Alpha Physics! Book 4 - Albury: A Post Apocalypse Progression Fantasy by Alex Kozlowski

Author:Alex Kozlowski [Kozlowski, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 43

Their sleeping arrangement had not changed. It felt weird lying in the same room as Charlotte now that her feelings had been revealed. Initially, he had not even thought to question the arrangements. They were all adults. Steve, Jules, and Susie gravitated towards one room, and the rest of them claimed the other. Now it felt bizarre.

“Sleep well,” Charlotte whispered just as he was drifting off.

“You too,” he responded automatically, before wondering if that was wrong. Restless slumber claimed him anyway. The dreams were torturous. They were all about Emily, who turned into Charlotte. He woke up in tears because he understood what it meant.

Opening his eyes, he was surprised to find Charlotte curled up next to him. She was barely awake. “You were whimpering. When I hugged you, you stopped.” He could not see the details of her face, but he was sure she was blushing. “You sounded sad.”

The dream still had him partly in its grip.

Jaracol had assured him that Emily was okay. If she was not, then everything was ash and nothing was worthwhile. He was not Steve, a natural hero. He was doing all of this to ensure a future for his family. Did that make him a lesser person than Steve? Maybe, but Adrian was very comfortable with that. If the interface was lying to him, the disquiet caused by the dream was rapidly being replaced by anger.

If she was not okay.

If the dream was real.

The first thing he would do was tear every piece of interface out. The exquisite pain that had occurred the first time he attempted to pull the bits of the interface out—he would welcome it as he extracted the hundreds of fragments, one after another.

Calming emotions reached out. They seemed to say “There is no lie. She is safe. They are all safe and under protection.” Sentiments to match the words Jaracol had previously told him. Words. Thoughts.

He was so distrustful.

Only actions mattered. The truth was still hundreds of kilometres away.

“Give it time,” the feelings seem to whisper. “One week and you’re out of here, and then another week to Melbourne. You’ll see.” Two weeks that felt so close. A blip . . . almost.

Charlotte was shamefully inching away.

“I need to get going,” he whispered, shaking away the dream. She rolled away, and he sneaked out.

He went through the familiar motions to disarm the trip over the main door in the common room and let himself out. Just before closing it, he carefully clicked the trap back on. Best to leave them protected. Short of the Yanneys, there was nothing nearby that could threaten them, but old habits died hard.

Albury differed from Wagga and everywhere else he had been since the event. Here, the population was denser, and the threat of monsters almost non-existent. As a result, Ambusher’s Steps were more conspicuous than his exercises. In Wagga, if anyone spotted him in stealth mode, they would have assumed he was trying to avoid monsters and ignore him. Here, someone sneaking around was a security risk.

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