Entering California’s central valley did wonders for Rob’s travelling speed. No longer did he have to worry about thickly forested areas or hilly terrain to slow him down. The land was still far wilder than it had been just weeks ago, but by following a river south Rob was able to make good progress.
Following the river also allowed him to come into contact with a large number of people. With homes missing and with the plumbing system in pieces, the small river proved to be a vital source of water. Rob had noticed that skills that either provided sustenance or removed the need for it were both more common, and had stronger effects than might be expected. A family in Oregon was a good example of the latter effect, where the boy had learned to shroud himself in a thin layer of mist, while the father was able to conjure water in large quantities.
For a meal and a night on an inflatable mattress, Rob had shared his own knowledge of the system, along with his insights. The idea of synergizing their skills had earned him a handshake, but he was pretty sure that they had ignored the suggestion that they change tactics if they happened to get some better skills before they accomplished anything. At least the mother had managed to unlock a baking path following his ideas. Rob’s stomach grumbled in fond remembrance of Gwen’s Granola Bars.
While Rob had yet to unlock a food related skill for himself, he wondered at the implications therein. The long term effects would probably leave people reliant on the system in some way for the food, by reducing the incentive to pursue non-system methods of making food. Why bother planting corn that will take three months to grow when Thomas next door has two spells that can plant and grow a field in a week? Rob figured there would be more knock-on effects of the new skills, but only time would tell what they would be.
The short-term effects were more obvious. Helping people survive was a clear priority, especially when combined with the fact that far more food stores had remained behind than was statistically probable. Rob didn’t have the education to come to that conclusion himself though. He had found out that most people were more comfortable with trying activities similar to what they had done before the System, but the idea of someone pursuing mathematical Skills was still a little odd to him, even if the insights the man had made were surprisingly helpful. A gas powered generator was enough to keep the statistician's laptop running, and the various data sets he had collected had proven useful in coming up with some surprising conclusions. The number of Jeeps and other off road capable vehicles was far higher than he would have guessed.
All of which had culminated in Rob’s latest encounter.
“I’ve said it before, but thank you again for helping me out like this. Not many people would go out of their way to help a stranger, especially in these times.”
Rob hummed in acknowledgement, far more focused in paying attention to the ground in front of him than his new friend’s attempt at conversation. They’d only been travelling towards Sacramento for half an hour, but already he had earned a Driving skill and levelled it to five trying to keep the Jeep headed southward at speed. There might not be many trees to dodge, but the ground was still bumpy enough to make simply cruising along impossible, and the possibility of hidden holes or rocks was nerve-wracking. The Jeep had already survived a couple of unexpected impacts, but that was no guarantee it would survive the next one.
Eventually the grass gave way to a section of highway that remained and Rob eased onto it before finally picking up the conversation.
“It’s not like I’m going out of my way, John.” He gave the same reply he had given the last time the man had thanked him.
“Still, this must be slowing you down. Making it from Washington to here in a week going through the wilderness. Never thought I’d hear about someone pulling that sorta thing off, but these Skills change everything, don’t they.”
“They do, but not by that much, not yet at least. I still get tired, a car doesn’t. And a Jeep like this can carry far more than I can with just a backpack.” Even knowing his passenger wouldn’t see it, Rob motioned towards the backseat, filled with every portable item they had grabbed from John’s house.
“True at that. Mental Mapping has been an amazing blessing for me, but it wouldn’t help much if I tried to go at it alone. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get a skill that will let me see again.” John mused, a familiar tone of wonder entering his voice at the possibilities the System provided.
Rob offered his own idea. “You might, or perhaps your granddaughter will get a skill to heal you. She was studying to become a nurse, right?”
“She is, I mean was. Third year at UCLA, straight A’s every semester. I’m just glad she decided to go home for the summer. I can’t bear thinking about her having to handle all this by herself. You sure she’ll be there?” A desperate tone entered John’s voice, torn between wanting reassurance and the truth.
Confidence filled Rob’s answer. “She’ll be there. The system keeps family together.”
