It took them nearly two hours to get to Bill's Market, and then it was noon. They only had a couple of fights against groups of common spawns along the way. Jo defended Tabitha, who turned her palms into flamethrowers briefly until she ran out of mana. Several people hit fourth level after the second fight. Apparently they looked menacing enough as a group to keep the smaller monsters away entirely, and they didn't spend much time in the territory of anything bigger.
The two slowing them down the most at first were Jake and Tabitha, who were both only third level. Jo volunteered to carry Tabitha on her back, claiming that they had done this before. Jo wheezed and puffed a bit, but didn't slow down with the extra load.
People started calling out, “ding!” whenever they got a notification that their endurance had gone up a point. There were at least half a dozen on the trip.
Jake eventually solved his problem by asking Terry to scout for a bicycle, and then spending his precious System token on Systemizing it. One benefit was that the bike resized itself for him perfectly and was more comfortable to ride than a normal bike, he claimed. Karl thought it would be a good idea to get more if they knew more ways to get System tokens. But they needed them to create the permanent Safe Zone, so he was averse to spending any. Still, that one token was Jake's to do as he pleased with. The quartermaster Tinker knew the pros and cons as well as anyone. And it did speed them up noticeably, for all that the asphalt was looking a little more worn and cracked than Karl remembered even from the previous day.
Doug was muttering about waiting for the other shoe to drop, as one p.m. passed without a notification about some other kind of spawns commencing. Karl told him, “if a bomb you expect to blow up doesn't, don't poke it.” Now they looked at what was in store for them, literally.
Bill's Market stank to high heaven.
Karl asked Jake to experiment with using inventory tricks to get some of the worst materials to the dumpster in the back. He looked very displeased with his assignment, but agreed to try. The interior was dark, and they weren't sure what might be lurking in the back.
Karl used his headlamp. Tabitha wordlessly picked up a broom handle and handed it to Jo, who snapped it in half for her. Then Tabitha wrapped a few flyers around one end and lit her improvised torch with a touch of her finger. They split into two groups.
It was a mess. The floor was littered with rotting fruit and produce. Some sort of creatures, possibly human, had torn many of the items to shreds, and some of the shelves were newly emptied. People began scrounging and dumping things into their inventory. Jake, back from his failed efforts, told people about stacking identical items in inventory and they started exchanging things for efficiency.
“Don't take the last of anything,” Karl instructed. “If another human comes by later, there should be at least a little something left for them. It might mean the difference to their own survival.”
“Or they could come to us,” Terry said. She kept zipping off to put flyers on various doors and windows advertising the location of the Safe Zone.
It turned out that even a medium sized grocery store contained more than 80 types of worthwhile items, so they ran out of inventory space quickly. They turned to backpacks next, focusing on the small items of which there were only a few each. Karl was well pleased with their first haul. He was just about to tell them to form up outside when they heard a loud roar.
I know that sound. We heard it when I first found Terry. He thought he knew what it was, too, and groaned inwardly. It's also the bear from yesterday, isn't it? Take a black bear, not too long out of hibernation, starving, and then have an alien System mutate it to be larger, stronger and more aggressive. Result?
“Kaaaaarrrrl!” Terry yelled on approach, reminding Karl of their first fight together against the marsh warriors. She appeared before him, but to his surprise barreled on by, making a crashing sound as she hit some shelves. Karl stared at her, startled.
“Oh my God!” Jo blurted, laughing. “I have never in my life actually seen someone slip on a banana peel before.” She doubled over, shaking with laughter. “Especially... at super speed... Oh my God!”
“Motherfucker!” With a clatter Terry freed herself. “Incoming! Maybe five more seconds.”
“Focus, Jo!” Karl snapped. “How big is it?” he asked Terry.
“Twice as big as a normal bear!”
The beast roared again, almost shaking the building. Karl could hear it approaching, and then spotted it through the front window. “That's more than twice as big!”
“It's twice as long head to tail!”
“That's eight times as big, Terry!”
“I suck at geometry!”
The bear crashed into the front of the store and was big enough that it was having some trouble with the entrance.
