Story So Far:
* Ingrid lectures Burgers and Freedom to stuffy aristocrats, a Giant Spider raises the American flag while dog-sized mice squeak out the "Star Spangled Banner."
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S03E12
Inside The Rogue Rift pt.1
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"Welp." Zefir said "Since you guys are already there, get me a truckload of Marlboro Black and a crate full of Coke."
"Ten-four, Baseplate." Ingrid said, sighing deeply.
Siria looked around, they were not in the moorlands as described by Khorak. The Whales emerged in front of a house, which stood in a row of identical structures. Tall, wooden fences covered the remaining three sides, while trees provided privacy from neighbors upstairs. They stood on slightly overgrown grass, ahead, a wooden patio led up to the house.
Ingrid put a finger to her lips, motioning for everyone to be quiet.
"We're on Earth." she said quietly. “And in someone's backyard.”
The mice quickly scurried into position. One group quickly stacked up at the edge of the patio, taking aim at the doors and window at the back of the house, another quickly scurried up the trees to provide overwatch over the neighborhood, while others quickly located the back gate and stood guard.
In response, Viel quickly cast a cantrip over the windows. It caused anyone, or anything looking through them to perceive the view outside like a hazy painting, obscuring any onlooker from seeing outside properly.
"We're in your world!?" Kvaris hissed quietly. Ingrid nodded in confirmation.
"And we're trespassing." Philia added, though her tone indicated she could care less.
"It's too quiet." Cecil said, flying over to a round table by the patio, the type that had in the middle an umbrella hole, but there was no umbrella to be found. There was a newspaper on it and he picked it up.
"The Lakeview Tribune, August 6, 1991..." the slime read aloud. "Ingrid, this paper looks recent."
Neith launched Aquila high in the air.
"And we're in Illinois." Ingrid said, scanning the front page.
The rest of the Whales looked around, it was a pleasant quiet afternoon.
"There's a gate leading to the back." Kinu observed, "We should just leave."
"Don't!" Philia urged quietly. "We're in less trouble here."
"But why?" Kinu tilted her head "You said we're trespassing."
The mice watching the back of the house quickly scurried ahead. Quiet squeaks from the mice at trees had confirmed there appeared to be no one watching from the windows. Ian tried the door and found it locked.
Johnny, finding a bird feeder, quickly snatched it up with a vine and ate bird feed.
"It's too quiet." Philia said, looking around. "Something's very wrong. It's best we stay here where nothing can see us."
"Wrong Lakeview, wrong Illinois..." Neith spoke up, after running her analysis. "Wrong Earth."
Siria turned around to face the spider-bot. "What do you mean?"
"We're in the past." Neith explained "Ingrid and Philia's parents weren't even born yet in the year of nineteen-ninety one. Second, according to my GPS coordinates, this location matches the Lakeview Illinois in our Earth except... unlike ours, this town is abandoned. My drone finds zero activity in this suburb."
"I haven't heard any birds." Cecil added, looking up from the newspaper. "Nor have I heard a single squirrel run around."
"Or racoons." Ingrid said, smiling as she saw one of golden the mice poke a garden gnome with his glaive, "An abandoned house like this would have lots of them. The usual animals that live in a suburb are gone."
With a quiet click, Ian's lockpicks undid the door's simple lock. Ingrid wagged her finger, signing she will open the door.
“It could be booby-trapped. Let me.” Ingrid said quietly. She waited for them to scurry back to the edge of the patio before she, Viel, and Kvaris approached the door.
Ingrid waited for Kvaris's sense of smell and Viel's hearing to confirm there were no occupants inside.
"I hear a faint humming sound, and some ticking noises, but nothing else,"Viel said.
"I don't smell anything human, or any creature." Kvaris whispered.
"Still no movement in the streets." Neith said over their earpieces.
"Keep us apprised, Glados." Ingrid replied. She motioned for the Garm and Ciltran to retreat to the back.
The door opened without a sound, Ingrid boldly strode forward then flipped the light switch, bathing the kitchen in off-white fluorescent lights.
“Clear.” she waved at everyone “Everyone inside, we’re harder to notice in here.”
The patio and back gate mice quickly flooded inside along with Ingrid, and the Valkyrie team. The kitchen was still in good condition. Like Autumnhollow, it had an island counter, but that's where the semblance ended. The room reeked of 1970's interior design sensibilities with tiles everywhere, and even retro appliances that would be selling in the four digits if she put them on auction online. There was even a breakfast nook with some magazines lying atop it.
