We ran.

The leaf-hounds followed.

All of them. At least it sure sounded like all of them, their shrill chittering and dry leaf-rattles blending together into a hellish noise that drowned out our footfalls and even muted the clanking of my armor.

Nicole dropped a Seeker as we ran.

Todd fell back, getting ready for another shot. When the breach of his shotgun-arm opened, what popped out was distinctly not the two red-and-brass shells I was expecting. They almost looked like coral instead. Or bone. He slammed it shut with the breach empty, backpedaling after us as he fired again.

At that range, with so many of them after us, he couldn't possibly miss. In fact, two more leaf-hounds were sent back to whatever hell they spawned from before he turned to run with us, not bothering to rack a third shot.

Leading the charge up a wheelchair ramp, Renee and I hit the door with our shoulders at the same time, and the framing around it gave with a brittle crack, leaving it swinging inward on hinges that held on for dear life, with a latch that held on to nothing. Was the door just that old? I couldn't spare the brain cells to think about it.

Chloe and Nicole made it in behind us.

Ridley and Todd shoved the hauler through the accessibly-wide doorway.

Renee and I slammed the door shut and held it.

The leaf-hounds arrived with a whump against the door that... barely pushed us back at all.

We shared a look as the press of bodies gave way to a scrabbling of claws, and then to silence.

Renee spoke first. “Did that feel a little... too...”

I shook my head, “Don't even finish that out loud. But. Yeah it did. I don't know about you but I always thought literally kicking in a door was something that only happened in movies. Like, shouldn't a real door have been stronger than that? And... that was a lot of hounds...”

“Do you think we're... stronger, somehow?”

“You can heal people with a touch, and I'm a walking railgun. Possible has been a suggestion for a while now.”

Nicole – flopped in a plastic chair and panting from the unexpected sprint – spoke up. “Why'd they just stop like that? Are they still out there?”

Todd was the one to answer: “The announcement at the beginning said we'd be safe indoors for a while. Maybe they could only hit the door because they were already chasing us, but they can't try to get in now that we got away.”

I nodded. “That's probably it. We should still board this up before we relax, though. Nicole, could you get Ridley to do it?”

She didn't answer. When I looked to see why, she had put her head down on the folding table her chair had been next to and was sound asleep, cradling her head on her arms. I looked around for Ridley but the hauler was unattended.

Renee and I rolled it back, then turned it sideways in front of the door, our makeshift cart becoming a makeshift barricade.

Chloe and Percy rejoined us from further into the church a moment later.

“They're definitely still out there,” she said.

“It does seem that the Maffiyir's prohibition on monsters attacking buildings does not extend to merely surveilling them,” Percy added.

“Or surrounding them,” I said.

Chloe and Percy both nodded.

“Alright,” Renee said, “Let's figure we're going to be stuck here for a little while.

“Chloe, can you see if you can find a blanket or a jacket or something like that to give Nicole a little cover?

“Emma... Get started on shields for the girls?

“Todd, you used your powers a lot just now. Get some rest. I'll guard the door first.”

We all nodded. Despite her being a teacher, it was a little strange to see Renee taking charge. But there was no fighting here and nothing she said was really wrong...

I pulled a measuring tape and some writing supplies out of the hauler and got measuring. It was easy to measure Nicole's shoulders since she was asleep, and when Chloe got back with an oversized coat to throw over her, I got her shoulders and height, using the same value for Nicole since they were close enough.

Meanwhile, Renee set a chair by the door and put her feet up on the hauler, keeping her shovel across her lap like a guardsman's spear, and Todd settled in at the same folding table that Nicole was napping on, laying his head on his left arm while his shotgun right arm rested in his lap.

Once the two of them had something to pass for a blanket, Chloe came over to me and I showed her how to mark out the shields on the sheets of plywood. We got one up on a different table, and she held it down while I sawed.

It went... shockingly fast. With Chloe holding it down, the plywood barely moved at all, almost as good as if it had been clamped. I forgot about clamps. Damn... I didn't think I was sawing that hard, but we had the first shield cut out in only a few minutes. I wasn't sure I could've done it faster even if we had a working jigsaw.

Hand-drilling the holes for the bolts and trimming the bolts themselves with a hacksaw once they were in went fast, too. Just how strong are we now? I didn't say it out loud, but Renee's thoughts from earlier rattled around in my head while Chloe and I worked.

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Soon we were done with our first shield, and Chloe snuck over to lay it on the table next to Nicole for her to find, along with her axes, when she woke up. At Chloe's suggestion, we had even used an extra bit of the cargo webbing to put loops on the back of the shield for her to stash her axes in. While she was bringing her sister her shield, I spotted Percy napping on the table between Todd and Nicole. I was pretty sure he didn't actually need to sleep, but the way he curled up was so cat-like I was equally sure he was enjoying trying to.

The second one went even faster, and I got to be the one to give it to Renee. I didn't think she would be sticking with the shovel as a long-term weapon, but we did put some cargo webbing on hers, too, not for her weapon but to act as a back-strap instead. It would let her carry it on her back if she needed both hands free.

Todd was awake by then and said he didn't want one; he had enough to worry about managing his shotgun-arm and sledgehammer and couldn't figure out how to work a shield into what he had going on. He instead relieved Renee of her guard post so she could go off in the corner and practice her footwork and stabbing around the shield with her shovel.

I still had the shield I borrowed from my mom's stuff, so we made one for Chloe next. Once she had hers, she went to practice with Renee, not against each other but working together to slay an especially imposing coat rack.

