Now, Texas
Texas was hot in the summer.
Nila wouldn’t know.
She hadn’t set foot off the bus without wearing her Threnosh-made armor.
The mayor had said all the right things when they had rolled into the settlements on the outskirts of San Antonio at the head of a ragged convoy.
The memories of what Cal and she had done during their first visit must’ve been fresh.
She drummed her fingers on the table.
Her eyes drifted toward the back of the bus where the little guy was playing with Trevor and Amber.
Monsignor and Marci were in the Golden Eagles’ base receiving extended healing alongside the Furies.
Shrewed had gone with them to keep an eye on things. She hadn’t ordered him to. He had taken it on himself to watch out for potential wrong doing.
He didn’t need to.
It wasn’t that she trusted the mercenary company.
What she trusted was their fear of Cal and their greed.
They wouldn’t risk dirty tricks because of how he had proved beneficial to them in the past and for future collaborative opportunities.
“We need to start planning the trip back.”
“What? Why? Everyone’s still hurt,” Jimenez said.
“It’s been a week. Our welcome will start to run thin soon.”
“It’s not like they’re giving us free supplies. You’re paying for everything.”
That was true. The sacks of Vegas money and jewelry had been useful.
“People say the right things about taking in refugees, but…” she shrugged.
“I thought we were waiting for Cal?”
“He’ll find us no matter where we are.”
“But the road dangers?”
“Are a risk, but we can do it.”
Nila wasn’t too confident with her words.
The trip from Kansas hadn’t been without casualties.
“It’d be easier if it was just us,” Jimenez said.
“They’d rather come with than stay here.”
The Kansas people had seen much of the same in the San Antonio communities than they had in Wichita. It was better in the sense that they weren’t going to be exiled for simply being themselves.
“It’s hard to compete when you tell them that they get guaranteed food and housing in exchange for contributing whatever they want. It’s like that old take a penny leave a penny thing. Instead it’s have a life and leave… whatever.”
“I’m not too familiar with how it is in Sacramento.”
Jimenez rubbed her head. “It’s pretty much the same. Except everyone’s got a job. I mean, it’s not bad, you get to choose what you want to do and it’s not like 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. They want us to develop our best classes, so you’re supposed to focus on doing things that help that. The work stuff is simple. Like, you spend an hour or two a day putting together supply boxes or delivering them. When you’re done, you’re done. No sticking around till 5 doing busy work.”
“You’ll probably have less of that now that you’ve gotten past 30 and powered up your Danger Sense.”
Jimenez groaned and placed her head in her hands. “I know it’s useful and that’s what I want…”
“But…”
“It’s— I’ll have to go on the most dangerous Quests. And it’ll be even worse now…”
“It must be hard to be constantly aware of danger. I don’t understand the Skill… I don’t understand them in general, but can’t you turn it off?”
“I wish I could,” Jimenez shook her head.
“There has to be a way. Otherwise it seems like a liability.”
“I know, but I haven’t been able to find one. None of the R&D geniuses have either.”
“Your Skill, your solution. Don’t let it control you. Control it. I know,” she smiled to soften her words, “easy to say, hard to do.”
“Yeah…” Jimenez sighed. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I know all the theories about classes and Skills. They’re based on how you see yourself and what you want and need. Maybe not consciously, necessarily. And I’ve always been a scared and anxious person. It’s hard to change.”
“Our situations aren’t the same, but before the spires I’d never thrown a punch in anger. Look at me now…”
Elsewhere, three young women wandered the walled suburbs that had once been home.
They stopped at homes turned into restaurants.
They visited Ms. Daniels at the Home for Fortunate Girls and Young Women.
They were relieved to learn that things hadn’t changed.
The mayor was still sticking closely to her deal with Cal.
Hayden had been prepared to hurt pervy old men had she discovered differently.
Their wanderings ended up at their old favorite.
A home turned bar and grill that catered to the Golden Eagles.
“We lost that Quest. Tons of points and a bonus reward,” Jayde groaned.
