“Hey squirt, why the long face?” Jennifer asked as she walked into the new playroom.

  Even though the family had only been gone for a couple weeks, Evelyn’s beavers had managed to completely remodel the Shelter, and expand the residence. Everyone’s bedrooms were expanded, nearly doubled in size, but that wasn’t the beginning of the changes.

  Instead of a secure door into Evelyn’s workspace, there was now a long hallway that stretched all the way to the elevator, so they didn’t need to be escorted to and from school everyday. Off this hallway were a number of new rooms, including a study for Jane, an entertainment room, and an exact duplicate of the playroom from the carrier.

  Issi slowly raised her head off the pirate-themed desk in front of her oversized play center, and pouted. “I miss Evie.”

  “We just saw her this morning,” Jennifer snorted as she wandered over. “Not only that, but she just went to see her samurai friends, and she’ll be back in a couple hours.”

  “I know…” Issi sighed. “I just wish we didn’t have to come back. I liked flying around with everyone, having adventures.”

  “You know that we would have had to come back eventually, right? Jane and Evelyn had only planned to take us on a short vacation, introduce us to Evie’s friends, and let us explore some new locations. The plan was always to come back here in the end.”

  “I know that!” Issi snapped. “I just hate that Evie’s stupid job got in the way again! I know she promised to spend more time with us, but it feels like she cares more about her job than she does about us.”

  “You know that’s not true,” Jennifer replied quietly.

  “Then why does she always drop everything when those stupid plants show up?” Issi asked.

  Jennifer stared at her little sister for several long seconds before jumping to her feet. “Wait here for a minute. I have something to show you.”

  She jogged over to her workbench, scooped up a tablet, and immediately jogged back.

  Issi looked at her oddly.

  “Why’d you do that? If you wanted a tablet, you could have used mine,” she exclaimed, holding up her own tablet by the rubberized, frog-shaped cover.

  “No, I couldn’t, because you don’t have access to this file,” Jennifer muttered as she flipped through his files. “She didn’t think you’d be able to handle it, but I think you should see it.”

  “What is it?” Issi asked.

  “Ohio,” Jennifer replied quietly, as she passed her tablet over.

  Issi gently took the device and started the video Jennifer had queued up. It showed a small squad of bears as they slowly wandered through a scorched, ruined cityscape. Every once in a while they poked their heads into one of the abandoned buildings to check out the devastated interior. After a minute or two of searching through the rubble, they’d return to the street and continue walking.

  Neither girl spoke for several long minutes.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “What is this?” Issi finally asked.

  “It’s footage from a place called the Ohio Exclusion Zone. Alan wanted to see it, but since Evie had to come back early, she sent some bears to get footage for him instead,” Jeniffer explained.

  “Why is it so quiet? Where are all the people? The birds and the animals?” Issi asked, her eyes still glued to the tablet.

  “Gone. Nothing has lived in the area for years,” Jeniffer said softly.

  “Why?” Issi repeated.

  “Because this was one of the first places that the Antithesis showed up, and the people weren’t ready for them,” Jennifer said. “There weren’t that many samurai like Evie around back then, so they couldn’t deal with them.”

  “What happened?” the girl asked quietly.

  “A lot of people died. In the end they had to use nuclear weapons to kill the Antithesis,” Jennifer explained. “The bombs stopped the Antithesis, but they also made it so no one could live there anymore. No humans, no birds, no animals, no one.”

  Issi frowned but didn’t reply. She just kept watching the footage.

  “Do you know why I showed this to you?” Jennifer finally asked.

  “Because this is what happens when there aren't samurai there?” Issi asked.

  “There were samurai there, just inexperienced ones. This is what happens when people are unprepared and you don’t have enough experienced samurai around. The Antithesis get out of control, and people get hurt,” Jennifer explained. “This is why we had to cut our vacation short and rush home. So Evelyn could help her friends prevent this from happening again.”

  “Evie could never stand bullies,” Issi muttered.

  “And that’s still true. The only difference between when we were living on the street and now is that she has the strength to protect a lot more people,” Jennifer replied.

  “Well… she has the bears to do it,” Issi said.

  “True, but that’s kind of the same thing,” Jennifer said. “It’s not that Evelyn doesn’t care for us; she does, but she feels responsible for everyone else in the city too.”

  “It’s like she’s everyone’s big sister!” Issi declared.

  “Sort of,” Jennifer replied, with a smile. “I’m sure she thinks of herself as the city’s protector, but at the end of the day she’s OUR sister.”

  She patted the younger girl on the head. “Do you understand now?”

  “Sort of…” Issi muttered. “I still wish I could see her more, though.”

  “Wish you could see who more?” I asked as she sauntered into the room. The two girls just stared at me.

  “I thought you were meeting with your samurai friends, checking on the state of things,” Jennifer finally said.

  “I did that already. We still have a couple days before we can get a bead on where the emergency is going to happen, so I just stayed long enough to get caught up on the situation and do some basic planning. I’m technically still on vacation, you know,” I replied. “What were you two talking about?”

  “Nothing important,” Jennifer replied. “Since you’re home early, does that mean you have some time to play? I’m sure some of us would appreciate it.”

  Issi threw her hands up in the air. “Me! I’d appreciate it!”

  “Is that so?” I muttered, raising a hand to my face to half hide my growing grin. “I’ve more than had my fill of Chessers the last few days, so how about something new?”

  “Like what?” Issi asked.

  I reached out and seemed to pat the air. As I did, a strange reptile creature appeared next to me. Its eyes rotated in two different directions, taking in the entire room before making a loud ‘Mlem’ sound.

  “Lizard!” Issi cheered. “Can I hug him?”

  “Only if you can find him. Tell you what, we’ll have him hide, then go hunt him together. Once we find him, then you can hug him, okay?” I asked.

  “Okie!” Issi declared, before immediately covering her eyes and counting out loud.

  I leaned over and stage whispered, “You better run now,” to the lizard, causing it to jump in surprise and then run out the door.

  “Ready or not, here I come!” Issi declared a second later. As soon as she uncovered her eyes, she sprinted for the door. “I’m going to hug you so much!”

  “Are you sure this is okay?” Jennifer asked once the tot disappeared. “What if it goes outside or something?”

  “Don’t worry. I went over the rules with it before we came in. It’ll stay in the residence and use flawed camouflage so Issi can find it. I wanted this to be fun, not a chore,” I replied.

  “You know, you’re a good big sister,” Jennifer declared as she sauntered up to the door. Just before walking through, she paused and looked over her shoulder. “Sometimes anyways.”

  I just laughed and ruffled the girl's hair. “Thanks, I try.”

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