CHAPTER 23 - PART OF THE JOB

Everyone was feeling much better after some food, and the fact that we were returning to where I’d found the first snake had folks in a good mood. In fact, Lords had more volunteers than he needed. That was probably a good thing, too, especially in the longer run. We needed people to get out there and fight off these monsters, win more crystals, and above all—grow stronger.

He set up five team leaders—Alfred, Brad, me, George, and himself. He’d have brought Samson too, but he wanted someone he trusted and knew in charge of the station while the rest of us were away.

To each of the team leaders, he assigned two volunteers who didn’t have any magic yet. They were more vulnerable, so they were at least nominally under the command of the person who had some upgrades. I was surprised that two of the students raised their hand right away to join my team. They were frat boy types who I’d seen hanging out and chatting with Bradley earlier, which left me feeling suspicious. But when Lords assigned them to my team, they were nothing but polite, so maybe I had less to worry about than I’d thought.

At the last minute, Henry came over to join us. “I’d like to come, too.”

Lords didn’t sound enthusiastic. “You sure? You get hurt, we’re down our one healer.”

“Yeah, I am. If one of you is hurt badly, how are you going to get them back to me in time? Makes more sense if I’m out there on the battlefield where I can help,” Henry replied. “Besides, you’ve got two more medics back here if someone needs basic first aid.”

It made sense, and despite Lords’ reluctance, he finally agreed. Henry was attached to his team, making it a crew of four, so it was sixteen of us who set out north toward Centennial Court.

It didn’t take long to run into trouble. We’d only just reached the first cross-street, where Centennial really began, when we saw several big-ass snakes just like the one I’d killed. They lay out in the middle of the road, sunning themselves. The afternoon was still warm, so the asphalt must have been toasty for them.

“I count three,” Alfred said.

“Any others nearby?” Lords asked. We were all still a good distance away, so the snakes hadn’t reacted yet.

“None that I can spot,” Brad replied.

“Okay, here’s what we do,” Lords said. “My team has the healer. We’ll be reserves. If something else pops up, we’ll handle it. The rest of you, advance. See if you can hit one of the them with that bow, Brad.”

“Can do,” he replied, drawing one of the arrows we’d recovered from the goblins and nocking it to the goblin bow.

Personally, I thought my Drain spell might be better for pulling, but I was perfectly willing to let Brad get their attention instead of me. Those bites hurt! I readied the spell anyway, and gave orders to my critters to guard me.

Bradley fired and missed. The arrow clattered against the pavement a foot away from one of the snakes, which hissed and twisted, investigating the sound. Before it could do more, he had another arrow nocked and aimed. He fired.

This time, the arrow struck the snake about two feet down from the head. It writhed, twisting around itself until the arrow snapped off. Part of the shaft was still embedded in the snake, but it hadn’t been enough to take it down. It had definitely noticed us now, though. All three snakes came forward at us, moving to the attack, and we advanced to meet them.

Hope was the quickest among us. She rushed in, teeth bared as she snapped at one snake’s tail. It hissed and turned, trying to catch her, but she was took quick for it, at least so far. I dropped a Drain Life on the snake, which slowed it enough that I figured Hope was out of danger. Rosie and Guildie rushed the same snake. Already injured and slowed, it went down quickly under their daggers.

Around me I saw the other teams had done about equally well. Brad and George’s teams took on the snake Brad shot, while Alfred’s team was left with the third. Alfred had just about soloed it, from what I could tell. His axe was covered in fresh blood, and the snake had a couple of axe-shaped slashes in its skin, along with a missing head.

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Looting was next. Three snakes got us three crystals, all of them green. One was a tier one Entangle, just like my spell but a bit weaker. The second was a tier two Plant Growth, which seemed like it didn’t have a lot of combat use, but might be handy for something else. Farming, maybe? The third was a tier two Regenerate spell, that was interesting; when Lords checked it, he said it was a passive spell that slowly regenerated damage.

We gave them to folks who had no crystals slotted yet. One of the guys on my team, Tom, got the Entangle spell, and the Plant Growth went to a woman on Alfred’s team. The Regenerate spell went to one of Brad’s team. There was a brief discussion about handing that one to Henry, since we all wanted to keep our healer alive. But to slot it, he’d need to remove the Heal spell, which might shatter it. Nobody wanted to risk destroying our only healing magic, so it was handed to someone else instead.

