Standing outside the Squish Burger restaurant, Caleb and Kayleigh exchanged knowing glances.

  “We have to go inside, don’t we?” Kayleigh said.

  “What other reason does it have for being there?”

  “I really wish you wouldn’t answer my question with another question.”

  He pushed open the door and it practically floated open.

  Just like it’s supposed to.

  He remembered one of the videos he watched at induction: “Squish Burger patrons often have their hands full, so it’s important to keep the hinges well-oiled. Check daily!”

  The tile floor was immaculate, free from grease or salt or the odd lettuce leaf that Oliver used to chastise them for.

  “I guess the skeletons aren’t that hungry.” Kayleigh whistled, appreciating the fantastic condition of the place.

  It’s not just any Squish Burger. This is our store. The six booths at the side of the wall closest to the exit. The three self-service kiosks. The old-style garbage cans, due for the upgraded design any week now.

  Caleb touched a kiosk. “Wonder what they’ve got on specials down here.” he said.

  He pressed the EAT IN option.

  There were only 4 choices.

  PROGENITOR FLUID

  MED-PACK

  REPAIR KIT

  HUMAN BLOOD

  “It’s a little off-brand, if we’re being honest.” Kayleigh said.

  Caleb perked up when he read the options. “A repair kit! That’s got to be for Dave.”

  “There’s progenitor fluid for you, as well.” Kayleighs said. “Wait. Who’s the human blood for?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re a terrible liar.”

  Caleb pressed one of each. The kiosk didn’t ask for payment, and promptly spat out a receipt. He snatched it from the machine. “Look, the main thing is, this place is giving us everything we need.”

  Kayleigh stroked her chin. “It’s a bit weird, if you ask me.”

  “I didn’t ask you.”

  “Don’t be a dick. I mean, it’s a bit too convenient, don’t you think?”

  “Well, I’ll take convenience, so I’m going to just wait for my order.” Caleb said, standing awkwardly by the service station. He peered over the countertop. It was dark as hell back there.

  Odd. Normally the kitchen is even better lit than the dining area.

  He slapped himself in the cheek.

  They’re not cooking anything here, you idiot.

  The slim shape of a human coalesced out of the darkness, carrying a tray. He was dressed in the cheap polo shirt and scratchy nylon pants that made up the Squish Burger uniform. His cap pointed to the sky, held up by a protruding lens that jutted from a complicated array of magnifying glasses and filters.

  “Oh fuck, who’s this?” Kayleigh balled her fists and reared back.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you too, my dear.” Dr. Belker’s reedy voice was corrupted by the mask that covered his mouth and nose.

  She’s ready to fight now. Caleb thought. Kinda hot, if I’m being honest.

  He slapped himself again.

  Belker’s goggles zoomed into Caleb. “You seem a little conflicted, my boy. I am here to straighten you out. God knows your mother tried.” His face mask bunched up on itself as he smiled. “Before the accident.”

  “Your mother?” Kayleigh said. “What’s he talking about, Caleb?”

  “Long story. And I don’t know what he has to do with it.”

  “Remind me, Caleb.” Dr. Belker set the tray down on the counter. “What did she do for a living?”

  “She was a paramedic.”

  “Your mother intervened when people were on the very barrier that separates life and death. She pushed them in the direction. She unbalanced the natural order. Fought valiantly against the orders of the grim reaper. And yet, she could not save herself from her own son’s clumsy hands.”

  Kayleigh gasped.

  Caleb turned to her. “It wasn’t like that. I was a baby. It wasn’t my fault.” he stared at the ground and squeezed his eyes shut. “Everyone told me it wasn’t my fault.”

  Dr. Belker laughed. “A tragic backstory indeed, I think we can all agree. Now, what do you think that has to do with you and me?”

  Caleb groaned. “God, Belker, I don’t know. Every time I meet one of you two, I get a completely new story.”

  “We like to have fun, what can we say? We like to throw curveballs. It’s a cliche, but I would definitely say that we love chaos. However, we don’t have infinite time left on this earth, so at some point we must stop playing the game and start doing the job. You are here, Caleb, to do a job.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Caleb put his throbbing forehead to the cold tiles.

  This is too much. I can’t take all this weirdness. I just want to go home. Go to bed. Play some Elden Ring and go jer-

  “Don’t forget about Dave, Caleb!” Dr. Belker snapped his fingers. “This is all so time-sensitive, remember!”

  “I remember.” Caleb said, his voice muffled by the floor.

  Kayleigh pulled at his shoulders. “Get up, Caleb. You need to listen to him. It’s important.”

  Caleb moaned.

  “For Dave.”

  Fuck. I didn’t really even like that guy, but I’m kinda fond of the big robo-lunk now.

  Ripping his head from the floor, Caleb concentrated on the tray in front of Belker.

  “Yeah, my mom was a healer. Is that what you want me to do?”

  Dr. Belker nodded, but there was hesitation.

  It’s like he’s grimacing under there.

  “Powers beyond my control have forced us all to play a role here.”

  “You mean the angels that brought us here?”

  “They do look like angels, don’t they? But I don’t believe that’s what they really are.”

  Caleb rubbed his head. “Okay, cool. I’m not playing the riddle game. It doesn’t seem like you’re here to kill us, so I’m just going to take those and bounce.”

  Caleb stood up way too fast, shook off the head rush and added the four health items to his inventory. “You wouldn’t happen to have any more guns back there, would you?”

  Now it was Dr. Belker’s turn to groan.

  “For fuck’s sake, boy. No killing! Save everyone! Do you need me to turn into a goddamn System to tell you exactly what to do?”

  “Now I’m even more confused.”