“It got replaced,” Dayana said. “We still got a ton of points and your slow ass finally hit 30.”
“True that. I can combo my spell punches now. But I can’t stop thinking about that bonus. Trevor and Amber were talking about that one badass lady that trained them. She got attribute bonuses. Like, automatically stronger, faster, whatever in an instant. That’s what you really want. Literally, make everything about you better in one go.”
“Can’t change the past. We failed one Quest, but succeed at a slightly less valuable one with our lives,” Dayana said.
“Lives,” Hayden said. “That’s what it comes down to. We managed to save a few hundred when we could’ve saved a lot more. Who knows what’s going on in Wichita right now? Did the Meat Parade eat everyone? Recruited them? Is there a city with tens of thousands of cannibals just sitting out there? How much more can they grow?”
“I don’t even know if that’s the worse case scenario. The church might’ve been worse,” Dayana said. “That Zalthyss thing was— something…”
“I’m more worried about Cal. No one wants to talk about it, but it’s been a week and nothing. Don’t think I can’t tell everyone is freaking out on the inside,” Jayde said.
“The road trip was a lot different when he was with us. That’s all I’m going to say about that,” Dayana said.
Hayden scowl hadn’t left her face since they had escaped from Wichita. The memories of Zalthyss nearly killing them all had replayed themselves in her thoughts over and over again.
She couldn’t touch that height of power. Not as she was.
The problem was that she didn’t know if she ever could.
She didn’t like the feeling of knowing that there were things out there that could kill her so easily.
“Ugh… let’s talk about something happier,” Jayde said.
“I know what my Level 40 Skill does,” Dayana said.
“You didn’t—”
“No! No way I’d just try out something called Shadow Wound. I paid to unlock the tutorial. Cheap-ass microtransactions,” she muttered. “Anyways, I can use it to attack a person’s or monster’s shadow to deal the damage. Bypasses defenses, but at the cost of damage. I can’t add Bleed to it, but maybe once I level and it gets stronger.”
Hayden considered the tactical applications. “What kind of defenses? Armor? Magic? Skills?”
“All of the above. The limitation, like with everything, comes down to personal power. The more powerful someone is than me in terms of level or whatever the less damage I’ll do. And even then there’s, like, a general decease in damage.”
“Ah… so a deep cut becomes a shallow cut,” Jayde nodded sagely.
“Better than not cutting at all when up against someone in thick plate and chain,” Dayana challenged.
“Useful,” Hayden nodded.
“I’d want to get stronger before trying it on the guy you’re thinking about,” Dayana said.
“I wasn’t—”
“Yes you were… we all were…” Jayde said. “Annnddd we’re back to unpleasant topics. Shame!”
“They saved Marci’s arm,” Dayana ventured.
“And Monsignor is not going to die. Which is great, because she is awesome,” Jayde added.
“How’s your arm, Jayde?” Hayden said.
“Tender, but I’ll take it over being broken. I could do without the tender patches where they healed the skin back. Let me tell you, it sucks having all the grit scraped out of you.”
“We know,” Dayana said flatly.
“Oh, right. Both of you have eaten road before.”
“I’m glad you and the others all got stronger and that no one died. It means it was worth it,” Hayden said.
That’s all that mattered to her. Survive and become stronger than you were.
A long, silent moment passed.
“40’s not high enough,” Dayana said.
No one responded to that.
They ate and drank in extended silence until they managed to bring the conversation back to lighter fair.
It was a time to rest and recharge.
They all knew that one couldn’t run on adrenaline for long.
They had seen bodies and minds break from being constantly in survival mode.
Days passed.
Nila and Hayden sat in Leon’s office.
The leader of the Golden Eagles was in the uncomfortable position of saying no.
“I’m really sorry, but our next scheduled changeover with Vegas isn’t for another two months. We’ve settled on a quarterly rotation,” Leon said.
“Then I’d like to hire you for an escort. I can pay,” Nila said.
