With everyone armed and ready, they moved into a position to put the magic users and ranged fighters against the vehicles with tanks and fighters out front. Weapons had appeared almost instantly in everyone's hands, equipped directly from their inventories as they had been instructed.

A woman walked out of the trees with her hands raised in surrender, her eyes bulging from the number of people staring at her with weapons raised and spells ready to cast.

"Don't attack, please. I mean you no harm." The woman said still with her hands outstretched showing she was not trying to be a threat.

"Sarah? Is that you?" Tom called out.

"Tom?" Sarah replied.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" Tom asked her. "Oh, stand down everyone, I know her. She's good people.

Relaxing, the team began returning their weapons to their inventories and began to go back to sitting around the camp trying to relax.

"I came out here to try to catch you on your way back to Dallas. I figured that with the completion of the quest, that either you had something to do with it or you'd be headed back this way. Are you planning to go through Flagstaff?" Sarah asked as she explained what she was doing.

"We are, but you didn't need to come out here. We would have found you when we went through town." Tom said, concern on his face for her. "You could have been hurt out here. You aren't exactly a fighter."

"I can handle myself. And what if you hadn't gone through town? How did I know you would stop there for sure?" Sarah asked, putting her hands on her hips in annoyance.

"Fine. But we are going there. So no need to worry." Tom assured her.

"Good. Because there are a bunch of people waiting." Sarah said, still miffed, but letting him off the hook for his attitude.

"Wait, why?" Tom asked, suddenly confused.

"They are going with you back to Dallas. They saw what you could do and figured that they had a better chance of survival with you than staying in Flagstaff." Sarah explained. "The raiders came back and a lot of them are wanting to go as well."

"And you're okay with that? After they terrorized you all?" Tom questioned her, unsure he would be so forgiving.

"They were doing what they thought they had to in order to survive. Plus most of the people left are women and children. The men were the ones who were doing the violence." Sarah explained.

"I'm not sure we can just take on a bunch of women and children to protect," Tom thought aloud and turned to see what Derek thought.

"You don't think you can just reject them do you?" Sarah asked in complete shock. "You would turn them away simply because they aren't fighters?"

"No, we would never do that. But it's complicated. They are going to travel with us which makes us more vulnerable now. We have to plan carefully so they don't become a liability on the road." Derek interjected. "We have to set up a protective force that can be at the front and back with a few in between so if we are attacked they can protect the non-combatants."

"Do they have any skills they might contribute? We always tell people before they join that they have to contribute or they will have to be let go. We need all kinds of people, but we can't just support a bunch of leeches." Tom said trying to be both blunt and caring at the same time and finding it very difficult.

"They will work for their way. No one there seems to be lazy. Though I suppose I haven't personally interviewed each of them. How do you normally do that?" Sarah asked.

"I don't. Normally we have people that do that, and I've been away for a while so I'm not sure what the protocol is. But we can have them all screened. I won't just extend invites willy-nilly. But they can come nonetheless I suppose." Tom said looking again at Derek.

"...I can't in good faith let them just stay, but this is going to make things very complicated," Derek sighed loudly as he thought about the logistics. "How many are there that want to come?"

"About three hundred," Sarah said as she winced at having to tell them the actual number.

Tom and Derek stared in wide-eyed shock at Sarah for a long moment.

"Holy shit," was all Tom could think to say at that moment.

"I know, it's a lot of people, but we can't just leave them there," Sarah said almost sounding desperate to get them to agree.

"Yeah, that's definitely a lot," Tom ran his hand through his hair as he began to think frantically of how they might transport that many people to Dallas.

"We have vans. And with inventories, people don't really have luggage to take. We also found a large school bus to take a lot of them. We are trying to reduce the number of vehicles it will take to transport them." Sarah added trying to offer a solution.

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"That will definitely help. See how few vehicles we can fit them all into." Derek mused as he thought of the best strategy as well. "See if there are any city buses as well and if anyone can drive them."

"Right! I'll go back and get them ready. You'll be here for the night it looks like?" Sarah asked looking over Tom's shoulder at the camp.

"Yeah, we are going to stay here. We will be headed into town in the morning. We really need some rest." Tom replied, also looking back at the team.

"Your little party keeps growing. You're a good man, Tom." Sarah said, rubbing his arm before she turned and made her way back into the forest.

Tom smiled after her as she followed a trail deeper into the woods.

"Somebody's got a girlfriend," James teased in a sing-song voice.

"I do not!" Tom said indignantly. "Sarah is just a friend."

"A friend who's a girl," James continued teasing.

"You're just jealous that you are still alone and no one likes you," Tom said to James.

"Wow...that was harsh," James said in mock insult. "If I wasn't such good friends with you, I just might slap you, good sir."

"You could try," Tom taunted James with an evil smile on.

