The group turned onto Harvey Lake Road.

It had taken about an hour to get everyone assembled, another couple to hike to the road. A small group, Loch and his normal party along with one of the scavengers that had come back to the school with the news. Out of the five man team, three had rushed back, with the stuff they’d managed to get so far, leaving the other two at the discovery.

The first few houses had already been scavenged of everything. They had been hit two or three times. First for the priority items, second for things like clothing, books, games and anything that had been missed the first time. Now it was the larger items. Mattresses, easy to move shelving units, furniture. There were bunkhouses and classrooms to fill.

Working their way deeper, the scavengers were taking longer since the bigger items were harder to get back to the school. There had been two teams working the area, since Harvey Lake Road had a lot of side streets that connected with a longer one that had all the waterfront homes. It was a small area, but there were a lot of houses. The other team had gone to the far end, working their way back towards Route 4. It was that team that had found the Dungeon.

Another Resource Dungeon.

It was another hour of walking before the pavement gave way to dirt. All the sideroads had been dirt. The pavement ended at the top of a hill, the road curving, turning from Harvey Lake Road to another one that Loch could never remember the name of. They reached the next intersection, a short street heading south.

Jack, the scavenger leading them, stopped. He looked around nervously.

“Shane should be here,” he muttered.

“What?,” Loch asked, coming to stand next to the man.

Harper walked a little head, looking around at the ground. Elora shifted further down the road they had been on. Glancing back, Loch saw Brian drifting to take the rear. Piper and Julia stayed where they were. Jenny should have been moving in front of the two, but she was no longer there. No one was there to guard Julia and Piper. His group was down a member.

Loch knew they’d have to replace Jenny but he just didn’t want to.

He focused on the intersection. The ground was torn up, with so many jagged cracks they had to step over them, some a good six inches wide. Where paved roads had chunks pushed up, the hard packed dirt roads were cracked. They had encountered sinkholes on some dirt roads. He tried to look for tracks, but couldn’t see anything.

“When George and I ran back to grab you, Shane was going to wait here to keep an eye out with Lucas and Mac at the Dungeon.”

“How far to the Dungeon?”

“Just around that corner,” Jack said, pointing up the sideroad.

“Harper, Elora, see anything?,” Loch asked, keeping his voice low.

“Nothing here,” the elf answered.

“I think these might be drag marks,” Harper answered, pointing to the side.

Loch joined her. Two lines were lightly carved into the road, little berms of dirt on either side as something had been dragged and pushed it up. There were gaps, the lines not continuous, and not straight. The lines looked like drag marks.

They led off the road, onto grass, disappearing. There had once been a house on the corner, now gone, a large clump of bushes in its place. Loch stepped off the road, Onyx in hand, approaching the bushes. He thought some of the grass looked broken and pushed down. More dragging?

The bushes were about five feet high, thick growth that formed a wall. Fifteen feet long, six feet deep. Loch saw nothing as he walked around them. There didn’t even seem to be any more drag marks that he could see. The woods started about twenty feet. Thick growth of trees. He moved closer, spotting something and hoping he was wrong.

He wasn’t.

A body lay about ten feet into the trees, partially concealed. If he hadn’t been actively trying to look for something or had a lower Perception stat, he would have missed it. Leaves had been piled over it, the constant wind pushing some away to reveal a leg and booted foot.

Loch cursed.

He didn’t approach closer, fearing the body would be trapped. They couldn’t deal with it at the moment either. He hated thinking like that. An animal could come along and destroy the body before they could return to take it back for burial. But he couldn’t do anything.

Still cursing, he ran back to the others. His group could tell from his expression what he’d found. Even Harper and Piper, his youngest reaching a hand up to cover her mouth. Harper shifting into a defensive stance.

“What?,” Jack asked, looking confused. “What did you find?”

“Take us to the Dungeon,” Loch said. “Now.”

***

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Piper cried out, Julia reaching over and pulling the young girl in close, turning her away. Loch wanted to go to his daughter, to grab Harper as well, but couldn’t. He needed to look at what was in front of them. He couldn’t look away.

The new Dungeon wasn’t in a cave or a hill, it was formed where two trees had fallen against each other, branches hanging down, leaving one small area bare. It was shadowed, the backside of the canopy fallen to prevent any light from shining though. The entrance would have been easy to miss.

What wasn’t easy to miss were the two bodies outside.

Tree trunks had been jammed into the ground, another running across and tied with vines. Hanging from the trunk were two bodies, vines wrapped around their necks. They swung in the strong breeze, wounds covering their bodies, the blood long dried up. Nothing had been taken from them. The pieces of armor, protective pads and even the swords remained.

The killers saying that the gear was worthless.

