LOSS System: Last Store Standing

Gordon, Harvey, and Mort were all taken aback by Jack’s reaction.

Jack didn’t explain. He held the object tightly and waited for Gordon’s answer.

Gordon thought for a moment.

“I think I found it somewhere nearby.”

“Nearby?” Jack quickly asked. “When?”

“Probably after the first time we went out disguised as raiders,” Gordon said. “I found it lying on the ground on our way back and brought it home.”

Jack looked down at the object in his hand. With the dust wiped away, the familiar logo was now clearly visible.

It was an iPhone 17—the latest model released on Earth.

There was no way it belonged to this world.

From everything Jack had learned, the old world had been far more advanced than Earth. Its people couldn’t have used the exact same phone that had only recently been released back home.

Only one explanation made sense.

Someone else had come here from Earth.

And they probably hadn’t arrived long ago. Gordon had found the phone after the brothers’ first trip disguised as raiders, which hadn’t been that long before.

Jack tightened his grip on the phone.

He wasn’t the only one who had been thrown into this world.

The thought excited him, but it also made him uneasy. He knew nothing about the other person or how they might react if they met.

“Jack?”

Harvey’s voice pulled him back.

“What is that?”

Jack didn’t explain. “Something very important to me.”

His serious tone stopped the others from asking anything else.

“We’re changing the plan. We’ll put off the ruins and search the surrounding area for someone first.”

“You’re looking for whoever owned that thing?” Mort asked.

“That’s right. It shouldn’t exist in this world. Since it does, its owner might still be somewhere nearby.”

Harvey was about to ask another question, but Gordon stopped him. He clearly had questions of his own, but knew better than to press Jack.

“Then we’ll look,” Gordon said. “Just don’t get your hopes up. I found it a while ago. The owner may have already left the area.”

“I know. We still have to try.”

Mort quickly divided them into two groups.

“Gordon and Harvey will search together. Jack, you’re with me. We’ll head in different directions and meet back here before noon, whether we find anything or not.”

Gordon and Harvey were about to leave when Jack stopped them.

“One more thing. If you find someone, ask them a question first.”

“What question?” Harvey asked.

“What’s your Insta?”

Gordon repeated it carefully. “What’s your… Insta?”

“Close enough. If they answer with a name that starts with ‘at,’ they might be the person I’m looking for.”

Gordon repeated the question several times under his breath before confirming that he had memorized it.

“Got it.”

“Thanks. I can’t explain everything right now. Just remember that this person is very important to me.”

Mort seemed to understand that there was more behind Jack’s words, but didn’t ask.

“Time to go.”

Gordon and Harvey left through the other side of the settlement and soon disappeared behind the rocks.

Jack carefully placed the iPhone 17 in his backpack and zipped it shut. Mort was already waiting at the entrance with his chain hammer.

“Let’s go.”

Jack gripped the submachine gun hanging across his chest and followed Mort out. The two groups headed in different directions, searching the surrounding wasteland for the phone’s owner.

A few kilometers away, a wide cave lay between two towering rock walls.

Deep inside, a young woman sat curled against the rock wall with her arms around her legs. Her clothes were covered in dust, and her hair was badly tangled. After going so long without food, even moving had become difficult.

A dusty white Tesla was parked nearby. Its smooth body, hidden door handles, and familiar logo would be instantly recognizable to anyone from Earth.

The cave was also home to a group of strange creatures. They looked somewhat like rabbits, but their bodies were longer, their hind legs were thicker, and their gray ears were nearly half the length of their bodies.

They were Gray-Eared Jump Hares.

Unlike most mutant beasts, they were gentle and rarely attacked other creatures unless threatened first.

When the woman had first driven into the cave, she had thought she had entered a mutant beast’s nest. But the Tesla was almost out of power, and staying outside in the wasteland felt even more dangerous. With no other choice, she locked the doors and watched the jump hares from inside the car.

The creatures gathered around the Tesla for a while, then gradually lost interest and scattered. Since then, they had shared the cave for several days without trouble.

A smaller jump hare now slipped out from among the others and approached the woman. It stopped a few steps away and tilted its head.

The woman raised one hand with difficulty. After hesitating for a moment, the jump hare came closer and touched her fingertip with its nose.

A faint smile appeared on her cracked lips.

The jump hares had kept her from completely falling apart over the past few days. Watching them come and go—or occasionally gather around her—at least reminded her that she wasn’t alone in the cave.

But they couldn’t help with her real problem.

She hadn’t eaten in days.

There had been a few snacks and bottles of water in the Tesla when she first arrived. By rationing them carefully, she had managed to last several days, but she had finished the last of the water two days ago.

The thirst was far worse than the hunger. Her lips were cracked, her throat felt packed with rough sand, and every attempt to swallow brought a burning pain.

She had tried leaving the cave after running out of water.

At first, she followed the Gray-Eared Jump Hares, hoping they might lead her to food or water. But the moment they left the cave, they scattered in different directions and moved far too quickly for her to keep up.

