Chapter 5

I pulled into the Walmart parking lot and parked the car. “ Sorry Igni got to wait here girl.” Igni’s ears dropped and she gave me a sad puppy dog look. “I’ll bring you a treat I promise.” She gave me a questioning look. I had let her try a dog treat at the supply store and she hadn’t been interested in it. “Fine, what did you want then?” I asked jokingly, suddenly a picture of a steak came to mind, a lot like a dream. It was ephemeral and gone quickly but unlike a dream it was easy to recall.

I tentatively inquired in wonder “ you want a steak girl?” Igni barked excitedly and wagged her adorable little tail. “Ok girl I’ll get it for you.” I shut the door and headed into Walmart for maybe the second time in my life I grabbed one of the big flat bed carts. I first headed to the camping section. First I loaded the cart with twenty all weather sleeping bags and ground pads, I made sure to get the good ones and not just the thin piece of foam, I figured I would get enough for the soldiers as well the group could take or leave it as they needed and I could just store the rest at the cabin.

I continued down the aisle to the tents. Most of them were annoying thin tents but on the bottom shelf I found four larger, thicker tents. The box said they sleep eight so I knew that really meant five. I grabbed all four boxes. Then I admit I went a little overboard grabbing some flint and steel, some storm matches, a few hatchets and even two machetes for some reason. Looking at the stack of supplies and MRE (meals ready to eat) style meals I decided to pick up a few backpacks as well.

Next I went over and grabbed two pallets of water bottles. I also grabbed two basic first aid kits for minor injuries. Then I remembered how worn down the clothes of the prisoners had looked so I went over to the clothing section. I knew absolutely nothing about clothes so I quickly grabbed a few bags of large black shirts and sweatshirts, and sweatpants figuring that the people could at least put them on under or over their current clothes if they got cold. I thought back and decided this was enough to get them home.

I pushed the cart towards the exit as I was passing the electronics area. I saw something that caught my eye. There were a few sets of ham radio’s I wouldn’t be giving them out to the people at my house because they wouldn’t have the range to be useful or anyone to talk to but if I ever set up my own little camp they might be useful. It wasn’t until that moment it occurred to me just how much money I had made over the weekend.

I had made six months worth of pay over the course of the weekend not to mention I was owed almost a year's worth of wages at my dead end jobs. And then I realized that the bounties and adventuring could pay for my living expenses easily if they were anywhere near as well paying as the goblins I could really make a killing in fact my lease on my apartment was up in two months, my roommate was planning to move in with his girlfriend so I could just move to the cabin. Definitely something worth consideringI thought to myself as I stopped in the meat section for Ignis steak.

I walked to the check out five minutes and fifteen hundred dollars later and I was loading backpacks with supplies and storing them in the trunk and back seat. Igni had hopped out with her steak and quickly looked around. I checked and this Walmart didn’t have any parking lot cameras. First I was afraid she had seen something but it turned out she was just looking for witnesses. I watched in amusement and a bit of worry as Igni breathed a small steady stream of flame over the steak. She wasn’t a five star chef but she seemed happy with the results, “Igni try to keep the fire breathing to a minimum when we are in town please, it's not normal in this world”. Igni seemed to harumph but nodded and soon her tail was wagging as she worked on her steak.

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As we were leaving I decided to stop by the local pizza shop thinking it would be a good idea to get the group food. I bought four pepperoni and one cheese, half an hour later and I was heading home.

***

I pulled into the driveway and Igni hopped out with her new bone and ran to the front porch and waited for me. I grabbed three of the pizzas and one of the backpacks, this one had a special gift in it for Lt. Toalson. and headed inside down the stairs through the armory and finally out of the back door. I didn't see anyone until I got to the end of the tunnel where some of the civilians were resting. I waved at them as they looked on curiously at me and my boxes. I was relieved to see the heavy door already open outside were three soldiers, two playing cards while one kept a close guard on the entrance, I saw the rest of the civilians spread out in the ruins and the other soldiers in positions to see the different approaches.

I spotted one of the two who had helped me find the civilians, he was eating what looked like hard tack and chatting with one of the copper rank adventurers from the party. He looked up and spotted me “can I help you sir Mage?” I chuckled “I’m no Mage I’m just looking for the L.T.” It wasn't until after I said it that I realized that it might not translate right with the magic, but it seemed to have worked. “L.T. huh thats a handy shorthand but I wouldn’t call him that to his face sir Mr. Taolsons pretty laid back and might not care but other officers might take offense.” I nodded, Leon, my buddy from highschool who went into the Marine Corps, mentioned a lieutenant he had that once gave a guy the middle watch for a week because he heard him call another officer L.T. in passing despite the officer in question not caring. While I reminisced, the soldier continued “ he’s at the top of the hill with that bronze ranker and Lady Kiara.”

I thanked him and headed up the hill to find the Toalson talking with Kiara and Alandra. “ ah, Sir Mikelson, glad to see you back. What do you have there?” “food” I replied and then continued. “And a gift for you if you can just call me Jack Lieutenant.” he nodded while I handed the pizza to Kiara before taking my bag off. “Deal and just call me Isaac, we are fellow mage’s and you're not Military.” I don’t know why everyone kept calling me a mage but I figured my gear and stuff might seem magical so I let it pass without too much of a fuss. “I wouldn’t consider myself a mage but thank you Isaac, I could help but notice you didn’t seem to have a pair of binoculars?” Isaac gave me a funny look “no even with magic those are currently hard to produce the army only issues them to captains and above outside the artillery spotters” I nodded I had figured it was something like that this world so far just based on the little I had seen looked to be somewhere in the mid to late 1800’s relative to my world. “ Well then here you go.” I said pulling out a classic black set of Nikons with the strap and a case. I showed Isaac how to use the focus adjustor. “This is amazing. The clarity is equal to our sets but the magnification and field of view are so much better!” That was just the best set that Walmart had. I wonder what he would think about some of the real high end stuff, though he didn’t know it would be that the best ones would cost maybe five gold. “ Ok I got a lot more to unload. I got enough camping supplies from your party to make it to the fort. It will take me a while to get it all.” I saw a tension I didn’t realize Isaac had been holding seem to slightly abate. “That's amazing. I can offer you more gold to offset your cost. Want me to send off my guys to help you bring it out?”

I shook my head. “ I appreciate the offer but I have a lot of secrets that I’m not ready to let get out at this time.” much to my relief Isaac nodded without much care. “ That's normal for mages and I respect your privacy.” I was about to leave when Alandra spoke up “ why not hire us adventures then?”