It appeared that half of the kitchen had been cleared out, there were still some canned goods, bags of dried beans, jars of coffee and sugar. In the fridge, the freezer was empty of perishables, leaving only the predictable box of baking soda and cans of beer inside the refrigerator itself.
Ingrid closed the door. There was a calendar mounted on it through magnets. The last crossed out date was August 12, 1991, four days after the newspaper Cecil was reading. That in itself only told the last time the family that once lived here occupied the house. It did not answer what the actual date today was.
"A lot could have happened between this era and the time that Ingrid grew up in..." Iohann suggested as they entered, but Philia held up a hand to politely interject.
"No..." Philia said, looking into her smartphone, observing the aerial view that the Aquila Drone was giving her. "We're only a few miles from Chicago... the richest, biggest, and most populated city in this region. Nobody who lives here could have any valid reason to leave, it's too profitable. It's as unnatural as say... if any of those hamlets near Teth-Odin was suddenly abandoned. It makes no sense."
"Aaand..." Cecil added, looking up at the caddy-mounted monitors at his room-side portal. "This Downtown is trashed... definitely did not happen in our history."
"Maybe this city got attacked in the past?" Kvaris suggested, opening up the cabinets. These too were half empty, unlike the canned goods that Roofe and Minke were selling, these did not depict hearty soups or stews but fruits and vegetables, her interpretation spell suggested that these may have been prepared ingredients for larger dishes, which could be the reason why the family that lived here did not believe them important enough to take with them.
“Ermm…” Cuddly held up a box of cereals and chewed a hole open. The adorable hare took out the bag inside and began to tip the contents into his mouth.
Cecil, Philia, Ingrid, and Zefir shared a chuckle at Iohann's suggestion.
"Impossible" Philia replied, chuckling as she knelt down at the island counter and began placing atop it various cans, "at 1991, America had and still is the most powerful military in the world. Ten years from now, two large towers were collapsed. In retaliation, America destroyed that country. So attacking us is extremely foolish. Our biggest rival in this era was tottering in near-collapse, we had no equal."
"Even if our Chicago was attacked in 1991," Cecil said, turning the page "We would have known about it. An attack like that would take hundreds of years before it ever became forgotten."
"Or fifty years ago from this era." Ingrid added, hauling hefty sacks of rice and potatoes from a pantry. "One of our ports in an tiny island far, far away was burnt to the ground, America destroyed two entire cities as revenge."
"Perhaps it was some sort of disaster" Iohann suggested. She saw Kinu let out an excited squeal as she opened a cabinet and found several spices.
Meanwhile the mice had discovered cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli. Philia, noticing their discovery nodded to them, letting them know it was safe to eat. The mice opened the cans with their knives and started squeaking in delight as they helped themselves.
"It has to be a disaster." Philia assented, pulling out several kitchen appliances from the power sockets, laying them next to the microwave and electric oven that Ingrid also laid atop the island counter. "Or some kind of cone hat experiment gone wrong... the American people wouldn't let this destruction stand, there should be thousands of people in there right now rebuilding the city and undoing all the damage. Something really dangerous has driven them away..."
Sammy picked up the phone’s receiver, her sharp ears heard a buzzing sound.
“This one’s making a sound.” The orc remarked.
“That’s a telephone. It works like our earpieces.” Ingrid told her. “You’ll need to dial, or press those numbers in a sequence to reach who you want to talk to… it’s all in that yellow book that Viel’s reading.”
Viel looked at the book in awe, in her eyes it felt like an impressive tome of summoning with the sheer number of telephone numbers written on just one page alone.
“Most of those numbers are no good right now, Viel.” Philia said. “If all of the Greater Chicago area is evacuated, there will be no one to answer any of those numbers. Still, feel free to take it, even for us, it's a piece of history. They’re no longer in use in our era anymore…”
Sammy put the handset down. “We’re not speaking to anyone, are we?”
“No,” Ingrid shook her head. “They must not know we’re here. They won’t be our friends.”
“Treat everyone here as hostile.” Philia said. “All they will do if they find us is throw us in a laboratory like it’s Elion-Nosco.”
“You fine with killing your own people?” Siria asked, her elf-ears wagging incredulously.