“Julia,” Loch said, somehow keeping his voice calm. “Take the girls back out of sight.”

“Yes sir,” she said. “Piper, come on.”

Her voice was gentle, calming. He couldn’t see, but heard the shuffling of feet as Julia led Piper away. The quiet sobs cut into his heart. He gripped Onyx tighter, holding back the rage.

The two men, Lucas and Mac, had been dead for a while. If Loch had to guess, he figured they’d been killed as soon as Jack and the other two had left the Dungeon to run and get Loch.

“Harper,” Julia said. “Come on, please.”

“No,” Harper said, voice hard.

Loch turned, seeing Harper standing about ten feet back, rigid, face filled with rage and hate. He’d never seen such a look on her beautiful face, no matter how mad she’d been. This was something new. She had her tonfas drawn, eyes fixed on the bodies.

“Harper..” he started.

She just shook her head.

He wanted to argue. To make her move. She didn’t need to see the bodies. But it was too late. He could understand her rage, where it came from. He felt it too.

Turning back, Loch approached the bodies. He could hear Jack puking in the bushes to the side.

“Brian, Elora, Harper, watch the woods,” he growled, wanting to shout and rage but keeping it in check. “We’re probably being watched.”

Loch stopped, in front of the bodies, looking up at the structure of the tree trunks. He did his best to ignore that they were bodies, that they had been his Clanmembers, people that had chosen to follow him because they thought he’d keep them safe. He wanted to laugh. Look how safe he’d kept them. He wanted to destroy, but it wasn’t the time and place.

He pushed those thoughts down deep, focusing on what he could do now.

Pushing against the posts, he realized they were deep. There was no movement. He’d hoped that maybe he could pull them out, lowering the bodies to the ground. That wasn’t going to happen, at least not easily. The vines were tightly woven, holding the crossbeam to the posts. There was really only one option to get the bodies down.

Julia and Piper were further away, not quite around the bend, but far enough away that Julia could keep Piper from looking at the bodies, but not so far that help couldn’t get to them if needed. Or they couldn’t get to Loch if needed. Jack was no help. He had sat on the ground, knees tight to his chest, eyes closed. Brian was near Julia, standing in the middle of the world, turning from left to right, watching the woods. Elora and Harper had moved to the sides of the fallen trees, watching everywhere.

“Harper,” he said, hating that he was having her turn and look at the bodies. “I need you to cut the vines when I tell you to, using your throwing knives.”

Her eyes went from him to the vines, trying to avoid looking at the bodies. She sheathed her tonfas, drawing a small knife. She looked down at the blade, how tiny it was, then back at the vines. She nodded.

Loch took a step toward the first body, hating that he didn’t know if it was Lucas or Mac. Grabbing it, stopping the swinging, he called out.

“Now.”

He felt the weight drop, the body almost sliding through his arms. Cursing, he grabbed harder, holding the body from falling to the ground. It was still awkward, the height such that he could only grab around the legs, the upper body wanting to lean over and pull them to the ground. Struggling, Loch managed to set the body down carefully.

The poor man had been cut repeatedly. A couple were wounds from battle, but most were made after he had fallen. Loch just hoped he hadn’t still been alive. This was clearly a message.

Moving over to the second party, with Harper’s help, he quickly got the other man down. Both bodies now lay on the ground, crisscrossed with wounds, the blood now dried and caked. Their eyes stared off into nothing. Crouching down, Loch slid fingers carefully over the eyes, closing both.

He forced the rage back down. This had been unnecessary. Needlessly cruel. There was no evidence of who had killed the men but Loch knew. It had been the Silver Bark. The message was also clear. They were claiming the newly discovered Dungeon as theirs.

It wasn’t even a day’s walk away from Loch’s Clanhold. That added more to the message. It said that the Silver Bark were not afraid of Clan Brady. That anything Clan Brady had could and would be theirs. They had even crossed through most of his territory to get to this Dungeon. Coming through between the wall to the west and the Clanhold itself. Only an hour or two walk from the Clanhold. All of it was the message. It was meant to scare, to intimidate.

Loch didn’t feel scared. He felt angry.

He stood up, moving over to the Dungeon entrance. He could feel the energy of the portal.

“Anyone have a blanket to cover them up with?,” he asked, not turning around, holding a hand close to the portal. He knew he wasn’t an expert, but after sensing how all the other Dungeons they’d come across felt, Loch was confident in this one. It was higher Level than the Painted Caves and Lynxia, but not as bad as the new Crone Dungeon. Level Ten to Fifteen felt like a good range. It felt more like a Resource Dungeon. But there was only one way to find out. “Everyone stay outside, guard the entrance. I’ll be right back.”

Loch stepped through the portal.