Trapped in the Inner City

I clicked on my Goals and Quests tab and watched the last future prospect's goal cross itself out and disappear. I couldn't help feeling a little smug at being able to read books to unlock all the crafting items I needed and build specific skills. I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel, stuck at a red light. I'm not feeling too smug about having to go to work in the next thirty minutes and I'm praying that Orion doesn't pull me into his office to try to explain this incredibly sensitive issue with his wife and parents.

'Soon to be ex-wife,' Adam, funny joke to him being the first sentient AI, joked.

Are you on his side now?

'Hell no! I'm gloating at his pain,' he sang.

Pretty Evil. I purposely dated Rain to avoid that as a worst-case scenario. For it to happen to someone for twenty years… 

'Future Prospects Goal: Find a way to accumulate apocalypse money and build private security for your safe zone.

Unlock: Ten survival skills items. Ten horde spaces and ten powers.'

I barked a laugh of surprise at unlocking ten powers and turned onto the four-lane motorway that leads to the city. Is that unlock goal a joke? I have this strange feeling that Devon was a fluke for now. However, most of the first to get powers probably kept it a secret for fear of being rounded up like Nexus and me. That was a smart move on their part, but if they were like me, they had no choice but to deal with the consequences of whoever saw.

Apocalypse money? You stole that from my essential lists. Oh, that reminds me, I own every building under Rain's name, so why do I still have to claim them, and how do I do that?

 'You only need to step into it, and it'll turn bright green. Are you going to ignore the horde spaces?' I could hear the smirk in his voice, grating my gears.

Yes, you will not tell me the experience points to level up or any at all, so I'm fucking ignoring it.

I can gather the buildings under Ferona and claim them together easily enough. Ah, how fun! I can start converting them into special stores that sell rations, survival equipment, etc., for those who don't want to stay. Well, the ones close to the edge of the… shit, I need to map the actual zone.

'I've got a good idea of the size you want to have the safe zone from your thoughts,' a bright green dotted line appeared around the town and ten per cent of the city we live near.

Damn, that's big, but the city will be where the majority of our Zombies and survivors will come from. Plus, the university's main campus is there, too. The students will likely notice when we start making this place safer. I looked past the system screen and stared at the Welcome to Westfield sign, which was more like Welcome to Zombieland: don't forget to double tap on your way through.

'I understood that reference.'

I understood that one, too.

An explosion at the heart of the city forced me to hit the emergency brake and skid to a stop a few feet before hitting a row of stopped cars. Cars blaring their horns and banging into each other and the back of me, sending my car more than a few feet from where it was, and I hit the gas and turned to pull into the next lane inches from hitting them. My heart rate skipped several fucking beats, and I think it stopped for a second as my first thought was:

Oh god, it's not this early.

'No, it's not. I'm too far, but I bet it was a power user. I'm never too far to detect zombies.'

Never?

'Ever!' Adam confirmed, his voice resolute.

That rules out secret testing as its origins.

I clicked the bio lab on my map and saw that I was close enough to get there and park my car before running in the direction of that power user.

'You can't be serious! It could be a terrorist,' he said in a panic.

Then you better keep scanning.

I hopped out of my car and ran in the general direction everyone was running from. The blood was pounding in my ears as I hit past my new speed. He was right, and there was a terrorist situation in my last life.

'Congratulations, you have gained two speed points.'

Another explosion, at least a block away, resounded through the air, the shockwave throwing me back off my feet with a scream, the dust blowing through the air and into my hair and face as I rolled, found my balance and took off running again, moving around the debris that was falling from the fucking sky.

'Congratulations, you have gained two agility, speed, and five recovery points.'

That makes sense, but this is nuts. I was trying to keep an eye on buildings that were falling apart before I crashed into a small body, and we went rolling across the floor, my arms protecting what I think was a child as we went hurtling across the floor.

'Daria, it's her and him! Them, it's them. They're blowing the place up,' Adam cried in my head.

