Axel and I followed Jye to the exit. Just before we stepped outside, I remembered the watches. “Oh, yeah, I got these for us too.”

Already wearing my watch, I handed out one each to Jye and Axel. Axel ran his thumb over the cheap metal accessory, deeply examining it. Then his gaze flicked up with a mocking smile. “Matching bracelets? How very kindergarten of you.”

Again, I resisted the sigh and said, “They’re practical. Just wear yours.”

Jye had already wordlessly slipped theirs onto their right wrist. It was the first time I noticed the whole tattoo sleeve they sported on that arm. The small glimpse of it I’d seen was hard to make out, but I was very sure I saw at least one snake. From what I knew about Jye, it was probably some sort of fandom reference. Axel clipped the watch on their left wrist.

In the broken windows of Kmart, I saw our reflection. With the matching watches we genuinely looked like a team. It was weirdly warm. The last time I could remember feeling like this, like I belonged to something, was probably when Chrissie was still alive.

I cleared my throat. “To Woolies with our weapons?”

Axel pointed to the east. “To Woolies!”

The place was absolutely ransacked. If Kmart had been robbed, Woolworths had been absolutely trashed. Any fresh food that hadn’t been taken was beginning to rot on the shelves, filling the entire building with the stench of decay. Jye, who apparently didn’t have a functioning nose, didn’t seem to care and walked in without a thought.

Breathing through my mouth, Axel and I trailed in after them. Entire aisles had been tipped on their sides, resulting in a barely navigable area. The place was practically bare. The only things left were health foods that needed extra processing or preparation. I watched in horror as Jye shoved several protein containers into their gym bag. Maintaining eye contact with me, Jye bent their arm in front of them, tensing their bicep into a sizeable lump before kissing it. My own lips curled down in disgust. Jye was the kind of buff that scared me. If I met them in a dark alley, I’d run away screaming.

We got maybe two aisles in before I saw it. In one section three of the shelving units had dominoed upon one another, creating a triangular teepee that was sealed off from the outside. It was probably our best bet to discovering untouched food. Just ahead of me Jye kneeled to pick up a discarded can of anchovies. Let me correct that. Our best bet to find food that I found palatable.

I leaned my staff against a nearby wall and tried to recall best heavy lifting protocols from when I walked part-time in a warehouse. Knees, not back. Knees, not back. I bent at the knees, squatting by one of the fallen aisle’s shelving units. Both my legs and my arms shook as I struggled to stand with it. I could barely imagine what kind of activity had knocked them over in the first place. The place must have been violently rioted.

Noticing my actions, Axel took a position to my right. We breathed in, and then as we exhaled we heaved. With the two of us, the unit began to raise slowly. It was exhilarating seeing it lifting those few millimetres. Before the appearance of the Gates, I don’t think this would’ve been possible with just the two of us. It further confirmed that our bodies had been changed beyond just accelerated healing. And were there more stats that were hidden? Just having health, mana, and stamina weren’t actually stats. Those were just indicators.

“Leave me alone!” said a small voice muffled by the shelves.

Startled, my hands instinctively released their grip. Unable to handle the sudden extra load, Axel fell forward, and the unit slid back down with a thud. He glared daggers at me, flicking his fingers to wave away pain.

I shot him a sorry-for-that smile. “You heard that too, right?”

He nodded. And was uncharacteristically silent. Was this something else I needed to consider later? No, we’d let that one pass.

“Go away!” the voice repeated.

Attracted by the commotion, and with their bag bursting at the seams with food I almost wouldn’t acknowledge as such, Jye returned. In between licks of a lollipop they had found somewhere, they said, “You got yourselves a bonafide kid in there.”

What the fuck was a child doing in Woolies by themselves? Were they trapped? Had they gotten separated from their guardians?

I pinched the bridge of my nose in thought. We couldn’t just leave a kid alone in an abandoned grocery store. But what if their caretakers were looking for them? For a moment, I remembered Chrissie, but immediately shoved that thought so deep into my thought box that it was swallowed up in my concerns about Axel’s behaviour.

