Kus cracked the eggs, dropping the yolks into an old ceramic bowl. Adding a spsh of cream, he stirred in a mix of herbs and a pinch of salt. He then poured the eggs into the skillet that he had been lucky to find at the dist store st month.

  While the eggs began to cook, Kus set aside his spatu and pulled out his phone. Pulling up the st text from Bobby, he checked the time for the rolepying session for the sixth time this m. It still said one iernoon. With how busy everyone had been for the past few months, Kus hadn’t seen his friends in quite a while. The text from Bobby te st night had been a nice surprise after a hard week studying the medie textbook Kus’ boss had let him borrow.

  Sliding his phone bato his pocket, Kus picked the spatu back up to stir his eggs. A pleasant smell swirled about the kit of his small, rundoartment as he put the finishing touches on the scrambled eggs. A momehey were just the way he liked them. Skillet in hand, Kus turned off the stovetop and slid the eggs onto his pte o the still-warm toast.

  Sitting down at his small table, Kus pushed his notes and st night’s dirty ptes aside to make room for his breakfast. He would be the first to admit he probably should his small apartment more, but given how he was living by himself and had few, if any, visitors, Kus saw little need most nights. ing up a few times a week was just fine.

  After scarfing down his m meal, Kus stepped over to the bookcase that held his most prized possessions. T from floor to ceiling, the wooden behemoth loomed out of p his apartment. On its shelves were every book he owned, from dog-eared fantasy novels and RPG manuals to old history books and a biology textbook that had seeer days. He reached out and grabbed the character guide he needed before returning to his seat.

  Idly flipping through the pages, Kus couldn’t help smiling. It would be o start a neaign. Finding the pages he was looking for, he set the open book oable and pulled out a bnk character sheet along with a few of his dice. It had been a long time since he had pyed a Padin, but taking a break from pying a Rogue or a Sorcerer might be a fun ge of pace.

  With a few rolls of his dice, the stats of his new character were set, and now he got to have a bit of fuing the background. Better to go as stereotypical as possible. Lawful Good alig, a selfless mission to protect the i a evil, and a tragic backstory. As he wrote dowory of a child left abandoned in a remote town by his ung parents, who then turo being a Padin to find a purpose in life, Kus couldn’t help but make a soft ugh. His smile got wider at the imagined looks on the faces of his friends.

  Fred and Bobby were murder hobos at heart, and their girls, Allison and Sara, were mate anarchists. Having to deal with a diehard goody-two-shoes for the session today would let him have a lot of fun in his rolepying.

  The character sheet and background plete, Kus packed up his backpad made to leave his apartment. Before he could grasp the handle, his pocket began to buzz. Pulling out his phone, he checked the caller ID. Mom.

  “Hello?”

  “Good m, sweetie!”

  “Good m, mom. How—” Kuse began to respond before his mom cut him off.

  “I’m sorry, Kus, but we’re going to need some help after all.” His mom sounded mournful, but the fact she was asking in the first pce meant she had already tried other options and now really needed his help.

  His mi back to the months and months of physical therapy he had to gh once he had made what the doctors had called a miraculous recovery from the mystery illhat had pgued him. His family’s insurance had been enough to cover the lion’s share of the medical costs of his treatments, but through a cruel twist of fate, his parents had to pay out of pocket for the physical therapy that followed. Even his siblings had helped, but it had almost not been enough even then. As things were, they were still paying off the debt, even though Kus had gotten a job in stru for several years to try to help, which he had tihrough college.

  “Kus?”

  “Sorry, I was just thinking,” Kus responded. “I get you the money by Sunday. Does that work?”

  “That’s perfect!” Kus heard his dad asking for some help i. “Sorry, sweetie, I have to go help your father with breakfast. Promise you will stop by tomorrow?”

  “I will. Love you.”

  “We love you too.”

  Ending the call, Kus pulled up his banking app. Gng through his band pending bills made it quickly clear he had enough to help his parents, but the week was going to be a bit tight. Looks like it was cheap ramen for the few nights.

