Tom hung up the radio, unable to believe what he was hearing. Everything was going to shit. Seth was dead, the guild might be at war, and he was still in Arizona with a multi-day trek ahead of him back to Dallas. Top it all off with the cherry finisher, he had no idea how he was going to handle any of this. Still feeling like he knew next to nothing about being a guild leader, and even less about strategy for fighting a war, he stood up and went to break the news to his team.

“Hey, guys, everyone gather round, I have some news about our situation back in Dallas,” The other members of his guild all moved in and Tom looked at each of them in turn.

Tom noticed that Bob had come over to join them as well and looked at him curiously.

“Bob? Is this your way of saying you are joining us?” Tom asked.

“After what we just went through, you bet. I saw some real promise in there and the sacrifices you were willing to make for your team. I figure there’s no one better to join up with.” Bob replied, smiling widely as he looked directly at Tom. “I’m sorry about your friend. Someone willing to literally jump in front of that monster for a team member though, is somewhere I want to be. You must engender true respect from these people if they are willing to die for each other.”

A somber mood passed over the friends as they remembered Seth’s Sacrifice. He had been a great asset to the team, and now many of them felt responsible for his death as they had been the ones to take him away from his home in Decatur. But Tom knew that Seth would not want them thinking of his sacrifice in that way. So they chose to remember him as the hero he truly was.

“Any of us would be happy to lay our lives down for the others. We are in this together to the very end. So you are welcome to join us, Bob. We would be honored to have you as a member of the guild.” Tom said to Bob, a smile that didn’t quite touch his eyes on his face.

Thinking about the guild menu, a screen appeared in his vision and he thought about sending an invite to Bob, who accepted almost immediately.

“Welcome to Vanguard, Bob,” Tom smiled at him again.

“We require monthly sacrifices to our lord and savior Satan in the form of James’ favorite cookies.” James piped up trying to lighten the mood.

He let out a whoof of air as Kiera elbowed him in the stomach.

“What the hell was that for?” James asked indignantly.

“Don’t be an ass,” Was all Kiera said in reply.

“This is actually great news. Bob’s knowledge will help us to accomplish even more than we already have. We can really make use of the added benefits of the system. We could help a lot of people.” Tom said excitedly.

“And that was super corny. Thanks, Tom.” Kedron added.

“Fine, just trying to look on the bright side. Welcome to the guild nonetheless, Bob.” Tom reiterated trying to not feel ashamed.

“Glad to join, now what’s the plan here?” Bob said trying not to snicker.

“We have to make it back to Dallas to help the guild. But we will have to stop in at least Decatur to let people say goodbye to Seth. We owe that to them.” Tom said solemnly.

Everyone nodded in agreement at the sentiment. They should be allowed to grieve him as well.

“I really meant what’s the plan when we get back?” Bob added.

“I’m not exactly sure. That’ll depend on the situation. If we come back to an all-out war, we just hop in and start bashing some skulls. If there is still tension, I’m hoping we can work on some more diplomatic approaches.” Tom thought aloud. “In either case, there isn’t much we can do about any of it until we are back in Dallas. So, we might as well get on the road.”

“That’s the best plan I’ve heard so far. Let’s hit the road and see what we can do.” Kedron said, clapping his hands together and stepping back from the circle of people.

“How do we get back? We are out of seats with Bob joining us now.” Bobby mentioned.

“I think we can help with that,” Zach interrupted them as he walked over with his team. “We have some extra room and couldn’t help but overhear your little dilemma.”

“You guys are coming to Dallas? Don’t you all have a family to get back to?” Tom asked looking at Zach with concern.

“We do, but we have others who came with us that are going to go back and bring them to Dallas. You all have a stronger presence there than we do in Utah. It's not that far from here truth be told. And we’d rather be somewhere we know we can be with people we can trust.” Zach said.

“I can’t promise anyone safety if they come to Dallas,” Tom said making sure he met Zach’s eyes.