“You wouldn’t even be primaries. We can cover the toughest monsters and assholes. We just need enough skilled and experienced people to cover the gaps and watch over things while we rest,” Hayden said.
“Your people only need to go as far as Vegas.”
“Normally, I’d take you up on that, but with the situation up north the mayor has strongly encouraged us to stay close to home in the event that the shit starts to flow downhill, so to speak.”
“C’mon, Leon. Those two assholes are going to be fighting each other for awhile. They aren’t going to travel hundreds of miles south. Besides, there are plenty of settlements in between here and there. Not to mention the monsters on the road. You’ll have plenty of warning to get your guys back and ready,” Hayden said.
“Your business deal with my partner—”
“Is still on,” Leon said hastily. “The Golden Eagles are nothing but happy and appreciative of our interactions with Cal… and yourself, of course.”
“Then—”
“I’m really sorry, but my hands are tied in this case. If you can wait two months then I’m more than happy to have your convoy join ours.”
“I’d like to leave sooner than that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want our welcome to run out.”
“As long as you’ve got money there won’t be a problem with the locals. They might grumble a bit, but so what. What are they going to do? Kick you out? The mayor isn’t going to forget the ass-kicking you and your partner laid down. Word is her asshole rich friends are pissing themselves trying to figure out if you’re here for them.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“And that’s a potential problem.”
“Scared animals tend to lash out,” Hayden added.
Nila wouldn’t go as far to call them animals. At least not out loud, but the young woman nailed her concerns.
“I’m not worried about them in regards to myself, Hayden and the others,” she continued. “I’m worried they might do something stupid and hurt one of the people that have gone through a horrific series of events to make it all this way. Which would then force me to do something they will regret.”
“The mayor might be amendable to easing the leash on the company if I put it to her in those terms,” Leon mused. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
“Okay. That’s fine.”
Nila and Hayden made their way from Leon’s office to the medical house.
The Golden Eagles had their own section of the tract separated from others.
“Um… I know you and Cal have a way to communicate,” Hayden ventured.
“What makes you say that?”
“This is going to sound weird, but I sometimes, maybe, remember a voice in my head during the hardest fights—”
“What does that have to do with me and Cal?”
“I don’t know,” Hayden shrugged. “Just back when we were fighting Zalthyss. I almost thought I heard the two of you talking.”
“That’s weird,” she said lightly. “I remember the song from Zalthyss.”
“I know, maybe it was that… like connecting all of us? I’ve talked with the girls and they sorta remember the same, but it’s not clear. Like trying to remember a dream. It fades and wriggles away like a slimy worm.”
“Well… I can honestly tell you that I don’t know where Cal is right now.”
Openly saying words caused the pit of fear that had been growing in her gut to swell.
“He’s right behind you guys.”
The voice caused her to spin around and throw a punch.
Hayden was a beat slower but she had her custom taser out ready to fire.
“Ow!”
Cal took the punch on his arm.
“Just kidding,” he grinned and raised his hands. “Sorry I couldn’t resist.”
No.
Nila realized with delayed horror.
Not hands.
Hand.
His left arm ended in a bandaged stump.
“It’s fine, Love,” he said softly. “I don’t look at is as losing a hand. I look at it as losing three fingers… and a palm… I guess… I actually don’t know what that part is called. I was already down two fingers, so the way I see it, losing the other three to destroy Zalthyss was worth it.”
“You killed it? How!” Hayden said.
“I’ll tell you later. First, let’s go see how Marci and Monsignor are do—”
Nila lifted him up in a crushing hug.
“No stupid jokes. Not now,” she whispered after putting him down.
He embraced her then.
Tighter.
“Okay.”
Hayden cleared her throat. “Um… I’ll head over to the clinic first,” she broke into a fast walk.
Cal broke the kiss.
“I have a lot to tell you,” he said.
“That’s my line,” she replied.
“I may have done a quick surface scan of this entire area. I’ve got most of it. You did great in getting so many people out of there and all the way down here.”