“Why'd you bring it back here?”
“Why would I do that?! I was trying to lead it away but the—Hey! New girl, shut the fuck up and stab that thing!”
“I'm on...it...?” Jo glanced behind her and did a double take when she saw nothing there, then started looking around wildly. “Tabby?!” Then she closed her eyes, and her head snapped over to one position as if she'd gotten a target lock. It was directly at the bear. “Tabby!”
The bear was inside now, and the roar in the confined space was fit to burst eardrums. Karl had his new shield and his orcish short sword equipped. He stepped forward and stabbed the bear, drawing its attention. Doug took position beside him, and arrows started flying at the bear from a different direction. Then he saw Tabitha calmly walking up to the left rear leg of the bear, on the far side from Jo, and heard her say distinctly, “I like fire.”
WHAM!
Karl found himself flying sideways, his improved strength still no match for a single swipe from the creature. His new shield had saved him from harm but the bear tossed him aside as if he were a rag doll. Another swipe knocked Doug flying, and he glowed golden for a moment. Michael put arrow after arrow into the bear; it didn't seem to notice or care.
However, Karl could tell the precise moment the bear became aware that it was on fire.
It froze for a moment, sniffing, then abruptly twisted to its left, where Tabitha appeared to be trying to climb aboard the bear's back, leaving smoldering handprints wherever she touched. Jo charged the bear, but then slipped and slid under the bear, and it wasn't until she popped to her feet on the other side almost exactly next to Tabitha that Karl realized that she had actually done that entire move intentionally.
Those must be Protector abilities, then. She certainly needs them! Karl picked himself up and charged back into the fray. Doug was also staggering forward, and they each sliced at a foreleg while the bear was concerned with its ongoing combustion.
Jake shouted something that sounded like “empire attack!” whatever that was supposed to mean, as a string of connected extension cords flew across both forelegs. Karl grabbed one end and Doug the other and they both tried to wrap the bear's forelegs up with the cords, which had not so much been plugged in together as cleverly knotted, but the bear simply towed them along as it turned. Yeah, that's not going to work here, Karl thought as he was lifted bodily along with Doug. Karl wasn't sure it even would have worked on a normal bear.
“Drop!” Doug called and let go; Karl did an instant later. The belly was exposed and they both availed themselves of the opportunity to drive their swords into it. The hide was difficult to penetrate and robbed the blows of much of their force. Karl wished he could switch to different weapons, but he only had the one weapon this time to save inventory space.
The bear was most concerned with being on fire, and acted as if it had watched one of those safety videos on “stop, drop and roll” because it proceeded to fall onto its left side and squirm. Karl couldn't see what happened next, but Tabitha abruptly shot out towards a side wall like a watermelon seed. He tried to take advantage of the bear's position, and was better placed than Doug, who got swiped again and then healed by his wife.
Karl on the other hand had the head to deal with, and couldn't get close enough to strike without serious risk of being bitten in half. He had to settle for slicing its nose multiple times. Then Tabitha appeared, seeming to be headed right down the bear's throat at top speed. Karl interposed, attempting to block the bite with his shield, while Tabitha dodged him and continued charging, her hands glowing ominously.
“GET OFF HER!” the pyromancer screamed, unleashing jets of flame out of her palms into the bear's eyes and face. As the bear bucked its head back desperately, bellowing in pain, Karl did the only thing he could: he shoved Tabitha forward so that she would be hit by the snout instead of caught in its jaws. She seemed happy to get closer and sprayed her magic flamethrowers across more of the bear's face.
As the bear bit down at him, Karl turned the shield ninety degrees so that it would fit between the jaws and prayed that the mysterious System 'metal' would be strong enough to withstand the crushing pressure.
“DIE ALREADY!” He heard Michael yell as he stabbed the bear's belly over and over. His quiver was apparently empty but that wasn't stopping him from attacking with hate-fueled ferocity.
