Rewound

Pittsburgh was all but wiped out. Many of the skyscrapers were demolished, the ground eroding right out from underneath them, causing a cascading chain of other collapses. More than eighty percent of the buildings were destroyed, most of the time it was entire sections, most sections that survived did so all together without a single building falling, and very rarely, did a single one or two skyscrapers survive the destruction of all the nearby ones, leaving it an island separated from the rest.

These cities were where the true evil grew. Starving, packed tightly with dozens, if not hundreds, of other people, people did what they needed to do to survive. There was a hope that things would return to normal in places that weren’t hit badly; there was no hope here. Pittsburgh had a low elevation level, which meant more of it was submerged, all the way up to the tenth story of some of the skyscrapers.

And this is where Sophia’s sister was. Somewhere in this hellhole. I had heard of what happened here, but by the time I did, the fighting was mostly over. After surviving the month-long flood and freezing temperatures, the city became a warzone with many smaller factions popping up. In a few months, those factions would be ground down until a single one was left, and it was full of some of the most ruthless people on the planet, at least for a short while until the rest of the country caught up.

Sophie didn’t talk about her sister much in the first timeline. I just knew that if she had left earlier, instead of the month or so after the cold snap, she’d have been able to save her. It meant that she was famous enough to know what happened to her even after she died. Sophia was a different person from the one I met later in the first timeline. She had been hardened, barely surviving over and over again, and only being able to rely on herself. It took months of constant effort to finally get her to lower her guard and start dating me in the first timeline.

She was a lynchpin in the first survivor group, her pragmatic views often guiding us to make the correct decision while Victor and I still tried to keep hope and kindness alive… I wish I had gone through something as bad as her in the first timeline. I wish I’d have been able to see the resentment from the person who killed her and stop it. But he got his, and she was alive again.

I pulled her into my body; it was meant to be a show of affection, but she took it in a more lewd way by groping my hardening cock through my pants. We passed by a bridge that had a portion smashed out of it, cutting off about a quarter of one of the roads, before reaching a group that tried to stop us. We had gone on foot for the last few miles; I knew it would be far too rough terrain to drive on, and coming in on foot would be quieter.

One idiot started to aim in our direction, and I had a spike at him before he could raise his gun halfway. After that, I asked the girls if we should kill them, and they allowed them to live. These people were only looking out for themselves and just wanted to survive. If we stopped to kill everyone who tried to strongarm us into giving over our supplies, we wouldn’t even make it into the city before nightfall.

Sophie asked about her sister. “She is black and a bit taller than me? Haven’t you seen her? Alright then, we’ll be on our way. Don’t just attack everyone who comes through, we’re three powered, it wouldn’t end well for you even if it was just her and me.” Whatever she said made one of them think about something as she spoke up.

“Wait a minute! I don’t know for sure, but your sister might be one of the leaders of a survivor group to the south… They have two powered leaders as well, but… Some of the other groups are working together to destroy them because they’re too powerful and have stepped on too many toes since the freeze. You should hurry before it’s too late.”

I tossed the girl a box of ramen I pulled from thin air. “Thanks for the information. If you’re right, I’ll reward you on our way out of the city.”

…

Serena’s Point of View

A bomb went off nearby as I heard men cry out in pain from the explosion, and I ran. One hand held a tennis racket, the other my girlfriend's hand as we sprinted down the hotel corridor, reaching the end just as the men appeared at the end and began firing at us. If they had better aim, we’d have been hit, but the men trying to kill us were the fodder of the group.

I dropped both things in my hand as I reached for the rifle I had stored here and waited until I heard people running down the hallway before I popped out and began firing until I ran out of bullets. Haley held my tennis racket as she shook from fear; they were finally going all out to catch us. Once they did, all the women we had saved from the evil that would be put upon them would happen with even more violence because we defied them.

Running up the stairs, I waited again until I heard them climbing up. We had blocked off every staircase, meaning you’d have to walk between the stairwells to go up or down a floor. As I finally did, the gun in my hand began to glow red as I tossed it into the stairwell. I had already lost count of how many I killed, but every explosion took down at least a handful, and I had done three already.

Going to run again, I felt myself go dizzy, Haley pulling me forward as she held my racket, the only reason I could move. My power was to make inanimate objects bombs, like Gambit or Rex Plode. Three was normally my limit, especially this close together. But by some luck, I hadn’t passed out. Running to the next stairwell. Haley slammed the door shut before locking it, tying it with chains as we continued upward.

Dozens were killed, but when they sent hundreds, it didn’t matter. We made our way to the top floor as I struggled to keep my eyes open. Haley tried to rally the women we saved, but they wouldn’t be any help in our fight against the men who wanted them as playthings. All the effort we spent saving them went completely unrewarded; instead, it put a target on our heads.

Haley pushed for this, but I could see the fear in her eyes now, something I had tried my best to stop. Both of our powers came with significant side effects. I could make bombs out of anything, but it was extremely exhausting. And she could create shields, but she could feel the force that struck the shields, even to the point of falling unconscious if she blocked a big enough force at one time.

I let them know. “I need to rest. Try to stall them for as long as you can by keeping them talking; the longer we can, the better chance we have of beating them.” I knew what our end would be if they caught us. The women we helped would be treated poorly, but we’d be tortured and made an example of. If they killed us, I’d be surprised. That’s why I was fighting as if my life depended on it, because if we lost, Haley and I would wish we were dead.