“We’ll talk more about the corrupted mana later,” He pulled out his revolver and checked the rest of his gear before sprinting back the way they had come. “Elena didn’t mention what was wrong, so you go unnoticed while I make a big target of myself. Got it?”

Monty just nodded ears twitching forward before he cast Now you Don’t, dropping from CJ’s perceptions. The town was largely the way they left it. CJ passed an inoperable streetlamp and decided to copy his trick from before. Every other lamp received a halo of Polychromatic Flames. Anyone observing from a far would see a line of white light heading toward the center of town.

Finally reaching the town square where the quest pillar was, CJ noticed Roger and Rubio slowly walking back. He waived them over and they met up near the bench where CJ took his tumble in the scuffle with the bikers. He thought this would be a good opportunity to drop the motorcycles in his inventory and dispel the Spatial Compression. The three motorcycles popped back into normal space; kick stands akimbo.

“What do you think is up?” Roger asked before marveling at CJ’s display of magical prowess, “Wait, you have even more bikes here? Can I have one?”

“There were eleven originally. Pick one or two for all I care.”

New Message from Rubio: Roger, I know you’re new to this but I’m trying to drill operational discipline into these kids. A little help would be nice.

New Message from Roger: You right, my bad. CJ thanks for the motorcycle. I’ll look into which one later. Let’s find out what the ladies found.

New Message from Party Leader CJ: Shit, that’s on me too. Let’s go.

CJ lit up one of the streetlights over the small park in the center of town as the sun finally set and twilight descended on Leaf’s Bend. The three men moved quickly south of the park. Quickly was a bit of a misnomer as Roger didn’t move all that fast. There was a slight clanking with every other step.

Soon enough they came up on Elena and Jenn standing between two parked cars looking out at the invisible edge of the boundary. CJ assumed they knew where the edge was due to how the mana felt. Although he’s felt more distinctly than anyone else. He brought his mind back on task noticing the short school bus with curtains drawn in all the windows. At the steering wheel sat a confused looking string bean of man with long hair and a tie die t-shirt. There was a man in a suit complaining to the driver and gesturing toward the two ladies in the road. CJ looked over at his companions and realized Elena had her grenade launcher pointed at them, her index finger pressed to the side of weapon and not on the trigger.

New Message from Elena: So, this is what we wanted you to see. It’s been five minutes, and the guy keeps berating the driver.

New Message from Party Leader CJ: The driver is scared shitless. Put that rocket launcher away. Do these guys look like a threat to you?

CJ pushed past Elena earning himself a slap to the back of the head for his rudeness. That slap earned CJ twenty mana. That means her basic hand to hand attack did ten points of damage. He almost stopped to complain, before thinking better of it. That paid for almost all those Polychrome casts. Ignoring it, he continued forward. Holding his hands up, CJ made his revolver disappear as he approached the bus.

The bus itself became more suspect as it wasn’t yellow like normal. It was green and had an image of a genie trailing smoke from its lower half coming out of a water bong painted on the side of it. The genie’s eyes were blood shot. The oppressive feeling hit him once he stepped over the boundary. CJ internally shook his head before smiling wide once he reached the accordion doors. He looked through the glass to see the man in the suit staring back at him.

The man in the suit wore a silver necklace with an oblong pendant about an inch long. CJ noticed the writing on it was Hebrew. Having performed at many a Bar Mitzvah, it was a familiar script, but he didn’t know the language. Other than that, he had a beard that couldn’t have been more than month long and he wore a kippah on his head.

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“Hello. My name is CJ Thompson. Who are you?” he said in order to get the ball rolling.

The doors swung open and the man in the suit lunged at CJ. CJ made no attempt to dodge. His assailant pulled his left arm around behind CJ forcing him to face his friends and blocking any shot at the man in the suit. From within the bus there were small yelps and screams. As if other passengers were dissatisfied with what was happening.

New Message from Party Leader CJ: Everybody stay cool. I’ve got this. He can’t hurt me. There are other people on the bus besides him and the driver. Let’s try to diffuse this situation.

