“Guys I've been on this call for 15 minutes. If you're bullshitting me, this is a really freaking bad time for a joke.” It was obvious to Ken that Tim was building up a head of steam and he wasn't going to be able to hold off anymore. Tim Rheiner was one of the most popular members of the group. This was probably because he happened to be king of snacks. When a group got together for anything, Tim made sure everyone was comfortable and well fed. Unfortunately, he was also the least nerdy of the bunch. He rarely got deep into character and usually lost at competition games. While he was generally a good sport and didn't mind losing, if something bothered him, Tim was impatient and would just “sit the rest of the session out.”
Everyone had learned that if that happened, the whole event might as well have ended because Tim would start interrupting the other players (always with good reason).
Right now, Tim sounded ready to blow so they needed to get started. Retelling his dream summon, fire story, or Melanie's summon (neither of them was ready to talk about the telepathy yet) wasn't going to hold Tim off anymore. They needed to get started in the next minute. Period.
“Hello Everybody.” Jared's normally careful voice sounded very excited. A cliche “Healer” minded player, Jared Pavloski was usually one of the first to arrive to events. His voice sounded almost out of breath. “Sorry I took so long. I woke up to a miracle and kinda got carried away.”
“A Miracle?” Tim asked. “Did Ken ask you to say that?”
Jared paused. “What?”
“Did Ken ask you to back up his crazy story?” Tim pressured. “This is just a crazy joke, right?”
“I don't know what you're talking about, but see the miracle for yourself!” Jared declared. Ken's computer showed a pop up that “JjH33LjJ” (Jared's skype) was offering video. Curious he clicked on it only to see blackness.
“Your camera's covered man.”
“I don't have video”
“On my cell... I can't see”
“I think there's something wrong with your camera.”
Half a dozen voices spoke up at once.
“My camera's fine guys. I just used it before going to bed.” Jared said.
“Could you turn on a light?” Karen requested. “I can kinda see your face in the glare of your computer screen, but that's it.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Jared asked. “That's what I'm trying to show you. My staff is glowing! It's filling up my whole room!”
“Now I'm sure this is a bad joke. I'm gonna get you for this one Ken.” Tim threatened.
Tim disconnected from the call.
Jared's voice sounded very confused. “Wait. Are you guys serious? You can't see me and my staff? It's as bright as day in here.”
Everyone chorused some version of “no.”
“This is crazy. One sec I'll turn on the room light.” There was the sound of him getting up and walking across his room. The light turned on and Jared's book covered room showed clearly as light filled the screen. A moment later a shirtless Jared sat down in front of the camera and everybody gasped. Jared Pavloski's mussed brown hair, puppy brown eyes and kind face, sat on a completely normal body.
Jared had been born crippled. It was why he always played a healer. One of his arms had dangled uselessly from a shoulder which looked like it was broken in an accident involving farm equipment. Standing up for Jared against school bullies had been one of the things that brought the gamer groups together.
The Jared in the Skype video was completely healthy. He even was a little ripped!
Ken had the presence of mind to grab his phone, take a picture of the screen and attach it to a text to Tim: You're missing something you're really gonna want to see.
Everyone started talking at once. Comments ranged from compliments, to amazement to outright disbelief. Finally one voice cut through the crowd.
“EVERYBODY!” Melanie cried out to silence them. “You have your proof, but we have a problem and we don't have much time. Magick is real and I have from a really good source that things are about to get ugly fast. Let's act like we're in game, that this is normal and let's problem solve by hearing from the team members best for the job.”
“Mark, you are a doomsday prepper.” She continued. “If magick is real and all the big bad wolves that haunt our nightmares are about to start hunting, what's going to happen?”
Mark's thin voice came across the line. “I've been thinking about that since you called and asked me here.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“We don't know the limits of magick yet. Sure we've seen miracles, but if a couple untrained gamer nerds can do miracles like this... I'm afraid we are so completely outclassed that our advanced technology will be basically useless. I was going to present a plan, but now I think it might be a waste of time.”
Ken couldn't believe his ears. Mark Johnson had a plan for everything. His characters always brought crazy tracking, planning and survival skills to the game. No matter how bad things got, Mark always found a way forward. Hearing Mr. Never-Say-Die express such a completely hopeless perspective shattered everyone's hope like a bomb of pure sadness exploding in their midst.
“A poor plan is always better than no plan. Share it anyway.” Melanie's firm voice declared.
“OK. Defense, Water and Food are our priorities; in that order.” Once he got started, Mark fell into his usual lecturing tone. “We may not know what magick can do, but we do know how people will react. At first, they'll disbelieve anything is happening, but after a few events they'll panic. Everyone will rush to the stores to buy Food, Water, Weapons and Lumber. As long as the supplies last the economy will have a nifty pickup. If supplies get low, stores will start rationing. That'll help for a bit, but people will get nastier and nastier as store shelves empty. As long as the fear is of a “possible” danger we'll probably just have a ton of cranky people, some noisy politicians calling for brotherly love and people making a ton of money selling hard to find stuff.”
