As Frank and Bill searched for a vehicle to bring back, they regularly encountered more husks wandering about. They were not nearly as numerous on the streets as they were around the castle, but they were still frequent enough to significantly impede the two men’s progress. It took almost half an hour to get to a road busy enough that there were vehicles to pick from. While the roads weren’t exactly packed, the majority of the automobiles on the streets had stopped by colliding with something.
Frank dispatched another of the creatures wandering about with a swing of his mace. They were not at all organized or cooperative. They’d scream, and any of their kin that were nearby would run to the location of the noise, but that was about it. It was extremely fortunate they lacked any sort of intelligence. At the same time, it didn’t jive with the fact they had targeted him specifically, and no one else except Felix.
That meant that no one had been injured. It meant that things went as smoothly as they could have. It also meant that there was something about Frank that made them focus on him. A mindless creation of the system going after him implied the system was going after him. Why would it try and talk with him but also attack him so specifically and directly? There were all sorts of possibilities, but his mind dwelled on Felix talking to him about how he discovered magic. He didn’t have any proof of that, but Felix’s explanation of the situation seemed to imply both that the system provided magic, and that the system was hostile to people who had it, or even knew about how to get it.
His thinking was interrupted by another husk, which he easily dispatched. Bill stayed close by, but since the husks never seemed to group together and always ran straight at Frank, he didn’t have to do anything but be ready. It didn’t make the situation any less taxing for him. Frank could see him stressing out, the way he looked back and forth constantly, the slight jitters in his every step.
Frank was stressed about something too. Maria was probably going to put up a fight and stop anything that tried to come along, but everyone else there either hadn’t shown the kind of fortitude she had or was still an unknown. He didn’t trust them to take care of themselves for long. If only he had more reliable allies. Frank kind of hated that Maria was the most reliable of his group.
Eventually, Frank found what he was looking for. A white panel van, stopped at an intersection, protected from damage by the other stopped cars surrounding it. It was unlocked, unparked, and easily moved.
“Bill, keep an eye out around us. I’ve found what we need,” Frank said, pointing to the van.
“Okay!” Bill replied.
Frank carefully put his mace down and started by dragging away the cars directly behind the van. Some of them were damaged, but he was able to simply heft them up with a grunt and roll them along whatever tires still spun properly. Several minutes of exertion later, and he’d managed to clear a path for the vehicle to back up, all that was needed was to get it out of there.
“Bill, get in the driver’s seat, I need you to keep the wheels straight while I push this out,” Frank told him. “Don’t stop looking around while you do that though.”
Bill walked over and hopped into the van, leaving the door open while he kept the wheel straight. Frank moved to the front of the van and was about to start pushing when Bill stopped him.
“Wait, gotta put this in neutral first. Otherwise, things will break,” Bill said, fumbling around near the dash.
Frank waited for him. He knew nothing about how cars worked. He’d only had one for a few months before the system, and it had never been relevant after. Eventually, Bill gave him the all-clear, and Frank started pushing. The van’s tires started turning, and pretty soon the vehicle was travelling at the pace of a casual walk. For someone of Frank’s abilities, it was an exertion, but not a huge one, to push a vehicle. Once the van was out in the open, the two men turned it around so it was facing back where they came from.
Bill addressed Frank. “You know how surreal it is to know that you are pushing a big van by yourself? You’ve lost some weight but it still looks ridiculous.”
Frank shrugged. He was well aware of his deficit in appearance. There was no quick solution to that.
“Keep an eye out while I push,” Frank said instead of following up on Bill’s remark. He retrieved his mace, then switched to the back of the van and started pushing.
It took an hour to get the van back to the castle, due to the slow pace that pushing a van necessitated, and the regular presence of more husks. When Frank and Bill got into view of the gate, Rina immediately jogged over to see them. Maria was standing at the gate itself, watching her surroundings.
“It’s good you are back,” Rina said, glancing behind her. “That Tara woman that didn’t leave the house tried to leave with a pack full of stuff…” she trailed off. “You should just come see,” she finished.