  “The angels put me here too. They told me to continue the research our world wouldn’t let me carry out. They told me to infect the world. Then they told me to mentor the Hell Healer. Set him on the right path. If you fail, then you stay here forever and I get to go back home with the Progenitor Liquid. Do you see now?”

  “Yes, it’s crystal clear now. Because you just told me.”

  “Gah!”

  “If you don’t cure everyone,” Kayleigh said. “He’s going to turn our home into a hellworld too.”

  “That’s right, my child.” Dr. Belker cackled. “The odds are stacked against me, though. Especially when you consider my brother…”

  “Nah, fuck that.” Caleb equipped his combat knife and pounced. The Progenitor Liquid fuelled him now, effortlessly enabling him to pounce onto the counter. He plunged the knife into Dr. Belker, the knife disintegrating into shining dust.

  The union of technology and pallid humanity transitioned into an effervescent angel.

  Kayleigh and the Squish burger fell away into nothing, replaced by deep space. Swirling, rainbow galaxies smeared the abyssal darkness with vibrant life. At the epicentre of it all, the beautiful mix of land, sea and air that we all call home rotated, shining majestically in the sun’s lifegiving rays.

  The angel gripped the back of Caleb’s head, wordlessly flying him away from home, into the darkest depths of the multiverse. Dead planets hung in the sky like plastic in the ocean. The angel brought him closer and closer, until the empty sea basins, mass deserts and burnt-out buildings told Caleb that this was a dead world. He glanced back at the faceless head of the angel and realized that this was an omen.

  This is a warning.

  No, this is a promise.

  The angel set him down atop a blackened mountain. The ash immediately gave way under Caleb’s feet, unearthing jewellery and bone fragments.

  This mountain is made from the dead.

  I can’t continue making the same decisions I’ve always made.

  No more planets will end up like this.

  Not on my watch.

  The angel turned, nodded, and eclipsed Caleb in its wings.

  Dr. Belker was hyperventilating. Caleb had ripped his facemask off, and his goggles had been dashed against the fryer. Underneath it all, he was just a frail, underweight elderly man.

  “Please.” he gasped, his eyes wide and bloodshot. He blinked, his vision blurred by cascading tears. “You haven’t seen what our world could become.”

  Caleb reared off him. “Yes. Yes, I have.”

  Dr. Belker scrambled away until his back hit the fryer with a loud thunk. “You have? So, you know what’s at stake?”

  He inspected Caleb’s expression of worry. “You’ve seen them, haven’t you? The dead worlds?”

  Dr. Belker reached up to the heavens. “Oh, thank science! I thought all was lost for a moment, there.”

  “I can’t forget what you intend to do with our homeworld, though. With the Progenitor Spores. The Machine.”

  “When humankind is ready, all will accept the upgrade. You will see things my way too, eventually. Opinions change. You were going to kill me about 30 seconds ago, for instance.”

  Caleb offered Dr. Belker a hand. He wrenched him up to standing. The elderly man rubbed his shoulder.

  I hope I pulled it out of its socket.

  “What is happening?” Kayleigh stood at the counter. “Are we all friends now?”

  “Not quite, my dear.” Dr. Belker said. “But for now, we’re both looking from the correct perspective.

  “Not a clue what you’re talking about, but I’ll take it.”

  Dr. Belker circled the kitchen area, picking up the lenses that had popped out of his mad goggle array. He affixed the restored headset and put the ripped mask back over his mouth. “Ahh, now I can see again. Perfect.”

  Caleb nodded to Kayleigh. “Let’s go. We’ll fix Dave up and then I’ll let everyone in on what I’ve learnt.”

  “On second thoughts, you’ll probably need more than you ordered.” They turned back to see hundreds of medkits, bandages and repair kits of various sizes and shapes covering the entire countertop.

  “You might need to take a few things too,” Caleb said.

  Kayleigh nodded. “My inventory is pretty empty, anyway. Hey, this is going to make us pretty much invincible.”

  “That’s the new snafu,” Caleb started handing Kayleigh med packs. “These aren’t for us.”

  “Umm,” she said, weighing up the vials of green/red herbs and bandage rolls. “I don’t know if these are going to be super-effective on walking skeletons.”

  “Only one way to find out!’ Caleb laughed.

  She opened one of the small metal tins marked REPAIR KIT to find an inscrutable selection of oils, cranks, wires, ducts and liquids. “No idea where to even begin with this.”

  “That’s the beauty of the game, isn’t it? EQUIP, then ACTION. You don’t have to know how it works, you just need to know what item matches up with what action.”

  “True, that.” Kayleigh picked up the last of the bandages and stepped away from the counter.

  “Oof,” she said. “I’m feeling kinda heavy. And considering how heavy I felt normally, my pace is going to be glacial.”

  “I can move fast enough for the both of us now. I’ll protect you.”

  She smiled, but it was a different smile to her usual.

  Normally, it feels like she’s being nice out of courtesy. She smiles at me now as if she actually liked me.

  “What’s that little grin about?” Kayleigh said, giggling.

  “Sounds like we’re both thinking the same thing.” Caleb said.

  Should I wink?

  He winked. She burst out into laughter. He felt his cheeks flush red.

  “Goodbye.” Dr. Belker shouted from behind the counter. “But I warn you, Caleb. This will be the most pleasant encounter between us two. We are fated to be enemies. The angels have told me as much.”

  Caleb nodded. “I hope I won’t be seeing you around then.”

  Dr. Belker waved goodbye. Caleb let the door swing frictionlessly on its hinges, and stepped out into the night.

  A deep orange sun had just broken over the horizon. Its light flooded through the windows of the bone-filled skyscrapers.

  “Hey, Mom.” he whispered. “I’m going to be a healer like you.”