by P. S. Power
With that vote of confidence, Ryan moved in that direction, the whole table turning to stare at him as he did it. Then, a two-legged rat was walking toward them, carrying a tray of food. That probably signaled he was planning to sit with them. Most people didn’t love that. Even his own pals generally seemed more comfortable if he didn’t eat with them. Which was ridiculous. He didn’t chew with his mouth open or anything.
Instead of acting like they wanted him to leave, one of them smiled at him.
“King! Everyone, this is my pal. Ryan. We call him King Rat, but he kind of hates that. He’s a good guy.” There was nothing even approaching defensiveness in the words. Clover was cool that way.
Pam-Pam, who he recognized when he moved closer to her, waved.
“If he doesn’t like being called that, then why do you do it, jerk?” Unlike most people, she waved at an empty seat, at the same table they were all at. The older lady there seemed uncomfortable with that, but C. C. the new girl from earlier, waved at him, smiling.
Settling at the table, having to hop up a bit to land on the seat correctly, he was next to Pam-Pam. He turned to her and nodded, not eating first thing. Even though he kind of wanted to.
“Gift, over on the food line, said I should get with you on a hunch I had? That we need to get and stay ready to move. I don’t know why. I have limited prescience. It normally seems like fear to me, but this is different. More complicated? It might be nothing.”
The girl ate for a bit, so he did the same. The food was nice. It normally was there. In Seattle they’d had to raid dumpsters most days. The difference in quality was more than a small thing, given that comparison. The others there seemed to agree. At least no one spoke to him for a while, just eating in silence.
Until Pam-Pam nodded at him.
“I can talk to some of the others for you? Not that you couldn’t do that, too. Nero and Complex will listen to you. Mindy and Seven might, but… I don’t know about them.” She whispered the last words.
Which got him to speak in the same low tone, in return.
“Got it. I’ll get a bag ready. I sleep a lot, so, after this need to do that. Can you, all of you, pass the word? I mean, if we should.”
That got the woman to tick her head up, once.
“Right. We can handle that. It’s just a good idea, really. Especially if there was an attempted raid here earlier. If it could happen once, then we need to all be prepared. Hopefully we get some time. I don’t even know how to protect Complex, if we need to bail. I’ll… Damn. I have no clue what to do there. I’ll ask him. Nero, too. Even if it’s just a hunch because of nerves, we need to have a plan in place. Thanks, Ryan.” She stopped and ate more, then looked away. “You do guard duty mainly, right? I’ve seen you, I think. Normally at night so we haven’t talked a lot.”
It was more like never, but he nodded back at her.
“Right. I tend to hide, so I don’t freak out the innocent. Well, I should go and eat by myself, so I don’t gross you all out.” He started to move then, getting ready to stand, when Clover shook his head.
The goat man laughed a little at the movement.
“Nah. These are good people, King. Ryan, I mean. Friends.”
No one said anything, but Pam-Pam, who was important there, nodded about it. Then she kept eating. They all did. They had food, after all. It would be stupid not to.
Chapter five- Pam-Pam
The night before had been fitful for her, as far as sleep went. That wasn’t too uncommon in her world. Pam-Pam had nightmares, about half the time. Especially when things got stressful for her. That was, of course, about half the time, so it made sense.
This time all of her dreams had been about being rich, for some reason.
The dreams, most of them, had started out pretty sweet. She and Gift wished up some money and ended up with billions of dollars that no one cared about them having. Then the fighting began. Everyone thought that they deserved to have control over the bills and coins, which ended up with a massive battle going on. Mainly started by Mindy each time.
Which was silly. Even Pam could see that one. After all, the woman was already in charge. Even if she’d used a bit of mind control on them the day before, which hadn’t been needed and her looks were too good, the woman was already in control there. If they managed to get any kind of cash in, the funds would go into the general fund, instantly. To be used for everyone. Technically she should get ten percent of it, for doing the work, but that would really be going to Gift, not her. They were going to use his powers for it, after all.
