Laraaq woke up early and was checking in on his truck before heading out to meet up with Mack, Christy, Colin, and Sarah. After doing his circle of safety to see if any damage or looting occurred last night, he opened the truck door.
Caleb came running out and calling out to Laraaq. “Mr. Laraaq! Mr. Laraaq! Wait!”
Laraaq groaned as he shut the moving truck door. “Now what?”
Caleb caught his breath. “Carl needs you at comms. There is a message for you.”
Laraaq gave him a puzzled look. “A message for me?”
“Yes sir. Please come with me.” Caleb said as he guided the man back inside.
‘This better not be a trap. I don’t have time for such nonsense.’ Laraaq thought as he recalled his experiences the prior evening. Last night he had talked to Carl’s mother. She was a nice enough lady but what interested him was the fact that she had already was in contact with multiple small groups of survivors. The woman lived a few hundred miles from their location, and he had promised Carl, they could retrieve her on the way to their destination.
Lost in his thoughts Laraaq finally noticed he had entered the communications area of the warehouse. Carl was speaking to his mom over the radio.
“Here he is mom. One sec.” Carl said as he gave up his seat for Laraaq.
Taking his seat, Laraaq asked his question. “What can I do for you Mrs. Burns? I hear you have a message for me.”
“Indeed, I do sweetie. I was told by a Mr. Shadowalker to tell you he is happy to know you are alive. Stay safe. Oh, and that they are dealing with a goblin problem, but he doesn’t want you risking your life to get to him quicker. He said the more survivors you can pick up along the way the better, but only do so with the right amount of risk. I hope that all means something to you sweetie.”
Laraaq just sat there in stunned silence. He had convinced himself that the quest he had meant his friend was still alive. Now though he knew it to be true. In this whole big wide world, Mrs. Burns somehow was able to contact him. ‘Small world after all.’ Laraaq thought before finally speaking up. “T-Thank you Mrs. Burns. We will hopefully make it to your place today and hunker down for the night. Do you think it might be possible to talk to my friend at that time?”
“I don’t see why not. Donut is manning the radio.” Mrs. Burns replied.
“Donut? Who the heck is donut?” Laraaq asked.
“Duncan Donut. My son knew him growing up.” Mrs. Burns answered.
“You must be joking. His name is Duncan Donut?” Laraaq looked at Carl for confirmation.
“It was a nickname. The man loved donuts so that became his moniker. He’s a good guy and handy when it comes to working a radio. Mom is right, if Duncan is there, we should be able to reconnect once we reach my mom’s place.” Carl explained.
“Fine, but we are burning daylight. I want to retrieve some additional resources. I should be back in about an hour or two. I want everyone out of here by then. We shall rendezvous at the private airport nearby. Got it?” Laraaq made it clear he wasn’t really asking.
“Understood, Sir. We will be ready and meet you at the airport in just over two hours. Drive safe.” Carl said as snapped to attention.
“Thank you, Mrs. Burns. I look forward to meeting you in person later today.” Laraaq stated before he left to go find the family he found yesterday.
It took Laraaq about 45 minutes to get back to the shopping center. As he promised, when he was back within range, he used his walkie talkie. Christy’s voice was heard a few minutes later. “That you Mr. Laraaq? Over.”
“Yea, it’s me Christy. How did you guys do last night? Over.” Laraaq replied.
Christy quickly answered. “Nothing to worry about on our end. We had a few zombies, but they were the slow dumb ones. We took them out easy enough. Heard some howling but no contact. All and all one of the easier nights. Over.”
“I should be there in a few minutes. Everyone ready to roll out? Over.” Laraaq informed.
Christy’s voice had a hint of joy in her voice as she replied. “Music to my ears. We should be ready to go by then. Mack and Colin are doing a quick sweep to make sure we have a clear shot of the trucks. See you outside. Over.”
True to her word, when Laraaq pulled up all three drivers were in their trucks and the engines were running. Laraaq jumped out to hand Mack and Colin each a walkie talkie already set to their frequency. Getting back into the moving truck, Laraaq used the two-way radio to talk to everyone at once. “Good job everyone being ready to go this morning. That is appreciated. We are heading to the nearby private airport to meet up with the rest of the convoy. The other group had over sixty people. Even though they had so many, they worked through the night to be ready on time to leave this morning. The group is well organized. Over.”
Mack’s voice was the first to come over the hand radio. “Any problems or backlash from dealing with Tom? I just need to know the kind of atmosphere we are walking into. Over.”
“Good question. Went better than I could’ve hoped. I burned the man in front of everyone and most people seemed to cheer or at least be happy about it. Seemed like he was taking advantage and bullying a bunch of people. Carl and Jacob, their old boss, helped quite a bit with the transition. I don’t anticipate much issue. We have a planned destination to get to by tonight. Over.” Laraaq answered.
Some random chatter was heard over the radio but nothing of consequence to Laraaq, this led to him focusing on the road and keeping an eye out for threats.
It took their smaller group about an hour to get to the private airport. Laraaq pulled up to the control tower and got out to do a quick sweep for enemies. Using his radio, he let his team know what he was doing.