Karl flinched as the flamethrower sprayed a little in his direction. He literally needed to stick his head into the bear's maw to escape the flames. Then he heard his name, and glanced back between rows of teeth to the outside world. Jake was behind him, reaching out and putting a canister of something into his hand. “Button! Throw!” Karl felt for the button one handed, found it, and followed instructions, chucking the thing past his shield down the bear's throat.
“BREATH WEAPON!” Jake screamed, running away. Karl concluded that a) he probably needed to get out the bear's mouth now, shield or no shield, and b) they really needed to have a talk about communications during battles sometime soon. Karl removed his arm from the straps, rolled out, spotted Tabitha leaning against the burnt snout, grabbed her, and yanked them both out of the line of fire as best he could.
Black and red foam began to spew from the bear's mouth: not quite a jet. Karl huddled over Tabitha, stuck in the middle of a narrow wedge formed by one wall of the market and the bear's back. The bear gurgled. It shuddered. Finally, it died.
As the bear's sounds faded, the loudest thing Karl heard was Tabitha screaming, “JO! JO! JO!” as she tore herself out of Karl's protective embrace.
Oh, no. Not again.
And then something shifted inside him, and his jaw locked.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
NO. NOT again.
Karl dove to the floor and started feeling the edge of the bear carcass. It was impossible for him to lift the body, but by straining, he could lift a very small part. He reached underneath with one arm, trying to feel Jo's body, something, anything. He could barely move his arm at all, and only with great effort. Is she sticking out on the other side? Maybe Chenelle can heal her then. But if not...what can I do? What can I do?
Karl looked down at his sword next to him on the floor, and a hint of a long-forgotten memory of myth came to him. I have no idea if it is possible. God in Heaven, System, please grant me this power. Karl seized the hilt in his free hand, swung it around and slapped the flat of the blade against Tabitha. He channelled healing hands and willed it to flow down the blade.
The spell took. Tabitha's wounds were lessened.
You have learned the paladin spell SpellBlade (1). Learning is best done by doing.
Karl swung his sword back and slid it under the bear, channeled healing hands into the blade, and then pushed the blade farther than he could reach, struggling to move it at all. There was a loud creaking sound somewhere, and it got a little easier. He struggled to hold the spell in the blade while he strained to move it around. Then the blade hit something.
The spell went off.
With heartfelt prayers Karl channeled Healing Hands again, and again, and again. More creaking sounds made it easier and easier. He was pretty sure Jake was building something to lift the bear.
Suddenly, the bear corpse vanished. Jake and an odd assembly of boxes and shelving collapsed in a heap. With a huge sucking sound, Jo drew a deep breath. She glowed golden as Chenelle finally got line of sight.
“Guys,” Jo gasped. “Inventory.”
Karl stared, then burst out laughing.
**
Tabitha was hysterical for a while. Jo held her and reassured her over and over. The pyromancer seemed to flinch away from Karl when he approached, so he let them be. Eventually Jo got Tabitha calmed down.
Not too many of the groceries in their backpacks had been damaged, as everyone had dropped theirs to the side when the fight started. Jo summoned the bear from inventory so people could retrieve their weapons and Karl could pry his shield out. Someone suggested that the bear could be meat, but Jake pointed out that he had basically poisoned the bear and ruined the meat.
They formed up into their group again. Karl led them on a jog towards the last house they had passed on the way over. He was carrying his sword now because he literally had no space left to put it back in his inventory, nor could he keep any more weapons unless he got scabbards for them. Jo had had to dump two piles of cans from her inventory just to store the bear for a moment. Karl wanted to ask her how she had managed that trick, since in retrospect it should have been far too heavy for her to lift, but set it aside as one more piece of System magic he didn't have time to learn about. They realized that they couldn't pick up any other materials until they unloaded back at the Safe Zone. The only things they could loot were coins, which didn't take up an inventory slot.
Terry ran ahead to scout the house, but there wasn't much time for it before the rest of them arrived. She reported that there had been some badger-like monsters but they had fled at the sound of the party arriving. No one was home, even though the house did not appear to have been broken into. They collectively shrugged and moved on.
