Day Two began with the sunlight trickling in through the window.

Waking up, I found myself having flopped over at some point, now lying on Renee's knees, with Nicole still lying on me, and Chloe having rolled over and hugged her. The only one not in the cuddle-puddle was Todd, and that probably had more to do with him still hiding under my shield than anything else.

I wasn't the first to wake, but Renee had kindly not disturbed me before I woke up on my own. Once I was awake, she helped me extract myself from the twins without waking them, and we made our way to the kitchen, sneaking out of the over-full auditorium as quietly as we could.

Once we were perched at a prep table with a mostly-empty gallon of milk and a box of cereal between us – along with paper bowls and plastic spoons – she spoke for the first time that morning. “How sure are you we can actually do this?”

I shrugged, filling my bowl. The milk had a slight sour note already, and probably wouldn't be good by the end of the day. “You and I were already starting to develop a fighting style after, what, four leaf-hounds? With three more people, it should be even easier.

“The only real non-combatant is Chloe, and the four of us can protect her, especially with Percy as an extra set of eyes and Nicole's Seekers to run interference. We can have her carry stuff, and I'll share my bolts. She doesn't have Missile but I wanna see if just beaning a leaf-hound with a bolt will give her contribution even if it doesn't do anything.

“We probably don't want Todd using his gun arm, though, if we can help it. It's gonna be loud if he does, and we don't know how the leaf-hounds will react. Hell, we don't know how other people would react. We don't need attention. Or panic.”

Renee wrinkled her nose at the taste of breakfast, but powered through anyway. “You're probably right. Let him focus on carrying stuff while you and I do the fighting? He can come in in an emergency.”

I grinned. “Look at you, 'let us do the fighting.' Not so rabbity anymore?”

“I have a good teacher,” she said, her deadpan delivery carrying more snark than actual sarcasm would have.

I shook my head. “Nah. I think getting here taught you one of the lessons that SCA knights are big on teaching.”

“What's that?”

I held up a finger, quoting, “A true warrior fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

“That's... yeah. That's very true. Is that why you're doing all this?”

“Nh-uh,” I grumbled around a mouthful of cereal. I swallowed, then answered more articulately, “Well, maybe. It's... it's also helping me a lot. Y'know, the harder I work here the more I'm not thinking about everything... from yesterday. The more I'm not thinking about my mom.”

“After you go home and check on your mom... Are you... um... are you coming back? Or, planning to?”

I gave her a curious head-tilt.

“I need to know what to tell the kids. You know they're going to ask.”

I sighed. “Yeah. I guess I am. Unless my mom has some other plan? I don't know. It feels weird, already, thinking about that.”

“What?”

“Going back to being... just a kid? Going from leading you here and fighting to protect people, back to, y'know, getting pushed around and expected to just take it. It's not... I'm not okay with it, and I don't know what to do with that feeling.

“It's not like I don't want to see my mom again, y'know? But I want her to look at me the way you did, before you knew what was under the helmet. I don't think she'll ever see me that way.”

Renee was quiet for a minute, then said, “Yesterday, I would've said you should let yourself be just a kid, but now there's no such thing as that anymore, is there? For what it's worth, I think you're already doing a great job here. You're doing more good than you realize.”

“Thanks, Renee. That really does mean a lot to me. I hope I can keep doing it.”

Once we had fed ourselves, we went and roused the rest of the away team, Renee and I helping the girls find somebody to tag them with a Cleanse. Not waking up to that gross morning-breath feeling and sweat might be a luxury, but it still felt like the right thing to do. Keep us feeling civilized a little bit longer. We encouraged them all to finish off that jug of milk so as not to let calories go to waste, and the girls were certainly unhappy about it, but Percy and I were able to talk them around.

One of the other staffers – a woman who Renee introduced as Teri – offered Todd a baseball bat. “It's my son's. He left it in the car, but he was with his father when everything happened. I don't think he'll mind me giving it to you.”

Todd nodded his thanks. “I'll do my best to use it well. Thanks.” With his gun-arm still hidden in its sling, he propped the bat over his left shoulder.