With no other choice, she searched on her own.

After walking for what felt like forever, she spotted a settlement in the distance. The thought that people might be living there gave her enough strength to keep moving.

But before she could get close, a massive creature emerged from behind the rocks. She didn’t even get a clear look at it before turning and fleeing back to the cave.

Only after returning did she realize that her phone was missing. She no longer had the courage to retrace her path, so she had been forced to leave it behind.

She didn’t know that Gordon later found it on his way back to the settlement.

After that, she never dared to travel far from the cave again.

Her gaze drifted toward the white Tesla.

She had lost track of how many days she had been here. All she remembered was that she had been on vacation, driving her new car back to her hometown to visit her parents.

She entered the town sometime after midnight. Without warning, the road, streetlights, and buildings around her disappeared, replaced by an endless stretch of reddish-brown wasteland.

The navigation system stopped working. There was no internet or phone signal, and neither making calls nor restarting the car’s system changed anything.

With no idea what had happened, she kept driving, hoping to find a road, a building, or any sign of human activity. But there were no roads or landmarks. She could only steer around the pits and rough ground as she crossed the wasteland, never seeing another person.

The lower the battery fell, the more frightened she became.

Just before the Tesla ran out of power, she found the cave between the two rock walls and drove inside. The battery reached zero soon after she parked, leaving her trapped there.

She leaned against the rock wall and closed her eyes.

Images of food filled her mind—fresh bread, hot meals, cold soda from the refrigerator, even the compressed biscuits she had never liked.

She had never imagined that one day, she wouldn’t be able to find even a mouthful of water.

A Gray-Eared Jump Hare crawled out from beneath the Tesla and lay down beside her. Several others soon gathered around.

She opened her eyes and stared at the Tesla and the jump hares surrounding her.

After a long silence, she whispered in a dry, hoarse voice,

“Am I really going to die here today?”

Faint voices came from outside the cave.

The woman raised her head, unsure whether she had imagined them. But instead of fading, the voices drew closer.

There really was someone outside.

She struggled to look toward the entrance and saw two figures through her blurred vision. Before she could feel relieved, one of them asked in a stiff voice,

“What’s your Insta?”

The question caught her completely off guard.

“@MeganHall…”

The answer slipped out before she could think.

Then she froze.

How could anyone here know about Insta?

A bitter smile appeared on her face as she leaned back against the rock wall.

“I really am dying… Now I’m even hallucinating.”

She could no longer hold on. Her vision went dark, and she collapsed against the wall.

But the two people at the entrance were real.

Gordon and Harvey had been searching the surrounding area when they noticed the cave and decided to check inside. The white Tesla immediately caught their attention. Neither of them knew what it was, but something like that couldn’t have appeared there on its own.

They continued deeper into the cave and found the woman against the rock wall.

Gordon remembered Jack’s instructions.

“What’s your Insta?”

He still felt ridiculous asking the question, but the woman answered—and the name began with the exact “at” Jack had told them to listen for.

Before the brothers could celebrate, she collapsed.

“Damn it!”

They rushed over, startling the Gray-Eared Jump Hares around her. The creatures stood with their long ears raised, watching the intruders warily, but Gordon ignored them and checked the woman’s breathing.

“She’s still alive.”

Her cracked lips told him what the problem might be.

“She hasn’t had water in a long time.”

Gordon took out his water bottle and carefully supported her against him. He poured a little water into her mouth. She didn’t wake, but she swallowed instinctively, so he continued feeding her small amounts.

Harvey remained nearby, surrounded by more than a dozen Gray-Eared Jump Hares watching his every move.

“How is she?”

“Alive, but in bad shape.”

Gordon gave her another small sip.

“Go back and bring Jack and Mort. She can’t walk, and we can’t carry her all the way to the settlement.”

Harvey immediately ran for the entrance. The jump hares moved aside to let him pass, then slowly gathered around again while Gordon continued giving the woman water.

By then, Jack and Mort had already returned to the settlement.

They had searched all morning without finding any signs of human activity, leaving Jack unable to hide his disappointment.

“Did they already leave the area?”

Mort seemed to want to reassure him, but before he could say anything, hurried footsteps came from beyond the rocks.

Harvey appeared from behind the rocks, out of breath from running. The moment he saw Jack, he raised a hand and shouted,

“We found them!”

Jack froze.

Harvey struggled to catch his breath before shouting again,

“Jack, we found someone!”

Before Jack could respond, Harvey added,

“But she collapsed.”

Jack’s excitement vanished.

“My brother is taking care of her,” Harvey continued. “He sent me back to bring you there.”

Jack stared at him in fury.

“Damn it! Can’t you say everything at once? Why do you have to spit it out one sentence at a time? Is this fun for you? You nearly scared me to death!”

Mort stood beside them, quietly laughing. Harvey was too stunned to answer.

“What are you waiting for?” Jack demanded. “Lead the way!”

Harvey took a few desperate breaths.

“Can’t I rest first?”

“No.”

Harvey could only turn around and lead them toward the cave.