Chương 114: Interlude: Whose Car We Taking?

Derek hadn't shown up and Juliet wasn't sure whether she ought to be angry or worried. Or sad. She wasn't quite ready to admit it to herself, and definitely not to Toby, but with every passing hour, sad felt like it was going to be the right response. It wasn't the one she was actually feeling: that was a burning coal of annoyance, frustration, and yes, anger, deep inside her chest. But sad was what she thought she ought to be feeling.

It had taken her ten long, tedious, and occasionally terrifying hours to bike with Toby back to Derek's house. She'd started the ride with a dot in the corner of her vision. Every time she looked directly at it, a message would appear: defend your world during System integration to receive powers and abilities. She'd ended the ride as a Level 3 Lightning Mage, and honestly, the less said about that, the better. Why the fuck did Texas have so many bats? If she'd been at home…

well, whatever they were fighting in San Celeste, it wasn't bats. Sea lions, maybe.

"Mom?" Toby asked tentatively from the doorway.

"Yes, love?" Juliet spun away from the window she'd been staring out of for the last twenty minutes. Every parent on the planet was probably as paranoid as she was right now, but Toby was all she had. If something attacked him—animal or otherwise—she would kill it. With extreme prejudice.

"I was thinking…"

"Yes?" she asked.

"If I kill something, maybe I'll get a class, too. And then I can help you." He entered the room, his favorite stuffy unobtrusively tucked into his shirt. At eight, Toby had largely abandoned stuffed animals. He still had a pile of them in his bedroom, but they were usually ignored in favor of action figures and Pokémon cards. Mostly the cards. This one, though, a plush Pikachu, had come along to Derek's brother's wedding, just in case, and hadn't left his side since. In case of what, she hadn't asked.

She didn't really need to. Derek… yeah. Great guy. Good boyfriend. Lousy husband, worse father. Someday, twenty years from now (well, if the world hadn't so dramatically derailed), he might have been exactly what Toby needed. But in the world as it had been, he'd been… elsewhere. Not quite the definition of absentee, because he paid his child support religiously, but his focus was always on his latest project, never on the small person who would have liked his attention, at least for a minute or two.

The Pikachu was so that when Derek hurt him, he had a companion who wouldn't. Juliet knew that, wasn't gonna say it aloud. An emotional support stuffy was the kind of accommodation anyone might need. If she'd been thinking, she might have brought one for herself.

"That's… an interesting idea," she finally answered him. That's what a good parent said when their instinctive response was, "Fuck, no!", right? At least it was in San Celeste. God, she wished she were there. Toby had a shock of brown hair falling into his face. How many people at the wedding had said jovially, "You need a haircut, kid,"? In San Celeste, no one cared. Some of Toby's friends (male) had hair halfway down their backs.

When they eventually cut it, it was because it was a hassle to take care of, not because society ruled their decisions for them. Juliet loved San Celeste. She was starting to think she might never see it again. The sadness that she couldn't muster for Derek came easy at thoughts of San Celeste. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"We might have to find something easy for me to kill," Toby said.

"Something little."

"Love…" Juliet started. And then she blew a breath out, took another, blew it out, too. Derek didn't have enough food in his kitchen. The house was ridiculous, the kind of tech bro mansion that someone more intrigued by security systems than comfort would buy. Eight bedrooms, and only one bed. Three fireplaces, six bathrooms, a tennis court. Tennis. She couldn't imagine Derek with a racket in hand. The garage with five cars in it, though, that was more like him. Five cars.

The sixth was in the parking lot in Briar Hill. Derek probably knew how Juliet would react to the house, because he'd suggested they stay in Briar Hill for the week after the wedding. Two weeks. He had Toby for two weeks a year, and Juliet was pretty sure he'd wanted to use one up on something 'easy.' A resort with golf courses, swimming pools, and best of all, Toby's mom around to actually take care of the kid. But Derek had dropped 300K to get all three of them into the enclave without a moment's hesitation.

She had to give him credit for that. Was it a good decision? God, no. Juliet could have called that from the moment she met the enclave's owner. Someone was bound to kill that loser eventually. It was just a pity it had happened sooner rather than later. On the other hand, if she hadn't seen how powerful lightning was, she might not have insisted the System give her a lightning mage option. It had wanted her to be a fighter. As if.

"Mom?" Toby asked.

"Sorry, love," she said, pulling her attention back to him, although not easily.

"You're not wrong. I'm not sure how we can find something little, though." He beamed, joining her at the window.

"You can use your electric powers to zap something and then I can bash it." He mimed hammering. She tried to keep her wince invisible. Her baby wanted to kill things.

"Is Dad gonna come soon?" Toby asked.

"I—" Juliet stopped herself from saying more. The lies came too easily. He'll be here. He loves you. I'm sure he misses you. Yeah, fuck all of that. The world was ending, and they had enough food for maybe three days. Derek obviously used DoorDash all the damn time because he didn't even have a normal person's supply of pasta. Where were the cans of beans? The tomatoes? The fucking tuna fish? Who the hell didn't have half a dozen cans of tuna fish in their pantry? Answer: Derek.

The house had the world's fanciest security system. With the push of a button, she could slide metal barriers across every glass window, make melodramatic heavy metal bars slide into every door, set an alarm blaring, and alert an entire company of people who probably carried guns. And if she did, they'd probably starve to death inside of a week. How long did it take to die of hunger? Well, it didn't matter. Not long enough.

"I think we need to keep moving," she said.

"Are we gonna go home?" Toby asked.

"Home is… a long way away." They'd have to cross Texas to get home. West Texas was the kind of hellhole that gave deserts a bad name. And then they'd have to go into the mountains. Up to Tehachapi, down through LA, then north along the California coastline. On the bike, it was flat-out impossible. With one of Derek's cars, it was only probably impossible. Derek's brother was on his honeymoon in Tahiti. Out of reach and probably having a real fun week of his own. Derek's parents were living in Germany.

They might have made it home before this whole thing started, but one way or another, they couldn't help. Juliet's own parents were closer, but her mom was in assisted living and her dad in memory care. Juliet was resolutely not thinking about them. She couldn't help them and they couldn't help her. There was Olivia, though. Did the world hold more than one Olivia Thorne? It almost had to.

The idea that Juliet's best friend Olivia, the woman she'd known for twenty years, her only bury-the-body friend, the one who'd say "Whose car we taking?" was also somehow the world's toughest fighter was ludicrous. Absurd. Completely implausible. Juliet's Olivia bought the most expensive eggs at the store because she wanted the chickens to live good lives. She could spend hours worrying about whether her casual 'hello' had sounded rude.

She was a soft touch surrounded by a very prickly exterior, and the idea that she was cutting a swath through the monsters invading the world was absolutely beyond belief. But her home was not as out of reach as San Celeste. Gas engines might be failing, but Derek's Rivian didn't use gas. If she could find spots to charge it along the way—oh, or if her brand-new lightning powers worked on car batteries—they could get there in two days. Okay, given the state of the world, four or five, maybe. It was a terrible plan.

But it was better than sitting still until they starved. Juliet looked at Toby, then at the plush Pikachu tucked under his arm.

"All right, love," she said.

"Let's go see if your mom can charge a car." —