Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

“I bet Elon Musk would pay a mint for one of these,” Jeb said when he found the jet fuel lens. That was the kind of shit that could launch a colony to another planet. Sadly, Jeb lacked the technical skills to make that happen, so he would probably wind up using the priceless treasure to fuel an oil lamp or something.

Does Elon Musk still exist? Does Mars still exist? If Earth got torn up and moved somewhere else, it stood to reason that Mars got left behind.

Human refugees became more common the closer Jeb got to ‘civilization’, and Jeb found himself having to wave his gun around a lot more than he was comfortable with to drive off people trying to raid his trailer.

He even wound up running away from some Mad Max types, spiky mohawks and AK-47s and all. Thankfully any chase was made easier by pulling the keys out of the opposition’s ignition with telekinesis.

Smartass flipped their safeties on, too, which was nice of her.

Jeb visited a prison off the highway and found a Hopelessness lens on the grounds, as well as several families of squatters using it as a fortress, a la The Walking Dead. Jeb was able to barter his way in with live hares from the hare lens and refilling their water tank.

Predictably, they tried to lock him up and force him to use his Myst powers to provide food and drinking water indefinitely, but Jeb politely waited until night, unlocked the cell and left while they were asleep.

They took a few potshots at him while he was driving away, but none of them hit anything important.

Cruising through the dusty ruins of Sacramento, Jeb searched strip clubs, banks, cash 4 gold places, and so on.

He found a Euphoria (addictive) lens that looked like a lumpy white pill about the size of a pinky, a glitter lens that looked like a miniature disco ball, and several different dancing lenses, a couple of them pretty exotic.

Honestly, none of them were particularly useful in and of themselves, but unless Jeb missed his guess, they were probably incredibly valuable to the upper crust of the empire, who would likely pay through the nose to have a good time.

Jeb stored the party lenses away in a small locking case lest he be tempted to misuse them and shoved them in the very back of his trailer.

Jeb got into the habit of parking his Jeep at the top of the highest point he could find at night, taking turns with Smartass keeping an eye out for things trying to sneak up on them.

One particular night, Jeb was leaning back in the driver’s seat, feet thrown up on the dash as the last light disappeared toward the west. They had just finished setting up the blind that camouflaged the Jeep and were settling down to sleep for the night.

Jeb folded his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, body relaxing as the glare from the sun gradually faded from his left. He was parked on top of a particularly tall butte that had been Stitched in from Pharos, making a natural semi-mountain in the middle of the flat Californian terrain.

Jeb groaned awake what felt like a short time later as the glare of sunlight began peeking in through his right-hand side, making his eyelids glow flickering red from the inside.

Flickering? The blind could make the morning sun flicker if it were windy, blowing around their camouflage...but Jeb didn’t hear any wind.

Something’s wrong.

Jeb peeked open one eye, not wanting to make any sudden movements. There was a possibility whatever beast was sniffing around his car hadn’t found him for sure yet. Best not to startle anything with big ugly claws.

Jeb’s other eye opened, and he frowned at the shifting rainbow on the horizon. It looked something like the northern lights, but much brighter, more energetic and…

A shock ran through Jeb’s body and he lunged up to get a better look.

“Ack!” Smartass was flung out of her makeshift nest in his hair, landing prone on the dash. “What, what is it!?” Smartass asked, rubbing her eyes, obviously having been asleep during her watch.

Off in the distance, Jeb could see multiple suns rising, their light split into dozens of different facets. Jeb frowned as he watched one of the suns wink out, while another appeared off to the left, and another reversed its course, sinking back below the jagged Stitched mountain horizon.

Jeb narrowed his eyes and peered at the mountains.

The snow-capped heights dried in seconds, bursting into green for a moment before turning a desolated brown, followed by pale bluish white as the flickering rainbow sunlight crested above the mountain. Jeb watched in horrified fascination as the strange phenomena climbed onto the spine of the mountain, causing odd fluctuations in the terrain as it went.

Jeb watched as the rapid fluctuations in terrain flowed down the mountainside toward him like a rainstorm sweeping down a slope.

Jeb turned the key and the engine rumbled to life.

Jeb could feel a trembling sensation that seemed to emanate from the scintillating lightshow creeping over the mountain, washing over him in barely perceived waves. It crawled across the ground, through the floor of his jeep, scaled his legs, straight up his spine before worming its way behind his eyes.

The odd whooshing noises from the top of the mountain began to sound less like a wind instrument, and more like a voice, humming a tune that Jeb couldn’t quite recognize. He’d definitely heard it before somewhere, though. He cocked his head, trying to figure out the melody...

Ow! Jeb’s head jerked as he snapped out of the odd trance. Smartass was hunched over, pinching the back of his hand with everything she had.

“I...think we should be going now,” Jeb said, craning