> This is incredibly nasty for a first Threat! The Clothes-Lovers have barely been given any Threat-specific tools. I know what contestant species are given varies, but they have literally no options if a Threat grows out of control. I know we have criticized the emergency tools in previous contests as being nearly as bad as the Threats themselves, but at least they existed!

> --Radio transmission from Voices for Non-Citizens

As we stared at the tree, a young man in military fatigues came up and tapped my shoulder. “Ms. Moretti? Colonel Zwerinski asked me to send you in to see him when you arrived.”

“Okay…” I said. I wasn’t sure why the colonel would want to see me, in particular, but I definitely wanted the opportunity to pick his brain. The information I got probably wouldn’t be comforting, but it wasn’t hard to be less terrifying than total uncertainty.

Delaying just long enough to be sure my boys knew to stay close to the Turners, I jogged into the fire station. The fire trucks had been moved outside somehow, leaving the garage vast and empty. A few tables had been dragged into the middle, but there was still room for hundreds of people.

Instead, Colonel Zwerinski was nodding as someone in flying gear gave him a report while a single aide stood by with a clipboard. The trio looked inadequate and lost in the cavernous space.

I glanced around curiously as the flyer finished his report and was ordered back into the air. When the colonel looked up at me, I couldn’t help myself.

“Where is everybody?” I asked.

Colonel Zwerinski grunted out a laugh. “Still on their way, I hope.”

“But you came ahead with a whole group, didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “We did, but we needed to bring lots of Ability specialists. Earth and rock shapers, in particular. Tests on smaller treezillas suggest that their roots have a broad reach, but not much broader than the area their branches can strike. I’ve got a team testing to see if that holds true with this one. If so, they’re going to try to make us an approach tunnel. Even if it can’t get us all the way, it’ll be valuable.”

“Helen just got here. She was riding with us.”

Zwerinski’s face got the slightly distant look of someone using Mental Speech. “Excellent. I’ve sent her along. She’ll need to keep her strength back for the assault, but she’s powerful. Even if she has to hold back, she’ll be a huge help.

I frowned. “I was wondering why Helen was here. I assumed it was to make bunkers or something. The tunnel made sense, too, but why would we need her on the assault?”

“Did you hear much about the Gurley treezilla?”

“Isn’t that the one that killed multiple people? I can’t say I know much other than that.”

“That’s the one. Came up in a park right next to city hall and got three people almost immediately. We’re still not sure why they were there - news had definitely gone out that the area around the pylons were dangerous - but their deaths were witnessed. It took Gurley about two hours after that to get a combat team assembled, and we reckon they came just short of killing it. Most of the branches had fallen off and the trunk was in sorry shape. Well, doing that put the area’s only Intensifier on cooldown. At first, they thought ‘Well, we’ll try again tomorrow,’ but after a bit they realized that all the damage had healed up and the tree was getting bigger, so they reached out to us and then it took us some more time to get a team out there to put it down. By the time we got there, city hall was mostly rubble and the tree was close to eighty feet tall. Deeply unfortunate, but it gave us a lot of information about fighting larger treezillas.”

My eyes had gotten wider and wider as Colonel Zwerinski spoke. “Like the fact that they heal?”

He sighed. “That’s part of it. And the bigger they are, the faster they heal up. Superficial damage is gone in seconds. There’s a truck about ten minutes out now bringing some artillery. When they get here, we’ll test how quickly bigger injuries heal… but I’m concerned that it won’t be long enough to get our entire force inside without assistance.”

“So you want Helen ready to… hold open a door?”

“More or less. She’s one of the best stone-shapers in the city.”

I nodded, slowly. “Okay. So… that’s part of what you learned. And the other part?”

“Mostly the… layout? Anatomy? For the little tree in our neighborhood, it wasn’t too obvious. There was a hollow part in the middle. When trees get bigger, you see a full chamber in the center, or even multiple full chambers, lined up along that middle column like beads on a string.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Do they go right up against the bark?”

“In Gurley, they pretty much did. In this treezilla, they sadly do not. I want to use my Clairvoyance to see what we were dealing with, but it’s pitch-dark inside and the injuries we’ve been able to deal so far don’t last long enough for me to really get a good look around.”

