Stevo left The Power Station feeling quite upbeat, despite the dressing down he'd received from Kahlil. Although he didn't realise it at the time, he was terrified of doing this alone. He'd been overly cautious due to the fear of making a mistake, and the responsibility of being the one to rebuild after some sort of apocalyptic event was a heavy burden to bear. Now Stevo knew that he wasn't alone. If there were others here, them presumably there are groups around the world? He was part of a larger effort, and that was somehow reassuring. He'd had the best sleep he'd managed in weeks as a result of the pressure being relaxed somewhat.

Stevo looked at his attributes, having spent his points for leveling. His strengths were intelligence, which he wasn't surprised about, having always considered himself above average in that regard, but also luck. Was he a lucky person? More fortunate than average? He wasn't sure. Stevo's charisma was his lowest attribute, being slightly below the average for a typical person. He'd have to invest some points in it moving forward if he was going to be a leader, Stevo was the first to admit he was far from charismatic.

Stevo. (Citizen)

Level 1

Experience (XP) 15/60

Intelligence 14

Strength 12

Stamina 11

Agility / Dexterity 11

Luck 14

Charisma 9

Health 50/50

Skills: Flee Danger level 1.

Items:

Basic Clothing

Simple Backpack

Wooden Club

Minor Potion of Healing x1

3 Silver, 9 Copper

Stevo's thoughts turned to Debbie, she was fairly attractive. Her lean muscular frame gave her interesting curves in interesting places. Unfortunately she seemed, like most women he met, less than impressed with him. Perhaps that would change with time? It wasn't a priority for now though. He chuckled to himself, the world was going to end and he was letting his balls do his thinking! Perhaps that was the problem?

Time for food. Now would he eat here, or perhaps visit Drebun for whatever the Inn had on offer? He'd noticed that eating in the other place satisfied his hunger here too, which was interesting. He'd visit Drebun tomorrow. Perhaps he'd meet his friend the guard? He should be back from his trip now. He'd ask him about work when he saw him, an alternative from the quests.

Stevo turned his oven on to preheat, grabbed a couple of large potatoes and rubbed them with oil and salt, pricked them a few times with a fork, then went and had a shower while the oven got hot. The potatoes went into the hot oven, and he fired up his laptop. He started reading news websites. Not just the usual stuff, he started looking at the global news far more. Something bad was coming, but he didn't know what, or apart from a rough window of “soon” when. A year? Five years? Next Wednesday tea time? The biggest news in Asia seemed to the the disappearance of a K-Pop star who hadn't been seen or heard from in three days. Serious for those involved? Yes. A sign of an impending apocalypse? Probably not!

He decided to text Kahlil.

“Hi K. Any chance of a chat about you know what? Got Qs,”

With that sent, he pulled his baked potatoes out of the oven, the skins were crispy, just how he liked them. He split them, added a generous knob of butter to each, then threw a handful of grated cheese on the top, before putting them back in the oven for a moment to melt the cheese. By the time he'd checked his phone for a reply, and poured himself a glass of apple juice, the cheese was melted. He settled down on the sofa to eat, the TV on mostly for background noise.

Stevo loved melted cheese, especially when it was all stringy and stretchy. How do you make cheese? He wasn't sure he could live without it! Perhaps he could import cheese from the other place? That was a thought!

His phone buzzed.

“Come by the gym tomorrow, I'm training at 6pm”

Stevo had hoped for sooner, maybe even this evening, but he's make sure he was prepared and try to get as much information as he could. He'd message Debbie as well, but he didn't have her number. That needed to change, purely for practical reasons!

His eyes drifted back to the TV, the talking heads were talking about a virus outbreak.. He'd seen something about that in the news a couple of weeks ago. Ebola. A deeply unpleasant infection, it had killed several hundred at least in central Africa over the past few weeks. Air passengers from the region to the UK would be screened from tomorrow. Sounds sensible, it also sounds like something that could become serious if it got out of hand. He'd keep an eye on the news, just in case.

Stevo took his utensils into the kitchen to wash up, and was up to his elbows in soapy water when his doorbell rang. Unusual. He wasn't expecting anyone. Apart from his mother, nobody had visited him in over a month! He opened the door, and was stunned to find Debbie on his doorstep!

“Debbie! This is a surprise! Come in.”

“I got your address from Kahlil, I didn't think you'd mind.” Debbie said, apologetically.

“It's fine, have a seat. Would you like something to drink? I've got fruit juice or Coke Zero in the fridge?” Stevo replied. As he looked more closely at Debbie, he could see that she looked “off” somehow. The way she was moving, it was slow and deliberate, as if she was trying to avoid hurting herself. Deb asked for a Coke, so he put ice cubes in a couple of glasses (the only pair of matching glasses he owned!), poured two Cokes, and handed one to Debbie, as he sat across from her in the living room.

“Are you OK Debbie? You look like you are in pain or something?” Steve finally asked, breaking an awkward silence that felt far longer than it actually was.

“I got my ass kicked! I almost died! I woke up flat on my back with a priest reviving me. My health was decimated by a single hit!”

“I've got a healing potion, I can give you it...”

“Thanks, but I've had one already. Believe it or not, I'm doing much better. Look, Stevo, I wasn't going to come here, and I've been debating it on and off in my head all afternoon. I'm used to doing things alone, I'm not much of a team player. The fact is, we are going to have to cooperate if we are going to make.... this... work. That starts with us breaking the ice a bit, and sharing what we know. So here I am.”

Stevo and Deb spent the next few hours talking, exchanging information, and telling their stories. Stevo was shocked that Debbie chose such a risky mission as the one that got her hurt, but at the same time, he couldn't deny that she'd leveled up and was technically ahead of him. For her part, Debbie thought Stevo was being too cautious, but was impressed with the work he'd done to improve himself. She was also interested to hear about his budding friendships with the innkeeper and his son the guard in Drebun. She liked his idea of asking the guard for work.

Finally, the ice having been well and truly broken, Stevo gave Debbie a lift home, then collapsed into bed, tired, but happy and motivated.

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