“We know. But brother, no one can promise safety anywhere. Might as well work on being with people we know can have each other’s backs, right?” Zach said nonchalantly as he shrugged and tried to act as if he didn’t care.

“We are going, too,” Isaac said as he came to join the group. "Vegas is a shit hole anyway. We'd rather join you all as well. And it sounds like you could use the backup."

“This is getting ridiculous. Would anyone wanting to go to Dallas just come over now and stop interrupting to try to have dramatic effect?!” James called out to the group of people still tearing down the camp.

Chuckles ran through the camp as Chris and his team also said they would be joining Tom on their journey back to Dallas. Each of them had a small following in their towns that would also be coming to join but had to send someone back to tell them where to come to. Mike from Chris' team had been able to radio back to their group, having been able to stay in contact on the road, but Isaac and Zach still needed to send people.

Tom attempted to send Zach a guild invite but received an error instead.

Cannot send Zach a guild invite:

Due to the fact that the person you are attempting to invite to Vanguard is in another guild already, you cannot send them an invite to your guild.

"Well, that's new," Tom said puzzled at the system message.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"What is?" Derek asked.

"It says I can't invite Zach to the guild because he's already in another one," Tom replied, rereading the message.

"Are you the guild leader Zach?" Bob asked.

"I am," Zach replied.

"Then just merge your guilds together. That way everyone is included at once." Bob stated, crossing his arms as if this should have been common knowledge.

"We can do that?" Tom asked looking up from the system message.

"Of course. You just have to choose which one will be the main guild, and which one is the merging guild. It's a sub-menu on the guild page." Bob explained. "You can even merge multiple guilds at a time, assuming Isaac and Chris are also already in guilds."

"We do already have a guild," Chris said, moving back to the group.

"We do not. We didn't have enough people we trusted and then got sucked into this quest before we had a chance to form one." Isaac informed them.

Tom pulled up the system page for the guild and found the tab for guild merging. There was a list of guilds in a drop-down at the top of the page for the primary guild, and then branching sections for merging guilds with drop-down fields as well.

"What are the names of your guilds?" Tom asked Isaac and Chris.

"Desert Wolves," Zach said.

Chris mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that Chris?" Tom asked straining to hear him.

"The Prancing Unicorns, okay?!" He almost yelled in anger.

"What the fuck?" James asked.

"My daughter named it. It wasn't my choice, but she has not been dealing well with the apocalypse, and this helped distract her." Chris pouted, pointedly not meeting anyone's eyes.

Silence reigned for a moment before everyone nearby burst out laughing.

"The Prancing Unicorns, eh? That suits you all so well!" Kedron teased through fits of laughter.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But when you meet Sasha, you'll see why it's hard to say no to her." Chris grumbled.

"Alright, let's do the merge," Tom said, getting his laughter under control.

Tom selected the appropriate names from the list. There were hundreds of guild names to search through, but he was able to find them in the alphabetical lists. Once selected, the large red MERGE button at the bottom of the page lit up, and when he pressed it, the Desert Wolves and Prancing Unicorns were removed and all members were listed in the Vanguard members list.

This influx brought Tom's guild list up to almost seven hundred people.

"I had no idea we had so many members already," Tom stared in awe at the list of names.

"Brian sure has been busy," Derek said, equally shocked as he looked at the names in his view.

"More people means more bodies to do the tasks needed to keep a guild running. It's why many of the guilds won't last without coming together." Bob mentioned off-handedly.

"You think they will die off?" Tom asked, concern in his voice.

"Either that or the list will get shorter because they figure out they can merge as well. Either way, there will come a time when the number of guilds will begin to shrink." Bob continued. "It has to happen. Small groups won't be able to stay afloat forever."

"Why wouldn't people just be able to sustain themselves? Seems like we have been doing ok out here." Tom asked.

