Deathberry arrived in San Francisco to see things had been cleaned up a bit since the last time they were there. To make sure that not just anyone could find their Gears room, he carefully selected where the portal would deposit them. There was an old PG&E utility vault that he’d visited on Mission Street in his previous life as an electrical engineer. No one would have likely been down there in years. They arrived a few minutes later in the old vault. Sure enough, it was completely defunct.

Once they made their way up to the street, he and Seona split up so that she could go see her trainer while he sought out the mercenary leader of the Survivors.

The subway along Market Street had been turned into an inland lagoon and the middle of the street was completely fenced off. A gnome smoking a cigar was selling tickets to something there.

“What’s the occasion?” Deathberry asked the crusty fellow.

He gave him a look of derision, “Ain’t you heard nothing? It’s the big dive race today. Contestants try to make it all the way to next station and the one after that if they can make it without drowning.”

Deathberry looked around trying to decipher what that meant. There were a number of different races gathered and they all seemed to be watching a few individuals wearing swim suits. “So, the objective is to get to the next station and whoever gets the furthest wins?” It sounded seriously dangerous. Each station was probably 1,000 feet from the next and there was no way to come up for air in between. Also, it was probably less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit in that water. There was a reason that few escaped from the offshore island of Alcatraz.

He could also see that there was a throng of other people who were waving tickets in the air. “What’s everyone else in the crowd doing, betting?”

He gnome barked out a laugh, “Knew you were a sorcerer type for a reason, smart guy.”

Deathberry was about to turn away and head to the Tavern to see if he could find Rygor or one of the other Survivors when he spotted the small Asian man on the diver’s platform. “How much is a ticket?”

“100 gold,” the gnome said casually.

Deathberry wasn’t born yesterday, “I saw you sell the last ticket for 50 gp,” his said, his eyes narrowing.

Puffing his cigar, the gnome responded, “Yeah, and it was discount. Guy is my cousin’s boyfriend.”

Knowing that he was probably getting the “tourist price” but not having time to negotiate further, Deathberry stuffed the 100 gold into the gnome’s grubby hands. Fortunately, they’d been accumulating quite a lot of gold from their adventuring and had very little to spend it on.

Pushing his way through the crowd he made it to Rygor. It looked like the race was about to begin. Rygor didn’t even have time to look his way before the starting spell was fired, launching a ball of fire into the air. The divers leapt from their platform into the icy grey waters of the bay leaving Deathberry standing there gaping.

The crowd milled around for a few minutes. Someone pulled on his robes. Looking down he saw Mr. Ripoff gnome. “What do you want?” his tone was cold.

“Sorry buddy. Just thought you might want your badge so you can get in to the viewing area at the next subway,” the gnome grumbled and then said in a quieter voice, “Some customers. Just can’t please everyone.”

Looking at his badge and seeing that everyone appeared to be walking towards the wharf down Market Street, Deathberry quickly followed. The crowd didn’t have to wait long at the next station to start seeing swimmers arrive to take their breath. One of the officiants snapped a wristband around each of their arms as they emerged. Perhaps it was to ensure that no one cheated and tried to skip stations – although doing so would probably be suicide. Rygor emerged fourth in the group but he was completely focused and didn’t even look up before getting his breath, having his armband attached, and diving back into the murky depths.

Not waiting for the rest of the observers this time, Deathberry made his way to the next station. It took a lot longer to see swimmers emerge this time and it was clear that most had dropped out of the race. Hopefully, they had made their way back safely. He didn’t want to disrupt Rygor’s concentration this time so when he surfaced he just waited for him to dive back down before moving to the next subway station.

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Deathberry waited three minutes at the next station and didn’t see Rygor arrive. He sent one of his summoned demons to watch at the previous station to see if he had instead turned back. When another minute elapsed, he knew there was a problem. The victor had already surfaced along with one other. They were breathing heavily and looked frightened. “What’s going on?” he demanded of them as the officiant looked on in shock.

The tall man in front of him looked shocked but said, “There is something down there.”

