“We’ve got five rifles, one broken. Eight stun batons, five sets of armor, two with large gashes in them. We should probably dump those, though.”

“What for? This shit is awesome!”

“Because, Tom, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this stuff is bugged somehow. The only reason I think the weapons are safe is because they don’t have dedicated energy supplies. I mean, the rifles do, but those are mostly power packs for the ammo.” Vick sighed.

Shaggy waved a hand, asking his pack member to continue. Vick went back to listing what they had found. Sybil was still driving, and they were getting closer to the deli. They had packed up a lot of the stuff near the back of the truck. Vick and Tom had swept the counter tops clean and opened all the cabinets in an attempt to grab everything.

The result was a surprisingly small stash of stuff piled up on the floor. Which strangely included a mini-fridge. Vick coughed as he continued.

“Several silver cases of various sizes, all locked. Two laptops. But those are the leaving pile. We don’t want them to track those. Plus, the encryption is, frankly, beyond us. So best leave them for the Bunch. We also found several binders and folders full of notes. Not tablets and data storage, either. Like real hard copies. No idea what they contain, but honestly, those are the things that freak me out the most. Anything K-Tech keeps off their data-network is bound to be trouble. But who knows? We might be able to sell the stuff.”

Shaggy nodded as the truck slowly swerved to the side. “Okay, anything else?”

“Several ingots of various metals all stamped with the K-Tech logo. Probably experimental prototypes. Again, probably something we can shift either topside or back in Under-Town.”

“The fridge?” Shaggy finally asked outright.

“That’s full of sodas and sandwiches and comes with its own mini-generator. So, y’know, goes on the taking pile.”

Shaggy nodded. “Fair.”

“Boss!” Sybil’s voice called from the front. “We’re getting close.”

“Okay!”

Shaggy moved to help with the stuff as Tom rushed to the front cab. He and Sybil would ditch the truck on Wild Bunch turf and rush back to the deli. He wasn’t sure about leaving them stranded at such a giant target. But they assured him they’d be safe. In the end, Shaggy had to go with it. He was needed to offload their prizes quickly. Shaggy even suspected that they would have to do a rolling stop lest the drones catch up to them. The buzzing had been constant, but none of them had seen a drone yet. It was like a swarm of locust was always just over the horizon and they were fleeing from it.

Shaggy picked up the mini-fridge and awkwardly placed it under his arm. It hummed with life and he swore he could hear various snacks shift from within. Vick grit his teeth at the noise but said nothing. Once they had armfuls of stuff, Shaggy opened the back doors. He immediately identified the street that ran in front of the deli. They really were close. After another sharp turn, the grey metal truck squeezed itself into an alleyway and Sybil called out from the front.

“GO!”

Shaggy and Vick jumped off the still moving truck and quickly rushed to the side entrance of the deli. A slim teen was smoking outside the door, but as soon as he saw them, he rushed to help. Shaggy dumped everything he was holding at the side door and ran back to the still moving truck. Vick hot on his heels. Between the two of them, they got the back unloaded before the truck made it halfway down the alley. As the sounds of drones drew closer, Shaggy shouted down the truck.

“Clear! Keep safe and make it back quick!”

He felt gentle affirmations from the pack link and he slammed the back doors close before rushing back toward the deli. He had just entered the side door when a half-dozen drones swooped overhead. The kid and Vick dragged most of the stuff inside and, with Shaggy’s help, they pulled in the rest and closed the door. A trailing drone zipped around the alley way red light scanning everything. Shaggy and Vick held their breaths as the small thing buzzed just beyond the door.

Once the drone had scanned the door, it flew off further down the alley. Shaggy turned to Vick and the kid and grinned. They had done it. When Shaggy took in the deli, he found that several pallets of building materials filled the abandoned deli. Two-by-fours and cement sacks were strewn about the places and even some strange metal beams laid across a countertop. Shaggy raised an eyebrow. But the teen that was watching the door was staring down at a K-Tech rifle in awe. Shaggy let the kid have a few moments before he brought the young boy around.