"Can't be a guild without a guild building. So you have to have a place to call home. If everyone leaves to make the guild a roaming guild, then someone could take over the guild building. If that happens, your group is disbanded. You lose all the bonuses with it as well. To keep a building you will have to defend it from, at the very least, monsters. That means getting stronger. If everyone always fights, then who gathers supplies? Who makes the building defensible? Who makes the changes to the guild that make it stronger? It's just not sustainable long term." Bob explained.

"Could someone make something like a cruise ship or a yacht a guild building?" Austin asked.

"They aren't buildings, so no. They could be part of the guild fleet. But not a building to form a guild around." Bob answered.

"Fleet? That sounds like a pretty cool idea." Kedron said.

"Sure, until you think of what all goes into maintaining a yacht or cruise ship. It's not practical." Bob added.

"Let's just cross that ocean when we get to it. So, how many vehicles will be in the caravan going home now?" Tom asked, looking around at everyone who had gathered.

"We have two vehicles," Zach piped up.

"We have three," Chris added.

"I only have one going with us," Isaac mentioned.

"So, six, plus our two, plus the motorcycle. Nine in total in the caravan. Just to let you all know, we will be stopping several times to check in on some places. One of which we have to lay a friend to rest in." Tom told the teams. "So it isn't a straight shot. But it has to be done. Anyone have any issues?"

No one said anything. Each looked to the others to see if anyone would speak up.

"Alright, time to load everything up. We have road to burn!" Tom called out so everyone could hear him.

Turning to leave the campsite, Tom stared off into the distance realization donning on him.

"We parked up there," Tom said pointing at the top of the canyon a few miles off.

"Well, we parked in the other direction," Zach said pointing to another rise.

Chris and Isaac didn't even say anything as they pointed in other directions.

"Well, shit. Okay, everyone go to your vehicles and we will meet up at the park entrance. Everyone knows where that is right?" Tom asked, feeling his impatience rising.

The others all nodded.

"Awesome. Let's get this over with." Tom sighed as he turned to move out.

Now marching off in four different directions, the teams began their hikes to their respective vehicles. Tom and his team discussed the information that Joe had relayed over the radio again but continued to come to the conclusion that they simply couldn't do anything about it until they returned to Dallas.

"Look, all I'm saying is if we just kick Shandra's ass really good one time, she'll probably back off," Kiera said.

"Or she'll become a vengeful bitch that goes out, becomes even stronger, and destroys all of us in her own heroic tale," James said.

"What? How would her tale be heroic?" Kiera asked indignantly.

"Everyone is the hero in their own story. Just because we see her as a villain, she sees us as a villain as well. Even the bad guys think what they are doing is right a lot of the time." James explained, continuing to huff and puff while they hiked through the canyon.

"You really think villains see themselves as the heroes?" Kiera asked.

"Sure do. Think about it. You are out there killing off goblins because they killed humans. But goblins are out there killing humans because they got flopped down in a world where they are the minority and are scared. They see these creatures twice their size and look nothing like them everywhere. What do they do? They defend themselves. Strike first and ask questions later." James continued, pausing momentarily to catch his breath.

"Why wouldn't their first thought be to talk to these strange creatures and understand them?" Kiera asked.

"Was your first thought to speak with the ogres? We couldn't even understand them and we couldn't understand the goblins. Hard to make peace with someone you can't talk to. And a lot of them appeared on freeways with vehicles driving past. Look, the point is that a lot of villains also think they are doing the right thing. Don't get too into the weeds on it. Do what you think is right and that's what matters. People will either agree with you or they won't. And it won't do anything but make your life shorter to try to make everyone agree with you all the time." James added.

"Wow. That was probably the deepest thing you've ever said, James." Derek interjected.

"I read a lot of comic books. It's something I've thought about before when thinking about why villains did what they did." James replied, starting to walk again with the group. "But don't get me wrong, some people are just bastards and want to watch people suffer."

After walking for a couple of miles, Derek pointed out a place in the canyon to begin going up. The teams all went single file up the narrow path that led out of the canyon. Reaching the top of the canyon, the team all paused and looked around.

"Where the fuck are the vehicles?!" Tom yelled.