Nila shook her head.
“Nope. Don’t even think it,” he forestalled her words. “You and the others saved a few hundred lives.”
“So many died.”
“They all would be dead if it wasn’t for you guys.”
“I thought— you—”
“Me too, but I had enough power and good fortune to still be here. This,” he held up his left arm, “is a small price to pay for seeing you again.”
“The little guy’s been asking for you. He refuses to sleep. He keeps waiting for you for bedtime. Stays up as long as he can before passing out.”
“I’m sorry. No life threatening excursions for awhile.”
She didn’t say anything. She knew intellectually that you couldn’t plan that sort of thing.
Their world wasn’t a safe one where existential threats were mostly consigned to the conceptual realm.
They were real and they were out there.
“One bit of good news, well two, but they’re sort of connected. I’ve got some magic gear coming my way and I met someone that might make a good ally. I’ll tell you about it later, but let’s go see how the others are doing. Then we can figure out how to bring all these people back to SoCal.”
The pit in her stomach vanished but her heart ached when she had to move to his right side in order for them to walk hand in hand.
How much more of himself would Cal lose the next time?
Would he return at all?
----------------------------------------
“How are you not sweating, bro?” Jake said.
“My superior body deals with extremes well,” Cal said.
“That’s bullshit. It’s like a hundred right now.”
“At least it’s a dry heat,” he shrugged. “There was some humidity back in Kansas, or so the others told me.”
“Or so the others told me,” Jake mocked Cal’s words by deepening his voice to a comical level.
“Terrible impression.”
“Whatever… I’ll be glad when summer’s over. Nothing’s worse than sweat running down to my taint when you’re fighting a mutant black bear.”
“Yeah, I definitely used to prefer being cold over being hot. Hated getting sweaty just walking or sitting around.” He reached into the small cooler and pulled out another bottle, twisting the cap off with his left hand.
“Bro? Why not?” Jake pointed the beer bottle toward Cal’s prosthetic hand.
“The spell isn’t as common as you think,” he said. “Besides,” he wiggled the skeletal fingers made out of hard metal and softer composites, “I can move them just fine without it.”
“Powers are bullshit,” Jake grinned.
They bumped prosthetic fists.
“So… I heard about the thing from Marci and Jimenez,” Jake ventured.
“And?”
“They’re still fighting over Wichita, bro… that’s just wild. A church worshiping an alien fighting a cannibal army over a bunch of farms.”
“It’s a city, just like any other.”
“But, still… it’s like in the middle of nowhere. Whatever dude, point is, are you going to, like handle that? Cause I want to come with. Marci and Jimenez flew past Level 30. They’re like a couple below me now and I need to keep my lead. I can’t let them hit 40 before me.”
“It’s not a race,” he laughed.
“It totally is! Might be different with you being a superstar franchise player, but it’s different for us role players.”
“How different are we? Huh?” he pointed a prosthetic finger to Jake’s prosthetic hand.
“That’s easy,” Jake snorted. “You lost a hand. If I went up against that thing there’d be nothing left. Blocks and buildings vaporized! A giant crater! Like, literally nothing of me would’ve been left.”
“Fair point. I concede,” he took a swig.
“So, I’m in. Whatever it is. Just say the word.”
“There isn’t going to be one. Zalthyss is gone and that was the most important part. I’m okay with letting the assholes kill each other over the city. It’ll keep them too busy to terrorize other people.”
“Aww, man. That’s a bummer.”
“I’m not saying you can’t go do whatever you want.”
“Nah. Too far. Plus, the big shots see it the same way as you. Besides, too much going on around here. You and your bro got rid of the Deep Azure and the fishmen, but the human cult— and I’m using the word loosely— dicks that they are, refuse to just give it up.”
“Shouldn’t you be leveling from that?”
Jake shook his head and took a swig before replying. “There isn’t much fighting. They stick to their territory. We stick to ours. Every once in a while we’ll get people fleeing from Frisco and then it’s a fucked up three way race. The cult tries to stop them while we try to help them.”