“They’re not our people.” Philia said “Terragalia is my people. This Earth’s cone hat experiment now threatens our world. They should be lucky with what lives we take.”
"Oh and in case you're wondering, Ingrid." Neith quipped, entering the kitchen at last. The door was wide enough to admit the refrigerator, thus giving her enough clearance to enter with her porter rig "Radiation levels are non-existent, we're not in a nuclear holocaust."
"Are we in a zombie apocalypse scenario?" Ingrid asked, unplugging the refrigerator as Kvaris and Kinu emptied it.
"Ingrid's asking if this world has succumbed to a plague that turned everyone into a flesh-eating undead." Zefir clarified for the sake of their less-experienced-in-fiction companions.
"Inconclusive, I detect no mass movement anywhere."
"H-how are you so casual in assuming such a horrific scenario?" Kvaris asked, looking up in half-horror and amazement.
"As I said..." Philia shrugged. "We're in the most powerful country in the world... if it's this deathly quiet... the worst has already happened."
Siria was poking at some cabinets and discovered bottles of wine, she held them out to the Enthana sisters and Sammy, who examined them excitedly, their eyes lighting up at the unfamiliar labels. These too, joined the pile atop the island counter. Cuddly was still busily chowing down on the cereals, his Fae Harriers now brought to him a still-unopened box of chocolate flakes.
Meanwhile, Selphie was giggling as she read an Archie comic book she found at the breakfast nook. While most of the jokes escaped her, some elements transcended borders. A thought in the back of mind began to grow; it now dawned to her why Ingrid was so learned despite not being some aristocrat’s daughter. Earth’s children apparently were all required to attend an academy. What struck her as most humorous was how the narrative of this “picture-book” omitted all mention of academic scenes, focusing solely on the characters’ lives in-between classes, and somehow despite being in such an academic demesne all acted like world-class buffoons with their antics.
Sammy on the other hand was reading a National Geographic magazine she had picked from random. Flicking through the pages, she stopped to begin reading when she saw the pictures of long-dead humans wrapped in elaborate gold and fine cloth. The words gave way to her Interpretation spell and revealed it to be findings of a long-lost tomb in some far-away land, of a civilization that once flourished there, though the reasons for their flight baffled these explorers. Even more baffling to Sammy was that these explorers in turn had no intention of selling the loot for wealth. Instead they would be transferred to a "museum", apparently some hall open to the public for scholarly purposes.
The orc snickered, she could only imagine the Sages back in Terragalia frothing at the mouth at the idea of providing the general public such scholarly information. Knowledge that probably would not affect their lives at the slightest and probably cost so much to keep such an exhibit everyday.
"Huh" Cecil said, turning his newspaper "...looks like Bush didn't become president."
"And no mention of Kuwait either..." Ingrid frowned, reading the paper. "This world's history is quite different from ours."
"So it's like we're in a mirror image of your Earth." Viel said, leafing through a cookbook. Meanwhile, Ingrid busied herself taking a stack of china and glassware such as pyrex dishes and adding them to the pile.
Siria looked like she had a lightbulb go off in her head "...so that's what it was!" she exclaimed.
"What?" Kvaris asked, Kinu, Sammy, and herself had settled on the breakfast nook and were helping themselves to the cans of beer fished out from the fridge. Kvaris snickered as she read over Selphie’s shoulder, seeing a funny exchange occur in the Archie comic book the dryad was reading.
Kinu too was also engrossed in Sammy’s magazine. It seemed unthinkable to her that the elaborate necklace as depicted in the page was not going to be sold. Like Sammy, she too was intrigued by this lost kingdom’s origins. The text ran through some probable theories yet the author respectfully maintained that they were just that; mere conjecture. The younger Garm smiled derisively at the thought of her own scholars, who couldn’t help but pass off their own as fact.
"Oh! Umm... Well, this wouldn't be the first time I've been in a Riftworld like this..." The elf began, "At one time, I entered a Rogue Rift and it looked eerily like the Arlon Highlands. It had the Star Trees but they looked much smaller-" she paused for a moment as Ingrid was handing everyone cans of beer.
"Those are like, really tall world trees." Zefir said, explaining it to Ingrid and Cecil. The latter continued to read his newspaper while he expanded his portal, allowing Ingrid and Philia to stuff into his dimension all the goods they had laid atop the island counter.
