Chapter 70 - Out Of Time

It took me more than a few minutes to get across the concept of a ‘map’ to the rat-guy. When I first showed it to him, he had no idea what he was looking at. For him, it was a picture with squiggly lines. I needed a better way of showing what I was talking about, so I put the map away.

Then I drew my own version of it in the dirt, explaining each object as I added it. “That’s where we are now. This—all of this is the forest. Down there is the main road. That rock is your building, where you came from. This rock is the building on the road that the goblins were living in…”

I went on for a bit, but he did finally get the idea. Once he understood that I was placing these things to make a picture like a bird would see from the sky, he caught up fast. These creatures weren’t stupid at all. They were uneducated, but not dumb. It was something I figured would be good to remember.

“Dead things are here,” the rat-man said. He placed a series of several rocks next to each other a bit to the right of his building. Based on the placement, I was fairly sure Kara’s guess was correct.

“That sure looks like the mall,” Kara added.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” I said. I turned back to our guest. “They’re attacking you, huh?”

He nodded.

Most of the undead I’d seen loose in the world sort of wandered around, only attacking things they saw right in front of them. They weren’t especially bright. Even Sue, who was the highest tier undead I’d seen, remained in the building where she’d animated. “If they’re moving out and attacking surrounding areas, that implies they might have some sort of leadership.”

“Another necromancer?” Kara asked. “Supposedly there’s another one out there.”

“Yeah, but deeper downtown, right?” I said. “I’m not sure this is a person. It could be another monster leader, like the goblin mage was.”

“A monster with an army of undead at its back? This sounds like a job for super-necromancer!” Kara quipped.

I chuckled, but inside I was a little worried. This represented a huge opportunity, but also a hell of a lot of danger. Still, if I’d wanted a safe life… Well, frankly, that idea was gone. It went away with the Event. Sure, I could maybe go hole up in the Guard base, hide myself there, and let others defend me from the threats outside. I hadn’t been doing that so far, though, and it didn’t feel like something I could live with.

“Why us?” I asked the rat-man.

“You help before. Against green-things—goblins. Help now? We pay.”

“Pay?”

The rat-man nodded, then reached out a paw-like hand, opening it to reveal half a dozen clear crystals inside. “We give. These now. Same number after. Yes?”

I thought about it a long moment, then glanced at Kara. She made a small nodding motion with her head. She was in. “All right. We’ll help you. I’m Selena. Do you have a name?”

The rat-man nodded. “Names on cages. Name is Patches.”

“Patches, huh? Okay, we can work with that. When do you want to do this?”

“Soon. Night fall soon, they come, kill rats.”

A glance at the sky told me he was right about the timing. The sun would be setting in a couple of hours. My watch said it was only five in the afternoon, so some of that was the forest making evening feel like it was coming on sooner than it really was. But if the undead were going to attack them once it was dark, we didn’t have a lot of time.

I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of going in there just as it was getting dark. Kara had NightVision. I didn’t. On the other hand, I did have a dinosaur capable of spitting fireballs, so to some extent I could make my own light sources. It wasn’t optimal, but neither was letting the undead wiped out potential allies.

“Let me talk to Kara about this, okay Patches?”

He nodded, so I stepped aside, beckoning Kara to join me. Once we were a little distance away, I asked what felt like the most pressing question. “They want us to go help them now. By the time we get there, it’s going to be nearly dark. No electricity means no lights inside. You up for this?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I’ve got Nightvision, remember. I can handle a night mission just fine. Are you going to be all right in there?”

“Yeah, I think so. Figure I’ll have Sue light the place up some.”

“Light the… Ohhhhh, Fireballs. Right. Because shooting off Fireball spells in enclosed places always works out well.”

I couldn’t hold back a laugh at that. “Didn’t know you were a gamer.”

“I’m not. Wasn’t. But I had a Facebook account, Selena. I doubt there’s anyone alive who hasn’t seen those memes.”

“Fair enough. I think the interior of the mall is big enough to handle a few fireballs,” I said. “It would still be safer if we waited until morning, though.”

“Safer for us. Less safe for them,” Kara replied. “Unless you want to have them camp up here with us..?”

It was an option I hadn’t considered. If I invited the rats to the fort, they’d be clear of the danger, at least for the time being. Hell, this might even make a decent place for them to stay in the long run, if I didn’t want it! And from what Kara said about the huts, I wasn’t sure I did.