“If the fear manifests locally though. It will get ugly fast. People will start rioting. You'd think they'll go after supplies, but those will be already gone, so they'll go for luxuries. Shoes, Electronics and Jewelry. Some people will start stealing from their neighbors. If a home seems empty or insecure it may find itself with armed brigands at the door.”
“Smart people will group together for safety. An average household will probably be 8-15 adults and their children. Dumb people will lose their stuff and either join another household, a brigand group or die off in a couple weeks.”
Mark paused to gather his thoughts. “Our water grid here in Northern Nevada is pretty solid, but in a worst case scenario the chaos will get so bad that water techs stop doing their job and the system will lose pressure after too many breaks or too much water left running. I estimate 2-3 days of water in that scenario.”
“Food... well we're fucked. Unless we have a farm with a well and plenty of fuel to run it, we'll never be able to grow enough food and none of us has any farm experience. I'd recommend we plan for 6 months of defense, water and canned food. If everything goes south, we'll use that time to hunker down, train, scavenge, hunt and plan an expedition to move somewhere we can grow food.”
“I think our best bet is to go somewhere out of the way with a well and a generator. If it's out of the way and has a well it will do. I can bring my bug-out trailer with my generator and battery pack.”
Ken interrupted. “In a world of magick maybe we might want to be at my house? I can see my wards glowing with power.”
“You aren't on a well Ken.” Mark said. “Even if your magick wards are 20th level, your house can't be more than a staging area. We need a place we can get water no matter what. I have a couple dream properties, but I don't know any...”
“...My family has a solar powered mansion on a well in Truckee. It has 6 bedrooms and even two in-law apartments. My sister and her husband are living in one of the apartments.” Karen interrupted to offer. “But anyone who goes, is going to have to agree to protect my family. They're good people... even though they are kinda religious.”
Ken woofed in shock. Family. His mom and his dad. Both lived in town. His brother in was in Afghanistan and his sister was in New York. What was he going to do? He couldn't take care of everyone, but he couldn't ignore them either. He kicked up video to interrupt the general hubbub of everyone thinking about their families.
“Ken... your video is dark too. Turn on a light.” Someone said.
Shit. He'd forgotten about that. Ken stood up and turned on a light. “I still can't believe that cameras can't see magick light. Makes me wonder if most other people can see it too.”
Tim's voice came back on as he returned. “What'd I miss?”
“We'll have to fill you in later.” Ken replied. “We have a huge problem before us. I can't ignore my family. I'll bet most of you can't either. I think Mark is right, but if we survive the first couple weeks, I think part of what we'll need is an armed trade caravan. The caravan can be a mobile fighting force we can dispatch to protect our families living nearby. It can also deliver supplies. We can get radios in case the cell network goes down.
“I don't think my family would try to come live with me even if they believed me, and I'll bet you all have the same problem. If we store enough food and water containers for ALL of our families we'll be able to take care of them. Especially if we can claim places like hotels or apartments where we can consolidate our families for defense.”
“Both ideas are good. As much as I hate to admit it, I think we're gonna have to split the party.” Melanie chimed in. “We don't know how well we will be able to hold on to our base, so we should really have 2 or more bases with a well so that if we lose one we have another to fall back to.”
“Mark, if weird stuff starts happening today how long do we have before it won't be safe to shop anymore?”
“I'm thinking 8 hours from the beginnings of panic.” Mark said.
“OK.” Melanie said. “Then let's guess people will start noticing something weird in a couple hours and...”
Melanie trailed off as she read a link to CNN that Sky had just texted the group. The headline said “Live Coverage: Winged Aliens invading Somerset England. Hundreds Dead.”
“OK.” Ken said. “8 hours. We need supplies first. Let's get in and out before it gets bad. We can call our families and make plans after then. Let’s do teams. I'll lead construction supplies. Tim can you lead food? Mark can you lead weapons?”
“I shouldn't lead weapons.” Mark said. “There's other stuff we'll need that you aren't thinking about. I need to get that stuff. We need someone else to lead weapons.”
“That would be me.” Tara announced. She hadn't spoken up until now, but that was her way. Tara was a totally normal and quiet seeming girl, until you entered in her territory. Her initially demure appearance concealed a spitfire nature which cowed everyone around her with her displays of excellence. “Apparently Ken's little man ego forgot that I'm better armed than most of Reno... not to mention a better shot than just about everyone here.”
“Sorry Tara.” Ken called back suitably chastised. “Let's go ahead and get our teams together. My team is going to need a lot of truck space. If we could get our Secondary and Tertiary locations before my team's first delivery that would be awesome. I'd like to save the drive out to Truckee until last.
The call broke apart as people started choosing their tasks as well as calling and messaging each other separately.