4. Down in the Dumps (Patreon)

As they walked, the streets got scragglier, the lights fewer and further between. Electric lines drooped between buildings, strung with tied-together sneakers. Women in tight dresses leaned against the walls of alleys, smoking cigarettes. They cast a look at Levi and Fira, but didn’t bother calling out to them, instead focusing on the men in suits and nice clothes. The nice restaurants and fancy boutiques fell away, replaced by pharmacies with green plus signs, liquor stores, pawn shops and gun stores.

Even further along, monster butchers replaced the seedy stores. Half-skinned monsters dripped blood into the gutters, while burly men and women busily broke down the bodies for valuable bones, fangs, claws, and whatever else the monsters carried that could be sold. Street stands peddled monster meat skewers. In the ruins of a partially-flattened townhouse, a man wearing a heavy mask stirred a ten-foot-diameter, steaming pot of horrible-smelling fluid with a long wooden pole as he tanned monster leather.

Thick trees poked through the sidewalks, the buildings, everywhere. Drivers swerved around a massive oak in the center of the street. People squatted on the corners, smoking something that didn’t smell like tobacco.

Levi waved at one of the squatters. The man nodded back, his eyes dull. Levi knelt and passed him the card he’d taken from Jet Engine’s room.

The man’s eyes lit up. He looked up at Levi.

“I get half. Thing’s hot, so move fast,” Levi warned him.

The man nodded. He darted off, tucking the card in his rear pocket.

“You’re really counting on him?” Fira asked.

“Sure. I’ll get a quarter instead of half, but he pays my share, and that’s good enough for me. The most useful kind of partnership is the kind where everyone thinks they’ve got one over everyone else,” Levi said firmly.

Fira looked at him. “So what do you have over me?”

“What don’t I have over you. Don’t worry about it. I’ve got no interest in cashing in. Not until your brother’s well away from Alpha’s sticky fingers, anyways,” Levi responded evenly.

She pulled away from him. “Sure.”

“Oy, Levi! Who’s your girl tonight, huh?” a woman hollered from the second story of an apartment building.

Smirking, Levi shouted back, “Not you. Jealous, Roxy?”

“Me, jealous? Of you? Yikes, man, big yikes!” Roxy laughed, leaning on the railing. She tossed a wink at Fira and flicked a card toward her. “When he disappoints you, call me.”

Fira caught the card on instinct. A black card with sexy pink silhouettes stared back at her, with a kiss mark and ROXY XXX <3 scrawled in the center in a cheap metallic-pink font.

Startled, Fira shoved the card in her back pocket, blushing a little.

Levi glanced at her. He leaned in. “You thinking about it?”

“No! Don’t—don’t be ridiculous,” Fira said, lowering her voice halfway through.

Roxy chuckled, a lascivious, flirty sound.

“You can do better than Roxy. Her prices are outrageous,” Levi said, not bothering to lower his voice.

“And worth every penny,” Roxy trilled, fluttering her lashes.

Fira leaned in. “Where are we going?” she hissed.

“Almost there.” Levi nodded ahead of them.

Fira squinted down to the end of the alley, where no more lights glowed and the street went dark.

A dense forest towered over them. Dark trees tangled together, growing on top of one another. Undergrowth filled the space beneath the canopy, twisted vines and thick bushes competing amidst the leaf mould. Bits and pieces of houses and buildings hung in the trees’ boughs, lifted into the air from the strong growth of the forest.

“What the…”

Levi grinned. “You like it? TerraForm grew this forest about ten years ago in her attempt to overrun the city with forestry. Alpha was going to destroy it, but after he absorbed her skill, he decided he liked the forest after all, and now Central City has a new park!”

“What happened to everyone who lived there?” Fira asked, concerned.

Levi shrugged. “It’s kind of like when an Outbreak happens. They died, and if they were unfortunate enough to survive, they became homeless.”

“Alpha didn’t help?”

Levi stared at her. He gestured at the forest. Rusty pipes and twisted signs poked through the greenery, the remnants of an asphalt street shattered underfoot. “What do you think?”

She frowned, confused. “I heard Alpha took good care of his own.”

“His own, sure. Not the rest of us.” Grabbing ahold of the vines, Levi hauled himself up into the forest.

Fira glanced around, then followed him. “Is this where we’re going?”

“It’s a good place to go. Not a lot of cameras. Not a lot of enforcement. Lots of people hang out in here when they want to lie low for a few days.”

“What about the Exclusion Zone?” Fira asked.

“What Exclusion Zone?”

“There’s an Outbreak point here, right? So there should be a corresponding—”

Levi stopped in his tracks. He turned back, looking down at her like she was stupid. “Alpha lives here. Do you think he lets an Outbreak ever fester to the point that he needs to declare an Exclusion Zone?”

“That’s…” Fira glanced down.

“You’re not from around here, huh,” Levi muttered to himself. He shook his head, pushing through the brambles.

Fira followed after him, only for her leg to catch on a thorned vine. She grimaced and snapped her fingers, and a mote of fire burst to life and singed the vine away. Shaking her head, she followed after Levi again. “No. I’m not.”