Not taking much time to think, Deathberry dove into the icy waters. Using his general ability: alter spell he lit up the ocean filled subway but the light did him little good with the water being as murky as it was. Realizing this would do him no good he turned off the ability a moment later. This time he used his altering to turn his silence spell into a noise, seeing if he could locate anything via echolocation.

A moment later he had a pretty good idea of the layout of the subway. There were two other things down here that were moving and one of them was very large, perhaps the size of a shark or a whale. The larger creature appeared to be chasing the smaller one. Using his ability again he focused the noise spell at the larger creature, blasting it with a sonic wave. It seemed to distract the creature but now it was moving toward him. He blasted it twice more until it stopped moving.

Deathberry had a momentary panic when he had some trouble locating the smaller creature. It had probably played possum and was laying low. However, they were running out of time since the cold was starting to affect his stamina bar and he could only hold his breath for so long. He swiped a hand across his virtual Seemi to bring up chat:

***You’ve Whispered Rygor***

Deathberry: Is that you who was being chased in the water? I’ve scared whatever it was away. Are you able to surface on your own?

Rygor: Thanks, yes, I can get to the station now.

Another minute later the two of them emerged from the frigid waters.

“Thanks for the save,” Rygor said, his teeth still chattering. “What are you doing back in San Francisco?”

Drying himself off with one of the towels offered by the race officiants, Deathberry said dryly, “We’ve been battling undead trying to keep ourselves alive for the last week, you?”

The leader of the Survivors laughed, “Not as exciting as all that but as you know we’re all prone to dying out here and we don’t have a lot of good options.” Deathberry remembered that each of their guild members had been stranded after the apocalypse. Instead of having access to a world-class secure nuclear fall-out shelter, they had been spread across the globe, hiding away in their own homes and hoping that the radiation and biochemicals wouldn’t contaminate the little food and water they had left. The Survivor’s relied on their Gears to find more resources to keep them alive as well as to protect them from the elements. Rygor’s crew had not had it easy.

“I have some good news for you on that front,” Deathberry continued. “Earlier today we found an underground factory that not only has spare Gears but it is actually manufacturing them. Not only that, but some of the Gears are huge.”

Rygor looked at him inquisitively, “Does that mean that the monsters we’ve been seeing are also Gears? Who’s controlling them?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know who’s controlling them but I agree it’s quite likely that the larger creatures we’ve seen are all manufactured. The entire factory was swarming with defensive spiders like the ones we faced on the asteroid as well. It seems likely that a rival corporation is the one that set this up but it could be that Precious One is calling the shots.”

“Just like with everything else, right? That AI killed most of the world and I hold it responsible for the deaths of my guildmates. If only we could locate where its uploaded itself and isolate it,” Rygor’s voice was determined.

“Knowing how smart that AI is, it seems unlikely. For now, we need to focus on survival. That’s why I’m here in San Francisco. There was a portal that brought us here but I don’t know if there is another nearby. We may not have time to take an airship back. One of our guild members has been infected and is dying and an undead army is on our doorstep. Will you help us?” Deathberry asked his voice steady but there was a note of desperation there as well.

Does that mean we get an official quest? Deathberry smiled and swiped across his Seemi:

***The Misfit’s Call: Will the Survivors answer their sister guild’s call for help?

Rewards: Gears for days

Risks: The wrath of the Lord of Nightspring

***

Rygor smiled and accepted the quest. They met up with Seona a little while later at the Tavern.

Deathberry took a long sip of ale. They had a pretty good IPA for a place that had seen the collapse of modern civilization. “You mentioned in your message earlier that you’d found something that could help Emmy?”

“Yes. I was training my skills up with one of the Druid Masters and I asked them if there was anything out there that could cure disease, no matter how far gone someone was,” Seona explained quickly. “They said there is an artifact called the Restorer that cures all ills no matter how dire.”

That did sound promising if they could get hold of it. “And its location?”

“We’ll need to go to LA while you help prepare to attack the zombies in Australia,” Seona said.

Rygor looked at both of them, laughing. “Great, I’ve messaged the guild and they’re ready to leave when you are.”

Deathberry knew that they didn’t have any time to waste. Finishing his beer, he messaged the rest of the Misfits to let them know that help was on the way.