Chapter 3 - Leaving the house

Alexander had lost track of the time, that had passed since the black smog had appeared, as the power remained out and the black smog remained covering the air. Alexander had spent the time hiding in his house, trying to make as little noise as possible in the pitch black darkness, trying to get used to his new strength, and practicing Ono-ha Itto-run skills along with other sword stances to try and calm his mind, while also trying to ignore the occasional screams and loud thuds he heard outside the house. He noticed a rather noticeable improvement in his stamina, as he could swing the sword for an hour without feeling any fatigue, something he wasn't able to do previously. He wanted to try out the limits of his new strength, but he refrained, as he didn't want to destroy more of the house, like the bathroom sink.

At one point while practicing, he managed to see lightning light up the area. He went to the window and pulled aside the curtains to look outside. He managed to see that someone in the distance had generated electricity from the tips of their hands to electrocute three monsters, before fainting. Shortly afterwards, two humanoid figures with gaunt frames, sunken eye sockets, pitch red eyes, claw like hands with pointed tips walked to the person on the ground. They each lifted a leg, and their faces looked like it almost split in half as the things opened there mouth wide, exposing pointed teeth, visible even in the distance. The legs started disappearing in the creatures mouth.

Alexander shuddered, and closed the windows and backing away from the window, almost fainting in fright.

Sometime later, as time had passed and he had started to become accustomed to the gruesome screams he could occasionally hear outside, he thought about about the scene again, where the person shoot out lightning, he started trying everything he could think of to try to shoot lightning from his palm including saying out loud some phrases from anime and games he had seen, but had no luck.

Alexander occasionally glanced out the window. One thing he eventually picked up on was that the monsters outside seemed to be attracted to loud noises such as people screaming, or a vehicle starting and moving.

As time passed, the fear from the whole situation started to dull, and Alexander was starting to grow angry and frustrated at the situation. The power remained out, his mum hadn't returned, he couldn't contact anyone he knew, and he was occasionally hearing the thuds outside of heavy footsteps, and people screaming and fleeing for their lives. Quite a few times, he had an urge to go outside, to help someone, but when he walked to the door, katana in hand, he always froze at the door, too afraid to take that final step.

Eventually, after Alexander went to look in the fridge for a meal after taking his fifteenth sleep, he only saw a bag of slightly black potatoes and carrots, and onions in the fridge, along with two eggs and five bottles of water. He checked the cupboard, and only saw that there was five cans of baked beans, along with three long life milk containers, and four cans of dog food. He pulled out all the food that was in the wall cupboards, and set them on the table, and started frowning.

He was running out of food and water.

Bob walked into the kitchen, and stood up on his hind legs, putting his front paws on the table and starting to lick the can of dog food. Alexander patted the dog, having long since grown immune to the sight of it's third eye sticking out of his head while he had remained in the house.

"Were running out of food Bob."

Bob started licking Alexander's hands. Alexander opened a can of dog food for Bob, placing it on a bowl on the ground on the ground. Alexander then walked back to the table filled with the inventory of food, thinking about the problem.

He needed to get some more food, and the only thing he could think of was going to a food store. The problem was, that meant going outside. Alexander shuddered at the thought, but try as he might, he just couldn't think of any alternative. Eventually, he settled on going to a food store nearby. While he didn't want to go to a food store, he had no choice. It was either that or starve to death. He had no choice.

He went around the house, grabbing every bag that he could see in the house, and bringing it to the kitchen room. He wanted to grab as many items of food as he could in this one trip, and he had to make the trip on foot, as the only car was with his mom, and loud noises attracted the monsters outside anyway.

Eventually, Alexander settled on taking his black and red school bag, and an old red bag he found lying around in the house, hanging it around the shoulders, at his front and back, along with bringing his katana. He couldn't bring more bags in case he had to run. As he made his way to the door, Bob got up from the empty bowl on the floor, following him to the exit of the house.

Alexander stopped, and said to Bob.

"Stay here. I'm going to grab some food."

Alexander turned around and took a couple more steps towards the door. Bob kept following.

"I can't take you Bob. I need you to stay here and guard the house and the food."

