Harem Apocalypse: My Seed is the Cure?!

Following Cindy and the others downstairs, we reached the lobby.

It was already evening by then, and most people had gone back to their rooms. Life in the Whitesun Hotel had settled into a routine quickly enough. People ate early, moved early, and tried not to waste anything. Since electricity and batteries were precious, nobody wanted to keep lights on longer than necessary just for comfort, so dinner usually happened before the night settled in properly.

Everybody was making do with what we had.

Mostly canned food, shared carefully.

Thankfully, we still had a decent stock of it, but not enough to get careless. It would run out eventually if things stayed the same too long. Margaret had already started fixing that problem the moment she could. A week ago, she had planted the first part of her garden, and since then she had kept expanding it with help from the others. We still wouldn’t get much out of it for at least another week or two, but even knowing something fresh might come soon was reassuring.

Fresh meat, though, was another issue entirely.

Fish could solve part of that, at least in theory. I had heard Martin was trying to organize people around that, to fish with whoever was willing to learn, but nobody here seemed to know much about it. Apparently he had already spoken to Marlon about it too, and Marlon had either given him advice already or promised to help directly.

Honestly, if we got rid of Callighan and Gaspar, Margaret’s people and Marlon’s people could build something real together.

A future.

When we reached the lobby, the small battery lamps were already on, kept at the lowest brightness possible. The weak light gave the whole place a muted, yellowish glow. Rachel was already there, dressed and ready, with Ivy beside her along Lucy as well.

Ivy was still wearing that white lab coat of hers.

Of course she was.

At this point, I wasn’t even sure if she slept in it.

Rachel was talking quietly with Margaret when I came closer, and I was just about to join them when I heard a voice behind me.

"Ready or not?"

I turned around.

Then I stopped.

Martin was standing there, fully dressed for a fight, a firearm already in his hands.

And he wasn’t alone.

Theo was with him. Paul too. A couple others stood nearby as well, all armed, all looking serious enough that this clearly wasn’t a joke or some impulsive last-minute fantasy.

"Martin?" I called out, trying not to sound as startled as I felt.

He smiled at me like nothing was wrong. "We’re going with you."

I stared at him for a second.

"No," I said. "We’ll be fine on our own."

Martin laughed and reached out to ruffle my hair like I was ten, which only made me frown harder.

"Look at the kid telling us that."

I grumbled and slapped his hand away, then looked at all of them again.

They were serious.

Completely serious.

"You guys are for real?" Christopher asked, staring at them too. "We’re going there to kill people. We could get killed just as easily."

"Yeah," Sydney added too seriously for her usual self which made it only unserious. "This isn’t some little walk outside. It’s going to be a battlefield."

"Hearing that from you," Malcolm said as he approached from the side, already geared up too, "it almost sounds like it’ll be easy."

I looked from one face to another and felt my chest tighten.

"Wait," I said. "Everyone, this wasn’t the plan."

Martin’s smile faded a little, not in a bad way, just enough to show he was done joking.

"We already made our decision, Ryan."

"I can’t just let you—"

"I’m not sitting on my ass in here while a bunch of kids go throw themselves into something like that," he cut in.

"It doesn’t concern—"

"It does concern us," he said, sharper now.

That stopped me.

Martin stepped a little closer, still holding the gun loosely.

"Callighan and his people are dangerous to us too," he said. "And Gaspar killed one of ours. We’ve already been dragged into this whether we wanted it or not."

I stayed quiet.

He kept going.

"You’re going to the Golden Nugget to cut off Callighan’s hold over Atlantic City, right?"

"Yeah," I admitted.

"Then that concerns our future too." His voice stayed calm, but sharp. "If this works, things get better for all of us. If it fails, all of us pay for that too. So the more people you have, the better your odds."

He wasn’t wrong.

Rachel stepped in then, concern written all over her face. "You don’t have to do this, Martin. Marlon is already bringing a lot of people."

Martin shook his head at once.

"You all have already done enough for us since Jackson Township," he said. "Now it’s our turn to help. Especially when it’s something that affects all of us living here."

"Martin—"

"Don’t waste your breath, Ryan," he said, looking at me directly now. "Respect our decision."

I clenched my fists.

I hated this.

Not because they were wrong, but because they were right.

And because right or not, it meant more people walking into gunfire tonight.

"What about Linda?" I asked bringing his wife.

Martin answered so fast it was obvious he had expected that question.

"I already talked to her. She’s asleep. And I’ll be back by morning to give her a proper good-morning kiss."

Despite everything, that nearly got a reaction out of me.

Nearly.

I opened my mouth again, not even sure what I was going to say anymore, but Christopher stepped up beside me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"They made their choice," he said quietly. "And they’re right. They’re involved in this as much as we are."

I looked at him.