“But Mary down the road had her sister vanish on her…”
“It keeps family together, it just has its own definitions on what makes a family. Given that you lived in a retirement community, I’m guessing that Mary is old enough for her parents to be dead.” A nod was answer enough for Rob and he continued talking before John could share Mary’s life story. “The System keeps parents and their children together. Mary and her sister didn’t have a shared parent or child, and were able to be sent to two different worlds. You, on the other hand, are still alive, and so you’ll be in the same world as all your children, and they will be in the same world as all their children.”
John seemed to settle down as he absorbed this new information, and Rob continued. "Things can get a little odd with step-relationships, with the half parentage, but I don’t think that applies here from what you’ve told me.” Rob deliberately didn’t mention that those oddities also applied to infidelity. Little Timmy vanishing was a great way to let your husband know he wasn’t actually his. Either way, it wasn’t something he wanted his new companion to be worrying about.
“Thank you. Knowing that helps a lot. It’s been hard having to try and defend my home without knowing what’s become of my kids and grandkids. I was able to turn that old place into a fort with all sorts of traps and defenses, but it didn’t help me much if I didn’t have my precious people inside to defend.”
“I understand completely.” Rob slapped his hand on the Jeep’s dashboard. “After I drop you off, this Jeep here is gonna help me get back home to my own family.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“I’m glad it’ll be put to a good use. After all, I certainly wouldn’t be using it.” The two lapsed into silence for a bit as the road ended and Rob had to navigate through brush and around a copse of trees.
“If you don’t mind me asking. How does the System work for you, being blind and all? I see blue screens in front of me, but I don’t think that would help you much.”
John cackled at the sudden question. “Ha! At first it was audio only. It sounded like a low hum until I paid attention to it, at which point it began reading through the various announcements and my character sheet. Took me a day before I got tired of having to ask it to repeat things, and after yelling at it enough I was able to get a layout in braille hovering in front of me after I opened up whatever screen I was interested in. Made it a lot easier to pick out whatever I actually wanted to know.”
Rob took a moment to process this new information. “I’ve heard of people making changes to the layout and such before, but nothing like that. Thanks for sharing this. I’m sure someone else will find it useful.”
“I’m just doing what I can to pay you back.”
Rob shook his head, knowing his companion wouldn’t see it, and not wanting to keep that discussion going. He began fiddling with the Jeep’s dashboard, getting nothing but static out of the various radio channels, but eventually managing to switch it over to the internal CD reader, containing a single CD titled ‘Best of ABBA’.
The songs helped pass the time, even when the section of road came to an end and Rob had to start focusing on picking a path again, and by the third time through both men were singing along, their confidence buoyed by increasing Skill and a lack of anyone else around to notice. The driving took its toll though, and they ended up stopping twice to eat and rest. They saw a couple of buildings, but didn’t think it was worth their time to stop and explore. They didn’t see any people, which Rob figured was for the best. The Jeep and its contents were valuable goods, and Rob’s usual strategy of outdistancing unfriendly people wouldn’t work without leaving John behind.
Navigation became interesting once they reached Sacramento. With so much of the town missing, trying to follow any sort of directions was almost impossible. John’s instructions to “turn left on Camino Avenue and go through three stoplights before turning right” made Rob stop the car so he could stare at his passenger. At least John’s son lived on the north side of the river. Trying to find a place where the Jeep could cross would be a pain once Rob was ready to head onwards. The pair drove east until they hit a stroke of luck and encountered a still standing street sign. Combined with a road map of California and the pair had a good idea of what direction to travel and how far to their destination.
Even more lucky was the fact that the house they were looking for was still present. They’d talked a little about how to go about finding them if they had moved elsewhere, but it looked like that wouldn’t be necessary.
Rob pulled the car up into the driveway, where he waited a moment. There was no reaction from the house so he let John announce their arrival. It didn’t take long before the front door was thrown open.
“Grand-da! Thank the gods you’re alright!” The young woman exclaimed as she rushed forwards to give John a hug. Something of Rob’s reaction must have shown on his face, because she made eye contact with him.
