Well, portents of doom blazing in the sky for all to see and the hour of doom was at hand, it was time to rally the clan. Granted, that could be somewhat harder than expected, even as my cellphone rang. Moving over to the side of the road (I was not going to use it and drive, that was just plain irresponsible), I took it out. "Hello, Matt here." Sure, it was a cheerful tone I used, even as I had a sneaky suspicion just what was coming my way. Granted, that was mostly due to caller ID.
Of course, the annoying thing was? As soon as I finished the brief conversation with aunt Cathi (okay, she was more my cousin a step or two removed), the phone rang right again as apparently? The clan organisers had been checking in with the young people who were more game savvy to see if we knew anything... and Luke or Jake told them about my little demonstration. Which was fair really. Still annoying, even more so because... I was not a social person. I did not overly like engaging with people. I was the guy who sat in a dark corner and people watched at family gatherings when he wasn't telling bad jokes to cover his internal terror at interacting with people.
Still, the conversations were simple enough. Yes, I was a beta tester. Look, I forgot to mention it because I panicked and rushed off to do some grinding. Just some animals, and no that is not doublespeak for criminals. Yes, I leveled up. I DO in fact have a plan. Yeah, I recognized the voice from Starcraft two, she shows up as part of a co-op mission that has zombies that die off in the sunlight. So yes, I'm reasonably sure we will have to deal with zombies. Look, which house can fit everyone. Look, just get everyone there, some crossbows, chainsaws and axes. Because we need to build defenses obviously.
Back to back, repeating over and over again as I was stuck on the side of the damn road, trying to explain thing to family. Of course, pulling to a central location was critical, if only to properly leverage our numbers and to try and prevent as many deaths in the family as we could. There would of course, be a few small issues, such as which home to hunker down in...
Mostly because we could use some of the trees on Calvert Road, to fortify a single home and expand from there after the night passes. Which was annoying, because it was a few kilometers from my homestead. Which I would need to head back to, because it was where I kept the vast majority of my stash and supplies. To say nothing of my garden and crops, my planters and the start of my coppicing system. It was a long term investment, but one that I could come back to and reclaim.
So long as I could get the tools, books and back up seeds (and they said the minifridge for the extra seeds was paranoia!)... I could rebuild. Okay, I won't lie. The fact that my laptop with its three portable hard drives (for all my games) was aggravating, but such was life. Sure, the hard drives were with the backup laptop in a makeshift faraday cage in a hidden part of the root cellar along with my other electronics I didn't use very often (given the nuclear weapons posturing... I just wanted my stuff properly secured when the missiles launched), but I had invested a good bit of money and time into them.
But, as I turned my phone off, because I was not dealing with more highly repetitive conversations and got going, the greatest investment of all was my life, and that came first. So home, pack shit up again and see where everyone was forting up before we begin to dig out trenches, build earth walls and line it with palisades. Would it be rough, would it be crude, would it be shitty as compared to if we had a lot more time? Yes, but those of us that would be trying to survive couldn't be choosers.
Still, the surprising thing is that there were not more cars heading out on the highway in a blind panic to escape. It would seem that once more, popular media lied to me. That, or it just hadn't sunk in yet? Both possibilities really. Hard to say which was more depressing as well. Still, if luck was good, Luke and Jake would be picking up machete's and hatchets from the Depot and Shell... so all I needed to do was grab my important tools and gear, hide others and head on over to Calvert Road.
----------------------------------------
Now, the embarrassing thing is that while I knew where most of the clan lived, my memory for whose house was were and which number it was were... well, I spent most of my time before hand either in my room or at the family business. I didn't have a social life or get out much. While I did from time to time get dragged along to family events? As I got older and less subject to people telling me what I could do with my time so long as the basics were met? Yeah, I think everyone other than my mother knew what would happen if I went entirely self sufficient.
That said, I was perfectly capable of navigating using landmarks. And I had a rough idea whose house was whose. Okay, and I turned the phone back on and asked for directions. Still, it was easy enough to spot, given all the people running around. The world was much more... interesting when you could taste the minds of others, when they were dancing flames on the edges of my awareness. Sure, forty feet wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things, but that was forty more feet of mental radar than most possessed.