Then at Martin.

Then at the others standing behind him, all of them armed, all of them resolved.

In the end, I let out a long breath.

"Alright," I said at last. "Alright. Let’s go."

That seemed to settle something in the lobby.

Not relief exactly.

More like everyone silently accepting that this was real now.

Margaret stepped forward then, her face tight with worry even if she tried not to show too much of it.

"Be careful," she said, looking at all of us, not just me. "Come back to us. Every one of you."

"Yeah," I said softly.

Nobody joked after that.

Nobody had the energy for it anymore.

So we moved.

We headed out of the Whitesun Hotel and into the evening air, making our way toward the Boardwalk where Marlon and his men were waiting.

We used our torchlights as little as possible as we moved through the dark.

Surprise was a huge part of the plan after all.

Marlon had made sure of that. Up until now, no one at the Golden Nugget was supposed to suspect anything. They were meant to believe things were still under control, that no one would dare strike them directly, not here, not yet.

That false sense of safety was exactly what we were counting on.

As we kept walking, I glanced toward Theo and Paul.

I had just gotten them out of the Atlantic Theatre not long ago, and now here they were again, throwing themselves into another situation where they could easily die. It was honestly maddening.

Paul noticed me looking and gave me a small smile.

"We’re doing this for the community," he said quietly. "But also because we owe you, Ryan. You put your life on the line for us. We’re only doing the same."

"Yeah," Theo said, nodding once. "Exactly."

I frowned at both of them. "I didn’t save you just so you could go get yourselves killed the next week."

Theo shrugged in that irritatingly calm way of his. "We were going to die in that theatre without you anyway. This doesn’t really change much."

"Come on, guys..."

"Man, you really never stop worrying, do you?" Malcolm cut in with a laugh. "I thought it was only with Chris and the girls, but now you’re being overprotective of everyone?"

"That’s Ryan for you," Martin said, laughing too.

"If this keeps going," Sydney added with a dramatic sigh, "he’s going to turn all the men gay for him too on top of already collecting girls."

That earned a few muffled laughs from the others.

These guys...

"I’m serious," Sydney went on. "Chris is already definitely gay for Ryan."

"Fuck off, Sydney," Christopher muttered, glaring at her.

Cindy giggled beside me teasingly. "Well... those two do spend a lot of alone time together. That is a little suspicious."

Christopher looked offended immediately. "Can two guys spend time together without getting labeled gay? Then what about you and Sydney?"

"We’re simply friends," Sydney replied without missing a beat.

"Must be tough," Malcolm said with a grin, "having Sydney as a friend. I mean, she’s clearly ruining Ryan’s mind and everyone else’s."

Sydney let out a long sigh. "And that, Malcolm, is why you’re dying a virgin tonight."

"Hey, fuck you!" Malcolm retorted almost panicking.

Let’s hope she didn’t raise some death flags here for Malcolm.

"Joking about death," Cindy muttered, rolling her eyes. "Typical Sydney."

"That’s called dark humor," Sydney replied. "And all of you clearly need it with how tense and uptight you are."

"We aren’t heading out on some school trip, tension is helpful more than you think," Lucy said dryly from behind us, speaking for the first time in a while.

Sydney glanced back at her sighing deeply at her words. "Exactly. Which is why you should all loosen up a little. If you go into a fight stiff as hell, you’ll just get shot faster."

Christopher snorted. "Who should we listen to? The former marina commander with actual experience of killing people around left and right in the field, or Sydney the dark-humor clown? Hard choice."

That got a few more quiet laughs out of the group.

Even I let one out.

But then Lucy answered, and there was a sharper edge in her voice than before.

"Who do you think I am?" She said annoyed at Christopher. "I don’t kill people for pleasure."

The silence that followed dropped almost instantly.

Christopher glanced at her, probably ready with another reply, but the second he met her eyes, he stopped. His mouth stayed half-open for a second like the retort had just died before reaching his tongue.

The silence only stretched longer when Lucy looked back at him.

Sydney leaned closer to me with a grin.

"Love is in the air~"

I glanced at Christopher.

Normally he would’ve snapped back immediately.

This time, though, he just clicked his tongue and turned his head away.

Yeah.

Everybody noticed that.

Something strange had definitely just happened there, and I was pretty sure all of us understood that saying anything would only make it worse.

All of us except Sydney, obviously.

Thankfully Cindy reached over and smacked Sydney lightly on the arm before she could open her mouth again.

"Not one word," Cindy whispered.

Sydney looked deeply offended. "You people never let me enjoy anything."

"Because your enjoyment is always at someone else’s expense," Rachel said quietly from ahead of us.

That shut Sydney up for all of three seconds.

Then she sighed dramatically. "Fine. I’ll be mature."

"No one believes that," I muttered.