CHAPTER 17: The Goblin Base
Adam left the house at 10am, determined to end the goblin threat. He would do everything in his power to eradicate the goblins. A group text had let everyone know his plans, and even if they didn’t show up, he would give his all.
When Adam and the girls arrived at the warehouse, three cars were out front. The rest of the group was inside and already organizing the gear. Adam nodded in greeting to everyone.
“My goal is to kill all the goblins today. I want to crush them and end their invasion before more begin. Before now we moved cautiously and tried to draw them towards us so you guys could get experience. Now you are used to the fighting and your levels are higher than theirs, so I want us to move intelligently, but I also want to be a wrecking ball.
“Level up when there is time before encounters so you can keep up. If anyone gets too fatigued or injured call out to me and we can retreat. However, this time I want to keep going as hard as possible for as long as possible. We killed almost a hundred goblins on Friday, so I have no idea the numbers to expect or where their base is. Ed, use your drone to scout. Try to locate their base.”
“Actually, er, boss,” spoke up Joseph. “Yesterday I came scouting. I was frustrated we weren’t doing even more, so I came with binoculars and tried to find the most goblins, and I think I know where the base is.”
Adam turned to Joseph, with a concerned and angry look on his face.
“You came out here by yourself?”
“Yes,” Joseph responded.
“Without telling anyone?”
“Yeah, why?”
Adam sighed. “We need to move as a group. We are a team. It’s too dangerous to chance moving alone. Why would you do that?” Adam’s voice rose in volume as the words came out.
“W-well,” Joseph stuttered realizing he was being scolded. “I felt like I wasn’t pulling my weight with the group and wanted to do more. I just think that this is the only important thing I’ve done in my whole life, and I don’t want to lose my place in the group. I even got more scrapers that I sharpened to make it easier for us to swap when dull.”
“How did you pay for that equipment?”
“Weeeeell…” Joseph never really answered.
“Listen, everyone. Joseph is right about this being the important thing we are doing in our lives. I've drifted through life, but this is different. If the [System] is to be believed then we are in danger of losing our homes, our city, and our planet to the invaders. We need to get stronger to fight them because I’m sure they won’t all be goblins. No one will lose their spots in the group unless they want to. We started this together and we will finish together.”
Then he turned to Jospeh, “What did you find yesterday?”
“Well, there is one warehouse that looks oddly reinforced. The walls have a stone like look to them. There are multiple goblins watching on all the roofs and it seems unlikely we’ll sneak up on them. They pulled the patrolling goblins to the one warehouse I mentioned.”
“Then that is where we will go, straight in the front. I’ll create the chaos and you guys take advantage of it. Lucas, can you command the group and take point if I get a little out of control?”
“Yes,” said Lucas.
“If something happens to Lucas, then next is Tom followed by Brittney. At that point you should all be running to get away. We have healers so small injuries we can survive. Let’s try not to have bigger ones. Protect the group and we should be fine.”
Once everyone was fully geared and the group was ready, they got into formation and steadily walked to the warehouse Joseph had mentioned. No goblins came out to challenge them, though Nick, Carlos, and Lamar were getting better at finding signs and watching the shadows. Adam could feel the goblins watching from the roofs and gave up on being sneaky.
To prevent an ambush, they walked through the wider streets and avoided the alleyways. Joseph led them to the building that he thought was the goblin base. While all these warehouses were big, this one hardly looked large enough to be home to an invasion. It could fit a few hundred goblins at most, and without room for training, supplying, or the other activities soldiers need to do.
Inspecting the building, Adam quickly saw that the front bay door was pulled partially open, as if an invitation. The opening was wide enough for about two people to walk side by side. The rest of the warehouse looked normal on first glance, but as he looked closer, he saw that the metal walls actually looked more like stone. Checking another warehouse for reference, he definitely thought this one was made of a different material.
“Spotlight,” Adam called. Nick jumped forward and aimed the flashlight on the doorway.
“I can’t see inside,” said Nick.
“Yeah, definitely a trap,” agreed Adam.
The rest of the group watched and didn’t even comment. Adam was once again amazed at how these high schoolers could act like professional soldiers.
“I’m going to approach and then see what’s in the doorway. Follow a bit behind me so I have room to withdraw.”
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No light could be seen from the building as Adam got closer. As he arrived at the doorway he reached for it. His hand went to pass through the door’s threshold when he felt a slight resistance. It was barely enough to notice, but it did feel like he was passing through something. Instead of stepping in, he went to the sliding door and tried pushing it open. He was surprised when he couldn’t move the doors.
“Ed, can you send a drone inside?” Adam had already noticed that Ed had more drones nearby. Like before there was one focused on him at all times, then another watching the group, while a third checked the roofs and surroundings. They were all controlled by Ed, with his face buried in his laptop.
At his question, a fourth drone was pulled from Ed’s backpack and flew towards the door. When it tried to enter it lightly bounced off.
“Nope, seems to be a barrier,” said Ed.
“Then I’m going to enter. You guys stay here,” Adam ordered.
“No, boss,” said Tom. “We do this as a group. We won’t be left behind.” Everyone nodded or spoke agreement.
“I don’t know what is in there. What if it does something to me? I have the best chance of escaping,” pleaded Adam.
