Everyone slept in the next morning. Even Derek, who was known for getting up at dawn, wasn't awake until the sun had long been up. The party had gone late into the night, with people finally able to let loose after everything that had happened since the apocalypse. There was dancing, singing, and food shared by everyone. One moment in time to let the worries of the world slip away.
"Magic sure does make parties more fun," James commented.
"How so?" Derek asked, stretching after rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"No more hangovers," James replied smiling widely.
"Is that the only reason?" Derek questioned, annoyed at James' one-dimensional approach to magic.
"Of course not. Those fireballs someone was tossing into the sky to explode like fireworks were awesome as well." James continued. "Even the building fire that happened when one of those fireballs went rogue after someone bumped into the wizard and he had to use a stream of water spell to put it out."
"People could have been seriously hurt!" Derek replied angrily.
"I know, but we could heal them. It wasn't like he was pointing it at anyone." James shuffled backward at Derek's sudden outburst.
"Or maybe someone could not just do dangerous drunken stunts with magic simply because we have it," Derek suggested, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Now where's the fun in that?" James said pulling a handgun from his inventory, attempting to twirl it around his finger like an old western, and promptly dropping it on the floor, where it went off putting a hole in the wall at the end of the room they were standing in.
Derek could do nothing but stare at James in an angry fury once he had removed his hands from his head trying to protect himself.
"Still working on that one. It's not as easy as it looks." James explained sheepishly as he picked up the gun and stored it back in his inventory.
Throwing his hands up in the air, Derek walked away angrily.
"Hey, tell Clay I wanna talk to him if you see him!" James called after Derek. "Hopefully he's in a better mood than Derek."
Tom entered the lobby a few minutes later looking much worse off than the others.
"Well, look what the cat threw up," James said looking Tom over. "You look like you were ridden hard and put away dead."
"Yeah, being dark-aligned makes it harder to get rid of all the symptoms. It's still way better than pre-magic times, but I definitely don't feel as chipper as you all sound." Tom said, his hair askew and bags forming under his eyes.
"Maybe you should have chosen differently," James offered.
"And never have met Azroc....no thank you," Tom replied smiling at James' antics.
"I didn't think about that. Yeah, I like him. You made the right call." James replied, retracting his statement.
Moving to the exit, the team stepped out into the sunlight, which immediately made Tom squint and put a hand up to block the light.
"Son of a bitch it's bright today," He commented. "Where are my...oh, duh."
Tom produced a pair of sunglasses from his inventory and put them on.
"You just keep sunglasses in there?" James asked, suddenly intrigued at what was in Tom's inventory.
"Of course. I keep pretty much everything I think I might need that I find in there. You don't?" Tom asked.
"I've just been keeping fighting stuff and foodstuff in there," James said slightly upset at not thinking of that.
"Dude, if you find something put it in there in case you need it. You never know what will come in handy later on." Tom replied, taking a cup of coffee out of his inventory.
"Seriously?!" James sputtered.
"Seriously. It's still hot too." Tom grinned as he put the steaming cup to his mouth to take a loud slurp.
Tom then proceeded to pull out a bagel, a pool floaty, and a gas torch just to show what kind of things he had found. He then produced a small safe, a tank of helium, a goldfish in a bowl, and a single candle.
"Tom, I think we need to address the elephant in the room," James said placing a hand on Tom's shoulder. "You're a loot hoarder."
"I am not! I might need this stuff later..." Tom was interrupted from his rebuttal by James putting a finger on his lips.
"Shhhhh...It's okay. I understand what you are going through, but this is junk." James said.
"I think you've watched one too many episodes of Hoarders," Tom said, pushing James' hand away from his face.
"I think you have too much crap in your inventory," James countered.
"I do not. I might need this stuff. You never know." Tom tried to argue.
"Where are we going to use a goldfish in a bowl? And it's dead. I don't think we can put living things in there, Tom." James replied, holding up the goldfish bowl and staring at the fish floating at the bottom.
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"How was I supposed to know that?" Tom asked, ripping the bowl out of James' hand.
"Hey, at least you tested with a goldfish first. I mean that thing was alive when you put it in there, right?" James asked, suddenly concerned that Tom might have found value in a dead goldfish.
"Yes, of course it was alive. I thought a kid might like it back at the guild building." Tom admitted ashamedly.
"Really? A kid, who is going through the apocalypse, thinks 'Man, if I had a goldfish my life would be so much better'?" James asked growing indignant.
"Have I gone through some kind of dimensional door where James makes good points?" Tom asked, suddenly aware of how stupid some of that sounded.
"Hey! I may not have many bright ideas...so I was due." James replied, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Fine. I'll work on decluttering. But for now, it's almost time to load up and head out. We need to find John to thank him for the hospitality." Tom said, looking around to see if he could find John anywhere.
John was standing in front of the courthouse entrance drinking a coffee. When he saw them leaving the hotel, he waved at them, indicating they should head to the courthouse. Tom moved toward him with Derek and James in tow. It was hard to believe that the three of them had been the ones to start this whole journey together. Well, technically it was just James and him, but Derek was integral in their survival and making good decisions in the early moments of the System integration.
