While I was leaving, I saw a thread forming between Dante and me.
We went to the kitchen to grab something for Hayley, Rose again used the food that will spoil sooner, we need to use that one as we don't have a way to keep it cold now.
Meanwhile, I decided to reward Dante with some canned tuna, he loves fish and totally deserves it, I understood that it was thanks to him, that we have an understanding of everything that happened.
While thinking about him, I wondered again about the limits of his powers
'Dante?'
'Mmm~?'
'For how long you can keep the connection?'.
'I'm not sure~ if no~ one is talking I can keep it for a long time.'
'Can 2 people talk using your connection?'.
'I don't knyow~…' I saw a new thread pass through the hallway, probably he was making a connection with Hope.
'Try talking nyow~.'
'Hello?'
'Spence?' I could hear Hope's voice in my mind
'It worked~!!!!' I could hear Dante's happy voice.
'How do you feel?'
'I'm ok for nyow~, but it's more difficult than before~.'
'You can close the connection, sorry Hope we were trying something.'
'Ok, no problem' I could see both threads vanish after hope's response.
Something came to my mind.
"Rose!! Use your power" I took Rose's shoulders, and she gave a little jump at my sudden action and almost dropped the plate she was about to take to Hayley.
"Don't do that!! I almost drop the food". She scolded me.
"My bad, but I noticed something, can you use your power?"
"Where?" She was clearly a little mad at me.
"Anywhere" after this part she became confused.
"Ok?" I saw her go into a trance, but this time I noticed a change of color in her eyes, it was subtle, but it was there.
"Good, this is too good!!" I was looking into her eyes. She came back from the trance after hearing what I said, she blushed when noticed that I was really close looking into her eyes.
"I could see a change of colors in your eyes when you use your ability!!!" She opened her eyes in surprise.
"Then you can see when other people use their ability?"
"Yes, or something like that at least, I can see your eyes, Dante's mind connection, and Hayley's weird aura.
[It's not an aura]
'It's just a way of calling it for now.'
"What aura?"
"She has this cold aura around her, maybe is related to her power, now that I know that I can see yours and Dante's power manifestation, I can identify others too… maybe"
"How does mine look?"
"The edge of your iris shines in different colors. Go with Hayley I'll go talk to Hope and G and see if a see anything special."
"Ok."
Rose left with the food for Hayley and Dante, and I went to the backyard where G was dismantling everything he found.
"Hey man, all the batteries are useless."
I noticed a subtle golden light moving around the surface of his all body.
"What you fell for me? Stop looking at me like that."
He said while covering himself.
"Who would fall for you? I got this new power and was checking on something."
"You got a power? What can you do?"
"Not telling you."
I smiled and changed the subject to Hayley and explained what happened to her and that me and rose decided for her to stay for now. He didn't say anything about it.
Afterward, I left him and went to look for Hope in her room.
'I forgot to tell him about my power'… I just wanted to annoy him a little but ended forgetting to tell him about it.
I knocked on the door and waited for Hope's response.
"Come in."
She saw me come into her room and asked.
"What were you doing with Dante earlier?"
"A little experiment, I was seeing if it was possible to communicate telepathically with more people at the same time, it worked, but it's more taxing for him."
"Dante is becoming the most useful member of this group."
She said with a smile.
"Yeah, to think that before his best abilities were, catching insects and sleep in impossible positions under the sun."
"Yeah, I like hearing him, but I kind of miss seeing him just playing around the backyard and mom complaining about the muddy footprints on the kitchen floor."
We fell silent for a minute at the mention of our mother, then Hope speak.
"Do you think they are alive?"
"I want to believe that they are and that we will meet them again."
I said with conviction, and Hope responded to me with a soft smile and a tight hug.
I noticed that Hope didn't have any power active, so I told her my plans for the afternoon.
"I'll go to see the houses around to see if I can find something useful."
"Can I go with you?"
I thought about it a moment, it was dangerous, but if we move carefully we could pull it off, also if we stay in the area, Rose can look keep watch from time to time, and Dante will be able to warn us.
"Ok, but if something happens, you have to listen to my orders, if I tell you to leave you leave… ok?
"Ok."
"Let me talk with Dante and Rose before we leave."
I left the room and went to talk to the others.
I explained to Rose what I was about to do and that I needed her to check around while we look at the other houses. We were going to just go into the houses on this block that were uninhabited.
I went to see Hayley before leaving and knocked on Hayley's room since no one responded I opened the door, she was asleep, I could see two empty plates, and Dante standing up and stretching ready to reposition himself in the bed again.
"Dante"
I called and asked him which houses were alone and didn't have dead bodies, I don't want my sister to see corpses lying around.
I decided to check the nearest ones and went to get Hope and left the house.
The first one's backyard was next to ours, I helped Hope to climb the wall and then jumped to follow her. They had a pool, and if it had water, I would have jumped the wall every day to take a dip in. They have been on vacation for about 2 weeks, and from what mom told us, they went to an island for a month, no idea how they pulled that off, I used to thought about how great would be to have a month of vacation every year when working… well, I don't need to worry about it anymore.
We first checked if there was any way to get into the house, an open door or window but we didn't find anything. I had to break in through a window, I carefully got inside and opened the door for Hope.
"First, we need to secure food and water."
We started in the kitchen, we found a couple of bottles of water, and not too much food, but we take all of it anyway.
I found an old rifle hanging on the wall and took it down. Hope looked at it with curiosity, before asking me with a worried face.
"You think we are going to need it?".
"I hope we never have to use something like this, but if the situation asks for it, I prefer to have something in hand…"
I looked through the barrel, it was plugged.
"But this one is useless" I gave my sister a wry smile while showing her barrel and giving her the weapon.
After a second of doubt, she took the weapon in her hands and looked what I was showing her. If I had to choose I would never have handed her a gun even if it was harmless, but maybe she will need to take one someday.
I took the weapon. Since it was an ornament there were no bullets, but with the system, I was able to get them, and maybe G can make it work.
"Why are you taking it with you anyway?
"Others doesn't know that the barrel is plugged, so even if it doesn't work we can try to scare them away."
"Oh."
We look around, we found jewels… totally useless in our situation, but since Hope was looking with bright eyes, we spend some time looking at them. I took a delicate necklace with a red crystal rose and a hairpin with a lotus flower for Rose and Hayley.
I thought about taking her away to keep looking, but when I saw her, I couldn't. This was a way for her to relax and she always loved shiny things. After choosing a ring and a bracelet, we kept looking around but couldn't find anything useful.
I went back to the wall and climbed it, Hope passed the things to me, and I gave them to G (including the rifle), then I went back to Hope's side and prepared to go to the next house.
We jumped the wall to the next house, but instead of breaking in I went straight to the next house.
"We are not looking inside first?"
"This house was abandoned a year ago, so probably there is nothing there" I lied.
And we jumped to the next house.