--== Chapter 33: An Apocalyptic Hello--==

Spawning left me disorientated. Instead of waking in the patrol car, I was in the lobby bathroom, sitting on the chair I'd brought in. My backpack weighed on my shoulders, and the bat lay across my lap, along with the comic I'd drawn with Sori. I'd almost forgotten I'd set things up to test.

Looking around, there were a few chips crumbs tangled in my fur. However, the ones I'd scattered around the chair were gone. The spawn points didn't seem to have an area effect after all.

Likewise, the Sudoku book was neither on the sink nor in my backpack. I'd added a roll of toilet paper to my bag that was still in there, though. It suggested that linked things remain linked. I was on the chair, my backpack was on me, my stuff was in my bag, so we all respawned together.

I guessed the book and missing chips were on the floor of the patrol car, but I wouldn't be sure unless I checked later.

Setting my spawn point had also allowed me to keep my eye mask and pants; that alone was an improvement, as was having a weapon before entering the lobby.

Exiting the bathroom, I confirmed that Maebe's spawn hadn't been reset and assumed the same was true for Nia.

The gremlins wanted me to bring them Slender Hopper alive, but I wasn't sure how to do that. Even if I had a cage or box or something, it wasn't so long ago that it had killed me. I wasn't sure I had the nerve to calmly capture it rather than freak out on it, which was more or less my strategy so far.

If I could get the slender hopper in a closet or something, I could leave it locked inside until I could bring Husband and Wife in to take care of it. They consistently had more memory crystals than me, and Husband, at least, could become huge, on the scale of a giant sloth. They could probably handle one trapped monster.

If I wanted to trick Slender Hopper into jumping into a closet, I'd have to let it jump at me from very close. It would be pure luck to just get it on the wall across from a doorway. Dodging so the bug ended up in the closet—instead of on my face—would be a trick and a half. After some consideration, I couldn't come up with a better idea. However, I did have a worse one.

I approached Slender Hopper, backpack ready, blanket draped on my shoulder, and waited for it to crouch. I could use the bat instead of my bag, but the goal was to knock it from the air, not kill it.

It crouched, and I spun. My bag collided with it and knocked it to the floor. Running, I whipped the blanket from my shoulder and spread it open. Before Slender Hopper could regain its feet, I threw the blanket over it and picked it up, trying to keep its bladed limbs wrapped and facing away from me.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, I panicked internally as I hurried down the hall toward a closet I'd opened in preparation. I chucked it in, blanket and all, and slammed the door. I was pretty sure the thing had gotten bigger. Hopefully, it couldn't match Husband's two-ton mass, or it would soon crash through that door.

Trapping it had only taken a few minutes. I didn't know if or when Alice and friends would be attacked by their trauma monsters, but it was best not to dawdle.

I didn't know where the new monsters would spawn. If I assumed Nia's trauma caused Tickles, their spawn points wouldn't be random. Then again, the nearest person to Slender Hopper was Maebe, and there was no sign she'd experienced anything traumatic… unless you count the apocalypse, I guess.

Best case scenario, Alice and Jessica would respawn in surgery, and their trauma monsters would spawn in the ER.

I moved hurriedly, if cautiously, down the hall, keeping an ear out for commotion and bird wings. I'd collected the golf bag and wore it on one shoulder with the backpack slung over the other. I also put on the Tam because why not?

Walking toward the elevator, I decided to pull out the comic Sori had helped me make. I'd colored some highlights here and there as I'd considered what I was trying to convey, but it was still mostly black and white. I'd title the comic "Friendship is Magic." I was going for maximum harmlessness but only managed maximum cringe. Still. Who would run screaming from a golfing blue werewolf holding a hand-drawn comic?

Probably most people.

An emotional glamour could help with that. I was approaching several people, and I'd only be able to affect one. Alice was my planned target. I'd focused on Denis before so his fear wouldn't spread, but Alice seemed to be their nominal leader. If I got her on the same page, she could get the others on board with my plan.

I wasn't sure where I'd find them, but the waiting room seemed like a safe bet as a starting place. To be safe, I peeked through the surgery room doors as I went but didn't see anyone. The waiting room door had a diamond-shaped window about the size of a plate. I heard voices coming from inside, but I wanted to see who and how many were inside.

It was a familiar mistake.

Pressing my face against the glass, I heard a high-pitched scream I assumed came from Denis. In his defense, it was basically the same thing I'd done to Nia. I'd gone full movie monster. Again.

Ah well.

Alice's whole group seemed to be in there, including Maebe, Nia, and an unmoving surgery patient. After seeing him, I hoped he was dead.

I bent over and slid the comic under the door before walking back down the hall to the elevators. I was pretty well out in the open over here. I was next to a four-way intersection with 3 elevators right in front of me. Trouble could come from any direction, but I also had multiple escape routes, so maybe it balanced out. I hadn't planned to wait this far away, but I'd just seen something I hadn't expected.

The last time I'd seen the surgery patient, I'd missed something important.

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He didn't have an aura.

Putting my back to a wall, I lowered myself into a crouch, trying to think. Could Alice and her team be the ones making drones? What would the benefit of doing that be? In the comic, I included information about the drones. Drawing them as puppets whose strings could be cut.

I didn't want to jump to conclusions, partly because I was out of my depth and partly because I wasn't confident about most of what I 'knew.' I'd just have to wait and see if they brought up the drone in the room themselves. In the meantime, I'd have to keep an eye open for crows or crow-inspired monsters.

At least I wasn't too late.

Finally, after maybe half an hour, the waiting room door opened, and Alice came out alone, holding the comic book "Oberon? Or, do you prefer Sam?"

