It’s Not Easy Making Money In The Apocalypse

“You’ll be seeing from the master’s lawyers!”

Those were the last words I heard as I was kicked out of the mansion. Shortly after delivering the medication, I was dog-piled by a half-dozen men who then proceeded to drag me out of the mansion. I didn’t put up a fight anymore. The older woman I had accidentally fondled was pulled away into another room where she was safe, and I was dragged out of Mizuki’s room before she could udder a word. After that, I was dragged to the exit and given the boot.

I turned back. “Yeah, we’ll see about that!”

The men all reached for their weapons like they thought I was going to rise off my feet and charge them again. I decided to make my next few movements rather slow and deliberate so that I didn’t get tazed or something else equally traumatic. I could already say that my experience this time was lucky, as I didn’t get any thrashings. It probably would wound these ex-military guards’ pride to pummel a 17-year-old kid who was just trying to talk to a girl.

I didn’t let myself relax until I was no longer in their line of vision. Once they were out of sight, I informed Cecelia to send me a ride. Although I had done my best to hold on to Mizuki, whatever came of it wouldn’t be instantaneous. The cure would take a few days before they’d started noticing her improved health. I didn’t have a few days to wait until she regained control of her life. I needed the supplies for trading right away.

That left me with only two other contacts. The first was Lily. She typically dealt with high-end products though, and she had no connection to my business at all. I felt a bit of jealousy between her and Mizuki, and it probably wouldn’t be good if I started asking her to take over the responsibilities that I was giving Mizuki. That left me with my only other contact. I had Cecelia make the call.

“Boss?”

“Caleb… I’m going on a trip for a couple of days. I’m going to need you to put in some legwork for me.”

“Y-yeah! Whatever you need… ah… about the funds you left me.”

“I’ll wire more to your account.” I declared.

“I have an account?”

“I’ll send the information to your phone.” I sighed, and by I, I was talking about Cecelia.

“Yeah, sure, what do you need boss? I’ll get the crew together?”

“Crew?”

“Ahhh… yeah… well, you remember the guys I got so we could threaten my old boss?”

“When you say it like that…”

“Yeah, well, then, I called them up again when there was that thing going down at the restaurant, you get?”

“I’m following you so far…”

“Well, that got me thinking, and what I thought is that Boss has some big things in mind. If you want to do big things, then you’re gonna need a crew. That’s why I put together a few guys. Well, it cost a bit of money, but…”

Honestly, I had only kept Caleb around to try to protect myself from any more questionable people, but the presence of Mizuki had almost eliminated that problem. I had only strung him along because it was convenient, but now that I had a bit more money, it probably wouldn’t be that bad having a crew of people to hand the stuff I wasn’t comfortable asking the girls about.

“Alright, alright… here’s what I’m going to need from you…”

Caleb took down the lists of items I was looking for. It was mostly the same old, but I decided to add a few other things that I needed as well. Some of the things were related to the plan. Of course, he’d be delivering all of the supplies to the warehouse. I also told him that the rest of the money could go into paying and supporting this so-called crew. Of course, all the transactions were being watched by Cecelia, so if they started being completely wasteful, she could block them and even provide a strongly worded text message.

When my carshare arrived, I debated for a second which direction I was going to send them. Should I visit them? It was going to be a week, I probably should. I got into the car and we headed back into the town. I wasn’t asking how expensive all of these costs were. I was letting Cecelia handle it. I hoped she had a better grasp of numbers than I did. I wasn’t even certain exactly how much money I had, compared to what was being borrowed.

As we entered a town, we headed to an area that wasn’t nearly as fancy as my new place, but still much better off than the location my mother and sister were currently living. I’d give them another month or two, and then I would try to get them in a new place as well. I had the money now, or would at least have it soon, so I wanted them both to be safe and happy.

This was not my old apartment, but the apartment of Gabriella. I hadn’t been here in a very long time. The last time I was in her building was when she used to babysit me. Gabriella shouldn’t even be there at the moment. She was a doctor, so she worked almost all of the time. The person who should be there was Kiera. It was time that we touched base again. The only way I had contacted her the last week or so was by sending messages to her Perco, and even that was a chore.

The Perco didn’t have wifi. They had a signal reader and a peer-to-peer connection. In the apocalyptic world, I was able to create a sort of localized networking by spreading signals from turrets, robots, and Percos to create a net of communication. It was true that the Perco was extremely strong at reading cellphone signals and anything else happening nearby, but it technically couldn’t connect to the internet. It didn’t know how. Why would it be able to connect to a system from another world without any tinkering?

Cecelia was the one who made it internet-capable, but she couldn’t replicate the actions necessary on Kiera’s Perco. That meant that the only time I could send her a message was when we were physically close enough to each other. With her trapped in Gabriella’s apartment and me trapped in mom’s apartment, the chances to send messages were sparingly few. All I had gotten from her was that she was fine, and not much else.

I had abandoned Kiera in another world, and while this world was far more hospitable than the world she had been in, I still didn’t like that I couldn’t contact her. That’s why, as soon as the Perco connected, I sent her a message letting her know that I was dropping by.

Master can come right in.

A message returned about the time the car pulled up to the building. It was immediately followed by a second message.

I’ll be waiting.

I raised an eyebrow slightly. I had to be imagining things. I was spending too much time with the flirtatious Red and Lily, that I was starting to see suggestions that weren’t there. I got out of the car and waved the driver on before heading into the building. Someone had propped the door open. This wasn’t a highly secure apartment like the one I had moved into, but it did have the door usually locked. It wasn’t so dangerous a place though that someone might not prop the door open when they were moving something.

I entered the building since Keira had said to come right in. When the elevator opened, I found a couple trying to move a couch. I had no desire to help them, so I ended up taking the stairs instead. Gabriella was only on the third level anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I walked over to her doorway, only to find that the door was left agape. That was when I heard another beep for a message from Kiera.

I miss Master so much.

I gulped, remembering when I had embarrassed myself with Lily. I wouldn’t make that mistake again. I pushed my way into the apartment. The lights were down low, and there was gentle music playing from a fancy stereo system. It seemed a bit romantic. It began to occur to me that it was Kiera and me alone. Gabriella was assuredly gone, so could she have planned this. As I entered a few steps farther into the apartment, I heard a shower running and a light under the door. I quickly wrote a message back to Kiera.

Um, where are you?

A few moments later, there was a response.

I’m just cleaning up. You can walk right in. I want you to see it.

This… my heart was beating a mile a minute. I never imagined Kiera would be so kinky. Steeling my nerves, I nodded to myself. Gripping the handle, I pulled open the door and stepped in. I could see her dark form from behind the shower curtains. She wanted me to see, right?

I reached out and pushed the shower curtain open, and learned that dreams were too good to be true.

“Gabriella…”

I waited for the scream.