  Stepping outside his apartment and closing the door behind him, Kus again sidered his financial situation. His sed ce at life had pushed him to pursue his dream with an almost fanatical iy. Or at least that is how his family had seen it. Kus preferred diligent.

  They had vinced him to do an internship first, however, just to make sure that he knew what he was getting into. While he didn’t have the background to do anything truly medical-based, he had been lucky enough to get a position as a temporary secretary to a doctor. In exge for doing some clerical work and other administrative tasks, Dr. Halter had been willing to let Kus shadow his practice. While not very well-paying, it had been very educational, as Dr. Halter had takeime to begin teag Kus about his profession from the first day.

  If he was being ho with himself, Kus had grown fortable in the position. He had beeating leaving to start his own path towards being a doctor. But the call from his mom, again reminding him of all the debt he had caused for his family, was what made up his mind. On Monday, he would talk with Dr. Halter about a letter of reendation and he would apply to start medical school in the ing fall.

  Mind made up, he locked his apartment and turned his thoughts back to the fun he would soon be having. Making his way dowted sidewalk, Kus put aside his worries and pns for the ing week and just focused on the fact he would be spending time with his friends again. Bobby and his wife, Allison, were hosting at their pce downtown. Kus’ friends Fred and Sara were likely there already. Probably already ing up with crazy pns for the session. They really did like throwing Bobby through a loop. Kus smiled at past memories. Tonight was going to be just like old times.

  Before he could make it that far down the sidewalk, the sound of trashbags being tossed around reached him from the alley behind his apartment building. Eyes gng toward the source of the rustling, Kus saw an older man dressed in rags riffling through the garbage s.

  Kus sighed i. He had seen the man several times before, but each time he had offered help, even if just a hot meal, the man had run off in fear.

  Stepping slowly in the dire of the man, making a bit of h his steps, Kus tried to not startle him. Much like the times before, however, it was almost like he triggered some six sense, as before he took more than a few steps, the homeless man dropped the bags he was attempting to open and dashed back down the alley and out the other side.

  Kus sighed i. As much as he wished he might do something, he decided to leave him in peace for now. Perhaps he could bring some leftover snacks from his game night and leave them for the man ter.

  Putting thoughts of the man behind him for now, Kus made his way down his apartment’s side street to one of the rger roads that ran through the city of Volksturm. His eyes turo the buildings around him, agaiing how he hadn’t been able to see the buildings when they had been new. A younger city in the Uates, it had been built by the surge of German refugees that came to his try following the outbreak of World War III about thirty years ago.

  From what he remembered from his history csses, a and Russia had formed a secret alliahat sought to exploit how thinly spread the Uates and its allies had been in the face of the multiple wars going on at the time. No one was sure exactly why the war broke out when it did, but after the initial invasions had settled into stalemates that tio today, a good portion of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, aern Asia were wartorn wastends.

  What followed on the heels of that initial fighting was a tacit agreement on the part of both sides that the fighting would not end, but instead be trolled. Nuclear ons and le bombers were set aside with soldiers, tanks, and unmanned drones, which had increased in popurity following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, iaking prominence. Iably, or at least that is how his teacher had prese, the fighting had turned into mostly frozen flicts characterized by trenches and other fortifications that tio expand year after year until her side saw anything to gain by doing anything other but chipping away at their oppos. The st five years had tihat pattern, and while Kus had registered for the draft like everyone else his age, so far it looked like that was as far as he would have to go.

  Shaking his head, he turned his thoughts back to the city itself. The draining nature of the war had led many to get as far away from the frontlines as possible in those early days, his own grandparents among them. Kus’ eyes again strayed to the buildings around him. The once-grand buildings were desigo mimic those of Hamburg ba Germany, but now they stood but a shadow of their flory. Weathered and worn, their facades were marred by time and . Brickwork was crumbling, and as Kus turned around the er of an apartment near his own, a new batch of graffiti traced its way in indescribable gibberish up the pitted wall o him.

