Raising the map, Josh tried to identify landmarks that would match up with what they’d been provided. But there was a problem.

“Where’d it all go?”

Rocks crunched under his boots as he walked forward into the crater of what had been their destination, the location of a refugee camp. The ground had sunken like a bowl, bowing inward from a great impact. There hadn’t been any signs of an explosion around the area either, leaving them both perplexed. The clear blue skies seemingly robbed the monumental destruction that took place of any impact, as it was so peaceful, quiet.

Maybe too quiet.

“Yeah… not a good sign. I wonder if anyone got out. Was this a collapse, or did something step on them?” Maria glanced at the sky uneasily. “Hopefully nothing that big roaming around.”

“The territory was still a rank two, so I doubt it… I’m not so sure though.” He placed the map in his back pocket and used his trusty eyes to look around, not that they identified much more than rubble and an abnormal crater. “Not sure what to do here. Think we should move on to the next area?”

“Is there anything else we can do? It’s not like we can scan for life signs or anything.” The feeble attempt at a joke came out more worried than anything. “I could shout quite loudly to ask if anyone’s around, but that would also attract any unfriendlies in the area. You think we could handle that? I’d feel bad not trying anything though.”

Josh shrugged. “Might as well try it. Couldn’t hurt anything to try.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and smirked. “Feels kind of funny to be shouting when magic and the like is a thing now.”

“Use what you got, right?”

“Guess so. Here goes nothing.” Josh breathed deep and bellowed with all his might, “Anybody out there?”

To his surprise, Maria’s voice overwhelmed his own. “Hey! You! Guys!”

They waited. Nothing happened for several moments, not until the ground began rumbling.

“Keep it down up there! Are you trying to get us all killed?”

Maria immediately clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oops.”

“I think we angered the neighbors.” A part of the ground shifted into a hole, and a moleman with spectacles hanging from its face to rest on a beard that went down to its stout stomach shook a fist at them. Josh scratched his chin and looked toward Maria. “Not quite what I was expecting.”

“We’re looking for the refugees that were camped here. Can you direct us?”

“Where yer manners, youngin? Ye come bargin’ into mah home, yappin’ yer trap, makin’ a mighty fuss of things ‘n’ don’ have proper respect tah give yer elder an apology before askin’ fer a favor? New worlds these days, I’ll say! Pah! Cannae even spare a shed of decency to us older newfolk, humph.”

“Sorry to disturb you. Do you know what happened here, or not?”

“‘Course ah do. Was me ‘n’ mine, after all,” the grumpy mole-person muttered before jumping into the hole it just came out of. It shouted indistinctive growls and guttural sounds they couldn’t make sense of.

Moments later, a middle-aged woman poked her head out from the hole and gasped. “It’s really true.” She followed the mole-person back down into the hole, hollering as well.

“Like peas in a pod,” muttered Maria.

“Birds of a feather, I suppose,” Josh agreed.

People started coming up through the opened hole. Maria let out a relieved sigh, and Josh counted the lot as they exited.

“Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty. A decent sized lot we have here.” Already, he weighed the logistics of escorting all sixty people to the next refugee camp against protocol, which told them to return with any group over fifty people. He went to grab Maria and pull her aside to speak to her about what to do next, only to find she’d already rushed off into the crowd.

“Josh! Over here!” She waved, sounding happier than she’d been in a while. “They’re alive!”

Before doing so, Josh took out the map and circled the location, writing “grouchy mole people” over his scribbling of a giant crater. Finished with that, since he was liable to forget, he stuffed both pen and map back into his pocket and took a deep breath.

“This is out of my comfort zone,” he grumbled, seeing three children, two adults, and an elderly lady around Maria. “Way, way out of my comfort zone.”

“Come meet my family!” she called, waving him toward them again.

Resigned to his fate, he nodded and approached, waving awkwardly. “Nice to meet you all. Glad to see you’re all safe.”

“Oooh, look how big he is! Is this your boyfriend? You sure have been busy while you’ve been gone. When’s the wedding?” another middle-aged woman resembling Maria rapidly fired off.

“Momma, you’re embarrassing!” Maria’s cheeks were rose red, and she tried taking shelter behind the very person that had done the embarrassing, to which her mom stepped aside.

“Well, sweetheart, you’re mom’s got a point,” the elderly lady said, standing beside Josh and feeling his arms. “What great muscles he’s got. Looks like such a hard worker, and oh! He’s blushing! He’s a sweetheart, fit for my granddaughter.”

“He’s not good enough for you, sis!”

“He’s big and scary!”

“Yeah, just look at his face. He looks like he could scare paint off a wall. Like, geez man, lighten up.”

