Joe turned to check on the children and felt a wash of healing flow over him as Kier cast his mass healing spell. The kids were almost catatonic with fright but were all unharmed. Mirabella appeared in front of him and began speaking softly to them. Joe let her take control of the children and Blinked over to Kelly who was beginning to sit up. The front of her blouse was drenched in blood, but her neck was pristine and without injury. However, there was a frightened, haunted look in her eyes. Seeing that she was okay, and that Kier was moving towards her, Joe finally turned his attention to Gabe. The young man had been laying still and Joe no longer saw his Status in the Party screen. Joe made it to Gabe’s side and turned him over. The arrow protruding from Gabe’s eye was all Joe needed to see. He pulled a large elk hide from his inventory and draped it over Gabe’s body. Joe shook with impotent fury and then suddenly doubled over and vomited.
Iona’s voice next to him carried concern as well as wariness. Her adrenaline was still pumping, and she sounded slightly breathless, “You a’right?”
Joe wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as he sat back on his heels, “Yeah. I just… I’ve never killed a person before. It’s only been monsters.”
“And ye have nae yet.” Kier loomed over Joe.
“What?”
“I said you’ve nae killed a human.” Kier’s bushy eyebrows formed a red cloud over his piercing green eyes as he gave Joe a hard look. He hooked a thumb over his shoulder, “Bixby? Aye. But you? Naer so much as teched one of them bastards.” Joe’s eyes widened in surprise as he realized the truth in Kier’s words. Kier offered a hand up.
Joe accepted Kier’s calloused grip as he was hauled to his feet. “On your feet boyo, something wicked lurks in the woods. Methinks we’ve caught the eye of something we donnae want to deal with.”
Joe stood and assessed his surroundings. Bixby’s surviving wolves were gone. Rory had finished looting the dead and was pulling the arrow from Bixby’s shoulder. Gabe’s body was missing. He looked to where the young man had fallen and Kier noticed, “I stored the lad. We’ll give him a right proper sendoff when we can. For now, we need to be moving.”
Kelly and Mirabella began herding the children back down the street to the original place they had intended to cross into Santa Cruz proper. Joe scanned the carnage but did not see the weaselly Arnold’s corpse. “He got away?” Anger poured from the statement.
Mirabella answered, “As far as I can tell, he went invisible and abandoned his people. If we cross paths again,” her golden eyes were bloodshot which gave her exotic features a slightly demonic look, “he will not survive it.” She calmly went back to checking the children.
As they walked, Joe handed his cloak to Kelly and then it made the rounds to the others and cleaned up the dirt, blood and other fluids that came with the aftermath of the fight. The young boy that had to use the restroom was grateful that it cleaned the mess from his pants. The group veered off the street and down a short driveway to a chain-link fence that Iona neatly carved her way through with her axe and it was not long before they had gained access to the freeway. Joe then decided to follow the freeway as it was wider and more open. He felt they could move faster and had a better view of anything that wanted to come at them. His biggest concern was the eventual footbridge they would have to walk under, but they found that most of it had collapsed when a bus had crashed into it during the initial integration. The party carefully guided the children around the wreckage and Joe noticed fresh blood trickling from the back doorway of the city bus. Eerily, there were no bodies.
They had made it all the way to the interchange where the four-lane freeway turned into a wide artery that ran through the West side of town and on towards the North. It was here that they could hear the far-off sounds of fighting carried in fits and spurts on the wind. Somewhere up ahead a way, someone was going all out. The group knew better than to hare off to help as they had the children to protect so they stuck to the original plan and headed across Mission Street and down a side street called Chestnut.
Joe was getting antsy as they were only blocks from his sister’s house. Iona commented that she did not like the fact that there were high hills on either side as they moved downhill, but the group passed without incident. Once down at the bottom of the hill, the city became more compact with beautiful tree lined avenues dotted with abandoned cars and empty Victorian homes. Joe made himself keep a slow pace for the children, but Bixby could not restrain himself and he bolted down the street and turned left past an apartment complex. By the time the group caught up, Bixby was sitting in front of a powder blue, tiny Victorian house, waiting. Joe gave Bixby a questioning eyebrow and Bixby gave a few soft woofs.
“No.” Was all Joe said as he took off like a shot towards the front door. He careened into the door and shattered it as he passed through the doorway. “Holly!” He yelled. There was no answer. He searched both floors, but Bixby had been right. There was no one there. He passed the kitchen table and stopped. There was a note propped against an empty flower vase.
