The Apocalypse Currency Is Time

Chapter 10: Temporary Alliance

The sound of boots against the steel grates grew louder, a percussive, rhythmic threat that seemed to count down the seconds of their remaining freedom.

"In here," Julieta hissed, shoving open a rusted, heavy-duty door marked with a fading hazard sign.

They stumbled into the warehouse—a cavernous tomb of abandoned shipping containers and thick, suffocating dust. A handful of figures materialized from the shadows, ragged people armed with jagged rebar and archaic pulse-pistols. They looked tired, their eyes hollowed out by the same scarcity that defined every soul in this city.

"Who goes there?" a man shouted, leveling a weapon at them. He was scarred, his neck adorned with a faded bandage that likely hid a fading, low-charge cuff.

"We’re not with the Enforcers," Julieta said, her hands raised, though her stance remained ready to strike. "But there’s a strike team breathing down our necks. We’re in this together, or we’re both dead."

"Together?" The man scoffed, stepping into the dim light. "We don't need company. We need a way out."

"You want out?" Henrique stepped forward, his heart hammering. "Then stop pointing that thing at us and help us fortify this entrance. They’re coming, and they aren't taking prisoners."

"Look at this kid," the man muttered, glancing at his companions. "He’s got a lot of attitude for a runner."

"He’s got something else, too," Julieta added, her voice low. "If you help us hold them off, we have a way to make sure nobody here dies of time-starvation tonight."

The man narrowed his eyes. "You talking about a charge? You got a generator?"

"Something like that," Henrique said, his left arm throbbing under the jacket sleeve.

"Fine," the man relented, lowering his weapon. "My name is Kadek. But if you're lying, you’re the first ones we throw to them when they bust through that door."

"Deal," Henrique replied.

"Let’s move," Julieta commanded. "Kadek, get your people to block that main bay. Use the shipping containers. The heavier, the better."

They spent the next hour in a frantic, grueling blur of labor. Henrique helped shove steel crates into place, his muscles burning. He watched the survivors—men and women who looked like they had been living on the brink of zero for weeks. They moved with the sluggish lethargy of the dying, their skin sallow, their movements tremulous.

"They look like they're barely holding on," Henrique whispered to Julieta as they crouched behind a crate.

"They're hungry," she replied, wiping sweat from her forehead. "Not for food. For life. When you get down to the last hour, the body starts shutting down to preserve what little you have left."

"I have eighty-five hours," Henrique said, looking at his sleeve. "I could give them a few minutes each. It would be enough to give them strength to fight."

"Are you insane?" Julieta gripped his arm, her eyes wide. "If you start handing out time, you’ll show them what you are. You’re a anomaly, Henrique. You aren't a charity. If they see that cuff glowing like a star, they won't fight for you—they’ll tear you apart to get the rest of it."

"I can’t just watch them die because they're too weak to lift a crate," he argued. "We need them for the barricade. If they fail, we fail."

"Just be careful," she warned, letting go of his arm. "Don't be a hero. Be a tactician."

Henrique walked over to where Kadek was trying to wedge a steel beam against the bay doors. The man’s hands were shaking so violently he couldn't keep the beam steady.

"Here," Henrique said, reaching out. "Let me."

"It’s too heavy for a kid like you," Kadek wheezed, his voice thin.

"Just let me help," Henrique insisted.

As he grabbed the beam, he brushed his wrist against Kadek’s shoulder. He didn't mean to pull, but the proximity to someone so desperate, so close to the brink, acted like a magnet. He felt a faint, golden trickle of static energy leave Kadek, but instead of taking it, he pushed. He dialed back the hunger, reversed the flow, and let a small, controlled pulse of his own time leak into the man.

Kadek gasped. His shoulders squared, his eyes widening. The pallor of his skin seemed to vanish, replaced by a flush of sudden, artificial health.

"What... what was that?" Kadek asked, his voice steadying. He gripped the beam with a strength he hadn't possessed a moment ago. "I feel... like I just woke up."

"Keep working," Henrique said, moving on to the next person.

For the next ten minutes, Henrique moved through the group like a ghost, dispensing minutes with a light touch. The atmosphere in the warehouse shifted. The lethargy vanished, replaced by a buzzing, frantic energy. The survivors started moving with purpose, their voices growing louder, their confidence returning.