“You said three?”
“Monsters and mutant animals try to eat them. We call the 80, the ‘Freeway of Death’ now,” Jake shrugged.
“Shouldn’t you be leveling more from doing your magitech stuff anyways?”
“Yeah, but I can’t just focus on that. Since I’m one of the higher leveled dudes, I’m spending most of time responding to threats in the city and outside,” Jake sighed. “Bunch of spawn zones started popping up out in the wilderness. Totally sucks, man! Fucking hate camping. No showers and shit.”
“Sounds like you should be leveling from that.”
“I guess I’m too high level for them,” Jake shrugged. “The monsters or mutants don’t pose that much of a threat to me. Don’t get me wrong, they suck, but it ain’t that hard to kill them. Marci and Jimenez got like 5-6 levels from, like, a month of being with you. I could’ve gone over 40.”
“Tell your bosses you need to focus on the R&D.”
“Nah. I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to, but I just can’t. If I’m not out there then some weaker bastard gets dead,” Jake shrugged. “It’s whatever. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than listen to my bitching. So, if you aren’t going to head back then what’s next?”
“I need time. Wichita and Zalthyss took a lot from me mentally. What I really need is a few months of solitude to rebuild… everything,” he gestured vaguely at nothing. “Can’t really do that, so I’m going to try to have my cake and eat it. Taking Nila and the kid on a road trip with no destination in mind. We’re going to go were fate decides.”
“Ah. So you’ll be like the wandering gunslinger.”
“I guess. I say all this, but, like, obviously, if we come across bad shit we’re not going to just turn around and leave cause we’re on ‘vacation’. But at the same time, if, for example, we see a horrible monster in the middle of nowhere not doing anything, then we’ll leave it alone.”
“Bro, how can you do that?”
“You’ve got a good point there. I’m just saying this now. I might not be able to resist,” he laughed.
“I figure taking a monster out is a net positive for humanity, but its not like I’m telling you what to do. You got to take care of that mental health. Don’t want you going nuts or something.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not planning on ditching everything. I’ve got responsibilities. One place on the list is where the Dread Paladin lived. I haven’t forgotten about the Vitiator. Going to try to pick up the trail from there.”
“Elves are real and they’re evil,” Jake sighed.
“We don’t know if they’re all like that. It seems likely that they wouldn’t be all the same. A species isn’t a monolithic thing in terms of alignment.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know that this isn’t a game. But what if it’s, like, the only ones that have the power and points to actually travel to our world are those predisposed to being evil fucks? Like, the spires are all about conflict. This whole claiming territory shit,” Jake shook his head. “There weren’t any good colonizers in our own history. We’re the same species and we did all sorts of shit to each other. It makes sense that when we’re dealing with different species it’ll be worse. Like, legit, we might as well be cows to them.”
“Well… it’s not entirely bad. The Threnosh are mostly cool and they aren’t the colonizing-type. As for the others… I’d like to think I’ve given them something to think about in regards to Earth’s difficulty level.”
“Dude, I’d love to go to the Threnosh world. That’s some real super science shit! I’d definitely level there!”
“I could write you a letter of recommendation.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
“Hell yeah! I’ll take you up on that! Just need to convince the bosses.”
“Bro, you’re not a slave.”
“I know, but I can’t just bail. One day,” Jake sighed.
“Frame it as part of a diplomatic mission to build ties and eventually obtain better gear. Shit, you might even generate an actual Quest out of it.”
“I thought that stuff you brought over for the Watch was super expensive.”
“Maybe there’s a way to lower cost through treaties? An alliance? Or even a trade agreement? That there are tutorials on those topics suggests that there are things we still don’t know.”
“The geniuses figure we know, like, less than 5% of what the spires have,” Jake snorted, “spending Universal Points for everything is probably the brute force option.”
“The thought had occurred to me.”
“Eh, it’s working for you so far, so why change, right?”