Since I wasn't tired yet at all, I kept going.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

By the time I was tired enough to stop, it was also getting too dark to keep working. I blinked, realizing I'd been making shields for... something like four hours straight? Whatever was going on with our strength must also be going on with our stamina, because I was barely even sore.

While I thought about it, I decided to stretch my legs anyway, and that gave me an excuse to go check in with the others and see what I'd missed while I was 'in the zone', as mom would say.

Nicole had slept off the effects of over-using her powers in an hour or two and then joined the others in working with their shields. She liked dual-wielding better, but admitted the shield was probably a lot safer.

Although he had sat watch for hours, Todd reported that the leaf-hounds continued to watch and otherwise do nothing. They hadn't tried to force their way in even once in all that time. Even after another group came through and drew some of them away by shooting them with Missiles and Firebolts, they didn't give up completely. Some had split off to engage, but others were fixated on our door.

Renee mentioned that she had explored the place a bit. Although nobody had gone into the actual sanctuary itself, she had gotten into the pastor's office. He had a window that could see out towards the cemetery. Although the leaf-hounds hadn't tried to get in, they were still milling around outside. It looked like most of them, at least, were happy to sit there and wait for us, especially since the sun was on its way down and the heat of the day was ending.

During time off from her practicing, Chloe had found her way down to the basement. There was a little space down there that looked like some kind of social gathering area, and she found a couple of boxes of cereal in the pantry of the space's kitchenette that were still good. The others had eaten some, but saved some for me, too. No milk to go with it, but considering it probably would've been spoiled after two days of summer heat with no power, that might have been a mercy.

I ate what passed for dinner while once again deep in thought. So deep that I was petting Percy's head for a few minutes before I even realized he had snuck up and shoved his head under my hand. Sneaky dragon. Not that I minded petting him; in a way it helped me relax and think more clearly, my mind not running away with me down the different rabbit-holes of what-if's.

“Hey, Emma,” Renee said, pulling out a folding chair to sit next to me, “I had an idea.”

“Oh?”

“We're safe in here, right? The leaf-hounds won't come in, and if they try we're probably all strong enough to slam a door on them.”

I nodded.

“What if we got some farming in before bedtime?”

“Farming?”

“For points. You, me, and Nicole are the only ones at two abilities so far. If Chloe and Todd threw some rocks and you finished them off with your bolts, we could probably get everybody up to at least level two off of how many leaf-hounds are still out there.”

“Especially if they start respawning. Okay. That does sound like a good idea.”

We called the others together, and Renee explained her plan: “We're going to open the door, and I'm going to stand behind it,” she said, “That way if the leaf-hounds try to rush the door we can slam it on them again. Chloe and Todd are going to throw some of the nuts and bolts we looted, and Emma's going to finish off any leaf-hounds you two hit with her Missiles. That way she can feed you contributions until we get you your second abilities.

“Once everybody's at level two, then Nicole and I can take a turn, but not until then. Emma's our ace so far, so I hope nobody has a problem with her staying in?”

Everybody shook their heads, and Renee nodded once. “Good. Let's get set up.”

Todd glanced at me as we got into position, and spoke in a low voice. “We're seriously doing this? Farming those things on purpose?”

“We have to,” I said, “You saw one take a shot at Nicole. It's not like the monsters care who's a kid and who's not. We're all just... meat... to them. At least this way we have a chance to do it safely, right?”

We took our positions at the door, outside of the range of its sweep. Nicole conjured Ridley and had him drag the hauler out of the way, but not too out of the way. Chloe and Todd stood, and I knelt in front with my shield across me and a bolt already in hand.

“On three,” Renee said. “One... two... three.”

The door clicked and swung open.

It was almost anticlimactic, in that no leaf-hounds immediately charged the door. Several of them did lift their noses, tilted their heads, and looked around like they couldn't tell where the sound came from.

Once Chloe threw her weapon of choice – a large hex-nut – that was when things got interesting. It flew in a wobbly arc, but there were still so many of the things that she hit one, whether or not it was the specific one she was aiming for. The others continued to ignore us, but that one in particular screeched and charged. Todd threw his nut as it got closer, and I put a lag-bolt in the middle of its forehead the instant it tensed to jump. It hit the ground at my feet already starting to dissolve into blue smoke.

It went on like that for a while, with the two of them taking turns drawing aggro and me finishing off whatever they pulled. Todd bowed out first, going off to pick his second ability while Chloe and I continued grinding. Outside, puffs of blue smoke could be seen out in the cemetery. Not of monsters being killed, but of the leaf-hounds we killed when we first started respawning already. Has it really been twenty minutes already?

Chloe bowed out when she got her pick, and went to sit with Todd while the two of them went over their options. Percy hopped up on the table, apparently eager to weigh in on the topic as well.

Nicole subbed in once her sister subbed out, and – since it really did look like the leaf-hounds wouldn't approach the door if we didn't pull them – Renee took a turn, too. Her aim with a hex-nut was nothing short of embarrassing, though. Eventually I resorted to asking Nicole to have her Seekers drag leaf-hounds back alive for Renee to whack with her shovel before she or I finished them off.

By the time we closed the door and had Ridley push the hauler back into place, we had massacred enough leaf-hounds – including their respawns that trickled back in – that the three of us had our third ability pick.

Considering I was sharing most of my wins these last two days, I must've literally killed over a hundred of them already. When did I become like this? I know they're just monsters, and it looks like they're not even real animals since they turn into smoke, but... is this whole thing making me weird?

Is killing monsters supposed to be this easy?

I couldn't answer, and, for a long while that night, I couldn't sleep, either.