The quick sweep was non-eventful. “Nothing found on my sweep. One or two people keep an eye out for trouble and for the convoy. I need at least one other person to help haul out the radio and radar equipment I found. There is also a bunch of fuel stored here so we should take as much as we can carry. That way all our vehicles will make it to our destination. Over.”
Colin’s voice came over the walkie talkie. “I can help. I’m not as strong as Mack but I played around with some radio equipment when I was a kid so I might be able to help there. Over.”
“That works. Mack and Christy keep an eye out. We will be back. Over” Laraaq ordered.
As Laraaq and Colin were moving the equipment, Laraaq decided to talk to the kid. “How’d it go last night? Christy said you guys had to deal with some zombies and heard howling.”
“Yea the zombies seemed to just be wandering around. Was easy to take them out if you know what you’re doing and there are only a few of them.” Colin replied.
“Never let your guard down and never assume it will be simple or easy. That’s how you end up dead.” Laraaq stated.
“I’ll keep that in mind Sir.” Colin acknowledged.
“What about the howling? Did you see what was making the noise?” Laraaq inquired.
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“Not a clue. Whatever was making that noise never showed themselves. Christy and I both took night watch and didn’t see a thing. The zombies attacked shortly after you left yesterday. Other than the howling, nothing else happened.” Colin reported.
They finished moving the radar and radio equipment. Laraaq showed Colin where the fuel was stored as he continued his conversation with the young man. “How are Christy and Sarah holding up?”
Colin thought about it for a minute before answering. “Christy has always been strong and very mature for her age, has been ever since I’ve known her. She’s been a bit more agitated lately and I periodically catch her and Mack arguing but can’t really catch on to what they are arguing about. Sarah on the other hand stays pretty quiet. Mack keeps her very close at all times unless he’s out scouting. Sarah pretty much only talks to Christy or her father, so I’m not really sure how she is holding up.”
As they brought out the final barrel of fuel Laraaq could see the large convoy approaching. Carl in the lead vehicle pulled up alongside Laraaq.
“Looks like you found more fuel. That’s a relief. With this many vehicles it’s going to require a lot of fuel to get there.” Carl said, letting Laraaq subtly know he knew they were heading to his hometown.
“Load it all up. Where is Jacob?” Laraaq asked.
“He’s in the back of the convoy watching our rear.” Carl answered.
“Get him up here. I see you guys have some walkie talkies. I have more in the truck. Pass them out to who you feel should have one.” Laraaq ordered.
Five minutes later Jacob was standing next to Carl, Laraaq, and Mack.
“Gentlemen, this is Mack. He and his family will be driving the food and supply trucks you see behind me. I’d prefer to keep them closer to my vehicle and I plan to be upfront leading the way.” Laraaq instructed.
“Nice to meet you, Mack.” Jacob said as he shook the man’s hand. He did not even flinch as Mack tried to crush the man’s hand only to get equal pressure applied from Jacob.
Jacob just smiled and turned to me. “It should be fairly easy to integrate them into the formation. The walkie talkies will come in handy as well. I have a feeling, however, that those reasons are not why you called this impromptu meeting.”
Laraaq gave a smile of his own. “Good guess. I wanted to tell you now, so you have time before you answer me later tonight. Now that I know my friend Shadowalker is holding down the fort we can afford to take some additional time to help save more people.”
Carl looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Your mother has been talking to various groups of survivors.” Laraaq stated.
“Yes, what about it?” Carl asked.
“That means she can help map out where these survivor groups are.” Laraaq continued.
Jacob smiled. “I think I know where he’s going Carl. You want to take time to rescue as many people nearby as possible.”
“Exactly. If possible, we will wait one additional day to give Mrs. Burns time to make contact and get the information we require like location, number of people, current situation, and local threats.” Laraaq explained.
“What do you need from us?” Carl asked.
“You two know your people better than anyone. I need to know who we can trust to send out on rescue missions. You two pick the teams and start sending them out. If we already know where some survivors are, then don’t wait for tonight, go retrieve them. We meet up at Mrs. Burns’ place. Then we plot out the locations and determine how many we can save.”
“This will help a great many people. We should grab some additional vehicles as we can.” Jacob commented.
“Let me be clear, we do this the smart way. I am onboard with saving people. I am not onboard with lost causes or finding out we just let a bunch of vipers into our midst. Understood?” Laraaq firmly stated.
Both men nodded, which was all Laraaq required. “Alright, let’s move out!”
-----
From there the day fell into a rhythm. Laraaq drove in silence and responded to various calls on his walkie talkie. Several vehicles would break away from the convoy as they hit certain forks in the road. Some would meet back up shortly after.
As Laraaq was alone in the moving truck he had an opportunity to talk with his system and get some more answers.
“Hey System, when I tried to cast two Minor Fireballs at the same time, I got an excruciating headache, and I almost lost my concentration on both spells. Why is that?
Query Accepted
You do not possess the Dual-Casting Skill or an equivalent ability or skill that lets you divide your mental focus to do complex calculations in parallel.
“Well how do I get the Dual-Casting skill or something like it?