Outnumbered six to one, no ready answer came to mind. Where was he supposed to start with this? Uncertainty demanded he do something, so his confused brain decided to simply wave and smile. “Hi.”

“Put those things away!”

“You’re gonna scare little Timmy!”

“Scare me? He’d scare the dead back to life with that smile.”

The elderly lady smiled, wrinkles creasing around her eyes. “It’s so nice to meet you, young man. I’m so looking forward to the wedding.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “I’ll get to see one of my grandchildren married before my time comes.”

“Mom! Don’t talk like that. You’re still a healthy young lady.” Maria’s mom approached Josh, leaning forward. “If you don’t treat her right, I’ll be sure to feed you to one of the monsters. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Even though he logically knew he could probably crush her with a single finger, her power was far more intimidating than anything he’d encountered to date. She held a hand out for him to shake, and he took it gently. “Nice to meet you. All of you. I’ve heard a lot from Maria.” Now that he’d deflected the attention momentarily, he sent the girl in question an apologetic look.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Oh? Do tell what kinds of things our sweetheart has said about us?” Maria’s mother said, eyes slitted like that of a snake.

“I-I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time for that while we’re on the road.” Maria faked checking a watch. “Oh, would you look at the time? We’ve gotta get going. Places to be, things to do!”

Josh watched Maria scamper off, rallying the rest of the group and preparing to set off. “And then there was one.”

“Now that she’s gone, I suppose proper introductions are in order. I’m Tabitha. You’ve met Mama. The one with an attitude problem is Jamie, my little helper is Ray, and the biggest pain in my butt out of them all is Timmy.” She pointed to each as she named them off, and Josh committed them to memory as if his life depended on it. “Now,” she took his arm and began walking toward Maria, Mama grabbing the other, “let’s talk about the future, why don’t we? I’m very excited to see what kind of ideas you have for a wedding.”

“Mhmm, very excited,” Mama agreed, nodding.

No matter how hard he tried to meet Maria’s eyes to beg for help, he could tell she intentionally avoided looking in his direction. “Traitor.”

“What was that?” Tabitha asked, her snake eyes sending a tingle of danger down his spine.

“N-nothing, ma’am.”

“That’s what I thought.”

*

“This is such a logistical nightmare.” With the map in hand atop a large hill, Josh looked around. Even from there, he could see the amount of monsters infesting the territories ahead.

“Well, we can always turn back for Zion and come back out after we’ve gotten them all registered,” suggested Maria, though he couldn’t figure out if she was trying to convince him or herself.

Josh looked over his shoulder and saw Tabitha glaring up at them and Mama waving with a great big smile on her face. “Yeah, definitely not. So what can we do?”

“That’s not really my specialty, oh fearless leader.” She shrugged. “About how much farther until we get to the next camp? Maybe there will be fighters there that can help us? One of us could go forth and clear the way.”

“One of us, huh?” He had a good idea of who she meant, and he didn’t like the idea of leaving her to defend the entire group’s perimeter alone. “Let’s try to think of other options first.”

“I’m all ears.” She flipped her hand axes in her hands, easily catching them and flipping them again to create a smooth motion. “But I don’t think we’ll have much of a choice if we don’t think of something fast. Momma’s watching us like a hawk, and she’ll take over if we don’t decide on something here soon.”

“Well,” Josh checked the map again and pointed toward a landmark he could recognize, a fallen water tower, “the next camp is supposedly just a bit beyond that. If it were just us, I wouldn’t be too worried. But…”

She raised a hand to block out the sun and grunted. “Looks like a lizardmen’s den. Moving with so many people, we’re likely to attract all sorts of attention.”

“Hence logistical nightmare.” He tapped on Bartholomew, considering how much food they didn’t have and how many mouths that would be hungry in the near future. Consulting the map again, he found a convenience store listed as a resource depot and searched for it, pointing. “It’s toward the edge of the den, but we might be able to camp there tonight and get supplies for everyone. It would be easier to defend, and only one of us would need to stick around to defend the group. When the sun rises, we’d be able to set off again.”

“Not the worst idea, and I can’t think of anything better. Let’s do it.”

Before they could move, footsteps approached. It was Tabitha. “You both look like you need some help. What’s the matter?”

Josh’s first instinct was to tell her they’d figured out a workable plan, but Maria beat him to the response. “We’ve got a bit of an issue with the size of our perimeter up ahead and the lack of food and water for everyone. There’s a convenience store up ahead we want to take shelter in, but with a group this size, we’re not sure we can cover everyone safely.”

Tabitha nodded. “I know a few people have fought before. I can check to see if there’s anybody willing to help out with guard duty or something, if that’s what we need to keep moving. People are starting to get restless and have been complaining about hearing noises from the back of the group.”

