“They are kind of wussies!” I shouted triumphantly through heavy breathing. My lightning bolts were still weak; I hadn't been able to do much damage with them at all. But I could make the corrupted mortals totally spasm out. So I just kept hitting them as hard and as fast as I could. Turned out they really didn’t like pain. They didn’t really have much intestinal fortitude, as my father used to say about his father. Why was I thinking of my father in the past tense?

They had a lot of anger some of them. So they were murderous and they would charge you in a rage. But, if you just kept hammering them, the pain would get to them and they would turn tail. Then, sometimes, they would start to fight each other too. I managed to scatter the attack on my side of the hill then scramble over to the other side just in time to push back that attack as well. Some of the defenders of our group briefly came into contact with the enemy. That made targeting more difficult for me, but we pushed the attackers off without any major injuries other than Greg.

I was feeling pretty righteous. Then I remembered the whole reason I came down to Yiaya was to try to avoid this exact scenario.

“Please, oh Josh. I ask you not to use that kind of language. As a god, you are above that sort of thing.” Said Decius.

***

“A fighting retreat is the hardest manoeuvre to pull off in war. We have an army consisting of mostly untrained fighters, children and a few old people, and Greg, who is out cold. But sure, let’s make a fighting march over like the sixty stadia it takes to get to the bridge.” Said Decius.

“We also have a god of lightning”, I pointed out. I was really feeling myself after that battle.

“You lightning bolted Greg”, Epictetus pointed out.

It was true. My lightning bolts had a wider area of impact than I had anticipated. That became apparent when I used my lightning while Greg was grappling with his attacker. But it was giving me another idea.

“I wasn’t being sarcastic.” Said Decius. “Let’s do the hardest military manoeuvre using untrained people and children over sixty stadia to the bridge. It’s the only chance we’ve got.”

“You sounded sarcastic.” Pointed out Epictetus.

“Well, what do you know about that?” Said Decius.

***

Decius wanted to draw the battle plan in some sand. Sand was the best thing for drawing a battle plan in his experience. Easy to erase. Good consistency. Drawing in the dirt: also okay. Of course, you could use a real clay writing tablet if you had one, but Decius enjoyed dirt or sand. Gave the whole thing an improvised, free-wheeling vibe.

Unfortunately, they had none of those things. What they did have was mud, which was no good for drawing, but also chalk and a large smooth rock. Chalk was abundant in this area. Most of the random loose rocks around here would serve as chalk.

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Decius drew a circle on the rock. “So this is us basically.” Then, he drew the bridge on the other side of the rock. Then he drew a bunch of the letter Chi’s*, mostly to the rear and sides of the circle, but some between the circle and the bridge. “Those are the enemies.” He said, pointing to the Chi’s. “If we move forward with you”, Decius pointed to Josh “, in the centre, then the sides close in, we run into the enemies in front of us, and then the enemies behind us catch up. You can’t defend all sides at once because your vision is too limited. In this scenario, we would get bogged down and unable to disengage. We all die except for you. You do whatever it is that gods do once they have abandoned the mortals again. Probably throw a banquet or something.”

“Hey, hey,” Said Josh, putting up his hands. “Let’s save the criticism for gods that are not currently fighting on our behalf, okay?”

“Anyway,” Continued Decius “, so we need you to keep the enemy off our flanks while we move. I, along with our best fighters, will be in the front to tackle the few enemies that will be ahead of us on our way to the bridge. If your view from the god globe was correct, then most of the enemy will be coming at us from behind. You can’t fly or anything can you?”

“Not without boots. I might be able to rig something up if you have a bunch of wax and feathers…”

“You know what? Forget I asked. Anyway, before we do any of that, we first have to deal with the fact that we are surrounded right now. You did take a lot of the fight out of them with those little zaps you have. What were those, like heat lightning?”

“Heat lightning isn’t real,” Said Josh.

“Decius!” Said Epictetus. “I’m going to have to insist that you show some respect to the god who could inflict severe discomfort on you at any time if he wanted.”

“You’re not helping that much, Epictetus,” Said Josh. “Decius. I know you’re pissed right now because everything you have ever known and loved has turned to shit and all. But right now, there are enemies all around, and you may be the last people on earth. I may be the last god. We have women, and children, and elderly and none of them are going to be alive if you don’t help us. All the other mortals might have been abandoned by the gods, but right here, right now, you haven’t been. Not by this god, at least. If you have complaints, there will be a time for that after we get the hell over that bridge.”

“Fine!” Said Decius “Fine! Razafrazarazabraza”

“What was that?”

“I said ‘Razafrazarazabraza!'”

“Alright! Well, what’s the plan?”

“So here is the situation: if we move forward, the enemies to our rear are too close and will catch up and harass us. Also, there are more Abandoned to the front than I think I can easily handle.” Decius could hear the capital letter in Abandoned even as he said it. That was what he was going to call the humans that had been twisted by the darkness from now on. To remind everyone that the gods had not been there when they were needed the most.

Decius continued, “There will be fewer abandoned to our front if we keep moving, but since we have been standing here, some of them have taken the opportunity to get around us. That means we have to break through the ones in front of us and then keep moving.

What’s more, it is already mid-day. Even without resistance, this is probably an all day hike. I hate to say it, but if it gets dark and there are enemies around, it’s probably all over.”

“Okay, I understand my role.” Said Josh. “They aren’t attacking right now because we scared them off, and it’s taking them a while to get their nerve back. That gives us an opportunity. First, I help break through the ones that are in front of us. Then I run to the rear by myself. I can slow down the ones coming behind us in a rear guard action. That will give us room to move.”

“Right.” Said Decius. “So here’s is how it will go down…”

V0.2.0 11/13/23

*Chi is the Greek letter that looks like X.