LOSS System: Last Store Standing

Once they were on their way, Jack introduced everyone.

Megan learned that the two brothers leading the group were Gordon and Harvey, while the hunchbacked man at the rear was Mort. Jack simply introduced Megan as a former classmate who came from the same place he did.

Megan was still weak and couldn’t walk very fast, so Jack stayed beside her and matched her pace.

“When did you get here?” she asked.

“A little over half a month ago. We probably arrived on the same day, just in different places.”

Megan nodded. “That sounds about right.”

“So what happened after you got here?”

Jack immediately launched into the story.

He started with the sandstorm, then told her about the Dustchucks and the Red Sand Badger that had come to hunt them. He had thought driving it away would be the end of the matter, only for it to return later with another Red Sand Badger.

Jack skipped over some of the details, but his storytelling soon drew everyone in. Even Gordon and Harvey slowed down to listen.

When he finished describing the Red Sand Badgers’ revenge, Harvey looked back at him.

“Jack, you really have terrible luck. How did you end up running into all of that?”

Gordon seemed to agree.

Megan had thought being trapped in the cave was bad enough, but Jack hadn’t exactly had an easy time either.

“You think that was the end?” Jack asked.

“There’s more?” Gordon said in surprise.

“Of course.”

After surviving the Red Sand Badgers, Jack had finally expected a few peaceful days. Instead, a huge bird dived from the sky, snatched away one of the carcasses, and nearly scared him out of his skin.

“I haven’t seen it since,” Jack said, looking up at the sky. “But who knows when it might come back?”

“What happened next?” Megan asked.

“Next?”

Jack’s expression turned smug as he glanced back at Mort.

“Then came the raiders.”

Megan followed his gaze.

“Five raiders showed up that day,” Jack said, pointing at Mort. “He was one of them.”

Megan gave Mort another look. Mort continued walking behind them with his chain hammer, responding to Jack’s introduction with an eye roll.

Jack grinned.

“And now he’s my bodyguard.”

That immediately caught Gordon and Harvey’s interest. They knew Mort had once been a raider, but not how he had ended up staying with Jack.

“What happened?” Harvey asked. “Tell us.”

Jack cleared his throat and launched into the story.

In his version, five raiders had marched into the convenience store looking for trouble. Despite facing raiders for the first time, he had remained calm. Then, at the most critical moment, he pulled out his handgun, shot Barak, and forced Valkyrie and the others to retreat.

Megan’s expression grew increasingly strange as she listened.

She had known Jack for years. The calm, fearless man in his story didn’t sound much like the Jack she remembered.

Then Mort spoke from behind them.

“I seem to remember someone almost getting flattened by Barak’s hammer.”

Jack abruptly stopped talking.

“I was caught off guard,” he argued.

“Oh,” Mort replied.

That single word was enough. Gordon and Harvey burst out laughing, while Megan pressed her lips together, trying not to join them.

“Do you want to hear the rest or not?” Jack demanded.

“Of course,” Harvey said, holding back his laughter. “Go on.”

Jack continued with much less exaggeration this time.

After the raider attack, he told them about the Crag Lynx. The smugness disappeared from his face as soon as he mentioned it. Even now, remembering the encounter made him uneasy.

The Crag Lynx had likely followed Mort to the convenience store. It was so fast that Jack’s gun had been almost useless against it, though they had managed to kill it in the end.

Mort didn’t interrupt this time. The creature had been tracking him, so in a way, he really had led it to the store.

Megan immediately noticed that Jack had skipped over the most important part.

“How did you kill it?”

Jack hesitated.

“Well… with a gun.”

Megan gave him a hard look. She clearly wasn’t buying that answer.

Mort answered for him.

“He gambled with his life to kill it.”

Megan turned back to Jack.

“Do you think you’re a cat with nine lives?”

“I acted on impulse,” Jack said awkwardly. “I won’t do it again.”

Megan gave a short huff and said nothing more.

Jack quickly changed the subject, briefly telling her about some of the other things that had happened since then.

With everyone talking along the way, the long journey no longer felt quite as dull. By the time the sky began to darken, they had covered most of the distance.

Just as they started wondering whether they would reach the ruins before nightfall, Gordon stopped.

“We’re here.”

Through the fading light, the outlines of a large group of buildings appeared ahead. The place was far bigger than Jack had imagined.

Except for Gordon and Harvey, everyone stopped.

Megan gazed at the buildings ahead, while Mort narrowed his eyes and studied the old-world ruins.

Jack took even longer to react.

He had expected Gordon’s “ruins” to be nothing more than an abandoned agricultural supply store. But judging by the number of buildings in front of them, this place was clearly much more than that.

A smile spread across his face as he looked at Gordon.

“Gordon, Gordon…”

Jack turned back to the ruins.

“You really did give me a big surprise.”

A moment later, he remembered that night was approaching.

“Come on. We need to get over there before it gets completely dark, unless you want to sleep out in the wasteland.”

No one needed to be told twice.

The group quickened their pace and reached the outer edge of the ruins before the last of the daylight disappeared.

Mort searched the nearby buildings and eventually chose one that was still partly intact. Only three walls remained, but enough of the roof had survived to keep out the night wind.

Once he confirmed that the area was safe, everyone put down their backpacks and ate a quick dinner.

Jack still couldn’t contain his curiosity. As soon as they finished eating, he switched on a solar-powered lamp and led the others around the outer section of the ruins.

They soon found several torn sacks filled with seeds of different shapes and sizes. Some had spilled across the ground, while others remained inside the damaged bags.

If there were already this many around the outer buildings, the warehouses farther inside might still hold even more.

As they continued searching, Megan stopped beside one of the torn sacks. She crouched down, picked up a small handful, and examined it.

“This is rice.”

Jack immediately joined her.

“Really?”

He took a few grains from her hand and looked them over, unable to hide his excitement.

Gordon watched them curiously.

“What’s rice?”

“You can eat it,” Jack said. “Remove the husk, and you get the rice used for cooking. Add water, cook it in a pot, and it turns into the rice we eat.”

He looked at what remained inside the sack.

“Didn’t you say there was nothing edible here?”

“We didn’t know it was food,” Gordon replied. “We thought it was just another kind of seed.”

He thought for a moment before adding, “Even if someone did know, they probably wouldn’t take it. You need water to cook it, right? Who would waste that much water on a meal?”

Jack and Megan fell silent.

People in the wasteland barely had enough water to drink. Of course no one would use it to cook rice.

After a few seconds, Jack sighed.

“That makes so much sense I can’t even argue with you.”

Megan laughed.

They searched the outer area once more. After finding nothing dangerous nearby, they carried the solar-powered lamp back to the building Mort had chosen.

They had already traveled far enough for one day, and Megan still needed rest.

Whatever else the agricultural supply center held would have to wait until morning.