Once I had my armor all snugged on and my shield in hand, Renee had her shovel, and we'd all visited what was left of the bathrooms, our preparations were as good as they were going to get, so we set out, with Teri coming along to close and lock the door behind us.

Even though she was still right there on the other side of the door, the clacking sound of the lock felt disturbingly final. I gulped, glad nobody could see my face under my helmet.

“Alright. Our standard formation is as follows,” I said, “Renee and I will take the front. Chloe, you'll be in the middle. Send Percy up to fly around us and...”

The little dragon cleared his throat. “One... small... point of order, Sir Emma. Try though I may, I cannot actually fly. My wings are... ahem... decorative.”

I nodded. “Okay. Percy, hop up on Todd's shoulders, then, since he's the tallest. I was going to have you scout, so, get up as high as you can and keep an eye out. Todd, you've got the rearguard. Don't use your gun-arm unless you absolutely have to, since we don't know how the leaf-hounds will react to the noise. Nicole, your job is interference. Anything tries to rush us, stop it with a Seeker.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“We all good?”

Everyone nodded, and we set out, Renee settling in behind me on my left, prepared to strike from behind my shield with her shovel still gripped like a spear. I felt a small tug as Chloe grabbed the edge of my gambeson where it showed from under my belt. I couldn't blame her for needing a little comfort.

“Chloe, I forgot. Do me a favor and grab yourself a couple of bolts out of my can. I'm gonna try 'n' injure some leaf-hounds without killing them, and let you throw a bolt at them. I wanna see if you get points for that. Since you 'n' Percy can't really fight yet.”

“Okay!” I felt her hand rattling around under my right arm for a moment, and saw her picking out some of the least rusty bolts I had left.

For me, I had the two heaviest pinched between my fingers. Two shots in a row didn't seem to make me too tired, and I'd had decent luck two-tap headshotting the leaf-hounds so far, so I saw no reason to change my strategy yet.

We set out, nice and slow, picking our way down the highway between the abandoned cars. I tried to keep my ears out for the scrabbling of sneaking leaf-hounds, but between the footsteps of five people, my own clanking, and the muffling effect of the helmet's padding, it was a miracle I could even hear myself think. It was no surprise when the first indication I had of one attacking was the girls shrieking and Todd smacking it with his bat. It was more of a surprise that, even in the moment, he remembered the plan and let the girls get their whacks in – Chloe by flinging a bolt and Nicole by literally kicking it while it was down – before he finished it off.

“Check status,” I said, “Confirm what you all got.”

They did, and it was what I'd hoped: four points for each of them.

“Perfect. Let's keep doing that.”

My own status hadn't changed much since the deli, though I did notice that my Novelty had ticked up a bit:

Emma DeVries

Novelty: 20

Abilities:

Missile (200%)

Force Shield (200%)

Points: 144

Money: 12

We moved on. The next leaf-hound came up less than a hundred feet later, and this time Renee and I intercepted it. I body-checked it with my shield, she prodded its weird shoulder-eyes with her shovel, and we called the girls up to get their kicks in before I put a bolt through its head to send it back to respawn-ville. By the time we finished it, we could already see the blue smoke of the first one putting itself back together, though we couldn't quite make out where it ended up.

It took us an hour before Todd pointed out the turn-off for the box store. Once we were off the highway, the situation changed. There were more people out, for one thing. Among them, I spotted an old man in a bathrobe fighting a leaf-hound with his wooden cane, baiting it into charging him then sidestepping it like a bull-fighter and whacking it over the head. It seemed like a needlessly elaborate way to fight such a weak monster, but it was working for him if the leaf-hound's mounting frustration and confusion were any indication. We saluted each other, and my group kept on.

As we passed out of the small residential strip off the highway, my breath and my feet caught. On one side of the street was a large brick church, unremarkable in almost every way. On the other side of the street, however, was a large, open field. At first I thought it might be a park, but then I spotted a sign declaring that it was actually a cemetery.

