Rewound

Dominic’s Point of View

I couldn’t believe my luck. Where everyone else got hit unprepared by the flood, someone warned me beforehand, and for some reason, I knew he wasn’t lying. I prepared for the harsh months ahead of time, only coming out to look for somewhere else to move after I ran out of supplies, then I found this base giving away free supplies.

I had plenty back at my house, but it was worth seeing what this group had. I didn’t like handouts, but it would help me get an impression of this group, should I move away or stick around here, because they were terrible or good. That’s when one of their leaders pulled me aside and sent me to the front… Now I’m working as a guard, making it even easier to stretch my already large supplies even longer.

A black girl brought me out a cup of lemonade to help make guard duty suck a little less. That was another plus to working here, all the fine women I got to ogle at when I got the chance. I wasn’t stupid enough to make a move like some of the guards, which was a quick lesson to learn as someone tried to overstep their bounds and got a spike in the head by the leader of this group… But this one looked to be my age; she couldn’t possibly be one of his women, right?

“Thank you. Oh, I haven’t seen the boss around recently. He head somewhere?” She tried her best not to make it obvious she was staring at my muscles as she spoke. “Oh, you know. He went to find one of his girlfriend's sisters or something like that. Should be back in a day or two.” “So you’re not with him… You know? One of his women?”

She chuckled before saying. “God no, he’s so corny, like my dad. I think he’s in his twenties, but he acts like an old man. As strong as he is, I can protect myself.” She smirked as she flared a fire in her hands for a brief moment. My eyes lit up at the thought, but I had to make sure she wasn’t too much younger than me. “Oh, my name is Dominic, by the way. I’m seventeen, what’s yours?”

“You’re seventeen? Bullshit, you’re built like a moose.” “Yeah, I get that a lot, don’t know why everyone thinks I’d lie about my age.” “Well, I guess… My name is Alicia. My friends call me Cici, and I’m sixteen.” I teased her back. “Wait, you're sixteen? But you’re built like a mouse.” She leaned in, pulling me down by my shirt as she kept that smirk on her face. “I can show you how old I am later if you want to double-check. And I’m not talking about my learner's permit.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her as she backed away, trying to make an impression with how she left, but I couldn’t pay much attention to her because the crowd started fighting again.

…

Vicky’s Point of View

We had to stop selling items up front. Too many people were trying to steal from the table and make a run for it, so we moved it inside and passed things through a newly created window, with the items we sold written on a sign above the window. There were a few close calls with fights breaking out, but we had enough firepower and powered individuals to not have any casualties yet, but it was only a matter of time now.

I had gotten bored again. The last time someone tried to steal, they reached across the table to try and get their hands on me, but they were quickly dealt with. It was only now that I realized how much worse things could be as a mother begged, voice breaking and tears in her eyes, for formula in front of the gates after we closed down for the night.

I still had my humanity, so I gave her a pack of formula hurled over the gate. Every time someone took advantage of my kindness, though, because the next night, several mothers showed up to beg. We had to stop giving food away to children for the same reason; now they had to stand in line because all the free food we gave away throughout the day would be eaten by just the children if we only fed them, which would cause all the adults to start exploiting them, having children come and get free food for themselves…

It felt like we were all swimming, trying to stay above water after the flood, and because I had prepared beforehand, I managed to get a boat, but every single person I tried to help grabbed onto the boat and tried to flip it. The woman I helped the first night didn’t come by during the day to thank me, no, she was right there again at night begging for more baby formula… And if I didn’t give it to them, they shouted that we were the ones starving their babies.

It was making me a worse person. I had made a promise to myself not to become jaded to others' suffering. I wanted to be the rock for Danny. I knew he killed before the flood hit, and wanted to be the voice of reason when it came to helping the downtrodden… But this was too much; everyone was fucking downtrodden right now. How did you fill an unfillable hole like this?

Another scuffle happened near the window. The window was down, and I could see through the slats and push items through, but it made seeing what was happening on the opposite side pretty difficult without opening it. I wasn’t thinking, moving automatically to watch what was happening. I pushed the window open. And that was when someone struck.

Someone nearby, not part of the fight, fired into the open window. The only reason I wasn’t hit fatally is that they didn’t wait for me to fully open the window, so once I was struck, I instinctively flinched back, dropping the window back into place. The person moved with incredible speed toward the window. It wasn’t held down by anything right now, and I was too worried about being shot to worry about the person trying to follow up and make it past the gate.

Someone was paying attention, though. Gunfire rang out above me as one of the guards fired on the person who shot at me. Whatever their plan was, I wasn’t sure, because the group that was fighting had disappeared in the commotion. I held my bloody arm as I made my way into the basement, where the two doctors were still working.

Their job as ‘doctors’ had shifted dramatically, especially since they gained their powers. The nerdy male doctor became an overnight genius, while the hot girl doctor could float sewing needles(I wasn’t exactly sure what her power was). They shot a pain suppressor right into my arm before they got to work. I breathed a sigh of relief, as I knew I was going to be fine, and that was when I heard loud explosions come from every direction where there was a fence surrounding the outpost.