"That was a badass intro!" James said excitedly.
"Don't mind him, he's an idiot," Derek said.
"I guess introductions are in order. I'm Tom, This is Derek, and James, Over there is Jay and Kiera, in the loincloth, is Kevin, and they are DeeDee and Graham." Tom said.
James opened the trunk and Squirrel hopped, shaking his fur out and stretching.
"AH! A fucking wolf! Kill it!" The balding man exclaimed at seeing Squirrel.
"You moron, the wolf got out of their vehicle. Clearly, it's with them." The big red-headed man said, slapping the balding man over the back of the head. "Don't mind him, he's crazy. I'm Bobby. The crazy one is Clay."
"This is Briana," Kedron said gesturing at the female. " And the big guy is Austin."
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Are you all prepared for what we might be facing? This could be really dangerous and there will be monsters along the way." Tom asked.
"All of us have acted as the first line of defense here. We have been fighting off any monsters in the area so we know what to expect." Kedron said as the others nodded behind him. "We've lost some friends. We know the risks."
"Alright. Then let's get headed out. We don't have time to waste. Do you all have enough gas?" Tom asked.
"We've been siphoning out the other cars, so we have plenty for now," Kedron said. "Does the offer still stand to join your guild? We would all be happy to be a part if you'll have us."
"It does. You just have to be aware that everyone pulls their weight. We will ask you to lend any skills you have to the guild. But we are always looking for good people who can fight." Tom said
Turning to Derek for a moment, Tom double-checked he was making the right call. Derek gave one curt nod and Tom looked back to Kedron. His shoulders slumped as if a weight had been lifted.
"I'm really glad to hear you say that. We all believe that the more people stick together the more likely people are to survive. I've left some people here who are going to try to help others to your base. Those willing anyway. Can't help anyone not willing to help themselves." Kedron replied looking sad at saying it.
Tom nodded, "Agreed, but you do feel bad. I know the feeling all too well."
Navigating to the guild page, Tom extended all those present an invitation to the guild. They all accepted.
"The others will be able to get an invite from Brian when they arrive. They just need to say that they met us here and they should be accepted without issue." Tom said. "Now, what vehicle are you taking?"
"We had been using a sedan for the most part, but seeing your vehicle I think we have something we will use instead," Kedron said.
With that, they walked off to a parking garage attached to the department store and drove out a few minutes later in a second-generation Hummer.
"Where the hell did you get that?" Derek asked as Kedron rolled down the window and smiled at them.
"It was just parked here in the garage. We have been doing inventory of the vehicles here and which one's had keys. This one had the driver dead about twenty yards from it. They had clearly been running for the vehicle when they were attacked by something. We figure gobos got them. Keys were in their pocket." Kedron said. "You gave me the idea for it when you talked about running things over. It's not as maneuverable as the smaller car, but way more durable. Plus, we look pretty badass."
"It's definitely badass! If we see any goblins be sure to run them down. It gives you a skill for killing things with it and it seems to offer you the ability to upgrade the vehicle as well." Tom said.
"Fucking dope! I can't wait to run over some of those green bastards." Kedron said. "They...they took my brother. So now I murder any of them I see. Those fuckers will pay!"
"I'm so sorry," Tom said.
"It's not your fault. And I'm appreciative of you just being willing to take us in. We didn't know what we were going to do being stuck here. So let's just hit the road and figure out what we can do with this quest. Twenty thousand XP is a lot to look forward to." Kedron replied.
With that, everyone loaded back up and the team made for the highway again. Kedron directed them around the barrier on a couple of side streets and as they hit the on-ramp, the first set of goblins appeared with a crudely built wooden stick barricade blocking the access. Huddled behind their defensive structure, the goblins jeered at the drivers as they came to a stop, Tom pulling the GS2 up next to the Hummer. With a gesture of his hand denoting "after you" from Tom, Kedron grinned wickedly and revved the engine.
Letting off the brake, the Hummer roared ahead toward the makeshift barricade. The goblins began attempting to pelt the vehicle with rocks and crude spears as it came forward. Their eyes went wide just as Kedron plowed through them, shattering their structure to splinters and painting the ground with their blood and insides.
Tom and his team followed up and ran over a couple that had dived out of the way, one of them getting decapitated by an axe blow from Graham out of the side window. There were no survivors. Pulling up next to the Hummer, the party saw the other team high-fiving and cheering.
"Felt good?" Tom asked.
"We definitely should have done this sooner!" Kedron called. "That was fucking awesome!"
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"Let's keep going for now. I'm sure there will be more chances for automotive assassination later." Tom said.
Continuing on, the teams drove for hours, taking 183 over to 287 north. They drove until they reached Rhome Texas where they pulled off the highway for the night since it was getting dark. It would have been nice to make more progress, but with having to get out to move vehicles in a number of places, the going was slower than they would have liked.
Pulling into the town, Derek pointed to a building on the edge of the city where they could likely hunker down for the night. Seeming completely abandoned, the town was devoid of almost all life. The only creatures they saw were wildlife running away when they pulled into the parking lot.
"We should be able to stay here. It's likely only got one or two entrances and is fairly defensible with easy access to the highway if we need to make a quick getaway." Derek said.
The building was a small credit union with very few windows. It left much to be desired in the way of comfort, but it would protect them from the elements and seemed to have been undisturbed so far as the glass door was still intact.
"I'm guessing the vault is still closed, but we can still rest pretty easy knowing that the building is structurally sound," Derek added.
