Harem Apocalypse: My Seed is the Cure?!

After sending Rachel and the others back, I stayed with Marlon’s group.

The fight was over, but nobody treated it like it was over.

Marlon had his people sweep the Golden Nugget room by room, checking closets, service corridors, stairwells, storage spaces, and every floor that could hide one last man with a gun. Callighan’s people had used the hotel long enough to know its layout, and that made them dangerous even after losing the main fight.

It took more than an hour before Marlon finally considered the building secure.

Even then, he called in additional men from the rear and spread them across the State Marina and the hotel grounds. The chance of Callighan hearing about the attack and sending people back immediately was slim, but it existed. Marlon was not about to let everyone relax just because they had won the first part.

People were exhausted, wounded, and riding the rush of victory. That was exactly when someone got careless.

Marlon knew it too.

He kept people moving, assigning watches, putting rifles at the entrances, sending pairs through the marina, and making sure nobody started celebrating before they had control of the place for real.

Usually, I would have helped.

Tonight, I couldn’t.

I was in no condition to be useful in a fight if something happened. My body could recover quickly, at least compared to anyone normal, but it still needed time. The cold night air helped clear my head, so I left the hotel and walked outside while the others worked.

My stamina would come back.

My wounds would close.

I just had to wait.

Though tonight, that recovery felt slower than usual.

My right arm remained numb from the elbow down. Every time I flexed my fingers, a faint ache ran through the muscles, like I had pushed the wind blades through them until there was nothing left to give. My back still hurt under the torn shirt. My side pulled whenever I breathed too deeply.

After wandering around the marina for a while, I climbed onto one of the boats and sat near the edge of the deck.

The water below reflected the hotel lights in broken yellow streaks.

The Golden Nugget was still illuminated behind me. Nobody had touched the Nexon Battery, obviously. It was too valuable. The hotel had not mattered only because Callighan kept men there. Taking it gave us control of a critical position, one that stopped his side from moving freely toward Atlantic City.

It also gave us the marina.

The inlet.

And a path closer to Brigantine.

I looked toward the Absecon Inlet, toward the dark shapes beyond it.

Brigantine was across the water.

Emily and Mei were there.

I had never been this close to them since they were taken.

It was frustrating. I could almost see the route now. We had boats. We had a stronger position. We had removed one of Callighan’s major footholds. I wanted to cross immediately, get into Brigantine, find them, and bring them home.

But being close was not the same as being ready.

Tommy’s part of the plan still mattered. I needed to know whether he had sent anything, whether he had found an opening, whether Keith was safe, whether Emily and Mei were holding on. The extraction had to happen cleanly. If Gaspar suspected anything before we moved, it would ruin everything.

I sat there for another half hour, watching people move between the docks and the hotel.

Eventually, footsteps sounded across the wooden deck.

"You’re still here, brat."

I looked up.

Marlon stood a few feet away. He looked tired too, though he carried it differently. Like fatigue was just another inconvenience he had decided to ignore.

"Do I bother you?" I asked.

"Not much." He looked toward the hotel, where two of his people were carrying crates through the entrance. "I just figured you’d be back with your people already. The hotel’s taken. Weren’t you eager to go see your girlfriend?"

At first, yeah.

Of course I missed them. Rachel was hurt. Cindy and Sydney had both been caught in that fight. Lucy, Christopher, Ivy, everyone had gone through hell tonight.

Wait...

I didn’t see Ivy, did I?

I didn’t ask but I guess she left on her own?

Anyway I had learned things in the Boardwalk.

Not just about the Boardwalk or Callighan’s people. About fighting. About staying alive when the situation stopped being fair. Marlon, for all his insults and roughness, knew things I needed to learn.

I looked at him.

"Is the training done, then?"

Marlon paused.

For the first time, he looked a little surprised.

Then the corner of his mouth lifted.

"Far from it," he said. "You’re still weak. You still end up looking like you’re about to puke your guts out every time you fight me."

"That was with the special collar weakening me," I reminded him.

"Yeah," Marlon said. "Without it, you would’ve beaten me."

He stepped closer and rested one boot against the side of the boat.

"But that isn’t how you learn, boy."

I frowned. "Then how do I learn?"

"By fighting people who can still hurt you even when you have power." His eyes shifted to my numb right arm. "By learning what happens when you can’t use your favorite trick. By figuring out how to stay alive when your body quits before the enemy does."

I lowered my gaze toward the water.

His words hit harder because I knew he was right.

I had survived tonight, but I had also nearly lost control. I had burned through Time Freeze twice. I had relied on the wind blades until my arm barely worked. If Gaspar had appeared, I would have had nothing left.

Marlon watched me for a moment.

"You’re thinking about Brigantine," he said.

It was not a question.

"Emily and Mei are there."

"Once again girls, I know." He looked toward the inlet with me. "That’s why you’re staying instead of running back to your people. You know you aren’t ready to charge in there yet."

I did not answer.

He really hit the bullseye.

Marlon exhaled through his nose and looked back toward the hotel.

"Get some rest tonight. Tomorrow, if your arm works, we train again."

I looked up at him.

"With the collar?" I asked sarcastically but also a bit jokingly.

"With the collar," he confirmed. "And maybe this time you’ll last longer than five minutes before your stomach starts threatening to leave your body."

"You’re really annoying."

"Good," he said, turning away. "Annoyance keeps you awake."

He walked back down the dock toward the hotel, leaving me alone on the boat again.

After a while, I left the marina on my own and headed back toward the Boardwalk.

The road was quiet enough that every sound carried. My torch cast a narrow circle over cracked pavement, scattered glass, and the occasional stain I refused to inspect too closely. The light shook a little whenever my numb right arm complained, so I kept the torch in my left hand and my axe loose at my side.

If I ran into a few Infected, I would deal with them.

I did not want to bother anyone else tonight.

Several minutes passed before I heard footsteps ahead.

I slowed.

There was someone walking along the road in front of me, just beyond the reach of my torchlight. When she heard me approaching, she stopped and turned.

Maribel.

The pale beam caught the edge of her rifle and the side of her face. She stood there without saying anything, waiting to see whether I would pass her or make the walk awkward.

I should have just nodded and kept moving.

Instead, I opened my mouth.

"Want to walk together?"

The words came out so stiff that I regretted them immediately.

Why did I say that?

Because she had saved me earlier? Because I still felt guilty over everything involving her? Because every time I saw her, I remembered that I had caused problems in her life and had no proper way to repay any of it?

I felt indebted to her in a way that would probably never go away.

Maybe that was fair.

Maribel looked at me for a second.

"No."

Of course. She said it she needed time and I was still being annoying.

I nodded quickly, pretending the answer did not embarrass me as much as it did.

"Yeah. Fine."

She turned back toward the road and continued walking.

I followed at a distance, far enough that it was not really walking together.