So, the bad jokester that I am, decided to make use of my telepathy... and nicely enough? It would also serve as proof that I had early access. Granted, as I focused, as I attached the mythos to my crown.... well, I burst out laughing.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
----------------------------------------
Cathi
One moment, she had been trying to wrangle the clan, to get everyone working on shoring things up because the world had gone insane. Really, this was like one of the bad stories or video games that the younger generations were obsessed with. Of course, she was mostly serving to just try and keep her aunts calm, to have the children busy enough and out of the way and directing the various tasks. In many ways, her administrative experience was putting them in good stead.
Then a U-Haul appeared that likely contained Matthew and the supplies he said he was going to be bringing. Honestly, she wanted to sigh, as she was not the only one to have been amused by the fact that he had begun to prepare for what he said was the probable collapse of western civilization. None of them had said anything to his face, or even saw anything too wrong in the fact that he wanted to reduce his food bills, but when your root cellar doubles as a bunker? And when you keep at least four months of canned and dried supplies on hand?
Really, they were not part of big city life. They would be fine and Matthew did not need to worry. Except that apparently, the world as they knew it was ending, God did not begin the rapture, and things were looking to vindicate Matthews hobbies and obsessions. Granted... she hoped that he would have some sort of plan, some solution.
And then someone crowned in eldritch fires, the floating lattices shifting in strange dimensions about his head even as other parts seemed to form a war helm from an old historical drama. Then the voice washed over them, echoing and rippling, striking past the ears and reverberating in her very soul, in her mind. It was a message from the old testament, as the messengers of God made themselves known. "BE NOT AFRAID, FOR MATT AND HIS ADORABLE PUG ARE HERE!"
It took half a moment for her to register the fact that apparently, Matthew could talk telepathically now (didn't Lucas and Jacob refer to him as a 'discount Wolverine', meaning he should heal quickly and have metal claws, not have psychic powers?) and process the words, as he walked up to her. Because everyone was looking more than a little rattled as the young man walked with a hunters predatory gait. There was something not quite right about him, even as he smiled and looked at her. "Yo aunt Cathi! Where do you guys need me?"
Well, at least THAT was normal. So, she smiled and inclined her head. Unless he was cracking jokes, you could count on Matthew to be to be polite. Or as grumpy as a bear with a toothache if he was on his feet for a while and if it was warm out. Still, she hugged him. "Well, you'll need to talk to Boomer, he's taken charge of the work details." And really, there was a lot to do to get the house ready. "Though, how confident are you that there are going to be zombies tonight?"
Really, she was hoping that he located something, or had some sort of ability to know what was happening. "Well, you know the voice that speaks when you reach out and 'tap' the text on the floating quest text? I recognize her, Rosa Morales, who is the voice that talks to your commanders in my favourite Starcraft two co-op mission... which is called Dead at Night and features infected that burn in the sun." He grimaced, and she... well, she was not too much better.
Really, she hoped he would have had something more... substantial to work with. Still, telepathy. and a burning crown that had since faded away. And there was something burning in his eyes, something not really physical. God be good, but... Matthew had joked for a while that he was just a little crazy, Who better to help them navigate a world gone mad?
----------------------------------------
Matt
Well, on the one hand, I the place we would be hunkering in for the night was pretty good and we would be able to expand the defensive perimeter in the next few days. However, that was not what we were doing right off the bat. No, the windows were boarded up and we were digging the ditches for the first expansion to the garage. After that? We would go around the yard and then the fields. And then hopefully making a wall around Calvert Road's planned inhabited area.
Granted... I pondered something, and checked something, pulling up my status window, and asking a simple question. "If I make a graft that uses Skill of the flesh that holds Magic Weave and Personal Focus [The Completye Guide to Fey], would the one it was implanted in need the Fey type?" It was musing on my part, even as the rest of the guys were looking at me... and as an important bit of phrasing for the mythos flashed. The only perquisites required, where other feats.
Now, I did check, I could implant grafts into others not yet integrated into the system. Suddenly, I was feeling very, very stupid, even as I grinned widely. "Hey, can I borrow some money from you guys? I have an idea that will help, just need a few head of cattle."
Now, I can understand why there was wariness in their expressions, even as Boomer asked, eyes just a little narrow. "And why do you want cattle?"
"To harvest the largest source of graft points I can get my hands on and imbue someone with mystical powers leaning towards moving earth and making rock walls!" Now, I think they gave me the money as much because I was cheerful and asked politely as for any other reason.