There was definitely a temptation simply to run the group straight home to unload, but they might not have time for another trip and they hadn't found anyone to rescue yet. At the next house, they again ran off the monsters with their numbers and noise, but Terry sprinted and herded them back, so she and Karl could kill them quickly. Karl thought of it as public service, and Terry called it 'grinding'. When they finished the slaughter (it could hardly be called a fight) this house had signs of forced entry and no bodies.
The next house was the same. And the next. Small groups of monsters fled, and Terry and Karl killed them quickly so as not to slow the group. Karl was starting to wonder if there was anyone left in any of these buildings.
At the next house, they were attacked by a swarm of land crabs. Against those, Tabitha's flamethrower spell went a fair ways to redeeming her in Karl's eyes. She was still a loose cannon, but at least she was a cannon. Michael slew crabs like a man possessed. Jake threw another flame pinwheel. No one died. They collected a lot of crab legs.
Then they saw movement inside a window on the upper story of the house. Terry went to scout it, and rather than break in, she ended up leaping and kicking off of walls and launching herself up to the roof, then walking along it and reaching around to rap on the gabled window, which probably was very startling to the inhabitants. Next Terry waved her hand in front of the window repeatedly. There was movement again at the window, which slowly resolved into a woman struggling to lift it open. Finally it opened with a bang, the woman leaned out and Terry leaned out to face her. Karl could hear her from ground level.
“Hi! Need a lift?”
**
One shouted conversation later, the woman had thrown her house keys down to them so that they didn't have to break in. Inside they found over half a dozen goblins, which attempted to run away but had nowhere to flee to. Surprisingly that was the only batch of monsters in the house.
When Karl finally got up to the top floor, he discovered part of the reason why the previous few houses had been empty. Trapped inside the one bedroom, fortunately with its own bathroom, were three parents and their three toddler aged children: Bethany and her daughter Maya, Chet and his daughter Lily, and Sarah with her son Jeffrey. Karl made a serious effort to remember all their names.
Chet shook his hand vigorously. “Thank you so much for coming! You really have a Safe Zone?”
“Yes, but I'm afraid it's over five miles away.”
“Five--?” Chet's face fell. “We'll never make it.”
“We will,” Karl assured him. “We have eight combat effective classed people and some of us are fifth level. With you protected in the middle, our group will be even larger and more intimidating. On the run here, nothing chose to attack us. The trip out took us two hours at a jog. The trip back will take longer, escorting you, but we will get there. And if we run out of daylight and still aren't back, we'll just establish another temporary Safe Zone and finish the trip tomorrow.
“The main issue we have at the moment is carrying capacity. Our inventories are stuffed full of groceries from Bill's Market. You'll need to pack as much as you can carry, essentials to take care of your children and so forth. Do you know how inventories work?”
“We do,” Bethany replied. “It took us a while to figure it out but we got there.”
“Good. Load up as quickly as you can, we've got a long way to go.”
Bethany nodded, “Come on, Maya, we can finally get out of this room!”
“Yay!”
Bethany nodded and left with her daughter.
“Could we go back to our houses for more of our things?”
“Are they next door?”
“I'm two doors down,” Chet said.
“Which way?”
Chet pointed, and Karl oriented himself. “That's on our way, we can do that, but you have to be quick.”
“I'm two doors the other way and across the street,” Sarah put in.
Karl winced and didn't bother hiding it. “We're trying to stick together to avoid fights. Let's see how long it takes to be ready to leave here.” He weighed the possibility of splitting the group up, and decided that they couldn't afford to do it. Their cargo was too precious and too fragile to take the risk.
“Karl, how about I go to Sarah's house and grab some stuff for her?”
“Your inventory is full.”
“I can still pack a couple of bags the old fashioned way.”
“What's your strength now?”
“Not great but clothing and diapers and stuffed animals are lightweight.”
“If it isn't safe, back off. Go.”
Sarah quickly blurted, “his little blue blanket. The other diaper bag should be in the living room already packed. And my tablet on the coffee table, please.”
“I'll do my best.” Terry left. Karl noticed that she didn't waste time explaining to the woman that her tablet was a useless brick now. He approved; he remembered dimly that in his limited experience, parents with small children were always late for everything. It wasn't their fault; it was simply part of raising children.