I screamed at the sound of him in my head and let go of the little girl in my arms to hold my hands to my ringing ears. I shook the buzzing from my ears and scrambled up, grabbing the blonde girl who was ultimately passed out next to me and throwing her over my shoulder. Oh my god, I knocked out a little girl. I stumbled with her, but after another shake of my head, the vertigo dissipated, and a dirty blonde-haired boy ran towards me. I grabbed him with my other arm, running back towards the bio lab at the speed of light. The boy was screaming, his hand covering his face from the wind as he flopped about with his arms and legs dangling.

'Congratulations, you have gained two strength and speed points.'

Orion stood by the door to his lab, his eyes darting around until they landed on me, barrelling towards him with two random dusty children. I dropped the girl into his surprised arms and ran into the building with the boy on my hip, avoiding the lift, taking the stairs two at a time, and ignoring Orion as he shouted at me to stop.

Fuck no! We aren't stopping until we're safe.

I ran past the floor, where all the scared workers crouched under desks, hiding in rooms, and talking to their loved ones on the phone. You'll be in for an unpleasant surprise in about eleven months.

Can you delete us from all the cameras?

'No!'

You can show them on a map but can't access them?

'I'm not exactly connected to the internet; it's more like limited Wi-Fi.' 

Not very helpful right now!

I called for Rain through the mob map and darted onto the top floor of the building, completely forgetting that it was his penthouse flat. I was panicking, holding the boy against my shoulder to keep him from crying so hard. This is bad! Orion sucked in a hard breath when he got to the top step and pulled out his keys for me. I snatched them from him and fiddled with them, trying to find the keyhole for a minute before I threw the door open and ran inside, searching around for his kids' rooms and seeing that they were teenagers' rooms were too much to process. I put the boy on the unmade bed, and Orion placed the passed-out girl next to him.

"Where-"

I hissed at him, put my hand over his mouth, and turned my head to watch the little boy move some hair from the girl's face.

"We'll just be in his room, okay? Don't leave this place. It's not safe," I stammered, pulling Orion with me and shutting the bedroom door.

My breathing started to pick up again, and I rubbed a hand down my face to wipe away some dirt and sweat.

"Oh god," I cried, covering my face and bending forward a little.

Orion grabbed my arm and pulled me into the third door from where we put the kids. He turned me to face him and pulled my hands away.

"Why do you have two random kids? Where are their parents?" Orion asked calmly, wiping dust, brick and glass from my coiled hair.

"I think- I think they accidentally blew up their parents," I whispered way too loudly, burying my face in his chest and crying into his lab coat.

"What?"

"It happened before, but they hid it behind a terror attack. We all thought having one in a city that no one cared about was strange. Oh my god, I don't know them. I never heard their screams. Did Craver kill them before I got there?"

"Daria, what the fuck? What are you talking about?" Orion shouted in my face, shaking my shoulders to try and shake the sense into me.

"I'm full of sense. You are a fucking idiot, oh my god. Get the fuck off me. I need Devon," I screamed back, smacking his arms away from me in frustration and pulling out my burner phone.

'That was a bit harsh. You haven't told him anything,' Adam commented.

Yes, thank you, Adam. I'm well aware. That is why he is useless, and I need Devon.

"Daria," he shouted through the phone after the second ring, a chorus of car horns blaring out the speaker.

"Devon, they took children. I have two powerful children hidden in Orion's penthouse, and he's not helpful right now. He'll hand them over. I need you here to help me get them home," I hissed into the phone.

"Those explosions in the centre? Kids did them?" Devon replied in surprise.

"How far away are you?" I asked, turning away from Orion's frown in guilt.

"I'll be there in ten minutes; I'm running," he cut the call off, and I went to the window to check outside.

The police, ambulances, and fire brigade had started to line up in the street around the lab, and I was cursing at the rising difficulty of getting these kids out of the city safely.

"Daria, you need to take a breath," Orion said, his face set in a deeper frown, "I'll call the police," he finished, pulling his phone out.

I snatched his phone and put it in my pocket. His hands immediately moved to grab my jacket, so I stepped back and bounced into the window.