  While Kus reized the whole city wasn’t quite as bad as the area he lived in, and that many of the interior apartments themselves were still nid taken care of, it still seemed like each passing year showed the city to be getting just the slightest bit worse. Like the soul of Volksturm was rusting away.

  Indeed, everywhere one looked in the try, it seemed crime and corruption were on the rise. The news was always filled with stories of violend injustice, to the point that Kus refused to waty of those kinds rams anymore. Doing so had only made him feel more powerless.

  An epiphany struck him, ohat he had been dang around for a while now, but only emerged all at on this moment. Being a doctor was his way of pushing back against the darkness, of w to heal a small pocket of light in a world increasingly ed by shadows. For Kus, the prospect of being able to heal the sid mend the broken was a way to make a difference, however small, in the lives of those who most. Even if, at the end of the day, things would likely titing worse in Volksturm.

  Kus shook the depressing thoughts away. Yes, the city was in rough shape. Yes, there were also homeless people here and there as well as a surge in crime tely.

  But there was more than that.

  People still went about their lives doing the best they could. For every homeless person or criminal there was another handful of people doing their best to help others as much as they could. Kus himself included himself among that tter group. Apart from his work with Dr. Halter, he volunteered where and when he could. His parents did the same, despite the debt.

  He would be doing more too once he became a doctor. But that was a thought for week. Right now was a time for fun and catg up with friends.

  Mind now a blur with fond memories, Kus moved to step off the curb at a crosswalk, only to have a vicelike grip seize his shoulder to pull him back. Barely were his feet baderh him when a rusted car with both headlights out went screeg around the er, heavy metal body flying through the space he had been but a moment away from walking through. A truck from the other side of the intersemed its brakes a out an indignant honk as the other vehicle went barreling past, not hesitating even a moment in its breakneck pace. Kus’ almost death disappeared down the road.

  “You alright, boy?”

  Kus turo the man whose hand still rested on his shoulder. No sooner did his eyes gnce down to that firm grip than his savior released him, hand going back down to his side. Ragged hair ed a gaunt face, and his rge body was obscured by a heavy trenchcoat. Browared into his own green ones as Kus responded.

  “Yes, I think so,” Kus said with a nod. “Thank you for that. I guess I was so ed up in my thoughts I pletely missed how fast that car was moving.”

  “Not a problem.” The man nodded, his expression one of mixed with just a hint of curiosity. It looked strange on such a severe face, marred as it was by the hint of a scar dowark cheekbone. “Mind if I ask what had you so preoccupied?”

  Kus hesitated for a long moment, weighing whether he wao divulge his thoughts to a stranger. But there was something about the man’s eyes, and his expression of i, that put Kus at ease. His gut told him to trust the man.

  “It’s plicated…” Kus said, his voice trailing off as he realized he didn’t want to get much more personal than that. “Just some personal issues I’ve been trying to sort through.”

  The man nodded again, his brows furrowing slightly in apparent uanding. “Life be like that sometimes, throwing ued challenges our way when we least expect them.”

  Kus grunted an agreement, grateful for the stranger’s empathy. “It’s been a rough patch tely, but I’m w oing through it.”

  “That is the spirit,” the man said, an encing smile lighting up his face, revealing slightly poieeth. “Remember, no matter how dark things may seem, or how difficult our ging circumstances might be, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel so long as we keep walking.”

  Kus found himself in silent agreement with the stranger’s words, a small sense of fort washing over him. “Thank you,” he sincerely replied. “I’ll remember that.”

  The man csped Kus’ shoulder once more, albeit this time in a mentle manner. “You do that. And remember: you are never alohere will always be people willing to lend you a helping hand. Sometimes you just have to ask.”

  With those words lingering in the air behind him, Kus watched the man step away, quickly disappearing beyond a crowd of people ing down the sidewalk. A bit strange, but Kus would remember his words all the same.

  The crosswalk chimed again, though this time Kus made sure to gh ways dowreet before stepping off the curb. Not a handful of mier he was finally in front of Bobby’s apartment.