I couldn't answer, and if she read the comic, she should know that. It was about time to use a glamour.

"I'm going to go with Sam," Alice said after a moment before walking down the hall toward me. Her steps weren't halting; they were just slow, like a mid-western goodbye but in reverse.

An apocalyptic hello, I joked at Sori before remembering he wasn't around anymore. It was disappointing. I didn't trust him, but sometimes camaraderie doesn't require much trust.

"Sorry, it's just strange. We just killed a monster, and my sister appeared out of nowhere, and then you and this comic and the vortex wall. I'm just looking for something to hold on to—for some solid footing," Alice said, her thick curls acting as a cushion as she knocked her head against the wall in distress.

Empathizing with her was easy. Using a glamour to match her expectations—to be what she needed—would also be easy. It was another thing I'd worked on with Sori. Only then did I realize there would be costs to using glamours.

"I look at you, and I just know that your name is Oberon. I've had a few other things like that, too. Some of what's in this book, even the impossible things like the time loop. I knew about them already; I just needed to be reminded. For a minute, I was hopeful that I could get a grip on things. Except, I almost immediately learned that I was wrong about your name, shattering that hope."

She needed me to be Oberon. She needed me to have answers. She wanted her Hagrid moment. She might not be a wizard, but she at least had some memories. She also had the respect of her small team, and she needed help.

Alice slowly approached until she was across the hall from me, then slid down the wall to join me on the floor. I looked at the comic in her hand. I wasn't the guy with all the answers, but I could pretend. I wanted Alice to trust me, to look to me for those answers. I held out my hand and leaned forward, reaching for the comic. I moved slowly so as not to startle her. After a moment, she realized I wanted the comic.

I saw uncertain struggle play across her face. The moment she decided to trust me, a blue tendril of light snaked between us, connecting our minds. The glamour held, and she extended the comic to me.

The comic started with my transformation and Nia's danger. It showed the things I'd encountered. I'd left out the gremlins. The book was primarily meant to warn people about the new threats. Still, I'd include uses for the memory crystals, so drawing attention to the gremlins could only end badly.

I found the page that detailed using memory crystals to write things down for future loops.

She nodded. "If this is real, it could help, but if I could record long books like this, why haven't I?"

I hadn't found her note card in the break room. Apparently, she hadn't found it either. Hopefully, it was still around, or we risked losing track of the days. Still, that wasn't why I was here.

I flipped to the panels illustrating Alice and Jessica getting attacked by crows, then their own crow-related demons, and finally, joining the crows.

Alice winced. "Yeah, I guess maybe I've been busy."

That was true, but not my point. I kept pointing to the page.

With Sori's help, I'd titled the first panel, "Yesterday." It depicted the crow attack. The next picture had attacking trauma monsters and was labeled "Today." The final panel, in which Jessica and Alice became crows, I labeled "Tomorrow." I scratched at the word "Today" with a claw, trying to draw her attention to it.

"Today," she said, looking at the picture. "Is it another fight with the crows? Another attack of some kind?" She looked at me for some kind of confirmation, but I could only look between her and the comic.

"Ok, so then, tomorrow, it's like we are the crows. Is that what happened to you? Shit, sorry, I keep asking questions when I know you can't talk. Please be patient with me and do your best, ok? I'll figure this out. I'm gathering that we're in danger and need to prepare for other monsters to attack."

I flipped to another set of panels. This set had taken a lot of time. There was no easy way to convey "this metaphorical shadow can turn people into mindless drones." in just a few pictures. So I'd drawn a picture of a man with a green halo being attacked by an indistinct blob of shadow. The next panel had a shadowy figure putting green memory crystals on shelves with the words, "A shadow steals memories." The last panel was a blank-faced man with empty eyes and a dark halo. "Shadow makes puppets." Alice had already seen these images, so if she had anything to do with it, she would be ready to school her expressions. I still kept an eye on her as I handed the comic back.

"This one surprised us. I don't know anything about the shadow. But we did remove a crystal from a patient's brain an hour ago. We were mid surgery to remove a brain tumor when the vortex came down. We were making good time, but we had to choose between abandoning the patient, negligently trying to move him while open, or staying to finish. In the end, four of us stayed back. Despite that, it was going smoothly until there was suddenly a flash of light and some kind of pressure wave. From nowhere, a green crystal appeared embedded in his brain. I made the decision to remove it. It… it happened fast. It's too soon to know if he'll be ok."

I tapped the comic, thinking. Sori had claimed all animals had memory crystals, not just the monsters. I'd thought it was unreliable chatter; after all, if crystals suddenly appeared in people's brains, everyone would be having seizures and aneurysms or just keeling over dead. Alice's testimony made me rethink that. Like her, I didn't have a solid footing to know what was possible in this new world.

I saw Alice wipe a tear from her eye. "Sorry, it was pretty awful. He was completely unconscious, and the surgery was going fine. And then that damn light flashed, and he started screaming. Everything happened so quick. I didn't really make the decision to remove it. Too much was happening. He was suddenly wide awake and feeling everything. His skull started to grow back before our eyes. It was going to close around the crystal. Then, a giant spider appeared from nowhere, and there was no time. I just yanked out the crystal. His skull closed, and we faced the spider. It's a miracle none of us died. It was terrifying. Now I'm looking at this and wondering if I made the wrong call."

"This is all a lot, but thank you. Knowing there are answers, even if they only raise more questions. It helps," she said. "It's something, a place to begin to make sense of it all. What's next, then? Crow demons are coming for Jessica and me. Can you help us?"

I showed her the last image, which depicted a blue werewolf shoving a crow into the shadow.

"Ok. Right," Alice said, looking at the picture and nodding. "Find the shadow, and delete the monsters."

--==