Tom was eternally grateful to have his friends with him. What would have happened if he had stayed home sick from work? Or if something slightly different had happened? He didn't want to keep dwelling on that, but he stopped for a moment to smile at James and Derek as they walked.
"Dude, you okay? You're creeping me out with the stare." Derek commented, noticing that Tom had stopped walking.
"I think it's nice. This is my good side, by the way." James said stopping and bending over slightly as he turned back to look at Tom, eyebrows bouncing up and down.
"Just have to make everything weird don't you?" Tom asked, chuckling slightly at James' antics.
"It's what I do best," James replied, smiling and standing up fully.
"Thanks for doing this with me, guys," Tom said to them.
"You mean going to the courthouse?" James asked, confused about what Tom was saying this for.
"No, I mean the whole apocalypse thing. You all have stuck beside me and we make an awesome team." Tom corrected.
"It's true. We are pretty awesome." James said, preening and putting his thumbs under invisible suspenders.
"Of course, Tom. We are in this together. The only way people survive apocalypses is by banding together. We are in this for the long haul." Derek replied, smiling as well. "Now, let's go see what John has for us and thank him so we can get moving."
When the trio finally reached John, he extended a hand and they all took it and shook firmly.
"Thank you all so much for coming back through here. We know you didn't have to, but it shows your level of character that you didn't shy away from an awkward situation and told us of Seth's fate. For that we are grateful." John said, taking another sip of coffee.
"It was the right thing to do. We hope someone else would do the same for us." Tom replied.
"I know you have already done so much for us, but I needed to ask if you could do one more thing," John said hesitantly as he looked at the three men.
"Let me guess, people want to come with us?" Tom asked.
"How did you know?" John looked shocked that they had guessed that.
"Every stop we've made back through, at least some of the people want to come with us. It was bound to happen here." Tom replied as if he was tired of hearing it.
"Is that okay? I get a little feeling you don't want to take them." John asked, worried they were going to say no.
"No, it's not that. It's merely that we are already trying to figure out what to do with so many people. But at this point, with how many we have, more can't be any worse. I mean it can, but we won't likely notice a huge difference." Derek explained. "How many want to come?"
"Only about twenty. Most people are content to stay here." John explained.
"Sure, we will take them with us, but they need their own transport. That's been our rule for everyone else." Tom told him.
"We can arrange that. Thank you so much again! I don't want to force anyone to be where they are unhappy. And I know some of the people here have been looking for someone like you to follow." John praised them.
"Don't forget to send extra gasoline with them. We store it in our inventories to bring out when we need to refuel." Tom advised John to ensure they didn't hit any issues on the way back.
"Good note. I will make sure we send plenty with them." John replied, turning to leave and get those going with Tom ready.
After checking with the others, Tom and his team headed outside to see how the preparations were going. Looking at the people moving around and getting ready to leave, Tom called his team together.
"Are we ready to hit the road? I don't want to dawdle anywhere we don't have to." Tom asked as everyone circled around him.
"We are ready. We are just waiting for the rest. We filled up the vehicles, and these inventories make packing and travel a breeze now." Kedron replied.
"Great. I want everyone ready to load up and head out as soon as we get word that the people here are ready. We might be able to make it most of the way home today." Tom smiled as the thought of being back to check on everyone raced through his mind.
As the team moved out of their circle to begin heading to the vehicles, a shower of sparks erupted from one of the signal lights in the street at an intersection six streets away. The loud zap of the electrical sound that accompanied it startled nearly everyone in the streets and caused the hairs on Tom's neck and arms to stand on end.
Shooting out of the signal light and across the power lines suspended in the air, the sparks raced toward the courthouse and the gathered people. Every signal light it crossed on its way toward them burst in a brilliant shower of sparks. Screams of panic and fear began to fill the air as people raced to get as far away from the traveling electricity as possible.
"What the fuck is that?!" James asked incredulously as he followed the path of the sparks.
"Whatever it is, it's coming this way, MOVE!" Derek replied, yelling the last word to get everyone into gear.
Just as the sparks neared the final signal light in the middle of the intersection adjacent to the courthouse a wail could be heard coming from the sparks. When it finally reached the traffic light, the largest burst of sparks seen so far exploded from the metal yellow housing and a being appearing to be made of mostly blue light screeched as it shot toward the party members.
Writhing fingers grabbed for James as he dove out of the way. They passed within an inch of his clothing, leaving blackened burn marks from the residual electricity coursing off of its body. Its body became more solid as it moved through the crowds of people grabbing at them as it ran. It formed into the shriveled body of some humanoid creature with scraggly white hair and blazing azure eyes.
Specter:
A Specter is an incorporeal creature that kills its opponents by stealing their life force through touch. Beware its spectral embrace, for those it chooses will have their very souls stolen with its ethereal kiss.
HP: 1,025/1,025
MP: 550/550
SP: N/A
Turning its body suddenly to face Tom, the creature pointed a single decrepit finger at him, and with a voice sounding like a harsh evil whisper, it cried out, "YOOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!!!"