~Joe. If you are alive and reading this, we went downtown with others. It’s not safe here. We’re heading for the surf shop on Cooper street. It’s an old bank building and may be a good place to stay safe. God I hope you’re alive. Matty and I love you.
Holly~
Joe came out of the house to see everyone sitting on Holly’s lawn. The children were eating, and the adults were surrounding them, on guard. Everyone gave Joe a questioning look, but it was Iona that asked, “So?”
Joe nodded his head absently and looked determined and hopeful, “She left a note. They’re alive.”
Bixby ran up to Joe, stood on his hind legs, licked Joe’s face thoroughly and wagged his tail hard enough to throw off his own balance and he dropped back to all fours. Iona approached Joe and gave him a huge hug which he reciprocated with gusto. Joe’s mind raced with excitement that he would find his sister soon. The building she had mentioned was only a few blocks away in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz.
Rory dumped a metaphorical bucket of ice water on Joe’s happiness, however. The taciturn dwarf called Joe over to where he was standing guard. “Boyo, I hate to be the one to pull you from your celebrating, but you need to take a peek down the lane here.” Rory had a collapsible spyglass in his hand that looked like it came right out of a pirate movie, and he gestured with it for the others to come join him.
That put the rest of the group on instant alert. The children picked up on the wariness of the adults and Kelly quietly calmed them down. Then with a look, silently asked Mirabella to go see what the issue was. Bixby sat next to the children, head on a swivel and ears up listening for any danger. His presence, even though he looked scary, seemed to be a balm for the scared kids.
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Mirabella caught up to Joe and the dwarves as they stepped into the street to see what Rory had been indicating. The idyllic Victorian home-lined street had large trees that spread their boughs across the road to create a charming canopy of greenery. The area immediately around Holly’s home was picture perfect with pools of dappled light dancing in the slight breeze and birdsong echoing up and down the road. But the scene was marred by the chaos in the roadway three hundred feet away.
Joe borrowed Rory’s spyglass and saw the aftermath of a fight through the lens. He could see bodies on the ground and there were wild dogs roving amongst the corpses. At least he thought they were dogs. With a heavy sigh he said, “We need to look.” He handed Rory’s spyglass back and added, “Bella and I will check it out. You all should stay here with the kids.” He looked pointedly at Bixby. “Watch over them buddy, I’ll be right back.” Bixby woofed once and stayed next to the children. The others also went back to usher the children temporarily, into the house.
Joe crouched next to Mirabella but before he could speak, she asked, “Why do you all call me Bella?”
A bit surprised by the question he answered, “Well, it may be a cultural thing, but at least for us, humans I mean, well, and I guess dwarves too, using a diminutive of a person’s name is called a nickname. It’s a sign of affection among friends and families. If it bothers you, I won’t do it again.”
Mirabella thought about it for a moment, “No. It’s alright. I’ve never had a nickname before. I like it.”
“Wait, your husband never had a pet name for you?”
“We were not together long enough to keep a pet.” She looked confused.
Joe laughed, “No. A pet name is like if your husband called you darling or sweetheart. It’s a form of nickname that is more intimate. A term of endearment. Did he ever use something like that?”
Her expression changed to somewhat annoyed, “No.” At that she began to move down the sidewalk, being careful to stay in the shadows, leaving a bewildered Joe behind. Within a few steps, she vanished.
Joe shrugged and made a mental note to speak with the evasive woman later, at that moment, he had much more important things to do. He moved to the other side of the street, not wanting to take the chance of both of them walking into a trap together. He cast Haste and Pass Without Trace. Those spells combined with his armor’s shadow abilities made him nearly impossible to track as he moved from car to hedge to tree, keeping as much cover as possible between himself and the carnage that he knew he was about to face.
Towards the end of the block just before the next cross street cut past, the left side of the street changed to host a few older, squat office buildings made of brick and concrete. They were jarring against the view from the other side of the street which still held beautiful Victorian homes and a tree lined sidewalk. There was a large alley that shot off to the left between the old Bosso Building and the AT&T building that dominated the rest of the block. Joe knew that this alley led to the back of a local fire station and cut completely over to the parallel street.