"They were only a quarter-height to what we have now-" Siria continued, opening up her beer and taking a generous draught. It was pleasantly cold and strong, just like how she liked her ale.
"Everest high." Philia added for Ingrid and Cecil's benefit.
"...and it didn't have the Skyeater Titan's bones either." Siria added.
"Okay, now that's just impossible in our Terragalia's timeline." Philia said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "Because that Titan predates the growth of the Star Hrove. I would know, I carbon dated them."
"A what?" the elf's ears drooped inquiringly.
Ingrid meanwhile, frowned and shook her head as she saw the mice hold out a can of dog food.
“No! You are not animals!” Ingrid said. Arthur shrugged and opened the can anyway , then dumped the contents into Johnny’s eager maw.
"Carbon-dating. It’s a way to get a precise age of an object" the ex-princess said, laying down a stack of pyrex tubs into Cecil's dimension. "The Terragalia you went to is just like this world, a mirror of the one we know, shaped by a different history."
"So what do we do now?" Peanut squeaked, looking up from a Betty Crocker’s cookbook, "shouldn't we be looking for the ether quartz and shattering them?"
"We need information." Cecil said, turning the page on the newspaper. "So far, nothing in this paper says anything wrong going on, and this is a local newspaper mind you. So it should be the final word on what goes on in this neck of the woods."
"I got something on the radio." Neith spoke up. “Playing on speakers now…”
"Vector One-Two-Two-Seven, Nine, Eight, Five, Six Four..." said a man's voice, droning on with more and more numbers.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"Sounds like the military." Philia remarked, "anything else?"
"Standby..." there was a burst of static followed by another man speaking.
"...if you are in the Greater Chicago Area, be advised, in 48 hours we will initiate Hammerdown protocol. You will not be safe within the city limits. I repeat, this is the US Army, if you are receiving this message this transmission you must head to the following major roads: either Lake Shore Drive, or the Northwest Highway. Do not, I repeat do not attempt any other route for they are overrun. Do not travel at night. If you are in the..."
Neith cut the transmission.
"It's on a loop. They're trying to evacuate as many people as they can." she said dully. "After that, the city and everything around it will be ash and rubble."
"Sounds like we don't have to do anything at all." Ingrid said. "They're going to glass this city and that should take out any and all Ether Quartz formations."
"I guess we should return." Zefir suggested "I mean we could raid the city for supplies but we're not really hurting for those."
Philia sighed. “There is one.” she began.
Ingrid smiled, knowing what she was about to say next.
"Site Epsilon-four." Philia said, causing Ingrid and Cecil to chuckle darkly.
"What is it?" Siria asked, noticing their reaction.
"It's..." Ingrid took awhile to compose herself. "Deep under the city. It's a hidden weapons bunker built during the Cold War, it's full of weapons that..." she took a deep breath and sighed "...that Uncle Sam didn't want other countries to know even existed at the time..."
Ingrid looked at Philia and nodded.
"It's where they stored the Virginia."
"Virginia?" Zefir asked.
"July 30, 1864, The Siege of Petersburg, Virginia." Ingrid explained, "Union Forces detonated the largest explosion ever recorded in North America. It was a coal mine filled with explosives that was dug under the city."
Philia continued, "The Virginia I’m talking about is a Davy Crockett-styled Hydrogen Warhead…”
“A really devastating bomb.” Neith interjected for everyone’s benefit. “Bigger than the RPG rocket that Cecil uses.”
“Yes, its similarity to the Davy Crockett was what allowed the US to test it out like the rest without anyone else knowing its true nature. It is the perfect mini-nuke, 1.5 the effective range of the DC rocket, and the radiation doesn't last long, you could have a picnic there in ten minutes."
Ingrid continued for her "It was what blunted the Dark Empire's ground assault on the northern states. Those weren't tactical nukes the media said, it was those were Cold-Era dinosaurs. If this world's history at least followed ours, then it stands to reason it should be there."
"What makes you think they haven't used them yet?" Zefir asked "Or will use them... now that I think of it, why aren't there a whole line of Army guys storming that bunker right now and just making use of it?"
"Firstly," Cecil paused to turn the page of his newspaper "They're still evacuating people. Second, assuming the same people are in our timeline, then the destruction of Chicago will greenlight the construction of Saint Louis City just like in our own. At the end of the day, Virginia's all about taking out biological targets. Conventional bombs on the other hand, are a cost-efficient way to clear out an entire city."