Bob bit lightly on Alexander's pants, and tried to drag Alexander towards the kitchen, softly but insistently. Alexander tried to struggle out Bob's grasp, but couldn't. Eventually, he gave in.

"Easy. Let go, I will follow you."

Bob led the way to the kitchen, and jumped on the table with the food stored with a thud.

"Bob, don't ju...."

Alexander paused in mid speech, surprised. The food had all disappeared. After a moment, Alexander regained his sense and looked to Bob.

"Did you do that?"

Seeing the massive dog nodded his head, Alexander asked after a moment.

"Can you return it?"

The food reappeared a moment later, in a large clutter, with some of the cans rolling off the table.

Alexander's eyes widened. "How did you do that?"

"WOOF WOOF!"

Alexander's eyes widened, and he quickly moved to try to cover the dog's mouth. "Don't. Don't make too much noise and attract the things outside here."

The dog remained silent as Alexander slowly took his hands off the dogs mouth. Alexander then proceeded to grab all the food and water and put them in a pile on the floor. He scrutinized the items, in particular, the water, potatoes and carrots, and could see nothing wrong with them. "Bob, store these."

The pile disappeared once again. Alexander looked at Bob for a moment, lost in thought. The person he saw who knows how long ago from inside his house used electricity, shooting it from his fingertips. Bob, his dog, could make items vanish somewhere. These abilities were different, so maybe he had a ability that he didn't know about. Or, it could be that his enhanced strength was his ability. Eventually, Alexander said "We will stay here for now, I need to try something, before trying to get some food outside."

Bob licked his hand, then made his way to the living room. Alexander took off the bags, and made his way to his room carrying his sheathed katana in his left hand, closing the door. He wanted to try to see if he could use an ability.

Alexander first got out a tennis ball lying on the floor, spending five minutes trying to locate it in the pitch black room on the floor. He pictured the scene when Bob tried to make items disappeared. All he seemed to do was to go close to them and they vanished.

Alexander put his hands over the tennis ball, and willed it to vanish.

Nothing happened.

He then tried saying out loud "Disappear."

Nothing happened.

After trying fruitlessly for ten minutes, he swiped at the ball in frustration. "How does a dog even know how to use an ability any..."

Alexander broke off in his rant, mid speech, thinking through the issue. His dog didn't need to make any sounds, he just did it. The person who shot the lightning was really far away, but still, Alexander didn't hear any sounds from him either. They just did it. Were they aware of what they could do when they got the ability? Did that mean he didn't have an ability?

Alexander looked around the room, at the black smog covering the room, darkening everything. All this weirdness had to do with the black fog appearing, he was sure of it. What he wasn't sure of, was how widespread it was, and how it managed all these changes. He had noticed that it was becoming gradually easier to see in it too. Either it was slowly fading away, or his eyesight was improving in here.

Alexander sighed, then spent another thirty minutes trying to get something to happen. Anything. Nothing happened.

Alexander eventually gave up. If he met a living person when outside who had a power, he could ask them how they had managed it. Until then, he shelved the idea of using powers. He looked around the house, then proceeded to grab a pile of clothing and handkerchiefs from his room, and a bunch of empty, clean containers he could find lying about, piling them up in the living room. He called Bob over.

"Can you store these?"

The pile of clothes disappeared. Alexander looked at the location they vanished for a moment, then went to his room, and tore a couple of pages out of his notebook, and wrote a message for his Mum to read, if she ever returned, leaving the messages in the kitchen table, living room, and bedroom doors, about his next destinations after finding some more food, so she would know where to find him, if she returned here. He just prayed that she was alive. He regretted not spending more time with her, with not interacting with her more before.

Alexander was sick of staying in the house, alone in the pitch black darkness with no-one but his dog. He needed to find another human. After going to the grocery store, Alexander decided to go to Mike and Alexandria's houses. He couldn't search out his Mum, because he didn't know where abouts she went to after drinking with her colleagues. He never really talked to her much. Alexander felt a pang of guilt at this thought. If she was still alive, if he ever saw her, he would spend more time talking to her.

Alexander made his way to the door after placing the notes in place, calling Bob. He spent time looking at the door, sheathed katana in his left hand, before eventually resolving himself, and opening the doorknob.