Lords ordered Brad’s team to return to base with the snakes, drop them off, and return. The rest of us pressed forward.

“Go up, knock on doors. Be loud,” Lords told us. “If there’s anyone inside, we want them to know we’re here to help, not bring more trouble. If there’s no one inside, check the place out. We’re looking for water, food, and other useful supplies, and anyplace empty is fair game.”

“And if we run into monsters?” Tom asked.

“Call for backup if you need it. The houses aren’t far apart, so a shout will carry,” Lords said. “Otherwise? Take them down.”

With that, we all split up and began investigating houses down the street. Lords and Alfred were on the west side of the street, Alfred and my teams on the east.

Alfred’s team took the first house, so my team was on for the second. It was a good-size two story house with a garage out back. First thing, we checked the yard for trouble, but there were no monsters in evidence, so I went up to the door and knocked, loud.

No answer. I hammered my fist against the door again. “We’re here to help! Anyone inside?”

The sound of movement on the other side of the door reached my ears. I nodded my head at my two team mates. “Tom, watch for anything coming our way from outside. Entangle it if you see anything. Neal, stick close to me. Someone’s in there.”

I tried turning the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. Locked. Neal surprised me at that point, stepping up.

“Let me?” Neal asked.

I moved aside for him, and he used his club to break in one of the windows beside the door. He glanced in through the hole and mustn’t have seen anything, because he stuck his hand in next, reaching for the inner door knob. With a twist, he had it open. “Voila!”

“Not bad,” I told him with a grin that he returned.

The door opened easily into a darkened interior. Hope came inside with me, but I held her back from going too far with a mental order. We didn’t know who or what was in there. It could be civilians or monsters.

I called out again. “Hello! We’re here to help. Anyone here?”

“Stay where you are! I have a gun!” a man’s voice called from somewhere inside.

I decided not to tell him it wasn’t going to help him, that guns wouldn’t work. That wouldn’t inspire confidence. Instead, I opted for cool diplomacy. “We’re here with the UVM police, looking for people who need help. We’re rallying survivors at the police station a couple of blocks from here.”

“You are? Oh, thank god,” the man said, finally coming into view as he moved down the stairs. He did have a pistol in his hand, but it was aimed at the floor, and based on what Lords told me guns didn’t work anymore, anyway. “We’ve been so scared. The screams last night were awful. What’s happening?”

“We?” I asked. I gave a mental order for my Hope to slip back outside so she wouldn’t scare these folks, and the dog quickly obeyed.

Before he could reply, I spotted a couple of young children on the stairs behind him. He spoke again. “My wife and kids are here with me, too. My name’s Keith Henson. I teach at UVM. Are you…are you all students?”

I nodded to him. “A lot of us are, yeah. But we’re here with some of the police, too. Sam Lords is running the group. Do you know him?”

I hoped that dropping a familiar name might help build trust, but Henson shook his head. “Never met him. Doesn’t matter, though. You’re human, not some sort of creature. The things I saw through our windows last night…” He shook his head, his eyes haunted.

“Mr. Henson, it’s going to be safest for your family if they come with us to the station,” I said. “We’re getting people in one place so we can protect each other. I’ve seen the same sorts of things you have. We need to team up to survive this.”

“I understand,” Henson said. “What do you need me to do?”

“Gather your family. Have them each back a bag they can easily carry with clothes or other essentials.” His kids were young. Other essentials might include stuffed animals, at that age, or whatever. “Then get together whatever food and water you have and pack that as well. Bring it all to the front yard. We’ll help you get it back to the station.”

“We’ll take care of it. Thank you. Thank you so much!” Henson replied.

I turned away from the door, leaving them to it. Neal looked over at me. “You handled that pretty well.”

“Thanks,” I told him. “I was in school to become a doctor. Talking to people when they’re scared is part of the job.”

I glanced back at the house Alfred’s team was checking, but they were still inside. There were no shouts or screams, so they were probably just searching it for useful supplies. We moved on to the next house.

This time, the door wasn’t locked. It wasn’t even closed. Something had hit it hard enough that the lock smashed right out of the wood. I grimaced. That wasn’t going to be good.

“Be ready for anything,” I told my team. They nodded, and I kicked the door fully open, sending my zombies in ahead of me to scout.