The air inside was cold and wet and smelled of old iron.
Zarek led with the sword low in his right hand. The pipe sloped down at an angle, its curved floor slick with dirty water and black grease.
Elsa came behind him with one hand on the wall for balance, her left arm wrapped in the fresh white bandage from the lab. Vance brought up the rear, wheezing, his boots sliding on the steel.
Something felt different.
Zarek flexed his grip on the hilt. The sword felt lighter, and when he turned the blade to clear a hanging pipe, his wrist moved before he’d finished deciding to. He kept walking and let a small panel open at the edge of his vision.
[Target: Elsa]
[Investment Contribution Confirmed: Basic Combat Instruction, Steel Pry Bar, Medical Care]
[Achievement: Combat Engagement (Assisted Kill)]
[Target Growth: Combat Experience Gained]
[Favorability: 10 → 30/100]
[Return Received: Additional Minor Strength Increase]
[Return Received: Blade Proficiency Improved]
[Return Received: High-Grade Survival Rations x5, Advanced Medical Treatment Kit x1]
The panel closed. A faint warmth ran down through his shoulders and forearms, and the sword settled in his hand like it had always been there.
He checked System Space with a thought. Next to the tins and bottles from the hotel sat five vacuum-sealed ration packs, real meals, nothing like the dry blocks.
Beside them was a hard-shelled medical box with suture needles, pain spray, and burn gel. None of it was what he’d taken from the lab. These were returns.
He grinned in the dark. Cheap food had come back as more food. A pry bar and half an hour of shouting had come back as a stronger body, a better blade hand, and medicine that actually worked.
He didn’t have to hunt every monster in the city himself. He had to keep putting things into Elsa and collect on what she did with them.
And thirty. The number was bigger than he’d expected.
Favorability wasn’t loyalty. Thirty points wouldn’t make Elsa follow every order or stop looking for a chance to escape. He’d seen enough of her to know that much.
Still, the number had risen without him having to pretend to be someone he wasn’t. She had food, a weapon, basic training, and medical treatment.
Each had made her more capable of surviving, and each had given her another reason to acknowledge his value.
He could work with that.
Better meals might help. So would proper equipment and training that actually made a difference. He didn’t need her to adore him. He needed to understand what moved that number and how much the next increase would be worth.
For now, he would keep her alive, make her stronger, and see what the System gave him in return.
"Zarek?" Elsa had stopped behind him. "Why’d you stop? Is something ahead?"
"Just checking the path."
"You were smiling." She pulled her jacket tighter. "You only smile when something awful is about to happen."
"I smile when things make sense." He turned back to the dark. "And right now, you make a lot of sense."
She frowned but didn’t ask.
Five minutes later the conduit ended in a wide concrete canal, a drainage channel running under the streets.
A thin stream of black water ran down the middle and out of sight to the left. Iron grates in the ceiling let in grey daylight, so they were clear of the burning hotel.
"West Boulevard drainage," Vance panted, bent over his knees. "We made it out of the building."
Zarek glanced up at the iron grates. Grey daylight filtered through them, broken by passing shadows. Somewhere above, a car horn blared once before cutting off abruptly.
The city was still alive up there. Whether the people making those noises were survivors or something worse was another question.
He crouched beside the water and examined the muddy edge of the walkway. Several sets of footprints crossed the damp concrete.
Most were old and partly washed away, but one set was fresh enough to leave clear impressions. They led toward the north end of the channel.
Someone had come through here recently.
Zarek touched the wet edge of one print, then stood. He didn’t know whether the person had escaped, been dragged away, or was still nearby. Following the tracks blindly would be stupid, but ignoring evidence of other people could be just as costly.
"Anyone use this route before?" he asked.
Vance shook his head. "Not that I know of."
"Then keep your eyes open."
Zarek resumed walking, sword held in a low guard as he scanned the dark alcoves along the wall. The footprints could wait until he had a reason to investigate them.
Grrrrrrr
A wet gurgle came from a recess twenty feet ahead.
Something slunk out: pale, hairless, long-limbed, smaller than the ones in the hotel, its ribs showing under sores. It smelled the blood on Elsa’s bandage and hissed, jaw splitting wide.
"Behind me."
Elsa backed up two steps and brought the pry bar up across her chest. Vance scrambled back into the pipe.
The thing leaped for Zarek’s throat.
He didn’t jump back. He turned his hip and slid his right foot three inches, and the claws went past his shoulder.
His wrist flicked, and the blade opened the creature’s neck halfway through. It hit the walkway and tried to rise, and the second cut finished it. The head rolled into the stream with a small splash.
He hadn’t wasted a motion. The old Zarek would have blocked with the flat of the blade and taken a bruise. This one hadn’t needed to.
Modest, he reminded himself. It’s not a miracle. Stay sharp.
He flicked the black blood off the tip. Elsa was staring at the body, and then at the sword. "You killed it in one second."
"I didn’t swing like an idiot."
She glanced at the dead creature again. "You moved differently that time."
Zarek looked at her. "Did I?"
"At the hotel, you fought like you already knew where everything was going to happen. This time, you barely moved." She hesitated, then looked down at the pry bar in her hands. "Is that what you’re trying to teach me?"
"Part of it." He turned the sword in his hand, watching how naturally his wrist followed the movement. "You don’t need to move more. You need to stop wasting movement."
She tried adjusting her grip on the pry bar. Her injured arm pulled, and she winced before she could hide it.
"Don’t strain that arm trying to imitate me," he said. "You can barely hold that thing properly with one hand."
"I wasn’t-"
"You were."
Elsa shut her mouth, irritated, but lowered the bar slightly.
Zarek almost laughed. She was getting better, and now she was beginning to notice how much she still lacked. That was useful too.
Thirty gave me a sword hand and rations. What’s fifty?
He filed the thought away. Right now there was a long canal to get through.
"Vance. Where does this go?"
"Two blocks north, it opens into the garage under the commercial plaza." Vance wiped his mouth. "Shops. Pharmacies, sporting goods, food."
More shops meant more people, and more people meant more chances. Zarek started walking, sword out, boots slapping the wet stone.
"Let’s go shopping."