“And if all that wasn’t enough…” The news anchor looked a little harried, her hair still perfectly manicured but eyes wide and disbelieving. “All across the country, there have been widespread power outages. And the reason behind them may surprise you.”
Jeremy doubted anything would be surprising at this point.
“Over to Rick Connely, who is standing by with a team of electricians trying to address the issue.”
They were all sitting around at a sports bar where practically everyone had their eyes turned to the televisions over the bar and tables. Zanie munched on a huge plate of crabby fries while Caleb nursed a beer and Jeremy picked the onions off his burger. On the screen, a tubby man clutching a microphone stood beside a much taller man in a hardhat and all the equipment Jeremy imagined one might need for scaling an electrical pole.
“Thanks, Alicia,” the reporter said. “As if we weren’t already having enough trouble, the power grid is going dark bit by bit as if being eaten away. And that, folks, is exactly what is happening.”
Caleb tipped his bottle toward the screen. “I bet it’s electricity-eating monsters.”
“There have been numerous reports of creatures eating the metal in the transformers and powerlines,” the reporter continued. “I’m here with Richard, who has witnessed this phenomenon first-hand. Richard, can you tell us a little about your experience?”
“I was close.” Caleb shrugged and took a sip of his beer.
Richard went on to recount how they pulled up on a call about a power outage to find the transformer being ripped through by one of these creatures. He described it as watching a caterpillar much through a leaf, leaving behind little trails. They even sounded a little grub-like the way he described them as long and moving around like inchworms.
Power lines were not their only target. According to the reporter, they had been seen eating through cars, garage doors, and lawn equipment. He asked if Richard had seen anything like that and if the electricity running through the power lines seemed to affect them. Richard just shrugged and said they did not seem even to register the shock they should be getting. The reporter turned to the audience watching at home and cracked a joke about how maybe it just added a little spice.
Zanie shook her head at the screen all slow and disappointed in the joke.
They finished the bit by showing a phone video of a creature munching its way through the metal siding of a pole barn. It really did look just like a caterpillar going through a leaf: big chomps in a straight line until it reached the edge, where it turned and kept going.
“You think those things are coming out of dungeons?” Caleb asked.
“I have no idea, man.” Jeremy took a bite out of his burger.
“Is there anything left that’s normal?” Some guy to their right muttered into his mashed potatoes.
“Sure,” the bartender, who was serving more food than drinks at this hour, grinned. “Alabama versus LSU later today. Nothing’s gonna stop them from getting on the field.”
“Hey,” Zanie put her hand out on the counter toward the bartender to catch his attention. “Have you heard anything about a bunch of monsters being around? Like coming out of the parks or anything?”
The bartender tilted his head to the side. “Well, there was that mess over at the state park with the fire and the national guard. And Mrs. Jennings keeps telling people there is something out in the woods behind her house, but she’s always said that. There haven’t really been a lot of these monsters in this town so far.”
He rapped his knuckles on the wooden countertop. Another customer called him down the bar for a coffee refill.
Caleb watched him go, then nodded his head up at the TV. “I haven’t seen anything about dungeons. Looks like the military is still keeping them out of the media. They’re good at that. Wonder what else they’re keeping from us.”
“It’s all over social media, though.” Zanie pointed out. “So, I’m not really sure what the point of policing the reporting on their existence is.”
“If it’s on the news then they have to do like press conferences and shit.” Caleb made a face at his beer.
“It’s weird that I haven’t seen any debates on the news about them handing out their surplus firearms. Jeremy glanced up at the TV screen. “I thought that would be big news.”
Zanie looked around Caleb and frowned at him. “They aren’t really spreading it around. That was a Captain Byrne decision only, not one that she got permission for, so they gave us this really long lecture about not posting on social media about it or anything.”
“Makes you wonder what else they try to prevent people from posting on social media,” Caleb mused. Jeremy shrugged and took another bite out of his burger.
They had left early that morning and made good progress by foot, stopping for a couple of hours at the shooting range to get Zanie familiar with her M4, then heading west to the mountains where Jeremy figured there would be much more wild places to potentially find dungeons. By the time they finished their dinner, the sun was still hanging well above the horizon, but they decided to stay in this little town rather than keep heading down the road because there was a campground nearby.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Even at thirty dollars a night, we aren’t going to be able to keep paying for too long,” Jeremy pushed through the door of the restaurant. Atticus, who’d been waiting outside like an obedient dog, twisted around his feet. “I mean, eventually, we are just going to run out of money. We all literally just abandoned our jobs. I don’t even have enough money saved for a month's worth of bills.”
“They’ve put a leniency on rent and bills for now, haven’t they? Besides, both your car and apartment are gone.” Caleb wound the charging cable he’d been using for his phone in the restaurant around his hand as they stepped out onto the street. “I think learning how to survive is a little more important than trying to pay our bills right now, dude.”
“That was to illustrate my point. What happens when we run out of money to buy food?” Jeremy asked. “What happens when the food on the shelves just runs out?”
“You are freaking out over nothing. I know how to hunt.” Caleb reminded Jeremy. “Remember how I went on those hunting trips with that kid who lived next door to me back in high school?”