Frank could tell she was coming off of an adrenaline high just from the look of her. “Is it under control?” he asked her, halting his progress.
Rina considered that for a moment. “I think so,” she said, carefully.
“Then let’s get the gate blocked first, take the wheel so Bill can help me push,” Frank told her.
With Bill’s aid, it was only a few minutes before the van was in the driveway. Maria was the only person there.
“What happened?” Frank asked her.
“Tara tried to leave with a bunch of our stuff,” Maria said, echoing Rina’s words. “I stopped her, then her friends tried to stop me. Felix stopped them. They are in the cellar right now. Felix is watching them.”
Frank sighed. “I’ll go there now.” He looked at the others. “Can you get this van into place?”
“How do you want it positioned?” Bill asked him.
“Just block the gate, probably tip it on its side so it can’t be easily moved. That way nothing will wander in without deliberate purpose,” Frank responded.
“I can handle that,” Bill told him.
Frank jogged over behind the castle, finding Felix standing at the cellar doors, his ice sword out. Frank could see him shaking.
“Are they down there?” Frank asked him as he approached.
Felix gave a start, startled out of whatever he had been thinking. “They are.”
Frank hefted his mace, stepping over to the door. He opened it, moving to the side as he did. No one came from below.
“Get out,” he told the darkness of the cellar.
“Fuck you!” Daniel shouted from inside.
Frank simply waited. Soon, Lana, Daniel, and Tara walked up the stairs and out of the cellar, glancing around. Tara flinched away at the sight of Felix, while Daniel stared angrily, straight at Frank. Lana seemed completely out of sorts.
“Felix, escort them out with me,” Frank directed.
It didn’t matter why or how this situation started. Frank could find that out after. What mattered was that it had happened. He knew from experience how much worse coming into conflict with other people was for someone’s mentality than just dealing with the system. No one had died or been seriously injured, which made resolution easy. Remove the people who weren’t part of his group right now to bring the situation to a close.
Frank motioned the three to walk around the house, and the implicit threat of the mace he used to point got them moving. Felix followed off to the side. Daniel went to say something, but Frank just glared at him, and they proceeded in heavy silence to the front of the property. There, Bill, Maria, and Rina waited.
“You can leave,” Frank told the three.
“What about our stuff?!” Daniel exclaimed angrily.
“Rina, go get their stuff,” Frank said. “Where is it? The room you were using?”
Daniel glowered, but didn’t correct Frank. Rina went off towards the mansion.
“Where’s the sword?” Frank asked Maria.
Maria retrieved it from the grass nearby, then handed it to Frank. “Here.”
Frank tossed it out on to the street. Then he motioned the three to leave. The van had been moved in place, so they had to climb over it. Once they were outside, Frank addressed them.
“Go wherever, but far from here,” he said, simply.
“Man, fuck you all. Crazy bitch, fucking pointing a spear at someone’s neck. And the rest of you assholes…” Daniel, now safely behind a barrier and no longer immediately threatened, shouted obscenities and complaints. “I better not fucking see any of you fuckheads again,” he threatened.
The comments passed like water over Frank, but everyone else was affected to varying degrees. Felix appeared uncomfortable, shifting uneasily and looking down. Maria stared straight ahead at the wall, her face twisted into a scowl. Bill looked more riled than anyone else, and he hadn’t even been there. Frank put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from yelling back or doing anything else foolish.
Rina returned shortly after Daniel’s tirade had begun. In her hands were a couple of reusable shopping bags full of stuff. Frank took them from her, and then jumped up onto the van, using a single hop. Then he dropped down, placed the bags on the ground, and stared directly at Daniel, who was less than twenty feet away.
“Leave now, or else,” Frank told him flatly.
“Or else what, you fucking cocksucker?” Daniel swore angrily.
“Or else I’ll make you,” Frank threatened. He began to walk towards him, keeping Lana and Tara in his sight as well.
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At the sight of Frank advancing, weapon in hand, Daniel immediately took several steps back. Frank stopped, staring at him for several seconds, before turning back and jumping onto the van once more, and returning to the other side. Daniel immediately shouted a few more obscenities, then fell silent. Frank sighed and turned to the remaining people.
