darkness.

They reached the coffee beans and nuts section, just after the cash registers on the right and in the middle of the fresh produce and fruits area to the left, when Cal noticed something odd.

“Wait.”

Nila stopped her eyes constantly scanning the area in front of her before falling on the fresh peanut butter grinder. “You want peanut butter?”

“No—”

“You sure? They’ve got the honey peanut butter you love so much.”

“Well, yes, but not right now,” Ca said. “I’m sensing something strange.”

“What are your mighty mind bullets telling you?”

“That’s not even…” Cal sighed. “There are gremlins in the shadows.”

“Must be the little ones if the lantern is keeping them from attacking.”

“Well, yes and maybe no,” Cal said hesitantly.

“Explain. Now!”

“I’m getting the usual malice and hunger impressions from their thoughts, such that they are. Except, I’m also getting something like fear or wariness.”

“Huh… that’s new. Are you thinking they’re scared of us?”

“It does feel that way.”

“Lends some credence to your over-leveled theory,” Nila said. “I guess we can try putting the lantern out. See if that gets them to attack us.” She brightened suddenly. “Or you can mind-grab them so I can smash them!”

“It doesn’t work that way when they’re in the shadows. I think it’s like they’re not all the way in our ‘plane of existence’.”

“I remember you’ve said that before… still don’t get it.”

“Yes you do. You just refuse to.”

Nila shrugged. “I’m okay with my choice.”

“I wonder what’s going on here. I didn’t get any notifications when we entered the building, so it isn’t an Encounter Challenge or a Spawn Point.”

“It’s been a year since this started. Maybe it’s like there was a restriction for the monsters when it came to going inside places like this, which is now lifted.”

“That simple? What if it’s something new?”

“Why don’t we grab our stuff and investigate some more? Maybe find the core, like at the high school. See if that’ll trigger something,” Nila said.

“Where the heck would that be for a grocery store?”

“The high school’s was in the middle of the quad, so I’m thinking we check where the people think the center of a grocery store is located.”

“I’ve no idea where that could even be. Is there even a consensus view of that? You ask ten people and they’d probably pick wherever their favorite items are.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of what the employees see as the center.” Nila gave Cal a knowing look. It was satisfying to see him stumped for once.

“Right, sounds like you’ve an idea, so I’ll follow your lead… but first, the peanut butter.”

Cal reached out with his telekinesis. A plastic tub floated from its holder and came to settle underneath the spigot for the honey peanut butter dispenser. The switch on the machine depressed and the sound of grinding peanuts accompanied the thick, creamy goo which poured out. Once the tub was close to full a cover floated over and sealed it. Cal shut the machine down and beckoned the tub to his outstretched hand.

Nila shook her head at him. “It feels wrong that you’re using that power to get peanut butter.”

“It’s practice,” Cal said as he placed the tub into his pack. “C’mon, I think the dried mangoes are a couple of aisles over. Then we can swing by the sauce aisle for your ranch.”

They finished the rest of their shopping without incident. The tiny gremlins stayed to their shadows. Nila led the way to the store manager’s office. Cal mentally kicked himself for not thinking of it. In hindsight it was the most obvious spot to pick out for the store center.

They poked around for several minutes with nothing to show for it. No notifications. No monster attacks. No traps. Nothing.

“Okay, I can’t believe I’m about to suggest this, but what if you go outside,” Nila said.

“You think if you’re alone the gremlins will attack?” Cal saw Nila’s intent right away. “How about you go outside and I stay?”

“Out of the two of us, I’m pretty sure you’re the one too powerful for the little gremlins.”

“I don’t know if I like the idea.” Cal narrowed his eyes. “It’s got merit, but is it worth the risk? I mean worst case I tell the council that they need to organize guarded grocery shopping trips. It’d be good for the watch to get points fighting the monsters and the spires might even turn it into a repeatable escort quest.” He chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”

“Escort quests… they’re the worst.”

“It’ll be fine. We go out I’ll go in and you wait just outside.”

Cal grimaced. “Alright, but you take the lantern and you stay close to the door.”

The pair quickly exited the building. Nila took a few steadying breaths and went back inside. As Cal watched her from just outside the open doorway, she placed the lantern on the closest checkout counter and got ready. The seconds stretched into minutes with nothing happening.

“I’m done,” Nila said as she grabbed the lantern and backed out of the store. “Well that was a waste.”

“I guess we should go check the other stores.”

“Do we really need to? It’s probably going to turn out the same.”

“City council won’t be able to complain.”

Nila raised her brows.

“Legitimately complain,” Cal continued, “if we are thorough. I don’t want to give them any openings.”

“What’s next on the list?”

“Safeway, Co-op, Trader Joes, then another Safeway.”

Nila trudged off into the darkness, leaving Cal to hurry after her.