The Apocalypse Exchange: I Can Trade Anything

Chapter 10: War of Monsters

Compared to the strange calm settling over Clearwater Cove, the rest of North America was still a nightmare in motion.

Mutated creatures tore into each other constantly, locked in an endless cycle of hunting and devouring.

The thing that had chased Ryan through the streets wasn't rare, and it certainly wasn't the worst of what was out there.

Somewhere out past the harbor, in the shadow of a great copper statue holding its torch aloft, two monsters were locked in battle.

One stood over ten feet tall, humanoid, its entire body studded with pulsing tumors. Every swing of its arms sent gouts of green fluid splattering from the growths a corrosive slurry that hissed and smoked wherever it struck the ground.

Its opponent looked like something dragged out of old mythology a massive three-headed hound, its fur pure white, each of its three mouths exhaling a constant plume of pale mist.

Where the green acid met the white mist, the air itself sizzled, both substances seeming to eat away at each other on contact.

The standoff broke. All three heads of the hound unleashed a torrent of mist simultaneously, engulfing the tumor-covered creature entirely.

Inside the cloud, the hissing intensified, faster and more violent, the tumor-beast's roars tangled up in the noise.

The hound seemed to see straight through its own fog. It launched itself from a rooftop, claws finding their mark with brutal precision, tearing the head clean off its opponent.

The moment the head came off, every tumor across the creature's body detonated at once.

The hound couldn't dodge in time. Corrosive fluid sprayed across its white coat, burning holes straight through the fur in an instant.

All three heads exhaled one final wave of mist thinner this time, weaker.

Once the fog cleared, the street had gone still again. No trace remained of either monster. Snow and wind buried the scene within minutes, as if nothing had happened at all.

The great statue stood through it, torch held high, slowly crumbling under decades of neglect that the apocalypse had only accelerated.

A new day dawned over Clearwater Cove.

Ryan checked his balance 83 points and felt genuinely good about it. A little over a hundred days out, and he'd be earning two points of interest daily. Barely three months into this, and life felt almost manageable.

Yesterday's confrontation had apparently accomplished something after all. Soldiers were moving door to door through the villas, distributing supplies.

The sight of actual rice sacks slung over their shoulders sent a ripple of excitement through the crowd. Ryan gathered from the chatter around him that most of these people hadn't had a hot meal in longer than they could remember. Rice, especially nobody fled a burning building lugging heavy sacks of grain behind them.

Anyone who hesitated here was going to miss out entirely.

The first floor was already packed easily a hundred people crammed shoulder to shoulder. More filled the stairwell and the basement below.

Soldiers guarded the rice sacks at the door, raising their voices to keep the crowd in line.

"One measuring cup per person. One bag of dehydrated vegetables."

"No pushing. Form a line."

"Everyone gets a share."

Weeks of relying on the army had trained most of the crowd into a strange kind of obedience. A line formed within minutes, winding through the room.

Jake somehow wound up near the front. The moment he collected his ration and turned to head back, a soldier stopped him.

"Everyone who's already collected, wait outside for now."

"Why? Can't exactly cook rice out in the open. You want us eating it raw?"

"To keep things orderly, please follow instructions."

The same soldier raised his voice to address the rest of the crowd.

"Given the equipment we've got, we're asking you to form groups of five to ten and share a stove."

"Don't worry we're staying put here today. You'll have plenty of time to cook."

Jake's plan to cycle through the line a few extra times evaporated on the spot. He grumbled under his breath and stepped aside.

Cooking groups started forming across the lawn.

Ryan ended up in a group of eight a mother and her daughter, a young couple, two middle-aged men, and Jake, who'd wasted no time attaching himself.

Ever since watching Ryan dodge that monster in the street, Jake had privately decided Ryan was not, in fact, an ordinary guy and that sticking close to someone like that drastically improved his odds if things went sideways again.

Getting brushed off once hadn't discouraged him in the slightest. When it came to staying alive, a little shamelessness went a long way.

They drew lots for stove access and landed the second rotation.

Once the group settled in, introductions went around. Jake spoke up first.

"Alright, let's just use everything today. All of it."

"If we're eating, let's actually eat. No point half-rationing a meal that's already this small."

"Ryan, you good with that?"

"Fine by me."

One of the middle-aged men adjusted his glasses.

"I'd push back on that a little."

"Rice doesn't really go bad sitting around, so using it all today makes sense to me."

"But the dehydrated vegetables no reason to burn through the whole bag at once."

"You all know how brutal those compressed biscuits are to eat dry."

"Save some of the vegetables for whenever we're stuck eating those again."

The second middle-aged man nodded in agreement.

"Walter's got a point. This isn't our last meal ever. We've got a long road ahead no reason to blow through everything today."

Both men clearly had their heads screwed on straight.

The mother, still braiding her daughter's hair, disagreed.

"It's one bag of vegetables. We've been living on garbage for weeks."

"I say we use it all, let it simmer a while, actually get some real nutrition into us for once."

Jake perked up, thrilled to have backup.

"Exactly! One measly bag of vegetables isn't going to satisfy anybody's cravings, let alone actually fill us up."

"Ryan, back me up here."

Ryan just smiled.

"Not much to argue about, honestly."

"Once the rice is done, whoever doesn't want vegetables mixed in can just grab their portion first."

The glasses-wearing man Grant jumped back in quickly.

"Maybe I wasn't clear. My idea was just to use two packs now, split what's left later."

"Ha, sure, that works. How about you two just cover the vegetable contribution between yourselves, then?"

"I still think drawing lots would be more fair."

"Eh, forget it, too much hassle. No guarantee this exact group ever cooks together again anyway."

Ryan clapped Grant on the shoulder.

"There's still time. Think it over."

"Bottom line eat your own share, don't sweat the rest, and don't let anyone take more than theirs."

"I'm heading back up to lie down for a bit. I'll come back down when it's ready."

Ryan climbed the stairs back to his room from the night before and settled into the window seat, looking out at the camp below.