I quickly scanned my interface. I’m pretty sure… yeah, okay, I’ve got four patterns sitting around. Awesome. Purchase, purchase, purchase, purchase.

A stack of Small Light Sources materialized on the table. Colonel Zwerinski looked startled for a moment, but began smiling even before I’d started to explain.

“Can we try to shove these inside when you do the artillery tests? Even if there’s only a gap for a second, the monsters seem to ignore Light Sources, so if we can get it inside…”

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Colonel Zwerinski muttered. In spite of his irritated words, he looked delighted.

The aide at his elbow cleared her throat. “You are only one person, sir.”

Zwerinski took a deep breath. “Too true.” He glanced at me. “That’s why I asked you here to begin with, Ms. Moretti. I haven’t been able to survey the tree’s internals fully, but I’m expecting there to be at least six chambers inside, possibly many more. If we try to cram everyone into the lowest one, it won’t give us much space to fight. Friendly fire risk would be extremely high. It's possible we'll have to fight that way, but we're currently operating under the assumption that each chamber will most likely be an independent batttlefield.”

I flinched. “Bunching up does sound like a bad idea if it's not necessary... but really? Me? The Arsenal is sending a bunch of military people down, right?”

“They are,” he acknowledged. “Unfortunately, there are going to be dangerous operations up North as well, as they attempt to put down Huntsville’s treezillas without the aid of Intensifiers. I have sufficient subordinates with adequate rank to command, but several lack experience and others lack… judgement.” He paused, leaning his hands on the table and looking me in the eyes. “Quite frankly, I trust you more. Military background or no.”

My mouth fell open in shock, but I didn’t know what to say.

Zwerinski rushed to continue. “You’re not the only civilian I’m asking. Clarice should be here in a half-hour, and she’s already agreed to lead a subgroup. And you’d be in the safest spot I could give you: second chamber from ground level.”

“Why’s the second floor safer than the ground?” I asked, still reeling, reaching for a way to end my silence.

“The ground chamber’s team will include the people on-duty from holding the ground and doing rescue work. They may be tired, and they’re the most likely not to make it into position in time.” He frowned, shuffling some scribble-strewn papers to peer intensely at one lower in the stack. “You, on the other hand, will have an overstrength force. This should allow you to deal with the treewalkers easily if they appear in the same chamber as the people who summon them, and will give you the best odds if their appearance location is random. Also, most importantly, if treewalkers always appear on the ground floor, you will be out of immediate danger.”

“You… don’t know? Shouldn’t you know, if Gurley had two chambers?”

“Unfortunately, Gurley’s second chamber was discovered only after the treezilla had been killed. This will be our first multifloor assault.” He met my eyes. “Will you lead your floor?”

Me? In command again? On purpose? It’s not overall command, but still… if I say yes today, they’ll definitely keep asking me. I wasn’t sure I wanted that, taking on responsibility for so many other people’s lives. I’d done it before, but it had been in emergencies. I hadn’t really had a choice.

“How did this tree get so big, anyway?” I asked, stalling for time.

Zwerinski glanced behind him, gesturing to his aide. She cleared her throat. “We’ll probably have to wait until after we’ve taken it down to get a full picture, but I’ve been interviewing evacuees. I’ve gotten several people confirming they saw a group of twenty or so people walking up to the tree soon after it appeared. Not fighting it, not defending themselves, just… walking up and dying.”

“Why?” Disbelief tore its way out of my mouth in something close to a shout.

The aide frowned. “No idea just yet. Suicide cult? Mass hysteria? Your guess is as good as mine. I can confirm it happened, but that’s about all.”

“Twenty people,” I muttered.

“Much more than that, by now,” the aide said. At my look of disbelief, she rushed to clarify. “Not like the first group! But the tree grew so quickly… a lot of people who thought they were safe, weren’t. And some others decided to attack it before we arrived. Their plan wasn’t… well, I spoke with a survivor. From what he said, I’m not entirely sure they had a plan. Just bravado and anger.”

I sighed, scrunching all my eyes shut tight. It was a horrible story, but I couldn’t say I was truly shocked. People can be real idiots.

Colonel Zwerinski said he didn’t completely trust the subordinates he had available.

Do I want my kids’ safety to rely on someone he’d rather not have in charge?

Clearly not.

“Alright,” I said. “Tell me what you need me to do.”