Lucas spoke out, “Without you we can’t do this anyway. If anything, we should send someone else to see what happens. You are the least expendable. Any volunteers?”
Adam’s stomach dropped and he suddenly felt like garbage. He didn’t get attached to people easily, but this group felt like something important to him. In a short time he had thought of them as friends, and while he could view the events like a game that he could walk away from due to his unexpected powers, no one else had that leeway. They were viewing it as soldiers and giving him more weight than he felt he earned. If something happened to one, or all, of them, Adam wasn’t sure he’d be able to walk away from it unscathed. The already pounding anger inside him towards the goblins would consumer him even more than it had when Brandon had been hurt.
While almost everyone raised their hands, Carlos slipped past the group and jumped into the doorway. Adam reached to grab him but had been too surprised by everyone’s willingness. He held his breath in concern but was able to exhale about 20 seconds later when Carlos stepped back out.
“It seems we can go in and out. What did you see, Carlos?” Adam asked in relief.
“Oh man, it is unbelievable. You guys need see this,” said Carlos with a smile before he slipped back through the doorway.
Lucas shrugged and walked into it himself, followed by the whole group, receiving a wink from Andrea and a reassuring smile from Abbey. Adam ended up last since he wasn’t about to push anyone out of the way. When he got inside the group had to shift forward to make room. He was stunned by what he saw.
The sky had an eerie reddish color. There were light gray puffy clouds scattered in it, casually blowing around from the slight breeze. The ground was also reddish with a tin-colored, unhealthy-looking grass. The most important fact that Adam took in with his stunned silence was that there was a sky and ground inside a warehouse!
“It’s a tardis!” exclaimed Brittney with excitement. Everyone but Brandon turned and looked at her with blank expressions. She focused on each person’s face trying to fine some of her own excitement.
“You know, bigger on the inside,” she continued. No one changed their stares.
“Dr. Who, you clods!” she whisper-shouted at them. Brandon went over and patted her arm in consolation, and she turned away, embarrassment and frustration turning her face red.
Adam continued to look around. Sounds were muffled in this space, as if there was no echo from Brittney speaking. It also hadn’t traveled very far, making Adam’s ears feel weird, as if they were under water.
As odd as the sky and ground seemed it was even weirder because he could see the warehouse walls. Everything was contained within them but took up more space than the warehouse had in it. This area could be used for thousands of camp sites and staging areas. However, half the space was taken up by a large fortress made of stone. The fortress was very basic with simple walls about ten feet high, thick enough to walk on, but with no other defensive measures.
Inside the walls there was a mini castle, only about two stories tall and without any towers or lookout structures. Windows were just gaps in the stone, nothing covering them. In all it looked like a toddler could have designed it with clay.
In the front wall was an entrance about eight feet high that looked like it went into a hallway. No door or gate was attached, just a gap in the stone.
“There aren’t any goblins out here,” said Randall.
“It looks like quite a lot could be inside the walls,” said Andrea.
“I don’t mind,” nodded Lucas. “If they had surrounded us here then we would have been in trouble. This whole setup is odd. Nothing looks defensive. Either they didn’t expect anyone to attack them here, or they removed all gates and defenses to make sure we could come in.”
“Probably the former,” agreed Adam. “They have never seemed strategic or disciplined in their fights.”
“What do we do?” asked Alissa.
“I think we enter those hallways in the walls and see if there are goblins inside,” answered Adam. “If anything, the hallways make it easier for us, so long as there are no traps. Having to defend two directions is easier than fighting in the open. At least for most people.”
They all got back into their moving formation and Adam led them into the opening in the walls. He could hear slight noise and vibrations from movement along the stone, but nothing to indicate hidden foes nearby.
Immediately inside the wall opening they had to choose between the left or right hall, as one long passage followed along the wall. They chose to turn right and when they got to where the wall should end, they turned left, following the next hall until it opened into a large courtyard.
“There are your goblins,” said Tom flippantly as they reached the end of the hall and looked out across a large courtyard. Thousands of goblins were there. Some were fighting each other, some ripping meat off bones, and others just lounging around. The distance between this wall and the castle was much larger than it had looked on the outside.
“This place is messing with our senses. We should have heard all this before,” said Brittney.
“Can we even fight this many?” asked Brandon with a quivering voice. Fear was apparent in the group.
“Yes,” said Adam confidently. “Use the environment to our advantage. Stay in the hallway so only a few can approach at a time. Use their corpses as barricades. Smash the outside wall if you need to escape, instead of following the tunnel. Most importantly, level up when you get the experience. More vitality and strength will keep you moving for longer and should invigorate you throughout the fight.”
Adam closed his eyes and focused on the coolness. He sensed for the human shaped spaces around him and tried creating connections. It was hard holding so many at once, but he knew it was necessary. Once he counted the same number of tendrils as people in his group, he pulsed out his strongest sense of confidence and determination.
Immediately everyone was standing straighter and looking alert. The fear was wiped away.
“Damn, boss,” said Tom vigorously, “better than a keg of coffee, that was.”
“No wonder the girls like it,” said Elias.
“If you can do this regularly then I think we do have a chance,” said Lucas.