“What?” She asked in a challenging manner.
Rob raised his hands defensively. “Nothing! I just hadn’t talked about your religion with your grandfather and it came as a surprise. Nothing wrong with it at all.”
“My religion?” She repeated, somewhat confused, before her face cleared in understanding. “Oh! I’m not actually religious. I just don’t have anything better to call the people behind the System. It fits well enough; mysterious entities beyond our comprehension with great power over us and our world.”
“You’re not wrong, but I prefer my deities to be a little less capricious.” John answered dryly, joining the conversation. He had finished hugging his granddaughter, and the pair were now slowly making their way into the house. Rob grabbed his and John’s personal bags and followed after them.
With the help of the rest of the family, John’s share of the cargo in the Jeep was quickly brought inside the house. The Jeep itself was driven around the house into the back yard, out of sight of anyone travelling down the street and hopefully a little more secure because of it. Rob had winced at first when he had driven over a flower bed to get there, only to chuckle sadly. Everyone had far larger things to be worried about than a few broken decorative plants, no matter how big a deal it might have been a week ago. Even now a part of him was expecting a suburban mom to come storming out of the house, screaming at him for destroying her prized begonias, but the actual reaction was Jaz dragging a tarp out of the cluttered garage to cover the Jeep with.
With that task taken care of, the two made their way back inside. Some canned soup was warming on the gas powered stove, and a handful of candles had been lit and spread throughout the house, providing both light and a cozy ambience. It didn’t take long to set the table, and as the extended family and Rob sat and ate, Rob found himself falling into his increasingly familiar role as System expert. It didn’t take long for his lecture on system mechanics to turn into a discussion.
“It doesn’t work like that! You can’t reduce the complex functionality of the human body to a set of numbers.” Jazz argued, waving her fork around for emphasis. “Health and Stamina are stupid concepts. If you take lots of instances of small damage to your arm would that actually kill you? No! You’d just lose functionality in your arm.”
“You couldn’t reduce it to a set of numbers. But I don’t think the bodies we have now are the same as we had then. Points in strength make you stronger without any change to your body. People can cast spells using Skills. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I think that Health Points are an accurate representation of our health.”
Rob paused to take a drink. Melissa and Andrew, Jazz’s parents, and John all seemed happy to let Rob and Jazz carry the dinner table discussion. Once his throat was feeling less dry, Rob picked up his chain of thought.
“That said, I do think that anatomy and medicine are both important skills. If you want a healing skill, the best way to get one will be from a Path, and the easiest way to earn a healing related path is to have healing related skills and use those to accomplish something meaningful. It might not be the career you planned on having, but it’s something at least. The upside is that you aren’t limited to only prescribing drugs with unpronounceable names and more side effects than not, and many injuries and diseases suddenly have a chance of a cure.”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t exactly have the same job security that being a nurse in a big city would have.” Jazz replied, a hint of bitterness slipping into her tone. “The only people around here are my family, and I’m not about to head back into Los Angeles just to find people to help.
Andrew broke into the conversation. “It’s not something you need to figure out right away, honey. Give things a few weeks to settle, and I’m sure we’ll have a few more people around for you to work with. I’m pretty sure most people are just going through their stored supplies while they try and figure out what to do next."
“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Rob agreed. “I’m just about the only person travelling that’s been to most of the places on my route. Doesn’t help that this is something no one really could plan or prepare for.”
“I don’t know about that. More than a few people at my college talked about having a zombie survival plan. It’s not quite the same thing, but somewhere out there is someone with an active imagination and too much time on their hands, who planned out exactly what to do in case of the apocalypse.” Jazz countered.
“Maybe, but I think this is probably a bit too weird even for them to plan for.”
The conversation died down a little after that, before John changed the subject to the strangest Skills Rob had seen or heard of during his trip. The tone for the rest of the meal was light and humorous, and all too soon the dishes were in the sink and Rob found himself lying on the couch with a spare pillow and blanket, doing his best to get some sleep before heading out again the next day.