Mod Superhero

Chapter 5.19 - Maximillian

Max and his mom drove through Belport toward their shop. They were among a second wave of citizens and workers allowed back into the city. It'd been three weeks since the end of the war, but it felt like it'd been much longer.

Max hung his head out the passenger window. Most of the trash and seaweed had been swept clear from the streets, but most of the damage to buildings was still being repaired. They passed countless shops and homes with busted windows and furniture piled on the sidewalk in front of them. It only seemed to be getting worse the deeper into the city they went.

He couldn't begin to imagine how much work it would take to fix a flooded building. The floor, the walls, all of it had to be gutted and redone. His heart sank at the thought because that was only the beginning of what awaited him and his mom at their store. Most of the electronics and storage on the first floor were now garbage.

"Maximillian... I said, have you heard from Emmett?"

Max startled out of his daydream. "No. Sorry, Mom."

Her frizzled gray hair blew in the wind. She reached over and patted his shoulder. "I'm sure he's alright. He's probably working. Or schmoozing with Clara—"

"Mom, you can stop trying to make me feel better."

She glanced at him a couple more times—Max could see her out of the corner of his eye—but they stayed quiet the rest of the way to the apartment. They'd both managed pretty well the last few weeks, but that was when they'd both been on standby mode. Max had continued patrolling with the Summit, and Marlene had helped out at the shelter.

But now they were going back home.

Until now, all the flood damage and wasted merchandise were hypothetical. They existed out there in the abstract. Neither him or his mom had dwelled on it. She hadn't brought it up, and Max was completely fine with that.

Max had unconsciously started holding his breath as they crossed onto the familiar streets. Circuit Surgeons was on the edge of South Side. The buildings in this part of town were older, all brick fronts with faded signs. Most stores had small apartments above them where the owners lived. Marlene turned onto their street and passed busted up and boarded-up windows of the pizza shop, the bookstore, boutique, flower shop, and corner grocery store. Even with the breeze, the air smelled musty and damp.

Marlene pulled beside the curb in front of their store, and Max let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

Circuit Surgeons had been hit hard. The first-floor windows were gone and the apartment ones on the second floor were cracked. The old neon sign was gone—just gone.

Max ran a hand over his short red hair. "Mom..."

"It's exactly what we thought. Now, come on." His mom was already walking to the door.

Max sighed and followed. Marlene unlocked the door and tried to push it open. Electronics had been knocked over and lay against the other side of the door. It took both Max and his mom pushing against it to get inside the shop. An old TV, the heavy, boxy kind, gave way with a squeal of metal.

The inside of the shop didn't look any better than the outside. It didn't smell any better either.

Max's intuition had been correct. The entire shop was trashed. The shelves leaned perilously against one another. Boxes of electronics and spare parts were scattered about the shop. Even with the windows busted out, the smell of mildew hung heavy in the air.

"Fuuuuc—ow!"

Marlene smacked him across the back of the head. Not hard, but enough to get her point across.