“Because I can’t protect the world by myself. My family can’t do it. This world needs everyone it can get to step up when all of the spire’s restrictions are lifted. Because I can see a world without humanity. A world filled with the worst things and me, alone.”
“Whoa…” Jake said after a long moment. “That got dark…”
“Sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”
“Jeez, bro, tell me what you really think,” Jake chuckled nervously.
“My worst case scenario,” he shrugged. “Realistically, I’d definitely be able to protect a small pocket of humanity’s remnants. Say, a city.”
“Or a megacity,” Jake nodded sagely.
“Or an island, but a big one.”
“Like Australia.”
“Not that one. It was a death land before the spires showed up. I don’t know what it is like now, but…”
“Right, everything there was venomous. Probably a lot worse now that those animals mutated. Mutant platypus,” Jake shuddered.
“Venomous, egg-laying duck mammal. It was already WTF when it was normal,” he shook his head.
“Wait… hasn’t your brother been all over the world?”
“We’ve never sat down and talked about everything he’s seen. Haven’t talked about Australia.”
“You should tell him to write a guidebook. He’s got the only information about what’s happened in the rest of the world. Shit, we barely know what’s going on in the rest of North America.”
“I’m working on that.”
“You might, could maybe pick up the pace. What’s it been? Like, six months and you’ve gone across the southwest to Texas and a bit of the midwest to Kansas.”
“I crossed the Appalachians up to New York,” he added.
“Right and the governor was very disappointed in the lack of information you had for him,” Jake laughed.
“Well, he can go fuck himself. I was kind of busy at the time. Had more important things to do than try to find the remnants of the federal government in their secret bunkers.”
“Probably dead. Those definitely turned into spawn zones. Like, don’t tell anyone I said this, but we’re better off that those politicians and rich guys aren’t around to call the shots. They’d be charging for the free food like that dumbass mayor in Texas you told me about. Like, bro… it just shows up the next day. Who the fuck is making it? The spires, that’s who and they ain’t charging points.”
“Hopefully that doesn’t change.”
Jake winced before rapping knuckles on the wooden table. “That’d suck if all that is tied to the tutorial period.”
“It’s probable.”
“That’s why we’ve set up farms for veggies and normal animals. Not to mention, creating stockpiles of supplies.” Jake let out a long breath. “Medicines will be a problem. Stockpiles will only last so long. Really, hoping that the healing magic can take over for the stuff we won’t be able to manufacture. Still, it might not be so bad. We’re finding that leveling up seems to have a great impact on overall physical health. Like, I’m in great shape.”
“I imagine that might have something to do with your lifestyle.”
“Maybe, but I don’t exactly watch what I eat. I eat a ton of crap, like, chocolate, candy and shit. I mean, it’s all free, so why not?” Jake shrugged. “Check ups still keep coming back golden… oh, sorry,” he cringed, “too soon?”
He raised his left arm and telekinetically pulled all the fingers of his prosthetic, except one, closed.
Jake broke out into raucous laughter. “So unfair,” he wiped the tears out of his eyes. “You move it so smoothly. It took me time to get mine down and it still doesn’t feel like my old hand.”
“Yeah, I’ve got the ghost hand thing too.”
“The itching is the worse.”
He nodded.
“Cause you can’t scratch it.”
“I know.”
“Just checking. Thanks by the way.”
“For what?”
“Giving me the day off.”
“No problem.”
The bottles clinked.
The sun slowly drifted down the western horizon.
They spoke of many things.
About the eternal church and their strange magic.
About the Flesh Eaters and their monstrous class, the different variations he had seen.
He had prepared a comprehensive briefing package that he had already shared with the state government and the Watch just so that he wouldn’t have been forced to spend hours going over the events in Wichita.
He had even given them everything he knew and experienced with Zalthyss.
This was different.
This was chatting with a friend and despite the subjects he didn’t find it to be an onerous task.
Besides, he couldn’t predict the future and he wanted his friends to be prepared for all the threats that lurked in the darkness.