The trick in the whole mess was that Mindy could pretty easily skim the funds off the top, if she wanted a new car, or diamonds. That kind of thing would be noticed, so it could be that she wanted to take the cash and run, of course. In that case… Well, the easy thing to do would be to have Gift wish up some more.
What they wanted to try either worked, or it didn’t, of course. Gift thought it was pretty certain, but she wasn’t holding out hope until the cash didn’t vanish at the end of the day.
Rather than get up in arms over a dream and lay into Mindy, who she didn’t really hang with, day to day, Pam-Pam just got Gift to move along with her after breakfast. She was nearly shaking over the whole thing. If it worked, all of their lives could change in an instant. It was like winning the lottery or having a rich relative you didn’t know leave you their fortune.
Her pudgy friend had worked the food line for the morning meal, being good to his word that way, so she didn’t have access to him until nearly eleven. Which, by her watch, would be just about time to make the new wish. That could vary, as to how long the things lasted and when the new one was ready, but twenty-four hours was always good enough, as far as she knew.
She shrugged and spoke as if they’d been talking the whole time. They were both walking, at a slow pace, toward the front of the Underground.
“If we don’t need to put up the protection thing again. Pod thinks it’s okay for the next few days. I mean, that no one is planning a new raid yet. I want to run that past Nero. If he’s still awake.” She grinned, knowing it would be a bit sour looking, instead of reassuring, which was what she was going for. “He’s the one person in the leadership here I know we can trust. Well, Complex, too, but I don’t know him very well. Still, if he isn’t in with us, then we might as well just run.”
She half expected Gift to not understand the garbage she was going on about, since she hadn’t really introduced the concepts very well. Instead he grunted. It was considering, but didn’t sound unpleasant. The man didn’t do that, really. Just like it was hard for her to make things seem gentle or soft, he pretty much couldn’t come across as a heavy.
After about ten seconds, he glanced in her direction and smiled.
“We have Complex with us. I’m… Not really certain about Mindy and Seven. I know that they’re in charge, more or less and I don’t have a real reason to suspect them. It isn’t my power or anything. I hate to say it, but I’m probably biased against Mindy because of her looks.” The tone was, as it normally was, polite and gentle.
Snorting, Pam-Pam nudged him with her elbow.
“You mean that you want to hit that and think she won’t do it with you?” Her blow landed on his middle, which was surprisingly hard. As in the bones in her arm shook at the contact, even if she hadn’t slammed him there very hard.
For a moment she wondered if he was wearing armor under his nice button up shirt. That wasn’t the case though, unless it was under his skin. She didn’t comment on it, since that might be annoying to the guy. Instead she just didn’t rub her arm and kept going.
For his part, the man just nodded.
“It really is that, pretty much. My ex-wife was pretty, too. I wasn’t bad looking before, you know, the Infection. I had a six pack and chiseled features. Symmetrical and all that. She looked at me when I got back from the hospital and left inside five minutes. Well, twenty, but only because she packed first.”
That was a pretty common story. Even her own was kind of similar. She hadn’t changed on the outside, but the first time she and her dad had gotten into it and she’d stunned him, Pam had been kicked out of the house. Her mother hadn’t even said anything about it, just helping her pack a bag.
Thinking about it pissed her off, which showed on her face as she spoke.
“That sucks. Really though, I mean, sure, Mindy might do better than you, in the looks department, but even bald and a bit round looking you’re a catch. For one thing you aren’t a total douche, which is like, seventy percent of what a woman should be looking for.” Pam waited for him to suggest they get together, based on her words. A thing that she was ready for.
You couldn’t really tell someone they were worthwhile, then treat them like crap and shut them down in the next breath. Not that she wanted to date the man long term. Still, if she had to put out a few times for him to feel good about himself, that could be managed. Frankly, she wouldn’t really have minded that at all, if he was into it.