Peering toward the back of the formation, Josh watched for any signs of movement. He didn’t see anything obvious, but he wasn’t so inexperienced to dismiss reports just because a cursory glance didn’t find anything.

“Please talk with anybody who might be able to help,” Maria responded in his stead. She glanced his way, but seeing his focus, she left him be, taking her mom’s hand and heading down the hill. “Join us when you can.”

“Will do.” At times like this, Josh wished he had some kind of sensory ability. But that had never been his thing. Would come in handy right about now. After a few minutes of searching for any signs of a threat at the rear, he turned his attention back toward the convenience store they’d be using as shelter overnight. “This is gonna get messy, and fast. Let’s hope someone down there can help us out, even just a little.”

The small town had held up better than most they’d seen. The buildings and houses looked well enough for people to live in, meaning it acted as shelter for potential enemies too. He had a bad feeling about pushing forward and really considered going back to Zion.

But he was strong. Maria believed in him, so he would too. He’d protect everyone, find his family, and get them all back to the safety of Zion’s encampment. That was the mission he set off with, and he’d see it through.

Though, he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d overlooked something. He pushed away the feeling and headed back down the hill to join the resting group.

“There he is. Just in time to make introductions,” Maria said, taking her place by his side. There were five others lined up in a row. Each looked as if they’d experienced a variety of what the new world had become. “In order, Fred, Melissa, AJ, Vivian, and Bruce.”

“Have you all been debriefed on your responsibilities?” asked Josh, eyeing each one. From a quick glance, he could derive each of their capabilities.

“We have,” Tabitha said, joining their ranks with a bow in hand and a quiver at her side.

“Anyone have sensory abilities of any kind?”

“Didn’t know that was a thing,” the one introduced as Fred said, looking sorry. The others agreed in disjointed murmuring.

Josh nodded and glanced toward the back of their group, holding back a sigh. “It’s fine, I didn’t expect any, but it’d be irresponsible not to check.”

Feeling his tension and observative as ever, Maria grabbed his arm and gently turned him so the others couldn’t hear. “What’s the matter? You’ve been on edge since talking to my mom. Something I need to know?”

He thought long and hard about what to tell her in the brief seconds they made eye contact. His nervous glance gave him away, and her eyes hardened. “Fine. Back at the crater, things were a bit too quiet. Why was it that everyone was hiding underground with the mole people?” He pointed a finger toward their row of six. “Maybe it’s worth asking about before we walk into a lizardmen den and get blindsided by something that we might’ve disturbed. Just a thought, but it’s been nagging at me.”

“We’ve come pretty far from there though? You think something would be—oh. That’s why you asked about sensory abilities.” She chewed the inside of her cheek, thinking for a moment, then nodded. “Better safe than sorry.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” He was glad she understood his concern and watched as she turned back toward the others. “I’ll address this simply, as it’s important information that might alter the trajectory of our plans. We’re running low on time, so I’ll be blunt. Why were you all hiding with the mole people instead of seeking refuge elsewhere?”

Tabitha stepped up to answer and opened her mouth, but before she could get a word in, the one introduced as Vivian fell to her knees, wailing. “M-my husband! Th-they killed him!”

AJ knelt beside Vivian and tried to calm the woman down as Fred helpfully answered. “There are monsters unlike any others, and I came from pretty far out. They like the thrill of the hunt and stalk their prey, unseen and unheard.” He glanced behind them. “I’d wager they’re already on our trail, even as we speak, if they aren’t already waiting for an opportunity to pounce.”

“Maria, head count. Now.” Josh took the warning at face value and headed to the back of the group’s perimeter, scanning everything he could see. There was still nothing, and again, that nagging feeling warily clenched his chest tight. “A monster like that… What can it be?”

“Hey…” Maria’s voice was low, quiet, as if trying not to be overheard. “The count’s off.”

“Who’s missing?” He kept his eyes peeled for any movements he’d missed, but still, nothing changed.

“That’s just it. Nobody’s missing.” Her eyes glanced to the side toward the group. “There’s too many people. My count… It was sixty-eight.”

“Extra people snuck into the group?” But why wouldn’t they have announced themselves?

“I don’t think that’s it…”

“It’s getting dark soon, and most monsters hunt at night. The last thing we want is to be caught in the open. We have to get to shelter regardless of our newcomers’ intentions.”

“But that puts everyone in danger!” she hissed, panicked eyes darting to her siblings and grandmother.

“And they weren’t in danger before?”

“We at least knew where the danger was before. This… It’s…”

“What? Not fair? Isn’t so simple? More dangerous than you expected it to be?” He lifted his club over his shoulder and turned away. “Prepare to move.”