“Chet, start thinking now about what you're grabbing. Pretend the house is going to burn down in five minutes and prioritize. Remember you have to carry it all for the whole trip. Let's move.”
Despite his declaration, it took over five minutes by his estimate just to get the parents and children out of the room, and an eternity to get them out the door. Terry reappeared, bleeding heavily from her scalp and bearing three garbage bags full of cloth. “It's dead,” were the first words out of her mouth, which Karl appreciated. “Nothing's following me.” She was gritting her teeth.
God above, please heal this reckless little hero who I want to strangle, Karl prayed as he cast healing hands on her.
Bethany turned, saw her, and screamed a little, choking it off quickly.
“Thanks, old man. Hey, could I have one of those baby wipes?” Bethany rushed forward and started gingerly patting at Terry's head. “It's okay, Bethany, I'm not wounded now. Just scrub the blood off my face, my hands are full. Oh never mind, I'll do it. Sarah! Take your stuff!” Terry dropped a bag, took the wipe from the young mother and scrubbed her face vigorously. “Man, why isn't there a magic spell for cleaning shit?”
“Language,” Bethany chided automatically. “How...?” she trailed off, staring at Terry's forehead.
“Lady, that world is over. Your kid will be cursing like a sailor before they're six, I guarantee it.”
“Bethany,” Karl cut in, “it's time to go.” He raised his voice. “Everybody outside, we're leaving.”
It was another few minutes with escalating threats before they finally shut her front door and locked it. A few minutes after that, Chet was unlocking his. “Could someone get the wagon from out back please?”
Chet had the advantage of time to plan, observing what Bethany did and the party's reactions. He started out well, grabbing specific things and throwing them onto his dining room table. He swore softly, however, as he realized that the stroller had broken in several places and wouldn't roll properly. Jake crouched down next to it and shook his head. “I could get it to work for a little while, but it's just too fancy. This thing has more parts than an airliner. You got an old fashioned one somewhere? With very few moving parts?”
Again it took much longer than Karl would like, but finally they were on their way. Chet had found a beat up old stroller for Lily. Bethany's worked for Maya, and Jeffrey ended up riding in Lily's wagon while Sarah pulled it with a harness Jake rigged up by cutting the seat belts out of a couple of cars. A few members of the party took on some of the bundles of children's clothes, though Karl insisted that Terry and Michael keep their hands free, and took nothing on himself.
Their progress was torturously slow. The only upside was that it gave Terry plenty of time to scout around all the houses. With eleven adults (Karl counted Terry in that number as the System apparently did) and three children, they were a larger and noisier group. After a while, Terry persuaded Karl to turn that to their advantage, despite his severe misgivings.
“RESCUE TEAM!” the whole group shouted together, then fell silent and listened as they marched. “RESCUE TEAM!”
They tried other variations.
“IF your monster's hard to beat,” Terry shouted in military cadence.
“IF YOUR MONSTER'S HARD TO BEAT, “ they chorused.
“Safe Zone is on Walnut Street!”
“SAFE ZONE IS ON WALNUT STREET!”
“Sound Off!”
Terry signaled for quiet and they all listened closely for a minute. That's not what “sound off” means in the military, Karl thought, but didn't interrupt what was working for them.
“If you have an S.O.S!”
“IF YOU HAVE AN S.O.S!”
“Shout to us with your address!”
“SHOUT TO US WITH YOUR ADDRESS!”
“Sound Off!”
They fell quiet again. People were smiling at each other. Karl had to admit it made the slow march much more bearable.
Terry was facing the group, walking backwards ahead of them, and was about to launch into her latest version, when they all heard it. Someone were banging frantically on a pot with a spoon. Terry shot off in a blur which shimmered and vanished. Everyone stopped, and pointed to where they thought it was coming from.
Karl moved a bit closer and squinted. He could barely see small green creatures, not crabs, milling around outside one house—a lot of them. Karl hissed through his teeth.
It was another horde.