“Hey! Where is everyone? Shouldn’t they be moving this stuff?”

“Huh? Oh! Yes, sir. We were just getting it. This is the stuff that’s left. It’s not that long of a trek, really. But the dirt tunnels are a little tight in places. Mari was getting them widened as the scary lady had everyone else help move things.”

Shaggy shot a look at Vick. “Levy or Rita?”

“Well, one is the boss’ wife, and the other is the fiercely loyal mother hen of our wolf pack. So I believe I’ll keep my mouth shut on this one, boss.”

“Bah! You’re no fun.”

“But I am alive and wish to stay that way.”

The kid adjusted his jacket and pulled a cigarette from inside his coat. “It’s the sword lady boss. She had most of the kids scared witless when she arrived.”

Shaggy grinned. “Not you though?”

“Me? Naw. I knew what she was talking about. When she and that lizard guy showed up, they immediately got people unloading the two trucks. Once that was all done, she and the lizard took a gang member each and dropped them off. I went with the lizard.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The kid said the last part with no small amount of pride. Although Shaggy snorted at the fact the kid didn’t know their names. It made sense. The fifteen or so teens may have followed them. But they hadn’t really spent much time together. It was good to learn that Cekrass and Rita had gotten their trucks squared away with little trouble. He only hoped Sybil and Tom would get away as clean. Vick clapped a hand on his shoulder and chuckled.

“Don’t worry about them, boss. They’ll be fine. Let’s focus on getting this crap down in our new hole in the ground.”

Before Shaggy could agree, a fresh batch of sweaty teens appeared from the back room. The door to the maintenance tunnels was back there. From the looks of things, that’s where this new group had come from. They all groaned at the sight of Vick and Shaggy, but a matronly voice growled.

“Quit bitching and start grabbing things. You lot already had your break!” Rita yelled.

The kids grumbled, but moved as Rita appeared behind them. She gave Shaggy a tip of her head and started grabbing items. Shaggy and Vick collected the weapons and new fridge before following everyone else back down the tunnels. Someone, probably one of the kids, had strung up torches along the walls to help light the way. Shaggy grinned as he pictured Mari lighting everything for their people.

The small group moved efficiently through the maintenance tunnels and down the old kobold hole. It was a quiet trip, filled with the sounds of exertion coming from exhausted teens. It was so bad that when they arrived at the large cave where they were setting up, Shaggy had everyone of them take a break. Rita looked ready to complain, but Shaggy put a hand up.

“I really can’t deal with all their noise. They sound like a pack of dying cows.”

Several young teens made groans of disagreement. But none of them had the willpower to form complete sentences. Shaggy glanced around, finding Levy going through various pallets and boxes. Someone had set-up several large lamps around the cave, filling it with an eerie glow. Combined with the random campfires everywhere, and their little cave had a good deal of spooky ambiance. Shaggy waved a hand at Vick and moved over to his wife.

“Hello honey. Shopping’s done.” Shaggy joked.

Levy snorted as she grabbed lifted a large plank off a pallet. “We have to discuss what goes on your shopping lists.”

“Hey, food is tonight. Right now, we need stuff for building things, right?”

Levy sighed, but nodded. “Yes. This is already saving us a ton from the system. We just need a few more bags of cement and wood and we can have the terminal make some rudimentary houses.”

Turning to Rita, Levy asked. “Did you get the piping down yet?”

Rita glanced around at the tired teens. “A few of these useless kids grabbed them, I think. Remember, we didn’t have much.”

“That’s fine. I just want to see how much we are missing for a freaking plumbing system.”

Shaggy snorted. “I would guess a lot. Even with magic.”

Levy nodded sadly.

Shaggy placed the fridge down and moved to set the weapons down as well, but Vick stopped him.

“I’ll take the weapons, boss. We don’t want the kids getting hurt. We can pass out the batons, though.”

“Hey… we… know... how… to…” A voice rose from the tired kids.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re good with guns. Whatever. Rest or yap, don’t do both.” Vick snorted.