“You tell your people to drop their weapons, or I’ll break your arm.” Whispered the man in an Israeli accent.

“I’m not going to do that.” CJ sucked his teeth as the man applied some more pressure to his arm. “We can all talk like adults. I’m sure whatever happened to you and your people was bad. Can I offer you a bag of chips? There aren’t enough left of us to start murdering each other in the streets.”

That seemed to give the man pause. Maybe it was the parallels between what they were all experiencing and what the Jewish people have face for centuries that stayed his hand, but the pressure lessened on CJ’s arm. That was when the driver decided to speak up.

“Saul, come on man, you said you weren’t going to hurt anybody. Just ask him if this is Leaf’s Bend.”

CJ almost doubled over with laughter. The driver couldn’t be a more stereotypical stoner. He had no idea how a guy like that could have survived in the apocalypse. CJ’s title was still set to Repair Man, and he could see that Saul and the driver were both connected to their slates. No magical warning was going to help him with this one. That said if they were connected to their slates that would explain their survivability.

“Yes, this is Leaf’s Bend. Had you pulled up a little farther you would have felt the difference between the corrupt mana zone and a purified mana zone. If your friend here would let me go, we might proceed with more civility. Chip offer still stands.”

“Now you listen to me, nobody want’s your chips. I know a fortified—” Saul was cut off by the driver.

“I do. I’m famished man.”

“For the love of God, would you shut up Marty!”

CJ produced a bag of chips in his right hand before flinging it through the open door of the bus. Marty snatched it out of the air and the bag was open before his ass hit the driver’s seat again. A young lady stepped into view reaching for the chips. Marty almost pulled the bag away before deciding better of it. CJ used all this commotion as a distraction before triggering Flashportation.

Saul quickly covered his eyes with his right hand after he could no longer feel CJ. His left hand quested around him as he took three quick steps back. CJ landed on the roof of the bus. He watched Saul stumble around for a bit while blind before he swung himself down and into the bus itself. This elicited a startled yelp from Marty who was wiping crumbs off his shirt at the time. The young woman who was also eating the chips darted back into the bus.

The inside of the bus smelled, predictably, like the stickiest of the icky. The rear of the bus had a long couch propped up against the back and the sides had plush seating. All the standard school bus seating looked to have been ripped out long ago. The good news was there didn’t appear to be a bed or kitchen area. That told CJ this was a recreational vehicle and not someone’s home. It was further reinforced by the menu of prices hanging from the wall behind the driver detailing the differences between Sativa and Indica strains. There was a whole gaggle of people in here. Some looked like family units and others were strangers to each other. All were no phones. He noticed someone tuck a little deeper in the back before CJ’s attention was drawn back to the driver.

“Hey man, how did you do that? Saul’s gonna be pissed.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine in a minute. That dude is angry. Water?” CJ offered, before producing several water bottles. He even pulled out a handkerchief and placed a new one behind it after each bottle disappeared into someone’s grasp.

“Dude, that’s super cool of you. You wouldn’t have any beers would ya?” asked Marty as he crushed up the now empty bag of chips.

Behind them Saul was stamping his feet as he rubbed his eyes. His head locked onto CJ leaning against the dash casually chatting with Marty as his eyes finally cleared. He made a bee line for the door as CJ swiftly kicked the handle for the accordion door slamming it shut in his face.

“Man, he’s gonna be super pissed now.” Snickered Marty.

“You open this door immediately!” said an irate Saul, as he began ranting he looked through the glass watching people drinking from water bottles and wolfing down snack foods, “I’m responsible for these people and I won’t have you… handing out food and water.”

“I’ll open it, but you have to promise to be cool. Can you be cool?”

New Message from Monty: I’m running low on mana, and no one is looking at me. I’m going to drop the spell. Also, I can hear more vehicles coming from the way we came.

Saul seemed to deflate at those words. Standing before the door he straightened out his blazer and smoothed his sleeves. He then looked up and met CJ’s eyes before nodding once. The door opened and CJ stepped out of the bus, hands at his sides.

“Let’s try this again. Hello, I’m CJ Thompson. Welcome to Leaf’s Bend.”