Jeremy had forgotten that. If they were going to go out into the wilderness to try and find a dungeon, hunting would probably be necessary anyway. There was only so much food they could carry around all the time. He nodded.
Caleb glanced over at Zanie, who was absorbed in watching a bunch of kids playing around on a playground as they passed it. “You eat meat, right?” he asked.
“What?” She turned to him.
“You aren’t vegetarian, right?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Good, then you won’t mind eating something if I hunt it for us.” Caleb raised his eyebrows at Jeremy like this was evidence that they wouldn’t starve. Relying on hunting still seemed a little risky, but Jeremy supposed that people had been doing that throughout humanity’s entire existence, so it would probably be all right. Plus, they had magic now, which might make things easier.
“Are we making plans for going out into the woods?” Zanie asked. “I’ve been foraging a couple times, so I know some edible plants and mushrooms.”
Caleb clapped his hands together in delight. “See! We’ll be fine. Stop being a worry wart. Who knows if the dollar bill is even going to exist a few months from now with the way things are headed.”
“Nah,” Zanie disagreed. “We’re too used to money to stop using it.”
Caleb opened his mouth to respond, but a voice interrupted him.
“Hey, you!”
The three of them were startled as the door to one of the houses they passed flung open so hard it was a miracle it didn’t jump right off the hinges. It slammed into the siding as a woman came out, jumping down the steps and waving her arms. She was middle-aged, with gray-streaked through her dark hair and a desperate look on her face.
“You have weapons!” The woman announced, hurrying down the sidewalk toward them. Jeremy took a step back, alarmed by her sudden approach. His hand landed on the gun slung across his chest, more so because the woman had pointed it out than because he thought he would need it. She kept barreling towards them, and while she seemed more desperate than aggressive, Jeremy got ready to throw up a barrier to stop her progress.
She stopped on her own at the end of her sidewalk, though. “I need your help!”
Jeremy looked from her to the house and decided he didn’t like this one bit. Maybe she really did need help, but there was just something off. He peered at her overlay and saw that it was a dark red. So she wasn’t practicing magic, but something still seemed strange.
“We’re just moving through, ma’am,” Jeremy said. “Do you need us to call someone to come and help you?”
He didn’t say they would call the police because he had no idea if they would be available. Although this town seemed pretty quiet and normal compared to some of the places they’d been, maybe they could actually get an emergency response. Then again, the town seemed too small to have its own police force, so they would probably be relying on state troopers, and Jeremy had no idea where the closest barracks might be.
“They won’t listen. Please, I just…” She waved her hands around wildly, then put them over her face to hide from the world for a bit while she took a deep breath and composed herself. “There is this thing that only comes out at night. And it is out back in the woods. It hasn’t come into the house yet, but I just know it is going to.”
“It’s not human,” the woman whipped her hands away from her face, eyes intense and serious enough to one hundred percent believe her. Plus, he’d seen and felt enough creepy things between the shadows of the trees in the woods to believe her. The intensity in her expression gave way once again to desperation. “I’ll pay you!”
Zanie perked up and nudged Jeremy in the side.
“Alright, then Miss…”
“Mrs. Jennings.” She supplied. “My husband died a few years ago, and I’m all alone here.”
Jeremy, Caleb, and Zanie exchanged glances. The bartender back at the restaurant had mentioned Mrs. Jennings, who complained about something in her backwoods. Perhaps she popped out and asked anyone who walked by for help. Or perhaps not. Either way, it was a weird coincidence. Jeremy didn’t like it.
“Do you know anything else about this creature you keep seeing?” Jeremy asked. If it was something like a dryad in one of the trees, he did not want to mess with it. He’d had enough dryad to last for a while after his last encounter.
“It’s just a pair of eyes!” Mrs. Jennings leaned toward them, eyes wide like she’d just spotted it only a minute ago. “Looking at me from between the trees.”
“Right.” Jeremy put a finger up, asking her to give them a minute. Then he turned away and lowered his voice to speak to Zanie and Caleb. “I don’t like this.”
“Come on,” Caleb rolled his eyes. “It’s probably not even real.”
“You have a lot of nerve saying something like that with all these creatures running around,” Zanie told Caleb.
He just shrugged. “Look, Jeremy, you were just talking about money. We stay here for the night, and then we don’t have to pay the thirty dollars to the campground, and she’s going to pay us.”
Jeremy glanced over his shoulder at the house and frowned. Caleb decided to take matters into his own hands, as he often did, and stepped forward with a winning smile. “We’d be happy to stick around for the night and keep an eye out for you. But like my friend said, we’re moving through, so we can’t stay more than that.”
“It comes every night,” Mrs. Jennings assured him. She backed up like she was going to lead them to the house, but Jeremy spoke up.
“We’ll just stay in the backyard,” Jeremy said. “It’s in the woods, right? We can keep a better eye out if we are outside.”
He just really did not want to go into the house. The last time he broke his rule about trusting strangers like this, it turned out fine, but he was not in the habit of tempting fate.