“You aren’t all wrong, anyways. Even Alpha can’t suppress an open Outbreak point twenty-four-seven, three-sixty-five days a year. The Old Town is mostly overrun by monsters now, and only a few people dare to live there. It isn’t officially an Exclusion Zone, because Alpha’s pride wouldn’t allow that, but all the locals know to avoid it, so for the most part, it’s not a problem.” He glanced over his shoulder and grinned. “Another good place to hide out for a bit.”

Fira nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Helps feed the low-rank supers, too. Gotta get those levels up.”

“Right, yeah.”

“So, where are you from? Not from Central City, but close enough that your brother ran here. You don’t have city-girl vibes, either. Some Exclusion Zone out in the wilds, then?”

Fira shut her mouth.

Levi snorted. “Too close to home, huh? Speaking of, here we are! Home sweet home. For now. After my inevitable eviction, when I don’t pay rent for the third time…” He checked a scratched-up watch. “…in two hours.”

Fira stared. “This is your home?”

“It is now. Keep up.” Levi patted the sturdy building. It squatted under the trees, thick and concrete. Roots lifted it off the ground from below and wound around it from all angles, the tree half-gripping, half crushing it. A small copse of trees bundled tight atop its roof, growing out of the tiles.

“It’s a public toilet.”

“Wrong. It’s my public toilet.” He grinned from the door, pleased with himself.

“Right…”

Leaning against the doorframe, Levi shrugged at her. “It’s one of the few intact buildings in the park. Shoot me.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Actually, don’t do that. People have, over this toilet. Come to think of it…” He pushed the door open and peered over his shoulder.

Fira jumped to the side, startled. “You’re just opening the door? When you might get shot?”

“What am I supposed to do, not open the door? Stand here like an idiot?” He turned back around, letting the door fall shut. “Nah, it’s fine. No guns.”

Letting out a slow breath, Fira shook her head at him. “You’re insane.”

“You just noticed?” He turned and entered the toilet.

Fira hesitated, glancing at the MEN sign on the door, then shook her head and followed him inside.

Bits of branches and random seed detritus covered a filthy tile floor that might have once been white. They spilled in from the door, piling up high at the entrance and falling away further into the room. Vines crawled up the wall, leaning toward the slit windows high above. Dirt choked the sinks, strange brown stripes ringing the white bowls. Two cracked urinals and a stall with the door dangling from one hinge finished out the room. The toilet laid in shadow, but the foul stench emanating from it told its story nonetheless.

“Whoa, whoa! What are you doing? Following a strange man into the men’s room? Someone might get the wrong idea!” Levi said, startled.

“Is that someone you?” Fira asked. Fire flickered over her shoulders and burned in her eyes.

“No, I know where I stand. But someone. You know. Someone.”

“I don’t know.” She paused, glancing over her shoulder. “Should I leave?”

Levi shook his head. He headed toward the toilet stall. “Come on. We aren’t there yet.”

Fira sighed in relief. “I thought this was actually your home base. Thank goodness.”

Confused, he turned and looked her dead in the eye. “No, it is.”

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking at the filth around her.

Levi froze. His eyes dropped to the floor, and his lips twisted into a scowl. “No. I’m very much not okay. You know? I had reformed. I’d stopped all this shit. I was living a good, normal life. And then some super killed m… someone I care deeply about, and here I am.”

Fira turned to him, taken aback. She lifted a hand to his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged, snapping back to his usual unbothered self, and walked on, dodging her hand. “Ah, well. It was bound to happen eventually. I had a good run.”

At the back wall, he crouched. He felt along the tiles, then pressed one firmly. The tile clicked and recessed into the wall. On the floor, a section of the filthy tiles to his right popped up in a puff of dust and dirt. Levi pushed the section of floor aside and retrieved a small black case, about as long as his forearm and a thumblength deep.

“What’s that?” Fira asked.

“Mine. Don’t worry about it.” Loosing the shoulder strap, he slung the case over his shoulder. He grabbed the tiles by the edge and dropped them back over the gap, then stomped it down with his foot. It clicked back into place.

He nodded at Fira. “We’re almost there. Just a little further.”

“Wait, this isn’t our destination?”

“Do you want to stay here?” Levi asked, squinting at her.

Fira looked around her. She took in the dirt, the filth, the drying and browning vines clutching the crumbling walls, the shattered urinals and reeking toilet, and she pressed her lips together. “Actually, no. You’re right. Let’s keep going.”

“Right. Let’s go.” Levi passed her and led the way back outside.

In the short time they’d been inside, the sun had crept below the high artificial horizon of Central City’s towers. Twilight cloaked the forest. Strange cries sounded out, and things rustled through the undergrowth just out of sight.

Fira squinted. “Are those… monsters?”

“Monster rats, maybe. If you’re really hungry, I can catch one for you.”

Fira wrinkled her nose. “I’m good.”

Levi snorted. “There’s no monsters in the forest. Well.” He paused, looking off into the forest’s heart.

A rattling, dry cry echoed through the forest, keening with the falling of the sun. A shiver ran down Fira’s spine, and the hairs at the back of her neck stood on end. She ran a hand over the back of her neck, forcing herself to calm down.

“There’s mostly no monsters. If you stick to the edges, you’ll stay safe.”

Fira nodded.

“Safe from the monsters, anyways.”

“Huh?”

Without another word, Levi walked on. Fira glanced toward the cry one last time, then followed after him.