Victor’s Point of View

I felt so bad for the man who helped me get off the streets during this flood. He said he didn’t mind the dogs pooping everywhere but his bedroom but the dogs took that as a challenge. I tried cleaning up the first few times they went to the bathroom, but after a week, I was out of cleaning supplies. Because of that, the place fucking stank like stale beer and dog shit.

I had drunk all six cases of the beer left behind, leaving only a six-pack of bottled beer and half the bottles of booze in the fridge. I was just holding off on drinking the rest because this flood showed no signs of going away. I’d need to wean myself off if it didn’t clear up in another week. I had been surprisingly lucid during my time here. Normally, I’d have terrible nightmares that made me wake up screaming in fear or a constant deep paranoia of being watched.

I think it was the dogs, they were surprisingly soothing to be around. The threat of being watched diminished greatly, and I wasn’t worried about people taking me in my sleep because the dogs would definitely let me know if someone did try to. I had just washed my body down with a damp cloth and was in the process of feeding the dogs when I heard a knock at the door.

I moved towards it, scared. Who would be here to visit me in this flood, other than the owner to kick me out? I heard a soft female voice say. “Why knock? Isn’t it your house?” With that, my shoulders drooped as I knew I was right. I heard the man talk, but he did so in a whisper, so I couldn’t make out what he said. I unlocked the door, which took a while as there were three separate locking mechanisms on it, which was another reason I felt so safe here.

“Hey, boss man. What can I do… For you?” I looked at him first before looking at the little girl beside him. My brain recognized her as my mind started to think of why she would be here with him… They weren’t dating, were they? That thought quickly passed as she looked disgruntled to be here. “Hey, how’s it going? Any problems with the dogs?”

He walked past me as he ripped open a pack of hot dogs and started feeding the dogs. I ignored him and looked at my daughter for an explanation. “He said I should come with him to get you. This flood isn’t going away anytime soon, after all.” The dogs all piled onto him as he let them lick him, looking like he was in heaven before he spoke. “Man, do you guys stink. I bet you all want to get out into the open even in all this rain.” He stopped laughing as he asked Alice. “Are you going to give your dad the core?”

I didn’t know what he was talking about again as I turned to look at the thing in my daughter's hand. I felt instinctively drawn to it, but had enough decency not to rip it out of my daughter's hands. “...No. I think I’ll keep this one.” The man sighed again as he got up. “Here you go. Your daughter has an affinity for these cores.” He tossed it at me, and as my skin made contact, I felt my body seize.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up after passing out.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Why did he pass out!?” I could only answer her with a shoulder shrug. “Donno. Probably his brain resetting or something from the schizophrenia being cured. Back up and let him catch his breath. It looks like he’s waking up.” We watched as he got up. 

He didn’t look different, but I hadn’t watched him be cured the first time around. I had heard that gaining powers could cure mental illnesses but had never seen it. He wasn’t acting any different as he responded. “H-how did I end up on the ground?” I helped him up. “You passed out from touching the core. Here’s another one for you to hold onto.”

I passed it over to him. I could tell by the look in his eye that he also had the core infatuation his daughter had. “Do you… Feel any different?” In the same low tone, he responded. “Yeah… My back feels better than normal. Why?” I just pointed at the beer on the table. “Can I get one of those?” He held his arm out instinctively as one of the bottles flew over into his hand, and he handed it over to me.

I pried off the cap with my hands because I didn’t need a bottle opener anymore. I took two swigs before what he did finally sank in. For the first time since I had met him, he finally freaked out. “What the fuck! Oops, sorry, Alice… What the heck is up with this? How can I float things?” Downing the rest of the beer, I answered. “That core you touched gave you telekinetic powers. You should be able to float about sixty pounds right now.”

I let him practice his new power before he runs himself out of steam. He wasn’t the powerhouse I knew in the future and might never be, but at the very least, he’d be around to see his daughter grow up instead of both of them dying in the first year of this apocalypse. We made our way home, and I was going to keep him busy fixing up the cargo containers to make them safer to live in.

Years as a pastor had him acquire pretty decent carpentry skills from all the charity work he helped with. He wasn’t as skilled as an actual carpenter, but small changes like putting in wood flooring and insulating the walls were something he was capable of doing. The first time I saw Alice smile was when she showed her father her new fire manipulation.

We took a different path back to the gated community to avoid the large roadblock of vehicles. It let us hit up another gas station and take everything underwater that would rot before anyone got to it. I was leaving the food to last longer for other people after this flood ended, and as so was focusing on the food that wasn’t spoiled, but the saltwater would rot the packaging eventually and make it spoil before anyone could get to it.

I also took the dog food. There wasn’t much, but the six bags and twenty cans were enough for a few days, and I doubted anyone else had as many animals to take care of as us. I needed to find someone who could take care of them and begin training them to be guard dogs for the property.

It was endless. I would solve one thing, just for the next problem to spring up. We made it there, caught our breaths, and I was just about to head out again before Victor stopped me. “Wait, do you want some assistance… Assisting people?”

I chuckled. “Here’s a raft if you want to head off in the opposite direction. I still have too much to do, but two heads searching to help people is better than one.” He gave me that soft, kind smile he was famous for. Already, I could see his old self start to come back, the man who wanted to help every single person he could. “Oh…” I pulled out a gun and handed it to him. “Just in case… I did have to kill a giant crocodile already, so it’s better safe than sorry.”