An early morning fine, white mist is hanging just off the ground in what was the Deer Park Golf course back before the Influx. Now it’s Finn’s sanctuary, close to the Lighthouse he and Alana set up together. I’ve spent a small amount of time here, where his Druidic influence and powers have transformed it into a beautiful landscape that’s also packed with vegetation that has special medicinal properties, some of which only existed on alien worlds a few years ago. Maybe it’s good that he’s here rather than somewhere else.

  I’ve made sure that Jeff and I haven’t emerged too close to Finn. I want to give him plenty of warning and time to consider that I’ve shown up here with Jeff. My minimap populates immediately with friendlies; probably Finn is the only thing here that’s a danger to us; I can sense him in a grove of trees not too far away. The ground is carpeted with lush grass of the kind we had before the Influx, which is a rarity these days in a world where even the grasses sometimes grasp to pull you in and consume you.

  Jeff and I take our time walking to Finn by unspoken agreement. I don’t know what’s going on in Jeff’s head, but mine is both simple and complex. Determined to do what I think is right even though it’s hard. Our grim march ends when we enter the grove and see Finn’s tall frame seated on the ground with his legs crossed and his hands plunged into the Earth, communing with Gaia or whatever entity he connects with deep inside our planet.

  He knows we’re here and as soon as he opens his eyes I can see the grief. He knows already. I look for the accusation, the anger, the blame I expect in his expression but I don’t see it. Just a hollow, drained look that reminds me of showing up to Carter’s house with news of Robb. We’ve all suffered so much and although humanity seems to have turned a corner now, as individuals there are so many spikes of grief. Maybe that’s no different in some ways to before the Influx, just more widespread and severe.

  Finn gestures for us to join him and we approach. I stop a few feet from him and kneel on the soft grass while Jeff stands just behind me and to my left. Gently, I pull Alana’s body from my Inventory and lay her carefully on the ground between us, then bow my head in respect and thought. A minute or more passes with only the sound of birds and forest creatures in the silence and then I stand and take a heavy breath.

  As we all watch, the ground slowly opens up and absorbs Alana’s perfect form into the Earth. Right to the point where the ground gently covers her, a part of me thinks she might open her fierce eyes and ask us what the hell we’re looking at. We all look at the spot for a short time longer and then I take a few steps back and turn to leave, Jeff beside me. So much we could have said, so much we probably should have said. I don’t know.

  After we’ve left the grove in silence I trigger a Portal to a MIS Hub in Toronto and manifest it.

  “Keep fighting.” Finn sends me over the Group Party Chat. I blink at the message; I had forgotten he’s still a named part of the chat while he’s in range and somehow it’s exactly what I needed to hear. And not what I expected.

  Jeff’s obviously seen the message and he glances at me then gives me a pat on the back. We walk through the Portal together and I’m not looking to leave the past completely behind but a bit of a fresh start would definitely be good for my mental health.

  Half an hour later Jeff and I have found a seat at an old underground bar called C’est What? that I went to a few times during my hockey career. Oddly, it hasn’t changed much. Everyone here is human but I don’t think that’s policy, just a place where humans like to hang out that doesn’t appeal much to Galactics. Perhaps some of that has to do with the fact the Toronto and Buffalo area is still doing well, relatively speaking.

  The gloom, dark stone, and wooden furniture probably matches our moods pretty well without dragging us down. A live band is playing some acoustic pre-Influx hits that I’d almost forgotten in the post-Influx craziness. If you really, really squinted and ignored the post-Influx fashion, the enhanced appearances through genetic and other manipulation, and the combat readiness of everyone around us… then you might just think you’ve time traveled back to when things often seemed complicated and tough - until we were introduced to the Apocalypse.

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  I’m enjoying the anonymity that comes with my changed Status, although Jeff’s powerful figure and unaltered Levels cause a visible ripple of reaction, even though he’s dressed casually and there’s no reason to create any trouble. A few people look at me closely, perhaps recognizing me from the KCC or KCT and that I’m with Jeff, but I can feel them pull my Status and that seems to answer the question. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve integrated it into our lives and trusted it implicitly. A good reminder for me.

  I lean into Jeff at the bar as the bartender is getting us a couple of beers each. One benefit of people recognizing Jeff is that there’s no wait for a drink and the other patrons give us a few feet of space on either side.

  “We really need to sort you out with something that lets us move around a bit more without attracting so much attention,” I say to him, keeping my voice low.

  “Been thinking the same thing, actually. I’m not mentally at the point yet that I want to disappear, but I can feel the pull of having that option sorted.”

  He glances around at all the people and takes in the ambient noise.

  “I don’t think it would be terrible for either of us to spend a bit more time on life and a bit less time on death.”

  The bartender passes us two beers each and Jeff waves some Credits across the bar to him. We turn and head over to the set of three booths and a dart board that’s been altered for post-Influx life. With all the increased Agility and Perception now, the old game just doesn’t cut it and instead of going up to 20 the dart board now goes up to 200 with increasingly small areas to hit and darts that have a much finer point, almost needle-like.

  We plop our beers down on a high table and scoop up three darts each. Next to us, the people in the booth vacate immediately. It definitely wasn’t our intent to throw our weight around or scare everyone off, but it seems friendly enough with a half and half mixture of fear and respect. Possibly a few glances of envy as I look around casually. Certainly we have lots of Credits and can do whatever the fuck we want - nobody can really stop us, but of course none of them have seen what it took to get here to where Jeff is. Even me as a fake Mythic Class gets a few of those stares. Mythics are still pretty rare and powerful, even though in the circles I run in they don’t last long.

  Jeff tosses his first three darts at the board and it’s a disastrous start for him, only 560 points on the road to 3001.

  “You got anyone special, Jeff?” I ask him as I line up myself. For fun, I trigger Perfect Focus and ramp everything up by 5x then in under half a second fire all three darts into a tiny square for the maximum 1800 points, then release my Skill.

  “Fucking hell, Bronwic! No Skills,” declares Jeff as he slaps me with the back of his hand and shakes his head. I laugh and agree, then pluck my darts out and give it another go. Still 1240, but not an automatic win. I collect my darts and take a deep sip of my beer as Jeff lines up.

  “You got anyone special Jeff?” I ask again, partly because I’m curious and partly because I think it will throw him off his game.

  “You kidding me? A couple of hookups, but I’m not the kind to settle down,” he says as he fires his darts smoothly at the board and then collects them. “Someone’s got to keep your ass alive and I’ve got the Knights. Hookups, though, hookups are all good.”

  We don’t say anything for a couple of turns and it’s soon clear I’m headed for a victory in this one. I finish my fourth turn with only 40 left to go and collect my darts.

  “I’m sorry about Alana, man.”

  I look over at Jeff and acknowledge it with a slight nod, my lips pressed together. My emotions around it aren’t that complicated. I thought she was awesome and wanted to be with her right from the start. Circumstances and my choices about what I took on prevented it. In the end we never had anything but a friendly and combat-oriented relationship even though I wanted more and maybe toward the end she did too. We had less together than Tatiana and I have had, but still it feels like a bigger loss. A big chunk of what could have been in the future suddenly closed off, even if it was unlikely.

  “Sliding doors, mate,” I say and finish off the game, then we clink our beer bottles together and take a drink. It’s still fucked up to me that I can throw tens of thousands of pounds around and have the control over my Strength to not just smash things. A lot of introspection and being in my head tonight. Maybe it’s what I need, but maybe not.

  “I know we just got here, but maybe we need something else?” Jeff asks.

  “Yeah,” I agree.