“What exactly happened?” Frank asked, looking pointedly at Maria.
“Tara walked up with a backpack full of stuff, and I didn’t want her to leave with our stuff. I told her I wasn’t going to let her leave with it.” Maria shook her head. “She started off about how none of this was ours in the first place and then tried to walk past me.”
“Then you pointed your spear at her?” Frank asked.
“Yea. When I did that Daniel guy rushed at me with the curtain rod. Rina threw a rock which stunned him, which caused Lana to run towards him with her sword. Felix made it to Daniel first and made Lana back off by aiming his sword towards him. The cellar seemed like a reasonable place to keep them until you and Bill got back. Lana dropped her weapon as soon as I told her too, once Daniel was under our control,” Maria finished matter-of-factly.
“Anyone else with something to add? Anyone?” Frank asked.
Felix and Rina both shook their heads.
“Alright. Glad you had each other’s backs,” Frank responded. He had no intention of criticizing anyone. The fact that they had all reacted to help each other was about as good as he could ask for. Was pointing a spear at Tara a good idea? No. It was a reaction. The entire situation was a chain of reactions. In the end, it was unfortunate that he was now on acrimonious terms with other people, but the knowledge that everyone viewed themselves as part of a group made up for that. They’d chosen each other strongly enough to use the threat of violence to deal with the situation.
He led everyone back inside the castle. He’d ask Felix and Rina for their version of events later. Just to make sure everything checked out. He knew better than to ask either of them right away. They were shaken up.
“Get something to eat; try and calm down,” Frank told all of them. “I’ll be heading for the dungeon in the early afternoon.”
Frank heated himself a can of soup over one of the gas stoves he’d grabbed. He poured it into a bowl and began to eat it with relish. There’d come a time when canned goods became increasingly rare, and compared to what he’d had available, his current fare was gourmet. As he sat alone in the kitchen eating, Maria came to see him.
“What are you going to do about what happened?” Maria asked immediately. She had a flat tone that was almost challenging, which Frank ignored.
“Nothing,” he replied.
“Nothing?” Maria asked. “So you agree with what I did?”
“No, it was a blatant overreaction,” Frank responded immediately. Maria frowned, puzzled, and so Frank clarified. “Doesn’t matter though. I didn’t expect much in the first place. It’s more important that you were all on the same page and acted together.”
Maria frowned even deeper at that. Her tone got slightly hostile. “Not like I expected much from you either.”
“Yet here you are,” Frank could have controlled his tone, but he didn’t. “Either leave or watch your words. If you don’t stop being such a bitch I’ll throw you out.” He let his frustration loose.
Maria got louder. “You call me a bitch? You left my dad to die!” she shouted, tone aggrieved.
“And you left with me. Then you left him behind a second time and came here with me. You could have stayed with him. I wasn’t about to stop you either time. You made the choice. Don’t blame me for it,” Frank responded, coldly. “I’m not going to warn you again. Any more of this and you are gone.”
That angry frown on Maria’s face didn’t go away, but Frank thought she looked a bit guilty. He didn’t know. She stopped talking, staring at him for a few seconds, then turned and left. Frank went back to eating. He focused on each bite, and the anger he’d felt was put aside. Frank finished his meal, then headed to start organizing everything for the dungeon. From his admittedly limited experience, the dungeon started trying to drive you out after a week and ramped it up after a month. He’d plan for a month, given that. That meant sixty meals. Unless he wanted to carry a huge pile of fuel, he’d need a good chunk of them to be edible cold.
Frank started with that, grabbing a significant pile of canned goods from the huge stack that had been placed in the kitchen. He topped it off with a few other things. A bottle of multivitamins, a bag of sugar, some tea, powdered milk, and powdered eggs finished off his food selections. He’d never tried either of the powdered foods before. It’d been so long since he’d had eggs he’d forgotten what they tasted like in the first place. Then he added a stove, a stack of little propane tanks, and other sundry supplies. Finally, he shoved in some reusable shopping bags.
