Burning Meal

Once the door closed and locked, the racket outside disappeared. Gone were the cooing of birds, or the chirping of cicadas, or even the rustling of the wind. Even if a nuke were to hit the house next to them, they probably wouldn't hear anything.

Instead, a different kind of ruckus ensued. Jake had excellent Perception, so her heartbeat and quiet breathing compounded his own, pounding in his ears like a relentless drum.

It was all the more distressing because unlike normal humans, both of them had an unusual metabolism. Instead of the usual 60 heartbeats per minute at rest in a normal human, which could drop below 30 in highly trained endurance athletes, Jake's heart was only beating once or twice a minute. As for the young woman, it didn't go beyond five.

When it came to breathing, the difference was even more extreme. Jake only took a shallow breath once every two or three minutes. Carmin breathed only slightly more often, her chest rising imperceptibly from time to time.