James swung his hand out to slap Tom and missed as Tom leaned back with an agile grace that seemed born of years of practice.

"How the hell did you do that?" James asked in awe.

"Honestly, I have no idea. It just felt instinctual." Tom said looking at his hands equally confused.

They both paused staring at each other in shock. Suddenly their eyes both narrowed and Tom leaped up from his seat backing away quickly as James began to attempt to slap him in earnest, chasing him around the camp.

"Are we sure, they aren't already together?" Isaac murmured leaning toward Derek.

"Positive. Though you wouldn't know it sometimes." Derek replied softly as they watched Tom and James laughing and slapping at each other.

"Should we say something?" Isaac asked.

"Nah. Let them have their fun. Tom needs the distraction." Derek said, going back to his soup and blowing on a spoonful before bringing it to his mouth.

Tom and James playfully chased each other around the camp for about five more minutes before tripping over a log and tumbling to the ground in a heap. When they recovered everyone had a good laugh at their antics and so they rejoined the people around the fire.

"Tomorrow we head into Flagstaff. Sounds like a lot of people are going to be joining us." Tom said seriously.

"Indeed. But that's okay. We knew there were going to be people wanting to join. Maybe not this many, but still. It will help in the long run." Derek replied, not looking up from his soup as he finished the last of the bowl.

"Yeah, but at this rate, we will gather people up like a snowball rolling downhill on our way back and might have an issue with how many we will be bringing." Tom looked at Derek as he spoke worriedly.

"All true. But we can only take things one day at a time for right now. We can figure that all out when we are back and have an accurate account of what we will be looking at. For now, sleep and rest. Tomorrow will take care of tomorrow." Derek said sagely.

"Wow, thanks Mr. Fortune Cookie," James piped in. "But I guess he's right. Nothing we can do about it right now. May as well rest."

"Fine. I just need to eat a little and I'm off to bed." Tom said moving to the pot over the fire to get some soup.

After eating his fill, Tom and the others retired to their tents for the night while rotations began for teams of six to watch the area.

The next morning, everyone awoke early, took down the camp, and loaded up in the vehicles again. As they drove, Tom thought about the people in Flagstaff and about how many people were now going to be a part of the guild. It was an amazing number of people coming together. He just wished a few more fighters were coming as well.

When they pulled into Flagstaff, the town was completely different from before. Instead of the dead silent ghost town where everyone was in hiding, people were going about the town like normal. Gone was the air of fear of an attack incoming, and instead, it was replaced with the feeling of a group of people planning a mass exodus. Vans and buses were being loaded with people, all of whom were being organized by Sarah.

"Oh, hi Tom!" Sarah exclaimed in excited recognition once the team had parked and were walking toward the group of people.

"Hey, Sarah. There sure are a lot of people. Is everyone coming?" Tom asked.

"Almost. There are a few still planning to stay, but they are those that like their privacy and have always been a bit on the outside of the community anyway." Sarah explained. "But everyone else will be and they have all agreed to put any skills they have to use for the guild."

Tom looked at her beaming face and smiled back. "That is excellent news! I'm glad they are willing to try to pull their weight."

"We did have a few who were reluctant at first, but when we told them it was help or stay in Flagstaff, they came around. I did make note of who they were though just in case it becomes an issue later." Sarah continued, looking at her clipboard with names in a list on a writing pad.

"That will be extremely helpful. If we know who to keep an eye on from the start we won't have any surprises." Tom said, looking over her shoulder at the names on the list.

"We should be ready to go within the hour. Not sure how long you were planning to stay, but with everyone going, I figured getting on the road early would be better than dawdling around here." Sarah said, again looking up at him and smiling. "I'm all about efficiency and want to make sure we do this right."

"That's great! I don't suppose you'd want a position as like an assistant Chancellor in the guild to help our main guy with all the new people would you?" Tom asked thinking about how much she could help Brian.

"Depends. What's the pay like?" Sarah teased Tom.

"Oh, it's abysmal. Almost as bad as the hours you have to work." Tom teased back.

"True torture in the workplace? Sounds like my kind of job. Sign me up!" Sarah replied excitedly. "But seriously, I'd love to help get them all sorted so it's not as big of a burden on you all."

"Awesome! I'll get you in touch with Brian when we get back. He's our guild Chancellor and takes care of the day-to-day workings of the people management stuff." Tom explained. "I'm sure he'll be happy for the help."

About a half hour later, Sarah stood in front of the line of buses and vans checking off the last of the people on her list as they climbed aboard a large yellow school bus.

"That's everyone accounted for. And we are slightly ahead of schedule! Tom, are you all ready?" Sarah called out to Tom and his team.

"Sure are!" Tom called back.

"Then let's get this show on the road! Dallas, here we come!"