The work relaxed him. Giving Maria the ultimatum had been more difficult than the rest of the day up to that point. Thought it was only mid-morning, Frank was starting to tire, and that never helped either. His improved constitution would probably let him stay up a day and a half, or even two, without significant consequence, but until he made that stat much higher, he’d still feel like he needed to sleep during that time. Every ten points of constitution gave an extra twelve hours of activity before sleep became warranted. At fifteen, he could stay up twenty-four hours and sleep four, but simply ignoring sleep for days was still not attainable. In the dungeon, he could train himself to do it. The day-night cycle outside would still affect him though, unfortunately.
Bill came out after a while to help Frank. He didn’t speak right away, just started moving stuff to help Frank.
“Are you alright?” Bill asked, after several minutes.
“Why wouldn’t I be alright?” Frank responded.
“Because you got angry. I haven’t seen you angry,” Bill said, after a short while.
“That sounds like something Rina would ask,” Frank said.
Bill gave a half-hearted smile. “Yea, she asked me to talk to you. She’s going to try and talk with Maria.”
Frank shrugged and went back to work. There was an almost companionable silence, as the two men packed things.
“Does that mean you are coming along? Felix already told me he was,” Frank asked, after a while.
“Yea. I’ve already told you what I think is going on. I’d be stupid not to,” Bill said. “Rina is too, though she hasn’t explained why. At least, not to me.”
“She’s a do-gooder,” Frank told him. “She’ll stay as long as she thinks she can do more good here than elsewhere.”
“You think she’d leave?” Bill asked.
“I’m almost certain she would if something came up that was important enough,” Frank answered.
“That doesn’t bother you?” Bill was incredulous.
Frank shook his head. He chose his words carefully “No. I think she’s probably a good person, and probably won’t try and screw me over. She’s the most reliable out of all of you, honestly. Not hard to understand.”
Bill frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that I can anticipate how she’s going to react to things. Doesn’t mean I’d put her in charge of anything,” Frank explained.
“Oh, makes sense,” Bill said after a bit of thought. “Is that why you didn’t ask those people what had happened? You didn’t think Rina would lie?”
Frank shook his head. “That’s because whether we were in the wrong or not doesn’t matter. Maria, Felix, and Rina acted together. I left them there, gotta let them make judgements if they are on their own.”
Bill thought that over. Frank let him. When the first bike trailer was packed, Frank got up.
“I’m going to go talk to Felix,” Frank told Bill. “Pack a month’s worth of stuff for yourself. I’ll bring Felix to help after I’m done, probably.”
Bill nodded. “Okay.”
Frank wandered to the entryway and checked the parlour. It was empty, as was the entire bottom floor. He eventually found Felix in the backyard, sitting on a stack of landscaping ties that made up one side of a garden plot. Felix was just staring at the ground, hands on his knees.
“Felix,” Frank said, announcing his presence.
The man looked up and faced Frank. “Hi.” His expression betrayed his mood, as did his glum tone.
“I’m packing for the dungeon, come help,” Frank said.
“Okay,” Felix replied, perfunctorily. After a moment, he got up.
Frank turned back into the house. Felix didn’t look like he was ready to talk about anything. Frank dropped him off with Bill, then headed upstairs, to find Rina. Halfway up the stairs, he could hear voices conversing in a low tone. Once upon the second floor, he could tell they came from Maria’s room. Rather than eavesdrop, he walked over and knocked.
“Packing for the dungeon. Come help,” Frank said loudly. He didn’t wait for a response but turned and headed down the stairs. Eventually, the two women made their way down and started getting everything they needed together. With the five of them working in concert, it took only fifteen minutes to get everything ready. Frank didn’t feel like waiting any longer than necessary. Those husks could still be gathering around outside.
The atmosphere was utterly wretched, with Felix looking miserable, Maria looking like she had cried, and everyone awkwardly tiptoeing around the fact that Frank and Maria had argued. Rina was affected by the atmosphere, looking quite glum herself. It was quite unfortunate. Frank had always sought to do things when he was upset or otherwise bothered. That strategy was not working for Rina, Maria, or Felix. They were all feeding off the negative atmosphere, their moods gradually falling further.