It was here that he stopped and observed the now mutated feral dogs rummaging through the carcasses of humans and saurians alike. The battle seemed to have taken up the entire end of the block. The few cars that had been sitting here were damaged from various spells and impacts as well as the walls of the brick AT&T building. The two Victorian houses looked as if maybe the human defenders had tried to use them as a refuge, but the front walls and windows were mostly destroyed, and more bodies and blood could be seen. It was, by far, the largest scene of slaughter that Joe had witnessed yet. There must be hundreds of dead here. The handful of bodies at the tannery were a drop in the bucket by comparison and Joe’s heart sank at the thought of finding his sister and nephew in the bloody mess. It nearly broke him to think of those who survived the tutorial to get back to what they must have thought of as a safe haven only to die steps from their homes.
Joe sat for long minutes gazing at the scene, unable to make himself move to begin the grisly hunt for his family’s bodies. A soft whisper to his right snapped him out of his fugue and he turned to see Mirabella next to him, her face a mask of feigned indifference. Although, in the corners of her eyes Joe could see the emotion fighting to leak out. This must bring back awful memories of her own people’s deaths, Joe thought.
“I circled the battlefield, and I do not see any survivors, but a trail does lead off. A large group managed to get away.” She gazed at the scene before them and then back at Joe, “We can’t bury your people either.” She patted him on the arm and as she turned away added, “I’ll get the others, we’ll need to head back the way we came and travel up another street. We do not want the children to witness this. Catch up when you are finished here.” Joe sat mutely and shook his head as Mirabella disappeared.
Joe stood and summoned his swords as he figured he’d have to fight off the scavenger animals while he searched. He stepped into the open with his senses on high anticipating an ambush, but nothing happened. The dogs sensed a dangerous foe and chose to slink away rather than confront an armed and wary opponent, not when there were easier pickings available. He slowly made his way through the battlefield. At first, he gingerly stepped around the bodies, but as he made his way in a zig zag pattern across the street and back, he became more inured to the sights and smells and moved quicker. He turned a few bodies over to get a better look. They all died with varying degrees of shock, anger, and pain on their faces. He could feel the bile threaten to climb up his throat, but the sensation subsided quickly. It was the first time he was grateful for the emotional throttle the System had placed on him. It took him almost half an hour to search the street and the battle torn houses. There were so many bodies. The practical part of him collected discarded weapons and items that he thought may be useful later on, but he did not really catalog or truly pay attention to what he grabbed.
Finally, he heard a soft woof, and turned to see Bixby standing not far away. He had a soulful look on his wolfish face. “No buddy. They’re not here. I really hope they made it out with the group Bella found traces of.” Joe walked over to Bixby and knelt down to hug his best friend. Bixby let out a grunt and a slight tail wag, “Yeah, me too.” Joe gave Bixby a final hug and head scratch and the two of them set off back to Holly’s house to collect their friends and continue on.
When Joe and Bixby returned to the house the children were unhappy that they could not stay and did not want to continue. Kelly worked her magic as a teacher and caregiver and soon the entire group was on the move again. They backtracked the way they had come and went back a block to head deeper into downtown. During that time, they could hear short bursts of fighting far away. The landscape, buildings and distance made it almost impossible to gauge how far away the battle was, but Joe thought that they were heading towards it by following the trail that Mirabella had discovered.
Iona and Kier had determined that Mirabella and Joe would range out in front while the dwarves protected the children and Bixby brought up the rear. The group kept this arrangement until they finally approached the main downtown area. Here the buildings were closer and taller than the houses a few blocks before. The group cautiously brought the children up Church Street and dashed from car to car for cover. Rory did not like the large buildings to either side and Iona agreed saying, “Tis nae any safe place to hide from an ambush from above.”
Joe and Mirabella crouched at the corner of Church and Pacific, careful not to step on the glass shards from the large, shattered windows of the Urban Outfitters store. Joe could not tell if they were shattered from combat or by looters and at the moment he really did not care. From their vantage point, they could see the corner of the building that Holly’s note had mentioned. It was a large, two-story brick building that was originally a bank but had become a large retail store for surf apparel. It was situated on the corner of a “T” intersection. There was a larger building, another surf shop, across the side street and a movie theatre and several other businesses along the main thoroughfare. In normal times it would be home to a lot of foot traffic and was a charming street to meander down. Now all Joe could see were ambush and choke points for fighting. There was no movement from any of the buildings, but the streets were littered with the remains of battle. It looked like a large group had arrived and defended the place but were forced to leave. More bodies, both human and saurian were evident. Blood was spattered everywhere.