To say the drive back to the guild building was awkward and silent would be an understatement. The only noise in the vehicle was the noise of the Quasit munching on more jerky. Everyone else simply sat in silence and thought about what the message meant. The Quasit had been happy in KJiera's arms until she had stopped petting it. Now it moved up to the shoulder of the driver's seat to be near Tom.

"You sure do like that Jerky. Maybe that's what I should name you. Jerky." Tom said both trying to look at the Quasit and keep his eyes on the road to avoid stalled cars and bodies.

"Jer-ky," The Quasit said, testing the name. "Yes, Jerky. Me like."

"Alright, then Jerky it is," Tom said, reaching up to pat the Quasit on the head and scratch it behind the ears. He wasn't sure why he did that, but it's what people did with pets. Besides, he didn't know what else to do and Jerky seemed to enjoy it.

Arriving at the center a short while later, the team piled out of the car and raced to the conference room that had become the base of operations in the building. Brian was already waiting for them.

"Well, this is a fucking delightful surprise now isn't it?" Brian asked. "We've been in the apocalypse for two god dammed days and now we have to worry about our planet being invaded by...space pirates!"

"Yeah, not exactly ideal. But maybe we can find a way to protect ourselves. We have a whole year and look at what we have accomplished so far." Tom said.

"These are a species of beings that can travel the galaxy and hunt planets to take resources from...what hope can we possibly have of fighting them off?" Brian asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but a couple of days ago I wouldn't have thought about fighting off a mugger with a gun, and today I lead a team into an actual dungeon where we killed magical suits of armor and a fucking blood mage," Tom replied. "I feel a strong sense that we need to give this a try and see if we can make weapons and defenses that can take them on. We can use magic now for fuck's sake!"

Brian paused at Tom's words. He took in the idea that this wasn't the world they were used to anymore. They now had a form of technology that had never even been considered possible before. There might just be some ways of figuring out how to defend themselves.

"OK. I'm willing to give it a shot, but there are a few people I need you to meet," Brian said.

"Great, let's do it," Tom said.

Brian led the group out of the conference room and down the hall to a small set of offices. Inside the office area was another small conference room with a group of people sitting inside and talking about something. Bursting into the conference room, Brian stared at each individual, disturbing the meeting and causing all eyes to turn in his direction.

"Hello, all. I have some people that you all need to meet," Brian began. "This is Tom, he is the leader of the guild that we formed with this building's location as the guild building."

The people at the table either nodded or waved.

"Tom, these are the people I think will be most beneficial in our guild if we accept them," Brian said.

"Now hold on a moment. Who said we wanted to join a guild?" an older gentleman sitting at the head of the table said.

"This is the man that saved your lives and has been repelling the goblins outside the building along with supplying our security force with items and information about this blasted system that we are all interfacing with now," Brian said looking at the man. "Besides, there are too many benefits from being in a guild for you not to want to join."

"And who is this?" Tom asked.

"This is Herbert. He's an engineer. Worked with large-scale machines for factories." Brian said, gesturing toward Herbert.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Herbert," Tom said nodding to the man.

"Well, I for one would be happy to join the guild," A woman said sitting to Herbert's right.

"This is Charlene. She was the head chef at Dakota's Steakhouse here in Dallas." Brian said.

"Chef, you say," Tom said, now very interested.

"Certainly. I figured I could offer my assistance here in getting things running for the people of the guild. There is a kitchen with a full cafeteria here so we wouldn't need to work too hard to get something up and running to keep people fed. Provided you are willing to keep us defended." Charlene said.

"Absolutely Charlene, you would be a welcome addition to the team. If there is ever anything that you need, you can always come ask and we will do whatever we can to make it happen." Tom said.

The others around the room were introduced one by one to Tom and his team. Jim was a pawnbroker, Paul was an architect, Steve was a tailor, Andrea had grown up on a farm with her parents growing vegetables they supplied to a grocery store chain, Rebecca was a doctor, and Mark was a mechanic.

"Wow, if we could find a plumber and an electrician we would be set," Tom commented.

Next, Tom introduced his whole team. Jerky hopped up onto the table and introduced himself, much to the chagrin of everyone at the table.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Me, Jerky," Jerky said bowing slightly on the table.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Mark asked.

"Jerky? He's my familiar. He's a Quasit." Tom said.

"He's ugly as sin is what he is," Mark said, still shying away from the little creature.

Jerky looked at him, then shapeshifted into the form of a puppy sitting on the table.

"What the damn hell?!" Herbert cried from the head of the table.

"This better? Not ugly?" Jerky said.

"It can fucking change shape?" Mark asked.

"Yup. And become invisible apparently," Tom said.

Just as he said that Jerky became completely invisible. Several people at the table stood up backing away while the others rolled their chairs back as far as they would go. Jerky reappeared a few seconds later, still in puppy form sitting on the table wagging his tail, tongue lolling out of its mouth with a grin on its face.

"That just ain't right," Mark said.

"Look, can we get back to the topic at hand?" Brian asked.

"This thing doesn't upset you?" Mark asked.

