I’m walking up my driveway when I realize the opossums didn’t have red dots on my map. I don’t get a chance to ask the Game why. I’m nearly tackled by a gangly nine-year-old.

  “Ohmigod, Jane, we got home and you weren’t here! You scared us! You can’t just leave without a note or something! Maybe we can figure out a messaging system on the Game! Do you think the Game has a messaging system?”

  His worrying does have me touched, though, so I hug him back and ruffle his fluffy hair. “I’m fine, Ryder. Just went on a little walk. Practiced with my new Ability.” I start leading him back to the house, where Nancy is waiting in the doorway.

  “Didja get a new Rank?” he asks, totally moved on from being mad at me. He slips his arm around my waist as we walk.

  “Nah, it moved in the other direction and I couldn’t follow it. Will be a handy thing to have, though.” We get to the doorway and Ryder breaks away to hop inside. I stop in front of Nancy. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry.”

  Nancy shrugs. “We could see you on the map until we came inside. But once in the Safehouse, all we could see was the Safehouse.”

  Glad someone could think through their panic. “Did you get what you needed?” I ask as she steps back, allowing me to enter.

  We spend the next little while arranging my parents’ master suite to become Nancy’s room. By the time she’s done there’s so many pink frills that it barely looks like the room I remember.

  She brought her family’s whole book collection, too, and extra bookshelves, so we spend the next few hours getting them set up in the living room with light provided by Ryder.

  And then we go to bed, each to our own rooms on our own floors, and I’m left alone with my thoughts again. Game? Why were those opossums not red dots?

  Because they were not enemies.

  Because they had sentience? No, that’s not the right word. Sapience, I guess.

  Correct. They were not brainless mobs, therefore they were not a danger to you. Unless you provoked them.

  If I ran into the minions without their little leader, the one who could actually speak English. Would they have been red dots? Did that one keep them contained, or is it that whole line of mutants? It would be very tricky if we had to pick and choose which mutated animals we had to fight.

  Unclear. I would need to be in proximity to these… opossums. In order to be sure.

  My sleep is uneven, plagued with weird dreams, filled with tossing and turning. There’s an anxiety that follows me even as I wake up, climb out of bed, go through my regular habits like brushing my teeth and washing my face.

  Apocalypse, yes. Rotting teeth and oily skin? No way.

  I can’t pinpoint what’s got me so on edge. All I can do is accept the breakfast that Nancy prepped—a pair of PopTarts warmed up by Ryder’s fire—and sit as they plan the day.

  As they plan the next few days.

  Their goal is simple: use my Ability to chase the surges. Fight when we need to fight, claim the magic, and level up. Level up everything, not just the Abilities. In between, make stops at grocery stores, other Wal-Marts, maybe even up to Upper Canada Mall. Continue to expand our stores of food, toiletries, clothes.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Find a way to heat the house in the winter, with a proper fireplace.

  (“We might have to make a hole in the wall, though, to stick the chimney out,” Ryder says, with way too much excitement at the prospect of home renovations. I remember when we switched over from a wood-burning fireplace to the electric one. The right holes must be back there somewhere, right?)

  Find a way to cook, like maybe a little propane-powered gas tabletop oven, if it exists.

  (“It exists,” Nancy says with total assurance. “My friend’s brother did the whole van-life nomad thing and he cooked with something. So something must exist!”)

  Find a way to exist, day into day, for the rest of our lives.

  (“Sorry, I didn’t sleep well. I’m not trying to be a nihilist,” I say.)

  In the moment of pause after Ryder’s climbed into Dad’s Volvo but before Nancy and I get in, she places a hand on my shoulder. “One step at a time,” she says. “You’re not wrong to feel nihilistic. We just have to hold on to our humanity.” She squeezes, gives me a smile, and slips into the passenger seat.

