Ulrich's POV

"That's real nice, Margret. Try staying more towards the center of your lane, though." John said.

"But there's nobody else on the road!" She argued, turning the wheel a bit so that now we were driving right smack in the middle of two different lanes.

"Yeah, but-"

"She has a point, you know." I chuckled, interrupting John.

"Yeah, John!" Margret said. John started to say something, but gave up halfway.

"Syd?" John asked their opinion.

"As long as she gets us there, I don't really care. I trust my sis." They said, playing a little tune on the guitar. Syd and I tended to take the back seat. We were still driving in the cop car that we had since the first attack. John and I never got to hear Morgan's "grand" speech at the beginning. Syd and Margret filled us in. Morgan was even more of a showoff than her old man. I didn't get why she was so up in arms about us killing him, to the point that she was taking it out on the whole world. Growing up having someone like Xana as a dad. Didn't sound like a good childhood to me.

But, like I kept having to remind myself, the why of what was happening...didn't really matter anymore. Knowing Morgan's motives was not about to restore civilization. Of course, that didn't mean we couldn't try with everything we had to destroy her. If we took her down, the monsters went down, and if the monsters went down...humanity could try to rebuild. I loved being the post apocalypse hero...but I didn't want everything to end, either.

Syd's tune wafted through the car. Usually, Syd and I would sit in the back, while John and Margret sat in the front. They switched off driving and being on the lookout. I wasn't so great at driving, myself...that one time I tried. Maybe I'd get John to teach me...eventually. For now, I was good sitting in the back. Even though it was a cop car, we busted that dividing wall a while back, so it didn't feel like a cop car anymore. It was nice to have traveling music. Especially since nobody was broadcasting radio anymore...or it just wasn't working anymore. I don't know.

I looked out the window. One of those big humanoid robots from Siberia roamed out in the distance, but it didn't seem to pay much attention to us. It was so much easier to fight with the superpowers...especially when Jeremie brought us to Earth with our powers. That would be really cool now...but the Supercomputer was wrecked. We had to rely on our own skills. We had to-

Wait a second.

"Margret, stop!" I called out, and she did. A little too sudden, cause I bumped into the seat in front of me. Nobody needs seat belts in the apocalypse. I rubbed my head.

"What, what is it?! I didn't see anything?!" Margret was a bit panicked.

"You're doing great." Syd reassured their sister. Then they looked at me, silently asking what was wrong.

"That poster...there's a poster with me on it." I pointed over to it. Everybody looked.

"Ulrich, you're an outlaw! It's a wanted sign!" Margret blurted out. Well...that was technically true...I had been in jail for murder before this. But really, who would put up a wanted sign for me? I was arrested just before the attacks, and didn't escape until the attacks were already happening. Who cared about runaway prisoners at that point? Still...that was definitely my picture...on the wall on the side of the road.

"John, come with me. You two, stay in the car." I said, and opened the door. Margret turned the car off to save some gas. We had some extra that the gas station guy gave us in return for protecting his station. Still, we couldn't waste fuel unnecessarily. Where were we going? Nowhere in particular. Sofar, we had just been going town to town, city to city, destroying robots, gathering enough supplies to get us to the next town. We all wanted to do our part to make it a little safer for people to live. Plus...not gonna lie, taking those things down was incredibly satisfying.

I got out and stretched my legs. We'd been sitting for a while, and it was nice to get out. The only reason Margret and Syd didn't also get out was that someone had to watch the car. A car was really valuable in this sort of world. Without a car, you could only get as far as your legs could take you. There was only so much stuff in that area. Even though I couldn't see anyone around...you never knew. Better to be cautious.

I walked up to the wall at a quick, purposed pace. As I got closer, I saw it was a picture of me at home...one my mom took when I got my last haircut. She...liked to take pictures like that. And...my parents...were probably the only ones who had that picture. I ran up to it and read it. It was in French.

"Have you seen my son? If you find him, please bring him to Kadic Academy on the outskirts of Paris." And then it gave the address. "There will be a cash reward of 500 Euros." Wow...500 Euros...really pulled out all the stops to find me. It was a significant amount, sure, but was this what I was supposed to be worth? I wanted to think I was worth more than that to my parents...to my mom, at least. Unless my mom wasn't the one who thought to do this. They thought enough of me to make the poster in the first place. I wasn't sure how many printer shops there were still around.

"Your parents want to find you?" John asked.

"I was at Kadic Academy before getting arrested. I'm guessing they figured out I was gone at some point." I explained. John chuckled.

"I'm jealous, man." He said, looking at the poster. "Well, looks like we're going back to Paris."

"I dunno..."

"Dude, the group gets 500 Euros and you get to see your parents. There's no downside! Plus we can kick some ass in your old home."

"My dad's an asshole."

"Ok, still, an easy 500 Euros, and maybe your old buddies'll be there." I didn't say anything. "We'll put it up to a vote."

The vote was 3 to 1, so we headed back towards Paris. On the way there were more posters of me. They were more and more frequent the closer we got to Paris. My folks...went to a considerable effort to print all of these out and post them all over the place. Why...did they do that? Don't tell me they actually gave a shit. I knew my mom loved me...she just couldn't ever stand up for me or herself.

It was...confusing. But whatever...If they wanted to see me so bad, they could see me. I would hear them out. If I didn't like what I heard, I could always just take the 500 Euros and leave.

It also occurred to me this could be a trap...

This and the next chapter was gonna be one chapter, but I split it up. So...one more chapter in this already huge story.

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Hope y'all have an awesome day!