Kara saw me thinking about it. “They wouldn’t have to stay… And the undead would keep us safe enough for one night.”

“Yeah, that could work. I was just thinking that it might be worth handing the whole fort over to them.”

“What about that stone thing you found?”

“It works anywhere that hasn’t already been claimed,” I said. “We can pick a different place. We’re not locked into this one.”

Kara heaved a huge sigh of relief. “Oh. My. God. Yes, please! You have no idea how bad those huts stink. Goblins are gross, dude.”

I laughed again—couldn’t help it. She was good at that. “Okay, so we invite them up here, let them stay in the goblin huts. You and I can sleep somewhere nearby, I guess. Sue will keep an eye on us while we sleep.”

Hope barked next to me.

“And you can watch too, yes,” I told the dog.

We went back over to Patches, which was still a weird name for a creature I was holding a conversation with. “We’ll help, but it’s too risky to go in there this close to dark. Once the darkness hits, they’ll be very difficult to kill.”

Patches seemed alarmed at this and broke in, cutting me off. “Dead things will kill us, come dark!”

I shook my head. “Not tonight, they won’t. We’re inviting you all up here to the fort. You can stay in the goblin huts. But you’ll need to get your people moving fast, because sunset is coming soon.”

“Stay here?”

“Yup. You can stay here, for tonight anyway.” Beyond that, we’d see. Before I handed over something as valuable as those wooden walls, I wanted to get to know these folks better.

“Patches go get others.” He rose to leave.

I had a thought. “Actually, we’ll go with you. I don’t know if you’ll be able to get everyone up here before darkness falls, so let’s make sure you all make it. I’ll ride Sue back down the hill with you and give you an escort up to the fort.”

“You do this?” Patches asked, his eyes round as the moon.

I nodded. “Yeah. You folks have been cool so far. It’s the right thing to do.”

It took me under a minute to get Sue ready for the trip. I had Kara remain behind at the fort with the rest of my undead—under protest, from both Kara and Hope, who wanted to come along as well. I didn’t think we needed more firepower than Sue could provide, though—and the last thing I wanted was to come back up to the fort after sunset and find it was full of giant spiders or something.

She understood the importance, but Kara wasn’t happy about it. Neither was Hope.

I mounted up, and we rode off down the hill.

The rats were pretty quick on their feet. They weren’t able to keep up with Sue when she was going full-tilt, but I settled her into a gentle trot and they were able to stay with her okay. We zipped past the trees at a good clip, making our way to the road in no time.

Patches led us down the private road which led to the Hilton. That was the hotel where the goblins based themselves while attacking the rat-people. Now, it was gutted and empty. The goblins had made a royal mess of the place, and it looked like maybe the rat-people had gone through looting and clearing the place out after I shooed away the goblins. Few windows were left unbroken, and there were furnishings tossed out windows, lying scattered in the parking lot.

Then we were through the mess and crossing the street. Sue picked her way through the cars, her skeletal talons clacking loudly against the pavement. A group of the rat-people came toward us, all armed, and at first I was a little worried—but this wasn’t an attack. It was a reunion.

I watched as Patches went and gave another rat-person a huge hug, sweeping them up into his arms. Other rats did likewise, and I realized what I was seeing. These people weren’t sure their friends, family, and loved ones that they’d sent out to meet me would return.

They’d been hoping for my help, but for all they knew, I’d just kill them all. It was an understandable fear. After all, that’s what most beings were doing, right? Fighting each other? Killing each other?

“Patches,” I said. He glanced up, breaking away from his hug. “You risked a lot coming to see me, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “Was scared. Rats better at hide than fight. But needed to. For her.” He pointed at the rat-person he’d been hugging, then swept his arm past the crowd. “For all.”

“You’re a good leader, Patches.” Now, more than ever, I felt determined to do what I could for these…people. Sure, they weren’t human. But they acted more human than some of the Homo sapiens I’d run into since the Event. That made them more than human enough, in my book.

No sooner had I said that than I heard a deep, booming vibration out of the east. Another followed, then a third.

Drums. I was hearing drums, same as the other night when Kara and I slipped past. They had to be coming from the mall. Whatever evil waited there, it was starting to wake up for the evening. We were running out of time.