Shaggy passed everything he was carrying back to Vick and looked around. The large dirt cavern was pretty empty. Even with the materials they had stolen. Not seeing Cekrass or Luis and Mari, Shaggy asked.

“Where are the teen honchos and my favorite Were-Lizard?”

“Food scouting.” Rita said as she started marching back toward the tunnel.

Shaggy gave Levy a quick kiss before he followed. He was surprised to see a few teens get up and follow them. He sighed at the thought of listening to them breathing so hard. But they really could do with the help. There were a lot of pallets up top. As they continued down the dark tunnels, Shaggy asked.

“How long?”

“Just a few minutes before you showed up, I’d wager. They wanted to get everything scouted properly and Cekrass went for protection. The Wild Bunch was moving around the neighborhood for a while. But the kids didn’t engage, they avoided and reported.”

“That’s good. So how are we going to collect groceries for this lot? Should we have kept a truck?”

“Naw!” Came a girl’s voice from behind him. “M-Mart has a fleet of their own trucks there. We can just swipe one of those and load it up. The tricky part is security. They got cameras all over that place. Even a few cops that swing by on regular patrols.”

“I miss Ephemara.” Shaggy sighed as he tried to think of a way around camera’s.

At best, they would have to sneak around and disable them. But that required finding the control room. Which meant searching, which meant they were more likely to get caught. Although…

“Do any of you know where the control room for the cameras is?” Shaggy asked the group.

A male voice spoke up. “Yeah, I worked there part time for two summers. It’s near the back offices, just inside the warehouse where they store the food. But there are cameras inside, too.”

Shaggy hissed in annoyance and continued to think. Once they arrived up top, Shaggy began grabbing armfuls of cement bags. The kids and Rita grabbed their own cargo, and they all started the trek back down. It was long, tedious work, but it needed to be done. The materials needed to be close to the terminal to be counted. It was only after the third trip back and forth that Shaggy realized they had grabbed a lot of stuff from the two trucks. Before he could ask, Rita answered.

“The trucks had a spatial enchantment on the inside. They were actually a lot bigger. It took us a while to get everything offloaded. Thankfully, no gangs or cops swung by. Although we went faster, cause WE HAD MORE PEOPLE HELPING!”

Rita shouted that last bit at the latest of teens who collapsed in the dirt. They had exchanged kids every trip. Shaggy couldn’t blame them. Even though some of them appeared to be aliens or even mutants, they didn’t seem to have a Werewolf’s stamina. During the back and forth, Shaggy spotted several mutant teens amongst their new crew. He tried desperately to remember faces and powers, but it was all drummed out of him. Lost to the beat of monotony.

With the fourth trip and the fourth group of kids, Shaggy tried to wrap his head around the camera problem again. But he was getting nowhere. He kept coming back to being invisible and even briefly thought about taking a trip back to Under-Town. But that would take too long and to do it just for food seemed like a waste. The only thing he could think of would be to cover-up and raid the place fast before the cops arrived. But, while that was the Shaggy-method at this point. They needed to be more stealthy. At least as stealthy as they were at Jerruza's house. Before things went to shit.

Shaggy and his group were just heading up the stairs to the deli when a scent caught Shaggy’s nose. It was musty and familiar. He bolted up the stairs past several teens. Rita right behind, sensing his mood. But when they got to the front of the deli, all they saw was the same teen still on watch. Shaggy remained tense. His sense of smell was still screaming at him. He wondered if the Bunch had an invisible animal of some kind. He tried to focus and pick out the scents. It was leather, sweat, and something… dog-like?

Shaggy’s eyes widened as he felt someone dash into the deli and charge straight at him. He caught sight of a patchy leather coat and a wild mane of brown-gray hair. Shaggy dodged the first punch and grew his claws as he felt Rita draw her sword behind him. The man blocked Shaggy’s claws with a forearm and tried to kick out at Shaggy’s stomach. But Shaggy jumped backward and yanked his claws out of the man’s arm. He was happy to smell blood as Vance glanced at his torn jacket.

“Damn it, kid. This jacket’s been stitched together enough times already!”