novelraw Chapter 450: Reunion (2)
Chapter 450: Reunion (2)
The eastern side of the third floor had been turned into a series of small rooms, each one separated from the next by plywood walls that someone had built after the apocalypse. The doors were makeshift things, made from salvaged wood and held in place by hinges that looked like they had been made by hand.
Reidar stopped in front of the third door on the right, which was that of his office.
[Reidar Miller—CEO]
His hand paused on the handle. It had been a year since he last had been here. There hadn't been a moment of respite, and even if it was a year, it really felt like decades.
For a moment, everything else faded away. The portals, the church, the Aegis Phalanx, Jorik, and the progenitor.
All of it disappeared, and what remained was the sound of his breathing and the realization that behind this door were the two people he had crossed a country to find, although, with how distances grew, it was better to say he crossed a planet.
He opened the door.
The room was how he remembered. It was four meters by five, with a single window covered by a wooden shutter. A bedroll was laid out against the far wall, and next to it was a smaller one, sized for a child.
His desk had been stripped of everything he had put on it. Now it was holding a few items: a water canteen, a folded piece of cloth, and a crude knife that looked like it had been sharpened many times. But there was also a photo of his family there, of the day Marcus was born.
That was a photo his father made for Reidar, and he kept it on his desk since that day.
Martha stood in the center of the room, holding Marcus behind her with one arm and a spear in the other. She was facing the door, and her eyes were wide with the same mix of fear and determination that Reidar had seen on the faces of every survivor who had lived long enough to learn that an opening door could mean death.
The fear was because she was scared about what was going on in the city; the determination was there because she was clearly ready to die to protect their son. However, when she saw who crossed the door, her eyes widened, and the spear she was holding in her hands got dropped.
"Reidar?"
Her voice broke on his name.
—[Martha Miller—Level 250]—
Martha looked different. She was thinner than he remembered, with lines around her eyes that hadn't been there before. Her hair was shorter, cut to shoulder length, and her arms had more muscle than the last time he'd seen her.
Plus, she was holding the spear with the grip of someone who had used it enough to stop thinking about how to hold it.
Reidar read the tag above her head and felt a shift in his chest. Level 250. She had been below level 100 the last time they talked, months ago, when she told him not to come because the sky was black with monsters and he would die if he tried.
She had climbed 150 levels since then, which meant she had been fighting, killing monsters, and risking her life every day while raising their son in a city surrounded by death.
"It's me," Reidar said.
Martha stood and crossed the room in three steps. She dropped the spear on the floor and grabbed him with a grip that was unstable because of her shaking. She pressed her face into his neck, and Reidar felt the wetness of tears going through his clothes and wetting his skin.
He held her tight enough that it would have been impossible for her to break free of that embrace.
"You came," she said with a voice muffled against his shoulder, and though she was crying, the words were of happiness.
"They said you were dead. They said a portal took you to another planet and that nothing could bring you back."
"I came back," Reidar said. "I told you I would."
"You idiot," she said, and hit his chest with her fist without letting go. "You absolute idiot."
Then a smaller body hit Reidar's legs. Marcus threw himself at Reidar.
—[Marcus Miller—Level 50]—
Reidar looked down at his son, and the number above the boy's head made his throat tighten.
Level 50.
Marcus was nine years old, and he was level 50. That number meant the boy had fought monsters too. Not watched from a distance while others protected him, but actually fought them, because the system didn't give levels for hiding.
Reidar put his hand on his son's head. The boy's hair was longer than he remembered and dirty, and the hands gripping Reidar's armor were calloused in ways that a nine-year-old's hands should not be.
"Hey, buddy," Reidar said.
Marcus looked up. His face was wet and his eyes were red, but the expression wasn't that of a scared child anymore. It was the look of someone who had decided long ago to be brave, was tired of it, but didn't know how to stop.
"You came!" Marcus said. "Mom said you wouldn't, but I knew you would."
Reidar knelt in front of his son. "I promised, didn't I?"
Marcus nodded. "You did."
"Then here I am." Reidar gave him a beaming smile.
The boy hugged him again, pressing his face into Reidar's shoulder. Reidar held him there and looked at Martha over their son's head.
"Level 250," Reidar said.
Martha wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "The Aegis had defense rotations. I joined as soon as they let me. Someone had to make sure Marcus was safe, and waiting for someone else to do it wasn't working."
"And Marcus? How did he reach level 50?"
Martha's expression changed. Pride was there, mixed with guilt and the kind of anger that came from never having a good choice. There was exhaustion, too.
"He wanted to help," she said. "He saw me fighting and wanted to do what his father and mother do." She paused, and Reidar could see the exhaustion in her eyes.
"I couldn't stop him. The Aegis had training programs for children—basic combat, basic skills, enough to keep them alive if the barriers fell. Marcus was one of the first to sign up. He didn't ask permission; he just went. The Aegis gave him some free kills."
Reidar looked at his son. The boy had pulled back from the hug and was standing with his back straight, as if he wanted Reidar to see that he was not the same child who used to wrap rubber bands around chair legs and chase the cat through the living room.