"They're ready," Kadek shouted, his voice ringing across the warehouse. "They’re acting like they’ve got a second wind!"

"See?" Henrique whispered to Julieta as they stood behind the makeshift barricade. "Morale is up. They’re ready to defend the door."

"Yeah," Julieta said, her eyes tracking the room. "But they’re also looking at you, Henrique. Look at them."

He turned. A few of the survivors had stopped working. They were whispering, their eyes fixed on his left arm. The sleeve of his jacket had shifted during the labor, and the faint, unmistakable violet glow of his cuff was leaking through the fabric, casting an ethereal, pulsating light onto the floor.

"That light," a woman nearby said, stepping closer. "That’s not a standard indicator. My husband’s cuff is dull as stone, but yours... yours is screaming."

"It’s just a glitch," Henrique said, pulling his sleeve down.

"Glitch?" Kadek walked toward them, his face unreadable. "I felt that, kid. I felt the surge. That wasn't just a battery. That was a siphon. You didn't give us time, did you? You fed us."

"I helped you," Henrique countered, his voice rising.

"You fed us stolen time," a man behind Kadek spat, pulling a rusted blade from his belt. "Where did you get that much power? You’re not a runner. You’re a parasite."

"We’re on the same side!" Julieta stepped in front of Henrique, her hand on her blade. "We’re here to stop the Enforcers. Don't be idiots!"

"We don't serve parasites," Kadek said, his voice cold. "We take what we need to survive. And you’ve got enough time in that cuff to save every one of us here for a year. Why should we die defending a gate for a kid who’s hoarding a life-debt?"

"You have no idea what you’re asking for," Henrique said, his voice dropping into that cold, alien tone he had discovered in the lab. The room suddenly felt very still. "If you take this, you’re taking the target that’s currently painted on my back. You think the Enforcers want the time? They want the source."

"We’ll take our chances," Kadek said, drawing his weapon.

The rest of the group circled them, their eyes hungry, the newly restored energy in their veins turning into a different kind of desperation—greed.

"Henrique," Julieta whispered, "be ready."

"I didn't want this," Henrique said, his hand hovering over his cuff.

"They don't care what you want," she replied.

The bay doors groaned, the sound of heavy metal being battered from the outside cutting through the tension. The Enforcers had arrived.

"Last chance," Henrique shouted to the room. "The door is breaking! We fight them, or we kill each other and wait for them to finish the job!"

Kadek hesitated, his gaze flickering from Henrique’s glowing wrist to the shuddering doors. "He’s right," a woman shouted. "We can’t fight him now!"

"No," Kadek said, his eyes narrowing. "We disarm them both. Take the cuff, then lock them in the container. We fight the Enforcers with the extra minutes."

"You won't survive the feedback," Julieta warned, her blade clearing the sheath.

"We’re already dead!" Kadek lunged.

Henrique looked at his wrist. The numbers were flashing. 84:55:00. He reached out, not with the intention to harm, but with the full, terrifying weight of the prototype interface.

"Fine," Henrique whispered, his eyes glowing with a faint, violet light. "If you want my time, you can have it."

He didn't pull. He released.

The energy hit the room like a sonic boom. Every person in the warehouse froze, their eyes rolling back as the overwhelming pressure of his stored time flooded the atmosphere. It wasn't a drain; it was a deluge. The sheer volume of the surge knocked them to their knees, their own cuffs beginning to spark and whine in protest.

"Get back!" Julieta shouted, shielding her face.

The barricade doors exploded inward, steel twisting like paper as a squad of black-armored Enforcers poured into the room. They stopped dead, their visors flickering as they walked into the epicenter of Henrique’s uncontrolled radiation.

"Target identified," the lead Enforcer signaled, his voice distorted by the interference. "Level Seven discharge detected. Purge order in effect."

Henrique stood in the center of the chaos, his arm blazing, his vision fading into a sea of static. He looked at Kadek, who was cowering on the floor, and then at the Enforcers.

"I am not a battery," Henrique screamed, his voice shaking the very foundations of the warehouse. "I am the end of the line!"

He clamped his hand over his wrist, forcing the energy to invert. He didn't just push the time out; he ripped the connection to the grid wide open.

The warehouse went white.

"Henrique, no!" Julieta’s voice was the last thing he heard before the world dissolved into the hum of a billion ticking clocks falling silent at once.