Still, they all continued, and Frank led everyone to the gate, bikes ready, trailers full and attached. He first checked around if there were husks in the immediate vicinity, then he dragged the van back enough to fit their equipment through. Once everyone was on the other side, he pulled it back into place. Then, he took the lead, and the group followed him to the golf course.
The going was not fast; the need to be able to stop and deal with any husks or other things wandering about meant that Frank always kept a slow enough pace to stop immediately. It took twice as long to get to the golf course as it had for him to return by himself. The husks had been simple enough since they still charged him single-mindedly, but the weird creatures surrounding the dungeon were not. They were perfectly happy to attack his much less skilled and more vulnerable companions. That was manageable though, Frank just had to be careful and ready to step in. The creatures were unfortunately just close enough in appearance to actual things that it made Rina even more uncomfortable to watch them get cut down.
By the time they had made their way to the sand trap where the entrance was hidden, she was shaking slightly. One traumatic experience laid on another in short succession had done a number. Then, it was time to start bringing things in. Frank explained what would happen.
“Everyone fill your backpack with stuff, fill as many bags as you can carry, then empty it inside. You can only enter with things you are carrying, so we’ll have to ferry everything in batches. If there isn’t someone inside at all times, then we’ll lose everything that’s already placed in. That means people are going to have to stay inside while we do this. It’ll take days inside to get everything in there properly, so rather than do that we are going to neatly stack everything up so we can quickly grab it, and we’ll resupply periodically. One person is going to have to spend a couple of days inside, alone, even if we just do two runs,” he told them.
Felix looked utterly horrified at the thought of spending several days in there alone. No one seemed enthused at all with the idea.
Frank shrugged. “I’ll do that, then. For now, everyone should load up.”
After a little bit of finagling, each person was laden with as much as they could carry. Frank motioned to them to enter the dungeon. Maria, Bill, and Rina all did after a moment’s hesitation. Felix, on the other hand, stood there and started breathing heavily. After a few such breaths, he exhaled deeply and leaned his head down, making a short prayer, before disappearing himself. Frank followed immediately.
Inside, everyone was putting their stuff down and emptying their bags, except Felix who was leaning against a wall trying to gather himself. Rina and Bill wordlessly came over and unloaded his stuff for him. The task done, Frank sat down and addressed everyone once more.
“I’ll stay here, everyone else grab one more load,” he told them.
Felix was the first to respond. “I’ll stay. I do not think I could enter again if I left.”
Frank nodded. He’d rather the man grabbed more supplies, but given that last time he’d entered a dungeon he’d been trapped for years, Frank took the fact he’d even forced himself to enter as a good sign.
“If you aren’t sticking around, then after that, good luck,” Frank stated to the other three.
No one responded to that. After a silent pause, Bill, who was only mildly affected by the mood around him, asked a question.
“Can anything besides humans enter a dungeon?” he queried.
Frank thought about it for a moment. “There are things besides humans that the system treats the same, but if you are referring to system created enemies, then no, they can’t enter.” A realization dawned on him just as Bill confirmed he’d been thinking along the same lines.
“So then, we could confirm someone is a human by having them enter the dungeon and leave immediately, right?”
“Yea, that would work,” Frank said, feeling a bit foolish for having missed it.
“Thank fuck, I didn’t want to see another of those things be dragged over and slaughtered,” Bill said. “Too fucking Hannibal Lecter for my taste.”
Frank noticed Maria seem to relax a bit upon hearing that, but Bill had another question.
“Also, why is it that time passes super slowly here, but we don’t notice the difference between when we enter? Like, if you enter a few seconds after me, it’s only a few seconds, but if when we were in the first dungeon, we spent days in there and only minutes had passed.”
“System just works that way. If I’d have to guess it’s for convenience,” Frank told him. He didn’t know the reason why.
With no one else in a talking mood, Frank reiterated what he wanted the three who would be bringing more stuff in to do. Once they disappeared, he pulled out his and started working on his combat treatise. Felix wasn’t going to be much for company until he calmed himself.