Chapter 591: Patrol

"That harlot kissed my man."

Nobody answered Sabrina.

Benn sat in his worn chair with his cane hooked over one knee, while James and Duke had claimed opposite ends of the couch and Lilac sat cross-legged on the floor with a bowl of popcorn between her legs. The second recap episode had ended almost twenty minutes ago, but Sabrina was still standing behind the couch with her arms crossed, glaring at the blank screen like sheer hatred might somehow reach across the universe and incinerate Elowen retroactively.

Duke slowly reached for another handful of popcorn. "I’m pretty sure he called her his wife before she kissed him."

A cushion hit him square in the face.

James immediately started laughing. "Wrong answer."

"Both of you shut up." Sabrina dropped into a chair with enough force to make it creak beneath her. "He’s been gone for what, a few weeks? He gets abducted by aliens and suddenly he’s collecting women like fucking Pokémon."

Lilac giggled. "He’s been collecting them for a lot longer than that."

Sabrina slowly turned toward her.

Lilac’s smile disappeared and she cleared her throat. "I support you completely."

Benn snorted, but the grin tugging at his lips wouldn’t stay hidden for long. He had already watched both recap episodes twice, once when they aired and once when James found a free replay being passed around through one of the surviving Earth networks. He still couldn’t quite wrap his head around the same sentence everyone had repeated throughout the broadcast.

A Cracked World had cleared the first Arc.

Earth.

His grandson.

"You’re all focusing on the wrong thing," Benn said. "He killed a bloody Goddess."

Duke pulled the cushion off his face. "Yeah, but we’ve seen Grey kill stuff before. The kiss is new, fresh content."

"You’re going to die young," Sabrina said.

"Probably. World ending and all that jazz."

"It didn’t end," Lilac corrected, tossing a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "Apparently we’re the first Cracked World to ever make it this far, so if anything, we’re doing pretty good."

The words earned a brief silence.

Outside Benn’s window, two mechatronic enforcement officers passed along the rural road, their metallic bodies moving with the same measured pace they had maintained since Earth’s population had been torn apart.

One paused for a moment as its head rotated toward Benn’s crowded property, a thin line of light sweeping over the house before it apparently decided there was nothing worth interfering with and continued after its partner.

James watched them disappear. "Still fucking weird."

"Better than nobody keeping order," Benn said.

"I know." James leaned back. "Doesn’t make it less weird waking up and seeing RoboCop checking whether you’ve started a meth lab."

A heavy knock struck the door before Benn could answer.

"I’ll get it," Lilac said, hopping up, but the door opened before she reached it.

An old man with a thick grey moustache leaned inside, carrying a battered thermos in one hand and wearing an old Leafs cap faded almost white around the brim. Harold Mercer had lived on the neighboring property longer than Grey had been alive, and despite insisting for years that television was responsible for the downfall of civilization, he’d somehow become obsessed with the Genesis recaps.

"You bastards started celebrating without me?"

Benn waved his cane. "It’s my house."

"Exactly, you should’ve come gotten me."

"You live half a kilometer away."

"I’ve got legs."

Duke grinned. "For now."

Harold pointed the thermos at him. "Keep talking and I’ll show you what these legs can still do."

Benn laughed and waved him inside, while Harold shuffled over and squeezed himself into the last open chair. His eyes drifted toward the dead screen almost immediately, his earlier annoyance softening around the edges.

"First Arc," Harold said, shaking his head. "Whole damn universe talking about us."

"Grey," Sabrina corrected.

"Earth," Benn said.

Harold looked toward him.

Benn’s smile faded, become a bit more muted. "Don’t let that little shit get all the credit. His head was already ballooned up way too big before this already."

That silenced even Sabrina.

The first recap had focused heavily on Grey’s rampage, the alien invasion, and the impossible series of battles that had dragged Melix toward the finish line. The second had been different, broader, spending more time explaining what the accomplishment actually meant, and what it represented for a world that supposedly shouldn’t have even been capable of competing yet.

For days, everyone left on Earth had been walking around a little straighter.

Harold twisted open his thermos. "Still think it’s bullshit we can’t watch him live."

"Costs credits," James said. "Credits we don’t have."

"Whole bloody planet can’t afford to watch one Canadian kid swear at aliens."

Duke nodded solemnly. "Capitalism survived the apocalypse."

Lilac burst out laughing.

Harold grumbled something about parasites and took a drink from his thermos, while outside another distant pair of patrol officers moved along the road. Their presence had become so common that hardly anyone looked anymore, but they remained a constant reminder that Earth still wasn’t truly theirs anymore.

Sabrina looked back toward the screen. "Do you think he’s okay?"

The question came quietly enough that nobody made fun of her.

The recap had ended not long after Grey collapsed, and while the narration made clear that the Arc had been successfully completed afterward, there hadn’t been much detail about his condition. Without access to his private livestream, there was no way for them to know whether he had already recovered or was still lying unconscious somewhere across the universe.

Benn leaned back.

"He’s fine." ℴℴ𝘮

James raised an eyebrow. "You know that?"

"No."

"Then—"

"I know my grandson."

Harold grunted in agreement. "Stubborn bastard."

"That’s hereditary," Lilac said.

Benn pointed his cane toward her. "Watch yourself."

Duke leaned forward with a grin. "I’m more interested in what happens when Grey finds out Earth knows he got kissed and immediately passed out."

Sabrina’s expression darkened again.

James slowly smiled.

Lilac covered her mouth.

Even Harold seemed to understand exactly where this was going.

Benn sighed. "Don’t."

Duke pulled out the cheap communication tablet they had been sharing.

"I’m making the meme now."

Sabrina launched herself across the room, reaching for the tablet like a feral kitten.

The house erupted into shouting and laughter while Benn leaned back and watched, his chest tightening in a way that had nothing to do with his age.

Outside, the patrol officers continued walking.

Inside, for the first time since Earth had been emptied, the house sounded alive again.