Breaking the glass to enter with his mace, Derek led the way into the credit union to look around and make sure they were alone. As he had expected the building was completely abandoned and they were able to lay out some of the bedding they had brought with them behind the counters near the vault door that was still shut.
"We will need to take watches. Two at a time to make sure we stay away in three-hour shifts." Derek said.
"You sure seem to know what you are doing," Bobby commented. "Military guy?"
"I was. Did a couple tours in Afghanistan." Derek said.
"I was in Iraq," Bobby replied. "Good to see someone else here with a good head on their shoulders."
"Bobby here has been our strategic coordinator. Without him, we would have died several times over." Kedron said patting Bobby on the back.
"Just doing what I can to keep everyone safe," Bobby said humbly.
"You know, if we had some explosives we could blow this bank vault wide open!" Clay said looking at the vault door.
"And do what? Wipe our asses with the money?" Austin said. "Shut up you crazy fool. Money ain't worth shit anymore and you just want to get your hands on some explosives."
"True. I'd love to blow something up. It's really cathartic." Clay replied.
"So Clay is a pyro. Neat!" James said. "We have some explosives back at the guild building. Tom gave some to a chicken that we fed to a Troll and watched its head explode."
"Great....Stupid made a crazy friend," Jay said sighing loudly.
"I'm not stupid. I'm just easily excitable." James said, blowing a raspberry at Jay.
"And still five years old apparently," Jay said.
"Ah shove off ya wanker. You're just no fun." James said.
"Now now boys, you're both pretty. No need for a dick-measuring contest." Kiera said, reclining on one of the mattresses they had set out.
"Don't say the word dick around James. It gets him excited." Graham added.
"It does not. But you might be careful of saying it around Squirrel." James said giving his wolf a leery sideye as it lay on the mattress curled up next to Kiera.
Kedron and his team looked at James quizzically.
"It's a long story, we'll tell you once we're settled," Tom said.
The team spent another hour getting themselves settled, eating, and talking. James told the story of finding Squirrel, with some exaggerated heroism, and they got to know each other better.
"So you seriously just ran out there and peed on the electric fence?" James asked, laughing hysterically.
"Damn straight! Jesse said I wouldn't and so I had to prove him wrong! Couldn't feel my dick for a week, but it was worth it!" Clay said.
"You are one crazy son of a bitch Clay," James said.
Walking over to Kedron, Tom handed him one of the water bottles that they brought along.
"Seems like our teams are meshing well," He commented.
"I'm just glad to see them letting their hair down a bit," Kedron said. "We've been stuck with a bunch of people who had no business being the ones that survived the first wave of monsters, but we just didn't feel like we could turn them away. Real party poopers when it came to getting anything done."
"I hear ya. We were fortunate enough to be in a place where once we started putting in the work to help people, some professionals stepped up and made some of the comforts of our old life available and the others began to pitch in where they could. We also have a pretty great chancellor working on getting everything organized. That guy can work miracles." Tom said.
"Can't wait to be part of something more organized. Some of those people expected us to just do everything for them while they wallowed in their misery. I mean really people. It's the end of the fucking world. Buck up or die already." Kedron said. "But I just couldn't bring myself to do that. Just leave people to get killed."
"It's hard. We are so engrained with the thought that every life matters because we lived in such a peaceful time, all things considered now." Tom said shaking his head. "But we were soft. I still like to think there is a place for everyone, but with resources becoming more and more limited, I'm coming to believe that not everyone can be saved, even though I haven't been treating them like that yet."
"It's hard, man. You want to help anyone that comes along, but some of them just refuse to do anything or accept what is happening and take action. They are frozen with indecision on things like violence even when a monster is coming at them with a weapon. You throw yourself in front of the danger and tell yourself that next time they will stand up and fight, but then they don't. They just stand behind you and cower. We lost one of our friends, Phil because he was determined to save someone that had literally shit themselves when they got cornered after throwing a woman in front of him to distract a group of goblins trying to kill them." Kedron said. "Phil was trying to fight off the goblins, but the other guy tripped him, thinking he could get away while they attacked Phil. He got dragged down too though."
"Some people will do anything to save themselves," Tom said.
"Yeah, and it's fuckers like him that make me even angrier than the monsters. Someone willing to let another person die just at a chance of saving themselves." Kedron said.
"For now though, we can focus on us. Let the others deal with that. You told them to leave them if they don't want to go right?" Tom said.
"I did. I said enough was enough. We might not get another chance like this so we have to take it. I hope everyone decides to go. I don't want the others to have to carry the burden of leaving someone behind. But I'm guessing they will see reason when they realize that they will get left behind." Kedron said. "They're cowards at heart, so I think they will go with them, even if begrudgingly."
"Yeah, I wouldn't want that either, but you can't carry all the weight either. You gotta let some of that roll off your back. You didn't cause this. You're just as much a victim." Tom said.
"You're right. And I'm working on it. Just gonna take some time." Kerond said.
"Let's rest for tonight. Don't think about what's happening there and let the others take care of that."
With that, they rejoined the others in telling stories about what had happened since the screens appeared in the sky and eventually settled in to rest for the night before beginning their journey again in the morning.
It was late in the night, but Tom felt a boot kick him in the side.
"Get up. You all are coming with us." Said a man as a flashlight was shone in his face.
Tom was roughly grabbed and his hands put behind his back. The man handcuffed him and led him outside where some of the others were already sitting on the ground.
"We want all your shit before you die. So don't hold out on us, ya hear?" Said a man who stepped out from behind a set of police cruisers sitting in the parking lot, blocking their vehicles from leaving.