Granite City; A Manaverse Novel, Book 1

1.08 - 00:00:00

Granite City Mall
11:30 a.m.
Granite City

Kyle spent the next hour of the countdown taking a turn on watch. No other monsters had come their way. He couldn't decide which would have been better. Sure, not having to fight was good. He wasn't even good at it. Yet, having to be alert had his nerves fried by the time his replacement came to take over.

As Kyle walked back towards the refugees, Fredrick pulled him aside.

"You did everyone a great service, Mr. Jaxon." He said, shaking Kyle's hand.

Kyle felt the urge to be modest and push as much praise away as possible. He had been lucky. Nothing he did was a real service to anyone.

"The real heroes were the people who died buying us time." Kyle said somberly.

Fredrick smiled sadly. "That is very true. Please, relax as best you can and let's hope the last hour and half goes smoothly."

The two parted ways and Kyle walked back to his bench. Gunther and Lily were waiting for him there. To his surprise, he had told them to stay and they had. Even his stubborn cat. Now, however, there was someone petting both animals. The fact that neither animal was acting scared or defensive told Kyle the man wasn't a bad person but that didn't stop him from being suspicious.

"Excuse me." Kyle said. "May I help you?" He tried to keep the suspicion out of his tone but did not succeed.

The man stood up straight. He was wearing military fatigues and stood over six feet. He had his blonde hair cut short in the stereotypical buzz cut of soldiers. His blue eyes were soft as he smiled at Kyle and shyly rubbed the back of his neck.

"My apologies. Ms. Wynters pointed over here when I asked where you made base. I'm Brick and I wanted to say thank you. Because of you, we were able to secure all of the refugees. You helped us out quite a bit." Brick said jovially and stuck his hand out to Kyle shake after a quick open palmed salute.

Kyle shook Brick's hand wearily. "I only did what needed to be done."

Brick smiled and shook Kyle's hand firmly. "I agree, and that deserves all the thanks we can give. Too many have died already."

"Well, I'm glad I could help. I think you soldiers deserve more thanks for watching over the place and seeing to the people's protection." Kyle said, stepping over to Gunther and scratching behind the dog's ears, suddenly feeling awkward.

"Did you train him to be a guard dog or something? I've not seen a dog attack a monster so willingly before." Brick asked, also patting Gunther.

Kyle felt a mix of respect and further wariness. Gunther had always been apathetic towards strangers but seemed quite happy at the moment.

"Not really. He's just always been very protective. He's been strangely more so since this whole thing started." Kyle said, gesturing to the crowd and the situation.

"May I?" Brick asked before sitting next to Kyle who only nodded. Brick settled in with a stretch. "If that's all that's happened, I think that's a blessing. My dog, Jasper, turned into a monster."

Kyle didn't look at Brick or say anything right away, letting the man reminisce in the memory a bit. He would have hated to see Gunther like that.

After the silence lasted a little too long, Kyle asked Brick. "Did you have too..." He hoped the tone of the question filled in the blanks for him.

Brick visibly forced a smile this time. "I did. Yes." He then held out a small stone for Kyle to examine. "This is all I have left of him now."
The small stone was identical to the ones Kyle already possessed. It was blue.