A Reborn: Apocalypse fanfiction

26. I Don't Want To Be Anyone's Hero

They walked through several blocks before Kev picked a skyscraper and entered it. The group rested on the third layer of the floor as Kev cleared out the morankai in the building. Eventually he led them all to the thirtieth floor.

"Does anyone need to eat? Need a drink? I imagine none of you have any points?" Kev said. He took a few moments to pull food from the Shop for everyone. They were hesitant at first, but Kev convinced them that he wasn't worried about the points.

A regular meal was only a couple points. A fancier, more complicated meal, more points. Kev handed each person a low-tier healing pill and a recovery pill with their meal. "It will help." He'd say with each set he passed out.

After everyone had their food Kev looked at the group and said, "Finish up and grab rooms everyone, the sun isn't all the way up yet, but I'm leaving this cluster in a few hours, if you want to go with me, you'll need to be ready to go by noon. Ma', I'll be back in a little bit."

The tall man stood up, Kev thought he might have been trying to look intimidating, which he thought was adorable. "Look, I'm grateful you got us out of that death trap but if you think I'm going to just follow you around ... " the tall guy started.

"No." Kev interrupted. "You misunderstand. I don't care what you do." Kev said, not turning or facing the man at all. "I brought you along because she asked me to,' Kev gestured at his mother. "You can stay here if you want, or you can go with me to the main city cluster if you want." At last Kev turned and faced the tall man, "You can jump off the building if you want. I kind of hope you don't come because you'll just slow me down, but if you stay here you might die, which will make her sad," Kev said pointing at Alicia again. "Either way, I'm not leaving right this second so find a room and rest" Kev brooked no argument and the tall man stepped down a little.

"Look, you want to talk amongst yourselves, go ahead. Alicia can answer most of your questions I'm sure, but I'll be knocking by noon and it's a long journey, so figure it out." Kev said.

Kev went to leave, but his mom called out to him. She lead him by the elbow around a corner away from the people who just might have been calming down after their early morning ordeal

"They were bad men Kev." She said.

"I know ma'" Kev said. His mother immediately realizing why he was tense. "You know it was a year here before the second wave showed up?"

Alicia nodded. Kev could see her flagging from the after effects of the ginseng pill,. She needed rest.

"My first day here, I just got out of the shop. I was looking out over my cluster. Trying to find anyone. The whole place was empty, just me. All of a sudden I saw this flash. Another person. I was relieved, you know? Still scared, still uncertain. But at least I wasn't alone? I don't know." Kev paused for a moment in his recounting.

"I don't know what his name was. I don't know where he was from. I don't know anything about him. In my head, I call him 'The Shooter' because as soon as he noticed me he shot at me. I was in uniform at the time, maybe he saw I was US military and it spooked him, I don't know. I heard the bullet fly by my ear." Kev absent mindedly reached a hand up to his left ear as he stared into the past.

"At first I just ran. He shot at me more. Then I decided I wasn't running anymore. I found him. I killed him. I hadn't been on the First Layer for an hour. The first points I earned were killing him." Kev tapped his ring and pulled out the gun. " I got this gun from him, as well as this hat and some other useful things. "

"He didn't have to die, but I killed him anyway. We could have left without killing anyone." Kev stopped. "Those people out there, someone should have helped, someone should have saved them." Kev stopped. A long pause making the air pregnant with his tension.