It's Not Easy Making Money in the Apocalypse

"What are you doing?" Riker asked.

The others had already climbed up into the roof and were leaving the place, but I had stayed behind after getting the last person up and waved her to continue. I then remained standing in the room as Riker set up a charge.

"That's what I'm wondering about you."

"I already said I'm going to set charges and blow this whole place to hell." Riker declared.

"And? What about you?" I responded. "Those charges aren't exactly wireless, and I can't imagine you're going to run fifty meters of line."

"Heh… you're a smart kid. Probably the smartest in the bunch. Here." He tossed me a box, and when I looked at it, I saw it was the Allknowing.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"One of us needs to reach six smarts. I reckon you're already closer than any of us. If anyone can do it in seven injections, it'd be you."

"Just like that?" I asked, feeling awkward.

I already had the injections necessary. These extra seven wouldn't do anything for me. However, if my intelligence suddenly spiked, it'd be hard to explain. This was the best-case scenario for me, but I didn't feel pleased about it for some reason.

"Just like that." He responded without looking back.

I made a face. "Just give them to me."

He stopped working on the next charge. "What?"

"You can't blow up the place setting all the charges in one room. We'll run them through the vent, leaving one in each room. That should be enough to cause the upper floors to collapse down on the lower floors."

"If the grunts catch on to what we're doing, they may be able to stop us."

"Then, we don't let them catch on."

"One of us still has to flip the switch."

"That'll be me."

He turned around. "Why would you help like that? Conrad and I have been together for ten years now. We started in the same gang and got kicked out of the Dublin community together. Crossed the wasteland running from assassins together. We have a lot of history."

"You don't need to die," I responded, scratching my head awkwardly. "I have a method of pulling the trigger and surviving."

"Seriously? How?"

"I have a shield…"

"Those things only can block a single shot."

"A single shot, a single explosion, look, I have an overclock mod. It'll be strong enough to protect me. Are you so eager to die you're not even going to let me take a chance?"

I was lying. I had no confidence an overclock-modded shield was powerful enough to block an entire exploding building. What I did have was world travel. I could hit the trigger, go to my factory, wait for the explosion to settle, and then come back and walk away. I wasn't going to let some random raider know about such an ability though.

"Fine… he responded after a bit. "We'll do it your way."

I nodded, and after he showed me how to unpack the explosives, I let him boost me back up into the vents. I crawled back the way we came, dropping a cord down into each room. I stuck them to the ceiling just in case the grunts came to investigate. By the time I reached the nurse's station where we had started, a few grunts were looking around. I didn't bother to open the vent, instead just leaving the C4 sitting there before moving on. The grunts might have been smarter than normal, but they still seemed confused about where we had gone. While I was doing that, Riker did the other rooms. After about 15 minutes, we had ten charges spanning the entire length of the school. Finally, we met back in the middle.

I lifted the case of allknowing. "Just in case."

He looked at it for a moment and then handed me the trigger without taking it. "I don't change my mind easily. You're the one who will be taking them, so you come back alive.

"When I leave the building, I might need cover."

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"We'll cover you." Riker declared before turning and crawling away.

Once he left, I clung to the trigger tightly. "Where is the safest place to do this?"

"Huh?" Cecelia spoke up. "Why does it matter?"

"We never really tested the world travel's spatial ability. What if I returned to a place that was covered in rubble? I could end up being half-materialized inside of junk or it might fail, killing me in the process."

"You're worried about that now? It's a bit late to have those concerns."

"I thought when I brought this up you had already made your calculations and would have said something if it wasn't feasible."

"You do stupid crap all the time. Even helping him survive is a stupid risk that gains you nothing."

"You…"

"The roof would keep you from returning into the middle of a pile." She offered.

"Yeah, but then I'd fall two flights and could even land on something and impale myself." I shot back.

"You're the one who decided to do this. Just hope your shield can handle the brunt of whatever you experience when you return."

"If I was depending on the shield, why even world travel?"

"What's that?" A deep voice sounded behind me.

There was a click, and suddenly the grate under me gave way. I couldn't stop myself from letting out a cry as I hit the floor. The crash was loud and painful, and all of the wind was blown out of my lungs when I hit the ground without bracing myself. I tried to stand up, feeling like it was difficult to breathe. That's when a foot struck me in the face. I felt my nose crunch as I went flying back.

I slammed into a table which fell over, clattering. I could hear the shouts of grunts on the other side of the doorway. Confused and disorientated, I tried to stand, my eyes landing on my attacker who was swinging from the vent and just landed in front of me.

"Daft?"

"I knew you were hiding some good shit from us." Daft declared. "If you give me all of the stuff you took, the allknowing, that pistol, and give me the rights to your Perco too… I'll let you die painlessly."

Blood was running from my lip and nose, meanwhile, the door handle was being rattled. This room happened to be one that was locked. It was just a teacher supply closet, but it had scissors, pencils, and other sharp objects being kept away from the students.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

He pulled out a gun and fired. It struck me, me to fall back with a grunt, but the shield activated and blocked it.

"Next time, I'll shoot your dick off. I won't ask again." He declared.

"I can't give you a Perco, they don't work that way." I lied.

It was true for anyone who didn't have the Master code. As for me, I wasn't sure if I could deregister my own Perco, but I could do it for any other Perco. Daft didn't seem to care though.

"I know you have that digital inventory you've been flaunting. Show me what you got." He demanded.

"Okay… okay…" I held up my hands.

"That's right, not sudden movements." He declared. "When I agreed to work with Riker, it was because I was supposed to get all these benefits. Now, he wants to just hand the allknowing away. I might not be the smartest yet, but even I'm not dumb enough to see how much of a raw deal this was."

I was moving at a snail's pace, just waiting for the right second.

Boom! The door finally erupted as grunts kicked their way in. He turned his gun away from me. I immediately lunged for the trigger. Daft turned back.

"Now!" I flipped the switch and dropped it in one motion.

Boom!

Word travel occurred, and the world and space twisted around me just as it exploded.

I came out the other side. I was back in my apartment. As soon as I appeared, I heard a scream, but I couldn't muster the ability to react. I collapsed to the ground. Blood began to pool around me. I had been shot.