They made their way down the rubble of fallen buildings. Toward the center of the block was a set of tents, including a tent over a series of tables and benches, an administration area for signup, a place with supplies, another place consolidating and sorting stuff.

Rain lifted some of the bags onto the table by the sorting bench. He kept the thing of glass, then dug a few things out of the big plastic bag of computer components. Chastity took out the laptop, then signed the papers necessary to request it.

The way this worked, people could pay for a certain building or part of a building. They were then free to go through the ruins, always with spotters, and with rules. The coordinating areas would buy stuff, but if they wanted to keep stuff, there were rules about requesting it, giving the original owners some rights, especially for anything that held data or anything with possible sentimental value.

If the owner didn’t want the laptop, the contents would be backed up on a major server as a just-in-case, and then it would be sent to Chastity.

Chastity bent down to pet Doon, giving him scratches behind the ears. He tried to lick her face, and she fended it off.

“That’ll be it for us. We only got to half the building,” Rain said.

“What?” Chastity asked, raising her head. Doon took the opportunity to lick the side of her face. “There’s still the rest of the day, and the building.”

Rain exchanged a look with Cassie, then made a face. “Let’s go back. It’s been a long morning.”

Chastity couldn’t really bring herself to argue the point that aggressively. She went with them to the bus stop, and put an arm around Cassie’s shoulders, while Cassie rested her head on Chastity’s shoulder.

The bus arrived, and they loaded their stuff into the guts of it before filing in through the front door, heading straight to the back seat. Chastity was sandwiched between her best friend and the boy she liked, and it was nice. She could feel the entirety of both of them, and the fact that they were calm and okay helped her to feel calm and okay.

The internal voice that had chased her all morning still felt like it was there, but in this, sitting on a bus, and seeing the extent of the ruins, things were okay.

The city was a mess, borderline unsalvageable. The cracks were still there, even if they weren’t glowing ominously anymore. The Titans were gone. The Machine Army had been briefly placed on pause, but it had adapted.

The plan, it seemed, was that Gimel would belong to capes, and to the people closest to the capes. The refugees would settle just past the portals, in corner worlds that would become central hubs and settlements.

The Machine Army would be a problem. So would Cheit. Capes themselves would be a problem.

But it was okay.