Chadwick stood at the exit to the void and stared across the wreckage of the town he had come to love and protect so fiercely.
They had left nothing standing.
The rows of homes were piles of rubble, and the shops were leveled. He felt a pull of sadness but needed to put it aside for now. He had people who depended on him. The crunch beneath his feet as he walked was a stark reminder of all they had lost.
“This is a total loss.” Lacuna shook her head and balled her fists.
Chino walked over to where the patio had been and looked at the remains of the table he had personally made, the one that had brought everyone together. He ran a hand across the broken end and sighed. “Dong is going to pay.”
“He will,” Chadwick said. “But we will need every hand we can get.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching Sara, it’s that more people equals more problems,” Lacuna said.
Chino waved a finger at the dead scattered across the field and town. “So be it. Bring the problems, but bring the reinforcements. Sara can handle it.”
“I don’t think we need to be the deciders of what Sara can and can’t handle.” Chadwick bent down and picked up his dropped vapehammer. He slung it over his shoulder with ease. “The reason Sara can handle things is because of us.”
Lacuna waved a hand at the group of Shafted coming through the hatch, gesturing for them to start cleaning up the dead. “And the reason we can handle things is because of her.”
“That’s why this isn’t a setback,” Chadwick replied. “It’s a chance to build fresh from the ground up.”
“What about the bridge location?” Chino asked, pulling out his phone and tapping at it.
“Until we get an answer or send someone over there, we assume it’s gone.” Chadwick surveyed the scene. “We are profitless again. We will be for a while.”
“That’s not a worry.” Lacuna looked down the alleyway and shook her head. “Most of the food and vape reserves are in the vault.”
Chadwick raised an eyebrow and readied his clipboard. “How much do we have down there?”
“Eh.” Chino shrugged as he swiped across his phone. “We have about six months of food and enough PG and VG to fully stock both shops five times over.”
Chadwick stared at him. “How do we have that much?”
“Because Sara chose the Shafted for this job,” Chino said firmly. “It was an investment in our children’s future to make sure we could get back up and running if this kind of thing ever happened.”
Chadwick nodded, impressed, and scribbled on his clipboard. “Awesome. We go delivery-only for a short time. We need drop boxes for—”
“We already have them made for every major town,” Lacuna said. “I can get them up and ready in a day.”
Chadwick looked between his clipboard and the wreckage. “Let’s shift fifty people to production ASAP. I want to be delivering by the end of the week.”
“What are we going to do about customers?” Chino asked. “We’re going to have a mega-rush Monday because of the Konnichiwa Cat release.”
Chadwick sighed. “If we don’t have the bridge, we just have to push it back.”
“No way.” Lacuna shook her head. “This isn’t just a release, Chadwick. This is the introduction of zero-nic to all kid vapes. It’s the beginning of the actual plan. We have to release.”
“How are we going to do that?” Chadwick gestured toward the rubble. “Y’all are good, but you can’t get me a store by tomorrow.”
“I can.”
The voice came from the hatch.
“You can use my shop tomorrow.”
Jeffrey McNichol climbed out wearing one of their Earth costumes: glasses, high-waisted blue jeans, a red sweater, and suspenders.
“Thank you, Jeffrey McNichol.” Chadwick scratched his goatee. “That’s great for our central and northern customers, but the southern coast, Beachwatch, the bridge...that’s going to be a hefty journey.”
DING!
Chino pulled out his phone, and his face sank. “The bridge store is gone too.”
Chadwick had known that would be the result. “As expected. King Dong isn’t going to let us rebuild without a fight.”
“Then we fight.” The hatch to the void opened again, this time revealing Sara. “We just stop thinking small.”
“Nothing you’ve done is small, dearie,” Lacuna replied.
“Compared to what I’m about to do?” Sara scanned the destruction, tears in her eyes. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”