"...and destroy the Ether Quartz." Siria added. "I believe they already know what's causing the trouble in this world."
"What do you think?" Ingird said, looking at everyone "I'll be honest with you, this isn't a weapon we could use in the dungeons, and we have to be mindful of the radiation that will curse the area for at least ten... let's say twenty minutes to be safe. The only time we could deploy the Virginia would be situations where there's lots of open ground, and we need to wipe something big and nasty off the face of the planet. That's the only time it's worth the risk."
The rest of the Whales murmured with each other.
“I think we should.” Cecil said, “Let's just say we’re just carrying out Nuclear disarmament. Like what they should have been doing…”
“I don't understand.” Peanut squeaked, looking up from the cookbook “You once mentioned these super-destructive weapons keep the peace since no one could ever have the advantage. Why would the countries elect to disarm?”
“They’ve been making too much, Peanut.” Cecil said, returning to his paper “Too many nukes, too many to account for, it is too easy to suddenly lose one or have it stolen with how much they have lying around.”
"Back to the topic..." Ingrid said. "Nerve gasses like Sarin allow us to wipe out many enemies while sparing the infrastructure. Now, even if we had the Virginia then, it wouldn't justify destroying the town of Irons. Have any of you encountered situations where such a weapon could be reasonably used?"
"Ten minutes?" Sammy grinned "We'll be fighting longer during a Red Moon. That's a reality we have to always consider."
"Monster nests in Lost Cities." Peanut said quickly. "Have Cecil annihilate them from the sky then we take our time walking there to start looting."
"There's always big game to take down." Selphie added, taking the stack of magazines and bringing them to Cecil’s room. "Unless I can start making whipcrawlers that could take over a Titan, weapons like Virginia would be useful in taking them out as soon as possible."
Ingrid patted the Dryad's head, "Don't let that worry you, Selphie."
"With that said," Philia spoke up "the next question is if it is worth it. We're not just going to be dealing with monsters with teeth and claws. We're dealing with men who have been trained to use firearms, they're not going to show themselves, they're going to peek from every possible corner or loophole and shoot from there. We do have protective shields, that should give us a head start but don't forget that they got radio like us as well. If even one of them sees us, they will raise the alarm. And if even one of them sees how we fight, they will all learn from that one man's observation."
"Have Neith run interference." Kvaris shrugged.
"It's not that simple." The AI replied "I don't have the equipment for it."
"There's gotta be an overrun military outpost somewhere here." Cecil said, handing the paper for Viel and Siria to read. "They're obviously blocking signals which is why you're only picking up the numbers station and emergency broadcast. We find one and take it. I'm sure they're pretty big but..." he flicked a tendril at his dimension "I got enough room."
“In the meantime, we’ll take whatever useful things we find in this house.” Ingrid chimed in, bringing in the refrigerator last, allowing Cecil to return his portal back to its usual size.
“Nobody goes alone!" She said, directing everyone. "Mice, accompany everyone. Valkyrie team, Siria, Selphie, check the upstairs rooms. Philia, you and Peanut check the garage and see if you can find us any vehicles to use. Cecil and Cuddly, you and I will be checking the basement. Lakota, and Kiowa, I want you guarding the windows. Iohann, Neith, and Viel, once we secure the house’s living room, or dining room, whichever is smack in the middle of the house, take refuge there. Johnny, go to the front of the house and blend in. It should be a lawn out there, so you should be able to disguise yourself as an ordinary plant.”
"Rog." Philia said, producing a pistol. It was a pet project of hers, a burst-fire Beretta 93R chambered for larger, Magnum rounds. She had been working on this prior to their dungeon dive along with the guns for the new mice. It sported a permanent enhancement lens that made its already-impressive large-caliber hollowpoints hit with the force of even larger rifle rounds.
"Everyone,” Ingrid called “This is Earth. Contemporary-era Earth. If there are people here, they will be armed with the same weapons as the mice and Philia. Keep that in mind."
Everyone nodded.
___
Twenty minutes later, a 1991 black GMC Syclone with red stripes, and a silver-and-red Ford F-150 were driving along the deserted suburb, with Neith rolling in from behind, Ingrid drove the GMC while Philia took the Ford, considering what the team was wearing, Ingrid had half a mind to suggest everyone to blend in and make use of the clothes they found in the house, but that would not help the mice, nor Johnny, nor do anything about the demihuman features the team had.