  And so I drive. We make a few stops at grocery stores as we search for the purple haze of the magic surges. Many of the shelves have been cleared out already, especially the non-perishables. But most people could only take what they could carry, leaving plenty for us to take, including the things that have a shorter shelf life. Everything goes right into our inventories for now.

  I think about my plan to drop my parents’ furniture on a monster and grab a few of the large tables and displays into my inventory, too. Never a bad idea to have more stuff.

  We drive with the windows down, singing to the songs I have downloaded onto my phone. With no internet, we can’t use any Spotify playlists; Nancy brought some of her old CDs, but Dad’s Volvo doesn’t actually have a CD player. We manage with my mediocre collection of 2010’s hits.

  Our next destination is the mall, simply because Nancy and Ryder are super pumped at the prospect of raiding the mall. We have to pry open the sliding doors with our hands since the power’s still off, but at least nothing’s locked.

  We’re definitely not the first people to come through. To be honest, there isn’t much we need. Nancy wants to shop a little for clothes, now that she doesn’t have to worry about making room in her closet (the master suite’s closet is much bigger than her closet at home, plus the bonus of anything extra going into the inventory).

  I point out that she doesn’t have to worry about paying for these things, either, but she just sticks out her tongue at me.

  And I suppose getting some warmer clothes and sturdier basics wouldn’t hurt, given what’s to come.

  We stop in the Coles, too, but we’re clearly not the only people who realized books are our best form of entertainment. There’s not much left, but we each grab enough books to fill a small library all the same.

  A quick stop in one of the sports stores lets me grab a few extra baseball bats. I really need something better than blunt objects, but it’s not like there’s a store in the mall that sells katanas or machetes.

  Throw in a quick stop in the Spirit Halloween for funsies and we’re heading to the exit of the mall after a lovely afternoon. And we hear a voice echo across the open atrium.

  “Was that English?” Ryder asks, dropping his voice to a whisper.

  “Didn’t sound like it,” Nancy says. “But didn’t sound like any language I’ve heard.”

  Could it be a mutated animal that can speak? Like the opossums? I still haven’t told my friends about that, and this doesn’t seem like the right time. “No red dots on our map, though, so it can’t be a monster.” I hope the Game doesn’t call me out.

  The voice screams out again, saying something about… potatoes? “No, it’s definitely English,” Nancy says. “But I don’t think we’re in danger. I think it’s just a drunk person.”

  As soon as she says it, the obviousness of it kicks in. There’s literally an LCBO in the mall.

  Or maybe the initial surge just made him perma-drunk. Not a bad way to spend the apocalypse, if you’re the nihilistic type.

  So, you know, me today.

  I sigh. “Let’s avoid him if we can, just for… ease. Comfort. Take your pick. Is there another way around?”

  Luckily Nancy knows the mall. It takes a little longer, and we have to climb down an escalator and then up another one, but we reach the mall entrance we came in through.

  As we’re heading back to the car, a wave a dizziness overcomes me. “Whoa,” I say, hand on my head, my feet stopping of their own volition. My eyes close, and a moment later I feel two pairs of hands on me.

  “Jane?” Nancy says on my one side, voice soft.

  “What’s happening? Are you okay? Is she okay!?” Ryder adds, his voice slowly getting louder.

  “Fine,” I manage to get out. I take a deep breath, in through my nose and out through my mouth, before opening my eyes. “I think that was a surge notification.”

  Both Nancy and Ryder gasp. I open my map overlay and sure enough, a small bloom of purple appears. Last night, the notification was the feeling of someone watching me. This time, it’s dizziness. Would I have been this dizzy last night, too, if I hadn’t been in the safety of the Safehouse? I’m not sure the Game would have the answer, and anyways, we have more important things to do right now.

  “Well, was it?!” Ryder blurts out. “Do you think or do you know!?”

  I manage a small laugh. “I know. And it was. Let’s get back to the car.”

  Nancy tucks her arm through mine for the last few steps to the car. “Okay,” she says, “but I’m driving.”