"I mean, it doesn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies, but after watching Tom and his crew run over goblins like he was trying out for the college bowling team, it's pretty far down on my list of disturbing things for the day," Brian responded. "Besides, Tom said it was his familiar. I trust Tom. With my life."

Jerky picked this moment to lift his leg and begin licking himself on the table for everyone to see. Everyone watched for a moment, too stunned to say anything.

"Dude, Jerky. Come on man, not here in front of everybody." Tom said.

Jerky looked up to see everyone staring, his tongue still halfway out of his mouth as he was about to go in for another lick. Smiling, he lowered his leg and hopped off the table to sit at Tom's feet.

"Anyways, as I was saying. We would like to ask you to join the guild. In exchange for your services, we will provide you with protection, opportunities to level up, and any items that you need that we can acquire." Brian said panning across the room. "Each of you has a unique skill set that will come in handy in this new world and banding together will only make us stronger. Money no longer means anything as the economy will have completely crashed. The only thing that matters now is trying to survive and doing what we can to prepare for this new attack we have been warned about."

Everyone in the room sat and thought about it. Tom understood their hesitation. They were being asked to completely change their line of thinking in a matter of two days. They used to work for money which bought them the things they wanted or needed. Now they were going to have to figure out how to just survive long enough to get to a place where a sense of normal could be found. The feeling of satisfaction of earning a living for the job they did was ripped away in an instant with the fact that money was completely worthless in this new reality.

On top of all of that, they would be responsible for an infrastructure that would require they be in charge of other people who would join to help on the projects that they would be overseeing to be sure they could survive. And they weren't given much of a choice.

"What if we say no?" Herbert asked.

"Then we will be happy to say adieu to you and let you go on your merry way out in the world to wherever you would like," Brian replied.

"So you are saying that we either help you or we fuck off?" Herbert said.

"I'm saying if you help us we will spend our resources to help you in return. If you do not want to help us, we cannot afford to spend our resources to help you in return, so in an effort to maximize our resources we will absolutely show you the door." Brian said with a smile on his face.

Tom was immediately happy that at that moment he had found Brian. He was worth more than his weight in monster cores.

"That doesn't seem very fair," Herbert replied.

"What isn't fair, sir, is that you intend to keep sitting around here without contributing and expect us to feed you, house you, clothe you, check on your health, and put our lives on the line to ensure you stay safe without offering us anything in return for our trouble," Brian said, the smile leaving his face. "I'm sorry that we cannot afford to just hand out free goodies to anyone who needs them, but we can't afford to run a charity in this current world. We are still not one hundred percent sure how we are going to continue to survive, but we are doing our damndest to find a solution to every problem that comes up and if you do not want to be a part of that solution then we need to drop your dead weight."

Herbert's eyes were wide after this rant. He really seemed to have not considered the bigger picture. As though he was only thinking about his current predicament and not the fact that there were other things involved in making sure that they had the best chance of surviving.

Everyone around the table was silent. Deep in thought. Finally, Jim spoke up.

"How do I fit into this plan?" Jim asked.

"You, sir, have experience in trading. You know how much things are worth and how to get a deal on them. Eventually, this world is going to consist of guilds because it is the only obvious solution to banding together. We will need to trade with those guilds and you will be a vital part of that process." Brian replied.

"Then I'm in. I will do whatever I can to help." Jim said.

"The same goes for me," Rebecca said. "I've already been helping to treat people, may as well continue."

One by one, everyone else in the room agreed until it was only Herbert left. He didn't appear to even be paying attention, simply still taking in all the information about the situation they were truly in.

"Herbert?" Tom asked.

Herbert jumped slightly at being called out.

"I know what you are going through. This is all a shock and you weren't ready for it. But you have to know that it did happen. This is all real, and we are stuck in this situation. It doesn't have to be the end though." Tom said. "We can build something great here and take care of each other if we work together. And you have my word I will step up to help you with anything you need. All we ask is for your expertise as well."

Tears began to fall down Herbert's face as he looked up at Tom.

"My wife...my wife Susan was killed while we were trying to get here. I couldn't stop it. I tried to get to her, but the crowds pushed me back. By the time I could get through..." he trailed off.

Tom knelt in front of Herbert and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Herbert. I saw some terrible things happen as well. Children cut down right in front of my eyes. Men and women were slaughtered. I don't want to see that happen to anyone else." Tom said. "The only way we can stop that is if we work together."

Herbert began to weep openly now.

"I had thought this couldn't be real. This couldn't actually be happening. We had been married for twenty-eight years. I loved her so much. I was just going to wake up and this would all be a bad dream." Herbert continued through his sobs.

More people began to tear up thinking of the devastation that had happened or the loved ones they had lost.

"You have to grieve Herbert. You cannot just bear the weight of this and continue on or it will break you. Take the time you need to grieve. We will help you until then. Brian will check in with you in a day or two to see how you are doing and we can decide where we go from there." Tom said.

Herbert nodded and placed his head in his hands to continue crying. Standing up, Tom turned to Brian.

"Let me know what he says in a day or two. It won't hurt us to wait just a bit longer." Tom said.

Brian nodded and the party left the conference room, hearts heavy with the burden of the new reality they faced.