"We're all gonna stick out anyway." Philia said over the radio as they drove out of the suburbs "Might as well just use good old' Shock and Awe."
"If anyone asks," Cecil quipped, his portal like the others were anchored above the vehicles, serving as turrets. "Tell em' we got lost while heading to the 1991 Burning Man."
That got a laugh from the earthlings.
And then the mice suddenly squeaked in alarm and Sammy stuck her head out of the window.
"What was that!?" The orc cried. Something had streaked across the sky impossibly fast.
"That's the airforce." Philia said, not bothering to look. "Our flying cavalry."
"The situation's serious if they need something that fast and powerful." Kinu remarked. "Even with your guns, how are you supposed to hit something that fast?"
"We can't." Cecil said, scanning the deserted but otherwise clean street ahead. "Those birds need specialized weapons."
Selphie looked around, this hamlet Ingrid and Philia called a "suburb" looked like a quaint, quiet little town, the ravages of war were nowhere. Not a single house or tree was burnt or collapsed and the streets; already a marvel to her considering how clean and smooth they were, were just that. They weren't pockmarked with craters or littered with refuse or lost belongings.
"This hamlet..." she said "It doesn't look like it's been assaulted at all."
"They were all probably evacuated as a precaution." Cecil said, keeping an eye on the road ahead. The road was lined with tall, leafy trees and houses with manicured lawns. The silence was eerie.
"Are these people elves? This whole hamlet's grown in the middle of a forest!" Kvaris chuckled.
"Oh no." Ingrid said "I'd say half of these trees were either grown here or literally pulled up from whatever grove they came from and put here instead. This is a suburb, it's not really a town, it's just a place where everyone builds houses and only that."
"Cities can get very noisy, you know." Philia said as she followed Ingrid who took a turn along an intersection, "There's a lot of profitable work to be found there, so it wouldn't hurt us Americans to spend an hour or two to drive there in these vehicles in exchange for getting peace and quiet when we want it."
"I'm sure Night-Rider would agree," Ingrid smiled. "A little riding every now and then is good for you."
The orc gave her a big smile and nodded.
"You lived in a suburb like this too, Starchaser?" Kinu asked, sticking her head out of the window like everyone else.
"No, I lived on a farm." Ingrid replied "It's pretty far from the city, but the road leading there isn't congested and I have a pretty fast car, so it made little difference how far I was from home."
"What about you, King Fish?" Kinu probed "Did you once live in a hamlet like this?"
"I did." Philia confirmed "Although I was much closer to the city, we Starchasers lived pretty far from each other, but it was no problem for us to meet everyday because we drove vehicles like these. Now Starchaser Actual herself..." she paused to chuckle. "She had the most beautiful and powerful car out of all of us."
"Damned proud of it too!" Ingrid announced, her voice dipping back to her Southern twang.
"What sort of car is that?" Sammy inquired.
"A Shelby Cobra." Philia said "A steed fit for a King. A real riding King, something you'd appreciate I imagine. It's not just pretty, but if the engine; the machine that makes these vehicles turn their wheels, if that engine was placed on a proper vehicle for hauling heavy goods, it could pull about 25 tons, which is around the lower end of the weight freight trucks here usually carry."
"In other words, the most beautiful horse with the muscles of an ox." Sammy purred.
"Don't tell the aurochs that." Philia giggled.
"Starchaser's Shelby Cobra is probably being sold right now." Cecil said "considering who once used it, its value probably could ransom a kingdom..."
"Two kingdoms, Overlord." Philia corrected him "It's a martyr's car, it will never be driven again. If it was a living steed it would have spent the rest of its life as a breeding stud."
There was a short silence as they drove through the empty suburb, the sound of their engines echoing through the deserted streets. After a few turns the streets showed more litter, but nothing that suggested a frantic exodus,
"...or any looting." Ingrid said as she drove over a speed hump.
"Give it a year." Cecil chuckled. "Still, no bears or racoons emptying the dumpsters, I can understand people, but suburban wildlife? They have nothing to gain following store hours."
"Yup, makes no sense, I get racoons for leaving the dumpster open for three hours. And that's slow." Philia remarked. "Glados, any changes on the radio?"
"None." Neith replied, trailing on wheels behind the Ford truck.