Rather than do that, he simply patted her on the shoulder. Like he was her dad, if the man hadn’t been a total asshat, most days.
Rather than ask for head behind one of the unusual buildings they passed, Gift just chuckled a bit.
“The important thing today is that you understand why I might be biased against certain people. Full disclosure. Seven… Well, that one is difficult. I mean, that’s a group of people and they didn’t get to pick being together. Who knows who’s really in there? We don’t even really know that it’s only seven people, do we?”
That one took some thinking. Counting up on her fingers as she moved, she had to admit that she didn’t know at all.
“It could be more, I guess. I’ve seen five or six that I think are him or her, but… I’ve also seen new people that I don’t know all the time. I recognize a lot of people here, but new ones come and old ones leave. Or change. I don’t know if we have a shape shifter, even. That could mean… Well, it’s confusing, isn’t it?” It suddenly seemed a bit off to have that particular person in charge of them on the level they were.
At the front office she knocked, the door being made of wood, even if it was pretty heavy. She half expected Seven to come out, or at least for someone she didn’t know to open the door, but it was just Nero. Looking fit and strong, like he always did. His glowing white eyes made it hard to tell who he was looking at, exactly. Still, he smiled politely and raised a hand toward them.
“Pam-Pam, Gift. What can I do for you today?” He had to stifle a yawn then, but covered it with a fist. “Sorry there, I haven’t slept since yesterday. The day before, really. Things have been busy. Now, what can I do for you?”
She was about to explain, when Gift did it, his face more serious than she’d seen it before.
“Pam and myself are here to try and get that cash in, as we mentioned yesterday? I think her plan is to dump that here, so that we don’t have to cart it around in front of everyone.” He winced, standing in the door to the space, as if his words might be insulting.
As if Infected people weren’t just as greedy and thieving as anyone else. She knew that she was. It was how she’d been making a living, after all.
They were waved in, without any more speaking on the topic. Nero had a desk in the room, and five chairs, including the soft looking one behind his wooden desk. That wasn’t really nice or anything. It was real wood, and old, but battered and a light enough color that it showed stains in several places. The top of it was tidy though. He had books and papers on it, with more sitting on a shelf to his right.
There was even a little metal cup that held pens and pencils. Like a real office or something.
Nero provided a new writing pad and a pen, a black one, for Gift to work with and gestured for them to both sit down. The blue and silver chairs were old, but soft enough that she was able to put her butt in one of them without searching for splinters or having a spring jammed in her butt.
After a few minutes, no more than three, the pad was passed over to her. The move was efficient. She read it over first, then nodded.
“Neat, so… We should try this now?” She glanced at the others, feeling more than a bit nervous. Like it wouldn’t work at all. Still, she’d worked with Gift before, just goofing around, so understood that he had real powers. A lot of them did, so that wasn’t the problem. She just expected that she’d say the wrong thing or mess up.
Her balding buddy stuck his hand out, so she could hold it while she read her wish of the day off. That was warm and not too wet or sticky. Then, no one had ever claimed the man wasn’t clean.
She did it quickly, trying not to make too many mistakes.
“Um, I wish to have the power to physically bring lost American money to my location, resting where I point, as I hum. This should be cash that no one will miss, that has been misplaced or lost to the owner.” That was it. There wasn’t even a suggestion as to what finger she was supposed to use.
A yellow and green wash of light covered the room for a moment, or seemed to. It was probably just over her, but it didn’t look like that from her perspective at the moment. The colors changed each time, but she didn’t know what that meant. She wasn’t certain that Gift did, either.
The man smiled at her as the light went away, and pointed at the floor.
“Hmmm? Try humming and pointing? Be ready to stop, I don’t know how fast this will work.”
Nero nodded, but didn’t stand up, just looking at her curiously. She got that one, but still did it, not giving herself a chance to stall. That almost never helped anything, after all.