Said flatmate gestured at the shelves, eyebrows raised, inviting me to take control of the situation. Ah, his silence this time figured. He was shit with kids. Didn’t have any patience or empathy for that matter. And children were good at sussing out people who were faking anything. Who knows what they’d pick up from Axel.

“Hello?” I ventured. “We’re just looking for some food.”

“I have none!” yelled the child.

Weirdly enough, I swore I recognised their voice. Maybe they lived in the neighbourhood and I’d seen them around? I circled the shelf teepee, searching for any entrances and discovered two hazel eyes peering out from a slight gap about knee height. “Are you okay in there?”

“Yes, and I’m staying in here.”

“Okay, okay.” I sat down near the gap, and crossed my legs. “I’m Lee. What’s your name?”

There was no response. A different tactic then?

“The three of us are stocking up food before we go into one of those blackholes. You’ve seen those, right?”

The kid said something so quiet that I wasn’t sure they had spoken.

“What?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t go into them.”

The hazel eyes were watery, and I could just barely make out the drying tracks of tears trailing down their cheeks. Oh, yikes. That explained where their caretakers were.

“We have to. Well. I think we do. But we’re waiting for new ones to appear. My friend Axel thinks those titles we’re told about are important. He’s the blond one.”

Their gaze flicked behind me to where Axel stood. He struck a pose. No doubt the kid was considering the sanity of our group. Somehow Axel had also managed to find a chain that wrapped around the upper section of his baseball bat and attached it to his jeans, so it swung by his hips like a makeshift sword in scabbard.

“Who’s the other one?”

“They’re Jye. They’re my friend too, I guess?” We’d just spent the past workweek together, training and preparing for the Dungeons. If we weren’t friends, maybe companion was closer?

Jye shot me a thumbs up with a lazy smile. Okay, nice. We were friends. That was actually nice to know.

“Why go into the blackholes? They… they’re dangerous,” the kid said, pressing their face closer to the gap.

They looked around ten or so. Of course they had to be the same age as Chrissie. Their mouse brown hair was cut short in a pixie style. Under almond hazel eyes, their cherry nose was only just visible. At least mercifully they didn’t look the same.

“You don’t feel it?” I was genuinely curious. Maybe children didn’t have the same draw to the Gates, the strange compulsion that was growing stronger the longer we waited out. It had begun as a vague desire, but was now niggling into my thoughts when I let them wander.

They didn’t reply, but they sank further from the gap, the shadows swallowing their face.

“Well, nice knowing you, kid,” Axel said and turned to walk away. I caught his eye, but he winked. That wink had set many a person giggling in its time, it was so practised. Wondering what he was playing out, I stood and began following. If he thought he knew how to handle this, I’d let him give it a try.

“Oh, we’re just gonna leave them here?” Jye asked, only vaguely concerned. They crunched down on the lollipop, decimating the sweet.

Trying to play it cool, I shrugged and the three of us began to walk.

“Wait!” yelled the kid.

Looking back, I could see their face pressed up to the gap, eyes wide. “You’re definitely going into those black holes? What about the one in the CBD?”

“Maybe eventually,” Axel said, wobbling their hand in that semi yes-no motion.

There was a beat.

“Can I come?”

I wasn’t able to fight the smile. “Of course.”

A kerfuffle followed from behind the shelving unit, and from beneath a carefully displaced box, the kid emerged. Sporting pink overalls over a plain white shirt and black converses dirtied by probably a few days of wear, she approached our group carefully. If it were for how dishevelled she was, she was the picture of a picket fence kid. On her back was a small backpack in the shape of a Pikachu. Her and Jye would get along just fine.

The girl’s thin brows were furrowed in concern. “I’m only coming with you for now. Okay?”

“That’s fine with me,” I said.

“Same,” said Jye. This time they weren’t eating anything. For once.

“Well, I’m not okay with it, but majority rules I guess,” Axel grumbled.