___
The trees and berms that concealed the road from the eyes gave way to the freeway leading to the city. The Whales; earthlings excluded, gasped in wonder at the vast expanse of concrete and asphalt far wider and longer than anything they had ever seen before.
"What are those...i-is that a city?" Sephie's voice cracked with astonishment.
"Yup!" Ingrid replied, her voice subconsciously reverting to her theme-park employee mode. "That's the Chicago skyline! Those towers are skyscrapers, they serve various purposes such as being office space for various guilds, or serve as apartments or condominiums!"
"The tallest one over there, that's the Willis Tower, also known as Sears Tower." Philia added, "At this era, it's the tallest one in the world, standing at 1,451 feet, that's as tall as... Glados, how many Starchaser Actuals tall would that be?"
"248 Starchaser Actuals standing atop each other." Neith replied instantly "the Sears tower has a volume of 2.7 million square feet, which means it could theoretically fit fifty-five thousand people."
"Th-that's ridiculous!" Sammy laughed "You could fit a whole city of the people in there!"
"The population of Chicago in this era is estimated at over nine million." Neith quipped "fifty-five thousand is a mere drop in the bucket."
As the rest of the Whales deluged Neith with various questions, Ingrid, Cecil, and Philia had other things taking up their attention.
"That's no pile up." Ingrid said, the freeway was barricaded by various vehicles piled up and smushed togehter, all across the concrete street there were tracks of what were probably bulldozers.
The convoy stopped about fifty feet from the barricade of steel before disembarking, Ingrid went over to inspect the obstruction before them, with Cecil quickly hovering over to her. Meanwhile, most of the mice had boarded Cecil's room now cascaded out of the Kiowa and Lakota portals to form a perimeter around the group.
"Zombies." Philia said, looking at her phone. Neith had deployed a drone and was peering over the wreckage "You should kick out those cars and send them tumbling into the horde."
“Welp, time for some action then.” Ingrid remarked, loosening her shoulders.
"That's a kick-off from Number Seventeen, INGRIIIIIIIIIIID LILLYYYYYYYY!!!" Cecil said in his best announcer voice as Ingrid did a running start and kicked at the barrier.
"Ooooh!! Scoooore!" Cecil squeaked out as a bunch of cars exploded into the horde of shambling zombies. At least twenty heavy steel hulks flew into the air, tumbling multiple times before skidding along the concrete road, taking out hundreds of them in a glorious display of destruction. The zombies that weren't crushed were thrown into the air, their limbs flailing.
"Iroquois teams, with me! All gunners switch to pellets, the rest stay with the convoy!" Ingrid said as she charged into the fray.
"Huh, Twenty-Eight Days Later." Cecil said as he his mice opened fire using their pellet guns. The zombies had gone from a distracted shamble into a full sprint, their eyes agleam with murderous rage.
"Not zombies, Infected!" Philia said as she joined the shooting.
"Meaning?" Kvaris said as she stood protectively behind her.
"They're alive, but some disease or the magic of those Ether Rifts have corrupted them." Neith replied, watching Ingrid kick an Infected high up in the air, then jump up to send it crashing into the ground, her mana interfacing its own to turn its high-velocity descent into a literal power “bomb” that scattered the mob wholesale.
"Sounds like they should be easier to kill than berserk Night Men." Sammy quipped as got in position behind the 189, who squeaked in unison and fired in evenly spaced shots. Most of the Infected were going for Ingrid and the Iroquois teams, with only a few noticing the rest of the Whales beyond the breach in the barricade of cars.
"Selphie, plug up those Infected trying to get through." Philia said. The Dryad quickly stepped forward and sprayed into the mob coming at them, turning into a living wall of vines that dismembered and eviscerated all that dared come close.
"And no Sammy, it doesn't make them less dangerous than actual undead.” Ingrid said as her lunging punch drilled through multiple Infected. “Our legends of Infected say that due to their berserk state they're as dangerous as those that are immune to conventional forms of damage, that's because they're so driven they're probably ignoring injuries that would send people running away."
Selphie's Whipcrawlers had quickly driven back the crowd, allowing the 189 to hold fire and resume looking around for any other threats. From the treeline at the roadside, a few more zombies appeared, but their numbers were so sparse that the melee fighters didn't need to do anything.