Humming, a single bland tone, she put out her right index finger, wondering how many hours she was going to have to do that for, in order to get enough cash for the day. The answer was about three seconds, since the crashing and booming sound that came at them got her to stop making any sound at all.
The chair she was in actually rocked back, due to the air pressure change and Nero was on his feet, staring. She didn’t blame him. Where there had been nothing but stone flooring, there was a mess now. It wasn’t tidy stacks of bills, it was a mixed pile of coins and different types of paper. It also wasn’t some little thing. It was taller than she was, by at least two feet and spilled out to take up a good third of the office space.
Her voice unsteady, from the noise and shock, Pam-Pam stood.
“Okay. That worked. Do you think it will really stay? This must be… Well, there are a lot of coins. Call it a hundred thousand?”
Gift rolled his eyes at those words.
“Probably closer to half a million or more. Next time I guess we should just do the bills? This works though, doesn’t it?” He glanced at the man behind the desk, who was smiling.
“I bet it does. We need to count this and work out your percentage. I think we’ll need some bins or baskets. I think there are some spares in the clothing center?”
Pam-Pam nodded at the idea, knowing where they were, having been in there the day before, making a list of what people needed. If any cash came in at all.
“I’ve got that part. Give me ten minutes? I’ll grab some and be right back.” She jogged at the door, moving through most of it at a quick walk. That meant forcing a fake smile onto her face, so that no one would think they were under attack. She even waved at people as she passed, which got some strange looks. People didn’t expect her to seem cheery, day to day.
As it turned out, counting large sums of various bills and coins was both less fun and more work than it sounded like on the surface. They needed, first of all, to separate the things they could use from those that were too old or just strange. That meant having a bin for things like gold and silver coins, most of which were over a hundred years old. The confederate bank notes had to be taken away as well.
In the end, most of the day later, with Nero yawning constantly, and counting the real money they could do something with, they ran out of things to put in different bins. The pile was in seven of the large
containers, which took up most of the floor space.
That was how things were arranged when Mindy and Complex came in. Neither of them spoke at first, their eyes just going wide. Pam-Pam shrugged at them, wondering if their good-looking leader could be trusted with their stuff. Rather than start a fight, even if she was tempted, she pointed at the right far corner of the room.
“Old bills and bank notes. Things that would send up red flags if we even sold them on ebay. We can store it or burn it, I guess. Maybe find a collector and leave it on their doorstep in the night?” She moved to the next bin. “Pennies. They need to be sorted again, since some of them are probably antiques. I was shocked we didn’t get more or those. The next is just assorted change. Regular stuff that we can spend. Gold and silver next to that.” That bin was about three quarters full and a lot more of it was tarnished gold than she would have ever guessed at being possible.
Moving to the last six bins, she took a deep breath.
“The first three are in ones. They aren’t stacked or anything. That’s about seven thousand. We can have a good time at the strip club, I bet. Half of it’s even coated with Vaseline already.” That wasn’t true, but enough of it was kind of gross that she suspected the bills had passed at least one or two G-strings in their time.
Then she tapped the others, one by one.
“Fives, tens, twenties and hundreds. We have a few thousand-dollar bills, but we can’t really use them. All told… What’s the official tally, Nero?”
He moved in then, looking at the other leaders.
“Just in cash we can use today, we have two hundred and forty thousand. Not counting the coins. The gold and silver… I have no clue on that, to be honest. Probably a little over half a million just in gold. Even better, we can use the same trick to get food in, directly. Other goods as well. If Gift is willing, I mean?”
The heavy guy shrugged at the words.
“Sure. That’s the plan. We can do this every day that we don’t need to do something else. Other things too, if…” He looked at the others, one by one. “I’ve been used, against my will, before. For years, in one case. My powers were used to kill a lot of people. Nearly a million, I think. Hundreds of thousands at least. That’s why I’m hiding here. So, if we can keep things low key, that would be good?” He genuinely sounded worried about it all.
