Chapter 20 – Rent is Due

Jake’s feet once more sank into the murky, oily water. He listened for monsters. Nothing.

Everyone helped each other back to the exit, dragging themselves along the corridor. Jake and Edwin scavenged on the way—tins of food, bottles of water, whatever wasn’t nailed down. Surprisingly there was a lot of it once they started looking. They didn’t get to fill the bags before they hit the stairwell.

The door to Floor 7 was locked shut.

Edwin banged on it. “Open up. It’s us.” He peered down into the darkness below while he waited, jaw tight.

Murmuring on the other side. Scuffling. Then the door swung open to gasps and noise and people grabbing at the bags before anyone had fully stepped through.

The others filtered in and collapsed against the walls or straight onto the floor. Jake ground his teeth against the exhaustion gnawing at him and kept moving, heading down the hall toward his room that has been theieved.

He gave Sloane a look of victory as he opened the door. Sloane grinned.

Inside was a mess. Clothing everywhere. Nothing in it’s place. Bed not made.

He shivered. She… She was a monster.

Jake took the key. He’d worry about the mess for later.

He locked the door then headed straight for the System machine.

Hanna sat beside it, rolling the bolt in her palm. Startled at his footsteps, she scrambled up when she saw who it was. She was skinnier than before. Visibly so.

Three days since he’d left. Five days total without food.

He was surprised they were still breathing.

“You’re alive!” She hugged her pink plush bear and stared at his arm. “…Barely.”

“Says you.” He set the bag down. “I can hear your stomach from down the hall.”

She reached for the bag then stopped herself. Looked up at him. “May I?”

“I got them for—”

“Me?” She lit up.

Everyone.

He didn’t answer and turned his attention to the machine. She dove in immediately, pulling out a tin of ravioli, a caramel chocolate bar—he heard her mutter that it was her favourite—and a bottle of water she drained in one go. Then she wrestled with the tin lid.

She thrust it up at him. When he ignored her she started jumping, the tin bouncing in front of his face with every hop.

He took it and opened it without looking at her.

Was this what owning a dog felt like?

“How are you still alive?” he asked. “Where did you get water?”

Her entire hand plunged into the tomato sauce. “Someone found a leaking pipe in the utility closet.” She shoved a fistful of pasta into her face. “We took turns. Doesn’t taste very good.”

He could only imagine, given what the building had become.

“We didn’t eat anything,” she said, still chewing. “Someone joked they’d eat me first if you didn’t come back.”

“That’s not good.”

“It was a joke.”

“Are you sure?”

She paused mid-ravioli. Shrugged.

“If that happens,” he said, already regretting it, “shout for me.”

She grinned. “Like a hero.”

“No. Like a begrudging dog owner.”

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“What does begrudging mean?”

He shook his head and turned back to the machine.

He’d already made his decision before he got here. The permanent mana expansion was the obvious long-term choice, but at 250 credits he’d need to save. The Elite Growth Stimulants were finite—three remaining—and he had 153 credits after everything. The stimulants wouldn’t wait. The mana expansion wasn’t going anywhere.

He bought all three Elite Stimulants without hesitating, and with a click and a thud, the stimulants arrived into the bottom drawer. He took them out.

They were in crystal containers, clearly not glass as they seemed magical. Or maybe an enchantment? Was that possible?

He stuffed them into his pocket, already thinking about how he was going to use them.

Strength was obvious. Working out under the effect of the elite stimulants would take his power to a new height, and fast.

Vitality was whatever. If he got his healing to a certain point, couldn’t he just heal through any damage he took?

Perception was another obvious one. From allowing him to detect mana, to detecting danger, to enhancing his healing spell as he was more aware of what was going on in his body.