"Something's wrong here." Ingrid remarked as she swung a haymaker, sending at least fifty Infected sailing high into the air. "These guys can't be the reason the Chicago Skyline looks rather devastated."
"They looked rather, ummm, 'healthy', Starchaser." Philia said, sniping those that got past the whipcrawlers, "It's like they got rabies with an overdose of steroids and testosterone mixed in."
"King Fish, you could just say 'Gym Supplements' and we'd understand. That's quite a mouthful." Cecil quipped. He and the rest of Iroquois were having no problem mowing down the Infected with ease. Due to their silent pellet shots, only those closest to them ever noticed the flying portals.
Ingrid burst out laughing at Cecil’s joke, but she didn't need her Automata Precept to keep fighting properly. She fought efficiently, making sure to strike lethal blows in that all-too-familiar human anatomy, honed from years of fighting others in her old life. On balance, these Infected seemed to be just at human parameters albeit if they were at 100% all the time. But even with these numbers, she was sure the Whales could handle them.
That said, it was more efficient for her and Iroquois to deal with them this way.
"Fevered Strength..." Iohann remarked "This affliction is recent, this cannot be sustained for prolonged periods, whatever caused these people to become like this will cause their own bodies to consume itself."
"These can't be the ones responsible for the damage in the city." Ingrid repeated. "I believe these are just the by-products of something greater."
The Infected were being taken down rapidly, a phalanx of Selphie's whipcrawlers were pressing their way through the mob, Iroqouis hovered just out of jumping height as they fire away, aiming for center of mass and letting the Companion Rogue Shillelagh summon the warhammers to turn heads into a bloody paste.
Ingrid was in the middle, surrounded on all sides, enjoying herself as she let off one sucker punch to the face after another before bulldozing her way into a random direction, swinging wildly with enough force to generate a shockwave that acted like a massive blade.
"They're incapable of any speech and are just rushing me." Ingrid observed, her eyes glowing with mana "They're not even on the level of magical beasts or anything." she continued, flicking off more extended jabs that not only blew off the heads of those she hit but also those jostling their way behind them.
"Ummm..." Zefir said hesitantly, "Shouldn't we retreat? Starchaser and King Fish may get affected."
"Nope," Philia said, calmly picking off more Infected who had burst out from the treeline. "If the affliction is disease-borne then our protections would shield us and it'll be nothing that Iohann could fix."
"If it was the work of malignant magic," Iohann added "That too would not be anything we cannot handle. Aside from the power of sacred light, anyone who's enlisted as an adventurer already demonstrated having the ability to use their mana to resist hostile magic."
"Let's see for ourselves..." Viel said, using telekinesis to draw one of the now-dead Infected towards her. Siria put her staff over it, chanting quietly.
"Lemme know what you find." Ingrid said, her roundhouse kick slicing through multiple Infected before diving into the last mob, multiple stray shots from the mice orbitted around her at hypersonic speed, turning her into an impromptu buzzsaw as she tore into the crowd, swinging away with her Nemea-shrouded fists.
Iroquois repositioned opposite the whipcrawlers, howevering at shoulder-height and sandwiching the Infected between their pellet shots and the line of floramancy minions slashing their way through.
In the ten seconds needed for Viel to come up with an answer, the three “teams” had significantly cut down the zombie numbers.
"It's a magical disease." Viel concluded, "Having strong mana should allow you to resist its worse effects. Which means even if it got to me, it's something I could purge myself of. That said, how it got to them is a mystery. Ether Quartz couldn't have done this."
"Hopefully we won't need to find out by the time we accomplish our mission." Ingrid said, throwing a car at the last Infected. "Also, we're not looting these bodies, these are... well let's just say these former folks may be carrying things we don't want to bring into Terragalia."
"Affirmative." Cecil said, headshotting an Infected "But I do know something worth looting... the Chicago Oases, or a Kmart!"
"Kay-mart?" Selphie asked, her whipcrawlers were now docilely ambling to her before expending their lifeforce by dropping seeds and burls. Johnny then wiggled over and began chomping on the bodies.
"A store as big if not bigger than the Storm Gate Fortress." Philia said. "A giant castle of a market, assuming they haven't been emptied out."
"Too soon, King Fish." Ingrid chuckled as she started tossing away cars to make a path for the convoy.
A few minutes later, the GMC, Ford, and Neith were back speeding across the freeway.
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INDEX: The Whales Party Sheet