A cemetery that positively crawled with leaf-hounds, their rattling sounding like a whole forest of aspens in the watery sunrise light. Where the most we had fought at a time up until then was two, in that field there had to be dozens. We angled closer to the church, kept our heads down behind the parked cars and ornamental trees, and focused very hard on moving as sneakily as an armed-and-armored war party possibly could.

It was a harrowing few minutes from one end of that block to the other, but we made it through without provoking the horde, and that was good enough for now.

Going back to one or two leaf-hounds per block was a relief after that.

During the next block, I felt a tug, and then another. When I looked over my shoulder, Renee and Todd each had a hand over the eyes of one of the twins. At my curious head-tilt, Renee pointed ahead where a leaf-hound could be seen savaging a dead body.

For a moment, I was back in the parking lot, I could smell the blood and the smoke...

Then Renee patted my shoulder, and my attention snapped to her. I was grounded in now again. Swallowing a sudden urge to retch, I gave her a nod and slipped out ahead of the group to go blast that leaf-hound myself. The points ticking up weren't as satisfying to me as letting whoever that body had been rest.

They let the girls see after that, but still directed their eyes away from the mangled body. They needed to see where they were going, but they didn't really need to see... that.

The return to a highway – not the same one, but one that ran parallel further to the south – felt weirdly normal after the cemetery, the body, and the foreboding paranoia that came with all of it. This, at least, felt a little bit familiar.

Nicole finally got a chance to let her Seekers shine a few minutes onto the new highway. A leaf-hound leapt from atop a tanker-truck, and she launched one of her seekers at it. It took the form of a knee-high orange-and-black striped... puppy... and howled as it lunged into battle. The two beasts hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and snarling, and we all stood back to let them have at it. It would be a good test of how strong Nicole's fighting summons actually were, even if the ability that spawned them did describe them as “fragile.”

The summoned Seeker ultimately lost – pinned down and its throat ripped – but by the time it dissipated, there wasn't much left of the leaf-hound either. It had one shoulder-eye ruined and was favoring one front leg. It even looked like it was missing some teeth, though none of us could quite tell when that had happened. Renee handed Nicole her shovel and let her finish it off with a couple of good whacks on the head, leaving her to get all the points to herself.

Getting to the box store meant leaving the highway again, and it was nearly noon when we reached the shade of another residential neighborhood. I was grateful for a chance to take my helmet off and sip some water while the others stood watch, and just as willing to take my turn watching while they rested. Nobody talked much. There wasn't much to say, and we were all way too tense for idle chatter. Again I found myself grateful for the featureless helmet; it made it easy to hide my own tension. So long as I maintained a confident posture, the others only saw confidence and not a hint of the nerves I saw in everyone else's eyes.

A few more blocks, a few more leaf-hounds shut down by Nicole's Seekers, and we were there, at the parking lot of the orange box store.

Before we could go in, though, Nicole called for a stop. “That last leaf-hound leveled me,” she said, “I can pick another ability.”

“You got 144 points already?” Chloe gaped.

“Yep!” Nicole answered, grinning that cat-grin both twins were so good at.

“She got assists on practically every leaf-hound the whole way here,” Todd said, “And a couple all to herself. Makes sense.”

I asked her, “Do you know what you want?”

“Yeah, I think so. Can I have a couple minutes?”

“Yeah,” I said, “Better to do it here where we know it's clear, and then we can get closer. What are you taking?”

“I wanna take another Summon,” she said, “I was gonna take another fighting one, but... How about Summon Laborer instead?”

“That sounds almost too timely. Go for it.”

She nodded. A moment later her eyes widened. “Oh wow.”

“What?”

“Both of my abilities say (200%) after 'em now. I guess I picked good!”

“Maybe because they're so similar?” I mused, “We'll compare notes once we get back. For now, why don't you summon one and see how long you can keep it out? If you start to feel tired at all, you dismiss it until you're recovered, okay?”

Nicole nodded, and with a swish of her hand she conjured up her Laborer. It took the form of a large, slightly reptilian humanoid with grey skin and a loincloth and the physique of a body-builder, complete with four burly arms.

With our new friend trudging along beside her, we made our way in.