Keep attempting to cast more than one spell at the same time. DUH
“So, until I unlock this skill, I risk losing control of my magic spells if I try to cast two spells at the same time?”
Correct
“Seems risky to attempt during a fight.”
That is why you practice outside a real fight. Do I need to run another brain scan?
“Okay, okay, I got it. What about modifying a spell on the fly? Is that possible?”
Of course
“How would I go about doing that?” Laraaq grinded his teeth as he asked his question.
Query Accepted
Spell modification can be dangerous. First one must master the spell, know every aspect they can. This will allow you to know where or how you might adjust without blowing yourself up. Overcharging is the easiest way to modify your spell by continuously and slowly feeding it mana before you release it. This can cause headaches or spells to backfire if you are not careful but that is the most common modification.
“What about range or distance or adding a delay or another magic type?” Laraaq asked.
Query Accepted
You must first form your core before such modifications are possible. With a developed core, spiral, and channels you will naturally gain more control over your magic and therefore be able to modify it more easily.
“Thank you, System.” Laraaq said before returning his focus to driving.
By the time they all pulled into the town Mrs. Burns lived in everyone was happy enough to stretch their legs.
Even though everyone was tired, they all were seasoned hunters. They would exit the vehicles armed. Some stayed to protect the convoy, the others would sweep the area. Some shots would be heard and then an ‘all clear’ or ‘zombies put down’ would come over the radio. It was a good hour before they felt comfortable letting people out for bathroom runs and to eat.
Mrs. Burns place was an old radio station building and parking lot she converted into her home. It was a bit away from the rest of town. This provided plenty of space for the convoy to set up temporary residence near her place.
When Mrs. Burns stepped outside to give her son Carl a big hug, Laraaq did not expect to see a tall slender woman who looked liked a cross between a schoolteacher and a movie star. It was like her outfit couldn’t make up its mind. Part of it was flashy with bright colors and frills while other parts looked to be homely yet professional.
“Mom, this is Mr. Laraaq. Laraaq this is my mom.” Carl introduced the two of them after his mom released him from the long hug.
“Pleasure to meet you ma’am.” Laraaq greeted.
“Oh, none of that ma’am stuff. Call me Carol. Come give me a hug! You kept my Carl safe. That makes you family now!” Mrs. Burns said before barreling into Laraaq and wrapping him up in her arms for another long hug.
After Laraaq, she gave Jacob a big hug.
“Alright, why don’t you all come on inside. I’m sure we have a lot to talk about.” Carol Burns said before practically dragging her son inside.
“Nice lady.” Jacob said before following behind the mother-son duo.
Laraaq shrugged and closed the door behind himself after he entered the building.
Carol had converted one of the radio stations’ meeting rooms into a map room where she had a few maps laid out or tapped on the walls. Each map had pins in them, some with several pins with flags or numbers on them. Some were in a cluster or section of the map. Noticing everyone looking at the various maps, Carol spoke up. “Each pin is a confirmed contact with a survivor. If I don’t hear back after a day, I remove the pin. I wrote down what I could about each one.”
Pulling out a thick notebook, Carol opened it up. “I did everything I could to get the information I figured you might need.”
“This is impressive, mom!” Carl exclaimed.
“I agree, what a cunning and attractive lady.” Jacob commented causing Carol to blush slightly.
“Most helpful. Though I did not expect to see so many marked locations. I think this is going to take us longer than an extra day to hit all these. Speaking about that, what were today’s results?” Laraaq replied.
“We rescued another 21 people today. No injuries, but we did have a few close calls. Both Carl and I have talked to those teams and reinforced the importance of always maintaining situational awareness.” Jacob answered.
“That’s impressive. Seeing this list, how long do you think we will need to rescue all these people?”
Both Carl and Jacob looked over what Carol had put together. After about 30 minutes, the two men looked at each other before Carl was the one to speak up this time. “Realistically, we probably need a week. We could probably shave off time if we thin the teams a bit at the lower risk locations.”
Laraaq turned to Mrs. Burns. “Can any of the groups make it here on their own or get to one of the nearby survivor locations?”
Carol Burns thought for a moment before speaking up. “Good question. I would say some are either in lower risk areas or could travel a short distance if they knew someone would be retrieving them shortly after. Some I flagged in red are running low on food or supplies. If those groups move, they would be going on good faith but probably also more inclined to meet you part of the way if they could get food and water.”
“That is just the kind of assessment we needed. Thank you, Carol. Well, Jacob and Carl, with all that in mind how much time can you shave off?” Laraaq asked.
“Hmmm. I would say we could probably cut that time in half.” Jacob answered.
Carl chimed in shortly after. “If we retrieve the ones East of us while we are on the move, that might shave off another day or more.”
“As you already know where we are going Carl, I will ask you a follow up question. What would be your best estimate on when we would arrive at your hometown?” Laraaq asked the question he really wanted answered.
“I would say we would arrive at our hometown in roughly five days give or take.” Carl relayed his best guess.
“That will have to do. Shadowalker did say not to rush. Speaking about my buddy can we give him a call?”
“Sure, sweetie. Let me see if I can get ahold of Donut.” Carol answered as she guided them to her equipment.